240 



70 revolutions a speed of 19 knots, on a coal consumption of 

 180 tons per day. She carries 670 cabin and 300 second-class 

 passengers, whose quarters are abaft the engines, which have 

 one high-pressure cylinder 63 inches diameter, and two low- 

 pressure, each 91 inches diameter and 66 inches stroke. The 

 steam enters the cylinder at 90 lbs. per square inch. The 

 time occupied in steaming from Liverpool to New York has 

 been reduced from about eight days six hours to six days twelve 

 hours. 



ELECTKICITY. 



Electricity seems destined to work great wonders, and tends 

 to develop, if not to solve, the great problem of transportation. 

 It has already been successfully applied to the working of 

 tramways, and I do not think that the day is far distant when 

 it will be employed in many instances to supersede steam in 

 propelling steamships and drawing railway trains. Immense 

 progress has been made during the past twelve months in 

 developing the application of electricity to street-railway 

 transit, especially on the Continent of Europe. It is only 

 recently that the application of electric and magnetic currents 

 has been extensively used in some of the larger cities, and the 

 electric motor, as now perfected, certainly justifies the belief 

 that it will be the motive power in the future. Professor 

 Thompson has asserted as his opinion that electrical energy 

 used for the transmission of power has a far greater future 

 before it than its transformation into light. Professor Ayrton 

 also is confident of the future use of electricity as a motive 

 power for our railways which will combine speed, economy, and 

 safety, and entirely abolish smoke and other inconveniences. 

 The " Daft" motor, the Antwerp tramway tests, the Siemens 

 and Holske electric locomotive, and several American machines 

 of like nature show that the electric railway is gaining upon 

 its rival the steam railway. 



ANTWERP. 



At Antwerp five motors were tested — three propelled by 

 direct steam action, and two by direct stored-up force supplied 

 by a fixed engine. After a trial of four months' duration the 

 first prize was awarded to the electrical motor driven by accu- 

 mulators, which consisted of Eaure batteries, from which the 

 car was also lighted at night with incandescent lamps. The 

 car weighed 5,654 lbs., the accumulators weighing 2,400 lbs. - r 

 the weight of the machinery, including the dynamo, was 1,232 

 lbs., and carried about 34 passengers. 



Electricity has been also employed for colliery purposes — the 

 locomotives carrying their own storage of current, consisting 

 of a series of accumulators, whose weight was usefully em- 



