Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1893 — An Electric Race Track. [ARTICLE]

An Electric Race Track.

Gne bf the most attractive of the many popular features of the Frankfort Electrical Exhibition of 1891 was the electrical race track, on which dummy horses were propelled at a speed of about ten miles an hour, and which afforded the riders much of the excitement of a contest with living mounts. An electric race track, for which this installation has . served as a model, has been constructed in Montreal, where it has greatly taken - the public fancy. Practically it is a kind of glorified “merry-go-round,” with the ~Jded attraction of uncertainty in the relaative position of the horse of the rider until the winning post is actually reached, but its construction has involved the working out of many important details. The track consists of on oval wooden platform about 150 feet long by 100 feet wide, and four feet above the ground. Exfending around the platform is an oval track some thirty feet in width, divided into eight parallel courses, upon each of which are two large hobby horses coupled together, one behind the other. These horses are propelled by electric motors around the track along their own particular courses, the movements and speed of each pair being under the control of an operator stationed in a small building at one side of the track. Each pair of horses moving independently of its neighbors’ seems to be taking part in a real trial of speed. At one moment a certain pair is ahead, then another takes the lead, and this, in turn, may be passed by some other horse. In this way the excitement and amusement of an actual race are provided for both riders and spectators. The horses are mounted upon trucks, which are under the platform, by means of Upright iron bars, the truck consisting of an oblong iron frame provided with two wheels, one before the other, as in a bicycle. Upon eaeh circular track there are two trucks coupled together. Upon the foremast of each'pair is an ordinary two-and-one-half horse-power series of electric motor, which drives one of the truck wheels by means of a single reduction gearing connected with the pulley by a belt. Current is conveyed to the motors by copper wires fastened to The lower side of the platform, contact being made by an ordinary trolley wheel, mounted on a short arm, and the rails are used for the return. A 100-volt shunt-wound generator supplies the 1 current.