The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-18
ELECTRIcAa. POSSIBILITIES.
Edison Says Development is at a Stand
still, but Inventors Are Busily at Work.

Edison Says Development Is at a Stand
still, but Inventors Are Busily at Work.
Interview in New York Meil and Express.
rs the electric motor going to be a SUGGEST"
Yes; it is a success already, and we have ono
winch is in demand, but we cannot supply them
lights"
Shall we ever have a successful electric loco
motive engine?"
Yes. There are successful locomotive en-
glnes now, but people have no confidence in
them. and, like electric lighting, the progress in
introducing them will be necessarily slow"
What became of your engineer
1T works entirely satisfactorily, and has been
purchased by a large stock company, which is
planning its practical introduction. The electric
engine, OF one sort or another, must come into
use in the cities. It's cheapness is enough to
bring that about. Three pounds of coal will
produce rs much electrical power from a station
airy engine. or five pounds of coal on an electrical
locomotive, as seven pounds of coal viii produce
IN steam power on your present engines. Then
your engines are light, your tracks are light and
the riding is smooth and velvety, and notsubjec
to the constant jolts and jars to which travellers
now have to submit. You must remember that
your railway tracks are not built for cars, butfor
locomotives. The latter weigh three or four
times the former, have to have heavy and costly
tracks, which at any considerable rate of speed
they hammer with tremendous force and finally
wear out. TIL same thing is true in another
way of the elevated roads. They rush along the
framework, causing it to constantly sway from
side to side, with a force which can only result
in cutting off the bolt heads. It takes two men
to run a steam locomotive, while the electric
machine requires only one. All these and many
other things make the ultimate introduction of
the electric engine on light roads and in the
cities certain"
mot on the great roads,"
Il doubt it. That time may come, but it is
not in sight; but right here in New York you
would getrid of dust, smoke, noise, oil drippings
and gas, and in tunnels you could have light and
ventilation where you are now stified with smoke
and gas and deafened by the noise The loco
motive itself would furnish all the light for the
train. But people are stupid and won't expert
ment. They can see and understand a cable and
drum and rope and talk of cable roads. but they
don't understand the electric locomotive, and
hence have no confidence in it. Time will bring
it, all the same"
''Win electricity ever help us to navigate the
air."
Eyes, when we can get FIVE or six times more
power per pound of weight than wenow getfrom
the best forms of small engines. ELECTRICITY has
ping his knee stoutly with his fist. I'VE wait
to get electricity from coal direct without the
intervention of boiler and engine. A good many
people are at work on it, too, tell your
You are notg"
"Ah, 1 won't say yet! I won't say even that
there is any probability about tive don't
see our way at an to it; but I will say it is
surely possible. Zinc and other metals we
can get into electricity at once, but the trouble
is to do that with coal and carbon. If we
could, we could get six horse power from one
pound of coal while, with the boiler and steam
engine we get only one-horse power from three
pounds of coal. We can't transmit directly the
power Of carbon. If We could the ocean steam
ships could have all her boiler room and q great
part of her coal hunkers for cargo, Willie the
motive power would not occupy more than half
the room at present devoted to the heavy en-
gines. Enormous sums would be saved on con
s%truction and the cost Of running would be
greatly reduced"
''Cannot you get power enough b. chemical
electricity to run electric engines?s
''Certainly-get all we want and utilize it,
t'Onlyg"
"Only we can't feed our engines with money.
In fact, its money we want, and for that we
want the power. Zinc is just as much a com
bustible in the battery or jar as coal is in the
furnace. But coal develops seven times as much
power as zine, and zinc costs thirty tite times as
much as coal, a difference in cost per pound Of
2$j to one, or "a, 500 per cent"
But about the balloonl'
well, having lightness with power, weshould
only need enough balloon for actual lifting power,
and we could attain a very high velocity. You
could hold a ten-horse power motor out
in your hand, and once in the ain,
with five pounds of coal, could the con-
sumption be made direct, the little
jigger could go anywhere. Nobody would want
TO ascend to great heights where the airs resist
anee to the propeller would decrease, but skim
along over the trees and houses like a bird above
the water. Th rudders could al be worked,
and your ballastless balloon could be raised or
lowered, turned to the'right or left by the motor
itself, and a boy could do all the. work. Such an
arrangement would scarcely dofor heavy freight,
but it could carry passengers and mail matter
and express parcels, and move readily at eighty
to one hundred miles an hour. If we can solve
the power question we can do anything"