RAILROAD, ELECTRIC. Some experiments were tried in 1897, at Berlin, in electric railways, by Dr. Werner Siemens, but the work was abandoned because the armature of the Siemens machine then used became heated too quickly and too greatly to be of practical ser vice. Under conditions of more promise, the experiments were resumed by Siemens& Halske in 1879, and carried to a successful issue. The first permanent undertaking executed on the Siemens system was the line between Lichterfelde and the Central Catletten Anstalt, near This installation differed somewhat in detail from the first attempts in the manner in which the current was led; for whereas in the latter a third central rail was used, the former employed only the two existing rails, one as a lead, and the other as a return, circuit. With the advancing efficiency of the dynamo as a generator, or as a consumer of current, and with the success of the Paris Ex position i osition in 1881, came a revival of interest in the subject of electric railways in America, as elsewhere. At the Chicago Railway Exposition, May. 1883, Mr. Field 'exhibited the electric locomotive named "The Judge," The track ran around the gallery of the main exhibition building, curving sharply at either end on a radius of 56 ft. Its total length was 1,553 ft. The track was of ;--ft. gauge, and had a central rail for conveying the current, the two outer rails serving as the return. The Chicago Electric Railway was the first constructed in this country for business purposes, and was opened on June 9 and closed Julie 23, having, run in all .146.24 miles. It carried 26,805 passengers. It was afterward sent to the Louisville Exposition during the same year, and there carried a large number of passengers. Mr. Thomas A. Edison's work in electric railroading dates back to the spring of 1880, when he built, a track at Menlo Park, N. J., near his laboratory. This line was less than half a mile in length. Toward the close of 1883, the experiments of Mr. Leo Daft began to attract attention. The first street railway equipped by the Daft Co. was the Hampden branch of the Baltimore Union Pas senger Railway Co., opened for business August 8, 1885. In 1885 the Daft Co. obtained permission to equip a section of the Ninth Avenue Elevated Railway, in New York City. on its system. The road was equipped from the ele vated station at Fourteenth Street up to Fifty-ninth Street, a distance of two miles, in which a heavy grade is encountered. The
motor used was named " Benjamin Franklin," with which a speed of 20 miles an hour was attained. Fig, 1 is a side elevation of this loco motive, which was designed for 75 horse-power and a normal speed of 18 miles per with a possible speed of 40 miles. The motor complete weighs 9 tons and meas ures 14I ft, in length over all. The first railway operated under the Charles J. Van Depoele system was laid in Chicago in the winter of 1882-3. The Bentley-Knight Electric Railway Co. made an experimental installa tion of their conduit system on the tracks of the East Cleveland Horse Railway Co. for a distance of two miles, in 1884, which was in operation for one year.
General Method of general principle upon which the modern electric railway is operated is shown in Fig. 2. The current starts from the positive brush of the generator, 0, passes out to the main conductor, C, suspended over the middle of the track, and along this conductor, as shown by the arrows, until it reaches the point, T, where the " trolley" of one of the motor cars is in contact with the main conductor. Here it divides, and a portion passes down through the trolley, 7, to the motors, ..1/.3/, as shown by the dotted lines. After passing through the motors it reaches the rails through the wheels, and passes along through the rails and through the return wire, W, back to the nega tive brush of the generator. In other words, it is a "parallel," or "multiple" circuit. The main portion of the current which divided at T passes on to feed other cars upon the line in the same manner, the entire current being carried by the rails, each car taking from the overhead conductor exactly the amount of current which is needed to develop the required power. The rails are connected at each joint, J, by a copper or iron tie wire riveted to each rail, which makes a perfect electrical connection. The rails are usually "grounded." The electric current is developed at the power station usually by a compound-wound generator, driven by a steam-engine or water-wheel. This generator maintains a constant electromotive force, or difference of potential between the overhead conductor and the rails, the current varying according to the requirements of the service, as determined by the number of ears taking current at one time.