From the Kearney Files
Sydney 15th June 1922
HIGH SPEED RAILWAY
MODEL AT WORK IN LONDON
EYE WITNESS REPORT. London May 2nd 1922.
Up aside - street off Lavender Hill, on the way to Clapham, and then up a steep flight of stairs into a long low room in a solid brick building, the seeker for information about one of the latest developments in the application of scientific methods to the problem of transport mounts to a viewpoint, from which he can see the model of an electric high speed railway car negotiating a mono - rail track with almost Human intelligence. An Australian inventor, Mr. Elfric Wells Chalmers Kearney, is the designer of this new mono - rail system with an overhead guiding rail. The model railway, complete with track and car, represents the material part of a single - track tube railway, designed with a view of connecting Circular Quay and Milson's Point, running under the harbour to a maximum depth of 200ft. below sea level. Electric motors, assisted by gravity, provide the traction, and the total distance of seven - rights of one mile can be accomplished in 65 seconds.
As Mr. Kearney, who was born in Australia in 1881, and came to London more than 20 years ago, put his button on an electric button, a little model railway car with "Kearney High Speed Railway" printed on its side, hurriedly began to go to business.
The model car moved off quietly, but when it came to the gradient of 1 in 7, by which the track, enclosed in its iron tube , decends to a depth of 200 feet or so under Sydney Harbour, its speed was rapidly accelerated, it rushed along at an exhilarating pace until it reached the incline leading to Milson's Point end, and climbing the incline at a gradually decreasing speed came to a standstill between the two platforms thoughtfully provided for it at the terminus.
Loaded furniture vans, motor - lorries, tradesmen's delivery carts, motorists bound for Manly on Sundays and market gardeners with their carts full of produce from the smiling uplands of Wahroonga and Hornsby cannot be served by the high speed tube. If the primitive horse - punt is to be thrown into the discard there is nothing for it but a bridge, even if it costs £10,000,000 and takes 10 years to build. But why should the unencumbered citizens who desire to pass to and fro on their lawful occasions have to rely entirely on the ferry service or else wait 10 years for a bridge that may or may not materialise in that time, when they might have a one - minute service constructed in one year at one - tenth of the cost of a bridge?
The Australian inventor is no neophyte *. He was associated with the American engineer. Charles T. Yerkes, in the lay - out of the London tube railways, and he is able to produce --- and did produce for inspection -- powerful support for his new and improved high speed railway from leading British engineering authorities.
* A person who is new to a subject or activity.
Sydney 15th June 1922
HIGH SPEED RAILWAY
MODEL AT WORK IN LONDON
EYE WITNESS REPORT. London May 2nd 1922.
Up aside - street off Lavender Hill, on the way to Clapham, and then up a steep flight of stairs into a long low room in a solid brick building, the seeker for information about one of the latest developments in the application of scientific methods to the problem of transport mounts to a viewpoint, from which he can see the model of an electric high speed railway car negotiating a mono - rail track with almost Human intelligence. An Australian inventor, Mr. Elfric Wells Chalmers Kearney, is the designer of this new mono - rail system with an overhead guiding rail. The model railway, complete with track and car, represents the material part of a single - track tube railway, designed with a view of connecting Circular Quay and Milson's Point, running under the harbour to a maximum depth of 200ft. below sea level. Electric motors, assisted by gravity, provide the traction, and the total distance of seven - rights of one mile can be accomplished in 65 seconds.
As Mr. Kearney, who was born in Australia in 1881, and came to London more than 20 years ago, put his button on an electric button, a little model railway car with "Kearney High Speed Railway" printed on its side, hurriedly began to go to business.
The model car moved off quietly, but when it came to the gradient of 1 in 7, by which the track, enclosed in its iron tube , decends to a depth of 200 feet or so under Sydney Harbour, its speed was rapidly accelerated, it rushed along at an exhilarating pace until it reached the incline leading to Milson's Point end, and climbing the incline at a gradually decreasing speed came to a standstill between the two platforms thoughtfully provided for it at the terminus.
Loaded furniture vans, motor - lorries, tradesmen's delivery carts, motorists bound for Manly on Sundays and market gardeners with their carts full of produce from the smiling uplands of Wahroonga and Hornsby cannot be served by the high speed tube. If the primitive horse - punt is to be thrown into the discard there is nothing for it but a bridge, even if it costs £10,000,000 and takes 10 years to build. But why should the unencumbered citizens who desire to pass to and fro on their lawful occasions have to rely entirely on the ferry service or else wait 10 years for a bridge that may or may not materialise in that time, when they might have a one - minute service constructed in one year at one - tenth of the cost of a bridge?
The Australian inventor is no neophyte *. He was associated with the American engineer. Charles T. Yerkes, in the lay - out of the London tube railways, and he is able to produce --- and did produce for inspection -- powerful support for his new and improved high speed railway from leading British engineering authorities.
* A person who is new to a subject or activity.
Comments
Post a Comment