The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-11-19
FAST /. TRAINS.
Difficulties in the Way Of an In
creased Rate of Speed.
A Plan on Foot in This Country to Bald
q Train Calculated to Run
Two Miles in One
Minute.

Two Miles in one
Minute.
Some interesting details (if accurately
are given by the American Engineer of
the results of the attempt to run a train
which, according to the projectors of
the Eclectic express" was to run at
the moderate speed of six miles q min
ute, says the London (EnGland) Inven-
ton. An experimental linc was built
at Baltimore. and engineers of some ex-
pcrience were sanguinc that even If the
tremendous speed spoken of were not
accomplished, the trains run would put
in the shade everything hitherto accom-
plished. One hundred and twenty
miles an hour, or two miles minute,
was spoken of as mechanically possible.
But the constructors, alas! rcckoned
without their host. twas found that the
inexorable laws of friction would cause
bearings, wheels, etc, to simply melt
from the intense heat evolved. In round
numbers four-foot wheel would have
to revolve over eleven thousand times
per minute-a practicable speed with
small spindle, but quite impossible with
the ordinary axle. About o mile and
half per minute is now said to be all
that is within practical accomplishment
on the existing type of railway, if fric-
tion only be considered. AS regards
safety, even this speed is deemed i'm
possible by qualified engineers, unless
great notifications are made in
the existing form and size of flanges,
rails, etc. Such speed has, it is al
legged, been once or twice accomplished,
but the highest of which an authentic
record exists is within fraction of
eighty miles per hour, or one and one
third miles per minute. We do not, OF
course, undertake to say that higher
rate of motion could not be reached,
but all engineers are agreed that it is
not possible with present rails and roll
ing stock.
AS matters now stand it would seem
that it is easier to construct motive
power which will propcl, or rather
drag vehicles at startling pace, than
to design vehicles which will keep on
the track or be uninjured by the heat
SO generated. 1t is nowadays unsafe to
ridicule any project which does not
propose to violate some natural law,
and it is quite possible that some
form of rail and wheel may yet be de-
signed which will permit of a much
higher rate of speed than has yet been
achieved. But it is certain that these
have still to be devised, and that people
of inventive minds ha, here yet un-
attacked field. After all the rate of
eighty miles per hour, which has actual
ly been accomplished, would have
seemed a greater miracle to our great
grandfathers than the tallzed-of one hun
dred and twenty does to us. Whether
the solution will lie in the adoption of
the sliding railway type, or in an inn
mense increase in wheel diameter,
depth of fange, or othef device, is yet
uncertain, but the problem will with.
out doubt be solved at no very distant
date.
Our friends are cndeavoring to grap-
pie with the difficulty, and the main
outlines Of proposal to run high
speed train have been published. The
track is to be built much heavier than
| the roads now in use. In exposed
| places it would be laid in trough-like
guard to keep the wheels on the track.
The engine and cars are gigantic, the
! former having twelve driving wheels,
not incased (all wheels are now in.
cased), and the axles are to be SO con-
structed us to give a low center of grav.
ity by having the Car bottom near the
rails. The great weight, width of rails
and shape OF cars would, it is claimed
give stability. All the wheels under
the train would be eight feet in diane
ter, this large size saving friction Of
machine; and should the wheels revolve
no faster than the present style it would
allow Of the speed intended being at
tanned. AS large wheels on the present
tracks would not be stable, nor would
there be car room, the rails would have
to be laid ten feet apart. The car is de
signed as seventeen feet wide, twelve
feet high and one hundred feet long, be
ing capable of holding four hundred
persons with their baggage. The carr
are to join as smoothly as pipe, the
forward part Of the engine being round
ed off and the carexterior made smooth
having side doors, windows and sky
lights, and like semi-eliptical cylindel
placed on it's face in shape, this smooth
ness and shape being to save friction O
air, for o train in such rapid motion
would create greater wind than vic
lent hurricane.
We cannot, of course, prophesy wha
may yet be accomplished. In view
however, of the fact that Jules Verne
romarce-invented torpedo boat ha
actually become the sober fact of few
years later we should not like to sa.
the above project is impossible, man
as are the practical difficulties in it
way.
Sixty Years in Siberia.