in the Reading Railroad machine different fuels upon different days,
making the road trip of 120 miles each day with one kind of fuel. We
used coal dust scraped up in the yards, also the best Cardiff coal,
anthracite, and five kinds of Italian lignite, the best of which
possesses about half the combustible value of coal.

The results in drawing heavy freight trains were equally good with
each fuel, the engine having at all times an abundance of steam on
heavy grades, no smoke nor cinders, and no collection of cinders in
the forward part of the engine.

The fireman arranged his fires at a station, and did little or nothing
except to smoke his pipe and enjoy the scenery until he reached the
next station. An incident occurred to prove that we were not playing
with the machine. They told me one morning that we should be given a
load of 25 per cent less than the maximum load of an engine of her
class (30 tons). We started up the 100 foot grade, and found we could
barely crawl, and our engineer got furious over it. He thought they
were repeating a trick already attempted by screwing down a brake in
ascending a grade. We detected it, however, and found a pair of wheels
nearly red hot. Upon this occasion we found nothing amiss, except full
cars where they had reported only a light load. We pulled to the top
of the hill, the steam blowing off furiously all the time.

This was a new experience to the Italians, and might surprise some
Americans. When we arrived at the station, the inspector-general and
his corps of engineers were evidently amazed, and it was evident we
had captured them. He said to me, "I can congratulate you, signor, on
possession of a superb machine."