US433941A

US433941A - Aerial-railway transit

Info

Publication number: US433941A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1890-08-12
Anticipated expiration: 1907-08-12

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

W. L. HIGH T. AERIAL RAILWAY TRANSIT.

No. 433,941. Patented Aug. 12, 1890.

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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. W. L. EIGHT.

, AERIAL RAILWAY TRANSIT. No. 433,941. Q Patented Aug. 12, 1890.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OEEicE.

\VALLAOE L. HIGHT, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

AERIAL-RAILWAY TRANSIT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 433,941, dated August 12, 1890.

Application filed August 20, 1889. Serial No. 321,395. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, XVALLACE L. HIGHT, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improved Aerial- Railway Transit, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention, in substance, consists of a railway of any suitable construction suitably supported, a car or carriage of suitable construction to receive and carry passengers or freight, or both, means held on the car and adapted and suitable to impart sufficient buoyancy to it to support it in the air, means for connecting and confining the car to and otherwise such as to allow it to move along the railway in combination with an electric or other suitable motor, preferably an electric motor, which is held on and is adapted to travel along the railway, and, furthermore, is connected to the car so as from its operation to propel the car with its contents supported, as stated, in the air, along and in either one or the other direction of the railway and all otherwise, substantially as hereinafter described.

In addition to the above the invention consists in improvements in detail, all as hereinway and showing a section only thereof. Fig.

4 is a transverse vertical section, line 4 4, Fig. 3, and an end view of the car, motor, and connection of car and motor. Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail transverse vertical section of one of the rails of the double-rail railway of Figs. 3 and 4. Fig.6 is an enlarged detail transverse vertical section of the rail of the single railway, Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 7 is a detail view, hereinafter referred to.

In the drawings, A represents an elevated railway, and B is a structure located at intermediate points and of any suitable construction for the support of the railway A, and all of itself, except as hereinafter appears, constituting no part of this invention, and which may be in any of the well-known or other forms and constructions suitable for the purposes, as hereinafter explained,of the invention. I v

The elevated railway A, Figs. 1 and 2,-consists of a single rail having on its opposite sides a a, Fig. 6, and at top I) and bottom (1 horizontal parallel flanges f, together constituting upper and lower faces for the run of an electric or other motorB, of any well-known or other suitable construction and arrangement of parts to secure its own propulsion, as

also the propulsion of whatever may be con-' nected to it therealong. The motor B is shown in blank, and, preferably, for reasons which will be obvious, an electric motor is used; but the invention is not to be limited in that regard. The parts of the motor running on the rail A, as explained and as particularly shown, are traction-wheels g, held on and at opposite ends of the motor, and lying between the under face of the upper and the upper face of the lower flanges of the rail,

and otherwise the motor at B. Fig. 2, lies across or straddles the upper side of the rail.

C is a car, in the present instance illustrated as consisting, in substance, of a car-bodyhav ing windows O doors O and a promenade O entirely surrounding it, with a guard-railing 0 gateways G with detachable guardchains O for convenience of entering onto and passing from the promenade-platform into or from the car. This car 0 is surmounted end to end with an inclosed chamber O of any suitable construction and material, and which is to be charged with hydrogen gas or other aeriform fluid specifically lighter than air, and otherwise all such and as well known as to secure the support of the car audits appurtenances and applied weight in the air. The inclosed chamber 0 for containing aeriform fluid, as has been explained and for the purpose stated, is to be provided with means (not shown) for it to be suitably charged with and discharged of the fluid; and, again, as particularly shown, its opposite ends 0 0 are of conical shape, so as to reduce to the minimum its resistance to the passage of the car, as will hereinafter appear, through the air. The car itself, at its opposite ends, may also be similarly shaped.

D D are chains or other lines at one end suitably held on the car 0 and at the other end held on trucks D straddling the top of the rail A and at each side having wheels D to run on the faces of the upper and lower flanges of the rail A, as has been described for the motor.

E E are chains or other flexible lines, each at its opposite ends held on the car 0 and on a motor B, a motor being located at the opposite ends of the car.

F are rigid bars or rods in a corresponding line and connecting the motors, and the intervening trucks D having wheels D as has been described.

In Figs. 3 and 4 the railwayAis shown as consistin g of two parallel running rails A A with a suitable superstructure B to support them. These rails incline upward toward each other, and each has on its outer face and at its upper and lower edge parallel projecting flanges ff, Fig. 5, as before described, for the single rail A and constituting the running-faces for the traction-wheels g of the motors and the wheels D severally connected to the car, as has been particularly explained, for the similar wheels of Figs. 1 and 2. If electric n10- tors are used, then electric connection between them and either an electric generator or a storage-battery is to be made, as is well known, or otherwise suitably, and neither said electric connection nor the electric generator or electric storage-battery constitutes of itself or together any part of this invention, it being simply necessary for the purposes thereof that it shall be all such, as is well known now in the electric systems of railways, that the motor and the parts, such as the car and its aeriform containing-chamber, and all other appurtenances, shall by its action be propelled along the railway, and also regulated and controlled as to the speed or rate of movement, starting and stopping, and the direction of its travel relative to the length of the railway and otherwise, as is apparent.

A railway and a car supported in the air and connected to the railway, in combination with a motor running on the railway and connectedto thecar, all substantially as explained, obviously secure in the highest degree aerial transit of passengers and freight, and in a manner aifording absolute safety and rapidity of movement, accompanied .with a minimum expenditure of power and of weight and friction of the parts on the railway.

The railway in either form described, or in whatever form it may be used, in lieu of being elevated, as particularly shown, may rest directly on the ground.

The flexible connection between the car and wheel trucks and motors, as has been explained, leaves the car perfectly free in its aeriform support, as stated.

The gas-chamber C may have, as in Figs. 1 and 2,a central longitudinal extending flap 0 along its upper side to impartsteadiness to its movement-through the air.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In combination, a railway, a motor held on and itself adapted for propulsion along and on said railway, a car located over and adapted to be supported in the air above and otherwise independently of said motor, and means connecting said car and said motor for both to travel as one along said railway, sub stantially as described, for the purposes specified.

2. In combination, a railWay,-motors held on and adapted for propulsion along said railway and separated from each other, a wheel truck or trucks located between said motors and held on and adapted to travel along said railway, a car located over and adapted to be supported independently of said motors and said truck or trucks in the air, and means connecting said car with said motors and truck or trucks for all to travel as one along said railway, substantially as described, for the purposes specified.

3. In combination, a railway, motors held on and adapted for propulsion along said railway and separated from each other, a wheel truck or trucks located between said motors and held on and adapted to travel along said railway, means connecting said motors to said truck or trucks, a car located over and adapted to be supported independently of said motors and said truck or trucks in the air, and means connecting said car with said motors and truck or trucks for all to travel as one along said railway, substantially as described, for the purposes specified.

4. In combination, a railway, a motor held on and adapted for propulsion along said railway, a car located over and adapted to be supported independently of said motor in the air, a vertical and central longitudinal extending fiap of said car, and means connecting said car and motor for both to travel as one along said railway, substantially as described, for the purposes specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

\VALLACE L. HIGHT.

Witnesses:

ALBERT W. BROWN, MARION E. BROWN.

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