The San Francisco call., 1895-12-22

that all of the hypothesis are perfectly
sound. Indeed, the sage who has wrought
miracles in electricity and sound declares
that there is practically no limit to the
speed to be obtained. The only drawback
is the cohesive power of steel. That alone
would limit the velocity to be obtained.
The man who has evolved the idea spent
whole day in travelling from New York
to the Worlds Fair at Chicago. He is a
person who, when at work, fills the ca
pacity of three or four ordinary men. So
time with him is precious; time wasted is
little short of a crime. And that a whole
day should be lost in travelling a thousand
miles seemed deplorable, especially during
an epoch when the brain of man seemed
invincible in the face of obstacles. He had
often been in such a mood, but on this
occasion, having almost stolen his vaca-
ton, he felt that he was especially ag-
grieved by the comparative slowness of
travel, But his trip had its recompense.
At the fair he saw the moving sidewalk
on which visitors, seated on benches, were
run out on pier in the lake and brought
back again. 1t did not go at any great
speed, of course, but it impressed the New
Yorker nevertheless. Its projectors were
unaware of the fact, and it is probable that
they would not have cared cent whether ne
was impressed or not. They had built the
moving sidewalk to impress somebody,
but not him.
AT that time the question of how to rap
idly transport passengers in cars across
Brooklyn bridge was quite warm. The
trains could not be moved quickly enough.
The men who built the moving sidewalk
at Chicago thought they had solution to
the problem, and it is said that they eX-
hiblued their sidewalk in the hope that
when Mayor Gilroy visited the fair he would
at once become charmed with it and rec
ommend the arrangement as 3 solution of
the bridge problem. But he didn't; the
inventive New Yorker did.
He noticed, too, that the main sidewalk
was paralleled by another one that moved
much slower, and that passengers wishing
10 land stepped on the second sidewalk
To step from this to the ground
was quite easy. The New Yorker
lying all of this, and he studied it over on
his way home. The train was going at
the rate of forty miles an hour. He
thought if sidewalks could travel at this
rate they might have value above that of
a mere curiosity.
The porter at this moment darted
through the aisle and disappeared at the
ming after tip, remarked the New
Yorker to himself, "and at high speed at
that. He is going at about ten miles an
hour; the train at forty. He has the mo-
ton of the train and his own added to it
fifty miles an hour in ALL"
Then the New Yorker smacked his thigh
and said: There, l have it! The thing is
as good as DONE"
He has been working on his scheme at
intervals ever since, and, stripped of de-
tails, which he jealously guards, it is this:
Given a roadway or plane that moves with
a certain speed, q train placed upon it at
rest would, of course, have the initial velo-
city; in motion it would have the initial
velocity plus its own velocity. Thus, if
the 1oadbed was gong at the rate of 100
miles an hour and the train upon it was
going at like rate in the same direction.
the train would be going at the rate of 200
miles.
Now, if instead of train upon the first
plane there was another plane, and upon
this plane still another going at like speed,
the third plane would really be going at
the rate of 800 miles. If this arrangement
be continued any desired velocity could be
attained.
This may not at once be clear to the un-
scientific reader, but it is nevertheless be-
yond contradiction. A little study will
make it apparent.
He outlined the scheme last week to a
friend who has thousands of dollars tied
up in railroads, but the railroad man was