Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-08-14
THE SUCCESSOR OF STEAM.
A Glance at the Work the Electric
Motor is DOing-Its Manifold Lab
ors in the United States.
That Electricity is the Coming Power
There Can be no Doubt.

tA$ eieifoiSO LiI1SC US clcClIlCdl science
and application during the last few years
has been So phenomenal that it is hard to
define its extent. and it is only when an
attemp is made to follow the developments
In any particular branch that an approx
mate idea of its mighty progress as a
whole, and its far-reaching and ever
widening influence in the industrial world.
can be arrived at
From an investigation of one field alone,
that OF the electric motor it at once be-
comes apparent that revolution of limit
less extent is being effected In industry and
manufacture. There can be no doubt
that the electric motor is the most simple
and effective piece of mechanism yet de-
Vlsed tor the transmission and TRANSFORMED
ton OF energery in trustworthy and
economical way for useful work.
1t Is interesting to examine the different
ways IN which this superiority is shown,
and IN doing so it is advisable to eliminate
from more than passing consideration the
electric motor as applied to railroads and
to direct attention mainly to the character
and mission of stationary motors.
1t is nevertheless true that the use of
the electric motor for transportation pur-
poses is an industrial one Some idea of
the extent to which it has already ousted
the horse and come into competition with
the steam engine, the cable and the dunn
my engine may be drawn from the fact
Il at at the present time there are over
$50 electric roads in this country, run
ming or under contract with over SOC
miles of track and probably $500 cars.
These roads are already carrying between
two and three hundred million passengers
a year. They do this at an economy of 40
to so per eenJ. as compared with horses,
and, moreover, have the remarkable
advantage of building and enhancing in
value her residential districts. Incredible
as it may seem, also, to those who have
not watched the course Of events, several
of the shorter steam roads of the country
are now negotiating for electrical equip.
ments and probably before this article ap.
pears IN print contracts will have been
signed for roads fifteen to twenty-five
miles long. 1t is expected by cleo
trlcal engineers that during 1891 several
such roads will be built and equipped.
Putting aside this field however, at
tention may be confined to the use of the
electric motor for stationary power pur-
poses. 1t is quite possible that several
VI ullOoC VIII lCCltt UlCSC lIuCS 1udy uSNtl
have seen an electric motor, yet it is none
the less true that there are to-day already
in operation in this country over 10000
electric motors of various sizes, engaged in
an endless variety of occupations. One
company building motors reports that it's
machines are now employed IN nearly
200 distinct industries, and that new uses
are found daily. This development has
been seen almost entirely within the last
three years, from 1880 up to 1887
electrical engineers and contractors had
given their attention mainly to the in
stallation Of electric lighting plants in
American towns and cities, with the result
that there were some | 200 central stations
in operation supplying the arc light or the
incandescent light, and sometimes both.
A great many of these stations paid we'll
from the start, but it was soon found that
the lighting business was after all limit
ed one; that is, it could only be carried on
during the hours of darkness, so that a
valuable plant often lay idle sixteen Or
eighteen hours out of the twenty four.
Yet the current which such plant could
generate would lend itself as readily to
driving an electric motor as to furnishing
light in lamp, and the sane circuit that
conveyed it to the lamps would also con-
vey it to the motors. 1t was this fact that
gave great stimulus to the electric motor
industry about three years ago. and led to
the perfecting of what had heretofore been
a very crude and cumbersome piece of
mechanism. AS is now very generally
known, the electric motor has but one
moving part, the revolving armature, and
by means of pulley placed at the end of
the armature shaft its power can be APP
piled to any piece Of apparatus Or ma
chinery known to the arts. But up to
1886 nearly all the electric motors had been
badly designed and poorly built, and the
current that should have been converted
into power was simply wasted in develop
ing heat, so that the machines rapidly
burnt out and Otherwise became useless,
and were altogether too expensive to run
At the present time, however, there are
sveral electric motors in the market of ex-
cellent design, and workmanship, for
which as high an efficiency as over 80 per
cent. is claimed, and there can be no doubt
that the rate of efficiency in the smaller
sizes as in the larger is the highest that
has yet been attained by any piece of
power transmission machinery. Thus
an electric motor of one-half or one-quarter
horse power will easily show as high
as that of another sort of ten or fifteen
horse power, yet nobody dreams of a gas
engine or a steam engine of one-quarter
or one-half horse power to give anything
but small return upon the fuel applied
to it. Moreover, with the electric motor
an enormous advantage has been the fact
that when it has been installed and con-
nections have been made with the circuits
connecting it with the central station, it
is. practically ready that minute for work
All that is necessary is the turning of
switch and the CURRENT is instantaneously
there. With the steam engine, even when
the steam is taken from the steam mains
in the street, considerable attendance is
necessary, and In the vast majority of in
stances the steam has to be manufactured
on the spot so that boilers are necessary,
involving the attendance of an expert
engineer, the supply of water and coal,
and the removal of ashes. Such steam
plants also occupy considerable space and
throw off no small amount of heat The
idea however, with the electric motor is to
in central station all the
connected with the genera
ton of steam and to transmit the energy
IN the form of a current, so that all the
user has to do is draw off the supply as he
wants it, just as he would in turning a
tap to procure supply of water.