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VIEW OF HIGH-SPEED CAR ON ZOSSEN ROAD, GERMANY.

moths, bees, and like insects, which appear as if they had been crushed fast to the panes of glass and the iron work. This is hardly to be wondered at as the air pressure was fully 210 kg. per square meter."

Dr. Reichel indulges in some rather interesting cost comparisons between steam and electricity from the German standpoint. A steam train consisting of a locomotive and five cars weighs 330,000 kg., contains 168 seats, and uses 1,400 hp. at full speed; the electric train consisting of one motor car and four trailers weighs 260,000 kg., has 180 seats, and uses 1,000 hp. The initial cost of both trains is practically the same, being about 400,000 marks ($100,000). The operating cost for simply moving the train is 51 pfennigs (122 cents) for 100 seat-km., operating with steam, and 491⁄2 pfennigs (112 cents) using electricity. Applying a calculation to the 150-km. (or 94-mile) line between Berlin and Leipzig, we get the following conclusions: On this line an 18-hour service is furnished, and 36 trains a day run every hour in both directions, so that if 40 per cent of the seats are occupied (the trailers are put on when necessary), about 2,500 passengers are accommodated. Figuring the fare per kilometer as 6 pfennigs( 11⁄2 cents), which is the present second-class fare, this would give a daily income of 22,500 marks ($5,650). The operating expenses, considering transportation only, are about 5,000 marks daily ($1,250). Adding to this the other operating expenses, particularly for employees, maintenance of way, stations, management, etc., 7,600 marks daily, would make the daily operating expense 12,600 marks. This leaves 9,900 marks for interest on the original capital, which in one year would be 3,600,000 marks, and this would give 4 per cent interest on 90,000,000 marks. The cost per kilometer would, in this case, be about 600,000 marks.Electrical World and Engineer.

The installation of the Marconi station on the steamer "Empress Queen" owned by the Isle of Man Company, which was established to test the usefulness of the system on coast-going steamers, has proved such a success that it has been decided thus to equip all their steamers.

T

A MOTOR-DRIVEN PLANER

HIS planer was built by the G. A. Gray Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. It is of the widened pattern, giving a total distance between uprights of 84 inches; otherwise it is similar to the standard 60 x 60-inch planer, as built by this company. These planers are intended for use where the work is of unusual width in proportion to its height, but is not so excessively heavy as to warrant a larger size. It will be noticed that the widening is effected at one side, the advantage being that the ordinarily handy relation of the parts on the front side of the planer is not disturbed. The bed is 12 feet long, and is moved by a spiral-geared driving system, familiarly known as "Sellers Motion." This consists of a spiral pinion which engages directly with the rack under the table. This pinion is mounted on a shaft which crosses the bed diagonally and is driven by a pair of bevel-gears from the pulley shaft. The other characteristics of the machine are the duplex-shifter motion and the universal feed. The duplex shifter embodies the provision of shifting levers and dogs on both sides of the machine. This gives the operator perfect control from either side, so that he need not lean over the table or walk around the planer in order to stop or start it. The universal-feed mechanism makes it possible to feed at either end of the stroke, to stop and start all feeds simultaneously, and to change from coarse to fine feed or vice versa, without stopping the planer. The crossrail is raised and lowered by power, and is of extra length so that either of the two heads will plane the full width of the machine.

The V's of the bed and table are oiled automatically by double-cone brass rollers supported in pockets in the V's of the bed. The motor is a Crocker-Wheeler 20-horse-power semi-enclosed machine, running at about 775 revolutions per minute at 230 volts.

It is mounted on a special bracket over one of the uprights, and drives a countershaft mounted in a corresponding location over the other upright. From the countershaft the open and crossed belts for the two directions of the table travel

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franchise which requires the system of electric towing to be in operation between Cincinnati and Toledo on the Ohio State canal within six and one-half years of the date of the grant. The speed is restricted to 4 miles an hour, and the company is required to tow boats for other owners at a reasonable charge. The distance from Cincinnati to Toledo is about 244 miles; and of this route the portion between Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Middletown, about 42 miles, is now in operation. The company owns seven Westinghouse-Baldwin locomotives and a fleet of twenty boats, which it is increasing as fast as possible, for its facilities are altogether too small for the business offered. One reason for this is doubtless to be found in the organization of a complete freight-handling service with freight houses and other conveniences for shippers.

This traction system is particularly

interesting because it is carried on along a canal which was generally believed to have outgrown its usefulness.

A standard-gage track with 70-pound rails has been laid along the towpath for the locomotives. There are 134 bridges over the canal and track on the Cincinnati-Dayton division, many of which could not be raised. At such places a concrete wall was built between the canal and the track, and the latter depressed to allow the locomotive to pass below the structure. A special switching locomotive has been built for use in Cincinnati, where the headroom is so small that the standard locomotives used on

The nature of the service is exceptional, and enables the engineers to adopt an unusual system of power distribution. The transmission is for long distances in a single line, and the load consists of a small number of heavy train units which may become bunched by the traffic conditions. The power demand of each unit is steady and continuous; and all conditions are favorable to the use of alternating-current motors with high trolley voltage, and static transformers, on the locomotives to keep the motor pressure low. Stops are infrequent, and it is necessary to start a tow of boats slowly, which makes it possible to use induction

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Courtesy of American Electrician.

TOWING MOTOR, WITH PART OF CASE REMOVED.

the canal cannot be employed satisfactorily, even with depressed tracks. The center line of the track averages about 6 feet from the water's edge and is about 2 feet above the water level, this elevation being necessary because a tow of boats making from 3 to 4 miles an hour will raise the water more than 12 inches for several hundred feet ahead. This happens in a channel nominally 4 feet deep, 26 feet wide at the bottom, and 40 feet wide at the water surface. The maximum curvature of the track outside of the cities is 25 degrees, and the maximum grade is 2 per cent. Ten boats is the largest number that can be handled, owing to the curves and locks, and five is about the maximum number now employed.

motors to advantage. The locomotives have accordingly been equipped with three-phase induction motors, supplied with current through two overhead trolley wires and the track system.

As the canal passes through eighteen cities, with a total population of over 650,000 persons, and a number of central stations, the Transportation Company does not need to build a power station for its own use. For the current for the first section now in operation, a contract has been made with the Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company. Three-phase 60cycle current at 4,200 volts is transmitted over the Transportation Company's line to a station 5 miles distant. This has three 150-kilowatt 60-cycle oil-cooled transformers, one of which is a reserve.

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Our earth is constantly picking up unconsidered trifles of star dust, which range all the way from the thirteen-feet

vided on each side for the towropes.

The boats are 80% feet long, 131⁄2 feet wide, and 9 feet high, over all, and can carry about 65 tons on a 3-foot draft. In the present condition of the canal it is not considered advisable to load them to a deeper draft than 30 inches, at which they will carry about 50 tons. As the first application of alternating-current motors to traction purposes in this country, the work is of unusual interest. -American Electrician.

by Prof. Word in Mexico down to the very minute particles which are found on the roof of St. Paul's, on the Arctic snows, and at the bottom of the sea. It is calculated that the total amount of matter thus absorbed by us is certainly not less than 500,000 tons a year, and that, therefore, the weight of the world. is increasing by that amount every

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