The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16

like we were on the eve of something great. I asked him why he had never made practical application of his idea. He said he had done everything In his power to give it a practical test He had gone to street car managers all over the north and in Canada. When he unfolded his idea they only laughed at, him. sa
 Before I left Toronto our plans had been formed. He was to come to Mont gomery and we would go to the bot tom of his discovery. He came down and spent several months with me. There are no doubt quite a number of people in Montgomery who remember him. I decided to give his idea fair and just test fin Montgomery. Several of my directors were opposed to it. We were making money. What was the use of trying any change. If handn't owned majority of the capital stock the idea would never have been worked out in Montgomery
 Tt was no little trouble to get Van- derpoePs Idea In actual, practical oper- ation. He and I figured it that it would cost $4,000 to put the electrical equip ment on the Montgomery Street Rail- way system. As a matter of fact we spent $4,000 in the undertaking. You see there was no precedent, no plans. nothing to guide us. The machinery Hdu Io De planned ana uAQ6 In NanOor" poePs shops in Chicago and in our own shops. No such machinery as we need ed had been thought of in any factory in the world. We had our shops and barns then on Tallapoosa street neaT Commerce. Here the equipment was planned. drawn and completed.
 "As have said before, the first con- tract only called for the actual equip ment of the Court street line for q trial test of three months, Thissit was thought, would give the idea a com plete practical test for 1t involved the running of the electric cars over the steep grade of Court street hill. The test to my mind. completely estab- lished the feasibility and practicabiIity Of running cars by electric power. So in December of the same year in which the first car was run in April we de- cided to equip every car of the Mont gomery system. twenty-one in num- Der, with the electric power apparatus.
 ScOffs at Other Claims.
 The claim that Richmond, Va, or any other city was ahead of Montgom- cry in the practical use of electric cars is absurd. The claim that Thomas Edison invented the application of electricity as a motive power and gave it it's first trial at Richmond is equal ly absurd Edison had nothing in the world to do with its discovery. The
  Two years after VandepoePs discovery Edison tried to perfect the Pocher Dry Storage Battery sysem, but it proved a failure.
 Richmond was not the first city to use electric cars. It was the fifth. I am perfectly familiar with the develop ment of the trolley car system and know what am talking about when tell you that the order in which the cars were put in practical and suc- cessful operation was as follows: Mont gomery first. Windsor, Canada. second, Scranton, Penn, third St. Joseph Mo, fourth, Richmond Va, (Spragues.) fifth.
 While these cars were in opera tion in Montgomery during tue years of 1885 and 1886 I will undertake to say that no less than 150 people, from Eu- rope and from every part of America came to Montgomery to investigate and study them.
 Tn the meanwhile, being pioneers in the movement, we were having the troubles of all pioneers. The first troll ley,the sort used by Vanderpoel. gave us most of our trouble. It was radically different from the present trolley. The trolleys used were overhanging troll leys and the chief objections to them was that they could not pass each other on the switch. The trolley con SlSlel ot aH ONeIElulHS WHeSIs nelQ on the wire by smaller wheels From that q flexible cable descended through the Ipood of the car to the motor.
 ITO this feature of the first cars there were several strong objections We could not devise any means by which these overhanging trolleys could pass each other, try as we might. You remember the street car switch near the fountain well. the two cars on the lcontl,,,oa .n,. De-. n-l--A -.