The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-11-16
Electricity as Auxiliary
to Steam Power.
Warmers Novel Device and
What He Claims for II.
A New Kind of Brick That Is TO Be
Made on the Pacific Coast.

Much has been written and spoken re-
Gently about the substitution of electric
for steam power on railroads. The latest
proposal in this line is not that OF
doing away with steam altogether. but
OF employing electricity as an auxiliary.
This is the scheme of Mr.. Charles l..
Warner, a Buffalo man, who has invented
an electric device which he claims can
be used on steam roads as an auxiliary
motive power with excellent results. Mr..
Warner has four small coaches construct
ed TO run on narrow gauge track, and
under each car is a small dynamo so con-
nected with third wheel in the center
or one OF the axles that the force OF
gravity. when the train Is running down
Mill, can be utilized to generate elec-
tricity. which Is fed into storage bat
to help the locomo tive when climbing
heavy grades.
. The same system will furnish electricity
for lighting purposes 30 that 1t will be
possible for standard coaches to be llum-
mated like trolley cars, II necessary. Mr..
Warner has experimented With mis- models
and, although no had no locomotive, he
found by a register attached to pulling
contrivance that the electricity generated
going down hill was sufficient to equalize
the resistance occasioned by heavy ad-
verso grade Of equal length. he thinks
thst the saving Of coal alone and the in
~ ati
more than pay any big railroad company
for the expense Of equipping its coaches
with the device in less than year. He
does not think that the trolley system
would ever prove q success on standard
roads moving Q heavy traffic, bat says that
In less than ten years all the big roads
wilt be using auxiliary motors on their
coaches. especially on through trains run
niog at a high rate of speed which demand
the heaviest OF engines at present, and
even then can scarcely make schedule
time.
They are going to begin the msnufac-
ture Of new Kind OF brick out on the
Pacific coast, and for this purpose q COM
pany has teen organized at San Fran
cisco. The stone brick, which 1t is
proposed to make, Is manufactured from
powdered stone or the elements contained
In stone, such as sand, clay, etc. Th -
substances are mixed with q prepa, d
"hux," which acts as bond, holding
together the PARTICLES of sand or other
material used as q filler, the whole be-
in Iu hx
Among the advantages claimed for the
brick is the saving Of time, only 10 hours
being needed for their manufacture In
stead of eight to 30 days. a much less
consumption OF fuel, scarcely any loss
from burning, crushing strength OF
from 10, 900 to 45, 900 pounds to the square
inch instead OF from 400 TO 1000 pounds,
and reduction of cost to three-flths of
that OF the old-style bricks.
A medical friend of the Gossiper makes
the interesting statement that the elssti-
city and Elasticity OF the blood corpuscle is
unrivalled by any other physical body.
Ii will assume all sorts Of protean shapes,
IL occasion require, even under the
slig htest influences. Elongating itself to
the merest thread it will pass through an
iuconceivably narrow chink; 1t will wrap
itself around an acute. projecting angle
(such as mineral crystal in the blood.
or will protrude foelers and tails under
the influence OF currents. In its natural
state 1t POSSESSES sufficient elasticity to
resume it's original shape Chat of discl
on the cessation Of the modifying infiu-
enees, but when gum or gelstine hes
been added. or when the plssma tbickens
spontaneously, tho corpuscl retains any
form It may have assumed till again al