The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1907-04-18

senGer transportation and will enable
human h~'NgS to move from place to
place twice as fist as they do at pres
ent.
Born in Old Vermont.
When IN 1894 Thomas Davenport, Of
HI''ndon. Vt. ran toy motor mounted
Oil wheels on 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 c. Farmer op-
Grated an experimental car which car
ried two passengers at Dover. New
llnunshiyc
Then ihc 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. Gne of them
was used as Il locomotive and. driven
by a battery of one hundred Grove
elements. was tried April %. 1851. on
a railroad running from Washington
to Bladcnsburg. \ speed Of nineteen
miles IN hour was developed. so great
tnat it destroyed the batteries.
Numerous other experiments fol-
lowed. all commercial failures because
the motors We're crude and the source
of power primary battery The de-
velopment of the wonderful modern
dynamo was necessary before electric
railroading could become a commercial
success. The first great step was in
1850. when an Italian named Pacinot.
Il invented Il continuous current dy
namo. Three years later the first
practical commercial machine for con.
tinuous current operation was made
by Gramme
Still the modern electric car was i'm.
possible. The 'reversibility of func.
ton had vet to he discovered. invol.
wing electrical transmission of energy
through two machines. one driven by
power and generating electricity: tho
other reversing the operation. receiv.
ing electricity and developing mo.
cnanical power.
Like many other important discov.
cries. this is said to have been the re-
suit of accident. 4 workman counle.1
machine to a live circuit by mis-.
| take and was greatly astonished 70 SOC
| it begin to rotate. This reversibiIitv
of function was publicly demonstrated
for the first time at the Vienna expo.
| sition in 1873.
Not until 1875 was the first electric
railway put in operation. taking tbe
current from dynamo. using a mod.
ern motor and carrying Passengers
Inns novelty was in operation at the
| Berlin exposition and was a mile and
| two-thirds, in length. The train con-
| sisted of small locomotive and tbree
small cars. capable of carrying TWEEN.
| ty people. 1t reached a speed of eight
| miles an hcur
About this time Stephen y. Field
| AMI Thomas Edison in the Unite,
| StateS he@an experimenting In 1SS
| tulscn WAS operating at Menlo Parl
an eit~tric locomotive which pullct
| two ears
| The FRS, Electric Railroad.
! The first regular electric line to b
! established w:> at Lichterfelde. Ger
! fmanT. near Berlin. 1t was only a nil
sad hall i'll length and opened 70
iraina Ill May 1871. The trains car
| REL twenty passengers. at n maxi
mum speed Of thirty miles an hour
ne first electric ear TO be operate.
| regularly in the United States was In
stalled 10y Deft on the Hamden brancl
| OF the Baltimore Union PaSSpOyp