376 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



there is such a complete absence of vibration, tliat it is totally unlike 

 traveling- upon luiy existing- line, and is more like the motion of a well 

 made broughiun. Add to this that tliere is no sufTocaling- smell (jf the sul- 

 phur and smoke from the locomotive, no escape of steam, no stag-naiit, pol- 

 luted, and poisonous air to breathe, such as that of the ordinary tuiniel. 

 Every train which passes through must carry with it its own supply of 

 fresh air, and must drive ont before it any i'oul air. This purity of the 

 atmospher(! is still further secured by a cimstant stream of the external air 

 which passes tiii'ongh openings at the bottom of the tunnel, so that the air 

 in every part of the tunnel is as pure and sweet as in the sunshine above 

 ground 



Another of the advantages of the system is that collisions, and casualties 

 arising from them, are impossible. No two trains can by any conceivable 

 possibility be in the tube or tunnel at the same time. The worst that can 

 possibly ha].^pen to the traveler is 1,liat the train may be set fast, or unable 

 to move, owing to some accident to the machinery. In the event of such 

 an occurrence the passengers have simply to open the door at either end 

 of the carriage and walk out to the nearest mouth of the tunnel. 



The question of working expense is one upon which we are at present 

 unable to express any opinion, aS we have no data to judge from. So much 

 as this is, however, clear, that as the old atmospheric systemfailed entirely 

 in consequence of the enormous leakage and the high pressure at which it 

 was worked; and as the present plan works at a low pressure and avoids 

 the waste (jf leakage, it would appear that in the matter of cost of working, 

 the pneumatic principle must possess great advantages over its abandoned 

 predecessor. 



The directors of the Crystal Palace have established another claim on 

 the gratitude of the public for the facilities which they have afforded for 

 making this most interesting and important experiment. The carriage has 

 continued to run upon the railway during the whole of this week, and visit- 

 ors have had an opportunity of testing for themselves the new mode of 

 traveling. 



Mr. Clinton Rosevelt followed, strongl}' advocating the use of the pro- 

 posed plan in passing under rivers. 



Mr. Garvey explained the Croydon atmospheric railwaj^ and the causes 

 of its failure. The oidy feasible way of using atmospheric pressure is to 

 exhaust the air in front of the carriage, as now done at the Crystal Palace, 

 which is in fact a system of sailing on l(^nd. 



Mr. Fisher read the remarks of the London correspondent of the New 

 York Herald in relation to this new railway, and the practicability of using 

 it under Broadway. lie (Mr. F.) believed the plan would again come before 

 the Legislature of the State for tunneling Broadway, but he did not regard 

 this atmospheric plan as feasible. The cost of running a train with a 

 locomotive averages six cents per mile when coal is used. Frequent stop- 

 pages add materially to the expenses of running. On the Hudson River 

 Railway the cost of stopping and starting a train is one dollar and twenty- 

 five cents. The momentum of a train having a speed of sixty miles an 

 hour is sufficient to carry it three miles after the locomotive is detached. 

 The use of steam in tunnels is objectionable on account of carbonic acid 



