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The linked articles from the 1887 New York Times are wonderful: "The means by which passengers will be landed en route is also in doubt. Some suggest that they
by idlewords 12y ago
The linked articles from the 1887 New York Times are wonderful:
"The means by which passengers will be landed en route is also in doubt. Some suggest that they will simply be dropped overboard and their luggage thrown after them, while others maintain that a coil of greased rope for the purposes of descent will be carried on each and every machine."
Truly the Hyperloop of its day.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9904E7D81538E533A25757C1A9649C94669FD7CF http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9904E7D815...
- waps 12y agoThis is a problem that every zeppelin faces too. They can't easily gain or lose height, because that would mean losing the gas they need to stay airborne. A vacuum ship that actually has a vacuum pump aboard would have the great advantage that it can easily change it's buoyancy using, say, electrical power. It could use this to change height, or compensate for being loaded with materials. Vacuum ships would actually be a solution to the zeppelin problem.
- idlewords 12y agoA zeppelin could use compressor tanks to control its buoyancy in an exactly analagous way. Lots of details on how the problem was handled in practice here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy_compensator_(aviation) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy_compensator_(aviation)
- tsotha 12y agoThere are multiple solutions to the "Zeppelin problem", as you call it, to the point that it's not much of a problem. If you had a powerful enough pump to create a reasonable vacuum it's far more powerful than the pump you need to compress helium if you need to lose buoyancy.
- TezzellEnt 12y agoHow does this compare at all to the Hyperloop?
- alex_duf 12y agoIt exists only on the paper.
- simonebrunozzi 12y agoLOL.