A trolley pole is a tapered cylindrical pole of wood or metal, used to transfer electricity from a "live" (electrified) overhead wire to the control and the electric traction motors of a tram or trolley bus. It is a type of current collector. The use of overhead wire in a system of current collection is reputed to be the 1880 invention of Frank J. Sprague, but the first working trolley pole was developed and demonstrated by Charles Van Depoele, in autumn 1885. Etymology The term "trolley", also used to describe the pole or the passenger car using the trolley pole, is derived from the grooved conductive wheel attached to the end of the pole that "trolls" the overhead wire. 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 tramcar dragged behind it an overhead cable connected to a small cart – or "troller" – that rode on a "track" of overhead wires. From the side, the dragging lines made the car seem to be "trolling", as in fishing. If the troller cart derailed from the overhead wires, it then fell with a loud crash onto the roof of the tramcar and was difficult to reposition on the wires; these drawbacks prompted a search for better ways to connect to the power wire. Later, when a pivoted pole replaced the troller, it came to be known as a "trolley pole". An early development of an experimental tramway in Toronto, Ontario, was built in 1883, having been developed by John Joseph Wright, brother of swindler 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 is no evidence about this. Likewise, Wright never filed or was issued a patent. Credit for development of the first working trolley pole is given to Charles Joseph Van Depoele, a Belgian engineer who moved to the United States in 1869. Van Depoele made the first public demonstration of the spring-loaded device on a temporary streetcar line installed at the Toronto Industrial Exhibition (now the CNE) in autumn 1885. Depoele's first trolley pole was "crude" and not very reliable, and he reverted to using the troller system of current collection for a commercial installation on a streetcar system in South Bend, Indiana,