The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-08
HOW A STREET CAR
 IS RUN BY CURRENT
Simple Explanation of Power so Familiar-Taking Trolley ye-
 hicle Figuratively to Pieces

IT all the thousands and thousands of people who daily ride upon the electric street cars of our cities-and the last census showed that 12. 135, ,341. .16 fares were rung up in 19l2-only few understand what hauls the cars along the yails. says Electrical News
 It is easy enough to understand the steam railroad system. A steam en- sine' mounted on wheels, is hitched to number of cars. The steam engine part of the locomotive is coupled to the driving wheels, and when the engine is started the wheels turn and the train moves. But the electric street car is quite another thing and vastly harder to understand. In a vague way we know that It is driven by electric power which IS carried, in some mysterious manner, on the trolley wires.
 Let us take a car apart figuratiyely speaking, and see just how it is made. Beneath the ordinary street car you will find two to four powerful electric motors geared directly to the axle of the car trucks. These motors differ some what from ordinary electric motors in their design, but they operate exactly the same as the electric motor which drives an office fan, the sewing machine or vacuum cleaner in the house. These mo- tors are very powerful and are almost completely hidden from sight in the trucks beneath the car.
 The electrical energy for driving the street cars is sent out over the trolley wires. The electrical power is gener- ated, or made, in the central power- house, or it may be transmitted from some nearby waterpower development where the energy of the falling water is changed into electricity The trolley -traf fe 1.~<l -1<< poles and guy wires.
 The electricity Is kept'o the trolley wire by suitable insulatcrs, of glass. porcelain or composition, over which the current cannot travel The elec- trlcal current flows easily and smoothly along the trolley wires. like water in a pipe, although it cannot be seen. Wherever this copper trolley wire ex- tends the electrical power flows and is always ready to drive trolley car.
 Each trolley car is provided with n trolley wheel at the end of the pole which runs along the under side of the trolley wire, The electrical power from the trolley wire flows through this wheel and down the trolley pole to a neaVily-insulated cable concealed in the ton of the car. The cable carries tha electricity to the Controller" in the front of the car. The controller is the iron box which stands in front of the motorman. At the top of this box are two levers. The smallest lever Is used to turn on and off the current suppIv and the larger is used to control tba current, or to "feed" it to the motors beneath the car in any quantity as de- sired. When the motorman turns the controller handle a few notches a cer- tain amount of electricity is allowed to How from the overhead trolley wire down the pole, through the cable and control box to the motors beneath the car. The car starts and the motor Iuan turns the controller handle fur thor, feeding the motors more current, and the car picks up to it's regular run ming speed.
 The electrical current flows to the car over the trolley wire After it flows through the car via the cables, through the controller, the resistance and the motors, it flows out of the car through tine iron wheels and back to the power- house alcng the steel rails. thus con- pleting the circuit.