282 PHILIP DAWSON 



beyond criticism; but the putting together seems in many 

 instances to have been not as carefully thought and drawn 

 out beforehand as is generally the case with a European 

 plant. No pipe, however small — no individual wire — is 

 put into a European installation without a drawing being got 

 out beforehand. Great trouble is constantly being experi- 

 enced with American goods owing to the drawings, which the 

 makers have supplied and which have been approved by 

 the customer, differing widely from the real article when it 

 comes over. It seems impossible to convince the American 

 that, no matter how small the detail, it has been carefully 

 laid out on the plans before construction commences, and that 

 a difference in the goods he supphes from the drawings ap- 

 proved will throw out the whole system. Indeed in some 

 cases, particularly on the continent, working drawings have 

 to be approved by the police authorities and the sHghtest 

 deviation from them may entail the throwing out of the whole 

 plant. 



It is undoubtedly a fact that as regards finish, the Euro- 

 pean stations are far ahead of American. It is, however, 

 also true that where, as is the case in Glasgow and Central 

 London stations, European methods of instalhng American 

 apparatus have been used, the finest results have been ob- 

 tained. 



The largest power plant in the world is that of the Man- 

 hattan elevated railway, and a few details regarding this 

 interesting railway are here given. 



Steam is generated in sixty four Babcock & Wilcox 

 horizontal water tube boilers, arranged in batteries of two 

 boilers each; they are fitted with Roney mechanical stokers. 

 The furnace gases pass through Green's economizers on their 

 way to the chimney stacks, one economizer being provided 

 for every two batteries. There are four brick stacks, each 

 278 feet high and 17 feet inside diameter. Forced draught 

 is furniched by sixteen blowers installed by the Sturtevant 

 Co., but the stacks are of sufficient dimensions to furnish the 

 required draft under ordinary circumstances. 



The steam piping is divided up into eight sections, each 

 section dealing with four batteries of boilers and one of the 



