The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1907-02-26
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&1tst Electra Hallway OF the "ofia' osf'
lin Exposition, 1919.
natural. over an invention which
threatens TO rclcgate them to sausage
factory"
That was less than twenty years
ago Today the New York Central
Railroad Company IN cxpcnding S0.'
100000 In the clecirIhcatIon OF the first
thirty.five miles Of It's system. aud the
chr horses were long ago relegnted to
the boncyard. II not 10 the sausage
factory"
"rhey" have done marvellous thing
since the increasing knowledge or
electricity opened up n now world OF
achievement. and we have scarcely
crossed the threshold. In 1880 the elcc.
trio car was dream; In 1890, an ex.
pertinent: IN 1900, great and wonder.
full fact which IL revolutionizing pas
senger transportation and will enable
human beings TO move from place 10
place twice as fast ne they do at prts-
ent.
Horn In ola Vermont
When IN 1894 Thomas Davenport, y
Brandon VI, ran toy motor moun;N
on wheels on small circular railwKY,
the modern electric railroad with ~
possible speed Of over one hundred
miles an hour was born.
In 1898 Robert Davidson, Of AhOr'
deem, Scotland. built an electric Loco
motive which actually reached speed
of four miles nn hour on the Edln-
burgh. Glasgow railway. Nine years
later Professor Moses G.. Farmer OPP
Grated I'm 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 or them
was used as locomotive and, driven
by a battery of one hundred Grove
elements, was tried April 90, 1851, on
a railroad running from Washington
10 Badensburg. A speed of nineteen
miles an hour was developed, so great
that It destroyed the batteries,
Numerous other experiments fol
lowed, nll commercial failures because
the motors were crude and the source
of power primary battery. The de
velopmcnt Of the wonderful modern
dynamo was necessary before electric
rnllronding could become n commercial
success. The first great step was In
1850, when nm Italian named Pacinot-
II invented a continuous current dy.
namo. Three years later the first
practical commercial machine for con
tInnous current operation was made
by Gramme,
Still the modern electric car was I'M
possible. The "reyersibillty OF func-
lion" had yet to be discovered, lnvolv-
ing 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-
chanical power.
Like many other important llscov-
cries, this is said to have been the re-
suit OF accident A workman coupled
machine to a live circuit by mis-
take and was greatly astonished to see
It begin to rotate. This reversihillty
OF function was publicly demonstrated
for the first time at the Vienna expo
stion in 1878.
Not until 1870 was the first electric
railway put in operation, taking thf
current from dynamo, using a mod
ern motor and carrying passengers
This novelty was In operation at The
Berlin exposition and was mile apG
two.thlrds, III length. The train cor
sisted Of a small locomotive ana threa