| Show THE ghe THE PNEUMATIC ballway the pneumatic railway fai for boxi ing goods has been been extended to th the e transportation of passengers in the grounds of the sydenham crystal p alace aiace london eLondon A brlek bricks tunnel about ten feet high by nine feet wide and capable of admitting the largest carriages used on the great greab western railway has been laid with a single line of rails fitted with opening and closing valves at each extremity tre mity and supplied with all other apparatus for passenger trains on this principle by a strong draught of air behind the train when it travels in one direction and pumping away the air in front when it travels the other way the motive power is supplied by this contrivance at th the e departure e station a large fan wheel with an iron disc concave in surface and twenty two feet in diameter is made to revolve by the aid of a small smail small stationary engine at such speed as may be required the pressure of the air increasing of course according to the rapidity of the tb e revolutions and thus generating the force necessary to send the heavy carriage up a steeper incline than is to be found upon any existing railway the disc gyrates in ail an iron case resembling sem bling that of a huge paddle wheel and from its broad periphery the particles of air stream offin off in broad currents when driving 1 the air into the upper end of the til tunnel inel to propel the down train fresh quantities rush to the surface of the disc to supply the partial vacuum thus created and on the other hand when the disc is exhausted the I 1 air inah e tenne A IM P 1 t pe I 1 of 0 f drawing beeg bleg back ta th R e up ral rai the amr arr ag rushes out in a p ahu ri ri a p escape tad tg d e when the down couri journey aey is to be pe per r formed forme d the brakes are taken off t the tho 0 I 1 wheels and the carriage moves by its own momentum into the mouth of the tube passing in its course over a deep t air well in the floor covered with an iron grat grating ing up this opening a gust of wind is sent by me the dis aal I 1 when a valve formed by a pair of iron doors hung like loek lock gates immediately closes firmly over the entrance of the munel ionel tl confining the increasing atmo atmospheric sherle sherie pressure between the valve and the rear tear odthe of the carriage the force being akus b rought to bear upon the en end d of the train the latter shut up within the t tube be glides smoothly along towards its destination the revolving disc dise keeping up the motive power until it reaches the steep incline whence its own momentum again suffices to carry it the rest test of the distance the return journey journe on the contrary is affected by the al aid aia of the exhausting process ata at a given signal a valve is opened and the disc wheel set to work in withdrawing the air from the tube near tear N the upper end of the tube there is a large aperture or side vault which forms forms the throat through which h the air is exhaled the iron doors at te the upper term terminus lims gbill being kept shut in in a second or two the th e train posted at the lower lover terminus yielding to the exhaust ing process di in its front and urged purged by the ordinary pressure of ot the atmosphere from behind behina moves off on its upward journey journ by and rapidly ascending the incline approaches the iron ifon gates which fly fl open it and emerges at once into bayli daylight it instead ofa of atrain being 5 9 hain ham there is one very ion lon long iong 41 roomy and comfortable carri carrl carriage age resen resembling ibling an elongated bm omnibus h bus and capable of accommodating some thirty or thirty five passengers passengers ers enter enfer this carriage car caf riago at each end and ang the entrances are closed with sliding glass doors fixed behind the carriage there is a framework of the same form and nearly the same dimensions as the sectional area of the tunnel turl nel nei and attached to the outer edge of the frame is a fringe of bristles forming a thick brush brugh As the carriage moves along through the tunney the brush comes comee 1 mio close contact with the arched brick work worl so as to prevent the escape of the air with this elastic collar round it the carriage forms a close fitting piston against which the propulsive force is directed although the tho curve in the tunnel is unusually sharp being of eight chains radius and the gradients are as high as one I 1 in fifteen those of holborn pill gill being only one in eighteen it is ig surprising that the motion is much steadier and tand pleasanter plea santer than in ordinary railway traveling the journey of six hundred yards is performed either way in about fifty seconds with an atmospheric pressure of only two ounces and a half to the square inch but a higher rate of speed if desirable can be easily obtained ex |
