Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-03-17
THE Elm GROVE ROAD AND An IN.
PROVED MOTOR.

PROVED MOTOR.
The accident on the Elm Grove road,
the other day, brought about by the
horses becoming mmanageable in de-
scending the hill at the Peninsula bridge,
has renewed the talk shout the practi-
cahi!ity of providing n different and
more speedy motor for that line than
the slow-gOing car horse.
The safety of the horse as a motor is
really not so much a question as is the
matter of speed. There have been few
accidents on the Elm Grove road since
it was opened, and the unfortunate Oe-
currence of few days ago, by which a
lady lost her life, might have been avoid
ed but for the lady's fright and attempt
to Jump from the car, as all the other
passengers who kept their seats escaped
unhurt.
But il serves, nevertheless, to demon
strate that the horse is not the most per-
feet motor, after all; that in addition to
being very slow, he is not always safe,
and an occurrence of this kind natu-
rally gives rise to the periodical discus
sion Of providing some motor that shall
make this line what it might
be, a means of speedy, comfortable and
reliable transit to and from the suburbs
of the city. To make it such is matter
not only of great interest to its patrons,
but the company realize that it would
be of great embarrassing profit to them,
and We have little doubt but that the
many and persistent experiments now
being made in other cities to provide a
satisfactory street car motor will soon
solve this problem, to the great reliefof
of our own and other cities.
In this connection, we notice that
test is now being made in Philadelphia,
of what is called the MEEARSEI inven-
ton, which is pronOunceda success, and
its adoption already concluded upon by
the Peoples Combination Line"
This is a compressed air motor, which
three years ago, was introduced in
Nantes, France, where it has been work
ing in satisfactory way ever since.
The cars which are being built by a
Philadelphia company expressly for the
new motor are somewhat different from
the ordinary car, although they have
heretofore been using the regular cars.
The new cars are described as having
capacity to accommodate thirty-one
passengers comfortably and sufficient
power will be carried to run the six-tOn
vehicle seven miles. The only visible
machinery on the car will be small
reservoir of hot water and steam, useful
in keeping the compressed air in 1.-The
pipes at the proper temperature, in one
corner of the front platform. All the
other machinery will be under and on
the sldes of the car, like that of an Ordl-
nary locomotive, except that in the
former it will be boxed in out of sight.
Under the car will be ten steel reservoirs
for the compressed air, with total
capacity of $3.50 cubic feet. These res
ervoirs are at the starting point filed
with air compressed. to thirty atmoS-
pheres. The driving wheels are q feet
in diameter and the rear wheels are ,!
feet in diameter. The bearings are ex-
ternal TO the wheels, and outside the
bearings on the driving axle are the
cranks, with counter balances forged on,
and return cranks with double pins to
work the link motions for the slide
valves. The cylinders are placed hOri-
zontally in front of the driving wheels
and are 81 inches diameter by lOi inches
stroke.
The air used is. compressed III an
engine house fifty yards from the ear,
forced into an accumulation from where
it was by means of pipes sent into the
reservoirs that supply the engines.
Under ordinary circumstances COM
pressed air enough to run car seven or
eight miles can be made and forced into
the reservoirs in less than ten minutes.
The machinery Is not at allcompllcated,
and it is said that there are responsible
manufacturers in that city who will en-
gage to construct machinery to supply
traction power for cars at a cost for the
traction not exceeding four cents per
mile, which is less than one-half the
present cost drumming any railway line
in the city.
In addition to the other advantages
claimed for the motor is that it will not
brighten horses. Its, Ofcourse, cheaper
and less complicated than the cabel
lines, and from all that is said Of it, We
would fain hope that it may furnish
satisfactory plan for improving our Elm
Grove road.