Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-24
NINETY MILES AN HOUR.
A New Style of Engine and What is
Claimed for 1t.

New Style of Engine and What is
Claimed for 1t.
From the New York World.
There is row being built at the Bald
win locomotive works in Philadelphia an
ordinary locomotive with driving wheels
Of five feet diameter, which, 1t is said, will
as soon as completed draw train of cars
from Philadelphia to this city in an hour.
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 $4,000
for it. When 1t 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 in
ventor, who has been in the railroad bust
ness all his life and who has now invent
ed something which, it Is claimed, will
completely revolutiontze railroading.
1t is not pretended that the ordinary
$4,000 locomotive which the BaldWins are
building would, IL set upon any railroad
track, be able to travel ninety miles an
hour. The locomotive Is not, however. to
be set on the rails as engines generally
are. When 1t is completed it is to be placed
on what are known as the Holman fric-
tion-geared trucks, which will raise 1t thir-
ty inches above the surface of the rails.
It will be just like any other locomotive
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 instant the drivers Of the
locomotive begin to turn 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 inevita-
BILE result Is that one revolution Of the
locomotives driving wheels. by this multi
plicity Of wheels in pyramid form, carries
the locomotive forward just twice as far
as a single revolution If the driving wheels
be on the rails themselves. In other words,
the speed of the engine, whatever that
speed mifht be on the rails themselves, is
exactly doubled 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 a speed Of eighty
miles was said to have been easily attain
ed. The invention has been kept quiet, 1t
being the purpose of those interested to say
nothing about it until its practical utility
was demonstrated by a run from Philadel-
phia 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
mechanics has come into existence.
In addition to the increase of speed at
tainable, this new invention will, It Is claim
ed, save millions of dollars through the
diminished wear and tear upon the rails,
for the weight Of locomotives will then be
further distributed along the track, and at
no point of any rail will there be pres
sure more than one-third as great as is
now exerted by the driving wheels.