The San Francisco call., 1896-07-19
TO OAKLAND IN A
SUBMARINE TUBE.
A Transportation Proba-
bility Of the Near
Future.
Carriages Propelled at Enormous
Rate of Speed by Atmos-
pheric Pressure.
An Easy and Comfortable Method of
Crossing the Bay-For Passen.
gers and Freight

1t is quite a safe prophecy that early in
the twentieth century the citizens of San
Francisco and Oakland Will look back
upon the present transportation facilities
across the bay with the same feelings of
wonderment at the slowness of things in
the year 1896 as we now do to the early
days before steam was made to suppIant
the sail and the oar The law of progress
is ever onward. Some day we our
children will cross the bay in an instant.
But how? Will it be by hying-machines
or the pneumatic submarine method?
Here prophecy ceases and speculation
begins.
Professor Frank NJ. Close, in the fol-
lowing interesting article. has outlined
for ''The CaII'' readers a brief sketch of
his ideas OF future transportation be-
tween San Francisco and Oakland. Be-
ing an expert in the department of ply
sicaI science, Professor Closes contrfbu-
tion to this Notwithstanding subject of
the scientific possibilities of the future
is not only highly entertaining but con-
;ains much food for Sc riOus thought.
One of the greatest factors in civiliza-
ton is means of transportation. The de-
velopment of the world is accelerated or
impeded according as the facilities for the
transportation of passengers and freight
are good or bad.
The railroad has proven to be the most
potent agent in the civilization of the
world.
Land transportation has reached fairly
satisfactory stage. Marine transportation
remains extremely crude, and presents
but slight improvement upon primitive
methods. The sail has been substituted
for the oar, and the steam propeller is
gradually supplanting the sail, but as yet
marine transportation is lacking in both
speed and capacity, and is under all pres
ent systems continually menaced by delay
and wreckage resulting from unfavorable
and stormy weather.
Not only upon the great highways of
commerce, the bays and gulfs and lakes
and oceans, do the necessities of traffic
meet with difficulty OF attainment, but
also in the crossing OF small bodies of
water, as estuaries and basins. The
watery expanse between San Francisco
and Oakland is an example. It is an i'm
mense hindrance TO the commerce of the
cities upon its opposite shores.
To arrive at an intelligent conclusion as
TO the best mode of marine transporta-
tion, it will be necessary to consider the
objections to existing methods.
Navigation confined to the surface of
the water has to contend with unfayorable
winds and surface currents of water that
not unfrequently increase to dangerous
proportions; while the almost continuous
presence of waves forming an unequal
surface adds no little impediment.
The employment of submarine vessels,
sunken TO depth below the surface of the
water, and thus avoiding wave action,
would in some respects be gain over the
surface system, as thereby the deterrent
effects of unfavorable winds would be
avoided. There are TO real mechanical
difficulties in the way of constructing and
operating submarine vessel. But the
resistance offered by the dense medium
through which the submarine vessel has
10 pass requires the expenditure of enor-
nous power to accomplish desirable speed.
Celebrity, safety and certainty are essen
tial factors of perfect transportation, and
each and all are measurably wanting in
existing modes of marine transportation.
The submarine transportation of the
future will be conducted by means of tubes
or tunnels resting upon the bed of the sea.
Let US suppose continuous tube of a
slightly eliptical cross-section, having an
internal diameter of, say ten feet, with
walls foot in thickness, laid between San
Francisco and Oakland. There would not
be the slightest difficulty in driving
through the tube, by pneumatic pressure,
a single carriage or train of carriages at
very high rate of speed.
Or what material shall the tn be be made?
how shall it be constructed; how shall it
be placed in position?
Chemistry in its work is constantly max
ing discoveries of the properties of SUBJ
stances. When there shall be found some
substance which if incorporated with gutta
percha or other similar material shall pro-
duce a substance that when in the air
shall possess q degree of fexibility and
Elasticity, and when submerged beneath
the water shall become indurated, as a re-
suit of its exposure to the water, then the
whole question Will be satisfactorily solved.
Recent experiments already foreshadow
the production of such material
Granted that such material is avail
able, then a huge tube or pipe of tie de-
sired dimensions of cross-section and
length is made and laid, the water being
allowed to flow into the tube during the
process of laying. The tube being flex-
ible, permits its easy handling. 1t may
and perhaps such would prove the better
way-be manufactured on board vessel,
specially constructed for that purpose.
and paid out as the process of manufac-
tuIe goes on. The admission of water
into the tube fulfills double purpose-it
allows the tube to assume its natural
cylindrical shape by equalizing the water
pressure inside and out, and also perfects
the process of induratiou throughout.
Once laid the tube is allowed to rest at the
bottom of the sea for period OF time sutfi-
cient to complete the induration, when it
Is emptied of its watery contents.
1t may be one and it may be five miles
from the surface of the water to the bot
tom bed on which rests the tube. No
pump coulu possibly be used. nor could
the water be forcibly expelled. But one
OF natures simple laws may be safely re-
neu upon to successfully accomplish the