Fitzgerald enterprise. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1895-1912, 1908-08-18
The History Of
The Street. Car
Wonderful Development O
the Electric Car in Nine
teen Years FIRST Street
Car Run at Rich
mond, Va.

I Only twenty years ago the slow
moving hOrse-ca lines carried the
people of the larger cities who, TO!
manifold reasons, did not care tc
walk. For those who wished tC
ride where the horse cars did not
run large carry alls, drawn by list
less horses, served as a means OF
conveyance for a very nominal
fare.
Only twenty years have passed
since the first electric car was pro
nounced a commercial success at
Richmond, but in this brief period
the electric street care system have
been improved and developed until
they practically reach the ends of
the earth. The carry all has been
relegated to the scrap-heap and the
horse. Car is curiosity in one or two
cities of the world.
The credit for building and ope-
rating the first street railway sys-
tenn in the world belongs to Frank
j. Sprague, whose patents are now
held by the General Electric Com
pany, although a number of un-
successful experiments in this line
had been conducted by other men
before the year 1888.
The electric railway motor was
invented by Thomas Davenport, a
Vermont blacksmith, In 1884, and
four years later Robert Davidson,
Of Scotland, produced small cleo
trio locomotive which moved at
the astonishing speed of four miles
per hour. Nine years later Prof.
Moses &. Farmer, of Salem, Mass,
produced a locomotive capa e of
earring two passengers. In 1879
another machine was exhibited as
a novelty, and the next year Thos,
A. Edison constructed an cleo.
trio locomotive pulling two cars
and carrying several passengers.
Edison's locomotive, however,
was not practical for commercial
use and he was too busy expert
menting with the electric Light to
give the locomotive careful study.
| The summer Of 1887 a party of
experimenters tried out an electric
car in the streets of New York a
mid the boots and ieers Of the peo-
pie. This machine was also more
or less of a failure.
! DR.. Siemans in 1879 exhibited in
Berlin, Germany, small electric
locomotive. For some time he
conducted experiments on cleo
trio railway with Indifferent sue
cess. Through all these years the
electric car was little more than a
cherished dream of numerous cleo
trical inventors. 1t remained for
lSprague to give to the world the
first electric street railway which
was commercially possible,
SINCE that early morning TWEEN
| ty years ago when the first electric
car glided over the rails in the
streets of Richmond, motors have
been brought to such a point OF
perfection that electric cars are
rapidly enroaohing on the steam
engine and threaten to take its
iplace entirely in few years.
The principles which Sprague
used in the construction of the
first car and power are about the
same as In actual use to day. He
invented the overhead trolly; his
! moters were geared to the car
wheels and his system of control
was nearly the came as in the
modern cars.
Miraculous, indeed, has beer
the growth of the street railway
systems since 1888. To day there
are nearly $4,000 miles of street
and electric railways in the United
States, carrying more than five