WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:05.080 Section twenty eight of the Science History of the Universe, 2 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:10.160 Volume three. This is a liprivox recording. All the privox 3 00:00:10.199 --> 00:00:13.519 recordings are in the public domain. For more information or 4 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:18.800 to volunteer, please visit liprivox dot org. Recording by Avay 5 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:24.640 in August two thousand sixteen, The Science History of the Universe, 6 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:31.879 Volume three, edited by Francis rold Wheeler. Electricity, Chapter nine 7 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:39.520 electric railways. Although the earliest recorded experiments date back three 8 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:43.479 quarters of a century, the electric railway is essentially of 9 00:00:43.560 --> 00:00:47.920 modern development, for it achieved the recognized position less than 10 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:51.799 twenty years ago, long after the telephone, the arc and 11 00:00:52.039 --> 00:00:57.200 incandescent lamp, and the stationary electric motor had been thoroughly established. 12 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:00.359 This is but natural, for it is the law logical 13 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:05.200 outcome of the establishment of certain cardinal principles and practices 14 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:10.599 in the kindred arts. The first roads to carry passengers 15 00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:15.079 commercially were built in Europe, but the first railway experiments 16 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:18.239 and the modern commercial impetus, as well as most of 17 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:21.239 the essential and distinctive features of the art as it 18 00:01:21.319 --> 00:01:26.920 stands today, an example of almost unprecedented industrial development, are 19 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:31.200 distinctively American. As Frank J. Sprague pointed, out in his 20 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:35.599 paper before the Electrical Congress of nineteen o four, from 21 00:01:35.640 --> 00:01:40.959 which much of the following matter is taken. Brandon Vermont 22 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:47.040 birthplace and Thomas Davenport Blacksmith father are the names first 23 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:50.799 on the genealogical tree of the electric railway in the 24 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:55.400 year eighteen thirty four. A toy motor mounted on wheels 25 00:01:55.480 --> 00:01:58.560 propelled on a few feet of circular railway by a 26 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:03.359 primary battery. Exhibited a year later at Springfield and again 27 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:07.719 at Boston, is the infant's photograph. This was only three 28 00:02:07.799 --> 00:02:12.360 years after Henry's invention of the motor, following Faraday's discovery 29 00:02:12.479 --> 00:02:16.439 ten years earlier that electricity could be used to produce 30 00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:22.199 continuous motion. The records of Davenport's career, unearthed by the 31 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:26.000 late Franklin Lennard Pope, show this early inventor a man 32 00:02:26.039 --> 00:02:29.639 of genius, deserving a high place in the niche of fame, 33 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:32.560 for in a period of six years he built more 34 00:02:32.599 --> 00:02:37.319 than a hundred operative electric motors of various designs, many 35 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:41.599 of which were put into actual service, an achievement taking 36 00:02:41.639 --> 00:02:46.840 into account the times, well nigh incredible. For nearly two 37 00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:51.280 score years, various inventors handicapped with the limitations of the 38 00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:55.000 primary battery and in utter ignorance of the principles of 39 00:02:55.080 --> 00:03:00.599 modern dynamo and motor construction, labored with small result. The 40 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:04.919 invention by Paginotti in eighteen sixty one of the continuous 41 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:08.719 current dynamo may properly be said to date all modern 42 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:13.159 electric machines. These were developed in their earliest forms by 43 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:19.520 Graham and Ziemens, Wheatstone and Valley, Farmer and Rowland, Hefna, Altanek, 44 00:03:19.719 --> 00:03:24.039 and others, and brought into existence the elements essential to 45 00:03:24.120 --> 00:03:29.560 any possible commercial success. Yet, notwithstanding that, the principle of 46 00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:33.960 the reversibility of the dynamo electric machine and the transmission 47 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:36.599 of energy to a distance by the use of two 48 00:03:36.680 --> 00:03:40.639 similar machines said to have been discovered and described by 49 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:44.639 Paginotti in eighteen sixty seven, the same year in which 50 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:48.400 Professor Farmer described the principle of the modern dynamo in 51 00:03:48.439 --> 00:03:52.879 a letter to Henry Wilde, and demonstrated independently at the 52 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:57.240 Vienna Exposition by Fontaine and Gram in eighteen seventy three. 53 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:01.759 Many years more passed before the n importance and availability 54 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:07.280 of this principle were generally recognized. From eighteen fifty to 55 00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:11.680 eighteen seventy five is a long period relatively, and yet 56 00:04:11.719 --> 00:04:15.159 there seemed to have been practically an entire cessation of 57 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:20.600 experimental electric railway work until in the latter year George F. Green, 58 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:25.160 a poor mechanic of Kalamazoo, Michigan, built a small model 59 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:28.439 motor which was supplied from a battery through an overhead 60 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:32.879 line with track return, and three years later he constructed 61 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:36.839 another model on a larger scale. Green seemed to have 62 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:40.720 realized that a dynamo was essential to success, but he 63 00:04:40.759 --> 00:04:42.959 did not know how to make one and did not 64 00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:47.680 have the means to buy it. Shortly afterward, in eighteen 65 00:04:47.720 --> 00:04:52.399 seventy nine, at the Berlin Exposition, Messrs Ziemanns and Haiersker 66 00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:55.439 constructed a short line about a third of a mile 67 00:04:55.519 --> 00:04:58.720 in length, which was the beginning of much active work 68 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:02.319 by this firm. The dynamo and motor were of the 69 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:06.079 now well known Seamen's type, and the current was supplied 70 00:05:06.120 --> 00:05:09.079 through a central rail with the running rails as a 71 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:12.480 return to a small locomotive on which the motor was 72 00:05:12.519 --> 00:05:17.800 carried longitudinally, motion being transmitted through spur and beveled gears 73 00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:21.199 to a central shaft from which connection was made to 74 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:25.639 the wheels. The locomotive drew three small cars, having a 75 00:05:25.639 --> 00:05:29.439 capacity of about twenty people, and attained the speed of 76 00:05:29.480 --> 00:05:34.439 about eight miles an hour, perhaps more than to any other. 77 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:37.800 The credit for the first serious proposal in the United 78 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:43.399 States should be awarded to Field. Curiously enough, patent papers 79 00:05:43.399 --> 00:05:47.720 were filed by Field, Siemens, and Edison, all within three 80 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:50.600 months of each other in the spring and summer of 81 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:55.600 eighteen eighty. Priority of invention was finally awarded to Field, 82 00:05:56.079 --> 00:05:59.680 he having filed a caveat a year before. He had 83 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:03.800 been actively interested in electric telegraphs, and in an account 84 00:06:03.839 --> 00:06:07.120 of his work published some twenty years ago, it is 85 00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:11.519 stated that he early constructed two electric motors and had 86 00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:14.639 in mind the operation of street cars in San Francisco, 87 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:17.399 but had not been able to do anything in the 88 00:06:17.480 --> 00:06:20.720 matter because of a realization that a dynamo must be 89 00:06:20.839 --> 00:06:25.079 used instead of a battery. In eighteen seventy seven, while 90 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:28.519 in Europe, he saw some grum machines, and on his 91 00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:32.920 return two of them were ordered but not delivered. Later, 92 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:36.519 a dynamo was ordered from Zieman's brothers in London, which 93 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:40.000 was lost, and this was replaced by another, which arrived 94 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:44.439 in the fall of eighteen seventy eight. Meanwhile, two grum 95 00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:48.199 machines were placed at his disposal, and shortly afterward an 96 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:53.360 electric elevator was operated. In February eighteen seventy nine, he 97 00:06:53.439 --> 00:06:56.639 made plans for an electric railway, the current to be 98 00:06:56.720 --> 00:06:59.920 delivered from a stationary source of power through a war 99 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:03.879 fire enclosed in a conduit with rail return, and in 100 00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:07.480 eighteen eighty to eighty one he constructed and put in 101 00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:15.000 operation an experimental electric locomotive in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, pending the 102 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:20.399 settlement of patent interferences between Edison and Field. The seamen's application, 103 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:24.560 being late, was rejected. The two interests were combined in 104 00:07:24.600 --> 00:07:28.519 a corporation known as the Electric Railway Company of the 105 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:32.120 United States, and the first work of the company was 106 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:35.920 the operation of an electric locomotive at the Chicago Railway 107 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:41.319 Exposition in eighteen eighty three. The locomotive, called the Judge 108 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:45.480 after the late Chief Justice Field, ran around the gallery 109 00:07:45.519 --> 00:07:48.560 of the main exposition building on a track of about 110 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:52.879 one third of a mile in length. The motor used 111 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.279 was a Western dynamo mounted on the car and connected 112 00:07:56.319 --> 00:07:59.240 by beveled gear to a shaft from which power was 113 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:03.319 transmitted by belts to one of the wheels. The current 114 00:08:03.480 --> 00:08:07.360 was taken from a center rail with track return. A 115 00:08:07.439 --> 00:08:10.959 lever operated clutches on the driving shaft, and the speed 116 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:15.959 was varied by resistance. The reversing mechanism consisted of two 117 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:20.079 movable brushholders geared to a disk operated by a lever, 118 00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:24.319 each arm carrying a pair of brushes, one of which 119 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:27.519 only could be thrown into circuit at a time to 120 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:33.639 give the proper direction of movement. Meanwhile, several other inventors 121 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:36.799 were getting actively into the field of transmission of power 122 00:08:36.919 --> 00:08:40.919 and electric railways. In the summer of eighteen eighty two, 123 00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:46.480 doctor Joseph R. Finney operated in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, a car 124 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:50.240 for which current was supplied through an overhead wire, on 125 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:53.600 which traveled a small trolley connected to the car with 126 00:08:53.679 --> 00:08:57.360 a flexible cable. And about the same time in England, 127 00:08:57.480 --> 00:09:01.399 doctor Fleming Jenkin, following a paper by Messrs Ireton and 128 00:09:01.559 --> 00:09:06.559 Perry before the Royal Institution on an Automatic Railway, proposed 129 00:09:06.559 --> 00:09:10.320 a scheme of telforage, which was developed by those gentlemen. 130 00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:14.679 In the early part of the same year, the writer 131 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:18.679 mister Sprague, then a Midchipman in the United States Navy, 132 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:22.600 who had in eighteen seventy nine and eighteen eighty begun 133 00:09:22.679 --> 00:09:26.200 the designing of motors, was ordered on duty at the 134 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:31.320 Crystal Palace Electric Exhibition then being held at Sydenham, England. 135 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:35.480 While in London, he became impressed with a belief in 136 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:41.000 the possibility of operating the underground railway electrically. He first 137 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:44.799 considered the use of maine and working conductors, the latter 138 00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:48.840 being carried between the tracks with rail return, but noting 139 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:52.000 the complication of switches on certain sections of the road, 140 00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:56.120 conceived the idea of a car moving between two planes, 141 00:09:56.519 --> 00:10:00.440 traveling on one and making upper pressure contact with the other, 142 00:10:01.039 --> 00:10:04.799 those planes being the terminals of a constant potential system. 143 00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:09.919 For practical application, the lower of the two planes was 144 00:10:09.960 --> 00:10:13.200 to be replaced by the running track and all switches 145 00:10:13.240 --> 00:10:17.639 and sidings, and the upper plane by rigid conductors supported 146 00:10:17.679 --> 00:10:20.519 by the roof of the tunnel and following the center 147 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:24.360 lines of all tracks and switches. Contact to be made 148 00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:27.919 therewith by a self adjusting device carried on the car 149 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:31.639 roof over the center of the truck and pressed upwards 150 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:36.320 by the springs. In eighteen eighty two, he applied for 151 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:38.759 a patent on the first idea, which was but a 152 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:42.480 variation from that shown in other patents, but the second 153 00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:46.320 late dormant for nearly three years because of central station 154 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:53.000 work and the development of the application of stationery motors. Meanwhile, 155 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:57.200 in the United States, Charles J. Fran de Poule, a 156 00:10:57.279 --> 00:11:01.200 Belgian by birth and a sculpture by original trade and 157 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:06.600 an indefatigable worker, had become interested in electric manufacture and 158 00:11:06.759 --> 00:11:11.639 soon energetically attacked the railway problem. His first railway was 159 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:15.399 a small experimental line constructed in Chicago in the winter 160 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:19.320 of eighteen eighty two to eighty three, the current supplied 161 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:23.279 from an overhead wire. In the fall of eighteen eighty three, 162 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:27.080 a car was also run at the Industrial Exposition at Chicago. 163 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:31.200 A year later, a train pulled by a locomotive and 164 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:35.759 taking current from an underground conduit, was successfully operated at 165 00:11:35.799 --> 00:11:39.960 the Toronto Exhibition to carry passengers from the streetcar system, 166 00:11:40.519 --> 00:11:43.960 and again in the year following Van der Pool operated 167 00:11:44.039 --> 00:11:47.720 another train at the same place, using on this occasion 168 00:11:47.799 --> 00:11:51.240 an overhead wire and a weighted arm pressing a contact 169 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:57.159 up against it. Experiments were also carried on by him 170 00:11:57.240 --> 00:11:59.919 on the South Bend Railway in the fall of eighteen eight, 171 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:05.000 where several cars were equipped with small motors, and also 172 00:12:05.159 --> 00:12:08.360 in Minneapolis, where an electric car took the place of 173 00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:12.840 a steam locomotive. Other equipments were operated at the New 174 00:12:12.919 --> 00:12:17.159 Orleans Exhibition and at Montgomery, Alabama, where the current was 175 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:20.720 at first taken from a single overhead wire which carried 176 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:25.039 a traveling trolley connected to the car by a flexible conductor. 177 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:33.840 Other equipments were put in operation at Windsor, Ontario, Detroit, Michigan, Appleton, Wisconsin, 178 00:12:34.120 --> 00:12:40.159 and Scranton, Pennsylvania. In these several equipments, the motors were 179 00:12:40.200 --> 00:12:43.799 placed on the front platforms of the cars and connected 180 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:47.480 to the wheels by belts or chains. The cars were 181 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:51.080 headed in one direction and operated from one end only. 182 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:56.159 In eighteen eighty eight, the Van der Pool Company was 183 00:12:56.200 --> 00:12:59.720 absorbed by the Thompson Houston, which had recently entered the 184 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:03.600 raililway field, and Van de Pool continued in its active 185 00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:08.840 development until his death in eighteen ninety two. Among the 186 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:12.320 early American workers of this period, none was for a 187 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:17.279 time more prominent than Leo Daft, who, after considerable development 188 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:20.919 in motors for stationary work, took up their application to 189 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:24.960 electric railways, making the first experiments towards the close of 190 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:29.399 eighteen eighty three at his company's works at Greenville, New Jersey, 191 00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:33.759 these being sufficiently successful to be repeated in November of 192 00:13:33.879 --> 00:13:38.279 that year on the Saratoga and Mount McGregor Road. The 193 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:42.159 locomotive used there was called the Ampere and pulled a 194 00:13:42.200 --> 00:13:46.039 full sized car. The motor was mounted on a platform 195 00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:50.000 and connected by belts to an intermediate shraft carried between 196 00:13:50.039 --> 00:13:53.159 the wheels, from which another set of belts led to 197 00:13:53.240 --> 00:13:57.440 pulleys on the driving axles. A center rail and the 198 00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:02.320 running rails formed the working conductor. Variation of speed was 199 00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:07.080 accomplished by variation of field resistance, this being accentuated by 200 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:09.759 the use of iron instead of copper in some of 201 00:14:09.799 --> 00:14:14.639 the coils. In the following year Daft equipped a small 202 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:17.200 car on one of the piers at a New York 203 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:20.840 seaside resort, and a little later another one at the 204 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:24.600 Mechanic Sphare in Boston, the motor for this last being 205 00:14:24.679 --> 00:14:29.759 subsequently put on duty at the New Orleans Exposition. In 206 00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:33.240 eighteen eighty five, work was begun by the Daft Company 207 00:14:33.639 --> 00:14:37.799 on the Hampton branch of the Baltimore Union Passenger Railway Company, 208 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:41.960 where in August of that year operations were begun, at 209 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:45.279 first with two and a year later with two more 210 00:14:45.399 --> 00:14:50.360 small electric locomotives, which did not carry passengers themselves but 211 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:55.120 pulled regular street cars. A center and the running rail 212 00:14:55.240 --> 00:14:58.840 were used for the normal distribution, but at crossings and 213 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:02.919 overhead conductor was installed and connection made to it by 214 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:06.120 an arm carried on the car and pressed up against it. 215 00:15:07.240 --> 00:15:10.799 The driving was by a pinion operated on an internal 216 00:15:10.879 --> 00:15:15.600 gear on one of the axles. Daft's most ambitious work 217 00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:19.039 followed when a section of the Ninth Avenue elevated Road 218 00:15:19.559 --> 00:15:22.320 was equipped for a distance of two miles, on which 219 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:25.519 a series of experiments were carried on during the latter 220 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:29.279 part of eighteen eighty five with a locomotive called the 221 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:34.000 Benjamin Franklin. The motor was mounted on a platform pivoted 222 00:15:34.120 --> 00:15:37.879 at one end, and motion was communicated from the armature 223 00:15:37.960 --> 00:15:42.200 to the driving wheel through grooved gears held in close contact, 224 00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:45.279 partly by the weight of the machine and partly by 225 00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:50.559 an adjustable screw device. This locomotive, pulling a train of cars, 226 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:55.639 made several trips, but the experiments were soon suspended. This 227 00:15:55.799 --> 00:15:59.720 work was followed by street railway equipments at Los Angeles 228 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:07.399 and dad elsewhere using double overhead wires carrying a trolley carriage. Meanwhile, 229 00:16:07.559 --> 00:16:10.879 Bentley and Knight, after some experiments in the yards of 230 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:14.080 the Brush Electric Company at Cleveland in the fall of 231 00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:18.320 eighteen eighty three, installed a conduit system in August eighteen 232 00:16:18.360 --> 00:16:21.480 eighty four on the tracks of the East Cleveland Horse 233 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:25.440 Railway Company. The equipped section of the road was two 234 00:16:25.480 --> 00:16:29.480 miles long. The conduits were of wood laid between the tracks, 235 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:33.000 and two cars were employed, which were each equipped with 236 00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:36.960 a motor carried under the car body and transmitting power 237 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:42.559 to the axle by wire cables. These equipments were operated 238 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:46.200 with varying degrees of success during the winter of eighteen 239 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:50.840 eighty four and eighty five, but were abandoned later. This 240 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:55.080 work was followed by a double overhead trolley road at Womsocket, 241 00:16:55.559 --> 00:16:59.240 the motors being supplied by the Thompson Houston Company, and 242 00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:04.759 later by a combined double trolley and conduit road at Allegheny, Pennsylvania. 243 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:10.319 In eighteen eighty four to eighty five, J. C. Henry 244 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:15.319 installed and operated in Kansas City a railway supplied by 245 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:19.119 two overhead conductors, on each of which traveled a small 246 00:17:19.240 --> 00:17:23.440 trolley connected to the car by a flexible cable. The 247 00:17:23.480 --> 00:17:26.640 motor was mounted on a frame supported on the car axle, 248 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:29.400 and the power was transmitted through a clutch and a 249 00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:33.720 nest of gears, giving five speeds. In the following year 250 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:37.000 a portion of another road was equipped. A number of 251 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:40.640 experiments seemed to have been conducted there, and on some 252 00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:44.559 the rails were used as a return. The collectors were 253 00:17:44.599 --> 00:17:47.599 of different types, and it is said that, among others, 254 00:17:47.720 --> 00:17:51.680 there was one carried on the car. The final selection 255 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:54.920 was a trolley having four wheels disposed in pairs in 256 00:17:54.960 --> 00:17:58.799 a horizontal plane, carried by and gripping the sides of 257 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:03.240 the wires. This feature, but using one wire and rail return, 258 00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:08.240 characterized a road installed by Henry and San Diego, California, 259 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:14.519 opened in November eighteen eighty seven. Meanwhile, work had begun 260 00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:17.400 in Great Britain, where the first regular road to be 261 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:21.759 put in operation was that known as the Portrush Electric Railway. 262 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:25.880 In Ireland, installed in eighteen eighty three by Seamen's Brothers 263 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:30.480 of London, power was generated by turbines and the current 264 00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:34.200 was transmitted by a third rail supported on wooden posts 265 00:18:34.279 --> 00:18:38.480 alongside of the track, the running rails constituting the return. 266 00:18:39.319 --> 00:18:43.839 The pressure used was about two hundred fifty vaults. This 267 00:18:44.039 --> 00:18:46.920 was followed in the same year by a successful short 268 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:51.400 road at Brighton, installed by Magnus Folk, the current being 269 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:55.880 transmitted through the running rails. Then came the railway installed 270 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:59.880 at Bessbrook, Newry in eighteen eighty five under the direction 271 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:04.200 of the Messrs Hopkinson, and at Ride in eighteen eighty six, 272 00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:07.880 in which latter year was also installed the Blackpool Road 273 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:12.519 by Holroyd Smith. In this latter case, the convoad system 274 00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:16.759 was used with complete metallic circuit. The motor was carried 275 00:19:16.839 --> 00:19:20.720 underneath the car between the axles and connected by chain gearing. 276 00:19:21.640 --> 00:19:25.440 Fixed brushes with and contact were used for both directions 277 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:31.400 of running. Reverting to work in the United States, Sprague 278 00:19:31.400 --> 00:19:34.759 again took up the electric railway problem, and in eighteen 279 00:19:34.799 --> 00:19:39.039 eighty five before the Society of Arts Boston advocated the 280 00:19:39.079 --> 00:19:43.000 equipment of the New York Elevated Railway with motors carried 281 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:46.200 on the trucks of the regular cars, and work was 282 00:19:46.279 --> 00:19:51.440 actually begun on the construction of experimental motors. Shortly afterward, 283 00:19:51.480 --> 00:19:54.440 a regular truck was equipped and a long series of 284 00:19:54.519 --> 00:19:57.440 tests made on a private track in New York City. 285 00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:02.039 In May eighteen eighty six, an elevated car was equipped 286 00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:05.359 with these motors and a series of tests begun on 287 00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:09.960 the thirty fourth Street branch of the road. These motors 288 00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:13.519 may be considered the parent models of the modern railway motor. 289 00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:17.359 They were centered through the brackets on the driving axles, 290 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:21.400 connected to them by single reduction gears, and the free 291 00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:24.119 end of the motor was carried by springs from the 292 00:20:24.200 --> 00:20:28.839 transom the truck, elliptics being interposed between this support and 293 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:33.039 the car body. The truck had two motors. They were 294 00:20:33.119 --> 00:20:36.759 run open, had one set of brushes, and were used 295 00:20:36.759 --> 00:20:39.960 not only for propelling the car but for breaking it. 296 00:20:41.079 --> 00:20:44.279 The motors were at first shunt wound, but later had 297 00:20:44.279 --> 00:20:47.759 a correcting coil in series, with the armorture at right 298 00:20:47.799 --> 00:20:51.200 angles to the normal field to prevent shifting of the 299 00:20:51.279 --> 00:20:55.480 neutral point. The car was operated from each end by 300 00:20:55.519 --> 00:20:59.599 similar switches. Current at six hundred vaults was used and 301 00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:03.279 of speed was effected by cutting out resistance in the 302 00:21:03.400 --> 00:21:08.039 armature circuit and then by reducing the field strength. This 303 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:11.640 enabled energy to be returned to the line when decreasing 304 00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:16.839 from high speed, it being impossible to interest the railway management, 305 00:21:17.240 --> 00:21:22.519 the experiments were finally suspended. Soon afterward, a locomotive designed 306 00:21:22.559 --> 00:21:25.400 by Field had a short trial on the same section 307 00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:31.319 of the elevated Sprague then turned his attention to building 308 00:21:31.319 --> 00:21:35.519 a locomotive car of three hundred horse power capacity, each 309 00:21:35.599 --> 00:21:38.880 truck to be equipped with two motors, each having a 310 00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:42.759 pair of armatures geared to the axle. But this evidently 311 00:21:42.839 --> 00:21:46.039 being ahead of the times, and the possibilities of street 312 00:21:46.079 --> 00:21:51.319 tramway traction becoming evident, these equipments were abandoned, and he 313 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:54.599 began the development of the type of motor finally used 314 00:21:54.599 --> 00:21:58.079 in Richmond, one crude form of which was first used 315 00:21:58.079 --> 00:22:02.440 in storage battery experiments in Philadelphia and others in New 316 00:22:02.519 --> 00:22:08.400 York and Boston in eighteen eighty six. Reviewing the conditions 317 00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:12.039 at the beginning of eighteen eighty seven, statistics compiled by 318 00:22:12.119 --> 00:22:16.920 t Comerford Martin show that, including every kind of equipment, 319 00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:20.039 even those a fraction of a mile long and operated 320 00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:24.519 in mines, there were but nine installations in Europe, aggregating 321 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:28.119 about twenty miles of track, with a total equipment of 322 00:22:28.279 --> 00:22:32.319 fifty two motors and motor cars, none operated with the 323 00:22:32.359 --> 00:22:36.680 present overhead line or conduit, and seven cars operated by 324 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:40.559 storage batteries, while in the United States there were only 325 00:22:40.680 --> 00:22:44.279 ten installations with an aggregate of less than forty miles 326 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:48.640 of track, and fifty motors and motor cars operated mostly 327 00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:53.200 from overhead lines with traveling trolleys flexibly connected to the cars. 328 00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:59.720 These were partly daft but principally fanderpool roads. Almost every 329 00:22:59.720 --> 00:23:03.000 inn ventor who had taken part in active work was 330 00:23:03.039 --> 00:23:07.839 still alive. The roads, however, were limited in character, varied 331 00:23:07.880 --> 00:23:12.640 in equipment, and presented nothing sufficient to overcome the prejudices 332 00:23:12.680 --> 00:23:17.599 of those interested in transportation and command the confidence of capital. 333 00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:22.680 As a result of all these experiments, the series Wound 334 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:26.400 motors soon became universal because of its ability to start 335 00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:30.039 a car with the least expenditure of energy, and has 336 00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:33.279 held its place to the present time. With minor improvements 337 00:23:33.319 --> 00:23:37.359 in its structure and method of gearing. Five hundred fifty 338 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:40.519 to six hundred volts has become standard for the operation 339 00:23:40.599 --> 00:23:44.799 of the motors, this value having been found the most satisfactory, 340 00:23:45.880 --> 00:23:50.319 Although higher voltages are desirable for economy of transmission. The 341 00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:54.240 difficulties encountered in the construction of the motors, offset any 342 00:23:54.319 --> 00:24:00.599 advantages gained their bye. As previously explained, the higher the 343 00:24:00.680 --> 00:24:04.720 voltage used, the further may the power be economically distributed. 344 00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:08.319 In the direct current system, the voltage is limited to 345 00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:13.160 about six hundred. With this comparatively low voltage, cars could 346 00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:16.519 be economically operated only within a few miles of the 347 00:24:16.599 --> 00:24:22.039 generating station. The development of the alternating current transformer, by 348 00:24:22.119 --> 00:24:24.880 means of which the voltage could be raised or lowered 349 00:24:24.920 --> 00:24:29.759 without mechanism, showed the way to new developments. The direct 350 00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:33.680 current generators in the power stations were gradually removed and 351 00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:39.079 alternators substituted. Power could be generated at either low or 352 00:24:39.240 --> 00:24:43.640 high voltages, stepped up by means of transformers, sent over 353 00:24:43.680 --> 00:24:47.319 the line at a high voltage to a substation, dropped 354 00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:51.000 to a lower voltage again by the transformers, and changed 355 00:24:51.079 --> 00:24:54.759 to direct current by means of rotary converters from which 356 00:24:54.799 --> 00:24:58.359 the car lines were fed. This is the system at 357 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:01.880 present in use in all the LAN large cities. The 358 00:25:01.880 --> 00:25:05.799 most unsatisfactory part of this system is the substation with 359 00:25:05.880 --> 00:25:09.839 its rotary converter, which increases the cost of the substation 360 00:25:10.039 --> 00:25:17.079 itself and requires considerable attention. One unfamiliar with the development 361 00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:20.319 of motors might ask why the cars were not equipped 362 00:25:20.319 --> 00:25:25.119 with alternating current motors. Motors of this class are, however, 363 00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:29.039 of quite recent origin, and their application to the severe 364 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:32.160 strains of railway work has only been accomplished in the 365 00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:36.400 last four or five years. One of the most successful 366 00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:40.359 of these is the alternating current series motor, developed by 367 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:44.160 the Westinghouse Company, and it promises soon to be very 368 00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:49.359 widely applied. The outlook for equipping long railway lines heretofore 369 00:25:49.400 --> 00:25:53.440 operated by steam is very promising, and in fact has 370 00:25:53.519 --> 00:25:58.920 already begun. In May nineteen o five, the Westinghouse Company 371 00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:02.759 completed the first heavy locomotive to be operated by single 372 00:26:02.839 --> 00:26:08.759 phase alternating current. This locomotive complete weighs one hundred thirty 373 00:26:08.839 --> 00:26:12.920 six tons. It was built in two halves, each having 374 00:26:12.960 --> 00:26:16.960 three axles. Each axle driven by a two hundred twenty 375 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:21.880 five horse power single phase series motor having single reduction 376 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:26.279 gears with a ratio of eighteen to ninety five. The 377 00:26:26.359 --> 00:26:31.000 current required to operate this locomotive, six thousand, six hundred 378 00:26:31.079 --> 00:26:35.319 vaults twenty five cycles, is collected from the trolley wire 379 00:26:35.480 --> 00:26:40.000 by means of a pneumatically operated pentagraph trolley with sliding 380 00:26:40.079 --> 00:26:43.960 contact and carried through an oil switch and circuit breaker 381 00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:48.599 to an autotransformer. In this transformer, it is reduced to 382 00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:52.160 three hundred twenty five vaults, at which pressure it is 383 00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:56.480 used in the motors. This locomotive, being designed for heavy 384 00:26:56.519 --> 00:27:00.799 freight service, develops a drawbar pull of five fifty thousand 385 00:27:00.799 --> 00:27:04.359 pounds at speed off from ten to twelve miles per hour. 386 00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:11.480 Following several other successful applications of these motors, the New York, 387 00:27:11.680 --> 00:27:15.880 New Haven and Hartford Railroad decided to equip its roads 388 00:27:15.920 --> 00:27:20.240 as far as Stamford, Connecticut, a distance of twenty two miles, 389 00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:25.480 with the Westinghouse system. The locomotives used weighs seventy tons 390 00:27:25.519 --> 00:27:28.680 and are each equipped with four gearless motors of two 391 00:27:28.759 --> 00:27:33.880 hundred fifty horse power each. These locomotives operate over twelve 392 00:27:33.920 --> 00:27:37.000 miles of tracks in the city of New York by 393 00:27:37.079 --> 00:27:40.880 means of six hundred volts direct current, and over twenty 394 00:27:40.880 --> 00:27:44.920 two miles of tracks supplied with alternating current at eleven 395 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:50.359 thousand vaults twenty five cycles. Each locomotive is capable of 396 00:27:50.440 --> 00:27:54.640 hauling a two hundred ton passenger train. In accommodation service, 397 00:27:55.200 --> 00:27:59.000 requiring one stop every two miles at a scheduled speed 398 00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:02.240 of twenty six miles per hour and a maximum speed 399 00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:06.039 of forty five miles per hour. In express service, a 400 00:28:06.119 --> 00:28:09.359 maximum speed of sixty to seventy miles per hour can 401 00:28:09.440 --> 00:28:13.799