The Romance of Modern Invention: Containing Interesting Descriptions in Non-technical Language of Wireless Telegraphy, Liquid Air, Modern Artillery, Submarines, Dirigible Torpedoes, Solar Motors, Airships, &c. &c.Williams, Archibald
Science
The Romance of Modern Invention: Containing Interesting Descriptions in Non-technical Language of Wireless Telegraphy, Liquid Air, Modern Artillery, Submarines, Dirigible Torpedoes, Solar Motors, Airships, &c. &c.
Williams, Archibald
Inventions
The Westinghouse air-brake has a retarding force of three miles a
second. It would therefore arrest a train travelling at 110 miles per
hour in 37 seconds, or 995 yards. Mr. Behr proposes to reinforce the
Westinghouse with an electric brake, composed of magnets 18 inches
long, exerting on the guide rails by means of current generated by the
reversed motors an attractive force of 200 lbs. per square inch. One
great advantage of this brake is that its efficiency is greatest when
the speed of the train is highest and when it is most needed. The
united brakes are expected to stop the car in half the distance of the
Westinghouse alone; but they would not both be applied except in
emergencies. Under ordinary conditions the slowing of a car would take
place only at the termini, where the line ascends gradients into the
stations. There would, however, be small chance of collisions, the
railway being securely fenced off throughout its entire length, and
free from level crossings, drawbridges and points. Furthermore, each
train would be its own signalman. Suppose the total 34-1/2 miles
divided into “block” lengths of 7 miles. On leaving a terminus the
train sets a danger signal behind it; at 7 miles it sets another, and
at 14 miles releases the first signal. So that the driver of a car
would have at least 7 miles to slow down in after seeing the signals
against him. In case of fog he would consult a miniature signal in his
cabin working electrically in unison with the large semaphores.
The Manchester-Liverpool rail will be reserved for express traffic
only. Mr. Behr does not believe in mixing speeds, and considers it one
of the advantages of his system that slow cars and waggons of the
ordinary two-rail type cannot be run on the monorail; because if they
could managers might be tempted to place them there.
A train will consist of a single vehicle for forty, fifty, or seventy
passengers, as the occasion requires. It is calculated that an average
of twelve passengers at one penny per mile would pay all the expenses
of running a car.
Mr. Behr maintains that monorails can be constructed far more cheaply
than the two-rail, because they permit sharper curves, and thereby
save a lot of cutting and embankment; and also because the monorail
itself, when trestles and rail are specially strengthened, can serve
as its own bridge across roads, valleys and rivers.
Though the single-rail has come to the front of late, it must not be
supposed that the two-rail track is for ever doomed to moderate speeds
only. German engineers have built an electric two-rail military line
between Berlin and Zossen, seventeen miles long, over which cars have
been run at a hundred miles an hour. The line has very gradual curves,
and in this respect is inferior to the more sinuous monorail. Its
chief virtue is the method of applying motive power--a method common
to both systems.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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