made by metallic bolts drawn through these slit tubes, and connected
with the dynamo machine on the moving car by copper ropes passing
through the roof. On this line 95,000 passengers were conveyed within
the short period of seven weeks.

An electric tramway, six miles in length, had just been completed,
connecting Portrush with Bush Mills, in the north of Ireland, in the
installation of which the lecturer was aided by Mr. Traill, as engineer
of the company by Mr. Alexander Siemens, and by Dr. E. Hopkinson,
representing his firm. In this instance the two rails, 3 ft. apart, were
not insulated from the ground, but were joined electrically by means of
copper staples and formed the return circuit, the current being conveyed
to the car through a T iron placed upon short standards, and insulated
by means of insulate caps. For the present the power was produced by
a steam engine at Portrush, giving motion to a shunt-wound dynamo of
15,000 watts=20 horse power, but arrangements were in progress to
utilize a waterfall of ample power near Bush Mills, by means of three
turbines of 40 horse power each, now in course of erection. The working
speed of this line was restricted by the Board of Trade to ten miles an
hour, which was readily obtained, although the gradients of the line
were decidedly unfavorable, including an incline of two miles in length
at a gradient of 1 in 38. It was intended to extend the line six miles
beyond Bush Mills, in order to join it at Dervock station with the north
of Ireland narrow gauge railway system.

The electric system of propulsion was, in the lecturer's opinion,
sufficiently advanced to assure practical success under suitable
circumstances--such as for suburban tramways, elevated lines, and
above all lines through tunnels; such as the Metropolitan and District
Railways. The advantages were that the weight, of the engine, so