The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-09-01
TODAY IN HISTORY
THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER I. 1910.
Our First Electric Railway.

When the year began in March. Sep
tember was the seventh OF It's months
consequently II was properly called Sep
tember By tho commencement OF the
year two months earlier. the name has
now become inappropriate. as is likewise
the case with its three followers-Octo-
Der. November and December, When
Julius Caesar reformed tho calendar. he
gave this month a thirty first day. which
Augustus subsequently took from II, and
SO II has since remained
Our Saxon ancestors called September
Gerst monat. or barley month, because
they then realized this crop, one OF un-
usual Importance 10 them on account
brewed from it.
September, L. 1884. the first electric
railway In the United States was opened
railway may be said to have been born
ln. the year 1895 In the small American
village OF Brandon, Vermont, with the
tsG por as Re chIg IhEmas ea
and puny. and was destined to languish
long In obscurlty and neglect passing
through many vicissitudes OF vigorous
development. AT that time. and for many
years afterwards. the primary battery
was the only available source from which
electric energy could be obtained for
Following Davenport who drove his
motors with current supplied by primary
batteries carried on the car. came Rob-
ert Davidson OF Aberdeen, Scotland lie
which made n number OF trips on Scot
usn railways, and was finally destroyed,
presumably by some engineers who feared
that their own machines would be SUI
perseded by the new invention.
The next experiment on large scale
was made in 1850 by Prof. c. G, Page,
OF the Smithsonian institution at Wash
lngton, who, like Davidson, worked at
the idea Of an electric locomotive. In
1851 DR. Charles Grafton Page, OF Salem.
Mass; perfected an electric engine OF
a fly, Anr ~ hot
year the engine was attached 10 Il car
and trip was made from Washington
10 Biadensburg. over the Baltimore &
Ohio track. The same year Thomas Hall
OF Boston built small electric locomo-
tive called the Volta. The current was
furnished by two Grove battery cells,
which were conducted to the rails. thence
through the wheels Of the locomotive to
the motor. This was the first instance
OF the current being supplied TO the mo-
tor on locomotive from stationary
In 1879 Messrs. Siemen and Halske. OF
Berlin. constructed and operated an cleo
trio railway at the Industrial exposi-
ton In 1880 Thomas A. Edison con
laboratory in Menlo Park, n. j. The
power OF the locomotive was transferred
TO the car by belts running TO and from
the shafts Of each. Early In the year OF
1881 the Lichterfclde, Germany, electric
railway was put Into operation. II is
a third-ra!l system and is still running
MS may De SAlO 10 tne DrS1 CONNER
cial electric railway constructed,
In the United States the first practical
overhead trolley was that built I'm Kan
sas City. but a short time afterwards A
similar line was opened In Baltimore Md.
and in Toronto Canada, The next step
made in the development OF the cleo
trio railway that did most 10 stimulate
capitalists and inventors was the con-
tract made by the Union Passenger Rail-
way company Of Richmond. Va, with
Mr. F. j. Sprague 10 equip Its thirteen
mile system of street railways for cleo
trio traction Then the work advanced
rapidly, and on January 1. 1858. there
were thirteen electric railways with
miles OF traction in opera
tion in this country. Then followed a
period OF consolidation Of interests among
electric railway builders, and the mod
ern era OF electric railway development
was opened.
September I 1882 the Welcome" with
100 Friends sailed for America; Deeriield
and Hadey. Mass, were burned by the
Indians 1S65); Jenny Lind arrived in
this country on her first tour in 1850,
was captured In 1864 and Sedan
capitulated in 1870. II is the birthday
Of Lydia II. Sigourney. authoress G79D:
James Gordon Bennett. journalist 1795);
Richard Delafeld. soldier and engineer