Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-07-08
ELECTRICITY ON RAILROADS
Inc Current Can be Successfully FIN
ployed for Long Heavy HAMS

An official test has Leen made of the
'HlIu rail- system between Hartford
ana New Britain on the New England
ROAD. ms was the first application
OF this method Of using electricity in
| stead OF steam for long and heavy
lldtI. A run OF ten miles was made IN
! lhlfteen and One-hal1 minutes. AMI
with less jar than is experienced in
all ordinary passenger car. This
test means the attai1 ment of a speed
Oh sixty to sevenly-five miles an
hour by using electricity as a motive
power. Financially it means getting
| OAe-hOrse power out Of two tons of
coal. In steam engine it takes from
seven to eight tons Of coal to get one
forse power. The experiments were
begun three years ago on the Nan
tasket Beach Road, which was selected
because 1t was not believed that
electricity was practicable on auy sur
lace Or any great lei 9Th, owing to the
waste OF the current in transmission
which would neceSsttate power-housee
every lew miles. But after many ex-
perIments the New York, New Haven
and Hartford electricians discovered
that by heavy rail, that looks like
q c2pltal A flattened down end laid
on blocks of wood, the electrical cur
reIt could be transmitted without cpv
aPpreclable loss of power, and at one
MIN the cost Of a trolley line. 1t was
this discovery that caused the New
! Haven road to spend so much money
on the third rail system from Berlin to
Hartford, thirteen miles long.
PRESIDENT Clarke of the New Haven
road is quoted as saying: Our loco
motives may go into the scrap heap. as
the Old stage coaches had to 60"
The central rail weighs ninety-three
pounds to the yard. The conductivity
of iron as compared with copper is in
proportion of one to six, sc that an
iron rail weighing ninety-three pounds
to the yard would ba equal to fifteen
and one-half pounds of copper to the
yard, an amount which is never used
in actual practice.
The cars are fifteer-bench open cars,
each equipped with two 125-horse
power motors. A controller is on
each platform, and on one platform is
an electrical air pump, for the electric.
brakes and whistle. This pump is stop
ped and started Dy an ingenious auto
matte arrangement which comes into
play as the pressure in the tanks rises
above or falls below ninety pounds.
The current was produced at the
dynamo at a pressure of $50 volts, and
six 1ncandescent lamps fed in series at
an average of ITO volts burn brightly
at the further end of the line, thirteen
miles from the power-house, shown.
that the electrical pressure necessary
to move the train was still more than
sufficient and greatly more than was
expected.
At all crossings ard switches this
third rail is omitted, the current
continuing over two copper cables,
each one inch il diameter, buried in
the ground. The contact shoes, which
are fiat pieces of iron hung under each
truck, are thirty-three feet apart. Al
short crossings one is always in con-
tact, at crossings wider than thirty
three feet shoe huI g in the rear of
the trailer car continues in contact I'm
til the first shoe reaches the third rail
again.