The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-14
FIRST ELECTRIC RAILROAD.
:. II. SHORT, WHO DESIGNED AND
BUILT ORIGINAL TROLLEY LINE.

Built a Model Road in the Basement
of n College and Installed the I'm
dersrOund system in Denver in
ISS5-Work of Other Early Ex-
perimenters Further Successful
Roads and the Fourteen Years of
observation-disclosures VIII De-
pose Steam and Give "a Speed of
$50 Miles an Hour ON Trunk Lines.
New York, May 12-The first electric
road in the United States butt in Denver
in 1888, was strangely enough, an under
ground trolley system, almost exactly IKE
the one now adopted as the last develop
ment of electric railroading in 1899. There
is always difficulty in correct statement
of priority of invention. Millions Of dol
lars are spent every year 20 establish this
claim I'm behalf of patents / happen 10
know the facts about the drst electric rail-
way commercially operated in this coun-
try. because I built il. ! designed the cars,
made and wound the motors and ran the
line at a time when the cable was being
substituted for horse power on the sur
face roads of Phi.adelphia-now the great
overhead trolley city of the country. An
overhead trolley even was then unknown.
The steam cable which had been in sue
cessful operation In Cincinnati, San Fran
cisco and perhaps other American cities,
was generally considered in 1885 TO offer The
most efficient substitute for horse cars
l was led to a different conclusion al
though l was then only q years
of age, and by no means willing to pit my
self against practical railroad experts. 1
was convinced electricity could be safely
and securely harnessed. 1 had made ex-
periments with the electric current from
boyhood, having first had my curiosity ex-
cited by watching sparks lesping over the
break in a lightning rod. 1 was brought up
| may say, along railroad, my father be-
ing superintendent Of the Little Mani
line running from Columbus to Cincin-
mali.
Soon after my matriculation in the Ohio
State University in 1876 l was fortunate
enough to make friend of the manager
of the Western Union telegraph Office in
Columbus. He permitted me to use the
company's cast-of apparatus and l be-
came expert in biography.
Model Road in a Basement.
In the basement of the college building.
Denver. l constructed from my own de-
signs an electric railroad. The motors
were unlike any other ever built, and the
two cars which l built, wood, metal and
ALL were for some time operated on this
track. a single line, with turn-outs, and
were ridden in by many people This was
in 1854.
Some understanding of what an cleo
trical motor is becomes necessary when
one would comprehend just what takes
place in a car moved by electricity, and
how and Thy the car moves.
Everybody knows that two magnets,
placed near each other attract each other
Each exerts a distinct force, which can be
measured. Now a motor is two magnet.
One of these magnets is fixed, and is call
ed the field. The other magnet reVolVes
and is called the armature. When a pole
of the armature or revolving magnet APP
proaches a pole of the field or fixed mag
net, the latter pulls the former toward
itself When the two get into line the
electric current is changed by the COM
mutator into another pole of the arma-
lure and the same process is repeated
The more poles the greater the pull. Now
when The armature is fastened to the
axle of a car, naturally the axle has to
move when the armature moves, in obedi-
encc to this pull, and when the axle moves
the wheels must revolve and when they
rcvolve The car moves ahead. And 1t is
always to be borne in mind that these
magnets are only magnets while the cleo
trio current is passing through them, so
that. as soon as the connection is broken
they cease to exert their force. In other
words. they are electromagnetic.
The First Road.
oe o1a I'D IL
way traction gradually grew on me. In
the meantime | went to live in Denver,
where l accepted the proTessorship of
physics and chemistry in the University
of Denver There / built the Joseph
Henry, double trolley car. with five
horse power motors and ran 1t on an
elliptlcal track. So impressed were the
capitalists then interested in my expert
ments that the Denver Tramway Com
pany was at once organized. A closed
conduit system was thereupon installed in
fremont street. and in Fifteenth street
from Capitol Hill to North Denver in
the summer of 1885. The municipal or
dinances will show the exact date.
Five regular standard size street cars,
with a controller on each platform, were
operated on this line in Denver for three
years There was one motor to each car,
geared to the axle. The sot was only
cold winters of the Rocky mountains this
slot would contract until it almost clos
ed, thus interfering seriously with trait
fic. There were no sewerage connections
in the streets. and the problem of drain
age bothered us, Yet the road was, In
spite of all, commercial success. II
paid The condition of the streets in the
respects mentioned was the only reason
why cable was, after some years, sub
stituted for this sub-trolley and over
head trolley afterwards for the cable. At
that time the Budapest sub-trolley sys-
TEN. which with improvements is now
the one adopted by the METROPOLITAN
Traction Company In the city of New
York, so the best in the world, was not in
existence. But the Denver sub-trolley was
in actual successful commercial opera
ton.
Nor is IL strange that a Rocky noun
tain city should have been the first Amer
lean community 10 use electric street trac-
ton The electric light was generally in
use in Rocky mountain towns long before
it was introduced in the Middle and East
ern states. The streets of Butte, Mont.
then the greatest mining camp in the
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