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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 1889)
2iU WEST SHORE. AN IMPORTANT OREGON INVENTION. pl-ECTKICIANS interested in the application of r electric tower to the propulsion of street cars X have long Ix-en engaged in studying some means whereby the electric current could he transmitted Inflow the track, and thus disjienso with unsightly and dangerous overhead wires and the poles to support them. The overhead wires are, of course, uninsulak'd, in order to admit of constant contact with the trolly that takca the current from the wire to conduct it to the dynamoH underneath the ear. To sustain the wire directly alxtve the track, poles are planted on either side of the street, and wires stretched across between them, from which the wire conducting the current is siisH-iided. Anything not a nonconductor coming in contact with the exssed and heavily charged wire will take the current as well as the trolly. Herein lies the dangerous feature. Another objection it the great waste of Miwer through the dissipation of the current Till (II AHI) All.. from the exposed wire. So great is this Iosb that it is impossible to ocrato long lines of electric railway without liaving power houses only six or eight miles apart. Near the wer houses the wires are very heav ily charged, while at the points farthest removed from them the current is barely strong enough to move the car. Sundry exierimenti have been made with wires underneath the car to conduct the motive current for oH-rating, but inventors have failed to prevent the loss resulting from rxoscd conduct ing HiinU, ami havr at the same time experienced much trouble from the tendency of the city trie current to short 'circuit to the ground, The contrivance here with illustrated is the invention of John W. Kern, of East Port, land, and it in believed to obvi ate all the dilliculties usually en countered in providing for the transmission of cliytrie jnnrer un der moving cam so that its appli cation shall U continuous. The distinctive feature of Kern's method of taking an electric current from an insulated wire lies in the movable point, A, which only comes in contact with the charged wire as the car requiring the current pass- SECTIONAL VIEW OK FBOO, SHOWING UOVAHLI CONMCTINQ 1'OINT AND SLOT FOB ELECTRIC WIRE. es it. Tho guard rail shown is not a new thing. The inner half of the guard rail may be used for one of the track rails, thus contributing' to economy of construc tion, the insulated wire running in the angle of the outer protection rail and held in place by the frog in the manner shown at the bottom of this page, D being the wire, and the outer guard rail being omitted. The guard rail is fastened to the ties of the road bed in the ordinary way. The securely insulated wire iB laid, resting in frogs placed about five feet apart, with only a small spot exposed within the frog. At that small spot the conducting point, A, comes in contact with the electric wire only while the car is passing it, the slight spring that breaks the contact being pressed in by the light pressure of the trolly or plow. When the car ii wist the spring pushes the point, A, from tho wire and breaks the contact so there is no liability to loss of Miwor by leaving any direct exposure of the charged wire or any of its conducting connections. The trolly, which is a small car running on the guard rail and held in place by the slot between tho rails, will havei copper plate, H, a little more than five feet long, which will take tho current from the point, A, and transmit it through the wire, C, to the operating dynamos un derneath the car at each pair of trucks. Tho trolly is long enough so that before one conducting point i passed it is upon another, and there is no resistance to releasing the first point, the whole current being trans ferred to tho next, which the trolly is also touching. THOUY mi)t THC OCAHI) RAIL.