XLVIII. C 0. BURGE. 



apart, and the current is taken up by three pairs of contact 

 bars, one pair to each wire, and conveyed to transformers 

 in the centre of the cai% where it is reduced to a suitable 

 voltage. This arrangement was considered as experimental 

 only, as an alternative proposal was under consideration 

 by which the transformers will be placed at substations. 



Siemens and Halske and the Allgemeine Gesellschaft 

 have each constructed a car, in friendly rivalry. That 

 constructed by the former is 72 feet long, weighing 90 tons, 

 with 50 passengers ; it has a controlling compartment at 

 each end, and is reversible. There are two bogies of three 

 axles each, and the four motors can exert in all 3,000 HP. 

 as a maximum. The other car is' slightly shorter, 68 feet 

 10 inches, and lighter, 85 tons, but has the same passenger 

 capacity. The transforming machinery is in the middle, 

 and the driver at the front, both passengers and driver 

 being entirely clear of possible contact with the current 

 distributing details. There are three axles to each of the 

 two bogies, the outside axles being inside the hollow shaft- 

 ing bearing the four motors which are directly connected 

 with the driving wheels by springs, so that the concussion 

 caused by axle borne motors is avoided. The motors are 

 of 250 HP. normal and 750 HP. maximum power, as in the 

 rival car, and this which will be required for a speed of 

 140 miles per hour, will involve a rate of revolution in the 

 motor of as much as 960 per minute. 



It will be seen that the proportion of dead to gross 

 weight is much greater, in these cars, than in the mono- 

 rail ones described, due chiefly to the extra weight of the 

 transformers etc. carried in the Berlin cars. 



In order to test the working of the car, at the great 

 speed proposed, before actual trial on the rails, an ingenious 

 apparatus was devised. The car was lifted so that each of 

 its eight drivers rested upon a pair of cast steel rollers, 



