TRIVA FUN

[vtsnowedin]

Naw. Had to be New Mexico...Hobbs maybe?

Nope!! Not New Mexico or Oklahoma but good guesses.
More info. They had to fly in 60-60 conditions.

 

[Mace Canute]

I remember reading about the first steam train that broke 100 mph. They used a flat straight stretch of track out in the plains somewhere, probably Kansas and a stop watch as they passed the mile posts.

The Flying Scotsman became the first steam locomotive to exceed 100mph while travelling between Edinburgh and London on November 30 1934.

 

[vtsnowedin]

What about 999 in 1891?
Empire State Express No. 999: First Locomotive to Reach 100 mph

 

[Mace Canute]

What about 999 in 1891?
Empire State Express No. 999: First Locomotive to Reach 100 mph

From Fastest Steam Locomotive

New York Central & Hudson River 4-4-0 No. 999 continued
Background
NYC #999 is one of the world's most famous steam locos. Built in 1893 for New York Central's "Manhattan-Albany-Buffalo Empire State Express" it was one of 62 locos at Chicago's Columbian Exposition. It's claim to fame and the reason it has been preserved, (Chicago Science & Transportation Museum), was because of a May 1893 run between Rochester and Buffalo, NY. On that run it is said to have become the fastest machine of it's time, reaching 112.5 mph between Batavia and Corfu.

What are the facts concerning this high speed journey?
It is over a 100 years since this run, and no detailed timing details have been found. However such details must have been made as a 1976 article by John F Clay states there were 2 experienced observers on board. The practice of taking detailed passing times to the nearest second and stopwatching between quarter mile posts had started around a decade earlier, and formed the basis of accurate train timing that has survived from the late 19th Century, through the 20th Century and into the 21st Century.
But back in May 1893 there was another group of "train timers" travelling behind No. 999. Railway Officials and Newspaper Reporters. Not two groups of people who are likely to have studied or understood the mechanics of putting together a very detailed and accurate log of a train journey, including recording it's maximum speed. It must certainly have been this group of people, probably taking random times without any other detailed substantiation, who recorded the 112.5 mph. It certainly wasn't the two experienced train timers who recorded such a high maximum speed. They recorded a maximum of 81.5 mph, which is almost certainly very close to what was reached that day. It is reported that some time later the high speed attempt was repeated to prove it was possible, and the maximum speed recorded on this second run was again near to 81 mph.

Did NYC 4-4-0 No. 999 reach or exceed 100 mph?
The reality of that day in May 1893 was that the 4-4-0 went no faster than around 82 mph. No expert on steam locomotive performance recording has ever given any credence to a higher maximum speed. Only massive errors by people on the day who may well have had no experience at all of proper train timing, (or speed timing of any type), lead to the over 100 mph claim being made. And those people included newspaper reporters, so the highly inaccurate speed would have been given immediate widespread publicity, creating the "legend", and eventually leading to the preservation of NYC No. 999.

 

[turnkey4099]

Nope!! Not New Mexico or Oklahoma but good guesses.
More info. They had to fly in 60-60 conditions.

Similar story about islands on the Aleutian chain although there was no telephone pole mentioned.

Never heard the "60-60 conditions". Explanation? I assume very bad weather. That for sure applied to the Aleutians. I was stationed way out near the end (Shemya) in 1956.

Harry K

 

[k0ua]

We sure have hit on a number of different topics here on this thread. Lets see if this generates any interest.

A standard automotive turn signal bulb an 1156, consumes about 27 watts of power, The earth is pretty much a sphere. VHF and UHF radio waves usually (note I said usually) travel in more or less straight lines. That means if you are not in line with one of these signals, they usually just propagate from the transmitter antenna out into outer space and keep on going.

But HF radio waves (These are waves from 3 to 30 Megahertz in frequency) often can be propagated for thousands of miles. You can easily send a digital HF signal from where I live here in Missouri to countries in Europe with just 1 watt of power.

If you used as much as the 27 watts (like the automotive lamp) a voice signal could easily be transmitted and received at that distance as well. Sometimes with much less power, sometimes much more is needed.

What is the mechanism at work here that allows these signals to cross oceans and continents without just flying off into outer space?.

 

[bcp]

I'll have to reflect on that question.

Bruce

 

[k0ua]

I'll have to reflect on that question.

Bruce

ooooohhhhh Clever! But what exactly is going on? What causes it to happen?

 

[RSKY]

Bouncing the radio waves off the ionosphere.

 

[Jim Shooz]

Want me to bounce the answer off you ??