SCIENCE 



[Entered at the Post-Offlee of New Yoi-k, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter.] 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Sevknth Year. 

 Vol. XIII. No. 318. 



NEW YORK, March 8, i88g. 



Single Copies, Ten Cents. 

 )3.5o Per Year, in Advanck. 



SOME NEW ELECTRIC RAILWAYS. 



We present in this issue a view taken from a photograph, last 

 summer, of one of the electric cars on the Naumkeag Street Rail- 

 way of Salem, Mass., of which Mr. Charles F. Odell is president. 

 This electric road was equipped during the past year by the 

 Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company of New York, for 

 the summer traffic between the city of Salem and a watering-place 

 about a mile or two away, known as the Willows. 



The cars ran very successfully all last summer while in use, 

 carrying large numbers of passengers, and giving perfect satisfac- 



includes the small No. 6 wire as a working conductor, which is 

 the only wire suspended over the centre of the track ; the main 

 current being carried at the side upon a heavy copper conductor, 

 which is connected at intervals of every one or two hundred feet to 

 the working conductor. 



One of the most important electric railways in the country is 

 that in operation at Cleveland, O., also on the Sprague system. 

 We present a view on the road, showing one of ihe Sprague cars 

 drawing another on Euclid Avenue. The road has been in opera- 

 tion now for about a month, and has carried a large number of 

 passengers, who are delighted with the new motive power, and the 



tion to the president and directors of the road, who, it is said, in- 

 tend adding more electric cars in the spring, and extending the line 

 as far as Beverly. 



The illustration which we give presents a good idea of the large 

 number of passengers which these cars often carry on pleasant 

 days during the summer. In spite of the heavy load, these cars 

 move with quickness and despatch, and mount the steep grades on 

 the line at the rate of eight or ten miles an hour. These grades, 

 before the introduction of electric power on the road, have often 

 compelled horses to succumb in drawing the heavily loaded cars. 



The regular^Sprague overhead system in use upon the road here 



quickness with which the cars can be started and stopped, their 

 speed, and the ease with which they mount the grades and round 

 the curves. The lighting of the cars by electricity is another great 

 advantage. 



The equipment of this road is similar to that of the Sprague 

 Electric Road in Boston, Mass. The poles used are of iron through- 

 out the entire length of the line, and the overhead work is un- 

 obtrusive, making the whole line-work unobjectionable. The 

 power-station for generating the current is one of the most com- 

 plete of its kind in the country. It is fitted with Edison dynamos, 

 Armington & Sims engines, and every thing is so arranged that its 



