There seems to be practically no difference as far as the element of danger is concerned between steam and electric hoists. The difference is largely one of economy. The importance of this is shown by the recent comparisons in a gold mine which has replaced its steam apparatus by electricity. In this mine the hoist moves through the shaft at a rate of over twelve hundred feet per minute, elevating five hundred tons of ore daily on double-decked cages. It is estimated that this system shows an efficiency of 75 per cent, taking into account losses of all kinds, with a resulting reduction of cost of from seven to twenty dollars per horse-power per month. Results comparing very favorably with these have been obtained also in some of the mines in Germany and Bohemia, where electricity has been introduced extensively in mining. In one of these mines the daily hoisting capacity is twenty-seven hundred tons from a depth of over sixteen hundred feet, at a speed of over fifty-two feet per second. In the Comstock mine, at Virginia City, Nev., electric hoists are used which obtain their power from a plant situated on the Truchee River thirty-two miles away. ELECTRIC MINING PUMPS In pumping, which is always one of the important items in mining, the use of electric power has been found quite as advantageous as in the other fields of its application. No special features are embodied in most of the types of mining pumps over the rotary and reciprocating types used for ordinary purposes, except perhaps a type of pump known as the sinking pump. This is a movable pump that can be easily lowered from one place to another, and has proved to be a great time-saver over steam or air pumps used for similar purposes. For some time the question of the durability of electric pumps was in dispute, but developments in quite recent years seem to prove that, in some instances at least, such pumps are practically indestructible. "The question of what would happen to an electric motor in a mine if pumps and motors get flooded has often come up. From tests made recently at the University of Liège, Belgium, it appears that a suitably designed polyphase alternating-current motor of a type largely used on the continent of Europe was completely submerged in water. It was run for a quarter of an hour; it was then stopped and allowed to remain submerged, under official seal, for twenty-four hours, at the end of which time it was again run for a few minutes. It was next removed from the water, again put under seal, and left to dry for twenty-four hours. The insulation was then tested, and the motor was found to be in perfect order. It would be hard to imagine a test more severe than this.