The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-01-27
Decades Progress
in Electricity
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
n n ARTICLE which has not yet re-
M ceived as much attention as it
Iu\ deserves is the review of cleo
Il\ trical advance in the past ten
- = years, contributed to the Forum
by Mr.. Elhu Thomson, the well known
inventor. Few people realize the extent
and range of the applications of cleo
trcty to useful purposes which have
been made since 1857 1t is pointed out,
for instance by Mr.. Thomson that, at
convention of street railway men held
in the year named, the discussion of the
eXpediency of substituting electric trac-
ton for horse power was criticised as a
waste of time. \ convention of the
same association in the present year took
for granted the universal applicability OF
electricity to street car propulsion. The
prospect now is that in the course of
few years, the crueltoS of horse traction
on city railways will exist only in re-
membrance. Electric traction has given
greater speed and better cars, which.
moreover are lighted and heated elec-
trically. the result being an amount of
cleanliness and comfort not otherwise
obtanabe Electricity seems also deS-
tined, at no distant day, to revolution
ize passenger traffic on the trunk lines
connecting large Centers of population.
q
The facility with which electric service
may be superposed on roads originally IN
tended for steam traction has been DEM
onstrated by a conspicuous railway or
ganization. 1t has been shown that sim
gle cars may be propelled at high speed
with comparative 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 pow
er locomotives worked by steam. MIR.
Thomson has no doubt that the latter
WILL eventually, be supplanted by cleo
trio motors driving the aXles of the cars,
as in street railway service. 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 foundations of ihe
railway practice OF twenty years hence
| are being laid today.
o.
If we look back ten years we find that,
although telephone exchange systems
| We're then already in existence, there
| We're virtually no long distance eXten-
sions To render the latter practicable
the lines have to be made of heavy cop
per 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 need for a single circuit
| from Boston to Chicago. Prior 10 1887,
| only the largest cities possessed any cleo
| trio lighting service; the alternating cur
rent, which is now so large factor in
! electrical enterprises had scarcely be-
gun to be used. At present, even the
| smaller towns have their electrical sta
tions, their are lamps for street lighting,
| and the smaller incandescents for general
use. The incandescent lamps employed
! i'm the United States are numbered by
millions; and there are several hundred
| thousand arc lamps besides. There are
now in operation nearly 5000 electric
light supply stations, which, together
with isolated electric plants, represent a
| capital of about $500 900, 900.
|
Stress Is naturally laid by MI Thom-
| son on the remarkable application of
| electricity at Niagara Here is brought
! home to us the Industrial importance of
lcheap and unfailing power developed from
water in its fall. The power of huge wa
ter wheels is delivered TO massive dyna-
mos for giving out in turn electric en-
ergy Upon the water power thus trans
mitted depend the electric light and elec-
trio railways of the city of Niagara, as
well as n number of remarkable indus
trial establishments founded i'm that place
Here, too, the feasibility of the long
distance TRANSMISSION of power Is exem-
plihed by q high-pressure line extending
to Buffalo and delivering the electric en-.
eTgy to an electric station there. The