Show electricity IN COURT the suit of the rocky mountain n bell telephone company vs the salt lake city treet street railway company commence before judge zane sane duly uy 19 in the third district court the basis of the action is that the street car company is putting its overhead cable wire to transmit electricity to the cars on the streets that are partly occupied by the telephone company and the latter jatter wants the railway shut out on the ground that damage will result from the wires running parallel the telephone company asks an injunction forbidding the railroad from establishing the electric system on south temple first south and second west streets and alleges that if the electric wire along the railroad be placed in a position necessary to operate the cars the telephone companas comp anys arlys business will be interfered with by induction so that the telephone instruments cannot tx used to good advantage because cause of the noise made by the induced current and the rattle of the cars that it is probable that some of the employed emp loyes of the telephone company will be injured and that the art articles leles of incorporation 0 of f and grant by the city to the railway company do not authorize the use of electricity as a motive power the railway company replies that it is authorized by its articles of association and grant to use electricity that their wires are properly insulated so that is possible to users of the telephone that there will be no interference whatever by induction from the street car wire even though it were placed at a much less lem distance than it is at present and in fact that there is no ground whatever for the complaint of tile the telephone company the first witness called by mr williams attorney for the telephone company was ROBERT M JONES who is ed constructing instructing the electrical works for the street railway he testified that the line on first south street etwas was constructed the wires are suspended on insulators on poles 25 feet high the trolley wire was on the ends of the crow cross beams two and a half feet below the feed wire connections were made with the trolly wire at intervals of about feet the electric current passes through the motor on the car to the rails which are bonded by no 4 copper wire and convey the current back to the station to the negative dynamo both rails are bonded together and constitute the conductor for the return current of electricity the feed wire or overhead cable is connected with the positive dynamo while the rail bringing the return current is connected with the negative dynamo there is no insulation from the rail into the ground the feed wire is insulated with rubber insulators and is less than J of an inch witla out the insulation the trolley wire is i of an inch the feed wire is entirely covered to guard against contact with other wires or materials the feed wire is not left bare in any place its covering is part of its manufacture manufacture and increases the diameter to J of an inch there Is a grounding of the electric current by metallic plates at the ends of the rails reaching down to a point of moisture in the earth the current is also grounded at the electric house near the dynamos to mr rawlins the feed wire carries from to volts the volt is the standard of electric power the ele electric etric current are arc system here ranges from 1500 to 2000 volts the incandescent system Is still higher to judge zane the electricity is communicated from the dynamo to the feed wire then to the trolley wire then to the motor in the car and through the rails back to the other side of them the dynamo if a child steps on the rail there is no effect as there is but one current of electricity tri city there must be a connection of the two currents to have any effect whatever D S MURRAY MURKAY testified that he was man manager er of the rocky bocky mountain bell telephone I 1 ephone company in salt lake most of the zes wires are on first south street we have subscribers the wires on the street railroad poles are directly under the telephone wires the feed wire is 6 feet 8 3 inches under our lower wires outside of the fire limits inside of those limits the distance is greater in two wires r running u a parallel the current of one is carried to the other by sympathy or induction th the p curlent on a telephone wa wire J ay iy s very small from J to 2 volts from the proximity of the railroad cable or feed line the telephone would be interfered with withey bya a humming no noie noe noi e and when the car was close to where the instrument was being used there would be a rattling noise the return current would also be likely to go over the telephone wire in sufficient force to ring the bell or burn out an drop to mr rawlins induction would be no greater under our wires than alongside inthe in the outer part of town we do not conform to the city ordina ordinance uce requiring telephone wires to be not less than 30 feet from the ground if we had conformed to the ordinance our wires duld be ten feet from froin the railroad feed wire insulation d does 0 e S not change the effect of induction I 1 think the proximity of the feed wire would render our instruments valueless near your office are three electric light wires wires carrying from 1500 to 2000 volts each within two feet of the telephone eirv they are at right angles therefore there there is no appreciable induction but if they were parallel the electric light current would be worse than that from the railroad feed wire I 1 cannot say how much some of the electric light wires run parallel and within six feet of our wires for a short distance and do not interfere with us induction is felt less as the distance increases the witness was further examined as to his technical knowledge of the science of electricity taking up the time till the afternoon axce except t T ina in a very few cases he replied fh that at he was unable to answer the que question fAlon propounded upon the relative effects of electric currents A A MOULTON was called as a witness for the plain tiff he testified that he was co cons decked with the united electrio Klec trio company of this city and was well versed in the science of electrical electricity r t having been engaged in the bu boap ness for the past eight years th three years of which were spent in th experimental station of thomson houston company of boston bofto where a system of street motors U manufactured and from his know knowledge of telephones he said t the sprague motor system would very materially interfere wa the workings of the telephone on there is 18 a system of ea electa C cars which uses storage bastert placed in every car each car carry 1 ing its own electricity and fro 1 which there will be no 1 leakage a the wires of the electric railroad ii and telephone will parallel each other for a distance of three miles S 0 more and the chief diffley difficulty t Y w wass arise from leakage e there will abal be considerable difficulty ex expert ence encee d from induction he sta A an instance where telephone lin lanag had been placed parallel for th three miles one wire being on poles ah and tile the other under ground when con 1 co conversation ti carried on over 0 02 wire co could uld be distinctly heard 0 ov the other it is very often the cm that telegraph lines parallel tel phone lill lines es in which cavi an operator can distinctly read message going over the heleg telegram tele grac wires while listening at the teto phone As the rails and earth are used to form a return circuit in toe sprague system the electrical electricity readily be carried away ejk the earth if the resistance of tw earth was low to make the clu curl rent more perfect ground plater pla could be used on a return wire placed near the track under this system dyste va the ground wires of the telephone and street car line would inter interfered this difficulty has been berned somewhat by removing the tele phoi ground a quarter of a mile a awe from the carbine the injury to F telephones will be much grea from the car line than ihan from 1 electric light although the J ter c carries arrie a nearly five times chauy any volts of electricity be becaj the car line will parallel th the phone about sixteen times th the d dis tance the effect of the ea light on the telephone is to cause il continual hum and buzz the on way I 1 know of overcoming the d difficulty is for the car line to put in if return wire and make a metallic current by using the xi turn wire the two would neutral neutra neutralism lim each other and there would be a leakage this has been done wl wu other systems of electric rail railway and I 1 see no reason why it could i be done with the sprague T buzzing sound to be heard in 1 telephone is caused by the cariati varia tic of the current as no dyni daya has bag ever yet ben been made 4 generates a perfectly steady rent in cross examination the wit was asked whether the company could not easier run a turn wire and overcome this Is d dl culty to which he replied that could be done but it would n tate the running of another 1 park city ogden and all other outside stations in order to complete the circuit Themo the more rewires wires that parallel each other the less in influence will be felt by emich each wire OHAM LEfi BROWN manager of the western union Tede telegraph graph office in this pity city testified that he was actual acquainted A ted with the effects of an overhead electric ear car line in council bluffs he said the he telephones lep ones were not rendered entirely useless but that it was very difficult cult to use them many sub ger ibers threatening to take out their instruments he had been in the central office of the telephone company n y and nd noticed the annuncio ard tore drop ro p when a car passed under a telephone dephone wire and diagonally to it IL A deposition was then offered in teer by the prosecution from 1 E B FIELD general no ra 1 manager of the colorado kelepi telephone h one company at denver shaung the difficulties encountered from the electric car line which wim WB in use fifteen months in that objections were made to taking chii as evidence because there was oo no mention made of the system wed joed there after which court ad to 10 adock a m july 21 when hen the case was ada adjourned ruined C D VAILE was the first witness of the telephone company testified that in ids ate 0 opinion nion the telephone service voula would be interfered with if the mine were to touch the instruments would be burned out to mr kr I 1 think a ewt current would not kill but would produce an unpleasant shock there would be danger to bior linemen from the street car feed W to get any shock he would to touch two wires to comi the circuit I 1 know of no ont of the kind the denver himml complained of had bad an electric cement 1 nt of volts in that case it f yaw an underground wire that is to the system here we the interference with the ati fe phone hone wire by putting U up wires we had no false calls I 1 jin not an but am ac with the practical work of the telephone system in ging a wire and pawing passing it over bracket holding the street car wire there would be danger to employed emp eaV loyes our men we use rubber rss but I 1 would not trust any on the athe affidavits from denver of previously were admitted in nee these affidavits recited ices ces where electric light and ie cable wires had caused an boce to the telephone systems reading of these affidavits took alost of the morning session 0 F ANNETT daffer of the telephone bom company pany idled A that he had been associated in electric systems over 25 years I 1 been a telegraph operator till tili years ago our service here is more satisfactory than in most eastern cities we have interference from telegraph lines where they parallel ours any distance to mr rawlins when on the union pacific when we had to volts one wire interfered with the other about 1 16 10 of the time where they were parallel for several hundred miles two articles in the electrical he be view kew were introduced in evidence and the plaintiff rested THE DEFENSE opened by introducing its grant of a franchise by the city the amendments thereto and the articles of association and court took recess the first witness for the defense de feise was F P LEWIS who testified that he was the electrical engineer of the sprague company and had received class instructions in and had been engaged in the experimental department dep artmen of the sprague company for eighteen months since which time he had been out on the road establishing carbines for that company the first line put in at richmond was in 1887 and consisted of sixteen miles of track and fifty care can since which time forty more cars have been ordered and the track extended eighteen miles originally they put in a return wire which was afterward abandoned as useless and a ground used instead at the time the system was first put in I 1 pr presume estime there was at least five times as much loss as at present it now not being over two per cent the system has gradually been perfected and I 1 think that now no improvements of LM importance P will be made for at least ten I 1 years in boston there are twelve miles of double track of the sprague system and sixteen of the thomson houston when I 1 left new york there were fifty four roads including those in operation and those for which material had been ordered since bince the sprague system has been introduced they have not made a single failure the system to be constructed in this city will consist at first of seven and one half miles of track which will be operated by a no 82 92 edison dyna mo current is to carried by a feeder consisting of a thoroughly insulated no 2 soft copper wire the covering is made of hemp string belac 8 and asphaltum which constitute the best insulation known this feeder runs ruins parallel with the trolley wire and taps it every feet this is done so that if the line should break it would not be dead along the entire length the current passes from the trolley wire through the car and to the rails and ground the maximum voltage of the line will be while at a distance of from one to one and a half miles it will be or volts the trolley wire is constantly charged being connected with the feeder the instant the car reaches a point where the connection is broken on the rail it produces a flash and the car jerks as though it had struck a snag there is no danger from the rails or wire as I 1 have received shocks from it more than one hundred times and I 1 think a man could not be killed by it of course it would shake him up considerably the current is in the rail only when the car is directly averit over it in n order to test the injurious effects it would have on persons and stock crossing the track I 1 applied a galvanometer which showed no indication di of electricity andl afterward put my tongue to the rail and found no sensation in new york there is one car running by the storage battery system but as this requires a central centra office in every car and an experienced electrician to run it besides adding to the cost of each car it will not become popular at least not until some important invent inventions loins have been made in storage batteries the double trolley or metallic circuit was the first system we tried but it has never been successfully operated one of that kind is in in pitts burg but we now have a contract to replace it with the sprague system from my knowledge and from the fact that the sprague system has nearly the double number of lines in operation of any other company and starting after them I 1 think we have the most perfect system in existence the thompson houston system is 18 similar elarto to ours and there are now several cases in court const contesting Dg the rights of the two comp companies antes and it is only a matter of time when one or ar the other will be compelled to cease operations |