Mr. Keefer Did you re-construct the horse track for the electric road?

Mr. Carruthers Wain: It was reconstructed, but not for that purpose. The Birmingham Central took over the lease of the old Birmingham Company, which had expired, and got a concession from the corporation for that line. It was not a tramway line; it was like a surface drainage system. It was so old and the grooves of the rails so wide, you could use the track for a lumber trough, such as I have seen in the West. It had to be taken up and replaced, whatever system would be employed, and the corporation did that work at our expense,-whatever they liked to charge for it.

Hr. Hall: What particular form of storage battery do you use? Mr. Carruthers-Wain: It is the best form of the E. P. S. battery. I do not know that it differs very materially from the others.

Mr. Henry What percentage of loss of efficiency is there in the batteries?

Mr. Carruthers-Wain: I am not going to give you that, because at the present time, three months' work is not sufficient time in which to give a general test, even for that. I understand, as nearly as possible, we get fifty per cent on the wheels.

Mr. Henry What weight of rail do you use?

Mr. Carruthers-Wain: The Birmingham authorities insisted on our burying a certain amount of precious metal in the earth. We put down a rail weighing nearly one hundred pounds to the yard, actually ninety-two pounds. I would like to say to you, that any of you who come to England, or read our reports of tramways, will observe that we suffer in England from something that does not affect you here. We suffer, in the first instance, from the fatal habit of the Englishman in walking wherever he can. We suffer from the further fact that when he does ride, he insists on doing it for two cents a mile; the average fare works out at about three cents, whereas here you get five cents a passenger. I need scarcely point out that therein lies the difference between the very meagre dividends which we distribute in England, and the very successful result of operation in America.

I have to thank you for the opportunity given me, also for the patience and courtesy with which you have listened to me; and to testify once more to the pleasure I have experienced in meeting you.

VOTE OF THANKS AND INVITATION TENDERED TO MR.

CARRUTHERS-WAIN.

Mr. Wm. Richardson: I move you, sir, that the thanks of the Association be tendered to Mr. Carruthers-Wain for the very entertaining remarks and information he has given to us, and that at the same time there be extended to him an invitation, which I feel the more liberty to extend in view of what he has said, to meet with us next year in Pittsburgh; and in the meantime express the hope that he will keep as accurately as possible these accounts which he spoke of, and give us the result of his observations. His remarks with reference to his track, about the sinking of the rails, and the widening of the tracks, put me in mind of the very old Englishman we heard of years ago, who found that

"The lanes were so wide, and the streets were so narrow,

That he had to bring his wife home on a wheel-barrow."

I presume that the gentleman has told the truth; but as he well remarked, Englishmen could do nothing less or more. He would have to do it, and I honor it, sir, as a characteristic of my native country.

Mr. Hasbrouck : I wish to second the motion of my friend Mr. Richardson, and to say that I too have been delighted at the exposition our friend has given us, and I hope that he will at the end of twelve months be with us again and be able to enlighten us upon one matter I would like to refer to. We take great pains on our roads to get very worthy young men, sons of the first families, for conductors. They are all moral young men, but if he will devise some contrivance by which the young man that attempts to appropriate a nickel shall receive a very severe admonition through a small wire, I think it would help the treasury, and that is what we are after. [Laughter.]

If I may be indulged for a single moment, since Englishmen are spoken of, I remember that my old friend, Professor Mapes, who had a place at Weehawken, invited an English friend to spend two or three days at his (the Professor's) home. Mr. Mapes had a trick of taking strangers out on the point that overlooks the Bay of New York. They lighted their cigars and walked out after breakfast. The Englishman was very quiet; manifesting no surprise. At length Professor Mapes ventured to remark that this was usually considered a very fine view. "Yes," said the Englishman, "it is pretty fair; but I hardly think it equals the

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Thames." "Why," said the professor, "I think there is no point on the Thames, and I have been from its rise to its mouth, where there is such a breadth of view as this." 'Perhaps not," he said. "Nor," said Professor Mapes, "is there any point where there is such a length, such a stretch of view." "Well, that may be," said the Englishman, "but I think the Thames is deeper." [Laughter.]

The President: You have heard the motion of Mr. Richardson, and seconded by Mr. Hasbrouck, tendering a vote of thanks to Mr. Carruthers-Wain for his very entertaining address, and that he be invited to be present at the next annual meeting at Pittsburgh, and address the Association on the statistics he has promised to furnish. The motion was carried.

The President: Mr. Carruthers-Wain is duly invited.

Mr. Carruthers-Wain: Mr. President, Mr. Richardson, Mr. Hasbrouck and gentlemen: I sincerely thank you for the very cordial manner in which you have received the few and incoherent remarks I have made. I trust the information I have given you will not be unsatisfactory. I accept your cordial invitation with pleasure, and I have only to say that if any tramway man goes to London, and does not find me out, I shall consider it a personal slight; and if he does-and there will not be much difficulty about that I shall be pleased to show him everything in the way of novelty that we have as regards tramways in the United Kingdom. [Applause.]

PAPER ON SPIRAL OR TRANSITION CURVES FOR STREETRAILWAYS OPERATED BY MECHANICAL MOTORS.

The Secretary read the following paper, which had been prepared by Mr. E. L. Woolley, Superintendent, Lincoln Street Railway, of Lincoln, Nebraska.

THE AMERICAN STREET-RAILWAY ASSOCIATION,

Gentlemen-In ordinary railroad practice spiral curves are, in theory, no new thing, although even in this field they have never received the attention which the importance of the subject demands. I feel safe in making the assertion that there is no road in the country where they have been introduced that would now think of building a railway, involving what might be considered even moderately sharp curvature without the use of spirals.

In the construction of street-railways we are obliged to use curves very much sharper than the engineer of an ordinary railroad is ever called upon to contend with. At the same time our rolling stock is comparatively little better adapted for traversing sharp curves. So long as street-cars were operated by animal.

power only, the speed was necessarily slow, and the need of transition curves but little felt. With the introduction of mechanical motors the weight of our rolling stock is immensely increased, and at the same time the maximum speed is probably three times greater than with the old system of horse power. The practice of running cars in trains immensely increases the difficulty, so that now the blow given by the leading outer wheel as it first strikes the outer rail at the entrance of the curve is probably ten times greater than with the horse car. So long as circular curves only are used, there is but one way of reducing the shock to passengers and cars, and the constant danger of derailment at these points, and that is, to reduce the speed of the train. In the crowded business streets of a great city, this reduction of speed is perhaps no disadvantage. There are, however, many places in the suburbs and outlying districts, where a reduction of speed would not be necessary, but for the presence of the curve. It is in such places as these that the spiral will have the greatest advantage, although even at slow speed the passage of a sharp curve properly spiralized" will be found infinitely smoother and better in every way.

In the practical application of the spiral to street-car curves, I have not as yet been able to give it as thorough a test as I could wish; however, I have done something in this direction. During last March, while in the employ of the Denver and Berkley Park Rapid Transit Company, at Denver, Col., I laid out a curve of one hundred and forty feet radius, using spirals 100 feet long. The line was built to a three-foot six inch gauge and operated with Baldwin steam motors, weighing about 32,000 lbs., with trains of from one to three eight-wheel cars, each thirty feet long. This was my first experiment with a sharp curve, spiralized. The first train to pass this curve was sent around at a speed of ten miles per hour.. No jar, whatever, was felt upon entering the curve; afterwards it was tried at higher speeds, until finally, as a test, an engine was sent around this curve at twenty-five miles per hour and still there was no sign of shock or jar when entering or leaving the curve. This line had previously been in operation something over one year, and a great many passengers were in the habit of locating the point where they wished to leave the train when coming home at night by passing this curve. After the spiral curve was put in, dozens were carried by their stopping-place on account of the trains passing the curve so smoothly that sitting in their seats they did not notice it. Afterwards I made another test with a curve of seventy feet radius, with results proportionately good. As yet, I have had no opportunity of testing the advantages of the spiral on curves of forty and fifty feet radius, but I firmly believe that by using spiral transition curves we may double the speed in passing any given curve without increasing the danger of derailment and with much less strain or shock to cars and motors.

In regard to the methods of laying out these curves, I use a method in some respects different from any one else, so far as I know, but the methods of Wellington, Searle, or Henck may be used. Either will give satisfactory results. Perhaps the best method as yet published may be found in a pamphlet entitled The Railroad Spiral, by Prof. D. M. Greene, of the Rensselaer Poly technic Institute, of Troy, N. Y. It will matter but little what method is used; but care should be taken to lay out the spirals accurately, and in laying track, rails should be curved very carefully. If points are set on spiral from five to

ΤΟ

ten feet apart the trackmen can stretch a line of one rail length along the spiral and take ordinates for curving rails directly from the stakes.

Respectfully submitted,

E. L. WOOLLEY.

The President: What will you do with the communication, gentlemen?

Mr. Henry: I move the report be received and placed on file. Carried.

Mr. Eppley offered the following resolutions:

RESOLUTIONS OF APPRECIATION OF COURTESY OF TRAFFIC

ASSOCIATIONS.

Resolved, That the American Street-Railway Association hereby expresses its appreciation to the Trunk Line, the New England, the Central and the Southern Passenger Traffic Associations for their courtesy to the American Street-Railway Association, in making the concession of a fare and a third to the delegates and others in attendance at our Ninth Annual Meeting.

Resolved, That the Secretary be requested to notify the several Traffic Associations of the foregoing action of this Association. The resolutions were unanimously adopted.

PAPER OF MR. WOOLLEY ON SPIRAL CURVES DIRECTED TO. BE PUBLISHED.

Mr. Heald: I move that Mr. Woolley's paper be printed along. with the other papers printed by the Association, and a copy be sent to every member of the Association. I do not think the members of this Association fairly understand the advantages of the spiral curve. I am not a particularly practical man; but from the little I know, I see that the principle is that you enter, not on a perfectly sharp curve, but as you go around the curve it gradually sharpens, and therefore you do not get the sharp turn that you do in the present system. The motion was carried.

INSTALLATION OF THE PRESIDENT-ELECT, MR.
HENRY M. WATSON.

The President I will appoint Messrs. H. H. Littell and C. Cleminshaw a Committee to escort the new President to the chair. REMARKS OF THE RETIRING PRESIDENT, MR. THOMAS LOWRY.

Mr. Lowry Gentlemen of the Convention: Before adjourning. I desire to return to the Convention and every member of the