The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1907-08-15

Eirst Electric Railway OF the Woria, befs
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 expending $780,
100000 in the electrification OF the first
thirty-five miles of it's system, and tho
car horses were long ago relegated to
the boneyard, If not to the sausage
factory"
."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 elec-
tric car was a dream; in 1890, an ex-
pertinent: in 1900, great and wonder
full fact which is revolutionizing pas
senger transportation and will enable
human beings to move from place to
place twice as fast as they do at pres
ent.
Born in Old Vermont.
When in 1884 Thomas Davenport, OF
Brandon Vt, ran toy motor mounted
on wheels on 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 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 then
was used as a locomotive and, driv&
by a battery of one hundred Grove
elements, was tried April 20, 1851, or
railroad running from Washington
to Bladensburg. A speed of nineteer
miles an hour was developed, so grea
that it destroyed the batteries.
Numerous other experiments fol
lowed, all commercial failures becaus'
the motors were crude and the source
of power a primary battery. The de
velopment of the wonderful moderl
dynamo was necessary before electri
railroading could become commercial
success. The first great step was II
1860, when an italian named Pacinot
ii invented a continuous current dy
namo. Three years later the frs
practical commercial machine for cor
tinuous current operation was mad
by Gramme.
Still the modern electric car was In
possible. The "reversibility Of funt
,ion' had yet to be discovered, involN
ing electrical transmission of energ
through two machines, one driven b
power and generating electricity; th
other reversing the operation, receiv
ing electricity and developing mi
chanical power.
Like many other important disco'
cries, this is said to have been the r
suit Of accident. A workman couple
q machine to a live circuit by mi
take and was greatly astonished to Sc
It begin to rotate. This reversibilit
of function was publicly demonstrate
for the first time at the Vienna exp
sition in 1878.
Not until 1879 was the first electr
railway put in operation, taking Il
current from a dynamo, using mo-
ern motor and carrying passenger
This novelty was in operation at Il
Berlin exposition and was mile ar
two-thirds, in length. The train CO
sisted of small locomotive and thr,
small cars, capable Of carrying TIVE
ty people. 1t reached speed Of eig
miles an hour.
About this time Stephen D. File
and Thomas Edison in the Unit
States began experimenting. In IL
Edison was operating at Menlo Pa
an electric locomotive which pull
two cars.
The First Electric Railroad.
The first regular electric line to
established was at Lichterfelde, u
many, near Berlin. 1t was only m
and A half in length and opened
traffic in May, 1881. The trains G
ried twenty-six passengers, at ma
mum speed of thirty miles an hour
The first electric car to be opera'
regularly in the United States was