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The Watch House.

The last of the big surprises is the laboratory, which is a very important two-way watch house, intimately concerned with materials before they come in and before they go out as manufactures. The laboratory is only a little corner of the big estate, but its influence reaches through the whole outfit. One may have a pleasant meditation on the power of a few bottles of acids and salts and other chemicals, a few instruments and other contrivances, which take very little space, to govern the course of affairs in such a huge enterprise. But there it is—the ever-watchful two-way test of the composition of materials and the strength of weldings. It is an insurance policy for a fair deal for the Railway Department and the general public from all viewpoints, particularly safety.