ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 



CABLE SYSTEMS 



Even in the early days of street-railway construction 

 the extravagance of the method of horse-power trac- 

 tion was fully appreciated, and the numerous improve- 

 ments in steam-engines stimulated attempts to adapt 

 the locomotive in some form to city railways. But 

 there were many difficulties in the use of the ordinary, 

 or specially constructed, locomotives in the crowded 

 thoroughfares of the larger cities. It was practically 

 impossible to eliminate their smoke ; and their puffing 

 and wheezing, which frightened horses, caused numer- 

 ous accidents. But even if these defects could be cor- 

 rected, the locomotive was known to be an expensive 

 form of motive power, when applied to a single short 

 car, carrying at most only a few passengers and making 

 frequent stops, as was necessary in street-car traffic. 

 The inventors, therefore, looked about for other methods 

 of applying steam power. But it was not until 1873 

 that this idea took the practical form of the cable road, 

 on which single cars could be operated by means of 

 underground cables travelling in slotted tubes, and 

 propelled from a stationary power-plant. 



The first practical cable system was made by Andrew 

 S. Hallidie, and his associates, who planned and put 

 into operation the first cable line in San Francisco. 

 It proved to be entirely successful, and was imitated 

 almost immediately in most of the larger cities of the 

 United States, and in some European cities. Within 

 a decade the number of cable railways installed had so 

 reduced the number of horses necessary for operating 

 VOL. vn. — za [l??] 



