A WATER RAILWAY. One Hundred and Twenty-Four Mile an Hour.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 404, 21 September 1889, Page 6

A WATER RAILWAY. One Hundred and Twenty-Four Mile an Hour.

A Press view took place recently of the so-called ' Ghemin de Fer Glis'sanf;,' or ' Slide Railway,' on' the Esplanade dcs In'valides' within the Paris Exhibition. The new inventron is a singularly original contrivance ior enabling trains to run, by means of water power, at a speed hithertoundreamt oh Arriving there without any intimation as to what a ' sliding railway ' might be, I at first (says the * Daily News'' correspondent) mistook ifc for an overgrown switch-back with the hump's smoothed away. The train consisted ot" foiu carriages, affording 100 m for a'bout100 passengers. The carriages had no ' wheels, being supported at the • corners by blocks of iron ot a size somewhat larger than' a brick, which resteu upon a double lino ot iron girdeis. in the middle ot the line at regular intervals jutted out irre gularly shaped pillars, the use of which was not yet apparent. Having taisen our seats and the signal being gi\ en, we glided along very gently ior the space ot a tew yards, when suddenly we gathered speed ; two or tlnec tugs were tell, and we weie ii\ing on at the pace of an oidinary train, but as smoothly as a boat on a river. There was a clicking noise on the rails, but this, I was assured, was due to a defect in the conbtiuction of ,the slides, and would be remedied. TJie absence of any vibration, shaking^ or * tail ' win, wonderlul. A slight ]erk theie was at regular intervals ; but then, again, I was told that it was due meiely to the shortness ot the couise and the inability to get up a pioper pace. In a hydiaulic train travelling ax, lull speed — that is to say, at the rate of 141) to 200 kilometres, or 87 or 134 miles an hour — there would be almost no con»ciousnesb of motion. The journey down the length ot the Esplanade only occupied a few seconds. History ov the Invemion. Upon the safe return of the party, Mr Filter, chairman ot the company which owns the invention, gave a tull account of it. The sliding railway was invented in 1868 by an engineer named Giraid, who was killed in the Franco German War, and it has been improved to its present state by "one ot his assistant engineers, J\J. Bairo. As has already been mentioned, the hhry r draulic carriages have no wheels, these being replaced by hollow slides litting upon a flat and wide rail, and grooved on the inner surface. When it i& desired to set the carriage in motion, water is forced into the slide or skate oi the carriage from a retervoir by compressed air, and, seeking to escape, it spreads over the under surface ot the & ide, which it raises for about a nail's thickness above the rail. The slides thus resting not on theiails, buton a film of water are iv a perfectly mobile condition ; intact, the pres&ure ot the ioietinger is sufficient to displace a cairiage thus supported. The propelling torce is supplied by the pillars •which stand at regular intervals on the line between the rail&. Running underneath every carriage <is an iron rack, about six incho? wide, iitted with paddles. Now, as the toreinost carnage passes in front of the pillar, a tap on the latter is opened automatically, and a stream of water at high presume is directed on the paddles. Thib drives the train on, and by the time the last carriage has gone past the tap (which then closes) the foremost one is in iront of the next tap, the water's action being continuous. The force developed is almost incredible. There is some splashing on the rails at the start, but this diminishes the taster the train goes*. To stop the train the saiall stream of water that feeds the slides is turned off, and, the latter coming in contact with the rails, the resulting friction stops the carriage almost instantaneously. London to Paris in Two Hours. A water train running at over 100 miles an hour could, the correspondent was informed, bo puller) up within 30 yards, could climb up gradients of lb'iu in the yard, descend them with equal satety, and mn on curves of 44 yards radius. The danger ot running bit the rails is reduced to a minimum," the "centre "of gravity of the carriages being scarcely mole* tliah a couple of feet from the rails. The cost of a metropolitan system would only be a tbjrd .of one on the old plan, while' hi the open country its cost would^ be somewhat higher than the ordinary railway : but M. Barre states the expen&e would be in France an average ot 18,000 a mile. Where no natuial water supply is available, a propelling machine every 12 miles or so would be sufficient' to keep trains going at tull speed. The consumption of coal per passenger would be one-tenth only of the übual quantity. The importance of this may be realised by considering the statement that the Paris-Lyons Company alone has an annual coal bill of two millions sterling. Nevertheless, adds the correspondent, it would be rash to predict the general introduction of the water system on railways. One objection, for instance, is its apparent unsuitability for goods traih'c. M. L'ersil, the manager of the ' Chemin& de Fer Glissant,' belie\es it will all but do away with the locomotive engine. With respect to England, he believes that the disadvantage of the present slow method of crossing the Channel will become so apparent that all opposition to I the tunnel wi# vanish. '1 am ready,' he said with enthusiasm, 'to wager any sum that when the tunnel is made and our system is given a trial people will go from London to Paris in two hours. '