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Dawn of the Electric Traction Era ioi year of 1909, the number had risen to over 450,000,000 a year later. The success of electric propulsion upon the street railways naturally served to turn the attention of engineers and inventors to the feasibility of adapt- ing it to trunk railway working in place of steam. There were several factors which influenced such a conversion, especially in crowded areas possessing underground, surface, and overhead railways serving the outlying districts. Smoke and steam contributed to the general unhealthiness of the cities, owing to the contamination of the atmosphere, while in cases where the stations or stopping places were spaced somewhat closely together locomotion was rather slow. While the station question would remain, even if electricity were adopted, it was maintained that, owing to the more rapid acceleration and de- celeration features of the electric system, it would be possible to attain higher running speeds between stopping points, which in turn would enable given journeys to be completed in shorter time than was practicable with steam working, and owing to this factor it would be possible to run the trains over a given road at more frequent intervals. At first the new development was not regarded seriously for what may be termed as main-line work- ing. It was regarded essentially from the aspect of improving intra-mural movement and as a com- petitor or alternative to the tramways. In this appli- cation Great Britain became a pioneer by introducing a new type of railway to the world—the tube. The first line of this character was the City and South London Railway, which was bored through the London