Famous Days in the Century of InventionStone, Gertrude L. (Gertrude Lincoln)
History
Famous Days in the Century of Invention
Stone, Gertrude L. (Gertrude Lincoln)
Inventions
Grandma watched with interest the crew which had been sent out to get
the injured car back again on the track and take it to the car barn
before most people were stirring. They had a smaller car to which they
securely fastened the runaway car. Then the little service car pulled
the runaway out of the gutter, across the street, and on to the track
once more. The last Grandma saw of the wrecked car it was at the top of
the hill still being pulled along by the other car.
"There's no question of power," said Grandma to herself. "One small
car can run along with a big car trailing after it as easily as if it
were alone. There is only one question left in my mind, and that is
the question of control of the power. To see a big car right across the
gutter surely does not look as if the power were under control."
At breakfast Grandma told what she had heard and seen.
"Do you know what made the car run away?" she asked her son.
"Yes, I went out to the street last night after the crash and found
out. There was just one man out there and he didn't feel very much like
talking, but he did finally tell me what had happened. The man I found
was the conductor."
"What had become of the motorman? Was he hurt?" asked Mrs. Lewis
quickly.
"Nobody was hurt, and nothing was injured except the pole, and the
front of the car, and the conductor's feelings. It seems that on the
last trip last evening there was nobody on the car except the conductor
and the motorman, and so, though it is against the rules, the conductor
offered to let the motorman get off when they reached his home, and to
take the car himself up to the end of the line and then back a little
way to the car barn. His own home is close by the barn. All went well
until the new driver was reaching the end of the line just opposite
us. Then the trolley slipped off and the car came to a standstill. The
conductor stepped off to put the trolley back in place, and he easily
and quickly swung it back where it belonged, when--Great Scott!--the
car sailed off and left him! Went to the end of the rails and then had
momentum enough to roll straight across the street plump into the pole."
"What made it go?" asked Harriet, completely mystified.
Harriet was not the only one of those present who was puzzled, and they
all listened very carefully when Mr. Lewis said, "Because the conductor
forgot to shut off the motor when he left the car. As there wasn't any
power on when he stepped off, naturally he felt no need of shutting it
off, but, unfortunately for him, there was plenty of power as soon as
the trolley was on again."
Harriet began to laugh.
"I see! I see! How easy it was to start a real runaway! Nothing to do
but to put the trolley on when everything was right for the car to go
ahead."
"Exactly," said her father.
"How surprised that poor conductor must have felt," said Grandma.
"How mortified he must have felt," said Mamma.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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