Two years ago and over, I was in the city of Brussels on professional business; and in coming out of my hotel one morning, I saw a car moving along the street; neither overhead wire, nor cable, nor horses, nor any indication of the means by which the car moved could be distinguished. I got on the car, and was told it was run by accumulators-storage batteries. I knew nothing of the system; but I took an interest in it, and saw the counsel of the road that was engaged in that method of traction, who explained to me all that he knew about it. I came back very enthusiastic over what I had seen. The result was we made arrangements to apply it here. I got Mr. Julien to forward us a car to New York, in order to put it in service and demonstrate what could be done with it. You may not all know that the shortest curve in Brussels is forty-two feet radius. We have to describe a curve on the Fourth avenue road, New York city, of twenty-one feet radius, and up-hill at that. Consequently the car that Mr. Julien sent to us was illy adapted to do the rough, hard service that a street car in this country is expected to perform. We had not only those difficulties to encounter, but the methods of producing the machinery, especially the storage batteries, at that time, although it is only two and a half years ago, certainly seemed to us, and proved afterwards in the light of experience, to be very crude. Mr. Julien sent over to us the most improved methods of manufacturing storage batteries; the furnaces, moulds and all the adjuncts they had in Brussels were reproduced and sent here, accompanied by an electrician, who was supposed to be skilled in the mysterious art of making a storage battery. We went to work; and, fortunately, the Company had secured the services of bright, intelligent American mechanics and skilled men, especially a chemist (who is invaluable in the storage battery manufacture), and we soon discovered the crudeness of the art, although we had the best methods and appliances that were to be found in England or Europe. From what was deemed and is still generally deemed as a forbidding thing in storage battery traction, that is, the cost of the storage battery and its life, which have been considered to render them too expensive for general adoption, we have reached the point where we are prepared to set down at the doors of any street-railway man a factor of force in storage batteries more cheaply than he could secure his horses for, and we will reproduce that and supply the force more cheaply

than he can maintain his horses. The storage battery, if I may say so, is nothing mysterious; it simply consists of plates made of lead or other metal, to which salts of lead is applied as mortar is to laths. The plates are immersed in a solution of sulphuric acid and water, and treated with an electric current which so changes the properties of the metal, that it becomes a receptable for electric energy. In order to fill these plates with the salts of lead or paste, we had to employ a large number of men. Each man had before him a small piece of board on which he had instruments or cups for measuring the quantity of mixture to put on each plate; that was spread on with a trowel, and no matter how diligently the man worked, he could not fill more than sixty plates a day. That is the method in Europe to-day. You can imagine how expensive that was. Our Mr. Henry G. Morris and Mr. Salom so improved this, that two girls are able to make more batteries to-day than fifty men were able to make a year ago, and they are more uniform and better in every respect; so that instead of charging eleven dollars a cell, as we were obliged to a year ago, if you were to offer us, say, six dollars a cell, or even less, you would be in danger of being taken up. Of course, we had a great deal to contend with, owing to the ignorance of men whom we had to employ in this storage battery manufacture. It is very easy to drill men in matters of horse traction, or even in cable traction ; you can secure a number of men capable of handling your cars or engines at the central station; but we were engaged in an industry that was entirely new, unknown; there was not a factory in this country engaged in similar work when we began manufacturing storage batteries. Mr. Brush had played with them some, but never had produced commercial results. I want to show you what this country can do with an industry like this. Although we run our factory night and day, in Camden, New Jersey, we are very much behind in our orders. We are lighting the cars of a large number of railroads; among others, the Boston and Albany, the Pullman Vestibule cars, and a large number of cars on the Pennsylvania railroad; also the watch factory at Waltham, Massa. chussetts, is lighted, and its lathes run by the Julien storage system. I am not saying this, gentlemen, in order to extol the Company I am connected with, but simply to show you what progress has been made in this industry.

People ask, "Why are you not running more cars?" The chief

reason is because we have been unable to find men who were skilled in the knowledge of handling our batteries and other electrical apparatus. We want to send cars on the streets that will take care of themselves, and carry passengers, and stop and start, and get back to the car-house; and this requires a great deal more care than is commonly understood. We have started to do the most difficult thing that has been done or attempted, and which calls for the highest degree of electrical skill. We have a great deal of respect for gentlemen who will attach a car to an overhead wire or a conduit; but it requires a great deal more skill and industry to take a car that is propelled by its own energy. and which must take care of itself throughout, and must get back, from a journey of twelve miles, through a crowded city without any but necessary stops, and without interfering with public traffic. This is no easy achievement to attain. We are attempting to do something that has not hitherto been undertaken; certainly never with a fair degree of success as the result. I will say this, that never has a car of the weight which is now run on Fourth avenue and Madison avenue, New York, an eighteen-foot car, with large platforms, and capable of carrying, when crowded, some seventy or seventy-five people, been run successfully by electricity. We put one car in service on the seventeenth of September, and it has been running on that line every day up to the present day, in actual service, carrying. passengers, and in that time we have never had an accident whereby we have stopped traffic or whereby the car has been disabled, and not been able to return to the station with its passengers just as it started out. I thank you very much, gentlemen, for the indulgence which you have extended to me, and hope I have not intruded on your time.

The President: Before the gentleman takes his seat, I would like to ask him if the cars operate regularly day after day, carrying passengers?

Mr. Bracken: They do.

The President: On how large a scale? Please give us all the information you can.

Mr. Bracken: In relation to your question, Mr. President, as to what progress in operation we have made, I would say that the car we received from Mr. Julien, some two years ago, was entirely unadapted to the work required of the American street

car. The motors were not sufficiently powerful. They took the car along, but just as a single horse might take it up a heavy grade with a great deal of difficulty. We were thus compelled at once to adapt our car to the work required. We had a great deal of correspondence with street car gentlemen throughout the country concerning our system, and desiring us to make guarantees; but we were not in a position to do it at the time. We preferred to start out and exhibit our system at our own expense on streets that presented heavy grades (as Fourth avenue and Madison avenue, New York, do) in a crowded city, like New York; and we determined to put on a group of ten cars, in order that the street-railway men of America might inspect our system under the most trying conditions. On the seventeenth of September we put this car on, car number one, and every day since that time, with the exception of Sundays, that car has been running in regular passenger service, carrying passengers. Car number three was put in service but two or three days ago; car number two will be in service to-day; certainly by the time any of you gentlemen may be passing through New York it will be in service, so that this week there will be three cars in actual daily service; and, of course, we shall follow them in due order with the remaining ten cars. Mr. Brill, who is building our cars, says that the remaining seven cars will be forwarded to us as soon as we are ready for them. We have suffered under some disadvantages in our present undertaking, in the fact that our space is small. We have found it no small task to put in the space which you would allow to four horses, sufficient batteries to run ten cars. We are compelled to put enough batteries to run ten eighteen-foot cars in that small space, and you can imagine that we have difficulties to contend with. We cannot occupy a lot of ground and take all the space we require. Mr. Vanderbilt places at our disposal a portion of his stable at Eighty-sixth street, and we must be content with that.

The President: What rate of speed do you make?

Mr Bracken: To say we could make any rate of speed would be exaggeration; but the present car is geared to run about ten or twelve miles an hour maximum.

The President: Does it actually do that?

Mr. Bracken: It actually does that. I think there are a number of gentlemen in the room who know it makes that rate.

You

can see that there is no practical object in the present instance in putting a car on Fourth avenue geared for high speed, as the horse cars do not average seven miles an hour. We geared car number three at one time so that it made seventeen or eighteen miles an hour. I should say that with a storage battery car properly geared for the purpose, you could attain a speed of twenty miles an hour, if desired.

The President: Can that rate of speed be maintained for any length of time?

It

Mr. Bracken: Yes, sir; it can be maintained throughout. is merely a matter of energy; you have it there; it is stored in your battery and you can apply it ad libitum until exhausted. We put it in our batteries; we have enough energy in the battery to take the car about twenty-three miles; theoretically, we ought to go forty miles; but you cannot safely do it in the City of New York; you may carry two hundred and fifty passengers on the trip, or you may carry only twenty; you cannot afford to run any risks, because your car must get back. The result is that we go to work and take out our batteries at the end of each trip and place them in the charging circuits in connection with the dynamo, and we get sufficient energy while the car is out with the other set. The battery that has just made the trip is taken out and the charged battery put in; the car and the battery taken out is charged sufficiently while the car is making a round trip to the City Hall and back, about twelve miles, and taking about two hours; so that we get along with two sets of batteries.

Mr. Wright, of St Louis Mr. President, I would like to ask the gentleman what is the weight of the battery and car, how long it takes to charge the batteries, and what is the length of service when they are charged? The gentleman has anticipated the question as to the amount of space required.

Mr. Bracken: The weight of a sixteen-foot car, which is the kind that will be in universal demand, and which we expect to equip, exclusive of passengers, will be about six and one-half tons. The number three car, which is a sixteen-foot car, in which Mr. Julien has put a great deal of iron in order to brace it, weighs nearly seven tons. Our eighteen-foot car weighs over eight tons, exclusive of passengers, with the battery, motor and everything else. This car has double trucks and eight wheels. The weight of the battery is over two tons. A single truck car