The Street Railway Journal

NEW VOKK: I ( CHICAGO: ) NI vol. ni. 1 \ t 13 Liberty Street./ DECEMBER, 886. (Lakeside Building. f IW. it is The Appleton Electric Railway. possible for a traveling contact to pass ent case the motors are |- laced on the front over the wires uninterruptedly from end to platform of the car, so that the driver can The two views (hat we present in this end of track. This traveler, runniEg upou sit near the motor and have at once full connection are taken from photographs of the overhead conductors, brings the cur- view of the road upon which he is running. two sections of the electric railway that is rent to the motors in the cars by means of As the motor is placed upon t ie front plat- now in operation at Aj^pleton, Wis., on the a double flexible cable, the latter being so form of the car, it is at all times under the Van Depoele system. arranged that it can readily be transferred eyes of the driver. This enables him to In connection with this road there are from one car to auother. In order to effect take good care of the machine and a few features that will not be found upon this, the cables hanging from the travelers to see that all working parts are in good all roads of this kiud. The power for gen- on the overhead wire are fastened with order and kept clean. From this point he erating the electricity is obtained from two their lower terminals to a cross bar made can also attend to oiling of the shafts, etc , THE APPLETON ELECTRIC RAILWAY. FIG. 1. turbines coupled together, and which are of some good insulating substance. To so that there is no reason to neglect any capable of developing 100 horse power. the center of the crossbar is attached important work. They are used to run a 60 horse-power a handle, and if the handle be grasped The motor is illustrated in Fig. 3, and is dynamo. the terminals of the cables can be a very substantial machine although the The electric current so generated is con- hooked into two corresponding sockets, fas- design is very plain. The commutator veyed by means of two heavy copper wires tened to the under side of the roof on the brush holder is provided with two pair of xip to the overhead wires for a distance of front end of the car. From these sockets brushes, and is so arranged that by turning about one m'le. Here the feeders are elec- the current is led by means of insulated the haudle either to the right or to the left trically connected to the double overhead copper conductors to the motor and to a the motor can be run back or forward. On wires, these being placed over the center switch, and, in the usual way, by turning starting a car the driver turns on the cur- of the track, about eighteen or twenty feet thehandle either to the right or to the left, rent gradually until the maximum speed of from the ground, and forming an exact more or less current cau be sent through the car is obtained, a speed which, for counterpart of the track below. These the motor, or be altogether shut off street cars, is ordinarily from six to eight overhead conductors are so susjiended that when the car is to be stopped. In the pres- miles per hour. 66 THE STREET RAILWAY JOURNAL. December, 1886. In the present plant five motors, one of ually succeeded, six years later, in working practical effect was that henceforth the 12 horse-power and four of ten horse-power, trains between Washington and Bladens- transmission of power, not only between are connected as follows: From the ar- burg, over a line of five miles in length. two fixed dynamo machines, but also be- mature shaft of the motor a phosphor The speed was only 19 miles an hour, and tween a fixed dynamo machine aud a train bronze pinion meshes perfectly in a large the undertaking was commercially a fail- in motion, has become possible. The act- gear wheel carried underneath the motor ure, owing to the great cost of producing ual development of electric railways has, by a solid steel countershaft. Mounted the electric current which worked the however, only taken place within the last upon the latter are two sprocket wheels, motor. five or six years, and now there are both in corresponding to two other sprocket wheels For the time being the subject dropped Europe and in America many lines worked by electricity. There are two ways in which an electric railway can be worked. We may either utilize the ordinary rolling stock, and re- place the steam locomotive by an electric locomotive, or we may provide each passenger coach aud each goods wagon with its own small electromotor, so that each vehi- cle becomes its own locomotive. In the latter case, the power is applied to each axle in the train, and the whole of its weight is utilized in producing adhesion. Of the difficulties connected with the con- veyance of current to the train, aud of those which at present stand in the way of an economical and certain method of regulat- ing the speed, we shall speak presently. But, supposing that these difficulties can be overcome, it will be admitted that electric traction, especially when carried out on the latter plan, has many advantages over steam traction. By making every wheel in the train a driver, the acceleration at which the train can start is greatly increased. There would FIG. 2. be no difficulty in obtaining a speed of 30 miles an hour within 10 seconds from the fixed solidly to the forward axle of the car; out of sight, aud has only been revived dur- moment of starting, and the strain due to upon these sprocket wheels runs a specially ing the last few years. This revival is in a inertia would not be greater, nor the sen- made steel belt, so that on starting the mo- great measure due to M. Fontaine's discov- sation to passengers more disagreeable, tor the armature shaft revolves its pinion ery—made at the International Exhibition than is the case now, when trains are stop- upon the large gear placed upon the couu- in Vienna, in 1873—that, by the aid of two ped quickly by the application of powerful ter shaft, aud the latter communicates mo- dynamo machines and connecting cables, continuous brakes. In all probability strain tion to the axles of the car by means of the intervening sprocket wheels and steel belts. The grade varies from six to nine per cent and in one place a sixty-foot curve occurs on au eight per cent grade; there are num- erous curves forty to fifty feet radius. The views are taken from photographs. The officers of the road are: President, J. E. Harriman ; Vice President, N. B. Clark; Secretary, T. W. Orbison; Treasurer, Jos. Koffend. Electric Railways, The proposal to use electricity as a source of energy for working railways is very old. With whom it first originated will perhaps never be known, but is is probable that Professor Henry's " electric engine," which was invented in 1833, and especially Jaco- bi's famous experiment in 1839, which showed to the world that electricity could be used to propel a boat, directed public at- tention for the first time to the question of electric locomotion. This seems the more likely, as the first patent for an " electric railway " dates from 1810, and was granted by the United States Government to Henry motive power could be transmitted over a aud sensation would be less, because no Pinkus, who seems, however, not to have considerable distance. Whether this dis- jarring, as with a brake, would take place. developed his invention. We hear nothing covery was purely accidental, or whether it This is a point of great importance for met- more about electric railways until the year was the legitimate and logical result of sci- ropolitan railways, where trains succeed 1845, when Professor Page invented a new entific investigation, is to this day a moot each other every few minutes, and where electromotor, by the aid of which he act- point; but whatever be its history, the the time wasted to get up speed at every I December, 1886 THE STREET RAILWAY JOURNAL. 67 start is a considerable item in the total time trie railways intended for passenger traffic, a 40 ton engine pounding along. Now, it required for the journey. On underground and, if added to the ordinary block sys- might be asked—How is it that, with all lines, the absence of smoke would also be tem, would render collisions almost impos- these advantages in favor of electric trac- an enormous advantage, resulting in a large sible. Since electromotors contain no parts tion, our railways, and, indeed, those of increase of passenger traffic. "We may here having a reciprocating motion, such as the the whole world, are still worked on the at once remark that the difficulties connect- piston and connecting-rod of a steam en- train system by steam locomotives? ed with the conveyauce of electricity to the gine, they can run at any speed without os- The answer to this question is, that up to trains are the greater, the longer the line cillation. the present no satisfactory solution has been and the fewer the trains which run over it There is, consequently, nothing to limit found for the three great difficulties which per day.

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