A HAZARDOUS EXPERIMENT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3039, 23 March 1881, Page 4

A HAZARDOUS EXPERIMENT.

A nii.n-uhiv tnou_li very American experiment (?"ys ti'o VaR Mall Uiizott3) lias just been fried at Philadelphia, reminding us soniert'hrit of .Tales Verne's famous expedient of tiring hi:-: exploring party to tho moon by mciius of a monster projectile. So many accidents luve happened through tho faulty construction of elevatorb from the breakage of rope* and other mischances, that an inventor named Ellithorpc has introduced a safety air cushion to break the fall should an accident occur, the cushion consisting of tho elevator shaft being made airtight for a space of 20ft from the bottom. To test the invention it wa3 arranged that tho clivalor of a certain dry goods store should be made to fall from the fourth to the first floor, a height of about. 7oft. So satisfied was Mr lllithorpe, or rather his son that the cushion would do its work properly thatjie consented to be shut up in the er.ge during the fall, and in this experiment the inevitable reporter was bod to share. A box half filled with nails, while sercral tumblers of •water, brimful, were also carefully deposited. The two men then entered the chamber, the door of which was then closed, completing the air-tightness at the bottom of the shaft, and it was then drawn np to the fourth fl oor. At a given signal the rope was cut, —hole thing fell to the bottom like a *"■-,, ' - • but before the lookers on and the ~ • _;,_ t geek f w} fc flash oi lightning, M. and the could make up their rain-., they dreaded, the door was opeu-.. "' occupants stepped briskly out, having nt-... felt the shock in the least. The eggs wove not cracked, neither was a drop of water spilt. So successful was the experiment that •we may expect this new kind of " tobogging" to become the latest form of sensational amusement,