Show f Trave Travelling II ing Mile Miles an Hour bv by Counteracting C Gravitation RA l G at miles an n floutI flout ui Jl I seems a wild dream but it Is 13 scientifically feasible and Dr Do Boris s Weinberg professor of physics in the Technological Institute Siberia Siberia Si Si- beria gave an outline at the last meeting meet meet- ing of oC the American Association for forthe forthe forthe the Advancement of Science of the thin principles on which it could be e done dona Now at the request of the editor of the tho Popular Science ence ene n e Monthly ho he has written a ad d detailed tailed description of the apparatus car of 0 tile the vacuum elect System conical s 4 S a hundred ends hermetically U cylinder three feet Jeet in diameter with tary passenger There sealed eale You a lie prone v it body by bV electro electro- electromagnets really real a free i. i 8 no track The car IS s magnets which are placed thirty feet apart which chich is published in that magazine What prevents prevent such a speed und under r ordinary circumstances is the combination combination combination combi combi- nation ot ox the resistance of the air all with wita tho the pull of gravitation Prof Weinberg Wein- Wein berg sought in his experiments to do away with both of these by making his cars move in a vacuum where 01 ot course there is no air to resist motion motion motion mo mo- tion and by counteracting gravitation the pull of electric In these thes laboratory experiments he be writes I used a copper tube ten inches in diameter curved so 50 that it returned into itself The straight portion portion portion por por- tion was wrapped with a long coil of insulated wire divided into sections io 10 0 constitute as many solenoids solenoids solenoids-elec- elec electromagnets tro-magnets tro without iron cores By Dy manipulating a system of switches 1 I could send the current through these thes solenoids in rapid succession The car ear was an iron cylinder running on wheels It was magnetically sucked into the Influence of the first solenoid then into the 11 next ext and in this wa way successively success passed from one coil tu to S the next When the car had attained a velocity ve ye- of four miles an ho hour r in my y experiments and was passing out ou yf t the influence of the last solenoid the curren current t began to flow through the first All An the solenoids were placed on top of or the copper tube and served of the to raise the car from the bottom tube When this current was too weak the car would jump just slightly slight slight- ly from the bottom of the tube when it was too powerful the car would of the tube actually scrape the top and run touching not the bottom but the ceiling of the tube and when the current was i of just the proper strength the car rose from the ground without touching the top wall and sped aped on to another magnet electro which in the tho same way kept it thus suspended in space Every magnet electro was energized energized energized ener ener- only during the time that the front of the car began to approach it and until the rear of the car had bad Tile The direction oj of motion of 0 a acar high car cannot be Tie easily changed But like iia any railway the vacuum tube must its Us curves Electromagnets are placed at atthe atthe atthe the proper site side of the tube and ald spaced to the degree of curvature passed it IL In this way the thc electromagnet electro mag net merely lifted the car but did not change its velocity at all The tube was concealed with an air pump so o that the air ir could be practically ex- ex hausted In applying this system on a large scale there would be no railroad Lot there would be no rails for the cars cars to torun torun torun run on Each passenger would have a acar acar acar torpedo torpedo tor tor- car to himself each car being a shaped cylinder weighing OO pounds three feet in diameter in which the passenger would lie prone The sustaining magnets would be spaced thirty m 3 feet apart At curves the magnets magnet would have to be much II closer together where the tube is convex and further apart where it m imi it is concave for for it is a difficult matter to change I Ithe the direction of an object moving at such speed especially when it must not be permitted to bump the sides of the tube in which it is run run- ning fling The stations would have to be two miles mUes long according to Prof Wein- Wein berg In them the cars would be arranged arranged arranged ar ar- ar- ar ranged side by side in air locks in such a way that they could be started off into the tube one after another like the cartridges into a a. repeating rifle As ea each h car is pushed into the tube it automatically t turns on the current of the first solenoid and is Instantly Instantly instantly In in- sucked into the vacuum tub tube Twelve cars a minute might thus bo bi J If the line could be perfectly straight an even higher speed than I I miles an hour might be attained but ut Prof Weinberg calculates that this this is the maximum in a tube with curves having a radius of 2000 feet Even fiven this would bring Chicago as narI near nar to New York as Philadelphia is to-da to day to-day I and would make San Francisco a short days day's journey |