THE GYROSCOPE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 209, 25 August 1908, Page 4

THE GYROSCOPE.

LUl'lS AiUXO-IUiL C'Ali. (By Cleveland AioU'ett, in the Windsor .Magazine.) On tlu- Bth of Aky, IUO7, Air. Louis lirennan exhibited at a mooting of fcht> Koyal Modify in London a piece of : mechanism which stirred the jiuagiiialion of every beholder, and, reported next; mommy by Urn newspapers, arou-5-i'd Llio amazed interest of the world. I'lii* invention consists of a car that iiins oil a singh- rail, sUmling erect like a bicycle when in motion, bill, nniike the bicycle, remaining equally stable when at rest. Ji' a weight is placed on one edge of the ear. that side, rises higher instead of being lowered, if you push against the wide with your liaml, the mysterious creature—you feel that lit imu-t be endowed with life -is actu-

ally felt to push back, as if resenting the all'rout. If the track on which it runs—consisting of an ordinary gas-pipe or a cable of wire—is curved, even very sharply, (he car follows the curve .without dilliculty, and, in apparent deliaiice of ordinary laws of motion, actually leans inward, as a bicycle-rider leans under the same circumstances, instead of careening outward, as one might expect. It is a curious mechanism, this new car with its four wheels set in line, bicycle fashion, running steadily along, but strangest of all it seems when it stands poi.-ed and perfectly still on its

tight-rope. As stably poised it stands there as if it had two rails beneath it instead of a single wire; and there is nothing about it to suggest an explanation of the miracle, except that there comes from within the car the immmu' of whirling wheels. iThe mysterious wheels in .i|ucsi.i(iii would be found, if we could look within tlie structure of the ear, lo be two .11

number, arranged quite close together on cither side of tlie centre of the car. They are two small lly-whccls in closed cases, revolving in opposite directions, ra*h propelled by an electric motor. These are the wonder-workers. They constitute the two-lubed bruin—or, if you prefer, the double-chambered hcir.'t —of the strange organism. All the world has learned to call them gyroscopes. The vehicle that they balance 'may conveniently be termed a gyrocar, a name that lias the sanction of the inventor himself—Louis ilrennan, already a man of international reputation as an inventor. THE LIFJiUIXG DREAM OI? AN INVENTOR.

Mr. Brennan is 4111 Irishman, burn in Custlebar fifty-five years ago, although you would never believe it, for an active outdoor life has kept him young and strong. As a child lie luid what lie has never lost, the power of wonder, lie wondered at the valines* and mystery of the Australian bush when, at the age of fourteen, he journeyed through it. Ho fancied this vast, silent region crowded with cities and busy with the activities of man; and he tried Id conjecture by what means a great future population would be moved about over it easily and swiftly. As he "row ■older Hrcnnan puzzled more and more over transportation questions. How, tie asked himself, when the wliole world should be crowded with "people, would they be able to got from place to place? This question kept recurring to him through his boyhood and young manhood. and at last became the problem of his life. For his own peace of mind he had to answer it. In the last few months }Jr. Brennan has shown his model gyro-cur on sevoraJ occasions, besides the exhibition before the lloyal ■Society on the evening of May Bth, 1007; and demonstrations on a large scale have been made at the incountry place near Chatham, where lie has laid single-rail tracks over his spacious grounds, wilh grades, curves, bridges, in . fact, a diminutive reproduction of ordinary railroad conditions and >ome extraordinary ones. A DEMON'S! UATIOX OX THE iXVENTOIttS LAWN.

And •now for the test. A small company of u.s are waiting 011 the iawn of Mr. Brennan's home—railroad men from South Africa, financial men from London, and others.. Wo lmve had the invention explained to us in a gencril way, and at last we are to see it. "Let her go!" says the inventor to one of his assistants, and straightway from beyond the trees a strange little object shoots out and couies gliding towards us. it makes no noise, it shows neither smoke nor steam; it does not bump, it does not sway; it- simply comes along on its little track over the. grass, very .smoothly, and Hashing in the sun. it is the gyro-car 011 its mono-rail! As she comes closer, we hear the low hum of her gyroscopes (they will be quite noiseless ill the larger model), and are struck by the car's remarkable width in proportion to her length. She suggests a trim little ferry boat, and is utterly unlike any known form of railway car. Xow the track curves sharply to the right; she takes the turn with the greatest ejise, and leans slightly

towards the curve. Now the track curves again, ami she glides behind tlm bushes. Coming out on the other side she enlci's bravely on the approach to

a mono-rail suspension bridge, a rope, stretched over the valley that falls away between two small hills—seventyoild feo.t of light-rope-walking J'or the little cur, Straight across sin? rims from side to side—no wavering, no lipping—ami then straight back again as Ihe assistant reverses her; thou out to l! 1 • middle? of the rope, where they stop her. :ind there she stands quite still and Irue. while the gyroscopes hold her. This i.-i something never yet seen in the world—a mass of dead matter, weighing as much as a man, balancing itself unaided on a wire! WEIRD FEAT.S Oh 1 BALANCING.

Now Mr. Brennan catches hold of the rope and sways it back and forth with the car 011 it. And at each change of angle she rights herself easily, automatically. The inventor draws back his arms and strikes the car a hard blow 011 its polished side with his open palm. And the car holds quite steady:' she neither sways nor trembles.

" Tha.t represents the greatest force of the. wind," he tells us. "There is no hurricane strong enough to blow one of my trains oil' a track like that."

Then lie lifts one of the weights oil' the car and bids us note what happens. "These weights are all measured to a scale, and this one—really about fourteen pounds—represents three tons on a full-sized car; 1 mean it lias the same efi'ect on this small car that throe tons would have on a large one. Now look!" As he spoke he dropped the weight on the very edge of the little model, and the car rose slightly on that side under the sudden load. '" That.'' he continued. was exactly as if forty or fifty .passengers in n large mono-rail car had jumped at the same moment from the middle of the car to the extreme edsje of it. As you

saw. the car simply rose to meet the shock, .which is what she would always do—speaking, of course, within the limits of safe loading and safe construction."

To impress us further with the steadiness and safety of the little car. Mr. Brennan ran it back to solid ground flnd. seating his little daughter in it, he sent her forth upon the rope, ran her across and hack, and finally brought her to rest in the middle, with a drop "l six or seven feel beneath her. There she sat as calmly and steadily as if it were the most natural thing in the world for young ladies to take the garden air balanced on wire ropes. After this the assistants switched the car on to a length of gas-pipe lying loose upon, the ground, so crooked and full of kinks and sharp bends that it seemed absurd to expect wheels to run over it. But run over it they did, and rapidly, too, picking their way from right to left, up and down, following the crookedeat part of the pipe with almost human intelligence, and never making a slip. "That represents the worst possible railroad track," laughed Mr. Brennan. ''and you see how the car follows it." Next the assistants produced a heavy frame ol timbers across which a wire rope had been stretched, so that, when the frume w;is hold upright, the rope was parnlM to the ground and three or four leet above it. On this rope the car was placed and left to balance its<df at rest. Then the assistants, one at either end, moved the frame back and forth, so that the ear way first far to one side of the perpendicular and. then lar to the other side—in other wonK so that it had to perform a delicate fea* ol balancing and self-adjustment or else crash to the ground. And the car did what wa-*; expected of it, thanks to the whirling balance-wheels, without tli<> slightest difficulty. After the le>t Mr. Brennan answered the different questions put to him touch' ing his invention, and -puke of its future. TIIIC SIZK AND .RKVOUTIOXS- OF Till'] BALAXOE-WIIKIILS. '"llnw last do your gyroseope-whcel.s (urn?'' inquired one ge.itk'man. "In the present small car about seven thousand times a minute,'' he replied, "bill in the full-sized car of commerce I calculate that throe thousand revolutions a. minute 'will ensure absolute steadiness. You understand that the two gyroscopes are geared together with teeth, so that they mint work in phase —that is, at the same rate of preeessional motion." "What will be the dimensions of a full-sized car?" I asked,

''lts length will be about two hundred feet, and its breadth about twenty feet," answered the inventor, while our looks of wonder grew. "And. its weight!" "Perhaps a hundred tons.". "Without a load?" "Yes." "I suppose there will be several such cars ill a train? - ' "i.'es, live or six,"

"And you think you cull balance live or six curs weighing a hundred tons each w itliout passengers or freight, 011 a single rail?' put in a 'South African ollicial.

"1 know 1 can. Vou have seen what the model does.. Well, the. full-sized cars will ilo the same, only lietter. 1 am now building, with Government aid, a trial car, folly-live feet by twelve, that will carry two hundred passengers with absolute ease and steadiness." "What will be the size of the gyroscope wheels in your full-sized cars?" questioned another gentleman. "About four and one-half feci in dinmeter."

"And their weight?" "They will weight about two tons each, or four per cent, of the car's total mass, which is allowing a wide margin for safety. 1 think one 01' two per cent, will ultimately prove sullicient. And (his weight of the gyroscope wheels will be more than saved by lightness of construction made possible by lessened strain 011 the cars." SUPPOSE THE WHEELS SHOULD STOP?

Mr. Brennan then dwelt 011 the enormous advantages of a single-rail system in the matter of lessened friction and side thrusts, and the consequent superiority in speed and smooth runningall .of which were readily granted by the railway experts, who also agreed that a train would run securely 011 a single rail so long as the gyroscope-wheels kept turning. But suppose something should happen to these? Suppose one of them stopped, or both of them stopped? Then what would become of a lmudred-tou car poised on a single rail and suddenly deprived of its balancing power ?

''As you may well suppose," replied Jlr. Brennan, "that is a matter that f have considered carefully. Suppose the electric power that drives these wheels wi re suddenly cut oil'. Do you know what would happen? Nothing! Because the wheels revolve in a vacuum, and 011 siii li perfectly poised bearings, with such ideal lubrication, that—even with the driving power cut oil - —they would continue to turn., by their own momentum, for two or three days, and for two or three hours they would turn with sullicient energy to hold the car safely balanced. That is, tliey would turn long enough of themselves to' .provide for any reasonable emergency."

"Then each car in a train would be balanced by its awn balance-wheels?" asked someone. "Of course."

"Suppose something went wrong with the lubricating device?" asked 11.11 engineer.

"1 have provided an autctnalic signal lo warn the engineer of sneli danger, at. notice of wliicli lie would run the train into a safe siding. There would be many of siieli sidings, with, dwarf walls to support the ears, or the sides of the cars might slightly overlap the walls." '

"Timl is sill very well," persisted the South African, ''but suppose one of the gvroseopp-whecis did absolutely slop—broke h;ose from its bearings, or anything you like; suppose it stopped instantly, before tlie train could possibly re;wh a siding. Then what? • "111 loss the ear chanced to lie on a curve at that precise, moment, the other wheel would hold it steady." ''Hut suppose Uuscrtv was on a curve? Or suppose both wheels stopped suddenly?'' Mr. Hicnnan smiled. "Then there would certainly be 'an accident, just as tliero is when a boiler bursts, or an elevator falls, or an automobile get* in a smash-up. T do not claim that my mono-rail does away with danger. 1 only claim that through lessened friction and lessened strain, which means lessened chance of accident and derailment, my system involves less danger than our present methods of railway tran-portatioii." Tlien followed some talk, more or less technical, about the actual construction "I' a mnno-railroad, with details as to the weight of rails, the length of ties, the best way of baying tracks along a stony mountain-side, and much about grades and pile-driving and concrete foundations. The South Africans were becoming practical; ami they were in terested to know bow theso mono-rail cars would come to rest- in vast, sparsely settled regions, where they might be used for 'pioneer work, and where there would certainly be 110 safety sidings to support litem. Mr. Hrenna'n explained that, in such eases, the cars would be provided with ndjustiible legs that could (jo let down oa either side when Uiu gvrnsennes were net in use.

"JJuw about sped?" [ asked, in tTir eourse of further ipiestions and i\m-

Jnspeed wc shall surpass all that tinworld has known; for with friction redueed to a mhif.itiiini aud side-thrusts praefieally <'liniinat(!(l, (here is no reason why our «nono-rail trains should not make one hundivd iind twenty, or even iv.'n hundred miles an hour with alwo* '.♦nte steadiness and far more safety than is possible on existing train*. 1 may add I hat ideal smooth running; will jlk». secured )>y having: a continuous line .of wheels undor eavh car, a single line. •.»f eourse, so that the whole train will rest on a. solid chain of wheels." Finally, Iho hour having advance! the company departed for London, deeply impressed witli what they had soeu and heard.