FOR EXCITEMENT SEEKERS.

North Otago Times, 5 December 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

FOR EXCITEMENT SEEKERS.

Tho amusement world has many novelties in' stoi'o forits- votaries' • this summer,,and somo of thorn will bo seen at tho coming Franco-Bri-tish Exhibition, All appear to 1 Jiayo a fjdentific basis-matlicmati- • caj or lhechaniCal-iii their method of : .'mention of some of them will not bo.' out 'of place' h'ore. sayStho Sittings'," I . was onethriller, however, . wliicli Paris promised to send us; : and which .will, hot now appear. It known as. Gadbih's jeap, but tlio chief actor, Gadbin, was killed a feW'days ago .during: oho-of • his/performances, v . ■ His practice was' to jump, from a platform ono hundred feet in the air, ,land /as 'a.;: diver would on a long shoot which Battered his'body ■„ and.swiched himyith great velocity down and up until ho landed aftor ' a -i. final somer-sftult-i:'aquaTely ? on/ his feet. As might Miavii. been later,; at/his lastpVfo'ririaiicc, he.', lijissed. his* aijh,: arid instead ?of landing on tho'slope of . the shoot ho struck the. upturned/edge .with his body and fell into the ring- Ijelow, ■•'A wild whirl nearly one hundred feet in the air, a sudden .dip to tho ground and-then a- plunge beneath tljo waters 0 f a' small iako is 'another' promised sensation to excitonjfcnt lovers, It is to bo'built by-j l a| well-known railroad engineer and I j inventor, and will bo tho first'realj tefit of tlio "Boyes" mono-rail rail-' I i|ari. it will -1)0 built at a seisidc l 1 Pjace, sorte distance from the ocean, I flhd the'round trip ; i»ade by the cars',! i wjll bo a little,gver two miles, -'.Hio | j tprtck : upon; winch/. the niono-; : nil c&rf 1 j Wjll' i'iiji wllL.Be laid, out so as to iniake a giant Jigure'-"8." Scien-; ! tificaily, tlio ltoyfcs .mono-rail railirqad is said to "bo perfect. - Each caj'j which is'CO .'feet in length, is divided -into four' sections or compartments. " Each compartment" is in-, tended to.scat twolvo:persons.."' As a thriller the Boyes rnijroud is. • likely to be 'a success, - Startling; : from a level platform, the trains, by a scries of dips"; up ..and down, will gradually reach the ' highest point of the road, whero tho track will jjc nearly one hundred feet above the ground. Hounding . a sluirp curve,. where Hie cars will hang at an angle of forty-five degrees, the 'cars N will make a sudden dive, downwards into a lake of real water, By means of fountains the entrance and exit of a "tube running beneath- the lake : will bo; concealed from the passengers, giving therii a genuino sensation without the danger of evenV wetting their feet. . ' / " ;

A further thriller this.year -will be called "Autos that Pass," or "Tho Aerial Auto Race." It-is a fearsome spectacle of' 1,200 pound ino-tor-cars hurled through tho air, one somersaulting, the other .shooting straight,and swiftly -under it. .The two motors start "at wi. cipvation of fifty-eight foot. 'The hmaway 'before they make the leap is ninety feet'long. On this"'steep runaway is a double track of steel rails, but the cars f do not rise the rail side,, by side. Car. No. 1 rides on -rails 1 and 3; car No. 2 rides on rails 2 and 4.

When tho start is made Car. No. 1. begins tho descent first. It has gone but three feet, when it strikes a trigger' at the side of the track that releases Car No. 2,. which dashes after No. 1. ' To the end of the ninety-foot runaway the progress of the cars is the same, but at the' instanj. of the leap their conditions are changed. At the end Of the runaway, just where the track curves upward after its steep descent, the forward wheels of Car No. I.strike a uDright. projection of,.sl,coh This projection' is not sufficiently clci vatcd to stop the car or cause any great.jolt, but it -'"trips up" the car, Causing it to turn a somersault, as it is hurled into the air up to a height of thirty feet. Tho car having completed its somersault ■ drops 011 a level platform a nd stops short, having gone a distance of twentyeight feet from the point where it left the runaway. But before car No, 1 has landed, while still it is 30 feet up in the air with just half of its somersault completed, car No. 2 passes, in a dashingly swift straight-away jump, directly under it and lands 40 feet away. on 'a sloping platform. Car No. 2 had encountered, no. resistance at the foot of the runaway, but was shot straight forward with its full speed, The delay caused to No. 1 by its somersault gives No. 2 just time to pass under it and'to get out of its way before No. 1 makes the drop to its landing platform. The two cars arrive in the experiments . already tried at their landings with almost a simultaneous "bang," so close is the "race." The apparatusfor this sensational thriller has been constructed by 1 M. Maurice Garangor, a French engineer. Each car in the "Aerial Auto Race" weighs 1,100 pounds. Each Mil carry a woman, weighing about 100 pounds.