system of electric tramways, I ventured to express the hope that before
twelve months had passed, "to be able to report progress," and I am happy
to say that notwithstanding the wearisome delay and time lost in fruitless
negotiations, and the hundred and one difficulties within and without that
have beset me, I am able to appear before you again and tell you of
advance.

[Illustration: FIG. 1]

Practical men know well that there is a wide difference between a model and
a full sized machine; and when I decided to construct a full sized tramcar
and lay out a full sized track, I found it necessary to make many
alterations of detail, my chief difficulty being so to design my work as to
facilitate construction and allow of compensation for that inaccuracy of
workmanship which I have come to regard as inevitable.

In order to satisfy the directors of a tramway company of the practical
nature of my system before disturbing their lines, I have laid, in a field
near the works of Messrs. Smith, Baker & Co., Manchester, a track 110 yards
long, 4 ft. 8½ in. gauge, and I have constructed a full sized street
tramcar to run thereon. My negotiations being with a company in a town
where there are no steep gradients, and where the coefficient of friction
of ordinary wheels would be sufficient for all tractive purposes, I thought
it better to avoid the complication involved in employing a large central
wheel with a broad surface specially designed for hilly districts, and with
which I had mounted a gradient of one in sixteen.

[Illustration: FIG. 2]

But as the line in question was laid with all the curves unnecessarily