The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-01-26
AGE OF ELECTRICITY
GENERAL REVIEW OF ELECTRICAL
PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS.
Some Remarkable Features as shown
by the Views of Three Experts
New Era In RaiIroading.

Baltimore Sun
No phase OF current progress presents
more interesting features than the extern
sion of electric power to new industrial and
domestic uses. In the New Years number
OF Casters Magazine, devoted wholly to
electrical subjects Mr.. T. c. Martin, an ex-
pert writer such topics reviews recent
advances and surveys the prospects of
further advances in the near future.
The year 1895 is acknowledged to have
opened a new era in the history of railroad
ing far concerns the motive power
The effective application of a ninety-five-ton
electric locomotive for the hauling of heavy
trains through our Baltimore tunnel was a
great object lesson. Its results have already
begun to be harvested. The entire elevated
railroad system of Chicago is now operated
by electrical power. Every leading steam
railroad in the country is having the new
problem OF motive power forced upon 1t
more or less urgently. Many of them are
equipping such sections Of their lines as
have been paralleled by trolley roads with
electrical apparatus. New York and the SUI
burban residential and summer-resort dis
trict surrounding it is most striking ex-
ample of this process of transformation.
The whole territory that lies between the
Brooklyn end of the big bridge and Coney
Island is now covered by electric roads,
which offer quicker transit at lower fares
than the steam railroads were previously
furnishing, with the result that one after
another the steam lines of this entire dis
trict, in which the summer passenger traffic
is reckoned by millions of fares, are being
closed up altogether or converted into COM
peting electric roads. The same thing is wit
messed in the suburban district around Phil
adel1hia, though in suburban Baltimore the
| competition has so far seemed to stimulate
business on the steam railways.
The problem of the steam railroad man.
| ager is a complex one. While for short dis
tances in the vicinity of most large cities
parallel trolley lines are able to play havoc
with steam railroad passenger receipts. yet
| for long distances for passenger service and
| for freight service generally no economical
method of using electrical power has yet
been perfected. The conclusion Mr.. Martin
| reaches as to this branch of electrical enter
| prise is that many roads will not equip
with electricity just yet, and will let the
street railways absorb the bulk of their To-
| cal traffic. Compensation must be sought in
| freight handling. and thus it is not impossi-
| electricity on street car lines may be to
force many steam roads to advance their
| freight rates, as we'll as to offer new in
| ducements for through travel" For the
| larger roads with five or six tracks. the
problem is less difficult. They can equip one
set of tracks with electricity to compete
| with the trolleys for the local traffic and go
4 on using steam on the other tracks for
| through passenger tralIIc and freight
Another incident in the electrical record
| of 1895 which is destined to have very large
| consequences was the transmission of cleo
| trio power derived from the waters OF Nj
| agara and its successful application to man.
| ufacturing purposes. Mr.. Martin thinks,
| however that many of the promoters OF
| new schemes for utilizing water power In
| other places in a similar manner are likely
| to be disappointed, chiefly because they for
| get four things-hrst, that water powers
| are often costly TO develop; second, that
streams have an exasperatng knack of dry
ing up, and during 1885 the United states
| government actually forbade the power use
| of some of them; third, that the power from
| coal, natural gas and oil is still wonderfully
| cheap; fourth, and most important or ALL
| that even when electric power can be de-
veloped cheapy from water power there is
| not always a market for 1t. The use of
| electricity on the Erie canal, close to Nj
| agara, by means Of electric mules, or
motors hauling boats along from STOUT
| lines on poles is another notable step for
| ward, and this writer believes that the
equipment of the entire Erie canal, section
| by section will swiftly follow
| LIGHTING PLANTS.
| In the field of electric lighting the year
| 1895 saw no very startling innovation. and
the thing most worth noting in this relation
/ was the large increase in the number of
municipal Plants and of plans to spend
| public money irr electric-lighting expert
| ments. Mr.. Martin, while conceding that
| there are some we.l-managed city plants,
asserts with confid, nee that mot a scrap
| of evidence has yet Leen brought forward
| proving that, on the whole, a city saves
| money by going into debt in order to engage
| in a commercial undertaking of this kind"
| Speaking technically, he says. the main
| changes in the electric-.ighting field in 1895
| have been the greater use OF direct-con-
nected incandescent dynamos, the general
| introduction of larger arc dynamos up to
| l50 lights OF two-thcusand candle power
| each, the growing employment of 220-volt
| lncandescent lamps, the resort to storage
batteries in central stations and isolated
| plants and the increased favor shown
| toward inverted arcs, whose light Is thrown
| up to the ceiling and reflected downward"
o, LIT Is remarkabe that the first CONNER
graphs now the smallest field of cleo
| trical enterprise. The telephone has far
surpassed IT in magnitude and usefulness.
| In the United States the telegraph lines
barely paid their running expenses during
| 1895, and in England, where the system is
operated by the government, the losses on
| their operation tor the past seven years
amounts TO about thirteen million dollars,
and nothing but annual deficiencies are
| still in sight. In the competition between
telegraph and telephone wires the chances
| seem at present heavily in favor OF the
| younger, cheaper and more flexible system.
| Yet il has been suggested by experts en-
| titled to respect that the telegraph still
| has great future before IL under more
progressive management Their idea is
| that the telegraph might cut deeply into
| that part OF the mail service now done by
| special delivery By the application of
| machine methods Mr.. T.. Il. Delany has
| demonstrated that three pages of a maya
| zine, or about three thousand words, can
| be transmitted in one minute. Letters dis
| patched In this rapid way between large
| cities at, say, fifteen cents for seventy-fi five
| words would, in Mr.. Martins opinion, re
| model social and business intercourse and
compete with the mail, as well as with
| telephone talks at four five dollars for
| five minutes" If telegraphy is to regain
| its lost Importance and commercial value.
| IL will probably be by development in this
| direction.
| The next great advance in electrical in
vention will, in the judgment of this writ
err, be in the direction of securing a great
| reduction in the cost OF electric power
| Great things are expected from the per-
| lection of Mr.. Teslas oscillator which is
expected to be placed on the market some
| time this year. This new machine COM
bines the steam engine and the dynamo in
| one mechanism, and promises to cut Down
| the consumption of steam by at least one