514 



SCIENCE, 



[N. S. Vol. XL No. 274. 



engines and electric generators, will be suffi- 

 cient to justify the expenditure of the capital 

 necessary for such installations in connection 

 with the electrical equipment of railways, par- 

 ticularly metropolitan and suburban lines. The 

 advantages of the use of gas engines can be 

 best appreciated when it is understood that if a 

 gas company were to supplant the present gas 

 illumination by an equal amount of electric 

 light obtained from gas-driven dynamos, it 

 would have left for sale or other purposes over 

 60 per cent, of its present gas output." 



In a communication to the New York Times 

 of January 10, 1900, Mr. Westinghouse suggests 

 the employment of fuel gas and gas engines for 

 supplying light and power to the whole of Man- 

 hattan Island. He calls attention to the fact 

 that city garbage is much better adapted for 

 the manufacture of fuel gas than for use under 

 a steam boiler, the large percentage of water in 

 garbage being little or no disadvantage in the 

 manufacture of fuel gas. He mentions the fact 

 that fuel gas manufacture is a smokeless process, 

 and he points out that the water consumption 

 of gas engines may be kept far below that of 

 steam engines. " Bearing on these questions " 

 says Mr. Westinghouse "and of especial im- 

 portance, are the partially executed plans of 

 the electric power and light corporations, viz, 

 the Metropolitan, Third Avenue and Manhattan 

 Elevated Eailways, the New York Gas and 

 Electric Light, Heat and Power Company, and 

 the United Electric Light and Power Company. 

 If their present plans, which are fairly well 

 known to the engineering profession, are car- 

 ried to completion, each will have one large 

 steam station on the East River between 

 Twenty-ninth street and the Harlem River, 

 with about 75,000 horse-power of engines, boil- 

 ers, and electric machinery, making an aggre- 

 gate of 375,000 horse-power, and which may be 

 largely increased when the underground rapid 

 transit railway is completed, and still further 

 when the electric locomotive is used on all 

 steam railways within the city limits. 



"If these corporations were to unite in a 

 common plan to provide the electricity needed 

 in their operations by the adoption of the best 

 available methods, the saving to each in capital 

 expenditure would be very great, and the de- 



creased cost of their supply of electricity would 

 make an important addition to their earnings 

 applicable to the payment of dividends ; while, 

 most important of all, the citizens of New York 

 would have solved for them the garbage, smoke, 

 and very largely the water questions. 



" I believe the contemplated plans of the cor- 

 porations above named, which can be shown to 

 be based upon an imperfect knowledge of the sub- 

 ject, will stand in the way of vast public interests, 

 and, so believing, I have said to representatives 

 of some of these companies that the near future 

 would demonstrate the projected power stations 

 and systems of electrical distribution incidental 

 to the character of such stations, to be as far 

 from the best as are the old cable systems for 

 the propulsion of cars." 



It seems to the present writer that the recent 

 improvements in the gas engine and the conse- 

 quent commercial possibility of its use on a 

 vast scale in the transmission and generation of 

 power, warrant the title of the pamphlet issued 

 by the Westinghouse companies ' a new indus- 

 trial situation,' and it is a matter of especial 

 satisfaction that the plan proposed by Mr. 

 Westinghouse for New York City which prom- 

 ises such great benefits to the community, also 

 commends itself to the business interests of the 

 corporations concerned. Mr. Westinghouse' s 

 plan is entirely sound, at least the scientific and 

 technical points involved are clear and certain, 

 and it should engage the attention of every 

 public spirited citizen. 



WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. 



The Transactions of the American Institute of 

 Electrical Engineers for December, 1899, con- , 

 tains an interesting discussion on wireless te- 

 legraphy. Professor R. A. Fessenden, in par- 

 ticular, describes some interesting experiments 

 by himself and Professor Kintner. These two 

 experimenters being unable to use the ordinary 

 coherer as a measuring instrument, devised a 

 small induction galvanometer (originally due to 

 Elihu Thomson) for measuring the intensity of 

 the electrical waves at the receiving station, 

 and this induction galvanometer is said to be 

 more sensitive than the coherer and well adapted 

 as a receiving instrument in practice. Professor 

 Fessenden also gives a good description, based 



