motor use. In other words, to use hot caustic soda under a steam boiler instead of wood or coal, the result aimed at being the fireless locomotive. One of these soda motors, known as the Honingmann, was brought to Chicago in 1886, and placed on trial on a three-mile track of the Chicago City Railway Company. The track was a standard gauge T rail, and was then operated with a steam dummy. Everything was favorable to the trial. The test necessitated the construction of a good sized cistern where the soda was stored and from which it was pumped into a horizontal boiler, where it was heated over a coal fire. It was then drawn into the boiler of the motor, which was a vertical one, steam being made from water, and passing to the cylinders as in the ordinary steam dummy. Instead of the fire flues being filled with flame and smoke, they were filled with the superheated caustic soda. The cylinders exhausted back into the soda tank, to prevent noise and save heat. As high as 60 or 70 lbs. of steam could be reached, but on starting it quickly fell, and at the end of each trip the motor had to be refilled. This could not be done until the soda had first been all drawn off into the cistern. This demonstrated the fact that steam could be generated en route sufficient to run, without a spark of fire, ashes, gases or audible exhaust. But while this was possible, it was far from practicable. Against it was the cost of maintaining the heating station, the extravagant use of fuel as compared with the force actually realized in moving the car, the expense of the soda boiler, which must be of the best copper and able to withstand the chemical action of the soda. While the motor was built in Germany, the engineer temporarily in charge was not, and the very first day the escaped soda on the floor of the cab was sufficient to eat his leather boots. which fell to pieces and burned his feet. While this might answer for a few hours for a man who wished to rid himself of corns, it is not a method which will commend itself to the general public. "Fare 5 cents and a corn removed with every ride," might do to advertise under certain circumstances, but while undoubtedly a drawing card, could not be expected long to please. Not only did the soda kill every spear of grass along the track for three miles, but the reservoir cistern was eaten through, and the caustic percolated up through six feet of ground and sought the light in an adjoining lot, and the cherry trees, currant and raspberry bushes and potato' vines looked as if they had had the yellow fever, with unusually fatal results. After a settlement had been made with the irate owner of the deceased shubbery, and a release in full secured, he felt better, but the proceedings, taken all in all, did not exactly commend themselves to the company. As a matter of fact, the engineer actually had to wear rubber boots all the time while on duty. The motor car was twelve feet long, and carried no passengers. The motor also was extremely hard on the track, being very heavy. The trial lasted several weeks, under every possible advantage, the inventor or his representative being present. The machine frequently died on the road, and had to be towed in. If the pipes or boiler flues were allowed to cool while containing soda, they became filled with a substance as hard as rock, and had to be replaced with new parts. A chemical motor known as McLaughlin's Chemical Motor was started with a great flourish of trumpets last Spring at Omaha, but a diligent search and numerous inquiries fail to establish more than the fact that it is enjoying a beautiful state of innocuous desuetude. tors. MISCELLANEOUS. Time will not permit to mention some of the many freaks of would-be moThere was a New Orleans man who firmly believed he could get a spring big enough, and wind it with a steam engine tight enough to run a car ten miles. It, however, failed to work, except on down grades. Another freak in the motor line is what we might term the "Bovine Motor," such as was actually seen by a member of this Association when in Texas a few months ago. A twelve-foot car, drawn by a cow, and driven by a twelveyear-old darkey, who sat on the front dash with his feet over in front. This system has several advantages. The company's tickets could be redeemed either in a ride or a quart of milk, and thus make the road a money earner night and day. There would be no shoeing account; no anxiety from split hoofs; the lowered horns by day and the big eyes and bellow by night would effectually scare away the small boy who delights to "hitch on." When old age began to creep on apace, instead of charging to depreciation to two-thirds of the original cost of the animal, it could be slaughtered and sold over the company's own market, when again car tickets would buy soup bones; and the hide and hair yield their revenue in due season. While the cow line may never be adopted in the slow-going North, it might be made a great factor with proper management, which companies, contemplating a change in motive power, should not overlook. For a tremendous Then there is the car starter. Some present may have already heard of one! The only practical car starter is the one which will start a car on a three-mile track, and keep it started, until it has made six miles, with necessary stops for passengers. In conclusion, there is no brighter field to-day to the studious inventor than a reasonably cheap motor, which will operate without smoke or noise, at a less expense and better speed than horses, which can be used on outside lines of large cities, and on the entire system of smaller towns. volume of business there is a cable; and electricity is making great headway and advancing strong claims for its place; but there are thousands of miles of car track in this country which are waiting for a practical, economical motor. The really practical man who invents a thoroughly practical machine will be welcomed in a way that will place him beyond the confines of the poor house. Let us then watch, and study and hope, and live in the expectation that ere another year rolls round, and gathers us once more about these topics, the question may be in at least a fair way to solution, and our bondage to animal power and its bondage to our work be a thing of the past. [Applause.] Respectfully submitted, Committe. The reading of the report was followed with applause. OTHER THAN ANIMAL, CABLE AND ELECTRIC. Mr. Littell: I move that the report be received and placed in full on the minutes. The motion was carried. Mr. Cleminshaw: I move that the thanks of the Convention be tendered to the author of that very able report. The motion was carried. REMARKS OF MR. JOHN G. JENKINS, REGARDING THE USE OF STEAM MOTORS ON THE BROADWAY RAILROAD, BROOKLYN. Mr. John G. Jenkins, of Brooklyn: The Company which I represent, the Broadway Railroad Company, of Brooklyn, several years ago, while the hurrah for rapid transit was upon us, decided that it would have rapid transit. We were at that time operating by horses. Along the line of one mile of our road in Broadway it was densely populated; the other three miles and threequarters were sparsely settled. We thought we would put on dummies. We did so. We ran the dummies the three and threequarter miles, and operated with horses for the other mile. We took our ordinary rolling stock and ran it out to the dummy station with horses, and when we reached the station we attached the dummy to two cars, and ran them in that way the rest of the distance to East New York. This method was found to be impracticable; entirely so. The cars were too light, and would go wriggling all about the track; so that people who desired exercise had only to take our cars in the morning. Then we spent a lot of money for larger and heavier cars, at thirty-five hundred dollars apiece, and ran from this point to the ferry with six horses. Notwithstanding the double expense of operating by horse power as well as steam, the road paid; but we could not pick up a paper in the morning but we would have the fear that we might have killed some one; in fact, there was not a block in the fifteen or twenty blocks but that we killed or cut the legs off of somebody the whole distance, so that we abandoned the thing as a failure; not because it did not pay as a financial venture, but because paying for these lives alone and lost limbs made it impracticable to use that kind of a motor in the city. That was our experience. It cost us two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and we consider it a death-blow to motors of that kind where the population is dense. We then resumed our horse car system, and sold the heavy cars and the dummies. We also, during the use of the dummies, instead of having a repair shop, had to maintain a machine shop, which we found very expensive. We did not have any regular stations, but stuck up red posts at the distance of every two blocks, and these were called the stations; the cars stopped there down and up. The engineers would drive them up to the posts and stop quickly, and everybody would go backward. They ground the wheels off and shook up things so, that in two years the dummies would have to be renewed, and they were expensive. We sold them all, including the cars, and probably came out one hundred and fifty thousand dollars behind on them. Our Company resumed its regular street car business, and found it profitable; but since that time there has started an elevated system right over our heads, and the receipts have fallen off very largely. We are looking around for somebody or something that will help us out of this dilemma; some system that will not cost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and then prove a failure. We want to be very careful; we haven't any more money to throw away. The travel is there, but we do not carry it fast enough by horses. We want rapid transit, and a more economical system than we have. I have listened very carefully to everything that has been said, but the thing we want has not yet been brought out. The gentleman who seems to be able to do it sits alongside of me, but his mouth seems to be sealed. The gentleman from Boston evidently does know, but he won't tell. I would discourage any gentleman connected with any road where there is a dense population from using a steam motor of any kind. Mr. Monks I will give you freely of that which I have; of that which I have not, I can give you nothing. Last night it was my intention and endeavor to tell you all that I knew as a positive certainity. To-day I can go no further; it is impossible for me to give you more to-day than last night. We are engaged in Boson in trying to solve the problem, which the gentleman from Brooklyn would like to have solved; but to do so requires time. It is impossible for us to-day to say that we have solved the problem, but we are on the right track, and we shall know more in a year from now. If he will come to Boston, I will show him everything we have, and he can draw his conclusions. It is largely a condition of locality; local conditions must govern. What would be proper in one place would not be in another; and, therefore, it is a matter of individual preference in solving the question as to What motor should be used. Mr. Hall: I would like to know if there is a member of the Convention who can tell me the difference as to danger to life or property on the streets as to a steam motor, a gas motor or an electric motor, assuming that they run at the same headway, say fifteen miles an hour. I can see no difference, and can see no reason for the action of the municipal bodies of our cities granting franchises without limit for electric roads, when they are horrified when asked to grant like privileges for steam or other motive power. I have been wanting to adopt some system of rapid transit for two years. If any one can give me a reason why there is any less liability for accidents with the electric motor than with the steam or gas motor, I would like to have such information. Mr. Jenkins It took away all our profits paying for these accidents, and made us feel like a lot of murderers. I myself saw several lying with arms and legs cut off. As a director I was disgusted with the whole thing. I do not know anything about any other system; what I say applies to dummies. tee. APPOINTMENT OF THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE. The President: I will now announce the Nominating CommitI appoint Mr. Cleminshaw, of Troy; Mr. Hurt, of Washington; Mr. Littell, of Louisville; Mr. Clegg, of Dayton, and Mr. Stevens, of Long Island City. The President: The next business is the report of the Committee on the Food and Care of Horses. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE FOOD AND CARE OF HORSES. The Secretary read the report, as follows: CLEVELAND, Ohio, October 10, 1889. THE AMERICAN STREET-RAILWAY ASSOCIATION, Gentlemen-Though the place of that noble animal, the horse, is now being usurped by his powerful rivals, electricity and the cable; still he is yet, and probably will be for some time, the motive power of many a street-railroad. Managers differ greatly as to the treatment of the subject of this paper, and, after an experience of twenty-seven years, I find that, in this as in all other businesses, there is still more to learn. We have yet to arrive at that state of perfection in the "Feeding and Care of Horses," when each animal shall receive just the right amount of food at exactly the right time, and be cared for and groomed with regard to his own peculiar physical condition. If that state of perfection is ever reached, it will indeed be the Horses' Millennium. |