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SWITCHBACK

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 238 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SWITCHBACK , a See also:

form of See also:pleasure railway, built over alternate descents and ascents, the See also:train or See also:car first gathering momentum by See also:running down an incline, and surmounting by means of this a lesser ascent. Switchbacks were originally merely an See also:imitation, using cars upon wheels, of the sledge-See also:coasting courses of See also:Russia, and were indeed named by the See also:French montagnes russes. They were introduced in See also:Paris in 1816, but soon disappeared in See also:con-sequence of several serious accidents. About 188o they again became popular both in See also:Europe and See also:America. A variation of the switchback, though lacking its essential principle of climbing by means of momentum, is the See also:water-chute, an imitation of the See also:Canadian toboggan-slide, in which cars built in the shape of boats glide down steep inclines into artificial lakes at their bases. This is popularly called " See also:shooting the chutes." A further variation is " looping the See also:loop," in which a heavy car on wheels, or a See also:bicycle, starting at a considerable See also:altitude, descends an incline so steep that sufficient momentum is accumulated to carry it completely See also:round a track in the form of a perpendicular loop, in the course of which See also:journey the occupants or rider, while See also:crossing the See also:top of the loop, are actually See also:head downwards. Later it was made even more dangerous by taking out See also:part of the top of the loop, so that the car or bicycle actually passes through the See also:air across the See also:gap.

End of Article: SWITCHBACK

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