than any other railroad in the world making an equal number of stops per 100 miles.  On a recent holiday, April 30 last, 835,720 passengers were carried upon the entire system without noticeable detention or accident.  The rapidly increasing traffic makes the demand for better facilities a pressing one, and as the average half million now carried daily will soon become a million, it appears doubtful if any method can be devised of providing for the growth by the use of steam motors on the present structures, which are now taxed to their utmost.  To the mind of the mechanical engineer, having in view the ordinary coefficients of tractive ability, there is no remedy for this.  The speaker stated that these coefficients were not entirely trustworthy.  He reiterated his previously expressed opinion, based on frequent experiments, that there is a decided increase in traction gained by the passage of the electric current from the wheels to the rails, giving the details of one test where a motor with a load making a total of 600 lb. climbed a gradient of 2,900 ft. per mile, starting from a state of rest.  He stated that some of those people who had ridiculed his statements had finally admitted that they were true.

The motor Ben Franklin, which had been used in making these tests on the elevated roads, weighed 10 tons, and performed service nearly equal to the steam motors weighing 18 tons.  The object of these tests was the determination of coal economy.  Tests with a Prony brake showed that the motor developed 128 H.P.  The piece of track on which the experiments were conducted embraced 2,200 ft. of level track and 1-8/10 miles of gradients, varying from 11-3/10 to 98-7/10 ft. per mile, while at Thirtieth street the station is at the foot of the steepest grade, thus testing to the utmost the tractive capacity of the motor.  The experiments were begun in October, 1888, and carried on between the hours of 9 P.M. and 4 A.M., beginning with one or two cars, the load being increased nightly until it was finally made up of eight coaches of 12 tons each, which were hauled up the 98 ft. grade at a speed of 71/2 miles per hour, the entire distance being covered at the rate of 14-6/10 miles per hour.  The maximum speed obtained on level with that train was 16.36 miles per hour.  Seventy trips were subsequently made with a 70 ton train operated between the steam trains under 3 minutes headway, but the work was considered too critical on account of the absence of suitable brakes.  A number of experiments made about this time showed that the mean speed with a three-car train running express on the up-town track was about 24 miles per hour, although the ability of the motor on a level with a similar train was nearly 28 miles per hour.  This, however, was not the maximum speed, as the level track was not long enough to permit of its attaining the highest rate.  It was the opinion of the speaker, however, that the speed attained could not be exceeded with prudence on the elevated