of water when carrying 40 persons, for whom there is ample sitting accommodation.  There are 64 cells in this boat.  These are placed as ballast under the floor, and actuate a pair of motors and a screw coupled direct to the armature shaft running at 700 revolutions a minute.  We crossed the English Channel with this boat in September of last year, leaving Dover at 10:40 in the morning, arriving at Calais at 2:30 P.M.; stayed about an hour in the French harbor for luncheon and floated into Dover docks the same evening, at 6:30, with full speed.  The actual distance traversed without entirely discharging the cells was 54 miles.  The current remained constant at 28 amperes until 5 P.M., and it only dropped to 25 amperes at the completion of the double voyage between England and France.  Several electric launches are now being constructed in London, and one in New York by the Electrical Accumulator Company.

M. Trouve exhibited a small boat and a tricycle, both worked by Plante accumulators, at Paris, in 1881.

The first locomotive actuated by storage batteries was used at a bleaching works in France in 1882.  During the same year I designed an electric street car for the storage company, and this was tried on the lines of the West Metropolitan Tramways in March, 1883.  It had accommodation for 46 passengers.  This car had many defects, and I reconstructed it entirely, and ran it afterward in its improved form on the South London Tramways, and also on a private track at Millwall, where it is now in good condition, and I have a similar car in Berlin.  M. Phillippart exhibited a car in Paris and M. Julien made successful experiments in Brussels, Antwerp, and Hamburg.  Mr. Elieson is running storage battery locomotives in London.  Mr. Julien has also been experimenting with a car in New York, and I believe one is in course of construction for a line in the city of Boston.  Messrs. W. Wharton, Jr. & Co. have a storage battery car running at Philadelphia on Spruce and Pine streets, and this energetic firm is now fitting up another car with two trucks, each carrying an independent motor, similar to my European cars.

I have mentioned all these facts in order to show that there is a considerable amount of activity displayed in the matter of storage batteries for street cars, and that continued and substantial progress is being made in each successive case.  The prejudices against the application of secondary batteries are being rapidly dispelled, and there are indications everywhere that this method of propulsion will soon take a recognized place among the great transit facilities in the United States.  I feel convinced that this country will also in this respect be far ahead of Europe before another year has passed over our heads.

There are several popular and I may say serious objections to the employment of storage batteries for propelling street cars.  These objections I will now enumerate, and endeavor to show how far they are true, and in what measure they interfere with the economical side of the question.