Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-10-22
EDISON'S LATEST.
A Decided New Wrinkle in
Street Car Propulsion.
No Overhead Trolleys or Stor-
age Batteries.

The Current Not Over 100 Volts In
Strength and Taken from the Rails.
Unaffected by Muddy or Wet Tracks.
An Electric Motor That win Allow a
Railroad Speed of 100 Miles an Hour.
New YORK, Oct. 22.-Thomas A.
Edison, the electrical wizard, has just
completed two inventions before the
wonderful and far-reaching results of
which all his other remarkable dis
coveries are comparatively insignificant.
One is the practical application of
electricity to great railroad lines, by
which speed far beyond anything
achieved by steam may be attained, and
the other the application of electricity to
the propulsion of street cars without the
use of the dangerous, unsightly and in
convenient overhead construction. For
two years Mr.. Edison has been engaged
on experiments IN this direction. He
has met with insuperable difficulties,
but he has stuck to his work with that
dogged pertinacity for which he is fam
GUS. and ut last he has been successful.
The general principle Of the street car
invention is that the electric current
passes down through one line of rails, is
picked up by the car, passes through the
motor beneath it, and goes out on the
other side and returns through the other
line of rails to the central power station
At the first thought the bare idea of this
is paradoxical. The question will nat
urally occur why the electric current
does not dissipate itself in the ground.
To this no positive reason can be as
signed, except the bare statement that it
does not. In general terms the effect is
accomplished by having the current one
of low voltage or pressure. 1t is a well
settled principle of electrical research
that the higher the voltage the greater
must be the insulation. and that the
lower the voltage can be brought the
less need of insulation.
Mr.. Edison's experiments have all been
in this direCtion-that is to say, in the
endeavor to construct a motor sufficient
ly powerful to do the work, in which the
voltage was reduced to SO low point
that the natural tendency of the electric
current to fly off to the ground, and be
dissipated, would be overcome, and the
passage through the motor to the oppo-
site rail would be easier for the current
than to pass through the ground to the
central station. The plan of having a
central rail for the return current was
experimental on for long time, but
when the motor had been perfected so
that it would work efficiently, Mr.. Edi-
son found that he could dispense with
the central rail, and return the current
directly to the station through the oppo-
site rail.
The experiments were conducted at
I,
Here an experimental track nearly
through the laboratory yard down to
the yard of the Edison phonograph
works. In its length it presented all the
various kinds of diff Lies that actual
use would encounter. A part of it was
laid on very heavy grade of nearly 300
feet to the mile, there are several sharp
curves in the road, and portion of it
runs through a sunken spot where the
track could be flooded with water or
covered with mud. In this way all the
varying conditions of actual use were
provided.
Thorough Experiments.
The experiments have now been fully
completed and the invention passes out
of the first experimental stage into the
second stage, its adaptation to practical
work. The experiments have been
made by Mr.. Edison for the Edison
General Electric company, and until
Mr. Edison has turned the invention
over to that company for actual work,
the minute details of the invention are
of necessity withheld from the public.
Enough, however, has been said to show
the character of the invention. The
voltage of the current employed will be,
as has been said, very low, less than one
hundred, while the average voltage Of
the overhead trolly system is in excess
of 500 From this it will be seen how
great a revolution the new invention
will effect in the whole matter Of cleo
trio traction.
Several prominent horse railroad svs-
TENS have offered their lines to the Edi-
son General Electric company for the
Of the invention, and it IS |
probable that selection will be made |
in the near future aud arrangements |
made to put the first practical expert
mental line in operation.
The most remarkable feature of the |
invention is in the 'pickups," that take |
the current from one line of rails. A |
novel and ingenious mechanism has |
been so arranged that it will work with |
perfect certainty and effect through SIX
inches of mud, or slush, or water.
A New Railroad Motor.
Mr.. Edison's other great discovery is
to obviate the difficulty met in the at
tainment of high speed on the ordinary
steam railway, which is the interfer-
ence of steam. The injection and Ca
haust of the steam into and from the
cylinders is so rapid in its alienation
that beyond certain limit it is impossi-
BILE to work, and this is an inherent de-
fection in all steam propulsion, because
Of the necessity of the conversion of re-
motion into rotary motion,
In the new electric motor this difficulty
vanishes, and the limit of speed is ohiy
that of the endurance of the machinery
and the strength Of the tracks.
With this invention of Mr.. Edison a
speed of one hundred miles or more an
hour will be more easily attainable than
the ordinary speed Of fifty to sixty miles
an hour. This is also in the hands of the
Edison General Electric company, and
negotiations are now in progress for the
application of the system to one of the
onu lines of railway.