ABSTRACT
The use of electricity in the early days was delayed to some extent by the notion that cheap water-power was essential, and the first electric railways owe their existence to causes altogether outside the special merits of electric traction. The example of electric traction was a miniature railway laid down by Messrs. Siemens & Halske at the Berlin Exhibition of 1879, and the method of conveying current to and from the motor is the same as on most electric railways. There is nothing very humorous about an electric tramcar, and the advertisements are often nearer tragedy; yet the late Professor W. E. Ayrton once said that two conductors were required—one to take the current and the other to take the current coin. The rapidity with which electric tramcars can follow one another without confusion is really marvellous, and on some routes a service of a minute and a half is regularly maintained.
