The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-10-03

power from overhead. but instead of the
wires being strung Gu poles, each car
is fitted with its own wire; the poles
are erected at short intervals of space
SO that when the wire on the car leaves
the conductor on one pole it connects
with that on the next.
The accompanying illustrations show
the proposed plan clearly. The ad-
vantages claimed for the system are
that the poles only are visible in the
street. and. as these may also serve
for electric lighting, there is practically
no more structural work in the streets
t5an is ordinarily required for public
lighting. Furthermore. the poles are
shorter than is usual for an overhead
trolley system.
The inventor of this system has pro
vided for the possibility of tSae poles be-
ing placed at a greater distance apart
than the length of the wire strung oV9r
the roof of the car and to bridge over
the intermediate gaps a current is sup
piled by means of an insulated surface
contact plate, fixed in the ground be-
tween. or near. the track rails i'm a
somewhat similar way to the under
ground trolley system Each contact
piece of this kind IS situated midway
between the poles and a long shoe is
mountd underneath the car so as to
conect with the metal plate which pro-
jectS slightly above the street surface.
In this way a continuity Of current is
maintained, as before the underneath
shoe leaves the plate the overhead wire
connects with the power from the poles
To prevent the street surface coata cts
from being always alive" That is par-
nlanently connected With the feeding
wires from the generating station, they
are connected no to switch contacts
mounted uoon the poles and operated
automatically by means of side extern
sions. The side contact at the rear end
of the cars overhead wire, just before
the latter leaves the pole, switches IN
the street surface contact next ensuing
while the front end of the wire, inme-
diafely after it reaches a pole, SWITCHES
off the street surface contact Which has
just been passed.
II will thus be seen that the only sur
face contact in circuit. and from which
current can be obtained. is the one
under the car itself There is accord
ingly no danger OF electric selc'>k 10
pasSers-by, or horses drawing vehicles
along the street. By the use of such
an arrangement the overhead contact
devices. both on the car and attached
TO the street poles, may be brought con-
siderably lower down than is possible
with safety when the ordinary trolley
system is employed. This reduces the
cost Of street poles, and also gives a
better appearance to the car itself.
The overhead car contact is so ar
ranged that a sufficient tension in it for
good electrical contact with the street
pole contacts is automatically main
tanned by means of springs. and If the
wire forming the car overhead contact
should by any possibility break, the
oDtstretched arms on the car at once
swing doWnwards, and contact with
the street poles cannot be restored I'M
I'll the wire IS repaired. This prevents
a broken car wire overhead being alive.
When these overhead contacts are in
position, they stretch at least eight feet
above the roof Of tine car.
The cost of constructing such sys-
TEN is estimated TO be at least % per