1893.] on Electrical Railways. 57 



with the passenger carried through space. The diagram on the wall, 

 starting with the familiar 12,000,000 foot-pounds, the energy of a 

 pound of coal, shows the loss in each step, supposing it made with 

 the most economical appliances known to the engineer, first in the 

 boiler, then in the steam engine, generator dynamo, conductors, loco- 

 motives, in the dead weight of the train, till finally we arrive at the 

 energy expended on the passenger himself, which we find to be 

 133,000 foot-pounds, or but little more than 1 per cent, of the energy 

 with which we started. It is true indeed that transportation is a 

 more economical process than lighting with incandescent lamps, in 

 which the final efficiency is about one-half per cent., but whether in 

 lighting or in traction, when we consider that ninety-nine parts are 

 now wasted for one part saved, we may realise that the future has 

 greater possibilities than anything accomplished in the past. 



[E.H.] 



