Читать книгу Electricity in Locomotion - Adam Gowens Whyte - Страница 8

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A rough idea has already been given of the elementary mechanism of electric traction—the combination of generating station, of cars fitted with electric motors, and of a sliding contact between the two. It is in connection with the sliding contact that the ingenuity of tramway engineers has been mainly exercised. Three distinct solutions were evolved for tramway work, giving rise to three systems—(1) the overhead or trolley system; (2) the conduit system; and (3) the surface-contact system.

The first system is now almost universal in the United Kingdom. Part of the London system is equipped on the conduit system; and the tramways at Lincoln and Wolverhampton are constructed on the surface-contact system. Beyond these cases the trolley holds the field. In the United States and on the Continent there is a larger proportion of conduit work, but from a practical point of view it would hardly be necessary to mention either conduit or surface-contact if it were not for the great engineering interest which they possess and for the controversies to which they have given rise.