The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-26
AN ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE.
What Is Claimed for That Designed by
HeiImann-The Work.
From Casters Magazine

NlOiL CooolCA . NIdBdGlu0s
BY far the most interesting of the diff
ferent electric locomotives known up to
the present time is that devised by M.
Jean Jacques Heilmann, of Paris, of
which so much has been said during
the past half year, and with which,
more recently, interesting tests
have been conducted on the Western
railroad of France. These have
demonstrated that, if nothing more. the
locomotive is quite capab Die of hauling an
ordinary train at high speed. NJ. He'll
mann, it would appear, argued to his own
satisfaction that with the currently used
railroad track system and the best exist
ing type Of steam locomotive, the limit Of
speed and tractive power had been
reached. The disadvantage in the Ordi-
nary locomotive of high speed reciprocal
ing parts, of rigid wheel base, and of
utilization of only rart of the engine
weight for adhesion, with the tender
| always as dead load to be carried along,
prompted him to turn to electrical means
of traction.
The idea of supplying the electricity
from central station, as in current
electric street railroad practice, he aban-
doned at the outset, considering it i'm
practicable to put down conductors on the
| ordinary main lines of railroad in their
present condition. His original plan
| therefore, was to fit up every car in a
! train with an electric motor, each one to
| be furnished with current from a genera
| tor which was to be placed in the first car
of the train, and thus to utilize the weight
| OF the whole train for adhesion. This ar
rangement, however, precuded the
| possibility of easily utilizing the ordinary
railroad cars. The necessary changes
would have been expensive and trouble
some. Nj. HeiImann accordingly came to
| tho 11lan pf neiOor a rnrrr11ar o1a
motive of suitable adhesive weight for the
train. The locomotive was TO be equipped
with a steam engine and a. boiler, and
with dynamo to supply current to the
electric motors with which the locomo-
tive axles were TO be fitted up The tram
itself was TO be made up in the usual
manner Of ordinary cars requiring no
changes.
A locomotive laid out on these lines
was, therefore built. Its length over all
is little over So feet, its hight 10 feet,
and its total weight 100 tons. The steam
and electrical generating plant is com
posed OF boiler, steam engine, dynamo
and exciting steam engine and dynamo.
The boiler is of the Lentz type, consist
ing of shell, in which is fitted CORFU
gated steel fireboX, prolonged by a com
bustion chamber The steam engine
driving the generator is Of the horizontal
compound type, designed to develop COO
horsepower. The exciting engine is
placed at the front end of the locomotive.
and is a small, inverted, vertical engine
with two cylinders, acting on cranks
placed 1870 degrees apart
AS illustrative Of undoubtedly the most
noteworthy departure in electric locomo-
tive design, the Hillmann engine stands
out prominently from among others of its
class. What part IL may take in the sup
planting of the more time-honored steam
locomotive, however, is yet too early to at
tempt to predict.