252 APPLIED SCIENCE 



TELPHER AGE. . 



IN the first place, it is necessary that I should define what is 

 meant by this word ' telpherage,' and, perhaps, that I should 

 defend its formation. The word is intended to designate all 

 modes of transport effected automatically with the aid of elec- 

 tricity. According to strict rules of derivation, the word would 

 be ' telephorage ; ' 2 but in order to avoid confusion with ' tele- 

 phone,' and to get rid of the double accent in one word, which is 

 disagreeable to my ear, I have ventured to give the new word 

 such a form as it might have received after a few centuries 

 of usage by English tongues ; and to substitute the English 

 sounding ' telpher ' for c telephore.' In the most general sense 

 telpher lines include such electric railway lines as were first 

 proposed by my colleagues, Messrs. Ayrton and Perry. The 

 word would also describe lines such as I have seen proposed in 

 the newspapers for the conveyance of small parcels at extremely 

 rapid rates. But to-night I shall confine myself entirely to the 

 one specific form in which the telpher line first presented itself 

 to my mind, and which it has fallen to my lot to develop. In 

 this form telpher lines are adapted for the conveyance of minerals 

 and other goods at a slow pace, and at a cheap rate. The problem 

 which occurred to me was this : Was it not really possible to send 

 vehicles, by means of electricity, along a single suspended Avire 

 or rod in fact, to telegraph goods and passengers instead of mes- 

 sages ? The idea is familiar as a joke, but, on consideration, it 

 appeared that there might be good grounds for supposing that 

 the idea was both practicable and useful. I am now able to show 

 you the realisation of that idea, and the result of experiments on 

 a large and practical scale has, I think, justified the arguments 



1 A paper read before the Society of Arts, May 14, 1884. 



2 The ' o ' is found in all compounds of this root, as in \a^ira5r]<p6pos, Kpto- 

 <(>6pos t or, to take a more familiar example, phosphorus. 



