Further developments in Electrioity.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 7 January 1892, Page 2

Further developments in Electrioity.

The New York Herald says that Thomas A. Edison, the electrical wizard, has just completed two inventions, before the wonderful and far-reaching results of which all his other remarkable discoveries are comparatively insignificant. One is tne practical application of electricity •• to the great railroad lines, by which a speed far beyond anything achieved by steam may be attained ; and^ the other is the application of electricity to the propulsion of street-cars without the use of the dangerous, unsightly, and inconvenient : overhead construction. The general principle of the street-car invention is that the electric current passes down through one line of rails, is picked up by the car, passes through the motor beneath it, and goes cut on the other side, and returns through to the other line of rails to the central power station. Mr Edison's other great ti discovery is to obviate the difficulty met in the attainment of a high speed on the ordinary steam railway* which is the interference %f steam. The injection and exhaust of the steam into and from the cylinders is so rapid in its alteration that beyond a certain limit it is impossible to work, and this is the inherent delect in all steam propulsion, because of the necessity of the conversion of reciprocating motion into rotary action. In the new electric motor this difficulty vanishes, and the limit of speed is only that of the endurance of the machinery and the strength of the tracks. With this invention of Mr Edison a speed of 100 miles or more an hour will be more easily attainable than the ordinary speed of fifty > to sixty miles an hour. This is also in the hands of the Edison General Electric Company, and negotiations are now in progress for the application of the system to one of the long lines of railway. ..*'.'.