Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-02-01
OUR FOREIGN LETTER
Dealing with Commercial and In
dustrial Conditions Abroad.
Electricity to BE Substituted for Gas
In Lighting German Railway
Cars-SiIk Spinning in Ja-
pan and other Items.

In Lighting Oefm0n da1ANVay |
Cars-Silk Spinning in Ja-
pan and other Items.
Electric Lighting for Railway Cars In
Germany.
The recent deplorable railway acct
dent at Offenbach-on-Main has led to
sharp and thorough inquiry into the
danger which may attach to the lllu-
mination of railway passenger cars by
means of gas and the greater compare
tive safety of electric lighting. The &C
cident referred to was a collision be-
tween the rear car of a vestibule ex-
press train backing to rcpass block
signal which had been overrun in a
thick fog and the engine of a local pas
senger train which was following the |
express. The engine crushed its way |
through nearly half the length of the
car, killing many of the passengers in
the five rear compartments, OF which
the car comprised ten. all opening into
an isle or passageway along the side OF
the carriage.
In this crash, the chimney of the en-
CINE was cut away, and the front of the
boiler so broken in that the smoke and
fame from the flues poured out into the
wrecked car.
The passengers in the front sections
of the car escaped by the door and win
dows, but before aid could reach the
survivors in the rear ones there was a
loud and powerful explosion, which
tore the wreck to splinters, set the in
terror on fire, and sealed the fate of
those who still remained alive. This
was the original and generally accept
ed account of the affair. although the
railway officials have claimed, and the
official report tacitly admits, that the
explosion occurred later and when the
whole interior of the wrecked car had
been set on fire by the engine and was
all ablaze. the point of contention be-
ing that the explosion did not Of itself
increase the loss of life.
However this may have been, the ex-
plosion did occur, and its nature and
origin are thus explained: The car
was lighted by what is known as the
Pintsch system, and the supply of gas
was carried in two cylinders of galvan-
lied iron plate about IL feet in length
which hung lengthwise beneath the
floor at the middle of the car. In the
collision. both these cylinders were
torn loose from their fastenings and
thrown into transverse positions
across the track. still beneath the car.
Neither cylinder exploded, but the gas
from their torn connections rushed
out, and filled the car above, forming in
a few moments mixture of gas and air
which, being ignited by fire from the
engine, exploded, with the result above
described.
The question of the moment is
whether the Pintsch system of gas
lighting for passenger cars, which has
been during recent years practically
universal on the state railways of
Prussia, should not be replaced by
electric apparatus, and this theme the
technical press is now discussing with
great energy and earnestness. Under
this system, rich coal gas, rendered
still more luminous by rs per cent. ad-
mixture of acetylene gas. is COM
pressed into cylindrical reservoirs and
burned in specially devised lamps by
burners which automatically adapt the
flame to the varying pressure in the
cylinders. In itself this enriched gas
is not explosive, but it naturally forms
an explosive mixture when combin ed
with a certain percentage of atmos-
pheric air. The system has been rec
ognized as great improvement over
the stearin candles, COLA oil, kerosene,
and other lamps which had been previ-
ously used, and was regarded as salts
factory until electric lighting came in
to general use in streets and buildings.
About ten years.ago, experiments were
begun on express trains, Frankfurt
Behra and Stuttgart-Halle, with an
electric system in which small dyna
mo, placed in the baggage car and
geared to an axel of the running geas
, generated electric current at a voltag
sufficiently above the point of utility
to give a surplus which charged a small
storage battery, that supplied the
lamps when the train was not in mo
ton. This worked so satisfactorily
that in 1898 electric lights were adopt
ed for the postal cars, of which there
are about 5000 in use in this country.
A postal car requires for ordina ry
service the illumin alton afforded by
about IA full gaslights, which latter
not only consumed rapidly the oxygeI
in the car, but in summer heated it Il
such a degree that what with the hea
vitiated air, and varying light suppl,
the comfort, health and eyesight of thu
employees NctC SCIlOuSls COAh ~ OAAioSO
For this reason, the electric light ha!
become all but universal in the posta
cars of Germany, each OF which either
carries its own dynamo and accumu
lator, and thus operates independently
or is provided with storage batteries
that are charged fr-n an outside
source before the car begins its jour
ney. The storage battery used for Thu
u ID
accumulation, four of which, each con
x.;,;or a;rbt coils Garry SuffScient en-