The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1894-09-21

ELECTRICITY on
COMMON RO1D.S.

tllSdl tidIl loll VII olNlhil 1dli ot'o
are not likely to be fulfilled by the
adoption of any known sytem electrical
working. The most that can reasonab
ly be claimed for existing appliances
IS the possibility of running through
train from point to point, but the
general application of electric traction
Involving the fitting up of station
yards and branch lines-cannot be en-
tertained by any sober thinking man,
and even the partial application to
through expires pass niger traffic is very
improbable, for there is not much hope
in amy system involving Il double mo-
tive power, electricity for few special
trains and steam for the remainder.
There woul be no money in such a
double outlay.
There is, owever, field for the
employment Of electricity that appears
to pre-; ent certain possibilities of sue
cess and usefulness. We ref to Its
use on the common roads. Any OBJ
jections that may be fit to tie use of
the overhead system in towns lose much
of their force when country roads are
| considered, and there are hume, ouS
good roads in the county where by
means of the ovel head system. very
| considerable traffic could be conductt d
between towns and villages or uutly-
ing places and the nearest railway.
The very onerous charges made by he
RAILWAYS Of this country for the car
riage Of farm produce has had the etfec.
of very seriously curtiillng the agricul-
tural production Of the country in favor
of the foreigner, whose product is a.
most invariably clrried by our own rail
roads for very much less than home
produce.
So on,r lis have the railway charges
| become-no ably on the South Eastern
that many market gardeners have,
we are informed, ceased :, use the line
and have reverted To- tie roads, find
ing that, lis compared with the rail-
way charges, they car save both III
time and money 10y doing 81. That
there must be sc..cw loose somewh here
is evident. liors traction has no right
to be cheaper than steam traction on
a railway, ard OF course, would not be
if the railway dn ectors used their
brains. What we should like to see
tried is an overhead electrical c)nduc-
tor along some main road to London
that is travelled bv the market carde-
ners' vans, such, for example as the
roads from Orpingten. The farmer S
would bring their vans to the line at
the home end, and on arrival at the
city boundary other horses would take
off the vans to their destination, the
miles between being covered by electric
haulagp. A suitable motor would be
somewhat upon the lines of the present
steam traction engine with the engine
removed and an electric motor subsitu-
ted. The current for such line could
very well be furnished by some exist
ing electric light station, for the haul
age is performed, we believe, in the
early hours of the morning after the
lights are out. The empty vehicles
would be hauled back to the country
as a day lad, reaching home before
dark, and thus being entirely a source
of profit to ghting station. Should
such scheme appear to contain tn :
elements of success in is crude form.
there is little doubt but that very
shortly special motor vans would be
built to replace the separate motor a
motor geared down to the axles Of the
van itself would involve none Of the
extra weight inseparable from the in
de- eN 'rnt motor, while at the same
time loaded van would have ample
tractive weight to draw after it ot1er
vehicles. Our English roads are so
good that the traction upon them is
by no means heavy, and we 90 not see
any very inseparable difficulties in the
way of realizing such and idea. Far
mers must have horses and so there
would be no difficulty in bringing the
loads up to the line any more than there
now is in bringing loads to the raj
way. In many cases, too, there would
be nothing to proven Il farmer con-
ductor right into his farm when near
the main line, SO entirely dispensing
with horse traction at the home end.
obviously, the first application Of the
idea would be upon roads leading out
of the large cities some few miles only
but the rapid extension Of electric
|
such possibilities of relays that it
would frequently happen tnat Il POLE
line could be carried many miles with
out such Il gap occurring us would de-
mand Il special generating station.
The outlay on such scheme would
therefore be limited to the poles and
conductors, and its financial possiblli-
ties would be favorable by reason of
the fact lat the only power required
would come in as Il day load and there
fore serve to reduce the cost of the
electric light stations fortunate enough
to be called on to supply the current.
-ErrricM Rcrico, Lo"'loa.