=Portable Cord.=--This is a term used to designate reinforced lamp cord. The wires are laid parallel and are covered as with a supplementary insulation of rubber. The additional insulation and the braided covering assumes a cylindrical form. The covering is saturated with weatherproof compound, waxed and polished. =Annunciator Wire.=--This wire is made in the usual sizes and covered with two layers of cotton thread saturated with a special wax and highly polished. As the name implies it is used for annunciators, door bells and other purposes of like importance. =Private Electric Generating Plants.=--The conveniences to be derived from the use of electricity were for many years available only by those who lived in distributing areas covered by commercial electrical generating plants. Except in towns of sufficient size to warrant the erection of expensive light and power systems or along the lines of electric power transmission, current for domestic purposes was not obtainable. Within a comparatively few years there have been developed a number of small electric generating systems that are suitable for supplying the average household with the electric energy for all domestic conveniences. The combination of the gasoline engine, the electric dynamo and the storage battery have made possible generating apparatus that is operated with the minimum of difficulty and which supplies all of the electric appliances that were formerly served only from commercial electric circuits. An electric generating system is commonly termed an electric plant. It consists of an engine for the development of power, a dynamo for changing the power into electricity and--to be of the greatest service--a storage battery for the accumulation of a supply of energy to be used at such times as are not convenient to keep the dynamo in active operation. Such a combination, each part comprised of mechanism with which the average householder is unfamiliar, seems at first too great a complication to put into successful practice. Such, however, is not the case. The operation of small electric generating plants is no longer an experiment. Their general use testifies to their successful service. The working principles are in most cases those of elementary physics combined with mechanism, the management of which is not difficult to comprehend. Such plants are made to suit every condition of application and at a cost that is condusive to general employment. In a brief space it is not possible to enter into a detailed discussion of the gasoline engine, the electric dynamo, and the storage battery with the various appliances necessary for their operation; it is, therefore, intended to give only a general description of the leading features of each. The manufacturers of such plants furnish to their customers and to others who are interested detailed information with explicit instructions for their successful management.