30 POWER DISTRIBUTION FOR ELECTRIC RAILROADS. 
The figures just given emphasize with tremendous force 
the need of thorough bonding of the track in order to take 
advantage of its immense conductivity. In the early elec- 
tric railways this was terribly neglected, the bond wires 
sometimes being as small as No. 6 and even of galvanized 
iron. Bonding is of very various character.  Its most 
rudimentary form is shown in Fig. 18. In this case the 
1,500,000 
1,000,000 
Circular Mills 
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treet Railway Journal 
FIG. I7. 
bonds merely united the ends of adjacent rails, each line of 
rails being bonded separately. ‘The improvement of Fig. 
19 is quite obvious, for in Fig., 18 a single break compelled 
one rail to carry the return load. The cross bonding of 
Fig. 19 adds somewhat to the weight of copper required, 
but ties the rails together so that no single break can be 
serious and nothing save a break from both rails on the 
same side of the same joint can really interrupt the circuit. 
A very large amount of track has been so bonded, al- 
though at present the usual construction is shown in Fig.