File:Edison - his life and inventions (1910) (14777465191).jpg

Identifier: edisonhislifeinv00dyer (find matches)
Title: Edison : his life and inventions
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Dyer, Frank Lewis, 1870-1941 Martin, Thomas Commerford, 1856-1924
Subjects: Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931
Publisher: New York : Harper
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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pon the natural grade, and the gaugewas about three feet six inches. At one point thegrade dropped some sixty feet in a di^ance of threehundred, and the curves were of recklessly shortradius. The dynamos supplying current to the roadwere originally two of the standard size *Z machinesthen being made at the laboratory, popularly knownthroughout the Edison ranks as Longwaisted MaryAnns, and the circuits from these were carried outto the rails by underground conductors. They werenot large—about twelve horse-power each—generatingseventy-five amperes of current at one hundred andten volts, so that not quite twenty-five horse-powerof electrical energy was available for propulsion. The locomotive built while the roadbed was gettingready was a four-wheeled iron truck, an ordinary flatdump-car about six feet long and four feet wide,upon which was mounted a Z dynamo used as amotor, so that it had a capacity of about twelve horse-power. This machine was laid on its side, with the 454 oo 00 o
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THE ELECTRIC RAILWAY armature end coming out at the front of the loco-motive, and the motive power was applied to thedriving-axle by a cumbersome series of friction pul-leys. Each wheel of the locomotive had a metal rimand a centre web of wood or papier-mach6, and thecurrent picked up by one set of wheels was carriedthrough contact brushes and a brass hub to themotor; the circuit back to the track, or other rail,being closed through the other wheels in a similarmanner. The motor had its field-magnet circuit inpermanent connection as a shunt across the rails,protected by a crude bare copper-wire safety-catch.A switch in the armature circuit enabled the motor-man to reverse the direction of travel by reversing thecurrent flow through the armature coils. Things went fairly well for a time on that memor-able Thursday afternoon, when all the laboratoryforce made high holiday and scrambled for footholdon the locomotive for a trip; but the friction gearingwas not equal to the sudden strain p

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