Omaha daily bee., 1884-08-11
ELEcTB BTCTTyASA MO TOR.

ly had no conception OF the appliance OF
steam, electricity and magnetism. Steam
ships, railroads, ,telegraphs, telephones ana
electric lights have all come into exist
ance within very comparatively recent
period. The appliance of steam to loco
motion on the water was made at the
dawn of the present century. Sixty
years ago the world was without rail-
road. The first American telegraph
line was completed only forty years
ago. The marvellous appliances of elec-
tricity and magnetism to the transmits
sion of sound, the production Of light
and motive power, are all the products
Of the present generation. Scarcely a
day passes without some invention in the
varied appliances OF electricity and mag
netism which are revolutionizing almost
every branch Of industry. To most peo-
pie the appliance of electricity as mo-
tive power for the propulsion OF cars on
street railways will appear as an entirely
novel invention.
The recent successful introduction of
electric motors ON street railways in Ber-
lin and Cleveland is after all not 80 much
of novelty in electrical science as most
people are led to believe. Beginning
with the discovery of the electro. magnet
by Sturgeon and Henry, which preceded
Professor Morse's appliance Of electro
magnetism to telegraphy, there were
numerous experiments both in this coun-
try and Europe with electric motors. AS
far back as 1882 Prof, Sturgeon followed
up his electromagnetic experiments,
with the invention of 70.
tary motion electric motor. With this
improved motor Sturgeon announced in
1887 that he had succeeded in propelling
a boat and alao locomotive carriage, but
no capitalist in Great Britain or America
had faith enough in this invention to ad-
vance the money to put it into practical
use. Prof. jacob, of Russia, was more
successful in procuring the necessary
means for carrying into execution his ap-
pliance of electricity to locomotion. By
the aid OF the czar Of Russia he con.
structed a boat propelled by elec-
tricity, and in 1889 he made a
successful trip on the river Neva, to
demonstrate the practical use Of his in
vention. The only reason why Prof
Jacobs motor was discarded was simply
because it was too costly as substitute
for steam. Street railways were not
then in use in any part of the world,
hence Jacobs wonderful motor did not
take the place of horsepower. Uriah
Clark, of Leicester, England, built an
electric locomotive in 1910, which was
operated on q circular track for two
months at the Leicester exhibition, where
It attracted considerable attention, and
was regarded as great curiosity.
Thomas Davenport of Brandon, Vermont,
who, in 1887, invented small electric
motor, which operated turning lathe
run an electric locomotive on o railway
near Glasgow in 1845. 1t weighed five
tons, was of one-forse power, and at.
tained speed of four miles an hour.
At about the same time Prof. Page, of
Philadelphia, constructed an electric
locomotive which he ran from Washing
,on to Bladensburg, on the Baltimore & |
Ohio railroad.
In all the inventions so far referred to |
N this article the motor was carried by |
he locomotive itself, but there were
'thers in which stationary generator
vas used, the electricity was conducted
@ the propelling motor by means of con-
luctors along the track. Such was the
'ase with Pinker's electric railway in
England in 1910. Messrs. Lilly &
Jolton, OF Pittsburg, invented an cleo
'ric railway of this kind about the year
lS47. Twenty years ago another eclectric
railway was invented in England, and
various eclectric appliances for rail way
ocomotion have since been patented in
America and Europe from time to time.
Edison's eclectric railway at Menlo Park
vas really no new invention. He has not
made much advance upon the ideas of
'arlier eclectrical inventors. Nor is
he ideas of the Cleveland eclectric
treet railway new thing
In that system, the electric generators
ire placed on at permanent stations, an
ho current is conveyed along the track
~ conductors in underground condiuts.
The inventors, Messrs. Knight &
Bentley. do not claim that it is really
new. they simply maintain
hat they have taken up devices which
re open to every inventor, and by de.
'ices of their own have rendered
electric railways an economic and prac.
ical success.
That electric motors will ere long sup
'rsede horsepower on street railways, we
lave no more doubt than we have that
Electricity will supplant petroleum and
'as as an illuminator. 1t is only o ques'
ion of time when petroleum and gas will
20 employed to generate electricity for
III the uses to which these illuminators