The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-16
~saSlectrical Progress in the Last Dec.
ode

An article which has not yet received as
gnuch attention as it deserves is the review
aof electrical advance in the past ten years.
contributed to the Forum by Mr.. EL1HU
THOMSON, the well-known inventor. Few
people realize the extent and range of the
applications Of electricity to useful pur.
poses which lave been made since 1887.
= It Is pointed out, for instance, by MI.
THOMSON that, ut q convention of street
railway men held in the year named, the
discussion Of the expediency Of substitute
ing electric traction for horse power was
criticised as a waste Of time. A conven-
tion of the same association in the present
year took for granted the universal applica-
bility of electricity to street car propul-
sion. The prospect now is that. In the
course of o few years, the cruelties OF
horse traction on city railways will ex-
tat only in remembrance. Electric traction
has given greater speed and better cars,
which, moreover, are lighted and heated
electrically, the result being an amount of
cleanliness and comfort not otherwise OBJ
tainable. Electricity seems also destined,
at no distant day, to revolutionize passen-
ger traffic on the trunk lines connecting
large centres Of population.
Z. Tho facility with which electric service
may DO superposed on roads originally in.
tended for steam traction has been demon
sstFated by q conspicuous railway organiza-
ton. 1t has been shown that single cars
may be propelled at high speed with COM
parative safety. Even sixty miles an hour
has been exceeded. 1t has further been
proved by the construction of several huge
electric locomotives for the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad that such machinery can
haul the heaviest train loads, and
more than equal in power locomotives
worked by steam. Mr.. THOMSON has no
doubt that the latter will, eventually, be
supplanted by electric motors driving the
axles of the cars, as in street railway SER
vice. Cheap fuel can be used to generate
the power in the electric stations, and
water power, where it is available within
thirty or forty miles, may be transmitted
to the railway line. In a word, the founda-
tions of the railway practice of twenty
years hence are being laid to-day.
q If we look back ten years we find that,
although telephone exchange systems were
then already in existence, there were virtu-
ally no long-distance extensions. To rem
der the latter practicable the lines have to
be made of heavy copper wire, the wire, of
course, becoming thicker in proportion to
the distance to be covered. 1t follows that
the cost of the copper required becomes very
heavy for great distances, over a million
pounds of copper being needed for a single
circuit from Boston to Chicago.
Prior to 1887, only the largest cities
possessed any electric lighting service; the
alternating current, which Is now 80 large
o factor in electrical enterprises, had
scarcely begun to be used. Atpresent. even
the smaller towns have their electrical
stations, their arc lamps for street light
ing, n the smaller incandescents for
general use. The incandescent lamps en-
ployed in the United States are numbered
by millions; and there are several hundred
thousand arc lamps besides. There are now
in operation nearly 3 700 electric-light sup
ply stations. which. together with isolated
electric plants, represent a capital of about
$500, 900, 600.
Stress Is naturally laid by Mr.. THOMSON
tricity at Niagara. Here is brought home
to us the Industrial Importance of cheap
and unfailing power developed from water
in it's fall. The power of huge water wheels
ls delivered to massive dynamos for giving
put in turn electric energy. Upon the
water power thus transmitted depend the
electric light and electric railways of the
city of Niagara, as well as a number of re-
mnrkable industrial establishments found
ed in that place. Here, too, the feasibii-
fly of the long-distancc transmission of
power is e~xempiihed by a hlgh-pressure
line extending to Buffalo and deliver.
ing the electric energy to an electric
station there. The Niagara plant has
grown into existence within the last
five years, as a consequence of the
advances In electrical science made within
the decade just closed. There are other ex.
Amples OF water-power transmission, some
OF them far exceeding in distance that be.
fSceu Niagara and Buffalo. and some
d whichahe amount of power conveyed,
VI well Is the pressure of the current