ELECTRICITY DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 347 



lated third lail. Siemens & Halske, of Berlin, used a special form of 

 overhead supply in 1881, and durintr the electrical exhibition in Paris 

 in that year a street tramway line was run by them. Later Edison 

 experimented with a third rail supply line at Menlopark, and at 

 Portrush, in Ireland, an actual railway was put into operation by 

 Siemens & Halske using the third rail system. This was about 1883. 

 The power of the Portrush lailway was that of a water wheel diiving 

 the generating dynamo. 



The modern overhead trolley, or underrunning trolley, as it is 

 called, seems to have been first invented })y Van Depoelc, and used 

 by him in practical electric railway work about 1886 and thereafter. 

 The universality of this invention for overhead supply marks the 

 device as a really impcn-tant advance in the art of electric traction. 

 Van Depoele was also a pioneer in the use of an underground conduit, 

 which he employed successful h' in Toronto in 1884. The names of 

 Edward M. Bentley and Walter H. Knight stand out prominently in 

 connection with the first use of an underground conduit, tried under 

 their plans in August, 1884, at Cleveland, on the tracks of the horse 

 railwa}' company. 



We have l)arely outlined the history of the electric motor railway 

 up to the beginning of a period of wonderful development result- 

 ing in the almost complete replacement by electric traction of horse 

 traction or tramway lines, all within an interval of s(;arcely more than 

 ten years. 



The year 1888 ma}' be said to mark the beginning of this work. In 

 that year the Sprague Company, with Frank J. Sprague at its head, 

 put into operation the electric line at Richmond, Va., using the under- 

 running trollev. Mr. Sprague had been associated with PMison in 

 early traction work, and was well known in connection with electric 

 motor work in general. The Richmond line was the first large under- 

 taking. It had about 13 miles of track, numerous curves, and grades 

 of from 3 to 10 per cent. The enterprise was one of great hardihood, 

 and but for ample financial backing and determination to spare no 

 effort or expenditure conducive to success, must certainly have failed. 

 The motors were too small for the work, and there had not been found 

 any proper substitute for the metal commutator brushes on the 

 motors— a source of endless trouble and of an enormous expense for 

 repairs. Nevertheless, the Richmond installation, kept in operation 

 as it was in spite of all difficulties, served as an object lesson and had 

 the effect of convincing Mr. Henry M. Whitney and the directors of 

 the West End Street Railway of Boston of the feasibility of equipping 

 the entire railway system of Boston electrically. :Mean while the 

 merging of the Van Depoele and Bentley-Knight interests into the 

 Thomson -Houston Electric Light Company brought a new factor into 

 the field, the Sprague interests being likewise merged with the Edison 

 General Electric Company. 



