Trolley pole wheel on TCRT 1300

A trolley pole is a tapered cylindrical pole of wood or metal, used to transfer electricity from a "live" overhead wire to the control and propulsion equipment of a tram or trolley bus. The use of overhead wire in a system of current collection is reputed to be the 1880 invention of Frank J. Sprague.^[1]

Origin of the term[link]

Machining trolley wheels

The term 'trolley' predates the invention of the trolley pole. The earliest electric cars did not use a pole, but rather a system in which each car dragged behind it an overhead cable connected to a small cart that rode on a 'track' of overhead wires. From the side, the dragging lines made the car seem to be 'trolling' as in fishing. Later, when a pole was added, it came to be known as a trolley pole.

The term trolley is also used to describe the pole or the passenger car using the trolley pole is derived from the grooved conductive wheel (trolley or troller) attached to the end of the pole that "trolls" the overhead wire.

An early development of an experimental tramway in Toronto, Ontario was built in 1883, having been developed by John Joseph Wright, brother of the mining entrepreneur Whitaker Wright. While Wright may have assisted in the installation of electric railways at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), and may even have used a pole system, there's no hard evidence to prove it. Likewise, Wright never filed or was issued a patent.^[2] Official credit for the invention of the electric trolley pole has gone to an American, Frank J. Sprague, who installed a working system in Richmond, Virginia, in 1888.^[3] Known as the Richmond Union Passenger Railway, this 12 mile system was the first large-scale trolley line in the world, opening to great fanfare on February 12, 1888.^[4]

The grooved trolley wheel was used on many large city systems through the 1940s and 1950s; it was generally used on systems with "old" style round cross sectional overhead wire. The trolley wheel was problematic at best; the circumferential contact of the grooved wheel bearing on the underside of the overhead wire provided minimal electrical contact and tended to arc excessively, increasing overhead wire wear . The newer sliding carbon trolley shoe was generally used with a "newer" grooved overhead trolley wire of a figure "8" cross section. The sliding trolley shoe provided better electrical contact (with a reduction in arcing), and it dramatically reduced overhead wire wear. Many systems began converting to the sliding trolley shoe in the 1920s; Milwaukee, Wisconsin converted its large system in the late 1920s. Curiously, Philadelphia did not convert its trolley wheels on its remaining streetcars until 1978. Although a streetcar with a trolley wheel may evoke an antique look, the trolley shoe is modern and more practical as well as economical.

Description of the device[link]

Modern trolley poles as installed on Vancouver's low floor electric trolley buses.

A trolley pole is not "attached" to the overhead wire. The pole sits atop a sprung base on the roof of the vehicle, with springs providing the pressure to keep the trolley wheel or shoe in contact with the wire. If the pole is made of wood, a cable brings the electrical current down to the vehicle. A metal pole may use such a cable, or may itself be electrically "live", requiring the base to be insulated from the vehicle body.

On systems with double-ended railway cars capable of running in both directions, the trolley pole must always be pulled behind the car and not pushed, or dewiring is very likely, which can cause damage to the overhead wires. At terminus points, the conductor must turn the trolley pole around to face the correct direction, pulling it off the wire either with a rope or a pole and walking it around to the other end. In some cases, two trolley poles are provided, one for each direction: in this case it is a matter of raising one and lowering the other. Since the operator could raise the pole at one end whilst the conductor lowered the other, this saved time and was much easier for the conductor. Care must be taken to raise the downed pole first, to eliminate the damage caused by arcing between the pole and wire. In the US, the dual-pole system was the most common arrangement on double-ended vehicles. However, pushing of the pole (called "back-poling" in the US or "spear-poling" in Australia), was quite common where the trams were moving at slow speeds, such as at wye terminals (also known as reversers) and whilst backing into the sheds.

Trolley poles are usually raised and lowered manually by a rope from the back of the vehicle. The rope feeds into a spring reel mechanism, called a trolley catcher or "trolley retriever". The trolley catcher contains a detent, like that in an automotive shoulder safety belt, which "catches" the rope to prevent the trolley pole from flying upward if the pole is dewired. The similar looking retriever (see photo) adds a spring mechanism that yanks the pole downward if it should leave the wire, pulling it away from all overhead wire fittings. Catchers are commonly used on trams operating at lower speeds, as in a city, whilst retrievers are used on suburban and interurban lines to limit damage to the overhead at speed.

On some older systems, the poles were raised and lowered using a long pole with a metal hook. Where available, these may have been made of bamboo due to its length, natural straightness and strength, combined with its relative light weight and the fact that it is an insulator. Trolleybuses usually carried one with the vehicle, for use in the event of dewirement, but tram systems usually had them placed along the route at locations where the trolley pole would need reversing.

The poles used on trolleybuses are typically longer than those used on trams, to allow the bus to take fuller advantage of its not being restricted to a fixed path in the street (the rails), by giving a degree of lateral steerability, enabling the trolleybus to board passengers at curbside.

Single- and double-pole usage[link]

When used on a trolley car or tram, i.e., a railway vehicle, a single trolley pole usually collects current from the overhead wire, and the steel rails on the tracks act as the electrical return. Trolleybuses, on the other hand, must use two trolley poles and dual overhead wires, one pole and wire for the positive "live" current, the other for the negative or neutral return. The tramway system in Havana, Cuba also utilised the dual wire system,^[5] as did the Cincinnati (Ohio) streetcar system. To reduce electrolytic damage to underground pipes and metallic structures, most tram lines operated with the wire positive with respect to the rails. Toronto's streetcars use a single pole and used since electrification in 1890s.

Decline in usage on railways[link]

Toronto's CLRVs are equipped with trolley poles.

All trolleybuses use trolley poles, and thus trolley poles remain in use worldwide, wherever trolleybuses are in operation (currently, some 315 cities),^[6] and several manufacturers continue to make them, including Vossloh-Kiepe, Škoda and Lekov.

However, on most railway vehicles using overhead wire, the trolley pole has given way to the bow collector or, later, the pantograph, a folding metal device that presses a wide contact pan against the overhead wire. While more complex than the trolley pole, the pantograph has the advantage of being almost free from dewiring, being more stable at high speed, and being easier to raise and lower automatically. Also, on double-ended trams, they eliminate the need to manually turn the trolley pole when changing direction. The use of pantographs (or bow collectors) exclusively also eliminates the need for wire frogs (switches in the overhead wiring) to make sure the pole goes in the correct direction at junctions.

Apart from heritage streetcar lines, very few tram/streetcar systems worldwide continue to use trolley poles on vehicles used in normal service. Among the largest exceptions are the streetcar systems of Toronto, Ontario; Philadelphia (the "Subway-Surface" lines and route 15); Riga, Latvia, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India and Alexandria, Egypt. Smaller systems still using trolley poles for regular service include Hong Kong Tramways, the Daugavpils, Latvia system, and Rio de Janeiro's Santa Teresa Tramway.

These systems and a few others worldwide retain use of trolley poles, even on new streetcars, in order to avoid the difficulty and expense of modifying long stretches of existing overhead wires to accept pantographs. Trams or light rail cars equipped with pantographs normally cannot operate on lines with overhead wiring designed for trolley-pole collection. It is possible to construct overhead wiring that is capable of accommodating both trolley poles and pantographs, but such designs are more expensive to maintain and are generally seen only in cities where modern streetcars or light rail cars share tracks with preserved historic cars.

See also[link]

• Current collectors

References[link]

1. ^ Dr. Romin Koebel (2005). "Boston Transit Milestones". MIT Open Courseware. Archived from the original on 2006-09-20. http://web.archive.org/web/20060920021538/http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Civil-and-Environmental-Engineering/1-012Spring2002/Readings/detail/green_line_project.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-24. 
2. ^ "Patents of Invention and the Story of Canadian Innovation". Library and Archives Canada. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/innovations/023020-2720-e.html. 
3. ^ "Patents of Invention and the Story of Canadian Innovation". Library and Archives Canada. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/innovations/023020-2720-e.html. 
4. ^ "Electric Trolley System". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/sprague.html. 
5. ^ Morrison, Allen (1996). Latin America by Streetcar: A Pictorial Survey of Urban Rail Transport South of the U.S.A., p. 55. New York: Bonde Press. ISBN 0-9622348-3-4.
6. ^ Webb, Mary (ed.) (2011). Jane's Urban Transport Systems 2011-2012, p. "[23]" (in foreword). Coulsdon, Surrey (UK): Jane's Information Group. ISBN 978-0-7106-2954-8.

Polish people
(Polacy)





Władysław Elbow-high • Copernicus • Kochanowski • Krasicki • Kościuszko
Staszic • Chopin • Łukasiewicz • Wieniawski • Prus
Malczewski • Conrad • Zamenhof • Skłodowska-Curie • Piłsudski
Malinowski • Tatarkiewicz • Rejewski • Rotblat
Sendler • Koprowski • Lem • Wajda • Wolszczan

Total population
ca. 60 million (est.)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Poland 37,152,500 [2][3]
United States (Polish ancestry) 10,000,000 [4]    Germany 2,000,000 - 3,000,000 [1][5][6]    Brazil 1,500,000 [7]    Canada 984,565 [8]    United Kingdom 500,000 - 1,000,000 [1][9]    Argentina 500,000 [10]    Belarus 294,549 [11]    Lithuania 212,800 [12]    Ireland 122,585 [13]    Australia 78,340 [14]    Ukraine 144,130 [15]    Norway 120,000 [16]    Italy 109,018 [17]    France 90,000 [18]    Russia 73,000 [19]    Czech Republic 51,968 [20]    Latvia 44,783 [21]    Netherlands 39,500 [22]    Kazakhstan 34,057 [23]    South Africa 30,000 [24]    Sweden 27,518 [25]    Austria 21,000 [26]    Iceland 10,540 [27]    Denmark 5,300 [28]    Moldova 4,174 [29]    Romania 3,671 [30]    Slovakia 3,084 [31]    Finland 3,000 [32]
Languages
Polish
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholicism, also Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Judaism.
Related ethnic groups
related ethno-linguistic people group: Czechs, Slovaks, Sorbs

The Polish people, or Poles (Polish: Polacy [pɔˈlat​͡sɨ]; singular: Polak), are a nation indigenous to Poland. They speak the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe. The Polish word for a Polish person is "Polak" (masculine) and "Polka" (feminine).

The preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland defines the Polish nation as comprising all the citizens of Poland. Poland's inhabitants live in the following historic regions of the country: Wielkopolska, Małopolska, Mazovia, Pomerania, Warmia, Mazury, Podlasie, Kujawy and Silesia. A wide-ranging Polish diaspora exists throughout Europe (Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine), the Americas (the United States, Brazil and Argentina) and Australia. Chicago, in the United States, has the world's largest urban Polish population after Warsaw.^[33]

Over a thousand years ago, the Polans of Giecz, Gniezno and Poznań — an influential tribe in Wielkopolska — succeeded in uniting Lechitic tribes under what became the Piast dynasty,^[34] thus giving rise to the Polish state.

Statistics[link]

Polish people are the sixth largest national group in European Union.^[35] Estimates vary depending on source, though available data suggest a total number of around 60 million people worldwide (with roughly 21 million living outside of Poland, many of whom are not of Polish ethnicity, but Polish nationals).^[1] There are almost 39 million Poles in Poland alone. There are also Polish minorities in the surrounding countries including Germany, and indigenous minorities in the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus. There are some smaller indigenous minorities in nearby countries such as Moldova and Latvia. There is also a Polish minority in Russia which includes indigenous Poles as well as those forcibly deported during and after World War II; the total number of Poles in what was the former Soviet Union is estimated at up to 3 million.^[36]

The term "Polonia" is usually used in Poland to refer to people of Polish origin who live outside Polish borders, officially estimated at around 10 to 20 million. There is a notable Polish diaspora in the United States, Canada, and Brazil. France has a historic relationship with Poland and has a relatively large Polish-descendant population. Poles have lived in France since the 18th century. In the early 20th century, over a million Polish people settled in France, mostly during world wars, among them Polish émigrés fleeing either Nazi occupation or later Soviet rule.

In the United States a significant number of Polish immigrants settled in Chicago, Ohio, Detroit, New York City, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and New England. The highest concentration of Poles in the United States is in New Britain, Connecticut. The majority of Polish Canadians have arrived in Canada since World War II. The number of Polish immigrants increased between 1945 and 1970, and again after the end of Communism in Poland in 1989. In Brazil the majority of Polish immigrants settled in Paraná State. The city of Curitiba has the second largest Polish diaspora in the world (after Chicago) and Polish music, dishes and culture are quite common in the region.

In recent years, since joining the European Union, many Polish people have emigrated to countries such as Ireland, where an estimated 200,000 Polish people have entered the labour market. It is estimated that over half a million Polish people have come to work in the United Kingdom from Poland. Since 2011, Poles have been able to work freely throughout the EU and not just in the UK, Ireland, Denmark and Sweden where they have had limited rights since Poland's EU accession in 2004. The Polish community in Norway has increased substantially and has grown to a total number of 120,000, making Poles the largest immigrant group in Norway.

Before World War II many Polish Jews became followers of Zionism and subsequently emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine. Following the Holocaust, the vast majority of surviving Polish Jews moved to Israel. Poland is the largest single place of origin of Israeli Jews.

(for ethnic Poles living abroad see Polonia, for those living and working in the United Kingdom see Polish British)

Culture[link]

The state flag of Poland as used by Polish government and diplomatic authorities

The culture of Poland has a history of 1000 years.^[37] Located in Central Europe, its character developed as a result of its geography at the confluence of fellow Central European cultures (German, Western Ukrainian, Czech and Austrian) the Western European cultures (French and Dutch), Southern European cultures (Italian and Turkish), Northern European cultures (Lithuanian, Swedish and Danish) and Eastern European cultures (East Ukrainian and Russian) along with cultural influence of the Jewish culture. Confluences were conveyed by immigrants (Jewish, German and Dutch), political alliances (with Lithuania, Hungary, Saxony, France and Sweden), conquests of the Polish state (Ukraine, Belarus and Latvia) or conquerors of the Polish lands (Tsardom of Russia, Kingdom of Prussia and the Habsburg Monarchy, later on Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary).

With origins in the culture of the Lechites, over time Polish culture has been greatly influenced by its ties with the Germanic, Latinate and other ethnic groups and minorities living in Poland like the Jews.^[38] The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad (especially Italy) and open to cultural and artistic trends popular in other European countries. Owing to this central location, the Poles came very early into contact with both civilizations - eastern and western, and as a result developed economically, culturally, and politically. A German general Helmut Carl von Moltke, in his Poland. A historical sketch (1885), stated that Poland prior to her partitions was "the most civilized country in Europe".

In the 19th and 20th centuries the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity, experiencing severe crisis, especially during the II World War and in the coming years. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art, with all its complex nuances.^[38]

Language[link]

John III Sobieski's coat of arms crowning the Royal Chapel in Gdańsk, 1681

Polish (język polski, polszczyzna) is a Lechitic languages and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions. Polish-speakers use the language in a uniform manner throughout most of Poland, though numerous languages, speeches and dialects coexist along the standard Polish language. The Encyclopædia Britannica says that "Lekhitic languages, also spelled Lechitic, group of West Slavic languages composed of Polish, Kashubian and its archaic variant Slovincian, and the extinct Polabian language. All these languages except Polish are sometimes classified as a Pomeranian subgroup. In the early Middle Ages, before their speakers had become Germanized, Pomeranian languages and dialects were spoken along the Baltic in an area extending from the lower Vistula River to the lower Oder River. Kashubian and Slovincian survived into the 20th century; there were still a considerable number of native speakers of Kashubian in Poland and Canada in the 1990s. The extinct Polabian language, which bordered the Sorbian dialects in eastern Germany, was spoken by the Slavic population of the Elbe River region until the 17th or 18th century; a dictionary and some phrases written in the language exist".^[39]

Religion[link]

Most Poles, by far, adhere to the Christian faith, the majority belonging to the Roman Catholic Church.^[40] The rest of the population consists mainly of Eastern Orthodox, Jehovah's Witnesses, various Protestant and Judaism.^[41] Roman Catholics live all over the country, while Orthodox Christians can be found mostly in north-east, in the area of Białystok, and Lutherans in Cieszyn Silesia.

Exonyms[link]

Among the exonyms not native to the Polish people or language are: лях (lyakh) used in East Slavic languages. Today, the word Lachy is used by Eastern Slavs as synonyms for "Poles" and "Poland". The foreign exonyms include also: Lithuanian Lenkai, Hungarian Lengyelek and Turkish Leh.^[42] The former became the basis for Poland exonyms in a number of other Middle Eastern languages, including: Armenian: Լեհաստան Lehastan; Persian: لهستان‎ Lehestân; Tajik: لهستان Lahestan).

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: People of Poland

Other

• Polish Americans

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