Notes from Gotham - The Combination for Developing the Electric Motor

Mr. Tesla and His Remarkable Invention — Criticism of the Defender and Her Yankee Crew — Predicted End of the Gold Shipments.

Special New York Letter.

The combination between the Westinghouse Electric Company and the Baldwin Locomotive Works, which has been already announced, seems to be an assured fact. The purpose is to develop the electric motor, with special reference to railroad travel, and the fact that the combination will control the Tesla patents incites the highest interest in the electrical world.

Nikola Tesla is in many respects the most interesting man to-day in the department of electrical investigation. In is due largely to his genius that electricians belleve that a motor will eventually be developed that will draw railroad trains at a speed of from 150 to 300 miles per hour. It is the Tesla motor that the Westinghouse-Baldwin Interests will seek to develop. Tesla, who was so recently burned out, is now located at No. 46 East Houston street, where, surrounded by all necessary appliances, and aided by skilled mechanics, he is devoting his principal attention to the development of the electric motor.

It was in 1887 that Tesla first brought out the motor that it is now belleved will revolutionize the mechanical power of the world. The invention is based on the discovery of the rotary field motor, by which the force of magnetism is changed from passive to active. The system of electric distribution and transmission is by multiphase alternating currents, and dispenses both with brushes and commutator. The machine is simple enough. Everybody understands that an ordinary magnet on a piece of fron through which a magnetic current is passing will attract and hola particles of iron and steel. Here la force, but of a passive character, and this is all the world knew of magnetism until Tesla took up the subject.

Tesla, in his experiments with magnetic currents of high frequencies and high potencies, found that such currents passed through a circular magnet produced most remarkable results. Such a magnet, Instead of attracting and holding particles of iron or steel stationary, causes them, when placed within the circle of the magnet, to revolve around on axis of their own. The Tesla motor consists simply of a ring of iron, shaped much like a life-preserver, with copper wire bound around it. In its application to motive power, the circular magnet is attached to the bottom of an engine, and the axle upon which the wheels revolve passes through the centre of the magnet without touching it. When the current is turned on the magnetic force whirling around the hollow of the magnet catches the axle and turns it. Very simple, isn't it? But it will need the utmost genius of the electricians and the use of enormous capital to develop this motor to the practical needs of the great railroad corporations. The men who know most say that the development of the electric motor for railroad purposes is merely a question of time now.

Curiously enough, the criticism that has been rather freely bestowed upon the American yacht Defender lately takes in the Yankee crew as well as the Yankee ship. It is well known that Capt. Hank Haff dispensed this year with the big and hardy Danes and Norwegians who make up most of our yachting crews, and who are excellent sailors, and picked a crew of Deer Island, Maine, fishermen, who are every one pure-bred Yankees. Now, the fainthearted ones are fearful this crew will prove inferior to the English crew. It is true that the Defender has been very queerly handled at times, and that the crew has been slow also. Per contra, the Defender has at times shown marvelous speed, and has been handled with lightning celerity. Those who know the proverbial cuteness of the Yankee character are putting two and two together, and there are many who believe that the real speed and handiness of the Defender will not be known until they are shown in the cup races Mr. Iselin and Capt. Haff have without doubt been testing out the weak and strong points of the American yacht, and, good as Vigilant is, they have had no call yet to show all that they can do As for the Yankee crew — just wait.

There has been a pretty little game going on in Wall street with the gold reserve during the summer solstice. The raids on the gold in the United States Treasury, which have attracted so much attention, and which mean so much to public confidence, it is now stated will stop. Practically, the syndicate which took the last Issue of bonds, and of which J. Pierpont Morgan is the head, has stood and still stands ready to make good any withdrawals of Treasury gold. But it is said there is a rod in pickle for the mercantile houses and exporters who have been upsetting the exchange market and raiding the gold reserve in order to make a few hundred dollars on the million. It is now well known that the recent gold shipments were more speculative than necessary. The return of Mr. Morgan to town, and the strengthening of our markets that comes with the first of September, is the cause of the confidence that exists that the gold shipments are about over. No one supposes that we will continue to lose gold after the movement of the crops, which is now at hand, sets in.