Year: 1865




Underground London Is growing at a rate
which almost keeps pace with the L. ndon above
ground. Railways and the main drainage, gas,
water and electricity have buIrowed beneath the
crowded surface and have formed important
highways for themselves, and now the pneumatic
system comes forward to claim its share OF the
subterranean territory. The mails and small
parcels will in a short time traverse the metropo.
lis in every direction by means OF the Pneumatic
De,patch Company, and close in its wake we have
the proposal to apply the system 10 the convey
ance of passengers. short time since brick
tunnel or tube was built on the grounds Of the
Chrystal Palace, and through this passengers
were conveyed in luxurious we'll lighted car.
risge up an incline greater than that OF .Holburn
Hill, aud under circumstances singularly free
from all the annoyances of underground railway
travelling. The object of this experimental
line was to test in the fullest and most search
ing manner the practical value Of the invention,
and its adoption TO more extended employment.


IL is now proposed TO bring the system into
work upon an extensive scale il being found par.
ticularly we'll suited to the requirements Of short
or ominous traffic. Several lines OF route have
been Professionally decided upon, but that which
is to be carried out in the first instance Is short
line to connect the Waterloo Station of the Lon
don and Southwestern Rail ay with Whitehall,
and which will pass under the Thames between
those points The Pneumatic Railway at White.
hall will not, strictly speaking be tunnel IL will
in its construction be rather bridge, only that II
will DO under instead of over the water. II will
be a yeritable Britannia tube sunk in the water
and resting upon piers Just as the great work OF
Stephens0n's spans the Mena Straits.


There is nothing new, of course, in the applica'
ton Of the mechanical action Of air to locomo-
ton. The atmospheric system which In the cary
days of the railways was adopted at Croydon en-
the South Devon Railway, at Dalkey and other
places was founded upon well-established laws
nf
OF practical difficulties in the way Of carrying 1t
out second step in tile development Of the
atmospheric system Is that which has been car.
red out by the Pneumatic De,patch Company,
aud by which the mali bags are daily despatch.
ed from the northwest district post Office to the
Euston Station. in tie case of the Pneumatic
Railway, the carriages themselves, and not the
SIN all piston, travel through the tube.


The carriages will be like IN elongated omni-
bus, having at one end framework Of the same
| form and nearly the same dimensions as the Sec
tiona area of the tunnel. The carriage, with its


closely fitting collar forms in fact, piston. The
power which pIOpels the piston carriage proceeds
from a rotary machine, or "eiector," concave In
surface and twenty-five feet in diameter. This
Is made TO Ieyolve by a steam engine at such ve-
locity as may be required the pressure OF air in'
creasing according 10 the greater or less velocity
When at full speed stiff gale of wind is blown.
small amount of force is sufficient to set the
disc in motion, and, when once moving It rapidly
accumulaies power, so much so that at the expe'
rimental tube in the grounds of the Crystal Pa.
lace its own unaided revolutions were sufficient
to bring the carriage through large portion of
the tunnel. The power thus Obtained is applied
in a very simple manner. The trains from the
Surrey side VIII be blown through the tunnel.
The return voyage will be made by the exhaust
ing process, lust as one would draw water through
straw.


AT signal given by electric telegraph valve
will be opened the doors of the iron tube thrown
back and the ar.sucking discs set in full swing.
Instantly the carriage, which is at the mouth Of
the tunnel at the lower end feels the effect OF the
air rushing into this suction vault, the external
atmosphere acts upon the carriage from behind


with its ordinary pressure OF some fourteen pounds
to the nch and being relieved OF portion OF the
pressure In 'front.' the carriage will be forced for
ward on its return journey. The iron doors at the
upper station open the pressure increases, and
| the advancing carriage emerges into daylight.
There is this important point OF difference between
the pea shooter of our school.days and the pneu.
matte tube that in the former the pea or pellet Is
| projected violently from the mouth OF the tube,
| while i'm the latter the carriages glide gently
along, gradually slackening till the destroyed
equilibrium of the atmosphere is restored
Among the advantages of this mode OF travel
ing it may be mentioned that there is no sunocat-
ing smell of the sulphur and smoke from the loco.
mOtve-no escape of steam, no stagnant, polluted
and poisonous air TO breathe-such as that OF the
| ordinary tunnel. Every train which passes
through must carry with 1t Its own supply OF
fresh air, and must drive out before 1t any foul
air Another of the advantages OF this system
ia that collisions and ;suaties arising from them
are impossible No two trains can by any con-
eeivsbe possibility be in the tube or tunnel at the
same time.