. History of the United States from the earliest discovery of America to the present time. es upon street railways, andmaking city systems nuclei for far-stretchingsuburban and interurban lines. Street rail-ways mounted steep hills inaccessible beforesave by the clumsy system of cables. Evensteam locomotives upon great railways gaveplace in some instances to motors. Horse-less carriages and pedalless bicycles wereclearly in prospect. It was found that by the use of copperwiring electric power could be carried greatdistances. A line twenty-five miles longbore from the American River Falls, atFo
. History of the United States from the earliest discovery of America to the present time. es upon street railways, andmaking city systems nuclei for far-stretchingsuburban and interurban lines. Street rail-ways mounted steep hills inaccessible beforesave by the clumsy system of cables. Evensteam locomotives upon great railways gaveplace in some instances to motors. Horse-less carriages and pedalless bicycles wereclearly in prospect. It was found that by the use of copperwiring electric power could be carried greatdistances. A line twenty-five miles longbore from the American River Falls, atFolsom, California, to Sacramento, a cur-rent which the city found ample for traction,light, and power. Niagara Falls was har-nessed to colossal generators, whose productwas transmitted to neighboring- cities andmanufactories. Loss en roiitc was at firstconsiderable, but cunning devices lessenedit each year. Thomas Alva Edison and Nikola Tesla ii4 EXPANSION [1890 were conspicuously identified with theseastonishing applications of electric , first a newsboy, then (like Andrew. Thomas Alva by H. A. Dickson, Carnegie) a telegraph operator, withoutschool or book training in physics, rose stepby step to the repute of working miracles onnotification. Tesla, a native of Servia, who 1890] ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL MOVEMENT. 115 happened, upon migrating to the UnitedStates, to find employment with Edison, wastotally unlike his master. He was a highlyeducated scientist, herein at a great advan-tage. He was, in opposition to Edison,peculiarly the cham-pion of high tensionalternating currentdistribution. Heaimed to dispense sofar as possible withthe generation ofheat, pressing theether waves directlyinto the service ofman. The bicycle developed incredible popular-ity in the cjos. Through all the panic of1893 bicycle makers prospered. It was esti-mated in 1896 that no less than $100,000,000had been spent in the United States uponcycling. A clumsy prototype of the wheel
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