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Born on this day
Trevor Graham Baylis
Trevor Graham Baylis
20th week in year
13 May 2024

Important eventsBack

Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway13.5.1880

Wikipedia (08 Apr 2013, 16:03)

It is quite likely that many of our young readers have never seen a horse-car. This is notstrange, for in a little over twenty years the victorious trolley has displaced theold-time street-cars drawn by one or two horses. Indeed, a horse-car is quite a curiosityin these modern days, for such vehicles have almost entirely disappeared from the streets.

The first horse railroad in the United States was completed in 1827, and it was only sevenyears afterward that a small model of a circular electric railroad was made and exhibitedby Thomas Davenport, of Brandon, Vermont. Other inventors also worked on electric railway slater on, but they did not make much progress, because in their day there were no dynamos,and they had to use primary batteries to obtain current. This method ofgenerating current was far too cumbersome and expensive for general use.

In 1879, after dynamos had become known, the firm of Siemens exhibited at the BerlinExhibition a road about one-third of a mile in length, over which an electric locomotivehauled three small cars at a speed of about eight miles an hour.

This was just before Edison had developed the efficient commercial dynamo withlow-resistance armature and high-resistance field, which made it possible to generate anduse electric power cheaply. Thus we see that Edison was not the first to form the broadidea of an electric railway, but his dynamo and systems of distribution and regulation ofcurrent first made the idea commercially practicable.

When Edison made his trip to Wyoming with the astronomers in 1878 he noticed that thefarmers had to make long hauls of their grain to the railroads or markets. He thenconceived the idea of building light electric railways to perform this service.

As we have already noted, he started on his electric-light experiments, including thedynamo,when he returned from the West. He had not forgotten his scheme for an electric railway,however, for, early in 1880, after the tremendous rush on the invention of theincandescent lamp had begun to subside, he commenced the construction of a stretch oftrack at Menlo Park, and at the same time began to build an electric locomotive to operateover it.

The locomotive was an ordinary flat dump-car on a four-wheeled iron truck. Upon this wasmounted one of his dynamos, used as a motor. It had a capacity of about twelvehorse-power. Electric current was generated by two dynamos in the machine-shop, andcarried to the rails by underground conductors.

The track was about a third of a mile in length, the rails being of light weight andspiked to ties laid on the ground. In this short line there were some steep grades andshort curves. The locomotive pulled three cars; one a flat freight-car; one an openawning-car, and one box-car, facetiously called the "Pullman," with which Edisonillustrated a system of electromagnetic braking.

On May 13, 1880, this road went into operation. All the laboratory "boys" made holidayand scrambled aboard for a trip. Things went well for a while, but presently a weaknessdeveloped and it became necessary to return the locomotive to the shop to make changes inthe mechanism. And so it was for a short time afterward. Imperfections of one kind andanother were disclosed as the road was operated, but Edison was equal to the occasion andovercame them, one by one. Before long he had his locomotive running regularly, haulingthe three cars with freight and passengers back and forth over the full length of thetrack. Incidentally, the writer remembers enjoying a ride over the road one summerafternoon.

The details of the various improvements made during these months are too many and tootechnical to be given here. It is a fact, however, that at this time Edison was doing someheavy electric railway engineering, each improvement representing a step which advancedthe art toward the perfection it has reached in these modern days.

The newspapers and technical journals lostno time in publishing accounts of this electric railroad, and once again Menlo Parkreceived great numbers of visitors, including many railroad men, who came to see and testthis new method of locomotion.

Of course, in operating this early road there were a few mishaps, fortunately none of themof a serious nature. In the correspondence of the late Grosvenor P. Lowry, a friend andlegal adviser of Mr. Edison, is a letter dated June 5, 1880, giving an account of oneexperience. The letter reads as follows:

"Goddard and I have spent a part of the day at Menlo, and all is glorious. I have riddenat forty miles an hour on Mr. Edison's electric railway—and we ran off the track. Iprotested at the rate of speed over the sharp curves, designed to show the power of theengine, but Edison said they had done it often. Finally, when the last trip was to betaken, I said I did not like it, but would go along. The train jumped the track on a shortcurve, throwing Kruesi, who was driving the engine, with his face down in the dirt, andanother man in a comical somersault through some underbrush. Edison was off in a minute,jumping andlaughing, and declaring it a most beautiful accident. Kruesi got up, his face bleeding,and a good deal shaken; and I shall never forget the expression of voice and face in whichhe said, with some foreign accent: 'Oh yes! pairfeckly safe.' Fortunately no other hurtswere suffered, and in a few minutes we had the train on the track and running again."

This first electric railway was continued in operation right along through 1881. In thefall of that year Edison was requested by the late Mr. Henry Villard to build a longerroad at Menlo Park, equipped with more powerful locomotives, to demonstrate thefeasibility of putting electric railroads in the Western wheat country.

Work was commenced at once, and early in '882 the road and its equipment were finished. Itwas three miles long, and had sidings, turn-tables, freight platform and car-house. It wasmuch more complete and substantial than the first railroad. There were two locomotives,one for freight and the other for passenger service.

The passenger locomotive was very speedy and hauled as many as ninety persons at atime. Many thousands of passengers traveled over the road during 1882. The freightlocomotive was not so speedy, but could pull heavy trains at a good speed. Takenaltogether, this early: electric railway made a great advance toward modern practice as itexists to-day.

There are many interesting stories of the railway period at Menlo Park. One of them, astold by the late Charles T. Hughes, who worked with Edison on the experimental roads, isas follows:

"Mr. Villard sent J. C. Henderson, one of his mechanical engineers, to see the road whenit was in operation, and we went down one day—Edison, Henderson, and I—andwent on the locomotive. Edison ran it, and just after we started there was a trestle sixtyfeet long and seven feet deep, and Edison put on all the power. When we went over it wemust have been going forty miles an hour, and I could see the perspiration come out onHenderson. After we got over the trestle and started on down the track Henderson said:'when we go back I will walk. If there is any more of that kind of running I won't be init myself.'"

The young reader, who is now living in an age in which the electric railway is regarded asa matter of course, will find it difficult to comprehend that there should ever have beenany doubt on the part of engineering experts as to the practicability of electricrailroads. But in the days of which we are writing such was the case, as the followingremarks of Mr. Edison will show:

"At one time Mr. Villard got the idea that he would run the mountain division of theNorthern Pacific Railroad by electricity. He asked me if it could be done. I said:'Certainly; it is too easy for me to undertake; let some one else do it.' He said: 'I wantyou to tackle the problem,' and he insisted on it. So I got up a scheme of a third railand shoe and erected it in my yard here in Orange. When I got it all ready he had all hisdivision engineers come on to New York, and they came over here. I showed them my plans,and the unanimous decision of the engineers was that it was absolutely and utterlyimpracticable. That system is on the New York Central now, and was also used on the NewHaven road in its first work with electricity."

Mr. Edison knew at the time that these engineers were wrong. They were prejudiced andlacking in foresight, and had no faith in electric railroading. Indeed, these particularengineers were not by any means the only persons who could see no future for electricmethods of transportation. Their doubts were shared by capitalists and others, and it wasnot until several years afterward that the business of electrifying street railroads wascommenced in real earnest.

In the mean time, however, Edison's faith did not waver, and he continued his work onelectric railways, making innumerable experiments and taking out a great many patents,including a far-sighted one covering a sliding contact in a slot. This principle and manyof those covered by his earlier work are in use to-day on the street railways in largecities.

The early railroad at Menlo Park has gone to ruin and decay, but the crude locomotivebuilt by Edison has become the property of the Pratt Institute, of Brooklyn, New York, towhose students it is a constant example and incentive.

Down to the present moment Edison haskept up an active interest in transportation problems. His latest work has been in theline of operating street-cars with his improved storage battery. During the time that thisbook has been in course of preparation he has given a great deal of time to this question.

Some years ago there were a number of street-cars in various cities operated by storagebatteries of a class entirely different from the battery invented by Edison. We refer tostorage batteries containing lead and sulphuric acid. These were found to be so costly tooperate and ' maintain that their use was abandoned.

Mr. Edison's new nickel and iron storage battery with alkaline solution has been found bypractical use to be entirely satisfactory for operating street-cars, not only at a lowcost, but also with ease of operation and at a trifling expense for maintenance. Of coursethere have been many problems, but he has surmounted the principal difficulties, and thereare now quite a number of street-cars operated by his storage battery in various cities.These cars are earning profits and their number is steadily increasing.




(text and photo source http://www.heritage-history.com)

   
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