The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-04-02
MORE PATENTS IN
ELECTRICITY CLASS
Are Applied for Than in Any
Other. ~
UNDERGROUND CAR SYSTEM
Which Promises to Dislodge Trolley and
Conduit Circuit Has Advantage
of Running in All Kinds
of Weather.
UNDERGROUND CAR SYSTEM

aminer to me today. There are SO many
of them that this class has been divided by
the patent office into two sections and
u, with a principal examiner at the head
of each. Enormous numbers of appl ca. ons
are filed right along bearing on electric
traction or propulsion, railways, cabs,
wagons. and the like. Why, more than 800
patents have been issued for automatic
switches alone, device essential in rail-
way systems using electricity as their mo-
tive power Only one of all these switches
so far as l know, has succeeded in acuual
use This one is so simple in its construc-
ton that the wonder is that 1t was not in
vented long before Captain Murphy thought
OF it. But you know the moral OF the story
of Columbus and the egg-its easy to do
a thing when you know now"
What is there SO difficult, anyway, about
making the electric railway satisfactory in
every respect?" l asked.
well, you see, there are three classes
OF people Interested in the solution of the
electric railway problem-the public that
wants 1t TO be absolutely safe, SO far as
danger from electricity is concerned; capt.
tallsts, who want system as cheap as
possible to install and economical as posi-
bic to operate; electricians, who want TO do
away with both the overhead trolley and
the underground conduit This has proved
to be not only big, but a complicated
problem. II it hadn't been, it would have
been solved before now
'Nowp' 1 exclaimed.
Now" he replied. L say now, for l be-
lieve the problem has finally been solved. l
was over in New York the other day and
went with friend of mine who knows my
interest in electricity to witness a trial of
q Aln fY.In al H.,
stalled at Manhattan Beach The road was
half a mile long and was built by the Safe
ty Third Rail Electric company, which con-
trols what is known as the Murphy system.
IIere was quite a party present at the
trial, Captain Murphy, the inventor of the
system; directors of the company capital
ists railroad men and electricians. The car
employed in the trial was of the reglla-
ton street railway size and looked very
much like any other electric motor car.
The motorman occupied the usual place, the
front platform, where he had complete con-
troll of the car and all its mechanism He
sent the car with twenty or more people
aboard along the road at the rate of thirty
miles an hour, at half speed slowly
stopped 1t, started it, reversed 1t, all prac-
ticaly at will.
what struck me as very strong feature
of the system was that 1t was proved to
be impossible to short circuit It, What is
meant by short circuit? Why, that the
electric current that should propel the car
Is diverted and never reaches it. Hence
the car stops and can't be moved either
forward or backward, till the current is re-
stored or mechan cal means used. The
electric roads now in existence are fire.
quently short circuited' and stopped from
running for longer or shorter intervals by
last February? Yes? Well, you know
every electric line in Washington and tho
district stopped running during that storm
and didn't begin running again for two or
three days after the storm was over. The
storm knocked out not only the under
ground trolley or conduit lines in the city,
but the overhead trolley lines in the sub
urbs. The public believed the snow had
stalled the cars. So it had, but by short
circuit n.y. not by presenting nsurmounta-
BILE physical obstacles. This is demon
strated by the fact that the one company
In Washington using mechanical means, the
cable line, ran its cars when the electric
electro lines, therefore, was not mechani-
cal but electrical. In a word, they were
short circuted.'
ITO prove that the Murphy system can
not be thus short circuited two tests were
applied at Manhattan Beach. In the first
test four carloads of snow were
brought, dumped and packed over a
section of the road twenty-five feet
long to the depth of several inches
entirely covering and hiding from
view the two track rails and the sectional
third rail, which was laid In the roadbed
midway between the tracks This was
worse condition than prevailed in Washing
ton during the February blizzard when all
our electric lines were short circuited' and
stopped from running. But It didn't have
the slightest effect on the Murphy system.
The car passed through the snow-packed
at f,,JI hale rI1
was stopped, started and reversed while |
on that section the same as though no such
thing as snow existed. In the second test |
as to the possibility of short circuiting'
this system, another section of the road
was covered with loose earth water poured
on it by the bucketful, making a cruel of
earth and water that would short circuit
a Washington electric road the instant
It, The Murphy car passed
through the mixture as readily as 1t had
through the snow, and through BOTH one
after the other, the same as over the I'M
encountered track. These tests convinced
me of the impossibility of short circuting'
the Murphy system, and that weather OBJ |
structions such as paralyzed our Washing
ton electric roads, overhead and UNDER |
ground alike, would present no difficulties |
to It,"
.How does that system avoid the short
circuit trouble?' inquired.
''The key of this system is Captain MUIR
phys automatic switch. It is absolutely
mon arcing' a fact the significance of
which electricians will appreciate. 1t works
automatically and is so simple of construc-
ton that it cannot get out of order. The
Murphy system belongs to the sectional
third rail class the third rail being the sup
ply conductor from which the motor car
takes its power. The third rail, which can
be laid anywhere between the two track
rails, is divided into sections, no section
being more than half as long as the car,
and only the section directly under the car
Is 1ive,' that is, charged with electricity, at
any time. Every section of the third rail
not directly under the car, whether ahead
of 1t or behind 1t, Is dead that Is, free
from electricity and, therefore, as harmless
as the wooden ties of railroad. That,
now, is as good an idea as can give you
of the Murphy system without going into
a lot of technical details"
Bother your technical Details" ex-
claimed. They're of no interest to me-
You say this system can't be short cir.
culted,' is safe electrically and does away
with poles and conduits. How about it's