DISCUSSION ON ELECTEIC TRACTION. 83 



an electrical system. The cable system can certainly sur- 

 mount phenomenal grades, but on the other hand the elec- 

 trical tramway can negotiate 1 in 8 grades, or even less ; it 

 is only a question of power; and Mr. Eeis, an electrical 

 -engineer, has made some very valuable discoveries as to 

 electrical braking and adhesion, which I hope to see practic- 

 ally demonstrated at an early date. 



As much as one would like to submit these different tram- 

 way systems to a searching analysis of cost, not only as re- 

 gards construction, but working and maintenance; but 

 having already overstepped the limits of a paper, I can 

 simply record the fact that the Frankfort-Offenbach line in 

 Germany is the most expensively worked tramway in Europe 

 or America, the cost amounting to 4^d. per car mile. Mr. 

 Crosby summarises the cost of working, etc., three of the 

 principal lines in America : — " Interest on investment, one- 

 quarter to one-fifth of the whole, i.e., 1 cent per car mile, or, 

 say, 20 per cent, of the total. Coal is about 12 per cent., 

 attendance 40 per cent., machinery and line (without interest) 

 about 20 per cent." 



Here is a view of the Telpherage system. (Plate XIII.) It 

 requires no earthworks, bridges, culverts, etc., as 

 railways do. There are three lines worked on this 

 system in England — Alexandra Park, half a mile ; 

 Glynde, a mile and a half; and Eastpool a mile 

 and a half; the latter two for mineral purposes. I 

 throw the suggestion out that they are admirably adapted for 

 the developments that are taking place at the present time on 

 the West Coast. It is difficult indeed to surmise what shape 

 electrical developments will take in the future, its potentiality 

 being apparently infinite. It is, however, no stretch of the 

 imagination to say that it is the locomotive power of the 

 future. In preparing this paper I have consulted Professor 

 S. P. Thompson's works, Professor Ayrton, Du Moncel, 

 Martin and Wetzler, and other scientific papers. (Plate 

 XIV.) 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Macfarlane said : — Your Excellency and Gentlemen, 

 — Having been asked to take part in the discussion following 

 Mr. Montague Jones' excellent paper, I have pleasure in doing 

 so, as I have had opportunity of gathering some information 

 on this interesting subject, being in correspondence with a 

 manufacturing company, makers of electric railway plant, the 

 Thomson-Houston Company. There are only two or three 

 points which I would desire to emphasise as of special 

 general [interest to the public, and the first point is that 



