The Electromote was the world's first vehicle run like a

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trol ...

, which was first presented to the public on April 29, 1882, by its inventor Dr. Ernst Werner von Siemens in

Halensee Halensee () is a ''locality'' (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the district (''Bezirk'') of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Halensee was established as a villa and tenement settlement in about 1880, in the suburb of Wilmersdorf, which became part of Great ...

, a suburb of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. In 1847, Siemens told his brother Wilhelm that should he have time and money, he wanted to build himself a carriage with electro-magnetic propulsion. In the early 1880s, he managed to realize the idea, first erecting the masts and infrastructure on site in 1881. Halensee, independent and not yet part of Berlin at the time, had only been named the previous year and was not yet fully developed, providing the project with the space needed as well as access via the Berlin Ringbahn at nearby Halensee station. The Elektromote operated from April 29 to June 13, 1882, on a trail-track along “Straße No. 5”, today's Joachim-Friedrich-Straße, and “Straße No. 13”, today's Johann-Georg-Straße, crossing the upper

Kurfürstendamm The Kurfürstendamm (; colloquially ''Ku'damm'', ; en, Prince Elector Embankment) is one of the most famous avenues in Berlin. The street takes its name from the former ''Kurfürsten'' (prince-electors) of Brandenburg. The broad, long boulevar ...

. According to other sources, the track was along the Ku'damm itself. The track being unimproved and correspondingly bumpy led to malfunctions of the vehicle which in turn contributed to the short duration of the experiment. Public transport or demonstration was not part of the project's purpose. The Electromote built by the Siemens & Halske company was a converted four-wheel landau carriage, equipped with two 2.2 kW

electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate f ...

s, each of which transmitting power directly to one of the rear wheels using a

chain drive Chain drive is a way of transmitting mechanical power from one place to another. It is often used to convey power to the wheels of a vehicle, particularly bicycles and motorcycles. It is also used in a wide variety of machines besides vehicles. ...

. This was because a working differential was not available at the time. The voltage used was 550 V DC. The electric power transmission to the coach was by a flexible cable pulling a small eight-wheeled "contact car" (''Kontaktwagen'') that ran along the overhead power lines. The car was weighed so it wouldn't fall off the cables it ran on. In English language use, the ''Kontaktwagen'' was later named the "trolley", giving the trolley car and trolley bus their names. With the horsepower available, the conveyance reached approx. . To power the system, Carl Ludwig Frischen, leading Chief engineer of Siemens & Halske, in a nearby shed had a power station built, consisting of a small steam engine hooked up to a

dynamo "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos were the first electrical generators capable of delivering power for industry, and the foundati ...

.
Siemens History (german) This experimental vehicle already fulfilled all the technical criteria of a typical trolleybus. After the demonstration runs closed on June 13, the test track was dismantled on June 20, 1882.

References

{{Reflist Trolleybuses 19th century in Berlin Transport in Berlin 1882 in transport Vehicles introduced in 1882 1882 in Germany

See also

References