The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-02-27
ELECTRICAL PROGRESS,
Even During Dull Times it Has Been
Extraordinary.


Extraordinary.
During the last two years, when
other branches of business have been
standing STILL the electrical distribu-
| tion Of power has grown as it never
grew before. The development of cleo
| trio railways in the United States Is
the product of the last ten years. In
1887 there were only thirteen such
roads, with barely one hundred cars
Writing two years ago, an electrical en-
gineer estimated that there were then
eight hundred and fifty electrical roads,
operating nine thousand miles of track
and twenty-three thousand cars, and
representing an investment Of capital OF
over four hundred million dollars. An
other professional authority, writing
the other day, places the present cleo
trioal railway mileage at thirteen thou
sand miles of track, equipped with not
less than thirty thousand motor cars.
The railway motors at present in use
aggregate fully one million horse power
and the generating plants close to five
hundred thousand Last years contri-
| button to electric railway construction
was nineteen hundred miles of track
and nearly five thousand motor cars.
1t is stated that this increase means an
aggregate investment of something like
| thirty-five million dollars, very re-
spectacle sum to be added to single
industry in year so little remarkable
for industrial expansion.
The authority last quoted-Dr, Bell,
of Newton Center-estimate the prob
able total of stationary electric motors
operated by central or scattered sta
lions and power transmission plants at
| two hundred and fifty thousand horse
power. Including railway work, he
| thinks it is safe that the gross power of
| the electric motors used in the United
States is at present not less than 1850
900 horse power Comparing such hist
with the small group of power plants
that We're running five years ago, the
strength of the business that has scored
such gains in hard times is self-eyident
The saving secured by the useof electric
power is so considerable that ordinary
prudence has, in many cases, demand
ed an investment sufficient to secure an
advantage that covered, under such
conditions as have recently prevailed,
the whole difference between profit and
loss. This has been especially the case
in regard to mining plants situated
where coal is very expensive and
water-power plenty A sample in
Stance is cited in which an electrical in
stallation for mining purposes has paid
for itself at the rate of five per cent. a
month.
But, remarkable as have been the adj
vantages already made in the develop
ment by electricity of the natural pow
er resources of the. country we are still
only at the beginning of this movement,
Every year seems to add something to
the distance that can be successfully
overcome in power transmission. Cali
fornia led the way in this advance, the
long distance lighting plants from the
generating station in San Antonio cam
yon to Pomona and San Bernardino be-
ing the most important of the kind at
tempted up to 1898. Two years later
what is known as the Folsom Sacra-
mento three-phase plant went into ope-
ration, furnishing all the power and
miles away, and making the longest
commercial transmission that had yet
been installed Still later came the
transmission Of electrical power over
La distance Of thirty-fve miles into
Fresno. This bears the record, so far,
as the longest commercial transaction
yet accomplished, the line from Maya
ra to Buffalo being eight miles shorter.
OF course, with every new demonstra-
ton of the commercial possibility Of
overcoming long distances the field for
the employment of electrical power be-
comes enormously Widened. This fact
has bearing not only on the possibili-
ty of utilizing the five million hydraulic
horsepower available in this country,
but also on that of converting the great
anthracite culm heaps into electricity
and of making the coal mines them
selves the seat Of great generating sta
tions whence power might be transmit
ted over a wide area of surrounding
territory boston Herald
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