change. Another interesting item connected with the arrangements is the issuing of a round-trip ticket, first class, for $204, which permits the traveler to make the trip both ways by rail or one way by rail and the other by water. The trip by rail is to be made in seventeen days. The tickets are to be good on the ships of all companies voyaging around Asia, and permission is to be granted to stop off at any port at which the ship calls, with the privilege of taking another ship.-Daily Consular Reports.

American Brakes in Russia.-The story of the equipment of the Russian railroads with American air-brakes has been told, but a present incident makes it repeatable. A serious accident occurred on one of the state railroads in 1895, when a hand-braked train ran into and telescoped a train that was standing on the track ahead of it, killing several persons. At that time the government railroad depart-, ment had equipped only passenger trains with the air-brake. In course of the inquiry that followed this disaster, the Emperor asked the Minister of Ways and Communications to explain how it had happened. That official said that if the freight cars had been equipped with American automatic air-brakes the accident would not have occurred. To this the Emperor replied: "Why were they not so equipped?" Such a reply being equivalent to a command, all troubles in the way of lack of funds speedily vanished, and a commission was formed from the Ministry of Ways and Communications to investigate and recommend the best automatic air-brake. This commission tested the brake of five companies who were competing for the five-year contract for $7,000,000 worth of brakes which the government needed at that time. As a result, the Westinghouse airbrake was chosen. The government contract stipulated that the brakes should be made in Russia, and a Westinghouse factory was at once started at St. Petersburg. From the day that the report of the commission was accepted until now the Westinghouse Company has supplied all the brakes for the Russian government. An order for 1,000 sets of Westinghouse locomotive brakes has just been given. The policy of the Russian government demands that all material which is to be used in connection with government contracts must be made in

Russia by a Russian company. The Westinghouse is the only Russian brake company in existence; none other has received a charter.-Railroad Gazette.

Water Purification.-Bad water continues to be the worst problem the Western roads have to deal with. It is now becoming understood that purifying plants are economical, reliable and satisfactory, and they are being installed-but very slowly. The worst result of poor water is not the scaling alone but a combination of scaling and leaking of tubes and seams. This becomes so troublesome that locomotives in some districts need retubing as often as every two months and they require boiler work after every trip over a division of ordinary length. On one road having only a few purifying plants this term of service has already been extended to six months. The requirements which locomotives must meet in the West will necessitate the installation of water purifying plants on a large scale. Water purification has come to stay. It is to be a necessity on all roads having bad waters, and it is highly important to install the apparatus with a view of low cost of operation and absolute reliability. First cost is a mountain to most managers, and several are experimenting with "cheap" devices. One thing is now demonstrated-water purification is appreciated as an operating necessity.-American Engineer and Railroad Journal.

Steamship and Railway Communication of Nantes. - United States Consul Ridgely, Nantes, France, under date of October 1, 1903, in Daily Consular Reports, writes as follows:

Three of the great railway systems of France enter Nantes, viz., the Paris and Orleans, the State Railway, and the Western of France. Thus in point of railway service no city in France, except Paris, is more advantageously placed. Paris is less than six hours distant by fast express and Bordeaux less than five hours. The very best railway facilities exist for transporting freight between Nantes and all interior points of France. Besides, Nantes, though not situated on the sea, is none the less a seaport, since it is on the navigable Loire, only 30 miles from the Atlantic, and has regular lines of cargo steamers, not only to Havre, Bordeaux, Marseilles, and all ports in the

west and northwest coast of France, but to London, Dublin, Glasgow, Antwerp, and various Spanish ports. St. Nazaire, the seaport of Nantes, situated on the Atlantic at the mouth of the Loire, is a port of call for the ships of the Compagnie Transatlantique, and is a very busy port. Ships from Mexico and the Antilles frequently land their passengers there, as it is the first French port touched on the home journey.

The work of widening and deepening the Loire between Nantes and St. Nazaire will be commenced early next year, and at its completion-which is fixed three years hence the biggest ships will be able to come directly up to the fine docks at Nantes. Once this improvement is accomplished it is believed that Nantes will soon rival Havre as a seaport. It is closer to New York by 300 kilometers (186 miles) than Havre, and being much better situated for communication with the interior there is every reason why it should rank as high if not higher than Havre as a seaport. There is always talk and always hope of a direct line from here to the United States, but this will probably not be realized until the improvements in the Loire have been completed, although there is no reason why such a line should not be established at once between St. Nazaire and New York or Philadelphia. A new line with weekly sailing from Nantes to London will be inaugurated on the 18th of October, 1903.

During the year 1902 1,068,263 tons of merchandise were handled in the quays of Nantes, and the indications are that these figures will be equaled this year.

Test of Renard Motor Train.-What is said to have been a very successful trial of the Renard automobile railless train occurred in Paris a week since and, it is understood, created a sensation. The train crossed the Seine on the new Alexandre III bridge, made evolutions in the presence of an immense crowd in Place de la Concorde, and proceeded next to the Elysee, where Col. Renard was complimented by the president. The train made five turns inside a small courtyard, around President Loubet and a small group of interested spectators, and returned without misadventure to the place of starting. It carried sixty passengers in five vehicles and several tons of ballast. It will be recalled that, as mentioned in our issue of December 19, 1903, the Renard automobile train consists of

a 40 horse-power motor-car which, instead of pulling the train in the manner of a locomotive, supplies motive power to the axle of each vehicle.-Railway and Engineering Review.

Old-Fashioned Railroading in Spain - Oldfashioned methods are still good enough for Spain, and they run their railroad trains in the same way. They usually start them very early in the morning. Four o'clock is the favorite hour, and the hotel man gets you down to the station at least forty minutes in advance, so as to have plenty of time. If you happen to be late, of course, the train will start promptly. If you are down an extra long time in advance it is certain to be held for some mysterious reason.

A few minutes before train time the station master tolls a big bell hanging to the wall of the building as a formal notice; a few minutes later a porter in a blue cotton jumper goes up and down the platform ringing a hand bell, which is a warning for people to kiss their friends good-by again and to get aboard. The conductor of the train blows a horn, which is a notice to the engineer and brakemen. Then somebody blows a shrill whistle at one end of the train, which is answered by a similar whistle at the other end, and the guards begin to rush up and down the platform in great excitement slamming the doors of the cars, which open on the sides.

I noticed by the brass plate on the side that the engine was built in Belgium in 1864. It puffed and snorted a good deal, but discharged little smoke, for the fuel is briquettes, a composition of coal, sawdust and glue, which gives no cinders.— William E. Curtis, in the N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.

New Rules to Secure Efficient Operation.The Train Rules Committee of the American Railway Association has taken another step forward by recommending the operation of trains against the "current" upon certain conditions on double track. The Burlington has been operating its trains against the "current" for a long time between Chicago and Burlington. The practice needs additional block signals and additional cross-over tracks.

The "current" is a technical term indicating the direction traffic takes on a track. When, therefore, trains are op

erated against the "current," for example, on an eastbound track, they are permitted to go west on that track. By this method the Burlington is enabled to relieve congestion on either track wherever it occurs between Chicago and Burlington. The trains are switched onto the opposite track and permitted to run against the "current" until a portion of their own track is reached where there is no congestion. The additional use of the tracks which is thus obtained permits of handling greatly increased amount of tonnage.

Acting on the recommendation of the association, the St. Paul is now operating trains on twenty miles of double track out of St. Paul without the use of train orders. The operating force of the company is being given instruction in the new method with a view of ultimately extending it over all the double track on the system. The track over which trains now run solely by block signals is between Hastings and St. Paul, and the next stretch of track to be used in this manner is between La Crosse and Milwaukee, a distance of 200 miles. Plans are also being perfected to dispense with train orders on the double track between Chicago and Marion, Iowa, a distance of 228 miles. The management of the Northwestern road is getting ready to inaugu

rate the reform on the double track between Chicago and Omaha, where traffic has become congested. Before the change can be made, however, a thorough course of instruction is required to get the operatives used to the new method.-Railway World.

Screwdriver a Wonder. The largest and most powerful screwdrivers ever devised have just been delivered in the vicinity of New York. The Pennsylvania railroad in planning for its double tube under the North River has decided that it

needed them, and the engineering department, working with the construction department, has provided them.

The carpenter in using the ordinary screwdrivers exerts a power of about thirty pounds. The new screwdriver will have a power of 200,000 pounds, equal to that exerted by 6,666 carpenters. They will drive the great piles which must be sunk under the tunnel-they will, in fact, be the piles themselves. Inasmuch as about 1,000,000,000 pounds of metal will be used in the tubes, a faint idea of what the piles will have over them can be formed.

The screwdriver piles are cylinders two and one-quarter feet in diameter, made of cast iron one and one-quarter inches thick. They will be located every fifteen feet centrally, so that both tubes will be reinforced. They will be made in lengths short enough to be handled in the tunnel, the successive lengths being belted on as the pile sinks. The screwdriver, or screw point, so-called, is at the end of the pile and is so constructed that it will have one turn of twenty-one inches and a diameter of four and three-fourths feet.

Examples of the power of the screw were given the other day, when it was said that its force would be equaled only by a weight of 200,000 pounds placed on the pile, or it could be equaled by the power of a lever one-half mile long, at the end of which would be a man weighing 150 pounds.-Roadmaster and Foreman.

Tired Nature's Sweet Restorer is still available to New York State legislators on the cars without violating either their consciences (?) or their pocket-books. According to the New York Evening Post, "the Pullman Company has found a way of getting around the constitution of New York which forbids the members of the State Legislature from accepting and using its passes. It is simply the Mrs. Senator So-and-So and Mrs. Assemfilling out of the pass in the name of blyman Jones-Smith, instead of in the name of the senators and assemblymen themselves. That a great number of legislators are bachelors seems not to have troubled the company in the least. The passes are all filled out in the same manner, and entitle Mrs. Jones-Smith 'and one other' to a seat or berth in the cars of the company on any of the lines in the State. The passes were sent to the members of the Senate and Assembly in letters addressed 'Dear Madam.'"-Rail

So, of course, we were at our post in three carriages, and some horsemen, at the hour appointed. I had the satisfaction, for I can't call it a pleasure, of taking a trip of five miles in it, which we did in just a quarter of an hour that is, 20 miles an hour. As accuracy upon this subject was my great object, I held my watch in my hand at starting and all the time; and as it had a second hand I knew I could not be deceived; and it so turned out there was not the difference of a second between the coachee or conductor and myself. But observe, during these five miles the machine was occasionally made to put itself out or go it, and then we went at the rate of 23 miles an hour, and just with the same ease as to motion or absence of friction as the other normal pace. But the quickest motion is to me frightful; it is really flying, and it is impossible to divest yourself of the notion of instant death to all upon the least accident happening."

Compare the above "frightful" motion with that of our Twentieth Century Limited, Empire State Express, Knickerbocker Special and other splendid transcontinental trains of today, and what would he think?

Nickel Deposits of Ontario. - United States

among the great powers, France and Great Britain are at present the only ones possessing nickel to any appreciable extent for use in their respective armaments, and in modern armaments nickel is now indispensable and increasingly so. There is reason to believe that if the British imperial authorities fall in with Canada's desire to conserve the nickel of Ontario for imperial uses France will at once take similar steps in regard to the nickel supply from New Caledonia.-Daily Consular Reports.

No More Student Machinists on Russian Road. -An order has been issued to the Siberian Railroad agents to discharge all the students employed in the capacity of machinists and assistant machinists on the locomotives of the railroad. This order affects the employment of nearly 100 persons, and is brought about by the wrecking of a butter train near Cheliabinsk. The machinist on the wrecked train was a student of the Tomsk Technological Institute.-Railway World.

White Porters for the Union Pacific.-It is said that complaints having reached the passenger department of the Union Pacific Railroad that the negro porters were

ada, under date of December 8, 1903, forwards the following item concerning the nickel deposits of Ontario from the Canadian Manufacturer:

For some time past the government of Ontario has had under consideration the question of withdrawing from sale or lease all or part of the known unsold nickel lands in the province and offering them to the Imperial Government to provide war material for the manufacture of armor plate and British guns. The order in council of November 11th withdrawing a belt of land ten miles wide on each side of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway, so as to reserve the minerals, especially the nickel ores, is the first step toward making possible British ownership of the nickel of Ontario.

The nickel supply of the world is at the present time derived from two sources. The most important is the Sudbury district of this province; the other, in New Caledonia, a French penal settlement or colony situated in the Southern Pacific Ocean, about four days' sail from Sydney, New South Wales. Consequently,

except when in receipt of liberal "tips," has caused orders to go out on some of the divisions to dispense with negro porters and employ in their stead white men at advanced wages, the reason assigned being "for the good of the service." If the change proves effective and agreeable it will probably be made general on all the Harriman transcontinental lines.

Fast Time in the Air. Some of the noted fast runs on railroads are now and then being surpassed by fast flies through the air with various types of sailing and flying machines. The record fly was recently made by Heinrich Ziegler, a Bavarian aeronaut, who has covered 765 miles, from Ogsburg to the Purth River in Roumania, at the rate of thirty-eight miles an hour. It is claimed that at a height of 14,500 feet a speed of ninetyeight miles an hour was attained.-Rail

road Men.

What "Chauffeur" Means.-The newest dictionary adds 17,000 hitherto unaccepted words to the English language, having

culled this number from a list of 500,000 submitted for acceptance. Among the accepted ones are a number that owe their existence to the automobile, and their insertion in the dictionary is an acknowledgment on the part of the dictionary compilers that the motor car has enriched our language. Most of the new automobile words are already in common use, but many of them are not yet given their correct application.

The word that has proved a particular stumbling block is "chauffeur," adopted from the French and meaning in the original "stoker." A "stoker" is defined in our dictionaries as "one who applies fuel to a furnace," and as this does not accurately represent the meaning of the word "chauffeur," the acceptance of "chauffeur" as a distinctive word has become imperative. Yet while "chauffeur" does not to us mean "stoker" it bears a close relation to "engineer," meaning a locomotive engineer, and is the title of that employed expert who operates automobiles. It is therefore inaccurate to refer to Mr. Wm. K. Vanderbilt, Governor-elect Herrick of Ohio, and Mayor Tom L. Johnson of Cleveland, for instance, as "chauffeurs." These gentlemen have the skill of "engineers," yet the work of "engineering" an automobile is not with them an employment but a mere pastime. The distinction is worth noting.-The Auto Era.

Trackless Trains in Paris. Trackless trains" are the latest novelty in Paris, where the happy thought of hitching a number of light carriages to an auto-car has been successfully tried. A Darracy 30 horse-power automobile drew five cars containing 60 passengers through crowded streets and around sharp curves, the cars, it is stated, tracking exactly with the motor. The principle of the device appears to consist in the transmission of sufficient power from the automobile to move each car, but the cablegram gives no mechanical details. The inventor, Colonel Renaud, an army officer, is quoted as expressing the opinion that there will be an excellent market for his trains in the United States, and that their use "will enable your people to crush the railroad trusts, and even if they may not entirely take the place of railroads, they will at least force your railroad magnates to reduce exorbitant freight rates. Of course," the Colonel concedes, "you will have to improve your roads, but with the growing use of automobiles this is a

thing which will arrange itself, and I should not be surprised to see trains without rails run regularly between New York and San Francisco within the next 10 or 15 years."-Railway Age.

Electric Railway Engine in Germany. - From United States Consul-General Hughes, Coburg, Germany, in Daily Consular Reports, it is learned that experiments have recently been conducted on the 1-metergauge line connecting St. Georges de Commiers and La Mure, in the Department of Isère, with a 500-horsepower electric engine, using a continuous current at 2,400 volts. This engine, constructed by the Geneva Works, weighs 50 tons, is 12%1⁄2 meters (4.1 feet) long, and admits a speed of 221⁄2 kilometers (14.6 miles) per hour, with a load of 110 tons, over the stretch of line rising on an average 0.0275 meter per meter (1.08 inches per 39.37 inches) and with curves of 100 meters (328 feet) in radius. The electric power required is supplied by the hydro-electric plant operated by the Drac torrent. The line is worked on the three-wire overhead system, the current being delivered by means of a top-head trolley.

A Speed of 125 Miles an Hour.-If the plans now being made by officials of the New York Central Railroad are carried out, a train will before long be run by electric power over a stretch of track between Schenectady and Amsterdam at the rate of 125 miles an hour. An electrical expert connected with the General Electric Company says:

This

"It is planned to equal and, if possible, better the showing made at Zossen, Germany, when, some time ago, a speed of 120 miles an hour was made. showing was made on a specially prepared roadbed and that is the secret of the feat. If the Central desires a high rate of speed, it will have to provide a suitable roadbed. This, it is understood, is to be done, so that we are pretty nearly certain that the result of tests will be that electric engines capable of maintaining a speed of 125 miles an hour and more will be shipped to the Central for use at the New York terminal."

A conference was held in Schenectady between officials and electrical engineers of the Central and similar representatives of the General Electric Company, and definite plans were outlined for the speed