Odds and

Modern Wiring Diagrams and Descriptions for Electrical Workers.-This is the title of a new book by Henry C. Horstmann and Victor H. Tousley, which "not only tells you how to do it, but it shows you how." It tells how to wire for call and alarm bells; for burglar and fire alarm; how to run bells from dynamo current; how to install and manage batteries; how to test batteries; how to test circuits; how to wire for annunciators;

for telegraph and gas lighting; it tells how to locate "trouble" and "ring out" circuits; it tells about meters and transformers; contains thirty diagrams of electric lighting circuits alone; explains dynamos, and motors; alternating and direct current; gives ten diagrams of ground detectors alone; gives "compensator" and storage battery installation; gives simple and explicit explanation of the "Wheatstone bridge" and its uses, as well as volt-meter and other testing; gives new and simple wiring table covering all voltages and losses or distances, etc. The book contains 160 pages, over 200 illustrations, is nicely bound in full leather, with round corners, red edges, pocket size, 4 by 6 inches, and will be sent postpaid to any address in the United States or Canada upon receipt of price, $1.50, by the publishers, Frederick J. Drake & Co., 211-213 East Madison street, Chicago, Ill.

Grant of Carnegie Institution for Locomotive Research.-President Stone, of Purdue University, announced at a recent convocation, that a gfant of $5,000 had been made by the trustees of the Carnegie Institution to Professor W. F. M. Goss to promote research in locomotive testing. In making the announcement, President Stone called attention to the research work which has already been accomplished at Purdue, and expressed his appreciation of this added evidence of confidence in the institution. The Carnegie Institution was established and endowed by Andrew Carnegie for the purpose of extending aid to scientists wherever found in advancing important lines of scientific research. At the second annual meeting of the trustees, which was held at Washington, December 9th, more than a thousand applications were considered, sixty-six of which received favorable ac

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tion. Among these latter was the Purdue grant. Hitherto, aid has been chiefly given workers in pure science and generally in comparatively small amounts. The grant to Purdue is probably the most significant gift yet made for work in an applied science. The specific purpose of the grant is to aid in carrying out an elaborate study of the value of high steam pressures in locomotive service. As is well known, a few years ago locomotive boilers were designed for a pressure of 150 pounds, while at the present time 180 to 210 pounds pressure is the rule, and designers are asking the question whether it will prove economical to still further extend the line. In anticipation of such a study, the boiler of the present experimental locomotive of Purdue University was designed for 250 pounds, and it is in connection with this locomotive that experiments will be made.—Railway and Engineering Review,

How Slang Worked a Cure. A very busy and hard-worked official of a great transportation company found, during the past health, and he consulted his physician year, that his duties were impairing his

who recommended a period of absolute rest. Following the doctor's advice he went back to the city where he had spent a large part of his early life, and while there he was told that his old family doctor had diagnosed his case as "lint on the lungs," and upon inquiring how the doctor knew it, and what it was, the patient was informed that it came from "chewing the rag." This somewhat coarse joke naturally provoked a laugh, but it caused a multitude of very salutary reflections in the mind of the most interested person. He had time to think, and the more he considered the matter the more absolutely correct he found the old doctor's opinion to be. The result has been that the particular process by which the dangerous disease from which he formerly suffered had been developed, was stopped, and with the removal of the source the trouble had disappeared.

Without attempting to define the expressive, if inelegant, slang phrase that has worked such a change in one man's habit, we may say that not a few others might profitably modify their practice in

the same way. "Chewing the rag" means, we suppose, a snarling, cantankerous, quarrelsome attitude towards annoying questions that arise, and especially towards the persons who bring them up. There is always some bitterness in tone, some sarcasm in look or voice, some irritating way of grappling perplexities if people are "chewing the rag." The housewife and the cook may "chew the rag" in the kitchen, the master and his coachman in the carriage house or stable, or even in the family trap. The superintendent and his subordinates may easily mix too much acid with their

us should absolutely stop cantankerous talk and especially if the frame of mind that precedes it should be habitually avoided. The new year would have more pleasant days than any preceding one has ever had, and the wear and tear of life would be reduced to the minimum. Wise men know that it is the worry and not the work of life that wears men out.Railroad Men.

Battleships Not a Success.-Many trunk-line managers express the opinion that the monster freight locomotives are failures,

C. & N. W. RY.

speech, and the conductor can easily find and have not realized what was expected both occasions and places for a well-nigh endless performance of "rag chewing" with engineer, baggageman or trainman. Any railroad man who meets the public, at an office or station, or on the trains, can easily find somebody willing to risk the dangerous disease for the sake of "chewing the rag."

of them. W. E. McCully, chairman of the Board of Railway Commissioners of Georgia, says: "Of course, this does not mean they will abandon attempts to get service out of the large machines, because they are constantly working with them and trying to remedy the defects. The objections so far have been that the big engines don't make the time required, which is only from twenty-five to thirty miles an hour. They consume an enormous quantity of coal compared with the results and they are hard to make steam. You will rarely find an engineer praising one of them. In mountainous sections it requires two firemen to shovel coal, and where one man only is used over a level What a change would come if all of country the work of firing is exceedingly

But what a wearing process it is! Men grow prematurely old who do it. Business is retarded instead of being expedited, and there is friction everywhere. Things seem out of joint and the machinery creaks and groans or, to change the figure, everybody is like an old horse with the heaves. "Lint on the lungs" is fatal to good respiration!

where signals can not be seen until the trains are very close to them, are in contemplation. Railway and Engineering Review.

Cause of Collisions and Wrecks.-The Chicago (Ill.) Post, in commenting on the various fatal and disastrous wrecks which have occurred during the past few weeks in different sections of the country, among other things says:

"Back of any system, automatic or otherwise, which the railroads may install must ever remain the competency of

There is now going the rounds of the daily press the statement that a certain railroad company has issued an order to the effect that under no circumstances shall a passenger train exceed its schedule speed, and that no matter how late a train may be the engineer must not make up any of the lost time. If his train should become late on any portion of the trip it must continue to run late. An official of the company is quoted as saying that: "A large majority of the winter wrecks are due to an effort to make up lost time, and the management

the railroad operatives and the urgency does not believe such effort to be worth of railroad travelers. So long as there is the possible cost." this public demand to be taken rapidly from one point to another the trainmen will be required by their superiors to 'make time.' And the more of this urging there is, the more accidents will there be to chronicle.

"When the public refuses to travel on railroads which have builded a reputation for 'making time,' no matter what the cost, there will be more careful running; and when the railroad managements cease crowding their employes to the point of nervous and physical collapse in order to maintain schedules, there will be fewer accidents. The chief cause of these fatalities is the insane American rush, and human skill can not devise any mechanism that will offset this and wholly prevent accidents and the seeming recklessness of life."

What Fast Train Operation Means.- When the "Twentieth Century Limited" train recently made a run on the Lake Shore Railroad of 133.4 miles from Toledo to Elkhart in 114 minutes, probably none of the passengers gave a thought to the real meaning of such a magnificent speed performance. In order to accomplish the feat a speed of fully 85 miles had to be maintained for considerable portions of the distance. With a modern passenger train such speed can be attained with safety only when roadbed, track, equipment, discipline of employes and other operating conditions are about as perfect as human skill can make them.

The train consisted of six Pullmans, each weighing 55 tons, or a total of 330