Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-09
Winter Car.

quired the erection of poles in the streets
and the suspension Of network CT highly
charged wires. under circumstances which
might prove in many ways to be both in
convenient and dangerous. But it was
stoutly declared that no other electric sys-
tenn except the overhead trolley could be
made to work, and the desire for more eff
cient transit carried the day.
Meanwhile. far down the valley of the
Danube the municipal authorities of Blu
dapest, place with half a million inhab-
trolley wires in the handsome and orderly
streets of their progressive city; and the
directors Of the Budapest Electric Street
Railway Company. desiring a franchise
for the new boulevards, cheerfully under
took to dispense with all overhead struc-
lures. They also promised not to employ
the system-which had been experimentally
tried at Berlin-by which the rails them
rent. furthermore, they agreed not to make
use Of a third rail carrying the electrical
current. this system having had some ex-
perimental trial. but having been consid-
cred objectionable. What they did agree
to do was to place a conduit under one
of the rails. carrying in that conduit an
insulated wire or metallic strip which
should convey the electrical power to-
Rether with second one for the return
currently, and to make the connection with
the motor or secondary dynamo of the
street car through a slot in the groove of
one Of the rails.
Stood the Test.
In short, the proposed system was a
highly improved underground trolley, with
the live wire or metallic strips so placed as
to be neither visible nor tangible, and insu-
lated in such a way that the surface rails
could never be dangerously charged, while
telegraph and telephone lines should suffer
nothing from induction. This brief descrip
ton of the system Is not for technical elec-
tricians. but for the unscienti1c reader. 1t
Is sufficient to say that 1t has stood the test
Of five winters and five summers with per-
feet success. Nor is there any reason
whatsoever to believe that 1t would not be
quite as successful in Brooklyn or in any
American city rs In Budapest.
The plain truth seems to be that, apart
from the power houses, which take the
place of horses and stables, the ordinary
trolley system is an exceedingly inexpensive
affair. 1t cost only a trifle to erect the
poles and string the wires But 1t involves
some expense to adopt the Budapest sys-
tenn and carry the wire underground. The
expense Of subsequent operation Is likely
to be less rather than more with the Buda-
pest system: but the initial expense of con-
verting a horse car system into an cleo
trica1 system would obviously be much in
creased.
But over against this objection it may be
urged that the Budapest system actually
pays very well. Last year its stockhol-
ders received dividend of eight per cent,
a good round payment was made to the
municipal treasury as rental for the use
of the streets, and something was added to
the reserve fund. 1t should be remarked
that the accounts Of the Budapest Electric
Street Railway Company are as public as
the accounts of any of the municipal depart
ments. and that every feature of Its income
and outgo Is open to the inspection of the
whole world. The street railway business
in a European place like Budapest, even If
fairly profitable, is not nearly so lucrative
as in an American city. The reason, then,
why it was so easy for the Budapest COM
pany to earn eight per cent last year over
and above Its large tax account, it's con-
tribution to an insurance fund for its en-
ployes, its liberal payment to a reserve
tax fund. its satisfactory payment also to
an ordinary reserve fund, and it's provision
for interest and sinking fund. is readily
understood when 1t Is stated that 1900, 900
forms, or $2.O00,OOO, Is the sum total of its
capitalization. An American street railway
company would scarcely have been content
to construct this Budapest system without
watering Its stock to the extent of a CAPT.
talization of from SO. 1000, 900 to 10000, 900.
The Brooklyn street railway companies, or
other companies similarly situated in the
United States, could easily adopt the Blu
dapest system for the central portions of
the town, and earn 25 per cent dividends
upon their actual investment But unfor-
tunately our American companies as a
rule. wish to earn a large rate Of interest
upon an enormously inflated and fictitious
capitalization.
The Conduit.
The egg-shaped conduit which carries the
electric current Is about fifteen inches in
its vertical diameter and twelve inches
wide. 1t Is constructed Of iron sheets bent
into lengths Of perhaps four or five feet.
which are easily riveted together. At con-
venient intervals the water which collects
in the conduit runs off into the sewers.
The conduit Is near the street surface and
does not interfere at any point either with
sewers. water pipes. gas pipes. or the con-
duits that carry telegraph and telephone
wires and electric light cables. The street
railway company has a convenient tele-
phone system of Its own, with the wires
placed in the same elliptical conduit that
carries the motive current connecting the
central Offices of the company with the car
shops and power houses and with various
waiting rooms and stations along the diff
ferent routes.
There is nothing In the climatic condi-