Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1892-09-10

Trains WIN Run from New York to
Chicago in Eight Hours-wonderfuI
improvements in Progress.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, Sept. 81 was some
nat startled today while talking with
distinguished electrical engineer who
IS in Washington ON business con
cted with the patent Office. ''In five
ars, said he, ''you and l will be rid
: from New York TO Chicago behind
ctric locomotives at a speed of 1875
les an hour"
DO you really believe that?" l asked
establishment.
i almost know it," was the reply.
can see it coming. We are only on
, threshold of the electrical world.
g power of the future is electricity.
not think me an enthusiast nor a
Gamer. As you know, am a thor
ghly practical engineer have made
ortune out Of the business, and 1 only
sh l was younger that might be sure
living to see the realization Of the
eat plans which happen to know are
IN now being reduced to practical
4 ape.
( Within year think you will see
ctric locomotives taking the place Of
am on our great railways, just as
y have already supplanted other
tors for city and suburban traffic.
When a start is once made, revolu-
n will quickly follow. At first the
& ctrical locomotive may not run much
ter than the new compound cylinder
am locomotive, which easily makes a
! le minute on long distances. Icame
wn to Washington yesterday ON one
4 the Royal Blue expresses. The time
N New York is five hours. Twenty
nutes Of this time is lost crossing from
W York to Jersey City and getting
der speed out of the Jersey City yard
minutes is lost at Philadelphia in
ppage and reduced speed, and about
enty-fve minutes at Baltimore, where
s. entire train is ferried across the bay
a transfer steamer, and where the de-
II into the station is somewhat slow
four or five miles. There were other
nor losses, and the actual running
le from Jersey City TO Washington
ton was about four hours, or say 245
nutes. The distance is 22S miles.
That comes very near a mile q min
}, you see, and is, in my Judgment,
fastest and finest run made by any
in in the world, not excepting the
pire State express on the New York
atrial. That train runs 44O miles in
minutes, little faster schedule than
Royal Blue, but having less loss by
ps. The actual run is not so speedy.
l rode down here by the Royal Blue
oticed the vast sums of money that
I been spent to produce such perfect
ok, motive power and rolling stock,
I said to myself that the electrical
onotive would have hard task be-
O it if it set out to eclipse this mag
cent speed, for we made mile after
s 10 in fifty-two seconds, or a speed Of
rrly seventy miles an hour.
But know the powers Of electricity
en- properly applied, and / know
a at the inventors are doing, and am
o that the near futur0.will give us
electric locomotive making double
speed Of these compound cylinder
am flyers. In a very few years we
III travel from New York to Chicago
eight hours, or perhaps seven, where
it now takes twenty-five by the linn
trains. 10 make this great speed l
nix there will be some changes in
ok and rolling stock. The rails viii
70 a device which will absolutely pre-
1t the cars leaving the track, and the
s will in all probability be much
liter than they now are. These are
conditions which will produce the
Eat speed of the future-improved
cks, less dead load in the cars, cleo
,al power"
What do you think of electricity as
ower in other directionsg" asked.
1t is the power of the future in al
st everything. Tho steam engine as
motor must go. For instance, You
Il live to see the steam engine ban
ed from ocean steamships. Instead
n dead load Of from 600 to 900 tons
coal carried in the hold, fed to huge
naces by small army Of stokers who
II n III "a NAAAAbnAA A4nNn-AlAD average
Of the steamship stoker is only seven
lrs-ships will put to sea with their
)tiye power stored away in electrical
iervoirs, to be used as wanted by
3 turn of q lever and without one
lth part of the weight or consuming
e-fftieth of the space of the coal
9ply now provided. What is true Of
large ocean steamships is true of a
eat variety Of other craft, large and
all. Ultimately electricity will sup
mt steam in all Of them, giving great
economy of energy, of space, Of la
r, Of risk"
What are the especially new things
the electrical fieldy'
There are so many new things in the
ctrical line that could not begin to
.ntion them. Electricity is coming
everything-industrial, domestic,
,chanical Tho most important things
the electrical world today are the de-
lopment of the storage battery motor
city railway lines, the perfection of
high speed locomotives for long dis
nee railways, and a new and mysteri-
and wonderful thing promised by
omas a. Edison. just what this is ]