Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-03-09

wagons, Buggies and Carriages TO BE
Propelled by Electricity.


wagons, Eusgies and Carriages TO BE
Propelled by Electricity.
From present indications it will
not be surprising If within a few short
years the electric motor will have
superseded the horse generally, IL not
universally, as a motive power, says
the Pittsburg Commercial Gazette.
Within three years ii 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 country towns and
thickly populated country 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being superseded by the electric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 il 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 tayernkeepers out OF
employment. 1t is said that this cry
was so loud as to keep the Baltimore
s. 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. The stage horse vas
doomed, however, and had to 20. 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
carriages, buggies and light wagons
win be sounding along our streets
propelled by electricity, and it is not
improbable that the same power may
be applied TO heavier wheeled
vehicles.
In a 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 a common
sight on the streets Of Paris and
becoming more numerous every day.
Not being a great lover of horsefiesh.
| shall he glad when it is gone.
What nice, clean streets we will have
when it eases to hammer them to
pieces with its iron shoes. More
capacious carriages can be used and
many men can own their W con-
veyances when propelled by a motor
that uses only a few cents worth of
electricity, in naphtha, per day, and
costs nothing at all for feed or
attention when not in actual use.
Every man may then be his own
driver. 1t looks very much as if this
new order Of things will be estab-
lished before the close Of the present
century"
There are none, or at least only a
few, who will take issue with Mr..
Clarke on the subject. The electric
motor and storage battery have been
brought 10 such perfection that it is
quite safe to predict a general if not
universal decline in horse power.
During the coming harvest a number
of agricultural machines, such as
reapers, mowers, thrasherS, plows,
harrows and rakes, will be operated
by storage batteries instead OF horses.
This is rendered possible by late
improvements in the storage battery.
A fye-horse power battery, good for
ten hours steady work, occupies a
box no larger than an egg case and
weighs not more than $50 pounds.
These can be transported any dis
lance, and may be returned and
recharged at small cost.
A battery Of this size and power
will propel a farming carriage con-
tinuously 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
1T should not become very popular.
Important Decision.
a very important decision has been
made by he Snnrnnno cnnrt 4o..al