Omaha daily bee., 1916-08-20
MARVEL OF THIS AGE
Development of Electric Trac-
ton Within a Period of
Thirty Years.
SYSTEM STARTED IN 1887

SYSTEM STARTED IN 1881
| The wonderful development of cleo
tricity is best typifed by the miracu
lous growth of the street car, which i
less than thirty years old, and yet ha
been installed in nearly every city o
importance in the world In these few
years electric traction has been devel
oped and extended until there are, il
this country alone, nearly 1000 dit
terent companies in operation with {
total capital stock Of more than s.
00O0O0,000. Beginning in the large
cities the electric service has been
extended from city to city. from vii
lage to village, until it is now possible
to make a trip from Boston to St
Louis almost entirely by trolley.
Twenty-eight years ago every large
city had its horse cars and horse,
drawn carry-alls. They are both
curiosities now. AS late as 1890 there
were not more than 1000 miles Of
electric railways in the United States
Early attempts to use electricity as
motive power resulted in a few
scientific toys before 1882 Thomas
Davenport, the Vermont blacksmith
who invented the electric motor in
1885, constructed toy car which ran
around circular track Three years
later Scotch inventor made small
electric locomotive. A number of such
locomotives were built during sue
ceeding years until the Berlin EXPOSE
ton in 1879, when Messrs. Siemens
and Halske constructed an electric
line of about a third Of a mile in
length. The first rgular commercial
line in the world was at Lichterfelde.
near Berlin, operating in 1880, but was
not success. Edison, Field Van De-
poole, Knight and man yothers ex-
perimented in electric traction at this
time.
The First Success.
The first actually successful COM
mercial electric railway, i. e., the first
electric operation of the complete
street railway lines of city, was es-
tablshed in 1887 in Richmond, Va,
The road began operating in Febru-
airy, 1888, and was essentially the
overhead trolley system now used,
comprised eleven miles of track, had
thirty cars operating in July, 1888.
and has been in continuous and sue
cessful operation ever since.
The phenomenal development and
growth of electric railway traction
revolutionized not only city. but also
suburban and interurban transporta-
ton. From 1890 up to the present,
the mileage has steadily increased at
the average of about 5000 miles per
year. In 1895 electric railway equip
ment reached what might be consid-
cred staple basis of design. Funda
mental features, such as the enclosed
motor, carbon brushes, series drum
winding. single reduction gearing,
magnetic controller and the under
running trolley had then become es
tablished. There were i'll service at
this time approximately $4,000 motor
cars equipped with about 100000
horsepower of motors. A great many
of the pioneer car motors were too
small for the work, because early de-
signers did not appreciate the amount
of power required to accelerate a car.
In 1895 the average rating of railway
car motors was twenty-five horse
power Other forms of street railway
propulsion gradually disappeared
until about 1900 when electric opera
ton was practically supreme. There
then existed some 10000 miles of city
electric railways. From 1900 to 1910
the electric railways extended rapidly
to suburban and interurban transport
tation. Colncident with this develop
ment there was tremendous increase
in the size and weight of cars. The
average horsepower OF railway motors
increased from thirty five horsepower
in 1900 to sixty-three horsepower in
1910, and large interurban cars were
equipped with four motors, while city
cars generally were equipped with
two.
Many improvements.
This increase in power brought
about great Improvements in control
ling apparatus. The multiple unit
control for the operation OF cars in
train on elevated and subway lines,
interurban roads and later for regular
surface cars was developed. With
the smplihcation of control were also
introduced forced motor ventilation.
reduction in the weight of motor
equipments in Communication and in
PRODUCTION of commutating poles, per
lection of air brake apparatus, intro
duction of field control, etc.
Since that early morning, 20 years
ago, when the first electric car glided
over the rails in the streets of Rich
mond, motors have been brought to
such a point of perfection that cleo
trio cars are rapidly encroaching on
the steam engine and threaten to take
its place entirely in a few years. The
principles which Sprague used in the
construction of the first car and
power line are about the same as in
actual use to-day. He invented the
overhead trolley; his motors were
geared to the car wheels and his sys-
tenn OF control was nearly the same
as in the modern cars.
Miraculous, indeed, has been the
growth of the street railway systems
since 1888 To-day there are nearly