Omaha daily bee., 1898-07-22
THE FIELD OF ELECTRICITY
Toledo's Plan Of Applying the Trolley to
Farm Wagons,
RUNNING DYNAMoS BY SOLAR HEAT
Huge Electric s~enrchIight for the
Harbor of San Frnncisco-Prog-
rcss of Electric Powcr-
Other Developments.

Colonel John C. Bonner, a prominent cap
italist Of Toledo. o., has Just been given a
franchise by the city council for the use OF
car tracks throughout the city Of Toledo
upon which he may run his patented rail
wagons" for a term Of one year. The Bon
ner rail wagon" is a combination vehicle
on which 1t is proposed to load farm wagons
or other vehicles. II is so constructed as
to be readily convertible for use upon any
ordinary roadway or upon a railroad track.
1t can be shifted from the one to the other
at will, without the necessity Of reloading
or rehandling the contents between points
OF shipment and destination.
The wagon proper is patented after the or
binary improved road wagon, modified, Of
course. for the special nature of the service
contemplated. The running gear and springs
are of standard construction, having q
carrying capacity Of from three to seven
tons, depending upon the class of freight to
be carried.
The rail truck is not materially different
from the car truck In general use on electric
railways, except that it Is provided with
special attachments for automatically grip
ping and supporting the wagon, which COM
prises its load.
The promoters OF the enterprise have
pIolliSeu the CITY COuDCll OIL lOleuO tndt
convenient receiving and distributing sta
lions will be located within the municipal
boundaries. Bulk merchandise will be
handled; parcel, mail and express matter
also, the wagons making tore-to-store col
lections and deliveries, accomplished by the
wagons taking the rail line OF travel least
used for passenger traffic, and by operation
at night when streets are not otherwise in
service.
The inventor says: "This system will at
once render accessible endless acres Of fer
tile interior lands, and open them UP to
the systematic energy of the thrifty market
gardener, the dairyman and the fruit grower.
Improved conditions will result to the truck
farmer, who will not longer be obliged to
spend his night in long weary drives in or
der to reach al early market. Instead, his
days harvest will be transported to town
during the night by electric rail wagon while
man and horse refresh themselves in sleep"
The manufacturers Of the wagon are al
ready negotiating to place their vehicle in
several New England states, where the
country is threaded with electric railways.
Few people have any knowledge of the
real cost of transportation by horse and
wagon, or comprehend the amount OF
money expended needlessly every year
through failure to provide proper roadways
ana modern tramWayS.
The table given herewith shows the re-
suits Of actual observations on the part of
mechanical engineers. The figures are the
cost for moving one ton a distance of one
mile on level roadways, with different pave
ments and under average conditions: Iron
rails, .28 cents; asphalt, 20 cents: stone,
paving dry and in good order, 5.33 cents;
stone, paving ordinary condition, IL cents;
stone, paving, covered with mud, Il 80
cents; broken stone, dry and in good Or
der, s cents; broken stone, moist and in
good order, 10. 80 cents; broken stone, or
binary condition, 11.90 cents: broken stone,
covered with ruts and mud, 26 cents; earth,
dry and hard, 10 cents; earth, ruts and
mud. 80 cents; gravel, loose, 51.60 cents;
gravel, compact, ~ so cents; plank, good
condition., $50 cents; sand, wet, $3.50
cents; sand, dry, Ga cents. 1t has been
portation by animal power is 25 cents per
mile.
Solar Heat to Run DynamOs.
A prophecy has been made that 1T vii
not be long before there is a belt of smil
ing gardens and fields, crested with palms,
and inhabited by a contented people. on
both sides of the ancient river Nile, all the
way from Cairo to Khartoum. A scheme is
tduy We'll III ~ way ti toPpiAo ~
river at the higher level above the cat.
aracts, conducting the water to vertical
shafts, down which it will fall to drive
turbines, and using the power 80 gener-
ated to run dynamos, from which electricity
in the form of alternating or continuous
current will be transmitted to points neal
or remote. The water, after passing through
the turbines, will be restored to the rivel
at a lower level or else used for irrisatinf
the land. There Will be no waste of ma
terial, as in burning coal, and no smoke t
pollute the limpid air of the desert. Elec'
tricity will be applied, not only in pump
ing for the irrigation, but in driving ma
chinery for preparing the raw products O
the soil, spinning cotton, weaving silk ant
many other industries. Another project il
the same direction is now talked of. Waite
is not the only prospective source of powe
in Egypt and the Soudan. There is the sola,
energy to draw upon. Jansen calculated
that thirty units of heat fall on every squar'
meter Of the earth in a minute, and as
Stunning that only one-third of this passe
through the atmosphere, ten units to tn,
square yard are left at the surface of tn,
ground, which Is equivalent to nearly 5000
foot pounds of mechanical energy. II
practice, owing TO the imperfectlon OF tn
present machines for transforming heat int
meCndnlCdl power, only u liaGllou VI III
would be available for useful purposes; but
considering the area of desert on both side
of Egypt, not to speak of the Sahara, tn
total supply would be enormous. Some year
ago some interesting experiments in tn
application of solar heat were made by NJ
Mouchot, at Algiers, where the climate l
more temperate than In Egypt. With re
Electors several yards square, he focuse
the heat of the sun on boilers and worke
a variety OF machines, including pumps, al
day long, in spite of passing clouds an
high winds, besides performing a numbe
of chemical operations, such as distillint
carbonizing wood, subliming sulphur an
evaporating liquids. The latest proposs
in this field is TO raise water to an eleva
tion by the suns rays and use 1t TO ru
a water wheel and dynamo. The waite
is contained in tanks within a structure c
glass similar to a conservatory. The sun
heat expands the air in the first tank con
tanning water and forces 1t into the tan
above. The air is cooled by screening th
tank, and then the water is raised to II
next tank. The SUMS rays acting on
square mile would furnish 100000 horse
power, and assuming that the air In II
glass-covered houses reaches a temperatui
-,A ,N- Nas1 N nrnAtta