The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1894-11-30

KTOWlu VI hIS. ohApOuI .
account. But when this John Stimp-
son had eaten his supper, put on his
slippers and lighted his big-bowled
pipe, in some way he disappeared
somewhere Then it was that the
other John Simpson came forth from
some other somewhere, and, watching
the smoke Through han-open eyes,
began to think.
This latter faculty the first John
Simpson did not have, but his double
was a perfect prodigy In that line.
He meditated by the hour, and then,
sensible man, told his wife of what he
had been thinking. And she was as
much interested as If it were a fairy
story, -as, indeed, it often was. She
herself was not a great thinker, but
Knitted industriously and counted
stitches.
'Kath," said this second John Stimp-
con one evening, what do you sup
pose I've been thinking aboutT"
"Hm-let me guess" said she.
"About that going to the North pole
in the big balloon?"
mo, it isn't that. Fact is, that has
entirely slipped my mind for a day
or two. It's something like that,
though" He waited a moment for
his wife to guess agaiu.
She shook her head. II give it up"
she said; "come, tell me-" She was
not very good guesser.
"Well," said he, smoking slowly,
sit is about a new kind of railroad.
You know people nowadays are all
the time talking about rapid transit.
The horse cars don't go fast enough
and the trains are too slow. They
can't run a train more than 70 or 80
miles an hour and have 1t stay ON the
track. And when you think If it, that
really is too slow. Here we can talk
over these long distance telephones
500 miles in less than no time; then
why shouldn't we travel at something
like the same rate?'
"Mercyp' said his wife, 'I should be
afraid couldn't breathe"
"Oh, yes, you could" said John
Simpson. 'The air would go right
along with the car, just as it does
now. The two things to think of are
how to make the car go fast enough
and how to keep it On the track.
Now I'll tell you what I'd do.
I'D lay out straight road from
New York to Chicago. For what
goes fast must go straight I'd fence
this track in with high board fence,
50 that no one would be run over
unless he wanted to enough to take a
ladder and climb the fence. On the
sleepers, instead Of regular rails, I'd
have rails a foot wide and foot
thick, followed out SO that there
would be a sort of big deep slot run
ming the whole length. The car
wouldn't run on wheels, for it takes
time for wheels to turn. It would
run ON two steel skates, goirg the
length OF the car and fitting into the
slots in the rails. Make the skates
and the slots smooth as glass and oil
them well. Have your skate-irons
broaden out at the bottom and have
the slots shaped in the same way.
Ihen the skates can't get out of the
slots, and consequently the car can't
run of the track"
YES" said his wife; "but how is
your car going to skate? 1t hasn't
any legs"
THAT'S just what 1 was coming to-"
continued John Simpson. "It has
got to be pulled along, and by cleo
trlclty, OF course. Electricity Is the
essence Of all creation. Now you
nave seen these horseshoe magnets
work: hold one close to a piece of
steel, and it draws it up-click. Well
my idea is that you can draw a car
on the same principle. Have your car
mace OF steel. Have a lot of big
magnets lying along between the
rails and connected by wires so that
you can keep the magrets full of
electricity from stationary engines
every twenty miles. Fix each mag
with a Iiffln
tnat when the car is drawn up to 1t,
the electricity will be shut off from
that magnet and switched ahead to
the next magnet. That one in turn
would pull the car up to it, and so
on. Run an overhead wire the whole
length of the road with a steel rod
from the car touching it, and through
this the engineer can turn the cleo
tricity on in the magnets, shut it off.
or reverse it. In this way he can
regulate the speed. And the speed.
whew! Why, he can travel as fast as
the electricity itself! But I think, on
the whole, about thousand miles an
hour would be safer''
John Simpson! Don't you think
l VIII ever ride on your car. What
If it rar off the trackr
at can't run off the track. I tell
you. But even if it did, there wouldn't
be any suffering such as we read
about now-no people roasted alive or
scalded to death. I think even that
Is an improvement, for their friends
wouldn't have anything to worry
over" And John Simpson knocked
the ashes from his pipe and began to
shake down the stove
Now, although this John Stimnson
was an ingenious sort of fellow, he
never thought of converting. his in
genuities into cash. He did not sit I'D
nights trying to make working models,
nor did he run around days consult
ing pate 1t lawyers and strivir & to in
terest capitalists. With this prosaic
business he had nothing whatever to
do. Thus he had the pleasure Of in
venting without any of the pains,
which is not a bud thing.
Among the novelties in which the
second John Simpson delighted was
the idea of making nawsDauprs with.