| Show disadvantages OF THE 14 ELECTRIC MOTOR A FEW days ago we save gave some account of the successful operations of the electric system for street cars and it adoption in several cities we now present something on the other side all we are after is the public welfare we have no private project in view we have no system or company to condemn if changes are to be made we want to see the best system and the most responsible home company prevail we have no ax either to grind or take the edge off A chicago capitalist connected with an elevated railway broj project act has gated the claims of electricity as a motive power and has obtained data from all the places where it is in use or nas has been tested with the view of bringing it into operation in chicago if it was found to be successful we leara that his report was to the following effect correspondence was opened with the engineers in charge of electrical roads in various cities and in several instances personal investigation was made the result was that without a single exception cep tion none of f the electrical roads were claimed to be meeting the expectations of their promoters and so far as heavy traffic is concerned are yet utterly impracticable this includes the electrical roads at richmond va scranton pa minneapolis kansas city and a number of other cities in every case the electrical motor while feasible for single cars and light traffic at moderate speed has failed to demonstrate its applicability to large cities the engineers eng lueers who have made a special study of the electric motor all agree that it is yet but an experiment it is hoped that the time will come when electricity can be applied as a motor to elevated or other trains but that time has not yet arrived the storage battery from which so much was expected has loeen been practically abandoned in the fieldor field of experiment and the most successful method yet employed is the old fashioned electric wire running parallel with and above the cars it should be observed that these investigations were conducted with a view to the use of the electric motor for trains what is not suitable for heavy work and rapid transit may be the very thing for single cars and moderate speed the overhead over head wire seems to work well in richmond virginia and the speed there at least equals the cable system and is much faster than the horse car method occasional cas ional halts occur but the same may be said of the cable cars and even ot 61 mule male locomotion we hope the various systems will be well considered before anything is adopted permanently for salt lake is b u growing city and shoals have the best method ot of street car service one that will not only be suitable for the present but be adapted to the needs of a population many times larger than the census fi figures ures of to today day |
