Mr. McCarty: How many horse-power hours can you store up in a sixteen foot car? Mr. Bates I will refer you to our managing electrician, Mr. Griscom. Mr. McCarty: You talk about fifteen miles an hour; that depends upon the grade and different conditions. Do you know how many horse-power hours you can get in the battery? Mr. Griscom Each cell of the street-car type of battery will store about one-half horse-power per hour. REMARKS OF MR. A. H. CHADBOURNE OF THE WENSTROM COMPANY. Mr. Chadbourne: Nearly every year there is brought to you something new in this line. This year we come before you with something that is a novelty. I think it is generally acknowledged that it is desirable to have a slow speed armature in a street-car motor, and that the motor should be reduced in weight as much as possible, and, if possible, a device provided whereby the armature could be allowed to run free at all times without relation to the car speed. We accomplish these results in a very satisfactory way. We expected to have had a car in operation here, but owing to delays at our factory, have not been able to do so. We have a cast of our field magnet here. It is cast solid. The machine is 25 horse-power. The fields are cast in one solid piece of mitis metal. The speed of the armature is 400 revolutions a minute, developing 25 horse-power. The metal is cast in such a way that it has nearly the same properties as wrought iron, and has the advantage that it can be welded. The wires, instead. of running over the periphery of the armature, run through it, and the external portion is turned down true, so that it presents a plain surface. The advantage of this is that it is impossible to have the wires spread or thrown apart. Another feature of the motor is the method of connecting the wires on the commutator. Sometimes there is a great deal of trouble with these connections by reason of the solder melting. We have no road in operation yet, but will have one in operation at Pottsville, Pa., by the first week in November. We also expect to have a motor in operation in Baltimore very shortly. Our construction is not unlike other companies in its detail, the overhead arrangement of wires being the same. You know what the trolleys are. The generator is unlike those with which you are familiar. It is a machine that works at slow speed. We also have a patent connection between the armature and the commutator. It runs at 425 revolutions per minute, developing 67 horse-power, running perfectly cool. A peculiar feature is that their construction is such that they utilize to a greater extent than any other machine the magnetic qualities which are generated in it. Another point is the gearing. You are all familiar with the ordinary gearing. We have a gearing which we are prepared to put under any system. It is an inexpensive gearing to buy, and it is economical to operate. It is a gearing with wooden teeth and has a removable rim, which is absolutely noiseless; and we have reduced the point of wear to the cheapest part of the gear, the teeth. No matter how small the accident, if one of the teeth breaks, the gear is gone. There is no reason why our gear should ever break, and the wooden teeth will last anywhere from four to six months, in accordance with the work. In Atlantic City they ran all summer long. The manager there stated that the gears had done excellent service. We use this gear on our system, and will put it on any other. Another point is, that, owing to the slow speed, we do away with the intermediate countershaft, and, consequently, that does away with two bearings and two gears. We gear direct from the armature to the car axle. There is another feature worthy of your attention, and that is, the method by which we allow the armature to run at full speed at all times. The armature is started up and the gear runs freely; the rim revolves freely around the axle and is connected to it by a system of hydraulic gearing. It is by the operation of the oil in the gear that we get the difference of speed in the armature and car axle. The oil is forced up from one part to another and when the valve is open the rim will run free. If the valve is half way open you will get a variation of speed. Mr. Henry, of Pittsburgh: Do you propose in that machine to do away with the intermediate gearing entirely? Mr. Chadbourne: Yes, sir. Mr. Henry; In that way you get rid of one-half the machine under the car? Mr. Chadbourne: Yes, sir. We do away with a large factor in repairs. It is the high speed of the street-car motor that makes the trouble with the gearing. If your intermediate gear only ran 125 revolutions, it would be a very simple matter to keep the gears on. In a slow speed machine much of this trouble is overcome, and it is acknowledged to be a very desirable thing. REMARKS OF MR. MALONE WHELESS, OF THE WHELESS ELECTRIC COMPANY. Mr. Wheless: We have a system in Washington that differs in no respect from the other systems, except that we carry our cars by an underground cable. It extends the whole length of the road, and feeds from the sections which are laid in the conduit and laid in the usual way. The sections of the conduit are carried along, and at every three hundred feet, more or less, as occasion requires, switch-boxes are put in. They are about sixteen inches square, and laid between the tracks in double tracks, or between the rail and slot rail for single track roads. The object of these switch-boxes is that when the car comes along they automatically connect the current in the cable with a given section. Suppose we have a mile of road, there is a mile of cable laid by the side of the track. From that cable, at every three hundred feet, is laid a feeder that feeds one insulated section of conduit wire. The conduit wire is at all times dead-there is no current in it. The current at all times is in the cable, and when the car comes on to a section a device attached to the car acts in conjunction with the switch box, and the result is the connection is made from the cable to the wire in the conduit. The car instantly receives the current and passes over that section and on to the next, when the passage of the car off the section releases the armature in the switch-box, and, as a consequence, the section is cut out. The reason of "cutting in" is because putting a continuous conductor in a conduit has been found inexpedient, for two reasons. The first is the escape. I believe it is impossible. to take a continuous conductor and transport it through five or six miles of conduit and not have such an escape, no matter how well insulated, that the efficiency of the motor is materially and seriously impaired when you get a long distance from the generator plant. The other reason is the liability to short circuit. The advantages we found in cutting out wire in sections was that only a certain section was charged with current, and, consequently, a short circuit could only occur at the point where the car was. This constitutes about what our underground system is; it is simple and does not exceed in cost the ordinary conduit, or very little more. Our overhead system is a duplicate of the main feature of our conduit system. We feed in sections. The overhead line is dead at all times, and there is no way in which a person can receive a shock from it. I shall be glad if gentlemen present would come to Washington and see our system. REMARKS OF MR. KNIGHT NEFTEL OF THE UNITED Mr. Neftel: It is unnecessary for me to say anything regarding the value of storage battery traction, after the very apt remarks made by my friend of the Accumulator Company. I will simply give concisely our results in operating ten storage battery cars on the Madison avenue line in New York. The equipment of each car consists of 108 Julien cells in 12 trays, 9 cells in each, total weight 3,600 lbs. The motor in use until recently, and on the old cars now running, are of the Thomson-Houston type. We have now constructed a motor especially adapted to this class of work, and which is now being put on this line. An estimate of cost of operating has been submitted to you by another company, based on the performance of 50 cars. Our experience with ten cars in actual operation over an extended period, which, by the way, is the largest storage plant in this country, and next to the largest in the world, is as follows: Generating plant 8 horse power per car. For ten cars 15 batteries are necessary. Rate at each battery is charged one and one-half hours for two hours' discharge. One charge is adequate for a With the old cells and the operated with 10.6 per car new type of motor. The run of forty miles on a level track. old type of motor these ten cars were mile with the improved batteries and life of the existing plants of the battery, at the present rate of disintegration, is at least three years. The negative plates, the other half of the battery, are as durable as the motor. It is generally conceded that the reason storage batteries have not been applied more extensively, is lack of confidence in the endurance of the batteries and litigation on patents. We are prepared to demonstrate to you practically the life of the batteries, and the question of patents has been greatly cleared by the final decree, giving Charles T. Brush, of Cleveland, a fundamental award of priority. Our batteries are manufactured under the patents of Brush, Julien, Morris, Salome, and others. We are now equipping a road in Indianapolis, Ind., on this system. Our Company also furnishes overhead equipments; and we shall be pleased to have any member of the Convention visit the plant at Madison avenue, and the other roads equipped by us. Mr. Graham Can you tell me the number of miles per day each car runs ? Mr. Neftel: Eighty. Mr. Graham: The maximum grade? Mr. Neftel: The maximum grade is about five and a half or six per cent. There is a very severe grade for a short distance : and also coming down from Seventy-second to Seventieth street. Mr. Graham What is the length of the grade? Mr. Neftel: Not very long; about two blocks; the other grade is about one block. Mr. Graham: Has it been tested on a grade beyond five and a half per cent.? Mr. Neftel: Yes, sir. We ran the cars up the Eighty-sixth street grade, which is seven and a half per cent. They will go up; but, of course, it discharges the batteries more rapidly when you subject them to very heavy work. Mr. Graham: Is the car capable of drawing another car? Mr. Neftel: Yes, sir; it is simply a question of discharging the batteries very rapidly. Mr. Graham: When you say ten cents per car mile, what is included? Mr. Neftel: Everything, except the conductor and the driver. There is a reasonable amount of repairs for the motors. The President: The Secretary has an announcement or two to make, after which the Convention will take a recess until halfpast one this afternoon. LETTER OF INQUIRY FROM THE DENVER TRAMWAY COMPANY ABOUT ELECTRIC MOTOR GEAR. The Secretary read the following letter: OFFICE OF THE DENVER TRAMWAY COMPANY, Į WM. J. RICHARDSON, Secretary, AMERICAN STREET-RAILWAY ASSOCIATION. Dear Sir:-Will you please do us the favor to ask the Convention what has proved to be the best gear for electric motors? Respectfully, No one ventured to respond to the letter. The Secretary read the following letter: C. K. DURBIN, Superintendent. |