158 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the time occupied in the ran, used eight thousand pounds of soft coal, 

 making steam with difficulty, and filling the atmosphere with smoke. 

 The next day, another fireman, with the same engine, running the 

 same distance, used forty-five hundred pounds of the same coal, with 

 plenty of steam and no smoke. The result was a saving of 43% per 

 cent, of coal, and no annoyance from smoke. As the first condition 

 is pretty nearly universal on roads where soft coal is used, the loss to 

 the roads from ignorance or carelessness must be enormous. 



Electrification is another method by which the smoke nuisance is 

 to be abated. 



On and after July 1 there are to be no more steam trains run into 

 the Grand Central Station in New York. Electrification of the New 

 York Central terminal, according to the New York papers, has pro- 

 gressed far enough to malce this change practicable, and the order to 

 run only electric trains into the big depot went into effect on July 1. 

 This move does away with the nuisance of smoke, steam and gas in the 

 Park Avenue tunnel. The new order applies also to the New Haven 

 Railroad trains. 



The Scietitific American quotes some statistics from a paper read 

 by W. S. Murray at a recent meeting of the American Institute of 

 Electrical Engineers, which confirm and strengthen the testimony 

 furnished by W. J. Wilgus to the American Society of Civil Engineers. 

 They clearly show that electrification pays when tried. 



In Mr. Murray's paper it is shown that to haul the express, local 

 and freight trains of the New York division of the New Haven railroad 

 now involves the consumption of 57,000, 58,000 and 188,000 tons of 

 coal, respectivi ly, whereas when the whole division is operated elec- 

 trically the amount of coal burned for the respective classes of service 

 will be 30,000, 28,000 and 139,000 tons. 



In like manner the figures of cost and repairs of twenty steam 

 freight and passenger locomotives on the New Haven road are given. 

 They show an expense of 8.1 cents per locomotive mile for freight 

 engines and 5.6 cents for passenger ones. The total mileage of the 

 locomotives per year is easily ascertained and therefore the total ex- 

 pense for maintenance and repairs of locomotive service. The figures 

 are placed at $316,962 per annum. Available figures for electric loco- 

 motive repairs show two cents per locomotive mile. Counting the same 

 number of miles and the same number of engines, the total expense 

 would show a saving of $196,038 per annum. 



In brief, experimentation in the east has proved that electrification 

 pays both in a great saving in the cost of the coal used and in the cost 

 of maintenance and repairs. If it pays in the neighborhood of New 

 York it will pay, as the Chicago Tribune maintains, in Chicago. It is 

 electrification, not improved smoke consuming devices, that Chicago 



