COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES. '1 61 



EAPID TRANSIT FROM AN ENGINEERING STANDPOINT. 



J. K. THOMPSON, REPRESENTING THE MECHANICAL COURSE. 



In these closing days of the nineteenth century we pause and look 

 back with wonderment and awe upon the marvelous changes which 

 have taken place in it. Whichever way we turn we find improvement 

 and advancement, but more especially do we find this to be true in the 

 engineering world. 



When we look back through the ages, even to the opening of the pres- 

 ent century, and see the slow-moving ox-cart wending its way westward, 

 the seas dotted with the canvas of sails, and when we hear that what 

 is now a few hours' journey could be accomplished in no less than a 

 week's time, we are amazed at the wonderful improvement a century has 

 brought about. 



One hundred years ago people were but little further advanced along 

 certain lines than they were at the dawn of civilization. Our fore- 

 fathers traveled as did their forefathers ages before them. Today all 

 is changed, and we are fortunate to be living in this most progressive 

 epoch. 



One of the most marked lines of advancement made in engineering, 

 as well as one of the most recent, is the improvement we find in our 

 means for rapid transit. It is within the memory of many a man still 

 living that the horse-car was first thought of, and within the memory 

 of most of us that the idea of driving the car bv other than animal 

 power was made practical. It is but twelve years ago that the idea of 

 passing a SOO-volt current through an exposed overhead wire was 

 thought by many to be the height of folly. Today nearly every city of 

 importance has changed its street railroad system from the slow-moving 

 ];orse-car to the well lighted and equipped car propelled by electricity. 



It is only of late years that the demand for rapid transit has become 

 so marked. This fact is due to the enormous increase of population in 

 our cities and the necessity of more efficient means to satisfy the needs 

 of the ever-hurrying American. 



It was by this necessity that men of the engineering profession 

 were called upon to show their ingenuity. The efforts of these men 

 have met with success beyond the hopes of all, but their success has 

 not been won without a struggle. 



In the year 1888 a few energetic men in the city of Richmond, Va., 

 came forward with the idea of transmitting power to a car by electricity 

 through an overhead wire. After striving against antagonized citizens, 

 and passing through the trials and difficulties common to inventors and 

 adventurers, a system was finally installed. 



This somewhat crude system established but twelve years ago stands 

 today as an elder parent to the excellent system of rapid transit by 

 power transmitted electrically which we now find existing throughout 

 our country. 



When we realize that the dynamo has been in practical use on!}' 

 about twenty-five years, and recall how poorly adapted the steam engine 



