Water pillow slide
The water cushion slide is the concept of a track-guided means of transport ( train ) that does not rest on wheels, but on water cushions.
The best known was the sliding track ( French Le Chemin de Fer Glisant ), which Louis-Dominique Girard (1815–1871) designed from 1854 and which was further developed with interruptions until at least 1889 . It was a track that ran on sliding blocks with a labyrinth seal in two rails with a very flat trough profile. The 0.5 to 0.75 mm thick water cushions were created and maintained by forcing water into the central bores of the sliding shoes using compressed air. It was driven by a kind of controllable linear turbine in the middle of the vehicle floors, which was acted upon by a pressurized water pipe running along the route through regularly arranged tapping points. The vehicle automatically switched the tapping points on and off when driving over them.
The advantages of the system included the almost noiseless operation and the excellent driving characteristics. A practical realization was the high water consumption (with a six-car train approx. 125 cubic meters of carrying water per hour plus drive water) as well as the sensitivity of the system to track faults and leaks in the rails, but above all the obvious impossibility to winterize the railway do.
The water cushion slide found its literary expression in Kurd Laßwitz 'science fiction novel Auf Zweiplanet , where such a path is described as the main means of heavy goods transport on Mars .
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- La Nature - num. 844 et 852 - par "Le chemin de fer glissant" - Masson Editeur - Paris, 1889 - pp. 150,151 and 273-276.
- Railroad Gazette - August 16, 1889, p. 531 ( digitized version )