The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, ’AUGUST 18, 1911.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3299, 18 August 1911, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, ’AUGUST 18, 1911.

“Doomed to the Junk-heap.”

We wonder what our trusting “City Fathers” will say when they take time to> consider the . article on the storage battery system of tramways which lias .been contributed to the “Evening Post” by Mr. F. Black, M. Inst. E.E. As regards Mr. Black’s qualifications to treat upon iftatters electrical we do not think anyone who remembers his criticism of the Government’s hydroelectric scheme will have the slightest doubt. Having learned that battery cars are to :bo given a trial in Gisborne these are his comforting words: “One. must admire,” he remarks, “the courage of that town in accepting a legal gentleman’s ipse dixit upon a newly invented tramway- system which cannot find engineers or tramway managers to support it.” It is really little short of amazing that certain members of the Borough Council who are generally regarded as practical men should have voted in favour of importing two of these cars until they had got to know a great deal more about them. But to .proceed. With the makers’ specifications before him, Mr. Black says that having given them some study, he is no longer in doubt as to the wisdom of the tramway authorities in America and Europe in refusing to adopt the system. As he goes on to point out—and it is difficult to- imagine how the members of the local Council were not struck with the fact—there are hundreds of towns in these continents large enough to need tramways but not large enough to afford the standard trolley system where the Edison car,if any good > would quickly be installed. In this connection it might have been noticed that our evening contemporary recently re-printed an article favourable to the new system from the “Melbourne Age.” The article in question, it should he explained, did not appear, as might have been thought by some people, as a leading article in that journal. From its tone and the frequent use of the phrase “it is alleged,” those who are familiar with the methods of the advertising expert would have no difficulty in accounting for its publication. Even as it stood, however, it would prove a very doubtful advertisement for the new system. But we find that we are again digressing. Mr. Black, after exhaustive consideration of the subject, has come to the conclusion that the chief reasons why the Edison system is inherently unsuitable for tramways of normal type are: (1) The cars are grossly underpowered ; (2) they are built- excessively light; (3) the batteries are bulky and of a very low efficiency; (4) their life under everyday working conditions (vastly different to manufacturers’ nursed job conditions) is so uncertain that the financial risk involved is extreme; and (5) the saving in cost, of installing, as against the cost of an overhead system, rapidly diminishes as the number of cars used increases. In the course of “a word or two” on these reasons, Mr. Black remarks that the smallest trolley cars in ordinary tramway work are never fitted with less than 50-h.p. motor capacity, and the great majority have not less than from SO to 100-h.p. The Edison battery car, handicapped as it is with the dead load of its battery (over a ton in weight) is given only 10-h.p. motor capacity for a 26-seat ear, or 20-h.p. for a 40-seat ear. The reason for this is that any greater motor capacity requires larger and heavier batteries than the car dare early if it is run at any useful speed. “Consequently,” comments Mr. Black, “the battery car is not powerful enough to take easy gradients at other than a much reduced speed ; it is not powerful enough to accelerate at starting in the manner essential to a good service ; and it is incapable of running up heavy gradients at all. These are not matters depending on the magic of a man’s name or the blandishments of a clever salesman; the laws of mechanics know nothing of such, and are still superior to the genius of even an Edison.” In detail Mr. Black then proceeds to outline the manner in which Mr. Edison hag bowed to the laws, and in order to lighten the otherwise quite impossible task of his battery, he has cut down the' weight of tire car itself to the very limit. “Surely,” he adds, “it does not take an engineer to grasp the significance of these light-weights and' built-up frames of tension reds? Not even the name of Edison will serve to convince me that such work is not doomed t-o an early resting place on the junk heap.” As to the efficiency of the batteries, ■ Mr. Black holds quite different views from those which appear in the bright pamphlets descriptive of the new system He declares that the efficiency is only from 60 to 65 per cent. On the question of '.length of life, nothing much he claims is known. What will prove of especial interest to the ratepayers of Gisborne are Mr. Black’s comments on the guarantee from the Edisou-Beach Company of which they have heard so much. As ho rightly points out., the makers, whilst guaranteeing their product for three years, do not state what conditions of : operation they , would impose. At any rate also tlie guarantee is worthless in New Zealand • whatever

value it might have in America. “TTn;der these circumstances,” says , Mr. Black, ‘ ‘he would indeed be a reckless adviser who would counsel sinking capital in such plant.” Touching upon the relative costs of the two systems, he states further that, by the time the requirements of the Public Works Department are met, on a- ten-mile tramway employing,.say, fifteen cars, the

extra cost of battery over trolley cars would be sufficient to pay for an overhead system and leave about £6OOO to the good, or on a five-mile system with only six cars the balance over the amount needed’ fer overhead work would be more than £1500! Mr, Black concludes bis valuable report in these words: —“The schedule speed of, the only battery service operating—a short spline in New York—is, according to the Tf car-maker’s own statement, 4| miles (4.77) per hour. Is that the kind of service on which to base data that wid lead engineers to recommend this much-heralded invention? One is free to admit that on a level track the battery can run considerably faster than this, hut what will the power and maintenance charges then be, and how will the battery’s health be affected? All such information has yet to be discovered.”