The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-08
FIVE HUNDRED MILES AN HOUR.
An Aerial Electric Railway Claimed to
Accomplish Wonders in Speed.
From the New York Recorder.

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From the New York Recorder.
Speaking seriously, one who would
propose TO transfer parcel or letter
from New York to San Francisco in eight
hours, causing it TO traverse the interve-
ming 1000 miles at a speed of 500 miles an
hour, would be considered by most per-
sons to be highly imaginative or grossly
unveraciOuS. Yet this seemingly limos
slble task is precisely what Albert Leslie
Wlddls, Of Detroit, processes to be able to
accomplish with his recently invented
aerial electric railway. Railway
men are marveling much at the
fast train, the tExposition
Flyer that covers the 600 or so miles
OF track between New York and Chicago
in just twenty-four hours, but Mr. Wild
dls AYERS that by means of his system of
transportation a letter can be delivered
in New York within two hours after be-
ing mailed in Chicago. This would be a
practical humiliation of space, and Mr..
Widdis is satisfied that it is entirely
feasible. So confident is he of the ulti-
mate success of his invention that he has
taken out letters patent on it, and will
construct near Detroit a test line for illus
trating his aerial railway in operation
Reduced TO its simplest terms, Mr.. Wild
dlSS rapid transit device, a model of
which is now on exhibition at the worlds
fair, is an elevated railway with electric
ity as its prOpulsive force. In detail of
construction and mechanism and nice ad-
justment of parts with n view to decrease
OF friction and to increase of speed, the
inventor has brought out some valuable
original ideas in both electricity and me-
chanics, and has recast older discoveries
into new and more useful forms. The re-
suit of these combinations is, MIR Widdis
contends, a car that can be driven for
ward at 500 miles an hour and yet be per-
fectly under control, as to speed and dis
position of cargo, of an operator stationed
at any point on the line. The primary
purpose of this new scheme Of transporta-
tion is to carry mail and express matter,
fruits and perishable freight. BY ingcn-
iOus devices the cars can be made to STOP
set their brakes and deliver their loads or
any portion automatically at any desired
point.
In appearance the car designed by Mr.
Widdis resembles q long, square box,
terminating at one end in a pyramidal
projection running to a sharp point This
is the forward end of the car and is in
tended to pierce the air at a tremendous
speed, with a minimum of resistance.
The car is suspended by iron hangers
from four wheels two feet six inches in
diameter. which in turn rest on a single
bar of ordinary railway Trail stretched
on arms projecting from a line of poles
arranged exactly like telegraph poles.
The patent cash carriers in use in many
large shops closely resemble the method
of suspension from single rail
employed by Mr.. Widdis. Below this
Trail is another of the l pattern, which
serves at once as a guide and support and
which prevents the wheels from leaving
the main track. In the center of the car
is specially designed electric motor of
exceeding lightness and power that drives,
by means of Sprocket wheels and link
belts, the driving wheels above. The cur
rent to operate this motor is taken from
a wire strung above the track, by troll
ley wheel, much after the manner of the
ordinary electric street car. The electric
power is to be applied from dynamo sta
tiOnS at points along the route. Very
little electrical force is required. 1t is
estimated that eleven horsepower will
propel a 1,000-pound car, with its load, at
the rate of 500 miles an hour
Where the car is to be used for carriage
of mail matter no stoppage is needed for
the delivery of the mail bags at their
proper stations. In the mail car, which
is bottomless, each mail bag rests on a
shelf or platform which can be moved up
or down by lever that projects from il
through the side of the car. AS the car
whizzes by a station this lever strikes
against an arm extending from post set
up by the track, the shelf is depressed,
the mail bag falls to the ground or on the
platform of the station or into net,
while the car flies on, and the shelf, re-
leased from the action of the lever, re-
turns automatically to its former position,
ready for another load. When it is
desired to shunt cars from the mail line
to a lateral branch the same principle is
used to open and close the switches.
These devices render the system almost
automatic in its operation.
The advantages claimed for this new
method of transportation are: First,
speed which can be easily forced up to
500 miles an hour; second, safety, because
the track being elevated accidents are
impossible; third, economy, the first cost
of the elevated track being small and the
repairs nearly nothing, while the cars
can be built for $500 apiece. The inven-
tor is confident that his application of
electricity to TRANSFORMATION of mail and
light freight is q success and will be gen
orally adopted.
Mr.. Widdis asserts that there are no
inherent difficulties in his system. The
great speed will not result, he says, in
the generation of heat in either car or the
bearings of the wheels. Engine 800, of
the New York Central railway, recent
lV ran 100 miles an hour, and the jour
nails, though carrying the fifty tons
weight of the ponderous machine did not
become overheated The extreme
ly small burdens on the journals
of the aerial electric road would
lessen immeasurably the chances of heat
by friction. Metal for journal bearings
is tempered so that it will stand speed
of 1900 revolutions minute whereas
the speed of 500 miles an hour by the
aerial electric car would require less than
5000 revolutions per minute of its two
foot six inch driving wheels. The
point of contact between the wheels and
rails being changed with a rapidity al
most inconceivable, there would be no
danger from heat by friction. A cannon
ball travels with an initial velocity of
l. 700 to 1000 feet per secoud, or about
200 miles an hour and does not heat,
and so there can be no possibility of the
electric car becoming heated at a speed
of only 500 miles an hour.
In fact, Mr. Widdis thinks he has over
come the obstacles and impediments to
transportation of loads of 10000 pounds
or less at q speed of 500 miles an hour.
Should the freight-carrying project sue
coed, as he feels certain 1T Will, MIR.
Widdis will proceed at once TO devise
car in which passengers may be carried
safely at the same rate Of speed. Then
man can live in Chicago and go TO bust
ness daily in New York-Or vice versa.
THE CHINESE ARMY.