At the end of the year 1898 there were in use in the United States 36,746 locomotives, 1,318,700 cars, and the mileage in tracks, including second track and sidings, was 245,238.87, which, if extended in a straight line, would build a railway to the moon. The money investment represented in capital stock and bonds was $11,216,886,452. The gross earnings for the year 1898 were $1,249,558,724. The net earnings were $389,666,474. Tons of freight moved were 912,973,853. Receipts from freight were $868,924,526. Number of passengers carried was 514,982,288. Receipts from passengers were $272,589,591, and dividends paid were $94,937,526. Add to the above the elevated railroads and street railroads, which are not included, and the immensity of the railroad business in the United States becomes apparent. In 1898 the United States exported 468 locomotives, worth $3,883,719. Mulhall estimates that the steam horse power of railroads in the world amounted in 1896 to 40,420,000, of which the United States had more than one-third. He also states that the railways in the United States carry _every day_, in merchandise, a weight equal to that of the whole of the seventy millions of persons constituting its population; that the total railway traffic of the world in 1894 averaged ten million passengers and six million tons of merchandise _daily_; and that the total railway capital of the world reached in that year, 6,745 million sterling, or about thirty-three billion dollars. It is said that the highest railway speed ever attained by steam prior to 1900 was by locomotive No. 564 of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, made during part of a run from Chicago to Buffalo. In this run 86 miles were made at an average rate of 72.92 miles an hour. The train load was 304,500 pounds, and the 86 mile run included one mile at 92.3 miles an hour, eight miles at 85.44 miles an hour, and thirty-three miles at 80.6 miles an hour. On May 26, 1900, however, an experiment on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, made by Mr. F. U. Adams between Baltimore and Washington, demonstrated that by sheathing the train to prevent retardation by the air, an average speed of 78.6 miles an hour was obtained, and for five miles on a down grade a speed of 102.8 miles an hour was reached.