The sun. [volume], November 23, 1913, FOURTH SECTION PICTORIAL MAGAZINE, Page 7, Image 47

About The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916

Image provided by: The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation

                
THE SUN, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1913.
JTTLE INCIDENTS DEPICTED BY JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG
ilar;itr & Urnthir-
TWO GENERATIONS.
WAY OF TRANSPORTING LARGE QUANTITIES OF MAIL AT HIGH RATE OF SPEED
Novel Electric Carrier Capable of Handling Tons
of Letters and Packages on Exhibition at
Paterson, N. J. Expected to Travel at
Rate of 100 Miles an Hour
SM..itTf.MiNfis of the physical
mechanical agencies of the
l"-fil service have been ompha
:il l' thf advent of the par
I I"-' It m true I hut the horse
ilravi ii mail wagon has largely dls
I'l'i.ir .1 rt.is.n the limits of Mulihat
m an.) :i,..t..j- wagons have supplanted
' w.'.i a material Kiiin In elliclency.
There a pneumatic tube service
Ahich i.l .. in anil from the main post
4 llin ,! ,iy modest percentage of the
lir.st il.,-, nutter In transit within mu
ni.il When Hrst Installed,
" .i. ; ins tulie answered fairly
ll ' m lin ati r .Sew York has been
rnw.n -'..il.iy and rapidly since then
'iid, ,..!r,isi, this eight inch mall
riir. li.i- l.iui shrinking correspond-
in ! . apacity to meet the mo
"in s need.-. This of itself shows how
'ir U'hiiiU the demands of the day are
"' I Jl facilities.
"v r at I'.iterson, N. J has recently
" - ' v -tnn an extensive mail carry
" '(-' i. latum which gives every rcu
' pi.itnlse of supplying a satlsfuc
i iik .ins of transporting large quan
"f postal matter at high speed. It
!' a ctt.ld's affair like the eight inch
'"i' ii i used, hut a man sized nppa
''tus t.u Iny an Internal tubular dlame
,r ' " r. ! feet. Where the C.Istlng
'' ui'lli' only pounds, this will
'mm .i . .pacny of ions, und u speed
( ira . t of a much higher degree,
lii'f .r, t lit. establishment of the par
''' i Mere was moved dally between
'"' t!' Ml I'entral and the I'ennsyl
inu S'ii..,n ipillo three hundred tons
"' 111 ' I'.nter. Not only has this ln-
rta.f , , ,t tlf, j,arct.s j,y poat laVo
iimii-i ! .welled the volume now to
l'irani..,i, Viu,H ar fon,i f flK.
jrs. If n, Uit. fmVng details will
'" f n'eies-t to you.
. Tin average weight of each mall
l"JU'h m probably fully 100 pounds,
'"! at ot.iy 300 tons every twonty-four
""r- I Ins would represent 6,000
''uu.i 1 1., i, tak-n from station tu sta
"" I nf irtunately, this total cannot
'"' " -r.'-iicd over the whole twenty.
ir i,iir , u.r nru rllHll ,.104,, in
.',!'" ''''' SPn1"'. nnd most of this mall
I ii i " 1,0 ll"l"wd of Inside of
' ne limns. You can see that this calls
m l k-ruit ,lt,i'1 "f utllnK, und even
'Uc is a derided lag.
... Vi"' '' III"IIH "u streets because
we.iiher, tho state of traffic of
the normal day or that of the unusual
day, und the Mocking of thorough
fares by reason of fires, &c, may Inter
fere with the existing mall wagons
running to and from these great rail
road terminals and also to und from
the city's mail despatching centres.
Therefore some new means of trans
portation Is needed.
The l'aterson mall carrying railway
has been about seven years In Its de
velopment. It Isn't n pneumatic tube
at all, but nn electrically driven system.
It might bo described ns a succession
of motorless motor trains. It Is nn
adaptation of the elements which go to
mako up nn electric motor or dynamo.
A dynamo differs from a motor In
tills one particular, the motor revolves
because of current fed to It, while the
dynamo Is forcibly turned by some ex
traneous mechanical agency and In
making these revolutions It gives forth
electrical energy to run other motors.
You have probably seen a motor and
you will remember that thero was first
an enveloping ring of Iron and free
to rot a to Inside of this was a cylindrical
body apparently made up of wires and
copper slabs separated from one
another, In short a sort of metallic
fagot bound uround u core of Iron.
This Inner body of copper nnd Iron
the electrician calls nn armature, while
the big enveloping ring constitutes the
field jnagnot, which becomes In fact
such only when a current Is sent
through It. A magnet hns u north and
a south pole, so too has the armature,
and when current Is fed to the urma
turo these neighboring poles alternately
attract nnd repel one another and thus
cuuso tho armaturo to revolve. Motors
or dynamos may be variously built, but
theso principles remain tho same. The
motor uses current while the dynamo
produces it.
Now Imagine tho surrounding field
magnet to be a ring with copper slabs
attached to Its Inner surface. Further
split this ring at one point and flatten
It out so that tho copper cross pieces
are uppermost. Tho result Is an Iron
bar with transverso copper strips ar
ranged like tho keys of a piano. A rail
of. this description runs the length of
the .system and between tho two tracks
upon which tho carB travel.
Now for the other motor elemont. On
the undersldo of tho car and separated
from tho roadbed clement by a quarter
of an Inch Is a second flat motor unit
made of laminated Iron, about which Is
wrapped a winding of Insulated copper
wire. It Is really a sort of armature.
When the current from the powerhouse
Hows through this wire nnd the car gets
this from overhead rails this enveloped
bar becomes a magnet for the time be
ing und creates about It a magnetic
Held. This effects the underlying ele
ment between tho tracks und sets up a
reaction.
Now neither this part laid between the
rails nor the magnet nttached to the car
can revolve, but an invisible force Is
aroused which exerts n pull. Hcc.iuse
the car Is on wheels it moves forward in
response to this attraction, und the
curious part of it Is that the vehicle's
own advance creates this zone of Im
pulse. You don't sco this, eh? Then let
us explain.
The armature unit and the Held mag
net unit are dead to one another except
when the current comes from the dis
tant powerhouse and then It Is their
nearncs that excites their mutual reac
tion. Tho copper slabbed nit Is not
energized directly by connection with
the power plant, hut the armature fea
ture under tho car Is so connected when
the trolleys are touching the charged
rails overhead. Therefore the carrier'
excites only that section of the com
panion motor element lying below It for
the time being and the reaction thus
aroused tends to pull the vehicle forward
as long as the current reaches the
armature.
Perhaps you are not enough of nn en
gineer to see at once the meaning of
this so far as it affects the question of
propulslvo economy. This Is not hard
to explain, however.
Ordinarily, If the carrier were motor
driven, In the usual sense of the word,
like a street ear, it would have to have a
full fledged revolving motor running at
high speed nnd thin motion, by means of
intermediate cog wheels, would be car
ried to propulsive trucks In contact with
the supporting tracks. This means n
lot of additional weight, machinery thnt
has to be continually watched and lubri
cated nnd a dead burden that has to be
moved nlong Independently of the
freight.
Hut these are not tho only disadvan
tages of such a system. There are
danger? of breakdown and the tractlv
wheels cannot get n good grip on the
rails If they are wet or If the grade is
steep. You have seen this exemplified
often In your street ear experiences.
In the electric carrier described all
these drawbacks are avoided. The sup
porting wheels follow freely the guiding
tracks and their grip upon the rails In
Immaterial for purposes of locomotion.
Ileeause they are not geared to other
mechanisms they revolve with a mini
mum of friction and they obey the Irre
sistible lure of the magnetic Held.
Therefore, for a given expenditure of
electrical energy at the power house, a
higher speed can be maintained because
the ehlcle Is lighter and easier to move.
Apart from this, on account of tho ex
treme simplicity of the electrical feature
nttached to the under side of the carrier,
wear and tear is reduced to a minimum
and only a trilling amount of super
vision Is necessary. Hut, best of all
this leaves the whole Interior of the
vehicle free for the carriage of mail.
The cars can be run at widely varying
speeds, depending entirely upon the
nature of the operative current em
.i.-'rr jrpr-"!
New York, With 8 Inch Pneumatic Tube, Far
Behind Demands of Day in Postal Facili
tiesCan Take Lessons From
New Jersey Authorities
One of the covered mail cars complete climbing a 20 per cent, grade. Rival installations And it difficult
to crawl up a 5 per cent, grade.
ployed. This Is one of the features of
the Installation and It the result of Un
employment of an alternating current.
Tho period of these alternations dictates
Just how fast the cars shall go, because
these waves of energy intermittently
vitalize and devitalize the magnetic Held
units which affect the armatuie element
beneath the carriers and between the
tracks. The quicker the alternations
the stronger the magnetic Hux from the
Iron bar on the under side of tho car
and accordingly the more forceful the
tractive Impulse tending tu pull the car
rier forward.
Hy reason of this arrangement the
rate of travel can be regulated to a
nicety from the directive station and
there Is no chance of any of the ears
getting beyond control. They cannot
run away, because they are subject to
an Irn slsilble grip which regulates their
rate of advance or halts them at will.
Hut you will say, that inasmuch as
the car merely rests upon freely re
volving wheels, and these have appar
ently no arrangement for braking them,
nothing will prevent momentum sweep
ing it down grade with an ever in
creasing speed. Oft" hand, such would,
Indeed, seem to be the case, but the
fact Is quite contrary. The same mag
netic force that draws the carrier up
hill, because of the Intermittent Im
pulses of tho alternating current, re
acts like a check or brake upon the
vehicle when It tends to exceed the de
signed velocity.
In other words, Instead of drawing
tho car forward, these reactions grip
tho carrier and balance their efforts
against that of the momentum Impell
ing tho vehicle downward. All this Is
radically different from the dlfllculticH
encountered in carH driven by attached
motors, where they are halted by grades
that tho present Installation can mount
easily or they get beyond control when
travelling down similar slopes, Colli
sions, too, upon other systems are apt
to be far more destructive In their con
sequences, while a deranged car on this
new line would bo overtaken by the
following one, and shoved along with
out any further hitch by Its sound fel
low. Thero Is a reason for this.
In the best of tho rival electric mail
carriers, the Interval or headway be
twt-en moving cars can not safely be
less than a minute and a half. With
this system, a headway of only live
seconds Is needful, because, the latter
move along uniformly as though pulled
by an Invisible rope.
Now imagine thnt either Installation
Is speeding its cars at the rate of thirty
miles an hour. In ninety seconds lin
ear driven by Its own motor would have
come substantially to a standstill and
a following live car would strike it with
full force. With carriers mowug only
live seconds apart, the hading one. In
case of a breakdown, would have lost
so little of Its speed when ovet taken by
tile one behind that the collision would
be well nigh without any Jar.
During demonstrations at l'ateion,
a car weighing 1,'jun pounds, loaded
with 1,000 pounds of sand, and with n
trailer attached weighing l.lilo pounds
and carrying 400 pounds of s.md, has
been pulled up a twenty per cent, grade
at tho rate of thirty miles an hour, A
Ti per cent, grade is about the best
rival systems can negotiate.
An Installation of this sort can carry
dally" by means of single cars, 8,040
pouches with a headway of twenty
seconds and running but nine hours.
Hy adding a trailer to each, this could
be doubled, and four ear trains could
be handled Just as easily.
Trace It Back Club
IN Albany they have an organization
called the Trace It Hack Club. It
was organized twelve years ago as
the outcome of an Inquiry as to who
had set a certain false story allo.it. A
party of men were In a cafe when a
statement was made that practically ac
cused a well known citizen of crookedness.
"I'd like to see that story traced back,"
said one of the men at the table, "for
there's not tho slightest truth In It, In
my opinion."
"Well, let's organize a club to do It,"
said another.
So the club was formed and a com
mittee appointed to Investigate tho
statement. Tho story was run down
within two days.
The club, elated over Its success,
ndopted by-laws and arranged to meet
regularly. Whenever a man opened his
mouth to accuse somebody the president
merely began: "I nppolnt as a commit
tee of investigation " and he seldom
got further. The Trace It Hacks havo
had many tips nnd downs and the mem
bership has thinned out considerably,
but there are enough still on hand to
practise and preach their principles.