Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-06

| large manu1actory, scattered through sew
eral buildings, power is in demand at many
points, it pays to centralige the steam plant
and convert its energy into electricity for
use where needed. The friction of belts usu-
ally exscts higher tax than the toll LEVIED
bya dynamo and series of motors; the
diminution of jar and vibration on upper
hoors permits safe reduction In the tnlck-
ness OF walls and joists. In mining, as In
manufacturing, electricity plays unique
part Mining work must often be done
where engines are out of the question.
Electricity in the Dwelling.
In the dwelling the electric motor has be-
fore it an important field. Scores OF do
mestic labor-saving devices have awaited Its
advent 1t revolves an ice cream freezer,
washing machine, or a mangle; it operates
current actuating the motor gives light, ana
abolishes the chemical battery for bells and
annuncistors. Electricity is not an
economical source of heat. but its conven-
fence and cleanliness make it available tor
boiling a pot of coffee or broillng chop.
Attached to flexible wire fatiron can be
heated and maintained at a perfectly even
temperature.
1t has been thought, from the economy
with which it can be distributed, that cleo
tricity will not only Tighten domestic
drudgery, but may do something in dis
persing factory buildings and reducing their
size, 1t must, however, be remembered
that ii is not SO much the necessity for be-
ing within few yards from an engine that
has made factories grow from vast dimen-
sions, as the advantage of carrying on at ad-
Joining machines the successive processes of
a minutelv subdivided manufacture, such
for example, as that of shoes. The relief of
congested towns and cities, whether centers
of manufacture or commerce, has already
been begun by the electric motor, not in its
application to looms, planers or mill stones,
but as a means of rapid transit. 1t has
often been remarked that the steam loco
| motive seems to have done as much toward
crowding great cities into small compass,
toward squeezing their buildings skyward,
as it has in developing healthy and airy
suburbs. The reason is not far to seek To
take a railroad train one must usually go
considerable distance to reach station, and
| the exigencies of steam travel require that
stations on the line be separated by almost
a mile.
| Storage Batteries and Conduits
| On few scattered lines, instead of the
| overhead wire conductor, storage batteries
are employed This PLAN renders car in
dependent of any external cause of derange-
ment or accident, and would long ago have
come to the front among its competitors had
it not been chargeable with two grave de-
fects. The first is that the battery for an
ordinary car weighs $500 to 4, 500 pounds,
absorbing on level track one horse power
for its traction, and the second that in its
present form the material of the storage
battery, lead, undergoes gradual deteriora-
tion, and is DESTROYED in six to ten months
On long and level track, where the service
is not frequent, the storage battery is ad-
vantageous. No field wider than this can
be expected for it until battery lighter
and more durable than any existing type is
devised.
No electric road in the United States has
ever made a success with its wire conductor
laid in an underground conduit. A line in
Buda-Pesth, Austro-Hungary, has had
different experience Its conduit, however,
makes it cost SO, 900 mile, sum which
places 1t at once at a disadvantage with
overhead systems, even were there no other |
drawbacks to the plan in most American |
towns and cities where railway has road |
bed to itself, as the City and South London |
Railway, for example, the center rail Is an I
easy and economical means Of receiving cur |
rent
Knocking Out the Locomotives.
To-day, with three wears progress in elect |
rical science, more than one electrical engin- |
eer is aching to show how he could drive the !
locomotive off the track if only be had a |
chance 1t is proposed bv the time the I
Columbian Exhibition opens to have Chi
cago Joined with Milwaukee by an electric
railway, and similar project is mentioned i
by promoters in St. Louis. On the other
side of the ocean engineers are maturing !
plans for an electric line between Vienna
and Buda -Pesth.
Since the feasibility of long distance trac-
tion is no longer in debate, the questions
regarding it narrow themselves to cost and
speed A stationary steam engine of the
largest size and of the multiple expansion
model, burns cheaper coal than locomotive
and requires less of it. A Baldwin locomo-
tive of the new compound type, carefully
tested on the Northern Pacific Railroad last |
July, consumed but 2. 43 pounds of coal per
horse power per hour while under way, one
half as much as an ordinary locomotive, and
but one pound more than stationary engine
of the Corliss pattern, of equal capacity and
working with triple expansion. The diff
ference in the cost of fuel and the less
weight of electric motors as compared with
locomotives, are two important items of
economy attending electric traction. The
main advantage of electricity as motive
power consists in the speed which it makes
possible
Speed in Cost Calculations.
line only experiments at doubling exist |
ing railroad speeds ever conducted have
been those of Mr.. o. T. Crosby at Laurel,
Nd, in 1890, with the Weems system of
propulsion. The experimental car was 80
inches high by "a inches wide, and 20 feet
long; it carried two motors with their arma-
lures keyed directly to the axles and
weighed 2K tons The track was circular,
% inches in gauge, and two miles in circum-
ference. Control was effected from the
power station placed inside the circle, the
voltage of the line was 500. Although the
track was much too light for the work at
tempted, very valuable information was OBJ
tanned as to the resistance of the air ard as
to the power demanded for each ton of load.
1t came out that the ratios ordinarily ac-
cepted are excessive. In discussing the ex-
pertinent Mr.. Crosby makes an elaborate
comparison between the cost of electric and
steam locomotion. With a motor of the
highest efficiency he places electricity in
the lead at all speeds. For this efficiency
a slow speed armature must be fastened d.
rectly upon the axle, dispensing with all in
termediate mechanism. The advantage
possessed by such motor increases faster
than its velocity. At 20 miles az hour steam
will cost 15 per cent more than electricity; |
at 60 miles, 25 per cent; at 120 miles, 157 per
cent; at 14O, 903 per cent. Where the motor
from the necessity of introducing wheel
work between the revolving armature and
the car axle, is reduced in efficiency one
fifth, these figures are considerably modified.
At 60 miles an hour steam and electricity are
on a par; below that speed steam is the
cheaper agent; beyond it, electricity is