New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-11-26
PROGRESS IN STREETCARS.
AN EXHIBIT OF APPLIANCES HELD IN
CHICAGO RECENTLY.

John sTEpHENsoNs INVENTION AND ITS
DEvELoPMENT-THE CABLE AND ELEc-
TRIO CARS OF TO-DAY.
Street railway men from ali parts OF the
United States gathered recently In Chicaso
10 attend the eighteenth annual convention OK
the American Street Railway Association at
Tattersalls when more than fifteen hundred
visitors were present. There was an eAh'oi. u
street railway supplies which was interesting
and instructive and on larger scale thah any
hitherto held All the floor space IN 1A''er
sails and the curb space in Dearborn-st- TOT 'he
entire length Of the building had been engaged
The General Electric Company, the Wes'ihs-
house Electric and Manufacturing Company
the Lorain Steel Company the Consolidated Gar
Fender Company. the Christensen Engineering
Company and the r. d. Nutal Company oc-
cupied the largest interior spaces, whlle inc
curb exhibits on a temporary track were mace
nv tho Taunton Locomotive and Manufacturing
Company the Mcguire Manufacturing COM
pany and the Taylor Electric Truck Company
Among the papers read was one by Chaiiee
T Yerkes Of Chicago on Investments IN street
Railways How Can They Be Made Secure anu
Remunerative?" The others were: Maintenance
:, cor Fou,nment." J. H. Van Derveer, Brook
lyn: THE Modern Street Railway Shop' d. ~
Kilgour, Cincinnati; Train Service ana us
Practical Application" Ira A. McCorihach,
BROOKLYN; Construction and Maintenance VI
Railway Track" Edward Butts. Kansas Ci'y'
Materials and Supplies Accounts w. ~
Barnaby Brooklyn; car Mileage H. - MAY
,.v Milwaukee: Report on Standard System
Of Accounts" C. n. Duffy, Chicago; report oi'
recruitment OF Blanks and Forms" W.
Brockway.
To-day there are in the United States more
,,or forty thousand electric cars and fifteen
thousand miles of track They yield profitable
-....,s on an investment of S1,5O000OOOO.
They carry nearly six times as many passengers
as the steam railroads at about quarter oil 'he
fare a mile.
THE OLD DISCARDED FOR THE NEW
Street railway men are not the only ones TO
find interest In the exhibit. Since the troley
cs,e into use streetcars have multiplied the
world over. and each new design of car Is as
much of an innovation over Its last predecessor
as the first streetcar was over the frst OMNIBUS
In almost no other field is the march OF progress
M sweeping and so rapid. For instance, nine or
ten years ago Broadway was equipped Win
complete horsecar system, tracks, hundreds Vi
cars and horses the best that were anywhere 10
he procured Then few years later-looo IL
was-a cable system was installed. and the nhe'
strong heavy horses. the light cars the tracks
even had 10 be discarded almost thrown away
The cable system needed two great power
houses and duplicate sets OF machinery as
well as duplicate cables. The new cars are
heavier than the old ones-so much heavier
that new and heavier rails Of course were
a necessity Now all that is being swept
away almost as II by magicians wanna
The cable is TO be wound up on Its spool for
ever; the big power plant and engines that drew
II are TO STOP and new machinery TO develop
electricity for an underground trolley system
will take its place.
On the Third-ave. line the same thing has
happened, and in one or two weeks enormous
cars larger and heavier and more elegant than
anything hitherto seen in New-York. will be
running from the Postoffice to Harlem. propelled
by the invisible power. The Third-ave cable
cars look as II they had been in use a century.
They are dark and dingy, and covered with iron
rust from the drppings Of the elevated road
The paint is knocked off, the cane seats are
torn, and the dashboards look as II they had
been battered out of shape with hammers. Yet
the superintendent says that the decrepit, travel
stained in the repair shop which looks ready
for a junk heap Is only four years old. In fact,
II Is not much more than six years since cable