Word: maglev
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High-temperature superconducting magnets may become important in the maglev, or magnetically levitated, trains under development in Japan and West Germany. And scientists at Japan's Mercantile Marine University in Kobe have already developed a working scale model of a ship with a propulsion system based on magnetism. Physicist Yoshiro Saji sends current through the seawater from an onboard electric generator via ship-bottom electrodes. A superconducting magnet, also on board, creates a strong magnetic field. As the electromagnetic field produced by the electric current pushes against the field of the magnet, the ship moves forward. Saji has already moved...
...Japan's maglev is faster because instead of pounding along a set of rails, it floats four inches above a guideway on a cushion of magnetic force; there is no friction to slow it down, no fear of derailment on a section of bent track. This maglev has wheels, but the only times it uses them are while picking up speed before lift-off and while slowing down after landing...
Lift-Off. Nicknamed "Maglev" (for magnetic levitation) by the Stanford engineers, the train could use any number of propulsion systems: propellers, jet engines or even rocket motors. But both Japanese and American designers favor linear induction motors. These are similar to conventional electric motors, but they have, in effect, been flattened out. Part of the undercarriage of the train acts as the motor's fixed coils, while a vertical guide rail in the center of the pathway takes the place of its spinning rotor. When enough electrical power is fed into the system, the train begins to move forward...
...cost the Japanese at least $3.5 billion. The U.S. Government, for its part, has not made any commitment to such an expensive scheme. But the California researchers are hopeful that they will eventually get funds from Washington. They have already decorated their office walls with a poster that reads, MAGLEV...