A WILD SCHEME.

Kumara Times, Issue 1394, 21 March 1881, Page 2

A WILD SCHEME.

American ingenuity (observes the London Daily Telegraph) has put forth an amazing project for connecting Great Britain with the United States by a transatlantic railway. Rejecting the notion of driving a tunnel under the ocean as too tedious and expensive* the devisers of this scheme propose to sink upon the Atlantic bed an iron tube some 3000 miles long and 26ft. in diameter, through which two trains might travel simultaneously with per 1 feet convenience and safety. As, however, this tube would be subject to exterior water pressure equal to that of about 120 atmospheres, its casing will have to be at least Bin. thidk. The tube is to consist of sections, each 160 ft. in length, and is to be laid down in the following manner :—Five sedtions are to be welded together upon firmly anchored pontoons, both ends of the length thus prepared for sinking being hermetically closed, but in such sort that they can be opened from within. Then the entire compartment, 800 ft. long, is to be lowered into the sea by steel chains, so that it shall reach the bottom in immediate proximity to the section it is intended to join. The junction will, of course, be effected by submarine workmen; and these processes will be carried on with undeviating regularity, starting from the American coast, until the shores of Ireland shall be attained by the mighty tube. Meanwhile the laying of rails telegraph wires, lighting and ventilation apparatus, and so forth, will go on inside the tube as it grows longer and larger. Mr Edison believes that be can perfect an electric locomotive to draw the trains along through the tube in fifty hours from shore to shore, and the cost of the whole line, rolling stock included, is not to exceed 160 millions sterling.