The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1910-09-07

il Through the window in the back of
the cab was able to watch them at
their work. Not the actual gyroscope
but .heir cases, quivering with the I'M
imaginable velocity of the great
wheels within, turning and fitting &C
curately to each shifting weight as
the men on board moved here and
there. Over them were the glass oil
cu 81 with the opal green engine oil
flushing through them to feed the bear
|ings. The fabrication is vital part
OF the machine; let that fail, and the
axles, grinding and red hot, would eat
through the white metal of the bear
ing as knife goes through butter
It is a thing that has been fOreseen
by the inventor; to the lubricating ap-
paratus is affixed danger signal that
would instantly warn the engineer.
"But," says Brennan, IF one broke
down the other gyroscope would hold
her uphill you could run her to
siding, anyway"
"But supposing the electric appar-
atus failed?" suggests reporter, with
visions of headlines perhaps. Sup
posing the motor driving the gyro-
scopes broke down; what them"
They'd run for couple of days
with the momentum they've got" an
swers the inventor. and for two or
three hours that 'ud keep her upright
by itself"
On the short track at Dillingham;
there are no gradients to show what
the car can do in the way of climbing,
but here again the inventor is posi-.
tive. She will run up slope as steep
as one in six, he says. There is no
reason to doubt him; the flve-foot mod
ell which he used to exhibit could
climb much sleeper inclines, run along
rope stretched six feet above the
ground, or remain at rest upon it
while the rope was swinging to and
fro. It would do all these things while
carrying man, and, for my part,
am willing to take Brennan's word.
He, Louise Brennan, was by no
means the least interesting feature
of the demonstration. He has none
of the look of visionary, this man
who has gone to war with time and
space; neither had George Stephen
son. He is short and thick set with
a full face and heavy mustache
hiding his mouth and heavy eyebrows.
He is troubled a little with asthma,
which makes him somewhat staccato
and breathless in speech. and perhaps
also accentuates the peculiar plain
tive quality of his Irish voice. There
is nothing in his appearance to indl-
cate whether he is IS or SIS. AS mat
ter of fact, he is two years over the
latter age, but a man ripe in life, with
that persistence and belief in his
work which is to engineers what pas
sion is to the poet. The technicalities
Of steel and iron come easily off his
tongue; they are in native speech, in
which he expresses himself most in
timately. All his life he has been con-
cerned with machines. He is the in
ventor of the Brennan Siderable tor
pedo, whose adoption by the admiralty
made him rich and rendered possible
the long years of study and expert
nlent which went to the making of the
monorail car. He has a touch of the
rich mans complacency: it does not
go i'll with his kindly good humor and
his single-hearted pride in his life
work.
1t is characteristic, l think, of his
honesty of purpose and of his genius
which is his driving force that hitherto
he has concerned himself with scien-
tific invention somewhat to the ex-
clusion of the commercial aspect of
his contrivance. Railroad men from
all over the world have seen his mod
ell; but he has not been ardent in
the hunt for customers. Perhaps that |
will not be necessary; the monorail |
should be it's own salesman; but in |
the meantime it is not amiss that a |
great inventor should stand ,aloof |
from commerce.
There are times when he talks of
the future as he hopes it will be, as |
he means it to be, when "transporta-
ton is civilization" Men are to travel |
then on single rail on great cars like
public halls, 200 feet long, 80 to 40
feet wide, whirling across continents |
at 200 miles an hour, from New York |
to San Francisco between dawn and |
dawn. They will not jolt over points |
and the cars will not strain to mount |
the tracks at curves; in each one the
weariless gyroscope will govern an
unchanging equilibrium. Tramway
lines will no longer be perplexity
to paving authorities and anathema to