pressure in this pipe to correspond with the pressure on the train. The prolongation of this pipe extended into a barrel partly full of cold water, where it was condensed and weighed. The steam for the train being taken from the dome, it was assumed to be dry. At any rate, it did not seem to be worth while, at that stage of the problem, to test it with a calorimeter. The steam was taken from the combination from which proceed all the pipes that take steam from the locomotive except the dry pipe. It is probable that the results were somewhat affected by the current in each of these pipes, which was, of course, more or less irregular ; but these irregularities are precisely those which occurred on the run. The boat train on the Old Colony road and its locomotive, which Mr. Lauder kindly consented to have used for the experiment, was at the time running with four steam-heated cars, viz.: a combination baggage and second-class car, a smoker, and two passenger cars, all fitted with the Sewall system, including the Sewall coupling and the new Sewall valve. heated up by the engine, The train leaves the yard M., where it remains with The four cars stated above are first which is generally attached about 3 P. M. at 5.10 P. M., reaches the depot at 5.30 P. out the engine for half an hour, and starts at 6 P. M. for Fall River, arriving there about 7.20 P. M. There are, therefore, four cars in line during the heating up. When the train leaves the depot, however, two baggage cars are placed between the combination car and the engine. One of these cars is a platform and the other a box car. steam, but each has a steam pipe passing steam has to pass through this pipe the before entering the four steam-heated cars. ment to determine the size of orifice required in our apparatus was made on February 28, 1888. They are not heated by underneath, so that the length of these two cars The preliminary experi An orifice one-eighth inch diameter was put in, and on trying to heat up the cars in the afternoon, by letting the steam pass through this orifice, it soon became evident that they could not be heated in any reasonable time, if at all, so the apparatus was cut out of the circuit, and the train was heated up in the usual way. The experiment was then made to see if the one-eighth inch orifice would be large enough to use on the run; but as forty pounds pressure was needed on the train pipe in the cab, and as it was not possible to get more than five by the use of that orifice, it was demonstrated that an orifice one-eighth inch diameter was too small for the four cars. Next, a one-half inch orifice was substituted for the one-eighth inch, and this worked all right. It was none too large; and it is probable that if the experiment had been made with six cars, with the thermometor below zero, a larger orifice yet would have been needed. As it was, the one-half inch orifice was used in all the tests. These experiments showed the amount of steam used per hour, on each trip, as follows: First trip, 4 cars thoroughly heated, 334 lbs. 27° outside. 306 66 27° 66 The experiments, though not made with an extreme degree of accuracy, nevertheless give the results to be expected in practice with steam-heated cars fitted up like those experimented upon with a sufficient degree of approximation to justify an opinion as to the tax upon the power of the locomotive, and they indicate that the amount of steam required is by no means inappreciable, and, on the other hand, that this amount is not, as a rule, a serious tax upon the locomotive, especially in view of the fact that at the time when steam heating is most needed, i. e., in the coldest weather, the travel on most roads is light. The result of all these experiments will undoubtedly be a more extended use of continuous heating during the coming winter, and a general improvement in the appliances and in the management of the apparatus. The following conclusions may fairly be drawn from It is very important that there should be uniformity in couplers. The Westinghouse air-brake one and one-half inch coupling, with a hard rubber gasket, works satisfactorily, railroad employees are familiar with its use, and the patent upon it expires shortly. In regard to everything else, uniformity is not so imperative. The main pipe should be as well-protected as possible. If it must be outside the car it should be thoroughly wrapped. A better place for it is between the sills, and in that place, also, it should be wrapped, or it may be placed inside the car, as is done to some extent by Mr. Richards, of the Boston and Providence Railroad, and by Mr. Henney, of the New York and New England Railroad. The main pipe, the valves connecting this with the radiating pipes, and the entire system of radiating pipes, should be such as to offer the least possible resistance to the flow of the steam, so that high steam pressure shall not be required on the train. A two inch or at least a one and one-half inch pipe is desirable to meet this requirement. A reducing valve which is not liable to get out of order and let high pressure on the cars is a great desideratum. The amount of radiating surface generally adopted, and which seems to be sufficient, is about one square foot for each twenty-five cubic feet of capacity of the car. The trap should be protected from freezing, and the best way is to have it inside the car. The trap introduced by Mr. George A. Houston, on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe is recommended for examination and trial. It seems probable that auxiliary boilers under the cars can be dispensed with in this State. Stations where cars are left should generally be provided with a stationary boiler and pipes for heating the cars. The amount of steam required is neither excessive nor inappreciable. Nevertheless, the question of economy will be an important element in deciding upon the nature of the appliances to be used when it is desired to heat trains of ten or twelve cars. As a rule, the time when the most steam is needed for heating is the very time when travel is the lightest, and hence when the steam can best be spared. It is desirable that there should be some automatic device for regulating the heat. MEETING 378. The Eco-Magneto Watchman's Clock. BY MR. CHARLES A. WHITE. Transmitting Handwriting by Electricity. BY MR. W. E. GUMP. The 378th meeting of the SoCIETY OF ARTS was held at the Institute on Thursday, October 25th, at 8 P.M., President Walker in the chair. After the reading of the records of the previous meeting, and the election of new members, the President introduced Mr. Charles A. White, of Boston, who exhibited and described the "Eco-Magneto Watchman's Clock." Mr. WHITE said: Only a few years ago, an electrical device for recording the movements of watchmen was not known, but the efforts of property owners, insurance companies, and others to make themselves more secure against losses by fire, flood, thieves, etc., or, in fact, to assure themselves of the faithful performance of their duty by watchmen, have led inventors to conceive various devices by which such an end might be gained. The result has been that today there are many such devices, some mechanical, but mostly electrical, and all, perhaps, more or less liable to criticism, as being too complicated, too delicate in construction, or subject to manipulation by the watchman. Until now, the electricity in all electric watch clocks has been generated by chemical batteries, which, in themselves, are a constant source of trouble and expense, even to electricians, and a profound mystery to very many people; but the great trouble with these clocks worked by chemical batteries is that they can be so easily manipulated by watchmen, to make false records, and the slightest accident to any part renders the whole system useless. Now, it is evident that what was needed was a device operated by electricity, that would work strongly and surely, that could not be operated by any method of crossing wires, or by circuits closed anywhere on the wires, that required no delicate springs or the services of electricians to maintain. Several years ago, Mr. Fessenden invented an electric watch clock, worked by chemical batteries, but after repeated troubles with the batteries it was abandoned, and he has since produced the eco-magneto watchman's clock, which is here exhibited. In this clock the batteries are entirely dispensed with, permanent magnets being used instead, and the electricity is generated by the act of recording a visit at station, on the same principle that one rings a telephone call by means of a magneto, except that only a partial turn is necessary to make a record. When the key is turned, it causes the armature to revolve rapidly within its field of magnetism, and the current thus generated produces a vibration of the armature in the clock, which causes a short arm, containing the needle, to puncture the paper dial, which is carried round by the mechanism of the clock twice in twenty-four hours. The radial lines on the dial correspond to the divisions of time into hours and minutes, while the concentric lines denote the position of the station. An important feature of this apparatus is that it is entirely free from any chance of false records being made, as each station is worked distinctly and separately from all others, and there is no electricity in any part of the system except at the moment of making the record. The record cannot be made in any other way except from the several stations, and it is impossible to make a record by any method of crossing wires, or other devices employed by unfaithful watchmen, in other forms of electric clocks. Another feature is its extreme simplicity; there is nothing to get out of order; the magnets are perpetual, and it requires no skilled electrician to set it up or maintain it. Still another is the fact that recovery after a record is made entirely by gravity. TRANSMITTING HANDWRITING BY ELECTRICITY. At the close of Mr. White's paper the President introduced Mr. W. E. Gump, of the Writing Telegraph Company, of New York, who read a paper on "Transmitting Handwriting by Electricity." Mr. GUMP said: The art of telegraphing letters or characters while forming them with a pen or pencil, with connections to a transmitter, so that they are reproduced in fac-simile by a receiving pen, was first invented by Mr. Edward Alfred Cowper, of Westminster, |