angement that I have constructed, both of
collector and method of collecting.

[Illustration: FIG. 6]

As before mentioned, the arrangement now described has been carried out in
a field near the works of Messrs. Smith, Baker & Co., Cornbrook Telegraph
Works, Manchester, and its working efficiency has been most satisfactory.
After a week of rain and during drenching showers the car ran with the same
speed and under the same control as when the ground was dry.

This I account for by the theory that when the rails are wet and the tubes
moist the better contact made compensates for the slight leakage that may
occur.

At the commencement of my paper I promised to confine myself to work done;
I therefore abstain from describing various modifications of detail for the
same purpose. But one method of supporting and insulating the conductor in
the channel may be suggested by an illustration of the plan I adopted for a
little pleasure line in the Winter Gardens, Blackpool.

[Illustration: FIG. 7.]

Fig. 7. There the track being exclusively for the electric railway, it was
not necessary to provide a center channel; the conductor has therefore been
placed in the center of the track, and consists of bar iron 11/4 in. by 1/2
in., and is held vertically by means of studs riveted into the side; these
studs pass through porcelain insulators, and by means of wooden clamps and
wedges are held in the iron chairs which rest upon the sleepers. The iron
conductors were placed vertically to facilitate bending round the sharp
curves which were unavoidable on this line.

The collector consists of two metal slippers held together by springs,
attached to the car by straps and electrically connected to the motor by
clips in the same manner as the one employed in Manchester.

I am glad to say that, notwithstanding the curves with a radius of 55 feet
and gradients of 1 in 57, this line is also a practical success.

* * * * *

FIRES IN LONDON AND NEW YORK.

When the chief of the London Fire Brigade visited the United States in
1882, he was, as is the general rule on the other side of the Atlantic,
"interviewed"--a custom, it may be remarked, which appears to be gaining
ground also in this country. The inferences drawn from these interviews
seem to be that the absence of large fires in London was chiefly due to the
superiority of our fire brigade, and that the greater frequency of
conflagrations in Ame