The advantages of storage battery street cars for city traffic are self-evident, so that I need not trouble you with further details in this respect, but I would beg those who take an interest in the progress of the electric locomotive to give this subject all the consideration it deserves, and I would assure them that the system which I have advocated in this brief but very incomplete sketch is worthy of an extended trial, and ready for the purposes set forth. There is no reason why those connected with electric lighting interests in the various cities and towns should not give the matter their special attention, as they are the best informed on electrical engineering and already have a local control of the supply of current needed for charging. In the car which we use in Philadelphia there are actually 80 cells, because there are considerable gradients to go over. Each cell weighs 40 pounds and the average horse power of each battery is six. Sometimes we only use two horse power and sometimes, going up grades of 5 per cent., we use as much as 12 horse power, but the average rate is 6 electrical horse power. With reference to the weight of passengers on the cars, we have never carried more than 50 passengers on that car, because it is impossible to put more than 50 men into it. There are seats for 24, and the rest have to stand on the platforms or in the aisle. The changing of the batteries takes three minutes with proper appliances. One set of cells is drawn out by means of a small winch and a freshly charged set is put in. It takes the same time to charge the battery as it does to discharge it in the working of the cars, so one reserve set would be sufficient to keep the car continually moving. The loss of energy from standing about is probably nothing. If a battery were to stand charged for three months in a dry case, the loss of energy might be in three months 10 per cent. I purposely had a set of cells standing for two years charged and never used them. After two years there was still a small amount of energy left. So as regards the loss of energy in a battery standing idle, it is practically nothing, because no one would think of charging a battery and letting it stand for three months or a year. I have had them stand three or four months and I could hardly appreciate the loss going on, provided always that the cells are standing on a dry floor. If the exterior of the box be moist, or if it stands on a moist floor, there will naturally be a surface leakage going on: but where there is no surface leakage the mere local action between the oxides and metallic lead will not discharge the battery for a very considerable time.