Over 300 members were in attendance at the annual meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers , held at Niagara Fallslast week .
Great credit is due to Dr. Sheldon, Prof. Sever and Mr. H. W. Buck who prepared the\ programme and made all arrangements for the meeting . The programme as published in ELECTRICITY was closely carried out.
In his presidential address President Scott reviewed the work of the Institute for the past year. He said : " Our membership on September 15, 1902, included 1,630 names . Since that time nearly 1,000 applicants have been elected associates. The new men range in age from 19 to 65. I
think we may congratulate ourselves that our additions are truly representative of the electrical engineers of America.
"The work of the electrical engineer is unique. He deals with kinetic energy rather than static. His work lies in the field ofaction. His unit is the kilowatt, the unit of activity. The engineer has been defined as one skilled in the use of materials and forces of nature, but the electrical engineer is one
who deals with the forces. Electricity enters into other things as nothing else does. It is not a thing alone , and this explains the rapidity of its development, and its far -reaching application. " He illustrated this by referring to the railway motor, which was first introduced
as a clean substitute for the horse, but it has brought greater speed, larger cars and more comfort, and was now bringing about a
redistribution of population. Similar changes have taken place in telegraphy and telephony, and he spoke of the newness of certain branches of electrical engineering, such as alternating current transmission . This indus
try is only a few years old , but to - day plants are operating at 50,000 volts or more. The United States Census shows that the mean rate of increase in the electrical industries is 20 per cent. a year. The technical schools
have in this time shown a tremendous growth, but they are not yet able to supply the demand for trained men.
One of the interesting features of the Institute meeting was an exhibit of the Hewitt converter and mercury vapor lamp. NO. 1
The members made a technical tour of inspection of the electro-chemical and other electrical installations operated by Niagara power and also visited the power houses of the Niagara Falls Power Company .
On other pages of this issue will be found papers read at the meeting. It is unnecessary to state that all the papers presented were
carefully prepared , and our readers will have the pleasure of reading them in future issues of ELECTRICITY

A High - Speed Electric Railway **
It seems to be man's aim to travel fast. In our grandfather's time the stage coach or post chaise was the ordinary means of travel . Later came the railroads , capable of doing sixty to seventy miles an hour, and now
inventors are at work endeavoring to make electricity carry us twice or three times as fast as the best locomotive can do . In England there is the Behr mono-rail system , for which great speed is claimed , while in this country
an inventor by the name of Albertson has for some time been working on what might be termed an electric magnetic system. His idea consists in placing magnets below a car, so\ arranged that when energized by an electric current, they will materially tend to reduce the weight of the car upon the track. Referring to the subject Dr. Albertson is reported as saying :
" It is all a matter of plus and minus. If you have a number of magnets attached to your car under the rail , adhering with a force equal to eleven tons, and you add a weight of ten tons to your car you leave one ton of pres
sure remaining. This pressure is distributed through a number of magnets and the power required to slide them along the rail will be very small. I have great hopes for the future of the electro-magnetic railway. It will be
better than any present system, in that it can generate five times the speed , even to three hundred miles an hour.
"There will be one-sixth of the expense in iron structure and running power because the rails can be made lighter and the horse power of the engine reduced from three thousand to ten ; there will be no noise or vibration, for the train will not roll, but slide ; sleeping-cars will no longer be necessary, for 'Frisco will be only ten hours away ; and railroad building will be less expensive, because the structure upon which the trains will run can be elevated and supported by a single iron pillar, rendering the purchase of a great ground area unnecessary . There will also be no grade crossings and no accidents. "The inventor naturally takes a very optimistic view of his invention , but the probabilities are that it will be many years before we shall
be able to transport passengers and merchandise at the rate of three hundred miles an hour.

An Electrical Signal System .
Railroad electricians are looking forward with much interest to the completion and practical test of the wireless electrical signal system
which the Central Railroad of New Jersey is installing on its Long Branch division . The system will be , it is said, the first of its kind to be put in use anywhere . A feature of the system is that the signal blades will be always set at danger until the approach of a train throws them to safety.
On the main division of the Central the signals are at safety until a passing train throws them to danger. The signal blades in the new system are operated by an electrified carbonic acid gas motor, and electrically controlled by a normal danger open track circuit, one of the latest
devices in the signal art . The carbonic acid gas is stored in tanks near the base of the signal post . It costs about four and one- half cents for every thousand movements of the blade. From the battery in the signal tower an
electric current is communicated to the rails by means of wire connection . Of such slight power is this electric current which runs along the rail that a galvanometer is required to detect its presence. It is about one volt, but
nevertheless sufficient to set the delicate machinery of the signal tower in motion . The rails being charged with this delicate current the wheels of an approaching train complete the circuit and throw the signal from danger
to safety, provided there is no other train in the same block . Should the signal get out of order, of course , there will be no electric current
and the signal would stand at danger until the trouble is investigated .

Steam vs. Electric Driving of Auxiliary Machinery .
There are other factors besides the price of fuel and the personnel of a power station staff, which appreciably affect the question of economical
production of electrical energy . The choice of auxiliary plant exerts a strong influence for economy or otherwise according as the selection thereof has been made wisely or the reverse. Some results obtained from plant under normal everyday conditions were recently given before the Institution of Electrical Engineers , Manchester , England , by Messrs. C. D. Taite and R. S. Downe. The figures are such as can be obtained from similar plant in any generating station and are not the result of full load tests only. The auxiliary plant to be found in the majority of English stations of fair size , and for which steam engines on electric motors are employed ,was stated thus : Air pumps for condensers ,cranes, feed pumps , mechanical stokers, econoremizers, coal elevator, ash conveyor and workshop.
During recent years it has become the practice to use electric motors almost exclusively for driving the greater number of the above adjuncts of the generating station ; for instance, cranes , stokers , economizers , coal elevators, ash conveyors , and workshop are now generally found driven electrically ; but condenser air pumps and also feed-water pumps
still adhere to a large extent to steam power; the latter two auxiliaries are running continuously, the running of the others being of an intermittent character. It is , however, becoming increasingly recognized that, quite
apart from the power required for driving the plant, the loss from condensation in long ranges of steam piping which are rendered necessary when steam auxiliary plant is used is quite appreciable, and compares badly with the small amount of power absorbed in the\ cables of an electrical installation . Another important advantage which electrical methods
of driving have over steam power is the ease with which the power taken in the former can be measured , while in the case of steam it is
next to impossible to state definitely what is the percentage of power absorbed by the auxiliary plant. In a new generating station in England , where the whole of the auxiliary plant is driven electrically , it is found that the percentage of power absorbed by the auxiliary plant varies from 8.3 per cent . to 6.5 per cent. of the total power generated , according to the
state of the load factor ; it is clear that the better the load factor the lower will this percentage be reduced .
The power taken by the mechanical stokers represented 1.04 units per boiler hour, while the economizers required 0.33 unit per hour for driving the scrapers for each battery of 400 pipes ; the coal elevators absorbs 0.22 unit
per ton of coal raised 40 feet and deposited in the bunkers . As all the power circuits in the works are metered , it will be seen how easily one can check the whole of the power taken by the auxiliary plant when that plant is
driven electrically ; if , in any week , abnormal figures are obtained , it is a very simple matter to find the cause , as the weekly or even daily
returns show clearly on which plant the abnormal consumption is taking place . This fact in itself tends to promote economy , as one
soon finds out whether the plant is giving the duty that may fairly be expected from it . A standard of efficiency can thus be set up beyond
which the plant must not be allowed to fall .