Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-11-23
AIRS FUTURE,
CERTAIN TO BE A POWERFUL RIVAL
OF ELECTRICITY.
The Power That VIII BE Used to Move
Cars Now Propelled by Electricity
A Big combination of TeIe-
phone Companies.

The outlook for the development of COM
pressed air as a motive power is thus
discussed by the New York correspondent
Of the Philadelphia Press:
Two announcements Just made are
looked upon as of the utmost Importance
in the world of science and in that COM
mandcd by vast financial interests. The
president of the Metropolitan Street rail-
way, Mr.. Nrecland, has accepted the Of
flee of president of a giant that
proposes to control the entire supply Of
apparatus for vehicles propelled by COM
pressed air. 1t Is safe to infer that Mr..
Nrecland would rot have accepted this
/ lace were it not demonstrated to his en-
tire satisfaction that the problems which
had to be solved before the energy Of
compressed air could be satisfactorily uti-
lied for vehicle propulsion had been
completely solved. 1t is also a rcasona-
BILE inference hat Mr.. Vreeland expects
that the street railway corporation, of
which he is president, will, as speedily as
| POSSIBLE, adopt compressed air for the
propulsion of cars On every one of the
lines that are not to be equipped with the
under trolley system.
1t has been a long experiment, and some
OF the ablest of the mechanical scientists
Of New York city have had grave doubts
about the perfection of any apparatus de-
'0'D% - AAR lA'lf'AAiio VI - -
compressed air. These same men have
been enthusiastic over other industrial
lseS Of compressed air, some Of them go
ing 80 far as to claim that for many pur-
poses this energy was bound to be a seSi-
Gus competitor with electrical energy. 1t
is used now for many services where cleo
tricily would be in,practicable. In fact,
the range of its contemplated employment
is greater than any that has depended up
on steam power. for it has taken the
place of certain services heretofore done
exclusively by hand.
Some of the employmeDts are quaint in
their originality and character, as Cor in
stance, a few months ago sightsccrs in the
upper part of the city Were amazed to
see men suspended so high in the air from
one of the Harlem bridges that they look
ed like pigmies, each one apparently play
ing a hose upon the surface Of the bridge
that was before him. But the eye detect
Cd instantly a brilliant Wilderness that
followed this mysterious operation, and it
was discovered that these men were by
means of compressed air actually painting
the great bridge, depositing the paint with
swiftness, smoothness and accuracy be-
yord the capacity of the most expert hand
painting to accomplish.
now tompir 20 me ii , tna.Wny lanes' 'neS nre
PRESSED air machinery and at the repair
''''F N"NF 49,
cars with almost Cyclonic swiftness, the
compressed air by which this is done act
ing as a good dn~ti"Septic, almost as a
lrophylactic. And so a score of unusual
ana interesting e~mployments, even to the
automatic and perfect regulation of the
temperature OF a house or room are now
accomplished by means of compressed air
apparatus.
lhese inventions nave created millions
OF new wealth, besides giving employment
10 huhdreds OF thousanns or wage earn
ers. But there always doomed I'D BEFORE
the scientists who We're studying COM
pressed air, what seemed to be unsolvable
problems in the use of 1t for propelling
NehlcleS. Ihere were many promises that
seemed almost upon test to make them
selves good, but the tests always revealed
unsupported detects. inventors brought
10 TINS city from schenectady a compress
cd AIR locomotive, hoisted 1t upon the eie-
Vatcu structure, charged 1t upon a com
pleSstu air pant, that was erected at a
cost OF $4,000 whiting a stones throw OF
TRINITY church Tor the sole purpose OF
chasglng this locomotive, and all this only
to demonstrate that that machine at least
was totally inadequate Tor such service as
the elevated railway requires.
MIR wuITNEy,s EA1Ttt IN TT
For some years William G. Whitney
''S Ai'h TT III Liz blii VI lllt u HtIlA-
Crs to surmount these difficulties, and it
is understood here that it was his un.
shaken conviction that this could be don
that led some doubling capitalists to agree
to continue with him in the support OF
those who were making the experiments
Two years ago, undCC Mr.. Whitney's in.
spiratioA, an attempt was made to run
street cars by this compressed air appar-
atUs. Tho cars were driven, but there
were some serious defects noticed in tho
apparatus, as well as some apprehension
that the apparatus was not entirely safe
phe ny one, hoWtNer, ,he oel'ces haN'
but as is the case with most apparatus
by the combination of many inventions
All these passed into the control of Mr.
Whitney and his friends, and they at last
felt justified in erecting a compressed all
power house oil the banks of the Hudson
which now contains perhaps the finest
most impressive and in some respects the
most majestic and symmetrical piece o.
machinery, giant-likc in its proportions
to be found anywhere in the world. and
1t can almost moist iesSly charge Stee
TASKS, or bottles rs they are colloquially
called, with compressed air, that exert:
the enormous pressure of $500 pounds tC
the square inch. This, by methods thai
suggest the Tesla converter, is reduced
to a much smaller pressure, and the hasks
are then attached to the street cars.
For about three months the Twenty.
eighth and Twenty-ninth streets cross,
town lines have been Installed with com.
pressed air apparatus, and it seems a
last as though every defect had been rem,