POUNDING OF THE WORKING-PARTS.
It is good for an ambitious young engineer, who desires to thoroughly master his calling, to walk occasionally into the room where a well-managed automatic cut-off engine is at work, and watch its smooth, noise-less movements. There he may find an ideal of how an engine should run. The nature of the work performed by a locomotive engine prevents it from being operated noiselessly, and the smoothness of its action must always compare unfavorably with a well-constructed stationary engine; but the connections which transmit the power of a locomotive should be free from knock or jar, if they are properly proportioned, and skillfully put together.