ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 



Shortly after this, Prof. Moses G. Fanner, a dis- 

 tinguished American inventor and investigator, con- 

 structed an electro-magnetic locomotive, which drew a 

 little car, and carried passengers, on a track a foot and 

 a half wide. The locomotive used about fifty Grove 

 cells, which developed a relatively small amount of 

 energy at an enormous cost. 



"In 1850-51," says Martin, "Mr. Thomas Hall, of 

 Boston, exhibited a small working-motor on a track 

 forty feet long, at the Mechanics' Charitable Fair in 

 Boston, and while this was a mere toy, and used but 

 a couple of cells of battery, it sufficed to illustrate the 

 principles of a motor or locomotive with a single trial 

 car. About this time (1847) an interesting demonstra- 

 tion was also made with a small working-model, one of 

 the features of which has been most instrumental in the 

 success of the modem electric methods, that of the 

 utilization of the track as part of the return circuit for 

 the current. Doctor Colton, once a famous dentist in 

 New York City, and noted for his early application of 

 laughing-gas in that work, was associated with Mr. 

 Lilly in the construction and operation of a small model 

 locomotive which ran around a circular track. The 

 rails were insulated from each other, each connecting 

 with one pole of the battery. The current from the 

 battery was taken up by the wheels, whence it passed 

 to the magnets, upon whose alternating attraction and 

 repulsion motion depended; then it returned to the 

 other rail, connected the other pole of the battery, and 

 thus completed the circuit necessary for the flow of the 

 current. In like manner in a great majority in use at 



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