rying service of this character was introduced in Ottawa, Canada, and other cities, and has proved entirely satisfactory, the overhead trolley system being utilized for the purpose. For more than two years post-office cars, especially equipped, have been run as cable-car attachments on the Third Avenue road, New York city, and the idea of thus simplifying the delivery of mail at substations is likely to be developed until at last every important city route will be covered. ment, especially those connected with car lighting, ventilation, ease of motion, and a score of other details, each contributing in a greater or less degree to the comfort and help of passengers anxious to reach their respective destinations at a maximum of speed and comfort with a minimum of expense and personal risk. The Cincinnati Viaduct.-Various methods have been adopted in cities for carrying and connecting surface city lines across cuts, ravines, and other open spaces. One of the most substantial and at the same time most artistic so far constructed is that now in use at Cincinnati. The business portion of the city occupies a plateau nearly three miles wide, rising abruptly about 80 feet on the north side of the Ohio river, and beyond this is an irregular line of bluffs some 400 feet high, over and beyond which the city has spread. One of these hills is known as Mount Adams, and the illustration on page 746 represents a view on the Mount Adams and Eden Park Railway, forming part of the street-railway system, the park being on a hill in the eastern part of the city. CROSS SECTION OF ELECTRICAL SUBWAY, SHOWING TROLLEY MECHANISM. (By permission, from the "Scientific American.") Trolley Cars for Pleasure Parties, Church Parties, etc. The successful use of electric trolley cars for rapid conveyance of urban and suburban residents to and from their places of business has led to ingenious applications of the idea for purposes of pleasure. Palace trolley cars are now in use for theater and excursion parties. In Brooklyn, within the past two years, these cars at night are decorated with variegated lights of every hue and present a decidedly pleasing effect when seen at a distance in sparsely settled localities. In Boston cars for recreation purposes are painted in black and gold, with crimson panels. The trucks and running gear are of dark green. The interior woodwork of these palace cars is of polished mahogany, and the upholstering is of peacock-blue brocaded plush. Each car has twenty chairs, and each chair is provided with a wire hatholder under the seat. Not only do people charter these cars for parties, but for churchgoing on Sundays and other routine events. Their provision in several cities has been large appreciated. Trolley Parcel-Delivery System. At St. Louis the convenience of the electric cars were further illustrated some time ago by the establishment of a parcel-delivery system. As early as 1895, on one of the St. Louis trolley lines, a regular delivery system was in operation, involving the collection and house-to-house delivery of ordinary express packages. This particular line starts in the heart of the city and runs for seven miles through a thickly settled district. A delivery car used for the work makes three trips per day, running on schedule time. The car is especially equipped for the purpose, and is mounted on motors of its own. The foregoing text reviews briefly the development of surface-road facilities from 1891 to 1895. From that date to the present much has been done to perfect the cable and electric systems. Improvements have taken place in almost every depart Decision concerning Trolley Patents.About the same time, the Patent Office announced the validity of the administrator's claim in the matter of Van Depoele and others who contested the right to use and profit by the overhead trolley system. After a delay of six years, a patent was granted to the estate of Dr. Charles J. Van Depoele, recognized as the inventor. The Van Depoele rights were purchased by the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, and the Patent Office decision just referred to gave this corporation a monopoly for seventeen years, covering all the electric railways in the country and their plants. When the decision was given, over 6,000 miles of these railways were actually in operation. The Van Depoele Patent.-The principal clause in the patent granted reads thus: "In an electric railway the combination of a car, a conductor suspended above the line of travel of the car, a rearwardly extending arm pivotally supported on top of the car so as to swing laterally, and provided at its outer end with a contact device engaging the underside of the suspended conductor, and a tension spring for maintaining an upward-pressure contact with the conductor." "Overhead" Electrical Railway.-On Nov. 9, 1892, the first train on the Overhead Electrical Railway-a distinct advance on current British methods of conveying city passengers to various points within city limits-was run successfully at Liverpool, England. The trip was reported as "very satisfactory, the behavior of the main engines and dynamos being all that was anticipated. The construction of this railway resembles in general appearance that of the Sixth Avenue Elevated Railway, New York city." Steam Elevated Roads-their Disadvan tages.-The passing of the elevated steam railroad without a break in the service. The 125-mile run was made on a seven-hour charge. There were 96 cells used in the car. The motor was a single 30horse-power Rae type. The motor winding was for 190 volts. The voltage of the 96 cells at the start of the 117-mile trip was 204; at the end 192 volts, a loss of only 12 volts in a day's trip. The car was lighted from a bank of 24 cells with 48-volt incandescent lamps. as a desirable means of transportation for passen- Storage-Battery System.-The storage-battery system has had many trials and has met with many adversities, but its advocates are not by any means discouraged. Evidence of this was seen recently in New York when a number of large, perfectly equipped storage-battery cars were introduced on an important crosstown line. The perfecting of the system is looked for at an early date, and with it will quickly come its adoption for all short lines, to the obvious disadvantage of the old horse-car system, which, in all large cities, has practically run its course. This system has been advantageously put into operation at several points during the past seven or eight years. The "Julian" system was introduced on Fourth Avenue, New York, prior to 1890, but work was suspended owing to disputes as to patent rights. In February, 1891, announcement was made that a contract had been signed for the equipment of a branch of surface railroad at Washington, D. C., with 6 storage-battery cars. The local company introducing this innovation was one of the first in the country to adopt electrical devices for car propulsion. About this time municipal authorities were being aroused to the fact that trolley poles within city limits were undesirable. Hence the introduction of a storage-battery system, which has met with varying success. sys These six cars were made for the "Edes" tem, and equipped with the Electric Dynamic Company's motors and gearing, the gearing running in oil, with dust-tight covers for motors, and with a number of "23 M" type accumulators, with average speed of eight hours, the maximum speed being 15 miles. The next recorded success of storage-battery cars was at Dubuque, Iowa. In June, 1891, 9 cars were in operation, equipped with the Edes system. It is interesting in this connection to note the effect on the public mind of the new system introduced so successfully in numerous cities some seven or eight years ago. The unsightliness of appliances necessary for the working of the overhead trolley system had been a subject for much unfavorable comment. The opportunity to compare it with the storage system brought forth a more vigorous volley of objections to overhead appliances. A local daily, the Dubuque "Times," is quoted as saying, in connection with the introduction of the storage system: "There is no tangle of overhead wires to spoil the view. But down the street, swiftly and silently, save for the loud ringing of the warning gong, comes a beautiful car, skimming over the rails like a thing of life, yet so perfectly under the control of the motorneer' that it can be brought to a standstill in half a car length. There is no rocky motion, no jarring. The cars run as smoothly and with apparently as little friction as a bird flies through the air." At Oneida, N. Y., in the fall of 1893, a street car in actual use was propelled by storage batteries. The total run on one charge of the batteries was 125 miles. The car made daily from 64 to 90 miles Development and Decay of the Cable System. the autumn of 1891 the original cable road, operated by the Clay Street Hill Railroad Company, San Francisco, became obsolete. The record of this line, extending from 1873, when the cable road was constructed to overcome the grades of from 10 to 16 feet existing on that thoroughfare, shows that the original grip car consisted of a low platform on small car wheels and supporting the grip. A rough railing surrounded it. The brakes consisted of steel levers, which were pressed against the four wheels. Five men were necessary to run the dummy, one operating the grip and each of the remaining four standing with a steel lever in his hand ready to lock the wheels should the grip break. The trailer was a common "bobtail" horse car. The history of the cable is intensely interesting in the light of passing events. It dates back about twenty-eight years. 66 Early in the '70's," says the "Scientific American," A. S. Hallidie, now President of the California Wire Works, of San Francisco, conceived the idea of propelling street cars by means of an endless, traveling, underground cable. The scheme was at first considered chimerical, but finally three men of means-Joseph Britton, H. L. Davis, and James Moffitt-took the matter up. Then came the almost interminable task of working out the mechanical details of the idea, but it was finally completed, and on Aug. 18, 1873, hundreds of San Franciscans climbed up Clay Street hill to watch the trial trip. "As the gripman who was to take the car over the road looked down the steep decline his courage failed, and Mr. Hallidie took the grip. At a given signal the car started off smoothly, amid shouts from thousands of throats. The trip was made without a hitch, and the innovation was pronounced a success." Electric cars have taken the place of cable cars on Clay Street hill, and Mr. S. L. Foster, discussing surface-railroad topics in 1896, said, in this connection: "When we consider the daily spectacle of electric cars, unaided, climbing 141-per-cent. grades in San Francisco and 15-per-cent. grades in Oakland, and by means of a simple auxiliary device ascending a 25-per-cent. grade in San Francisco, where no cable grip could be made to hold, the impregnability of any cable proposition is open to question." Another significant event happened in 1891. The cable surface-railroad equipment was replaced by an electric system at Grand Rapids. Nearly all of the expensive machinery, etc., was broken up and sold for old iron. The engines are utilized, however, to drive the dynamos that furnish the current. The grip slots and rails are retained on hill lines, and an auxiliary brake has been fitted on the cars to catch on these rails in case of emergency. The Cable Lines on New York Thoroughfares. With evident satisfaction, announcement was made from time to time in the public prints of New York city during the latter part of 1891 of the preparations then in progress for opening the Broadway and Seventh Avenue cable road." Neither the projectors of that important enterprise nor the expectant public of the period anticipated 66 so rapid an advancement of appropriate electrical inventions for underground propulsion of surface cars as has been witnessed within the marvelously short space of time since elapsed. Already the entire cable system is under condemnation as ancient and unreliable compared with the underground trolley system, now accepted as apparently the very best possible method obtainable. The engineering difficulties connected with the construction of the Broadway cable road were far greater than have been encountered in the majority of steam-railroad enterprises since the days of Stephenson and Brunel. To cross rivers or to cut tunnels through rock as hard as adamant is mere child's play in comparison with the task undertaken incident indicative of the then rapidly approaching triumph of electricity over other methods-not only in regard to speed, but also with a view to greater economy in working expenses. The cable was abandoned, because its operation was too costly. As at Grand Rapids, curves were frequent and sharp, and there were other large items of extraordinary expenditure from wear and tear. The opportunity, too, for avoiding the handling and placing of unwieldy masses of cable was welcomed. Completion of Two New York City Cable Roads.-The beginning of 1893 found the New York cable roads well advanced. On the Broadway and Seventh Avenue line the line between the by the men who accepted contracts for cable-line construction along Broadway. Naturally they expected many obstructions, but the obstacles met with were far more frequent and of a much more aggravating character than was anticipated at the start. These obstacles included gas and water mains and valves; sewers, with their manholes, basins, and connections; Edison electric conduits, manholes, and subways with vaults; service boxes and air pipes; commercial cable conduits and vaults; pneumatic tubes; steam pipes with expansion joints, return pipes, valves, and valve stems; and the adjustment and readjustment of the tracks for temporary and permanent tracks. All difficulties, as will be seen in a subsequent paragraph, were eventually overcome and passenger traffic duly established. How little was known less than a decade ago of the cable's future may be understood from the following extract: The "Scientific American" of May 16, 1891, referring to the commencement of contract work on the Broadway cable, said: "It marks the first step in making this a city of cable roads. . . . The street-car horse may, within a few years, be almost banished from our streets." This latter forecast was, if anything, too conservative. As for the former, the rapid strides of electrical science and invention since its publication have placed the suggested transformation among the impossibilities. Valuable Cable Road abandoned at St. Louis. -In April and May, 1892, the St. Louis Cable and Western Railway-which cost for wrought iron alone $150,000-was demolished, and the plant sold for a trifling sum. This is mentioned as one Battery and Central Park had reached completion. The Third Avenue line was also complete except two very short uptown stretches and one at the southern end of the line. A franchise was granted for a Lexington Avenue cable line, and bids were being made for a similar privilege on Ninth Avenue. The Broadway cable road, New York city, began actual passenger-carrying operations on May 11, 1893. The cable between the Battery and Thirtysixth Street were started by the seven-year-old daughter of Mr. John D. Crimmins, who built the road. Miss Crimmins opened the steam valve of the 2,000-horse-power engine in the basement of the great power house of the company at the Houston Street station. In less than five years this vast subterranean power-house chamber, over 100 feet in length, under Broadway, and 40 feet in depth, has passed the highest point in its career of usefulness, and, the days of the cable being numbered, this structure must erelong be abandoned for cable purposes as unnecessary. The Third Avenue line was practically completed during the first week in December, 1893. Although this is a cable line, there are many variations in mode of working, these variations extending to engines, cars, grips and grip-operating devices, and differing from the Broadway plan in many other important particulars. Signal Systems on Cable Roads.-Accidents on cable roads, whereby much vexatious delay to passengers was occasioned owing to the inability of road inspectors and other officials at a distance from power houses to communicate with engineers, brought about the installation of a useful signal system, placed in operation on the Third Avenue road in the spring of 1894. The plan is at once complicated and simple. By a series of strokes on a gong, controlled from the manholes along the route, notice is instantly given to engineers of accidents, delays, and other occurrences calling for prompt changes in cable service. Lighting Cars with Gas.-The problem of lighting the Broadway cable cars adequately and conveniently was solved by the adoption of the Pintsch system. By this plan a very rich gas of more than 70 candle power is obtained from crude petroleum. It will stand a very high degree of compression without materially affecting its illuminating qualities. Coal gas, it has been proved, will not stand high compression, as it is a lowcandle-power gas, and loses 50 per cent. under compression, whereas oil gas only loses about 10 per cent. Length and Weight of Cables.-Some idea of this part of the work connected with operation of cable roads may be gained from the contemporary statement that a cable manufactured for use at Denver, Col., was 32,145 feet in length, weighing 86,867 pounds; another, for Portland, Ore., measured 33,000 feet, weighing 76,350 pounds; a third, for Kansas City, Mo., extended 32,300 feet, its weight being 95,200 pounds. It can be easily understood how acceptable any practical method for propulsion by electric power must have been, even at this period, to surface-railroad corporations, officers, and employees. The autumn of 1892 found a complete cable equipment on many of the surface roads of Washington, D. C. The plant for the Pennsylvania Avenue and Fourteenth Street branches alone cost $3,000,000. This, together with the Seventh Street road, made the most complete and one of the largest cable systems in the country. Cable-Road Accidents. The practical workings of the newly laid cable road in New York brought to light several frequent causes of traffic interruption. The "Scientific American," when public interest had been aroused owing to many delays and other annoyances, published a very interesting and instructive illustrated article on the subject. Several of the most notable causes of accidents are explained in detail. "Not long since," says the writer, "one of the cable cars in lower Broadway, after a brief stop of the cable, started, and when an attempt was made by the gripman to stop the car, it was found impossible to release the grip, and the car moved down Broadway toward Bowling Green, clearing everything before it, having a propelling force behind of not far from 1,200 horse power, with no immediate prospect of being stopped. As the cable railway has no telegraph [there is a complete signal system now, 1898] the telephone was brought into use, and in due course of time communication was had with the engineer at the power house, and the cable was stopped. "On examination of the grip it was found that a certain amount of slack in front of the car allowed of the formation of a loop which, singularly enough, took the form of a hitch around the projecting horns of the grip. The only way to release the grip from the cable in this case was to break the grip and remove it from the cable conduit, the car being towed back to the car house by coupling it to another car. Although the cable is sufficiently flexible to permit of passing around the huge drums at the power station and over the guiding sheaves in the street, it was far too rigid to permit of releasing the grip by any manipulation of the cable itself." This is evident from an examination of the cable, the detailed construction of which is shown in this article. The center of the cable is flexible enough, being of hemp. The wire portion is formed of 6 strands, the exterior layer of each strand consisting of 11 wires, Nos. 9 and 11 alternating, the inner layer being formed of 7 No. 9 wires, while the center wire of the strand is also No. 9, making 19 rigid steel wires in each strand. A certain amount of slack is required in the running wire to relieve the immense strain and tension. The loop found in the instance given above was caused by the allowance of slack being in excess of actual requirements. The illustration of a broken strand in this article shows the condition in which the cable was found 66 after another adventurous trip of a runaway car on Broadway. 'In this accident," says the "Scientific American," "the car behaved as in the other casethat is to say, it was carried along the track irresistibly, and the gripman was unable to release the grip so as to stop the car. After the power house had been signaled and the engine stopped, an examination of the cable in the conduit showed that one of the strands of the cable had been broken, and the cable, in sliding through the grip, pushed back the strand until 1,500 feet of it had been piled rigidly attached to a crosshead on the track frame by means of two vertical shanks of plate steel, M M, and is always carried at a fixed level. The upper jaw, B, is carried by a shank, L, which is raised or depressed by the action of levers attached to the crosshead and operated by the gripman. "The jaws are each provided with two longitudinal grooves, so that the cable may be taken up on either side of the grip. When the car is stationary the cable runs in the groove in the lower jaw, and the car is started by depressing the upper jaw and up upon the cable, the strand thus shoved back upon the cable occupying a space of 200 feet behind the grip. "This accident caused a delay of several hours. There was no remedy for the delay, as the spare cable had not been laid in the conduit. Traffic had to be suspended until the cable could be put into running condition, which was done by removing the loosened strand.". Slow-Speed Cable-Car Grip.-The adoption of the device shown in this article for permitting the reduction of cable-car speed on curves is the outcome of popular agitation in New York city demanding an adequate remedy for existing dangers at several places along the Broadway route, notably at the curve, corner of Broadway and Fourteenth Street, where the cars turn into Union Square. The suggested remedies were numerous, some practical, many impracticable for one or more reasons. The remedy ultimately chosen meets every requirement, and can be applied at will. "The construction of the ordinary form of cable-car grip is such that if a stop is made in the middle of a curve and the cable is released it will leave the grip and spring toward the center of the curve. Hence, in order to traverse a curve the gripman takes a firm hold on the cable and swings around on to the next tangent at full speed. This full speed is much greater than is allowed for cars within the city limits, and is so rapid as to be extremely dangerous to pedestrians at the crossings." In the illustration showing perspective of grip, with retaining hooks attached, "the parts marked HH are loose hooks, which keep the cable in the grip when the upper jaw, B, is raised to release the cable. The grip consists of a lower fixed jaw, C, and an upper movable jaw, B. The lower jaw is gripping the cable, the speed of the car being regu lated by the pressure of the grip. At full speed the cable is held perfectly stationary in the grip, and at slower speed it is allowed to slip somewhat, the car being carried along by the friction between the jaws and the cable. "The cable is thrown out of the grip altogether, or 'tripped,' by raising a couple of wedges which are carried by links, R, bracket, P, and the two plates, E E, and are operated by a separate lever on the car. The plates, E E, are provided with stops, which, as the plates are lifted, engage the shank, L, and raise the top jaw, B. "The trouble with the old form of grip was that when the upper movable jaw, B, was raised when traveling a curve the cable would spring out to the inside of the curve and be 'lost. To remedy this the hooks, H H, whose cross section conforms to that of the upper jaw, B, are hung by links, G, to the jaw near its ends, and have a slightly larger vertical movement than the jaw. When the latter is raised sufficiently to release the cable, the hooks, HH, remain down in place and keep the cable from springing sideways out of the grooves." Compressed Air as a Motive Power.-The use of compressed air as a motive power for city surface roads was brought prominently to notice in the early part of 1894 by use of that system for propulsion on the Nantes tramways and on the line from Paris to Nogent-sur-Marne. On the latter line each car is fitted with 9 steel storage reservoirs fixed underneath the car body, containing air at a pressure of 100 pounds to 176 pounds per square inch. Three of the reservoirs form a reserve in cases of emergency. The air is heated on its passage to the motor by hot water, which at starting has a temperature of 300° F. |