34 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 336 



INDUSTRIAL NOTES. 

 The Popularity of Electric Cars. 



It is extremely interesting to note that a few evenings ago a 

 mass meeting of citizens was held in Cleveland, O., to urge the 

 extension of the electric-railway system in that city. When the 

 East Cleveland Street Railway Company, about a year since, pro- 

 posed to install an electric line of cars on Euclid Avenue and 

 several other principal streets in that city, there was a general 

 protest by the residents along the proposed route who had never 

 seen any lines in electrical operation, and others, against the erec- 

 tion of poles and overhead lines. Objections to railway pole lines 

 in cities where there have been no electric cars are natural, in view 

 of the kinds of pole lines which are often installed by telegraph 

 and telephone companies ; but, as the intention of the East Cleve- 

 land Street Railway Company was to install iron poles, the objec- 

 tions were finally overruled, and the line was equipped with the 

 overhead system, using iron poles, and operating sixteen Sprague 

 electric cars. The route extended over some of the handsomest 

 residential streets and principal business thoroughfares, and used 

 the regular Sprague overhead system, with the small No. 6 silicon 

 bronze trolley wire as a working conductor, carrying the main por- 

 tion of the current on an insulated main wire at the side of the 

 street. The success of the road has been marked from its very 

 start. The residents have been given a method of transit more 

 convenient and more rapid than they had ever before enjoyed, 

 without any disfigurement of the streets by hideous elevated-rail- 

 road structures. The system rose rapidly in popularity with resi- 

 dents and property-owners as its advantages became recognized, 

 and real estate along the route of the electric railway increased 

 greatly in value, in a number of cases bringing double or triple its 

 former price. With this change there was a very noticeable 

 change in the tone of the Cleveland press, which rapidly changed 

 from a spirit of opposition to the electrical method of rapid transit 

 to a spirit of friendliness and approbation. The railway company 

 have already increased their equipment, adding eight more to their 

 original order of sixteen cars from the Sprague Company. 



The meeting held the other evening was largely attended, and 

 was for the purpose of urging the railway company to still further 

 extension of their line, and to simplify their facilities of rapid 

 transit. The meeting in Doan's Armory on Euclid Avenue, Cleve- 

 land, was presided over by Mr. W. E. Sherwood. After the an- 

 nouncement of the purposes of the meeting, which was received 

 with great enthusiasm, a committee, consisting of Judge E. M. 

 Heisly, Gen. Edward S. Meyer, and Mr. George H. Foster, were 

 appointed to draw up a resolution. 



The resolution which was presented by these gentlemen, and 

 which was unanimously adopted, read as follows ; " Resolved, 

 That it is the sense of this meeting that the public convenience of 

 the city of Cleveland requires and demands that the electric-motor 

 system shall be extended to the Public Square, and, if necessary to 

 that end for the East Cleveland Railroad, that it lay its tracks on 

 Euclid Avenue from Case Avenue to the Public Square, if consent 

 can be obtained ; and the gentlemen present pledge themselves to 

 do all in their power to obtain that consent for the company." 



This action of the citizens of Cleveland is simply another ex- 

 ample of the popularity of the electric system of street-car propul- 

 sion in every city where it has been adopted. 



Electric Rapid Transit in Cleveland. 



Among the cities which are rapidly coming to the front as lead- 

 ing in rapid-transit facilities by the application of electricity, there 

 is none, perhaps, where the advantages of electric power for street- 

 cars are more thoroughly recognized than in the city of Cleveland, 

 O. Though it is only about nine months since the first electric 

 cars were put into operation upon the streets of that city, the 

 Cleveland public have become enthusiastic over this method of 

 transit, and the number of electric cars in that city is rapidly ex- 

 tending. 



Last week a new extension to the East Cleveland Electric Rail- 

 way was opened in Cleveland on Prospect Street and Euclid 

 Avenue, and the first car ran over the line with the president and 



secretary of the road, and electricians in charge, as freight. It is 

 the intention of the East Cleveland Company to operate si.xty 

 motor-cars on this line with two minutes and a half headway, and 

 all horses will be removed from the line as soon as the motor-cars 

 are equipped with the Sprague motors which have been ordered. 



It is said that the experiment will be tried of running these cars 

 at the rate of about eleven miles an hour through the city ; and it is 

 not thought that the city council will object to this, since it is a 

 well-known fact that electric cars operated at this speed are much 

 safer to the general public than horse-cars run at only six miles an 

 hour, as the electric cars can be stopped very much more quickly 

 than cars propelled by animal power. 



It is an interesting fact, in connection with this road, to note the 

 popularity of the electric cars with the passengers and property- 

 owners along the line. In Cleveland, at a public meeting recently, 

 which was presided over by some of the most prominent citizens, 

 resolutions were passed commenting on the successful operation 

 of the Sprague electric road ; and the East Cleveland Company 

 was requested to extend the motor-line in several directions, in 

 order to improve the transit facilities. These resolutions were 

 adopted unanimously by the large number of citizens who were 

 present. 



The equipment of the East Cleveland Company includes, besides 

 a number of the old type of Sprague motors, a number of cars 

 equipped with the new style of motors, and the additions to the 

 equipment will be all of this class of motor. Cleveland deserves a 

 prominent place among the leading " electrical cities " on this con- 

 tinent. 



A Pioneer Electric Line Re-organized. 



One of the first electric street-railways in this country, the 

 Washington Street, Asylum, and Park Railway of Binghamton, 

 N.Y., has recently had its entire equipment changed, in order to 

 meet the latest and most approved ideas of electric-railway science. 

 The first equipment was installed about two years ago, and the 

 changes which are being made illustrate the advances which have 

 been accomplished in electric-railway science, and they show the 

 difference between the ideas which were prevalent two years ago 

 and those illustrated in the motor appliances of to-day. 



The motor cab, which occupied the front of the car under the 

 old style of electric railway, will be entirely dispensed with, and 

 the motors will be placed underneath the cars, as in all the modern 

 electric railways. The overhead overrunning trolley, and the 

 method of carrying all the current over the track on a single con- 

 ductor, have been abandoned for the latest Sprague methods in 

 this case. The motive power also will be under the more com- 

 plete control of the driver, and all degrees of speed in both direc- 

 tions are obtainable by movements of a single switch, so that the 

 car can be propelled either backwards or forwards with equal ease 

 and rapidity. 



The cable-lines, which formerly it was found necessary to operate 

 at either end of the road on account of the heavy grades at these 

 points, will be things of the past, as the Sprague motors will be of 

 sufficient power to propel the cars up these grades ; and the trip 

 from one end of the line to the other will be made without change. 



It is interesting to note the increase of efficiency of the motors, 

 as indicated by the statement which is made, that the management 

 of the railway company has completed a contract for power at 

 nearly one-half less than the amount called for by the previous 

 contract. 



The cars will each be equipped with Sprague improved motors 

 of 15 horse-power each, with all the latest improvements and de- 

 vices in use by the Sprague Company upon any of the roads 

 equipped with their machines. These cars will each be able to tow 

 one ordinary car. The re-organization and re-equipment of this 

 road are applauded by the citizens and papers of Binghamton, who 

 anticipate improved rapid-transit facilities on the new road. 



How to take Money to Europe. 



Messrs. E. J. Matthews & Co., 2 Wall Street, New York, the 

 American agents of the Cheque Bank, Limited, of London, have 

 issued a little pamphlet containing a list of tradespeople who will 

 accept checks of the Cheque Bank as cash in payment of bills. 



