The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-18
MONORA|[ CAR
IS BADLY WRECKED
Twenty or More Persons Are
Seriously Hurt
MANY NARROW ESCAPES
Chr Is Making First Trip Over New
Line After Having Been Tested
and the Mechanism Gets
Disarranged
MANY NARROW ESCAPES

New York, July 17.-(Special.)- first
schedule trip of the new monorail car
plying between Barlow on the sound
and City island, came to- a disastrous
end yesterday afternoon. Twenty or
more persons were injured, some serious
w. when the superstructure and the top
and bottom which forms track for the
car gave way on al sharp curve near
Glovers Rick, midway between Barlow
and City island.
The car was whizzing along at the
rate of As miles an hour and was ap-
parently working smoothly as 1t ap-
preached Glovers Rock. Suddenly there
was terrible jolt, then sound OF tear
ing and splintering overhead. The car
stopped. toppled for an instant and fell
over on its side. The Al passengers were
flung among the debris at the bottom or
the car and some of them were pinioned
in the cigar-shaped ends Of the long,
thin monorail. There were more than 10
women in the car at the time OF the
accident That some of them were not
killed in the whirling car is nothing
short of miraculous. The marvellous es-
-
better understood when it is explained
that the heavy seats on the upper side
of the car were wrenched loose and
thrashed around among the PROSTATE
passengers like fails.
Showers of broken glass from the Win
dows bombarded the helpless men and
women and induced terrible flesh
wounds.
Men and women, bruised and bleeding
and. utterly bewildered and uttering
shrieks of anguish sought to force their
way out in the open. The passengers
had been laughing and joking few min
utes before at the prospect of real rapid
transit between their homes and the Pei
ham station of the New Haven railroad
In place of the antiquated horse car
line. which had been in operation up to
today. A dozen men and women lay I'M
conscious upon the floor and the other
passengers trampled these under foot In
mad dash for the door.
Howard H. Tunis, the inventor of the
monorail, and the chief engineer of the
company, which manufactured the car,
ard D. R. Brown, an electrician OF
ithaca were in charge of the car Be-
yond a. few scratches they were unin-
| jured and they soon succeeded IN quiet
| ing most of the passengers. In the
meantime several persons, who mad Wit
nesses the accident from Petros hotel,
a shore recort a hunderd yards away,
had rushed up and they lent their as
sstance to calming the passengers ana
succoring the wounded.
| The hotel was turned into an impromptu
hospital Telephone calls had been hur-
riedly sent out for ambulances and DR..
Carey from Fordham hospital and an am
| bulance from Westminster soon arrived
| The physicians finally announced that
none of the passengers had been killed
and that only three or four were in a
| serious condition.
Just how many were injured could not
be learned because many of the wounded
| had been taken away by friends in con-
yeyances which came from nearby stables
and from City Island
| 1t Is believed that the superstructure
was not strong enough to stand the pres
sure put upon 1t when the car flew around
| the curve.
| test trip was made Friday after
| noon in which everything went smoothly
and the five miles. from City Island to
Barlow was covered in seven minutes
For this reason, although the invention
| had failed to start on its first test held
July last, everybody was assured oil
the safety of the device.
Accordingly, campers from Orchard
| beach and residents or City Island were
anxious to have the first ride over the
new system. The car was crowded to-
| day.
The value of the monorail as system
is not impaired by the accident. The fac
that a car can maintain high speed
| with little friction on single track has
been demonstrated to the satisfaction Of
engineers the world over. The principle
is not a defiance of gravity, simply q
plan of working in accordance with gray
| ity.. sre
The American Monorail company bull
and operates the tracks upon which thu
accident occurred. Among the prominen
finauciers interested in the project ar,
c. C. Cuyler of Cuyler, Morgan & Co.
Robert Fl. McCarter, attorney general o
New Jersey; Congressman Samuel Nc
MILAN, August Belmont and some of tn
officers of the Interborough.