286 PHILIP DAWSON 



tenderers, and besides they have accepted one third of their 

 payments in debentures. 



Horizontal and vertical engines. In Germany some 

 engineers state they will always use horizontal engines with 

 tail rods carried on regular crossheads and slides, because 

 their original cost is less, and because the machine is less 

 complicated and its working and supervision Vv^hen running 

 are easier. Had such complicated structures with two 

 cylinders, one above the other, and highly complicated valve 

 gear not been originally installed, it is doubtful whether 

 such a conclusion would have been reached. 



Continental engineers like to place a dynamo on each 

 side of the engine. In some cases in cross compound engines, 

 as for instance Tosi, the two cylinders are side by side, and 

 to look symmetrical some engineers have even gone as far 

 as to place the dynamo on one side and the fly wheel on the 

 other side of the engine, which it need hardly be pointed out 

 is very bad practice. 



In connection with the large combined horizontal ver- 

 tical engines which are being installed in the power stations 

 of the Manhattan elevated railroad at New York, it should 

 be noted that the design there adopted is by no means novel, 

 but is to be found, in much smaller engines it is true, in Ger- 

 many, at Halle, where a similar type, although of relatively 

 very small size, was installed about 1892. Germany has 

 adopted triple expansion engines both for traction and 

 lighting work. Also the use of superheated steam is greatly 

 on the increase. The steam pressure used with these engines 

 is 12 kilogrammes per square centimeter, about 175 pounds 

 per square inch, and the temperature at the throttle 280 

 to 324 degrees centigrade, or a superheating of about 130 

 to 200 degrees Fahr. It is this degree of superheating which 

 accounts, notwithstanding the complications frequently in- 

 troduced, for the nearly universal use of poppet valve sys- 

 tems on the continent. To increase the efficiency of steam 

 plants, the continental engineer has increased the vacuum 

 of the condensers as much as possible and a far greater quan- 

 tity of condensing water is used than is usual in America, 



