No one who has ever driven in a heavily laden
tramcar can have helped experiencing the feeling that the scientific mechanists ought to turn their attention to finding some means of starting the car mechanically, and so of saving the horses a terrible strain. The required discovery, we are happy to say, seems to have at last been made by Mr. Betteley, whose invention is described in the Times of Tuesday. The principle involved " consists in utilising the spring-power given off from the working of the brake-springs, and storing that power for the purpose of facilitating the restarting of the car." The actual details are not easy to follow, but we take it that the main idea is like that of the Moncrieff gun. There the force of the recoil is utilised to sink the gun. Here the force exerted to stop the wheels is stored up so as to make them revolve when they are required to be again put in motion. The South London Tramways Company is said to have applied the invention with success, and we may there- fore, we suppose, assume that the matter has become one of practical mechanics.
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