Next we must attack the extravagant furnace, and increase its area and reduce the depth of the bed of coal. The difficulty of making this change seemed to me to be removed, on examining an engine on the Providence & Bristol Railroad, the other day. The machine was made at the Mason Works, of Taunton. It was an engine and tender combined, the truck being at the rear end of the tender, and the driver placed well in advance of the fire-box, so that the maximum weight of both engine and tender rested upon the drivers. In thus removing the drivers from the proximity of the fire-box, abundant facility is afforded for widening the fire-box, so as to obtain a grate area as large as that of the Wootten engine or of a stationary boiler. It seems to me the increase of grate area can be obtained only by widening; for a length of more than six or seven feet is very hard upon the fireman. You certainly cannot get more power by deepening present fire-boxes, except by an enormously increased waste of fuel, which all will concede is already sufficiently extravagant. In arriving at the conclusion of these hasty and I fear somewhat incoherent remarks, I would say that the object aimed at for the improvement of the locomotive would be reached, first, by making steam economically, by employing such increased grate area as will permit running thin fires and moderate or comparatively slow draught; and, secondly, in economically using the steam which has been economically made by compounding the engine. I have given you merely the views of an "outsider," who has had a somewhat extensive experience in stationary engineering, and who has observed locomotive practice in many parts of the world. These views are offered for what they are worth, as suggestions for future thought in designing engines, and as a sort of refresher upon rudimentary points which long familiarity with every-day phenomena causes us at times to overlook. I trust that your deliberations may aid in the speedy reduction of the expenses of transporting freight and passengers, for the benefit of the railroad companies and, in their turn, the advantage of the people at large. * * * * * ATLANTIC STEAMERS.[1] [Footnote 1: A paper recently read before the Institution of Naval Architects.] By W. JOHN. [Illustration: Fig. 1--CITY OF ROME.]