The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY. NOVEMBER 15,1889. THE NEW FORCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2272, 5 November 1889, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY. NOVEMBER 15, 1889. THE NEW FORCE.

In writing of the new force we intend no reference to the Volunteers, to New Zealand's little standing army which is distinguished by the title of the Permanent Force, to the Australasian Federal Army of the future—the speedy creation of which is recommended by General tfdwards,nor to the gentlemen m blue who are* Supposed to spell force with two o's —the force we have m our mind's eye at the moment being that wdfcderful and occult fluid for the discovery of whose potentialities the world owes much to Franklin and still more to Edison—in a word, electricity. Already it is sending our messages from end to end of the eartb, annihilating time and distance; it carries tha very sound of our speech from place to place with a marvellous accuracy; it lights our ocean-going steamers and the streets of many of our cities ; and, if report speaks truly, it is to carry light ere long as it carries sound now, so that vision will have limits as wide as those it has given to hearing. But wonderful as its service is and promises yet to be m these respects, it is as a motive force, as the new force of the near future that it promises to be of the widest service v o civilisation. From time to time we have expressed the firm belief that electricity would yet be the motive power of the earth, and recent news of what is doing m the scientific world confims us m that opinion —nay, induces the belief 1 that very wonderful developments are •lose at hand. Only a few days ago we reprinted from the " New York Sua" , the salient features of a most interesting I account of the first practical application , of electricity man ocean-going vessel as a means of propulsion and the fact that the " Electron " —the vessel referred to —has made a most successful trial trip is worthy of note as one of the most remarkable achievements of the age. And now we come across an account of an electrical railway motor as used m New York, the success of which, to quote the writer, shows that " the possibilities of electricity for locomotive purposes are incalculable." We learn that a Mr Leo Daft (who is cer--1 tainly tbi very antipodes of his singularly inappropriate patronymic) j " one of the pioneers of electric traction ; m tbe United States, bas for six years past been seeking to solve the problem of working the New York elevated rail--1 ways by electricity. 1 hese railways convey an average of 500,000 passengers ■ daily. Upon a holiday held 80th April 1 last the number amounted to 835,721. [ The wear and tear on the lines is exces- [ sive, and Mr Daft believes it might be , reduced considerably, and the traffic be ' better effected by the use of electric , locomotives. He finds that an electric locomotive will draw a much heavier load than a steam locomotive of the same 1 I weight, which, m lines constructed upon iron after the fashion of the New

; York elevated railway, is of course, a most important consideration. Mr Daft obtained permission from the managers of the Manhattan railway to try experi--1 ments in drawing ordinary cars with his electric locomotive ' Ben Franklin,' and \ the results were most satisfactory. At , first the experiments were limited to ' three hours of the night when the track waß free, and the load was gradually increased until the train consisted of eight cars, of the type known to us as American, each weighing 12 tons. The portion of the line used had only one level piece in it of 2200ft in length, the rest being made up of gradients varying from ll'Sft to 98-7ft per mile. The performances of the locomotive were deemed bo admirable that it was allowed to take its place in the daytime from 11 until 2 — «d drag the cars in the ordinary traffic. As tram" 0D e^ ne » w *" c h rans through Ninth Avenue, *»* ™?S™? minute8 ' it will be recognised 2* the 8t T?. 8 • severe one, but the 'Ben A .. r «"u"^ performed its duty admirably, keeping" the time table, with steam impelled trains before and behind it, for a period of 30 days. These experiments took place early in the present year, and Mr Daft has since been engaged in the pro* duotion of a superior electric locomotive which he anticipates will be successful in displacing steam on city railways." In » paper on the subject read before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in June last Mr Daft asserts that the cost of traction by electrioity is 25 per cent less than that of traction by steam, and makes the startling announcement that electric motors are capable of climbing gradients of a steepness altogether impracticable to the steam engine. Thus wo read that "in a series of experiments made at the works of the Daft Company, Greenville, New Jersey, a a adjustable incline was constructed with a gradually increasing gradient, until the extraordinary angle of 2900ft per mile, or 54 9 per cent was reached. 'Jhe small motor used weighed 4501b, and this plus one man weighing 1541b, was started from the bottom of the gradient and ascended, being occasionally stoopped mid way and started again. When the final gradient was arrived at, the ascension was less easy and certain, though it was accomplished several times. An attempt to exceed it resulted in failure, so this was regarded as the maximum for the present. The achievement runs dead in the teeth of the axioms of mechanical science, and, as in the case of the first ocean steamer, is commonly declared to be impossible." In his paper Mr Daft quaintly says : — " I had written to a mechanical engineer of my acquaintance, stating the facts, and received in reply such an astonishing array of diagrams and mathematical proofs that this could not be done, that I actually went out into tho yard and had the motor perform the feat soveral times before I felt strong enough to write noy friend in a half apologetic way, acknowledging the soundness of his views, but being compelled to reiterate the statement that the thing was being done just as I nffirmed." It is suggested that is it possible that the electric motor <l may be helped by magnetic jattraction belwen its wheels and the iron rails, but nothing is yet known for certain respecting this unexpected and probably most useful phenomenon* Lastly it h stated " that the speed atL *ined on the level with the locomotive Ben FtdZ I ®* W$Q Wfetb'flTewe line.

was nearly 28 miles per hour, but (his is not to be looked upon as tbo limit of speed, as it was still increasing when a gradient was encountered." Under these circumstancss there seems ample warrant for tho belief that the electrolocomotive will ere long displace the steam engine from our iron roads, to tho great enhancement of tho safety and comfort of travellers by rail, and wo have' a'eo opened up the probability of our being able m tho near future to construct electric railroads through mountainous country at greatly U?B3 cost than it is now possible to lay a road for the steam engine owing to the fact that much steeper grades can be negotiated by electricity than by steam. In this respect the researches of Mr Daft and other electrical engineers are of a special interest to New Zealand whose rugged mountain barriers have hitherto rendered trans-insular railway projects co enormously costly.