We have also compressed air in a portable form, and it is now employed
with great success in driving tram-cars. I had occasion last January
to visit Nantes, where, for eighteen months, tram-cars had been driven
by compressed air, carried on the cars themselves, coupled with an
extremely ingenious arrangement for overcoming the difficulties
commonly attendant on the use of compressed air engines. This consists
in the provision of a cylindrical vessel half filled with hot water
and half with steam, at a pressure of eighty pounds on the square
inch. The compressed air, on its way from the reservoir to the engine,
passes through the water and steam, becoming thereby heated and
moistened, and in that way all the danger of forming ice in the
cylinders was prevented, and the parts were susceptible of good
lubrication. These cars, which start every ten minutes from each end,
make a journey of 3¾ miles, and have proved to be a commercial and an
engineering success. I believe, moreover, that they are capable of
very considerable improvement.