The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-05-03
DEVELOPMENT OF
STREET RAILWAYS
INTERESTING STORY OF MANS
EFFORT TO GRASP TRANS
PoRTATIoN PROBLEM.
Passed From Horse Cars to Gable Cars,
Then to Electric, Which Have
Been Many Times Improved.
(By David Beef


mans best friend, the horse, and ends
with that subtle and hidden, yet pow
erful influence, electricity. There
are volumes, unWritten, to be sure,
wherein the story of mans persistent
endeaTor to grapple with this force
and make it the servant of his will
rivals the record of those explorers
who marched into the WilGS of un-
known lands. There are tales of baf-
fled energies; or sorties made by the
strongest intellects into the domain
of this hidden magnet; of rout with
great confusion; of return again and
again to the conflict, and, finally, there
is the narrative. full of inspiring ex-
ample, of how man, so puny before
This titanic force, has made himself
it's master and directs it's course as
he wills.
1t is a significant fact that the year
1882, which witnessed the beginning
of the horse car system in New York
city, was also the time of the first re-
corded experiment with electricity as
the motive power for the transporta-
ton of a public conveyance This ex-
pertinent was with a mere toy, now
ever, that was used by Thomas Da-
venport of Brandon, Vermont. He
had mounted small motor on wheels.
and the roadway was a small circular
track in the yard of his home.
This experiment led to no results,
and for more than twenty years little
was heard of the proposed electrical
motive power In the meantime the
horse car system was passing through
such veXing trials as led to its early
abandonment This venture was pro-
NOTED by John Stephenson. a New
York carriage builder and in 1881
his company, called the New York
and Harlem railroad, obtained it's
charter, the line was laid through
Fourth avenue and its operation begun
early the next year.
In 1897 the horse car line was aban-
uOned for steam cars, and it was not
until fifteen years later, in 1852, that
the idea was successfully revived by
a French engineer named Loubat,
who constructed road on Sixth ave-
nue.. In the meantime a successful
horse car line had been put into OPP
GRAFTON between Boston and Cam
bridge, this company using the old, I'M
calmly cars of the unsuccessful Ste
phenson venture. These We're mod
eled after the old omnibus, and, like
the English railway COACH were di-
vided into three compartments, each
seating ten persons, with room on the
roof for additional passengers. A
more serious objection to these cars
than their insight y appearance was
their utter lack of comfort.
San Francisco was the pioneer to
lead the way to the cable car system
Here was another instance of neces-
sity being the mother of invention
In that city there was a physical con-
dition of the ground that precluded
the use of the then prevalent horse
car system so in 1872 Andrew S. Hal
Idle invented a patent cable grip and
with the aid of Pacific coast capital
in 1878 the first cable road was opened
Tor traffic. This road was successful
in every way, the physical conditions
having been completely overcome.
The success of this venture led to
similar projects all over the country,
until in 1895 there were 632 miles Of
| cable road in operation. About this
| time the cable road began to lose it's
| hold on capital and street railway
| promoters for the toy motor of Thorn
as Davenport had become a practical
thing in the hands of men of brains
| Capital has its purse open to the pros
| pector who can show it the way to
! fat dividends, and Frank j Sprague
| had demonstrated the practical sue
cess of the electric motor as applied to
street railway operation in Richmond
| Virg mia, in 1888.
1t would be unfair to that wizard
1 If the magnet, Thomas A Edison, to
omit mention of his trial road
| Memlo Park, New Jersey, in 1880. Also
/ the temporary road built by him and
! Stephen D. Field in Chicago a few
| years later. And yet others were ex-
/ Derimenting with the then mercurial
/ fluid that eluded their efforts to make
\ it captive. The history of these eff
l forts is as entertaining reading as the
narrative of the search of Ponce de
/ Leon for the tabled fountain of eter-
| nal youth.
! In passing it should be noted that
| the nrSl regular electric ROAD capable
of transporting passengers was opened
! for traffic in Lichterfelde, Germany
near Berlin, in 1881. This road was
! one and half miles long. The next
| electric railway to be operated was in
the old world, in Ireland. where service
was inaugurated in 1888
/ The first electric motive power
| used i'm this country was that of small
| electric engines coupled to ordinary
street cars. 1t not being the purpose
| to be technical in this article very
much of the investigation and expert
| ment that preceded the investment of
| the street car with f-propelling
| power from electric currents will be
| passed over. Two of the greatest diff
1 ficulties encountered was the proper
| establishment of the motor, and the
| proper distribution of the current AT
/ one time the current passed through
| the two rails of the track, but by con-
| slant application on the part of many
| investigators the overhead trolley
and wire were brought into Ise and