The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1897-01-28
Compressed Air for Street Railway
Propulsion.

The fact that French engineers have
been testing compressed air for trac-
ton purposes for the last fifteen years,
has been recently adduced as an argu-
ment in favor of this system. NJ. ID.
Adbank, a leading authority on the
past and present condition of street
practice in France, states that after
every conceivable means of street car
propulsion, including ordinary meth
DDS, ~superheated steam and COM
pressed air, have been tried, each,
with one exception, electricity. has
been or will shortly be abandoned.
The superheated system, he considers
dead, although it is continued in many
places because of the great cost that
would be involved in making a change.
Although the compressed air system is
in larger use, he ~prOnOunces the same
verdict upon it. No better contirma-
ton of this opinion could be made
than that shown by he present status
of the several systems in use i'll
France. Although the trolley system
was introduced but three years ago IN
that country, 1t runs already over 300
miles, while there are IT present but
forty-one miles of compressed air
roads, although the system was estab-
lished in 1881. There has not been
added a single compressed air line
since the trolley asserted it's superior
ity. The mileage of s%uperheated
steam roads is even smaller than that
of compressed all roads. The down
fall of compressed air traction Nj. Adj
bank attributes t, the greater cheap
ness and simplicity of the trolley, the
repair cost alone on air motors used in
France being enormous. Nj. Adbank
regards the cable system as antiquat-
ed and doomed SoOn to become ObSO-
lete. American maIufaCturers of elec-
trio railway apparatus are urged to
study the conditions now existing
throughout France, and especially in
Paris, where the general introduction
of both underground and overhead
trolley systems is likely to take place
before the opening of the lntcrnational
Exposition ing 1900.
ReOstene. n New Resistance Metal.
Some experiments have been made
with IA new alloy for commercial cleo
trical resistances, which has been
called "reOstene.' This alloy is the
outcome of a number of experiments,
made with a view to find a material of
higher specific resistance than iron,
capable of carrying heavy currents,
and having only a moderate temperat-
ure coefficient. Tests made in Man
chester, England, are said to have been
successful. Only in the case of 1inc
wires which had been heated to a full
red heat. could any serious change
due to current be detected. Oxidation
did not occur to any sensible extent be
low about go degrees Cent. The ma
terial seems soft, and will stand a con-
siderable amount of twisting force
without injury or appreciable perma-
ncnt alteration in resistance. It's mo
cbanical properties seem only very
slightly influenced by the passage of
current. specimens of new wire ana
wire subjected to high currents show
ing almost exactly the same strength
for loads of one-half to three-fourth5
the maximum carried by the wire. y
few tests made on the alteration in re-
siStanCc of the material. when imbed-
ded in a tire-prOOf cement and carry
ing large currents, also gave satisfact-
DRY results. showing that when pro-
tected from oxidation the resistance is
scarcely altered by exposure to rod
heat. This material should take an
important place in the electric heating
systems which are now being so gen
orally introduced in public buildings,
Exposition in 1900.