THE RAILWAY OF THE FUTURE

Evening Star, Issue 22881, 12 February 1938, Page 8

THE RAILWAY OF THE FUTURE

If a spinning top is placed in a. frame like that shown in the circular diagram, the top will, while spinning, balance almost anywhere, on a tight string, a sharp edge, etc. Such a top is in physics called a gyroscope, and on this gyroscope is based an invention

which has been worked upon by engineers all over the world for years. They want to make railways with only one rail, perhaps only with a steel wive, and the diagram shows what such a train would probably look like. It would be a great saving if the railway lines of the future needed only one rail. The gyroscope principle is, incidentally, used in big ocean liners to counteract the rocking in high seas.

speeds of a number of animals in the air, on the ground, and in the water. Man comes badly out of the comparison Tn the nir and in the water he would be nowhere without his planes and speed boats, and on the ground only his locomotives and motor cars .save him. On the ground his fastest runner, Jesse Owens (who won the 100 metres sprint at the Olympic Games), travels onlv at a little over 21 miles an hour. A charging elephant can raise its pace to 24 miles if angry enough. The emu, the whippet, and the greyhound at 36 miles an hour are all faster. A gazelle outpacing Dr Andrews in his motor car in the Gobi Desert reached 60 miles an hour, and the hunting cheetah over 100 yards can go 70. In' tho water tho salmon swims at 7 miles an hour and tho pike at 10, but Dr Andrews believes that tho flyingfish before it leaves the water for air raises its pace to 33 miles. The sea mackerel as close behind with 30. Birds of the air have always offered difficulties to those who would estimate their speed. The swift and the swallow both dash along at over 100 miles an hour; the records of tho great bearded vulture and the golden eagle, measured by planes against which they raced, are put down at 110 and 120 miles respectively; but the fastest bird of all is believed to be the Dutch hawk, which certainly moves at 120 miles an hour when on business bent.