Abstract
An important but neglected chapter in the history of American technology is the development of street railways, particularly during the technically creative fifteen-year period between 1873 and 1888 when inventors and street-railway owners experimented with a number of combinations of power sources and management techniques to make street railways useful and profitable.1 This period opened with the successful introduction of cable traction and closed when Frank J. Sprague demonstrated the practical success of electric traction.2 Many of the men who were instrumental in street-railway development during the change from animal to electric power were inventors and entrepreneurs who seized the opportunities presented by the possibilities of urban transit to create city-wide networks and personal fortunes.
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