ECONOMICAL MODE OF PROPELLING CARS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 777, 16 February 1871, Page 3

ECONOMICAL MODE OF PROPELLING CARS.

After a long series of experiments, with a view to ascertain the best and must economic mode of propelling street cars, Mr B. Terfioth of New Orleans, discovered, says the " Scientific Review," that india-rubber was capable of stretching ten feet for every one of its ordinary length, and that the retractile power is enormous. He made a system of turnings, windings, or twists of this rubber power, which would enable him to place it under any car without altering its present build, and which would give him a power capable of propelling that car through the streets at a rate always at the command of the man in charge, and capable of lasting the wear and tear of constant use for years. His machinery was very simple ; the rubber was wound upon a drum, and, the drum once let loose, the car commenced to move at a speed more than could be desired were it not that it is under perfect command from a simple system of cogs, working under the leverage power in the hands of the conductor. For street cars two bands of the rubber, two and a-half inches in diameter, and fifty-six feet in length each, will bo used. Each piece will be attached to a separate drum, and, as the stretch of the rubber will be ten feet for one, 560 will be the run oft' the drum before it becomes necessary to use its fellow drum. In running off this 560 feet, a distance of 14,175 feet, over two miles, will be traversed by the cars ; the other drum is then called into requisition, and while it is propelling the car the exhausted drum is wound up by the same leverage which the conductor uses to stop and control the car. The only trouble the conductor has is to to throw the lever off the drum in motion —a simple operation, which can be reversed in a minute if it becomes necessary to stop the cars. The first cost of the new propeller is said to be small; and it is considered that the rubber will certainly last as long as the car will run, and the machinery it moves is not calculated to wear out fast, as there can be very little friction on cog wheels. The heavy wear and tear must necessarily, as at present, be upon the journals of the axles. The fact that the rubber will last is amply illustrated by the wonderful enduring powers of the present rubber springs used forbears. The cars may wear out, but the rubber springs are taken out of old ones and put into the new.