The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1909-11-12
HEAVY CARS GLIDE
ON SINGLE RAIL
At LONDON TEST
FIRST PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION
OF WONDERFUL INVENTION
is SUCCESSFUL.
REVOLUTIONIzE TRANSPORTATION
Large Reduction in Cost CT Construc-
ton And Great Economy Of oPer-
alton Are Promised-Runs in
Circle.

IdllIdlIWdyt WHICH WI hs On lAS pLi
ciple of the gyroscope, and which was
first shown here in model form some
eighteen months ago before the Royal
Society by its inventor, Louis Bren-
nan. C. b., received its first public
demonstration on a full scale today on
the war Office grounds, near Chatham.
The guests witnessed a spectacle as
marvellous and as revolutionary from
the standpoint of transportation as
that which aeroplanes have furnished
during the past two years.
They saw a car forty feet long, ten
feet wide, and thirteen feet high,
weighing twenty-five tons, mounted on
a single rail- running freely about
curves of all sorts and angles, carry
ing forty passengers with safety as
complete and vibration far less than
the ordinary passenger car.
The vehicle runs in a circle an
eighth of a mile in circumference at
a speed of twenty-five miles an hour,
with eighty horsepower, without the
slightest tendency to leave the rail.
Two horoscopes, weighing three quar-
ters of a ton each, automatically sup
7ly perfect stability. The rail closely
res embles the ordinary one, except
that the top is somewhat curved, and
the rims of the wheels correspond to
this curve. The horoscopes make B.
600 revolutions a minute in VAGUE. The
motive power is entirely selfcontained
in petrol engine, which is used to
drive the dynamo.
Mr.. Brennon explained today that
he finds the efficiency of the new prin-
chile in a full sized car far greater
prorortionately than in the model. he
is convinced that the monorail will
SOM revolutionize railroad transporta-
ton. With vehicles double and treble
the size of the present one, speed OF
$50 miles an hour can be attained
with greater safety than sixty miles an
hour under the present transportation
conditions.
The present car was built under
subsidy from the government of In
dia. and is designed principally for
experimental purposes. The tests al
ready made indicate that the size and
weight of the horoscopes are much
greater than necessary, while the sta
bility of the car far exceeds the for
mer The vehicle is mounted on four
wheels. The machinery is contained
in a cab-like structure in the front
norton OF the car in order TO be easy
of access, but for service cars it will
be located beneath the floor. Great
speed is impossible in the present loca-
ton of the line, on account of the linn
tied length of track available
The tests during the past six weeks
have demonstrated that the invention
will make large reduction in cost OF
construction and effect great economy
in operation over the ordinary rail-
road. It also gives increased safety
at high speed, which is only limited
by the power available for overcoming
wind pressure, which when car is
moving 100 miles an hour, becomes
an important factor. Recent Ameri-
can tests proved that the safety on
two rails is little over seventy-hve
miles an hour, owing to the rapid in
crease in oscillation and the tendency
of the wheels to climb the rails.
Today's exhibition was given earlier
than was planned, owing to an an
nouncement that a German expert
menter intended to demonstrate a
similar application of the gyroscope
principle in Berlin today. Mr.. Bren-
nan Immediately decided that no rival
shoull be allowed to display the prac-
teal application of his discovery in
advance of the original inventor.
Inc Berlin correspondent VI IhC Sun
teegraphs that the car exhibited there
is only ten feet long, having the shape
of small motor boat. 1t ran slowly
around the hall in the geological gar
den.
Mr.. Brennans demonstration
aroused unbounded enthusiasm among
the engineering experts who were
preset. They especially marvelled at
the weird effects of the new principle,
one of which was that when the forty
passengers were all crowded upon one
side of the car, the result was not the
depression of that side under the I'M
balancing pressure, but paradoxically
the opposite The more weight that
was added, the higher rose the level
of the overloaded side, as the gyro-
scopes sought to balance the unequal
loal.