454 History of Inland Transport 



wires, conveying electric current to the cars, was in Kansas 

 City in 1884. Electric tramways were tried in Leeds in 1891, 

 and the system was afterwards adopted in many other towns. 

 Underground conduit and surface-contact systems were also 

 employed, with a view to avoiding overhead wires, to which 

 widespread objection was, especially at first, entertained ; 

 but the latter system has been the one generally adopted. 



Development of the tramway system in England was slow 

 on account, not of any lack of enterprise on the part of 

 business men, but of the discouraging nature of tramway 

 legislation. 



Just about the time when the original horse tramways 

 began to come into vogue certain local authorities were cherish- 

 ing strong grievances against the gas and water companies in 

 their districts. They complained that the charges of these 

 companies were extortionate and that the terms they asked, 

 when invited to dispose of their undertakings to the said local 

 authorities, were excessive. The companies, nevertheless, 

 controlled the situation because their Parliamentary powers 

 represented a permanent concession, and because, also, they 

 were able to fix their own price in any negotiations upon 

 which they might be invited to enter. 



When the introduction of another public service, in the 

 form of street tramways, seemed likely to create still another 

 " monopoly," it was thought desirable to prevent the tram- 

 way companies from attaining to the same position as that 

 of the gas and water companies. Powers were accordingly 

 granted to enable the local authorities, if they so desired, to 

 acquire the undertakings, at the end of a certain period, on 

 terms which would be satisfactory to themselves, at least. 



It was motives such as these that inspired some of the main 

 provisions of the Tramways Act of 1870, the full title of which 

 is " An Act to Facilitate the Construction and to Regulate the 

 Working of Tramways " ; though in a statement presented to 

 a Committee on Electrical Legislation of the Institution of 

 Electrical Engineers, in 1902, the late Sir Clifton Robinson, 

 manager of the London United Tramways Company, declared 

 that "if it had been described as an Act to discourage the 

 construction of tramways it would have better described the 

 action of some of its clauses." 



The Act did, undoubtedly, confer certain advantages on 



