Detroit Electric Railway designed by Frank Fisher

The Detroit Electric Railway.

The Highland Park Electric Railway, by which name the railway now being equipped at Detroit is known, will soon be in practical operation. Just west of Woodward avenue has been built a substantial power-house of brick, in which a nest of new steel boilers has been placed, besides a new engine and two dynamos. The railway is built along the west side of the plank road until the toll-gate is passed, when the track makes a slight curve still further west to avoid the toll-house and to return, after it is passed, again to near the plank road. The track has been very thoroughly built, and, in fact, everything connected with the establishment has been furnished of the best with a view to permanence and economy in the end.

The current is led to the motor by a central rail supported upon glass insulators, not unlike telegraph insulators, two of them being placed side by side and supporting the rail in the grooves formed in the glass. In addition, the rail is fastened by wires to the insulators.

The current returns through one of the rails, and an E: M. F; of 300 volts is employed, each motor requiring, 30 amperes, which-power it is calculated will be sufficient to drive the car at a speed of 10 miles an hour. The motor employed is the invention of Mr. Frank E. Fisher, and it is said to embody several novel features.

The projectors of this railway, three miles in length, and claimed to be the longest electric railway in the country, are Capt. W. H. Stevens, Frank E. Snow, John B. Corliss, W. A. Jackson, F. Woodruff and others, and the work of building the road and station has been done under the supervision of Mr. Jackson, well known as an able and practical telephonist.