BRENNAN TRAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14250, 22 December 1909, Page 8

BRENNAN TRAIN.

THE WONDERFUL MONO-RAIL. ARRIVAL OF THE GYROSCOPIC TRAIN. Mb. Brennan, the famous inventor, gave a demonstration on November 10 at Gillingham of his wonderful gyroscopic mono-rail-way—no longer as a model railway, but as a full-sized working machine, with fresh improvements. Among its notable features are: Speeds up to 100 or 120 miles an hour, carriages 20ft wide. In his preliminary explanation, Mr. Brennan spoke hesitatingly, with a touch of an Irish brogue; and anybody less like an inventor introducing an eighth wonder of the world to an incredulous public could hardly be imagined. Some time ago, it will bo recalled, lie gave a demonstration of his invention, which even then, in its experimental " model" stage, promised to revolutionise the traction of the world. Those who witnessed it vividly remember the wonder with which they saw the toy train running along a single line, apparently with no means of support. The gryoscopic principle enabled it to keep to the metals and preserve a dead level under .all conditions, so that it could cross ravines on a strand of steel hawser, and do many other wonderful things that no vehicle had ever done before. The value of the " gyro" invention was recognised from the first- Its possibility in mountainous and difficult country, where an ordinary railway line could only be laid at enormous cost, and where the necessity for bridges and boring would represent extraordinary labour, was immediately seized upon, and the India Government was one of the first to offer substantial assistance to the engineer to carry on his experiments.

From that time Mr. Brennan has been continuously at work. The demonstration was the result of a paragraph which 'appeared in a London newspaper to the effect that a German engineer proposed giving a similar demonstration of "a mono-railway ruu on the gyroscopic principle." "I have a sympathetic interest in all scientific experiments," said Mr. Brennan, " but I hold the master patent in the invention, which is fully protected in 13 countries and, amongst others, in Germany." "The carriage I will show you now," said Mr. Brennan, "is not a model. lam an engineer, and I must confess that I have not a great deal of faith in models, preferring to concentrate my energies upon the completed machine. What I will show you to-day is a carriage, 40ft long, 10ft broad, and weighing 22 tons." FIFTY PASSENGERS. Then there emerged from behind a building what at first appearance seemed an armoured train. It was painted gray. The fore part of the carriage was covered like the cab of a locomotive, and in this buzzed and whirred the machinery which propelled it and secured its balance. The back part was an uncovered truck, very much like the motor truck of commerce. But the wonderful thing was that this great locomotive was balanced on one set of wheels placed underneath its centre. It came along the mono-rail, turning the sharpest corners, i and maintaining its balance as effectively as though it possessed wheels on either side. "It will carry from ten to fifteen tons," said the inventor, and certainly the fifty I people who mounted it for a trial run made no difference to its smooth running. "Had I been able to postpone the demonstration for a few weeks," said the inventor. " I could have shown you a speed trial, for then the faster motors would have been fitted, but I was anxious to show at once what progress we have made. With a full load the car can mount a gradient of one in thirteen. If one is prepared to sacrifice four tons of load it would run freely up a gradient of one in six." The machine works with a petrol motor, and develops its own electricity, but it can run equally well on power drawn from an overhead installation. "I think it is proper to acknowledge the assistance I have had from the War Office, the India Government, and the Government of Kashmir," said Mr. Brennan. in explaining: the development of his idea; "in all I have received £15.000 in the form of subsidies. I think that with the simplicity of laying a ' road' for the mono-rail this invention will be of invaluable assistance from the point of view of strategv. Invasion will be impossible, for by the mono-rail it will be easv to transport large numbers of troops with extrnordinarv raoidity from point to point, and to take them at the shortest notice into places unserved bv the ordinary railway. In Australia and in countries where at present railroads are economically impracticable, the mono-rail will make travel a ' joy.'" The inventor's idea is that the mono-rail carriage of the future will be even broader than his present truck, which is the width of the old Great Western carriage. A FORECAST. " I do not doubt," he said, with a smile, " that in future years my present machine will be regarded by people who by that time will have grown familiar with the mono-rail in very much the same way as the 'Rocket' is looked upon by passengers used to the luxury of modern travel, but the one principle in this carriage, the one engineering discovery which is the soul of the machine, will not be improved upon in a thousand years." Mr. Brennan did not tell his non-techni-cal audience what that discovery was, but promised what he called this " engineering tit-bit" to the experts. " Everything points to an increase in the dimensions of the mono-rail carriage," said the inventor, and he drew a picture of railway carriages as big as drawing-rooms. Unrestricted by the second rail, and acting as truly with a carriage 20ft wide as with one of 10ft, there was no reason whv the gyroscopic railway train should not be as wide as a modern liner. He could promise, too, travelling at twice the existing speed; indeed, the faster the carriage travels the safer it is. The weight of each gyroscope employed in the car used to-day was three-quarters of a ton, and its diameter 3ft 6in. " What are the elements of danger in your invention?" I asked Mr. Brennan. "To the passenger? Exactly the same danger that exists at present—from the explosion of the boiler of the locomotive behind which he travels to town," said the inventor. "What would happen if the gyroscopes stopped suddenly?" " They cannot stop suddenly. It would take them an hour to lose their balancing force." The value of the invention for mountain railways is apparent. The cost of road maintenance is reduced to a minimum, the danger of landslides and "wash-outs" is obviated. since there is no necessity to cut into the side of a hill to give the new railway running room. This demonstration may very well be an historic event, ranking in importance with Stephenson's earlier trials with his locomotive. I