IIP latent census bulletin Is de
voted to ' Central Electric IJght
and Power Stations," for the year
1902. In transmitting the report
to tha Department of Commerce,
the statistician says:
"At the time of the enumeration there
were (In this country) 3,tj20 central electric
stations in operation. The cost of their
construction and equipment amounted to
$004,740,352. The gross income for the year
was reported at $S5,700,605, and the total ex
penses at $iiR,0Sl,375. These stations fur
nished employment to 23,330 wage earners,
who received $11,933,112 ns wages during the
year. The power plant equipment con
sisted of 5,930 steam engines, with 1,379. Ml
Indicated horse power, and 1,390 water
whec's with a stated horse power of
1,624,980. A noteworthy feature of the de
velopment of this Industry has been the
Installation of plants operated under tha
control of municipalities. There were S15
of these plants constructed and equipment
Was reported at $22,020,473. They gave em
ployment to 2,467 wage earner and paid
$1,422,341 in wages."
Onllonk for the Kerr Year.
In the course of an artlclo on the elec
trical progress made In 1903 and the prom
ise for 1304, Thomas Commerford Martin,
dftor of the Electrical World, says: "New
electric lights have been added to thoso now
familiar. Stores and streets are shining
with light of vacuum tubes, In which noth
ing Is consumed but the current. The es
tablished forms are challenged by new
comers that threaten to oust them from a
part of the field.
"The remarkable successes In electrical
traction In 1903 have set one seal of dis
tinction upon" the old year . On the Zossen
road In Germany men have traveled in elec
tric cars at a speed of over 130 miles an
hour, which means a capability of hurling
us comfortably from New York to Chicago
In eight hours. It may not pay commer
cially in our generation, but the New York
Central has made up Its mind it will pay
right now to change from steam to elec
tricity. "The saddest of all Is the revelation
made by the Chicago automatic telephone
exchange that we have got to say 'goodby'
to the polite and timid young 'hello' girls
at central."
Traffic on Interurban. Lines.
The Indianapolis intcrurban roads having
taken a large part of the local passenger
traffic from the steam roads running out
of the city with which they come In com
petition, are now making heavy Inroads In
the local freight and express business.
An Investigation reveals the fact that
practically all the commission house busi
ness and a large part of the lighter freight
shipments made In less than carload lots,
to points within thirty or forty miles of
Indianapolis, have already gone to the
Interurban roads.
The manager of the freight and express
department of one of the larger Interur
ban companies doing business In and out
of Indianapolis, after a careful estimate,
places the total commercial value of the
Interurban shipments out of that city at
$500,000 a month, and estimates the gross
receipts for hauling this freight and ex
press at $12,000 to $15,000 a month. He
estimates the total commercial value of
shipments made out of Indianapolis during
the year Just closing at over $5,000,000, and
the gross earnings of the Interurban, for
handling this freight, at about $140,000 to
$1W.OOO.
It is exceedingly difficult to get at net
and gross receipts, as each of the Inter
urban companies seem to have a different
basis for figuring expenses and earnings
in handling this business. One or two of
the companies make the assertion that
there is no money In the business, as It is
handled at this time. Charles 1j. Henry
of the Indianapolis A Cincinnati Traction
company, and the Indianapolis & Shclby
vllle line, before the Hoard of l'ubllc Works
made this statement.
On the other hand. It Is Interesting to
learn, through trustworthy sources, that
the Indianapolis & Northwestern, the
Indiana Union Traction and Its Indianapo
lis Northern, that handle all freight ship
ments at night, figure that in so doing
that are utilising energy that otherwise
wor.'d not be used. It Is necessary to
keep the power plants In operation in al
most all departments every hour, day and
night. The Union Traction company, for
one, does most of its freight business dur
ing those hours when there is no passenger
traffic, or It Is lightest.
Whatever may be the value of this rap
Idly developing department of interurban
business, as viewed by the compnnles, at
least three things are manifest. The first
of theso Is that the lnterurbans are tak
ing small local shipments away from the
steam mads, the second Is that the new
service Is Increasing the trade of In
dianapolis commission und wholesale mer
chants, and the third is that the service
Is developing new trade for Indianapolis
and Is already taking much business away
from Chicago.
Still other things, aro evident. They are
that the interurban companies need their
own freight houses; that when freight
houses arc provided business will Increase
still more rapidly; that, as the companies
at present are handling the freight busi
nesswhich they choose to term "express"
business they nre Imposing, to a certain
extent, upon the city of Indianapolis In
using the streets for loading and unloading
freight.
The Indiana Union Traction company,
which Is doing probably 40 to 45 per rent
of all the Interurban business in and out of
Indianapolis, is already at work building
and furnishing freight depots In all of the
cities along Its line, with the exception of
Indianapolis. New freight depots have re
cently been opened In Marlon, Muncle, Kl
wood, Alexandria and the smaller towns.
At Anderson a temporary depot Is now
used. It will be replaced by a large, per
manent one next year. It Is known that
the company fully realizes the necessity
of having a depot in this city and has been
figuring on several desirable sites.
Almost all the companies now doing a
freight business In and out of the city are
handling it from their passenger stations.
As a rule, shippers load into the cars and
receive shipments from them. This means
tho blocking of streets and makes neces
sary doing practically nil the business in
the city's streets. Indianapolis News.
Badlam Cheaper. .
Dealers complain that $3,750,000 an ounce,
widely quoted as the price of radium, is
too high. They say it may be Impossible
to buy an ounce at that Bum, because no
one possesses an ounce. The present price
is 5 guineas for five milligrams, .that is
$143,835 an ounce, in France, England and
Austria. Chemists are working wherever
they think it. possible to extract a milli
gram. Prof. Ilimstedt of Freiburg has
made an interesting discovery. Ills ex
periments have proved that all the products
of water and petroleum sources yield a
heavy specific gas, which closely resembles
and is probably identical with the emana
tion of radium, from which he concludes
that a very large number of bodies ure
Imbued with a quality emitting a kind of
Becquerel rays.
Fasillnir Klectrlcal Flad.
Discoveries are now coming thick and
fast. One which unfortunately has e:icaped
is puzzling a well known electrical Investi
gator. He was experimenting a few weeks
ago with a large vacuum tube containing,
as he supposed, vapor mercury, such ns is
used In nn electric glow light. Ho con
nected the battery and obtained a brilliant
white light. He disconnected the buttery
and to his astonishment the tube continued
to shine as bright as ever. The wonder
ful light continued for ten das, the ex
perimenter all the time trying to solve tho
mystery. Then the whole connection was
accidentally broken and nil attempts thus
far to reproduce it have failed.
Kleetrlclty Instead of Coal.
Owing to the Increase In the price, of
coal during the last few years Mr. Thor
mann, a prominent Swiss engineer, wished
to find out whether It would not be nn
advantage to use electrical energy, fur
nished by hydraulic plants, over the whole
of the railroad system of Switzerland.
After Investigating the subject he pub
lished a repoit which has awakened con
siderable Intercut and will no doubt bring
about some practical remits in this direc
tion. He finds that tho substitution of
electricity for steam on the railroads Is
quite practicable and has many advan
tage.', nlttough It will not bring about any
considerable reduction in the cost of oper
ating the road'. The five main railroads In
Switzerland require over 30,000-horsij power
daily. In order to organiza a complete elec
trical service It will be necessary to ob
tain about C0,0tl0-ho:se power In the shnpo
of the alternating current of high tension,
not counting the rererve supply, which is
Indispensable. Not taking into account tho
conrlderatle number of falls which are not
utilized In the country, thero exist already
twenty-one large hydraulic plants which
can give a total of Mi.OOO-horso power.
These Include the plant of Slel, near I,ln
Bledl, wlilcli has a capacity of 20,000-horse
power; the Laufcnbiug plant, on the Ilhine,
giving also JO.flOO-horse power; and five
others, giving each 6,000-horse power. He
enumerates twenty-one plants, which will
be more than sufficient to supply the energy
for the Swiss railroads. The cost of chang
ing over the system would of course be con
siderable. It is to be noted, however, that
the adcp'.lon of the lectilcal system would
have the great advantage of doing away
with the present coniumptlon of coal,
which Is now Imported, und that tho use
of hydraulic energy would be of great
tenefit In developing pevinl branches of
manufacturing. Tho publication of Mr.
Thormann'a report aroused onslderablo at
tention In different quarters, and already
one of the railroad companies haB applied
to tho government for an authorisation to
use electric trains on a trial stretch of
road twelve miles long.
locomotives vs. Klectrte Motors.
Whether the electric suburban railways
will deprive the steam railways of their
suburban traffic is a much disputed ques
tion whfcuh .the RaHway World 4 disoosed
to answer in tho negative. In England the
steam Ifhrs have adopted to some extent
electric railway methods for handling su
burban traffic. They thus get more fre
quent trains. Hut there Is this In favor of
the steam railways, that In proportion as
the passengers and freight traffic Increase
the roadbed equipment and facilities ftr
handling traffic on the electric lines must
increase in cost till the electric line has no
advantage In point of cheapness over the
steam line. The distances traveled by com
muters are Increasing and they demand
convenient terminal service and comfort
able accommodations a demand which
only the steam roads at present satisfy.
"High speed for distances of twenty
miles," says the World, "cannot be ex
pected from the facilities the electric lines
now havt." The latter follow the crooks
and turns and ups and downs of the
streets and country roads. Their terminals
are the street corners and cross roads.
Within ten or fifteen miles of Ihe eltv tha
trolley may gain supremacy, but outsMe
that radius tho future, It Is claimed, is with
the railroads. "No apprehensions ate be.'nir
felt." says the World, "by the steam rail
way interests at large over the rapid ex
tension of electric traction. It has Its place
nnd this It will fill without serious Injury
to the steam railroads. In fact, so far
from being a competitor of tho railroad the
trolley is likely to Increase materially tha
revenues of the steam rail transportation,
agencies. Thin It will do Indirectly, I ut
notio the less effectively, by cultivating Ihn
habit of travel which grows by what It
feeds upon. The first steps into a new
habit are always the most difficult, nnd we)
nil know from experience that peoplo who
would never, In the first Instance, patron
ize the railroad aro led to take long Jour
neys by the habits of travel acquired on
tho electric car."
Theory of Klertrolynln.
A recent number of the Elect ro-Chemlst
and Metallurgist contains nn artlclo by
Mr. W. t". I. Whothnm on the present
position of the theory of electrolysis. The
Investigations which led up to the theory
of electrolytic dissociation and the modern
convectlve views of electrolysis are traced,
and It Is clearly shown that a vast number
of Important observations nre easily ex
plained by the modern views. As the au
thor points out, experiments on the com
parison of the electricnl and the osmotic
values of ionization are of little use from
the point of view of the controversialist
seeking arguments for or against tho lonlo
dissociation theory. The deviations be
tween the two values are, however, In most
cases easily explainable by a consideration
of the Interlonle. forces, which probably
exert an effect even at dilutions at which
tho intermodular forces aro negligible,
and, further, of the complexions which nre
so often formed in solution.
The Uses of Adversity
Senator Joseph W. Bailey of Texas was
in New York for Homo tlrno Inst summer on
legal business. While he was thero he be
came acquainted with many of the men of
big affairs.
"I nm convinced," tho senator Bald on bis
return to Washington, "that It Is more fun
to bo a poor man than a rich one.
"Now, there may come times when T
want $.W0 and It worries me to get It, but
I can tell you that It doesn't worry me
half so much an It worries- a multi-mil-llonalre
to get a million or two when ha
needs ready money.
"He takes his story to a banker. The
banker says, 'List me your securities.' Then
the banker picks out the choice ones, makes
a call loan and as soon as he sees tho mil
lionaire is hard pressed again culls the loan
and grabs the securities.
"You can't tell me that the poor man
Is not the happier of the two." Saturday
Evening Tost.
Wisdom of Mother Goose
Jack and Jill went up the hill to get a pall
of water.
"That Just shows the cussedness of rate,"
he said, as they waited for tho ambulance.
"If we had gono for beer, there would
probably have been a cop on the corner to
see we got it safely."
Badly, they pondered on the trials of tha
straight and narrow path.
Old Mother Hubbard had gone to the
cupboard to get her poor doggie a bone.
"It doesn't matter," remarked the ca
nine politely, "I heard that young man say
be was going to call on your daughter
again tonight."
Here we see the true history of how the
catastrophe was averted. New York Bun.