Experiments have also been,
and are still being, made with the object of increasing friction by
means of permanent magnetism, and also with a view to _diminishing_
the friction of revolving and other moving surfaces, the results of
which will probably form the subject matter of a subsequent paper.
Enough has been said to indicate that the development of these two
methods of increasing mechanical friction opens up a new and extensive
field of operation, and enables electricity to score another important
point in the present age of progress. The great range and flexibility
of this method peculiarly adapt it to the purposes we have considered
and to numerous others that will doubtless suggest themselves to you.
Its application to the increase of the tractive adhesion of railway
motors is probably its most prominent and valuable feature at present,
and is calculated to act as an important stimulus to the practical
introduction of electric railways on our city streets, inasmuch as the
claims heretofore made for cable traction in this respect are now no
longer exclusively its own. On trunk line railways the use of sand and
other objectionable traction-increasing appliances will be entirely
dispensed with, and locomotives will be enabled to run at greater
speed with less slipping of the wheels and less danger of derailment.
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