Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1910-05-26
ELECTRIC VEHICLE
SWIFTLY COMING
SCIENTIST WHOSE PREDICTION
OF TEN YEARS AGO HAS ABOUT
BEEN VERIFIED.
DIFFICULT WORK OF BREAKING
DOWN THE OLD MENTAL
ATTITUDE.

BEND Ind, brother OF Emma EahieS'
the oneratic star, and noted elec~
trical expert. was asserting that the
electric vehicle would one day De al
;,,nortant commercial factor, thereby
.rousing violent argument among
his associates-one man in particular
nrominent member OF the Edison
association, taking rather strenuous
issue with him.
Today Eames has seen all ms 'afi-
o,e nrad;ctions come true, and ne De-
deyes that only beginning has been
made. When he first commenced taiA-
Ing about electric vehicles everybody
else seemed to be advocating steam
as the motive power for business wa
CONS, 1t would probably be pretty
hard now to convince any OF Games
dissenters that they ever took sucn
q position.
Games will be one of the speakers
before the twenty-fifth annual conYen-
ton of the National Electric Llgm
association which meets at st. Louis
next week when he will publicly voice
his belief that the time is not far dls-
tant when the electric vehicle VIII
ia xto the very limit the existing cen
trail station installations.
flames declared that, while ma
terial improvements have been MADE
during the past ten years in the de-
tails of the design of electric pleasure
vehicles or power wagons, these de-
signs had reached a point as long
ago as 1897 when their proper use
and application showed great econ
omv over any other existing method,
and no further engineering develop
ment was necessary to make them,
then and there, a good commercial
investment
Within the past month, he says, he
has seen in the streets of New York
City an electric power wagon OF the
date of '97 change from it's original
construction, and there are in this
country many such vehicles, the mi
nor defects of which have been elim-
mated by the ingenious user. More
over. these vehicles are still giving
satisfactory service.
flames says that the greatest econ
Cmy of operation by any single cleo
tric power wagon Of which he has
any knowledge resulted from the use
of a vehicle built in 1901, and that
there are at least three such vehicles
still in service without having been
materially changed.
Education of the pubic in the use
of the electric vehicle is, in Eames
judgment, important, and he urges
the cooperation Of manufacturers and
individual members. He believes it
would be wise to maintain a perma
nent educational nucleus in the hands
Or under the control of central sta
ton managers. He believes that such
a course would place the central sta
ton organization in the position of
judicial protector Of the industry, and
protect the public from the passing
use of captivating navelty which has
from time to time been a great dis
turbing factor i'm the power wagon
could be excluded under such a sys-
tenn
Eames declares that the ignorance
of large users of draft animal wa
CONS in regard to the elements which
govern the economy of their use is
amazing. Many of them really have
no idea of what it is costing them to
use animals. Six years ago he made
a canvass of the city of Boston. and
found that, with two exceptions
heavy teamsters were ignorant of the
actual cost of their operations, and
made their contracts on an assumed
cost per vehicle and team per day,
based on custom. Discrepancies were
charged to profit and loss without in
curry.
Department stores and dry goods
houses still leave the questions of ar
rangement Of wagon routes to the
wagon foreman, delivery man or
teamster, who follows the matter of
custom, without any particular analy-
sis. Certain delivery routes are fol-
lowed as they have been followed for
years, largely as a matter of course.
The idea of economy does not seem
to have anything whatever to do with
route arrangements.
Eames cites, as indicating the men,
tai attitude of some people on SUBJ
st1tuting electric for animal vehicles.
the case of an express manager. Ten
years ago the express company in
stalled an electric wagon. which was
equipped with iron tires. At the first
snowfall the wheels We're shod with
iron cleats. and had operated half
day before the horse vehicles in the
same service were able to get their
horses sharpshod and into the streets.
The Local express manager pronounc-
ed the electric vehicle unsatisfac-
tory because it took three-Quarters of
an hour to put the cleats on the
wheels. When it was pointed out
that he had been nine hours getting