AN ELECTRIC RAILWAY IN IRELAND.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVI, Issue 994, 28 November 1883, Page 6

AN ELECTRIC RAILWAY IN IRELAND.

It is very singular (observes the London correspondent of the " N. Z. Times ") that Ireland, generally so behind-haud in commercial enterprise, should be the first to construct an electric railway in the whole United Kingdom. The line which runs from Port Rush to Giant's Causeway, in the North of Ireland, is six miles long, and eosfc £7500 a mile. The whole capital was raised in the district, but whether the enterprise will prove a commercial success remains to be seen. It is claimed that whilst the old system of steam tram cars cost £8 4s 9£d a week per engine, the new method will be worked at £2 6s a week less. The power is generated by a water- | fall in the river Rush, driving turbines to the extent of 90 horse power, and the electricity is conveyed by means of an insulated wire to tho railway. It is carried along on one side of the line by a conducting rail some distance above the ground, supported on insulators. An arm with a brush stretches out from the train and keeps contact with the conductor, and by this means sufficient power is obtained to work the machine or locomotive attached to the train. The opening of this new line was a time of great rejoic ing. The Lord-Lieutenant and his wife attended specially, and he addressed a speech to an enthusiastic meeting, in which he made allusion to the improvementin the social condition of the cuuntry. It is, of course, needless to say that the problem of motive power, by the aid of electricity, is not yet solved any more than is that of electric lighting. The Faure accumulators seem to point in the direction of success, but their excessive weight adds so much to the dead load that nothing financially successful has been attained . These accumulators have, however, been used for steam launches, tricycles, tramway cars, and omnibuses. Not long since one of the latter drove into the court-yard of the Grand Hotel at Paris, in the presence of a party of savans, and much to the astonishment of the Parisian gamins who could not comprehen I the gyrations of the vehicle in the absence of any ostensible cause to account therefor. Mr Edison, at his manufactory in the Mauo Park, has a private line three miles and a half long, and he claims to be able to attain a speed of 40 miles an hour, at a Baying of 33 per cent over steam, and he is going to supply the new Swiss electric company with several of his motors ; but his genuine prophecies are not generally accepted in the commercial world. Should the Port Rush railway prove a general success, it will lead to other and Bimilar enterprises being carried out, and the value of mountain streams will run high for manufacturing purposes. Indeed there ii no knowing but that in the future the mills and all their hands will migrate from the cial districts to those places which abound in sources of natural power. Sir William Siemens declares that there ie enough pojver in the Falls of Niagara to drive all the spindles in New England, and when that is done there would be enough still left to import to the old country when the coal fields of Durham and Wales shall have spent their force. Even the wind might be employed to generate and store us force when* opportunity occurred, while the tide offers a never failing source of power to the man who can solve the difficulty of practically using it. The field of the inventor is unlimited. Vast wealth and honor await the person who can grapple with the subject successfully, both in its mechanical and commercial asppcts. The effect that would be, and will be, made upon society and all our habits is incalculable, and the era of the steam-engine will become as obsolete as that of stage coaches and pack-horses is now. Who is sufficient for all these things ?