the first problem in making a village or a city house is the excavation for foundation and cellar. in the case of isolated houses the cellar is dug by hand labor and dirt carried away by horse-drawn carts. witness the difference in method between such excavation and that of a canal, the grading of a railroad or any other project that is to be made in line. in the latter case the steam shovel replaces the spade, and the work train, the dump cart.
those familiar with city subway construction will at first think the idea of a railway in the basement is an expensive luxury. but the excavation of the roadtown basement should be compared with the new york state canal, not the new york subway. 41
to be built of cement.
the roadtown will be built of cement, fire proof and vermin proof. modern so-called fire proof buildings are frequently destroyed by fire. this is because they contain combustible material. if material in a large building gets on fire and through stairways and air shafts sets fire to other combustibles, the whole building is heated to the ignition point.
the horizontal roadtown house, only two stories high, cannot be destroyed in this fashion. even if a roadtown were built of carolina pine, it would still be a safer fire risk than modern fire proof buildings in cities. a fire raging in a continuous house could as a last resort be stopped by two sticks of dynamite. in the city the fire line must be fought on all sides of an ever enlarging circle. dropping this theoretical point we can say that the really fire proof roadtown can be made at a fraction of the cost of making a building of similar enclosing space semi-fire proof, which experience has shown is the best that can be done with city buildings of the box or tower type. the42 roadtown very likely will not carry fire insurance nor maintain a fire department, as every house will have a fire hose which can be instantly applied. the frightful expense and loss of life (and recently the source of graft) that our present civilization suffers because of fire, will be told to the roadtown children as we now tell about indian massacres.
roadtown will be proof against the “cyclones” that are the evil genius of country life in the south and west. as for earthquakes, san francisco’s experience proves that reinforced concrete is the best earthquake resister known.
any building material may be used, but we will here consider cement, poured into moulds, as a standard.
thomas a. edison, whose efforts at perfecting a method of molding complete houses by pouring cement into molds, has attracted world-wide attention, has donated to the roadtown the use of his cement house patents.
the roadtown, like the railroad, will get much of its building material, such as sand and stone, along the right of way, and haul it to its43 place in the structure on the railroad which will be the first part of a roadtown to be constructed. thus the expense will be greatly reduced.
wagon hauling and hand mixing, the heaviest items of expense in cement construction, are entirely eliminated in roadtown where the concrete is mixed and poured from a machine located on a work train.
the railroad will be noiseless.
the essential of the roadtown being the combination of transportation and house construction, the roadtown if invented in any age before the present one would have been worthless. the horse-pulled vehicle or the steam or gasoline engine would be a nuisance in any part of a building used for a dwelling. electrical transportation, on the other hand, is a perfectly refined method of locomotion and well suited for indoor uses.
of the various systems of transportation devised and now available, i believe the boyes monorail to be the most applicable to the needs of a continuous house, and i have prevailed44 upon mr. boyes to donate the use of his patents to roadtown.
this wonderful invention was perfected after many years of intense application by a thorough mechanic and electrician. it has been demonstrated and found to be thoroughly practical and is far in advance of either the present two-railed electric railroads, or the gyroscopic types of monorail cars which have lately attracted considerable attention because of their seeming disregard of the law of gravity.
the gyroscopic monorail, at a great expense and complication, eliminates one rail, but there is no particular gain in so doing, in fact there is a distinct loss for the thing that limits the speed of the ordinary electric car, is the loss of grip on the rail, and in the gyroscopic monorail the bearing surface of the steel wheels is reduced to just one-half that of the ordinary car.
the boyes monorail uses the principle of the gyroscope used in the brennan monorail with a difference that where the brennan45 gyroscope acts as a top the boyes monorail is kept true by the heavy drive wheel which acts on the principle of a hoop or rolling wheel. the boyes train is made in short cars or sections rigidly coupled together with rubber padded couplings. each car or section rides on a single concave leather faced wheel that runs on a broad convex steel rail. this wheel is set up within the body of the car, thus permitting the car to straddle the track.
there is a door on either side of each eight-foot car or section, which is opened and closed electrically. only six people enter at a doorway, thus eliminating all delays and jams at crowded stations.
the leather faced wheel grips the track to such a great degree that it is practicable to build the cars as light per passenger as is the bicycle, thus giving great efficiency and power. a train of the boyes type to carry the same passengers as the subway cars of new york, weighs one-thirtieth as much. the power is electrically fed to the train from a small “third” rail. 46
speed possibilities.
i hesitate to make any predictions as to the speed attainable in the boyes monorail. as is generally known, the world’s speed records are now held by automobiles, not railway trains. the record to date is about one hundred and thirty-two miles an hour made by oldfield, at ormond beach, florida. it is the traction grip in the rubber tired wheel that makes this speed possible. the boyes car will have this grip and instead of sand to run on will have a rail from which it will have to jump thirty inches to be derailed. the car cannot skid, jump the track nor upset. it does not carry the weight of its power creating apparatus. it has no heavy parts but the single wheel and its casings. the inventor states that with the power now used on the new york subway trains a boyes train carrying the same number of passengers will attain the speed of two hundred and fifty miles an hour. i recently asked an automobile manufacturer what, at present, set the limit on the speed autos. he replied, “the nerve of the47 driver.” the bearing parts of the monorail can be made many times the strength required for the speeds intended and thus reduce accidents from broken parts to a minimum. i have asked a number of engineers to give me a reason why the speed predictions of boyes could not be attained. one replied, “it’s never been done.” another said, “municipal politics.”
because i have spoken in favor of the boyes monorail i do not wish the reader to infer that the development of the roadtown depends upon the progress made by this invention. we have noiseless electric automobiles to-day and noiseless bicycles that serve well to demonstrate the feasibility of building a noiseless service for the purpose of roadtown and such a later system will indeed probably be installed in the first demonstration section. no man of a mechanical turn of mind will doubt for a minute that noise in transportation can be eliminated where it is desirable to do so.
the roadtown transportation system will be in the cellar. this idea will at first seem strange, and many people will suggest that it48 be put above ground thinking thus to save expense and have the “view.” i think a little explanation will show that the basement is the only logical location for the roadtown transportation line.
if it is above ground it will have to be fenced off or elevated to prevent loss of life. if it is fenced it will keep people from the land. if it is elevated the stations will be expensive and an eyesore. as for the idea of a view, we can say that the roadtown railroad is not for sightseeing any more than an elevator in a hotel. if placed beside the house line it would destroy the natural “view” and privacy of the home, and the roof is reserved for a better use.
the basement is clearly the only logical place to have the monorail where it will be absolutely convenient and yet free the house from the nuisance of living beside an elevated railroad track. the expense of the basement, where steam shovel and work train are utilized, as already explained, will be comparatively small, and the house above will provide a continuous covered passageway from the door of one’s apartment to the station. as for ventilation,49 which is a puzzling problem in city subways, it will be solved by a continuous opening made by building the house three or four feet above the ground; the roadtown trains will therefore run in a covered trench rather than in a subway.
because of the rail straddling plan the boyes car must be entered from both sides. three tracks will be required and these will be arranged one beneath the other. the reason for this is obvious: if arranged side by side, passengers would have to climb up the height of the car and down again. arranged vertically, they need climb only up or down. because the distance from rail level to car floor level is practically eliminated in the boyes car, this climb will be but seven or eight feet instead of twelve as with present train service. the upper track will be for local service. passengers will walk from their house along a continuous platform or hallway to the local stations, which will be located about 100 yards apart. the object of having definite stations or stopping places is simply one of gaining speed by having the people in50 groups. the platform will be continuous and the trains can be stopped at any house desired if there be a good reason for so doing.
about every five miles there will be an express station. here the people will climb down eight feet, or sixteen if going the opposite direction, and board a train that is not bothered with frequent stops and can hence make very high speed.
the following is a sample specification of roadtown train service as submitted by william h. boyes, using the boyes monorail system at a speed of only ninety miles per hour. line from new york to philadelphia, ninety miles. daily traveling population, one to a family, 250 per mile, 11,250 to go each way. 3,916 per hour for three rush hours. speed, ninety miles per hour; time of round trip, two hours; trains five minutes apart; stations, five miles apart. trains, twenty-four; seating capacity per train, 336; capacity of express service, 4,032 hourly. local trains oscillating between express stations each to carry 224 passengers per hour, eighteen required.
51 this specification submitted by mr. boyes gives a remarkably small equipment for the traffic handled compared with present figures. the chief difference is due to the high speed. there are many who will not believe that a ninety-mile schedule will be maintained, not so many perhaps as would two years ago have refused to believe that man could fly from new york to philadelphia, an account of the accomplishment of which lies on my desk as i write. for those to whom seeing is necessary to believing, the speed above may be cut in half, which will then be about that in the new york subway. the express trains will then run on a two-and-a-half-minute schedule and twice as many will be required, but the cost will still be much lower than present day commuting service and efficient enough to make the entire roadtown from new york to philadelphia as accessible for commuters as is now a suburban home fifteen miles from new york and a half mile from the railroad station.
the single train on the local track will make a round trip between express stations about every fifteen minutes. those near the middle52 of the section will catch the train going in either direction, as the time for the express to travel the distance of one express station is negligible. in each roadtown home there will be an electric buzzer which, when the switch is so turned, will announce the approach of a train in sufficient time to allow one to get to the station. the buzzer will have two distinct sounds, one for trains in either direction.
roadtown parcels, such as are not cared for in a small mechanical carrier described in chapter vi, will be hauled on the local trains. roadtown freight service will be at night on the express tracks, the trains stopping at stations located at suitable distances and distinct from the passenger stations. at these freight stations there will be elevators or inclines delivering freight to or receiving it from the land outside, while furniture, etc., for the houses will be elevated to the platform above and carried on the very early trips of the local trains to one’s door.
wrecks on such a railroad system can only occur from actual breaking of some working part, a comparatively rare cause of present53 wrecks. the local track collision cannot occur as there is only one train in a section. on the two express tracks, “tail-end” collisions will be prevented by a block system that turns off the power automatically when trains approach within a certain distance of each other. this system is in operation in the new york subways.
the street upon the roof.
private stairs from each home will lead down to the monorail platform and up to the roof. in the center of the roof will be a promenade which will be covered, and in the winter enclosed with glass panels and steam heated. on the outer edges of the roof will be a path for bicyclists and skaters, who will use rubber tired roller skates. the monorail, which is the business transportation system of roadtown, will be placed out of sight and run at high speed, but the roof promenade will be the “street” for recreation and pleasure. in winter the promenade will be a continuous sun parlor; in summer a shaded walk. there will be benches in alcoves along the54 way and occasional towers over the promenade and tower effects along the edges of the roof beyond the cycle paths or some other architectural effects to break the monotony. these towers will be used as co?perative centers, such as stores, cooking and power, recreation, schools, nurseries, etc. the tower effects are matters of architectural ingenuity, and many architects are already interested in finding ways to lend variety and beauty to the roadtown as they have to our existing public ways.
certainly no street or boulevard in the history of the world was ever more uniquely located. the splendid view to be obtained from such a promenade in a dust-free and smoke-free country can hardly be pictured to a city bred man or a countryman jogging along the hedge and weed throttled country road. the view across the near gardens and more distant grain fields, and back over woods and hills to the dim line where land meets sky, will cure forever a score of latin-named diseases which the eye specialist tells us come from gazing through the dust-laden street or55 across the dingy court into our neighbor’s kitchen window.
it is upon the roof that the roadtown will be upon dress parade. here maids with their lovers will stroll of evenings and matrons with their baby carriages on sunday afternoons. it is here that children will have never ending sport. skating and cycling can have an unprecedented opportunity to develop for health and pleasure. it is here that easter hats will be shown and neighbors’ crops discussed and new acquaintances made and local pride developed.
the question naturally arises as to the sound of conversation from the roof reaching the living-rooms or the sound from the rooms reaching the roof. the cement walls are practically sound proof and for sounds to be heard from roof to house or house to house requires that it pass into the open air and bend through a 180 degree angle. sound does not travel in that way as one may readily prove by trying to shout around the corner of a ledge of rock or over a stone building. with all windows and doors wide open in the roadtown home, the56 only sound of ordinary magnitude to be heard will be from the singing of birds and the play of children in front of the window. the uncanny noise of city streets and of quarrelsome neighbors across the air shaft will be missing. people who cannot content themselves with the quiet of a roadtown home will have to use the telephone, electric music, roof promenade or go to the social center. promenaders cannot stare into nor listen at their neighbors’ windows. the roadtowner’s home is his castle in the truest sense of the word, and more private, notwithstanding the close proximity to neighbors, and hence more consecrated to family life than any previous style of dwelling known.
the roadtown will have no streets because it will need none. as it is built through the country, there will, of course, be roads as well as streets to cross. here the monorail will run under, and the roof bridge over the roads. at such road crossings and such other places where roads are built back into the country, stables and garages will be provided.
the natural desire to drive one’s own57 vehicles up to the door of his own house will cause an occasional remonstrance against the plan at first, but as people find that there is no need of such roadways they will come to consider the roadtown road crossings as their front door, when viewed from the auto or equestrian’s standpoint, and no more think of the necessity of a private roadway to their own house than that of having their auto sent up the tenth story of an apartment house.
those who wish to pay a visit to a roadtown home will come to the nearest point where the railroad crosses the roadtown or if traveling by horse or auto where the public road crosses the roadtown and will leave their vehicle in charge of a caretaker and have their name ’phoned in as one does at an up-to-date apartment house or hotel. if the roadtowner is at home, the caller will then take the monorail or the roof promenade as the distance or his inclination dictates, and thus reach the door of his friend’s home.
such a system will give the humblest roadtowner the opportunity of the high class apartment house dweller to say that he is not at58 home to unwelcome visitors, and yet the roadtown home built on the ground floor with its windows looking out into a private garden will have all the home-like simplicity of a cottage, and at the same time modern conveniences and luxuries which cannot be found in any king’s palace.