Charles Grafton Page. 13 
be used, its induction, as is well known, can be almost de- 
stroyed by doubling it upon itself. 
Although Prof. Page failed to realize his first cherished hope 
of seeing electricity take the place of steam for a motive power 
on a large scale, for which he underwent so much labor, and 
for the pursuit of which he relinquished his hold upon a lucra- 
tive office, yet his labors had this result ; the concentration 
within a moderate space, and by simple means, of a large 
amount of electro-motive mechanical power, and so soon as a 
galvanic battery shall be discovered which is easy to manage at 
the same time that it gives its current by the consumption of 
cheap materials, or as incidental to some extensive chemical 
manufacture,* his engine is ready we think to perform a large 
part of the work done by the steam engine. 
In the electro-magnetic locomotive, which our readers will 
remember, two engines were used to act upon the driving wheels 
at quarter crank. These engines did not differ essentially in 
their construction from the stationary engines last described. 
The locomotive did not allow of any exact measure of the 
power, and was intended chiefly as a demonstration to the 
public, so that the single trip which was made with it added 
little to the results already obtained with the stationary engine. 
Unluckily, the credit of the experiment with the public was 
greatly marred by a series of accidents in the rupture of porous 
cells in the Grove’s battery, and in the encounter of repeated 
obstructions and delays on the track, so that although, accord- 
ing to the timing of the driving wheels by a gentleman on 
board, on what was said to be a level track, the highest speed 
noted was 19 miles per hour, the whole time occupied by the 
entire trip from Washington to Bladensburg and back, a dis- 
tance of five miles, or a little over, from place to place, was 
about two hours and a half. To those who, with the writer, 
were on board, it was evident the machine could give a better 
account of itself than this. But the battery was now seriously 
reduced by the loss of porous cells which could not be replaced, 
and Prof. Page found that his expenditures over and above the 
appropriation from government, had left him at this-unsatisfac- 
tory point without means to perfect the experiment. The 
Grove’s battery used in this locomotive trip, before it was re- 
duced by the breakage of cells, contained one hundred plati- 
num plates of between 100 square inches and 1 square foot 
each. These particulars are derived partly from the writer's 
own recollection, and partly from the account of the locomo- 
* The utilization of battery products was a subject frequently discussed by 
Prof. Page. 
