Stephen Dudley Field

New York City gets its first electric streetcar. Invented by Stockbridge, Mass.-born engineer Stephen Dudley Field, 28, it is the first car anywhere to be run successfully with current generated by a stationary dynamo: one wheel picks up current carried by one of the rails. Conveyed to the car's motor, it flows back to the other rail via a second wheel, insulated from the first, and is returned to the dynamo, but the system is hazardous and presents no immediate threat to the horsecar. The system is dangerous and ineffective, but it is a sign of major changes to come in urban transportation.