he item of safety appliances. The railroads
of Great Britain carried during the last year 800,000,000 passengers,
with safety to all but five, and this was possible because the
railroads, instead of expending their capital in luxurious equipment
and passenger stations, chose rather to equip their lines with the
most improved signaling and interlocking. The railroad companies of
the United States in expending large sums for handsome and convenient
terminals and luxurious cars are placing monuments before the public
eye which naturally lead to the belief that every appointment of such
roads is on the same high plane, and it requires much less expenditure
to furnish luxurious equipment to be carried over 1,000 miles of road
than it does to equip 10 miles of the 1,000 so as to make it safe; and
since the expenditure for safety appliances and permanent way is not
seen and felt by the passenger so long as he is carried in safety, it
is not, therefore, so prominent before the public gaze as is the
handsome station and the palatial car. On one road in Great Britain,
having but 2,000 miles of track, there are employed more men in the
manufacture and installation of signal work than are employed by all
the signal companies and in the signal departments of all the
railroads of the United States, where we are now operating about
182,000 miles.

* * * * *

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

ORDERS FOR large quantities of aluminum have been received within the
last few weeks by the Pittsburg Reduction Company from the principal
foreign nations for the equipment of their armies. The contracts
aggregate about fifty tons a month, Russia being the largest consumer.

ACCORDING TO the return published by the Minister of Agriculture, the
consumption of horseflesh in Paris has decreased slightly in the last
year, being only 4,472 tons, as against 4,664 tons for 1895-96. This
was the meat derived from 20,878 horses, 53 mules and 232 donkeys
slaughtered during the twelve months; but a very strict supervision is
exercised, and 575 of these animals were condemned as unfit for human
food. The flesh of the remainder was sold at 190 stalls or shops, and,
although the fillet and undercut made as much as 9d. a pound, the
inferior parts sold for 2d. or less, and most of the meat was used for
making sausages.

ACCORDING TO La Propriete Industrielle, 5,372 Austrian patents were
granted in 1896 (5,215 in 1895). Of these, r