St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-12-07


respect to Mr.. Edison, and the wonder
full discoveries he has made, it is never
theleSs true that he has failed to pro-
duce as good street railway motor as
some other inventors have, and there is
abundant proof that the street railway
owners are not expecting Thomas Edi-
son to produce the much hoped-for per
feet street car motor of the future, yet
quite as true that he may succeed in do
ing it. There are many people who
think Mr.. Edison the parent of most OF
the late ideas pertaining to electricity
and its utility. The reason that so
The fact that they have no knowledge of
the experiments made years before
there was an edison. and such articles
as the one l have here might mislead a
great many people, as it claims that
some two years ago Edison intimated
that electricity might be produced di
rect from the furnace Independent of
the steam engine and dynamo. If that
article had stated that Edison had pre-
dicIed that current of electricity could
be so generated to be of commercial
value l think it would have been nearer
what he did say, and would not have
led an inexperienced person to think
that Edison was the discoverer of what
Volta demonstrated a century ago.
| might add, if the Scientific American
can be quoted as authority, that
there are scientific men in the United
States now working on that principal
who have invented method whereby
they have produced over a per cent
efficiency Of the energy represented in
the coal consumed, thus nearly equal
only trfie over per cent"
"Wha is VOur OOiniOn of fha efOraTp
battery system?"
Il have taken particular pains for the
past two years to watch its progress,
and know that it has proved a failure so
far. but would not put myself on record
as thinking it impossible to perfect. A
committee appointed by the members
of the American Street Railway associ-
alton selected George w. Mansfield to
prepare paper on The Dependent
Overhead or Underground-System of
Electric Motive Power" and read it be-
fore the members of the association at
their annual meeting, which was held
in Pittsburg, Pa. the 23d of last OctO-
Der.
In reference to the storage battery
system, Mr.. Mansfield sand: There is
not, to my knowledge. today a single
railroad corporation owning and Oper-
ating storage batteries solely for what
there is in them, nor do believe there
ever will be. 1t is now claimed that
litigation has interfered with their de-
velopment. This is absurd. With
ldeality written all over the system. do
you think that the powerful corpora
tons who have spent hundreds ana
thousands Of dollars in experiment
would finally abandon them and devote
their energies to a system for which
they have had to spend almost an equal
amount in introducing and exploiting,
fighting their way inch by inch through
out the country? Had there been the
slightest promise or intrinsic merit
have been in every city in the land,
litigation or no litigation No. gentle
men; such s0phistries are for the blind
and unthinking. For years l have be-
lleved that the storage battery car
should be relocated to where it belongs
"a position with the air. gas and wind
mot rs. | have no faith in them, nor
hope for Them There are some
grounds for hope in the direction OF an
underground or surface system. This
model you see of mine is of a surface
system method, and it has many adj
vantages over any other device in
vented Tor directing the current up
from the ground to the motor. This
working model has been thoroughly ex-
amined by Eastern experts and their
statements have convinced me that
the device taking every necessity
into consideration is as practical
construction of the surface method
as you may ever expect to
see. and better than any continuous eX-
posed conductor, construct it as they
may. In all lower contact arrange
ments, either induced or direct cur
rent, at times there will be mud, water
or snow between it and the motor. and
claim that our device iusures better in
sulatiOn and is less dangerous to man
and beast than any other surface or
underground method in existance. |
did not want anything said in reference.
to the invention when it was first pub
lished, and only gave what information
l could without affecting my claims, but
now that ii is finished and my patents
are all In, those who are interested in
electrical inventions are welcome to see
the model and | hope they will bring
an electrician with them. 1 understand
that Edison uses third rail in
his new street railway system. Yes,
l read an article in the Times
of Nov. 8, signed by Frank Carpenter,
stating that he had seen Mr. Edison's
device and that the current was taken
from center rail, and returned to the
WI6elS DH tue rail- proper.
ION Sept. l, 1885, the Daft Electric
Light company placed in operation a
line between Baltimore and Hampden.
The current was taken from an inSul-
ated third rail, and it did not work sat
iSfactOrily.
In the fall of 1888 this same company
had, at Newark. n. j., attempted to use
the two rails for the complete circuit,
and low voltage to prevent the loss of
current by leakage, as it is sisted Mr..
Edison will do; but in this test the loss
was so great that there was no indiea-
ton of current at distance of 1000
feet from the dynamo. In this
system of ours have in
sulated the conductor so that
the current exp OSure is directly under
the car or cars wherever they may he
on the line. First, because there is less
possibility of leakage than there would
be by using an exposed conductor.
Second. in using an exposed conductor
1t would be necessary TO use low volt
age or il would be dangerous. and low
voltage system would require specially
constructed motors adapted to Il which
would necesSitate an entire change of
motors on all plants changing from the
overhead system to low voltage
method; whereas if we ever have the
good fortune TO change an overhead
system to our method, we lay our con-
duit which contains the real wire land
this can be done at mighty and place our
arrangement of trOlleys under the car,
thus saving any expense of changing
motors, as this device is adaptable to
all kinds of motors"
Mr.. Bates device has already been