The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-04-29
A REMARKABLE ELEVATOR.
Lifts IS People to a Blight of $50 Feet
in Less Than a Minute

in Less Than a Minute.
From the Ne,o York Press.
The greatest passenger elevators ever
built in the history of the world was opened
for public use this week. For nearly year
the thousands who have crossed the Wee
hawken ferries have gazed with wonder
upon the great iron towers which were be-
ing erected in front of the big bluff a few
feet south OF the West Shore railroad
depot. To day all the towers and their APP
purtenances are completed and three big
elevator cars will convey passengers $50
feet above the level of the Hudson river.
No longer will the weary traveller to the
top of the Weehawken palisades be forced
to climb the great hills nor forced to pay an
exorOitant price to the hackmen, who, like
vultIres, swarm about the West Shore
ferry house. The great elevator towers
will drive them to other scenes IL the
| sons of Noah who planned the never finished
tower Of Babel could cross the ferryboats
TO the New Jersey shore they would look in
awe upon the great structure and declare in
| the parance of the Gutenberg nackmau,
Gee! whiz old Babel wasn't in it,"
TRIP TO THE CLOUDS.
The elevators will be great boon this
| spring and summer to the throngs who Will
| journey to the Guttenburg race track and
The Eldorado" The full hight Of the ele-
| vator shafts is $50 feet. The cars, how
ever, travel but $50 feet toward the Clouds
| This is an altitude fifty feet higher than is
reached by any other elevator cars in the
world used purely for the purposes of travel.
| The next elevator in size TO the one TO be
| opened to-day is that in the Mersey tunnel
| near Liverpool The elevators in the tun-
| mel travel 100 feet from the bed of the tuu-
| mel to the surface Of the earth. The ca
pacity of the cars is very much less than
that of the cars of the Weehawken ele-
| vators. 2.
Three connodious cars will be put In
operation overin Jersey to-day. Each car
will carry 135 persons on each journey.
| One hundred and fifty persons can be
| crowded into them, but the former number
is their registered capacity. Travellers in
the elevators will be surprised at their
| speed. Last Thursday the elevators were
sent on trial trip, and eighty persons
made the journey up toward the the skies.
THE EARTH SEEMED TO SINK.
| Before tho word Got" was given each
person looked at his watch. for every one
was desirious of knowing how rapidly the
| big cars moved. AS the cars slid upward
on their journey their occupants looket
| down upon the river, dotted with tugs, fer
| rYboats and sailing vessels. The great me-
| tropohs seemed to sink away beneath them,
| while far IN the distance the hsZy outlines
Of Coney Island and the long beaches of
Sandy Hook could be seen. When the top
was gained each passenger looked again at
| his watch.
Had they stopped? No. They were
| ticking away as usual and they recorded
the fact that only twenty-three seconds had
! been needed for the ascent. The trip was
J made more rapidly than the elevators will
be regularly run. Their regular running
1 time will be forty-five seconds, three-Quar-
| sers of minute This is about as fast as
the average passenger wants to travel.
These elevators were planned by and
built under the supervision of Thomas E.
Brown, Jr. He looks upon their successful
completion as one of the greatest feats Of
engineering Of his career, but ne expects
| even to eclipse this when ne finishes the
/ cable rail way which is to run from the
| Hudson river to the apex of the mountain
| in the Catskills, on which the Catskill
| Mountain house is located This road, MIR.
Brown says, will have an elevation of 800
| feet.
BY HYDRAULIC PRESSURE.
The methods used in running the Wee
| hawken elevators Is worthy of study by any
| one interested in mechanics. The power
used is known as hydraulic gravity pressure.
/ The waters of the river are made to do the
| work of running the elevators. AT the apex
| of the elevator shafts there is a mammoth
| tank holding l0,000 gallons of water, and
| from this a pressure Of $50 pounds is OBJ
tanned. In the engine room there are four
| hydraulic pumps operated by steam. The
sides of the boilers in which the steam is
generated are made OF block magnesia, COW
| cred with Russian iron. "
The elevators are supplied With innumer-
able safety appliances to avoid the possibili-
ties of an accident. AL the shafts are sup
piled with automatic stops and safety grips.
| If there should be an accident so great that
the power lifting the car should be entirely
| cut off the car would only fall seven inches.
"CRUMLY the artist is an odd fellow. ~
what has he donep'
Just painted $500 picture of a 500 hearse."