stations, seldom travel more
than 500 feet from the earth, but for long distances about 1,500
feet is usual. The broad metal slides for receiving the cars and
for their departure, which extend for a mile on each side of all
our stations, are the only portions of the rocket system which much
resemble anything connected with railroads. It is said that great
skill and long practice on the conductor's part are required to
cause the cars to alight well on the slides and draw up at the
stations. The slides at many stations are nearly level with the
ground, but ascend in opposite directions, till at the distance of
a mile, where they end, they are 100 feet high. The cars are now
made quite cylindrical, tapering off abruptly at the closed end.
The outside is entirely of metal, very highly polished, and showing
no projections except a flange on each side, two broad runners
underneath, and a 40 foot rear flange or vane. The dimensions are
usually--diameter of cylinder, 20 feet; length, 45 feet. The high
polish is necessary to avoid heating when the highest speed is
attained. Passengers are seated in a luxurious chamber in the
interior of the cylinder, which is suspended like the compass of a
vessel, and therefore always retains an upright position whatever
may be the position of the car when travelling. About fifty
passengers can be accommodated at one time. The tube emerging
a little beyond the mouth of the cylinder, through which the
expanding gases are expelled, can be slightly deviated from its
axial position in any direction, and thus what little steering
is required is easily effected. The long projecting 40 foot vane
or tail which steadies the motion of the whole machine is, in
the newest patents, made to assist it in alighting on the slides
easily and without jarring. Such is the splendid apparatus,
briefly described, which brings all the ends of the earth together
and makes the whole world a public park, the most distant parts of
which can be visited and returned from in the course of a day. Long
tedious voyages of a week or a month belong to the forgotten past,
for Paris, Calcutta or Hong Kong can be reached in a fraction of
the time formerly occupied in going from Toronto to Montreal. No
passenger traffic is ever carried on now in dangerous vessels upon
the treacherous ocean, but solely in the safe and comfortable
rocket-car through the air a thousand feet or more above the cruel
waters. Steamships, electric ships and