318 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. VII., No. 16& 



maps of Europe on the same plan. Nothing 

 could throw more light upon the mazes of medi- 

 aeval and modem French, and particularly German 

 history, than such a method of illustration as is 

 here offered. Where the pupil now possesses an 

 unmanageable congeries of facts, names, and dates, 

 he could then carry away with him a vivid pic- 

 ture of the intricacies caused by the constant series 

 of wars and dynastic contests. These maps are 

 virtually the object-method applied to history, 

 social science, geology, ethnography, and their 

 related sciences. They are in every way com- 

 mendable, and no teacher of those subjects should 

 fail to apply the method which they suggest. 



Although Senator Allison's commission 

 which is investigating the surveys reported the 

 evidence taken some weeks since, no conclusions 

 have yet been made public. Nothing officially 

 authenticated can therefore be said as to what 

 legislation the commission will finally recommend. 

 But those who have most closely followed the 

 proceedings, and watched the effect of the evi- 

 dence upon the minds of the members, feel entire 

 confidence that no very radical measures will be 

 proposed, and especially that the integrity of the 

 coast survey will not be threatened. It is scarcely 

 believed that the commission will even recom- 

 mend its transfer to the interior, or any other 

 department than that under which it is now 

 placed. The impression that no change will be 

 made has become so wide-spread, that candidates 

 for the position of superintendent are again com- 

 ing forward. The friends of Gen. W. F. Smith 

 are said to be the strongest, but it is not well to 

 predicate any thing upon newspaper reports of the 

 prominence of Smith, Rosecrans, or any other 

 candidate. It is safe to say that the President is 

 fully conscious of the importance of the position, 

 and of the small value to be attached to recom- 

 mendations secured by the candidates themselves. 

 "We believe that he will make the best selection he 

 can from the names presented to him, disregard- 

 ing their influence, and that the standing of the 

 candidates as scientific experts will not be dis- 

 regarded in the choice. 



ELECTRIC RAILWAYS. 



America seems to lag very much behind Europe 

 in the matter of electric railways. Indeed, our 

 lighting systems seem to have absorbed all our 

 energies ; and perhaps the most appropriate and 



lucrative use of dynamic electricity, its applica- 

 tion to locomotion, has been overlooked, or been 

 treated in so superficial a manner as not to have 

 resulted in commercial success. 



Every American supposes himself capable of 

 intuitively doing his own engineering, regardless 

 of the fact that he may have neither experience 

 in any of its various departments nor education 

 in the fundamental facts and methods of com- 

 putation of technological application of scientific 

 truths. Inventors with good ideas regarding 

 electrical work gravely spin for us complete sys- 

 tems for electrical railways, drawing only on their 

 intuitions for every thing save the dynamos and 

 motors. Do they realize that a vast number of 

 problems of organization and system still remain 

 unsolved upon the steam -railroads? Do they 

 realize that they are not engineers, but only elec- 

 tricians, with a vast deal yet to learn in their 

 own field ? They do not : they are in possession 

 of one good idea, and they recklessly proceed to 

 surround their invention with all sorts of en- 

 gineering crudities, thus rendering then chances 

 of success almost nothing. 



Germany has been more fortunate in having its 

 first electric railway undertaken by Siemens & 

 Halske. This firm brought to bear upon the prob- 

 lem the profound researches and the engineering 

 education of its staff, and, acting in the cautious 

 and thorough manner resulting from its wide 

 experience in many fields of engineering, has 

 been successful. In the exhibition of Berlin, 

 1879, they established a circular railway of 350 

 metres length, one metre gauge, and, placing a 

 three-horse power motor in a car capable of 

 carrying thirty people, transported passengers at a 

 rate of fifteen to twenty miles per hour. The 

 current was taken along one rail, and by an 

 insulated tire was conveyed to the positive pole 

 of the motor, and thence to the other rail, by 

 which it returned to the generating-dynamo. No 

 special care was taken to insulate the rails, which 

 were placed high above the ground on wooden ties. 

 The current was of low electromotive force, and 

 therefore did not require special means for insu- 

 lation. This road was exhibited in Di'isseldorf 

 and Brussels, and finally in London in 1881. 



The success of this experimental plant was 

 uniformly so great as to make Messrs. Siemens & 

 Halske desirous of building an elevated electric 

 railway in Berlin, for which the plans and esti- 

 mates were made with great care, but unfortu- 

 nately this enterprise was not carried out, because 

 the Emperor William would not permit ' The 

 Linden' to be marred by being crossed at one 

 point, and because the citizens objected to having 

 people looking into their second-story windows. 



