The Electric Railway - 5

The Electric Railway - 5

 It was upon the co-operation of Villard that Edison fell back, and an agreement was

entered into between them on September 14, 1881, which provided that the latter would

"build two and a half miles of electric railway at Menlo Park, equipped with three cars,

two locomotives, one for freight, and one for passengers, capacity of latter sixty miles an

hour. Capacity freight engine, ten tons net freight; cost of handling a ton of freight per

mile per horse-power to be less than ordinary locomotive.... If experiments are

successful, Villard to pay actual outlay in experiments, and to treat with the Light

Company for the installation of at least fifty miles of electric railroad in the wheat

regions." Mr. Edison is authority for the statement that Mr. Villard advanced between

$35,000 and $40,000, and that the work done was very satisfactory; but it did not end at

that time in any practical results, as the Northern Pacific went into the hands of a

receiver, and Mr. Villard's ability to help was hopelessly crippled. The directors of the

Edison Electric Light Company could not be induced to have anything to do with the

electric railway, and Mr. Insull states that the money advanced was treated by Mr. Edison

as a personal loan and repaid to Mr. Villard, for whom he had a high admiration and a

strong feeling of attachment. Mr. Insull says: "Among the financial men whose close

personal friendship Edison enjoyed, I would mention Henry Villard, who, I think, had a

higher appreciation of the possibilities of the Edison system than probably any other man

of his time in Wall Street. He dropped out of the business at the time of the consolidation

of the Thomson-Houston Company with the Edison General Electric Company; but from

the earliest days of the business, when it was in its experimental period, when the Edison

light and power system was but an idea, down to the day of his death, Henry Villard

continued a strong supporter not only with his influence, but with his money. He was the

first capitalist to back individually Edison's experiments in electric railways."

In speaking of his relationships with Mr. Villard at this time, Edison says: "When Villard

was all broken down, and in a stupor caused by his disasters in connection with the

Northern Pacific, Mrs. Villard sent for me to come and cheer him up. It was very difficult

to rouse him from his despair and apathy, but I talked about the electric light to him, and

its development, and told him that it would help him win it all back and put him in his

former position. Villard made his great rally; he made money out of the electric light; and

he got back control of the Northern Pacific. Under no circumstances can a hustler be kept

down. If he is only square, he is bound to get back on his feet. Villard has often been

blamed and severely criticised, but he was not the only one to blame. His engineers had

spent $20,000,000 too much in building the road, and it was not his fault if he found

himself short of money, and at that time unable to raise any more."

Villard maintained his intelligent interest in electric- railway development, with regard to

which Edison remarks: "At one time Mr. Villard got the idea that he would run the

mountain division of the Northern Pacific Railroad by electricity. He asked me if it could

be done. I said: `Certainly, it is too easy for me to undertake; let some one else do it.' He

said: `I want you to tackle the problem,' and he insisted on it. So I got up a scheme of a

third rail and shoe and erected it in my yard here in Orange. When I got it all ready, he

had all his division engineers come on to New York, and they came over here. I showed

them my plans, and the unanimous decision of the engineers was that it was absolutely

and utterly impracticable. That system is on the New York Central now, and was also

used on the New Haven road in its first work with electricity."

At this point it may be well to cite some other statements of Edison as to kindred work,

with which he has not usually been associated in the public mind. "In the same manner I

had worked out for the Manhattan Elevated Railroad a system of electric trains, and had

the control of each car centred at one place --multiple control. This was afterward worked

out and made practical by Frank Sprague. I got up a slot contact for street railways, and

have a patent on it--a sliding contact in a slot. Edward Lauterbach was connected with the

Third Avenue Railroad in New York--as counsel--and I told him he was mak- ing a

horrible mistake putting in the cable. I told him to let the cable stand still and send

electricity through it, and he would not have to move hundreds of tons of metal all the

time. He would rue the day when he put the cable in." It cannot be denied that the

prophecy was fulfilled, for the cable was the beginning of the frightful financial collapse

of the system, and was torn out in a few years to make way for the triumphant "trolley in

the slot."

Incidental glimpses of this work are both amusing and interesting. Hughes, who was

working on the experimental road with Mr. Edison, tells the following story: "Villard sent

J. C. Henderson, one of his mechanical engineers, to see the road when it was in

operation, and we went down one day--Edison, Henderson, and I--and went on the

locomotive. Edison ran it, and just after we started there was a trestle sixty feet long and

seven feet deep, and Edison put on all the power. When we went over it we must have

been going forty miles an hour, and I could see the perspiration come out on Henderson.

After we got over the trestle and started on down the track, Henderson said: `When we go

back I will walk. If there is any more of that kind of running I won't be in it myself.' " To

the correspondence of Grosvenor P. Lowrey we are indebted for a similar reminiscence,

under date of June 5, 1880: "Goddard and I have spent a part of the day at Menlo, and all

is glorious. I have ridden at forty miles an hour on Mr. Edison's electric railway--and we

ran off the track. I protested at the rate of speed over the sharp curves, designed to show

the power of the engine, but Edison said they had done it often. Finally, when the last trip

was to be taken, I said I did not like it, but would go along. The train jumped the track on

a short curve, throwing Kruesi, who was driving the engine, with his face down in the

dirt, and another man in a comical somersault through some underbrush. Edison was off

in a minute, jumping and laughing, and declaring it a most beautiful accident. Kruesi got

up, his face bleeding and a good deal shaken; and I shall never forget the expression of

voice and face in which he said, with some foreign accent: `Oh! yes, pairfeckly safe.'

Fortunately no other hurts were suffered, and in a few minutes we had the train on the

track and running again."