. The story of the Pullman car . omson his little box of lead platescoated with red oxide and fully charged with elec-tricity. The great physicist saw at once its possi-bilities, and in a relatively short time inventors weredeveloping countless applications of the new application to car lighting was an important test. The Pullman car on which this first experimentwas made, carried beneath it on a shelf some thirty-two small metal boxes or cells, each containing leadplates coated with oxide. Stored in these cells wasthe power to light the car. It was nothing more thanthe most element
. The story of the Pullman car . omson his little box of lead platescoated with red oxide and fully charged with elec-tricity. The great physicist saw at once its possi-bilities, and in a relatively short time inventors weredeveloping countless applications of the new application to car lighting was an important test. The Pullman car on which this first experimentwas made, carried beneath it on a shelf some thirty-two small metal boxes or cells, each containing leadplates coated with oxide. Stored in these cells wasthe power to light the car. It was nothing more thanthe most elementary storage battery, a far cry fromthe compact batteries of today and the massive gen-erator swung beneath the floor of the modern car. All the previous night a steam engine had createdpower to charge the cells. In the roof of the carwere twelve small Edison incandescent lights withbamboo filaments. The light was uneven; it wasgarish, but at the turn of a switch its rays filledthe car. With pardonable enthusiasm the London [114]. 03 a, QJ Q u a, INVENTIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS ^imes stated that the car on the return journey inthe evening was kept lighted the whole of the dis-tance from Brighton to Victoria. It is interesting to read in the London Daily tele-graph of October 15, 1885, the following mentionof this important event: Yesterdays trial was understood to have special refer-ence, however, to a new train, wholly composed of Pull-man cars, which it is proposed shortly to put on theservice between Victoria and Brighton, and should theexperiment be deemed fully satisfactory it is probablethat the new train will from the first be fitted with theelectric light. So far as the travelers were concerned theresult was eminently successful. It would scarcely bepossible to conceive a steadier, more equable, or moreagreeable light. On the down journey the first trial wasmade in the Merstham tunnel, and then in the Balcombeand Clayton tunnels. All that was needed was to movethe little swi
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