The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-07-05
wHEELLEss ELECTRIC CAR.
Device Speeds Above the Rails With
out Touching Them.

If a subway train should suddenly
rise from its track and float along at
increased speed half a foot from the
! rails, but always guided by them, the
effect would be precisely that which
Emile Bachelet seeks from the inven-
ton he has just patented. AT pub
lie demonstration of the invention in
Bachelet's little laboratory in Mount
Vernon yesterday William B. Wheel
er, manager of the Westchester Elec-
trio Railway company, became so en-
thusiastic that he asserted Bachelet'S
discovery would ultimately revolution
lie transportation.
Mr.. Bachelet, stocky man, some
what above middle height, with gray
hair and mustache, thinks 800 miles
an hour not impracticable speed for
cars propelled according to his
method of electro magnetic levitated
system the minimum of friction, much
less even than that incident to the
monorail- gyroscope combination,
dangerous rival bidder for the rich
freights of the future. Mr.. Bachelet
came to this country twenty years
ago, and has been state electrician for
the state of Washington.
This said he, with wave of his
hand toward the red and yellow model
of intricate design which almost filled
his little workshop. this is an entirely
new discovery in the field of electro
cal science that is believed to fore
cast a revolution in the high-speed
transmission of mail and express mat
ter and passengers. 1t is believed to
be the most important invention of
recent years in the application of
electromagnetic energy.
TT operates, first, by raising and
sustaining any desired amount of
weight through electromagnetic re-
pulsion; second, by causing weight so
sustained to move laterally, at WILL by
means of electro magnetic traction or
otherwise. While these two forces of
repulsion and attraction are operative,
there is no friction except that of the
atmosphere.
In his laboratory the inventor has
erected a little elevated track, breast
high and 81 feet long. There is
rail above, inverted, like a trolley,
as well as the two below which any
well regulated track possesses. These
rails are not T shaped, but paral-
lelepipeds with deep grooves in their
upper surfaces. The car resembles in
miniature the common garden variety
of box car, without trucks and
wheels. It's body is made of steel and
it's base of aluminium. 1t weighs 40
pounds.
But the most interesting features of
the apparatus are the "solinoids' and
the 'levitating coils The '-solinoids''
wound around the track like wide
horse collars. They are really big steel
spools of electrically charged wire
which act as magnets attracting the
steel car literally. The "1evitating
coils" are smaller spools of electrical
ly charged wire set on end between
and below the two lower rails. These
are the magnets which repel the
aluminium base of the car and sus-
pend the car above the track. There
are eight of them to a section" In
the model they are placed an inch or
two apart.
The "Ievitating coils" suspend the,
little model 4O-pound car half an inch
above the rails, and the ''solinoids''
pull it along, it was amply demon,
strated yesterday, as though it were
a projectile, and the rails guide it
by means of little pins or brushes"
which extend from the car at both
ends above and along either side be-
low and run along in the grooves of
the rails.
The question of speed, Mr. Bache-
let explained, depends on the number
the moment the car has passed
through one 'solinoid'' it's speed
lessons until it feels the attraction
of the next; and the closer these are
placed the more powerfully they will
impel the car. With two "solinoids'
to 81 feet of track and 200 volts of
electricity the little model car in
Bachelet's shop gained such momen-
tum two days ago, it was said, that
before it could be stopped it shot off
the end of it's track, through the front
door and out into the middle of the
street.-New York Press