The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-03-04

From present indications 1t will not
be surprising if within few short
years the electric motor will have super
seeded the horse generally, If not uni
versally, as a motive power, says the
Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette. With
in three years it has taken its place on
all the street railways in the city, with a
single exception, that were not using
the cable. The same is true of every
other city in the country. Even coun-
try towns and thickly populated coun-
try districts have electric roads. In this
way hundreds of thousands of horses
have been displaced within the last five
years The cable came first, but it is
being superseded by the electric motor,
as it is less expensive and more easily
handled.
Many of our readers will be able to
recall the cry against steam railways
that they would do away with stage
coaches and horses, thereby throwing
thousands of drivers, hostlers, horse
buyers and tavern keepers out of en-
pIoyment. It is said that this cry was
SO loud as to keep the Baltimore & Ohio
railroad out of this state. Had it not
been for the turnpike influence the first
line would have come to this city, and
thence to Wheeling, instead of going
over the mountains from Cumberland
to Wheeling. The stage horse was
doomed, however, and had to go. Is it
not possible, or even quite probable,
that the carriage horse and the draft
horse are likewise doomed? Within
two years from the present time car
riages, buggies and light wagons will
be scudding along our streets propelled
by electricity, and it is not improbable
that the same power may be applied to
heavier-wheeled vehicles.
In q recent letter Thomas Shields
Clarke, the artist, who has been IN Paris
for some time, says:
"Do you realize that the days of our
equine friend are numbered? Carriages
propelled by electric or naphtha motors
are already common sight on the
streets of Paris and becoming more nu-
merous every day. Not being a great
lover of horsefesh shall be glad when
it is gone. What nice, clean streets we
viii have when it ceases to hammer
them to pieces with its iron shoes.
More capacious carriages can be used
and many men can own their own con-
veyances when propelled by q motor
that only uses a few cents worth of
electricity, in naphtha, per day. and
costs nothing at all for feed or atten-
ton when not in actual use. Every
man may then be his own driver. It
looks very much as if this new order of
things viii be established before the
close Of the present century"
There are none, or at least only q
few, who VIII take issue with Mr.
Clarlls on the subject. The electric
motor and storage battery have been
brought to such perfection that it is
quite safe to predict a general if not
universal decline in horse power. Dur
ing the coming harvest number Of
agricultur machines, such as reapers,
mowers, thrashers, plows, harrovs and
rakes win be operated by storage bat
teries instead of horses. This is rem
Gered possible by late improvements in
the storage battery. 4 five-horse-power
battery, good for ten hours steady
work, occupies a box no larger than an
egg case, and weighs no more than one
hundred and fifty pounds. These can
be transported any distance, and may
be returned and recharged at small
cost.
A battery of this size and power viii
propel a farming carriage continu-
ously for fifty hours, or at least for ten
days if only used five hours each day.
So it will not cost nearly SO much as
carriage horse, nor require either feed
or attention when not in use. There is
10 reason why it should not become