ELECTEICITY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 383, 10 July 1889, Page 6

ELECTEICITY.

i- Sooner or later we are certain to have some 1 form of mechanical traction c adopted by our tramway * companies r which will be more certain and less ■- costly than a stud of horses. Steam and n compressed air have been tried with very •- indifferent success, and cable haulage is costly, and attended with many disadvantages. Electricians believe that the future lies with them, and tramway companies have been eagerly watching: the experiments which have been made during the ? past two years in Europe and America 0 * to develop a practical system. The r three possible methods of running tramcare " electrically are : — (1) By carrying B charged accumulators; (2) by fixed con0 ductors charged from a stationary engine, 2 and dynamo at the generating station, and distributing electricity to the cars in j ' parallel ' or, as it is otherwise named, the • multiple arc ' method ; and (3) also by j. fixed conductors charged from a stationary ? engine and dynamo at the generating [. station, but distributing the electricity to t the cars in : series,' as it is termed. The , practicability of the last of these three ' r methods has been demonstrated by the Series Electrical Traction Syndicate ' (Limited), who have laid down a line at , Northfleec three-quarters of a mile in length. The road appears at first sight to be an ordinary tramway, but under one of the rails there is a conduit in which the 1 electric cable is laid, and through a slot in the rail fin. wide contact is made between i the underground conductor and the car '. motor. At intervals of 21ft there are contact points constructed of two gunmetal cheeks pressed closely together by means of spiral springs. Each car carries with it what is called a 'current collector.' It is an india-rubber or leather belt 26ft. long, or slightly longer than the car, and 6in. deep. This current collecter, which is connected with the motor placed between the wheels underneath the floor of the car, moves in tho conduit beneath the rail, and as it makes its way between the contact points the electric current is diverted through tho motor. Before the collector leaves one contact point it forms good contact with tho one next ahead, and thus, although the car is continually moving, the current passes through the motor in constant quantity. It makes no difference as to the number of cars on the track, as the current passes through each car in exactly the same way as a current passes through each telegraph instrument on a line, or through each arc-light on a circuit. . The oars afc present in use carry twenty inside, and no outside passengers. They are worked from either end, two levers on each platform controlling the motor. The roadway in which the tramway is laid has a pretty steep gradient, and, on account of its narrowness, several sharp bends, so that the conditions are not favourable ; but none the less the cars run smoothly and rapidly, stop quickly without any jerk, and go forward and backward with equal facility. The Series system has been in operation on a large scale for a considerable time in the United States, with, overhead conductors. That would not be permitted in this country, but now that it has been perfected so as to adapt ib to underground conduits, the expectation of the Syndicate is that it will be largely introduced here. .They contend that nob only is it the best system .of mechanical traction yet invented, but that it is cheaper than every other form, and that, as compared with horses, tramways can be operated by it at less than one-half the cost. ' Even allowing for over-sanguine calculations, ib is evident that the Series system has a, future before it. Yesterday directors of tramway companies from Glasgow, Liverpool, Dudley, Dover, and other placeß visited the line.—* Pall Mall Budget, j