, 1888-10-09
THE ELECTRIC MOTOR.
1T is BECOMING A FORCE IN ALMOST
EVERY INDUSTRY.

of Electric motors-A Successful Rail
road-Electricify in q Flour hIiI-Tho
Secret of Progress.
There are now about Sc. 600. 900 invested
In the manufacture of electric motors In
the United States, and this large invest
ment has nearly all been made within the
last three or four years. 1t represents
either the independent investment of com
panies engaged in the exclusive manufac
ture of motors, or an increase In the CAPT.
talization of companies that manufacture
electric light appliances, and find the con.
struction of electric motors a good auxil-
larry industry. Some of these companies
employ many hundred men, sometimes APP
preaching a thousand; and they turn out
motors almost innumerable each year.
These motors are of all sizes. from
one-half horse power for driving sewing
machines and such other light work. up
to several hundred horse power, for heavy
work. They are becoming q driving force
in almost every industry, and can be util
lied in localities where the cost of obtain.
ing fuel would almost equal their operat
ing expenses
Our readers have already been made
familiar with the names of some of the
towns and cities In the United States.
nearly fifty In all, that AVE adopted, or
are preparing to adopt, the electric motor
for street railway traction in preference
to horses or cables. The systems In use
In some of these places are very extended.
that of Montgomery, Ala. counting about
fifteen miles of road. and transporting
over a million passengers annually Elec
trio roads many miles in length are also
operated In some of the California cities.
most noticeably San Diego and los
Angeles.
A SUCCESSFUL
Recently a road twelve miles long was
opened in Richmond, Va. represented by
its managers. in a letter published in The
Electrical Review, to be a road of peculiar
difficulty in operating on account of the
sharp curves and difficult grades Some
of these grades reach the maximum ever
overcome by motors depending on the ad
hesiveness of their wheels to the tracks.
and In the length there are no less than
seventeen curves around right angled cor
ners. Yet the managers write with the
utmost enthusiasm of the successful
operation of the road in every particu
lar. The cars of the road, described as of
q very elegant pattern. are not only pro
PEELED by electricity, but they are lighted
by electricity, which naturally follows.
and when the cold weather comes they
are to be heated by electricity. in accord
ance with a system not yet generally
introduced. but for which patents AVE
been obtained.
Another field where the utility of the
electric motor Is soon to be illustrated on
a large scale is found in the mining dis
trict of Butte county. Cal. Among the
Big Bend mountains, making a horseshoe
curve about a dozen miles in extent, runs
the Feather river At the upper end of
the curve a dam. built entirely across the
river, will throw the water into a tunnel
several miles in length which empties into
the Dark canyon, the waters of the canyon
in u T emptying into the river at the
lower end Of the horseshoe. A water
wheel and electrical generators are to be
located In the canyon one mile, or a mile
and a half. from It's mouth; and from
these generators will proceed an electri
cal conductor. which, crossing over the
mountains to the dam, will follow the
shore of the river around the entire horse.
shoe, and return to the starting point
This conductor will be eighteen miles in
length, estimating the entire distance.
and at points here and there along
the route are to be located cleo
trio motors, numbering fourteen in
all. These motors will supply the power
for all the pumping. hauling and hosting
demanded in the operations of mining
after the water has been drawn from the
bed of the stream. The cost of operating
the motor can be easily estimated. 1t will
take a man to tend the water wheel, and
another man to look after the conductor
and keep 1t in order, and this, plus the
interest on the plant. which will not be
considerable, will represent the entire
outlay
They are building a new capitol at To
peka, in Kansas That might be a matter
of no particular concern in New York.
pNhgra MAN have ,u-.l -
the very word capitol. But this Kansas
capitol is to be built by electricity There
are four electric motors at work on the
building lifting the bricks. stones and
mortar up to their places. and handling
the stones again into position on the walls.
They are said to do their work admirably
ELECTRICITY IN A MILL
Away out In Laramie. Wy T., there is
a company known as the Laramie Milling
and Elevator company This company
has a mill capable of producing 100 bar
rels of -four a day, and the Only visible
source Of power Is seer in a couple of
little eccentrically shaped iron cases down
in one corner of the roller floor But
those cases are twenty-five horse power
electric motors. The manager of the com
pany, under the recent date of April 8.
gives a glowing account of their perform
ances. Among their points of excellence
be refers to their uniform rate OF speed.
the ease with which power can be placed
where it is wanted. ~obviating the neces.
sity for long lines of shafting or still
more Objectionable belts; the economy of
room for power plant; the saving of from
81 to 90 per cent. in insurance rates, and
the saving on first cost of plant. The
motors, he says. require very little atten-
ton, and give better service with vary
ing loads than any other power that could
be adopted.
The chief secret of the rapid advance of
this new mechanical agent Is found in tho
~dexibility of its resources. Electricity Is
not the generator of power. but only the
agency for its transmission and distribu-
ton, as 1t is an agent for the transmits
sion of the human voice over the tele-
phone wire. Through its resources mower