May 24, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



397 



At a general meeting on Wednesday, and another on Thursday, 

 it was resolved that the council elect four members for three years 

 from the past membership of the council, in order to insure perma- 

 nency ; it was suggested that in future the meetings of the society 

 be inaugurated by a conversazione ; the question of extending the 

 term of presidency from one to three or to five years was discussed, 

 and deferred till next session ; a committee was appointed to wel- 

 come, in the name of the society, the American Society of Mining 

 Engineers in Ottawa in the autumn ; a committee was nominated 

 to meet the American Association for the Advancement of Science 

 in Toronto ; and the following officers for the ensuing year were 

 elected : L'Abbe Casgrain, president ; Principal Grant, vice-presi- 

 dent ; Dr. Bourinot, secretary ; and Dr. Selwyn, treasurer. 



Mr. Sandford Fleming entertained a select party of members at 

 luncheon in the Rideau Club, and on Thursday afternoon the en- 

 tire society was invited to a garden party at Government House. 



ELECTRICAL NEWS. 

 Overhead Wires for Electric Railways. 



The rapidity with which electric street-railways have been in- 

 troduced into towns and the suburbs of cities, and the success that 

 has attended their introduction, have called the attention of the 



system will probably work well on level lines, but can hardly be 

 economically used when grades of four per cent and over are to 

 be taken. The conduit system could possibly be made to work if 

 enough money were spent on it, — $50,000 or $60,000 a mile, — 

 but so far it has not been a success. In Boston it has not worked 

 satisfactorily ; and at San Jose, Cal., where it has been from time 

 to time reported as successful, it has turned out a flat failure. In 

 fact, for an extended system of street-railways, the only electric 

 system which would be any thing more than an experiment is the 

 overhead system. In Boston two lines have been in operation for 

 some time ; and they have worked so successfully, and have seemed 

 so unobjectionable, that the Board of Aldermen has given permis- 

 sion to the West End Street Railway Company — a company 

 operating all of the important street-railway lines in Boston — to 

 equip their entire system with the overhead electric wires. There 

 can be no doubt of the advantage that this will be to the public. It 

 will allow rapid transit to the suburbs, and in the crowded portions 

 of the town the cars will make much better time than is possible 

 with horses ; they will be under better control, and will occupy less 

 space in the streets. 



In fact, the question is getting to be, not shall we use electricity 

 on our railroads, but what system shall we adopt? Shall we 

 use the overhead, or shall we wait for a storage-battery? It is 



-WHITE'S DOUBLE-GIRDER STREET-RAILWAY R.AIL. 



managers of the larger city lines to this method of traction. Its 

 advantages are unquestionable : it is cheap, it is clean, it gives a 

 rapid and easy service to the public, the cars are more readily and 

 safely handled than by any other known method. There is one 

 legitimate objection to it, and but one ; and that is the necessity, 

 except in special cases, of overhead wires to convey the electric 

 current from the power-station to the cars. The public is preju- 

 diced, and generally justly prejudiced, against overhead wires. Over- 

 head wires mean to most of us a confused network of telegraph, 

 telephone, and electric-light wires, unsightly and dangerous. But 

 the wires used for electric railroads are very different from these. 

 The poles used to support them are only slightly larger than the 

 ordinary lamp-posts ; they may be made even less objectionable. 

 The line consists of a small span wire going from pole to pole, 

 with the conducting wires supported by these, and extending over 

 the track, one small wire for each track. An inspection of some 

 of the latest and best- equipped electric roads shows a marked ad- 

 vance over those of a year or a year and a half ago. If expense is 

 not spared, the most sightly of the present roads can be improved 

 on, and two or three thousand dollars a mile is a small sum when 

 a city road is to be equipped. 



There are alternative electrical methods which do not involve an 

 overhead structure, but they are not at the present time successful 

 enough to warrant their general adoption. The storage-battery 



probable that many of the managers will decide to put in the over- 

 head system until the secondary battery is ready to take its place. 

 The loss will not be very great, and two or three years' successful 

 operation will more than pay for the change. The equipment of 

 the Boston roads — if they are equipped — will give a decided im- 

 pulse in this direction. 



Some Experiments on Light and Electricity. — The 

 following is from the London Electrician : " An experiment de- 

 scribed by M. J. Borgman has an important bearing upon the ex- 

 planation of the remarkable discovery of M. Hallwachs, in which a 

 beam of light seems to act as a conductor for an electric current. 

 The latter experiment consisted in placing a piece of metallic gauze 

 parallel with but insulated from a second sheet of metal. The 

 first is connected with the positive, the second with the negative, 

 pole of a battery, and in one of the leads a delicate galvanometer 

 is placed. If, now, a beam of light be made to pass through the 

 gauze, and to fall on the plate behind, a current is set up in the 

 circuit, and continues to flow as long as the illumination is main- 

 tained. It has, moreover, been shown that the action is due to the 

 ultra-violet waves. Now, M. Borgman wanted to ascertain wheth- 

 er or not the effect was instantaneous ; that is to say, whether 

 the commencement and the cessation of the current was or was 

 not simultaneous with that of the illumination. M. Borgman 

 probably reasoned, that, if the beam acted in some sense as a con- 



