Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 24.djvu/770

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Exposition. It will be noticed that one pole of the generator (dynamo) is connected with the auxiliary middle rail, and the other with one of the two side-rails which are metallically connected together, as shown. The current goes to the motor on the car by the middle conductor, and is returned to the generator by the side-rails.

The advantages of the electric railway, should it be made practicable in all respects, are obvious, and there is good reason for believing that in time it will be made available and economical even for lines of considerable length.

In the streets of a city, electric cars would be advantageous upon the surface roads for the reason that they could be run more quietly and swiftly than horse-cars, and, as an electric car can be stopped in less than its own length, just as safely; in crowded parts of the city, they could thread their way more rapidly through the crowds of carts and other vehicles, because they can be stopped and started more quickly and require less room. But it would be upon elevated roads that their advantages would be pronounced, for we should then escape much of the noise and all of the smoke and smell that now attend the passing of elevated trains.

By reason of our ability to make every electrical car its own locomotive, it is clear that we can secure greater safety in traveling, and greater frequency in the times of arrival and departure, so that to reach the depot half a minute too late would not be so serious a thing as it now is. As each car is very light, it can be stopped in a much shorter distance than is now possible with a heavy train; and, even if a collision should occur, it would not