242 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT No. 1711. ÜCTOßER 17, 1908.

DE,VELOPMENT OF TUE ELECTRIC RAILWAY.*

ARECORD OF MARVELOUS GROWTH.

ß Y J AM ES N. HAT C H.

IT is not possible to define exactly when electric developed, that rendered the enterprise a finaneial nence, and which was among the first electric railways

traction cars were first invented or to laud one in­ failure. But these obstacles, while very dishearten­ successfully operated, was that at the Chicago Expo­
ventor as the originator of the electric car. In fact, ing at the time, did not seem to discourage the de­ sition in 1893. An electric locomotive known as the
the modern electric railway has been evolved from a signers of these early days, but only served to awaken "Judge" operated for some time during the exposition
laboratory toy, and is as we see it to-day the product them to the necessity of renewed efforts to perfect on an intramural railway, and hauled 26,000 passen·
of the minds of many men. Each successive inventor the system which they believed destined to be re­ gers. The "Judge" was made in accordance with the
has added a little here or a little there, until the re­ warded with success. design of Edison and Field, who had combined their
Bult is the successful enterprise which is now coming As early as 1880 the electric motor had been so far efforts in electric railway design. The "Judge"
into so much prominence. perfected and simplified that the outlook for a prac­ weighed about three tons and drew a trail car for
The idea of operating cars by electricity was put tical electric car was encouraging, and a number of passengers.
into practice, experimentally, more than seventy designers were in the field working on schemes to In the fall of the same year Messrs. Bentley and
years ago, but at that time neither dynamos nor make electric traction a success. In 1881 and 1882, Knight, who had witnessed the performance of the
motors bad been invented and the use of the primary Leo Daft began experiments with a commercial size "Judge" at Chicago, formed the Bentley-Knight Rail­
electric battery as the motive power for vehicles was electric car, firm in the belief that it was possible to way Co., and constructed a short experimental electric
not at all an encouraging problem. Another eircum­ replace the horse as a motive power for street rail­ railway in the yards of the Brush Electric Company
stance that effectually retarded the progress of the way by electric traction. Mr. Daft formed the Daft at Cleveland. The results of the experimental line
electric railway was the success attained about this Electric Company, and made a large number of public were so encouraging that during the next year this
time by the steam roads, which seemed to solve ef­ tests for the purpose of demonstrating the practica­ company cor:structed a line over a mile long in Cleve·
fectually most of the important problems of transpor· bility of the Daft systems of electric traction. This land, and operated cars with more or less success and
tation. A few experiments were carried on from time company built an electric locomotive which they call­ constancy for more than a year. This company useä
to time both in America and in Europe, with battery­ ed the "Ampere," for use on the Mount McGregor the conduit system, in which the conductor was car­
driven cars, but very little encouragement was found steam railroad at Saratoga, and during the summer ried in a wooden box placed between the track rails.
in these attempts. And it was not until after the of 1883 equipped about 1.25 miles of that road with At the Chicago Exposition there was also another
year 1867, the year in which the dynamo was per­ 35-pound third rail, mounted on resinized wood blocks experimental electric ruilway built by Chas. Van De­
fected, that any real progress was made toward a in the center of the track, with soft rubber insulation poele. In this line the car was suspended from the
large electric car suitable for the practical carrying under the foot of the rail and bolt heads. Experi­ rails and ran around the exposition building. In
of passengers. ments were continued for two or three weeks with 1885 Mr. Van Depoele ,put in operation at the Toronto
Following promptly upon the commereial exploita­ more or less success. One feat of the "Ampere" is de­ Exposition, Toronto, Canada, an electric trolley rail·
tion of the early magneto-electric and dynamo-elec­ scribed as hauling an ordinary day coach containing way, which it has been claimed was the first com­
tric generators, came a sharp renewal of the effort 69 passengers over a curve of about 100 feet radius up mercial trolley car line ever put in operation. This
to perfect the electric railway. But even then it re­ a grade of 93 feet per mile. was not strictly a street railway line, but ran from
quired twenty years of experimental work before any Following the Saratoga experiment, the Daft Elec­ the terminus of the city street railway to the Exposi­
system was so far perfected as to show evidence of tric Company in 1884 built several show lines at Coney tion grounds, something over half a mile, and was
real commercial success. It can therefore be said that Island and elsewhere, to advertise to the people at operated only during the exposition. A motor car and
the modern electric railway is the product of the last large the feasibility of the system. As an outcome of three trailers constituted the equipment. On this
twenty years. the Coney Island demonstration, the Daft Company line a speed of thirty miles per ho ur was attained,
However, in the few years that have intervened was awarded a contract for about two miles of actual and an average of 10,000 passengers per d ay were
since a successful system has been perfected, the de· street railway line in Baltimore. This was a very carried. The track rails were used for the return
velopment of the electric railway has been very rapid trying piece of line to begin with, as there were eircuit, and on top of the car was placed one of the
and the outlook for the future is stupendous. The grades of 350 feet to the mile, and curves of from 40 first illustrations of the under-running trolley now
electric roads now in operation in the! United States feet to 70 feet radius, with a gage of 5 feet 4.5 inches. so universally employed.
would, if collected together, furnish enough trackage The line was owned by the Baltimore Union Passen­ Mr. Van Depoele's next venture was the construc­
to build a ten-track line from New York to San Fran­ ger Railway Company, and the contract with the Daft tion of a regular street railway in South Bend, Ind.
eisco, and the cars in use would, if placed end to end, Company was entered into in 1885 and work upon the On this line were operated as many as five separate
make a continuous wall reaching from Chicago to equipment was started forthwith. Many troubles de­ cars, something never before attempted or even sup­
Pittsburg. There are more miles of electric road in veloped in the installation and subsequent operation posed possible. This road derived its current from
the United States than there is in all the rest of the of the line, but it was operated with enough success a generating plant driven by water power. There
world put together, and the electric roads in the to attract the attention of capitalists and to awaken were four ordinary closed cars equipped with one
United States have more mileage than the combined ambitious engineers to the belief that there was really 5-horse-power motor each and one large car equipped
electric and steam roads of any one European coun· a power almost within their reach which was des­ with a 10-horse-power motor. On the cars the motors
try. The present growth represents an equivalent of tined to revolutionize the street railway business. were placed under the car body between the wheels,
'
a new line from Chicago to San Francisco every year. With this line an electric locomotive hauled the reg­ and the axles were connected by means of sprocket
This grelwth and advancement from year to year ular street cars. These locomotives or dummies were wheels and link belts. This arrangement of putting
has been little less than marvelous. The average rate equipped with motors placed on the floor of the car the motor below the floor of the cars was found to be
of construction for the past six years has been 2,500 and the axles of the car were driven by large gears. advantageous, as the earlier arrangement of placing
miles per year, which represents a growth per annum The track was equipped with a third rail to supply the motor on the floor of the cars took up much valu­
of more than half of the annual growth of the steam current, placed midway between the track rails, which able space which could be used for passengers. On
roads for the same period. And this represents prac­ were used for the return eircuit. An overhead trolley this road an innovation was introduced in the use of
tically all new work, for the changing over period was used where long crossings were encountered, and the over-running trolley instead of the under-running
had nearly ceased before the year 1900. it was in this way that the first trolley system was put style, as was used at Toronto. The cars on this line
With these facts in mind it is not difficult to be­ into operation. were not reversible, but always run the same end
lieve that the time is at hand when the electric rail­ Daft says of his Baltimore road which was put in forward. The first use of the carbon brush motor is
way must be seriously reckoned with in the finaneial operation in 1885, that "therewith the first commer­ also attributed to Mr. Van Depoele and was put into
E:conomies of this country. At the present rate of in­ eial electric railway in America had hung up its operation on the line.
crease there will soon be a perfect network of inter­ shingle." Prior to the introduction of the carbon brush on
urban lines throughout the entire densely populated This suburban road continued in successful opera­ railway motors, the brushes used were similar to the
portion of the United States. Probably during the tion until 1889 or until it became part of a network then prevalent type of dynamo brushes made of thin
present summer, electric cars will run through from of electric railways which were equipped with more strips of copper. These brushes were a never ending
Chicago to Louisville and Cincinnati, and it will be modern apparatus. Daft introduced the double trolley source of trouble in railway work, due not only to
but a short time until it will be possible to go from system of electric traction with a trolley wire return. their inherent unreliability under the rough use on a
C hicago to Detroit and Cleveland on electric cars. This system is still in operation in Cincinnati. railway motor, but due also to the trouble from dirt
According to the United States census report of In 1888 Daft placed on trial a large electric locomo­ and moisture which was encountered along the unim·
1890, there were in 1886 two electric ruilways in suc­ tive, on the Ninth Avenue Elevated Railway in New proved streets. These early motors were of the open
cessful operation, with a combined mileage of eight York. This locomotive was called the "Ben Frank­ type and offered little protection from dust and
miles; in 1887 there were four roads with a combined lin" and was placed in service with the hope of show­ weather.
mileage of twenty-nine miles; while in 1888 the busi­ ing the advantage of this motor over the steam loco­ Some of the early types of motors wero fitted with
ness had ill(�reased until there were then in operation motive then in use. These trials were conducted un­ two commutators and two sets of brushes, one on
twenty-nine roads with a combined mileage of nearly der a variety of conditions, in an endeavor to convince either end of the armature, and it was no uncom�non
three hundred miles. the most skeptical of the advantages of electric motive thing for the motorman to stop two or three times
For a number of years prior to 1886 there had been power for elevated roads. This motor was able to per trip and put in new brushes.
numerous attempts made to put in operation a suc­ draw six of the ordinary elevated cars at a speed of The rheostat or resistance for regulating the speed
cessful electric car, and it was confidently believed by forty miles per hour. These experiments were thor­ was also a complicated and annoying piece of appa­
the various inventors that electricity was adapted to oughly successful, but the necessity of changing from ratus. It was at first placed beneath the car and
the pro pulsion of street railways; yet none of these steam to electricity did not seem to be apparent at manipulated by a coffee mill style of controller, which
attempts were so far successful as to supplant the that time, and in fact was not fully realized for a the motorman ground around two or three times to
well-established methods of operation with horses or long time afterward. throw on the power. Afterward this rheostat was
steam dummies. While every attempt which had been During the time that Daft was carrying on his placed upon the platform, but was always a menace
made wall of inestimable value in forming a step­ early experiments in the East a number of inventors to life and limb.
ping stone to better things, some weak spot always in the West were making experimental efforts to dem­ These things seem amusing now as we examine
anstrate other systeme of electric traction. One of them in a reminiscent way, but they were moat eXl1S­
* :Pal'erread before the WeO!tern lIociety of Enginer", these early railways which gained considerable promi- pe rating at the time, for an exhibition oi trouble on

© 1908 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC,

 OCTORER 17, 190�. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT No. 1711. 248

a street railway car partook of so much publicity tlle field of stationary electrie motors before attempt· son·Houston Company were what were known as the
from the very nature of things that every little trou· ing to use his motors for railway service, and his F·30 motor. This was a 15·horse·power motor, and
ble seemed to be magnified, and it was hard to con· first active work in this line was begun in 1887. Prior two were used to the car. F'our thousand six hundred
vince the public that such troubles were only transi· to this he had done considerable experimental work of these were sold by this company during the years
tory, and that their discovery meant their eliminatio,. with his motor in New York upon a private track 1888·91. These are said to be the first motors on
It required just such enthusiastic experiments as the and upon the 34th Street branch of the elevated which the carbon brush was used. WILlOUt the car·
South Bend road to show up the weak spot3 and pave railway. bon brush the railway motor could never have at·
the way for better things. In the spring of 1887 the Sprague Electric Railway tained the success it has.
Following the construction of the South Bend road, and Motor Company received contracts for roads in In 1890 the Edison General Company took over the
Mr. Van Depoele built a large number of lines, under St. Joseph, Mo., and Richmond, Va. The Richmond Sprague Company and actively entered into the manu­
his system, during the next few years, some of which road is generally referred to as the first successful facture of railway equipment. Shortly after this, sev­
.
continued in operation and some of which fell by the electric railway ever constructed, and while this does eral of the men who had been active in the Sprague
wayside. One in particular, which was constructed not imply that the roads of Van Depoele, Daft, and Company, and who owing to the consolidation of the
in Windsor, Canada, in 1886, was remarkable to the others would not have been successful when the ob· Sprague and Edison companies, were left on the out·
writer as constituting the first electric railway which stacles were overcome, and in fact were improved side, induced the Westinghouse Company to take up
he had ever seen. He vi si ted Windsor and examined afterward until they were successful, it still remains the manufacture of railway motors.
the railway with a great deal of interest. At the time a fact that the Richmond road was the first to work Thus with the year 1891 there were three large
oI this visit the road was in a state of innocuous deo out of the preliminary difficulties and attract atten· companies actively competing for this class of busi·
suetude and apparently had been in that state for tion as a thoroughly successful commercial enterprise, ness. In 1892 the Edison General and the Thomson·
some time. The one car, the total equipment of the worthy of copying. Houston companies were merged into the General
road, stood at the end of the line, where it had apo After twenty years of development we would now Electric Company. Since that time this company and
parently stood motionless for many moons. The look upon the construction and equipment of the Rich· the Westinghouse Company have been the two prin·
trolley was a miniature car which was drawn along mond road as a boy's size affair, but at that time it cipal factors in electric railway manufacture. The
the trolley wire by a flexible conductor. was the biggest thing of the kind ever attempted. Westinghouse Company in 1898 took over the Walker
The Van Depoele Company was absorbed by the The road was a new one, as distinguished from the Company, of Cleveland, who had eight or ni ne years
Thomson·Houston Company in 188B and Mr. Van changing over of horse·car lines, and included a com· previously secured the services of Prof. Short as chief
Depoele became an engineer for that company. The plete generating station, erection of overhead lines, engineer.
following year the Thomson'Houston Company took and equipment of forty cars with two 7V:2·horse·power (To be coneluded.)
over the Brush Company, which also brought the motors each, on plans largely new and untried. The
Bentley·Knight Company into the consolidation. contract required that it must be possible to operate RURAL DEPOPULATION IN GERMANY.
At about this same time Mr. John C. Henry, of thirty of these cars at one time. The conditions in THE rapid transformation of Germany from a coun­
Kansas City, was working on an electric railway sys· Richmond made the requirements for grades and try where the rural villages were for centuries the
tem of his own invention, which attracted considera· alignment very severe, and the road as built had principal factor, into one in which the city population
ble attention. He put in operation several experi· 29 curves, some of them of less than 30 feet radius, is very largely in the majority, is causing both Ger·
mental lines, using the Van Depoele motor and the and grades reaching 10 per cent. The contract required man economists and statesmen serious thought. At
trolley collector with overhead wires. In the fall of the completion of the entire track ready for opera· the present time, attention is frequently called to the
1885 he conducted a series of experiments with heavy tion in 90 days. The track was laid with 27·pound necessity of administrative reforms, due to the fact
electric equipment, on a branch of the Fort Scott rails. The overhead construction consisted of a small that in many parts of the German Empire the rural
Steam Railway, where freight cars were hauled by trolley wire reinforced w ith a continuous main con· population is becoming very smalI, and that practical·
electric motors. He also attempted high speeds and ductor placed over the center of the track and sup· Iy everywhere the cities contain not only the larger
operated over heavy grades under all sorts of vary· plied with current by feeder circuits from the main part of the population, but control the bulk of the
ing conditions to demonstrate the practicability of power station. The track constituted the return eil" wealth as weIl. At the founding of the German Em·
equipment. These experiments were carried on dur· cuit, the rails being bonded together and connected pire in 1871, the rural communities (those with less
ing severe winter weather, to demonstrate the efl'ect with a continuous conductor, which was also connected than 2,000 population) contained 64 per cent of the
of deep snows. The following year he equipped the with the ground plates and with the water and gas population of the empire. In 1905 the rural popula·
Kansas City Fifth Street Railway with his system. mains of the city. The power house was equipped tion was only 48V:2 per cent of the whole. In so me
In 1887 Mr. Henry moved to San Diego, Ca!., where he with small belted units and genera ted constant poten· districts, such as the Rhineland, Westphalia, Olden·
built a number of lines, one of which had grades of tial current at about 450 volts. The cars were 16 burg, and the king dom of Saxony, the rural character
9 per cent. The system of underground feeders was feet in length, and as said, were equipped with two of the population has nearly disappeared, the per·
first introduced on one of these roads. 71h·horse·power motors. These motors although built centage of the rural population in these places being
Coincident with Mr. Henry's work in Kansas City, according to the best known design at that time, con· only 23, 23.5, 2 4.9, and 28.8 respectively of the whole
some interesting work was being carried on in Den· structed in one of the best equipped electric manufac· population. In the kingdom of Saxony, the city popu·
ver by Prof. Sidney H. Short, of the University of turing shops of the country, were so poorly adapted lation has, according to the American consul P.t Anna·
Denver, upon an experimental electric railway 300 or to the service that was required of them that every berg, increased from 1,265,057 in 1871 to 3,211,408 in
400 feet long upon the college campus. Prof. Short one of them required the rewinding of its field coils 1905, while the rural population during the same
believed in the series system of distribution and used and armature and the chan ging of its commutators. per iod increased only from 1,291,18 7 to 1,297,193. The
this system on his lines. The cars used on the The principal characteristics of Sprague's motor· strictly farm villages of from roo to 1,000 population
campus line had a rigid four·wheel truck, and the equipment as used on the Richmond road, which show actual decrease of from 7 to 9 per cent for the
motors were geared with one pinion and gear to the contributed largely to its success and was an improve· same period. Nearly one·third of the population of
axle. The car body w as eight feet long. The success ment over earlier systems, were an independent truck the kingdom is found in the five large cities of Dres·
of this line was so great that a party of capitalists with motors exteriorly centered upon the driven axle den, Leipzig, Chemnitz, Plauen, and Zwickau, and
induced Mr. Short to give up his professorship and so as to maintain parallelism between the driving more than half the population in the cities of 10,000
develop a commercial electric street railway. The shaft and the driven axles, flexible supports for part inhabitants or more. In many of the suburbs of the
conduit system was adopted and five miles of track of the weights of the motors on the trucks to allow larger cities, once purely village communities, but now

were laid on 15th Street, Denver, and operated with perfeet freedom in following the motion of the axles, swallowed up by the cities, the increase in the popula·

considerable success for some time. The difficulty of suspension being below the car springs. The method tion for the five years from 1900 to 1905 was alm ost

insulation in the conduit in wet and snowy weather of flexible suspension avoided all shock and jar. He phenomenal, averaging from 75 to 80 per cent, and In

""nd the imperfection of the early types of motors also used fixed brushes, allowing forward and back· some instances running as high as 200 per cent. Sax·

and generators led to electricity being finally aban· ward running; This equipment marked the abolish· ony is the most densely populated of the German

doned for the cable, which, however, has since been ing of ropes, belts, sprocket wheels and chains for states. In 1871 it had a population of 441 per square

changed back to electricity. the reduction between armature and axle. mile, and this at the last census enumeration (1905)

Mr. Short afterward went to Columbus, Ohio, and In spite of many difficulties and a host of obstacles had increased to 779 per square mile. The population
to Cleveland, where in 1889 he organized the Short which had to be overcome, the Richmond road was a oi the three large cities, Leipzig, Dresden, and Chem·
Electric Railway Company. This was merged into the success and continued in operation until it was later nitz, was respectively 22,875, 19,842, and 1 5,930 per

Walker Electric Company shortly afterward, and the absorbed by a more modern system. This road at· square mile. Next to Saxony, the most densely popu·

Walker Company was finally taken over by the West· tracted wide attention in street railway and financial lated parts of the German Empire are the Rhine provo

inghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. circles. ince of Prussia, with 616 inhabitants per square mile,
It is thus seen that the early eighties were active The Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company and the principality of Reuss the EIder, with 577 per

years in competitive demonstrations of electric rail· depended largely on the Edison General Electric Com· square mile. The average for the whole empire is 29"0

ways, but all of these enterprises were more or less pany for the manufacture of motors, and in this way per square mile.-Journal of the Royal Society of

experimental, and all of the equipment used prior to the Edison Company became interested in the elec· Arts.

1887 was destined to be superseded by more econom· tric ruilway field. The Edison Company advanced
ical and efficient apparatus.. money to Sprague to carry on his business, a conse· In an article published some time aga in the Elec·
With the year 1887 began the actual construction quence of which was that the Sprague Electric Rail· trical World, the author says it is generally assumed

of actual roads, for with that year the vast numbers way and Motor Company was soon absorbed by the that the volume of the insulation of a square·core

of previous experiments began to bear fruit in the Edison Company, all of which were later merged into winding is L (C2-(t2) where L is the length of the

way of practical results. the General Electric Company. wire, c the side of the covering, and a the side of the

On December 31 of that year there were twelve After the year 1888, the electric railway business wire. This formula, however, gives very erroneous

successful electric railways being operated in the of the United States was established on a firm basis. results in practice, as the corners of the outside cov·

United States and Canada with an aggregate mileage The large electric manufacturing companies which ering are always rounded. If t be the thickness of

of less than fifty miles of track. The electrical equip· had al ready developed an extensive business in the the insulation, a better formula is 4Lt (a + 0.785t).
ment of these twelve roads consisted of fifty or sixty electric lighting field, became interested in the manu· This is obtained by assuming that the seetion of the

motor cars. Of these roads, six were on the Van facture of electric railway equipment. The Thomson· copper is a perfect square. As these conductors uso

Depoele system, three on the Daft system, and one Houston Company was one of the pioneers in railway ually have their sharp edges rounded off a more accu·

each on the Fisher, Short, and Henry systems. motor construction. The first step in this direction rate formula is Lt [2 (a + b) + 7rt - 1.717r]. where a

This was the situation when Mr. Frank Sprague was the purehase by it of the patents of Bentley and and b are the side of the rectangular seetion, and r

entered the electric street railway field. There was Knight, and those of Van Depoele. Shortly afterward the radius of curvature of the corners. The economy

no standard of construction either in size of cars, the Thomson·Houston Company took over the Brush of insulation effected by using round instead of

style of equipment, gage of track, kind of rai! or Company and begaR on a large scale the construction square conductors is generally exaggerated. For equal

method of power transmission. Mr. Sprague had of railway motors. The services of Mr. Van Depoele cross·sectional areas and for an infinitely thin cover·

been working for a number of years upon the per· were also secured in the designing department of this ing the saving efl'ected would be 12.8 per cent. In
fection of his motor and had established himself in company. The first motors turned out by the Thom· practice, however, the saving effected is inappreciable .

© 1908 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.