Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-27

tAos AaCy AA0J 1Czp Liz DCLcAiS iiC1A Jul
natural advantages and the power to con-
troll this most subtle fluid, which is no
longer open to question. For the last
eighteen months electricity as a method of
traction has kept a very important place in
street railway operation. Since the sue
cessful equipment of the Union Passenger
Railway of
RICHMOND, VA,
Which is one of the most difficult roads to
operate on the Atlantic coast, electricity
has been making rapid strides, and is now
replacing the WORKOUT horse at tremend-
Gus rate. One cannot pick up an electric
or street railway paper without seeing no
tees of from one 10 dozen street railways
that are being equipped, or about to be
equipped, with electricity. There are to-
day in the reighborhood of one thousand
cars which are thus equipped, or contracted
for with some electric company. There
are some people on this coast whose bust
ness II seems to be to keep the people in
the dark with regard to the progress of the
day in this branch Of applied science, and
some of them may be so bold as to deny
that the Richmond road, which l have
cited, is success. For the benefit of these
persons l will call attention 10 commu-
nication from the Mayor of Richmond 10
A. NJ. Noble, Secretary of the Stockton
Board of Trade. dated April %, 1889
He says THE electric street-car system
gives general satisfaction" The Secretary
OF the same road, Andrew Pizinni, in q
communication of recent date TO q gentle
man on this coast, says that the Richmond
road has been in operation for fifteen
months, giving entire satisfaction, and
have no doubt that Mr.. Pizinni would
make the same Statement to any one Such
great succ IS has this road been that q
large order for an additional equipment
has been placed with the company which
equipped the road
THE TOWN OF SCRANTON, Pa,
Has four or five electric roads. st. Joseph
Mo-, will soon have all of its street-car sys.
TENS converted into electricity. The City
Council of Boston has recently passed an
ordinance allowing the erection of poles
with the view of converting the whole, OF
most OF the car system TO an electric sys-
TEN. Such towns as Buffalo, n Y; Gin.
cinnati, Ohio; Cleveland, Ohio; Pittsburg
Pa; Wilmington, Del ST. Louis; Omaha
Davenport, Ia; Erie, Pa; Chattanooga
Tenn; Seattle, Portland, Tacoma and
many others have adopted electricity OF
some of their roads, and the people are de
lighted with it. Allow me 10 copy here
from
A LETTER
By E. F. Kysor, an architect of Los Anse,
les, and Director of & street rail way there
to the Secretary of the road:
wrote to you while in Kansas City, but had
nothing satisfactory to write, as I did not fnd
anything there that pleased me al all Since
then have made d trip 10 ST. Joseph, No, &c
see the electric systems there. | found there
were two roads there of the Sprague electric
system. One is called the Union Railroad run.
hlng on broadway; the highest grade ON that
one was ~ per cent The grade on the other
electric road runs as high as 10 per cent: both
roads were in excel ent condition and working
hrSt-eiass They can speed them TO twenty
miles an hour down to the very slowest motion
They have absolute c5ntrol OF the motors They
can stop them from full speed within half the
length OF the car; can reverse and back up in.
stantly. They carried as high as eighty-th rec
passengers up the 10 per cent. grade with perfect
ease. The motor power is underneath a com,
mon car, so you could see nothing of the ma.
chiueIy, except little cylinder about seven OF
eight inches in diameter and two feet high
placed on each end of the car on the platform
and worked with a little short crank on ton
which makes the car douOle-header did
not learn the cost of running, but they told me
II was from SO to 40 per cent. les than horse
power.
SpTague has patent on running the over
hesd wires, winch are no more of an eye-sore
than the common telegraph and telephoDe wires
feet apart on each side of the street with wire
stays running across from one pole to the other
suspendlng the electric wire ia the center The
wire being not much larger than the common
telegraph wire. The main electric wire runs on
one Size OF the street with feeders to the center
at regular intervals. The poles are strong
enough SO that all electric, telegraph and teie-
phone wires can be placed on the same pole.
making no more pole than is generally used in
any city.
People Of St. Joseph are delighted with this
system and are consolidating other roads and
are putting in the Sprague system. In fact, il is
the only thing that pleases me at all, SO far
This coming from az entirely unpreiu-
diced party should have considerable
weight. One of The strong est iudorse-
ments of electric propulsion is its adoption
by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for
the equipment of its street railway system
in Atlantic City, n. ]. Itwouid be natural
to expect that company like this, which
is acknowledged To have one of the best
equipped roads in the world. would not
enter into a contract for an equipment
without very careful investigation into It's
merits, and TO this erd q committee of
mechanical and electrical experts carried
on an investigation continuing for about
five months. during which time they ex-
amined the operation of the principal cleo
tric roads then equipped, and were so sat
1SHCh SAS ~ AAIO DldCt4GdOittty Oh GleCtflC
traction that it was adopted 10y the Atlantic
City road, which has now been in opeIa-
ton for some weeks and with such success
that an increase of equipment has been
ordered. Probably as impartial a state
ment as could be made is the following,
entitled,
ELECTRIC VERSUS ANIMAL TBAcTIoN,"
Which appeared as an editorial in the June
l,,r rf
paper which is devoted TO The interests of
street railways in general, and is not the
organ OF any particular system
The electric street railway business is grow
ing at tremendously rapid rate throughout
TINS country, and almost every n all brings word
OF new plants beng installed Whore. two
years ago, hardly dozen cars were belrg run
by electricity, 10 day there are over one thou
sand running over five or six hundred miles of
road, representing over a hundred different
plants. The cause of this enormous growth
IN IN, one ne puslness IN so short a time
OF all railroad managers is TO reduce The
running expenses OF their roads 10 the mini
num- and 1t has been found that operating a
road by electricity, using The best known syS.
tenn, reduces the expenses TO the lowest level
One big bill of expense on street railway is the
depreciation account and il is well-knoWn
TACT that the repair on road operated by horse
power mas run as high as p per cent, while on
roads operated by electricity they are much less
A great many figures have been published in
regard 10 the re alive costs of operating cars bv
electricity aud horses. One Of the most inter
esting statements from pTsctical experience
which was published in the Gaztfte few issues
ago, was from President W. L. Alien of the pa
yenport Central Railway Company OF Daven-
port, Iowa This shows Il gross increase in earn
ings OF from IS per cent 10 IS per cent ard a
net increase Of from 10 per CEN 10 $50 per
cent, nom the four months from Seplember
10 January !, 1882 with electricity, comparad
with the same months of the year before with
horses.
The statement OF a street railway President
ike Mr.. Allen is worth a great deal ana his
figures prove eonclpsively that the operating ex.
penses and repsirs on 3 road run by electricity
are much less than on the same road operated
by horse power. II is, therefore, not surprising
mat 50 many street railways In this country are
electricity for horse power.
/ have recently seen the statement that
A WEALTHY CHICAGO SYNDICATE
Has recently purchased an electric railway
Tor The sum OF $3.50, 000--some three times
The original cost Of the road. When oper-
itsd by horses The road did not paw ooer-
ating expenses, but since the electrical