Dear
reader, you will certainly acknowledge the fact that such a ride surpassed
any similar brief journey ever taken. For, what other device for
transportation can maintain the claim of enabling its passengers to look
upon the whole world during twenty-five minutes!--
"When you get used to the motion
Only delight you will feel:
Gone is each terrified notion
Once in the circle of steel.
And you enjoy the commotion
Clap and applaud with much zeal:
For it surpasses old ocean
To ride in the great 'Ferris Wheel.'"
The sun--being almost too liberal in the expenditure of heat--made us long
for a refreshing breeze. Therefore we decided to ride in the
_Ice-Railway._ Here we had opportunity to feel the excitement caused by
velocity of motion. For a seventy mile-an-hour locomotive would have been
monotonous and tiresome in comparison with a dash around the ice-railway
track, containing 850 feet, and covering an elliptic space whose surface
had a coat of ice nearly an inch thick. Over this smooth and glistening
substance the bobsleigh was gliding with the speed of a toboggan and the
ease of a coaster to the merry jingle of sleigh bells.
This exhibit--whose cost amounted to $100,000--gave an example of
inventive genius, and also of the successful application--in a novel
manner--of the principles of refrigeration.
Pages:
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113