The Portland daily press., 1895-08-10

the Electric Railways-Next the Erie
Canal.
Those well acquainted with railroads
of America and their methods have for
some time realized that q crisis in the
transportation business of the country
was rapidly approaching. The swift
development of the electric car for tho
transportation for passengers has enabled
street railway corporations practically to
rival the great railroads in the carrying
of suburban passengers in the vicinity of
the large cities Of the east, and in some
places the competition has been SO sharp
as to cause a loss to be felt by the steam
roads. Some of the eastern trunk lines
have aready inaugurated movement
towards the substitution of electricity for
steam on some of the branches, and at
least three of them, the New York, New
Haven and Hartford road, the Pennsyl-
vania line, and the Reading, have actu-
ally taken steps toward the replacing of a
certain part of the steam propelled rolling
stock with the cheaper electrical devices
that have proved so successful during the
past two or three years. The building of
the great electrical locomotives for the
use of the Baltimore and Ohio road in the
tunnel that now pierces the foundations
of the city of Baltimore as short cut on
the route from here to New York is prac-
tically the first demonstration in this line,
and it is confidently expected by en-
gineers that the end of the century will
see very general installation of cleo
tricity in lieu for steam on most of the
great roads of the east.
THE WEST TO JOIN THE PROCES-
SION.
. Now comes word that the west is about
to follow us in this line, and '''Holland"
the New York correspondent of the Phil
adelphia press, has written most inter-
esting letter, in which he gives the pre-
liminary details of the scheme by which
certain trunk lines centering at Chicago
are to substitute electricity for steam.
Holland" withholds the names of these
corporations, as he says the premature
publication of their titles might prevent
the complete success of the enterprise.
Contracts have not yet been signed,
although negotiations have progressed
very far, and the managers of three of
the great Chicago lines have asked for
estimates for the cost of constructing the
number of locomotives adapted to the
new system of electrical propulsion
Upon the bids of the manufacturing com
panies will probably depend the imme-
date substitution of the new motive
power or the old. If these electrically
ropelled engines, says "Holland'' can
be procured at reasonable price, the
rest of the plan will be very easily devel-
opcd.
The project is to establish at the coal
mines in Illinois. Iowa and some other of
the north western states containing de-
posits of this valuable mineral, gigantic
electrical plants that will produce cur
rents at u minimum cost. The idea is
that by establishing the power plant at
the mines the great cost of transport
ing the coal to Chicago or the other rail
road centers will be saved. 1t is thus
hoped to establish in the interior of the
country that is unprovided with water
power a power plant that will rival the
81 eat machine into which Niagara has
now been transformed by the genius of
The inventor. For some time after the
success of the Niagara experiment. was
demonstrated there was more or or less
question whether the power could be
transported to a sufficient distance beyond
the source of supply to enable it's use by
The consumers of the Chicago region, but
it is now practically demonstrated that for
time at least the power that can be
PtO0uOCo dU ~ Will D0 dDSOGUcu DY
the factories located at the falls, those
that are being established at Buffalo, and
by the Erie canal and perhaps by the
New Work Central railroad. At all events
it is almost certain that the cost of trans
porting the power to Chicago and beyond
would more than wipe out the margin of
economy between electricity and steam :;
hence. says Holland, these power
plants are to be located at the mines in
the states named, and the currents con-
yeyed to the various stations along the
line, there to be served to the locomotives
STORAGE BBATTERIES TO BE
USED.
In this scheme the idea of an overhead
wire. or feeding current, is abandoned
and the storage battery principle is
adopted In the Baltimore tunnel the
locomotive is practically la great trolley
car, receiving the current from a wire car
ried above along the roof of the tunnel.
The trolly system has also been the foun-
dation thought of most of the eastern
electrical railway projects, and the and
the Chicago scheme is therefore, unique
in departing from these lines. 'Hollandr
states that a locomotive starting from
Chicago will be fitted with chloride
dooulhula6or OF storage battery such as is
now made by Philadelphia firm. This
I'attery will be so charged as to carry the
locomotive at a certain speed for certain
distance. The road will be divided into
sections proportionate to the strength of
the batteries, and the proposition is to
have the locomotiver run as far as it can
with one battery, and then, reaching an
other station, to have the exhausted bat
terry removed by a strong electrical crane
and newly charged battery hoisted into
place. The exhausted battery will then
be recharged from the current and used
for the next locomotive that comes along
the line. 1t is not contemplated, saws
Holland that the electricity will be
applied to the hauling of freight trains
as the calculations SO far as made indi-
cate that for that purpose steam is more
economical: as speed is not SO great a
factor in freight service, and it is the
acceleration of speed in a locomotive
engine that causes disproportionate in
crease in the cost of running.
The question of speed has not been
reached, Holland" announces, but the
managers of the three roads in question
believe that they can obtain and maintain
q higher rate with the proposed electric
locomotives than can be secured with the
use of steam. The minimum rate, of
hp pIr