. The street railway review . utter van-ity if not impiety of all propositions of the kind. Heinstances tile velocipede as the most promising of all andyet a failure. He deduces that the inexplicable vital prin-ciple bestowed by the omnipotent Goil upon his creaturescannot be surpassed by mans utmost knowledge in mechan-ical science. The first proposition toemjdoy com]>ressed air for locomo-tive as well as in stationary engines is found in a patentgranted George Medhurst in 1799. He employed windmillsfor compressing the air so as to make it from ten to twentytimes more dense than it is in i
. The street railway review . utter van-ity if not impiety of all propositions of the kind. Heinstances tile velocipede as the most promising of all andyet a failure. He deduces that the inexplicable vital prin-ciple bestowed by the omnipotent Goil upon his creaturescannot be surpassed by mans utmost knowledge in mechan-ical science. The first proposition toemjdoy com]>ressed air for locomo-tive as well as in stationary engines is found in a patentgranted George Medhurst in 1799. He employed windmillsfor compressing the air so as to make it from ten to twentytimes more dense than it is in its natural state, ami thenconducted it to a cylinder. Other similar schemes soonfollowed. atniosjiheric railway on another plan was built atNorwood .Scrubbs, on a line belonging to the West LondonRailway Company. The line was about half a mile plan employed a 9-in. iron lube placi-d in the roadbeilin which was a close fitting piston, which was moved byexhausting the air from one end of the lLd>e, and to which. the car was attached. The tube had a grooved slot alongits upper surface through which the shank of the pistonpassed. The slot was closed by means of a valve of leatherstrengthened by plates of iron flat on the outside and form-ing the segment of a circle on the inside. The valve beingtreated with a composition of bees wax and tallow renderedthe tube comparatively air tight. It was claimed that a halfvacuum could easily be obtained and that the car was movedat a good rate of speed. A second line on the same prin-ciple was constructed in Dublin, Ireland, in 1S43, and severalothers followed. Prominent engineers at the time gave thescheme favorable reports. Elevated roads appear to have been first patenteil in 1S21by II. K. Ialmer, an engineer of the London Dock Com-pany. He proposed a single track structure on which thewagons were placed in pairs, Fig. 22, on the opposite sidesof the rail. It is amusing to note that the inventor proposedto employ both animal and
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Keywords: ., book, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectstreetrailroads
