Abstract :
In the earliest days of electric-railway work with crude apparatus and light loads, track resistance was neglected. As the need became evident, auxiliary return wires were run and connected to the rails at frequent intervals, but of a size which now seems absurdly small. Joint bonds were first of small iron wire like railroad signal-system bonds, then pieces of copper wire with the ends riveted in holes in the rail-web, then pieces of trolley wire with channel-pins and so on, until specially-designed terminals were developed.
