Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1914 — Pioneers In Traction. [ARTICLE]

Pioneers In Traction.

The first electric transportation motor and car were built in a blacksmith shop in Vermont about 70 years ago. The motor was used to aun upon a circular track for exhibition purposes, but it proved an excellent advertisement of the possibilities of electric power. About the time that the Vermont blacksmith was scheming an electric car, Mathias Baldwin of Philadelphia was building a small model locomotive for use in the Peale museum. That locomotive was put to work running round a circular track and was watched with great interest by the people of Philadelphia, who had been hearing edifying discussions about the practicability of using steam to operate railroads.