The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1895-10-23
fro BE CONTINUED
WHEELS ON WHEELS.
LOCOMOTIVE TO RUN 80 MILES AN
HOUR AND NOT TOUCH THE TRACK.

Driving Wheels Rest on Wheels That Rest
on Other Wheels Which Ride the Track.
Invention OF a Minneapolis Man.
There is now being built at the Bald
win Locomotive works, in Philadel-
phia, an ordinary locomotive with driv-
ing wheels of five feet diameter, which
it is said will as soon as completed
draw a train Of cars from Philadelphia
to this city in an hour, Or just about
ope-half the time now required by the
colossal and costly engines of the Penn
sylvania road.
This claim is not made by the Bald
wins. They have nothing to say on the
subject. They are simply building the
locomotive for private parties and are
to receive their regular price of $40, 900
for it. When it is completed, their part
in the matter is ended. The gentleman
who is paying for the locomotive is W.
J. Holman Of Minneapolis, an elderly
inventor, who has been in the railroad
business all his life and who has now
invented something which, it is claimed,
will completely revolutionize railroad
ing.
1t is not pretended that the ordinary
$40, 600 locomotive which tho Baldwins
are building would. if set upon any
railroad track. be able to travel 90
miles an hour. The locomotive is not,
however, to be set on the rails as en-
gines generally are. When it is COM
pleted, it is to be placed on what are
known as the Holman friction geared
trucks, which will raise it 80 inches
above the surface of the rails.
1t will be just like any other locomo-
tive except that each of its driving
wheels will rest upon and between two
smaller wheels, which in turn will rest
upon and between three other wheels
that finally rest on the rails. The in
slant the drivers Of the locomotive be-
gin to tur they necessarily through
friction give an opposite rotary motion
to the small wheels upon which they
bear, and these small wheels Just as
necessarily give q forward rotary mo.
ton to the third set Of wheels upon
which they are bearing. The natural
and inevitable result is that one revolu-
ton of the locomotives driving wheels
by this multiplicity Of wheels in pyra-
mid form carries the locomotive forward
just twice as far as q single revolution
OF the driving wheels on the rails them
selves. In other words, the speed Of the
engine, whatever that speed might be,
on the rails themselves is exactly dou-
bled by the use of this newly invented
truck.
In an experiment which was made
with an ordinary locomotive thus
mounted in Minnesota on a branch of
the Northern Pacific railroad recently q
speed Of 80 miles was said to have been
easily attained. The invention has been
kept quiet, it being the purpose Of those
interested to say nothing about it until
its practical utility was demonstrated
by a u from Philadelphia to New
York within an hours time. That, it is
believed by the inventor, will be the
shortest and quickest way Of letting the
world know that a new marvel in me-
chanics has come into existence.
In addition to the increase Of speed
attainable this new invention will, it is
claimed, save millions Of dollars
through the diminished wear and tear
upon the rails. for the weight Of loco
motives will then be farther distributed
along the track, and at no point Of any
rail will there be a pressure more than
/ one-third as great AS is now exerted by
the driving wheels. Ynrk World