ELECTRIC RAILWAYS. Pa il ways on Nvhich the cars or trains are propelled by electric power. either transmitted from central power sta tions or supplied by accumulators or storage batteries carried on the cars themselves. The first attempt to build an electric railway of which there is any record was made by Thomas Davenport, a blacksmith and wheelwright of Brandon. Vt., in 1835. For a motor he had a revolving elect•o-magnet running between soft iron armatures or pole-pieces, Carrying upon the revolving shaft a commutator by which the di rection of the current was regulated. Three years later, Robert Davidson, of Aberdeen, Scot land, built an electric locomotive for standard gauge railway trucks which made several suc cessful trips. In 1850 Prof. C. 1. Page, of 'Wash ington, D. C.. made a 16 horse-potter electric loco motive which was tested on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and developed speed as high as 19 miles per hour. About the same time Moses G. Farmer constructed a small model electric rail way, which was notable for the fact that a re duction gear from the motor shaft to the driving axle was employed, and because the current was supplied to the motor through the rails, All these early attempts at electric propulsion were made previous to the invention of the dynamo, and current had to he obtained from batteries. In these early attempts it was realized that the expense of generating electricity in chemieal bat teries was too great to admit of its application to propulsion on railways. With the develop ment of the dynamo, and as one improvement and discovery after another was made, the fact Wil s demonstrated that in its use lay the means of transmitting electrical energy for railway operation. It was not until 1879, however, that what may be called the first working electric railway of full size was constructed. This was an exhibition line 1000 feet long, built at the Berlin International Exposition by Siemens and Ilalake: the motor was a Siemens dynamo con nected by double reduction gearing to the axle of a car capable of carrying 20 passengers. In 1880 Thomas A. Edison and Stephen D. Field, in America, began experimenting, but a eontention between them over priority of patents delayed any real results until 'Meanwhile Siemens and llalske had constructed a third-rail line in Berlin and an overhead-wire line in Charlotten burg. in 1883 Werner Siemens built a third-rail
line six miles long to the Giant's Causeway, in Ireland. Power for operating the dynaino was obtained from a waterfall operating a pair of turbine wheels. In 1883 the contro versy was settled by a consolidation of interests, and an exhibition line 1500 feet in length was installed at the Chicago Railway Exhibition, upon which was run an electric locomotive tak ing current from a third rail, with joints bonded to improve its conductivity. Later in the same year an overhead line wan exhibited in Chicago by C. Van Depoele, and about the saint. time Leo Daft built a third-rail line from Saratoga Springs, N. Y., to Mount McGregor. During this time E. 11. Bentley and Walter Knight built a conduit line in Cleveland, Ohio. and later one in New York City and one in Boston.
The practical overhead-trolley line was built in Kansas City in 1884, in which double overhead conductors were uted with a wheel riding on top of the wire. In 1885 Daft constructed a third-rail line at Baltimore and Mr. Van Depoele installed an overhead-t•ol ley line at Toronto, Ont. The next step made in the development of the electric railway in the United States, and the one which did most to stimulate capitalists and inventors to the active interest which has produced marvelous perfec tion in electric-railway transportation we witness to-day, was the contract made by the Union Passenger Railway Company, of Rich mond. Va., with Mr. Y. J. Sprague. to equip its I3-mile system of street railways for electric traction. On January 1, 1888, there were 13 electric railways with 48 miles of track in opera tion in the United States and Canada. There fol lowed a period of consolidation of interests among electric-railway builders, and the modern era of electric-railway development was opened. The history of this growth. so far as it is impor tant to outline it, can lint be gi Vett its the V:1 riona modern systems of electric traction arc taken up for consideration. For this purpose the sub jeet may be divided into: (1) Overhead-t•olley railways; (2) conduit railways; (3) storage. battery systems; (4) electric locomotives and heavy-t•ain systems; (5) central station con struction and equipment; (6) ears and motors.