. The Street railway journal . of the territoryserved. THE EARLY ELECTRIC RAILWAY WORK OF WERNERVON SIEMENS So much has been said of the early electric railway experi-ments of Werner von Siemens in Germany that some particu-lars of the first electric road in Germany may be of road was placed in service May 31, 1879, on a speciallyconstructed belt line, 300 111 (about 983 ft.) long, at the BerlinTrades Exposition. The engraving on the next page shows the first electric trainon this line. It was made up of an electric locomotive andthree small cars. The capacity of the locomotive a
. The Street railway journal . of the territoryserved. THE EARLY ELECTRIC RAILWAY WORK OF WERNERVON SIEMENS So much has been said of the early electric railway experi-ments of Werner von Siemens in Germany that some particu-lars of the first electric road in Germany may be of road was placed in service May 31, 1879, on a speciallyconstructed belt line, 300 111 (about 983 ft.) long, at the BerlinTrades Exposition. The engraving on the next page shows the first electric trainon this line. It was made up of an electric locomotive andthree small cars. The capacity of the locomotive at 150 voltswas about 3 hp, and its speed was 7 km ( miles) an was taken from a third rail, consisting of a flat ironbar placed between the running rails. The latter were bondedand served for the return circuit. On the iron frame of thelocomotive was mounted longitudinally a bipolar, drum arma-ture, direct-current motor connected to gearing giving a speedreduction of 1 The motor was controlled by operating a. CAR USED IN 1S81 ON THE GROSS-LICHTERFELDE LINE. TAKINGCURRENT FROM ONE RAIL AND USING THE OTHER FORTHE RETURN CIRCUIT lever which cut resistances in or out of circuit. As the motorwas not reversible, changes in the direction of the locomotivewere obtained by employing two conical gears mounted on acommon axis and arranged to engage with a third conicalgear. The running direction depended upon what pair ofgears were permitted to mesh with each other. The woodencovering of the otherwise open motor served as a seat for themotorman. Despite the fact that this experimental railway proved verysuccessful, 86,398 passengers being carried safely between May31 and Sept. 30, 1879, the public showed little confidence inelectric traction. Werner von Siemens, however, was fullyalive to the possibilities of the new traction method, and finally,after repeated rebuffs, the firm of Siemens & Halske obtainedpermission to build a line in Gross Lichterfelde, near
Size: 1996px × 1252px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectstreetr, bookyear1884
