The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-07-26

10 examine the different ways IN which this {
is shown, and in doing go it is
advisable to eliminate from more than pas
sing consideration the electric motor as APP
piled to railroads and to direct attention
mainly to the character and mission of
motors.
It is nevertheless true that the use of the
electric motor for transportation purposes ls
an industrial one. Some idea of the extent
to which it has already ousted the horse,
and comes into competition with the steam
engine, the cable and the dummy engine
may be drawn from the fact that at the
present time there are over ESQ electric roads
in this country, running or under contract,
with ovey l ,5O0 miles of track and probably
2, 800 cars. These roads are already carry
ing between two and three hundred million
passengers year. They do this at an econ
omy of 40 to SO per cent. as compared with
horses, and. moreover, have the remarkable
advantage of building up traffic at greater
value new residential districts. Incredible
az 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 pr ,bably before this article APP
signed for roads Is to 20 miles long. It is
expected by electrical engineers that dur /
ing 1891 several such roads will be built and
equipped.
Putting aside this field, however, atten-
ton may be confined to the use of the cleo
trio motor for stationary power purposes.
1t is quite possible that several of those
who read these lines may never have seen
an electric motor, yet it is none the less
true that there are to-day already in opera
tion in this country over 800 electric mo-
tors of various sizes, engaged in an endless
variety OF occupations. One company
building motors reports that its machines
are now employed in nearly 800 distinct in
dustries, and that new uses are found daily.
This development has been seen almost en-
tirely within the last three years. From
1880 up to 1887 electrical engineers and CON-
tractors had given their attention mainly
to the installation of electric lighting
plants in American towns and cities,
with the result that there were
plying 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 bust
ness was after all a limited one; that is it
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 it.
self as readily to driving an electric motor
as to furnishing light in q lamp, and the
same circuit that conveyed it to the lamps
would also convey it to the motors. It 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 very crude and cum
bersome 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 applied to any piece of apparatus
or machinery 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
present time, however, there are several
electric motors in the market of excellent
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 we'll 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 an efficiency as that of an
other sort of motor of ten or fifteen horse
power. yet nobody dreams OF expecting .
gas engine or steam engine Of one-quarter
or one-half horse power to give anything
but q 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 connections
have been made with the circuits connect
ing it with the central station, it is practi.
cally ready that minute for work. All thai
is necessary is the turning of a switch and
the current is instantaneously there.
New York city, to go no further, fur
nlshes many interesting examples OF thu
manner in which electric motors have beer
applied to a variety of uses. Wherever tn.
circuits paes they are tapped for power pur
poses, and thus the central station, which
furnishes current at night for lighting, il
supplying current in the daytime for power
In the lower part of the city a large mum
Der of motors are in use. These are gener
ally employed for ventilation purposes
though not few may be found running
freight and passenger elevators. larg
number in the section below Chamber
street are also to be found in printing of
fees. In that section, too, and elsewhere
the motors are employed in variety O
other work, such as driving gangs of sew
ing machines, sawmills, machine shops
drug mills. pumps, ice-cream freezers, an
the like. In one of the large confectioner
up all the chocolate and other raw
material. A large number of motor
are used by dentists to run thei
Iathes and other small machinery. Tn
motors may also often be found IN BARRIERS
saloons. where they not only furnish VENT
lation, but in some instances are used t
run the rotary brushes provided for tn
happy customers heads. In one large OF
fee in the city the electric motor Is en-
ployed to run little stamping machln
which stamps thousands and thousands, Q
documents every day with unerrinR regular
ity.
New York city also furnishes one or tw
remarkable instances of the manner l
which power will be universally distribute
throu 9hout factories in few years. Herr
tofore the practice has been to have larR
steam plant in the basement and to drlv
therefrom long and heavy lines OF shaftln
on each floor, to which the various m,
chimes are attached. The new idea is I
turn the steam into electrical current
means of a dynamo in the basement plaI
and to distribute the current by the SINAI
wires which can hardly be seen, all over tt
building to electric motors on each door. {
made portable, SO that they can be move
about wherever required for the work
hand. Not only does this plan do ava
with much of the costly bracing necessa
where large and heavy lines of shafting o
used, but it dispenses TO large extent vii
ths lon in friction, and allows Of . n,ul