"The idea of speed enters into it, yes," said Tom thoughtfully.
"In fact electric motor power has always been based on speed, and
on cheapness of moving all kinds of traffic.

"Look here!" he exclaimed earnestly, "what do you suppose the
first people to dabble in electrically driven vehicles were
aiming at? The motor-car? The motor boat? Trolley cars? All those
single motor sort of things? Not much they weren't!"

"Bless my glove buttons!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, dragging off his
gauntlets as he spoke. "I don't get you at all, Tom! What do you
mean?"

"I mean to say that the first experiments in the use of
electricity as a motive power were along the electrification of
the steam locomotive. Everybody realized that if a motor could be
built powerful enough and speedy enough to drag a heavy freight
or passenger train over the ordinary railroad right of way, the
cost of railroad operation would be enormously decreased.

"Coal costs money--heaps of money now. Oil costs even more. But
even with a third-rail patent, a locomotive successfully built to
do the work of the great Moguls and mountain climbers of the last
two decades, and electrically driven, will make a great
difference on the credit side of any rails road's books."

"Right-o!" exclaimed Ned. "I can see that."

"That was the object of the first experiments in electric