While the circular form of magnet is that generally favoured, variations are made to comply with different requirements. Some articles, such as steel rails, pipes and iron rods, from their distinctive shape, only present an extremely limited surface upon which the magnetic pull can be exerted. As a rule, to enable such articles to be handled with efficiency and speed, two magnets, rectangular in form, and spaced a short distance apart, are used. The magnets are coupled together, but maintained a specific distance apart by spacing bars, while they work in unison. While the area available for contact upon each magnet is somewhat reduced, as compared with the circular type, this deficiency is counterbalanced by the ability to apply the magnetic lifting effort at two points. It is doubtful whether the true money-saving possibilities of the lifting-magnet are really appreciated. The initial outlay may appear heavy--in the case of the British magnet to which I have referred it ranges from £150 to £600--$750 to $3,000--according to dimensions, face-form and lifting capacity--but this expense is readily recouped. The lifting-magnet is not only a time-saver but it enables given work to be accomplished with fewer men. In some instances this displacement of labour has attained striking proportions. At one steel-works a lifting-magnet of 52-in. diameter was installed at a cost of £400--$2,000. It is employed for handling pig-iron, and in this work has dispensed with fifty men. The saving in wages, which its introduction has rendered possible, sufficed to defray the capital cost of the apparatus during the first three months of its use. The results recorded at another establishment are equally impressive. A 36-in. magnet was acquired, and for one specific duty--loading trucks--was employed for a total of twenty hours during the month. Previous to its acquisition this work was carried out by manual labour, and it used to demand the combined efforts of ten men for ten hours to load the vehicle, the cost being £4--$20. With the magnet the truck is now loaded in two hours and at a cost of 8s.--$2--this figure being inclusive of all charges--electric current, depreciation, interest, labour, etc. In the course of the year the magnet puts in 240 hours truck-loading, the number of trucks dealt with during this time being 120. The saving effected by the utilization of the magnet is thus £3 12s.--$18--per truck or £437--$2,185--per year. Seeing that the magnet at the time of its installation cost £150--$750--it will be seen that it pays for itself approximately three times over in the course of each twelve months, and that upon one single range of duty for an insignificant period of time.