The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-03-27
LIGHTNING In HARNESS.
THE MACHINERY WHICH DRIVES
AMOTOR OAR EXPLAINED.
The subtle Current on the wires-How

The Subtle Current on the Wires-HCw
tits Made and How 1t Travels From
the Power House to the Motor Under
the Car Floor-Why People Don't
Know More About Electricity.
Probably not one person in every thou
sand who ride daily on Savannah's electric
lines have any idea Of the actual workings
Of motor car, and fewer still have given
the matter sufficient thought to know what
a really simple thing it is to make electricity
drive a series OF cars along tracks stretch
ing from the center of the city to remote
suburban districts.
The reason of this is not that the
average mind cannot grasp the ex-
PLANTATION of what at first appears a prob
lem, but that busy people are scared of Oy
the thought that in order to enlighten
themselves they would have to devote time
and close study to a subject which they are
not obliged TO master.
Electricity Is called, in common parlence,
the mysterious or subtle force. Yet it is
not more mysterious than the force Of
gravity, capillary attraction and other well
known natural forces. Every child knows
that an apple will fall from the tree
w A~9 kAOuuut huu IL - nOb ucCtebhEy
for him to delve into the why's and where
fores of gravitatiOn to accept the results.
But In the case Of electrical fluid or current,
grown people stump their toes over that
very obstacle, and because they cannot
understand just what electricity is. give up
all hope Of finding out how 1t performs It's
work in the world.
WHERE ELECTRICITY STARTS.
MORNING News man stood watching
the pOnderous fly wheels in the power house
Of the Electric railway yesterday as they
silently worked, balancing as it we're the
power which cumulates the wonderful
current that was at the moment driving
twenty or more cars through the city and
out over the Thunderbolt line. The whir of
the dynamOs told the story. The dynamo
itself is simply machine In which a large
number OF loops of copper wire, called an
armature, are made to revOlve between
these magnets, which cause the electric cur
rent to flow. This current is taken up by
copper plates and conveyed to the outer
part of the dynamo, where brushes or
pieces OF copper which run against the COW
ering of the axle takes it up. The wires are
attached 10 these brushes and they carry the
current away to the motors in the cars.
FROM DYNAMO TO MOTOR.
The principle upon which the dynamo
and motor act is the same with this diff
ference only. instead of generating the
electricity like the dynamo the motor has
it indicted into it and is driven by it in
stead of by steam. Here the electricity
causes the armature to revolve.
The rotation is caused by an attraction
set up by the electric current, the indicted
current causes the motor armature to re-
volve and almost starts the car The
poles OF axles of the armature have
cog wheels at the end that ht into
the cogs on the axle Of the car
truck. When the armature revolves the
car axle turns and with it the car wheels.
The motor armatures-there are two motors
under each car-spin around, and being
connected with cog wheels to the axles,
they make the axles revolve and the car is
bound to go. The electricity is conveyed
from the power house by overhead wire
called the trolley wire, directly above the
track. The trolley pole touches it as the
car moves along and the current ruus down
a wire along the pole. The wire passes
down into the machinery under the car and
into the motor.
USED TWICE OVER.
That is the secret of the wonderful motor.
An interesting phenomenon in connection
wish the electric street railroad
system is the fact that the cleo
tricity used in driving the cars,
after having served its purpose, returns TO
be used over again, after the manner Of the
hill horse on horse railway lines, though it
must be said with considerable more alac-
rity. From the car motor it passes into
the cogwheels thence to the iron axle, and
through the car wheels to the rails, along
which it flashes back to the starting point,
and is reintroduced into the machines, thus
completing the circuit. If there were no
rails the electricity would return, the
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