The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1898-08-27
electric LIGHTING.
METHODS OF OPERATION ON
STEAM RAILWAYS
Can Not Be Run by Regular Train
Power on Account of stops-Methods
In Vogue on European Kailroads--
Some Novel Ideas. .l@

| From the New York Tribune: The
two systems of electric lighting which
are best known in America rely
chiefly on the generation Of the neces-
sary current by dynamo in the bag
gage car. In one there is steam en-
gine coupled to the dynamo and TAX
ing steam from the locomotive boiler.
This is the practice on the Chicago,
Milwaukee and St.. Paul road On
other lines the attempt has been
made to drive the dynamos with belt
ing or sprocket chain, from an extra
wheel ON the car axle. The latter plan
| would work only when the car was in
motion were not few cells of stor-
age battery employed to supply the
lights with current when the train
| came to stop. This resource is also
necessary in sleepers which stand in
| terminal station for half an hour
before the train starts or on a side
| track at junction, waiting for the
| train on the trunk line to come along.
| customary to rely entirely on the
storage battery, and not to generate
| the electricity on the train at all. At
certain stations, usually terminal sta
tfons. the battery is taken out for
charging, and one already charged is
| quickly substituted. Where runs of
only 100, 200 or 300 miles are made,
! the number and weight of the accu-
| mulators would not be a serious con-
sideration, perhaps, but in America,
| where a person rides 1000, 1000 or
5000 miles in the same car, the stor-
age battery system is almost out of
the question. The cells would be so
| numerous and bulky as to require
| more space than can we'll be spared.
In some respects America is ahead Of
Europe in the matter of electric con-
veniences on railway trains. On GER
tain western roads the limited ex-
presses, like frst-class hotels, have
electric heaters for women's curling
irons. A correspondent Of the Rail-
road Gazette, complaining of the
Il
in this country, supplies some partic-
| ulars as to the extent of the practice
on the other side Of the Atlantic He
writes from Berlin, and says: ''The
electric system of car lighting ex-
tends itself every day more over all
Europe, and it certainly is queer CO.
| incidence that at the same period
when Secretary Thielen, in whose
sphere of administration gaslight is
exclusively employed, proclaimed him
self against the electric system the
general direction Of the state railroads
of Denmark resolved to introduce
electric car lighting On all it's lines.
All the railroads on the isle of Zea-
land, on which Copenhagen IS situa-
ted, have already electric lights. A
few days ago we received orders to
| furnish the storage batteries for light
ing the trains on all the lines of the
| islands Of Falster and Fuhnen. At
| the same time they resolved to estab-
lish charging station for storage
batteries at Struer, in Jutland, to en-
able them to begin next year with the
| introduction of electric car lighting On
| all the lines in Jutland. The railroads
| in Switzerland will now adopt electric
car lighting, following the example Of
the Jura-Simplon railroad, so that in
a few years all cars on the Swiss rail-
roads will be provided with electric
! light. Almost all the private railroads
of Sweden and Norway have electric
light, also many German and Austrian
| private railroads, for. instance the
Dortmund- -Gronau-Enscbeder, the pro-
| vincial railroad of Westphalia.. the
Altdamm-Colburg, the Marien burg
Mlawka, the Prignitzthal, the Mech
lenburg Frederic-William, the Witten-#
berg -Perleberg, the Arad-CZanad, etc.
The Emperor Ferdinand Northern and
the, Royal Hungarian railroad intro.
| duce the system more and more. While
in the beginning of 1896 in all Europe
about 1000 cars had electric light.
there must be now more than 5000.