electric railway operating three or four cars. In the Board of Trade plant the battery auxiliary acts as an equalizer and takes the surplus load delivered into the bus bars, when the demand on the line is less than the capacity of the generator, and takes three-quarters of the overload when the pull comes. The result is that with a 75-kilowatt generator, running from seven in the morning until eleven o'clock at night, at its absolutely normal economical load, it produces sufficient energy to operate fifty 2000 candle-power arc lamps, six hundred incandescent lamps, four 30-horse power electric elevators, and six 10-horse power motors, all running at different intervals from this one unit, and the unit constantly loaded. That is my experience with the battery, and it is working perfectly satisfactorily, having been running nearly a year, and has cost practically nothing for repairs. We have increased the plant by putting in additional plates, because we required additional capacity, but there was no charge for repairs, and I am convinced that the battery auxiliary, when there is sufficient lead installed to do the work, is an eminent success for regulation work and economical operation of power stations operating on variable loads. I do not take this stand without having gone into the matter pretty thoroughly, and I feel sure of my position. You must get lead enough into the battery to do the work, and having that, you will get good results; that you can rely upon, and base your calculations for economical operations. That, so far as I know, answers the question.

Mr. H. H. Littell: What type of battery did you use? Mr. Arnold: A battery made by the Electric Storage Battery Company, Philadelphia-Manchester type of plate. That is another thing you gentlemen should be careful about in your investigations-the type of plate you get. It makes all the difference in the world if the plate is built for regulation or for slow discharge. This particular type is for regulation, and also performs the function of slow discharge, if necessary. The engines and generators stand idle from eleven o'clock at night until seven o'clock in the morning, and the battery does the work through the night. That enables the engine to operate sixteen hours a day, with two

shifts of labor, at its economic normal load, and shut down at night until morning. That can be effected in a large number of electric railway plants in this country with success, as I see them. It is only a question whether the increased economy will be more than the interest on the investment of the cost of the battery. I am installing now three different stations, part railroad and part lighting, in which it is my idea to use batteries, by which I will find it necessary to put in one-third less capacity of engines and generators than would be otherwise necessary.

Mr. Hawken, Pittsburgh: What is the life of the plate under constant use?

Mr. Arnold: I can not tell you; the plant has not been running very long-only about a year. It is guaranteed at seven and one-half per cent. per annum. On that basis I figure out a marked economy, and feel that we are safe, because the company behind the battery will stand up to the guarantee. As a matter of fact, it has not cost one per cent. this year; probably it will cost something next year, and so on each year, but the battery company stands behind it.

Mr. Harrington, Camden: What is the construction of the two plates, the positive and negative?

Mr. Arnold: The negative plate is what is known as the chloride negative. It is cast-lead containing square pellets of spongy lead, originally chloride of lead, and reduced to spongy lead. The positive plate is a lead grid containing antimony, so as to make it hard, and has round pellets, which consist of strips of corrugated lead coiled on themselves like a spiral, the lead being cast around it, or the spirals passed in to plate, and these afterwards converted. into peroxide of lead by an electrolytic process, and the plate, when thus completed, is called the Manchester plate. It is porous, and you get a quick discharge on a heavy pull, and it does not buckle and cause the active material to fall out, as some battery plates have done in the past. One thing I will speak of which may interest you; that is the method of charging the battery. By running the electric elevators and the battery auxiliary in parallel with the shunt winding of the generator, and by running the lights in the

building on a separate set of bus bars off the compound winding of the same generator, so that the variable load on the elevators is taken care of entirely by the shunt winding and the battery, while the compound winding works constantly on the lighting load, I get the best regulation, so that the fluctuation of the voltage is not noticeable in the building. There is a slight variation of from two to eight volts under extreme conditions, which seldom occur, but it is good enough in practice, so that one unit does the work without serious fluctuation in voltage. If we had a better regulating engine the change in voltage would be less.

We use a booster in the station, which consists of a motor generator, to charge the batteries, if it ever becomes necessary, while the generators are running on the lines, because then the voltage must remain constant at one hundred and twenty-five volts. Then, if we wish to charge the batteries, we use the auxiliary booster to charge the end or regulating cells, while the shunt winding of the generator is working in parallel with the elevators and about sixty of the cells. The elevator service is such as to allow sixty cells of the battery to be charged and discharged in about equal proportions through the day, so that they are practically fully charged at the end of the day's run, and at night, if they are slightly discharged, we charge them up with the booster by placing the generator end of it in series with the main generator, and at eleven o'clock shut down the engines and run the lights until morning with the batteries. In a railroad power station it would be necessary to use the booster to increase the voltage on your long feeder. If the battery was located at the end of the line you would have to use the booster to overcome the pressure at the battery, or else run a separate high-voltage generator.

Mr. Harrington: I understand from the experience of a large number of railway engineers that with the ordinary size plant, running from forty to two hundred and fifty cars, where the load suddenly drops off by reason of trouble on the line, the standard forms of multipolar generators flash from brush to brush, and cause a great deal of trouble in the commutators of the machine. This is a common occurrence

in the Philadelphia Traction Company's plant; we have had it in our own plant, with both Westinghouse and General Electric Machines. The storage battery would be an excellent thing to avoid that form of breakdown, due to the burning of the commutator. I would like to know if any one here has had the same experience in the stations which

they operate.

The President: Can any one answer the question in regard to sparking of generators under heavy loads?

Mr. A. Johnston, Richmond: I think it is more a question for electricians than railroad men.

The President: We are railroad men, but we are running electric cars.

Mr. Johnston: That question would come up in the construction of the generators.

The President: The next business before the meeting is the reading of the paper by Mr. C. D. Wyman, General Manager, Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company, Milwaukee, Wis., on "How can the Revenues of Street Railways be Increased?-taking into consideration the Collection of Fares, Methods of Registry, Transfers, Use of Tickets or Cash Fares, Attractions along the Line of the Road, etc."

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON "HOW CAN THE REVENUES OF STREET RAILWAYS BE INCREASED? TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION THE COLLECTION OF FARES, METHODS OF REGISTRY, TRANSFERS, USE OF TICKETS OR CASH FARES, ATTRACTIONS ALONG THE LINE OF THE ROAD, ETC."

Mr. Wyman read the report, as follows:

TO THE AMERICAN STREET RAILWAY ASSOCIATION,

Gentlemen:-I have often found that it gave me a singular pleasure to read something I had long known and felt to be true, but which, perhaps, I had never seen in print or in written form. I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to statements of a speaker, who, perhaps, but restated facts with which I was familiar, but which I had never attempted to place in form for public utterance.

I am consoled by these reflections in the presentation of this paper, for concerning the subject or subjects of which it treats, I can hope to suggest little or nothing new, since the problem, "How can the receipts

of my company be increased?" has been the one question over which managers and directors have grown gray from the beginning of their company's operations.

The text that is handed to every general manager, superintendent and directing official of a street railroad company when selected for his position, reads "Increase your receipts; Decrease your expenses," and I suspect that there are few, if any, untried paths leading towards the consummation to which such a text points.

Almost every company, by virtue of its location, the character of the people it serves, the specific requirements of its charter, and the general conditions surrounding its operation, is obliged in adopting any special method for increasing its revenues, or in introducing changes in the conduct of its business, to take into consideration these local conditions, and these are as various as are the localities of operation.

In the general discussion of the topics assigned for this paper these local conditions must necessarily be disregarded and cannot be taken into account, thus leaving to be mentioned only such general features as we may be able to suggest touching the operation of street railroads, which we believe will be found to make for the growth of receipts. At the same time, since the net revenue is produced as well by lessened outgo as by an increased income, it will be pertinent to point out if possible some methods by which possibly the coveted fares of passengers may be made the more certain of finding their way to the company's strong box without loss from light or careless fingers.

In many respects rules for the conduct of business that have been found by shrewd and successful merchants as worthy of observance in the securing and retaining of trade, and thus the upbuilding of their business, will apply to our dealings as railroad managers with the public, for like the merchants, our companies have something to sell, and while a portion of our trade is derived from those who must purchase from us, much of our custom comes from those who deal at our counters for pleasure and whose purchases are entirely voluntary.

Our regular line of customers we have always with us, and while their pleasure and comfort is to be cared for, what may be termed the transients, the occasional purchasers of our wares, are to be sought after, catered to, and gathered in to increase the regular revenue. In the line of merchandizing, we have rides for sale, and all companies, I doubt not, feel at times that they are overstocked. For the disposal of this stock, to attract to our counters not only those who must needs purchase, but as well the wandering, uncertain shopper, is desirable.

Imitating the wise merchant, we must seek to place our wares before possible customers in the best condition. We should see to it that what we offer is not shopworn, but is made to appear alluring and enticing. Every car should be a fine looking show window, inviting not only to the regular business traveler, but to the tourist and sightseer as well, who does not know whether to buy a ride or not, and who needs an invitation.