Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-02-14
That there Is at least one man who thinks

That there II at least one man who thinks
the storage-battery. In connection with
street-car propulsion. was never given
proper trial In this city Is evidenced by the
Electrical Review issued on the It'll in
slant The preceding number Of that same
publication had In 1t q lengthy sketch Of
the storage-battery experiments conducted
by the Metropolitan Street Railway Com
pany. written by Mr.. George c. Maynard of
this city. On this The Star commented
Now comes Mr.. William Bracken of New
York. with a reply to Mr.. Maynard. in
which are two or three pointed remarks of
the aggressive sort. Mr.. Bracken may or
may not have an axe to grind or a battery
to sell. but he has standing In electrical
circles or he would never have secured so
much OF conspicuous space In the Review.
Without questioning Mr.. Maynard's sim
certify, Mr.. Bracken declares him to be un-
Just In attributins the failure Of the WASH
tngton experiment to the storage-battery;
'the failure" says Mr.. Bracken. was
chiefly attributable to the men who con-
Quoted the experiment" and 1t Is in that
connection that Mr.. Bracken's story be-
comes Of especial local interest He says
that the Metropolitan management first
'experimented with one car carrying a
standard storage battery Oby standard.
mean q Brush or Faure type, as you may
choose to call IT., and became satisfied from
the manner In which that car did service
that storass-b battery traction was practical
and economical This experiment was con-
Quoted before any Of the enormous outlay
subsequently, made had been determined
upon" AZ this point in the proceedings.
- Mr.. Bracken says he was informed.
some Of the roads directors listened to the
voice Of Q SIREN" and organized "a cor
poratioo distinct from the Metropolitan
Railroad. for the purpose Of owning. ex-
plotting and forever enjoying the IDEAL stor-
age battsry system of Mr.. MAilloux the
eompany's slsctTtcian); which system was
70 consist Of . brand new type Of battery
not Infringing any Of the existing patents.
and . motor Of peculiar construction. esps-
eially adapted to storage-battery traction.
A. . giant sample and exsmplar Of this
dsal systam. an enormous sum Of money.
some hundreds Of thousands Of dollars. was
spent; first. In building q large storage-bat-
terry station and power house; secondly, in
constructing and eQuipping some forty or
more cars; and thirdly. In a laboratory and
test room, where day In and day out the
perfect battery and the perfect motor were
being evolved. 1t Is true that this u in thu
ton at least usually preceding the building
Of power houses and cars. But perhaps
this was only another stroke Of unappre-
ciated genius on the part Of the inventor"
But with all these there came neither the
battery sought nor the longsd-for motor.
and as soon as the Arrival Of these desid-
erata seemed extremely improbable. the
chief electrician left the companys employ.
and thereby brought about the promotion Of
his assistant-"who would not" says tbs
sarcastic commentator, BE an electrician
and an inventor II he did not start, In to
undo everything that his predecessor had
done" Then followed consultation with all
the storage-battery doctors in the country,
but without good effect. Mr.. Bracken alleg-
ing that the patient was too far gone to be
saved. If all these things are true, the peo-
pie Of this city have q right to express feel
ings of resentment. Storage-batteries do
successfully operate street-cars in other
cities, and that they are satisfactory from
the commercial standpoint Is shown by
their continuance in use. Perhaps there are
adverse conditions here not existing in the
favored towns-a possibility to be taken
into consideration until disproven-but II
the company was welded to its own sys-
tenn and neglectful Of others that were OBJ
5ectionable because Improbable to tho
closely-related electrical corporation, then
the blame should be placed where It be-
longs. and a workable battery and motor
be given opportunity to show what they
can IA