The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-10

4
| Houston plant. The success OF this great
! undertaking left no doubt OF the future
! Of electric traction. The difficulties which
had seriously threatened future success
| were gradually removed
The electric railway progress was so
| great In the United States that about jan
| uary /, 1ssi, there were more than 240 lines
In operation. About 5000 horses and
mules were replaced by electric power in
| the single year Of 1891. In 1892 the Thorn
| son-Houston interests and those of the
Edison General Company were merged In
the General Electric Company. an event
Of unusual Importance. as it brought to-
gether the two great competitors In cleo
| trio traction at that date. Other electric
manufacturers. chief among which was
the Westinghouse Company. also entered
the field and became prominent factors
in railway extension In few years horse
traction in the United States on tramway
| lines virtually disappeared Many cable
lines were converted to electric lines. and
projects such as the Boston Subway be-
gan to be planned. Not the least of the
advantages of electric traction is the
! higher speed attainable with safety. Ths
-
ed brilliantly at night and heated In winter
! by the same source of energy which Is
used to propel them. are important fac
| tors
ALI these things. together with the great
extension Of the lines into suburban and
country districts. and the interconnection
Of the lines of one distric; with those of
another. cannot fail to have had a de-
cidedly beneficial effect upon the life.
habits, and health of the people. While
the United States and Canada have been
and still are the theatre OF the enormous
electric advance In electric traction, az IN
/ other electric work. many electric car
/ lines haze in recent years been established
+ IA Great Britain and on the Continent Of
Europe. Countries Hike Japan. Australia.
South Africa, and South America have
also ia operation r1zny electric trolley
! lines and the work is rapidly extending.
/ Most u tnis work. even in Europe. has
/ been carried out either By importation Of
( equipment from America. or BY apparatus
manufactured there. but following Amer
/ lean practice closely The bulk of the
york has been done with the overhead
wire and undermining trolley, but there
are notable instances of the use of cleo
I trio conductors in underground slotted
| conduits chief OF which are the great
systems of street railway in New York
| City.
4 In Chicago the application of motor cars
| in trains upon the elevated railway fol-
! lowed directly upon the practical demon
stration at the Worlds Fair OF the capa-
bilities of third rail electric traction on
the IntramuraI Elevated Railway. and the
system is rapidly extending so as to in
. clude all elevated city roads. A few years
will doubtless see the great change accom-
plished.
The motor car, or car propelled by its
own motors has also been introduced
upon standard steam roads to limited
extent as supplement to steam traction.
The earliest OF these installations are the
one at Nantasket, Mass, and that between
Hartford and New Britain. in Connect
cut. a number OF special high-speed lines
using similar plans have gone into opera
ton in recent years. The problem of
constructing electric motors of sufficient
robustness for heavy work and controlling
them effectively was not an easy one. and
the difficulties were increased greatly be-
cause of the placing of the motors under.
the car body. exposed to wet. to dust. and
dirt of road. The advantage of the motor
car or motor car train is that the trac-
ton or hold upon the track increases with
the increase of the weight or load carried.
Il is thus able to be accelerated rapidly
after a stop and also climb steep grades
without slipping its wheels. Nevertheless
,bava NO c{r pHaa which favor ha
employment of locomotive at the head
of a train, as in steam practice This is
the case in mines, where a train Of ccal
| cars or ore cars are drawn by electric
| mining locomotives. Many such plants are
in operation. and at the same time the
electric power Is used to drive fans for
ventilating, pumps for drainage. electric
hoists, ETC. besides being used for light
ing the mines The trains In the tunnels
of the Metropolitan Underground Railway
of London have for many years been oper-
ated by steam locomotives with the in
evitable escape of steam, foul, suffocating
gases and more or less SCOT.
A number of years ago the tunnel Of
the City and South London Railway was
put into successful operation with electric
locomotives drawing the trains of cars,
and the nuisance caused by steam avoided.
This work recalls the early efforts of
Field, of Daft, and Bentley & Knight in
providing an electric locomotive for re-
placing the steam plant of the elevated
roads In New York City Well conceived
as many of these plans were. electric trac-
ton had not reached sufficient develop
ment and the efforts were abandoned az
ter several more or less successful trials.
1t Is now seen that the motor car train
may advantageously replace the locomo-
tive drawn train in such Instances as these
elevated railways.
The three largest and most powerful
electric locomotives ever put into service
are those which are employed to take
trains through the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad tunnel at Baltimore. They have
been In service about seven or eight years.
and are fully equal in power to the large
steam locomotives used on steam roads.
Frequently trains of cars. including the
steam locomotive itself. are drawn
through the tunnel by these huge electric
engines, the fires on the steam machines
being for the time checked so as to pre-
vent fouling the air of the tunnel. There
was opened in London in 1890 a new rail-
way called tile Central Underground
equipped with twenty-six electric locomo-
tfves for drawing it's trains. The electric
and power equipment. which embodied In
itself the latest results of American prac-
tice was also manufactured in America
to suit the needs of the road. Other SINH
lar railways are In contemplation In Lon
don and in other cities of Europe. As on