The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-02
ONE HUNDRED MILES AN HOUR.
As to the Prospect of That Rate Being
 Reached by Electric Traction

As to the Prospect of That Rate Being
 Reached by Electric Traction.
 Through years we have been inward ly bracing ourselves for the triumphant
 entry of that hundred mile -an- hour train. But we have waited in vain
 with the patience of St. Simon Stylites.
 The conversion of the trunk lines of
 this country to electric power has not
 yet come. By this statement we mean
 in no way to minimize the enormous
 strides which the science of electric
 traction has accomplished during the
 last ten years It has revolutionized
 urban and suburban transportation and
 has brought with it host of benefits
 to city and country dwellers which
 seemed absolutely unattainable de-
 cade and a half ago. But it is undeni- ably a far cry from the largest electric
 railway enterprise at present carried out to the most modest of the high speed projects that have been before the public eye. And the discrepancy between promise and fulfilment is one that should be explained,
 More than ten years ago the expert ments of Crosby made it certain that electric traction at very high speeds was, as an engineering feat, entirely practicable, even with the means then at hand. His results in determining air resistance removed the only really doubtful factor from the problem, and the experience of more recent years with locomotives has confirmed these results in the fullest and most satis- factory manner Further, no engineer is to-day disposed to deny that the elec- tric motor has certain very marked and decisive advantages for such work. It renders the whole weight of the To- comotive, or, with multiple-unit con- trol, of the entire train available for traction, facilities braking by the gen. orator function of the motors, and greatly facilitates the reduction of dead weight to be dragged. At the present time there has been long enough ex- perience with long power transmission lines to show that the continuous sup ply of large amounts of energy over long sections of line is very simple and easy matter and that the efficien- cy of such a transmission is high enough to utilize fuel more economical y than is possible with locomotives, even setting aside the great advantage 70 be gained by the use of water power.
 The cost of the conducting system, ,nce matter of very grave import, has ,ubsided in these days of high voltage nto comparative moderation, and Is likely to subside still further. And, inally, the trials carried out abroad | within the past year or two have | shown exclusively that energy at very ligh voltage can readily be taken to | he motors by flying contract with rolley wheel or shoe, so that the trans i mission line and the working conduc- ] or may he one and the same.
 The fact is, that, with the light upon he subject now availab ble, it is not too much to say that an electric train at 1 ne hundred miles per hour not only is ntirely practicable, but involves very title of an experimental character, )ne might almost go further and say :, hat the only difficulties worth serious are those involved in the rack and roadbed, which, of course, re quite apart from the motive power, xcept as the electric motor has some hat the advantage in the lessened ounding of the rails. Yet in spite of Il this, the high-speed electric road is J. day seemingly further from accom- ishment in this country than it was