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as well as night, than to employ men to put them out in the morning and relight them at night.

Gas buoys are placed to mark the most important channels, or the entrances to harbors, or dangerous shoals, where lighthouses or light-vessels do not exist. The ordinary can buoy, bell buoy, or spar buoy would answer in most places by day, but at night could be distinguished only at short distances, if at all. The gas-buoy light, on the other hand, can be seen from one to six miles off according to circumstances. Some are made to flash automatically every ten seconds, or at other desired intervals, burning low or dim for a certain number of seconds, and then flashing out brightly for a certain length of time. These buoys are imported from Germany, and the gas-regulating and automatic devices are patented. Their cost is about $1,700 each.

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A Successful Solution of the Rapid-Transit Problem, an Issue Confronting All Great American Cities

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By JOHN R. RATHOM Staff Correspondent, Chicago Record-Herald

HE opening of the great New York subway in October marked a new and most important step in the direction of the solution of the transportation problems of the great cities of America. Though we may not realize it, the success or failure of this vast project means much to many mil

lions of people who do not live in or near New York at all.

There seems to be no doubt that the subway will be a success. From the two standpoints of speed and protection from inclement weather alone, its popularity is assured at the outset, particularly when added to these is the fact that the rate of

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HOW ELECTRIC SURFACE CARS WERE PERMITTED TO RUN DURING CONSTRUCTION OF SUBWAY.

above ground or on the surface. The only solution of the difficulty is subway or tunnel construction, and to this every large city in the country must come sooner or later.

To understand, therefore, how they have conquered the threatened congestion in New York, becomes of extraordinary interest and importance, not only to experts in engineering and contracting everywhere, but to the great mass of the people as well.

The difficulties that have been surmounted in carrying through this $35,000,000 contract, have taxed to the utmost the abilities of the engineer, the steel and structural iron manufacturer, the contractor, and experts in electricity, waterproofing, power transmission, boiler plants, and construction of cars. Every obstacle has been overcome, though in many instances the invention of a dozen different processes hitherto unknown became necessary before success could be reached. For four years the people of New York have suffered every imaginable inconvenience; but they are now begin

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