The Nashua Manufacturing Company has also placed in its wheel-room a generator of sufficient size to operate both tramroads; this generator is cared for by the regular wheelman. The road located at the Jackson Manufacturing Company's mills is equipped with the double overhead trolley system. It is placed in the cotton storehouse and consists of about three hundred and fifty feet of forty-eight-inch gauge track. The platform of the motor car is twelve feet long by seven feet wide. The track is equipped with one three horse-power motor, this car being used for handling cotton in bales. The illustration (Fig. 8) represents the car when loaded with cotton, and also shows the form of double trolley used in this installation. At Whitinsville, Mass., the Thomson-Houston Motor Company is installing an electric road for freight service. The track is about one and one-quarter miles in length and extends from the shops of the Whitin Machine Company to the New York, Providence & Boston R.R. at Whitins station, connecting with that road. There is to be operated upon this road an electric locomotive of sixty horse-power capacity, having sufficient power to haul two loaded freight cars, weighing one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, at a speed of six miles per hour, and also having power enough to start this load on a three and nine-tenths per cent. grade, if necessary. A generator of eighty-five horse-power capacity has been placed in the machine shop of the machine company and is driven from their main line of shafting. The above briefly describes a few of the roads that can be seen at any time in successful operation. The third head to be considered is the application of electricity to hoisting apparatus. For hoisting work, machines are now made of almost any size and power, from the three horse-power whip, suitable for handling light loads at a high rate of speed, to eighty and one hundred horse-power machines for heavy work. A description of the fifteen horse-power hoist manufactured by the Thomson-Houston Motor Company may be of interest to you. It combines a fifteen horse-power specially wound motor and a drum hoist. The outside dimensions of the entire machine are fifty-six and three-eighths inches by fifty-four and three-eighths inches. The motor shaft carries a small pinion which engages the first large gear wheel. This, in turn, carries a small pinion on its shaft which meshes into the large gear wheel of the drum. The total speed reduction from the armature shaft to the drum is twenty-nine and one-tenth. The friction clutch consists of a stout band of steek, lined with small friction blocks made of wood. The movement of the clutch lever tightens this band upon the drum. The connection becomes, for the time being, positive, but possesses the advantage (and this is where any form of cone clutch is weak) that the disengagement is equally positive, and all danger of the clutch sticking, and consequently winding up of the drum too far, is avoided The length of the controlling arm gives tremendous leverage, and slipping is practically impossible. The speed of the motor, and, consequently, of the hoist, is under control through the rheostat, which is placed entirely out of sight under the bed plate. The segments are connected to the contact board on the side, and the rotation of the contact arm is controlled by rack and pinion. This arrangement does away with a heavy rheostat arm, requiring much muscular effort in its operation, and substitutes an equally effective while much easier operated controlling device. The reversing switch when used is conveniently placed next to the rheostat contact board. The brake, consisting of a heavy iron band extending almost entirely around the drum circumference, is operated by a foot lever. Fig. 9 gives a general view of this hoist, while Figs. 10 and 11 show end and side views of the same machine. These hoists are particularly desirable for storehouses and warehouses, because they can be mounted upon trucks and easily moved from one portion of the building to the other, wherever needed. A plant of this description is in use on one of the large docks in Brooklyn. The wharf is wired in all parts, plugs being inserted at intervals so that the supply of |