ANNUAL ADDRESS. _ XXI, 
necessarily much more expensive than the Trolly system, as a 
subway or conduit has to be constructed, in which the conductors 
are placed. The conduit system in various forms has been tried 
with more or less success, among which may be mentioned Bently- 
Knight, Love-Connett, Wheless and the Buda Pesth. The system 
is open to the objection that dirt, snow, and water get down the 
conduit through the slot, and afford facilities for leakage from 
the conductor, but this does not apply to the closed conduit 
system such as that put down experimentally at Lyons and 
Washington. 
The most promising conduit system is that which I saw working 
most successfully in Lennox Avenue, New York. The quiet and 
Smooth running of the cars is most satisfactory. The conduit 
contains the conductors spaced six inches apart, and the difference 
in pressure in the two circuits is 350 volts. A plough connected 
with the motors on the car is pressed by means of a spring 
Connection against the conductors, gathering current from the 
one and returning it to the other. No current passes through the 
tails or wheels. The conductors which are insulated by means of 
Porcelain insulators consist of double channel iron bars four 
inches deep. : 
Another system which I saw working successfully in Washing- 
ton, consisted of underground wires connected at intervals of about 
Six feet with two rows of metallic disks, The cars carried scrapers 
which rubbed gainst the disksasth passed over them. Switches 
are arranged in the conduit and a storage battery in the car, the 
only function of which is to magnetize the moving scrapers on the 
°ar, so that they always touch the disks, and thus actuating the 
Switches they enable the motors in the car to derive their supply 
from the feeders in the conduit. The current is thus supplied 
through the disks and scrapers at intervals of about six feet. 
The system so far is experimental, but I saw it working well in 
Washington, and it may be considerably extended. 
I saw two other systems; one at the General Electrical 
Company’s works in Schemcktardy, and another at Siemens- 
