retroelectro
Eventually, some towns had steam trains that ran a circuit around different areas of their city, allowing people to travel. However, these trains left the areas they drove through covered in smoke and filth. Because of this, most cities forbade steam streetcars in their business and central districts, so they were mainly used in the outer area of a metropolis. [2] Some places, like San Francisco, California, started using ‘cable streetcars’. In this system, a large cable would span the entire length of the railway and it would pull or drag the streetcar along the track. While these were very efficient and clean, the high initial investment made most cities continue to use animal power. Quickly, the convenience of the ‘street railroad’ became a nuisance caused by the pollution.
detailed notebook with 169 pages filled with his inventions and ideas. [3] This period was critical in honing his skills and creativity, laying the groundwork for his future contributions to electrical engineering. Sprague’s notebook included sketches and descriptions of various devices, such as an ‘electric light,’ ‘duplex telephone,’ ‘quadruplex and octoplex telegraph systems,’ a motor, and a means of transmitting facsimiles of pictures by wire. His meticulous documentation of these inventions demonstrates his passion and drive to innovate. Sometime in 1880, Sprague got orders back to Annapolis for examinations, after which he was commissioned as an Ensign. Not long after, he found himself on the USS Lancaster in Europe.
The cars were crowded with hundreds or thousands of people, and the air was full of smoke. The walls of the tunnels were filthy and covered in soot. There are historical cases where people have reported illness after using the Metropolitan Railway, including ‘The Case of Elizabeth Stainsby’ who died soon after traveling in the London Underground. This was one of the only underground subway systems in the world, and imagine that being your first experience.
The dawn of the electric streetcar
The inventor: Frank J Sprague
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, gas-powered trains and streetcars started appearing, but they would bring many of the same problems as their steam-powered counterparts. The electric streetcar was the solution to many of the problems created by steam and animal-drawn streetcars, but it also brought about its own set of challenges and limitations. In 1882, Werner von Siemens developed the first electric trolly streetcar, Elektromote . Essentially an experiment and novelty, the Elektromote operated on a track a third of a mile long for less than two months, from April 29 to June 13, 1882. Following this innovation,
Frank J Sprague was born in Milford, Connecticut, on July 25, 1857. At age 9, his mother, Francis Sprague, died from tuberculosis, and soon after, his father, David Sprague, abandoned his children with Frank’s aunt, Ann Sprague [3]. At an early age, Frank excelled academically. He was fascinated by mechanical devices and electricity and spent much of his childhood building various contraptions, showcasing a talent for engineering. Following High School, his community raised the money needed for him to take an exam in Springfield, Massachusetts, for the US Army’s West Point Academy. However, when he arrived, he found that he had arrived at the testing for the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. Perhaps not bothered by this, he took the exam and joined the Navy as an officer candidate at Annapolis, where he studied mechanics and electricity. [3] After finishing his classes at Annapolis, he was assigned to the USS Richmond as a midshipman. Sprague’s time on the Richmond is an important part of his journey as an engineer and inventor. While serving on the Richmond in the Philippines from May 1879 to February 1880, Sprague kept a
Osgood Ripley Journal | Osgood, Indiana s | Nov 3, 1887
many worked tirelessly over the next several years to produce and market a practical electric streetcar system. By 1888, there were only thirteen electric streetcar systems in America and less than fifty miles of ‘electric street railroad’ were installed nationwide. [2] The opening of the Richmond Union Passenger Railway in 1888 marked a leap in mass transit technology. While there were dozens of attempts before this, it’s opening had the most impact on the industry overall. The first large-scale electric streetcar system officially introduced electric vehicles to the masses. The success of this system in Richmond, Virginia, spurred the adoption of electric streetcars in cities all over America. The electric streetcar allowed cities to grow and become larger centers of industry.
A visit to London, England It was January 1882 when the young Navy ensign took leave in London to visit the Crystal Palace Electrical Exposition. While in London, Ensign Frank J Sprague rode on the world’s first subway. The ‘Metropolitan Railway’ was established in 1863 as an underground train system using coal-powered steam-driven engines.
Cadet Frank Sprague
Werner von Siemens’ Electromote
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