Western Kansas world., 1893-07-22
TREMENDOUS SPEED.
Comparison Of the Attachments In Land
and water TRANSPORTATION.

| Comparison OF the Attachments In Land
| and Water Transportation.
A writer in the San Francisco Ex-
aminer says: 1t is plain that we are
in the midst of the greatest advance
in the speed of transportation that
has been known since the invention
of the locomotive. The original en-
gines of Stephenson and Ericsson,
| with their velocity OF thirty miles an
hour, would have done reasonably
creditable work on any modern rail-
road up to few years ago. Even
now the average express train in
California goes faster But within
the past ten years the standard of
speed, both by land and water, has
been raised until an ocean steamer
can surpass what used to be consid-
cred good speed for a railroad train.
and locomotive can cover a hundred
| miles in the time it used to require
to cover thirty.
Now that it has been shown to be
mechanically possible to travel by rail
at over a hundred miles an hour the
public will soon demand the practi-
cal application of the possibility.
Hitber to ocean travel has crowded the
limit of the practicable much more
closely than land travel. When
passenger steamer has been built
capable of reaching twentY-one knots
on squirt, she has been set to work
making over twenty knots straight
across the Atlantic trip after trip.
A locomotive capable Of making a
hundred milesan hour is not expected
to average fifty on long run. There
are only three regular trains in
America that exceed that speed for
their entire trips. and the longest
run made by any Of those is less than
500 miles If the railroads did as
well proportionatelY as the steamer
lines the journey from New York
to Chicogo would be made be-
tween breakfast and dilner, and a
man could leave New York in the
morning and dine in San FRANCISCO
the next evening. This would be
bad for Mr. Pullman, which may be
one reason why the possibilities in
that direction have not been de-
veloped.
Now that the motive power has
been brought up to the 100 miles an
hour standard, the next step must
be to make such rate Of travel safe.
So far as the track is concerned there
are few lines in the United States,
such as the Pennsylvania, the New
York Central, the New jersey Gen.
trail, and the Washington branch of
the Baltimore and Ohio, that are
we'll enough equipped now. The
most important precautiOu that re-
mains to be taken on these and all
other roads that propose to expert
ment with high speeds is the total
abolition of grade crossings. It is a
better crossing than the average that /!
enables an approaching driver to |
command clear view of the track |
for a quarter of a mile in each direc-
tion before he reaches it, and train
running at nearly two miles a minute
would cover that distance in about
eight seconds.
OF course no line could think of
running it's trains at hundred miles
an hour without a double track. Two
trains going in opposite directions at
that rate would crash into each other
with joint velocity one-third as
great as that of a ball from smooth
bore cannon, and the force of their
impact would be about three times
as great as the combined power of all
the guns in all the American and
foreign warships in the Columbian
naval review. Such a collision would
hardly give fair deal to the coroner.
In fact, it would be highly desira-
BILE to have four tracks-two for
freight and two for passenger trains.
A hundred miles an hour express
overtaking a slow freight going in
the same direction on the same track
would strike it with as much force as
would be spent in head-on collision
between two lightning express trains
of the present day.
Another essential precaution will |
be the universal adoption of the au-
toma tic block signal system. When !
high speeds become general the roads |
will also find it necessary to i'm prove I
their methods of entrance into cities
About half an hour is now lost in |
the crawl into Chicago, and there are
similar unnecessary delays in Phila- !
delphia, Baltimore and most other !
large places. Tunnels or yiaducts |
will remedy this. When all these !
things are suitably provided for, pas
SengerS may travel at the rate Of two !
miles a minute more comfortably and |
safely than they can jog over the |
road now at fifteen miles an hour. /
But the steam lines will have to be |
awake or they will not have grasped |
their opportunities before the cleo /
fric roads cIIt them ont