Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-08-03

accord neither with good sellse lor the spirit of fair play They can do injury only tn itself.
 ELECTRICITY AS < MOTOR
 One of the great problems Of ;he pressat and immediute future, especially in the larger cities where the people crowd each other in tie pn, suit of desirable or con venient living places, is the question of rapid transit. When a few years ago New York city adopted the temporary expedi- ent of elevated railways, with steam as motive force, t was thought that the question was settled for many years 10 come. Already, however, there is press ing demand for greater facilities of transit to and from the fast settling region on and beyond the northern boundaries of Manhattan island, and commission ap- pointed by Mayor Grant is already at work investigating means to supply the demand. Tho same exigency, only in a lesser degree, confronts the other great and growing cities of the republic.
 We believe the force that is capable of solving this problem is electricity. It would aaom that American ingenuity has already cxhaustcd the possibilities of steam, while it has only just begun to comprehend and seize the enormous properties and possibilities of electricity. As q motive force the electric fluid has already demonstrated its value, and there iS, T.
 the eve of still greater discoveries. Those wonderful minds that have grapplod with and harnessed the lightnines are working with restless energy to possess themselves of the secrets of this wonderful and subtle substance which We ca II electricity, and each day brings us new knowledge of it's resources Edisons have multiplied and continue to increase, 30 that not to that wonderful genius alone need we look for the com plete and perfect evolution of human con- disions, that is borne in the womb of elec- tricity. It is to this ceaseless delviny of many geniuses that we look for the early development of a convenient and successful electric motive system. The overhead system that has heen cried and is now in operation i'll many places through the c"rn'fy is not accepted as satisfactory, the chief obj ecticns being its disfeurins char act+r, the ease with which it becomes dis arranged and the dangers that lurk in the wires. The storage system seems to ho the only satisfactory one, but that has not ys; attained the perfection necessary to ns complete and harmonious working. Ih"ro are, however, indications that we are approaching the period when we shall
 zee our CATS moved by stored electricity onf water craft propelled by it, and even ordinary street vehicles transported from place to place by it's agency. The indi vidual who claims that he can move q train of cars by means of electricity at the rate ct 26O miles an hour may have merely anticipated its possibility, but the fact it. self seems sure to eyentuate When the time arrives that electricity can be prop. o1ly stored and ifs full force properly ap- piled there will be an entire revolution in our modea of travel and transportation As th" properties and control of the electric fluid become better understood ! the commercial success of its uss as , ] native force is assured And this leads tt l the observation tint the cities will find
 tEc1ein tho solution of the rapid transit problem as well ns the settlement of the l social problems which spring out of tht
 congestion of population within narrow 1 limits. There will then be TO need ot
 crowding people together in tenement
 houses, f'r means can be found of giving 1 them a,npla room to live in within reason
 able acct =s of those places where they finc
 their daily broad. With swi..-runnine
 electric c.rs they can house themselves ir
 the suburbs of the cities and find thei
 way to and from their employment d
 small expense and in ready time It will
 indeed, be a blessing and a comfort to the
 toilers of the great cities. And who knows
 with the wonderful evolutions of knowl edge i'll regard to the uses of electricit,
 that mark our time, but that men car
 store electricity about their person and SC
 relieve themselves of the exertion incident to personal motion. It would be no more ] visionary to predict this than decad,
 ago it would have been to predict tn, | wonders that have since been achieved ir | the uses of electricity.
 Electricity is the motor of the future.