Arizona republican., 1893-03-18


 From present indications it will not be surprising if within few short years the electric motor will have super seded the horse generally, if not uni versally, as motive power, says the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette. With in three years it has taken it's 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 thiclily populated eoun- try districts have electric roads, In this way hundreds of thousands of horses have been displaced within tho 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 The cable came first, but it is being superseded by the electric motor, as it is less expensive and more easily handled.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, hostlcrs, horse buyers and tavern keepers out of em- ployment, 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 riagcs, buggics 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 hcavier-wheelcd vehicles.
 In a recent letter Thomas Shields Clarke, the artist, who has beenIn Paris for some time, says:
 Do you realize that the days of our equine friend arc numbered? Carriages propelled by electric or naphtha motors are already a common sight on the streets of Paris and becoming more nu- merous every day. Not being a great lover of horsc1esh shall be glad when it is gone. What nice, clean streets we will 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 vcyances 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 attcn- ton when not in actual use. Every l, 1,f T I4 looks very much as if this new order of things win be established before the close of the present century"
 There arc none, or at least only few, who will take issue with Mir. Clarlis on the subject. Tho 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 agricultural machines, such Q; rcapcrs, mowers, thrashcrs, blows, harrows and ralics will be operated by storage bat teries instead of horses. This is rcn- dcred possible by late improvements in the storage battery. A ilvc-hor5c-powcr battery, good for ten hours steady work, occupies 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 rechargcd at small cost.
 A battery of this size and power will 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 a carriage horse, nor require either feed or attention when not in use. There is no reason why it should not become lr...