ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1082, 13 March 1883, Page 3

ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.

Electric railways are likely to prove useful for short local lines whero the gradients are very steep or the atmosphere is apt to become close, is in the St, Gotbaid Tunnel and the Metropolitan District Railway. They are free from steam and coal smoke, or noise and cinders, and hence are peculiarly suitable for the interior of cities. Several schemes for building- them ere already promoted in the country, notnbly a tramway from Portrush to Bushnells, near the Giant's Causeway, in the North of Ireland, and n line under the Thames from Charing Cross to Waterloo, It has been proposed to

c-irry letters by underground post on this plan, and the suggestion is a good one. j for the distance traversed may be far greater than by pneumatic despatches now in vogue. In Paris, im electric railway has been projected along the Boulevards, and wr also learn that an electric tramway has been introduced into the bleachfieJda of the Breuil-en-Ange (Calvados), France, where It transports the linen to the ground with a cleanliness which could not be obtained with steam-power. As another application of electric power, it should also be mentioned that the same dynamo which pulls the waggons full ol' linen is also used to turn the reels which wind and unwind the webs of cloth as they are spread upon or lifted from the grass. The electric power in the case of the bleachfield tramway is not sent along the rails from the generator direct, but is derived at second-hand from 60 Faure secondary batteries or accumulators carried by the tender of the train.