Future Development of Electrical Appliances

Abstract

AS many of your readers have doubtless read Prof. Perry's interesting paper on the future development of electrical, appliances, a remark on one or two points might not be out of place. In speaking of the application of electricity to railway travelling, Prof. Perry says that the weight of the train would be much reduced under the proposed conditions, and rail friction would be minimised. It strikes us that to have light trains would not be altogether an advantage, for several reasons. The lighter the train the less profitable would be the vis viva against a strong wind (and the latter is an important element in railway locomotion). Again, the stability of a heavy carriage is much greater than that of a light one, and a heavy engine in front of the train must steady the whole system. It would be interesting to ascertain from a practical engineer whether a train of six coaches with self-propelling powers could safely run at a speed of fifty-eight miles an hour.