going to be tried, an importance is given to it which it did not
possess before; and, as a mechanical curiosity, we think it is worth
the consideration of our readers.

In order that we may do M. Estrade no injustice, we reproduce here in
a condensed form, and in English, the arguments in its favor contained
in a paper written by M. Max de Nansouty, C.E., who brought M.
Estrade's views before the French Institution of Civil Engineers, on
May 21, 1886. M. Nansouty's paper has been prepared with much care,
and contains a great deal of useful data quite apart from the Estrade
engine. The paper in question is entitled "_Memoire relatif au
Materiel Roulant a Grand Vitesse_," D.M. Estrade.

About thirty years ago, M. Estrade, formerly pupil of the Polytechnic
School, invented rolling stock for high speed under especial
conditions, and capable of leading to important results, more
especially with regard to speed. Following step by step the progress
made in the construction of railway stock, the inventor, from time to
time, modified and improved his original plan, and finally, in 1884,
arrived at the conception of a system entirely new in its fundamental
principles and in its execution. A description of this system is the
object of the memoir.

The great number of types of locomotives and carriages now met with in
France, England, and the United States renders it difficult to combine
their advantages, as M. Estrade proposed to do, in a system responding
to the requirements of the constructor. His principal object, however,
has been to construct, under specially favorable conditions, a
locomotive, tender, and rolling stock adapted to each other, so as to
establish a perfect accord between these organs when in motion. It is,