Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-07-09
Electricity as a Street-Car Motor
Baltimore Sun.

Electricity as a Street-Car Motor.
Baltimore Sun.
The first trial trip of the new Daft
electric motor of the Union Railroad
company was successfully made a
few days ago as far as WOrth's
switch, half the distance between. the
Huntington avenue car stables and
Hampden. A great deal of interest is
taken In the test of this meteor, and
the Union Railroad company are the
first to put it into use on business
basis by adapting their line from
North avenue to Hampden, Baltimore
county (about two miles and half.
for electric railroading. 4 second
motor will be here in a few days, and
with the two machines the line will
have all the electrical equipment
necessary for working the road.
The trial trip of the motor was
made after the horse car work was
done for the night. The motor, which
weighs two tons, comprises 1O>horSe
power dynamo, and is placed on a
little cab about six by eight feet in
engineer. The dynamo IN the build
ing at the car stables is of so horse
power. The engineer manages the
concern with d break to regulate the
speed, an index or gauge, a lever to
regulate the electric contact and ar
rangements to reverse the motor. etc.
1t had rained during the night and
the track was not in favorable con-
dition, because in portions the rails
were covered with dirt. When the
motor, in moving along the tracks.
struck the debris the electric contact
was broken and the wheels threw off
showers of sparks like st. Catharine
wheels, that lit up the surrounding
darkness. A common sweeping broom
cleared away the dirt, and in every
instance the motor at once moved on.
The engineer by severing the contact
could come to a full stop as readily as
gas slight is extinguised.
A third rail is the important ia ctor
IN this electric locomotion. This rail
is elevated above the other rails by be-
ing placed on little wooden insulators
saturated with parafne. These are
set on the erosssties. A grooved wheel
twelve inches in diameter runs in the
third rail- That conducts the elec~
tricity from the third rail to the dyna.
mo in the cab, which is geared to the
driving wheels, and from the wheels
of the motor to the tracks, by which
means the circuit is completed. The
connection is made with the third
rail from the large dynamo in the en-
CINE house at the stables by q covered
copper wire. When the grooved
wheels under the motor is let down,
then the circuit is completed and the
car is ready to start. 1t is claimed the
Daft motor can operate continuous
street car line of ten miles, running at
a speed from eight to twelve miles an
hour and hauling one, two Or more
cars, as required.
The managers of the Union Rail
way company believe this is the COM
ing motor to do the street car work,
and that it is competition between
electricity and horses and mules-oats
and Cumberland coal. The engine
for operating the motors will consume
about two tons of coal day, and is
to dispense with the service Of about
twenty horses, which have been need
ed to TEEN the cars. The feed of a
morse is estimated at 35 cents day.
Or 81 for twenty. The motor can haul
a couple Of cars when the business is
good, and its first cost will IN time not
exceed that of pair Of horses. The
engineer acts as the driver, and the
cars must have conductors, so that
there will &c no reduction in the mum
Der of men employed on the cars.
The inventor is at work upon plans
for using the motor on street cars in
crowded thoroughfares. He proposes
to put the motors under the cars, be-
tween the wheels, and for an arrange
ment like the third rail will have q
continuance that will be so far cover
ed in the street bed as to keepit out of
the reach Of horses and vehicles,
while it will be at the same time in
connection with the motor But this
is question of detail only. The
Union company owns the Daft electric
power rights for Maryland and Wash
ington. It is said that the power to
run light machinery can be had by
running wire from the motor into
the upper stories of buildings.
Mr.. Leo Daft, the inventor, is an
electrician of repute. He has MS
works at Greenville, n. j., twelve
miles from New York, and he has for
several years had patents on cleo
tricity for powers and motors. Mr..
Daft will shortly put an electric en-
CINE on the Ninth Avenue Elevated
railroad Of New York. for experiment
tai service. The claim for the Daft
motor is that it is operated with low
tension current, which is always With
in the danger inqit and entirely harm
less. There is an Edison Field motor,
which has been tested in this country,
and Prof. Slemens has tested electric
motors at Belin and other parts OF
Earope.
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