THE FRANKFORT AND OFFENBACH ELECTRIC RAILWAY.
The electric railway recently set in operation between Frankfort and Offenbach furnishes an occasion for studying the question of such roads anew and from a practical standpoint. For elevated railways Messrs. Siemens and Halske a long time ago chose rails as current conductors. The electric railway from Berlin to Lichterfelde and the one at Vienna are in reality only elevated roads established upon the surface.
Although it is possible to insulate the rails in a satisfactory manner in the case of an elevated road, the conditions of insulation are not very favorable where the railway is to be constructed on a level with the surface. In this case it becomes necessary to dispense with the simple and cheap arrangement of rails as conductors, and to set up, instead, a number of poles to support the electric conductors. It is from these latter that certain devices of peculiar construction take up the current. The simplest arrangement to be adopted under these circumstances would evidently be to stretch a wire upon which a traveler would slide—this last named piece being connected with the locomotive by means of a flexible cord. This general idea, moreover, has been put in practice by several constructors.
In the Messrs. Siemens Bros.' electric railway that figured at Paris in 1881 the arrangement adopted for taking up the current consisted of two split tubes from which were suspended two small contact carriages that communicated with the electric car through the intermedium of flexible cables. This is the mode of construction that Messrs. Siemens and Halske have adopted in the railway from Frankfort to Offenbach. While the Paris road was of an entirely temporary character, that of Frankfort has been built according to extremely well studied plans, and after much light having been thrown upon the question of electric traction by three years of new experiments.
Fig. 1 shows the electric car at the moment of its start from Frankfort, Fig. 2 shows the arrangement of a turnout, and Fig. 3 gives a general plan of the electric works.
FIG. 1.—THE ELECTRIC RAILWAY, FRANKFORT, GERMANY.
The two grooved tubes are suspended from insulators fixed upon external cast iron supports. As for the conductors, which have their resting points upon ordinary insulators mounted at the top of the same supports, these are cables composed of copper and steel. They serve both for leading the current and carrying the tubes. The same arrangement was used by Messrs. Siemens and Halske at Vienna in 1883.
The motors, which are of 240 H.P., consist of two coupled steam engines of the Collmann system. The one shaft in common runs with a velocity of 60 revolutions per minute. Its motion is transmitted by means of ten hempen cables, 3.5 cm. in diameter. The flywheel, which is 4 m. in diameter, serves at the same time as a driving pulley. As the pulley mounted upon the transmitting shaft is only one meter in diameter, it follows that the shafting has a velocity of 240 revolutions per minute. The steam generators are of the Ten Brink type, and are seven in number. The normal pressure in them is four atmospheres. There are at present four dynamo-electric machines, but sufficient room was provided for four more. The shafts of the dynamos have a velocity of 600 revolutions per minute. The pulleys are 60 cm. in diameter, and the width of the driving belts is 18 cm. The dynamos are mounted upon rails so as to permit the tension of the belting to be regulated when necessity requires it. This arrangement, which possesses great advantages, had already been adopted in many other installations.
The electric machines are 2 meters in height. The diameter of the rings is about 45 cm. and their length is 70 cm. The electric tension of the dynamos measures 600 volts.
FIG. 2.—TURNOUT TRACK OF THE ELECTRIC RAILWAY, FRANKFORT, GERMANY.
The duty varies between 80 and 50 per cent., according to the arrangement of the cars. The total length of the road is 6,655 meters. Usually, there are four cars en route, and two dynamos serve to create the current. When the cars are coupled in pairs, three dynamos are used—one of the machines being always held in reserve. All the dynamos are grouped for quantity.
FIG. 3.—GENERAL PLAN OF THE ELECTRIC WORKS.
The company at present owns six closed and five open cars. In the former there is room for twenty-two persons. The weight of these cars varies between 3,500 and 4,000 kilos.—La Lumiere Electrique.
By the addition of ten parts of collodion to fifteen of creasote (says the Revue de Therap.) a sort of jelly is obtained which is more convenient to apply to decayed teeth than is creasote in its liquid form.