Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-07-26
1T Is FOUND AT LAST.
NEW UNDERGROUND PLAN OF ELEC-
TRlCAL PROPULSION.

VIII Do Away With the Unsightly Troll
ley and Is Said to Run More Smoothly
Than Any Yet Tried-How 1t Works.
The new wheelless underground system
of electrical propulsion, as applied to street
railways and hauling for terminal freight,
has been introduced and is being watched
with interest by the mechanical world.
A perfect storage battery car has been
the dream of electricians for years, and
that is just what the Westinghouse COM
pany processes to have made.
There have been several failures Of the
storage battery cars on street railroads in
this country, the most notable being those
of the railroads in Muncio, Ind, and of
Marlboro and Hudson, Mass. The battery
system was tried fer time on both these
roads, but the experiment was so unsuc-
ccssful that it was eventually abandoned
and the overhead trolley system was adopt
ed instead.
The Westinghouse system is certainly a
| novel one, but at test which was made
at the company's works at Pittsburg re-
Gently it was considered highly satisfactory
in every way. There We're number Of
practical men present at the time the test
was made, and they expressed the opinion
that the system was good one.
No unsightly stringing of wires over
head is required, and that is certainly
something in its favor. Another is tho
comparatively small expense connected
with the laying of tracks on any road on
which it may be worked
Instead of a deep excavation requiring
| 70 I,n mazda nc in tho e Oh
by cable or an underground electric road a
number of "studs' are inserted in the
ground at certain distances along the
track. Each car is fitted with shoe"
extending tho entire length of the car bot
tom and also with "a small but powerful
storage battery. The battery supplies the
electricity to the shoe, the shoe to the
studs as it passes over them, and by this
means the car is propelled forward or back
ward as the motorman wishes
The studs are placed two abreast in the
road or street. and no two sets of studs
are farther apart than the length of a car
| These studs are perfectly harmless until
the shoe touches them. Then they receive
the full force of the generator from the
! shoe.
The Westinghouse system has also per-
feet smOOthnGss in running in its favor.
There is no spasmodic jerking of passen-
gers from one end of the car to the other
when stop takes place or a start is about
to be made, and this Of itself is ICON
summation devoutly to be wished" by
passengers who are in the habit Of travel
! ing on street railroads.
The system has been experimontally in
use in Washington for nearly II months,
and about month ago Colonel Hahn and
George Gould witnessed test of it in
Pittsburg, with the view, it is said of
using it on the elevated railroads in New
York instead of steam.
Both gentlemen expressed themselves as
thoroughly satisfied with the test and said
that the system was the best in point of
economy and simplicity of construction,
of any that they had seen previously.
At the test which took place recently
one motor ran five cars containing 100
tons of freight over an intricate system of
track at good rate of speed, to the sur
prise of all who witnessed it.-New York
journal.