General Engineer, Westinghouse Electric ard Manufacturing Company. THE rapid growth of the United States in population and in wealth has been made possible only through its vast network of railways. Our railways, and practically the entire inland transportation system, have grown up around the steam loco-• motive. To this picturesque personification of power then, we owe our national greatness• However, there have been many evidences in the last few years which indicate that our railways need

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... re power, and a different kind of power, than the steam locomotive can supply• The rapid growth of the country, stimulated as it was by the railways, has imposed most severe requirements on them. There has been an unceasing demand from the traffic department for more power, for larger and still larger locomotives. The steam locomotive designers have risen to the occasion magnificently, and the modern steam locomotive is so much larger and more efficient than the locomotive of thirty years ago that a comparison between them is scarcely possible. It would seem, however, that the limit to the capacity of the steam locomotive has been closely approached, if it has not already been reached; and where greater capacity is required, another type of motive power must be used. The other type of power, in the shape of the electric locomotive, is in the field prepared to take an increasing share of the load from the boilers and cylinders of the steam locomotive; to take the load where the inherent limitations of the steam locomotive make it unequal to the demands upon il or its use undesirable or impracticable. The far-seeing railway operator is studying the subject of electrification more seriously than ever before, and he confidently looks to the electric locomotive to help him out of many difficulties. He starts with the desire for more power and with * Presented at a meeting of the Mechanical and Engin~eering Sectio~ held Thursday, April I4, I92I.