War of the Wires: A Curious Chapter in Street Railway History

Abstract

The street railway industry searched for a reliable and efficient motor to replace the horse for decades. By 1890 electricity was adopted for this purpose by transit operators. The new technology was in fact adopted with enthusiasm and most of the horse cars were gone by 1900. The universal plan included a single overhead wire charged with 600-volt DC current. The ground return was aided by bonded rail joints to complete the circuit. Only one major U.S. city , Cincinnati, chose to use a double-overhead trolley wire system. It had one power and one return wire separated by insulators. There was no substantial technical reason to justify this peculiar way of handling the power collection system. It was adopted because of a legal battle over interference with telephone service because of the ground return and efforts to consolidate the local street railways into a single system. Other factors included a city ban on disrupting street pavements and the opinion of a senior street-railway Titan that the double-wire plan was somehow superior.