CHAPTER XI.

Historical Notes-Fontaine's Discovery-Figuier's Explanation-Early Patent of Pinkus-Early Electro-Motors-Page's Electric RailwayPloughing by Electricity at Sermaize-Electric Cranes-Ventilating and Pumping by Electricity-Modern Electric Railways-Different Systems -Comparative Merits of Battery System and Conductor System-The Bessbrook-Newry Electric Railway-The Blackpool Electric Tramway— The Telpher Line at Glynde-Reckenzaun's Electric Tramcar-Comparative Estimates for Horse Traction and Electric Traction.

THE discovery of the principle that mechanical energy may be transmitted over considerable distances by the employment of two dynamo machines and a conductor, is commonly ascribed to M. Hippolyte Fontaine, who has in a recent pamphlet1 given a detailed account of the way he was led to make the invention. Since the matter is now of historical interest, an abbreviated translation of M. Fontaine's account is here given. M. Hippolyte Fontaine says:—

"On the 1st of May, 1873, the International Exhibition in Vienna was formally opened, although the machinery hall, which was as yet incomplete, remained closed until the 3rd of June. I was engaged with the arrangement of a series of exhibits, then shown for the first time in public. There was a Gramme dynamo for electro-plating, capable of delivering 400 amperes at

1 "Transmissions Electriques," by Hippolyte Fontaine. Baudry & Cie, Paris.

25 volts, a magneto machine which I intended to work as a motor from a primary battery, or from a Plauté accumulator, in order to demonstrate that the Gramme dynamo is reversible. There was also a steam-engine of my invention arranged for coke firing, and a small motor of the same type, but arranged for gas-firing; a centrifugal pump, which was intended to feed an artificial waterfall, and numerous other exhibits. To vary the experiments, I had arranged the pump so that it could receive motion either from the Gramme magneto machine or from my steam-engine. On the 1st of June it was announced that the machinery hall would be formally opened by the Emperor on the 3rd, at 10 a.m. Nothing was then in readiness, but those who have been in similar situations know how much can be got into order in the space of forty-eight hours just before the opening of an exhibition. In every department members of the staff, with an army of workmen under their orders, were busy clearing away packing-cases and decorating the spaces allotted to the different nations. The staff visited all the exhibits in order to determine which of them should be selected for the special notice of the Emperor.

"M.Roullex Duggage, the French Commissioner, asked me to set in motion all the machinery on my stand, and on the 2nd of June I was so far ready as to get the steam-engines, the plating dynamo, and the centrifugal pump to work. I failed, however, to get the motor into action, either from the primary or from the secondary battery. This was a great disappointment, especially because it prevented my showing the reversibility of the Gramme dynamo. It puzzled me the whole of the evening and ensuing night to find a means to accomplish my object, and it was only in the morning of the 3rd of June,

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a few hours before the exhibition was to be opened, that the idea struck me to work the small machine by a derived circuit from the large machine. Since I had no cable, I applied to the representative of Messrs. Manhes, of Lyons, who was kind enough to lend me a small quantity; and when I saw that the magneto machine when coupled to the plating dynamo was not only set in motion, but developed so much power as to throw the water from the pump beyond the reservoir, I added more cable until the flow of water became normal. The total length of cable in circuit was then over two kilometers, and this great length gave me the idea that by means of two Gramme machines it would be possible to transmit mechanical energy over long distances."

Another version of this discovery, as given by M. Figuier, is that it was purely accidental. He says that at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873 the Gramme Company ad two machines exhibited. One machine was in motion nd the other was standing still. A workman noticed ome cable ends trailing on the ground, and thinking they belonged to the machine which was standing, placed hem in its terminals. To the surprise of everybody the machine immediately began to turn of its own accord, and hen it was discovered that it was being worked by the urrent from the other machine.

Whichever of these two versions may be the true one, ; is certain that the electric transmission of energy was nown at least as early as 1873, but there is reason to elieve that the idea is even older. Dr. W. Adams, in paper "On the Evolution of the Electric Railway," tates that in 1840 one Henry Pinkus obtained from the

is

1 Read in 1884 before the Society of Civil Engineers, America.

United States Patent Office provisional protection for his invention of an electric railway. The power was to be obtained from an electric motor-placed on the car-and set in motion by the current obtained from huge batteries. Since the latter were supposed to be buried in the ground the current must have been led to the car over some distance, and Dr. Adams says that the principle of the transmission of the current to the car while in motion for the purpose of effecting its propulsion, was the same as that used nowadays.

Thus we see that the earliest attempts at electric transmission of energy were made in combination with the problem of electric locomotion, and the following is a brief summary of the various stages the invention has passed through, as given by Dr. Adams. For fuller particulars the reader is referred to the paper already mentioned.

The first electric motor for producing rotary motion direct-as distinguished from the earlier "electric engines," which had a reciprocating action-was that invented in 1833 by Professor Henry in America. This motor was but a toy, but shortly afterwards Davenport in America, Professor Jacobi in Russia, Davidson in Scotland, and Little in England constructed motors of considerable size. Amongst these the best-known is Jacobi's motor, as applied to the propulsion of a boat on the Neva in 1839. In this instance the motive power was furnished by a primary battery, and the motor developed about two horse-power. In 1845 Professor Page invented a new form of electric engine based on the axial force of electro-magnetism, and a few years later he proposed the use of this engine for the propulsion of railway trains. The idea gained public favour, and Congress actually

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placed the sum of £6,000 at the disposal of Professor Page for the purpose of practically developing the invention. In 1851 an electric locomotive was built and employed to draw a train of cars between Washington and Bladensburg, a distance of five miles. The speed obtained was 19 miles an hour, but since the current was furnished by batteries, the working expenses were so great as to preclude the possibility of commercial success. It was only after the discovery of the dynamic principle by Varley, Siemens, and Wheatstone that electric railways and, indeed, any form of electric transmission of energy, became commercially possible. The idea of generating electricity at a fixed point by dynamomachines and conveying the current through conductors and sliding contacts to the car whilst in motion, was first put into practice by Siemens in 1879, and this system forms to the present day the basis of all electric railways operated direct from the generating dynamo.

After this short review of the history of electric locomotion it will be opportune to cast a rapid glance over the earliest examples of electric transmission between two fixed points. As was already stated, the first of these experiments dates back to 1873. These, however, were experiments only, undertaken to demonstrate the idea at the Vienna Exhibition. In 1879 we find one of the earliest practical applications of the new invention undertaken by MM. Chrétien and Felix at the sugar works in Sermaize. The manufacture of beetroot sugar can only be carried on during a small portion of the year, and for the rest of the time the machinery remains idle. It was thought advantageous to utilize the steam-engine at the works during slack time for ploughing the fields round about the factory, and if this should prove success