88 DISCUSSION ON ELECTA IC TK ACTION. 



where M=miles per hour, T No. of tons, C rise in feet per 

 100. The cost of single line "overhead" construction, 

 including permanent 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 ine as follows, in reply to inquiries : — " There is a 

 feeling among all Municipal Councils, where railways apply 

 for overhead lines, that the increased econumy 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 " cross ones parallel." The latter is now being 

 operated in many places. The skips or trucks are suspended 

 and supported by iron rods, which are likewise supported by 

 poles, and the lower rod, acting as a conductor, is constructed 

 on the " break and make " principle at every 120ft. or so, 

 taking its supply of current from a dynamo fixed at a conve- 

 nient 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 current runs back to 

 the last wheel of the train, and into the skip containing the 

 motor, and thereby euergising the train. The same operation 

 continues at the intervals stated to the end of the journey. 

 It can be worked up to 15 miles per hour with ease, and the 

 cost of carrying is about one halfpenny per ton per mile. 

 Unlike most new inventions, " Telpherage " does not persist 

 in adhering to any principle of an obsolete type, but is an 

 innovation so extraordinary as to pass all practical experience. 

 As feeders to the West Coast lines nothing could be 

 more admirable, and not in the remote future we shall see it 

 universally adopted, instead of those useless unpayable lines 

 and costly roads that cripple the resources of new countries. 



