Electric Railways
cars driven along tracks by electric power, supplied either from a central power station, or storage batteries, the latter method being no longer in practical use. The first experiment made in an electrically driven vehicle, interesting from a historical point of view rather than from any practical results it attained, was undertaken by Thomas Davenport, of Brandon, Vermont, a blacksmith with a selfdeveloped education in electricity and mechanics. In 1835 he attempted to propel a wagon by means of a revolving electro-magnet, without any degree of success. A more significant attempt was made three years later, in 1838, by Robert Davidson, in Aberdeen, Scotland, who built a small locomotive which was able to move along a track for a considerable distance. In 1850 the first practical electrical locomotive was built in this country, by Prof. C. I. Page, of Washington, D. C. This electrically driven vehicle, of sixteen horse power, was tested on the tracks of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and attained a speed on a level stretch of track of nineteen miles an hour. In both these mechanically successful cases, however, the commercial value of the experiment was ELECTRIC RAILWAYS handicapped by the limitations of the storage battery, which was too expensive as a means of locomotive power. It was not till the dynamo was invented and developed that the electric railway attained its first possibility.
It was the development of the dynamo which made it possible to generate the electric power necessary for propelling the cars at a central point and transmit it to the moving cars by means of overhead wires or third-rail tracks. It was on this principle that the first practical electric railway was built, in 1879, at the International Exposition held in Berlin, by Siemens and Halske. The demonstration was made by means of a locomotive running on a track a thousand feet in length. In the following year Thomas A. Edison and Stephen D. Field, in this country, began experimentation.
In 1883 they exhibited an electric locomotive in Chicago, which was the first of the type which which is now successfully employed all over the country. So convincing was the demonstration that in the following year the first track was laid on a city street for practical electrical railway operation, in Kansas City, Mo., and there accommodated public traffic. This venture was so eminently successful, from a commercial point of view, that several other cities followed the example of Kansas City with electric railway service. Four years later, in 1888, Richmond, Va., electrified its whole urban street railway system, with a total of thirteen miles of track. Before the close of the year there were thirteen electric railway systems in operation in as many municipalities in the United States and Canada, Canada, with with a total length of track of forty-eight miles.
From now on the development of electric railway construction went on at a rapid pace, existing municipal services being not only converted to electric power, but new tracks being laid and ex- Sended far into the country districts.
The electric railway, or trolley car, as it is more popularly called, has not only displaced the old urban horse cars and cable cars, but it has widely supplemented the regular steam railroads. It has been one of the powerful influences in bringing the rural population into close touch with city life, in that it has made transportation from the rural communities into the larger towns and cities easy and cheap. In this respect it stands perhaps equal with the automobile. In passenger traffic the electric railway has been a keen competitor of the regular railroads, especially in the more populous rural districts.
Finally the steam railroads were themselves affected and subjected gradually ELECTRIC RAILWAYS to the transformation from steam to electricity. In the urban districts many railroads now employ electric locomotives. Most notable example is New York City, into which no passenger train is now drawn by steam locomotives, all the lines entering the metropolis being now equipped with electric motive power. Most notable illustration of the development in this direction has been the electrification of five hundred miles of track of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul system, where it crosses the continental divide through Idaho and Montana, which took place_in 1916. In 1919 over two hundred miles of track were added to the same system, through the Cascade Mountains in Washington. Along these stretches of line locomotives 112 feet long, some of 2,000 horse power, haul long trains of passenger and freight cars up and down the steep grades of the mountains.
Coasting the down grade, the revolving wheels generate enough supplementary electric power to contribute over 40 per cent. of the power needed for the upgrade hauls. The power, transmitted from the power stations to the locomotives by wires or third rails, is generated from water power, of which a great deal may be found in the mountain districts. It is this which renders electricity as motive power much cheaper than steam. Where water power is not available coal is needed to generate the current. Even under these circumstances the operation of railroads by electric power is cheaper than steam, but the necessity of building power plants and the interest absorbed by the capital invested in them makes the total cost more. Where railroads are public property, however, and are constructed and maintained by collective capital, and use, or service, is considered rather than commercial profit, the tendency is to apply electric power, as is the case in many countries of Europe. Were all the steam railroad lines of the United States to be electrified, it is estimated that one-sixth of the total coal consumption of the country could be saved. Specifically, the 125,000,000 tons of coal now being burned by the railroad lines of the country could be reduced to 40,- 000,000 tons, were electricity to be adopted as the motive power universally There are three methods by which electric railways are operated; by trol ley, or overhead wires; by underground conduits; and by the third rail system The trolley system is usually applied in the surburban districts. A copper wir runs along poles overhead, along which the electric current is transmitted fror the power house. A small wheel at th ELECTRIC RAILWAYS end of the trolley pole on the car effects the necessary contact, and transmits the current down the pole to the motor underneath the car. The current then strikes the track and thence returns to the power station. The conduit method is employed in crowded cities, where overhead wires would constitute a danger to traffic. Trenches are dug along the streets, as was done with the old cable car system, and steel braces, or girders, shaped somewhat like horseshoes, are set down into the trench every few feet. The sides and top are then covered in with concrete, a slot being left open along the top. Along the bottom of the trench, under the slot, runs the charged rail. A steel pole, with what is called the rubbing block at the end, runs along the slot and maintains contact with the charged rail. By this system the danger to traffic is eliminated.
New York City and Washington, D. C., are the two chief cities in which the conduit system is employed. In many cities the old cable car underground trenches, or conduits, are now used in this way.
The third-rail system is employed on all elevated railways and subways, where the exposed rail does not endanger the lives of the people. Wherever it is employed the tracks must be carefully guarded against intrusion by the general public, as contact with the third rail is immediately fatal. The third rail runs along a track, beside one of the regular tracks. A shoe, or flat piece of steel, projected from the locomotive, and furnishing contact for the motor, runs smoothly along the track. This makes possible the transmission of a much stronger current than could be attainable by a revolving wheel, such as the wheel at the end of the trolley pole.
On May 31, 1919, it was reported that the vast extension of the electric railway systems of the United States represented an investment of six billion dollars. Exclusive of main trunk lines, there were, in 1920, approximately 50,000 miles of trolley car track in operation in the United States. There are experts who believe that this development has now reached its apex, or has even passed it within the past few years, during the war, for it is a fact that during the recent increase in expense of operation, due to the higher cost of metals and coal, many hundreds of miles of electric railway track in the country have been abandoned, in many cases permanently.
In a majority of the cities fares have had to be raised to meet the increased cost of operation. Here, and even in cities where fares have not been raised, the gasoline-driven car is now appearing as a keen competitor of the electric rail- ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY way. The so-called "jitneys," now a familiar feature of every city street, are cutting deeply into the revenues of the electric railway companies, and that at a point where they are most vulnerable - where the short-haul traffic is thickest.
Bus lines require no expensive capitalization; they may, moreover, adapt themselves quickly to sudden and changing needs and they operate with more speed and despatch. Whether they shall, in the near future, check the extension of electric railway systems in the cities and surburban districts rests, probably, on the problem of a cheaper gasoline supply.
In 1920 there were 8,300 miles of heavy trunk lines operating under electric motive power. On these tracks were employed four hundred electric locomotives of twenty different types, the most powerful of which were capable of hauling trains of 1,200 tons along along level tracks at the rate of sixty miles an hour.
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. See TEL- EGRAPH.