ERIE CANAL TRACTION COMPANY.

Articles of incorporation of the Erie Canal Traction Company were filed recently at Albany. The objects for which the company is formed, including the nature and locality of its business, are as fotlows: It is to produce, purchase, sell. and distribute power in the form of electricity or otherwise, for the propulsion or traction of boats and vessels upon the Erie Canal; to lay, build, and erect all machinery, storage batteries, conductors, and other apparatus of every kind incidental to the said business, and to furnish, sell, and distribute along the line of the said canal, and in the cities and villages adjacent thereto, power for any purpose incidental to the said business. The capital is placed at $100,000. with power to increase to $4,000,000. The principal business office will be in New York City, and the duration of the company is fixed at fifty

years.

The directors for the five years are: George G. Haven and Richard S. Hayes of New York, representing the Metropolitan Traction Company of New York City; the Hon. Thomas C. Platt of Owego, Adrian Iselin, Jr., of New York, a banker; Baron Louis A. Von Hoffman of New York City, who is the head of the foreign banking house of Von Hoffman & Co.; Alfred S. Heidelbach, head of the foreign banking house in New York City of Heidelbach & Ickelheimer and Charleton T. Lewis of New York City, counsel for the Mutual Life Insurance Company and secretary and treasurer of the Cataract General Electric Company. The incorporators of the company are: Frank W. Hawley, VicePresident of the Cataract General Electric Company, and the gentlemen named as directors.

TROLLEY EXTENSIONS IN BROOKLYN.

MORE electric roads will soon be in operation in Brooklyn. The Broadway Railroad Company, which is now controlled by the Brooklyn Heights Company in the interest of the Long Island Traction corporation or syndicate, is relaying its tracks, and putting in trolley wires and poles in Broadway, Reid, Sumner, and Ralph Avenues, and a score of miles will be completed next month. This is the last of the important lines in the city to be equipped for using trolley traction. In the new Twenty-ninth Ward the Nassau Electric Company is building a new road, to run from the Thirty-ninth Street Ferry in South Brooklyn to Canarsie. It is promised to be ready by July 15. As the route crosses the Ocean Parkway, the great drive from Prospect Park to Coney Island, there will be some delay in running through cars. The park commissioner has refused to permit a grade-crossing. The company at first proposed to tunnel the drive, as has been done for the Bay Ridge branch of the Manhattan Beach Railroad, but now it is proposed to swing an iron bridge over the drive. As it will have to be 210 feet long, with approaches, it will take some time to construct it. The Nassau Company will also build a line in Marcy Avenue from Canarsie to the Broadway Ferry.

A DECISION AS TO GUARD WIRES.

AN important decision relating to the right of cities to restrict dangerous overhead wiring has been rendered by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. The city of Janesville enacted an ordinance providing that guard wires be placed where they would prevent the contact of telephone wires with the wires of the electric motor company. The power of the court to compel the street railway company to comply with the ordinance was invoked by mandamus. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court, and the court sustained the validity of the ordinance.

TROUBLE Ffrom deprESSED RAIL JOINTS.

THE trouble that may come from bad rail joints was instanced a few days ago in Detroit, when striking such a joint the car was turned completely over, and many passengers were buried beneath it, though fortunately none was killed. This leads the Cleveland papers to call out for fewer bad joints and heavier rails.

ONE PLAN OF IDENTIFYING TROLLEY "TRANSFERS."

THE LYNN & BOSTON STREET RAILWAY has some new transfers with pictures of men without moustaches and side-whiskers and women with hats or bonnets in the upper corner of the ticket. The conductors are to punch out the picture nearest like the holder of the ticket. The conductors are to take a course of study in millinery at their earliest convenience.

THE TOLEDO, monroe and detroit Electric rAILWAY.

THE right of way for an electric railway between Toledo and Detroit via Monroe, has been secured and work upon the road will soon be commenced. The route will be along the old United States turnpike which runs in a straight line nearly the entire distance, and the construction will, we are informed, be first class in every respect. Sixty pound steel girder rails will be employed. The road will be about sixty miles in length, and four power houses will be required.

BIG TROLLEY TRAVEL IN BROOKLYN.

According to Auditor Bernard Mullen, the different lines of the Brooklyn City Railroad on Sunday June 17, carried over 500,000 people. This is an excess of 50,000 over the previous Sunday, when the largest travel in the history of the corporation was first noted.

EMPLOYING HOME LABOR.

SEVERAL trolley roads have yielded to local agitation on the subject of employing foreign labor, and are giving preference to home talent.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

THE NIAGARA TRANSMISSION.

I HAVE just read the reply of Messrs. Houston and Kennelly to my article on "Economy in Long Distance Transmission of Power by Electricity." My fourth equation, as it stands, of course represents the cost per mile due to conductors of conveying energy, P, over the distance d. It was a slip in copying that produced the error in my manuscript.

I am surprised to find that Messrs. Houston and Kennelly have fixed their limit of pressure with reference to danger from manipulation. Since their scheme involved the use of step-up and stepdown transformers there was no question of manipulating the high potential at the receiving end, and if there were I do not know of any experience that should lead us to settle on 35,350 volts as a safe pressure to manipulate.

The question of the limiting pressure, as I have always understood, relates to insulation on the line. It has generally been conceded that we could at both generating and receiving end, by means of step-up and step-down transformers, if not otherwise, take care of any pressure that could be practically used on the lines. Probably, as Messrs. Houston and Kennelly say, in view of the Lauffen-Frankfort experiments, "30,000 volts effective is a pressure that may be reasonably assumed as practicable;" but I cannot see how that warrants them in assuming 64,000 volts effective as practicable.

I wish to call attention to the fact that I did not assume 24,500 volts effective at Albany, as might be inferred from the wording of Messrs. Houston and Kennelly's reply. Had I assumed that pressure at Albany and then solved the problem for the most economical amount of copper on the line, I should have arrived at an entirely different result from that obtained upon the assumption of 35,350 volts at Niagara. WM. A. ANTHONY.

VINELAND, N. J., June 16, 1894.

ELECTRICITY AND HYDRAULIC GOLD MINING.

CAN electricity be employed as an agency to separate from the gravels the free gold carried in suspension in the tail sluices of our hydraulic mines? Has free gold sufficient affinity for it that the gold can be saved? Under our present system the sluices are charged with quicksilver, but the large volume of water necessary to disintegrate the gravel in the bank and at the same time to carry the debris into the restraining dam or basin takes with it nearly half the gold, which is lost, as we only get what amalga. mates with the quicksilver. We want some kind of a plant which can be placed at the end of our tail sluice, and if electricity can do the work before the washed gravel is deposited, or even afterwards, that plant would be equal to owning a quarter of all the hydraulic mines in the State.

Here is a field for an inventive genius and if you cannot give me the desired information, please kindly hand this to some practical scientific person who may take an interest in this subject or give me the names of such persons that I may place the matter before them in a more definite manner. E. J. BAKER.

NORTH SAN JUAN, NEVADA Co., CALIFORNIA.

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simplicity and clearness will be appreciated by many who have followed this subject only in a general way, but certain conclusions at which Prof. Anthony arrives deserve special consideration by those who have followed the subject more closely.

The general drift of Prof. Anthony's arguments is rather to depreciate the advantages gained from resonance and is calculated to cool down somewhat the enthusiasm of exalted minds that have perceived in electrical resonance more than there lies in it in reality. We must only bear in mind that the conditions which most generally obtain in the practical use of electrical devices are usually such as to assign to resonance a comparatively insignificant role. For the sake of illustration, for instance, if we have a highly efficient transformer supplied from an efficient alternating generator, the secondary circuit has but very little chance to perform its own vibration, and in order that it may do so, it would be necessary to diminish very much the mutual inductance between it and the primary. This will hold in general, although there might be conditions under which the secondary current flow may be affected very considerably by resonance, as, for instance, when the secondary is wound for a very high potential. Prof. Anthony's arguments apply more particularly to resonance existing on a long distance transmission line, and he argues that no advantage would be gained by tuning the line to the impressed vibration. While we must admit the truth of Prof. Anthony's remarks in general, it seems to us that inasmuch as in practice one is not at liberty to choose ideal conditions, but has to obtain the best result under the conditions imposed entirely by the circumstances of each case, it may become important to observe the conditions of resonance. In an electrical circuit in which perfect resonance is maintained, the impedance of the conductors is reduced to merely their ohmic resistance; and, therefore, in such cases by a given E. M. F. at the terminals the greatest current may be made to flow through the circuit. This, as Prof. Anthony says, allows us to reduce somewhat the loss in the line. But there are unquestionably disadvantages which may become very great in case resonance is maintained. Of these disadvantages not the least is the great risk incurred of throwing the line out of resonance by a comparatively very small distur bance on the circuit. In fact this alone would suffice to make it, as a rule, very desirable to keep resonance out of the system as much as possible, although, as admitted, there would be some saving in copper; but this saving, as Prof. Anthony points out, is obtained by imposing upon the dielectrics greater stresses.

But while it is only proper to guard against cherishing too sanguine hopes and against expecting from resonance more than it is capable of affording, yet it has had, and it will have, no doubt, valuable uses in the operation of elec trical devices. We need only remember the magnificent experiments of Hertz, Lodge and Tesla, in which the observance of the adjustments is essential to the success of the experiments and the results to be obtained; and how important this element may become in the operation of telegraph apparatus, as recently proposed by Dr. Pupin, the future alone can tell.

LEGAL NOTES.

The Government sUIT TO ANNUL THE Berliner PATENT. ARGUMENT in the case of the United States vs. American Bell Telephone Co. and Emile Berliner, before Judge Carpenter in Boston was concluded on Wednesday, June 20. Judge Taylor, whose argument for complainants was noted in THE ELECTRICAL ENGINEER of June 20, was followed by J. J. Storrow, Esq., for defend. ants, who presented the case of the Bell Co. in an elaborate and exhaustive argument, directed to establishing the entire good faith of his clients in respect to all the proceedings and the delays in the Patent Office attending the application and issue of the Berliner patent. He also discussed the technical questions and expert evidence touching the merits of the patent as covering a patentable invention in view of the state of the art of telephony and of the patents long previously issued to Berliner. In respect to the long pendency of the Berliner application, Mr. Storrow said the Bell company had been continually urgent for action by the Patent Office officials. Examiners had so testified; Mr. Lyons had said that the Bell Co.'s counsel were 66 urgent and persistent beyond toleration."

For some years the application was entangled in interferences, in which it ought not, in justice, to have been involved, and against which the Bell Co. and Berliner vigorously protested. Obnoxious rules existed in the Patent Office, the most obstructive of which were eventually repealed, chiefly in consequence of exertions made by Berliner and the telephone company. The closing argument for the Government was made by Causten Brown, Esq., who forcibly supplemented the long argument of Judge Taylor in opening the case. The case was then given to the Court.

INCANDESCENT LAMP LITIGATION.-In the suit of the Edison Electric Light Company at Chicago against the Chicago Incandescent Lamp Company, the Empire Electric Company and the Coöperative Electric Light Company, for using certain alleged infringements of the Edison Lamp patent, Judge Grosscup issued a preliminary injunction restraining the defendants from making or selling the lamps complained of until a final decision by the courts. In Brooklyn Judge Benedict has allowed a similar injunction to issue to the local Edison Company.

SOCIETY AND CLUB NOTES.

THE NEW YORK ELECTRICAL SOCIETY VISITS THE POSTAL BUILDING.

One of the principal aims of the New York Electrical Society is not only to keep abreast of the times by giving lectures or papers which embody the latest developments in electrical theories, but to afford its members an opportunity, from time to time, of seeing the practical side of electrical progress in its most advanced and most approved form. A very successful season was fittingly brought to a close on Tuesday, the 19th inst., by a visit, on the invitation of the Postal Telegraph Cable Company and the Commercial Cable Company, to the new Postal Building, at Murray St. and Broadway.

The visitors, to the number of 180, among whom were many ladies, assembled in the large room on the second floor, where, at 8 o'clock the annual meeting of the Society was held. According to the Treasurer's report, the finances are in a healthy condition, there being $107 in the treasury, and the Secretary's report showed a net increase for the season of 40 members-43 having been elected, and three struck off the rolls for non-payment of dues-and a total membership of 350.

The election of officers resulted as follows: President, C. O. Mailloux; Vice-presidents, Dr. William J. Morton, Dr. Michael I. Pupin, Luther Stieringer, F. A. Pickernell, W. S. Barstow, and C. S. Bradley. Treasurer, Henry A. Sinclair; Secretary, George H. Guy. An interesting feature of the meeting was the presentation of the works of Clerk Maxwell and Sir W. Siemens as a testimonial to Mr. Joseph Wetzler, the retiring president, who had filled various offices without intermission for the past seven years. The books, which were presented on behalf of the members of the Society by Dr. C. E. Emery, bore a suitable inscription.

MR. WETZLER, in briefly thanking the members of the Society for this evidence of their appreciation, said, although he was now retiring to the ranks his interest in the work of the Society would remain unabated, and he should always hold himself ready to contribute in any way in his power to its advancement and prosperity.

MR. C. O. MAILLOUX, the president-elect, in congratulating the Society on the satisfactory showing on the face of the reports of the treasurer and secretary, took occasion to acknowledge the

debt of gratitude which the Society owes to Columbia College for its valuable assistance and support, and proposed that Dr. Seth Low, the president of Columbia College, be made an honorary member of the Society. The proposal was loudly applauded and was carried unanimously.

The visitors were then taken by the electric elevators to the Hardware Club, at the top of the building, which had been courteously thrown open to them for the evening, after which, escorted by Messrs. Jones, Davis and Usher, of the Postal Company, and Messrs. Platt and Cuttriss, of the Commercial Cable Company, they were conducted to the operating room on the twelfth floor, and thence through the building to the basement, where the dynamotors for telegraph circuits, the electric elevator and light and power plants were inspected with great interest.

"DECORATION DAY" FOR THE NEW YORK ELECTRIC CLUB.

IN accordance with a recent announcement, a number of the former members of the New York Electric Club, celebrated the existence of that well meaning but departed organization, by a dinner on Thursday, June 21, at the Imperial Hotel. Somehow or other, electricians seem to need a rendezvous in New York, and the Imperial has certainly become just such a rallying point of late, thanks to the special courtesies and privileges extended by Mr. Stafford, one of the proprietors. About 40 covers were laid in a large private dining room, and the gathering was presided over most admirably by Mr. H. Ward Leonard, who later requested Mr. T. C. Martin to officiate as toastmaster. Speeches, all in happy vein, were made_by_Messrs. C. O. Baker, Jr.; C. D. Shain; Reece; Geo. Cutter; S. Rosenstamm; R. T. Lozier; C. E. Carpenter; S. L. Coles; W. J. Johnston; B. E. Greene; T. E. Everts; P. H. Alexander; W. J. Cook and H. L. Webb. During the evening and in some of the speeches the idea of a reorganization of the club was discussed, but there was a very evident feeling of opposition to any attempt to revive the Club on the old basis. The general feeling ran strongly in favor of having occasional reunions in the shape of smoking concerts, musicales, receptions, etc., during the winter; and for such purpose Mr. Stafford placed the handsome room then occupied, at the disposal of electrical men, free of charge, as often as they might see fit to occupy it. Mr. Stafford was heartily thanked for his really generous offer, and Mr. Leonard appointed as a committee, Messrs. Bartlett, Shain, Porter, Webb, Martin, Alexander and Everts to study the subject, and see whether steps should not be taken next Fall to carry out a programme of the nature outlined.

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS.

At the monthly meeting of the Council of the Institute on June 20, the following 25 associate members were elected:

Archbold, Wm. K., Westinghouse Electric and Mfg. Co., 620 Atlantic Av., Boston; Blood, John B., Assistant Engineer, Railway Dept. General Electric Co., Schenectady, N. Y.; Bennett, Edwin H Jr., Electrician and Engineer, Diehl & Co., Elizabeth, N. J.; Bliss, George S., Electrical Engineer, Central District and Printing Telegraph Co., Telephone Bldg., Pittsburgh, Pa.; Brady, Frank W., Laboratory Assistant, Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.; Caldwell, Francis C., Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, Ohio State University, Columbus O.; Chesney, C. C., Electrician, Stanley Laboratory, Pittsfield, Mass.; Childs, Arthur Edwards, B. Sc., M. E., E. E., Electrical Engineer, Westinghouse Elec. and Mfg. Co., Philadelphia, Pa.; Criggal, John E., Electrician, Davis Electrical Works, Springfield, Mass.; Croxton, A. L., Electrical Engineer, Standard Electric Co., Midwinter Fair, San Francisco, Cal.; Eddy, H. C., Salesman, Western Electric Co., 227 So. Clinton St., Chicago, Ill.; Gossler, Philip G., Assistant Electrical Engineer, United Electric Light and Power Co., 107 Montague St., Brooklyn, N. Y.; Hutchinson, Frederick L., Westinghouse Electric and Mfg. Co., Newark, N. J.; 355 Morris Ave., Elizabeth, N. J.; Harris, George H., Superintendent, Electric Car Shops, Birmingham, Ala.; Knox, Frank H., J. G. White & Co., 2116 N. Charles St., Baltimore, Md.; Lilley, L. G., Electrical Inspector, Underwriters' Association of Cincinnati, Wyoming, O.; Lloyd, Herbert, The Electric Storage Battery Co., Drexel Building, Philadelphia, Pa.; Malia, James P., Electrician, Armour & Co., 5314 Union Ave., Chicago, Ill.; Mayrhofer, Jos. Carl, Electrical Engineer, 165 West 82d Street, New York City; Oudin, Maurice, Electrical Engineer, General Electric Co., Schenectady, N. Y.; Plumb, Charles, The Chas. Plumb Electrical Works, 89 Erie Street, Buffalo, N. Y.; Scheible, Albert, Secretary and Assistant, with Geo. Cutter, 486 North Park Ave., Chicago, Ill.; Stearns, Joel W., Jr., Treasurer, Mountain Electric Co., Box 1545, Denver, Col.; Stephens, George, General Superintendent, Canadian General Electric Co., Ltd., Peterboro, Ont.; Winand, Paul A. N., Engineer and Superintendent, Schleicher, Schumm & Co., 3200 Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa. The next meeting of Council will be held September 19th; thirty applications for membership are now on hand for consideration on that date.

I.

PROMINENT among the companies which have contributed to the growth of electrical work and appli

cations in America is the Fort Wayne Electric Company, recently leased to the Fort Wayne Electric Corporation; and the late startling developments in the change of organization, recorded recently in THE ELECTRICAL ENGINEER, may make a short account of the history of the Company more than usually interesting, as well as timely.

First Wood Dynamo.

It was in November, 1881, that Messrs. Oscar A. Simons, H. G. Olds, C. L. Olds, R. T. McDonald and P. A. Randall, organized the Fort Wayne Jenney Electric Light Company, for the purpose of manufacturing electric lighting apparatus under the Langley patents. In the Spring of 1882, the Company purchased the Jenney patents and on October 2, 1882, began to manufacture thereunder. In the Fall of 1883, the Company moved to a four story building on East Columbia street, Fort Wayne, employing at that time about sixty hands, but in less than three years found themselves so cramped for room that in 1886, the Company purchased the Gause Mower Works, the present site of the factory. Large additions were immediately made, and employment was given to about two hundred people. In 1887 the company obtained control of the patents of M. M. M. Slattery and began the manufacture of alternating incandescent apparatus.

In the Fall of 1888, the works at Fort Wayne were destroyed by fire and the Company were given temporary quarters at the factory of the Kerr Murray Manufacturing Company until July, 1889, when they removed to the new factory buildings, which had been erected in the meantime. In August, 1889, the Fort Wayne Electric Co., as then called, opened a factory at Brooklyn, N. Y., for the manufacture of the Wood arc lighting system. In 1890, the Brooklyn factory was removed to Fort Wayne, and consolidated with the parent plant, and in 1892, the Company built extensive additions to their works to accomodate the large increase in their arc business. On January 3, 1893, a portion of the factory was again destroyed by fire, but repairs were immediately made and facilities for manufacturing increased. During 1892, the manufacture of the Wood alternating system was begun together with that of power generators and motors.

II.

With this brief history of the corporation as an introduction, we come to the description of the works as they now stand. Situated directly on the line of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, the works constitute an aggregation of twelve buildings. The three principal buildings the Main Shop, the East Shop and the Office Building-are of brick, the two former being each three stories in height. Besides enjoying the advantages of direct transportation facilities for the manufactured product, the

works are also supplied with natural gas, which is used under the boilers and throughout the establishment for all heating purposes. The warehouse and store-room, having railroad sidings on two sides, is 300 feet long by 50 feet wide.

Entering upon the ground floor of the Main Shop, we find a collection of machine tools, capable of handling anything up to a 500-kilowatt machine. Here are constructed and assembled all the incandescent, alternating and continuous current power generators of the Fort Wayne Corporation. The alternating machines range in capacity from 37.5 to 300 KW. and our illustration on page 555 gives a view of the latest 6,000 light Wood machine of this type. In the alternators the entire magnetic frame is cast, the pole pieces being slotted near their tips to prevent the generation of Foucault currents, the slots being cast and not milled. These pole pieces have slipped over them a compound coil of copper wire which is composed of four layers of comparatively small wire connected in series with the exciting dynamo, and over these, two layers of heavy wire through which the rectified portion of the main circuit passes, as shown diagrammatically on page 556. By this method compensation or over-compounding for any line loss is made good, automatically and instantaneously.

The armature of this alternator is made up of C-shaped stampings; it is of the iron clad type, the teeth of which

THE OLD FORT WAYNE FACTORY.

are wound with a very few turns of copper ribbon. The induction in the teeth is about 8,000 lines per sq. cm., and the length of the conductor on the armature is 3.6 inches per volt. The electrical efficiency of the machine is 95 per cent. The initial excitation is produced by a small exciter driven from a pulley on the end of the main armature shaft.

The new Wood. 160 K. w. compound alternator and exciter, coupled to a 300 H. P. vertical cross compound engine built by the Ball Engine Co., of Erie, Pa., and running at 240 revolutions per minute, is shown on page 554.