Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-03-04
AIR POWER BEST.

Railroad Commissioners Cole Says
| Compressed Air Is Power of the
| Future for Street Cars.
Col. Ashley w. Cole, chairman of the
State Board of Railroad Commission
ersyis an enthusiastic advocate of
| air power for street car motors, to take
the place of electricity.
"Air power is superior to both cleo
tricity and steam," he said yesterday
to Mail and Express reporter. 1t is
| the coming motive force. I think
most experts are agreed on that. It's
| superiority over steam lies in the
cleanliness of the cars and the ease
and rapidity with which they can be
| handled.
1T is superior to electricity because
| it lacks those features which make
overhead end underground trolleys
| dangerous. Trolley cars catch fire
| from currents, and broken wires are a
constant menace 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 especial
| ly, when compared with a compressed
air plant. One strip of underground
trolley conduit in this city cost at the
rate of 100000 a mile, and the aver
age cost of an underground trolley sys-
| tenn is 100000 mile. 1t is utter
ly impracticable for any but very pop
ulous cities to use the underground
trolley. The railroadbed of air motor
| line is Of the simplest description.
"Then there is not with air cars the
liability to shocks for passengers and
pedestrians from faulty connections
The compressed air cylinders never ex-
rlode. 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 rule
when the cylinders are in use, is only
$50 pounds to the squase 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 of safety and beauty
| compressed air cars are far superior
| to electricity and steam for street rail-
way purposes.
"But, superior as the air motor is,
| improvements are being made in them
constantly. Hardly month passes
! that does not see some notable i'm
provement. In two years, at the out
side, expect to see compressed air
cars running in many city 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
| if all future installations in this city
| could be air-motor instead of under
ground construction.
The experiment with compressed
air cars on the Twenty-eighth and
Twenty 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
! motor called the Hardy motor. 1t
| is claimed that this motor will do with
500 pounds of air the work that the
Hoadley new model motor requires 900
pounds to do, or that the Hoadley I'M
improved requires / 400 pounds to do.
These tests are to decide these points.
Mr.. Vreeland told me he expected to
| equip all cross-town lines with air
motors, and am told on the best au-
thority that two years ago Mr. Wild
ener wished to order 1000 air motors
for the Second, Third, Sixth and
Eighth avenue lines, but that the en-
gineers of the road advised in favor
OF electricity, owing to the fact that
air motors were not an absolute sue
cess 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