Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887 | Page 5

latter two years on the basis of the oldest electric street railroad in
existence to-day, and that is the Baltimore railroad, equipped with the
Daft system.
The main points for consideration common to each are six in number:
1st. Obtaining of franchise. 2d. Construction of buildings, viz., engine
house or stable. 3d. Equipment--rolling stock, horses, engines and
dynamos. 4th. Construction of tramway. 5th. Cost of operation. 6th.
Individual characteristics and advantages.
Each of these requires a paper by itself, but in as concise a way as
possible, presenting only the salient reasons and figures, I shall
endeavor to embody it in one.
1st. Obtaining of franchise.
I assume the municipal officers and the promoters honest men.
It is the universal settled conviction that a street car propelled with
certainty and promptness by mechanical means is infinitely to be

preferred to horses. Hence, if this guarantee can be given, there need be
no fear from the other side of the house. Years of experience prove that
this guarantee can be given.
The mechanical methods are electricity and the cable. To suit local
conditions the former has three general applications--overhead,
underground, and accumulator systems; while the latter has but one, the
underground. Hence, the former, electricity, has three chances to the
latter's one to meet the whims, opinions, or decisions of municipal
authorities. Other advantages accruing from mechanical methods are
cleaner streets, absence of noise, quick time, no blockades, no stables
accumulating filth and breeding pestilence, and lastly the great moral
sympathetic feeling for man's most faithful and valuable servant, the
horse. These all are directly in favor of obtaining the right franchise.
The three general ways of obtaining the same are a definite payment of
cash to the authorities, a guarantee of an annual payment of a certain
per cent. of the earnings, and lastly a combination of the two. For the
city or town the latter way is the safest, and the best, all things
considered. As electricity is mechanical, and as it can be shown that it
is the cheapest to construct and most economical, and has three chances
to operate, it stands by far the most likely to obtain the franchise.
2d. Construction of buildings.
The governing factors under this head are the local land valuation and
tax. The system necessitating a spread eagle policy on the land question
will cost. What could be a more perfect illustration than the horse
railroad system? The motive power of the New York Central Railroad
between New York and Albany could be comfortably stowed in the
barns of some of the New York City street railways. What a contrast!
The real estate, buildings, and fixtures of the Third Ave. line are valued
at $1,524,000, and what buildings! Cattle sheds in the metropolis of
America. Surely they did not cost a tithe of this great sum. What did?
The land, a whole block and more. Henry George advocates might find
food for thought here. All this is true of the other lines in every city in
the Union. Enormous expenditures for land. A good one half of their
capital sunk in purchasing the necessary room. Go where you will, a

good fifty per cent. of the capital is used for land for their stables. This
obviously does not include equipment.
How is it with mechanical systems? The land is one of the minor
considerations, the last thing considered. Let us look at some figures.
From careful examination of many engine plants, considering the ratio
between a certain number of horses with their necessary adjuncts and a
steam plant of numerically equal power, I find it stands as 1 to 30. That
is, a steam plant complete of 30 horse power capacity would need only
one thirtieth the floor space of thirty horses. With larger powers this
ratio is still greater, and from one estimate I found that it stood as 1 to
108, i.e., for horses I should have to have 108 times more floor space
than for an equal number of mechanical horse power. It must be
remembered also that the mechanical horse power is 50 per cent.
greater than the best animal horsepower.
From one maker, taking the engine alone, I found that a rated 100 horse
power engine, guaranteed in every particular, would have ample room
in the stall for one horse in the average stable. Another instance showed
that I could get a steam plant complete, engine, boiler, etc., of 50 horse
power, in a space 5 by 6 feet, which is smaller than the average stall.
Here is shown the enormous saving in land purchase.
For car room a building several stories high would answer perfectly,
since quick-hoisting elevators could be put in and the tracks on each
floor have wire connections with the dynamos, so that the cars