Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-06-12
IT BEATS STEAM.
Electric Engines Make Sixty
Miles an Hour.
THE MOTIVE POWER OF THE FUTURE
The Same Dynamo Which Drives the
Engines Also Generates Light for the
Cars-French Railroads.


electricity and intended to attain a
speed heretofore unheard of have been
constructed at the Call engine factory
in France somewhat on the same prln-
ciple as the celebrated Fusee built on
the Heilman plan, but having great
many improvements upon that model.
Electricians are agreed that these en-
gines constitute a new departure IN
electric traction.
1t is only sixteen years since electric
ity was first used as a motive power,
and during that short time it has made
more progress than steam has done in
nearly eighty years.
In 1879 Siemens and Halske expert
mented at Berlin with train of which
electricity drove the motor but they
never accomplished greater speed
than eight miles an hour Electric
tramways have been improved and
multiplied since that first attempt,
especially in the United States. where
there are now $50 lines in operation.
The City and South London Rail
way has also for some years employed
electricity as a motive power, and has
succeeded in attaining speed of from
twenty five to thirty miles an hour,
and lately the Baltimore and Ohio
Railway has employed number of
electrical engines on its various lines,
some of which have drawn their trains
at speed of forty miles an hour.
But France is first in the race with
electric engines of high speed. Four
teen months ago some very interesting
experiments were made with the Fusee
between Havre and Bonneville, and
afterwards on the line between Paris
and Nantes. The engine drew heavy
train at speed of fifty miles an hour,
and would have exceeded that limit If
the Government had not stepped in
and forbidden any increase of speed as
dangerous to the public. Encouraged
by this success, the Campagnie de
l'Ouest ordered two new electrical
locomotives to be built at the Call fac
tory, and they will shortly be tried on
either the Dieppe or the Trouvkille
line.
These locomotives are of l, 500 horse
power, which is nearly three times that
of the Fusee. The new engines have
power enough to move $50 tons at
speed of sixty miles an hour on level.
The engines are constructed in the
following manner: An enormous boiler
is protected on the right and the left
by two lateral reservoirs or bunkers.
fain d00 ~ and
six tons of coal. The heating surface
is much greater than that of the Fusee.
which had 432 square feet. TIE me-
chanical energy is first transformed into
electrical energy by the means of YER
tical steam engine working two gener-
ating dynamos. These are excited,
separately, by another smaller dynamo,
which serves at the same time, to
light the train by incandescent lamps.
The motors are placed directly over
the axles, to which they impart re-
yolving motion.
These motors are sheltered by roof,
or rather spacious cabin, with sharp
PROV in front to diminish the resist
ance of the air.
This cabin is lighted by lateral win
dows, and has ventilator in the roof.
The engineer and the fireman work
within it, and the first has at his COM
mand the vertical engine. the rheostat
of electrical excitation, the brake and
the whistle. A tablet. placed at the
height of the eye, indicates, by re-
Clustering apparatus. the speed and the
intensity of the electro-motive force.
This new type of electro-motive en-
CINE is mounted on two eight-wheeled
trucks, thus insuring great stability
and smoothness in running 1t is
safe to predict that electric traction
has definitely entered the field of prac
tical usefulness. Other compares will
soon follow the example of the Com
pagnie de lOuest, if merely for the
sake of the saving of coal, and the
public will appreciate the speed. clean
illness and comfort of the new system.
Sixty miles an hour now, perhaps $50
tomorrow-why not?