The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-11-28
TELPHERAGE,
Adaptation of Electricity as Source OF
Motive Power.

Adaptation of ELECTRICITY as source OF
Motive Power.
Telpherage is the name which has
been given to a system of automatically
transporting goods by the agency of
electricity as the motive power, which
system was the invention of the late
Prof. Fleming Jenkin. Dying in
June last however, the Professor did
not live to see his ingenious ideas carried
out on practical scale. He had begun
the construction of a telpher line on the
estate of Lord Hampden at GlynGe,
near Lewes; but his plans had to be
perfected by Prof Perry, his sue
cessor as the engineer to the Telpherage
Company. This line has beef COM
pletcd, and was formally opened by
Lady Hampden, who electrically started
q loaded train on the line. A special
train conveyed a large number of
visitors from Victoria Station to Glynde,
among the company being Sir Frederick
Abel, Admiral Sir Edward Inglefeld,
Mr.. w. H. Preece and Prof. Ayrton.
The line is a double one, nearly a
mile in length, and is composed of two
sets OF steel rods three-quarters of an
inch in diameter supported on wooden
posts of T-shape, and about eighteen
feet high. The wires are supported one
on either end of the cross piece of the
I, which is eight feet long. The
carriers, or sldps. as they are technically
termed, are iron trough shaped buckets,
each holding about two cwt., and sus-
al
frame, at the upper end of which is :;
pair Of grooyed wheels running on the
line of rods. A train is made up of ten
Of these skips which are in electrical
connection with each other, and with
an electrical motor which is placed in
the middle OF the train, having five
skips in front Of and five behind it.
At a point about midway Of the
length Of the line is the engine
house, in which is steam engine
which drives the dynamos. From
these latter the current is led to
the line, and thus to the electrical
motor which moves the train. The
use to which the line is put is to
carry clay from pit to the Glynde
Railway siding, whence it is delivered
into trunks and transported by rail to
the works of the New Haven Cement
Company. Al the charging end of the
telpher line the skips are loaded, each
with about two cwt. OF clay, the train
thus carrying one ton. 4 labOrer. by
touching q key, starts the train. which
travels at speed of from four to five
miles an hour along the overhead line
to the Glynde station. Arrived there,
another laborer upscts each skip as it
passes over a railway truck. into which
the clay is thus loaded. The upsetting
however, will eventually be performed
automatically BY means of lever on
each skip, which will come in contact
with a projecting arm rs itpasses over
the truck. The laborer at the dis
charging end of the line has full con-
troll over the train, and can stop, start,
and reverse it at will us can also the
man at the other, or loading end.
There are two trains at Glvnde, but
only one is at present used, that being
found sufficient to deliver one hundred
and fifty tons of clay per week at the
statiOn-the minimum quantity re-
CURED by the cement company. The
trains need no attention when running,
as they are governed torun at the same
speed both on rising and falling
gradients. An automatic block system
is provided, so that as many as twenty
trains can be run on the line without
the possibility Of collision. The tel
pherage line at Glynde being the frst
erected, it is admitted that its details
are capable Of improvement. 1t, how
ever, successfully demonstrates the
ingenious idea OF Prof Jeukjn in utiliz
ing electricity as source OF motive
power. Beyond this it can hardly be
said to 60 at present.-Lond0n Times