To Beat the Reading

A new interurban car, claimed to be the fastest electric car ever built for commuter service and more modern in design than the most modern bus, made trial runs at Philadelphia last week. It was built by J. G. Brill Co. for Philadelphia & Western Railway and is the first of ten such cars which will run between Philadelphia's 69th Street station and Norristown at an average speed of 52 1/2 m.p.h., including stops. It seats 52 passengers, costs $30,000.

The designers say the car has made 90 m.p.h., will make more. It resembles the fuselage of an airplane, with no protruding wind-resisting parts. The body is aluminum alloy. The centre of gravity is low for safety. Tests showed the streamline construction would afford a power reduction of 17% at 20 m.p.h., 42 1/2% at 90 m.p.h. It was designed by President Thomas Conway Jr. of Philadelphia & Western; Felix Pawlowski, Guggenheim professor of aeronautics at the University of Michigan; and Brill Co. experts. President Conway, meeting competition by Pennsylvania R. R. and Reading Co., expects to beat their time of 36 min. from Norristown to the heart of Philadelphia. He is chairman of a committee of electric railway officials which is spending half a million dollars on research to make electric cars faster, more sightly.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.