lEntered at the Posi-OflBce of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter.] 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Eighth Ybae. 

 Vol. XV. No. 373. 



NEW YORK, March 21, 1890. 



Single Copies, Ten Cents. 

 .$3.50 Per Yeae, in Advance. 



AN IMPROVED TRUCK FOR ELECTRIC CARS. 



The improved motor-truck for electric cars shown in the il- 

 lustration on this page is designed to prevent, or at least to greatly 

 lessen, the oscillating motions of cars with short wheel-base, such 

 as all four-wheeled street-cars must of necessity be. It is also in- 

 tended to strengthen the ends of car-bodies by providing ad- 

 ditional support nearer the ends of the car than is possible with 

 the usual truck. 



The main double side-bars, marked B in the engraving, sup- 

 port, by means of the twelve springs shown, the upper frame 

 upon which the car-body rests. The side bars are in turn sup- 

 ported by the cantilever trusses C. which are suspended from the 

 journal-boxes by malleable iron yokes, to which the side-bars are 

 securely fastened. The electric motor is suspended by a bolt and 

 spring from the hanger on the cross-bar D. The hanger is ar- 

 ranged to support either one or two motors. A part of the side- 

 bar B is detachable, so that it may be unbolted and taken off 



demonstrate their efiSciency. The axles are made of fibrous 

 wrought steel, and are provided with enlarged bearings and 

 screw threaded collars. 



These cantilever trucks, which are made by the Peckhani Car 

 Wheel Company of this city, are now in actual use on many elec- 

 tric street-railways in this country, and the companies using 

 them are well pleased with their many points of superiority over 

 trucks not specially made for motor service. 



THE INFLUENCE OF LEARNED INSTITUTIONS UPON THE 



PROGRESS OF MODERN SOCIETY.' 



It is sometimes urged, as a criticism upon institut ons of 

 higher education, that many men of intellectual eminence, sub- 

 jected to their training, have acknowledged small obligation to 

 it. One recalls, as an example of this, the grotesque picture 

 of the University of Edinburgh, drawn by the satirical humor 

 of Carlyle in "Sartor Resartus:" "Had you, anywhere in 



- > " r ri ^i ri rl ~^^i n-f^f K-rrr-- \ "^^ ^ 



THE PECKHAM CANTILEVER MOTOR-TRUCK FOR ELECTRIC CARS. 



when it is necessary to remove the armature for repairs. No 

 other part of the truck need be disturbed when repairs to the 

 motor are needed. 



These trucks are equipped with compound lever brakes of great 

 strength and simplicity, %vhich, in quickness of action, are claimed 

 to be much superior to the brakes generally used on car trucks. 



A peculiar feature of these trucks is that they are equipped 

 with elastic wheels, the parts of which they are composed being 

 interchangeaole, so that worn or damaged parts may be readily 

 and cheaply replaced. The wheels have malleable iron hubs, 

 which are forced on the axles by hydraulic j^resses at a pressure 

 of thirty-five tons to the square inch, so that there is no possi- 

 bility of their ever working loose. The wheel webs can be re- 

 moved and replaced by any ordinary workman, without the aid 

 of special machinery, and without removing the motors from the 

 axles. Tubular rubber cushions are inserted between the hub 

 and the web, supporting the axles and motors, and relieving them 

 from shocks, and lessening the tendency to crystallization of the 

 iron. The journal-boxes are dust-tight and self-lubricating, and 

 have been in use on various roads a sufBcient length of time to 



Crim Tartary, walled in a small enclosure; furnished it with.' 

 a small, ill-chosen library; and then turned loose into it eleven 

 hundred Christian striplings, to tumble about as they listed, 

 from three to seven years; certain persons under the title of 

 professors being stationed at the gates, to declare aloud that 

 it was a university, and exact considerable admission fees, — 

 you had, not indeed in mechanical structure, yet in spirit and 

 result, some imperfect resemblance of our Higf Seminary." 

 Mr. Darwin has furnished us a more recent instanje, declaring 

 that, during the three years which he spent at Cambridge, his= 

 "time was wasted, as far as the academical studies were con- 

 cerned," — "sadly wasted, and worse than wasted." It is not 

 difficult to adduce unflattering estimates like these in con- 

 siderable number from men distinguished both in letters and 

 in science. Literary genius has been particularly impatient of 

 academic methods. Acquaintance with the thought of the 

 past, indispensable to those who would enlarge the area of exact 

 knowledge, is less necessary to production in pure literature; 



* Address delivered on the fourteenth anniversary of the Johns Hopkins 

 University, by Professor E. H. Grifan, dean of the college faculty, Feb. 22, 1890 . 



