Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1898-01-22

TROLLEY WAGON FOR COUNTRY ROADS,
weight of the storage batteries, except
on the most perfect roads that have
small grades The subject of the trans
portatlon of farm produce has engaged
the attention of economists and even of
the government 1t is easy to cite sta
tistlcs which show that the farmers in
country districts lose vast sums annual
ly owing to the difficulty of transport
ing their produce to the railroad by
which 1t car he shipped to the consumer
or exported In England the light rail
way has been tried with some success,
but the expense is against its more gen
eral use,
MIR w. & Catfrey of Reno, New,
has invented trolley electrical road
wagon which is certainly remarkable
for It's novelty and which in districts
where water power is available should
be very successful The cost of install
ing the overhead trolley system is not
prohlbltlve, and where a cheap source
OF power Is obtainable the expense of
working and maintenance would not be
great Mr. Catfrey has been at work up
on this system for three years, and the
wagon has been tested successfully. A
line OF ordinary poles was set up near
the Reno foundry and the dynamo
placed therein The two wires were
secured to the poles about Is inches
apart and |, feet from the ground, and
trolley with il lazy tongs arrangement
allowed the current to be furnished to
,n ~.
ventor had to solve was difficult one,
as perfect circuit must be maintained
at all times and the contact must be
flexible enurgh to allow wide diver
gence from the regular road if necessary
The improved form of trolley works
admirably 1t consists of a metallic
frame having two overrunning wheels,
and underneath these are the two lock-
ing wheels, which effectually prevent
the top wheels from leaving the wire
and still allow the frame to pass tho
support holding the wire on the pole
On the lower wire a similar device is
used The two trolleys are connected by
an insulated pantograph or lazy tongs
equipped with suitable guides, thus
providing fox unequal tension on the
trolley wires The poles are "a feet long
and inches Ill diameter at the small
end They are placed at intervals of 1875
feet On the inner or road side of these
poles are two supports or ''passbys" of
malleable IRON No . bimetallic wires
are used The current is supplied to the
wagons by IL cable which runs ON an au-
tomato reel ON the wagon, permitting
the cable to run out 200 feet if neces-
sary or wind up to a short length, thus
allowing the wagon to follow the ordi-
nary road and permitting it to turn or
do anything required Of it. The ordinary
trolley pole may also be used, but the
cable permits of running the wagon on
either side of the ordinary road, allow
ing 1t to meet or pass vehicles without
difficulty
The four wheeled wagon has wheels
IS inches III diameter The rear wheels
are fastened to IL shaft geared to a spring
suspended motor The motor is a two
horsepower one of the Westinghouse
crane type In front of the motor
commutator controller is suspended the
handle OF winch Is within easy reach OF
the person steering the wagon Th,
front axle Is trussed and the spindles
are plvoted to the wheel hub, with an
arm extending forward about Is inches
fastened rgrdly to the spindle These
two arms Il connected and the con-
Meeting bar again connected to the steer
ing har 1h,s gives quick turning quail
tiles with easy manipulation. The gen
orator used was a five horsepower COM
pound wound Westinghouse 500 volt
dynamo II Is said that on the trial
,lp speed OF 10 miles an hour was
reached WIKI load OF =, 500 pounds on
the wheels The control of both the mo-
tor and the steering apparatus was all
that was desired The trolley moved
easily over the wires and there was no
difficulty with the 'passbys. "-Scien-
tltic American