It would not be fair to say that Edison and Sprague alone developed the electric railway, for there were several others who made important contributions.

Stephen D.Field of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, had a patent which the Edison interests found it necessary to acquire; C.J.Van Depoele and Leo Daft made important contributions to the trolley system.

In Cleveland in 1884 an electric railway on a small scale was opened to the public.

But Sprague's first electric railway, built at Richmond, Virginia, in 1887, as a complete system, is generally hailed as the true pioneer of electric transportation in the United States.

Thereafter the electric railway spread quickly over the land, obliterating the old horsecars and greatly enlarging the circumference of the city.