Evening star., 1896-11-16
REPORT CRITICISED.

IA Willard, the president of the American
AIR Power Company, to Receiver w. Kes-
ley Schoepf The letter created considera-
Die OF a sensation and was as follows:
| Having read your report as receiver of
the above railways to the Supreme Court
OF the District of Columbia, and also hav-
ing read the proposals from the Com
pressed Air Company, Joseph II. Hoadley,
president, We must protest against your
| &C obstruction of our proposal and your COM
! parisons of the Compressed Air Company's
| proposals with them being manifestly
unjust to us.
| Our proposal for the experimental equip
ment Of one compressed air car designated
| by you as exhibit No. 3 included not only
the motor, trucks. storage TASKS and COM
| pressors, with necessary piping offered
I5by the Compressed Air Company for
5000. but also included the car body,
'equippe1 with the Pintsch gas lighting
system annd air brakes, also station
supplied with cooling drying and Other
air-handling devices. with pressure gauges
| charging stands in the house, air
storage reservoir for the accumulation
| OF air storage I'm the station. and founda-
tions. erection and installation of the en-
tire plant, complete and operative for the
purpose designed. Also the cost of operat-
lrg, including all labor, fuel and supplies
I'lor thirty days. Whereas, by the other
proposal motors were to be delivered (. o.
70. cars Washington, not including any cost
OF handling. delivery or erection opera
1
non acceptance by you the car body should
be conveyed to them for the consideration
| Of 81. ..,
Total Equipment for the Two Lines.
| our proposal fer the entire equipment
tof the1two lines with the sixty-car equip
ment amounting to $339OO0, covered all
the expense necessary, and for the service
of these two lines, our engineer, Mr. E.
Z. Pettee' went personally carefully over
all the line in Washington, and later dis
| cnsSeo the equipment of same with Mr.
lIodd. superintendent of the road at the
| oInces OF the American Air Company in
New York. at which interview it appeared
| tnat siXty-car equipment would be sufIi-
cient to operate the roads by our system
| walls.
The sixty cars estimated for in our pro-
| Pesal We're to be substantially of the style
| ana size OF the car furnished for expert
| mental run-nainely, 2o-foot box bodies, Is
| Ieet long over all, and would carry sub
stant.aiy the same number of passengers
as eishty cars OF the size now operated by
you, which car bocies were to be furnished
| py you tc the Hoadley people for equip
inent Of the line for sf!DO
| our computation that Oh the hasrs of
| eighty cars our proposal should he esri-
| mated at S3t4,oD, is entirely erroneous ami
I.tn"trIanted, NV as We would gladly furnish
| t e .Wenty extra cars. the plant necessary
| Ior their operation, with buildings of brick
ana IRON, and all pipe lines necessary for
the different branches. for the sum Of s,1t-
coo or SU,VO less than your report TO the
| court. ~ ''e
| If a comparison Ct cost is to he ,,.ss
| Iet"een cur proposal and that of the Com
| pressed Air Company, the value of eighty
Iar @ bodies with complete fittings and also
| the AR brakes, should be deducted This
wound amount to SSD,OO0-reduc!ng our es-
| Innate 10 Sti4,0OO. as against S.s,s 600 of
the compressed Air Company This shows
| ~ Juslice ti, Oh your comparison of the
fad b..
| In your report you say that: Pursuant
| ~ the instructions given in said order Won
nave made personal visits of inspection 10
examine into all systems of compressed mir
| ~ OPERATION or under construction in this
| eouhuy. we are greatly surprised at this
| ipr Inc reason that Mr.. Todd superinten
i aeni OF the lexington road called on our
| engineer, Mr. +. T. Pet,ee on Tnasda,,
| morning, November 3. and said thai NJ
ochoepf had run over from Baltimore The
e.enihs before, and that they had both
sone up TO Harlem and taken a ride on
| ole OF the Harde cars, and also on ono of
| the Hoadley cars. but that they did not
| nave tlme to examine either the motor
or plant in the Hardie system. as NJ
niaht returned to Baltimore on the mid
! hisht traln. and also thai they failed 10
ootdih admission into the charging stat;on
| Vi the Hoadiey motor. at 146th street and
siia ashea Mf; Peiiee IL he could get him in
| Iiue me hoadley comprising station as
| ne would like very much to see N ha,o9
ne returned to Washington. Mr.. Petfee re
pieu that ms efforts would be of no as
neonia IA tnat direction. as the Hoadley
| People had pursued the policy from Tho
start CT debarring everybody ~
ou ohiit 10 state in your report the
mn mn,o Occupied IN charging the Hoadley
/ "Trip OF little more than four miles a.
DIS you state in your report that consider
| able time is required for charging the
| Hardle motor and as this time amounts to
| less than two minutes to charge the HarGie
| motor fer sixteen or seventeen-,nile run
| :he time required to charge the Hoadley
| motor for trip of one-fourth that dis
| tance would be of great interest to the
| property holders whom you represent and
! 1t seems to me, should have been stated for
| their edification.
! Another item in your report is that the
Hoadley cars had no difficulty in ascending
| az per, cent grade when fully loaded /;
| but as there is no ~ per cent grade on the
| line where the cars have been trying to
! operate in a desultory manner, this state
| Elent is not comprehensive. i have heard
| that these cars have had considerable diff
| Guilty in overcoming much less grade
| than az per cent, and that in one instance
| at least they failed to mount the grade
| with a small load of passengers, and ran
back when part way up, causing consterna-
! ton to those on the car. To state that
| these Hoadley cars are operating in daily
service with intent to convey the idea of
| regular commercial service, such as our
cars have been performing for the past
| three months on 125th street, is not cor
| rect. -,i.e
AN appointment was made by you as re-
ceiver, in writing, to meet Mr.. f. f. Pet
| tee, our engineer, in Washington on No.
| vember 2" Mr.. Pettee came to Washing
! ton in compliance with that appointment
| and found at your office that you were
4 absent from town. Mr. Todd visited New
| York and made very thorough and care
fulaex animation into the Hardie motor be-
| ing afforded every AGILITY for Investigation
not only into the operation of the cars
| but also into the methods of compressing
4 cooling, drying. storing and handling the
| air, time occupied in charging the cars
method Of reheatir &, cost of maintenance
and cost of operation and other details of
our regular commercial service for the
past three months, during which period
| the ears have run more than 12WW miles
| and carried more than 1900 passengers
| ascending grade in excess of ~ per cent
| every trip. But l do not understand your
! statement that you had personally in
spected this plant.
| In looking over the bids with the court
| Lnotice among the items enumerated in the
| bid by the Compressed Air Power Com
pany for the Hoadley motor that there is
| included 5000 horse power station, equip
ment complete AS the bid included eighty
cars. and as the receiver states that eighty
! cars equipment is necessary to operate the
| road, this 1900 horse power plant would
give 371e horse power per car What is the
! reason for such large installations A