PROCEEDINGS, OCTOBER. XXV 



trying conditions has been one of the most, if not the most, difficult 

 which could be met with in street railway work. The excessive and 

 continuous grades, the numerous sharp curves, the gradients in these 

 curves, the weight of the cars, and the heavy roads which they have 

 been required to carry together with the extent of the system, and the 

 number of the cars in operation (about 40) constitute the enterprise, the 

 largest and most difficult yet inaugurated in any part of the world. We 

 acknowledge the successful fufilment of all the terms and conditions of 

 the contract, and compliment you upon having achieved so signal a 

 success." The number of street electric railways at work, and the 

 number contemplated, is quite sufficient to prove that it has long since 

 passed beyond the experimental stage of development. Citizens of 

 Hobart should keep these facts in view and refuse to listen to any argu- 

 ment stating it to be impracticable to introduce an electric service here ; 

 the wretched apology for a permanent way will certainly have to be 

 removed, and a neat steel grooved rail put in its place, as the basia of 

 efficient street transit is a smooth and sound rolling surface. I wculd 

 also like to see a 4ft. SJin. gauge, instead of a 3ft. 6in. gauge, as the 

 latter might create mechanical difficulties which cannot at present be 

 foreseen, as all the electric roads, or nearly so, are built to narrow gauge 

 requirements. Of course these difficulties would be overcome ; still it 

 is just as well to be on the safe side. As regards a prime source of 

 power for Hobart, it is a simple question of cost and maintenance 

 whether water or steam would be better. There is plenty of water, 

 and .he cost to supply a constant head would be, I think, much less 

 than coal. Two hundred h.p. would be more than sufficient force for a 

 service of 12 cars, and as to the mechanical power for equipment it 

 does not make much difference whether the grades be 1 in 5 or 1 in 10, 

 as the motors used are of a standard size, having a capacity of 15 h.p. 

 each. Where the grades do not exceed 4 to 5 per cent., one motor 

 could do the work, but wherb the grades exceed 5 and run up as high 

 as 10 per cent., then it is unsafe to operate, except by driving both 

 axles, and then the equipment must be two 15 h.p. motors. The 

 average weight for street motors' equipment is about 1001b. per h.p. 

 Hence 2*15 n.p. motor equipment will weigh about 3,0001b. I have 

 deduced this to mathematical formulae following : — H.P. 4 75=M.T, 

 (Cxi), where M miles per hour, T No. of tons, C rise in feet per 

 100. The cost of single line "overhead" construction, including per- 

 manent way material, under average conditions should not amount to 

 more than £3,500 per mile. This, in comparison with the cable system 

 at Melbourne at £34,000 per mile is very marked, and the economy of 

 the overhead system is so manifest that Mr. Henry Peabody, of Boston, 

 wrote to me as follows, in reply to inquiries : — " There is a feeling 

 among all Municipal Councils, where railways apply for ' overhead 

 lines,' that the increased economy warrants their asking for a decrease 

 of fares, hence their desire to keep quiet about their balance-sheets." 

 Mr. James asked me to explain the Telpherage system. There are two, 

 *' the series" and the " cros3 ones parallel." The latter is now being 

 operated in many places. The skips or trucks are suspended from an 

 iron rod supported by poles, and the rod acting as a conductor, is con- 

 s ructed on the " break and make " principle at every 120ft. or so, tak- 

 ing its supply of current from a dynamo fixed at a convenient place. 

 The " makes and breaks " are normally closed, so that a current of 

 electricity may flow from end to end, but when the first wheel of the 

 skip of a train touches the " break " the circuit is closed and the 

 currentruos back to the last wheel of the train, and into the skip con- 

 taining the motor and the< eby energising the train. The same operation 

 to continues at the intervals stated the end of the journey. It can be 

 worked up to 15 miles per hour with ease, and the cost of carrying is 

 about Is. 2d. per ton per mile. Unlike most new inventions " Tel- 



