The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-07-19
GET THEM ON A ST RING.
Here Is Plan to Run Railroad Trains on
Rope.

A Worcester man thinks he has solved
the rapid transit problem and has writ
ten the following account of his inven-
ton:
Worcester, Mass, July 17-For good
many years 1t has seemed to me that the
problem Of transportation was to be
solved by railroad in the air. The ele-
waited roads were the first step in this di-
rection, but they wrere too bulky. I
made up my mind that something could
be found that would do, and SO the
scheme have patented, which is called a
continuous aerial cable speedway, result
ed.
People who know little something
about aerial transportation may say, what
is true, that continuous aerial cable ways
have long been known, but the trouble
with them all has been that the cars
which ran upon them had to move at a
slow speed. There lay the secret of the
trouble. They were SO slow as to be alb
solutely useless. In my invention it is
different. 1 do not think there is any
limit to it's possibilities and to my own
knowledge cars can move over it at the
rate of a mile a minute, without the
slightest danger to the passengers in
them.
Another thing no one before has hit
upon or at least patented, is means to
make the motion of the carriage of an
aerial railway even. The cars have al
ways pitched and jerked about in very
unpleasant way. By my method of CIV
ing the carriage smooth run, all the
good points of the old fashioned continu-
GUS aerial cable railway are kept, and in
addition comes high speed. How the
motion becomes even is plain An electric
motor drives each wheel, the current be-
ing led to the motors through one cable,
the other cable being used for the reverse
current Other means of propulsion
might be employed, but electricity seems
to be specially adapted for this purpose.
Special and simple devices can be used
if necessary to make the motion exceed
ingly smooth. Ordinarily my invention
will be operated with two cables, but
there is nothing to prevent the use Of two
cables below for the trucks to run on,
and two cables above to act as guides and
steadiers. The wheels run over smooth
~ curved cable rail and thus there is on
jar on this account.
To digress for q moment, it must bs
remem bered at all times that speed is the
prime necessity and also that speed with
out safety is worthless. The best kind of
steel cables, one inch in diameter, can
carry at span of 200 feet and sag of
feet, about 1900 pounds, with perfect
safety. There are cables in the market
ranging in size from about quarter of
an inch up to two inches in diameter that
are perfectly suitable for use for the aerial
cable road, and as single wires or a COM
bination of cables can easily be arranged,
very wide margin in weight of loads is
therefore available.
My method of making the cars run
smooth is not to have the cable stretched
so tight that it jumps up at the least
strain, neither to have it SO loose that it
swings and sways about, giving cores
ponding motion. The idea of it all is
simply this to have either alternating or
non-alternating supports. BY alternat-
ing supports is meant a series of supports
of the other cable, SO that the point of
greatest depression caused by the sagging
of one cable, shall come opposite sup
port of the other cable. Notwithstanding
supports are simply the reverse Of this.
The two cables form track, as stated,
along which the car for passengers, or the
receptacle for freight, is transported As
the two cables are constantly varying in
height, owing to the sagging thereof be-
tween the points of support, the car is
supported upon the track by means of
what is called a compensating truck; that
is, truck which provides for the varia-
ton in the vertical height of different
sections of the track, and in this way
maintains the car at uniform height.
Each of the trucks by which the car is
supported consists of pair of truck
wheels, which are pivoted on studs-that
is, the connecting cylinder of steel which
runs from one truck wheel to another,
generally known as part of the axle.
These are held in the ends of arms and
connected with the wheel at each end by
the hub, which holds the truck wheels
down to the cables. The truck wheel is
adapted to run along and be supported
upon the cable, rising and falling to cor
respond with the plane of the cable, But
the truck is so made that no matter how
much the wheels themselves may change
in position, vertically, the car itself will
be maintained at level Thus it will
run as smoothly as if it were upon the
surface of the ground.
1t may be objected that the wheels can