348 ELECTRICITY DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



The West End Company, with i^OO miles of track in and around 

 Boston, began to equip its lines in 1888 witli the Thomson-Houston 

 plant. The success of this g-reat undertaking left no doubt of the 

 future of electric traction. The difficulties which had seriously 

 threatened future success were gradualh^ removed. 



The electric railway progress was so great in the United States that 

 about January 1, 1891, there were more than 240 lines in operation. 

 About 30,000 horses and mules were replaced b}^ electric power in the 

 single year of 1891. In 1892 the Thomson-Houston interests and 

 those of the Edison General Company were merged in the General 

 Electric Compan}', an event of uinisual importance, as it brought 

 together the two great competitors in electric traction at that date. 

 Other electric manufacturers, chief among which was the Westing- 

 house Company, also entered the held and became prominent factors 

 in railway extension. In a few years horse traction in the United 

 States on tramway lines virtually disappeared. Many cable lines were 

 converted to electric lines, and projects such as the Boston Subway 

 began to l)e planned. Not the least of the advantages of electric 

 traction is the higher speed attainable with safety. The comfort and 

 cleanliness of the cars, lighted brilliantly at night and heated in win- 

 ter b}' the same source of energy which is used to propel them, are 

 impoitant factors. 



All these things, together with the great extension of the lines into 

 suburban and country districts, and the interconnection of the lines of 

 one district with those of another, can not fail to have had a decidedly 

 beneticial etfect upon the life, habits, and health of the people. While 

 the United States and Canada have been and still are the theater of 

 the enormous eh^ctric advance in electric traction, as in other electric 

 works, many electric car lines have in recent 3^ears been established in 

 Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe. Countries like Japan, 

 Australia, South Africa, and South America have also in operation 

 many electric trolley lines, and the work is rapidl}' extending. Most 

 of this work, even in Europe, has been carried out either by importa- 

 tion of equipment from America or by apparatus manufactured there, 

 but following American practice closely. The bulk of the work has 

 been done with the overhead wire and under running trolley, but there 

 are notable instances of the use of electric conductors in underground 

 slotted conduits, chief of which are the great S3"stems of street railway 

 in New York City. 



In Chicago the application of motor cars in trains upon the elevated 

 railway" followed directly upon the practical demonstration at the 

 World's Fair of the capabilities of third-rail electric traction on the 

 Intramural Elevated Railway, and the system is rapidly extending so 

 as to include all elevated city roads. A few yeai's will doubtless see 

 the great change accomplished. 



