Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-10-27

engine only gets that same one horse
power. 1t will displace it because it
will be cheaper"
"When will it displace it?"
1T will begin to do it between Chi
cago and Milwaukee at the worlds
fair"
Thus the great modern wizard stood
in his mountain retreat and calmly an
nounced the ending of the wonderful
old era of steam locomotion and the
birth of the new era of perfected electric
travel.
"The problem of electric locomotion
on what are now called steam rail
roads" he said, ''is wonderfully sim
pie one. The street car problem was
the poser. Any electrician can run a
train at high speed on a steam railroad
track. Why, eleven years ago, ! ran a
train at the rate of forty miles an hour
on my three-mile track at Menlo park
by the same central rail system by
which propose to run now. | wanted
to run all the trains on the Penusyl-
vania railroad from Jersey City to
Pittsburg by that system and l could
have done it then. But in pioneering
you have to Negin at the little end. 50
| went into the electric light. And in
pioneering you have to have a man with
nerve to adopt your ideas. | have found
the man. He is Henry Willard 1t
is his idea to have this system in
operation between Chicago ana Mil
waukee during the worlds fair.
He intends to demonstrate that
there need be no such thing as waiting
for trains between cities now considered
long distance apart. He intends to
run train, say of two cars, every
twenty minutes. | would not be sur
prised after that to see him introduce
the system over the whole of the North
ern Pacific line, though he would MT
be compelled to introduce it all at once.
and throw away all of his locomotives.
By this system electricity can he
gradually introduced, more trains being
sandwiched between the steam trains as
he locomotive wears out"
"How can that be done, and how will
the current be appliedY
II cannot go into Details replied Mr..
Edison, ''for fear of injuring my rights
on the 9th d. side, though, by the way
never M lde anything out of European
patents, but | will say briefly that tn
current viii pass from the stationary
engine to a central rail between the
tracks, thence through the mechanism
attached TO the bottom of the cars or
motor A freight train, of course, would
need motor, because of the number of
cars, although a single passenger "
could be run carrying its own mDtor be
meath it-thence TO the wht els. AZ
thence back by the side rails to the
power-house, or stationary engine"
And how many of these stationary
engines would be neededY"
"Three of them, with a horsepower
of 10, 900 or $4,000, Each would run the
whole Pennsylvania railroad system be-
tween here and Philadelphia.
Freight, local, express trains and
all"
IAN of them. The depreciation of
rolling stock and road bed is much less
than under steam propulsion. Every
eXertion of steam power is in the nature
of an explosion, and when you take into
consideration the fact that 400 or 500 en-
gines are on road like the Pennsvl
vania at one time, each exercising a diff
ferent degree of this explosive power
the depreciation is great factor. But
with electricity il is always the smooth
rotary motion impartek in the same
way by the same men at the stationary
engines.
"Can equipment be devised which
will stand the strain of this system at
full speed ?"
The Wizard smiled. Full speed of
| this system" said he, lis, or | see no
reason why it should not be, 200 miles
an hour. But as for practical purposes
feel sure that one hundred, pound rail
on track ballasted would stand the
speed of one hundred mil 's an hour"
"And how will your train be
stoppedr
"By air breaks, the came as at pres
ent, and that Il about all the ore man
who would take the place of engineer
and two tiremen would have to do
| keep lookout and mind his brake
The system. then, will not he popu-
lar among the Brotherhood of Lccomo.
| tive Engineers
Everything has opposition replied