The Dickinson press., 1907-02-09

lin Exposition, 1879.
natural. over an invention which
threatens to relegate them to a sausage
factory"
That was less than twenty years
ago. Today the New York Central
Railroad Company is expanding $780,
100000 in the Identification of the first
tnlrty-five miles of its system, and the
car horses were long ago relegated to
the boneyard, If not to the Sausage
factory"
i. They have done marvellous things
since the increasing knowledge Of
electricity opened up a new world Of
achievement. and we have scarcely
crossed the threshold. In 1880 the cleo
trio car was a dream; in 1890, an ex-
pertinent; in 1900. a great and wonder
full fact which ia revolutionizing pas
eenger transportation and will enable
human beings to move from place to
place twice us fast as they do at pres
ent
Il Born in Old Vermont.
When in 1884 Thomas Davenport, Of
Brandon, VT, ran a toy motor mounted
on wheels OH a small circular railway,
the modern electric railroad with its
possible speed Of over one hundred
miles an hour was born.
In 1888 Robert Davidson, Of Aber.
deem, Scotland, built an electric loco
motive which actually reached a speed
of four miles an hour on the, Edin-
burgh-Glasgow railway. Nine years
later Professor Moses G. Farmer op-
Grated an experimental car which car
ried two passengers at Dover. New
Hampshire.
Then the United States congress be-
came interested. By special grants
Professor Page Of Smithsonian insti-
tute was aided in the construction of
several forms of motors. One of them
was used as a locomotive and, driven
by a battery Of one hundred Grove
elements, was tried Apri! 90, 1851, on
a railroad running from Washington
to ~Bladensburg. A speed Of ninetee
miles an hour was developed, so gre. /
that it destroyed the batteries.
Numerous other experiments fol.
lowed, all commercial failures because
the motors were crude and the source
Of power a primary battery. The de.
:velopment Of the wonderful modern
dynamo was necessary before electric
railroading could become a commercial
success. The first great step wal In
1880. when an Italian named Pacinot.
ii invented q continuous current DIV.
namo. Three years later the first
practical commercial machine for con.
tinuous current operation was made
by Gramme.
Still the modern electric a was In.
possible. The "reversibility Of func.
tion" had vet to be discovered, invol.
wing electrical transmission Of energy
through two machines, one driven by
power and generating electricity: the
other reversing the operation, receiv.
ing electricity and developing me.
cnanical power.
Like many other important discov.
cries. this is said to have been the re.
suit of accident. A workman coupled
a machine to a live circuit by mis-.
take and was greatly astonished to see
It begin to rotate. This. reversibility
Of function was publicly demonstrated
for the first time at the Vienna expo.
sition In 1873.
Not until 1879 was tho first electric
railway put in operation, taking the
current from a dynamo. using d mod.
ern motor and carrying passengers.
TINS novelty was in operation at the
Berlin exposition and was 4 mile and
two-thirds. In length. The. train con.
sisted Of Q small locomotive and three
small cara, capable Of carrying TWEEN.
typeople. ItSreachsd Z spseA Of eight
miles an houE.