aware of the good work that was done in the United States by Kirchhoff
twenty-six years ago, and of the more recent work of Mr. Brush, of
Cleveland, Mr. Julien and others, but I am more particularly
acquainted with the recent achievements of the Electrical Accumulator
Company, who own the rights of the Electrical Power Storage Company,
of London. I have used the batteries of the latter company for
propelling electric boats and electric street cars. The first of the
boats was the Electricity, which was launched in September, 1882, and
which attained a speed of seven miles an hour for six consecutive
hours. Since then a dozen electric boats of various sizes have been
fitted up and worked successfully by means of storage batteries and
motors of my design. The most important of these were the launch Volta
and another similar craft, which is used by the Italian government for
torpedo work in the harbor of Spezia. On the measured mile trial trips
the Italian launch gave an average speed of 8.43 miles an hour with
and against the tide. The hull of this vessel was built by Messrs.
Yarrow & Co., and the motors were manufactured by Messrs. Stephens,
Smith & Co., of London. The Volta, which was entirely fitted by the
latter firm, is 37 feet long and 7 feet beam. She draws 2'6" of water
when carrying 40 persons, for whom there is ample sitting
accommodation. There are 64 cells in this boat. These are placed as
ballast under the floor, and actuate a pair of motors and a screw
coupled direct to the armature shaft running at 700 revolutions a
minute. We crossed the English Channel with this boat in September of
last year, leaving Dover at 10:40 in the morning, arriving at Calais
at 2:30 P.M.; stayed about an hour in the French harbor for luncheon
and floated into Dover docks the same evening, at 6:30, with full
speed. The actual distance traversed without entirely discharging the
cells was 54 miles. The current remained constant at 28 amperes until
5 P.M., and it only dropped to 25 amperes at the completion of the