St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-02-06
Inventions to Overcome At
mospheric Pressure on
Trains.
Railway Trains to Be Oper-
ated at 1926 Miles an
Hour.
The Plan Is the Subject Of
a Well Written
Book.
The Inventor Recently an
Attaehe of the Chiea-
go Press.

Nothing can batter illustrate the YER
satility of the newspaper reporter than
the announcement which is made today
of series of railroad inventions upon
which patents have been obtained by F.
U. Adams, until recently an attache OF
the Chicago press, says the Chicago
Herald. AS a rule people look with
suspicion upon railroad patents and
associate them in vague way
with car appliances, improved
brakes and other devices which
have caused the financial wreck of
thousands of alleged geniuses. Mr..
Adams inventions. however, are broad
in their scope. startling in their
originality, and in the opinion OF the
best Iailload engineers and experts in
the country destined to revolutlonlZe
in the near future the construction OF
railway trains. The inventions are
made the subject of a well-written book,
just issued from the press, entitled cat
moSpheric Resistance: Its Relation to
the speed of Railway Trains" Mr..
Adams maintains that the existing con-
struction of passenger trains Is I'M
scientific and ridiculous. He atSerts
that air is a fluid as we'll as water. and
that railway trains should be designed
SO as to offer the least resistance to the
atmosphere, the same as boats are de-
signed to offer the least possible re-
sistance to water. He declares that the
modern passenger train Is, OF all things
animate or inanllmate, natural or artl-
fetal, the one exception that attempts,
while defying a self-evident law OF
nature, to attain high velocity.
Unscientific Principles.
Inventor Adams is bitter in his denun-
Citations of the existing construction of
passenger cars, and declares that as a
result of the failure of railway engi-
neers to take cognizance of the exist
ence of the atmosphere, there has been
comparatively little increase in average
speeds i'll passenger trains for half
century. He quotes figures to show
that fast steamships are making
nearly the time reached by express
trains, and laudS marine architects
for their skill in overcoming the resist
ance of the medium through which their
crafts must pass. AS substitute for
the present railway coach MI Adams
proposes to construct a train OF cars
which, when vestibued, will present an
external appearance Of one immensely
long coach, with surface perfectly
smooth from end to end and free from
roof to track of any projection which in
the slightest degree will offer any OBJ
struction to the swift passage of
the train through the air. The front
of the locomotive will be pointed, like
the bows of ship, and the rear end OF
the tender is vestibuled to the first car
of the train. The pointed front of the
locomotive will therefore sustain the
entire atmospheric resistance of the
train. By careful measurements Mr..
Adams has aScertained that modern
yestibuled train presents to the air
front surface exceeding 600 So uare
feet. He calls attention to the fact
which, simple as it is, seems to
have been overlooked-tha train
moving at rate of sixty miles an
hour. on a comparatively still day~en-
counters the same atmospheric resist
ance as is resultant from SlXty-mileS
an-hour-gaIe. At sixty miles an hour
the atmosphere eXertS pressure of not
less than eighteen pounds square foot,
and the pressure increases with speed
in a proportion with the square OF the
velocity of the wind. At low speed, such
as ten and twenty miles an hour, this
atmospheric resistance is small factor.
At ten miles an hour it is only half
a. pound to square foot. and at
twenty miles an hour 1t is only two
pounds to a square foot. At sixty miles
an hour, however, train OF SIX cars has
to withstand an atmospheric pressure,
according to Mr.. Adams figures. of TO-
800 pounds. The average passenger To-
comotiye has traction power not eX-
Nd
follows that the locomotive eXhausts
err In overcoming the tremend-
Gus pressure of the atmosphere.
With such train as the inventor is
about to build, an engine and six cars
will present resisting surface not eX-
ceeding 100 square feet, and at sixty
miles an hour will therefore encounter
an atmospheric resistance of 1850
pounds, as against the 10000 of the
modern train. Mr.. Adams claims and
seems to prove that with the factor of
atmospheric pressure thus re-
duced, it will be an easy mat
ter to reach a speed exceed
ing 100 miles an hour without exhaust
ing the capacity Of the average passen-
senger locomotive. Tables are given
showing that speeds of forty, fifty and
Sixty miles all HOuI Cdl Do iHdlH ldliSQ
under the new construction at less than |
half the present expense of power, and
consequently of fuel. When it is I'M
derstood that the coal bill of the rail
rogds of the United States alone ex-
ceeds $50, 900 year the Importance
of this saving will be appreciated.
The inventor quotes from extensive
series of experiments made recently on
leading railroads, and shows that such
train reslstances as wheel and axle fric
ton, track friction and internal friction
of the working parts of the locomotive
do not materially increase with speed.
In fact. it has been demonstrated that
wheel and axel friction is greater at
low speed than at high. He then asks
what it is that increases with speed,
and boldly declares that atmospheric re-
sistance is the only factor that increases
with speed, and that it becomes greater
with the square of the velocity of the
train. At sixty or seventy miles an hour
a train is held as in wise, and the most
powerful locomotives yet constructed
have been unable to accomplish any
material increase in speed beyond these
points, even with two or three cars.
Improved Ventilation.
Not less novel and interesting, and
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