Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1889 — THIS IS A GREAT SCHEME. [ARTICLE]

THIS IS A GREAT SCHEME.

Pneumatic Tube Time to be Made by Electrical Transportation. A new scheme of transportation is to be introduced between New York and Boston, whereby, it is said, large packages of mail and even cars containing passengers can be whisked from one place to another a distance of 230 miles in less than an hour. This would be equal to a .• peed of four milea per rqinute. An experiment with the new machine was held in Boston in the prerence of many scientists, including Professor A. £. Dolbear, bf Tuft’s College, who announced that he was thoroughly satisfied of the success of the system. The inventor, John G. Williams, is a resident of New York. This machine rriiisistß ut a magnetic’ car, hanging from a single rail, where it follows a streak of electricity. With one-horse power it is said that one ton can be thus transferred a distance of 1.440 miles a day at a cost of 30 cents. This, in mail matter, would represent some 2,880,000 letters, and by this system packages of mail could be sent every five minutes, if necessary, thus preventing large accumulations. The single track is to be carried on tripods some distance above the ground, and the car will pass through coils of insulated wire at intervals. In the experiments, Thursday, the carriage exhibited was mounted on a wooden tracks on posts about three feet high, with an ascent of six inches in fifty feet, and it ran on one wheel at each end. The scientific principle involved is said to be that by which a hollow coil of insulated wire will draw a magnet into itself and into the aerial railway; the car, passing through such a coil, cuts off the current, which goes on to the one ahead.