fold; in this
lies the brilliant future before it. The steam engine is nearly as perfect
as it can be made; it approaches very nearly the possibility of its
theory. Its defect does not lie in its mechanism, but in the very
properties of water and steam itself. The loss of heat which takes place
in converting liquid water into gaseous steam is so great that by far the
greater portion of the heat given out by the fuel passes away either in
the condenser or the exhaust of a steam engine; but a small proportion of
the heat is converted into work.

The very best steam engines convert about 11 per cent. of the heat given
them into useful work, the remaining 89 per cent. being wasted,
principally in the exhaust of the engine.

Gas engines now convert 20 per cent. of the heat given to them into work,
and very probably will, in a few years more, convert 60 per cent. into
useful work. The conclusion, then, is irresistible that, when engineers
have gained greater experience with gas engines and gas producers, they
will displace steam engines entirely for every use--mills, locomotives,
and ships.

* * * * *

RAPID CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY.

By E.T. ABBOTT, Member of the Engineers' Club of Minnesota. Read December
12, 1884.

During the winter of 1881 and 1882, the contract was let to Messrs.
Langdon, Sheppard & Co., of Minneapolis, to construct during the working
season of the latter year, or prior to January 1, 1883, 500 miles of
railroad on the western extension of the above company; the contract being
for the grading, bridging, track-laying, and surfacing, also including the
laying of the necessary depot sidings and their grading. The idea that any
such amount of road could be built in that country in that time was looked
upon by the writer hereof, as well as by railroad men generally, as a huge
joke, perpetrated to gull the Canadians. At the time the contract was let,
the Canadian Pacific Railway was in operation to Brandon, the crossing of
the Assiniboine River, 132 miles west of Winnipeg. The track was laid,
however, to a point about 50 miles west of this, and the grading done
generally in an unfinished state for thirty miles further. This was the
condition of things when the contract was entered into to build 500
miles--the east end of the 500-mile contract being at Station 4,660
(Station being at Brandon) and extending west to a few miles beyond the
Saskatchew