. .1811 Stephenson (England) 1829
..1812 Ihiekworth (England) 1829
. 1813 Braithcwaitc and Ericsson
. .1815 (England) 1829
Tlie three latter were contestants at the great trial
on the Liverpool and Manchester Kailway, in 1829.
See Locomotive, pages 1343- 1347.
For other forms of steam-moved vehicles, see
KoAi)-noi,LEK ; Steam-plow; PoiiTAnLE E.ngine;
TnACTION-ENGINE.
Beginning with horses, and then using stationary engines to
raise or lower the wagons on grades, and to the stait/is wheuco
STREET-CAR.
2421
STREET-CAR,
Fig. 5972.
Steam Street- Car.
they discharged by chutes into the collier.*!, the contest for some
years previous to IS'29 had been between stationary and loco-
motive engines. Stephenson threw the weight of his influence
in favor of the latter, and the trial on the Liverpool and Man-
chester Railway was to encourage invention ou the latter plan.
The London and Blaefcwall Railway of 6i miles was opened in
1S41, and the cars were drawn by a wire rope passing over
drums driven by steam-engines at each end. These were re-
tained for several years, but eventually locomotives were sub-
stituted. See RoPE-RAiLWAr.
Wire ropes and stationary engines are still used on grades, a-s
at the Ghauts al>ove Bombay; at Madison, Indiana, in climb
ing the river hill : at Mauch Chunk and other steep places m
Pennsylvania ; in the mines where a gradual slo]>e forms the
upcast .'ihaft; on the Morris and Es.^ex Canal, X. .1. ; and else-
where. The Portage Railway of Pennsylvania had formtrly
Fig. 5973
Truck and Maehinenj of the Baxter Steam-Car.
ten inclined planes overcoming an elev.Ttion of about 1,400 feet,
going west. The western terminal of the railway is about 1.173
feet below the summit level- See Inclined Plane, pages 1174-
1177
Rope railways are also used in overcoming special elevations,
8uch as the passenger elevators at Niagara, i.'incinnati, ami
Pittsburgh : a verticS elevator for cars is used at Iloboken, X. .1.
Street-railways for passenger cars were fir.-*t established in the
United States "about 1^50, and in England about ten years
afterward. The Boston and
Cambridge Railway, com-
menced in the fall of 1858,
was the first ia New Eng-
land.
Street -cars are usually
drawn by horses, but many
attempts have been made to
drive them by machinery.
Steam -engines, known asdum-
tni/ engines, have been used
with success, but the fire and
the noise of escaping steam
arc considered objectionable.
Fig. 5972 is a view of the
Baxter .stvam-car ; Fig 5973,
the truck and machinery of
the same.
The boiler is upright, and is
placed on the front platform ;
a uon -conducting partition
prevents heat from enterins
the car.
The engine is bejow the
platform. It is compound and
double-acting. In ordinary
use, the steam from the
smaller cylinder exhausts into the larger;
but in ascending grddes, the full pre-^^sure
steam may Ik; made available in both
cylinders, greatly incpea^iog the
power.
Fig- 5974 is the Enapp car; B
an elevation, aud C a plan of the
motive apparatus.
o is the furnace, supplied with
coal from the platform through
the chute 6; c, the boiler;
d (/, the cylinders. The ex-
__^ haust steam is condensed by
^^ a blast of cold air from the
fan-blower /; ^ is a smoke-
piV>e, terminating in a re.'^r-
voir/i containingmilk of lluie,
to remove the carbonic acid
from the smoke ; this also acts
as a spurk and dust arrester,
so that the gas, which finally
__ issues from tlie pipe ', is in-
— - Wsihlc. and causes no Jncon-
- venience to the passengers or
others.
The car, Fig. 5975, has a
circular cab B, which con-
tains tiie dummy engine and
boiler, and is supported on a circular platform / resting upon
the fore truck V, and is provided with anti-friction rollers h i,
upon which the front of the car body A rests ; the shell of the
cab also bears against vertical anti-friction rollers tn tn . A reach
and center pin f connect the body aud fort: truck of the car,
and the body is supported on a similar pivoted truck, provided
with anti-friction rollers, enabling
the two parts to turn independent-
ly of ejich other. The front and
rear axles of the fore truck are
coupled bj- connecting-rods jV,
and the rear axle J, which is
cranked, is worked as a driver by
a pair of o.'<'inating engines. See
also Stlam-car.
The following statement in-
cludes a number of applications
of condensed air to the driving of
street-cars : —
A British form of steam-loco-
motive, in which the engine car-
ries no boiler, but a supply of
steam snfficiyiit for a trip, is
termed the Fireless Locomotive.
Todd's combined dummy and
car has a main lower frame 22 feet
6 inches long over tiie buffers, 7
feet wide over all, and 3 feet high
from the rail to the top ; and on
this frame is placed the 14-feet
body of an ordinary car. In
the "center of the frame are two
receivers, each cont^iining 30 cubic feet of water. Below the
buffer-beams are screw-couplings and stop-valves with per-
forated pipes running right through the receivers. The wheels
are 24 inches diameter, placed 4 feet 6 inches between centers.
Cylinders, 9 inches diameter and 8 inches stroke, surrounded
with large jackets opt-n to the water of the receivers. At each
end of the car, outside the dash-plate, is placed a brake-handle,
and on either side of this a regulator and reversing handle, all
arranged as shown. These latter handles fit into spring sockets,
X^
U
Enapp Steam Street- Car.
STREi:T-CAK.
2422
STREET-CAK.
so as to be changed from one end to
the other, principally to prevent any
one from behiuU moving the ear.
Dummy Street-Car.
There are four sand-boxes, with handles brouRht to the foot-
boards. There are two exhaust-pipes, the end of each projecting
Blightly upw.ard from the edges of the curtains over the foot-
boards'; and by a cock the waste steam is turned into whichever
pipe happens for tlie time to be at the rear end of the
car. All the working motion is quite protected from
dirt by light boxes which have hinged doors at the
sides. The engine is started on its journey with an
initial pressure of 200 lbs. to the inch ; and owing to
the jacketing of the cylinders, the loss by radiation
is said not to exceed 5 lbs. pressure per hour, allow
ing the engine to run 40 miles on level lines at one
charging of the boiler.
The upper figure is a longitudinal section of the
car, and the lower is an exterior elevation, alsi
showing the stationary boiler from which the appa-
ratus is charged. *
Medhurst, English patent, August 2, 1800, pro
posed to propel carriages by means of compressed
air carried in a reservoir, using a singlecylinder
engine, or a double-cylinder engine with compound
beam, according to the amount of power required
Bompas, April 29, 1828, patented a method of
propelling carriages or boats by means of air com
pressed by pumps in cylindrical iron vessels, with
hemispherical ends placed in one or more rows un
dcrncath and behind the carriage. Fixed reservoirs
to be located at appropriate stations, to repleni h
the air as the pressure becomes diminished in the
cylinders ; the compression
to be from 30 to 150 pounds
or upward. He preferred to
use two cylinders, working
expansively, if desired. The
use of air or gas, condensed
by being di-sengaged chemi-
cally from substances with
which it is in combination
in a confined space, is also
mentioned.
Wright, April, 1S28. Com-
pressed air, contained in
metallic cylinders beneath
the car and charged from a
stationary reservoir or by
means of air-pumps, was ad-
mitted by appropriate pipes
with valves to a third cylin-
der, where, by means of a
furnace beneath, it was heated, and its expansive force in-
creased before entering the working cylinders ; or steam gener-
ated by the furuace might be mingled with the compressed air
when it entered this third cylinder. He also proposed to use an
eccentric on the driving-shaft to work a pump for compressing
air into either of the cylinders when the carriage was grang
down hill, and to serve as a brake in descending.
Mann J une 1, 1829. Application of air condensed by steam-
engines, wind or water mills, or other mechanical power, as a
motor for vessels or carriages. The air to be condensed in
portable reservoirs, to be carried on the carriages, condensed by
steam-engines at the different stations along the route, or pref-
erably conveyed along the line by pipes. Various other appli-
cations are pointed out. .
Surrey, September 1, 1866. Compressed air, to be carried in
portable vessels or supplied to the carriage at suitable points
on the route by a tube from the main reservoir at the principal
depot In the former case, several small vessels prelerred to
one large one, as the air from those which have become par-
tially depleted may be employed in descending grades, or where
less power is required, and the full vessels reserved lor use on
up grades or for high speeds. , . , .j , , »i,
Pinkus, March 1, 18a4. A pneumatic tube is laid below the
railway, and has section valves at suitable intervals, dividing
the tube into compartments, which are separately exhausted by
engines at each of these stations.
The piston is attached to a frame or carriage traveling on two
wheels, one in front, and the other behind, and having circum-
ferential grooves fitting a contiuuous rib on the interior ot the
tubing. An arm projecting upwardly from the piston-carnage
passes through a slit in the upper part of the tube, and is con-
nected to the car, or the first of a series of cars on the railway.
The slit is closed by a flexible valve arrangement, kept closed in
front of the " dynamic traveler " by atmospheric pressure, but
pushed aside as this advances, to admit air behind the piston.
The section valves are opened to permit the passage ot the
traveler, and each may be closed after it has passed enabling
the work of exhaustion in the preceding section to be recom-
menced See Atmospuehic R.MLWAT, pagesli9-181.
Pinkus August 26, 1839. Propelling boats or cars by ga,s-
explosive engines. The engine has double-acting gas and air
pumps, two piston-cylinders connected with two globular
explosive chambers having igniting slides and safety-valves.
Arrangements may be made for enabling the engine to take gas
from the main without stopping. In this case the engine is
provided with a flat pipe or tongue suspended by a ball and
socket joint, and made so as to form an air-tight joint with the
main or valie. The tongue is also furnished with a valve which
shuts when it leaves the main or valve. . , ,
Count de Kontainemorean, June 21, 1844. Locomotive-en-
gines, either reciprocating or rotary, are put in motion by either
Fig. 5976.
Ta'Ws Fhdess Loco7notivc { British).
STREET-CAR.
2423
STREET-CAR.
compressed or rarefied air deriTed from a tube along the road-
way. Above the tube are fixed di s I ributi tig-boxes, having a
Talve at bottom, and other valves at top, which are opened by a
slide carried along with the locomotive and runuiog iu a groove
at the top of the box, having a strip of sheet-iron on one side,
and a leathern strip on the other ; the valves automatically
clo^e after the slide passes over theui.
Parsey, October 17, 1844. Employs a receiver and a regulat-
ing-chamber, where the density of the air is reduced, and from
which it passes to the valve-box of the cylinder. After doing
its work, it may be allowed to escape, or it oiay be forced back
into the receiver by two air-pumps contained within it and
communicating with the two ends of the working cylinder.
See pages 6U3, 604, Vol- I.
Anderson, June 29, 1846. Using gun-cotton or yam as
means of propulsion. The locomotive has two cylinders, en-
larged at their outer extremitie.^, having pistons connected to-
getlier bv side-rods, and each furnished with a valve to allow
escape of gas during the down stroke. The cotton or yarn is
fed by rollers alternately in the narrow extremity of each cyl-
inder through a small slit, and is exploded by wires from a
galvanic battery.
Fell, October 7, 1347. Employs rarefied or compressed air.
The latter is conveyed by a main or pipe placed centrally be-
tween the rails to reservoirs at equal distances along the line.
These are located below the main, and have valved pipes pass-
ing through it, and flush with its upper surface. The main is
partially embraced by a long slider attached to the engine, con-
nected by a pipe with its air-chamber, and as the engine passes
over each reservoir, levers connected with the valves of the
pipes leading therefrom are struck by a bar attached to the
engine opening the valves, and air passes from the reservoirs
through the slider and tube into the air-chamber of the eDgine,
whence valves preveut its escape.
>i/iiiii's Pneumatic Engine for Street-Cars.
A different arrangement of valve is employed if rarefied air is
used.
Van Rathen, November 2, 1847. High-pressure air from a
reservoir is made to enter a set of expanding and warming
tubes, by which its pressure is reduced fmm about 50 to 5 at-
mospheres, while retaining its heat and elasticity, and thence a
moderator or chamber provided with a piston which is forced
into the chamber by the action of a regulating spring or weight,
and raised by the pressure of the air. From the moderator the
air passes to the propelling machinery.
Johnson, June 26, 1856. Proposed to carry a small steam-
engine and boiler for working two or more double-action air-
pumps to compress the air into a receiver, whence it was to be
delivered to the main actuating cylinders of the engine.
Smith and De Coppet^s Street-Car.
Rarsauti and Matteucci, June 12, 1857. Apparatus for ob-
(aining motive power by the expIi)sion of hydrogen or other
Inflammable gas mi.^ed with atmospheric air. In one method
the vacuum produced beneath the piston by the explosion is
alone availed of, two alternately acting cylinders being em-
ployed. In a second plan both the force of the explosion and
tfte vacuum are utilized. Four cylinders are employed, one on
each of two pairs of driving-wheels. The locomotive carries a
reservoir of gas with regulating apparatus to give a uniform
supply. The charge is exploddl by a cylindrical circuit-breaker
rubbing against a steel spring and rotated by band and pulley
connection with the fly-wheel shaft.
Crever and Keeney, September, 1859, proposed the use of a
stationary steam-engine at one of the termini, for compressing
air into a large air-holder A main connected with this reser-
voir leads along the track, and is provided at intervals with
ascending branches having valves, which may be opened by
contrivances under the control of the conductor, in order to
replenish a compressed air-tank carried beneath the car.
Liquid carbonic-acid gas exerts a pressure of ab«>ut 690
pounds per square inch at 42"^ Fah., 855 pounds at 60"* Fah .
and 1,20*3 pounds at 86* Fah. One pound of the liquid expands
so as to form rather more than eight cubic feet of gas. It may
be kept in tanks made of several thicknesses of sheet-steel rolled
together in the form of a scroll and unit<?d by a solder of pure
tin run in between the layers. (Mathews's patent.) Tanks
made of a single thickness i ,„ inch of sheet-steel, lapped four
inches at the edge, and soldered in this way, may be trusted to
sustain a pressure of 300 pounds to the inch, the bursting
pressure being 7'!HI lbs. One of the thicker kind above men-
tioned, tested by hydraulic pressure at the Newport torpedo-
station, withstood strains up to 3,132 lbs. per square inch before
rupture.
Barbour, March 14. 18(>5 The car carries a supply of liquid
carbonic-acid stored in a tank beneath This is admitted in
regulated quantities to the cylinder, where it expands, and
after doing its work, the gas is ex-
hausted into a reservoir over the car,
having a capacity 450 times that of
the tank in which it is contained in
the liquid stale. It is recondensed
by appropriate machinery at the sta-
tions, and again used.
Smith, Augusts, 1871. Compressed
air, contained in a large tank on the
body of the car, is admitted to a gov-
ernor or regulator a', and thence
passes to a small auxiliar)' tank b un-
derneath ; this is connected with the
cylinder valve-chest c' by two pipes,
one of which d is open and the other
I € closed wbile the car is in motion, but on stopping the car the
[ latter is opened and the former closed, causing the compressed
air in the cylinder c to be pumped back into the auxiliary tank,
I where it is stored up to assist in starting again. The illustra-
' tion (Fig. 5977) shows thec.ir-bed and lower works.
Smith and De Coppet, July 29, 1873 (Fig. 5978). Liquid am-
monia, stored in a resei^oir a, is withdrawn and injected by a
pump b into a vaporiatr c, heated by a lamp beneath. The gas
is conducted to the engine d by a pipe, and is exhausted into a
condenser e, where it is liquefied by a shower of spray falling
through a perforated plate, the water being supplied by tanks
/, one at each side of the car, and withdrawn therefrom by a
pump. A third pump removes the anmionia from the condenser
and forces it into a tank g beneath the car, where it is retained
for farther use. Chains communicate motion from pulleys on
the engine crank-shaft to pulleys on the driving-wheel shaft.
Bowen, September 2, 1S73 (Fig. 5979). The car has under the
seats tanks for compressed air, divided into compartments by
partitions. The compartments communicate with each other by
valves, which allow the air to pass from one to
the other when they are charged at the end of
the route, but prevent its passing in the oppo-
site direction when the compartment first drawn on has a
less pre.-^sure than that which remains intact. Each compart-
ment has a separate pipe communicating with the working-
tank d, and valves controlling these are successively opened
as the pressure becomes reduced in the compartments first
drawn upon.
Turnbull (Fig. 5980) employs a cut-off which
automatically varies the bulk of air admitted to
the working- cylinder in proportion to the de-
gree of compression, e e are air-holders ; /,
cylinder ; /, slide-valve, working in chest p and
operated from eccentric fti by lever h an<l rod o
secured to pivoted sleeve 6, rendering the length
of stroke adjustable; q is an air-chest, from
which the chest p is supplied. The compressed
air issues ftom the air-holders, which are con-
nected by a pipe, through a valved pipe com-
municating with the dome t, and presses against
the diaphragm f, having a stem tt connected
with the helical spring g and pivoted to the
lever V. When, as at starting, the air in the
tanks is highly compressed, the diaphragm _/"
depresses the stem u in opposition to the spring
^ and the lever r, through the medium of k I' m, causes
the valve d in chest tf to cut off at short stroke; but as the
pressure becomes reduced, the spring ^, overcoming the resist-
STREET-CAR.
2424
STREET-LAMP.
ance of the diaphragm, raises the stem ?/, and allows the yalve rf
to hiive a longer niui^e, so as to lulniit a tjreater volume of air to
the clie-st /;. WlK-n the pressure in tlu; tanks has become re-
duced to a certain amount, the Talve d ceases to operate. 2»i8
a pipe conveying air from drum ( to the chest ij ; i, connecting-
rod, and Jt, crank to drivinjj-axle c.
The Scott-MoncreitV system is used iu Scotland.
A United States patent has beeu tjrnnted for a method of
using the elastic foi-cc of rubber as a uiotur for street-cars and
for other purposes. Two rubber bands, 2k inehes in diameter
and 56 feet long, are stretched to 10 tiines that length upon
two drums, on which they are coiled. The unwinding of each
coil is calculated to propel the car a distance of over two miles.
When the first has beiMi unwound, the second is brought into
requisition, and while it is propelling the car, the first m to be
again wound up by the devices used for stopping and control-
ling the car.
Stilt another mode of operating street-cars is by means of
steel springs. This form is the subject of a Fi-euch patent by
iM, Leveaux.
The winding-up of the spring barrels, which are ctrried un-
der the car, is ufTected by engine puwer, placed at suitable in-
tervals along the track, as may be convenient for the run. The
stationary engine drives by belt the horizontal shaft, carried in
bearings, inclosed in a nu-tallie tube or ciLsing, beneath tlic
roadway, and extending across the track ; close alongside which
is a covered box, sunk in the roadway and inclosing a wheel, so
shaped as to connect with the winding axle of the tramway car,
Fig. 5979.
Soicen's Street- Car.
and thus give the requisite motion thoatto. On the arrival of
a car at any station, the spring barrels are wound up by the
engine.
It has been computed that the actual tractive force, requisite
to overcome the resistance of a street-car weighing gros.-^ 5 tons,
is GO pounds on the driving-wheels, corresponding to 72U pounds
on the periphery of the spi-ing barrel ; 24 pounds and 288
pounds respectively correspond to a gross weight of 2 tons ; and
in like proportions for intermediate weights, So far as previous
experience goes, a spring G pounds in weight, exerting a direct
TumbuWs Street- Car.
pressure of 105 pound.f , may be taken to represent the maximum
in fize and power of such steel springs. Stei-l manufacturers
are now turning out springs 50 to fiO feet long, capalile, when
duly coiled, of exerting a pressure of 800 pounds to'JOO pounds,
without pcrriianont sot.
In a inntlifiration, in place of one .^spring, wound up at inter-
vals along the road by means of stationary engines, a number
of springs, each properly wound up, are taken on at the begin-
ning of the route, and as f;ist a* one expends its energy in mov-
ing the car, another is brouglit into play, and the trip is con-
tinued till all are exhausted, or tl;e run is made.
Street-lamp. One imblicly exposed on the
stn'ft. Tilt; ligiiting ot" streets on occa.sion.s of re-
joicinfj.s, processions, grand entries, and leeeptions
has always been an ateepted Oriental device for
(gracing such occasions. The feast of the dedication
was sucli anioiif? tlie Jews. The Roman forniii wa.s
lighteil when night-games were celebrated. Caligula
once lighted the vhole city. Constautine lighted
u]) the city of the Hosphorus on Easter eve.
The streets of Antioch and Edessa were lighted in the fourth
and lifth centuries. The lights were lamps suspended by ropes.
The really comfortable lighting of some Eistern cities nien-
tioned by Jerome, Libanius, BiL'^ilins, and others during the
fourth century wa^i far ahead of any attempts in that line in
Greece or Home, where people, venturing out after dark, wero/
attended by lantern or torch bearers.
The iinblic lighting of streets became large and regular ser-
vice among the Saracens. In Cordova (Ar. Korttubnh), under
the Arabs, a person might walk after sunset for a distance ol
10 miles in a straight line by the light of the public lamps and
upon well-piived streets. At ]\lak-
kari's "History of the Moham-
medan Dynasties in Spain. '^ This
was 500 years before any public
lamp service in London or Paris,
The priority of lighting streets
is contested between London and
Paris. In London it appears
that in 1417, Sir Henry Barton, Jlayor, ordered
" Liinterns with lights to W hanged out on the
winter evenings, between Ilallowtide and Candle-,
masse." — Stowe.
In 1GG8, householders were reminded that they
should hang out lanterns duly at the
accustomed time, and in lli'JO this or-
der was renewed, and these lights were
required to be kept burning from
dark till midnight every night between
J Michaelmas and Lady Day.
In 171G, farther ordinances for the
better lighting of the city were made
by the city authorities, but the
duty still rested upon tlie people,
and its execution was not a muni-
cipal act. The Common Council
ordered that " all householders
whose houses front any street,
lane, or public passage shall, in every dark night, that is,
every night between the second night after every full moou
till the 7th night every new moon, set or hang out one or
more lights, with sufficient cotton wicks, that .>;hall continue to
burn from G o'clock at night till 11 o'clock of the same niglit,
under the penalty of one shilling." The rest of the night might
take care of itself, and even these regulations were evaded and
disregarded.