The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-27


leave In the nprins Of tess. I spent
eleven months with Mr.. Edison as his
assistant, engaged In electric work, dur
ing which time made material con-
tribution to his system of distribution,
but during this time Mr.. Edison was
not engaged In electric railway work
or the building OF electric motors. Be
ing Interested In both, I rendered my
resignation and Incorporated the
sprague Electric Railway and Motor
Company, which from 1884 TO 1889 was
the most active agent in the develop
ment of the use Of electricity for power
purposes. whether applied to Industrial
motors or electric railways.
The constant speed. non-sparking mo-
tor invented and exhibited by me in
1884 was formally indorsed and recon-
mended to its various licensees by the
parent electric light company. The fol-
lowing fall developed a system for
the elevated railroads Of New York, and
in the winter of 1856 conducted tests
on private tracks at the Durant sugar
refinery, following this by others In the
spring on the Thirty-fourth street
branch. These were considered so i'm
portant by officials connected with the
Edison light interests that they partic-
ipated In the purchase at cost OF
over s51,000 Of one-tenth interest in
company with a nominal paper capital
OF 100000.
In these tests there were first shown
publicly my wheelbarrow method Of mo-
tor suspension and gearing and dual
control, which were universally adopt
ed, and also the method of returning
energy to the line and braking the train
by the use Of dynamos and motors. In
1887 came the contracts for the Union
Passenger Railways at st. Joseph, Mo-,
and Richmond, Va. the latter to be oper-
ated under conditions more difficult. and
including moro motors than were to be
found in the aggregate on ali others Of
the then existing experimental electric
railroads here and abroad.
The Richmond road. which was car
ried to completion and the final sue
cessful operation in spite of great tech
meal and financial difficulties, under very
adverse circumstances and largely on
my personal credit, is knownIthe world
over as the pioneer of the modern trolley
because at least every essential char
acterizing It Is the basis OF modern prac-
tice. So important did this new develop
ment soon become that control of 1t was
secured by the Edison Electric Light
Company in the latter part Of 1889.
A year later the Sprague name was
arbitrarily wiped off from the list of 113
electric railways in the United States
and abroad. the Edison name substituted
therefor, and every detail Of construction.
equipment and control assigned to a
new parentage. At the same time
deliberate attempt was made to destroy
the trolley system and to substitute
therefor a new Edison system" whose
principal feature was the use of the
ordinary traffic rails as supply con-
ductors at low potential, scheme which
collapsed with public trial.
During this entire period believe not
a mile of track for an Edison system
was laid for public use. not trolley
car carried an Edison railway motor.
Indeed. no novel features individual to
the Edison experiments in 1Ss0-s2. or
as proposed in 1890 and later. have
found abiding place in the electric rail-
way industry, and no Edison railway
patent has ever been adjudicated and
sustained. On the other hand, every
essential feature of the Richmond trolley
and the South Side Elevated equipments
Is In universal use to-day, and no
Surague patent in the United States has
ever been defeated.
For over thirty years I have contin-
ually urged the construction of system
Of electrically operated four track sub
ways in New York. but for the maximum
success a radical departure from the
early conception of locomotive or loco
i motive car operation was vital So In
1885 I invented what is known as the
multiple unit system. by which any
. number of cars, each individually
equipped with motors and controllers
therefor, can be combined, with or with
out non-motor cars. into trains. without
regard to number, sequence or end rela-
, ton, and when so combined be con-
, troled from either end of any equipped
car by master controllers connected with
a secondary controlling train line.
, I made two attempts to get an oppor-
, tunlty TO demonstrate this system on
, the Manhattan Elevated at my own ex-
, pense, but It was not until 1897, while
, engsg ed in the development of electric
elevators. that I took personal con-
tract for the equipment of the South
Side Elevated Railroad in Chicago
Claim has been made that this system
was based upon patent by Edison in
which he included the motors on differ
: ent cars under the control OF n main
controller located on the front car of a
train, a patent which is analogous to
: claiming the multiplication table, but
, no one knowing what the multiple unit
system is can for n moment confuse
the two.
, The system Is now in use the world
over on every rapid transit road using
) two or more cars. and on every trunk
, line railway where two or more locomo.
tives are under a common control. II
: has increased the possible capacity OF
. any given trackage in the subways more
, than so per cent. above what would be
3 possible with a locomotive system, with
consequent saving of equivalent capac.
, ity cost. represented in New York alone
s by the enormous amount already stated
T FRANK J. SPRAGUE
{ NEW York, August 20.