[PRCo] Re: books

[John Swindler]

It started with being familiar with the connections program, and then picking up bits and pieces from traction books, street railway journal, a letter from GE president on Sprague, and recent history channel show on Chicago fire.
In the rebuilding of Chicago after the fire, by the 1890s, the CBD land had become occupied, and the only direction was up.  And with those initial high rise buildings came the need for elevator and elevator controls.  That's where a young naval officer named Frank Sprague comes in.  And while tinkering with his initial remote control elevator circuitry, one night he tried to see if one elevator control could control several elevators.  Not useful for elevators, but couple years later was able to apply this concept to electrification of South Side 'el' with multiple unit control.  GE lost the contract for locomotive hauled 'el' trains.  This concept - remote control of electrical circuitry, was later applied to airplanes, and manned rockets.  Sprague's control system was hard-wired.  The last link was to send a radio signal to control the electrical controls.
 
That's the quick readers digest version.  For what it's worth, I'll claim that it would make a good transit related 'connections' story.
 
Cheers
John
 
> From: ktjosephson at embarqmail.com> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> Subject: [PRCo] Re: books> Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 06:31:07 -0800> > Just say the cow's name was Yerkes and that'll be the only connection you'll > need!> > K.> ----- Original Message ----- > From: "John Swindler" <j_swindler at hotmail.com>> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>> Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 6:08 AM> Subject: [PRCo] Re: books> > > >> >> > Sounds boring.> >> > Why not try the connections between a kick from Mrs. O'Leary's cow in > > Chicago leading to putting man on the moon. Frank Sprague would play a > > pivotal part. You could call it the cow that really did jump over the > > moon.> >> > (it helps to have seen the Connections program, which aired about a decade > > ago.)> >> > Cheers> > John > > 
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