Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1891-11-27
LOCOMOTIVES OUT OF DATE
Edison Says He will Replace thom
With Electric Motors.

the world listen while he said it.
What he said was, Z" l will displace
the steam locomotives"
The man is Thomas A. Edison, and
he said it lately standing in the office
OF his concentrating works at Ogden
N. j., and talking of his newly per-
fected motor electric system for steam
and street-car roads.
&" 1t will displace the locomotive"
continued the inventor in an off hand
way, " if economy as well as speed and
safety is Il factor of locOmotion, not
because it will make easily speed OF
100 miles an hour while steam strains
itself to make sixty, but because it
will get one horse power out of from
one to two pounds of cheap coal, while
out of six pounds of dear coal loco
motive engine can only get that same
one horsepower. 1t will displace it
because it is cheaper"
when will it displace it?"
at will begin to do it between
Chicago and Milwaukee at the Worlds
Fair"
Thus the greatest of modern wizards
stood in his mountain retreat and
calmly announced the ending of the
wonderful old era OF steam locomo-
tion to a representative of the New
York Herald, the birth of the new era
OF perfected electric travel, and fixed
the date at 400 years after the dis
covery Of America.
Verify, new Columbus of the land.
An epoch maker whose achievements,
of which he stood and talked in
rusty Panama hat and a fearful and
wonderful shoddy ulster-his working
clothes-would be celebrated in 2,292
as the old Genoese navigator is to be
the year after next.
Without the trolley, wire or stor-
age battery?'
The Wizard laughed, not contemp-
tuously. He is too good natured a
Wizard for that. But his laugh
seemed to say "Those are nice little
toys for those who can be amused by
Them"
why, eleven years ago." he said,
81 ran train at the rate of forty
miles an hour on my three-mile tract
at Menlo Park by the same central rail
system by which l propose to run
now. Ran in round curves at such a
rate that the people wanted to walk
back. | had Frank Thomson and all
the Pennsylvania Railroad people rid
ing on it. / wanted to begin at the
big end of things. / wanted to run
all the trains on the Pennsylvania
Railroad from Jersey City by that
and | could have done it then. But
in pioneering you have to have a man
with nerve to adopt your ideas. l
have found the man. He is Henry
Willard. 1t is his idea to have the
system i'll operation between Chicago
and Milwaukee during the Worlds
Fair. He intends to demonstrate
that there need be no such thing as
waiting for trains between cities now
considered a long distance apart. He
intends to run train, say, of two cars,
every twenty minutes.
al would not be surprised after that
to see him introduce the system over
the whole of the Northern Pacific
lines, though he would not be COM
PEELED to introduce it all at once and
throw away all his locomotives. By
this system electricity can be gradu-
ally introduced, more trains being
sandwiched in between the steam
trains as the locomotive wears out"
"How can that be done and how
will the current be applied?'
al cannot. 60 into Details" replied
Mr.. Edison, for fear of injuring my
rights on the other side, though, by
the way, never made anything out
OF European patents though l will
say briefly that the current will pass
from the stationary engine to CEN
trail rail between the tracks, thence
through the mechanism attached to
the bottom of the cars or motor. A
freight train Of course, would need Il
motor because of the number of cars,
although a single passenger Car could
be run carrying its own motor beneath
it-thence to the wheels, and thence
back by the side rails to the power
house or stationary engine"
"And how many OF these stationery
engines would be needed?"
Three OF them with horse power
10000 or 10000 each would run the
whole Pennsylvania railroad system
between here and Philadelphia.
Freight local, express trains and ALL"
"Can equipment be devised which
will stand the stain of this system at
full speed?"
The Wizard smiled. Full speed OF
this system" he said, "is, or / see no
reason why it should not be, two hum
dred miles an hour. But rs for prac-
tical purposes, / feel sure that a one
hundred pound rail on a rock bal
lasted track would stand the speed of
one hundred miles an hour"
"And how will your train be stop
ped?"
by air brakes, the same as at
present, and that is about all the one
man who would take the place of the
engineer and two firemen on the pres
ent express trains would have to do
keep lookout and mind his brake"
The system, then, will not be pop
ular among the Brotherhood of Loco
motive Engineers?'
Everything ha. opposition at first"
replied the Wizard, non-committally.