The motor current is one of high power, and as such
intractable; and it is in the character of this current, rather than in
methods of insulation, that the remedy for the much-objected-to overhead
wire is to be found. It will be remembered that all the phenomena of
induction are _unhindered by insulation_.
Aside from the current-carrying problem, the electric road is
explainable in all its features upon the theory and practice of the
dynamo and motor. It is merely an application of the two machines. The
last is, in usual practice, under the car, and geared to the truck-axle.
A more modern mechanical improvement is to make the axle the shaft of
the motor armature. When the motor has used the current it passes by
most systems into the rail and the ground. By others there is a
"metallic circuit"--two wires. Many men whose interest and occupation
leads them to a study of such matters know that the use of electricity,
instead of steam locomotion, is merely a question of time on all
railroads. I have said elsewhere that the actual age of electricity had
not yet fully come.
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