Electromote

Elektromote - originally written Electromote - was the name given to the first trolleybus in the world. This was an electrically driven Wagonette. This was shown from 29 April 1882 by Werner von Siemens on a 540 meter long test track in the then still independent villas and tenement settlement Hallensee in Berlin, now part of the district of Charlottenburg -Wilmersdorf.

The test vehicle already had the drive and energy of a trolleybus and is thus regarded as the world's first representative of this transport system. The first building on this technique operating with the scheduled passenger services were but it was only in 1900 opened by the Paris Compagnie de Traction par Trolley Automoteur while the first equipped with an internal combustion engine bus in the world was built 1895 by Carl Benz and used in the Netphener Omnibus Company.

The name was derived from Elektromote the English term for electric motion, electric movement ' from. In developing the system, Werner Siemens was in close contact with his brother emigrated to England Carl Wilhelm Siemens.

History

At the Berlin Trade Exhibition of 1879 presented Werner Siemens - or his company Siemens & Halske - the first electric railway in the world. In May 1881 finally took place in Lichterfelde in Berlin, the opening of the world's first electric tram. A two-pole overhead line presented the engineer then in August 1881 prior to the International Electricity Exhibition in Paris. Immediately thereafter, Siemens focused on to show the public also an electrically powered road vehicle. Until then, you knew just horse buses and buses steam or steam car.

With the establishment of the adequate test facility in Lake Halen has also been started during the year 1881. Again, this was an area in close proximity to the capital deliberately selected. The idea for the project of an electrically powered road transport, is, however, considerably older, in 1847, the founding year of the company Siemens & Halske, Werner Siemens said in a letter to the request:

" When I have leisure and money, I will build me a cab electromagnetic, who will not let me sit in the dirt ... "

In parallel, his brother Carl Wilhelm dealt with this idea, he wrote in 1880:

"Another arrangement by Which an ordinary omnibus might also be run upon the street would have a suspender thrown at Intervals from one side of the street to the other, and two wires hanging from synthesis suspenders; Allowing contact- rollers to run on thesis two wires, the current Could be conveyed to the tram -car, and back again to the dynamoelectric machine at the station, without the necessity of running upon rails at all "

The Elektromote test route ran northeast of the station Hallensee and was completely flat. She started in the street 5, today's Joachim- Friedrich-Straße, cruised south towards running - about halfway through the track - the Kurfürstendamm and ended up in the street 13, today's Johann -Georg -Straße. The area beyond the ring road was still undeveloped at this time, the test section was therefore at a dirt road. The plant was purely experimental purposes, a public passenger transport was there never intended. The technical design and the management of these test runs were in the hands of the former Siemens chief engineer Carl Ludwig refining.

Already after only a little over six weeks of trial operation on 13 June 1882 set, the test track was mined until June 20, 1882 again. The system proved to be suitable in principle, but was not initially developed because of the time generally poor road conditions. Above all, this had a negative impact on a smooth running of the current collector. In addition, Siemens then devoted primarily to the development of the electric tram. The breakthrough was their invention finally no longer experienced the Siemens brothers, Carl Wilhelm died in 1883, Werner 1892. The first trolley buses in regular service perverted, however, only in 1900 for the Universal Exhibition in Saint- Mandé near Paris.

However, the principle of contact car was still in use during his lifetime Werner Siemens ' at the first electric trams. So in 1882 on a test track between Charlottenburg and the Ausflugsgaststätte, Spandau Bock '. Beginning in 1883, then also at the local railway Mödling - Hinterbrühl near Vienna and in 1884 at the Frankfurt - Offenbach tram. In contrast, the first electric tram in the world received their electricity by 1890 through the insulated rail track their fed.

Description of the plant

The two-pole overhead line consisted of copper wires and was suspended on 50 steel catenary masts. This was Werner Siemens previously in London at the company of his brother, the Landore Siemens Steel Company, produce. The power-generating center consisted of a steam engine, which was connected to an electrical generator, the facility was housed in a shed next to the track. This was south of the Kurfürstendamm, in the acute angle between the Joachim- Friedrich-Straße and the Johann -Georg -Straße.

The driving current was removed by a four-axle, eight-wheeled car contact, this went on the catenary wires. A flexible cable pulled the contact car similar to a trolley according to the overhead line. This construction, in English called "trolley " later founded, the English name " trolleybus " - although trolleybuses are now equipped with rod current collectors. The cable leading to a centrally mounted on the carriage wooden pole and provided with two electric motors, a DC voltage of 550 volts. The two engines each had 2.2 kilowatts and worked through a chain drive to the rear wheels.

The test vehicle itself was a lighter and more open four-wheeled carriage car - also known as, hunting car 'or' Landau '. It was equipped with iron- tyred wooden spoke wheels. As was customary, the rear wheels were significantly larger than the front wheels. The vehicle offered - next to the driver - eight people, they were sitting on two longitudinal bench seats for four passengers. Non- handed, however, is the top speed of Elektromote. The car weighed a total of 1.5 tons, of which 1.1 tonnes to the two located under the driver's seat main engines.