In the explanations which are given of electric tramways, electric railways, electric automobiles, electric propulsion on ships, and the other phases of electric traction, nothing but the most elementary knowledge of electricity is presupposed. A certain amount of technical description is unavoidable, but I have restricted it as far as possible to essential matters which throw light upon the meaning of the various systems of electric traction and explain the economic and physical reasons for their adoption.
Anyone who glances over the history of electric traction will be struck by the absence of outstanding names. There is no man who occupies the same position in the sphere of electric locomotion as Watt does in the world of steam, or Stephenson in the world of railways. As a pioneer, Dr. Wernher von Siemens perhaps deserves more honour than any other. But the leading ideas embodied in electric traction systems were contributed by engineers who worked in the general field of electrical engineering; and they have been applied and developed by a numerous band of men who have added one brick of experience and ingenuity to another until the imposing structure was made visible to the world.
Nevertheless, I hope the story as told briefly in the following chapters will not be found devoid of human interest. It has the advantage, at any rate, of the attraction which anything pertaining to electricity holds for all sections of the public. This attraction deepens upon closer acquaintance with the mechanism and the history of electricity in action; and if any of the descriptions and forecasts are found to be prejudiced in favour of a single instrument of locomotion, the fault may be considered to rest with the spell which electricity throws upon everyone who is concerned in any way with its applications in the service of man.
I have to acknowledge the kind assistance of Mr. Frank Broadbent, M.I.E.E., in looking over the proofs of this volume.
A. G. W.
21 April 1911
CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||
| Preface | [v] | |
| CHAP. | ||
| I. | The Wheel and the Public | [1] |
| II. | Early Tramroads and Railways | [4] |
| III. | The Birth of Electric Traction | [12] |
| IV. | The Essential Advantages of Electric Traction on Tramways | [19] |
| V. | The Mechanism of an Electric Tramcar: the Overhead System | [29] |
| VI. | Conduit and Surface-Contact Tramway Systems | [37] |
| VII. | The Backwardness of Electric Traction in Great Britain | [46] |
| VIII. | Electric Tramway Stagnation. The Trolley Omnibus | [55] |
| IX. | Regenerative Control | [67] |
| X. | Accumulator Electric Traction. The Electric Automobile | [70] |
| XI. | Petrol-Electric Vehicles and main Marine Propulsion by Electricity | [82] |
| XII. | The Pioneer Electric Railways | [92] |
| XIII. | Electric Railways from the Engineering Point of View | [107] |
| XIV. | Electric Traction on Main Line Railways | [116] |
| XV. | Curiosities of Electric Traction | [124] |
| XVI. | The Future | [138] |
| Index | [142] |