Accumulator Propulsion in America. 2.
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What strikes the European on arriving in New York is the widely differing class of work to which the electric vehicle is put. Not only is it used as a light delivery van, of the type well known in London or Paris, but it is employed for the whole range of haulage up through all the intermediate grades to heavy four and five-ton wagons. A visit to the headquarters of the most important users of motor vehicles will give ample proof of this.
The New York Transportation Company, to which a brief reference was made in our first article (see page 171 ante), would naturally be one of the first to be visited, for there is, doubtless, no concern in the world which has such a wide experience in the use of all types of electric vehicle. The company's chief business is in letting out electric cabs, of which it had, a short time ago, more than 600. A couple of disastrous fires, the last of which took place in January (see "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR," Vol. IV, page 517), reduced the equipment considerably, and it is probable that the total number of electric cabs now in operation does not number more than 400. Not a small number of people are of opinion that the fire was a godsend to the New York Transportation Company, for it put out of existence "lead cabs" which their owners would have hesitated to discard, but which they were fully convinced were far from perfect. It is certain that the fire will be beneficial to the public, for the clumsy two and three-ton cabs with their driver perched in the rear, their solid tires and their leisurely ramble, were as ungainly as the dodo, and as costly as they were ungainly. It is not certain that the vehicles which replace them will be Less costly to the public, for the electric cab business is a monopoly, but they certainly cannot be so ugly, and they will be cheaper to operate.
The two standard types of vehicle in use for cab service are a hansom and a brougham. The former type is the more largely represented ; it is a four-wheeled vehicle with the familiar folding doors of the London hansom, and the iriver seated high up in the rear as on the horse hansoms. Under the operator's seat is the box containing the battery, ntroduced and removed from the rear. In the older types the cab is driven by two electric motors geared to the front .vheels by spur pinions and internal gears, and it is steered 'rom the rear. Newer models, however, have front steerng and rear drive. Solid tires are used on all the machines ; ndeed, the majority are so heavy that it would be cornnercially impossible to equip them with anything else. The tewest type has a much more pleasing appearance, and is ertainly an improvement on the older model. It is a prougham which can be converted into a victoria for summer ise. The batteries are hung under the centre of the run
ning gear, the controller, steering gear, and other mechanism being contained in a kind of case behind the box. All these vehicles are built by the Electric Vehicle Company ; they have generally a capacity for thirty or forty miles, and are geared from eleven to thirteen miles an hour. The company has excellent facilities for the rapid charging of batteries, quick changing, repairs, and all electrical work. Five hundred batteries can be charged at once and the company has a number of special hydraulic rams for end-loading cabs, and special plungers for raising and lowering underslung batteries. By these appliances, the heavy storage batteries of a cab can be changed, without any manual labour, in five minutes or less. It is, indeed, a common occurrence for a cab driver to run into the station and change his batteries for fully charged ones while the passengers wait in the reception room. All these appliances and perfections are necessary for the big fleet of vehicles handled by the company, and they are not to be found in any of the smaller electric garages of the city.
It would be impossible to give even a brief description of all the electric-vehicle installations in New York, so great is their number. It has been estimated that there are in the Eastern States 18,000 electric vehicles in use, about 8,000 of which have been built by the Electric Vehicle Company, of
Hartford, Conn. Few electrics are used for pleasure, and it may be safely estimated that the total number in commercial service is very little short of the 18,000 quoted. In New York, express delivery companies are extensive employers of electric vans, and chief among them is the Adams Express Company, the "Carter Paterson" of New York. About tifty electric and seven petrol cars are employed at the New York branch, and about forty electric ones are used at the Brooklyn branch. Altogether, in different parts of the Eastern Slates, the Company has more than two hundred electric vans in use. The commonest type is an open truck with low sides, and light roof, with, in a few cases, the space between sides and roof filled in with wire work. The heaviest van carries a load of two tons, has a speed of nine miles an hour, and a radius of 35 miles. Batteries are underslung, and there is single motor geared to a countershaft with differential, with final drive to the road wheels by side chains and sprockets. Longitudinal, semi-elliptic springs are employed, the machines all have solid tires, and steering is by upright column and wheel. A smaller model of the same style of machine has a load capacity of one ton and a speed of ten miles an hour. A light van, with a fully enclosed body carrying half-a-ton load, is employed in smaller numbers for more fragile articles ; this has a speed of ten miles an hour. The petrol cars used by this company are kept on long-distance work.
Among the big dry-goods stores which are such a feature of New York, rnotorvans are used to only a moderate extent. None of the very largest firms' those keeping a hundred or more horse vans, has adopted more than five per cent. of mechanical, delivery vehicles. These are several of them, indeed, that do all their work by horses. On the other hand, some of the medium-size, business houses do nearly the whole of their delivery work by electric vehicles. Tiffany, for instance, the well-known jewellers, operates about thirty electric cars and has not a single horse vehicle. Gorham, the silversmith, has about a dozen electrics and a private charging station. Park and Tilford, the big wholesale grocers, use seven electric delivery vans, three times that number of horse vehicles, and no petrol motors. Geo. Ehret, the great brewer, does all his heavy hauling by fiveton, electric lorries; the Eagle Roller Mill Company, one of the largest flour millers in the city, adopts the same mode of haulage. Macy's, the big dry goods store on Broadway, -employs about one dozen electric delivery vans, a very Small number compared with the big stock of horse vans. Frequently these large ooncerns are prevented from using motor vehicles owing to the opposition of an old conservative partner or manager. Several of the houses just mentioned only introduced electric traction after the death ot. some prominent man in the business who had a personal objection to new methods.
It is, of course, to be expected that the Edison Company would employ electric vehicles ; the company, indeed, has nothing else, both for lightest work and for the heaviest haulage. The electric mains for light and power are under tne care of this company, and its peculiar work has called forth a number of electric vehicles specially fitted for its requirements. Twenty or more small, light, covered vans are used exclusively for carrying lamps and small electric fittings, and they are similar in every respect to the half-ton vans used by the Adams Express Company. The heaviest vehieles carry a load of five tons. Most of theta have flat platforms with movable stakes round the sides which allow them to be used for various classes of work. Some are fitted with telescoping ladders for lamp work, and a number have electric windlasses under the driver's seat for loading, unloading, and drawing a cable. The majority of these vehicles are manufactured by the Electric Vehicle Company, of Hartford, Conn. The frame of the five-ton wagons is of channel section, mounted on semi-elliptical springs, with wheels 36 inches in diameter equipped with solid rubber tires. The motor, battery, and controlling mechanism, are all attached to the frame, and thus get the benefit of the springs. With a full load the speed is six miles an hour, and the machine has a working, radius of 25 miles on a single charge. The battery consists of 44 cells, 19 M.V. " Exide," carried in a single tray adapted to be put in position by a hydraulic lift. The motors, two in number, are hung from the main frame just behind the battery box, and each motor drives one rear wheel independently, no differential being required. A double reduction of speed is obtained by driving from a pinion on each motor shaft to a large gear, and from the gear shaft by sprocket and• chain to the rear wheel. The motors and gears are enclosed in dust-proof casings. The chains are short, the motors being placed as near as possible to the rear wheels. Speed is controlled by a sick lever at the end' of the driver's seat, brakes are operated by pedal, and an emergency switch is provided for cutting ofl the current in case the controller should become disabled. As is usual with this type of American machine, the driver's seat is placed high up and well forward, the footboard extending beyond the front of the frame, to leave as large e space as possible for the load. This type of vehicle, wittbody constructed for the special needs of the different firms, is employed by some of the large brewers,
wholesale flout
nerchants, grocers and heavy "truckers." Around the locks, where it might be thought that many of these heavy .lectric wagons would be seen, none are to be found. Inurance regulations prevent the use of petrol or steam trucks in the docks, but no such restriction is placed on electric 'ehicles. The reason for their absence is that merchants ind it is not profitable to use them for this class of work, ,wing to the abnormally long wails which are necessitated
• yr the crowded conditions of the docks and wharves.
Sight-seeing cars, or, as the New Yorker prefers to call hem, " rubber-neck wagons," are nearly all electrically riven. Quite a number of these huge vehicles start from he neighbourhood of Madison Square, and run round Coney s-,land during the summer season. They carry forty pasengers on the top of a deck, with seats rising in tiers, ools and sundries being stored under the seats. The bat
teries, 44 " Exide " cells, are underslung, and the drive is through two independent motors geared to the rear wheels. The radius of action is about thirty miles, and the maximum speed seven miles an hour. Six-inch, solid-rubber, flat-tread tires are employed, and the total weight is about three and a half tons. Battery renewals and tires are a very serious item in the upkeep of these vehicles, and it is practically certain that a modern type of petrol or steam wagon would give better results. A single new tire, for instance, costs The New York Auto Transfer Company employs a number of these cars on the Fischer combination system, the drive being electric, through independent motors to the rear wheels; current is obtained from a chloride accumulator charged by a direct-coupled generator driven by a petrol motor. There are also a few observation cars with ancient petrol motors.