, 1900-01-13

Air power is superior to both cleo
tricity and steam" he said yesterday
to a Mail and Express reporter. 1t is
the coming motive force. l think most
experts are agreed on that. Its super,
iority owe steam lies in the cleanliness
of the cars and the east and rapidly
with which they can be handled.
at is superior to electricity because
it lacks those features which make
overhead and underground trolleys
dangerous. Trolley cars catch fire
from currents, and broken wires are q
constant menance to life on crowded
streets.
The mass of overhead wires injuries
the sightliness of the streets. Then
too, the cost of an electric plant is very
great, the generating plant especially
when compared with a compressed air
plant. One strip of underground troll,
ley conduit in this city cost at the rate
OF $500, 900 a mile. and the average cost
Of an underground trolley system is
500. 900 a mile. 1t is utterly imprac-
ticable for any but very popular cit
les to use the underground trolley. The
roadbed of an air-moter line is of the
simplest description.
Then there is not with air cars the
liability OF shocks for travellers and pc
destrians from faulty connections. The
compressed air cylinders never ex-
plOde. If the pressure becomes too
great they tear out at the side in a
longitudinal section, and no pieces of
metal ever fly about. The cylinders
are usually tested up to $500 pounds
to the square inch, whereas for rail
road service they are never charged
beyond $500 pounds to the square
inch, and the actual pressure, as a rule.
when the cylinders are in use. is only
go pounds to the square inch.
The air-driven cars are put into
motion so easily that you don't suffer
from the jolt of starting as in the Or
binary electric cars, and there is not
the deafening bang and whirr that ac-
companies electric transit. From the
point of view and safety and beauty
compressed air cars are far superior to
electricity and steam for street ran
way purposes.
But, superior as the air motor is,
improvements are being made in them
constantly. Hardly a month passes
that does lot see some notable i'm
provemenL In two years, at the out
side, | expect to see compressed air
cars running in many cities and towns
where electric cars now run"
Mr.. Cole says that it would be a
great saving in expense to the com
panies and in annoyance to citizens il
all future installations in this city
could be of air-motor instead OF I'M
derground construction.
The experiment with compressed air
cars on the Twenty-eighth and TWEEN
ty-ninth street cross-town lines
has been very successful Mr.. Cole
went on to say. THE Metropolitan
company is about to test on that line
a motor called the Hardy motor. 1t
is claimed that the motor will do with
GOO pounds of air the work that the
Hoadley new model motor requires 900
pounds to do, or that the Hoadley I'M
These tests are to decide these points.
Mr.. Nreeland told me he expected to
equip all cross-town lines with air mo-
tors, and | am told on the best au-
thority that two years age Mr.. Widen
er wished to order / 900 air motors for
the Second. Third, Sixth and Eighth
avenue lines, but hat the engineers of
the road advised in favor Of electricity.
owing to the fact that air motors were
not an absolute success at that time.
| think it is only a question of time
when the elevated roads, also, will have
compressed air cars. The tests made
on the elevated with the air motor en-
CINE | do not consider fair. | think
it will be repeated some time soon
with a successful result"
The Hardy air-motor car to which
Mr.. Cole referred, and which has been
at Rome, n. Y, has arrived in town.
and, after overhauling at the Metro
politan Traction shops, will be put in
service on Twenty-eighth and Twenty.
ninth streets. Several additional Hardy
cars are to be put on by the traction
company at the earliest possible mo-,
ment.