THE ~IARSEILLES AND ST. LOUIS ELEOTRIC ROAD RAILWAY.

BY c. S. D u RWHE PRELLER, M.A., Ph.D., A.M.I.C.E., M.I.E E.

(Concluded from page 56t) Oost of Cunstr11ction Cftnd EqHiprnent .- This works

out as follows :

Permanent way, 6 kib-metres, double line ...

Paving . . . ·.. · · · Machine house, sheds, of­

fices and repair shop . Chim~ey, ref!ervoir, refri-

gerator . . . . · · · · · Three boilers and masonry Three stea.m engines, tbr~e

dynamos, and transmts-•

StOn · · · · · · . · · · Electric conductors, mres,

poles, and insulators ... Eighteen motor cars and

one cleansing trolley ... Administration, engineer­

ing, and SUJ?erintendence Interest durtng construc­

tion one year, 4 per <:ent.

240,000 120,000

50,000

25,000 75,000

125,000

180,000

370,000

115,000

50,000

£

!),600 4,800

2,000

1,000 3,000

5,000

7,200

14,800

4,600

2,000

Total . . . 1, 350,000 54,000

equal to 225,000 fr. per kilometre, or 14,400t. per mile of double·line.

HP Am~ .F/g.23

240 320

E N G I N E E R I N G. on those below, 15 miles per hour. The service hours are from eighteen to twenty per day ; the working hours for each driver and guard are ten to twelve per day, with an off-day every twenty day~ . The wages of a driver are 150 fr., or 6l., and those of a guard 120fr., or4l. 16s. per month, or 4s. and 3.2s. per day respectively. On days of extra traffic, the extra men required are taken from the maintenance and repair staff. In the ordinary service, twelve to fourteen cars perform on an average 1800 to 2100 kilometres or 1130 to 1310 miles per day, equal to an average of 150 kilometres or 94 miles per car per day (ma~imum. 175 kilom~tres = 110 miles per day), which 1s constderable, havmg regard to the steep rising and falling grades, and to the frequently unfavourable adhesion of the line. The number of passengers, which, in June, 1892, the first month's working, averaged 6000 per day, had in April, 1893, risen to over 10,000 per day, and in the busiest, viz., the summer and autumn months, t o over 12,000, or more than double the oriainal number. The maximum fare on the M:rseilles tramways authorised by t he concession is 7 centimes per kilometre, or a penny a mile ; on the St. Louis electric line they are only at the rate of 5 centimes per kilometre. or 0.77d. per mile, with a minimum fare of 10 centimes. The average gross receipts of the first year's working were 70,000 fr. per kilometre, or 4480t. per mile (86l.

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The electrical plant and the motors were supplied by the Oerlikon \Vorks, and the installation was carried out under the direction of Mons. Th. Dubs, of Oerlikon, as resident electrician, he having already acted in a similar capacity on the Sissach and Murren electric lines in Switzerland.

W01·king.-Tbe railway was at first worked with twelve ca.rs, of which eight were on the line and four in reserve. From the first day of the line being opened the traffic exceeded, however, all expecta­tions, and the public, which at Marseilles is not very amenable to discipline, so crowded the cars, that instead of only fifty passengers they frequently had to carry, as they do now, as many as 75, or 50 per cent. over load. Under these circumstances the central station, as well as the motors, proved quite unequal to the strain, the more so as both the generating plant and the motors were subjected to constant variations, exceeding at times by more than 50 per cent. their ordinary maximum power. Hence, both had to be remodelled, as already de­scribed, while the number of cars was increased to eighteen, of which twelve to sixteen were on the line, and the remainder at the dep8t, except on days of maximum traffic, when all the available cars, up to eighteen, are runnin g. Indeed, it may be said that virtually the traffic on the line is only limited by the greater or less difficulty of circulation in the crowded streets, and hence the maximum traffic can be carried on Sundays and feast days, when the vehicular traffic is small. The ?rdinary service is a five-minute one, and a single Journey takes 30 minutes, which is equal to an average speed of 12 kilometres or 8 miles per hou~, including stoppages, the normal speed on sechons above 25 per cent. grade being 6 miles, and

per mile per week), equal to ~0 centimes per car kilometre, or 13. 77d. per car mile. The cost of traction, viz., motive power and maintenance of electric plant and rolling stock, and wages of drivers, which during the first experimental months, and owing to the unfavourable circumstances already mentioned , was as n1uch as 48 centimes per car kilo­metre, or 7. 34d. per car mile, has now been reduced to less than the guaranteed figure of 28 centimes, viz., to 26 centimes or 4d. per car kilometre and mile r espectively. Owing to the guarantee con­tract, the output of electrical energy, the consump­tion of feed water and fuel, and the residue of the latter are strictly controlled, the electrical energy being registered by a Thomson meter, the feed water by a Frager meter, while the fuel, which is carried from the coal shed by a Decauville tram­way, &c., passing over a weighbridge, is weighed on entering the boiler-room, and the residue on leaving it. Only Cardiff coal of good quality is used, the present cost at the central station being 24.50 fr , or practicalJy 20s. per ton. Taking, as a typical example, the working tables of two average months (April and May, 1893) of the ordinary spring ser­vice, the mean number of car kilometres per day being 1880 in 18.5 service hours, with 13 cars, the cost of traction is as shown by the annexed Tables.

The consumption of fuel of 7 tons per day of 18.5 hours is equal to 2. 5 kilogrammes (5. 5 lb.) per horse-p0wer per hour, the mean effective power being 150 horse-power, und the maximum 300 horse-power. When the new steam and electrical plant is in efficient working order, and the con­sumption of fuel reduced accordingly, the cost of traction will presumably not exceed 22 centimes or 3.4 p(>nce rer car kilometre and mile respectively.

Traction Expen3cs, 1893.

I Generat.ing station, power .. J

Maintenance of generating station • • • • • •

Main tenance of wire system

" oars and

motors • • • • ••

Drivers' wages •• • •

Per Car Kilo· metre.

Ap ril. May.

('. o. 12.64 14 29

1.06 2.34 l.l 8 0.72

'

5. 22 4.83 I 4.93 6.22

2 ~ . 93 27.40

A'·erage

I Per Oar Per Oar

Kilometre1

Mile.

o. d. 13.46 2.08

1. 70 0.26 0.90 (1.14

5.02 0.77 5.07 0.78

26.15 4.02

The average as follows :

expenditure for traction per day is

I 1Per0ar j PH Kilo· Car-- - -

mttre. 1

MHe. -

tr. fr. £ a d.

6.96 9.25 1.41 0 17 0.21 0.04 1.14 1.65 0.25 1.E6 2.45 0.38

Generating station : 173.70 7 tons of coal at •. 24 50

55 "

watt:r . . O.tO 4.20 Oil and waste • • •• 28.b0 Wages •• • • • • 4~.50

-258.00 10.12 13.46 2.08

1.28 1 .70 0.26 0.68 0.90 0.14

Maintenance : Generating station .. • • 32.00 Wire system •• • • 17.00 Motor cars : cars • • 25

3.80 5.02 0.77 Regulators, trol· leys, circuits, and

43 95.00 rheostats • • • • Motors • • •• 23

3.80 5.07 0. 78 Sundries • • • • 3

Drivers' wages .. • • •• 95 00

Total • • • • •• 492.00 19.68 26.15 4.03

F or the ordinary service of twelve to fourteen cars, the two 300 h orse·power engines and dy­nam')s are run alternately, one being always in reserve; the smaller 150 horse-power engine and dynamo are run during the hours of lightest traffic, or toaether with the larger plant when sixteen to eighteen cars are running. The other items of working expenditure form part of those of the company's whole system ; but computing them pro 'r cftta, the total working expenses of the electric line are as follows :

Per. Cn.r Per Car Total. I<tto- ~n

metre. 1 e. •

lper centl o. d. I fr. £, Traction •• • • 60 26.15 4.02 179,580 7,188 Maintenance of per· manent way .. •• 6 2 62 0.40 17,960 719

Traffic .. • • • • 18 7.85 1.20 53,880 2,156 Administration •• 8 3.49 0 53 23,940 957 General charges • • 8 3 49 0.53 23,940 957

l OO 43.60 6.68 ;299,300 11,972

The gross r eceipts amount to 500,000 fr. or 20,000~. per annum, and the line iA, therefore, worked at about 60 per cent. Adding to the work­ing expensee 10 per cent. depreciation and sinking fund of the generating plant, wire system, and motor cars, viz., 3000l., the total expenditure amounts to about 15, OOOl., so that the net receipts of 4000t. represent a return of about 8 per cent. on the capital of construction and equipment.

Efficiency.-As already mentioned, the efficiency of the new dynamos in reap€ct of the steam engines under full load is 93.6 per cent. ; in other terms, the dynamos give 736 x 0. 93 = 684 watts per horse-power, whereas the old dynamos only gave 86 per cent. efficiency, or 630 watts per horse­power.

As regards the resistance of the conductors and return circuit, it has been found to be 40,000 ohms, so that at the usual tension of 550 volts, the

leakage or loes to earth is only 4~~~0 = 0. 00137 ampere, showing the ine ulation to be practically perfect. In order to determine the loss of poten· tial due to the resistance along the line, a self­registering voltmeter was placed at the St. Louis terminus, and the curve was compared with that registered by the voltmeter at the central station (distance 3.8 kilometres) in the same space of time. It was found that with eight cars running, the maximum loss, viz., the difference of tension at St. Louis, was 14.8 per cent., the central station regis­tering 575 volts at the time. The aYerage loss, however, was found to be only 4.2 per cent. At the Cannebiere (Mars(>ill(>s) terminus, on the C~thet

•

E N G I N E E R I N G.

THE BOYD BRICK PRESS AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. CONSTRUCTED DY 1\lESSRH. CHISHOLnJ, BOYD, AND \VHITE, CHICAGO.

Fig. 1.

hand (distance from central station, 2.2 kilo­metres), the maximum loss was 11.8, and the mean only 0.8 per cent. , so that the total mean loss of E:>tential along the line does not exceed 4. 2 + 0.8 = 5 per cent. As is seen from the longitudinal section of the line (Fig 2, page 499 antP ), the work performed by the motors, and consequently the energy derived from the generating dynamos, and hence the load factor of the steam engines, vary exceedingly, according to the different grades, to the varying car loads, the number of stoppages and starts, and the degree of adhesion of the rails. The extraordinary variations to which an electric system such as that of the Marseilles line is subject, are strikingly shown in the illus­trations of two typical load curves (Fig8. 23 and 24, page 627) registered by the ce~tral station ampere-meter in the space of ?O nunute~ each, with fourteen cars on the lme. It IS seen that the load , as indicated by the current and the corresponding h0rse-power , frequently varies from a minimum of 40 amperes (30 horse-power) to a maximum of 320 amperes (240 horse-power) within. the space of a minute, while the mean current IS only 180 amperes (135 horse-power). And this is the more noteworthy as t hese curves were registered on a fine day, when t he rails were dry, and the conditions of adhesion were therefore favourable. Various tests made on the line h.\l.ve shown that under ordinary conditions ()f adhesion the coefficient of traction is t.he usual <>tle for a good permanent way with grooved ra.i~s -viz., 10 kilogra~m.es (22 lb.) pe~ ton. The addi­tional power required for startmg Is, on an average, only 30 per cent. of the running power, this per­centage, which at first sight .app~ars. remarkably small being obtained by speCial wiudmg and con­sequ~nt high inductive power of field magn~t bobbins. The starting power of these motors IS

shown by the fact that on the 4 to G per cent.

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grades an overloaded car of 12 tons starts with an extra current of only 12 per cent. (80, as against 70 amperes when running), this maximum effect being, of course, only of short duration and for slow speed. On the flat grades, on the other hand, where the speed is greater, the extra. power in st arting is 50 per cent. (30, aR against 20 amperes when running), the average being therefore about 30 per cent. The power developed by the motors when running at 14 or 7 miles per hour, or staTting on the minimum (1 per cent.) and maximum (6 per cent. ) grades with full and overloaded cars, is shown by the following Table :

I ' Car Speed in Metre- Horse- Plus 30 per j Grade Power Load .Metres per Kilo- Cent. in j per CeLt. when Tone. Second. grammes. Starting. Run ning .

9 X (10 + 10) X 6 - 1(180 15 20 -12 X (10 + 10) X 6 - 14 10 20 27 -9 X (60 + 10) X 3 - 1890 25 34 -

12 X (60 + 10) X 3 - 2520 31 46 -

This gives a mean of 29 horse-power or 40 am. peres at 550 volts per car when running or starting on rising grades ; or, at 68 per cent. mean efficiency of the new generating plant (as against only 46 to 50 per cent. of the old one), 45 horse-power to be supplied by the steam engines. Of the twelve cars which are simultaneously on the line, only five are on an average, taking current at the time, the other~ stopp~ng ~t terminal~ or desce~ding the 1 to 6 per cent. 1nchnes by the1r own we1ght, and enly taking current in starting after intermediate stoppages. Hence the average power for the twelve-car service

•

•

is 225 horse-power, while with fourteen cars it rises to 240, and with sixteen cars to 300 horse-power and more, according to the loads and degree of ad­hesion of the line, which latter not infrequently drops from -,?0 th as low as 115 th and }0th. In that ca.se the motors absorb up to 50 per cent. more than the normal energy ; e.g., when the rails are greasy or slippery, a 12-ton car requires, when running on the 6 per cent. grade, a tractive force of 12 x (60 + 20) = 960 kilogrammes, or at the rate of 3 metres per second, 38 horse-power, while the starting power required is one-third more-­viz., 50 horse ·power, or 25 horse-power per motor. A 9-ton car requires, under the same conditions, 34 horse-power, or 1'7 horse-power per motor. With the old worm-geared motors, of normally 12 horse-power each, originally coupled in parallel, this power was attained at a pinch by putting them in series, and increasing the voltage from 550 to 600, but at a sacrifice of 50 per cent. of the speed. Owing to the frequently greasy and slippery state of the rails, this was, however, open to a serious ob­jection-viz., when the wheels of one axle began to skid, the counter electromotive force of the motor on that axle was liable to prevent access of the supply current, thus paralysing both motors. For that reason, the new motors are always put in parallel, and not in series. The efficiency of the old motors was at first only 65 per cent. , although it rose somewhat as the friction surfaces of the worm gearing (1 in 14) became smooth ; the new spur-geared (1 in 5) motors have, according to the load, an efficiency of 70 to 90 per cent., including loss by gearing and manipulation of regulator. The mean total loss of energy between the steam engines and the axles of the motor cars is, there­fore, as follows :

Between stea~ engines and dynamos , dynamos and motor cars

Motors, gearing, and manipulation

...

...

...

Per Cent. 7 5

20 -

E N G I N E E RI N G.

system depend3 essentially on local conditions. In crowded thor0ughfares, Auch as those of Marseilles, the slot, or Buda-Pesth system, n1ay be said to be out of the question, apart from its heavy cost, not only of construction, but of efficient maintenance. The trench and slot system, moreover, requiree and presupposes very perfect drainage, and this is an important and costly factor -which is too often lost sight of when that system is recommended. Under these circumstances the Compagnie Gene­ra.le wisely chose the overhead wire system as the less objectionable and more economical system of the two ; and the success of the line from a com­mercial, and, since the remodelled installation, also from an electro-mechanical point of view, has encouraged it not only to extend it to other lines in Marseilles with steep grades up to 9 per cent., for which electric!\! traction is pre-eminently adapted, but also to apply it on a large scale to its extensive tramway system of Havre. Nor can there be much doubt that the overhead wire and trolley pole system will continue to hold the field, unless and until accumulator cars can be made so light, efficient, and economical as ultimately to solve the problem of electrical traction in t owns and crowded suburbs.

The writer has to express his obligations to M. Dubs, acting at Marseilles on behalf of the con­tractors, Messrs. Sautter, Harle, and Co., and the Oerlikon Works, for the working tables and other information kindly placed at his service.

THE ENGINEERING CONGRESS AT OHIOAGO.

(BY ouR NEw YORK CoRRESPONDENT.)

( Concl!uded from page 602.) THE last paper having now been pre~ented to the

Marine Congress, the proceedings were closed by remarks from those present. Among the speakers was:

Colonel Edwin A. Stevens, of Hoboken, who pro­giving a total mean efficiency of the system of 68 posed a vote of thanks to Commodore Melville for per cent. the able and courteous manner in which he had pre-

Oonclusion.-Irrespective of the interest attach- sided over and carried on the work of the Congress. ing to the constructive features of the Marseilles He thought the Navy Department deserved great line, more especially the perfect insulation, the credit for the work they had done in recent years efficient protection against lightning, and the in advancing naval engineering construction, and reduction to a minimum of the extra energy in for the fine ships and machinery they are now pro­starting, its working experience teaches some very ducing. This was seconded by Dr. Francis Elgar, useful lessons. Chief among these are: (1) That who said on behalf of the foreign visitors that they high-speed vertical engines, especially when non- had highly appreciated the friendly and cordial condensing, are very uneconomical and quite un- manner in which they had been received by Corn­suitable for such enormously varying loads as those mod ore Mel ville and his colleagues at the Congress. of an electric line, with rising and fal1ing grades He indorsed Colonel Stevens' remarks as to the and varying degrees of adhesion ; (2) that worm high quality of the work now being done by the aearing, involving as it does a reduction of 1 in 14, Navy Department, which. he said, is well thought ~nd corresponding loss of power by friction, is of and is carefully watched in Great Britain, and not suitable for motor cars having to run at 15 other foreign countries. He also paid a tribute to miles per hour, and that spur gearing with single the excellence of the technical reports upon naval reduction is in all re3pects preferable ; (3) that to progress all over the world which are published by insure elasticity and smoothness of motion, the the Naval Intelligence Department at Washington. body of the mo.tor car should alwa~s rest on ample Dr. Elgar called attention to the great amount of spring suspenswns of the frame 1nstead of bemg labour that the proceedings of the Congress put upon rigidly fixed to the same; (4) that where sharp the president and the secretary, Mr. W. M. curves necessitate a short wheel-base, large motor McFarland, U.S.N .• and predicted that the volume cars carrying from 50 to 70 passengers should be in which these would be published would form one of run on two bogie trucks instead of only four the mo3t varied and instructive collections of papers wheels; (5) that provision should be made at the on naval engineering ever got together. C0lonel N. outset for ample spare plant and powerful motor.d, Soliani, Engineer-in-Chief of the Italian Navy, seeing that on electric railways and tramways the supported Dr. Elgar's remarks, and the vot.e of traffic increases rapidly, and generally exceeds the thanks to Commodore Mel ville, the president, was

32

original estimate. carried by acclamation. In comparing t he cost of t~action. of the Mar- Then following this came a vote of thanks to t.he

seilles line with that of other hnes w1th overhead foreign visitors for their attendance and attention, wires such as that of L 9eds and those in the to which they responded with liberal compliments Unit~d StateR, we find that in the last-named cases to their friend s in the United States. The follow­the cost is 5. 5d. to 6d., as against only 4d. per car ing extract from the Marine R eme1o, of Cleveland, mile at Marseilles. where the cost of good fuel is, Ohio, may be of interest to those who havo read moreover much higher. As compared with horse this account : traction ~hich at Marseilles costs 6.12d. p er car "There can be no doubt that the public volum~ mile th~ electric line of Marseilles shows a saving of the proceedings, including the papers and the of 2.i2d. per car mile, or. 33J?er cent., while as eo~- discussions, will be one of the most valuable collec­pared with horse tractwn 111 other large towns 1n tions of information in regard to marine engineer­France such as Lyons, Bordeaux, and Toulouse. ing and naval architecture which has ever appeared. electric~! traction at Marseilles costs 25, 20, and 10 Arrangements have been made with Messrs. J ohn per cent. less respective!~. Still fu.rther south, how- Wiley and Sons, of No. 53, East Tenth-street, New ever, viz., in Genoa, Mtlan, Turin, and Florence, York City, for publishing these proceedings in horse traction is so cheap (from 4d. to 3. 8d. per car bo'Jk form, and subscriptions may be sent to mile) that electricity can only beat it by.its own in- these gentlemen. It is the desire of Commo­trinsic superiority. As regards the qu_estwn of over- dore Melville to have these proceedings circu· head wires vers'l tS underground condu1ts, the case of lated as widely as possible, so that any one who Marseilles strikingly confirms what ha<J also been wishes to purchase them can do so by addressing shown elsewhere, that the application of either . the Messrs. Wiley, and remitting the price of sub-

scription. The proceedings will comprise some 1500 large octavo pages, including about 200 plates.

" ~Vith such young men around him as Passed Assistant Engineer McFarland, it is no wonder t hat Commodore Melville is credited with having accomplished a great deal more than any of his predecessors in the navy. Although giving e,·e1·y evidence of the greatest respect and loyalty to his chief, Mr. McFarland's manner of carrying out the duties of the office of secretary of the Congress was such as to cause most favourable comment from nearly every body in attendance. He is certainJy regarded among the brightest young men in the Navy, and is destined for a position of more than ordinary i --uportance. It is unfortunate, in view of his valuable service in Washington, that he is soon to go to sea."

The writer, being personally acquainted with Ml'. McFarland, can most heartily indorse every word of the above well-deserved compliment. A general meeting of the various engineering branches of the Congress was held, and reports were pre­sented by the heads of the various divisions. The following report of this is taken from the .A me1·ican M achinist:

''Mr. WilliamMetcalf, speaking for the civil engi­neers, said : ' Sixty-three papers in all were pre­sented. Of these papers, which treated on a great variety of subjects, Germany furnished 20, Mexico 6, Portugal 5, England 3, Holland, France, South America, and Canada 2 each, Italy, Nova Scotia, and Australia 1 each, and the United States 18. The interest shown in the papers is evidenced by the fact that 318 engineers registered, while the average attendance at each session was about 125. The discussions t ook a wide range. It is impos­sible to speak in detail of the large number of valu­able contributions to our literature that were made, but it may be asserted generally that the results of our Congress will be far-reaching and productive of great benefit to the profession of engineering all the world over.'

"President Eckley B. Coxe, speaking for the mechanical engineers, alluded to the great interest that had been taken in the proceedings, and the un­usually large attendance, considering the attractions outside. The papers presented and the discuEsion upon them had impressed him with the fact that engineering tended more and more to exact state­ments of definitely ascertained facts, by men com­petent to ascertain and properly interpret them. Continuing, he said: 'Engineering papers in these days are not simply suggestions of men with bright ideas and no experience. They are the results of experience, given in exact terms, showing the pounds of water evaporated per pound of coa], or the horse-power developed by a pound of steam, as the case may be. It seems to me that the construc­tion of machines by actual guess has about passed away, and that no designer or constructor of machi­nery who hopes to place his machine in competition in any market can any longer neglect a thorough professional consideration of every question and every detail that comes into play in the use of such machinery. One of the most important reports we received in our Congress was that of our committee on standard tests, and I believe that this Congress will ever remain a notable gathering in the history of the profession for the reason that we are inaugurating a system of international testing, so that work done in one country will not be repeated in another. This is an important subject, and the engineering world should give it close attention. '

'' Commodore Mel ville was the last to report for the division of Naval and Marine Engineering. He said that there had been an average attendance of about seventy in that division, and that the papers read and discussed would, he thought, prove to be very valuable to the profession and to ship­ping interests generally. He was glad to know that his own opinion regarding this had been sus­tained by one of the most eminent engineers in that line, who had declared that the published proceedings would constitute the most valuable and useful volume ever published on the subjects of which it will treat. He fel t it to be his duty to publicly acknowledge the help rendered the divi­sion by the publishing firm of John Wiley and Sons. of New York, who had taken up the matter entirely free of cost to the new organisation, dependina for their reimbursement upon the sales of the volu~es.

"Following Commodore Melville's address were those of the foreign d elegates, many of whom ad­dressed the meeting to express their great apprecia­tion of what had been done for their entertainment

and instruction, and their very high opinion of American achievements in mechanics and engineer­ing. Among the speakers were Professor U n win, of En"land and Profe3sor Reuleaux. of P~ris, names

0kno~n the world over in engineering circles, and both of whom spoke in the highest terms of appreciation of what they had seen here. Professor Reuleaux especially seemed astonished at what he had found here, and declared that in many things we were pre-eminent, especially in the matter . of precise measurements and the means for mak1ng them. American engineers would, he declared, be henceforth recognised as the masters of the world. Several of the representatives expressed themselves as much interested in the study of what they called the 'American syst.em of manufa.c~ure,, by which large numbers of p1eces, the duplicates of each other, were pro:iuced by special machi­nery and gauges. Responses were ml.de for Ger­many, Sweden, Italy,. Austria-Hungary, Russia, Switzerland, and Belgtum, all the representa­tives trying t~ outdo each other in praise of what they had seen and heard while here, after which the Congres3 was declared adjourned," and it may be stated that they parted reluctantly, but in the full hope of another similar gathering in Europe. . . .

Since thts art1cle was prepared 1t has come to the knowledge of the writer that the man who really started the idea of an Engineering Con­gress waCJ, a-s is t?o oftel!- the ca~e, not the one ~ho received the credtt of th1s magn1ficent undertakmg. It seems that t he one who should be honoured is Mr. Elmer L. Corthell, an engineer well known and justly honoured in the United States and in Europe. In connection with his work at the Mississippi jetties he came into great prominence. This oon~ress was projected by Mr. Corthell two and a half years ago, and in 1891 he went to Europe and commenced work on it. When it can be sta.ted that he corresponded with twenty-seven countries in its interests, the reader may judge of what work he has been carrying forward. His health became broken down, and he was unable to even see the fruit of his labours, but the writer is glad to pay this tribute to him and t o his work, and to assure him that no one can forget this great triumph of his painstaking and self-sacrificing work. That he would have been more suocessful in carrying out the details than those into whose hands the work fell, is highly p~obable, although they certainly deserve all praise for what they did do.

It only remains for us to place on record the fact that the high compliment was paid to Mr. J ames Dredge, by Mr. 0. Chanute and Mr. Corthell, of appointing him Honorary President of the Engi­neering Congress at the World's Columbian Ex­position.

LITERA'l'URE. Our Ocean Railu:ays; 01·, The R ise, P rogress, and Develop­

nunt of Ocetm Steann Navigation. By A. FRASER­MAcDoNALD. (With Ma.ps and Illustrations.) London : Chapma.n a.nd Hall, Lim1ted. 1893. rPrice 6s.J

THE title of this book may almost be taken as an evidence of the large number of works dealing with the subject, as it indicates an effort at originality; but some of the pioneers of ocean steam navigation would scarcely have regarded it as satisfac­tory, since their contention was that steamships could be run with the same regularity as trains, without railways; "only the land with its excres­eences and roughnesses required rails." But t.he present volume will be welcomed, for it has at least the merit of having been written, not by an arm­chair historian, but by one who has had a long con­nection with shipping, having spent many years of his life on board ship. It must not be inferred that this indicates a re~son for preference ; but in the multitude of records it is well to have one by a sailor. His personal recollections carry back to 1833, when he saw the steamship Royal \Villiam preparing for her trip from Canada to London, and the book is specially rich in information of early steamships. We cannot, indeed, have too much detail regarding the early days of steam navigation, provided the work of re­search is carried out with care. Additional value would be rendered if in all cases the autho­rities were given. This is too often omitted, and thus it is difficult to differentiate between the rela­tive value of the varying statements of different

ENGINEERING.

authors. The first chapter de:1.ls with early voyages of discovery, and the second with first efforts at steam navigation. The author probably does not intend the record to be complete; but so few were the vessels that some attempt at a complete l ist might have been desirable. The first steamer to run on the Thames, we are told, was the Marjory of 1815, but the author leaves the reader to infer that she may have been built on the Thames. The Marjory, we may state, was built at Dumbar­ton in 1814, at Archibald MacLachlan's yard, where the first William Denny was manager. She was of 38 tons, and was the tanth steamer built on the Clyde. Her aide lever engines were by J ames Cook, Tradeston. Robert N a pier made his first marine en­gine in 1824. It was for a Dumbarton-built boat, the LGven. At that time Dumbarton was, as it is still, one of the principal shipbuilding districts. Th~ Marjory came to the Thames by the F orth and Clyde Canal and the east coast, and was eight days on the voyage. She waC3 sold to France in 18 LG, and was probably, therefore, the first steamer in French waters. To her clearly belongs the credit in Britain of proving the possi­bility of steamers braving the weather of the Channel, and not, as the author claims, to the Thames or Thames Yacht of 1815, although he may be quite correct in the statement that this was the first steamer to sail to Lon­don around Land's End. This WclS in 1815, but Mr. MacDona.ld gives no details, although he indicates sister ships. In the next paragraph he states that Napier built the Rob R oy. This ve~sel was built by William Denny in 1818. and was the first steamer to run from the Clyde to Belfast. She was re-named the Due d'Orleans, and, as such, first conducted the Dover and C11lais service. This was the twenty-ninth Clyde steamer, R.nd was of 87 tons. The Robert Bruce, of 150 tons, was the first vessel to go from Glasgow to Liver­pool (1819), while in 1822 the Tartar was placed on the Dublin and Holyhead route, carrying the mail.

Coming to early over-sea voyages, dealt with in the third chapter, Mr. MacDonald has allowed a good opportunity t o pass of doing justice to a. scientist, the centenary of whose birth falls this year. Every history of steam shipping dilates on the remarks of Dr. Lardner as to a voyage on the ocean with a steamer being chimerical. Now, as Mr. Inglis pointed out in his presidential address at the Insti­tution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, although Dr. Lardner is reported in a public print of 1835 to have made some such remarks, he denied at the British Association meetings in 1836 that such a statement had been made by him, but affirmed that long sea. voyages could not, in the then state of the art of steamship building, be maintained successfully without a subsidy, and immediately succeeding events proved that he was right. Moreover, has not Lord Brassey, even in this age of advanced knowledge, contended for subsidies if we are to maintain our prestige against foreign competitors 7* In a lecture published in 1828, Dr. Lardner, indeed, said that" in 1812 steam vessels were first produced on the Clyde, and since that period steam navigation has rapidly extended, so that at present (1828) there is scarcely a part of the civilised globe to which it has not found its way. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans have been traversed by its power, and if the prolific results of human inven­tion should suggest means of diminishing the con­sumption of fuel, or obtaining a supply of heat from materials sufficiently small and light, it would be hard to assign limits to the powers of those most wonderful agents."

Copious extracts are given from the official record of the Savannah's first voyage and subsequent career, and incidentally some contribution to the general information regarding old-time sailin~ ships. The Royal Willia.m, built at Quebec, and fitted with engines constructed at Boulton and Watt's, Soho, Birmingham, is given as the second vessel to cross the Atlantic by the use of steam, in August, 1833. She was 176 ft. long over all, 43 ft. 10 in. beam across paddle-boxes, 27 ft. inside paddles ; the loaded draught being 13ft. In April of the same year, 1833, H. M. S. Rhadaman thus, a steamer of 800 tons burden, was taken under steam from Britain to Jamaica, t where she did good service in connection with the suppression of slavery. To this voyage no reference is made, and if any infor­mation can be given it would be interesting, as this

*See ENGINURING, vol. xxxv., pages 354 and 450. t Ibid., vol. xxi ., page 376.

6JI •

was clearly the second voyage antecedent to that of the Royal William. Although Mr. MacDona1d makes no reference to it, the firbt steamer in the Navy was, according to one authority, H. M.S. Comet of 1819, and it seemP, therefore, very probable that by 1833 a steam warahip crossed the Atlantic. About this time efforts were made in various directions for the construction of Atlantic steamers, with the result that the Sirius, Great Western, British Queen, President, Liverpool, and other veesels were soon on the station, and steam propulsion successful1y adopted on the Atlantic. The narrative is told i~ an interesting way, although, perhaps, more technwal detail might have been acceptable to some readers.

The salient feat ures in the evolution of the screw propeller and the modern type of marine engines are entered upon, the successive efforts of Smith, Ericsson, and Woodcroft being referred to, and the Archimedes and Francis B. Ogden described ; while in a later chapter (xvi.) the nar­rative is brought up to date. As the book is intended for the general reader rather than the engineer, detail is eliminated. The early designs of Woolf's engine patented in 1804 are desc-ribed and illustrated, but the successful application of the principle to marine engines is of later date. Many experiments were made. About 1848 the Rhine steamer Kronprinz von Preussen was fitted with compound paddle engines of the inter­mediate receiver type,* but the experiment was not repeated. Ten years before this, even, a similar type was fitted to the Dutch steamer Ad­miral van Kingsbergen, plying between Amsterdam and Kampen, in the Zuyder Zee. Probably, how­ever, the efficiency of the compound marine engine was established by John Elder. His patent was taken out in January, 1853. Normand, for whom was claimed the honour, did not take out his patent until 1866. Mr. MacDonald states that the first steamers fitted with the compound engine were the Valparaiso and Inca. This is not correct, for in 1864 the s.s. Brandon, built for the London and limerick Steamship Company, was fitted with Elder's compound engine-an important point, as this was two years prior to N ormand's patent. The Brandon's engines reduced the coal consump­tion from 4! lb. to 3! lb. per indicated hors8-power per hour. In designing the engines for the Valparaiso and Inca, tne experience in the working of the Brandon's engines was utilised. The Admiralty adopted the engine in the Constance in 1863, and careful tests as to efficiency were made, with satisfactory results (see ENGINEERING, vol. xlvi., page 97). The story of recent progress is interestingly told, although there are three or four very remarkable slips. An illustration appears on page 218, entitled ''Tandem Engines," in the midst of a description of tandem engines, whereas the illustration represents not a tandem engine, but the ordinary three-cylinder three-crank compound engine, with two low-pressure cylinders on either side of the high-pressure cylinder. Again, on page 197, '' the head of the engineering depart­ment" at Fairfield is named Mr. C. Lane (page 197). The name of Mr. An drew L~ing, who has designed the engines of so many Atlantic liners, including tho~e of the Campania and Lucania, should surely be better known to the author of a work on Atlantic liners. It is a mistake also to refer to the Paris and New York as the first twin-sc1·ew Atlantic steamers (page 150). The '' Hill" steamers long ago adopted the two propeller~.

The progress of steam shipping to the East forms the subject of two interesting chaptets, the history of the P. and 0. and the Orient Company being briefly traced. There has been some satisfactory progress in this direct ion in recent years, India being a week nearer Britain than it was twenty years ago, while the time taken on the voyage to Australia is about a fortnight less. The principal companies are briefly referred to, but the City Line is omitted, while the North German Lloyd is left out of the foreign companies trading to the East. Both lines do an extensive carrying trade from this country. In referring to the competition of the Messageries Maritimes with the P. and 0., no reference is made to the assistance got by the foreign company as mileage subsidy ; and in the brief record of the rise and marvellous progress of the British India Steam Navigation Company, the most pronounced feature, that they have prospered practically without any mail or other subsidy, is

--* See ENGI~iERING, vol. x., page 183.

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E N G I N E E R I N G. 63 3

EIGHT-WHEELED C01fPOUND LOCOMOTIVE: WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. CONSTRUCTED AT THE RHODE ISLAND LOCOMOTIVE WORKS, PROVIDENCE, R.I. , U.S.A.

(For Description, see Page 635.)

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forgotten. These, however, are small matters ; and the reference to their omission may almost be accepted as some indication of our estimate of the value of the work generally.

Chapters IX. to X I V. deal with the recent progress on the At lantic, with the inception of the Cunard Line, authentically told in H odder's Life of Sir George Burns, Bart., the competition between the Cunard and the Collins Line, and the rise and progress of the various lines, but it is not necessary here to enter into a con­sideration of this part of t he work, more particularly as in a r ecent volume we t raced t~e history of modern progress at some length.* As 1t is very necessary that complete accuracy should be maintained in connection with t hese records, we must point out that on page 144 the author r efers to an Inman steamer, City of R ome {440ft. long), built in 1873, and states t hat her owners were not satisfied with her performance. No such City of Rome was then built. That year the In man added to their fleet the City of Chester and City of Richmond- both very successful vessels ; the one still doing service for the American Line, and the other for tourist yachting excursions to Norway. Mr. MacD onald later (page 146) refers to a second In man Liner City of Rome, 542 ft . long, " much larger than th e former discarded ves~el. ,, There was only one City of Rome, this 542 ft. vessel ; and though discarded by the Inman Line, she h as, since having her machinery altered, turned out quite a successful vessel. Again, the engines of the City of New York and City of Paris are represented as differing by 2000 indicated horse-power. This is not so. Very complete descriptions are given of the two American liners, Paris and New York, of the White Star vessels, Teutonic and Majestic, and of the Cunard steamers, Campania and Lucania; and no doubt we should be flattered by the preference shown by the author for details and diagrams given in our columns, some of which only are acknow­ledged . In dealing with the latter vessels, by the way, the author quotes a. letter to the Times by Sir Edward Ha.rland, in which he suggests that in the Oampania several ideas carried out in the Teutonic were imitated. I t would have only been fair to quote the reply by Mr. John Inglis, an independent party, and which appeared in the Times two or three days later, wherein it was pointed out that the ideas carried out were of very old date, that they had Leen first introduced by other firms, and t hat therefore Sir E dward Harland

*See ENGINEERING, voJ. li., pp. 420, 483, !117, 545, and 724 .

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could scarcely claim the pleasure of that sincerest form of flattery shown by imitation. The t wo letters will be found in E NGINEERING, vol. liv., page 394.

The book, as a. whole, is most interesting, and contains a large amount of information. We have almost confined ourselves to references to on e or t wo points which suggested themselves in the perusal of the work; there are one or two other misprints which are almost self-evident. We might say many complimentary t hings about the volume. As we have already hinted, the general merit is really responsible for suggesting t hat t he inaccu­racies should be p ointed out . The wonderful story of the evolution of the modern steamship is t old in an entertaining manner, the technical details being r elieved by personal r eminiscences racily told, and the student of history will find many suggestions for the exercise of his love of r esearch. There are quite a number of illustrations, while maps are included, showing t he great steamship routes around the world, as well as charts of the basin of the North Atlantic, with a vertical section between Mexico and Africa. The t hree last chapters in the book, indeed, are given up to a consideration of the oceanography of the Atlantic and P acific, and the other great waters over which our steamships sail.

---BOOKS RECEIVED.

The Depreciation of Factories, Mines, and I ndustrial U·ndertaking$, and thei?' Valuation. By EwiNG MATBESON, M. Inst. C. E. Second Edition. London: E. :\nd F . N. Spon; N~wYork: SponandChamber­la.in.

Weather Lore : A CoUection of P1·overbs, Sayings, and Rules concerni-ng the Weather. Compiled and arranged by RICHARD I NWARDs, F.R.A.S. London : Elliot Stock.

T idal Rivers ; Their (1) H ydraulics, (2) Improvement, (3) Navigation. By \V .. H. WREELRR, M. Inst. C.E. London : Longmam;,, Green, and Co. [Price 16s.]

AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES AT THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

VII.-THE MASSACHUSETTS I NSTITUTE OF T:h:CHNOLOGY.

THIS Institute has a distinctly practical and in­dustrial character. It has no Arts faculty ; and, as it is empowered by the State to oonfer the usual degrees in science, it stands prominently out as an institution sui gene?'is, a veritable Technical U ni­versity.

It was founded in 1861 in Boston, that hive of intellectual activity. From t he outset it devoted itself with energy to the teaching of science, espe-

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cially as a.ppli6d to the various engineering profes­sions. At present it offers its r egular alumni twelve complete and independent courses, each extending over a period of four years. These are civil engineering, mechanical engineering, mining engineering, arehitecture, chemistry, electrical engineering, physics, biology, general studies, chemical engineering, sanitary engineering, and geology.

On the successful completion of any one of these courses, the student takes his B.Sc. degree; a fifth year of hard work and corresponding proficiency makes him an M.Sc.; whilst it requires a sixth year of advanced r esearch work to lead him to the highest rung of the academic ladder, and make him a D.Sc.

This Institute appears to be one of the few colleges that do not measure their success by t he number of graduates they annually turn out . It ia obvious that the system of straining after numbers is vicious ; it does not encourage the hard-working student, while it fails to stimulate t h e easy-going, society-loving reader. To be esteemed, University degrees must be the reward of scholarship as tested by examinations.. There should be a weeding out. A good percentage of r ejections is wholesome and tonic. It is because of the severity of its examina­tions that the degrees of t he L ondon U niversity are so much appreciated a.t home and abroad ; w bile, on the other hand, it is because of the facility with which these honours are distributed that the degrees of our Durhams are of such inferior aca­demical or professional value.

The great clamour for a t eaching University for L ondon that has lately disturbed our academical atmosphere is, in great measure, due to the irrita­tion of certain professors on account of the hiah standard required at Burlington House. and the con~equent paucity of the students frequenting the~ c.lasses. ~f the Government finally yield to their 1mportun1ty and concede degree-conferrina powers on the clamorou! colleges, it is to be hoped tha~ the existing. U niversity. will n.ot enter upon a pohcy of concessiOn, but will continue to maintain its standard at its usual commendably high level.

The Institute of T echnology, while rewardina the deserving work of its a~umni, ~ffers every fa.~ility for study and research, urespect1vc of the considera­tion of. certificates or de~r~es. . It acknowledges the necessit:y of ea.r.ly speCial~sa.twn ; a~d accordingly affords, 1n due hme, a ch01ce of subJects according t o the wants, ability, or aspirations of the student.

The Institute goes even further in its efforts to spread the advantages to be derived from its

•

courses and laboratories. Persons of mature years who are engaged in technical pursuits are admitted to the lecture-rooms and laboratory work without being subjected to the regular preliminary exami­nations. Teacher3 are also invited to avail themselves of the instruction given in order to qualify for a higher degree of advancement in their profession. Even those who may only have a few hours on half-holidays at their disposal are pres3ed to come and extend their know ledge in such departments as physics, chemistry, drawing, and mathematics.

The privileges of the Institute are not restricted to young men, ladies being admitted on equal terms. Forty-one availed themselves of these ad­vantages during the session 1892-93.

There is little doubt that such an institution greatly promotes the welfare of students and teachers who would otherwise never be able to in­crease their attainments beyond the elementary stage.

In 1892-93 the Institute had 1060 students. Of these, 314 were doing first year work ; 175, second year work ; 144, third year work ; 138, fourth year work ; and 286 were engaged in special studies of their own election. The staff consisted of 16 pro­fessors, 11 associate professors, 41 instructors, 30 assistants, and 16 lecturers.

The library contains 26,000 volumes and several thousand pamphlets. It is divided into a library of general reference, and nine special libraries, con­taining text-books, treatises, monographs, and a selection of periodicals germane to the depart­ment.

E N G I N E E R I N G.

Power of Incandescent Lamps to the Current, Volt­age, and Energy Consumed ; '' "Tests of the Calorimetric Method of Determining the Effi­ciency of Alternate-Current Transformers ; " ''The Electrolytic Formation of Potassium Chlorate;" "Experiments on Explosive Mixtures ; , " A Design for a H otel de Ville ; , ''The Educational Influence of International Expooitions, " &c.

Many of the text-books used in the Institute are the work of the professors. Among them we noticed "Dynamical Geology and Petrography, , by W. 0. Crosby; "Examples in Differential Equations, , by George A. Os borne ; :'Plane and Spherical Trigo­nometry," by Webster Wells; "Notes on Electric Motors, " by J. P. Fiske; and "Thermodynamics of the Steam Engine, " by Cecil H. Pea body.

The exhibit of the Technological Institute is attractive and extensive, including some 300 large photographs of buildings, laboratories, groups of instruments, albums of engineering drawings ; sets of pieces in carpentry, forging, and pattern-making; folios of statistics and curricula, a tri-phase motor made in connection with a thesis, and a collection of chemical products prepared by the students in the laboratory of industrial chemistry.

'' Institute men " seem to be very loyal to their almu mater; and it must be admitted that the dis­play she makes in the educational gallery, a.s well as h er valuable contributions to the development of the industries of New England, justifies this feel­ing of appreciation and loyalty.

Volumes. THE BOYD BRICK PRESS AT THE General Library ... ... ... ... 2619 WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. Engineering Library .. . . .. ... 3783 \VITHIN the last few years great advances have been Mining Library ··· ··· ··· ··· 1165 made in the methods of brickmaking in the United Architectural Library · ·· ··· ··· 950 States. The most venerable of all methods, that of Chemical Library ··· ··· .. . ··· 5061 hand-moulding, has been generally replaced by machi-Physical Library . . . . . . . . . . . . 3~04 B. 1 · 1 L'b 1259 nery. First came the "soft mud machines." In a few

10 ogtca l ra.ry . .. .. . .. . d d b h Political Science Library ... . .. .. . 5151 years these were in a great measure superse e y t e Geological Library... ... . .. 1300 "stiff mud machines." These, with the addition of English Library ... ... ... ... 1496 artificial dryers, improved kilns and re-presses, greatly

improved the quality of the brick. The demand, how-B esides the library, freely accessible to all ever, for a fin er grade of brick finally led to the intra-

students, considerable additional help is given by duction of the dry-press system, in which clay in a carefully prepared notes which are either '' gra.phed" nearly dry condition is automatically pressed into or printed. It was found necessary to have recourse brick form at one operation. The bricks as they are to these supplementary means on account of the delivered at the front of the machine are n.s smooth as rapid development and industrial applications of the blocks of polished granite, and can be set directly into experimental sciences. A few years suffice nowadays the kiln for burning, obviating all the intermediate to render incomplete, if not antiquated, a manual on processes of re-pressing, artificial drying, and re­electrotechnics, so that a teacher to be abreast of handling.

f h d fi · · f h · A four-mould press for this process, constructed by the times must make up or t e e Clencies 0 lS Messrs. Chisholm, Boyd, and \Vhite, of Chicago, was text-books by fresh material from current scientific exhibited at the Columbian Exposition, and is £ami­papers and the Proceedings of learned a~d technical liarly known throughout the United States a.s the Boyd societies. It is found necessary to re12sue these brick press. Fig. 1, page 628, shows a general view note3 every three years in order to facilitate of the machine ; Fig. 2 the pressing mechanism, and work and keep pace with the progress of re- Fig. 3 a cross section of the press. The machine is search. Many of those in the Exhibition contain entirely automatic in its operation, the dry clay being extenstve interlineation, and often many additional fed to it from above through canvas spouts, and the paaes. The number of such pamphlets prepared fin ished brick delivered ready for removal to the kilns. fo;' the Institute is 40, with an aggregate of 3760 When run at its normal speed, makiug fine front brick,

Pages, 480 plates, and 1200 lithographed or helio- it has a capacity of from 20,000 to 25,000 every ten

hours. The press is both compact and powerful, the typed illustrations. · h b · 19 500 lb Tl fl · d ·

As a f urther means of imparting the fullest know- we•g t erng ' · le oor space reqmre lS about 7 ft. by 9 ft .. and the machine is 8 ft. high.

ledge to its students, the Institute invites specialists The framing of the machine is of a massive and heavy to give annual courses of lectures. In 189~-93 the construction. The two side frames bolt together with­followina subjects were treated : "ConstructiOn and out the intervention of a. bed plate, the mould tables Opera.ti~n of Telephone Lines, " by Mr. Hammond locking into the frames, and making a solid structure Hayes of the American Bell Telephone Company; of the whole. The frame on which the gearing and '' Methods of Wiring for the Distribution of Elec- pulley shafts are mounted is cast separate and securely tricity, " by Mr. A. C. White, of the Western Edison bolted to the main frame, this being done for conveni­Electric Light Company; "Electro-Motors," by M~. ence in shipping. This cast-iron framing forms the

f h Th H t El t guides for the pressing parts, and carries the bearings J. P. Fiske, o t e omson- ous on . ec ;le for the different shafts, this being its entire function, Company; " Electric Lighting in connectwn Wlth as the whole of the strains due to the pressure on the F1re Risks," by Mr. C. H. Wood bury, of the Manu- bricks are taken up in the pressing parts themselves. facturers' Mutual Insurance Company, &c. The bottom of the press is planed, for convenience in

To enable these occasional lecturers, as well as setting, and no foundation bolts are required. the regular members. of the .staff,, to do their work Three journals take the direct strain of pressing the efficiently, the electriCal engmeermg laboratory has brick. First, the upper journal of the toggle, with a dynamos of various patterns ~xclusively ~evoted. to bearing 32 in. in length, pivoted on 5~-in. steel pins, purposes of instruction. Bes1des these, 1t c.ontams secured at each end in the side bars. Second, the a 150-light dynamo, presented by Mr. Ed1son ; a. middle joint of ~he toggles, ~~ich is also p~ovided :with 9600 _watt constant_ potential dynamo, by the a 5i-in steel pm. In add1t10n to the pm bearrngs, Thomson-Houston Electric Company ; and a 500- secondary bearings are provided by making each

11. S?.ht alternating current machine.. The. engineering toggle fit the opposite . one, to relieve the piD: from ..., wear. Third, the bearmg of the lower toggle rn the

laboratory is lit up by a. 500-hght direct-current upper crosshead, 20 in. long and 8 in. in. diam~t.er, compound dynamo, also ava.ilab~e f?r instruction . covering the whole of the upper crosshead, m a.dd1t1on

On completing their course, 1t lS ';lsual for the to the bearing on the 4!-in. steel crosshe.ad pin. It students to write a thesis on some questwn connected will be seen that these three toggle beannga are of with their special work. The members of the great area. and durability, and are all located abo~e graduating class of 1892 h~ve sent 132 theses, the c:lay and ~oulds , a very necessary featu~e m entirely their own work. unrev1s~d by the professors. machrn~s of th~s class. They are bored and fimshed These cover a wide range of subJect~, as may be seen by. spec1al machmery, and are of excellent workman-from the few following titles : '' Raho of the Candle- . sh1p.

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The upper toggle-pin is connected to a heavy lower crosshead under the moulds by two forged steel side bars, 3 in. thick by 8 in. wide at their smallest section. These take the strain caused by straightening the toggles and pressing the clay into the moulds. The side bars are locked securely to the lower crossbead. They are accurately finished to work up and down in slides provided for them in the maiu frames, the slides being all situated above the mould table.

These parts, the toggles, side bars, and crossheads, form the press proper. They are capable of exerting a pressure between the plungers of 600 tons, or 150 tons on each of the four bricks. As before stated, none of this pressure comes on the frames, they only forming a guide for these parts.

Connected with the middle joint of the toggles is a forged steel connecting-rod, operated by a forged crankshaft 6 in. in diameter, which, by its rotation, altP-rnately straightens and opens the toggles. The crankshaft is operated by heavy compound spur gear­ing, the main gear being 2 in. pitch by 6 in. face, and the intermediate gear 1! in. pitch by 5 in. face. The train of gearing is driven by a. friction clutch pulley 30 in. in diameter and 11 in. face, running at 211 re­volutions per minute, for a speed of 8! strokes of the press, or 20,000 bricks per day of ten hours. An ingenious arrangement of the starting lever operates to disengage the friction clutch, and, at the same time, applies a powerful brake to the gearing, so that the operator by one moti0n of the handle stops the press instantly at any part of the stroke, or, by a reverse motion, releases the brake and starts the press. This feature is a great convenience to the operator, and enables him to avoid accidents by stopping instantly.

The pressing parts, plungers and crossheads, have a vertical motion in the frames caused by the action of two heavy forged steel lifting levers, pivoted in re­movable bearings in the frames. These levers connect with the side bars at their forward ends, and are operated at the back end by a roller 15 in. in diameter, having a working face 12 in. wide. This roller is operated directly by the main crankshaft in a most ingenious manner, the throws or cheeks of the cranks being utilised as a pair of cams to operate it, so as to raise and lower the plungers while the brick is being pressed, to lift the finished brick out of the moulds and depress the lower plungers afterwards, so that the moulds can be again refi lled. The motion is smooth and noiseless, there being neither shock nor jar, conse­quently buffers, springs, and air cushions are not re­quired. The action of the machine is positive. There are no hooks or latches or troublesome mechanisms to get out of order, as is too often the case in thi3 class of machinery.

The feed-box or cha.rger is provided with a safety front, and the hopper is free to rise from its seat in case nails, sticks, or roots should get mixed with the clay. The feed-box is instantly removable by loosen­ing two nuts on the feed-rods. It has a long flat bearing, without the t roublesome guideways generally used.

The top of the mould table, as well as the whole of the feed-box or charger, is highly polished, to prevent any clay adhering to its surface. The feed-box has a long stroke, and fills t.he poles perfectly evenly. The spouts and hoppers are so arranged that if the clay has any coarse particles in it, they will be distributed throughout the brick, instead of being all collected at one end or at the top. The question of this arrange­ment is a.n important one, and the fact of this not being appreciated has led to the failure of a nu m her of these machines previously brought out.

The position of the lower plungers, when the moulds are being filled with clay, is adjusted independently of the lower crosshead. As will be seen from Fig. 3, the lower plungers are mounted on stems or rods, the lower end of the stems being connected to a lever. A fork ed rod hanging from the lower crosshead pushes down the lever, and with it the lower plungers, to such a position as will be determined by the vertical position of the front end of this lever . An adjusting screw connects the lever with handwheels, in such a way that it may be raised and lowered, thereby ad­justing the plungers in the moulds. The plungers are sustained above the crosshead by spiral springs sur­rounding the stems. These springs yield to the pres­sure in the moulds, permitting the lower plungers to seat directly on the crosshea.d while the bricks are being made. With this a.djusting device it will be seen that the lower crosshead and its connecting parts may have a positive vertical motion, thus permitting the lifting rollers t o be in contact with the crank at all times. Another important advantage is that after the lower plungers are seated upon the lower cross­head, the relative motions of the upper and lower plungers will remain the same. The adjusting wheels are placed conveniently on either side of the front apron, within easy reach of the operator. They are easily turned, as the only strain that the adjusting device can have placed upon it, is that necessary to compress the spiral springs.

The mould liners are quickly removable, and can be

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~cpla.ced by a new set in a few minut~s. Ornamental shapes can be put into any. mould, or m t o a l.l of them ·n half an hour. The thickness of the bnck can be ~hanged, and ~ny length of brick up to 14 in. made on this machme. The u.pper and lower plung~rs are both steam-heated by an unproved heater. Th1s pre­vents any clay sticking to them. The plunger plates ca.n be removed or replaced without interfering w ith the heating device.

The question of lubrica.tio~ has been :vell con ­sidered. All journals, bea.rmgs, and shd es h~ve large adjustable sight-feed lubr icators. All workmg journals such as the toggle bearings, connecting-rod, and cra~ksha.ft bearings, are made practically dust-proof.

ROAD BRIDGE AT PIURA, PERU. THE braced arch is no t a common form of construc­

tion among English engineers, a.l~houg~, as c~mp~red with the arched rib, it has mer1ts whtch ent1tle 1t t o more consideration than it has received. It may be useful, therefore, to describe a bridg~ of this character, recently constr ucted from t he destgns of ~I r. C. F. Findla.y, M. Inst. C.E., of 13, Victoria-street, vVest-minster.

T his bridge replaces a girder bridge dest!oyed by a. flood in the spring of 1891. All that remame~ of ~he old bridge was the brick abutments and a so~1d bnck pier, the latter dividing t he width of the nver un­equally into spans of about 150 ft. and 210 f t. The other supports of the old ,bridge ha~ been .~itchell screw piles. Mr. Findlay s first d estg n ~t1hsed the existing pier and prov1ded parallel triangulated Pirders of the spans above mentioned, with overhead bracing, the girders of the unequal spans being uf the same depth.

This would have been the mo~t rapid method of establishing communication across the river securely, and also the cheapest, but the Government engineers rejected it on the ground that u nequal spans would be unsightly. The present d esign was, therefore, pro­duced in order to satisfy the demand for a. somewhat better outline than parallel girders can afford, and at the same time not to exceed the narrow limits of the available funds. The drawback to the design adopted is the necessity it entailed of r a ising the road way above the crown of the arch , and also, therefore, making raised approaches on both sides.

The bridge is in three spans of 114 ft. each between centres of springings. The arch is hinged at the springings ; it is 11 ft. deep at the et;ld~, and. 4 ft. deep at the crown, between centres! g tvmg. a. n se of 7 ft. The piers are strongly braced m the hne of the bridge, S() t hat each pier ~o~l~ resist the thrust of a loaded span even if the adJommg span were r emoved. The legs of the piers are bolted to concrete founda­t ions carried down some 12ft. to solid clay. The load provided for is 500 kilos. per square metre (102:\- lb. per square foot). Further, a. 2 ft. 6 in. gauge steam tramway crosses the bridge, and a load of 10 tons on the rails is prodded for, the present engines weighing about 7 tons. There is no other wheeled traffic except that on the rails, carts being unknown in the country. The material used is steel of 27 to 31 t ons tenacity per square inch. The climat e is particula rly favourable to the preservation.of ironwork, .bein~ almo~t rainless.

Fig. 1 (page 629) 1s a cross-sect10n ot the nver, show­ing by centre lines .the main member~ of the s truct'!re. Figs. 2, 3, 4, and 5lllustra.te the details of constructiOn. F ig. 6 shows th~ fastening used for all the main c~n­nections made m the field (except where large pms were used). The holes in bars and plates were drilled in the ordinary way and broached out in place when the work was erected iu England to a taper of~ in. to a foot, the bolts being turned to the same taper. This makes a joint as tight as a riveted joint and more secure, while it can be made by unskilled labour and very quickly. The bridge is floored w ith joists of 12-in. Oregon pine and 3-in. plan king. A hove the piers on both sides semicircular balconies are carried out on brackets, and seats are placed in them.

The stresses were calculated for five conditions of loading, the deflection of the pier under unequal thrusts from adjoining arches being, of course, an essential element in the calculations. A variation of temperature of 32 deg. Cent. in either direction was also allowed for. With the sections provided, the stress is alway~ well below 5 tons per square inch in the worst conditions. The only member subject to a reversal of strain is the middle p art of the lower boom, which, when one span is fully loaded and the adjoin­ing spans unloaded, becomes subject to tension .

The bridge was tested by the Government inspector by being loaded t hroughout with sand up to the sp eci­fied load above mentioned, and it was also tested with the rolling stock of the steam tramway. Fig. 7 is a diagram of the deflections in the centre of each span when tested by the dead load. It shows a satisfactory degree of stiffness, and the rigidity of the bridge, or its freedom from vibration under a. travelling load, is equally satisfactory.

The weight of the two pier s is 23! tons, and that of

E N G I N E E R I N G.

the three spans, including cast-iron skewbacks, hand­railings, and all metal work, 133! tons. _Steel struc­tures independent of the piers were reqUired by .the Government engineers t o be erected to protect the piers against floating trees. T hese weigh 12 t ons, makmg a total of 169 tons in a ll.

The contract price for the bridge, including t he con­cret e found a tions, raising the abutmen ts, ear~hwork in approaches, &c., was 60,000 silver soles, wh1ch, a t the rate of excha nge of the t ime, represented about 8500l. The counterforts to the abutments were not included in this price. The erection was facilita t ed by the fact that the river bed is dry for some months of the year. T he bridge was manufactured by the Butterley Company, and erected by Messrs. Viiias and E lmore, of Lima, under the superin tendence of Mr. A. P. Rathbone, with Senor Emeterio Perez as Go­vernment inspector. It was opened for traffic in May of this year.

RHODE ISLAND LOCOMOTIVE AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

THE locomoti \'e illustrated on pages 632 and 633 re­presents a. compound engine con~tructed at the ~h.ode Island Locomotive vVorks, Prov1dence, and exlub1ted by them at the World's Columbian Exposition. As will be seen, it has two pairs of coupled 'Yh~els and 8: four­wheeled rigid centre truck. The prmC1pal details are as follows:

Diameter of cylinders ... . .. 21 in . and 31 in. Stroke of piston .. . . . . . . 26 in. Driving wheels . .. .. . .. . 78 in. in dia.. Gauge . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 4 ft. 8~ in. Driving wheel base . .. . . . . .. 8 ft. 6 in. Rigid , , . . . . . . . . . 19 ft. 8 in. Total , ~ ,. . . . . . . . . . 22 fb. 9 in.

, length of engine and tender .. . 47 ft. 6! in. , weight in working order . . . 125,000 lb.

W eight on drivers ... ... ... 84,000 lb. , , truck . . . . . . . . . 41,000 1 b. , of tender . . . . . . . . . 75,000 lb.

T ank capacity . .. . . . .. 4000 gallons The boiler is of steel, and has been construct ed to

stand the t est of 260 l b. to the squar e inch, and to ca.rry ~00 lb. of steam. The tubes are of solid drawn charcoal iron, 250 in n umber, 2 in. in diameter, and 10 f t . 9 in. long, fitted with copper ferrules at t he fire­box end . The firebox is of steel , and is 6 ft. long by 3 ft. 5i in. "'ide. The plates, which were thoroughly annealed after being flanged, are a in. thick, with t he exception of the flue sheet, which is ~ in. thick. The water space is 3~ in. at the side and back, and from 3~ in. to 4~ in. wide at the front. The stay bolts are ~ in. and 1 in. in diameter, screwed and r iveted at not more than 4! in. centres. The crown bars are sup­ported by r adia l stays; the grate is of water tubes with pull-out bars, and with the smoke stack is arranged for the use of anthracite coal.

The cylinders, · as already indicated, are 21 in. and 31 in. in diameter by 26 in. stroke. Each cylinder is cast in one piece, and is r eversible and interchange­able. The piston heads and followers are of cast iron, fitted with cast-iron spring ring packing. The piston rodsa.re of steel, and the guides of" cast-iron gun-metal." The crosshead is of cast steel with bronze g ibs, the connecting and parallel rods being of steel forged solid, with steel crankpins. The vahe motion is of the usual link t ype, all the parts being of wrought iron, case-hardened . The driving wheels, four in number, are 78 in. in diameter. The centres, of cast iron, were coned and turned to 71 in. in diameter, to receive the tyres, which are of Krupp crucible s teel 3~ in. thick, the tyres being 5! in. wide. The axles are of wrought iron, the journals being 8 in. in diameter by 11! in. long . The eng ine truck has a centre swivelling bearing, the wheels, four in number, being 33 in. in diameter, with wrought-iron inside journals 5~ in. in diameter and 8 in. long. The main framing of the engine is of wrought iron forged solid.

The tender is constructed of !-in. plates, braced with angle irons, with /.r- in. rivets at 1~ in. pitch. The framework is of white oak. The tender is carried on two centre bearing trucks, made with wrought-iron sidebars and cross-beams of wood, with additional bearing at the sides of the back truck. The springs, as in the case of the engine truck, are of cast steel. The wheels, which are steel-tyred, are 36 in. in diameter, the axles, of wrought iron, having outside journals 4! in. in diameter and 8 in. long.

As will be seen from the illustrations, the locomotive has all the charact eristics of the American type, and we may add that the general features of construction and equipment are in accordance with the bes t practice,

NOTES FROM SOUTH YORKSHIRE. SHEFFIELD, W ednesday.

Iron, Steel, and Coal.-The very greatest satisfaction is exhibited by manufacturers, and those engaged in the heavy trad~s, at the termination of the coal ijtrike. Business circles are more cheerful, and there are evidences that, though the cost of production will for a. few months be high, the demand will be heavy, and prices compara­tively stiff. It is understood that all the blast furnaces in

the district will be at full work within a month, an~ there is every reason to believe the whole of the output w1l1 find a ready market, for three mont?s at le~s.t. M akers of best qualitiea of manufactured .uon antlClp~te a. he~vy trade as they have good orders 1n, and pressmg reqmre­ment~ from their customers. At the steel works futu~e prospects are regarded as very hopeful. Not only IS there a. s tock of unfulfilled orders on the books, but there n,re pressing inquiries already t <? ha~d for all claste.s of marine material and heavy engmeermg wor~. C~lh~ry r equirements are also sure to be large, and rapid deh ven es will be insisted on. All the large ~st~bhshments a.~e standing as yet for coal and coke, b~t 1t 1s kn<? wn that m the course of a week the famine w1ll have dtsappeared, and operat ions will be in full swin.g. Coal has dropped Gs. per ton in the local market, mak10g houae co.al at the wharves 21s. for best, and 12s. to 14s. for engme slack. The prices of hard furnace co~l have 11:ot yet been ad­justed. The miners are stead1ly returnmg to work, but there is a little friction in some places.

Sheepb1·idge Coal and Iron Company, Limited:. A Warn­i-ng.-At the annual meeting of the Sheepbr1dge Coal and Iron Company, held in S~effield yeste~da.y, Mr. H. D. Pochin presided. H e sa.1d that du!m~ t~e l~st coal strike the company would have pa1d 10 Its Ji>lts 50,000l. in wages alone. By not wor~mg, the colhers had lost 5 000 OOOl. or G, OOO,OOOl. , bes1des the accumu­lated fund~ of' their societie~, and who was the bet.ter for it ? The colliery owners were not, the workmg men were not and the men who had been turned out of thei r employment where large quantities of co~l were used were not · indeed, it was a. senseless thmg all thro~gh, and the ~erminati~n w.a.s also senseless. He was deeply dissat1sfied w1th 1b. But the matter would not end there. The prices of coal we~e likely to be maintained for so_me w~eks, but he d1d not think they could expect htgh pr1ces to last much longer than the beginning of February next ;, th~n would come the struggle again. He doubt.ed arbitratiOn, and said the coalowners had the opportumty- he hoped they would be wise enough to make use of it-to form a. .sort of insurance fund, so as to insure the coal they got a given amount of profit, eay l s. a ton . . W?at it would cost owner~ on this occasion t o geb their ptts ready for work he did not know. A dividend of 5 per cent. was declared.

R oundwood Collie>"!/ Company.- The report of this com­pany on the year's working to Sep~embe~ 30 l~st shows a. loss of 1599l. The directors ascr1be this ch1efly to ~he great fall in prices consequent upon home and fore1gn competition, which thAy have been unable to meet by a. commensurate reduction in the cost of working. 'rhe nominal capital of the company is 75,000l. , in 7500 shares of lOt. each. Ther e is a. reserve fund of 6000l.

Engineering Branches.-In every department ther e has been slack trade for three months past, but some of the larger esta.blishmente~ state they expect to be very busy for some months, both on home and export work. It is yet too early to state defi~i~ely the directions from which improvement may be antiCipated.

N ew Central Station Vn. Shfffifld.-Sta.tutory notices are being given of the intention of a. company to erect a. central station in Sheffield, with a. special view to the accommodation of the East and West Coast Ra.ilwa.y and the passenger traffic on t~e ne.w Dore an~ Chin~ey line. The Sheffield CorporatiOn view the prOJect with approval, but until plans are deposited they cannot t~ke any formal action in support of the scheme. If carried out, the work will be of a very costly character.

Trn.-The production of tin last year is estimated at 61,480 tons. In 1891 the corresponding outpub was 57,551 tons ; and in 1890, 53,434 tons .

COMPLETION 0~' THE M ANCHESTER SRl P CANAL. ­On lf rida.y, the 17th inst., Mrs. John Jackson, the wife of the contractor for the last eight miles of the canal, now practically completed, between Runcorn and Latchford, turned on the water at Latchford dam, and it is expected that within a week from this date the canal will be full throughout its entire length from Ea.stham to Manchester, and that in the course of a. few weeks this great under­taking will be completed, upon which for its t otal length some ten millions of money have been spent on works alone since its commencement six years ago. Early lastyea.ra.contra.ctforthe compl6tion of the first three miles of thA length from Runcorn to La.tchford wa.s leb to Mr. John Jackson, of W estminster, an old Tynesider, the time for completion being fixed at fifteen months, hub lVIr. Jackson was fortunate in completing in ten months, or two-thirds the contract time, a.nd in this cutting no less than 16,000 to 18,000 tons of rock and other materials were a.t one time excavat ed per day. Later on the length from Randles sluice to Latchford was also placed with Mr. J ackson, but progress was delayed by the opposition of the rail way companies to giving possession of their lands where the canal crosses under their railways, until last July, when arrangements were made with Mr. Jack­son to work night and day, and an engagement entered into to complete before D ecember 15, hub such pro· gress has been made that the excavations were out in about three and a. half months instead of five months. On this section some 5000 men have been employed, and no less than 70 locomotives, running over some 52 miles of temporary railways. As is well known, the chief engineer for the whole of the ship canal works is Mr. L eader Willia.ms, who has been represented on the Runcorn to Randles sluice section by Mr. Ha.rold Aber­nethy, and on the length to L a.tchford by Mr. William Burch, the contractors' chief representative being Mr. George H. Scott.

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DUMPING CAR AT THE WORLD'S COLUlVIBIAN EXPOSITIO •

CONSTRUCTED BY THE THACHER CAR AND CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, NEW YORK.

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DUl\IPING CAR: WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. CONSTRUCTED BY THE THACHER CAR AND CONSTRUCTION COl\IPANY, NE'V YORK.

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THE mechanic finds in the States much ampler scope for his abilities than he does here, because be is not met a t every turn with labour so cheap and abundant that it often renders it undesirable to lay out large sums for machinery to r eplace handwork. Here con­tractors are careful how they purchase specialised plant, unless the work is on so large a sce.le that the entire cost of the machinery can be charged against it. For instance, it would be an almost impossible task to find a market for self-acting dumping cars of the kind illustrated on pages 636, 637, and 640. These are manipulated from the engine, and the train requires no more men than if it carried ordinary goods. By turning a. valve the driver can simultaneously tip every wagon in the train, and when their contents are dis­charged he can restore the wagons, and steam off for a. fresh load. 'Ve believe that nothing of the kind has ever been attempted in this country, although now that it has been shown how simple is the mechanism, possibly something like it may be done.

The Tbacher compressed-air dumping car which we illustrate was patented in 1889, and used in Colorado in the mines. It handled the material so cheaply that in 1892 a comf.any was formed to build the cars for ha.ndling grave, broken stone, ores, coal, &c., and, for the short time that the company has beon formed, they have met with success. The first cars built were small and used on narrow-gauge roads, but all the late cars are standard gauge and hold 9 cubic yards, or 40,000 lb. The working parts are simple and cheap, and easily kept iu repair. In the building of the car.s, the makers have adopted the standards of the R9.llway Master Car Builders' Association.

It wil~ be seen that the car body is pivoted on its cen.tre ~ne,_ so that .a small effort will tip it. Two li·m. atr ptpes runmng the entire lengLh of the train enable the energy from a reservoir of compressed air ?n the engine to be applied on each car for dumping 1t, and re~ur~ing it to the normal position. \Vhen the b?d~ 1s 10 the horizontal position, carrying its load, 1t 1s locked there by a. latch bar a (Figs. 1, 5, and 6, page 636), the catch being held on by a. weighted

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lever (Fig. 6). This catch is pulled off, when tipping is to be effected, by the driver admitting air to one train pipe, and through the connection C (Figs. 3 and 5) to the latch cylinder (Figs. 3, 5, and 6). This connection delivers through a port close to the front cover of the cylinder, forcing back the piston and raising the latch (Fig. 6). As the piston moves, it uncovers the port (Fig. 3) leading to the pipe B (Fig. 5), which communi­cates with the bottom of the lifting cylinder. The piston of this cylinder (Fig. 4} is thue forced up by com­pressed air passing t hrough the latch cylinder, and the car is dumped (Fig. 1). In this position it can be retained a.s long as desired. 'Vhen it is to be re­turned to the normal position, the air is allowed to escape from the train pipe connected to C, whereupon the counterweight (Fig. 6) pulls back the piston of the valve cylinder. The pipe His thus connected to the atmosphere through the hole E in the latch cylinder. If air be now admitted to the other train pipe, it enters the opposite end of the latch cylinder at D, completes the stroke of the piston, if this has not already got to the end of its stroke, and finds access through the pipe A to the upper side of the lifting piston (Fig. 4). The car body then comes back to its usual position, and the supply of compressed air is cut off by the driver. The car body automatically latches itself when it gets into the correct position ; buffer stops are provided to stop its descent without shock.

When the car has to tip on both sides, the arrange­ment shown in Figs. 7 to 10 is adopted. In this case an oscillated cylinder (Figs. 8 and 15) is used, the normal position of the piston being in the centre, so that it can travel either way, according as the tipping is to be to right or left. There are two semicircular latch bars, the two latches being operated together by a single latch cylinder (Figs. 8, 19, and 20). Figs. 11 to 14 show a threeway driver's \·alve, by which air is directed into either air pipe, and also evacuated to the atmosphere.

One great advantage of these cars is that they can be dumped while the train is in motion, thereby saving time. They will also handle more material

with less cars, keeping the me.n ~usy all the tim~. The cars are working sa.tisfactonly 1n severa~ P.laces In the United States and Canada, and are g tvmg the very best of satisfaction. The trucks of these cars are of special design, and are strong, so as to stand the hard work of construction. They are not easy to derail in case the track is in bad shape, which is often the case on new work. The makers-the 1'hacher Car and Construction Company, 917, Havemeyer-building, New York- are now prepared to build eight-wheeled cars having a capacity of from 60,_000 lb. to 80,000 lb., and which will dump on both stdes of the track, so that the cars can be used in general railroad traffic.

NOTES FROM THE UNITED STATES . PHILADELPHIA, November 13, 1893.

THE sudden drop in steel rail prices, 5 dols. per ton, by the Carnegie i1~.te~ests a.~ Pittsbu~gh, has upset all calculations. It IS unposs1ble to gtve quotatiOns to· day. Rumours gh·e prices at a.ll the way from 21 dols . to 25 dols. Propositions have been made to a number of railroad corporations to furnish rails in lots of from 1000 to 10 000 tons, between now and March 1, at prices ranging from 21 dols. to 24.50 dols., ac?ordin~ t o current rumours. This cut has been made m anti­cipation of a sharp reduction in duties by ~he Ways and Means Committee of Congress. Steel b1Jlets s~ld this week in Pittsburgh at 16 dols.-the·lowest pnce on record. In some quarters it is believed that steel rails will drop to 20_ dols. at ~ill. yv est~rn Penn­sylvania. will monopolise the busmess m ratls for t he present. Two or three eastern mills h~ve refused to make quotations up to to-day, and still refuse, not knowing what private offers have been made ~y western mills. No improvement has taken place 1n crude iron, although production is increasing, and .is now a little over 80,000 tons per week. RMl-road companies are buying very lit~le material. 9ar and locomotive builders have very little work. Pnces are still tending downward in all lines. . The iron trade awaits, with great anxiety, the acbon of the \Yays and Means Committee. The volume of general business is still from 20 to 25 per cent. below corre­sponding weeks of last year. The sweeping Repub~i­ca.n victories throughout the country mean that tar1ff revision will be conducted with extraordinary caution . Hard times have aroused the people to political action, and the outcome will be that M'Kinley will be the next President.

THE STABILITY OF ARMOUR-CLADS. To THE E DITOR OF ENOINEJ.;RING .

Srn,-Permit me to snggest to" \V. A.," whose letter appears on page 616 of your last issue, the desira.bil~ty of perusing Mr. White's paper on the value of the mner bottom in reference to the former accident to the Victoria. This will show him that the presence of this necessary inner skin is due to more considerations than the one of possible danger in th~ event of coll~si?n, assum­ing suob danger as he asserts extsts. Had tb1s mner s~ell not existed, probably he would have been the first to pomt to the folly of its absence.

Again, be is anxious to dispense entire!~ wi_tb water­tight doors, but, unfortuna.t~ly, does n?t md1Cate. how this is to be done. I feel satisfied tbatltf the Admtralty could see any other way to obtain access to compartments witboub entrances they would be delighted.

He might be good enough, after duly appreciating the conditions surrounding the designing of armour-clads, to embody his ideas in a. design dispensing with these terrible watertight doors and undesirable inner bottoms. It would be interesting to see how, weights of each factor being given, he can manipulate them so a-s to produce a ship wj.th ~~eater ini~ial stability ~n t?e dimensions and d1spos1t10n of we1ghts of the Vtctona. The whole cry against this subdivision and fitting is unnecessar1 and uncalled for.

Again, ' W. A." fancies the Admiralty omit making the necessary calculations as to the stability when the vessel is damaged. This is too absurd. The scientifio skill of the Admiralty may be equalled, but cannot be surpassed by any similar institution in the world.

The nnsinka.bility of ships depends on the possible extent of damage, and in the case of the Victoria. the initial stability, had the doors been closed, as they could and should have been, would still be as great as many Atlantic liners in their best possible condition. These veesels are constructed without the limits ~urrounding armour-clads, but even then the battleship holds the field. One of these liners, running for some years across the Atlantic at top speed, has the bulkheads arranged so that, in the evenb of two compartments being open to the sea, she is unsinkable. This assumes that only 40 per cenb. of the volume of the damaged compartment can be filled, and takes no account of the effect of the blow which would produce this state of a.~ai~s. In other. ~ords, _the calculations assume the veesel 1s tn that cond1t10n, with­out considering the dynamical effort that caused the change.

The Victoria, before the admission of water into the batteries, had sustained a loss of 30 per cent. of her dis­placement, reducing the metacentric height from 5 ft. to 1~ ft., and would not have foundered. The liner, with a corresponding weight of water equal to only 20 per cent. of her displacement, operating in relatively the same place, would bring her to the same rela.ti ve trim, seeing

that the freeboard and immers ion are alike in both vessels. The position of transverse metacentre dep ends on two factors-the area. of water plane and the displace­ment. The latter being constant, any loss to the former means reduction of metacentric hei~ht. The ratio of loss of water-plane area to displacement ts equal in both oases, so this condition results :

S tarting with a metacentric height of only 2 ft. (as against 5 ft. in the armour-clad), the reduction will pro­bably have the same ratio, and it will therefore be easily seen that the condition of the liner would be more hope­less than the battleship, and this notwithstanding the absence of watertight doors and subdivision.

'' W. A ., , however, says that armour-clads have in­sufficient initial stability, yet be will be unable to produce a single vessel outside the British service, on similar dis­placement, where the initial stability anywhere ap­proaches the Victoria. There is not a single vessel of her size, with machinery, protection, weighb of armour, calibre of guns, coal supply on normal draught, that has as great initial stability as this much wrongfully abused vessel. An attempt was made to accomplish surprising results in the case of the corresponding Indiana class in the Ameri­can N a.vy, and this obtains:

Coal endurance was sacrificed to weight of armour, and for the sake of the 8-in. guns, which are higher up than the 6-in. guns of the Victoria and easily disabled, ther~ was produced a vessel having 15 per cent. less weight of armament, 10 per cent. less extent of armoured side, 55 per cent. less weight of coal on designed draught, 2i per cent. less weight of equipment, no increase of freeboard forward and 9 ft . less aft, but with 25 per cent. less initial ~tability. I invite "W. A." to rearrange matters. An armour-clad is a compromise, and that vessel i~ the most successful that embodies the maximum of the factors laid down. Both Victoria and Indiana do this.

Y ours, &o. , J. J. O'NEILL.

Sunderland, November 22) 1893.

E N G I N E E R I N G. all these matters will have to be attended to ; and, in my opinion, there is not a. moment to be lost in commencing operations on an adequate scale.

I must apologise for expressing my poor opinions :l.t such length, but trust that you, Mr. O'NeilJ, and your readers will agre£1 with me.

I have the honour to be your obedient servant, Selhurst, S. E. R oBERT M cGLAS::50N.

---To THE EDITOR 01!' ENGINEERING.

SrR,-In your recent comments upon the Minutes issued by the Admiralty in review of the proceedings of the court-martial upon thP loss of the Victoria, you endeavoured to direct the att~ntion of your readers to those considerations with which the great bulk of the Minutes are occupied, and which arise from the arrange­ment and construction of that unfortunate ship in par­ticular, and of warships in general.

But there are one or two other considerations arising out of the deplorable catastrophe which, although some· what beyond your ordinary scope, are still matters of such grave practical importance and deep public concern a<l to warrant me in referring to them. 'l"bey relate to the personnel rather than to the mattfriel of the fleet, and affect its management and general control rather than its architecture. I shall, however, refer to these matters very briefly, and only so far as they contributed, in my judgment, t o the condition of things which brought about the collision, and eo far as they failed to effect a prompb avoidance of the collision after it had become imminent.

Firot, then, the fleet, operating in calm and open wators with the sole object of exercise and the acquisition of skill in manreuvring, is suddenly made to attempt a diffi­cul t and intricate movement for the first time-a move­ment with which nobody is familiar, and of its nature, or how it is to be successfully carried out, only one intelli­gence in the whole fleet, that of the Commander-in-Chief, has or even pretends to have any definite knowledge. Then the second in command, with almost touching re-

THE Loss OF H .M.s. H VICTORIA." liance upon a. judgment and capacity which he believes is clearer and stronger than his own, is contenb to

To THE EDITOll 01•' :ENGINEERING. proceed with this admittedly dangerous manreuvre with-SrRJ- I am obliged by Mr. O'Neill'~ reply to my note. out even asking for word or sign by which to establish

I have carefully read his letters, the Admiralty reports, some mutual understanding as to how the danger is to be the admirable articles in ENGINEERING, the further cor - avoided. respondence therein, and all that has been published in In the ordinary case where the movements of vessels connection with the subject by your own and other passing each other are decided under the rules of the esteemed contemporary technical journals. road, each vessel knows exactly what the other ship is

I do not presume to critici~e Mr. O'Neill's conscientious likely to do; and it is this safeguarding knowledge which opinions, but I cannot help holding my own. We must gives to such rules their chief value. design warships in all cases for war conditions, not those It will undoubtedly be generally admitted that it was of peace ; and as ramming and torpedo practice will be the absence of such common understanding between the doubtless u ·ed (by preference) to place ships (especially Camperdown and the Victoria which led to the awful heavy ones) out of action in future wart~ , I maintain that disaster under consideration. The question, therefore, we want speedy, handily and directly manipulat ed, easily which the public are so immediately interested in asking manreuvred craft with effective ramming powers, and is, H ow is this condition of things to be a\·oided in future n ei ther too long nor too large. peace manreuvres of the fleet? I s there not to be some

Admitting that the then Board of Admiralty and the regulation making it necessary that captains of ships designer who worked under its direction actad according should know clearly and precisely what the movements of to the lights and rules of t he t ime when the Victoria was their ships ara to be before taking part in them ? designed, yet I would ask Mr. O'Neill if he would now Then as to the avoidance of the collision. The Rear­design a. ship exactly like the Victoria if al10wed Admiral, £ ndinp: the signal indicated a dangerous move-

• carte blanche (which I presume no Chief Constructor ment of the ships towards each other, essays to ask if he is allowed in reality), and if he were but limited to the is to understand that the ships are to turn as indicated. purpose and the money to be ex pended upon it (i.e., Could any form of query possibly have been more inept ? structurally). The Rear-Admiral seems to have been so overborne ab the

I should also be obliged by his opinion on the following prospect of having to hesi tate in carrying out a. Corn­suggestion, which I made some long t ime ago when calling mandar-in-Chief's order, so afraid of being suspected of attention to the power of the ram. England has the exercising his own individual judgment, as to prevent largest mercantile fleet in the world, and many of the bim f-tat ing the nature of his difficulty. Or am I to take ships are quite capable of some self-protection if £tted the R ear-Admiral's question as a. typical example of the with (say) angular nose SJ"mour, twin-screws, means for only approved method permissible by which a. second in direct m anipulation thereof, quick-firing guns and tor- command may delicately suggest a wanb of clearness in pedoes, and an efficient ram (say) supported by a. sur- important orders? Had the Rignal really reached the un­rounding "bilge keel" (strong and cellular), which fortunate Commander-in Chief, what reply other than re­would not (I think) be detrimental to sea speeds. The Eea.ting the signal is likely to have been given ? What the country might grant a. subsidy for each, and it would pay Rear-Admiral really required to know was, whether he was it to do so. Such would help to place us in a pre- to pass the Victoria. to port or to starboard. A question ponderant position when completed in conjunction with to thid effect would have at once made the nature of the other matters that must be attended to at once. difficulty apparent.

Does not Mr. O'Neill think that one or two of these- The Commander-in-Chief, observing some delay in under British tars-might give a good account of even acknowled~ing the signal, asks, "What are you waiting a so-called "commerce-destroyer," by meeting her end on for ?" This would a.ppE'ar to have offered just the open­with rams or torpedoes? One of the con voy might be ing required by the Rear-Admiral for obtaining the sunk but the others could possibly eave the crew (in that requisite instruction. But from the evidence ab the event), and also that of the "destroyer." conrt- martial this mild inquiry seems to have been

We possess the number; add what I suggest to suit- generally accepted by the fleeb as a peremptory instruc­able craft, and also give to th~ comma~der of e~ch the tion to proceed. means by which to directly. ma~~upulate h~s own ship. . Here again I would ask, taking this as an example of

As for any possible combmation of foreign fle€\ts agamst naval etiquette, I s this to maintain in the future ? Was us, let us by all means more tha? keep :pace with t~em by time so precious to the fleet on that calm summer after­building improvements on the1r p_ar.tlCular fan~tes, . no noon that a. simple practical reply to the Admiral's 3ignal m atter what the size. But when th1s 1s d one, I st1ll thmk was impossible? that further moneys (of limited amount) bad better be From the instant the fateful signal was hauled down spent on (say) two Centurions, with practicable rams, than and the ships began to turn, until the collision on one Victoria. T orpedo-boats and catchers do nob cost occurred, an interval of three minutes must, from much compared to the damage one effecti \'e torpedo is the circamstances of the case, have elapsed. T he Rear­likely to do the enemy. L et us have plenty of both. . Admiral, on his own admission, believed that the entire

Provide some independent rams, and plenty of swift practicability of the manreuvre depended upon the Vie­cruisers. What would Englanq be without her .corn- toria. passing outside the Camperdown. This view does merce? And we have a very Wide field to protect tf we not appear to be generally approved. H owever, accord­wish to retain the empire of the seas. ing to that view, the whole safety of tha manreuvre and

But this somewhat large order ha~ yet to be execute~, the avoidance of a collision depended upon the Victor ia and the sooner we begin to set a.b,out tb th~ better. I~ ts turning in a large circle and avoid ing a small one. E' ery to be hoped that Italy will long.' speak wtth an E ngltsh ship being provided with automatic helm signals of a accent ;, but in any event-Wit~ all respect to ~ran?e very conspicuous kind, and assuming that the Victoria's and Russia.-we must be able to mdependently matnta.m helm was .Pub hard over in .from 15 to 20 .seconds, the our position in the Mediterranean and the East genera.~ly. R~ar-Admua.l had, by obs~rvmg the helm s1gnal, an un­If Great Britain does not want-sooner or later-to smk mtsta.kable means ~f kn?wmg 20 seconds .after he be~an into a third-rate P ower, and to lose the command of '?om- t o turn. that t he V10torta. ~~s endeayour~ng to turn m a xnerce and the seas (which represent the life of the nat10n), . small c1rcle, and that a colhston was tmmment. Yet not

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until the Camperdown had turned eight points, and at least two minutes had elapsed, does he make any attempt at avoiding the Victoria.

The Admiralty Minutes are clear as to the want of promptitude and decision in the action of the Camper­dawn's captain, but is there nothing to remark of that nature in the conduct of the R ear-Admiral ?

Then it appears from the evidence of the court-martial that the Rear-Admiral was wrongly inclined to rely upon the "rule of the road" while the fleet was operating under signal, and indeed was disposed to rely upon the rule rather to avoid appearing personally in the wrong than with a. view to a voidance of the collision. It also further appears that with the emergency full and swifb upon him he bad to inquire what the necessary rule really was.

In the finding of the court the judgment is expressed that ib would be contrary t o the be~t interests of the service to blame the R ear-Admiral for obeying the Com­mander-in-Chief's signal, although it regrets that he did not disregard it. 'l'he evident conflict b&tween principle and exp ediency, between discipline and duty, here involved, is, I make bold to say, much to be regretted ; and that the Admiralty Minute is not concerned with so serious a point is still more regrettable.

The maintenance of discipline is undoubtedly a neces­sity of the highest order. But its object and ground­work is the safe-conduct and preservation of the ships of the fleet, not th~ir mutual destruction. 'fhe wisest and soundest enforcement of discipline cannot include blind and unreasoning self·<.lestruction, nor the resolving of a R ear-Admiral, a second in command, into a. mere automaton by depriving him of the exercise of every trace of discre­t ion and individual judgment. Blind obedience may be magnificent, but it is not business. The highest realisa­tion of thE:' naval commander, Lord Nelson himself, boldly admitted exceptions, and could use his blind eye; aud every sound naval commander will surely insist that his actions ~hall be guided by the ci rcumstances and con­d itions of each particular instance, controlled always and wisely by the spirit of discipline, but still tempered by his personal judgment of the exigencies of the situation, for approval of which he must be prepared fearlessly to face the verdict of his peers, knowing that they will be swayed by a practical and wise moderation uther than an unreasoaing military fanaticism.

In contemplating the verdicts of naval courts-martial, it is difficult to avoid the reflection tha.b every member of such courts judges a case in whi\}h he may be the next to stand. Naval commanders, while they assume heavy and onerous responsibilities, are accorded large and liberal recognition and consideration. They will, I am persu~ded, be content to be judged only by the highest and mosb exacting standards of criticism.

The matters I have ventured to refer to are, to this maritime nation, of the greatest and most serious import· a.nce,_ and dewa.nd the closest and most persist ent public scrutmy. Yours truly,

L . L.

OUR BATTLESHIPS. To TBJo~ EDITOR OI<' ENGINEERING.

SIR,- The descriptions and illustrations of recent battleships, as afloat, show a most magnificent and powE'r­f~l. structure,_ a. tower of stre~gth and seeming invulnera.­bihty. But m the construct10n of the bull we notice an almost ~ntire barrenne~s and absence in the interior of any protect10n fr~m shot or from sinking ; the plain sides are ~n~ble to res 1st penetration, and the w&.ter flowing in and filhng the holds, and consequent upon the flooding of the holds, the sinking or foundering of the vessel. . 'l'he Victoria might still be afioab had she possessed a.n mternal reserve of buoyancy or flotation after in jury, hub, consequent upon water entering the holds, there was .n? buoyant power to uphold, or prevent her from capSlZIDg.

'fhe penetration at the midship portion of the vessel is a thing to _be co~sider£d. ~ut with the penetration of the ends provmg dlSastrous, 1t behoves us to consider whab may happen in the event of ramming or penetration at any less vulnerable part, for it is evident that if the ramming or penetrat~on of th~ bow is sufficient to bring a~out ~state. of capstze, rammmg or penetration a.t the m1dship P?rtJon would be. considerably more so.

The pomts to be considered are-first, the d istance, effect, or power of the bows of the ramming vessel to enter the vessel rammed, say, ab the midship portion of the ~essel; secondly, the am_ount of buoyancy lost to the po!t10n of the vessel £Bed w1t~ water a fter the raruming ; thtrdly, the amount of stabihty or shoulder lost due to the portion injured, and the stability remaining to the vess~l to resist overturning. T~e first may be slight or constdera.ble, but the water entenng the holds will be the same ; the second will be the measure of the volume of buoyancy destroyed equal to the amount of water ad­mitted to the vessel ; and the third the amount of shoulder or stability destroyed consequent upon this de­struction of parts and the water entering the holds (ab the same time taking into consideration the power of the upsetting buoyancy of double bottom); and then to provide as well as able-first, strength in the structure of the h~ll t o resist. penetration by ramming; secondly, to pro­vJde for an mternal buoyancy to be maintained after injury, and with water in the holds; thirdly, confining the water as well as able to the por tion of the bull in­jured, and preventing tba water entering the holds; the fi rstibeing obtained by a judicious arrangement of stringers and vertical webs, the second by an arrangement of longi­tudinal vertical sides or casings to give buoyancy and stability with the holds filled with water; the third, by confi ning the water to the portion injured. These measures would provide a positive protection, and re-

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serve of buoyancy and stability, . and pr~~ention from sinking from the effect of rammmg, colhs10n, shot, or other injury. .

seaworthiness but she is undoubtedly a splendid machine of war, and should be placed in the list of ships of modern type.

'fwo other sh ips, the Devastat ion a~d Courbet, I should consider as fit to be classified as sbtps of modern tyl?e . They are of the type of our Alexandra., but have heavier guns-four 48· ton, f?ur 28-ton, and six 3-ton guns, as against four 22·ton, eight 18-ton Jobsolete ~uzzle· loaders), and six 22-cwt. guns. The ] ranch sh1ps also ca.rr.y thicker armour and have a. thicker armoured deck . It IS true that their upper battery is unarmoured, and that there is no subdivision in the main battery, but ~bey are powerful ships and hM·e also always been admttted by the " Nava-l A~nual " as first -claes battleships. H ad the above view been t aken in your art icle, the r esult wo~ld have been the addition t o the list of F rench and Russian ships of modern type of no less than nine ves~els, making a total under that bead of twenty-one, as aga.mst twenty· three on the E nglish side, and would show, as I w ntend is the fact, that it is only in ships of the old type that the English N avy has the advantage. Some of t~ese o~d vessels are fi ne old shiJ?S in their ~ay, but t <;> ptt a. ship like the Invincible ag~mst th~ Amual Bau~m would be to court disaster. It IS for this reason that m your .very able article you have, i f anything, under.stat ed t~e sen~us­ness qf the position. A glance at the l~st of ~hips build­ing is simply apJ:>alling ; and here, agam, whllst many of the French and Russian ships are in an advanced stage of completion, the English sh ips are in quite a. preliminary stage. lb would appear to be absol~tely n:ecessary and incumbent to commence the construct iOn of sixteen battle· ships of the first class immediat~ly, and urge .on their construction with all speed possible. F or whilst your article leaves it to politicians to divine the aim of ?J'.r~nce and Russia, I think that persons who are not pohtlctans are able sometimes to make a good guess. I trusb th.a.t these r emarks, which are P.rompted by the extre~e sat~s­faction I feel that your JOurnal should have raised .Its note of warning, may not be found too lengthy for m­sertion.

I am, S ir, your very obedtentl servan~,_ .N. A.

London, S.E., November, 189~.

TH E N AT I 0 N A L D AN G E R. To THE EDITOR 0~' ENGINEERING.

tiiR,-The article in your.issue of yesterday's da~e upon cc The National Danger " IS one of very great mterest and importance, and, appearing in a journal noted for the exactness and value of its naval intelligence, and also for its freedom from political bias or mot ive, forms a.n item for the serious consideration of those who have the interest of our country a t heart .

In my view it is the more valua.bl~ because, as .I . vet?-· ture to suggest, too favourable a new of the posit ion l S

pourtrayed. . You say that nothing is ?lore de~us1v~ or ~a.nger<;ms

than to include in a supen or class1 ficatton sh1ps which do not come up to tbab standard, and in this I ent irely agree. · . d · · h

Of course exceeding difficulty IS foun IJ?- gaugmg t .e fighting powers of modern ships of war, seem g t~e mu~tl· tude of points which have to be taken mto considera tion in each instance, many of which must, for the prel:lent, be ma.tters of opinion rather than of fact.. A glance a t the various issues of the " Naval A nnual" wtll show that those responsible . for tha:t inv~l':lable publ~cation ~ave ex­perienced ~tfficulty 10 de~1dmg from tliD:e to time as to the respective value of ships of war, and In the compara­tive statement of the various ships of E ngland and F rance the estimate of the value and classification of sbi ps therein mentioned has not remained unchanged. In fact, even this publicat ion, compiled with great ca.re and exactness, does not always preserve apparently the same view ~f the merits and values of types of ships of war or of partiCular ships.

According to your article, E ngland poss~ses 19 b.attle· ships of earlier types, F rance 17, and Russta 2; whilst of modern types actually built E ngland is stated to possess 23 F rance 5, R ussia. 7 ; building-E ngland 3, France 12, R~ssia 8. But on referring to the list of the vessels, one finds t hat there has been included in the list of F rench and Russian ships of earlier types vessels which, I ven­ture to assert, a re, in facb, ships of modern type, and which would form worthy and dangerous antagonists to many of the E nglish ships placed under the heading of ships of moaern type.

In the fi rst place, the FrE:lnch sister &hips Amiral Baud in and Formidable are, I venture to submit, without ques· t ion ships of moder':l type; of considerable epee?, g reat offensive and defensive powers, they are surely 10 every essential first-class battleships of mod~rn type. There certainly has never been any quest ion in t he mind . of the compilers of the " Naval A nnual , that these ships are fi rst-class battleships. Both are built of iron and stee1. They have a. belt of armour, extend in~ from end t o end, of an extreme thickness amidships of 22 in., diminishing a t the bow and stern to 14 in. The armour of the Amira.l Baudin is st eel, and of the F ormidable compound. B oth carry three 75-ton breechloading rifled guns of modern type, each gun having a. separate posi tion, protected by 16 in. of armour. They are mounted on lofty platforms, a.nd can fi re on either beam and train through a large arc. The auxiliary armament is very powerful. It compriees four 16-centimetre guns and eight 14-centimetre quick­firing guns, and in addition there is a. large number of smaller quick-firing and machine guns. S teaming 15 knots, largely subdivided, and possessed of large torpedo equip­ment, these vessels are powerful machines of war, and, I submit, worthy to be included in a. li~t of sh ips of modern type. It may be objected that they are deficient in bow fire, that their auxiliary battery is unprotected, and that difficulty is experienced in working the guns forming the auxiliary armament whilst the heavy guns are firing; but if one werel to seek out the demeri ts of many ships included in the English list of ships of modern types, one might have as many, if not more, objections to them as perfect figh ting machinas than to the vessels in

• review. Of a more con troversial character is the tyl?e of the four

French ships of the Caiman class. These sh1ps (Caima.n, Requin, Indomptable, and T errible) are classified in the "Naval Annual " of 1888-89 and 1890 aa first·class battle· ships. They each carry two 75-ton guns in separate posi­tions, protected by 17 in. of armour, and have four l O·cent1metre quick-firing guns and numerous machine guns in their auxiliary bat tery. T hey are p rotected by a cont inuous bE-lt of compound armour varying in th ickness from 20 in. to 13 in., are well divided internally, are con­structed of iron and steel, and have a speed of 14! knot s. Their value has been much debated. They have not a. good reputation as s~aboats, but there is no doubt that they are ships of great power, and would unquestionably form, in any naval operations in E uropean waters in which France engaged, a great factor in her mari time power. Probably many naval men would take chances in them as against ships of the H ero type. T hey are, in fact, I submit, ships of modern type, and should be inc1uded in the list as such.

W ith regard to the A miral Duperre, although she dates from 1879, she has al ways been classified in the " Naval Annual " as a fi rst -class battlesh ip, and properly so, as I again venture t o submib. She is more of the type of the Amiral Ba.udin, but has four heavy guns instead of three. She is a fine ship, with high freeboard ; her heavy guns, like those of the Amiral Ba.udin and Formidable, nave. not only large arcs of tire, but are also placed at a. considerable height above the water, giving great corn· mand. Some critics have not a h igh estimate of her

•

Yours obediently, T ao ·. 0 BLEIN, J uN.

Mansion House Chambers, 11, Queen Victoria-street , London, E. C., N ovember 18, 1893.

THE PATENT LAW. T o THE EDITOR OF E NGINEERING.

SIR,-Tbe following communication, addressed to me by ]\-!r. C. D. Davis, of W ashington, will, I think. interest English in ven tors, and I therefore ask you to publish it.

Yours truly, w. LLOYD W ISE.

46, L incoln's Inn-fields, W. C. "Washington, D. C., October 31, 1893.

H Dear :1\Ir. Wise,- ! have read the review of your article on the patent system as contained in ENGINEERING of October 13, 1893, and I confess myself much pleased with most of your su~gestiono for the betterment of the patent law. I believe Ib combines the best features of the two best syst ems in the world- the U nited States and the British- and with sl ight exceptions I believe it would meet the approval of the majority of solicitors in this country. I especially a pprove your suggestion that the official examiners should not be permitted to pass upon the question of utility and patentable novelty from docu· menta alone, but that their duty should be limited to requiring the insertion of a disclaimer in the patentee's specification whenever the examiners discover anything of an anticipatory nature. I believe this would protect the gullible public better than the present systsm, as there is not one pat entee in fifty, and not one layman in fifty thousand, who understands the construction of patent claims as laid down by the courts in patent cases. It is a frequent occurrence with United S tates solicitors to pain­fully surprise patentees with tho informatic,n that their patents are limited to the precise combinat ion claimed ; and it is also a frequent occurrence to inform them that the Government does not guarantee its patents. It is these things that have disgusted a. great many American inventors with patents.

" And besides the above objections to our present system of examinations and rejections, there is another objection st ill more serious. I refer to t he practice of requiring the applicant to rAstrict his ' claims' in view of the state of the art. You are well acquainted with the trouble and injustice of this practice, and the long delay that frequently elapses before claims satisfactory to the examiner can be drawn up without restrictins: the appli­can t unduly. You are aware of the great skill req uired to draw up claims that will avoid the prior devices and at the same time fully cover the invention. I believe that fully two- thirds of the U nited S tat es patents, if tested in t he courts, would prove to be either too narrow or too broad in scope, and, for that:reason, wholly or partially inopera tive. I know of no piece of prose writ· mg of equal length that requires more oare and skill than the wording of a patent claim in this country, and I am con vinced that lack of care and skill in no other leg,(l,l document causes more loss than in patent claims. N o length of p ract ice can harden a. man of conscience to the delicate responsibility of drawing up claims for a valuable generic invention, and nothing harasses him more than the wholesale reject ion of his carefully-drawn claims by a. bigoted examiner who is usually totally unacquainted with the practical side of inventions.

"The citat ion of the alleged anticipatory matter in the specification would relieve the applicant of the sometimes awful necessity of drawing up claims that he will have to stand or fall by in the courts. I can see no good- not at present a t tained by our present system-in the prelimi­nary publication of the patent papers t o permit opposi-

•

•

tion pro~edings to be in~tituted . . The. practice of keep· ing applications confidential, I beh ave, 1s.a.. good .one, and offers the best protection to a. poor but d1hgent m ventor, who cannot afford and should not b~ put to the. ex pens of a. preliminary fight ~ith a.ny .b1g corpora~10n that might desire t o delay or hmder the. 1ssuance of h~s patent. If the opposition be limited to calhng the ~tte~t10n of the commissioner to prior patents or pubhcat10ns, there would, perhaps, be no objection to it ~ere, a.s that .wou!d simply give tbe public a chance to aid. th~ exammer 1n his search. But even this would be O~JectlOnab.le unless our presen t 'interference' laws be mo.di~ed cons1d~ra~ly, for under our present system the prehmma.ry p~bhca.t10n would enable interested and unscrupulo':ls part1es to file interfering applications and delay the Iseuance of the meritorious patent several years. I have known of ma~y instances where meritorious patentees have been ~ept m the Patent Office several years by dila.t?ry pr?ceediJ?gs.

"I hope your article will have the wtdeRt CirculatiOn. ''Very truly yours,

(Signed) "C. D. D Avis."

BALL BEARINGS FOR THRUST BLOCKS. T o THE E DI'l'OR OF' ENGINEERING.

SIR,- If I may alter a very j ud icial ~umming-up of your correspondent Mr. A. G. R amage ahghtly, the ver· diet will read as follows : "Ball bearings for thrust blocks will bt\ not only possible, but superior, provided true balls of good ma terial, of sufficient hardness, an:d proportionate in diameter and n,~m bers, be \)la?ed m suitably formed paths." As to whether this m the present state of manufacture may amount ~o condem!l&· tion," it is, of course, as Mr. 9 arter pract iCally &dt?J~ts, a quest ion of where the floatmg and ~netan~ly r1smg limit of experience may rest a t the hme bemg. F or when for instance, I, in my little way, by making deduc· tions ' from experience gained with one man-power, can sq_ccessfully deal with 40 horse-power at a first attempt, others should be able to cope with 400 horse-power. In engineering as well a.s in other sciences, the "impo3sibl~" of yesterday should be the " everyday " of to-morr<;>w, and it should nob be forgotten that where ba.ll-bearmg thrust blocks are applied the diameter of the shaf t may be reduced to a conside·raulc extent.

P ersonally I am delighted with the interest shown by the valuable correspondence in your columns, and hope it is far from being closed.

May I beg those gentlemen who have done me the honour to write me on this subject tc my private address to excuse me from answering them till I have returned from a busines~ journey ?

Yours faithfully, P. L. R ENOUF.

First-avenue H otel, High H olborn, London, W . C., November 19, 1893.

PUL80METER PUMPS. To THE EDITOR OF E NGINEERING.

SIR -We see in your issue of the lOth inst. a r aport of the discussion on Mr. Borodin's paper on "The W orking of Steam P umps on the Russian South· 'Vestern R ail ways," which took place at the meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on October 26. •

With respect to the merits of pulsometer pumps, ib may interest your readers that even better results than those stated in the discussion have been obtained with this class of pumps.

On June 9, 1892, an official test was made with one of our latest type of pulsator of the construction covered by our Patent No. 15,092 of 1891, with the following results :

H eight of suction . .. ... ... 11.27 ft. Total height of delivery . .. .. . 102.6 , Horizontal length of delivery pipe... 118 , Quantity delivered per hour ... ... 24,188 gallons W eight of steam used per hour and

per pump horse-power . .. . . . 92.76 lb. Work done per pound of steam ... 21,345 ft.-lb.

The t ests were made by the K oniglicbe Eisenbahn Direction, Hanover, in Hanover.

Yours truly, K oRTING BRoTHER .

• 86, Queen-street, Cheap~ide, London, E. C., November 20, 1893.

CATALOGUES.-Messra. 0. B erend and Co., of 61, Fore­street, London, E C., have sent us a catalogue containing illustrated descriptions of a very large variety of lubri­cators, oil cans, and oil filters, The articles are fu1ly priced in every instance.- The catalogue j ust issued by Messrs. James M enzies and Co. , of the Pbrenix Tube Work~, Glasgow1 is of very handy size, and gives a. full and complete pr1ced description of the Yarious types of metal tubing and fittings manufactured by the firm .

H .M. GuNBOAT "ANTELOPE."-The A ntelope, tor pedo gunboat (one of the improved S harpshoot er class of vessels}, which was built a.t D evonpor t Dockyard and engined by M essrs. Y arrow and Co., of Poplar, wen t into the Channel on W ednesday from Plymouth for eight hours' trial o f machinery. B efore the vessel had been long out it was seen that her boilers, which are of the locomotive type, were priming to a disagreeable extent, and after fi ve hours' running the trial had to be abandoned owing t o the splitting of the stuffing-box of the low-pressure cylinder covers. The repairs will be taken in hand at once by the contractors' local staff. As the repairs will occupy some weeks, the programme of further trials which had been arranged has been adandoned .

E N G I N E E R I N G. [Nov. 24, I 893·

DUMPING CAR AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. CONSTRUCTED BY THE THACHER OAR AND CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, NE\V YORK.

(For Description, see Page 637.) •

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CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE

The Marseilles and St. Louis Pulsometer Pumps . . . . . . . . 639 Eleo~rio Road Railway (Il- The La.te Coal Trade Dispute 641 lmtrattd} ........ . .. ... 627

1 The Distr ibution of Power

The Engineering Congress from Niagara ....... ... .. 642 at Chicago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630 cc Useful Knowledge". . . . . . 643

Literature ................ 631 Hydraulic Machinery ..... . 644 Books Received ............ 633 Notes ........ . ........... 644 American Universities at Impounding Reservoirs in

tbe Columbian Exposition 633 India and Masonry Dams 645 The Boyd Brick Press at the Notes from the N ort.h . . . . . . 646

World's Columbian Ex· Notes from Cleveland and position liUmtrated) .. . . 634 the Northern Counties .. 646

Road Bridge at Piura, Peru Notes from the South-West 647 (lllmtrated) ..... .. ... .. 635 Miscellanea. ................ 6t7

Rhode Island Locomotive at 3000 Horse-Power Quad-the World's Columbian ruple Expansion Engines Exposition (Illust1·ated) .. 635 at the World's Columbian

Notes from South Yorkshire 635 Exposition (Illustrated) .. 648 Dumping Cars at the Gabriel's Adjustable Arm

World's Oolumbian Expo· Rest (Illustrated) ...... 648 sition (l U'I.Utrated) .. .... 637 13-ln. Artesian Bored Tube

Notes from the United Statee 637 Well (Illustrated) ........ 649 The Stability of Armour- Testing an Elevator (I llus-

Clads .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. . 637 trated) .. .. .. .. .. . .. . .. . • 649 The Loss of H.M.S. cc Vie- Industrial Notes . ..... .... 650

t . " 0

orta . ... ..... . .. . . .. .. 638 Flash Lights in Lighthouses ur Bat~lesbips . . . . . . . . . . . . 63S ( I llustrated) . . . . . . . . . . . . 650

Tbe Nattooal Danger ... ... 639 Launches and Trial Trips . . 652 The Patent Law .......... 639 u Engineering" Patent Re-B~~ Bearings for Thrusb 1 cord (I llustrated) . . . . . . . . 653

ocka . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 639 With a Two-Page Engraving of 3000 HORSE. POWER

QU.4DRUPLE · EXPANSION ENGINES: WORLD'S COLUMBI.d.N EXPOSITION.

E N G I N E E RI N G.

NOTICE. The New Cunarders ,. CAMPANIA" and ,. LU­

CANIA ;" and the WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION OF 1893.

The Publlsher begs to announce that a Reprint ls now ready of the Descriptive Matter and Illustra­tions contained ID the issue of ENGINEERING of Aprll 21st, comprisiDg over 130 pages, with ntne two -page and four single. page Plates, printed throughout on speclal Plate paper, bound in cloth. gUt lettered. Price 6& Post free, 6a. 6d. The ord1· nary edition of the issue of Aprll 21st ls out of print.

-N 0 TIC E.

The attention of Readers and Advertisers is drawn to the alteration In the name of the Publisher.

Owing to the retirement of Mr. Charles Gilbert, communications for the Publishing Department should now be addressed to Mr. C. R. JOBNSON, Publisher and Manager.

NOTICES OF MEETINGS. TUE I~STI't'UTION Of' Ct\'JL ENOINEERB.-Ordina.ry meeting:

= day, and the hour. The public_hoped against_hope, and few dared to predict a satisfactory solutwn of the difficulty . Still, expectation buoyed up the more hopeful during the preliminary negotiations.

The delegates assembled at the Foreign Office on Friday morning, the 17th instant, at eleven o'clock, prompt. Fourteen delegates on either aide were selected, and the Labour Department of the Board of Trade had its representative in the person of the secretary to the conference. The conference sat with closed doors, but there was a well-grounded anxiety on all hands to gather up scraps of infor­mation relative to the progress of the negotiations, as the sittings continued hour after hour. In point of fact, the longer the conference lasted the less became public confidence in the result. The break for luncheon was extended, probably to enable the coalowners' delegates to consult with some of their constituents, from 1. 30 to 3 o'clock. The crowd in the quadrangle of the F oreign Office awaited t he result with anxiety, and meanwhile discussed the situation and the probabilities of a settlement until about half-past five, when it became known that the conference was over. As the delegates left the building t he word went round that a settlement had been effected. The conference is historic, and the terms of the settlement in full are of interest for reference. The official report was as follows :

Tuesday, November 28, at 8 p. m. Discussion upon the papers on: " Impounding-Reservoirs in India, and the Design of Masonry Dams,'' by Mr. Clerke, Mr. Sadasewjee, Colonel Jacob, and Pro­fe~or Kreuter.-Students' meeting, Friday, December 1, at 7.30 p.m. Paper to be read: " Forms of Tensile Test-Pieces," by :\Ir . Leonard H. Appleby, Stud. Inst. C.E. Professor Alex. B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., Member of Council, in the chair.

N ORTD-EABT CoAsT INSTITuTJON OF ENGINEERS AND ::>mPBUJLDERB. '' T erms of Settlement of the Coal .Dispute, agreed upon - Saturday, November 25, at 6 p .m., in the Athenmum, Church· between Representatives of Federated Coalowners and of street, West Hartlepool. The ballot for new members will be I the Miners' Federation of Great B'ritain, at a Conference ta.ken. Discussion on Mr. W. Hok's paper " On a Method of Comparing Steamship Performances and of Estimating Powers held at the Foreign O.tJice, on Friday, N ovember 17, 1893, and Speeds of Ships." Paper "On the Dangerous Working Heat L fYrd R osebery, K.G., in the Chair. ot Mild Steel and the Effect of Annealing and Air-Cooling," by Mr. "1. That a Board of Conciliation be con stituted forth-Joseph Nodder. Discussion. · h t 1 t f t 1 ., · t' f 1

SOCIRTY OF ARTS.-J ohn·street , Adelphi, London, w.c. Mon- w1t , o as or one year a easu, con s1s mg o an equa day, November 27, at 8 p.m. Cantor Lectures: " The Art of number of coa1own ers' and miners' r epreaentati ves, four­Book and Newspaper Illustration," by Mr. Henry Blackburn. teen of each. They shall, at their :first meeting. Wednesday, November 29, at 8 p.m. Third ordinary meeting. endeavour to elect a chairman from outside, and, should " The Regulation of Street Advertiling," by Mr. Richardson they fail, will a sk the Speaker of the House of Common s Evans. Sir George Birdwood, K.C. I .E., C.S. I., will preside. to n omin ate o n e, the chairman to have a casting vote.

TUESUR.YEYORS' b STITl'TION.-On Monday, December 4, a paper T h h b d h t ' t t d h 11 h t will be read by Mr. R. Godfrey (Fellow) on u The Local GoYern- ab t e oar ' w en con s 1 u e ' 8 a ave p ower o ment Bill, U 93" (generally known as u The Parish Councils Bill"). d etermine from time to time the rate of wages on and The chair to be taken at eight e'clock. from February 1, 1894. The first meeting to be h eld

ENGINEERING. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER ~4, 1893.

THE LATE COAL TRADE DISPUTE. THERE were two events of great importance in

connection with the coal dispute, and generally as regards labour, during the past week : one was eminently successful, the other a failure and a fiasco. As the successful event was, and is, the more important of the two, it must have the place of honour. On Monday night, the 13th instant, at the conclusion of public business in t he House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone took occasion, on the motion for adjournment , to announce to the House that "the attention of H er Majesty's Government had been seriously called to the widespread and disastrous effects of the coal strike, and they had felt it to be their duty to bring about a resumption of negotiations between t he employers and the employed under conditions which they hoped might lead to a satisfactory result. It appeared to t hem t hat advantage might accrue from a further discus­sion between the parties of the position of matters, under the chairmanship of a member of the Govern­ment, who, it was hoped, would not be unacceptable to either side. Lord Rosebery had consented to undertake the important duty which such a position involved. " The announcement was received with loud cheers from all par ts of the H ouse. To all appearance t he outlook at that moment was any­thing but encouraging. Both parties seemed to have anticipated a continuance of the struggle, and neither side appeared to have had any idea of giving way. Nevertheless, i t was felt that if negotiations could be resumed, under a chairman so genial, good-tempered, and conciliatory as Lord Rosebery, some ?nod-,s vivendi would be found, if any was at all possible. The result has shown that t he most favourable anticipations have been r ealised. The very announcement in t he morning papers appears to have almost predisposed the parties to the dis­pute, as well as the general public, favourably to the project. Communications were at once opened with the officials of the two great contending bodies, both of w horn expressed their willingness to meet, and this was ratified by the associations respectively concerned. The number of delegates was arranged, and also the place of meeting, the

on ' Vednesday, December 13, 1893, at the Westminster Palace Hotel.

"2. That the men resume work a t once at the old rate of wages until February 1, 1894. It is agreed thab all CGlllienes, so far as practicable, be opened for work forth­with, and that, so far as practicable, no impediment be placed in the wa y o f t he return o f the m en to work .

'' We, the undersigned, chairmen a nd secretaries of the F ed erated Coa1own ers, and of the Miner s' Federation of G reat Britain, on behalf of those r epr esented at this Conferen ce, agree t o t h e above terms of settlement of the present coal dispute.

"Signed o n behalf of the coalown ers, "A. ~I. CHAJ)IBEi\S, Chairman, "Tao~r.as RATCLU'.lt'E ELLIS, Secr etary.

" On behalf of the ~liners' Fed eration , "BmNJ.AMIN PICKARD, Chairman, "THOMAS A s HTON, Secretary,

'' RosEBERY, C hairman of the Confer en ce, "H. L LEWELLYN s~nTH, Secretary o f the Conference.,

The great charm of the above settlement is the admirable simplicity and clearness of t he terms, and of the matters really within its purview. Although the appointment and constitution of the Board of Conciliation forms the first part of the agreement, t he second part stands first in point of time and of pressing importance. Work was to be resumed forthwith, and no impediment was to be placed in the way of a return to work. The Board of Conciliation will settle all the rest. But in order that there shall be no going back upon the agreement, dates are fixed for meetings of the board, and the period for which the old rates shall rule under the agreement.

The result was everywhere received with demon­strations of satisfaction. The H ouse of Commons indulged in one of its rare displays-namely, all parties vociferously cheering the announcement made by the President of the Board of Trade at the conclusion of Friday's sitting. In the L obby, in the streets, in t he workshops, in the shops of trades­men, everywhere the news of the settlement was hailed as a declaration of peace, at the close of a dis­astrous war. In the great mining centres\ and espe­cially in those where the pits were still idle, the demonstrations of joy were such that men and women in want of food forgot their privation, and danced and sang in the streets in ecstasy. I t is difficult, indeed, to say whether the gen eral public or the miners evinced the greater satisfaction at the termination of a struggle fraught with so much gravity and attended with so much misery. The outward show of delight was more manifest by the miners' delegates than by those of the coalowners,

but perhaps the latter are not so demonstrative in their feelings. Nevertheless, it must have been a great relief to the coalowners who had been con­tinuing the struggle while so many had reopened their pits, thereby reaping the harvest of scarcity by the higher prices obtained. The merchants are not th~ less to be satisfied. If they get less per t on they will sell more tons, so that the profits in the aggregate will secure a pretty good a vera.ge up to the end of the present year.

The other event alluded to was " the Jerusalem ~hamber Conference,, held on Tuesday, the 15th Inst. Never before was such a gathering held in that old historic chamber. The occasion was new, the miscellaneous character of the audience was new, and the proceedings were also rather new. It would appear that after granting the w~e of the cham her doubts had arisen as to the propriety of the action about t o be taken, and timidity eventuated in fear, which ended in a panic . The object of the gathering was to discuss a "living wage," and a layman, Mr. George W . E . Russell, M .P . , was to have taken the chair. But the Dean of \Vestminster subsequently thought t hat it was his duty to take t he chair in such a place. The change as regards chairman was followed as regards the mover and the seconder of the resolution, and some of the other speakers. The resolution to be moved had been agreed upon previously, and was to t he following effect : ' ' That in the opinion of this conference the principle of the maintenance of a standard of decent living should be recognised as an essential condition of the settlement of labour disputes. " There is really nothing in that r esolu­tion to disturb the episcopal conscience, or cause a panic, either in the Jerusalem Chamber or else­where. It is a sound economic doctrine, inculcated by Adam Smith, indorsed even by Ricardo, and preached by most, if not all, of the modern economists. Lord Brassey, though scarcely deemed a political economist, has shown throughout his works that a high standard of living is conducive to excellence in workmanship and cheapness of production. His lordship has shown by numerous ex~mples that for quality and quantity the best paid workmen are the cheapest and t he best. Why, then, this panic among the clericals 7 This : They really know very little of business or of real life. Their eyes are fixed on a far dist ant land in all that con­cerns their ministrations and teachings. Sometimes they awake from their slumber and take sides in the controversies of real life. When they do, they usually blunder, nearly always in matters of labour. At one time they hint the horsepond as a baptism for J oseph Arch ; t hen they caress labour as a pet. Generally they are in one extreme or the other. E ven so astute a thinker as John Stuart Mill floundered in some of his closet speculations. On one point the clericals could use their influence beneficially, namely, in favour of arbitration and conciliation for settling labour disputes. Here is a wide field for them to work in- will they help in this direction ~

The coal dispute being over, many are busy coun ting its cost. That it has been costly none will dispute. The losses to employers and em­ployed en<raged in that dispute have been enormous. In t he fir;l place, all the funds of all the miners' unions have disappeared, including those of South Wales, all except Durham and Northumberland. Even these have been drawn upon to some extent. But the loss in wa<res has far exceeded t he loss in any great strike previously. The dispute lasted about four months ; during a part of the time those idle numbered hundreds of thousands of. wage­earners, the total earnings o~ whom durmg. the period ir. which they were Idle. ar~ gone, Ir~e­trievably lost. The savings of a h fcttme have dts­appeared also. Added to all th~ was the pri_vation endured, alleviated only, or mainly, by I?ubhc sub­scriptions or by grants from trade unwn funds, suppleme~ted at a later stage by the levies of those who had resumed work. Then the losses to the coalowners must have been immense> particularly to some of them. Others, o? the c~ntrary, have r egained a portion by the h1gher pr1ee of coals. Idle pits devour money, a fact too often overlooked. But perhaps these losses will be recouped to. some extent. But the losses to trade generally will not be so recouped ; and these have been e.normous. R ailway companies, shipowners, the u on and steel industries, manufacturers, sho~keepers, poor people all have suffered by this stupendous struggie. What are th~ . gains 7 Wel.l, t~ere will be differences of opiniOn upon thts point.

•

E N G t N E E R I N G. But labour has gained by the issue of this contest. A great federation has fought a battle and won t he main principle con tended for- no reduction in wages. This has been done in spite of a falling market, of trade depression, of a wealthy combina­tion such as was seldom seen before. Pluck and endurance, backed by public sympathy, have ad­vanced the labour question another stage. Labour cannot afford another such struggle for years to come; but prudence, foresight, and conciliation may consolidate what has been won. The living wage, a higher standard of living for t he wage­earners, are questions of moment, and the public are sympathetic for their realisation. There is, however, danger in victory as well as in defeat. Let the leaders ponder the lesson. On the whole, the battle has been fought with good temper on both sides. The two part ies have met and dis­cussed, differed and separated; the few instances of violent exhibition of feeling will be forgotten in the welcome of peace.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF POWER FROM NIAGARA.

•

F oR years past we have been persistently told t hat we are being beaten in mechanical progress by America. The globe - trotter, fresh from his travels, relates that the fastest locomotives are to be found across the Atl~ntic, that the output of pig iron in the States is greater than here, that t he blast furnaces get through double the work of the best Middlesbrough practice, that every village has its electric lighting station, and that the length of electric t ramway is to be measured by thousands of miles. These, and many other unpleasant compari­sons, he showers broadcast, because no answer can be given to them which his understanding is capable of grasping. It is useless to point out to him t hat progress in America follows the direction of the needs of the country, and that in a country governed by different conditions, and having other needs, the same phenomena might indicate the reverse of progress. Such considerations are not capable of being set forth in the concise form neces­sary for his prompt extinguishment, and his habit of superficial observation prevents him giving sufficient attention to understand a lengthened explanation. It was, therefore, with feelings of grat ification that. some two years ago, Englishmen learned that the body of New York financiers, who had detf\rmined to utilise some part of t he energy of the Falls of N iagara, had come to Europe to be advised as t o the best methods of carrying out their enterprise. This, at least, furnished direct proof that we were not alto­gether behind our cousins in engineering science, and furnished a telling answer to unpatriotic detractors. Later on, when Professor George Forbes was ap­pointed consulting electrical engineer to the Cataract Construction Company, the whole of his colleagues in London felt that a high compliment was paid to the English branch of the profession, and one that could scarcely have been expected, since both the continent of Europe and the States furnish better grounds for gathering experience in the transmis­sion of power by electricity than any t o be found here. Had the post been offered to a Swiss or Germau engineer , the choice would have appeared only befitting, and would have been accepted here as quite natural.

The announcement that Professor Forbes would read a paper on the 9th inst . before the Institution of Electrical Engineers drew a large audience, eager to learn how far the rumours current as to the designs adopted, were correct. The distribution of 100,000 horse-power is such an immense stride in advance of anything hitherto attempted, that the responsibility of deciding on the system to be adopted is not one to be lightly undertaken. Of course it was known that the alternate current would be adopted- it has long ceased to be a matter of speculation as to whether it or the direct current is best suited for the purpose. But speculation ranged over single-phase, double-phase, and mult i­phase currents ; over high- tension generators verstts step-up and step-down transformers; over synchronous and non-synchronous motors; over overhead lines and conduits, and many other points. In a general way, Professor Forbes satis­fied the curiosity of his auditmce, although he left them in the dark as to many mat ters of detail.

His plan~ may be briefly described .as a series of compromises between what he would hke and what he can get. The most noticeable feature is the adoption of low frequency of current. After many

'

experiments, he settled on 165· alternations per second as the most advantageous number, as com­pared with he 42 of Ganz, 76 of Siemens, 100 of Brush, and 133 of W estinghouse. But he found that machines built to fulfil thia condition would be too heavy to be placed at the end of the shafts of the 5000 horse-power t urbines that are being con­structed, so he altered the figure to 25 alternations. As regards voltage, t he conveniences of keeping the generator to a moderate figure, and transforming up on to the line, were evident. But it was found that transformers to step up from 2000 volts to 20,000 volts and down again, would be as expensive as the generator, and thus double its cost. The desirability of producing current of the final pres­sure was thus made evident, and 20,000 volts were adopted as the standard. This was nfJt an extra­vagant figure, and did uot represent any great advance upon what had been done before. At Deptford, where one pole of each generator is put to earth, the voltage is 10,000, t hat is, the greatest difference of potential between the line and earth is t he same as in an insulated system working at 20,000 volts. This is so well und erstood that several European contractors would readily under­take to supply dynamos to work at this pressure. But in America the case is different; experience there stops at 2000 volts, and manufacturers could not be found to under take machines t o withstand more than 5000 volts. The engineer had, theref0re, the choice of advising that the machines should bo imported, or of reducing his pressure. He chose the lat ter; the import duties would have been exceedingly heavy on foreign machines, while the national feeling would possibly have been wounded at their introduction. Consequently the original plan was set aside, and 2000 volts adopted as the standard for the first three machines. These machines are to give a two-phase current, that is, there will be two separate circuits in them, so disposed that the current in one will be 90 deg. in advance of the other. These currents can afterwards be utilised in any way that is most convenient. They can be used separately to drive synchronising motors, or together in Tesla motors ; they can be more easily rectified than a single-phase current for use in street railways, electro-metallurgy, &c. The pro­spective output of the N iagara works is so large that provision must be made to fulfil all important demands, however different they may be.

It is intended to run the mains, which are eventually to extend to Buffalo, some twenty miles distant, in a culvert of such dimensions as to allow a man t o walk through. Provision is made for a large number of conductors. This conduit is already in course of construction for a length of 2500 ft., to carry the conductors to the Pittsburg Reduction Company's works, who will be one of the first customers.

Such are the main features of the scheme which Professor F orbes expounded to his audience at great length. He disclaimed any great originality for th~m, and took his audience very fully into his confidence as to the reasons which influenced him in his decisions. He set out with the determina­tion that he would produce one kind of current only, and that his machines should be both in tar­changeable and capable of working in parallel. He would not have one kind of machine for arc light ­ing, another for incandescence lighting, another for electro-meta.llurgical work, and so on. Such an arrangement would have doubled the outlay for plant, for no machine would ever have been working at its full capacity. Now in America parallel working is practically unknown, and manufacturers are naturally cautious as to how they enter into guarantees for its accomplish­ment. "It is a mattP.r of common know­ledge," said Professor Forbes, '' that parallel working is assisted by lowering t he frequency. n

This, t hen, was one of his reasons for choosing a low figure. Another was the desire to render it possible to use ordinary continuous-current dy­namos as sychronising motors, by t he addition of rings attached to the commutator bars in such a way as to communicate with each alternately. Such motors work well with alternate currents of low frequency, particularly if the fields and armature be carefully laminated. Professor Authony reports that small motors of this kind ''run very nicely where the alternations do not exceed 25 per second, n and that '' at 8 per second large motors could be ruu with perfect success., No doubt it will be a convenience for people in the neighbour­h ood to use this type of motor for small work, but

the amount of power they will require is not likely to be so large as to render it worth while to modify the plant for their accommodation. Professor Forbes devoted considerable time to this point, but he had other reasons to urge in defence of low fre­quencies. He recalled t he fact that it had been thoroughly established that the performance of synchronising moto.rs is very much improved by using low frequenCies. Also that those that have used the motors with rotating field of the two-phase or three-phase type, have all been obliged to reduce the frequency of ~he current to get t~e best resu~ts. It is found that In every self-starting alternating motor, whether multi-phase or otherwise, the effort at starting is increased by lowering the fre­quency. He added :

"I wish to repeat that, from what I have seen in the workshop3 of all advanced electricians in the last year or two, I am confident that in the nea~ future single-pha.se alternatin~ current motors, self-star tmg on full load, wtll be largely used ; and there is not the slightest doubt that all of these work far better with low frequencies. In fact, as Mr. Brush once said to me when I was discussing this matter with him, 'Really, your best plan would be to lower the frequency so much that you get a direct cur­rent. '

" Whilst speaking of low frequency in relation to motors, I must say that I have much greater hopes of obtaining a good commutating device with a low fre­quenoy than with a high one; and I will also state that I liave great hopes of important advantages coming to us from the invention of such a commutating appliance which will enable us to furnish street rail way companies, electro-metallurgical works, and other consumers with the direct current without the use of any heavy revolving machinery at the transforming station. "

The advantages of low frequencies are not con · fined to the motors ; they also pertain to the con­ductors. An alternating cur~ent of high frequency tends to confine itself to the outside of the con­ductors, thus increasing the t~tal resistance ; the im­pedance of the line is also increased by the magnetic field formed between the go and return wires. Again, there is greater t endency t o discharge from an electrified conductor into the air, and the diffi­culty of insulation is increased. On the other hand, with low frequency, the capacity of the cables is less troublesome, and there is less loss of static charge by heating of the insulation. Abnormal rises of electric pressure in the mains above the pressure generated by the dynamos, due to the resonant etl'ect produced by the capacity of the cable and the self-induction of the circuit, may be reduced by lowering the frequency.

While Professor F orbes dwelt at very consider­able length on the advantages of low frequency, he did not pass over its disadvantages. The first is that low frequency is not suitable for electric light­ing directly. We should imagine that the Niagara. Falls Power Company will not be anxious to under­take too much lighting, except at very much higher prices than they are charging for power. vVhat they require are customera that will take current all day long, and, if pos,ible, all night too, and not those that only want it two or three hours out of the twenty-four. If lighting commenced when the factories closed, that source of de­mand would be very convenient, but unfortu­nately, in the busy season, it begins early in the afternoon. The town of Buffalo, however, is going to be lighted from Niagara; at present steam engines, to the amount of 3000 horse-power, are at work driving the arc lights there, and it will be a simple matter to replace these by alternate cur­rent motors. In this case the frequency is of no account. Experiments made by Professor Forbes show that a 16 candle-power 50-volt incandescent lamp shows a flickering almost up to 25 periods per second, and up to 28 periods if it be over­incandesced. A lOO-volt lamp shows a percep­tible flicker up to 28 periods. With arc lamps there is very bad flickering at 37! periods per second; at 40 periods it is still bad ; at 45 periods it is just possible to notice it on a printed page held close to the lamp, but it is not visible when reading at a distance of 10 ft. At 50 periods the only means of detecting anything of the sort is by look­ing directly at the arc ; nothing is seen when read­ing a. hook, either with the opal shade on or off. In the lamp tried the current was 14.2 amperes, the pressure 26 volts, and the carbons Siemens and Halske's best cored variety.

The efficiency of transformers in relation to the size and cost also falls off as the frequency is lowered, but not so much as is sometimes sup­po3ed ; the increased cost is not in proportion to the lowering in frequency, because a higher induc-

E N G I N E E R l N G. tion can be used. Mr. Steinmetz has shown that the loss due to hysteresis varies as the induction raised to the power 1. 6, and it is this loss must be kept constant when the frequency is varied. Pro­fessor Forbes deduces from this law the fact that in any transformer, if t~e hysteresis ~os~ is kept c?n­stant, its power of do1ng work vanes In proportiOn to the frequency raised to the power 0.4 (but it is probably unwise to increase the induction so much as to satura.te the iron). I t follows by doubling the frequency there is got out of the s~me transfor~er l 32 units of work instead of 100. By quadruplmg the frequency, 174 units are got. If the frequenc.y be reduced one-half, the cost of a transformer IS increased 50 per cent. Professor Forbes continued :

"The lowest price which has been quoted for large transformers is 3. 52 dols. per horse-power, at a frequency of 42 periods per second. In halving the frequency the extra cost would, therefore, only be 1. 76 dols. per horse­power. It becomes, then, a matter of inquiry whether the benefits to be derived by lowering the frequency in such a proportion would compensate for the extra expen­diture as indicated. I am thoroughly convinced that the gain is far in excess of this amount. I shall have occa­sion to discuss the superior efficiency of motors at low fre­quency; and in most types of motors I think it safe to say that in passing from 42 periods to 21 periods, or vary­ing the frequency in that proportion, we have a gain of at least 3 per cent. in the efficiency of the motors. Neglect ­ing altogether the increased value of the motors from this cause, there is 3 p er cent. more power at our disposal, which, at only 10 dols. per horse·power per annum, would amount to 30 cents per annum, or, capitalised at 5 per cent., represents an increased value of 6 dols. per horse­power of the plant, against which we have the increased cost of transformers-only 1. 76 dols. It appears, then, pretty certain that, from a purely economical considera­tion of the question, a lower frequency than any which has hitherto been adopted is advantageous."

Professor Forbes gave a general description of the machinery that is being constructed.* The turbines are each of 5000 horse-power. They are placed at the bottom of a large pit, and their shafts are carried vertically to the surface, where they are connected to the generators. These have the armatures fixed, and inside the machines, while the fields revolve outside them, the fields being formed of a ring of iron with the poles projecting radially inwards. The armature coils are wound independently, and can be removed and changed. They are fixed in slots in the fixed armature. The field magnet is of forged steel, supported by a spider with eight arms ; the pole pieces are bolted to the steel rim. The field coils are of copper strip. The hub of the spider is fixed to the upper end of the shaft, which is suppor ted by two bearings, each of which has four radial arms. Space is left between t hese arms, and also between the arms of the spider, for portions of the turbine shaft to be lifted through, if necessary for r epairs.

The evening of the 9th inst . was entirely occu­pied by the reading of the paper, and the discussion was deferred for a fortnight. At the time of writing it has not commenced, although before this reaches the hands of our readers the first night's debate will be concluded. It is certain that a very hot controver.sy will be raised, for not only are many of Professor Forbes's decisions debatable, but by giving his reasons at such length he has made many openings along which he can be attacked. It is on the question of frequency of alternations that the chief battle will rage. The engineers who have adopted higher standards will come forward to defend them as applicable to all purposes, even to power distribution at Niagara ; they will certainly assert that their machines will work perfectly in parallel with their present frequency, and that no improvement would be found by adopting a lower figure. It will be a very interesting debate, and is likely to extend over several nights.

======= ''USEFUL KNOvV.LEDGE."

WE seldom use the old tern1 "Useful Know­ledge" nowadays ; perhaps it would be well to revive it for contradistinction to that kind of know­ledge which is more characttJristically ornamental. The latter is an excellent thing, but it is a luxury ; and those proposing to invest largely this way would do well to ask themselves whether they can afford it. Last week we commented upon the Director of Naval Construction's address on " Tech­nical Education, " which is the "Useful Know­ledge" of our fathers glorified and developed. This week we have before us another address delivered on the other branch of knowledge, by the

* See ENGINEERING, vol. liv., page 782.

head-master of H arrow. The occasion was the annual meeting of the London Society for the E xtension of l Tniversity Teaching. Dr. Welldon tells us that the peculiar function of "exten­sionising" is " to create in the minds of a great number of persons the first conception of intellec­tual study as a thing wor th having in i~self. " T~is is a very beautiful sentiment, as unassa1labl.e as fihal affection, or any other form of mundane piety, and yet, in this imperfect world, it may be pushed too far. That itisdailypushed too far in this island stronghold of convent ion is our quarrel with the ornamental knowledge party. "There is so much dispositi.on ordinarily to associate knowledge wit~ some ulteri.or consideration, with some commerc1al or social object,, complains Dr. vVelldon later on ; and perhaps we should more admire this fine con~empt of materialism were not the "ulterior considera­tions" of the head-master of Harrow so completely secured to him by the result of his own learning. Doubtless his attachment was pure and uncontami­nated; he wooed a virtuous beggar-maid, and she t urned a princess at the altar. But we cannot all win head-masterships of famous public schools, and it is time some movement were made for the relief of the ever-suffering humanity of the school-room, and a word of reminder be said to parents. When the big public schools turned out little more than country gentlemen and members of the learned or military professions, t o learn for love of knowledge alone was well enough. The "ulterior considerations " were in natural sequence. Now, in addition to the classes named, engineers, merchants, and manufacturers of all kinds send their sons to t he public schools (to prepare for the same walks in life they t hem­selves have followed) too often without duly considering the cost.

Of course we have chiefly the teaching of the two dead languages in mind- Latin and Greek, which occupy so much of the schoolboy energy and so many schoolday hours. If we could bu t put gentility on one side, and look the matte r squarely in the face, what should we find 1 Out of each hundred men who have devoted six, eight, or ten years of their young life to classical study, how many could, at the age of forty, con­strue a page of their tear-stained Cresar, supposing it t o emerge from some forgotten lumber-room 1 We venture t o say not more than two or three, taking the country through, and putting aside the learned professions. How many, like Mr. Glad­stone or the late Lord Derby, can read Homer in the original 't N ot one in four or five thousand. It is advanced as an apology for classical teaching that it is so potent a means of developing the intel­lectual facult ies ; but are there no other studies that would prove almost as effectual, and yet leave a residuum of "Useful Knowledge ?" Would Ger­man verbs be so vastly inferior to Latin de· clensions as intellect fertilisers 1 Would not a broad knowledge of the harmonious structure of our own frames be superior to both 1 The treadmill is doubtless an excellent means for developing the muscular system, but coal-whipping is as efficacious, and is, moreover, profitable. Fifty years ago Latin and Greek were taught t o the sons of gentlemen because a classical educa­tion was the hall-mark of gentility ; the sons of tradesmen were instructed more simply because their fathers possessed simple common sense. The "democratic spirit of the age " has obliterated the old social divisions ; we are all gentlemen and ladies now, so that the plain designations "man " and '' woman" are generally outside the bounds of politeness. The sons of the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick- maker must laboriously get their smattering of ''the classics," just as every petty farmer's daughter must play the piano, though she would scorn to milk the cow.

If technical education iB doing no more for us it is at least directing the education of our sons ~nd daughters suitably for that state of life into whic~ it sh~ll please God to call them. The engi­neer Is find1ng that, to meet the fierce competition of the future, his son should not devote his freshest energies and best hours of life to studies which exceptionally and at best, can afford but a fringe and orn a.ment to his social hours. Hundreds of hard­workin~ engi~eers th:oughout. this country are ~trugghng agamst the1r own 1gnorance-groping blindly by obscure methods along the thorny paths of empiricism; whereas, had the time spent on forgotten classical studies been devoted to more useful knowledge, their easy way would be along a

broad and easy road illuminated by the certain light of scientific induction.

Education is a term little understood; it mostly means simply the doing of lessons. The school­nH~ster looks on the tasks he sets as ends in them­selves, not means to ends. Viewed in this light, the rulea in the Eton Latin Grammar, expressed in the original, are as useful a test of diligence when learnt by heart as the problems of Euclid acquired in the same manner . '' Training of the youthful intelligence," ''The love of learning for its own sake,'' are catch phrases that are used for the excuse of this sort of thing. Dr. Welldon is too en­lightened to hold such views, as the concluding paragraphs of his address bore testimony, but his words may be twisted to support the ignorant methods of indolent and self-interested instructors. But perhaps the greatest danger is that his eloquence and enthusiasm may lead parents to insist on a course of education for their children of which the children will not be able to reap the advantage. This is a workaday world to most of us, to all but an ever-dwindling minority. L ow interest makes money in itself less and less valuable yearly, excepting as a tool for work. The man of inde­pendent income must now have larger means than ever. Money and education-the right sort of working education-are as potent as ever in com­bination, but money must be used ; it is becoming more and more difficult t.o put it out to interest. There is every prospect that that difficulty will grow in a rapidly-increasing ratio in the future. Unless we get ''Useful Knowledge," '~Made in Ger­many " will be writ larger and larger on our national life. In chemical industry we have fallen behind, and in engineering production we are being hard pushed. Knowledge without " ulterior considerations, " without some'' cominercial object, " will not help us in this struggle for exiatence.

HYDRAULIC MACHINERY. FoR certain purposes and in certain conditions

there can he no question that hydraulic machi­nery has advantages over all competitors as a means of distributing power. Its first cost, no doubt, is high, and its efficiency in general is comparatively small ; ne\ertheless, hydraulic plant is now recognised as the proper equipment for docks where the traffic is large enough to justify the comparatively great prime cost. One of the great advantages of the hydraulic system is its compactness, which enables the ex­ceedingly valuable quay space of~ dock to be more fully utilised. This advantage 1n the case of a busy dock is more than sufficient to pay for the extra cost of an hydraulic plant as compared with other systems. Steam cranes, though exceedingly useful and valuable tools, are certainly noisy, and usually dirty. No greater contrast in ~ools. for doing the same kind of work can well be 1mag1ned than that between an hydraulic crane and an ordi­nary steam crane. The for!ller does its work ~n silence tha.t impresses one w1th a sense of power 1n reserve which is singularly absent from its '' fussy " rival. 'In general, h~draulic cranes ~re still con­structed on the ingen1ous system devised _by Lord Armstrong in t he earlr days of . hydraulic power distribution and certainly nothing ca.n well be neater tha~ his device of the inverted pulley tackle in which the load is attached to the fall or' the tackle, and is h oisted by applying hy­draulic pressure to one of the blocks. F or many years chain was exclusively used for this tac~le, but latterly steel wire rope has been coming into favour, though there haye been insta~ces . of failure with it. Thus, at Ven~ce, on _substitutmg steel wire rope for the chains prevwusly us~d, failures were very frequent, and the use o~ chains has, therefore, been resumed. It would be mteres~­in(J' to have further particulars of the e~ac~ condl­ti;ns under which this experimental subshtutw.n was made. On the face of it, it rather loo~s as If the wire rope had been run over the s_ame stzed J?Ulleys as were formerly used for the cha1ns. If t~us were so, the failure was only to be expected, as wue r?pes should be worked over as large p_ulleys as possible, though in a statical test they will prove about as strong when tested on a small diameter ~~ll.ey as on a large one. For larger loads the dtrect­acting " system seems to have great advantg,ges, and is very generally adopted. Thus on the 160 · ton crane recently erected at the Malta D~ckyard, large loads are lifted by means of an Inver.~ed hydraulic cylinder hung from the crane Jib.

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The piston-rod passes through a stuffing-box at the bottom of this cylinder, and is furnished with a shackle at its lower end, to which the weights to be lifted are attached. This plan, of course, requires a great height of crane, which must be more than double that of the total lift required. On the other hand, the friction of gearing or tackleR is entirely eliminated, and the efficiency of the crane correspondingly increased, though there is a certain loss of head due to the elevation of the hydraulic cylinder. A crane of this power is, however, seldom t·equired, and in order to prevent a costly tool like this being entirely unremunera­tive throughout the major portion of the year, it is common to prolong the jib slightly, and to fit a chain purchase outside the hydraulic cylinder, by means of which loads much below the maximum can be economically raised.

Another operation to which "direct-acting" plant has been successfully applied is the working of dock gates and heavy sluices. These gates often weigh over 100 tons apiece, and have very commonly been operated hydraulically, but in general some form of gearing has been made use of. P erhaps the most recent dock installations are those of the ports of Genoa and Savona, Italy ; the Barry Com­pany, near Cardiff ; and the Preston Dock, made by the Corporation of Preston, in Lancashire. In all these cases hydraulic apparatus has been ap­plied, and in the deep lock now being made at Barry, where very lar~e gates, sluices, &c., have to be dealt with, hydraulic apparatus is being used. As regards dock gates, these, in this country and elsewhere, are opened either by chains with hydraulic cylinders, rams, and pulleys, or by chains and hydraulic engines, with gearing and drum, or by direct-acting cylinders with piston and rod attached to the gate by means of a crosshead. E xamples of the first-mentioned plan can be seen at East and \Vest India Dock, London ; the Aber­deen Docks, and elsewhere. The second-named plan can be seen in Cardiff at the Bute Docks, at Grimsby, and at Preston, and the third plan of cylinder with direct-acting piston and rod is in successful operation at Barry. We believe the first application of the direct cylinder with piston and rod was made at Grimsby, for the turning of a bridge, by the late Mr. Benjamin Walker, of Leeds, and this is referred to and fully described in Minutes of Proceedings of the Insiitu­tion of Civil Engineers, vol. lvii. In the new sluices for the deep lock, Barry Dock, hydraulic cylinders with direct piston and rod are employed, and nothing could possibly be simpler or more effective. It is in this simplicity, and the absence of chance of failure attendant on such simplicity, that the great merit of hydraulic appliances lies, this feature being especially valuable in the case of dock work, where delays in the working of gates, &c., are especially undesirable.

Outside of the docks, and omitting power supply companies from consideration, the railway com­panies are probably the largest users of high­pressure hydraulic plant, having found the hydraulic capstan a most convenient accessory to their goods yards, where it is largely employed for shunting operations. The ~ain sourc~ of loss in ~ydraul_ic machinery, as apphed for rotative purposes, IS that In general these engines use the same quantity of water whatever the power they are exerting. A steam engine under such conditions would be given to running away, ?ut a valua~le feat~re of ~y~raulic plant is that this tendency IS practiCally eliminated by fluid friction, the amount of energy abs~rbed by which increases enormously as the velocity of flow becomes greater. This principle, we may note is made use of in the hydraulic buffers now so com~on and in the steam and hydraulic reversing gears fitted to so many of the . American line:s and other mail steamers. R eturning to the subJect of rotary hydraulic mot?rs, i~ may, h?wever, be noted that Mr. A. Rigg,s 1ngenwus engine has now been successfully worked for some years, a~d can b~ run at very high speeds, though at them Its effie1ency is, of course, r educed.

It is rather strange that up to the present but little has been done in the matter of working tur­bines off the high-pressure mains of the various supply companies. In the case of London these mains already have an aggrega~e length of about 60 miles, and are constantly bemg extended. On this long line of pipes there are, we understand, only about a couple of turbines at work. The main reason for this is no doubt due to the fact that most of the work to be done is direct lifting

of loads, but little power being employed in a manner involving rotary motion. Still it would be interesting to see if suitable turbines could not, in a number of instances, be economically worked from hydraulic pressure mains.

For working riveters nothing can excel the hydraulic system in efficiency. This is due to the fact that the final pressure on the rivet is consider­ably greater than the nominal pressure in the accu­mulator. The explanation of this was given some years back by Professor Unwin, who pointed out that during the early part of its stroke the riveter ram moves comparatively quickly, and in conse­quence the water in the supply pipes attains a considerable velocity and accumulates energy. At the end of the stroke, when the motion of the ram is arrested, this body of water has to be brought to rest, giving rise to an hydraulic ram, materially increasing the pressure on the riveter head. In short, the whole arrangement constitutes a sort of hydraulic flywheel, which absorbs energy during the earlier part of the stroke, to be given out later on.

N 0 T E S. A NEw His TORICAL WoRK oN RAILWAYs.

THE historical exhibit of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at the Chicago Exhibition formed one of the most interesting features of the Transportation Department, and our readers will be glad to learn that it is intended to make this exhibit the founda­tion of a perm~nent museum of railway appliances. In the meantime the forthcoming work of Mr. J. C. Pangborn, of Baltimore, will form a magnificent souvenir of the exhibit, as it will be a record of the facts gathered on its organisation and collection. The principal features of the early lines will be made clear by carefully-drawn engravings) of which 153 will be printed in colours, and the rise of the steam locomotive will be traced from its earliest known conception in the mind of Sir Isaac Newton in 1680, up to its enormous development at the pre· sent day. In short, the work is the result of ex­tended personal study and research in both Europe and America., in which Mr. Pangborn was assisted by many of the remaining pioneers of railroad con­struction. The work will be printed on Japan paper, and will be obtainable by subscription only. This subscription has been fixed at 25 dols. , and is pay­able to Mr. J. C. Pang born, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE. If any justification were required for the existence

of the Imperial Institute, the Council, and the two distinguished secretaries, Sir Frederick A bel and Sir Somers Vine, in their programme for the s6ssion have provided it. Dr. W. E. H. Lecky, onMonday,delivered the inaugural address to an immense audience, pre­sided over by t he Prince of Wales. The illustrious historian from his great store of knowledge adduced many facts which proved, not only the advantages, but the necessities of colonisation, and pronounced in no uncertain language the belief generally enter­tained that the Small England party is a very insignificant minority. The point is not without its importance, for there can be little doubt that the attachment of the colonies is affected by Britain's estimate of the importance of the connec­tion. The colonists can scarcely be expected to consider all questions in their relation to the mother country if the latter despises the connection. Not only is Dr. Lecky's assurance therefore gratifying, but the efforts put forward by the Council to strengthen the belief are even more satisfactory. The greater the interest taken in the connection between the parent country and its dependencies, the closer the bond, and while such sentimental reasons may not outweigh economic considerations, they would in very many cases provide the determining factor. In most points, too, it is the small con­sideration which operates. For these reasons all must welcome every opportunity tending to awaken interest in the colonies. Following Dr. Lecky's lecture there was an address on "Opium', on Thursday, and on Monday next Mr. James Dredge, one of the Royal Commissioners for the Columbian Exposition, will give the first illustrated lecture, when he will deal with the British colonies at that great exhibition, and in view of the wide character of the representation there, the whole field of industry and resource of Greater Britain will be opened up for consideration. Meetings for the consideration of commercial subjects associated with the colonies are to be held on the afternoons of Thursdays, and illustrated lectures delivered on

Monday evenings. Amongst the lecturers are the Earl of .Jersey, who will deal with New Sout.h Wales; Mr. Hume Black, on Queensland; S1r J ulius Voael on New Zealand; Prof. 'V allace, on Canada· Dr.' R. B owdler Sharpe, on "Th.e Lost Contin~nt and its Bird Life,, and Mr. Juln~s ~· Price will describe a. new trade r oute across S1ber1a by way of the Arctic Ocean to Pekin.

THE NEW BRITI H COl\I MERCE PROTECTOR. The Admiralty have invited the leading shi~­

building firms throughout the country to submit tenders for the construction of ~ large cruiser, primarily intended for the protectiOn of our float­ina commerce. This cruiser is one of two (the T:rrible and Powerful) originally included in the Navy Estimates. of th~s year, but, ~wing to extra­ordinary expenditure, It w~s determ1ned. to proceed only with one of them 1n the meantime. .The Terrible will differ from the usual type of crwser, speed being the first cons~deration, although, . at the same time, the vessel will have great offensive powers. Two large guns will be mounted, the one on the forecastle and the other on the poop, to act as bow and stern chasers, and th~re will be a large number of quick-firing and machine g uns to com­bat the attack of torpedo-boats and torpedo-boat destroyers. The prote?tion . is to be by a minl!te subdivision of the 1nterwr, by a protect1ve deck of the ordinary turtle-back form running fore and aft, and by armour cog.mings for the parts of the machinery projecting above this deck. The displacement of the vessel is to be 14 200 tons the length about 500 ft., and the beam 65' ft. Spe~d, as we. have said,. is to be the . first consideration, and wh1le the deta1ls of the mach1nery have been left to the firms tendering, it is stipu­lated that they are to be of sufficient power to give a speed of 20 knots under natural draught condi­tions and on a long run to sea. The forced-draught speed guarantee sh~uld ~e, ?f course,. ~reater, and will be ~\ consideratiOn In determ1nmg the builders of the vessel. We understand, fur ther, that the Admiralty have invited the firms tendering to submit alternative designs of machinery with the tubulous boiler adopted, instead of the ordinary multit ubular boiler, and to specify the power to be generated with.the ~ame .or less weight.. Th~ addi­tion of this bo1ler In th1s class of crmser, It may be remembered, was suggested by some of the members of the Committee which recently reported on the question of Navy boilers, and doubtless the satisfactory results of the trials of the Speedy, fitted with the Thornycroft boiler, and the remark­able test to which the Yarrow boiler for the H ornet was subjected, as reported in last week's issue, may influence the Admiralty to ~ive favourable consideration to the proposal, prov1ded the excess of power promised justifies the innovation in such a cruiser. Considerable latitude has been given builders in the matter of alternative ar.rangements, the Admiralty desiring the co-operation of private firms in arriving at a suitable design, not only for a. fast cruiser, but for one which will be able to carry sufficient coal to keep the sea for very much longer periods than any existing vessel.

w .AGE. IN L ONDON. With the assistance of t he census returns, anu of

~he extensive data supplied at his request by many employers in each trade throughout the metropolis, Mr. Charles Booth, one of the best authorities on life and work in London, is now compiling a r ecord of the remuneration of labour in all the ninety trades whereby the working classes of the metropolis make a living. In his presidential address t o the Royal Statis~ical Society, delivered on Tuesday evening, he gave the results in the case of two industries, and these, as may be readily conceived, are of much interest. From the census returns he found that 5836 persons were engaged in the chemical manufactures, including the making of dyes, paints, blacking, matches, and explosives. Of this number 2285 are heads of families, each working, on an average, for 4. 76 people. These are mostly located in the east and south-east dis­tricts of the city, a goodly number being also in the south-west. The returns from employers showed that, of the total, 5 per cent. of the men workers were earning less than 20a., but this, Mr. Booth points out, is due, probably, to short hours ; 25 per cent. were earning 20s. to 25s., 20 per cent. from 25s. to 30s., 25 per cent. from 30s. to 35s., 15 per cent. from 35s. to 45s., and 10 per cent. over 45s. Comparing the figures with Board of Trade returns of 1886, the conclusion is that wages

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are now so mew hat higher all round. The families of men earning 20s. to 24s. live two, or up to three, persons to each room occupied ; those earning from 25s. to 29s., and some at 30s., live one, or up to two, persons per room. Foremen get 40s. to 50s. , and leading hands from 30s. upwards, or about 6d. or 7d. per h our "for rather full time." Chemical labourers are paid 5d. to 6d., or about 25s. a week> but they make a good deal of overtime. In this t rade work is fairly regular, overtime balancing the short hours of periods of depression. As to the wages of females employed, the great majority make from 7~. ~o 9~. a w~ek.. Mr. Bo?th gives the results of a Similar Invest1gat10n regardmg the kindred industry of soa.p, candle, and glue making, in which 2130 are employed, prett~ m~ch in the east, south-east, and south-west d1stncts again. Of these, 1056 are heads of families, working for 4946 people. Here also one finds a general increase since 1886. Time and piece workers are equally divided, and the greatest effect of slackness in trade is to reduce the number of the former and lessen the wages of the latter. U nskilled men earn, while on time pay, under normal conditions, 20s. to 25s. ; first-class labourers, 25s. to 30s. ; and skilled workmen, foremen, and leading hands, over 30s. At piecework slow workers earn 20s. to 30s. ; medium workers, 30s. to 40s. ; and quicker workers, 40s. and upwards. The majority of women earn from 10s. to 15s., and boys rather less. In the social status those earning 30s. and upwards belong to the central class, with houses having less than one r oom to each inhabitant.

C YCLE DESIGN. For many years bicycles have afforded striking

examples of good workmanship and bad engineering. The early "Safety " builders were given to putting in a curved tube wherever p ossible, regardless of the fact that in such frames straight tubes were both cheaper and stronger; but this tendency, judging from the Stanley Show, now open at the Agricul­t ural Hall, Islington, seems to have at length died out, and makers generally have adopted patterns which they might have had years ago had they only consulted competent engineers. The unstayed cross and diamond frames are other monstrosities which also seem to have disappeared, and the ingenious, though too often ignorant, manufacturer is now engaged in endeavouring to find a substitute for the pneumatic tyre. Possibly some of our readers may themselves be interested in this question, and with a view to saving the waste of time and money of those of them who have not studied the q uestion of r olling friction, it may be well t.o give here an explanation of the lessened re­sistance to motion observed with an inflated tyre, the more particularly as we have not yet seen any such explanation in print. L e t us consider the case of a solid rubber tyre. As the machine moves along , the material of the tyre is compressed in front of the point of contact, and recovers its form behind this point. To accomplish this compression of the rubber, work must be done, but if the rubber ex­panded quickly enough, it would, as it recovered its form behind the point of contact, tend to shove the wheel forward, and thus restore again the work done in compression. As a matter of fact, how­ever, indiarubber recovers its form slowly, and hence most of the work done in compression is lost, as the compressed part of the tyre has moved out of contact with the ground before it regains its original form. In a similar manner the ground on which the wheel rests is compressed in front of the point of contact, and, if a firm material, also recovers its previous form more or less perfectly behind the wheel. On a firm road the compression of the tyr~ is probably more important than that of the ground, and this r elative importance is empha­sised in the case of a pneumat ic tyre. In this latter, however, the elasticity causing it to regain its form after compression, is not the imperfect elasticity of the rubber, but the practically perfect elasticity of compressed air. This causes the tyre to expand behind the point of contact very rapidly, giving back again nearly all the work done in deforming the tyre in front of the point of contact. The greater the pressure within the tyre, the more perfectly is the work done in compression restored, which is in accordance with the well-kno wn fact that highly inflatad tyres are more speedy than soft ones. The lost work is then mainly due to the compression of the imperfectly elastic ground on which the wheel runs, and probably also, in part, to a sort of molecular friction in the rubber body of the tyre. In con-

: - -firmation of the above statement as to ~he imper· feet elasticity of solid rubber tyres, causing l?ss of work it is well known that workmen and rail way porte~s find rubber-ty~ed trucks and barrows more difficult to move than uon-tyred o~es. I~ may be noted in passing that the small rolhng res1stance of a steel-tyred wheel on a steel rail is partly due to the very perfect elasticity of both. Steel, when compressed, recovers its form at a rate of abo~t 16,000 ft. a second. F or all practical purposes this is, of course, instantaneous.

IMPOUNDING RESERVOIRS IN INDIA AND MASONRY DAMS.

AT the ordinary meeting of the Institut~on of. Ci~il Engineers, held on Tuesday, ~ovemb~r 21, Str B~nJamm Baker, K .C.M. G., Vice-Pres1d~nt, 1? the cbau, four communications were read deahn~ w1th the subJect of impounding reservoirs in India and the design of masonry dams. h

The first paper was on "The Tansa Works for t e Water Sup~ly of Bombay," by Mr. W .. J . B. Cle~ke, B.A., C. I .E., M. Inst. C.E. After referrmg to prev1ous accounts of the Bombay water supply, the author gave a general outline .of t.he pre~entJ exte~de? works, and pro­ceeded to descr1be m detail the pr1nc1pal feature of the scheme, namely, the masonry dam ab Tansa.. ~t a distance of 57 miles from Bombay a storage re~erv~u bad ~een constructed in the Ta.nsa Valley, capable of 1mpoundmg, after all deductions, 1,801,000,000 cnbic fe~t, equal to 31,000,000 gallons daily for 365 d~ys · and as the waste weir ran for at least three months m the year, the actual quantity available would be 41,000,000 gallons :per day for a po~ulation of 821,764. Should that q~ant1ty ev~r become msuflicient, the dam had been so destgned that 1t could be raised to a height which would double the ca.pa.· city of the lake. The section of the dam had been .de­signed according to the methods advanced by Mr. Bouv1er, of the French Service of Roads and Bridges, and while fulfilling all requirements of stability, was economical as regarded material. The geological formation of the rock basin of the Tansa V alley was amygdaloid trap, but at the site of the dam this was partly overlaid by a. mass of crystalline basalt, intersected by veins of soft material, which necessitated the foundations being carried in some_places 30 ft. below the rock level to reach the trap. This entailed a heavy outlay, but the result bad been satisfactory, as the foundations were quite water­tight. The dam was constructed of uncoursed rubble masonry throughout. Anytbin~ approaching regular bori· zontal joints wa3 carefully avotded, and pains were taken to preserve a good bond throughout the whole breadth of the work. The greater l?art of the stones used did not average more than~ cub1c foot in bulk. Every stone was laid full in mortar, each one being selected so as to roughly fit the place it was to be laid in; it was then driven home in its bedding of mortar by blows from a light mallet, and all spaces between it and the adjoining stones were filled flush with mortar. Spalls or small stones were then inserted in the mortar between the joints. Occasionally, where convenient, large mas~es of stone were placed in the body of the work, each mass being bedded in mortar and built round with rubble masonry ; bub this system was only used for an insigni· ficant portion of the work. Great care was taken by close supervision to prevent, as far as possible, any dry work or hollow spaces occurring in the masonry. There was no ashlar in the faces, though the surface stones ba.d to be roughly faced with the hammer to preserve the outline of the profile. Kunkur lime mixed with sand of disintE'grated trap rock obtained from the beds of the rivers near the works was used for the mortar. The total quantity of masonry in the dam was 11,000,000 cubic feet. The aqueduct between the reservoir and Bombay consisted partly of conduits of rubble masonry, partly of tunnelling, and partly of cast­iron pipes. The syphons used in crossing valleys were 48 in. in diameter and 1i in. or 1f in. thick, according to the maximum bead imposed upon them. The stop valves were of the Glenfield Coml?any's pattern, w1th two shutters. The whole of the p1pes for the work, amount· ing to 48,000 tons, were manufactured at Glasgow. Each pipe was tested with oil in the manufactory to a pressure of 200 lb. on the square inch. The cost was 5l. 15s. 8d. per ton, delivered at Ba.ssein Creek. The total cost of the works was Rs.149,50,000.

The second paper was on ''The Baroda \Vater Works," by Mr. Jagannath Sadasewjee, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E. The city of Baroda, containing a population of about 120,000, was formerly dependent for its water su~ply upon tanks and wells in the immediate vicinity. Shortly after the accession of the present Ga.ikwar. the author proposed t~at ~ate! sho_uld be obtain~d from the River Sury~ lying w1thm h1s H1gbness's .terr1tory, .The und.erta.kmg in­volved the construct1on of an 1mpoundmg-reservoir 12 miles north·east of Baroda, a 30-in. cast-iron main settling tanks, and purification works ; also a. covered service reservoir and distribution works. The scheme was designed to supply 3,000,000 gallons daily. The catch. ment area of Lake Sayaji (as the impounding reservoir bad been named) w~ 36.2 square mil~s, the water spread ab top-water level bemg 4. 72 square miles. The mean rainfall for 17 y~ars was 39 in., and tha~ for three consecutive dry years, 33 m. The loss by evaporat10n from the reservoir was assumed to be 72 in. annually. The reservoir was formed by an ea~then embankment. across. the S':uya River, 14,400 ft. m length, and 54ft. m maxunum betght storing 1,287,000,000 cubic feet of wat~r. The top breadth, which was uniform throughout, was 15 ft. The outer slope of the bank was built at an inclination of 2 to 1 ; the mner

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alo_pe, whic~ w~s faced with pitching of dry bricks 9 in. thlCk, was mohned 3 to 1. There was no puddle-wall in the embankment, the material employed being of ~ood quality, but one was carried through the natural ground beneath it along its entire course. Subsequently a second puddle-wall was put in at a distance of 150 ft. from the inner toe of the bank to prevent underground percolation. The waste- water course bad a. clear width of 800 f t., and was excavated through the elevate~ ground forming the north boundary of the reser v01r. The draw-off and scour valves were contained in a. tower connected with the lake by two plug-valves. From the interior of the tower the water pa.saed into a. 30-in. cast-iron main controlled by a. sluice-valve. From the valve-house a.t the foot of the embankment a cast-iron main, also 30 in. in diameter, was laid parallel to the road from Ajiva. to Ba.roda.. The length of main from the valve-tower to the Mandvi tower was 12~ miles. I~ was provided with twelve stop-vah-es and twelve ball a1r-val ves at regular distances of one mile; and six snour­valves were placed in convenient situations for supplying water to cert ain villages in times of scarC'ity. The sup­ply from the Surya River was not altogether satisfactory, and it was intended to supplement th~se works by throw­ing an earthern dam across the Vishwamitri River, to form a. lake at the village of Asoj, and to cut a canal about 4 miles in length to feed the 8a.yaji lake.

The third paper was on "The Water Supply of J eypore, Raj putana," by Colonel S. • . J acob, C. I. E., Assoc. Inst. C. E. The author described the water supply of the city previous to 1873, when, after an exhaustive inquiry, it was decided to obtain a supply from the Ama.ni Shah N ullah, the water of which had been pronounced to be of excellent quality. A weir was made across the bed of the nullah on the site of a formerly existing dam. Pumping machinery was erected, and a supply of 36,000 gallons per hour wa..q obtained. These works were completed in 1879, and fulfilled their purpose until May or June. 1881, when the water in the stream was only just sufficient to meet the increased demand. The fact that during the rains a large volume of water flowed away, suggested the storing of this surplus water for use during the hot weather ; but in order to accomplish this it was necessary that a dam should be complet£~d in one season between the rain.:~. A site was selected, 750 ft. above the pumping station, where 148,000,000 cubic feet of water could be imP.ounded from a drainage area. of about 13 square miles. The mean rainfall was 24 in., but, owing to the nature of the soil, it was considered that not more than 4 in., or about 120,000,000 cubic feet, would flow off annually. A fter the embankment had been made, it was found that only one-sixtieth part of the rainfall flowed off the catchment area into the reservoir. The embankment possessed some interest in that it had no puddle-wall, and was made of sand, resting upon sand and mud, the natural surface being merely dug up and coarse grass roots removed. Work was begun on June 27, 1884. Sidings of light rails were laid down on each bank with a slight incline. Two men were placed in charge of each wagon, which, after being filled, was pushed along, and soon acquired sufficient momentum to run on to t he sit~ of the bank, carrying both the earth and the men, who jumped on to the wagon after starting it. As the embankment rose, the rails were also raised, and the speed and economy with which the work wa-s done were highly satisfactory. As many as 129 wagons were at one time employed. bringing some 30,000 cubic feet of sand daily from a distance of about 1000 ft. at half the cost of m a.nual labour. Extra men were ~mployed to spread and ram the earth, and a few Rai elephants. walked backwards and for~ards, ~orn­ing and evemng, over the work to consohdate 1t. A temporary outlet, consisting of two 12-in. sluices, was built 5 fb. above the river bed at one side, and the nullah was closed on October 26, with the object of impounding as much water a3 possible for the ensuing hot season. In the meantime the _permanent outlet well and culvert w~re taken in hand. T he outlet well was of masonry. Wmg ~alls were provided on the water side with cross walls to counteract any thrust. _In these cro~s walls t_here were large openinga, over wh1ch movable non gratmgs were fixed. The water passed through these gratings to two 12-in. outlet valves worked from cast-iron pillars on the top of the well. The outlet culvert was of masonry 7 ft. wide and 7~ ft. high. To prevent water creeping along the cnlvert, slabs of sandstone, 3 in. or 4 in. thick and about 8 ft. long. were built in ~he mas<?nry of the culvert, projecting 6 ft. all round 1t, formmg col~ars at every 50 ft. along the length of the cul vert, agamst which the earth was well rammed. Special means were taken to prevent leakage at the toe of the oute~ slope; next the earth a layer of sharp sand about 10 ft. wtde and 5 fti. deep was placed outside this a. similar layer of small broken stone and fin~lly a similar mass of large rubble. The work w~s completed in September, 1885, at a. cost of Rs 9 97 609. The greatest flood occurred on August 1, 18S5 , when the water rose 5 ft. 10 in. in twenty-four hou;s. The highest level yet attained by the water was

3H ft. ' h D . f M The Ja.st paper read was ' On t e estgn o a.sonry Dams'' by Professor Franz Kreuter, of Munich. The autho~ propose~ .to show how, by di~iding t~e proble~ into several d1stmct p~rts, and by mtro~ucmg c~rtam limitations and supposttlOns, ~ mathe~attcal solutJOD; as exact as desired mtght be ar~t ved at wtthc;mt employmg the system of trials and tedtous calculatiOns generally thought necessary. According to De Sazilly, Graeff ~nd Delocre, Krantz, Rankine, and others-t~ whose labours was due the idea of giving to the cross-sectiOns of masonr_y dams a shape of uniform stability and strength-the bas1s of a sound theory of these struc~ures wa_s : .

1. That at any horizontal sect10n the mtenstty of pres-

sure ab the faces of the wall should never exceed a certain value fixed upon as the safe crushing load of the mate a.l of the da.m.

2. That at no horizontal layer of the masonry shou there be any danger of sliding.

3. That at those parts of the profile where the wall had a batter. the intensity of pres~ure at the faces should be diminished below the limits answering to vertical faces.

4. That there ought to be no practically appreciable tension in any part of the masonry. whether at the outer face when the reservoir was empty, or at the inner face when it was full. The lines of resistance. therefore, should not deviate from the middle of the thickness of the wall to an extent exceeding one-sixth of the thickness.

Adhering to these principles, the author made the fol­lowing assumptions : a. The water level wa.s supposed to reach to the top of the wall. b. The vertical component of the water · pressure upon the battered part of the inner face of the wall was provisionally neglected. c. The shearing stresses acting parallel to the layers of the wall were not allowed for. 1'he effect of these limitations was explained, and the author proceeded to consider the pr1mary shape of the cross-section. The simplest form was a right-angled triangle with a vertical inner face. This form of cross-section, however, could not be realised in practic~, owing to the necessity of giving a certain width to the top of the walJ, which often had to be sufficient to form a. road. The upper part of the wall was frequently a rectangular block of masonry, and where it was not so it might be represented for the purposes of the design by such a block eq ui valent to the actual structure. But if such a superstructure were placed upon the trian­gular dam, the lines of resistance would be displaced throughout the whole body of the dam. It was therefore necessary t o depart from the triangular cross-section, and among the elements determining the cross-section to be sought for would be the mass and form of the superstruc­ture. This necessity was met by dividing the wall into three parts, to which different methods were applied­namely, the rectangular superstructure, the body of the wall with vertical inner face and curved outer face, and the lowest portion or base of the wall with both faces curvE>d. The author maintained that this division of the subject, due to Delocre, was incomplete, because if the same conditions of stability were made to apply through­out, there would be a. discontinuity at the plane of junc­tion of the portions 1 and 2; he consequE>ntly introduced between portions 1 and 2 another portion to which the condition of No. 1 would apply at its upper limit, and those of No. 2 at its lower limit. His investigation W'\.S

therefore divided into four parts, treating respecti velr of the four portions of the wall to which different conditiOns had to be applied. These portions were considered analytically, and to exemplify the method described a resultant cross-section was developed, applicable, accord­ing to the author's theory, to the condit10ns of the well­known masonry dam of Furens.

NOTES FROM THE NORTH. GLASGOW, Wednesday.

Glasgow Pig-Iron Markct.-There was a. strong tone in the pig-iron warrant market last T hurRday, and values experienced a marked advance, the market closing a.t the best. Scotch warrants rose ~d. per ton in the forenoon, and 1~d. in the afternoon. Cleveland iron advanced in price 1;d. per ton. No business was done in hematite iron, but buyers came up ! d. per ton towards sellers. At the close the settlement pr1ces were Scotch iron, 42s. 7~d. per ton; Cleveland, 34~. 7~d. ; Cumberland and Middles­brough hemati te iron, resp~cti vely, 44s. 6d. and 43s. 3d. per ton. A large amount of business was done on Friday at higher prices, but tbe early gain on the day was nearly all lost at the close on a.n announcement that the con­ference between the English coa.lmasters and the miners' representatives was likely to lead to a. settlement of the dispute and to the immediate resumption of work. Scotch pig iron, which had been run up l~d. per ton further, lost that gain, and dosed as on the preceding day. Cleveland iron closed 1d. per ton better, and hematite iron was just steady and without any change in price. The closing setlilement prices were­Scotch iron, 42s. 7!d. per ton; Cleveland, 34s. 7~d. ; Cumberland and Middlesbrough hematite iron, 44s. 6d. and 43s. 3d. per ton respectively. Business was quiet on Monday forenoon. Only 3000 or 4000 tons of Scotch iron were sold, including one lot at 42s. 5d. one month fixed, with a "plant." One lot of Cleveland was sold at 34s. 7d. per ton cash. The market was steady in the afternoon, but only some 2000 tons of Scotch were done. The cash price at the close showed no change from the morning. The settlement prices at the close of the · market were-Scotch iron, 42~. 6d. per ton ; Cleveland, 34s. 6d. ; Cumberland and Middlesbrough hemati te n on, respectively, 44s. 6d. and 43s. 3d. per ton. There was more business done in the warrant market on Tuesday forenoon. From 7000 to 8000 tons of Scotch changed bands, and the tone was firm at 42t~. 6d. and 42s. 7~d. per ton cash, the last price being the hest. Cleve­land made an advance of 1~d. per ton. The market con­tinued very firm in the afternoon. Sellers were rather scarce, presuruably over a threatened strike of the Scotch miners for an advance of wages, and up to 42s. Sd. per ton cash was paid for Scotch iron, with buyers over at that at the close. or 1d. per ton dearer than the forenoon price. Ex-official business was also done in Scotch iron at 42s. 7~d. per ton one month, with a "plant." The closing settlement prices ware- Scotch iron, 42s. 7 ~d . per ton; Cleveland, 34s. 7~d.; Cumber land and Mtddles­brough hematite iron, respectively, 44s. 6d. and 43s. 3d. The market was very strong this forenoon, business in Scotch warrants being done up to 42s. 9~d. per ton cash. Cleveland warrants, on the other nand, were

1d. per ton lower in price. Hematite iron was un­changed. Scotch warrants were again still firmer in the afternoon, the price touchinS' 42s. lOd. per ton, with a moderate business domg. Cleveland iron was ~d. per ton higher. The following are a few of the current prices for No. 1 brands of makers' iron : Ga.rtsherrie and Summerlee, 49a. per ton; Ca.lder, 50a. ; Coltness, 553. 6d. ; Langloan, 56s.-the foregoing all shipped at Glasgow; Glengarnock (shipped at Ardrossao), 49s.; Shotts (shipped at L eith), 51s.; Carron (shipped at Grangemouth), 53s. 6d. per ton. L ast week's shipments of pig iron from all Scotch vorts amounted to 5606 tons, against 5482 tons in the corresponding week of last year. They included 265 tons for Australia., 1940 tons for Italy, 790 tons for Germany, 160 tons for Russia, 385 tons for Holland, 380 tons for Belgium, 100 tons for China and J a.pan. smaller quantities for other countries, and 1165 tons coastwise. There are now 54 blast furnaces in actual operation in Scotland, as compared with 78 at this time last year. It is thought that the termination of the dispute in England will help to bring about an increase to the number of furnaces in blast. The stock of pig iron in Messrs. Connal and Co.'s public warrant stores stood at 326,220 tons yesterday afternoon, against 328,032 tons yesterday week, thus showing an increase for the past week amounting to 1812 t ons.

Advance in the P rice of Malleable I 1·on.- It was current in Glasgow iron trade circles in the latter part of last week that at a meeting of a number of malleable iron makers a proposal to advance prices 5s. per ton was agreed to. This advance, it is sta.ted, will scarcely cover the e>..tra. cost of production, owing to the severe advance in the price of coal, against which makers have had to struggle for the last two months.

Glasgow Copper Mark£t.- Little or no business has been reported during the past week in respect of the Glasgow copper market. The cash price has generally ranged at from 42l. 2s. 6d. to 42l. 5s. per ton cash.

Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland.­The second meeting of the new session of this Institution was held last n ight, :r.Cr. J ohn Inglis, president, in the chair. Some further discussion took place on the paper read at the opening meeting by Mr. J. Macewan Roes, describing his new caulking tool, and at the close the author was awarded the thanks of the sooiety. Professor J. Harvard Biles, of the "Elder " Chair of N aval A rchitecture in the U niversity of Glasgow, read a paper on " The Strength of Large Ships. " After dealing in a technical manner with the subject, he said that the consideration of tho matter of the strength of large ships might be considered by some to be at the best premature, because the probability of making very large ships pay was remote. The business of commercial management of steamships was usually, and should always be, carried on by skilled shipowners, who would not commence any commercial venture without some reasonable hope of making it a. success. If many of the la.rge shipping com­panies a.t present were not making money, and their fleets were made up in t he aggregate of high speed, medium speed, and lower speed vessels, it required more than a superficial investigation to say that the want of profit wa.s due to excessive speed. At any rate, there were com­panies possessing high-speed ships which were adding high-speed shipa to theu fleets, and there were fleets in which high-speed ships made money, while low-speed ships did not ; so that there might still be a future in which it would be prudent to build a fast ship rather than a slow one, and in which a full understand· ing of the question of the strength of large ships might be an important item in the matter, not only of speed, but of commercial efficiency. Professor Biles based most of his calculations and remarks on four typical steamers of 500 ft., 550 ft ., 600 ft., and 700 ft. in length. Tho discussion on the paper was postponed till next meet­ing, so as to give members an opportunity of studying the paper in print. Captain John Bain, marine surveyor. subsequently read a paper on "The Effect of Reversin~ ~he Scr~w Propelle~ of a Steamship upon the Steering, ' m the course of whtch he gave the results of some of his own experiences as a captain of a steamer at sea. The discussion on this paper was also held over till nextJ meeting.

North Bridge, Edinbu1·gh. - Last Friday afternoon Sir Willia.m Arrol was in consultation with the Lord Provost of E_dinl?urgh and some of his colleagues and corporation offiCials m regard to the proposed reconstruction of the ~o~th Bri~ge. The r~sult ?f his visit t<;> Edinburgh and hts mspect10n of the br1dge 1s that a Parhamentary notice for the proposed work has been or is being prepared. Ib has been said that the bridge cannot bn reconstructed at a less cost than 150,000l. Of course the North British Railway Company will have to bear a large portion of the expense.

NOTES FROM CLEVELAND AND THE NORTHERN COUNTIES.

M IDDLESBROUGH, Wednesday. T he Cleveland I ron T rade.-Yesterday there was a fair

attendance on 'Change, the tone of the market was pretty c.:heet ful, and there was more disposi tion to do business than has recentl~ been the case. (.luotations were a shade stronger all round, and producers did not take such ~ gJoomy view of the outlook as they have recently done. Early in the day 34s. 6d. was paid for prompt f.o.b. de­livery of_No. 3 g:m.b. Cle~elan~ pig iron, hub later on, when fatrly sattsfactory mtelhgence from other iron­producing districts arrived, many sellers put up their price of ~o. ~to 34s. _7~d. Buyers generally, however, were not mchned to g1 ve more than t~e former quotation, and they report~~ that they could easily buy at that price. The lower quaht1es of pig were steady. It was difficult to

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buy No. 4 foundry under 33a. 6d., and rather more was asked in som& oases. Grey forge was firm at 32s. 9d., and S3s. was quoted by some sellerR. Middlesbrough wa:rran~ were 34s. 7d. c:1sh buyera. T_he demand for ~ema.ttte ptg iron is expected to increage wtth the resumptt?n of oper~­tions at Sheffield works, but few of the esta.bltshment3 m that district have as yet recommenced, so that yesterday there was little alteration in hematite. Mixed nu~bers of local brands could be bought ab 43s. for early dehvery. Spanish ore was unchanged, rubio being about 12s. 3d. ex-ship T ees. T o-day the market was steady, but there was not much businees transacted. Prices were the same as yesterday.

Manufactured I ron and Steel.-Not much new can _be said of these two important branches of the staple m ­dustry. A little more activity is noticeable at some works and one or two producers give a. rather better accou~t of the state of affai rs, but competition for new orrlers is exceedingly keen, and quotations continue very low. Common iron bars are put at 4l. 17s. 6d .; best bars, 6l. 7s. 6d. ; iron ship-plates, 4l . 15a. ; iron ship-angles, 4l. 12~. Gd.; steel ship-plate~, 5l. to 5l. 2s. 6d.; and st~el ship-angles, 4l. 15s.-a.ll less the usual 2~ per cent. dts­count for cash. Steel rails are unaltered , heavy sections being about 3l. 12s. Gd. net at works. It is said that contracts have been accepted at a trifle below the fore­~win~ anota.tions, but some firms ask slightly higher figures than the above-mentioned.

E fl.qineering and Shipbuilding.-Engineers, generally speaking, are not badly employ_ed, thoug? some esta­blishments are doing next to nothmg. A n tmprovement has fortunately taken place in shipbuilding, several local firms having secured orders for new vessels, and one or two yards, which were expected to be closed during the winter, will now be kept fairly well employed.

The F uel Trade.-A good business is still be in~ doJ?e in fuel but in spite of the attempt by sellers to mamtam prices 'which have ruled during the strike, a. downwar_d tendency is apparent. On Newcastle Exchange _there IS more desire to book forward orders, and there 1s much negotiation a.~ to the range of prices that a_re to rule for winter supplies of coal. L ow forward pnces for best Northumbnan steam are named, but little business is done exCeJ?ting for early supply, for which about 13s. f.o.b. IS the figure. Some collieries, however, have obtained a higher price. A good deal of locom?t i ve coal has been thrown on the market, as southern railways are now finding thei r local supplies available. Gas coal is in good request. Coke keeps dear. Yesterday 15s. was paid for a parcel of blast-furnace coke dPlivered here.

NOTES FROM THE SOUTH-WEST. Card(U:- Business in steam coal has continued brisk;

the settlement of the great lock-out in the Midlands ana the North will probably later on affect the market, but some large orders have been secured for delivery during December. The demand for household coal has continued good; No. ~ Rhondda. large has made 14s. per ton. Iron ore has shown little change. Foundry coke has brought 20::;. 6d. to 2ls., and furnace ditto 18a. to 19s. per ton. The finished iron and steel tra.d r,s have bxhibited little improvement, steel rails continuing flat; heavy sections have made Sl. 15s., and light sections 4l. lOa. to 4l. 12s. 6d. per ton.

Rhyrrvney Rai lway. -A new route to the Monmouthshire valleys, vid H ergoed Junction, has just been opened. The Rhymney Railway Company some time since constructed a. branch from Y strad to H erg__oed, thus connecting its line with the Great W estern Railway, running powers over which have been granted to a point which will enable the Rhymney to run trains inte the S irhowy Valley with­out follo wing the more circuitous route round Rhymney Junction.

The "Gothic" (s).-This steamer, the latest addition to the White Star L ine, will take m bunkers ab Cardiff preparatory to makin~ her first Atlantic trip. The Gothic is to be supphed with 3500 tons of Cyfa.rthfa steam coal.

Great Western Railway.-This company will apply to P a.rlia.mAnt next session for a revival of powers for the onstruction of the East Usk Railway, and for the pur­

chase of certain land required in connection with it. Powers will also be applied for for an amalg&.mation with the Great vVestern of the Tiverton and North Devon Railway and the Oldbury Railway.

The "Hermione."-An order has been received at Devonport from the Lords of the Admiralty directing that the Hermione is to be fitted as an ordinary cruisPr, and not as a flagship. Messrs J. and D. Thomson, of Glasgow, the contractors for the engines, have now a. large staff of men at work upon the vessel.

T he "Renown. "-The Renown, line·of·battle ship, now building at P embroke, is to be completed at Devonport.

K eyha.m Engineering College.-The engineering students at K ey ham College are to receive a short course of instruc­tion in revolver and sword drill, and in rifle and squad exercise, on board the gnnnery ship towards the close of their educational career, if suitable arrangements can be made and time can be spared from their other etudies. The Lords of the Admiralty have now decided that as the exigencies of the service will for some years necessitate the whole of the students' time at the college being devoted to professional work and st udy, gunnery instruction during the _college training is to be discontinued for the present. The1r lordships, however, direct that the instruction is to be carried out as soon as practicable after the students hav~ passed into the reserves as probationary assistant engmeers.

E N G I N E E R I N G. The Electric Light at Oheltenhwm.-On W ednesday an

inquiry was held at Cheltenham by Col.onel Hasted •. R.~., Local Government Board inspector, mto an a.pphcat10n ma.de by the Cheltenham Town Council for leave to borrow 16,000l. for the pur pose of electric lightln~ in the borough. :Mr. Brydges. town clerk, called Mr. Norman, who described the various steps taken in the matter by the Electric Lighting Committee. of which he had been chairman up till November 1. The borough surveyor, ~Ir . J . Hall, C.E., after wards gave estimates, and ex­plained the scheme of l ighting, which is to be the alter ­nate curren t system, as recommended by Professors Ayrton and Preece. Two or three ra tepayers were heard in opposition, and the inquiry closed.

Dock E xtensions at Swansea.- The executive committee of the Swansea. Harbour Trust at a meeting on Thurs­day fur ther considered the question of dock extension. It was decided that ~Ir. Abernethy should be employed to get oub the plans only, the trust engineer supervising the works.

The B ute Docks.-The Bute D ocks Company contem­plates the cons truction of a dock on land reclaimed ~Y the formation of embankments. The proposed dock wtll commence opposite the south-western corner of the Roath dock, and will extend in a south-westerly direction for a. distance of 857 yards. An entrance lock 850 ft. in length is contemplated.

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MISCELLANEA. T RR lighting of the Royal Exchange by electricity was

inaugurated yesterday by the Lord Mayor. The whole of the work was carried out by Messrs . . J. G. Statter and Co. , of 68, V ictoria-street, L ondon, S. W.

At a. meeting of the Yorkshire College Engineering Society held on Monday, November 13, a. paper on" The Production of Steel " was read by Mr. E. P . Barber. A discussion followed the reading of the paper.

W e learn that, after trying plates by other makers for a twel vemonth, the whole of the plates of the batteries of the Birmingham Central Tramway Company are to be renewed by the E lectrical Power Storage Company, Limited, of 4, Great Winchester-street.

At a recent meeting of the Engineers' Club, P hila­delphia, Mr. J . C. Trautwine, Jun., described a stone bridge of 213-ft. span which is now being constructed over the P ruth, in Galicia. The arch is segmenta], with a rise of 60 ft., and varies in thickness from 7 ft. to 10 ft.

Some careful experiments recently made at Minneapolis on the use of oil as a fuel for generating steam in boi lere, showed an eva.pora t i veefficiency of 20. 63 lb. of water from and ab 212 deg. Fa.hr. per pound of oil. Coal used in the ~ame boiler evaporated only 7i lb. of water per pound. The oil used was ordinary L ima oil, having a specific gravi ty of . 62.

A new type of dynamo brush, which has for some time past been extensively used on the Con tinent, is now being introduced into this country by the Boudreaux Dynamo Brush Company, Limited, of ::>t. Martin's H ouse, L ondon, E . C. The new brushes are made out of soft leaves of anti-friction metal (a copper alloy), and do not, it is claimed, wear away the commutator.

The traffic receipts for the week ending November 12 on thirty-three of the principal lines of the U nited King­dom amounted to 1,351,310l. , which was earned on 18,388 miles. For the corresponding week in 1892 the r eceipts of the same lines amounted to 1,433,092Z., with 18,199 miles open. There was thus a decrease of 81, 782l. in the receipts, and an increase of 189 in the mileage. The aggregate receipts for n ineteen weeks to date amounted on the same thirty-three lines to 28,395,851l., in com­parison with 30,507, 727l. for the corresponding period last year ; decrease, 2, 111,87Gl.

The D epartment of Science and Art has received, through the Foreign Office, a despatch from H er Majesty'e minister in Chili, calling attention to an exhibi tion which it is proposed to hold next year at Santiago, dealing with the subjects of mining and metallurgy. The exhibition will be opened in the second fortnight of April, 1894, but the exact date is not yet known. The eight sections of the exhibition will comprise electricity, mining machinery, mechanical preparation of minerals, metallurgy, chemical industries, statistics and plans, and mining a nd metallurgical products respect ively. Appl i­cations for space may be made to the Chilian L egation in L ondon.

The question as to the proper direction in which work should be fed to a milling cutter is now being discussed in the columns of the A merican Machinist. The usual practice is, of course, to feed the work against the cutter, but it is asserted that experiment shows that the cutters keep sharper and last longer if the work is fed in the same direction as the motion of the cutting edges, thus r e­versing the old practice. As an explanation of this it has been suggested that, in the usual method of feeding, the cutting ed~e fi rst slides over the work to a certain extent before Ib commences to cut, thus giving rise to a grinding action which is absent when the feed is in the other direction.

The D epartmen b of Science and Art has received, through the Foreign Office, a despatch from the Austro­Hunga.rian A mbassador. calling attention to an exhibition to be held next year at V ienna, dealing with the subjects of cheap food for the people, the sustenance and equip· ment of the army, &c. , joined t o a special Sport Exhi­bition, and requesting that the municipalities of the most important towns in this country which are interGSted in these questions may be invited to take part in the exhi-

bition. The exhibition is a pri ~ate undertaking, but supported by the Austro-Hungan an Government, who have placed the R otunda at the di~p_osa.l of the manage· ment · the Imperial and Royal Mtmster of Commerce has ac~eptt:d the honorary presidency.

At the meeting of the Owens College Engineering Society held on Tuesday evening last, a paper . by M~ssrs. H. N10holson and \V. Patte on was read, m wh1ch a description was given of the Tbirlmere wa.ter supP.ly. At the present time it appears that the lake IS 2! m1les long and f mile broad, having an area of 328 acres. When, however the level is raised to the full height of 60ft., as intended the length will be increased to 3f miles, the breadth to about f mile, and the area to 793 acres. ':l'he total capaci ty will then be. 8,130,687,0~ gallons, wh1ch, after deducting compensa.t10n water, will afford a supply of 50,000,000 gallons per day for a period of 150 days. T he rainfall in the watershed drawn on ranges from 52 to 137 inches per annum. The length of main from the lake to the P re twich reser voir is 95 miles 14i3 yards, of which 45 miles is piping, the rest being in. tunnel 9r ~ut and cover. W e may add than an exhaustive descr1pt19~ of these works will be found in ENOINF:ERING, vols. lu. and liii.

It is interesting to note that Professor D ewar has suo· cessfully conveyed a. considerable quantity of liquid air from London to Cambridge. The liquid air ~as carried in one of the double gla!ts flasks used by h1m on pre­vious occasions, the space between the inner and outer flasks containing nothing but e~trem~ly . attenuated mer­curial vapour, together w1th a httle hquid mercury. On pouring liquid air _into the inn~r fl ask, its outer su~face is rapidly covered w1th a mercur1al film of extreme thmness, forming a. reflecting surf?tce highly imper vious to radiant heat. As soon as this i~ formed the whole apparatus is packed in solid carbonic acid, whic? at once freez~s the liquid mercury, arrests the deposit upon the mirror, reduces the mercurial vapour to an infinitesimal quantity, forms an almost perfect vacuum, and supplies an envelope 80 deg. below zero. 'l'hus protected, the liqu id air reached Cambridge with only a. trifling loss of bulk, not­withstanding the incessan.t jolting of the railway. T~e protective power of the hig~ vaou.ull_l and the m.ercu~1a.l mirror will be better appreciated 1f It be borne m mmd that the difference of temperature between liquid air and solid carbonic acid is the same as between ice and boiling water.

A remarkable piece of work was recently accomplished at Mott Haven, where the station of the New York Cen· tral and Hudson River Railway was raised from its foun­dations and moved back laterally a distance of 50 ft. The building in q~estion is a brick structure 185 ft. long and 35 ft. deep. Near the centre of its length is a tower 80 ft. high ~y 19 ft. square. The total weight of .the buil_ding is estimated at 1700 t ons. The first operat1on conststed in supporting the building on solid blocking of 14 in. square Georgia pine, of which about 100,000 square feet (B. M. ) were used. The lower courses of this b!ock were prolonged to form skids or ways, upon which the upper courses carrying t.he building could slide. The rubbmg surfaces were thoroughly lubricated, and the building was then pushed along the ways by improvised screw jacks. 'fhe!:Se latter were fourteen in number, and con­sist ed of long screws working in hollow timbers. The heads of the screws rested against abutment logs chained to the ways, whilst the ends of the hollow timbers abutted against the sliding portion of t he blocking. E very screw being brought to a. fair bearing, a man was placed to each and simultaneously each screw was given a quarter turn, this opera tion being repeated until the screws were run out their full length. They were then run back into place, and the abutment blocks moved up and chained into a fresh position . The t ime required to traverse the building the whole distance of 50 tt. was 4~ days, and when finished there was scar cely a crack perceptible in the structure.

SEWERS AT MELBOORNE.- A return prepared by ~fr Thwaites, engineer -in -chief of the M elbourne Board of Works, shows that the main outfa11 sewer is now almost completed. Nearly 16 miles of the sewers have been constructed, consisting of 84,085 cubic yards of concre te and 14,624 cubic yards of brickwork. The concrete por ­tion of the sewer is finished, and at a reC'ent date there only remained 400 cubic yards of brickwork, 7119 cubic yards of excavation, and 61~ chains of fencing, to com­plete the contracts. The payments made to contractors amount to 228, 789l. , leaving 9858l. due. The number of men employed by the contractors is about 250.

THE E xAM lNATION 011~ PATENTS.-At a well-attendf:d meeting nf the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents on W ednesday evening, Mr. Lloyd Wise, president, in the chair, Mr. Edward Ca.rpmael moved: "That should any serious a ttempt be made to introduce any system of official examination into novelty into this country, it is desirable that the Institute should use all its influence to prevent any power O\?er the claims being given to the examiners. " Mr. John I m ray seconded the motion. ~lr. E . Carpmael had read a paper on the subject last session, and the discussion had been adjourned t o the present meeting. Amongsb those who took part were M essrs. Abel (vice-president), Hardin~harn , A. V. N ewton. G. Barker, Elhs, Brewster, L orram, P. J ensen, Owen, F ell, Justice, and 0 . I m ray; and a letter was read from Mr. Cheetham. The resolution was adopted nem. con. It is significant that some time back a meeting of the London Chamber of Commerce also pronounced against the intro­duction of the U nited S tates examination system into this country.

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3000 HORSE-POWER Q 1J A D R U P L E - E X P A N S I 0 N ENGINES. CONSTRUCfED BY THE E. P. ALLI1 COMPANY, MIL\VAUKEE, 'VIS., U.S.A.

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OuR two-page plate illustrates the main engine in the power plant of the Columbian Exposition. It is of 3000 horse-power, and was built by the E. P. Allis Com­pany, of Milwaukee, " ... isconsin. It is a horizontal cross-tandem q uadru pie-expansion condensing engine, with cylinders of the following sizes: High pressure, 26 in. in diameter ; first intermediate, 40 in. in dia­meter; second intermediate, 60 in. in diameter ; and low-pressure cylinder, 70 in. in diameter. It is designed to work with steam of 180 lb. pressure, and to run at 60 revolutions per minute. In a subsequent issue we shall illustrate many of the details, and in the meantime reserve the complete description.

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS.- Last Wed­nesday evening the members of the Institution of E lec­trical Engineers dined together at the Freemasons' Tavern, the president, Mr. W. H . Preece, F.R.S., being in the chair. The guests of the evening were Mr. Arnold Morley, Postmaster-General, and Mr. Mundella, Presi­dent of the Board of Trade. The dinner was well attended and many capital speeches were made, Mr. Mundell~ acknowledging, in very handsome terms, the indebtedness of the Board of Trade to the Institution for advice and assistance in settling difficult questionB.

PoRTS ON SANDY CoASTS: ERRATUM.-In the paper under this title published in our last issue, the Table in the first column on page 623 had several lines omitted. It should have appeared as follows:

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GABRIEL'S ADJUSTABLE ARM REST. THE adjustable arm rest illustrated below is designed

for use in first-class rail way carriages, in which the arms are arranged to fold upward against the back to enable passengers to recline on the seat. The usual flat

spring, or roller and springs, on the knuckle of the joint is replaced by a helical spring placed beneath the seat, where it is easily accessible for adjustment or re­newal. The arrangement is very Qlearly shown in the engraving. The knuckle rests on the front of the bracket, and is recessed out to receive an adjustable

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bolt, which is carried down to the underframing of the seat. Here is placed a helical spring which takes a bearing against a. plate or bracket. By screwing up the nut at the end of the bol t the pressure of the spring ca.n be increased. The centrepin is placed i in. out of centre to give the necessary leverage. The whole arrangement is very neat and compact. It is manufac­tured by Messrs. Gabriel and Co., of 4 and 5, AB Row, Birmingham.

NATURAL DRAGGHT TRIALS 0.1!~ H. :M. BATTLESHIP "RoYAL OAK. "-The £rst·c1ass battleship Royal Oak, built and engined by Messrs. Laird Brothers, Birkenhead, and briefly described in a. recent issue (page 511 ante) went out for natural d raught trials in the English Channel on the 21st inst. Mr. Bevis represented the contractors' firm. The vessel was under way for ten hours, and for eight hours wae run at full speed, the force of wind being from 4 to 5, with a. smooth sea. The mean boiler pres­sure was 155 lb. to the square inch, the mean revolutions being 96.3, the starboard engines having made 96.1, and the port engines 96.5. The collective horse-power was 9221 indicated horse-power, 221 over the contract. The starboard en~ine develop~d 4477, and the P<?rt engine 4744. The tnals were sattsfactory, the only shght hitch being a small leak in one of the high-pressure cylinder cover joints, which developed after the third hour's trial. But this did not interfere wi th the full power being obtained.

THE "LUCANIA " AND "CA:liP.ANIA. "-The Cunard steamer Lucania arrived off Queenstown on the 18th inst., after a protracted voyage, occupying G days 14 hours and 40 minutes. She experienced terrific weather. Altogether twelve people were treated for injuries by the ship's surgeon. One of the steerage ventilators was washed away, and a quantity of water got into the compartment. Captain M 'Kay says the weather be encountered was the worst be has experienced in the Atlantic. Violent easterly gales, with enormous head seas, buffeted the huge steamer throughout the voyage, and retarded her progress by 2G hours. The severe weather in the Atlantic was also experienced to the full bl the Cunard Company's steamer Campania, crossing to New York. The follow­ing is an extract from the Campania's log: "Passed Daunt's Rock at 1.6 p.m., November 12, and Sandy Hook Lightshi~ 5 a. m., November 18. Passage 5 days, 20 hours, 29 mmutes. Rune 501, 526, 523, 504, 381, 349; two last days Ettrong gales, hish seas."

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3000 HORSE-POWER QUADRUPLE-EXPANSION ENGINES: WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

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CONSTRUCTED BY THE E. P. ALLIS COMPANY, MILWAUK.I!:E, WISCONSIN, U.S.A.

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13-IN. ARTESIAN BORED TUBE WELL AT BOURNE, ~1ESSRS. C. J, 'LER AND CO. , ENGINEERS, LONDON.

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I~ a recent issue (page 568 ante ) we published a paragraph stating that artesian springs yielding 1,872,000 gallons a day, at a pressure of 10 lb. to the square inch, hacl been tapped in the oolitic beds at Bourne, Lincolnshire, at a depth of 100 ft. from the surface, by means of an artesian tube well, 13 in. in diameter, fixed by Messrs. C. Isler and Co., of Bear­lane, Southwark, London. The water is con ''eyed to the town of paldiog, ten miles dist ant, by gravita­tion through a line of pipes. We now give an illustra ­tion of the mouth of the well, which is said to be t he largest overfio,dng spring in existence. We also publish a. section, showing how the bore­hole was dealt with to insure sound work. In that neighbourhood bored wells have, at times, be­come defective through the water escaping outside the tubes. To prevent this, Messrs. Isler and Co. drive each tier of pipe tightly into the soil, and then fill the annular space between the tubes with a. specially pre­pared cement.

Previous to tapping the main springs, chalybeate water was found at 65ft. 10 in. from the surface. This was safely excluded by the driving of the 13-in. pipes, which are the main supply pipes of the boring. The main springs were tapped at 78 ft. 6 in. from the sur­face, the point at which the oolitic limestone was reached. As soon a.s the rock was tapped, the water rose very slowly, and took 24 hours to overflow from the depth named above, but as soon as the boring was continued the volume of water rapidly increased, with the result that at 100 ft. from the surface 1300 gallons per minute, or 1,872,000 gallons per day, overflowed with a. pressure of 10 lb. to the square inch at the sur­face. On reaching this depth it was decided to con­tinue the boring , so as to ascertain what result could be obtained by going deeper ; therefore, at a depth of 120ft. fron} the surface, an overflow of 1800 gallons per

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min ute, or 2,592,000 gallons per day, was obtained, or an increase in the yield of 30,000 gallons per hour more than was obtained at lOO ft. , the pressure remain­ing the same, namely, 10 lb. to the square inch. 'Ve believe there is no record in Great Britain, or in any pad of Europe, of a well yielding such results.

Messrs. I sler and Co. have also been boring at the engineering works of Messrs. Holmes, Pearson, and .YI:idgeley, Keighley . \Vater was met with in the upper beds of the millstone grit formation, but t.be boring was to be continued to 250 ft. d epth. At 2t3 ft. strong overflowing springs were met, deliver­ing 15,000 gallons per hour, and rising close on 40ft. above the surface. The following Table gives the section : Section of Well at Messr s. H olmes, P ea1·son, and M idgeley's

W orks. • Ft. In. Ft. In.

Pit . .. . . . .. . . .. 4 0 Clay and large stone .. . 43 0 47 0 Blue clay , ... 9 0 56 0 Clay a.nd stones . . . . . . 10 0 66 0 Rock . . . . . . . . . . . G 0 72 0 Sandstone ... . .. . .. 2 0 74 0 Sandstone shale ... .. . }I) 0 84 0 Sandstone ......... 10 0 94 0 Rock .. . . . . . . . . . . 11 6 105 6 Blue rock ... ... ... 5 0 110 6 R ock . . . . . . .. . . . . 2 0 112 0 Sandstone . . . . .. .. . 10 0 122 6 R ock ... ... ... .. . b~ 6 17H 0 Blue sba.le . . . . . . . . . 50 0 226 0 Blue rock . . . .. .. . 17 0 24a 0

Lined with 60 ft. of G-in. tubes. top of which sta.nds 1 ft. below the surfa.ce ; 40 ft. of 5-in. tubes, top of which stands 60ft. below surface (5-in. tube/3 are perforated).

TESTING AN ELEVATOR. BETWEEX Finnieston and Govan two tunnels have

beeu laid under the Clyde, side by side, one for vehicular traffic going north, and the other for that going south. Above these two, and over the point of junct ion, there is a third tunnel for foot passengers. At either end of t hese tunnels, and close to the river­side, vertical shafts have been constructed, each 80 ft. in diameter. In each of these shafts there are to be six powerful lifts, designed to lower and lift the largest vans, lorries, &c., with their horses, just as they are. On being lowered to the bottom, they will go, as on a road, through the tunnels, and be raised a t the opposite end. The lifts will work at a good speed, and will thus be enabled to handle a very large traffic.

The contract for the lifts was given to the American Elevator Company, of Mansion House -buildings, 4, Queeu Vict oria-street, which has since become the Otis Elevator ompany, Limited ; the contract is being carried out by both companies conjointly.

The tunnels are practically completed , and the shafts are nearly so ; the tixing of the lifts will shortly

commence. The machinery has been constructed by Messrs. Otis Brothers and Co., of New York, and has been specially designed by ~I r. Thomas E. Brown, Jun., who designed the two elevators fixed in the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and also the very large elevators used in connection with the North Hudson Rail way Company, near New Y ork. The machinery has been

completed and the safety fi xtures tested ; the results of the test are given in the following report by ~1r. Brown:

"On 'eptember 21 we made a. test at Yonkers of the safety devices for the Glasgow Harbour Tunnel. For this purpose we used the testing frame got up for similar tests of safeties for the 'Veehawken elevators and Catskill Mountain incline. This frame is a heavily timbered gallows frame about 20ft. high, in which is suspended a. temporary cage, arranged to be dropped by the pulling of a trigger. This cage \-vas loaded with 30,221 lb. of cast iron , and the cage, with its attachments a.ncl safe ties, weighed 1630 lb., making a total of 31,851 lb.

"Two light cords were attached, one to each sa.fety dog, in a manner to represent the action of the governor rope, and so that while possessing strength enough to pull in the doga, they would immediately afterwards break. These cords were left slack enough to allow the cage to drop freely about 13 in.

'V hen t ested, the cage dropped a total distance of 2 ft. 10 in. , at which point it came to rest. The north side of the cage fell freely 1 ft. 1 i in. , and was stopped in a further distance of 1 ft. 8! in.; the south side fell freely 1 ft. 1i in., and was stopped in the further dis­tance of 1 ft . 81 in.; or making an average free drop of 1 ft. 1~ in., and an average stop of 1 ft. 8~ in.; total run, 2ft. 10 in. From this it is evident that at the moment of the safety going into action t he cage was travelling at the rate of about 8.4 ft. per second.

"The work done by the falling cage was 31,851 lb. multiplied by 2.833 ft., equal to 90,234 foot-pounds, which, divided by the length of stop (1. 708ft.), ga.ve a resistance for the pair of safeties of 52,830 pounds, or 26,415 pounds each.

" The safeties brought t he load to rest without the slightest shock, the foreman in charge of t est being upon the gallows frame when the weight fell, and reporting that he felt no jar or vibration. ,

INDUSTRIAL NOTES. OF course the great industrial event of the past week

was the welcome settlement of the great colliers' strike; but as we have dealt with this matter in another article in the present issue, it will not be necessary t o refer to it further here.

The Employerd' Liability .Act passed the report stage in the House of Commons without any serious change in its character. The Government gave way upon one point-namely, fishermen in fishing-boats, who undertake to share in the adventure. The labour members to a. man were against the "amendment," which they interpreted, and rightly, as at variance with the principle that there shall be no contracting· out of the Act. But the amendment was carried by a majority of 72. The late Home Secretary, ~fr. Matthews, expressed the judicial feeling when he said that be saw great difficulty either in supporting or opposing the amendment, because of the technical difficulty of co-partnership which was involved, iu which there should be eo-responsibility. This.was the only serious amendment carried to the Bill, as it left the Grand Con1mittee on Law. The Bill now stands for third reading, after which it has to run the gauntlet of the House of Lords, where an effort is to be made to rever~e the decision of the House of Commons on the non-contracting out clause. But even before it reaches the House of Lords there will b~ another "full-dress debatP." upon the Bill. The third reading is to be challenged. Mr. Chamberlain, who was the author of the existing Act, declares that the Bill is a bad one. He wi11 doubtless rally the whole of the forces who voted for Mr. ~IcLaren's amendment, so that the Bill is not wholly out of danger, especially as the clause, as it stands, was only carried by a majority of 19.

---The report of the Boilermakers and Iron Ship

Builders is rather depressing this month. The "ter­rible cloud of depression which has so long enveloped us ' ' still looms heavily overhead. The effects are seen more clearly where large masses are employed at a single industry like shipbuilding, than they are where the work is more scattered, and the number employed in each case is fewer. Savings in better times have melted away, deLt stares the men in the face, furni­ture and other belongings have gone to the pawnshop, and hard fare is in the home. That this society has done i ts utmost to mitigate the sufferings of its own members is certain. During the six months ending wit~ September the following amounts w~re disbursed: For the unemployed, 21,17ll. lOa. ; s1ck, ll,676l.; superannuation, 2763l. 7s. ; funerals, 2361l. !Os. : benevolent grants, 2383l. 3s. 8d. ; total in six months, 40 355l. lls. 2d. A mora magnificent testimony to the vaiue of a well-conducted trade union it would scarcely be possible to show. Nevertheless, the funds in hand amount to 180,293l. 15s. 8d. The council refused to vote a levy for the miners, for the reason that the calls on the funds are too heavy and pressing at the present titne. The total number on the funds were, at date, 8486, of whom 1240 were sick, and 395 on superannua­tion allowance. The total shows a. decrea~e, as com­pared with last month, being 300 less signing the vacant book. The members are cautioned against making new and improper demands upon employe~s, the report stat.ing that the latter a:re ready to recttfy mistt\.kes in prtces when the matter lB properly brought before them. The output of shipping on the Clyde was abnormally large in October, but the new orders booked fall below the output, so that the outlook is not so bright. All agree that the coal strik.e has stoppe~ the work~ in various places, and has also mterfered \~tth the plac1ng of new contracts. An unfortunate d1spute between the society and one of it~ members has ended i~ the member being sent to prtson for two months for hbel­ling Mr. R. Knight, the general secretary. Every effort was made to meet the member by confere?ce, arbitration and entreaty, but the matter came mto court., and be has now time for lengthened reflection at the expense of his country.

E N G I N E E R I N G. The general st ate of employment, as disclosed by

returns of the Labour Department of the Board of Trade, is a trifle reassuring. The percentage out of work has barely exceeded that of last year at the same date, while the upward t endency is much slower. Indeed, notwithstanding the coal strike, the percent­age out of work is less by just 6 than in May last. The actual number is now 7.3 per cent. , or the same as reported last month. Thirty-two societies, with an aggregate of 337,017 members, sent in returns ; of these 24,771 were unemployed. Shipbuilding is de­scribed as depressed, but engineering and the metal trades show signs of slight improvement in some dis­trict3. The increase of unemployed in the building trades is the largest, from 2.8 to 3.6 per cent.; but the season of the year will account for some of this increase. On the whole, they are still well employed. The furnishing trades are less busy, the proportion out of work being 6.1 per cent. The textile trades are busy. Cotton spinners and weavers are well em­ployed ; woollen trades are busier than for some time past, and the silk trades show some improvement. The clothing, boot and shoe, and printing and paper trades are quiet. At some ports seamen and dockers have been better employed, at others trade is dull and slack. In general, t he proportions reported are : Twenty-four bad, seven good, and one moderate, in so far as the state of trade is given by the thirty-two societies reporting. It is very difficult to gauge the situation exactly, but appearances rather indicate that with the termination of the coal dispute there will be a change for the better, though the time of year is rather against it. '\Vitb the exception of the coal strike, the total number of disputes was small, only 42, as compared with 54 in September, and 59 in August. Of the 42 there were 13 in the textile trades, but of no importance. But the total affected by the entire number of disputes was 9511; of these 7808 were in connection with 17 disputes in mining (outside of the great strike), shipbuilding, and dock labour. Of the two latter, some are in the Clyde over the question of overtime, mainly with the joiners and ship carpenters, and others.

The general state of trade in London does not appear t o be so bad as some would have us believe. In the engineering, metal, and shipbuilding trades the per­centage out of work is 8 per cent., as compared with 8. 3 per cent. last month. But in the building trades the unemployed have risen from 2.3 per cent. to 3.6 per cent. In the furnishing trades 8. 6 per cent. are unemployed ; in the printing trades 6 per cent. as compared with 6. 6 per cent. last month. The boot and shoe and cabinet trades are very dull, and so also are the clothiug trades. At the docks and riverside, there is a good deal of distress, though from some figures sup­plied by the Millwall and Surrey Dor.ks, the average was only 144 more unemployed than in the same month last year. But the pauperism returns have gone up by over 7300.

In the Manchester district trade is slack with engi­neersandmetal workers generally, though the proportion out of work is about the same as last month. The steam engine makers report trade as moderate, boilermakers as bad, and machine minders as bad ; the brassworkers as moderate. But in a few districts b<Jth the iron­founders and the fitters are brisk, and the building trades moderate. There can be little doubt that the coal dispute has had much to do with the depression all over Lancashire.

On the Tyne and the V\" ear trade is still bad, but in the latter district shipbuilding prospects are better. ~larine engineering establishments are dull and languid, but electrical engineers are better employed. Moulders, shipwrights, ship joiners, ship painters, o.nd labourers report trade as bad, many beingoutof employment. But shipping and waterside men are better employed, by reason of the activity in the coal trade of the northern districts. The iron and steel works have been fairly well employed, except that millmen have suffered through scarcity of water owing to the unusually dry season. Glass-workers a.re busy, and so are the build­ing trades for this time of the year. In other respects trade is quiet.

In the Cleveland district the prospects are not so good as they were. Shipbuilding on the Tees is in a languishing state, the outlook being rather gloomy. At Hartlepool, however, things look brighter. The engi­neering and general metal trades are not so bad ; t he works in operation are fairly well employed, but orders of any considerable weight are few and far between. At one of the large steel works the men have had to submit to 1 per cent. reduction under the sliding sca.le. Some of the blast furnaces have been blown out for repairing purposes; this reduces the output and de­mand for ironstone.

In the Sheffield and Rotherham district trade is very bad, owing mainly, it is believed, to the coal strike. Only such work has been going on as was most press­ing. But apart from this, some .of the local staple

'

trades are depressed. Men that are working are on short time, often with the view of saving fuel. Some of the larger works ha.Ye been at a st andstill from the same cause, scarcity and dearness of fuel. The tilver and plated trades are busy, and the prospects fairly good.

In the vVolverhampton district trade continues fairly good, few men being out of work among engineers, machinists, puddlers, mill rollers, steel workers, bridge and girder makers, boilermakers, tank and gas meter makers. Makers of pig iron are also busy. The hard­ware trades are not so well off for work. The nut, bolt, and chain makers are depressed, while the anchor­smiths and anvil makers are slack. The gun lock makers at Darlaston are on strike against a reduction in wages. Electrical workers are not so busy.

FLASH LIGHTS IN LIGHTHOUSES.* On Flash Lights amd the Physiolog1.'cal P erception OJ

I nstantaneous Flashes. By M. ANDRE BtoNDEL, Ingenieur des Fonts et

Cha.ussees. THE apparatus called jeux- ecl'LVrS, t for producing

flash lights, conceived by M. Bourdelles, is well known, and is described in detail in the memoir on lighting appa­ratus presented by the "Service Central des Pha.res de France " to the Chicago Exhibition.

Thie new type of lens enables us to-day to realise a. luminous power hitherto unknown, without increasing the intensity of the source of light or the expense of construc­tion.

The attention of many engineers must have been al­ready drawn to the new methods adopted, particularly in regard to the system of rapid rotation over a mercury bath, a.nd to the simple and original form of the lens, reduced to four or two panels, or even to one only. I shall not, therefore, repeat the description of this ap­paratus.

But apart from ingenious peculiarities of construction, this apparatus is, perhaps, still more interesting on account of the new principles which govern its design, and which rest on certain little· known physiological phenomena.

My object here is to explain these phenomena, and with thE:Im the theory of the jeu.x-t!clairs, furnishing details nob included in the memoir above referred to.

I. -PHYSIOLOGICAL LAWS OF PERCEPTION.

Whenever a. steady light plays upon the eye the im­pression produced does not generally reach ita full value at once, but increases continuously from zero to its maxi­mum amount. It is easy to verify this by interrupting the light after a. longer or shorter period.

For example, if a. series of flashes is produced, of which the duration progressively diminishes, their apparent intensity appears, starting from a. certain duration, to diminish progressively until the light completely dis­appears.

Between certain limits the impression produced on the eye is, then, a function of the period of illumination; this function is not known to us, and it is improbable that it can be exactly determined, but we already possess, as will hereafter be shown, sufficient data. for the purpose of _practioal applications.

To produce the impression of light e. certain time is necessary, called the "time of appearance/' which is so much aborter as the light is more intense; thus it is tba.t a. powerful flash of lightning dazzles us, while a small spark of the sa.rue duration would remain invisible.

In comparing- the effects obtained with lights of diffe­rent intensity {care being taken that the eye is in similar conditions), we find that the time of appearance varies very nearly in an in verse ratio with the luminous inten­sity, so that the product of these two quantities is a con­stant.:::

The condition necassa.ry to the production of a. percep­tible impression by an instantaneous light is, then, the expenditure of a. certain amount of luminous energy employed in overcoming the inertia. of the visual appa­ratus; a.s to the nature of this inertia., which is unknown to us, it may be physical, chemical, or physiological.

This very simple law was first stated by M. Bloch,§ and also established later by M. Charpentier. ll I bad also verified it before knowing the resulta of their labours, by expariments of a. different kind made at the Lighthouse Esta.blishment.11'

* Paper read before the International Maritime Con­gress, London meeting, July, 1893.

t Literally, "Lightnin~ lights." :::Designating by I the mtensity of the light, and by 8

the cerresponding ti.me of. appearance, we have then the relation I x 8 = q, m wh10h q represents the necessary quantity ofluminous energy. Th1s may have, according to circumstances, very different values, but the law, which is really only a. limiting law, remains sufficiently true, provided that the different impressions compared are produced under similar conditions as regards the eye. lb may still be applied, therefore, to the case where we wish to produC'e the minimum p~rceptible impression usually denoted by the symbol o.

§ "Societe de Biologie," July 25, 1885. 11 "Reohercbes sur la. Pereistance des Impressions Reti­

niennee," &c., pages 5 and 15. ~We traced on a black disc a. series of arcs of white

circles, having the same length, but with increasing radii. Making the disc revolve behind a screen pierced with a. radial opening, the white arcs produced a series

•

It is to be noted that it only applies to the case where the impression largely exceeds the minimum perceptible. Further the effect produced depending only, as is seen, on the ~xpenditure of luminous energy, it need not be supposed that the light employed is constant. The effect produced by a. Bash of variable intensity, containing the same amount of light, may, then, be equivalent to that of a. uniform flash.

The time necessary for full perception is difficult to determine precisely, for the impression, the more nearly it approaches its maximum, continues to increase more slowly; nevertheless expariE~nce shows very clearly that the perception is arrived at more rapidly as the light is more intense. This has been established, in particular, by Plateau and M. Charpentier.

According to the latter,* the time of full perception would vary proportionally to a power of the intensity includt:ld between - ! and -;. Further investigation will probably decide the matter more precisely.

The minimum perceptible light, by definition, is not seen unless it has time to produce its full impression. The time of appearance of this light is then Identical with its time of full perception. Agreeably to t he pre­ceding law, it represents the maximum time necessary for perception in all cases.

It is at present very badly determined, because a very feeble light is perceived with excf*!sive variation, accord­ing to the state of the eye, even when the lighll is steady, and, it j01"tiori, when it is of short period. It would seem to be in the neighbourhood of -h second, and this figure is confirmed by two experiments of M. Charpentier, which have given him the values 0.08 second and 0.125 second. More complete experiments may det ermine it more exactly for the conditions in which in practice the observacion is made. We shall see, besides, that the exact knowledge of its value is of no grdat importance for our present purpose.

Limit of Addttion.-When we receive a single luminous impression, the eye cannot perceive its d uration when it is less than n th of a second. When two flashes a re simul­taneously produced from two sources side by eide, that is to say, under the best conditions for making a. compari­son, we find that it is impossible to appreciate the difference of their duration below certain limits. M. Cbarpentier has found t hat under the conditions moRt favourable to the dissociation of the impressions, i.e. , when the two flashes do not commence at t he same time, one can only obser ve the difference (and consequently the duration) when it is greater than 0.003 second. This limit, which the eye is not adapted to subdivide further, is interesting to know, because the impression produced by a light of any intensity whatever, steady or not, which acts for a shorter period, no longer depends on the quantity of light expended. The t ime limit plays, then, the same part in the case of impressions as does the maximum time in the case of the minimum impressions perceptible.

The whole of these phenomena may be represented very clearl;r by a diagram, taking as absciss~:e the periods of illumma.tion and as ordinates the apparent intensities, and for each light representin~ the impression as the func­tion of the period of illuminatiOn by a separate curve. t

The vertical drawn through the point 7', whose abscissa represents the maximum time of perception, cuts in the points C1 C2, &c., the horizontal lines I 1 A1o I 2 A 2,

&c. , which represent t he real intensities of the different lights. The straight! lines obtained by joining these points to the origin have angular coefficients proportional to the absolute intensities.

The second law shows that the points A of full percep­tion are found more to the left of the points 0 as the corresponding absolute in tensity I is greater; they lie thus on a. parabolic cur ve of ~rea.ter or less degree.

The straight line F G, wh1ch represents the time limit of addition, has an abs01ssa a.bout one-third of thatJ of the straight line cl, 7', corresponding to the maximum time of Rerception 7',

'Ihe form of each curve of impression between the mi~imum perceptible m a:nd the point of .full perception A Is unknown. That wh1ch agrees best w1th the various laws which have been explained has been shown in a full line in the figure.! ltJ is, besides, unnooessary to make any special hypothesis on this subject in order to arrive at the conclusions which we proceed to develop.

of ~ashes, appearing simultaneously, but illuminated durmg unequal periods. Giving the disc a. suitable velo­city, we saw the luminous points disappear one by one from the edge towards the centre. Knowing the radii of the arcs, we could then determine the duration of those fl~hes j~st l?erceptible, and compare it with the intensity of 11lummat10n of a lamp placed behind the observer.

* "Recberches sur la Persista.nce dea Impressions Re­tioiennes, " &o., page 24.

t The apparent intensities are in reality only perceived afte.r an. unknown inter val due to the delay caused by the mert1a. of the organs of sensat ion. The diagram does ~ot, the~, represent the progress of sensation as a func· t10n o.f t ime, but only the amount of the impression as a. funct10n of the period of illumination.

:t T~e straight lines 0 Ch 0 C2 do not represent, as has ~omettmes been asserted, the progress of sensation from 1ts commencell!ent, since it only b~gins at the points m1~ m.~, &c: It 1s a matter of probability that the cur ves of 1mpress10n commence as tangents to those lines. But the apparent intensity cannot increase proportionally to the t1me up to the moment of full perception as some a~tho~s have SUJ?posed, for, if so, the points A w'ould coin­~lde With the pomt~ C, and all lights would have the same t1me of full perceptton, which contradicts our second law. The curves ?an only coinci?e with their tangents to the left of ~h~ hne F G:; the unpression is, in fact, within these hm1ts proport10nal to the time of action.

E N G I N E E R I N G. •

!!.- APPLICATION TO FLASH L IGHTS.

F lash lights, as is well known, may either be obtained by means of a lens with a fixed light, around which re­volves a cylindrical drmri with vertical prisms, or by t he use of a simple lens with annular elements.

The latter may always be conceived to be replaced by its equivalent double apparatus, of which the lens with a. fixed light would produce the same concentrati ve effect vertically, and the revolving drum the same concentra.tive effect horizontally. In t he following arguments we may for simplicity be supposed, therefore, to refer always to t he double apparatus. If there were no revolving drum, the light would be

equally distributed in all directions, and would illuminate continuously the eye of an observer placed at a given point of the horizon. The constant quantity of light re­ceived during unity of time would be a.t every instant the product of the surface of the pupil by the illumination. 'rhe latter is, as we know, proportionate to the intrinsic brightness of t he luminous source employed, and to the coeffi.<~ient of vertical concentration of the apparatus. It varie3 in inverse ratio with the distance, according to a law that depends upon the atmospheric absor~tion.

Let us add now the revolving d rum. This collects all the light emitted from the fixed source, and concentrates it horizontally in a number of pencils equal to t hat of the panels. These pencils, when once the coefficient of vertical concentration and intrinsic brightness of the lamp are known, no longer depend on the construction of the lens, but only on the interval of the flashes. There would be an advanta~e in making this as large as possible, but we cannot fix tb absolutely. Numerous experiments and the detailed investigation madt1 by the Nautical Commis-

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o rtat:~ J e, o, F t , r, r~ t' 81 tJ2 ind icate the times of appearance of li~hts

I 1 I 2, &c. T1 T 2 indicate ths times of complete perception of

lights I I I 2, &c. r indicates the times of maximum perception.

F . , time-limit of addition t o impres-s\Ons.

A indicates minimum intensity perceptible. m1 m2 indicat e points where impression begins. A1 A2 , , of full perception.

m1 Y1 A1 , curve of impression produced by I . ql q2 , points of limit of additions.

s ion formed in 1886 to examine the different questions relative to electric light ing* have shown that we cannot secure t}fe continuous attention of the navigator and easy determination of bearings except on condition of produc­ing flashes at least every five seconds. That, t hen , is the figure which has been adopted by M. Bourdelles for his j eux-eclairs. Tha quantity of light available is, then, seen to be entirely fixed <l. priori, and it only remains to determine the best way of utilising it. t

. ~ ~he a~solute i~tensity of t~e pencil continues to d1mm1sh With the d1stance, the time of full perception i!lc~eases up t<;> the ~imit o~ the range of vision at that hm1t, the lummous 1mpress10n produced by the pencil is r£duced to the minimum perceptible value.

According to the law of Bloch, to produce that impres­sion a oortain quantity of light suffices which is mde­pendent of the intensity and the form of the flash pro­vided that it is concentrated in a. time of illuminatio~ less than the maximum time. All the li~ht that may be ex­pended beyond that time at the limitmg range of vision does not then increase the impression produced, and woul.d be ~ore usefully employed in in.c~ea.sing the abso­lute mtens1ty of the flash. The cond1t10n of maximum effect-i.e. , that which permi ts a flash to reach to the greatest possible range with a. given amount of light-is then, that the period of illumination should be inferior' or at most equal, to the maximum time. ' Acc~rding to what has been said abo\'e, the eye cannot

apprema.te the duration of a fl~sh below that limit. The effect produced and the amount of the range are, then ,

* "Notice sur les Appareils d 'Ecla.ira.geexposes a Chicago pu le Service des I> hares," page 49.

t If we call L t he intensity of the lamp, K the coefficient of vertical concentration,

and e the interval of the flashes, this quantity of light may be expressed by the equation-

Q = L K e.

absolutely t he same, for a. light of intensity 100 acting during r6'rrrr sec. as for a light 1 acting du~ing .ftr sec,. W.e shall not have, it is true, the full perception of -the lllumt­na.tion due to the pencil, that is to £lay, that t~e apparent intensity will be weaker than that of a fixed hght of . t.he same power; but this is of no importance, since we utthse to the full the quantity of light contained in the fl~h, under the given circumstances. Besides, other thmgs being equal- that is to say, keeping the same lamp, the same coefficient of vertical concentration, and the same inter val of flashes-no different combination could produce a superior effect.

The jeux· eclairs, which alone satisfy the preceding co~­dition, are, then, the only lights which enable the maxi­mum effect to be obtained . They may, therefore, be defined as ligh ts producing flashes shorter than t~e maximum time of perception (or, at most, equal to th1s time).

Their range may, in virtue of Bloch's law, be de~ermined a priori as a. function of the elements of construct iOn by an equation exactly analogous to the equation of range of M. Alla.rd, in which the true in tensity of the pencil is replaced by t he apparent intensity of the flash. Starting from the results obtained with the feux-eclairs, we thus find that in adopting the first order of lens with four pencils for elec­t ric lights (which have a diameter of 0.60 metre), that is to say, in tripling their diameter, and consequently their coefficient of vertical concentration, we could obtain an apl?arent power of 8,000,000 bees and a rang9 of 145 miles. Thts could only be useful a.t the summit of a t ower of 300 metres in height, like the Eiffel T ower.

When we approach a lighthouse, the quantity of light received by the eye of an observer during a flash increases according to the same law as thE' illumination, if the flash is uniform, and the period is equal to the maximum time; if it becomes superior to the time of full perception, a part of the light is lost. There is then an advantage in further reducing the period for the purpose of economy at small distances. It even appears from the form of the curves of the diagram that a given quantity of light produces an impression so much more powerful as its period is shorter, and that there may be an advantage in concentrating it in a space of time less than that of full perception. It would be useless, nevertheless, to reduce it below the time limit of addition, since, in that case, the apparent intensity would no longer depend on the period of illumination, but only on the quantity of light employed.

The way to obtain the great est utility ab short distances is, then, to diminish the duration of the flash up to the time-limit of addition, which, as ha.s been stated above, would be in the neighbourhood of 0.003 sec.

The characteristic elements of a flash-light apparatus, from the point of view with which we are now concerned, are as follows:

1. The number of panels. 2. The horizontal divergence of the pencils. 3. The speed of rotation. The angle of horizontal divergence is obtained by taking

the ratio of the diameter (d) of the source of light to the foca.llength (l} of the apparatus; the time of one r evolu­tion of the apparatus bemg equal to the product of the number of panels (n) by the interval of the flashes (e) ; the time r equired for the passage of one pencil, that is to say, for the period of a. flash, is

a d t=ne - =ne -- . ~7T 27Tt

T o produce jeux·ecla1'rs this period should be inferior, or a.t m?st equal, to the maximum time of perception (T), that 1s to say :

d ne27Tl~T.

We have thus a relation between the number of panels t~e interval of the flashes, the diameter of the source of hght, and the focal length. The maximum time and the interval of the flashes being two constants determined above (lll' second and 5 seconds) the relation follows,

d _ 27Tl n < 5 0

• We see that the number of panels a.nd the

diameter of the source must be so much smaller as the fooa.llength is smaller.

If we propose only to obtain the maximum utility for the c~ntra.l part of the pencil, w~ich, for oil lights, is the most Important, we must determme the focal length with relation to the elements of the lens farthest from the centre. That is what ha.s been done for the calculation of the Table drawn up in the memoir cited above, and reproduced on the next page.

If we wish to utilise all the light contained in the flash we ~hould h~ve to calculate. its period according to th~ max1mum dtvergence, that Is t o say, according to the fooa.l length of the central portion of the dioptric drum The dimensions of the permissible flames would then b~ smaller, as is shown by the Table on the next page drawn up on this new hypothesis. '

This last Tab~e shows the le~~ which shou~d be adoP.ted for each lamp m order to ut1hse the maximum ut1lity from the light that it furnishes, but not the maximum ?t!lity of the lens _itself; on the contrary, the first Table, 1f 1t doe.q not furmsh the complete utilisation of the light enablE~s superior effects to be obtained with the same len~ in con.sequence of the intensifying of the flash. Strictly speak~ng, the b.es.t solution to adopt would be that of reducmg to a mmimum the annual expense (interest and d~preciation of th~ capital in the apparatus, together w1th the cost of 01l) necessary to obtain a determined luminous intensity. Assumin~ that we.cannot go b~yond a. diameter of lamp

of 13 centimetres m French hghthouses, there is no reason to a.dopb the first or second order with one lens,

•

E N G I N E E R I N G.

TABLE I.-LENSES AND FLAMES ~'OR FEUX-ECLAIBS.

Theoretical and Practical Diameters of Flame fo1· Feux-Eclai rs, Utilising completely the Uniform Part of t he Pencil.

Fooe.l Length of Lens.

metre 1

Fi rat. order . . 0. 920 I Second 01 d er . . 0. 700 Third , . . 0.500 Fourth , . . 0.250 Fifth , .. 0.1875

, " .. 0. 15()0

1 Lens.

Theo- Practical. retil::a l.

metre metre 0.218 0.220 0.172 0.180 0.125 0.180 0.052 0.060 0.039 0.040 0.035 0.040

2 Lenses.

-Theo- PracticaL retioa.l.

metre met re 0.109 0.110 0.086 0.090 0.062 0.070 0.026 0.030 0.019 0.020 0.018 0.020 I

4 Lenses. 6 Lenses. 8 Lenses.

- -- -Theo-re tioal Practical. Theo· Practical.

1

Theo- Pradical. retioal. retioal. •

metre metre metre metre met re metre 0.046 0.060 0.031 0.030 0.023 0.030 0.037 0.040 0.025 0.030 0.018 0. 020 0.027 0.030 0.018 0. 020 0.014 0.020 0.011 0.020

TABLE II. -LENSES AND FLAMES !!'OR FEUX-EOLAIRS.

Theoretical a.nd Practical Diameter of Maximum Flames for which all t he Light is Employed, Utilising the whole Pencil up to its EdgE:&.

Focal Length of Lens. 1 Lens. 2 Lenses. 4 Lenses. 6 Lenses. 8 Lenses.

I

Practical. I Theo- .Practical. Theo- Theo- Practical. 'Db eo- Practical . Theo- Practical retical. retical. retical. retical. retical. •

metre metre metre metre metre First order .. 0.920 0.115 0.12 0.052 0.05 Second, • • 0. 700 0.088 0.09 0.044 0.04 Third , . . 0.500 0.063 0.06 0.033 0.03 Fourth, .. 0.250 0.051 0 05 0.025 0.03 Fifth , .. 0.1875 0.012 0.02

, "

.. 0.1500 0.003 I i

because the intensity that they furnish in these condi­tions is inferior to what can be given by the third order.

For electric feux-eclairs we cannot think of rigorously proportioning the diameter of the source of light to that of the lens, for this would lead to very considerable sizes for the ~carbons. These lights give flashes which are sensibly uniform, and it is consequently easy to calculate their apparent power by the aid of Blooh's law. We thus obtain the following Table :

• (I) Apparent -Q) Q

Duration Luminous Power in Powar in Cil Thousands of p.. ot Flash . Carcele. Focal ..... Car eels .

Length of 0 ,..

Leas. Q)

.0

~ 26 100 25 Amp. 100 Amp. 25 100 z Amp. Amp. Amp. Amp.

secs. secs. First r 2 0.015 0.031 2160 8550 • • • • order 4 0.039 0.062 • • . . 2160 8550 0.920 6 0.045 0.193 • • • • 2160 8550

Second > 2 0.019 0.039 1680 6650 I

• • •• order · 4 0.038 0.078 • • •• 1 1680 6650 0.700 6 0.057 0.117 • • . . 1680

Third } 2 0.027 0.056 1200 4750 order •• • •

4 0.0154 0.112 1200 4750 0.50 • • • •

Fourth) 2 0. 003 0.062 2,400,000 4,600,000 720 2850 order J 4 0.06 0.125 1,2LO,OOO 2,300,000 720 2300 0.30

I

Although many figures in this Table have only hypo­thetical value,* inter esting conclusions may be drawn from them; for the fourth order t~~ li~ht with two pa~els will only permit the complete utlltsat10n of the arc hght up to 100 amperes; for the higher orders four panels are more than sufficient, and ~he period .of flas~ being ~mob inferior to the maximum ttme, there ts nothmg to hmder our increasing further the intensi ty of t~e current, the quantity of additional light so produced bemg .coi?Jpletelr utilised . There is then, at present no matenal ;.mposst­bility in establishing electric feux-eclairs, giving not merely 8,000,000 bees with 1_oq amperes, as. the Table indicates, but even 30 to 40 milhons of bees wtth ourren~s of 400 to 500 amperes, such as are often spoken of m England. Such a light placed at a height of 300 metres would have a range of more tha:n 300 kilometres. .

If the duration of the flash 1e equal to the max tmum time the full perception is arrived at, and the appa~ent inte~sity varies according to the ordinary law-t~at IS to say, in the inverse ratio o~ the squa:re of the dtstance, neglecting the atmospheric a:hsorpt10n. On th_e 9th_er hand if the period of the flash ts reduced b~low th1s lmut, the ~pparent intensity will appear to mcrease more

rapidly than .!. when the observer is approaching the zz'

light. Startwg from the moment wh_en the i.ntensit:y is great enough to produce ~ull perceptLOn, the 1mpr_ess10n will again follow the ordmary law up to the pomt at

------ * The figures relative to the fourt~ order with four panels are those which have been obta:med for _the l~ns of the jeux-lclairs of La H eve, and wh10h are gtven m the memoir above quoted pages 63 to 73. W e may deduce from them by analogy' other periods ?f flash, as also the apparent power of the other orders. o!lmg_to the fact tha:t for a ll of them the period of flash ts mfez:tor to the maxi­mum time. Ib is only necessary to determme the appa~e~t power, relative to the lights of the fourth order . Tht~ ts what has been done by means of Bloch's law, supposmg the maximum time to be -h second.

metre metre metre metre 0.026 0.03 0.013 0.02 0 022 0. 03 0.015 0.02

I 0

I I

which t he apparent diameter of the light becomes superior to the limit of irradiation.

S uM MARY AND CoNCLUSIONS. To summarise, I may say that, having explained,

aeoording to the best authorities, the phy::.iological pheno­mena which accompany the vision of instantaneous flashes, and having put forward a rational theory of these pheno­mena, I have established the following propositions:

1. E verr source of light employed in a lens is capable of furnishmg at each flash a quantity of light that only depends on its intensity, and the coefficient of vertical concentration of the apparatus, and on the interval between the flashes. This is fixed by considerations of a practical nature at the value of 5 seconds. 2. The feux­t!clailrs enable us to utilise this quantity of light with a maximum of utility as regards range, because they con· oentrate it in flashes of a period inferior to the maximum time of perception (about ~ second). 3. This condition giving the maximum of utility, it is of no importance as regards the utilisation of the lamp whether the full per­ception is rea-ched or not : there would even hA a gain in further reducing the duration of the flash as far as the time limit of addition (about 0.03 second); from the point of view of utilising a given lens, there is, on the contrary, an advantage in increasing the flash and the diameter of the lamp. 4. One may calculate, cl. prio?i, according to Bloch 's law, the range of a feux- eclair, even when it does not give the full perception. 5. The f eux-eclairs using oil allow us to obtain the maximum range for lamps of a diameter suitably chosen. The electric feux- eclairs could even realise the maximum utility at any d istance. 6. The ranges obtainable by the aid of feu x-eclairs are greater beyond comparison than those of the old appa­ratus. The range that may be reached with electricfeux­eclairs are now no longer limited bv the luminous inten­sity, but by the height of the tower that we should have to construct to render them available. I hope that these considerations will ser ve to show how great is the interest attaching to the absolutely new problem solved by the jeux -t!clairs, and the enormous progress that they have established in the utilisation of light-a progress which appears to have reached almost the limit of finality.

LAUNCHES AND TRIAL TRIPS. T HE screw steamer Emera.ld, lately purchased by

Messrs. Donald and Taylor, of Glasgow, has had her compound engines altered for the use of steam at high pressure. A new high-pressure boiler of extra large dimensions has been fitted, together with an entire set of new mountings and connections. The engines, which were previo~sly of the ?rdinary O?mpound type •. with cylinders 27 m. and 50 m. by 30 m. stroke, workmg at 65 lb . .Pressure, have been reconstructed, the alterations to oyhnders maki_ng them now 17 in. and 47 in. by ~0 in. stroke, with a botler prPssure of 160 lb. per 13quare mch. The engine work has been effected by Mr. George T . Grey, H~lborn E~gineering Works, South S~ie~ds, the boiler bemg supphed from Messrs. J os. T . Eltrmgham and Co. 's W orks, of South Shields, who also carried out the alterations and repairs to the vessel's hull. The owners state that on her first voyage, with a cargo of 1300 tons the vessel averaged Si knots with 460 indicated horse-po;er, and the consumption did not exceed 1l lb. per indicated horse-power ver hour.

The R e U m her to, one of the largest of the new ironclads of the Royal Italian Government, was taken out on the 25th ult. by the manufacturers of the machinery,_ Mes~rs. Maudslay, Sons, and Field, London, for the officld tr1al~

and for final acceptance of the machinery by the Italian Government. The contractors were represented by Mr. J ohn Sampson, one of their directors. The trials proved of a highly satisfactory character. The contract stipulated for the development of 15,200 horse-power natural draught and 19,500 forced draught, but, as hereafter shown, the Government decided to abandon the forced draught trials. The run was made from Spezia to Genoa and back, a distance of 120 knots, at an average speed of 18.3 knots, the engines indicating a mean of about 17,000 horse-power with i in. of air pressure in the stokeholds. The maximum power during the run was found t o be 19,000 horse-power, and the maximum speed 18l knots, which was obtained by only i in. of air pressure. The machinery worked smoothlY. in every respect, no water service being used. The b01lers gave a plentiful supply of steam without priming or other difficulties. The results were considered so satisfactory from every point of view, both as regards the speed of the vessel and the facility with which the speed could be maintained (the trial being made by the ordinary ship's crew and not by special stokers), that the commission appointed recommended the Marine Ministry to accept the machinery with· out further trials, as it appeared so obvious that

· the horse-power with forced draught would largely exceed the contract power of 19,500 horses. The recom­mendation was, therefore, accepted by the Ministry of Marine. This powerful ironclad is fitted with four 34-oentimetre 67-ton Armstrong guns, eight 15-centi­metre guns, sixteen 12-centimetre quick-fi ring guns, ten 5. 7 -centimetre ditto, and seventeen 3. 7 -centimetre ditto, and two machine guns. The dimensions of the ship are as follow: Length, 400 ft. ; beam, 76.9 ft., draught, 28.6 ft.

- --A steel screw steamer named Colombia was launched

on the 11th inst. from the yard of the Bergens Mekaniske Vrerksted, Bergen, Norway. The following are the dimensions : L ength over all, 216 ft. 6 in.; breadth, moulded, 29 ft. ; depth, moulded, 14 ft. 4l in. She is built to the highest class in the Norwegian Veritas for the A merican fruit trade, and has a large number of ventilators to the holds, as well as heating apparatus for use in winter. In a large deokhouse aft are fitted comfort­able cabins for twelve passengers. H er engines are of the t riple-compound type, with cylinders 16! in., 26! in., and 43 in. in d iameter, and 30 in. stroke. Tbe indicated horse-power is about 700. An extra large steel boiler supplies steam at a pressure of 175 lb. per square inch. The speed when laden is to be 11! knots. The ship has been built to the order of Mr. Adolph Halvarsen, of Bergen.

The first-class armour-clad, the Three Saints, engined by Messrs. Hurnphrys and Tennant, has been launched at Nikolaiev, and when she is completed and added to the Blac.;k Sea F leet, Russia will then have no less than six first­class battleships in the Black Sea, besides gunboats, tor­pedo-catchers, and torpedo-boats. At least one more vessel of large size is to be laid down shortly in those waters, and in est imating the balance of power in the Mediterranean it is impossible to leave altogethAr out of consideration this very powerful .Beet, which, directly or indirectly, may make its force felt when the great struggle for supremacy comes.

SouTH AFRICAN GOLD.-The production of gold in the Witwatersrandt district in September amounted to 129,585 oz., showing a falling off of 6484 oz. as compared with August. The decrease reported is attributable to a short supply of labour. The production of January this year was 108,874 oz.; of February, 93,252 oz. ; of March, 111,474 oz. ; of April, 112,055 oz. ; of May, 116,911 oz. ; of June, 122,907 oz. ; of July, 126,169 oz. ; of August, 136,069 oz. ; and of September, 129,585 oz. ; making an aggregate for the nine months of 1,056, 794 oz. The out­put for the wholo of 1892 was 1,210)862 oz.; for the whole of 1891, 728,613 oz. ; for the whole of 1890, 494,758 oz. ; for the whole of 1gs9, 382,364 oz.; and for the whole of 1888, 230,640 oz.

INTERLOCKlNG ON THE SYDNEY T RAlllWAYs.-During the past few months a novelty has been introduced into the working of the Sydney street tramways, in the ~hape of an extension, at the junction points of the N ewton, Glebe Point1 and Forest Lodge lines, of the system in vogue on ra1lways of working points by locking levers con­centrated under the charge of one man in a cabin or signal box . A cabin containing three interlocking levers has been erected on the Parramatta. road, opposite to the Sydney Tramway and Omnibus Com­pany's stables; and from it the facing points on the down journey, leading to Newton, Enmore, and Dulwich Hill! Glebe Point and Forest L odge, and Balmain, are workea in the same way as points on railways. The levers are of the ord inary pattern, wi th a spring catch, as used on the railways, but the mode of connecting them with the points is somewhat novel, and had to be designed to sui t the cir­cumstances, as of course rods could not be can ied over the road way, as would be the case where there is no vehi­cular traffic. The difficulty has been met by a device for carrying the rods under the roadway. At the points special means of working have bad to be adopted, and an arrangement has been designed for indicating to the pointsman in the cabin tha\J the points are set correctly and fit close to the stock rails. There is also a scheme of electric bells, one being fixed at each junction, rung from the cabin, and interlocked with the point leYers, which act as si~nala to prevent two trams coming into collision ~t a fouling point.

"ENGINEERING" ILLUSTRATED PATENT RECORD.

COMPILED BY w. LLOYD WISE. SELECTED ABSTRACJI'S OF RECENT PUBL.ISHED SPECIFICATIONS

UNDER THE ACTS 1883-1888. The ntt.mber of views give-n. in the Specification Drawings i8 stated

in each case ; where none a;re mentioned, the Specification is not illmtrated.

Where Inventions are communicated from abroad, the Name8, &c., of the Communicators are given in ital~.

Copies of Specifications may be obtained at the Patent Ojfice Sale Branch, 38, Curaitor-street, Chancery-lmn.e, E. C. , at the <t.tnYorrn price of 8d.

The date of the adverti8ement (lf the acceptance of a complete svecijication i8, in each case, give:n after the a_bstract, u·nleas the Patent has been sealed, when thl!. date of 11ealitng is given.

.4ny person m<11y at any time within two m onths from the date of the adverti8ement of the acceptance of a complete specifteation, give notice at the Paten t Office of oppol!ition to the grant of a Patent on. any of the grounds mentioned in the .Act.

ELECTRICAL APPARA'I'OS. 21,811. c. E. L. Brown, Baden, Switzerland.

Alternating Current Motors. [9 F igs.] November 29, 1892.-Tbis invention relates to multi-phase alternating current motors without separate excitation. The outer winding A, which receives the primn.ry current, is stationary. The iron sheath Al for the windmg consists of insulated and laminated sheet metal pressed between two r ings A2 cast in one with the two hd.lves of the framing , which a re connected together by bolts B, and cury th~ feet on which t be motor r ests. T\\O end plates C are ~ro­vided with bearings Cl, and protec t the interior of the mach1ne. The end plates a re each provided with a central openio~, and with openings a.t the outer periphery for promoting a circulation

c 'i1J. ~

A

.Ptg.3.

of air from the centre to the outside of the motor. Near the inner periphery the iron sheath Al is provided with boles A:J of oval shape, through which parts of the wires forming the outer windin~ A are pas3ed. Ooe half of these wires is bent back in a definite di rection, but so that they are situated always at t he same distance from the axle. The wires of the other half a re bent in an opposite direction , the ends being soldered to~etber to form a drum wind· ing. The rotary part of the winding is ce.n ied by a shE>ath D. The sheet-metal plates forming this sheath are, near their outer periphery formed with holes similar to those in the outer mag­netic sheath A2, and contain a similar winding G. (Accepted October 11, 1893.)

MACHINE TOOLS, SBAFTING, &c. 20,845. L. Mills, Plymouth, Devonshire. Shifting

Spanner. (4 Figs.] November 17, 1892.- In this invention the back part of t he movable jaw A of the spanner is enlarged towards the stationary one B, and t he latter is enlarged towards the former. A g roove is formed in the enlarged part of tbe one, and the other is r educed in thickness, forming a tongue sliding in

• Fig .1

Ftg .2 ( Or ~ 1

the groove, together forming a clasp with a d ouble abutment E and F. Between this part and tbe poiuts of the jaws is a bolt 0 passing into both of the latter, and having right and left-handed screws at alternate ends, and a milh d disc bead for turning it, the jaws bein~ adjusted to t.he ri~ht distance apart by revolving the right and left-handed screw. (A cceptect October 11, 1893).

STEAM ENGINES AND BOILERS. 21,768. T. Keene, Birkenhead, Chester. Packing

for Ptston-Rods. [4 Figa.J Novembe r 29, 1892.-This in ­vention relates to metallic packing for piston-rods, and consists in locating it between two concentric t~pherical bearin~ surfaces. A sleeve 3 supports an inner bush, and is provided w1tb a gland adapted to set up the bush. A spring is interposed between thE>

sleeve and gland, one end of the sleeve and the opposite end of the gland being supportEd by t.be two concentric spheric.al bearing surlaces. 1, 11 are the split inner bushes, arranged to break joint. The qland is formed in parts 6, 7 ; 12 is an inter­posed ring under compreaeion between the gland 7 and sleeve 3.

E N G I N E E R I N G. A spiral spring is also inter posed between 6 and 7. (Accepted October 4, 1893).

21,587. J. Bathorn and J. Stuart, Pollokshaws, Renfrews, N.B. Plural-Expansion Steam Engtnes. [6 Figs. ] November 26, 1892.- In this invention, in using e. three­sta~e expansion engine for working at high speed, the three cyhndera a re form ed in one casting disposed t rigonally and inverted, vertical in position. The three pi,ton- rods a re fixed to a. trigonal fume D connected by a pair of rods E to a pair of cranks F on the shaft G. A siogle valve H distributes steam to the three cylinders, and works in a. cylin ­drical valve chamber J placed centrally, and actuated from an eccentric K placed bet\\een the two cranks. The valve chamber has in the parts of its sides nearest each of the cylinders ports leading to the cylinder ends respectively, and a lso an inlet por t L a.t about the middle of its length , by which the initial steam reaches

Fig.1 .

A

Fig . 2. .Fig.8.

A

the valve. The inlet por~ is between the ports of the fi rst·stsge C}linder, and the steam is d :s tributed to them by a cavity in the valve. When the Yalve is in position for supplying steam to one port Nt, the opposite one N2 is in communication with another P:l in the vah ·e, and through a cur,·ed passage within the valve with a cavity which is also formed in it in a position to distribute steam to the ports Q•, Q2 of the second-stage cylinder . The steam from the second-stage cylinder similarly passes through a port R2 and an internal passage in the vah·e to a cavity, which distri­butes it to the ports of the t hird cylinder, the steam on leaving the latter passing throu~h a port and passage in the valve t o a space at the end of the valve chamber , and thence to the exhaust passage which communicates with both ends of t he valve chamber. (~ ccepted October 4, 1893).

17,887. L. Richard&, Workington, Cumberland. Steam Engines. [1 Fig.} October 7, 1892.-In this inven­tion three or mor e cylinders a re employed, which use steam inde· pendently of each other, and are connected to separate cranks on the crankshaft. Each cylinder has a Yalve A for t he admission

of the steam, with laps to cut it off according to the expansion required. Valves are also provided with laps to give the neces· sary period of release and amount of compression independently of the expansion. The vah·ea for admission and release are in separate chestR, and actuated by separate eccentrics. (Accepted Octobe1· 11, 1893).

17,635. w. Paton, Richmond, Surrey. Operating Throttle, &c., Valves from a Distance. [2 Ftgs. ] Octo­ber 4, 1892.- The object of t his invention is to provicte means whereby moth·e power engine throttle valves, &c. , whether oacil· latory or reciprocatory, can be operated from a distance, ei tber by hand or by an engine governor, without t he interven tion of ropes, &c. The upper end of the tube a• is closed by the cover b which is bolted to the body, the lower part of which is faced at a3 to allow it to be secured to the main steam pipe of t h e engine, and the interior of the ~ube alto be put in communication with the boiler. The body is also formed into a ftanged pipe to enable it to be secured to t h e engine supply pip(', all steam in its passage from th e boiler to the

en~rine proceeding through the tube al, tl':e passage a2, an.d th.e outlet pipe a4. The interior of the t ube al 1s bored out cyhn~n­cally, and has fitted within it the throttle valve c, ~hie~ cons1sts of a ring connected by a rms to t he cen.tr al pa~t, '~h1cb 1s fonned at c2 into the smaller portion of a dttferentlal ptston, the la rger part of which is connected to the ~mall~r part by a rod d and nut d,l. The s maller part c2 of the ptaton 18 made t? move steam­t ight within bushes e, el fixed in the cover b (Flg .. 1). aD~ t}?.e larger part of the piston is fitted so as t o move steamt1ght w1thin the cylinder g, which is tlanged and fixed upo.n the cover b by bolts. The cylinder g has its upper end for~e~ m to t.he stu!fiog­box ~hrough which t he rod d passes, and 1t lS proVlded .w1th a small passage through which the lower part of the cylinder g is put in communication ~vith t h.e cond.enser or the atl!lospbere. The cylinder g is also provided w1th a ptpe through whtch ste~m from the boiler is supplied to, or exhausted from, the. upper s~de of the piston. The spac~ in the cyli~de~ g ab~ve the p1s~on, be10g exhausted by being put m commumcat10n w1th the engme a con­denser, the steam in the tubE' al presses upon the smalle r ~o~ of the piston and moves the piston and the valve c attached to tt m to

1.

h

Lhc pos:ti~ n Fig. 1, where the valve c does not obstruct the &team, but allows it to pass out of the tube and through the passage a"', but when steam from t he boiler is admitted to the cylinder rJ , and on to the larger end of the piston, it exer ts its force upon a greater area than that CJf the smaller end of the pil:ton, and thereby forces the pibton down the cylinder u and moves the ring c attached to it down the tube al. By exhausting the steam in the space above th e piston, t he reverse ac tion takes place. ~o admi.t s tea.m and ex haust it from the c~ linder g the steam ch est IS supphed wat.b steam from t he boile r through the inlet pipe hl, and the outlet pipe Jt2 and the cylincter g a re either put in communication with the steam chest or the exhaust passage h3 by movinJt the slide valve h4 upon its por t face by means of a rocking shaft j made to engage with the interior of the valve. The rocking abaft j turns in bearings formed in the chest lt, through one side of which it passes through a stuffing-box, and it is provided with a spanner for t he purp: ee of turn ing it. (.dccepted Octolm· 4, 1893).

17,636. w. Paton, Richmond, Surrey. Governors for Motive Power Engtne. [4 Figs. 1 October 4, 1892.­This invention relates to goYernors for preventing the speed of motive power engines becoming injuriously accelerated, and the principal object is to provide one without rotating parts. A small pump cylinder is mounted u pon a baseplat(', and bas fitted to it a piston having a piston-rod working through packed glands fo rmed in the ends of the cylinder. 'Ihe piaton-tod is coupled to the engine ~rossbead, and the cylinder has both its ends in com­munication with an other wise closed chamber, and the cylinder and ch~mber are filled with a liquid such as oil. The piston and the passages connecting the ends of the cylinder with the chamber are arranged so as to permit of the piston, when recipro­cated in either direction, forcing the liquid out of one end of t he cylinder into the chamber, and from thence into the other end of the cylinder. On one side of the chamber is fitted a small cylinder containing a ftuid-tight piston, one end of which is in contact with the h q uid in the chamber , and the other with the atmosphere, and the piston is pressed into the chamber by an adjustable spring. One of the pasttages by which the liquid

R:J .1

R .. z.

leaves the chamber is murh smaller than the other, and its arfa requires the pump piston to exert pressure upon the liquid in order t hat it may be forced through it and out of the cba.mber. This pressure so varies with every variation of the :~peed of t he piston, and the liquid exer ts a varying p ressure upon t he end of the piston projecting into t he chamber, and when the pressure exceeds that of the spring the piston moves out of it, this motion being made available for operating appliances for checking the speed of the engine and preventing it becoming injuriously ac­celerated. The steam chest cont a ining the valve by which the piston is caused to reciprocate is mounted upon the bedplate, and its valve's spindle is so placed and arranged that projections formed upon a sleeve carried by the pump's piston-rod give the motions to t h e valve required for causing the piston's reciproca­tions. Tbe sleeve is connected to the pump's piston·rod so as to permit o~ its having a small angular motion upon the rod, but no end motiOn, and the sleeve is connected to the piston projecting into the chamber by levers arranged so as to allow of the piston imparting to the sleeve the required angular motion when pressed out of its oylinder by the liquid in the chamber. (.Accepted October 4, 1893).

21,579. B . J. B . King, Stroud, Glouceaters. Com• pound Engines. [7 Figs.} November 26, 1892.-This inven­tion relates to compound and multiple cylinder engines. The high and low pressure piston-rods 1, 2 are coupled to the .L con­necting-rod 3 through t h e links 4, 6, t his rod being centred at 6 on the rocking lever 7 which works the ver tical air pump 9. By plaoing two sets of t hese engines on one crankshaft, t hey may be worked as quadruple engines by paseing the steam in succeseion through each of the four cylinders. Tbe val ve spindle 1 ie

attached by nuts to the casting 2, in which Is fittPd the wedge­ehaped t.runnion block 3 to insure the gab end 4 being always a flt. To throw the eooentric which works the valve out of gear, the handwheel 5 is turned round from its natural position, and in turning lifts the gab 4 up and out of gear. The bandwheel is then d rawn forward in tbe direction of the arrows. The "ah e

Fio.J . v

oan then be moved in any direction by the band wheel 6, and t he gab i8 kept out of gear by the concentric part of the cam 6, which, through the movement of the wheel in the direction of the arrows, is brought under the gab end of the eccentric rod. ~ coepted. October 11, 1893.)

IIISCELLANEOlJS. 19,043. J. Willey, Rotherham, Yorkshire. Haulage

Clip. [6 l"igs.) October 24, 1892.-Tbis invention consists of a haulage clip comprising two books b bent to suit the diameter of the rope R, and jomed together with a cu rved distance piece b2 with projection b3 and slot boles to admit the stalk cl of the setting-up block C which is ~rooved to suit the rope, the stalk bavin~ a slotted 'bole io it to suit the lever and cam pin. The block 0 is actuated oo the rope R by a lever and cam combined . The c1m has a flat place on t he face, so arranged as to lock the le\'er

H Ho fh'n 1 . Pin.3 .

.... -:;?' . b' c - -::7 •

Fig.Z.

/l0 4J

from going back when the block is at the point of c.ont~ct with the rope. T he lever and cam are attached to the proJec~oton by a pin. (.Accepted October 11, 1893).

20 868. J. Thompson, London. Couplings. [7 ~iqs.] Nov~mber 17, 1892.-This im·entico relates to mean~ for umtmg flexible a rmoured hose to couplings. A sook~t A 1s employed, with a contracted end into ~hi?h se~eotal P•.eces B ~re ft~ted, each piece having a double mchned r1b D on 1ts ex tenor , and a

0 8

screw thread inner face to engage the a rmouri!lg t~ of ~be hose G 80 that" ben the end of the armoured hose Is Inserted m to the so~ket and tbe segments put in place, the screwing up of a fe rrule d raws the segments and the hose into close contact, and makes a firm joint. (.A.ccepted October 11, 1893).

21,971. J. s., R. D . and W . D. Cundal.!t Shlpley, Yorka. Cylinder Printing llachtnes. [3 F t.qs.] D~cem­ber 1, 1892.-This invention has reference t~ Wharfedale cyl~oder printing machines. The framework A carry mg the flyer cyho~er B, together with the flyers, is attached to, and borne by, vertacal

Fl{l1

• • • •

A

-

• • • A

rods D, the lower ends of which rest u pon io~line~ surfaces F,, ~o that on the latter being operated In one dtrec tton, the ~ertJCal rods together with the cylinder and th er, are raised bodily, and rem~in in that ele\ ateci position until the inclined surfaces are operated in the re\ er e direc tion. These sur f tN are operated by

E N G I N E E R I N G. a segment and a. handle, and the cylinder is counterbalanced by a spring coiled round flue operating shaft. ( .tcupted. October 11, 1803).

340. G. Llttlewood, Huddersfield, Yorks. Looms. [6 .Pi{}d ] January 7, 1893.- This invention relates to shuttle checking motion, and has fo r its object to prevent breakages arising from the ~ickers being drawu into the boxes when the operation of" pickmg out" is being pe rformed. A b racket b is affixed to 'be llrea.st beam a of a loom , atAd a catch lever is mounted on it, this le'fer, unde r certain conditions, eoga~ing wltb a. sliding bracket k, to which the checking straps n , 1&.1 are attached . A p rojecting finger/, provided on a.n attachment, when

Fig. 1.

J40

Fig.u. b b

Rg .4.

in position engages with and depresses the outer end of the catch lever, thus liberating and releasing the movable bracket, and therefore the checking straps and pickers, which then remain inoperative until the loom 1 again set in motion . When this takes place, the finge r attached to the setting·on rod g is r e­moved from the catch lever, t his le,·er then engaging with the movable bracket when the l atter is brought into position by t he mcwement of the lathe, and the shuttle checking motion is then again brought into play. ( ~ ccepted Octouer 11, 1893.)

19,297. T. A. Adamson and R. B eldam, London. Valves for Pumps. [7 Figs.] October 27, 1892. - Tbis in­vention has reference to valves applicable for air , circulating, &c , pumps. The valve consist of a disc A of sheet metal, secu red at ats centre to a tubular boss B, and provided near the outer peri· pbery with a ring Al. The ring AI serves for streogt.beoin~ the thin disc por tion of the valve and for loading lhe val'.'e to the requi red extent. The va lve is formed on its underside with a number of ftutes C of gradually decreasing depth towards the centre, wbere they merge into the flat surface of the disc, and a re c losed at t heir outer ends by the port ion A2 of metal fo rming part of the r ing Al, io which tht> outer ed~e of t he disc A is h eld. Each of the ftutes C has one of its edges (C1) arran~ed tangentially to a c iNle, having the axis of the val ve as it s centre, so that the

19291

Fig . 2 . ig . 4-.

Fig. 3. HI

ftutes, instead of being radial, ha\'e a slight inclination in one direction, with the result that by tbe ac tion of fluid a mo,·e· ment of par tial rotation is imparted to the valve at each lift. The valve seat D is formed with deep tangentially­arranged bars E inclined to the face of the ,·al ve seat, so as to form upwardly -inclined opemngs, whereby a circular motion is imparted to the fluid pa.ssing through, eo a.s to assist in impar ting an intermittent or rotary motion to the valve. A g uard limits the li ft of the vah·e at each suction stroke of the pump, and is made with an annular groove Fl a t its underside to contain ftuid to assist in cushioning the valve when opening. (Accepted October 4, 1893).

22.020. W. Boaz, London. Lubricators. [4 F i.tJB. ] December 1, 1892.-This consists of a cylinder A provided with a piston, to which is att a"hed at each end a hyd raulic cup made of a material such as leather, held in posi t ion by screw capa. The piston is operated hy a c rank, upon the pin of which is a steel block which works horizontally throuJrh a circular slot in tbe centre of the piston. Tbe crankshaft d 1 is

0

Fig.2.

operated by a wormwbee~ G and worD? H . Throug h the ceo~re of this worm passes a spmdle h 1 car11ed by a bracket, wbtch forms a top CO\ er of the ('ylinder. Oo th i~ s pindle is fixed a ratchet wheel J operated by a pawl jl ('arried by a lever K, which is sup· ported at one end by the spindle hi and at the other by a rod from a m oving part of the en~rioe, eo as to operate tbe ratch et-\\ heel at each stroke of the engine. (.4.cupted.Octo1Ju 11,1 9:3).

22,4.23. W. Sargenteon and J. Gilbert, Badfleld, Derbys. Loom Shuttles. [10 Figs.) December _7, 1 9~.­Tbis in,·ention relates to shuttles for use in looms, and 1ts obJ et is to p rovide means whereby they may be easily threaded." ben in uqe. A g roo\'e is formed in the body of the shuttle, extend lOll' from the open part towards the tip, a second g roove extending from the

224 ... ) ,

first one, and passing obliquely O\'er the shuttle and terminating at tbe del.ivery point. Within this slot is placed a wire wbiob is bent and coiled to form two eyes, one of \Ybicb is at the junction of the grooves, and t~e other at t~e delivery point. The threading is effected hy layrn~ a thread m the first groo,·e and pulling it side­ways and down into the second slot, the thread being then passed into the two eyes. (.d ccepted. October 11, 1893).

19,041. .w. J. Brewer, London. Lubricating Axles, &c. [7 Ft.QS.] Ocoober 24, 1892.-Tbis invention consists in casting lhe journal in a mould having pointed etude c fixed in it ~o a.s to lea,:e numerous hol~s in and through the body of the ~ournal beanng, and to !rO\'t~e !!leans of lubrica.tio~r the axle or JOUrn~J. . The p~rforat~ c~tm~ 1s formed with a g rease box, and supphed 10 the mner sade w1th a plunger having lips the plunger ha,·•og a rod fixed to it passing through the ;}~\·er of the g rease box. The rod is g raduated, and indicates when the lubricant is becoming exhausted, and affords means of corn· pressing the lubricating material by a weight or spr ing which can

•• • • •

f~l

\Fio.3.

• .. • . '

~

be remo,·ed when necessary. This bearing can be st rengthened by being fitted into a jacket of metal, such as cast iron or steel, having holes communicating with those in ~be journal bearin~s. If the mould is internal, a round piece or metal of the same d1a· meter as the axle or spindle fo r which the bearing is beiog cast, is used. The mould surrounding this has the studs projecting from its inner surface, the leng th of these studs giviog the desired thickness to the bearings. If the m ould is external, it will be in two par.s, with the studs projecting round its outer circumference, t he si ze of the bearing being re~lated by the body of the mould, covers being provided to retam the metal in the moulds until i t has cooled ready for remo\'al. ( J1 ccepted. October 4, 1893).

23,825. H . Skewes, Camborne, Cornwall. Com­bined Moulding, Planlnjt, and Sawing Machines. (5 F i.JfJ. ] December 2.-, 1892. This invention refa.tes to a com· bioed moulding, planing , and sawing machine, and consists of a framework F carrying a sa.w frame A, a planer bed C, a mould· ing bed D, and a number of shafts carrying a num ber of pulleys and wheels. In the sawing part of the maehine the ' 'er tical guides g are ac tuated by hand by means of a key handle. The mechanism, consisting of a shaft carrying pinions gearing with racks, is operated by the leve r so as to depress a pulley

:ltg 1.

-

2.

to tighten t he wood on the teed rollers. The top of the saw· table B is provided with parallel guides, and the saw M turns in it, this table being raised or lowered by a screw dl actuated by a h and le d. The logs are shifted under the knives, instead of moving t he knives upon the log, by tbumb screws e and parallel bars i . The planer bed 0 is raised or lowered by the t wo handles, bevel wheels. and screws. At the end of the planer spindle H, the moulding apparatus D is provided with a screw to receive the moulding blocks, which are tapped eo as to be tightened as required . (~ccepted. October 11, 1893).

UNITED STATES PAT.ENTS AND PATENT PRAOTIOE. Descriptions '' itb illustrations of im entioos patented in the

United States of America from 1847 to the pre&ent time, and reports of t rials of patent law cases n the t:nited States, may bt consulted, g ratis, at the offices oi El\GtNl':ERI.·o, 35 and 36, Bedford· street, Strand.