The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-11-06
ELECTRIC TRACTION
Development of Street Rail
way Apparatus and
Sources Of Power.
CULM A MODERN TREASURE
Fuel For Almost Nothing-Rich-
mond Road a Landmark
Weight Of Rails.
CULM A MODERN TREASURE

"A p~uD1cdUlOn LOT peClililCldilS, GicS-
tricity'' has ar interesting article in it's
current number upon the wonderful
growth of electric traction.
1t is difficult to realize what has been
as it is to predict what may be, and in no
direction of human progress have the
years been more revolutionary than they
have been since electricity became a com
mercial factor. So great have been the
changes that this agency has wrought
in our surroundings, IN our methods of
living and in our very methods OF
thought. that to go back a decade seems
almost like delying into ancient history.
It would be Incredible if we did not
know it to be a fact, that but nine years
| ago the first commercial electric railroad
in America started its cars. This event
whic occurred in the city Of scranton
in the fall of 1886. was pregnant OF Tar
greater results than even its most enthus-
iastic friends then dared dream of.
The three cars. the few miles of track
and the investment of the few thousand
dollars of that year have become 20,OVO
cars running on over $4,000 miles of track
and involving an investment of capital
in the State of New York alone OF up
ward of $500, 100000.
With this condition of affairs around
US, it may not be uninteresting or inap-
propriate at this time to look back to the
beginning.
The city of Scranton is situated in
the heart of the largest anthracite coal
basin in America. Its houses are under
mined by the busy miner, and many of
it's unbuilt-up portions, even in what
would otherwise be the heart of the city,
are covered with enormous and rapidly
| inoralSipo niles of refuse coal,
POWER IN CULM.
These culm piles, however, are the
present source of all the power OF TINS
enterprising city. and he who owns a
culm pile. if he hold on to it long enough
may be richer tina he who owns a coal
mine, for as the latter is depleted the
former grows.
AT the base of one Of these heaps OF
refuse is located the Suburban Electric
Light Station, and it was from this sta
| ton that power vas furnished for the
Van Depoele road. On a recent VISIT 10
this locality the writer saw the three
original machines, now no longer IN use
but preserved as interesting historical
relics.
One looks at these massive machines
with their long magnetic circuit with
establishment and awe. but when he re-
members that the attributes of the mag
netic circuit were not so well under
| stood then as now, and that the dyna-
mo-designer's art was then only en-
piricism, he is not SO much astonlshed
to find almost every fundamental rule
violated.
These machines have all been modelled
over since they ceased theft first use
fulness in the endeavor TO make them
earn at least their OWL living. TWO Oh
them were remodeled into alternating
current machines. and although at the
hands of such skilled doctors as Prof.
Elihu homso and Mere J. Wightman,
and although each of them contains
just about twice as much iron and twice
as much copper as modern machines
Intended for the same output, they heat
ed up so much after half an hours run
as to render further service from them
| impossible. The third machine was then
| rewound as an arc machine. but this,
like the other two, proved more proht-
able as a historic relic than as an active
participant in the lighting arena.
An interest still attaches to this cleo
tfls , & hiEstericai association. n that
nothing than any other station in the
In. fact the, conditions are sucn as
would make the average street railway
mTThha IL parti esaT Who re' own the aaes station ate in also
own the culm pile. and the land upon
Whifh The y lsttsF stap Taer Is RE IS g dess,a s5i
the culm, and the. owners of the latter
The preparation Of the culm for mar
ket consists simply in running it through
screens g S;ftsr SO as Ste to divide it into products
In order to bring It to, the sizing
s bane into q l q mecSSiy ehpv conve 5r4m T Fhe
coal in it it's trayeI passes for a DISTANCE
is scarcely a marketable product. is
da insa ny and 0 by, tRSls, d la ere G dRlrPectiy
into the bins Of the lighting station;
" ah 'fEs b It ! SsseeHa Mh eg das snpsgne i d dGsn5
and used on proper qp7 g rat bars it makes
fHE RICHMOND ROAD.
The next landmark in the progress of
fhs story o fo, which 81 MI 1 E,a Sprays So enter 1sa,
oomissieRRs 4 liz ESnIISineerihg Masa-
The story IS 50 wen known to all cleo
uric railway men that It does net need
r rslbaiatlen5 heG of t Rat P Pks the F trthls and 4
must ever have a keen interest for those
who have benefited from these pioneer
laDors.
It will be remembered that the con-
tract for this, at that time ~herculean.
| undertaking was made in May, 1887, and
called for the completion in ninety days
| of the equipment of a road having about
twelve miles of track, at that time I'M
laid and the route determined only in
| part; the construction of q complete
steam and electric central station plant
ing of forty cars with eighty motors
| and all app~urtenances necessary for
| their operation; thirty of these cars were
! to be operated at n time. and grades
as high as 8 per cent. Were to be ascend
And, furthermore, the contract was
undertaken under a time forfeit.
taking at the present day with all of
| our experience and the precedents of
past successes and failures to guide US,
but when we consider that there was no.
| practice at that day except that which
indicated what not to do, and not much
of that, we can but wonder at the au-
dacity which ggrro2mmpntasd5 The pnndertaking-
The track was laid with a twenty
seven pound tram rail and the curves
were many and sharp-some of them as
low as twentyseven feet radius.
We laugh at 27-pound rails today, but
what was there at that time to indicate
that a heavier one was needed? The
steam roads, with their high speed, heavy
Steam railroad engineer would nave
scoffed at the idea of using for street
railway purposes rails of 80 to So pounds.
which even the steam roads OF today,
with their increased train units, have
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