The Lackawanna railroad inaugurated electric suburban service from Hoboken to Montclair, NJ, in an effort to keep smoke down around New York. Thomas Edison himself was at the controls of the first multiple-unit train to leave Hoboken Terminal. The wickerliners were so named for their early wicker seats. To supply electricity, the railroads erected bare overhead wires, called a catenary. The locomotives had a special, cage-like contact on the roof that touched the catenary to provide a flow of electricty from the contact to a large electric motor. Short-run commuter electric trains did not need large engine power because they carried passengers. The locomotive looked like a passenger car, but with an engineer's compartment in front.

The day of 3 Sep never happened in Britain, nor the next 10 dates. The Roman era Julian Calendar, had become 11 days out of step from the solar cycle. Britain and its American colonies adopted the Gregorian Calendar, which moved this day's date up from Sep 3 to Sep 14. People rioted in the streets thinking the government stole 11 days of their lives. Instituted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, the calendar has 365 days with an extra day every four years (the leap year) except in years divisible by 100 but not divisible by 400. Thus, the calendar year has an average length of 365.2422 days. Some other countries, including Russia, did not change until the twentieth century.