. Electrical world. l power in full possession of the field of urbanpassenger traffic, receives a striking illustration in the factthat to a man, to-day but in his fortieth year, belongs the honor ofhaving personally guided the first electric motor for street trafficput in practical commercial service in this country. The event which marked an epoch in the solution of the problemof the application of electricity to the purposes of passenger tractionoccurred in the city of Baltimore and the man who stood at thecontroller of the first practical electric locomotive taking its powerfrom the now fa
. Electrical world. l power in full possession of the field of urbanpassenger traffic, receives a striking illustration in the factthat to a man, to-day but in his fortieth year, belongs the honor ofhaving personally guided the first electric motor for street trafficput in practical commercial service in this country. The event which marked an epoch in the solution of the problemof the application of electricity to the purposes of passenger tractionoccurred in the city of Baltimore and the man who stood at thecontroller of the first practical electric locomotive taking its powerfrom the now familiar third rail, was Guy M. Gest, now a prominentelectric subway contractor of New York and Cincinnati, who prizesabove all other honors he has won in a career devoted to the de-velopment of electric subway work, his undisputed right to thetitle of The Father of Motormen, who in spite of his youth nownumbers his sons by the hundred thousands. The very namemotornian, now so convenient and familiar, had not vet been. FIG. I.—D.^FT ELECTRIC STREET LOCOMOTIVE. invented when Mr. Gest piloted the first train of electrically-pro-pelled cars through the streets of Baltimore, his function on thathistoric occasion being described in the newspapers of the day asthat of engineer. In connection with this historical performance it is interestingto note that the third rail from which the car derived its power,while laid on the surface between the wheel tracks was so pro-tected, from any accidental external contact as to make it practicallyidentical in principle with the modern conduit system supplantingin urban practice the overhead trolley wire, which was the im-mediate of the original third-rail device, thus offeringanother example of the familiar tendency to a reversion to firsiprinciples. To Mr. Thomas C. Robbins, General Manager of the Union Pa^senger Railway of Baltimore, belongs the credit of having firstrecognized the possibility of the successful application of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectelectri, bookyear1883
