The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-14
\ to see the operation of trunk line rail-
roads of standard gauge by electricity.
Future Possibilities.

] H.
roads of standard gauge by, electricity.
Future Possibilities.
Yet it must by no means be supposed
that the application of electricity 10
street railway traction was made en-
tirely successful in the brief period
outlined here. Nor am disnosed to
maintain that electric street railway
I traction has even now reached a state
| of perfection. And yet within the life
time of the generation now living
| equal progress should be made in the
application OF electricity to the hauling
of trunk line trains on long distance
| railroads.
The problem is a fascinating one. in
volving almost revolution in our
social life. So great is the gulf between
| fifty and one hundred and fifty miles
an hour. This would be the crowning
achievement. or rather the supreme
result of the labors of those pioneers
who. like Robert Davidson, foreshad-
owed as long ago as 1888 what might
some day be realized. Just half a CEN
fury has elapsed since Davidson moved
by electricity a ten-foot car. equipped
with forty cells of primary batteries,
at the rate of four miles an hour.
In 1879. at the Berlin Industrial ex-
hibition. Siemens & Halske exhibited
an electrical railroad. In the fall of
1888, Leo Daft operated an electrical
! locomotive called the. Ampere on the
/ little railroad up Mt. McGregor. New
| York In 1884, +. NJ. Bentley and w, H.
Knight ran eXperimentally. in. Cleve-
land. o.. an electric railroad with mo-
tors under the floors OF the cars. The
great Thompson Houston system was
founded on their patents and on those
of Van de Poele.
The result of my own Investigations
has inclined me towards the separate
equipment of each car with electric
motors, according to what is now called
the = multipie-cOntrol system. rather
than To the construction of heavy
electrical locomotive. which should
draw a number of unequipped ears.
YET each of these systems has its spe-
cial uses and advantages. The motors
and generators used en- the pioneer line
in Denver were notifications of the
famous Brush arc light machines, made
III Cleveland. The motors were first
placed on a separate truck and sus-
pended Independently of the springs
which carried the car body.
The next or second conduit road con-
structed in the United States was laid
on the Bentley-K Knight system. in Allie
Sheny. Pa. and in 1887 the third COM
mercial electric railway was installed
by F. j. Sprague in Richmond.
By this time it was evident that elec-
trio railways were successful and pop
rlar. and three companies. the Thomp-
son-HouSton.> the Sprague Electric
Railway & Motor company and the
Short Electric Railway company, be-
gan the manufacture of electrical rail-
way appliances.
In 1896 the Edison General company
absorbed the Sprague interests. and
the Westinghouse Electric & ManufaC-
turing company took up railway work.
improvements were making constantly.
Mild steel was found to be the best
material fOr motor construction, its
perineability being double that of cast
iron, so that an equally strong magnet
could be made of half the metal. The
Short company now began producing a
motor which operated directly on the
axle without the use of gears, By Il
spring system The armature could start
suddenly without encountering the in
ertia of the entire car. The Walker
Manufacturing company evolved mo-
tors so much more powerful. and at
the Same time so much simpler. than
any heretofore in use. that lOng-dis
tance railroading came to be regarded
as the next great problem to be over
come by electrical engineers. TIE
enormous electrical locomotives de-
signed to pull heavy railroad trains
through the Baltimore & Ohio tunnel
IN Baltimore were built and equipped
with the Short gearless motors. The
problem of lOng-distance railroading
seemed one step nearer solution. or
these electrical locomotives haul the
heaviest freight trains with ease. TIE
Pennsylvania railroad. on its Buring-
ton & Mt. Holly branch. and the New
York. New Haven & Hartford railroad,
on its NantaSket Beach and other
branches. introduced electrical traction
for standard-gauge ears. equippinS
each car at first with its own motors.
The Brooklyn elevated railroad is now
being equipped with the heavy Walker
motors. and the introduction of cleo
tricity on the New York elevated rail-
way systems cannot long be deferred