ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 



From the very first this road gave promise of success. 

 The tireless genius of Edison was constantly finding 

 and correcting defects, and there was every prospect 

 that in a few months a practical and economical electric 

 railway would be an accomplished fact. Then came 

 the financial crash of the Northern Pacific Railway, 

 involving the fortune of Mr. Villard, and tying the hands 

 of the inventor at Menlo Park for the time being. 



The year following, however, Mr. Field and Mr. 

 Edison combined their forces and formed a company 

 for perfecting and constructing electric locomotives and 

 railways. In the same year an electric railway was put 

 in operation at the Chicago Railway Exposition, the 

 chief promoters of this enterprise being Messrs. Field, 

 F. B. Rae, and C. O. Mailloux. In the gallery of the 

 building a circular track, something like a third of a 

 mile in length, was laid, and on this an electric locomo- 

 tive named The Judge hauled a single car which carried 

 over twenty-six thousand passengers in the month of 

 June. In the autumn of the same year. The Judge was 

 used for hauling passengers on a track at the Louisville 

 Exposition. It was capable of attaining a speed of 

 twelve miles an hour, and its average speed was eight 

 miles. It was twelve feet long over all, weighed some- 

 thing like three tons, and, like Edison ^s locomotive, 

 was equipped with cowcatcher, headlight, and cab. 

 The current was taken from a surface, or feed rail, by 

 means of bundles of phosphor-bronze wire, so arranged 

 that a good clean contact would be made on each side of 

 the rail whether the car was moving forward or back- 

 ward. 



[183] 



