East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1913-01-25
4 THOUSAND MILES AN HOUR.
(Hearst's.)

>.
Newspaper readers were startled
recently by the announcement that a
new type OF conveyance had been in
vented-a new car. being able to de-
velop a speed of 1000 miles an hour.
II seems almost an anti-climax To
say that the announcement further
declared a speed OF 800 miles an
hour could be easily attained"
1t must be added by way of inter
probation that the vehicle for which
such a startling future is predicted
is still only in the experimental stage.
To speak quite accurately. it exists
only in the form OF laboratory models.
These models. however. give really a
remarkable performance, and dem
cnstrate the principals upon which
the commercial car is expected TO
work.
The inventor of the new machine
is Emile Bachelet, a Franco-Ameri-
can electrical engineer, now living in
New York
The car itself is a metal cylinder
with conical ends to overcome air re-
sistance (in other models, a skeleton
/ OF steeD, the base of the bar being
/ plate of aluminium. The car has
/ neither wheels nor internal mechan-
/ ism, yet il is capable of travelling
| along the miniature track at a high
rate of speed. While in progress it
does not rest on the track itself, but
/ moves through the air, seemingly un-
/ supported.
The explanation of the mystery is
! that the car passes over a series of
! electromagnetic which are energized
/ coincidentally with the passage of the
| car by electricity conveyed from guide
/ rails to the magnets by brushes ad-
/ justed to the side OF the car. These
! brushes supply the only contact of
| any part of the car with the rails
when the apparatus is in motion. The
| effect of the electro magnets Is to
repel the aluminium plate by inducing
what are called eddy currents, and
the entire car is thus lifted and sup
ported on an invisible cushion of eth
er. It is held in the air as firmly as
If it were supported by springs OF
steel, yet one may pass ones hand
beneath the bottom OF the car with
out experiencing any sensation what
ever.
Mr.. Bachelets model car, support
ed thus in the air by the electro
magnets, is drawn forward by the
attractive influence on the steel body
OF the car of other magnets which
are coiled in the form of so-called
solenoids, at intervals along the
track. AS the weight of the car rests
entirely on the electro magnetic eth /
cushion, there is no resistance to H.
progress except that offered by the
air itself, and the possibilities of its
speed are to be gauged practically
with reference to this obstruction
only. The current in each successive
solenoid is of course shut off auto
matically Just as the car reaches the
neutral point within the cylinder.
That the model of this unique type
of wheeless vehicle works perfectly
Mr.. Bachelet has demonstrated to
many competent witnesses. Whether
the principle can be applied econom-
ically on a commercial scale remains
. to be shown. The objection has been
made that 1t would require. even ac-
cording to Mr.. Bachelet's own calcu-
lations. as much power to raise a
passenger coach off the tracks as II
would to propel loaded car of or
dinary weight at high rate of speed
But it is admitted that this might not
be an indispensable objection, provid-
ed the enormous speed predicted by
the inventor can be attained in prac-
tice.
The only obvious barrier is all
} pressure, which becomes a factor OF
vast Significance when high speeds
are in question. But precisely what
are the limits of speed beyond which
air pressure becomes practically an
imprenetrable wall no one as yet
knows