Edison : his life and inventions . and erected it in my yard here in Orange. When Igot it all ready, he had all his division engineers comeon to New York, and they came over here. I showedthem my plans, and the unanimous decision of theengineers was that it was absolutely and utterly im-practicable. That system is on the New York Centralnow, and was also used on the New Haven road in itsfirst work with electricity. At this point it may be well to cite some otherstatements of Edison as to kindred work, with whichhe has not usually been associated in the public mind.* * In the same manner I had
Edison : his life and inventions . and erected it in my yard here in Orange. When Igot it all ready, he had all his division engineers comeon to New York, and they came over here. I showedthem my plans, and the unanimous decision of theengineers was that it was absolutely and utterly im-practicable. That system is on the New York Centralnow, and was also used on the New Haven road in itsfirst work with electricity. At this point it may be well to cite some otherstatements of Edison as to kindred work, with whichhe has not usually been associated in the public mind.* * In the same manner I had worked out for the Man-hattan Elevated Railroad a system of electric trains,and had the control of each car centred at one place—multiple control. This was afterward worked outand made practical by Frank Sprague. I got up aslot contact for street railways, and have a patent onit—a sliding contact in a slot. Edward Lauterbachwas connected with the Third Avenue Railroad inNew York—as counsel—and I told him he was mak- 462 00. THE ELECTRIC RAILWAY ing a horrible mistake putting in the cable. I toldhim to let the cable stand still and send electricitythrough it, and he would not have to move hundredsof tons of metal all the time. He would rue the daywhen he put the cable in. It cannot be denied thatthe prophecy was fulfilled, for the cable was the be-ginning of the frightful financial collapse of the system,and was torn out in a few years to make way for thetriumphant trolley in the slot. Incidental glimpses of this work are both amusingand interesting. Hughes, who was working on theexperimental road with Mr. Edison, tells the follow-ing story: Villard sent J. C. Henderson, one of hismechanical engineers, to see the road when it was inoperation, and we went down one day—Edison,Henderson, and I—and went on the locomotive. Edi-son ran it, and just after we started there was atrestle sixty feet long and seven feet deep, and Edisonput on all the power. When we went over it
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