.--_Revue Industrielle._

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THE FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE SEINE.

[Illustration: FIRST STEAMBOAT BUILT ON THE SEINE.]

The accompanying engraving represents the remarkable steamboat that
the unfortunate Marquis de Jouffroy constructed at Paris in 1816,
after organizing a company for the carriage of passengers on the
Seine. De Jouffroy, as well known, made the first experiment in steam
navigation at Lyons in 1783, but the inventor's genius was not
recognized, and he met with nothing but deception and hostility. With
the obstinacy of men of conviction, he did not cease to prosecute his
task. He assuredly had an inkling of the future in store for the
invention that he was offering to humanity.

The paddle wheel boat that he constructed at Paris in 1816 did not
succeed any better than its predecessors; it was remarkable
nevertheless in appearance and structure.

The engine was forward, as shown in the engraving, which is copied
from a composition of Dubucourt's.

The company organized by the marquis was ruined, and, as well known,
the unfortunate inventor himself died in poverty in 1832, at the age
of eighty-one years.--_La Nature._

* * * * *

THE ELECTRIC MOTOR TESTS ON THE NEW YORK ELEVATED RAILROAD.

The American Institute of Electrical Engineers at its last meeting of
the season, held June 25, again considered the subject of electrical
traction, the paper presented by Mr. Leo Daft being based upon some
recent electrical work on the elevated railroads and its bearing on
the rapid transit problem. The _Railroad Gazette_ gives the following
abstract:

He introduced the subject with a tribute to the efficiency of
the elevated railroad system as it is now operated by steam,
with special reference to that section of it known as the Ninth
Avenue line, upon which his experiments with the electric motor
have been conducted, over which passengers are now conveyed a
distance of five miles in 26 minutes for five cents, which he
considered the best and cheapest municipal rapid transit in the
world, and which is operated with a higher degree of safety than
any other railroad in the world making an equal number of stops
per 100 miles. On a recent holiday, April 30 last, 835,720
passengers were carried upon the entire system without
noticeable detention or accident. The rapidly increasing tr