Range. And in 1893 he was drawn to the New York Central, which is forever on the lookout for the very best men obtainable. He had applied to this road for employment immediately after securing his correspondence school diploma; his home town being the western terminal of the road, it seemed the natural course for him to go to work for it; but the road was not ready to recognize the stripling, who, within so few years, was to come back from the West and take such important charge of its work.

One of the truths which a man who is to win any degree of success must know,

tricity, and especially of electric appliances and apparatus. To that fact is owing his most marked advancement, for a master of engineering who is at the same time a master of things electrical is what the New York Central needed for the vast work which is to build the new trackage and station and install the operation of electricity.

With the New York Central, Mr. Wilgus rose rapidly, till be became Chief Engineer and his recent promotion to be one of the Vice-Presidents has not taken him from the active care and oversight of the work.

work, the excavation covers more than twice the amount excavated in the original construction of the Hudson River Railroad, it being necessary to tear up more than a million and a-half cubic yards, more than half of it being solid rock. There is to be a million square feet of concrete paving. There are to be seven miles of four-way electric ducts; there are to be twenty miles of track; there are to be turntables, transfer-tables, and a bewildering maze of interlocking and signaling devices. There will be 30,000 tons of structural steel - more than enough for the building of two modern battleships. Within the new railroad station there will be a fully equipped postoffice, for the handling of the enormous masses of mail which enter and leave there.

The New Terminal Building The new terminal building, the work of four architects, aided by a corps of

ness of effect, the station will be set back 40 feet from the street line in front, and 70 feet on one side, thus giving a clear, open space of 140 feet on Forty-second Street and of 130 feet on Vanderbilt Avenue.

The main entrance is to be through three arches, each 33 feet wide and 60 feet high. The ticket lobby is to be 300 feet long, and nearly 100 feet wide. The concourse is to be the largest in the world

470 feet long, 160 feet wide, and 150 feet high. The platforms beside the tracks will be 15 to 29 feet in width. There are to be a great number of elevators and stairways, wide exits, and spacious entrance-ways.

Value of Specialization

In connection with the adoption of the plans for the new station there is an interesting story:

There have been four men engaged, with the advice and co-operation of rail

way officials and engineers as to specific needs, in bringing all the plans to perfection—a firm of two architects from St. Paul, far away though it is, and a firm of two architects of New York. And these architects work together, in friendly concert.

But how did it come that these St. Paul men are working with those of New York on a New York railroad proposition? The answer shows the value of specialization, and also that one should never despair of winning success at points distant from home.

Mr. Charles A. Reed and Mr. Allen H. Stem, the first from Rochester and the second from Indianapolis, went to Minnesota about twenty-five years ago, and, after working individually for a time, as architects, formed a partnership in 1890, in St. Paul. From the first, the firm set itself to make a specialty in one certain line, that of architectural railroad work; and, as the years went by, their reputation increased. Not only in the vicinity of their own city, but at points far distant, they became known. The Union Station at Seattle is their work, and SO are other structures throughout the West. But, fortunately for their future, their ambition stretched to the eastward as well. They managed to attract the attention of the New York Central, and here and there along the line a station of their building was put up. Through this tentative opening came their greatest success. When the New York Central desired plans for its new station in New York City, it quietly requested a few architects to submit ideas. Reed and Stem were among the few chosen ones; and such attractive plans did they send in that it was decided to ask them to come to New York to open offices and to superintend the putting of their plans into execution. That was a change indeed! At the same time, the plans of two of the New York architects were found to contain a great deal that was favorable; and, with a broadness which marks this entire work as so unique, the four architects are

working together, under combined plans, each helping the others, and all influenced and actuated by the representations of the practical railway heads as to the needs of the traffic.

Mr. Reed is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Stem, on the other hand, never took a technical course, but he studied architecture broadly, from the standpoint of art as well as utilitarianism, and possesses one of the finest libraries in the United States of books relating to his profession. The firm thus exhibits the advantages of high technical training; and at the same time points out to the young man to whom attendance on college courses has been denied, that it is possible for him to achieve a brilliant success without it if he will take advantage of every educational aid within his reach.

There are situations in which that much-worn phrase, "Captains of Industry," well applies. dustry," well applies. Here, in these busy yards, is such a situation, where a regiment of a thousand is every day at work; where, indeed, the passengers in the trains find toilers not only to right of them and to left of them and in front of them, but above them and below them as well, and where ten locomotives and almost two hundred cars are used for the new work-in yards already covered with the ceaseless movement of passenger and express traffic.

Within the short period of five years, the entire work is to be completed; it is possible that it may be accomplished in not much more than three.

The speed with which enormous tasks are accomplished is one of the chief wonders of these modern days. In the past, when speed was thought of, the fancy had to rely upon the pronouncing of a magic word or the rubbing of a magic lamp. The magic lamp of the Twentieth Century is fed with money, and the magic word is only a plain "Go ahead." And with modern Captains of Industry peace hath her victories no less pronounced than war.

L

ESS than ten years ago, the turbine system of developing power was practically unknown to the general public, for it was not until 1897 that the remarkable speed obtained by a turbine-driven steamship attracted attention to its possibilities as an improvement on the ordinary marine engine. It is true that for several years previous a set of turbines had been in service, generating electric current for lighting purposes at Newcastle-on-theTyne, England; but this installation was regarded more as an experiment than as a practical application, the four turbines aggregating only 400 horse-power in all. It may be said here, however, that this little plant has afforded a remarkable proof of the efficiency and durability of such mechanism, as it has been almost continuously in service since 1889 at a minimum expense for repairs.

Marine Field First Entered

The fact that the turbine attained a speed of nearly 35 knots an hour, aroused

the attention of marine engineers especially to what might be accomplished; and possibly more has been heard of the turbine in connection with shipbuilding than in any other respect, although, as the figures show, its use is becoming very extensive in other ways.

It is perhaps unnecessary to say that, following the design of the Allan Line to construct a vessel for ocean service propelled by turbines exclusively, came the announcement that the Cunard Company would add to its fleet two turbinedriven ships calculated to develop at least 25 knots an hour, and representing fully 60,000 horse-power each. The Victorian, which is now in service between Glasgow and Canadian ports, has, it is understood, borne out the claims of her builders that her engines would give entire satisfaction. They are of the Parsons design, five in all being utilizedthree for forward propulsion, and two for reversing the ship. She is equipped with three screws, which give a speed of 17 knots an hour, as the vessel was de

Various Applications

With the success attained in the application of the turbine to marine service, it is not strange that it should have been exhaustively tested in other ways. As a result, the turbine is now being utilized for such purposes as generating electrical current for power and light, for driving power tools and other equipment of the modern machine shop, for operating blowers in connection with woodworking plants, for pumping water in mining and other operations, and for generating electric current for lighting railway trains,

of the underground railway system of London contains several steam turbines, which represent 7,000 horse-power each. The New York elevated and subway system is to have a turbo-generator representing no less than 8,000 horse-power; while the main power station of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company is to have three of 8,000 horse-power each. American manufacturers are even sending turbines to Japan for various applications of power.

Mechanical Details

The types of turbine which are prin

power being secured indirectly from the steam locomotive. Some idea of the utility of the turbine can be gained when it is. stated that a conservative estimate shows nearly if not quite 1,000,000 horse-power at present in actual use or under construction to be completed in the near future. Over 100,000 horse-power has been installed in vessels of various kinds within the last two years; and contracts for constructing mechanism representing 200,000 horse-power in all, have been taken for the manufacture of Westinghouse-Parsons turbo-generators in the United States and Canada.

The demand for this equipment has led to the construction of some units of great

cipally utilized in the United States, are illustrated by the accompanying photographs, which include one developing 600 horse-power. The turbine consists essentially of a number of impulse wheels mounted side by side upon a revolving spindle, and surrounded by a casing, or cylinder, which constrains the working steam. On the adjacent surfaces of both, are rows of radial blades, or vanes, between which the steam passes, each row on the surface of the spindle alternating with a similar row on the wall of the cylinder, the latter serving to give direction to the expanding steam, while the former immediately abstracts velocity thus formed, energy being delivered to