STORAGE ELECTRICITY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 23, 21 July 1911, Page 7

STORAGE ELECTRICITY

A REVOLUTIONARY INVENTION. Mr. Thomas A, Edison recently divulged some particulars of a storage battery he has invented, which, in his opinion, will revolutionise electric tram systems and surface car transportation generally. The battery that he has been working on for months overcomes the three main objections to the one now in useweight, bulk, and length of time required to store it. So light is this new battery, according to Mr. Edison, that one large enough to run a butcher's delivery waggon can be put in a suit case and can be charged in four or five minutes., Some of Edison's batteries are now being tested on electric surface cars in New York City, but they are not to be compared with the new ones, in the inventor's opinion. The latter may be stored under the seats. When it comes to charging they can be "rushed." The full current of an ordinary feed wire can be turned on at the end of each trip, and in four minutes the battery is charged. The use of the battery in vehicles is the most startling part of what Mr. Edison promises. He tells of an old delivery cart he turned into an electric motor in brief time. All he did was to take off the shafts and instal one of the suit case motors along with the motor. A ten-minnte charge would carry it more than 50 miles. In his opinion the whole cost of the day's deliveries for the average merchant woulu be about one shilling. The inventor prophecies that this new storage battery will eventually displace the present tramway system, with its overhead wire.