Title: Scientific American, September 29, 1883 Supplement. No. 404
Author: Various
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.


*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Scientific American, September 29, 1883 Supplement. No. 404" ***


[Transcriber's Note:

Italics denoted by underscores.

Bold text denoted by plus signs.]


[Illustration: Scientific American

Supplement.

No. 404]



  Scientific American Supplement, Vol. XVI., No. 404. }
  Scientific American, established 1845.              }

  NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 29, 1883.

  { Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.
  { Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.


       *       *       *       *       *



BIETRIX'S VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL COMPOUND ENGINE.


Compound engines are tending to come more and more into use, inasmuch
as they present many advantages over other kinds, especially as regards
the saving they effect in fuel, and their great regularity, due to the
adjusting of the cranks at right angles.

It is not surprising, then, to see our large manufacturers, who desire
to maintain a reputation, seeking to create new types based upon this
principle. But, in multiplying the parts, as is done in these motors,
the engine is rendered more complicated, and the cost of installation
is increased. Hence the difficulty of placing these motors,
notwithstanding the saving in fuel that is gained by employing them.

Messrs. Bietrix & Co., of St. Etienne, however, have devised a type in
which these two inconveniences seem to have been in a great measure
overcome, and which we illustrate in the annexed engraving.

[Illustration: COMBINED VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL COMPOUND STEAM ENGINE.]

_Description of the Engine._--The engine as a whole is represented in
longitudinal elevation in Fig. 1, in plan in Fig. 2, and in side view
in Fig. 3. Fig. 4 shows the condenser in transverse section.

The motor consists of a small vertical cylinder, A, and of a large
horizontal one, C, both projecting over a strong hollow frame, B, which
connects them and carries the guides, _g g'_, and the pillow block,
P, of the driving shaft, _p_. The condenser, D, is in a line with the
large cylinder, and the piston, D², of its pump is mounted upon the
prolongation, _d'_, of the piston rod, _a_, of the cylinder, C. The
expansion gear is controlled by the regulator, and the admission may
vary from 1/19 to 1/85. Steam is admitted into the small cylinder
through the pipe, _s_, and its entrance may be regulated at will by
acting upon the hand wheel, _s'_, which controls the maneuvering
rod, _s²_. After expanding, the steam, in escaping from the smaller
cylinder, passes through the pipe, _r_, into the feed-water heater, R,
and then acts in the larger cylinder, _c_, in order to pass afterward
to the condenser, D, through the pipe, _d_.

The frame, B, is in two parts, the vertical part being adjusted by
keys upon the horizontal one, and strong bolts concurring with such a
coupling to make the whole strong and solid. This frame carries plane
slide bars, _g g'_, with beveled counter guides.

The pistons are of the Swedish type, of hollow iron, with steel rods.
The segments are of cast iron. The horizontal connecting rod, M', is
connected directly with the crank pin, _m_, but the vertical one is
fixed to the head of the former, as may be seen in Figs. 3, 8, and 9.

The bearing of the horizontal connecting rod is in three parts, each
having an anti-frictional bushing, and their play being regulated by
bolts, _m²_. Friction being slight in the bearing of the vertical
rod, M, inasmuch as the latter's axis has but a short travel at
each revolution of the driving shaft, it is not provided with an
anti-frictional bushing.

_The Small Cylinder_ (Figs. 5 and 6).--The small cylinder is shown
in detail in Figs. 5 and 6, the valve box cover being removed in the
latter. The diameter of this cylinder is 380 millimeters, the stroke
of the piston is 650 millimeters, and the thickness of the sides is
25 millimeters. It is provided with a steam jacket; and the two ports
are 45 millimeters in width by 200 in length. The exhaust is effected
through an orifice 84 millimeters in diameter.

The distribution is a variable one, according to the Meyer system, the
expansion being caused to vary automatically in the small cylinder, by
means of a regulator, so as to proportion the motive to the resistant
power.

The distributing slide valve, _t_, contains two steam inlets, whose
orifices facing the cylinder are formed by two horizontal, parallel
rectangles, while the inlets debouch toward the opposite surface (in
contact, consequently, with the expansion slide valve, _t'_), according
to two parallelograms, whose larger sides are oblique, and form between
them a sharp angle, as may be seen in Fig. 6. These inlet conduits are
therefore out of true. The slide-valve, _t_, is moved by an eccentric,
E.

The expansion slide-valve, _t'_, has the form of a trapezium, whose two
like sides are parallel with the inclined openings in the slide-valve,
_t_. It is held by a piece, _q_, which carries it along in its backward
and forward motion, but does not prevent it from being moved in a
horizontal direction under the action of the regulator. This piece,
_q_, is keyed upon a rod, _q'_, which is itself jointed at its lower
extremity with the rod, _e'_, of a second eccentric, E', which causes
its vertical motion.

The backs of the valve, _t_, and the piece, _q_, are provided with
grooves, which are designed for giving passage to the steam, the
pressure of which on these surfaces partially balances that that it
exerts in an opposite direction.

_Automatic Regulation_ (Figs 5 and 6).--The upper part of the rod,
_e'_, carries a cam, _f_, that plays freely between two connecting
rods, _f¹_, and the travel of which is limited by two rollers, _f²_
and _f³_, situated between the rods, _f_, which latter are themselves
suspended from a rod, F. The latter slides in a support, F², which
serves likewise as a guide to the rods, _q'_ and _t²_, of the
slide-valves, and which is fixed upon a projection cast in a piece with
the frame, B, and is suspended from the short arm of a bent lever, F',
whose longer arm carries a roller that runs in a vertical groove, _t³_,
in the back of the expansion slide-valve. The lower extremity of the
connecting rods, _f'_, is connected with the sleeve of the regulator,
Q, by a lever, _f^{4}_, and a bent lever, Q'. This latter revolves on
an axis passing through its elbow and mounted at the extremity of a
projection that is cast in a piece with the support of the regulator.
This bent lever is prolonged beyond the sleeve, and carries suspended
from its extremity a small piston-rod that plays in a dash pot, Q³, and
limits the too abrupt motions of the apparatus. The regulator is driven
by a belt and through the intermedium of the bevel pinions, _u_.

It is easy now to understand the purpose and the _modus operandi_ of
the mechanism that permits the regulator to act upon the expansion
gear. When running normally the connecting-rods, _f'_, occupy a
vertical position, and the rollers, _f²_ and _f³_, are placed exactly
at the two extremities of the travel of the cam, _f_.

When the velocity exceeds the normal, the sleeve of the regulator rises
and the lever, Q', tips to the right and forces the rods, _f'_, to
oscillate in the same direction around their upper joint. After that,
the lower roller, _f²_, being situated on the line of travel of the
convex part of the cam, will be carried along by the latter and cause
an oscillation to the right of the bent lever, F. The piece, _t'_,
will then be pushed back in such a way as to partially close the inlet
orifices of the slide-valve, _t_, and, as the steam will thereupon
enter into less quantity, the engine will quickly resume its normal
velocity. If the velocity becomes less that the normal the action will
be just the opposite of that just described.

_The Large Cylinder_ (Figs. 1 and 2).--The two eccentrics, E and E',
which control the distributing gear of the small cylinder, A, actuate
at the same time that of the large one, C, through two rods, _e²_ and
_e³_; such distribution is also effected by means of a sliding-plate
valve. The two steam ports are 45 millimeters and the exhaust port 84
millimeters in diameter.

The large cylinder is 650 millimeters in diameter, and 930 in length.
The stroke of the piston is 650 millimeters.

_The Feed-Water Heater_ (Figs. 1 and 2).--The exhaust from the small
cylinder enters the heater through a pipe, _r_, 140 millimeters
in diameter. This feed-water heater consists of a large cast iron
cylinder, 400 millimeters in internal diameter, and 1.15 meters in
length, connected with the pipe, _r_, on the one hand, and with the
cylinder, C, on the other, by means of two couplings, R' and R². In
its interior are arranged 60 copper tubes, of 29 millimeters internal,
and 31½ millimeters external diameter. These tubes are fixed at their
extremities into two circular supports that are riveted to the interior
of the cylinder. The exhaust from the small cylinder passes into these
tubes, around which circulates steam coming directly from the boiler
through the tube, _r'_, and escapes toward the bottom, with the
condensed water, through the tube, _r²_. The heater is surrounded with
a 2 mm. plate iron jacket.

A communication, _r³_, with a valve-cock, R³, permits of the
introduction, into the large cylinder, of the steam from the heater.
The exhaust steam from the large cylinder goes directly to the
condenser, but there is likewise provided a pipe through which it may
make its exit into the open air, in case, for example, the condenser
needs repairing or there is a failure of water.

_The Condenser_ (Figs. 1, 2, and 4).--The condenser is represented,
half in section and half in external view and in elevation in Fig. 1,
and in plan in Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a transverse view of it. It consists
of a large cast iron chest, D, bolted by means of its flanged base to
a masonry support. This chest is cast in a piece with a pump chamber,
D', in which works a piston mounted on the prolongation, _d'_, of the
piston-rod of the cylinder, C. The diameter of this piston is 210
millimeters, and its stroke is 650. The condensing jet, whose flow is
regulated by the cock, _d²_, is brought into contact with the steam by
a rose, _d³_, which divides it into small drops.

The pump is a double acting one. Its valves are of rubber, and the
passage-way allowed the water is, in each of them, in section, one-half
that of the piston. The rod, _d'_, slides in a stuffing-box, with
metallic lining, which is shown in Fig. 10.

_Lubrication._--The lubrication of the crank-pin presents some
peculiarities. Two stationary cups, _z_, are placed at the upper
part of the guides, as seen in Fig. 3. These distribute their oil,
drop by drop, into two reservoirs, _z'_, fixed to the upper axis
of the vertical connecting-rod. Two small brass tubes, resting
against the connecting-rod, lead the lubricator into cavities in the
head of the horizontal connecting-rod, M'. One of these cavities
corresponds to the crank-pin and the other to the lower axis of the
vertical connecting-rod. The lubrication of the cylinders is effected
automatically by means of a Consolin apparatus (Fig. 1), based upon the
condensation of the steam and upon the difference between the density
of the oil and condensed water.

_Diagram of Distribution_ (Fig. 11).--We shall first examine that
which relates to the small cylinder. The eccentric of the distributing
slide-valves is adjusted to 123° with respect to the crank, and that
of the expansion slide-valves to 170°, that is to say, so that the
angles of advance are respectively 55 and 57 millimeters for these two
cylinders.

Let us trace two axes, _o x_ and _o y_, at right angles, and a
semi-circumference of any radius whatever, _o m_, which shall represent
the travel of the crank-pin. Let us draw the line, _o_ A, making with
_o y_ an angle of advance of 33°, and the length of which is equal to
the eccentricity of the distributing slide-valve, say 55 millimeters,
and let us describe a circumference on this length taken as a diameter.
Let us trace in the same way the line, _o_ B, making with _o y_
an angle of advance of 80°, and let us describe upon this line a
circumference equal in diameter to the eccentricity of the distributing
slide-valve, say 57 millimeters.

Finally, let us trace points, _o_ and _c_, as centers of arcs of
circles having respectively for radii the distance between the centers
of the circumferences just mentioned and the eccentricity of the
expansion slide-valve. These two arcs will intersect each other at a
point, _c²_, which is thus the fourth angle of a parallelogram whose
other angles are the points, _c_, _c'_, and _o_. From the point, _c²_,
as a center let us describe a circle passing through _o_.

In short, we obtain three circles that are such that the vector
radii, starting from the point, _o_, and limited at the said circles,
represent, for the first, the deviations to the right of the
distributing slide-valve beginning at the middle of its travel, the
second the deviations of the expansion slide-valve, and the third the
relative deviations of the distributing with respect to the expansion
slide-valve.

Let us complete the diagram by describing, from the point, _o_, as
a center, circumferences having for respective radii the length, _o
e_, of the external overlap of the distributing slide-valve, and the
lengths, _o i_ and _o i'_, corresponding to the minimum and maximum
of the interval between one of the edges of the expansion slide-valve
and the external edge of the corresponding inlet orifice of the
distributing slide-valve, when the axes of these two valves coincide.

These radii have the values: _o e_ = 25 mm.; _o i_ = 8 mm.; and _o i'_
= 42 mm. Let us now prolong the radii, _o d_, _o d'_, _o d²_, and _o
f_, until they meet the crank circle, and let us then project these
points of intersection upon a line, M M', parallel with _o x_, and we
shall have all the elements that are necessary to study the different
phases of the distribution in the small cylinder.

Let us complete this diagram in such a way as to study also the
distribution in the large cylinder:

In this cylinder the distribution cannot be modified, that is to say,
the active length of the expansion slide-valve is invariable. The
interval comprised between one of the edges of this valve and the
internal edge of the corresponding inlet orifice is equal, then, to 28
mm. when the axes of the two valves coincide.

Let us describe, from _o_ as a center, a circle having this length for
a radius, and let us again project the intersections of the radius,
_o k_, with the crank circle upon a parallel at M M'. The external
overlap, being the same as in the small cylinder, say 25 millimeters,
the circle, _o e_, already traced for the distribution in the small
cylinder, will serve for the distribution in the large one. Let us join
its intersection with the circle, _c_, and the center, _o_, and let us
trace also the circle of the internal overlap and the radii, _o g_, and
_o h_, and we shall have all the elements of the distribution.

_Advantages of the Engine._--The engine that we have just described
presents all the advantages possessed by horizontal motors and double
cylinder vertical ones without their many inconveniences. It, in fact,
takes up less space than the former, while it possesses more stability
than the latter. Its operation is as regular as that of an engine
having two cranks adjusted at right angles.

The cranked shaft, a costly member of an engine, and one whose duration
is always uncertain, despite the care that has been taken in making it,
is here done away with.

The kind of distribution adopted is well adapted to the great
variations in expansion, and, notwithstanding the two superposed
slide-valves in each cylinder, two eccentrics suffice to operate them.

The regulator, thanks to the mechanism that connects it with the
expansion plate, is freed from all exaggerated resistance, the
eccentric rod alone supporting the entire stress. The regulator is
consequently very sensitive, and is capable of giving a coefficient of
regularity which is more than sufficient in most cases. The condenser,
with its wide apertures, is capable of operating with great speed
without shock.

We may add to this that the engine is simple and compact; the number
of parts is few, and all can be easily got at; the bearings are long,
and the wear is consequently reduced; the dimensions of the steam
ports are wide and permit of great velocities being reached without
counter-pressures; the mode of lubrication has been well studied, and
requires but little attention on the part of the engine man; and,
finally, the cylinder jackets and the superheating of the steam after
it has begun to expand make this an economical motor aside from all the
advantages that we have enumerated.--_Publication Industrielle._

       *       *       *       *       *



IMPROVED GAS ENGINE.


The accompanying engravings illustrate Edwards' patent gas engine, made
by Messrs. Cobham & Co., Stevenage, Herts, recently exhibited at York.
In our engravings, _a_ is the foundation plate of the engine, having
the bearing, _b_, in which the crank shaft, _c_, revolves; _d_, an
inclined plate upon the foundation, _a_, to which the cylinder, _e_,
and casing, _f_, are bolted; _g_ is a piston working in the cylinder,
_e_, and having a hollow rod or trunk, _h_, to which is jointed the
connecting rod, _i_, which drives the crank pin, _k_. The guide, _l_,
fits upon the hollow trunk, _h_, and is itself surrounded by the air
casing, _m_, which communicates with the casing, _f_, through openings,
_n n_, in the inclined plate, _d_. The guide, _l_, has openings, _o
o_, through which air enters the casing, _m_, when the hollow trunk,
_h_, is at the inner end of its stroke; _p_ is the exhaust pipe, and
_r_ is a casing round the cylinder, _e_, through which water may be
made to circulate by pipes at _s, t_. The valve seat, _v_, fits into
the cylinder, _e_, and has holes, _w_, for the admission of air, and
_x_ for the admission of gas through the central pipe, _y_. The valve,
_z_, consists of a disk of metal covering these holes and guided
by a spindle, A, the outer end of which is fitted with a metal or
India-rubber spring at B, and a regulating nut, C. The gas pipe, _y_,
is shown supplied from a flexible bag, D, the supply to which from any
convenient source is regulated by a cock or valve at E. The piston,
_g_, contains a disk exhaust valve, G, the spindle, H, of which is
fitted with a closing spring, I, and the end of the spindle is pressed
down during the inner stroke of the piston by a tail-piece, K, on the
inner end of the connecting rod, _i_. Holes, L, open from the hollow
piston above the exhaust valve, G, into the cylinder round the hollow
trunk, _h_, and thence to the exhaust pipe, _p_. At or near one-third
of the stroke of the piston a firing valve, P, is arranged, having an
inlet hanging valve of the usual kind, through which a flame burning
outside is drawn when the valve is uncovered by the piston, _g_. The
outer end of the casing, _f_, is closed by a cover, R, to which the
valve seat, _v_, and gas inlet pipe, _g_, are connected.

The operation of the engine is as follows: The piston, _g_, being at
the inner end of its stroke, the crank is turned round in the direction
of the arrow, and the piston draws air in through the holes, _w_, and
gas through the holes, _x_, the two mixing as they pass under the
inlet valve, _z_. When the piston has advanced far enough to uncover
the firing valve, P, the flame is drawn in and the inflammable mixture
exploded, the expansion of the air and gas closing the inlet valve,
_z_, and carrying the piston to the end of the stroke. The momentum
of the fly-wheel then carries the piston back through its return
stroke, during which the tail-piece, K, presses the spindle, H, and
opens the exhaust valve, G, through which expanded air and gas escape
to the exhaust pipe, _p_. It is claimed that this arrangement is very
effective in securing a complete clearance from the cylinder of the
products of combustion, which, when not wholly removed, vitiate the
incoming charge and reduce efficiency.

When the piston arrives at the inner end of its stroke, the exhaust
valve, G, is closed by the spring, I, and a fresh supply of air and
gas are drawn in through the inlet valve seat, _v_, as the piston
again commences its outer stroke. In order to keep the cylinder, _e_,
sufficiently cool, whether the water casing at _r_, be used or not,
the whole supply of air is drawn from the front end of the cylinder
through the openings, _n n_, and thence between the cylinder, _e_, and
the casing, _f_, and round the end of the latter to the inlet valve,
_v_. And in order to prevent or lessen the noise of the explosions, the
hollow trunk, _h_, is made of such length that its front edge closes
the openings in the guide, _l_, through which air is drawn into the air
casing _m_, and through the openings, _n n_, just before the explosion
takes place, the noise of which therefore cannot escape. For the same
purpose fibrous or porous material, such as mineral or slag wool, may
be placed loosely in the space between the cylinder and the casing, _f_.

The engine may be made to revolve in the opposite direction to the
arrow by turning the piston and connecting rod round so that the
tail-piece upon the latter is above instead of below, and instead of
the water casing, _r_, radial ribs may be formed upon the cylinder,
_e_, from which the air passing between them inside the casing, _f_,
absorbs the heat. The cylinder is arranged preferably in the inclined
position shown, but it may, of course, be fixed in any other convenient
position.--_Engineering._

[Illustration: IMPROVED GAS ENGINE.]

       *       *       *       *       *



METERS FOR POWER AND ELECTRICITY.[1]

By MR. C. VERNON BOYS.


The subject of this evening's discourse--"Meters for Power and
Electricity"--is unfortunately, from a lecturer's point of view, one of
extreme difficulty, for it is impossible to fully describe any single
instrument of the class without diving into technical and mathematical
niceties which this audience might well consider more scientific than
entertaining. If, then, in my endeavor to explain these instruments and
the purposes which they are intended to fulfill, in language as simple
and untechnical as possible, I am not as successful as you have a right
to expect, I must ask you to lay some of the blame on my subject and
not all on myself.

I shall at once explain what I mean by the term "meter," and I shall
take the flow of water in a trough as an illustration of my meaning.
If we hang in a trough a weighted board, then, when the water flows
past it, the board will be pushed back; when the current of water is
strong, the board will be pushed back a long way; when the current is
less, it will not be pushed so far; when the water runs the other way,
the board will be pushed the other way. So by observing the position of
the board, we can tell how strong the current of water is at any time.
Now suppose we wish to know, not how strong the current of water is at
this time or at that, but how much water altogether has passed through
the trough during any time, as, for instance, one hour. Then if we have
no better instrument than the weighted board, it will be necessary
to observe its position continuously to keep an exact record of the
corresponding rates at which the water is passing every minute, or
better every second, and to add up all the values obtained. This would,
of course, be a very troublesome process.

There is another kind of instrument which may be used to measure the
flow of the water--a paddle wheel or screw. When the water is flowing
rapidly, the wheel will turn rapidly; when slowly, the wheel will turn
slowly; and when the water flows the other way, the wheel will turn the
other way, so that if we observe how fast the wheel is turning we can
tell how fast the water is flowing. If, now, we wish to know how much
water altogether has passed through the trough, the number of turns of
the wheel, which may be shown by a counter, will at once tell us. There
are, therefore, in the case of water, two kinds of instruments, one
which measures at a time, and the other during a time. The term meter
should be confined to instruments of the second class only.

As with water so with electricity, there are two kinds of measuring
instruments, one of which, the galvanometer, may be taken as a
type, which shows by the position of a magnet how strong a current
of electricity is at a time; and the other which shows how much
electricity has passed during any time. Of the first, which are well
understood, I shall say nothing; the second, the new electric meters
and the corresponding meters for power, are what I have to speak of
to-night. It is hardly necessary for me to mention the object of
making electric meters. Every one who has had to pay his gas bill once
a quarter probably quite appreciates what the electric meters are
going to do, and why they are at the present time attracting so much
attention. So soon as you have electricity laid on in your houses, as
gas and water are laid on now, so soon will a meter of some sort be
necessary, in order that the companies which supply the electricity
may be able to make out their quarterly bills, and refer complaining
customers to the faithful indications of their extravagance in the
mysterious cupboard in which the motor is placed. The urgent necessity
for a good meter has called such a host of inventors into the field,
that a complete account of their labors is more than any one could
hope to give in an hour. Since I am one of this host, I hardly like to
pick out those inventions which I consider of value. I cannot describe
all, I cannot act as a judge and say, these only are worthy of your
attention; and I do not think I should be acting fairly if I were to
describe my own instruments only and ignore those of every one else.
The only way I see out of the difficulty is to speak more particularly
about my own work in this direction, and to speak generally on the work
of others.

I must now ask you to give your attention for a few minutes to a little
abstract geometry. We may represent any changing quantity, as, for
instance, the strength of an electrical current, by a crooked line. For
this purpose we must draw a straight line to represent time, and make
the distance of each point of the crooked line above the straight line
a measure of the strength of the current at the corresponding time.
The size of the figure will then measure the quantity of electricity
that has passed, for the stronger the current is the taller the figure
will be, and the longer it lasts the longer the figure will be; either
cause makes both the quantity of electricity and the size of the figure
greater, and in the same proportion, so the one is a measure of the
other. Now it is not an easy thing to measure the size of a figure;
the distance round it tells nothing; there is, however, a geometrical
method by which its size may be found. Draw another line, with a great
steepness where the figure is tall, and with a less steepness where the
height is less, and with no steepness or horizontal where the figure
has no height. If this is done accurately, the height to which the new
line reaches will measure the size of the figure first drawn; for the
taller the figure is, the steeper the hill will be; the longer the
figure, the longer the hill; either cause makes both the size of the
figure and the height of the hill greater, and in the same proportion;
so the one is a measure of the other, and so, moreover, is the height
of the hill, which can be measured by scale, a measure of the quantity
of electricity that has passed.

[Illustration: FIG. 1]

The first instrument that I made, which I have called a "cart"
integrator, is a machine which, if the lower figure is traced out, will
describe the upper. I will trace a circle; the instrument follows the
curious bracket shaped line that I have already made sufficiently black
to be seen at a distance. The height of the new line measures the size
of the circle; the instrument has squared the circle. This machine
is a thing of mainly theoretical interest; my only object in showing
it is to explain the means by which I have developed a practical and
automatic instrument, of which I shall speak presently. The guiding
principle in the cart integrator is a little three-wheeled cart, whose
front wheel is controlled by the machine. This, of course, is invisible
at a distance, and therefore I have here a large front wheel alone. On
moving this along the table, any twisting of its direction instantly
causes it to deviate from its straight path. Now suppose I do not let
it deviate, but compel it to go straight, then at once a great strain
is put upon the table; which is urged the other way. If the table can
move, it will instantly do so. A table on rollers is inconvenient as
an instrument, let us therefore roll it round into a roller, then on
moving the wheel along it the roller will turn, and the amount by which
it turns will correspond to the height of the second figure drawn by
the cart integrator. If, therefore, the wheel is inclined by a magnet
under the influence of an electric current, or by any other cause, the
whole amount of which we wish to know, then the number of turns of the
rollers will tell us this amount; or to go back to our water analogy,
if we had the weighted board to show current strength, and had not the
paddle wheel to show total quantity, we might use the board to incline
a disk in contact with a roller, and then drag the rollers steadily
along by clockwork. The number of turns of the roller would give the
quantity of water. Instruments that will thus add up continuously
indications at a time, and so find amounts during a time, are called
integrators. The most important application that I have made at present
of the integrator described is what I have called an engine-power
meter. The instrument is on the table, but as it is far too small to
be seen at a distance, I have arranged a large model to illustrate
its action. The object of this machine is to measure how much work an
engine has done during any time, and show the result on a dial, so
that a workman may read it off at once, without having to make any
calculations.

[Illustration: FIG. 2]

[Illustration: FIG. 3]

[Illustration: FIG. 4]

Before I can explain how work is measured, perhaps I had better say
a few words about the meaning of the word "work." Work is done when
pressure overcomes resistance, producing motion. Neither motion nor
pressure alone is work. The two factors, pressure and motion, must
occur together. The work done is found by multiplying the pressure by
the distance moved. In an engine, steam pushes the piston first one
way then the other, overcomes resistance, and does work. To find this
we must multiply the pressure by the motion at every instant, and add
all the products together. This is what the engine power-meter does,
and it shows the continuously growing result on a dial. When the piston
moves, it drags the cylinder along; where the steam presses, the wheel
is inclined. Neither action alone causes the cylinder to turn, but
when they occur together the cylinder turns, and the number of turns
registered on a dial shows with mathematical accuracy how much work has
been done.

In the steam engine work is done in an alternating manner, and it so
happens that this alternating action exactly suits the integrator.
Suppose, however, that the action, whatever it may be, which we wish to
estimate is of a continuous kind, such, for instance, as the continuous
passage of an electric current. Then, if by means of any device we can
suitably incline the wheel, so long as we keep pushing the cylinder
along so long will its rotation measure and indicate the result; but
there must come a time when the end of the cylinder is reached. If then
we drag it back again, instead of going on adding up it will begin to
take off from the result, and the hands on the dial will go backward,
which is clearly wrong. So long as the current continues, so long must
the hands on the dial turn in one direction. This effect is obtained
in the instrument now on the table, the electric energy meter, in this
way. Clockwork causes the cylinder to travel backward and forward by
means of what is called a mangle motion; but instead of moving always
in contact with each wheel, the cylinder goes forward in contact with
one and backward in contact with another on its opposite side. In this
instrument the inclination of the wheels is effected by an arrangement
of coils of wire, the main current passing through two fixed concentric
solenoids, and a shunt current through a great length of fine wire
on a movable solenoid, hanging in the space between the others. The
movable portion has an equal number of turns in opposite directions,
and is therefore unaffected by magnets held near it. The effect of this
arrangement is that the energy of the current--that is, the quantity
multiplied by the force driving it, or the electrical equivalent of
mechanical power--is measured by the slope of the wheels, and the
amount of work done by the current during any time, by the number of
turns of the cylinder, which is registered on a dial. Professors Ayrton
and Perry have devised an instrument which is intended to show the same
thing. They make use of a clock and cause it to go too fast or too slow
by the action of the main on the shunt current; the amount of wrongness
of the clock, and not the time shown, is said to measure the work done
by the current. This method of measuring the electricity by the work
it has done is one which has been proposed to enable the electrical
companies to make out their bills.

The other method is to measure the amount of electricity that has
passed without regard to the work done. There are three lines on which
inventors have worked for this purpose. The first, which has been used
in every laboratory ever since electricity has been understood, is
the chemical method. When electricity passes through a salt solution
it carries metal with it, and deposits it on the plate by which the
electricity leaves the liquid. The amount of metal deposited is a
measure of the quantity of electricity. Mr. Sprague and Mr. Edison
have adopted this method; but as it is impossible to allow the whole
of a strong current to pass through a liquid, the current is divided;
a small proportion only is allowed to pass through. Provided that the
proportion does not vary, and that the metal never has any motions on
its own account, the increase in the weight of one of the metal plates
measures the quantity of electricity.

The next method depends on the use of some sort of integrating machine,
and this being the most obvious method has been attempted by a large
number of inventors. Any machine of this kind is sure to go, and is
sure to indicate something, which will be more nearly a measure of
electricity as the skill of the inventor is greater.

Meters for electricity of the third class are dynamical in their
action, and I believe that what I have called the vibrating meter was
the first of its class. It is well known that a current passing round
iron makes it magnetic. The force which such a magnet exerts is greater
when the current is greater, but it is not simply proportional. If the
current is twice or three times as strong, the force is four times or
nine times as great, or, generally, the force is proportional to the
square of the current. Again, when a body vibrates under the influence
of a controlling force, as a pendulum under the influence of gravity,
four times as much force is necessary to make it vibrate twice as fast,
and nine times to make it vibrate three times as fast; or, generally,
the square of the number measures the force. I will illustrate this
by a model. Here are two sticks nicely balanced on points, and drawn
into a middle position by pieces of tape, to which weights may be
hung. They are identical in every respect. I will now hang a 1 lb.
weight to each tape, and let the pieces of wood swing. They keep time
together absolutely. I will now put 2 lb. on one tape. It is clear that
the corresponding stick is going faster, but certainly not twice as
fast. I will now hang on 4 lb. One stick is going at exactly twice the
pace of the other. To make one go three times as fast it is obviously
useless to put on 3 lb., for it takes four to make it go twice as
fast. I will hang on 9 lb. One now goes exactly three times as fast as
the other. I will now put 4 lb. on the first, and leave the 9 lb. on
the second; the first goes twice while the second goes three times.
If instead of a weight we use electro-magnetic force to control the
vibrations of a body, then twice the current produces four times the
force, four times the force produces twice the rate; three times the
current produces nine times the force, nine times the force produces
three times the rate, and so on; or the rate is directly proportional
to the current strength. There is on the table a working meter made
on this principle. I allow the current that passes through to pass
also through a galvanometer of special construction, so that you can
tell by the position of a spot of light on a scale the strength of the
current. At the present time there is no current; the light is on the
zero of the scale; the meter is at rest. I now allow a current to pass
from a battery of the new Faure-Sellon-Volckmar cells which the Storage
Company have kindly lent me for this occasion. The light moves through
one division on the scale, and the meter has started. I will ask you
to observe its rate of vibration. I will now double the current. This
is indicated by the light moving to the end of the second division on
the scale; the meter vibrates twice as fast. Now the current is three
times as strong, now four times, and so on. You will observe that
the position of the spot of light and the rate of vibration always
correspond. Every vibration of the meter corresponds to a definite
quantity of electricity, and causes a hand on a dial to move on one
step. By looking at the dial, we can see how many vibrations there
have been and therefore how much electricity has passed. Just as the
vibrating sticks in the model in time to come rest, so the vibrating
part of the meter would in time do the same, if it were not kept
going by an impulse automatically given to it when required. Also,
just as the vibrating sticks can be timed to one another by sliding
weights along them, so the vibrating electric meters can be regulated
to one another so that all shall indicate the same value for the same
current, by changing the position or weight of the bobs attached to the
vibrating arm. The other meter of this class, Dr. Hopkinson's, depends
on the fact that centrifugal force is proportional to the square of the
angular velocity. He therefore allows a little motor to drive a shaft
faster and faster, until centrifugal force overcomes electro-magnetic
attraction, when the action of the motor ceases. The number of turns of
the motor is a measure of the quantity of electricity that has passed.

[Illustration: Fig. 5.]

I will now pass on to the measurement of power transmitted by belting.
The transmission of power by a strap is familiar to every one in a
treadle sewing machine or an ordinary lathe. The driving force depends
on the difference in the tightness of the two sides of the belt, and
the power transmitted is equal to this difference multiplied by the
speed; a power meter must, therefore, solve this problem--it must
subtract the tightness of one side from the tightness of the other
side, multiply the difference by the speed at every instant, and add
all the products together, continuously representing the growing amount
on a dial. I shall now show for the first time an instrument that I
have devised, that will do all this in the simplest possible manner.
I have here two wheels connected by a driving band of India-rubber,
round which I have tied every few inches a piece of white silk ribbon.
I shall turn one a little way, and hold the other. The driving force is
indicated by a difference of stretching; the pieces of silk are much
further apart on the tight side than they are on the loose. I shall now
turn the handle, and cause the wheels to revolve; the motion of the
band is visible to all. The India-rubber is traveling faster on the
tight side than on the loose side, nearly twice as fast; this must be
so, for as there is less material on the tight side than on the loose,
there would be a gradual accumulation of the India-rubber round the
driven pulley, if they traveled at the same speed; since there is no
accumulation, the tight side must travel the fastest. Now it may be
shown mathematically that the difference in the speeds is proportional
both to the actual speed and to the driving strain; it is, therefore,
a measure of the power or work being transmitted, and the difference
in the distance traveled is a measure of the work done. I have here a
working machine which shows directly on a dial the amount of work done;
this I will show in action directly. Instead of India-rubber, elastic
steel is used. Since the driving pulley has the velocity of the tight
side, and the driven of the loose side of the belt, the difference in
the number of their turns, if they are of equal size, will measure
the work. This difference I measure by differential gearing which
actuates a hand on a dial. I may turn the handle as fast as I please;
the index does not move, for no work is being done. I may hold the
wheel, and produce a great driving strain; again the index remains at
rest, for no work is being done. I now turn the handle quickly, and
lightly touch the driven wheel with my finger. The resistance, small
though it is, has to be overcome; a minute amount of work is being
done; the index creeps round gently. I will now put more pressure on my
finger, more work is being done, the index is moving faster; whether I
increase the speed or the resistance, the index turns faster; its rate
of motion measures the power, and the distance it has moved, or the
number of turns, measures the work done. That this is so I will show
by experiment. I will wind up in front of a scale a 7 lb. weight; the
hand has turned one-third round. I will now wind a 28 lb weight up the
same height; the hand has turned four-thirds of a turn. There are other
points of a practical nature with regard to this invention which I
cannot now describe.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.]

There is one other class of instruments which I have developed of
which time will let me say very little. The object of this class of
instruments is to divide the speed with which two registrations are
being effected, and continuously record the quotient. In the instrument
on the table two iron cones are caused to rotate in time with the
registrations; a magnetized steel reel hangs on below. This reel turns
about, and runs up or down the cones until it finds a place at which
it can roll at ease. Its position at once indicates the ratio of the
speeds, which will be efficiency, horse-power per hour or one thing
in terms of another. Just as the integrators are derived from the
steering of the ordinary bicycle, so this instrument is derived from
the double steering of the "Otto" bicycle. Though I am afraid that I
have not succeeded in the short time at my disposal in making clear
all the points on which I have touched, yet I hope that I have done
something to remove the very prevalent opinion that meters for power
and electricity do not exist.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE BUILDING SUPPORTED BY SCREWS. (SIDE VIEW.)

Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE BUILDING READY TO BE MOVED. (SIDE VIEW.)

Illustration: FIG. 3.--THE BUILDING SUPPORTED BY SCREWS. (FRONT VIEW.)

Illustration: FIG. 4.--THE BUILDING READY TO BE MOVED. (FRONT VIEW.)

FIGS. 1 TO 4.--BUILDING OCCUPIED BY THE OFFICES OF THE NEW YORK,
LACKAWANNA & WESTERN RAILROAD.

Illustration: FIG. 5.--THE WALL, A B, SUPPORTED BY SCREWS.

Illustration: FIG. 6.--THE WALL, C D, READY TO BE MOVED.

Illustration: FIG. 7.--METHOD OF MOVING THE JACK SCREWS.

Illustration: FIG. 8.--JACK-SCREW.

Illustration: FIG. 11.--HOLLINGWORTH'S DOUBLE-THREADED SCREW FOR
QUICKLY MOVING BUILDINGS.

RAISING AND MOVING MASONRY BUILDINGS.]

       *       *       *       *       *



RAISING AND MOVING MASONRY BUILDINGS.


The first important application of the method of lifting massive
structures and moving them to another spot was made two years ago at
Boston, Mass., in the moving back of a hotel that stood about fourteen
feet on the line of a proposed widening of Tremont Street. Since that
time several analogous cases have occurred in several cities of the
United States, so that, for this sort of work, a general method of
operating has been devised, notwithstanding the special difficulties
that present themselves according to the different methods of
construction and the surroundings.

All structures, before being moved, must first be separated from their
foundations and then raised. These operations are certainly the most
costly and those that take the longest time. It is necessary to take
minute precautions and to exercise great watchfulness in order to
succeed in planting solidly on the ground the timber work that has
to support the pressure of the screws by means of which the entire
building is to be afterward raised. The success of the operation
depends absolutely upon the care and attention that are bestowed upon
these preliminary operations, since the least negligence may lead to a
disaster.

[Illustration: FIG. 9.--MOVING A HOUSE BETWEEN TWO FIXED WALLS.

FIG. 10.--METHOD OF MOVING A HOUSE WITHOUT LIFTING IT.

RAISING AND MOVING MASONRY BUILDINGS.]

The accompanying figures show the method employed in moving several
buildings of different construction, and the peculiar arrangements that
have been made, according to circumstances.

The instrument most commonly employed in the execution of such work
consists of the following parts: (1) of a cast iron screw having a
pitch of 0.56 inch; (2) of a nut provided with a shoulder and two
projections that serve to fix it; and (3) of a cast iron plate that is
interposed between the head of the screw and the beam upon which the
latter is to exert its pressure. Moreover, each nut is set into an oak
block, 4 inches in thickness, which rests upon the upper beams of the
timber work that is designed to sustain the structure.

All the pieces of wood of the timber work, properly so called, are
of spruce, and measure 6x6 inches. Those that are in a direction
perpendicular to the foundation walls are 3 feet in length while the
longitudinal ones must be long enough to support several screws in
order to annul the effect of joints.

Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4 represent a house at Buffalo belonging to the New
York and Lackawanna Railroad Company, constructed of bricks and having
a frontage of 90 feet. Between the openings in the latter there are
pillars of dressed stone and cast iron columns. The building is four
stories high, and the outer walls are 1 foot in thickness.

During the month of June, 1882, this structure was raised all in
one piece and moved back 35 feet, in order to give greater width to
the railway. This work was performed in so regular a manner that no
interruption occurred in the business of the Company's offices.

The first operation consisted in running well squared spruce beams, 12
in. × 8 ft., through the walls and under the ground floor. These beams
projected beyond the wall on each side and were spaced about 3¼ feet
apart, and care was taken to have them in the same horizontal plane.
After ramming down the earth upon which the timber work, f, was to
rest, the first transverse beams forming the foundation platform were
laid in place in such a way as to have between them the same spacing
as between the cross-pieces, _a_, and so as to be exactly on the same
level. These were afterward surmounted with longitudinal beams with
alternate transverse ones until the desired height was reached. This
framework having once been put in place, there were placed in the axis
of each piece of timber work string-pieces, _b_, which ran without a
break the entire length of the wall. Jack-screws, _v_, of the kind
above described, were finally arranged in pairs under each of the
cross-pieces, _a_.

On the front side (Fig. 3) particular precautions were taken to support
the stone pillars and iron columns. To this end, apertures were made in
the foundation, starting from the axis of the pillars and terminating
at the axis of the neighboring columns. Spruce sills were put into
these openings and others between the columns, the last-named ones
having been put in place after the masonry had been completely severed.
The cross-pieces, _a_, were thus under the sills, _g_, before the
putting in place of the screws, _v_, and these latter were maneuvered
in such a way as to merely support the structure without lifting any of
its parts.

These preliminaries having been finished, all the pieces of the timber
work were examined with the greatest care, while, at the same time, the
joints were consolidated and the defects in leveling were rectified by
means of spruce wedges.

During the time of lifting, the workmen were arranged in pairs opposite
each other, and on each side of the wall, where each one had 12 to
14 screws to maneuver. In order to render the motion very uniform,
the superintendent of the work gave signals by means of a whistle.
At this moment each man gave the screw a half revolution, passed to
the following one, and continued thus until all the screws under his
supervision had been revolved to the same degree. At a fresh signal
this operation was begun again, and so on.

When the building had been lifted to a height of twelve inches, it
became necessary to raise the screws. To effect this, two rows of beams
(Fig. 7) were added to the timber-work, and each screw was moved in
succession, so as to always leave one in position. By these means the
building was gradually lifted to the desired height, and it now became
necessary to take the requisite measures for moving it back. With
this object in view, spruce floor timbers, _e_, very smooth and well
lubricated with tallow and soap, were laid upon the timber work and
afterward covered with oak planks, _d_, one inch in thickness, and upon
these latter were placed joists, _c_, that supported string-pieces,
_b_, that were firmly fixed to the joists by means of spruce pins
driven in with force. As the floor timbers that were employed had to
be as long as possible, they were united end to end by a strong joint
and prolonged as far as the new spot upon which the edifice was to
rest. Throughout their whole extent they were supported by sleepers
that were fixed firmly in the earth. The entire weight of the structure
being carried by the pieces, _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, _e_, and _f_, after
the removal of the screws, the jacks, V, were then placed in position,
their heads resting against the string-pieces, _b_, at the points
marked S, and their other extremities being received by a framework
set into the earth. It took but twelve jacks to move the entire mass,
and these were maneuvered under the orders of a superintendent, who
transmitted his signals with a whistle.

It took forty days to perform all these operations, and it required
fifty men to lift the structure. After the jacks, V, had been put in
place, the building was moved in three days, or at the rate of 11.68
feet per day. This is a medium rate of speed to be adopted in the
moving of a structure like this, for, under very favorable conditions,
it might be carried to over eighteen feet per day.

The timber work which was used in lifting the building was afterward
put together again, in the same manner, around prolonged foundations,
and the same were put in place a second time after the manner described
above. After the floor timbers, e, had been removed by slightly lifting
the load, and the structure had been lowered to its proper position,
the intervals between the cross-pieces, _a_, and the walls of the new
foundations were filled in with masonry; the mass was then allowed to
settle gently down into its place and the cross-pieces were removed.

When buildings stand very near each other, timber-work cannot be put
together outside of the walls, and it therefore becomes necessary to
adopt the arrangement shown in Fig. 9, all the work being done here
beneath the structure. The cross-pieces, _a_, occupy here the entire
width of the house, and are spaced about 36 inches apart from axis to
axis. The structure rests upon two pieces of timber work constructed
like the ones mentioned above. Besides this, it is necessary to utilize
the timbers, L, of the flooring, P, for supporting a part of the load.

During the widening of State Street, in Chicago, several three or four
story brick structures were moved in this way. One of these houses was
set back about four feet without the necessity of lifting it. Apertures
(Fig. 10) four feet in length were cut in the foundation walls, the
edges were made level, and planks, _c_ and _c'_, were inserted and
fixed in tightly by wedges. The intervening masonry was removed, and,
after laying planks alongside of those already in place, the structure
was put in motion in the ordinary way.

When single threaded screws are employed for moving buildings, it
requires much time and manual labor to place and move the pieces.
For the purpose of securing greater rapidity in these operations,
Mr. Hollingsworth has devised a sort of jack-screw (Fig. 11) that
consists of a steel screw about eight feet in length and three inches
in diameter, provided with two threads, running in opposite directions.
The nuts are set into the corresponding extremities of two beams, one
of which abuts against a cast iron brace-block, _n_, held in place by
a stirrup-iron, _t_, while the other bears against the string-pieces,
_b_. Thanks to this arrangement, a structure may be moved at one time
over a length of 6 feet instead of 1.3, the latter being the maximum
travel with single screws.

The method in which slide beams, f, are prolonged in view of resisting
the pressure of the jacks is scarcely employed at present, the
objection to it being that it occasions changes of direction from the
line formed by the timber work. For this reason, contractors prefer to
use independent posts to receive the jacks.--_Revue Industrielle_.

[Illustration: FILTER FOR INDUSTRIAL WORKS]

       *       *       *       *       *



FILTER FOR INDUSTRIAL WORKS.


As a rule, bleach and dye works are established where there is a
sufficiency of good and soft water, except in such cases where for
special reasons it is desirable to use town water, and which then
is generally clear. Where, however, water from brooks, rivers,
or lodges is used, as is mostly the case, it is often discolored
after heavy showers by earthy substances which are carried away by
it. These impurities, all existing in the water in suspension, are
not at all desirable for the dyer, and less for the bleacher, who
generally allows the water to settle in a lodge, to give it time to
deposit its impurities by gravitation. We understand that by means
such as these even the water of the much-abused Irwell is made, in a
Salford bleach-works, to produce some of the most beautiful whites
possible. These lodges occupy, however, much space, which is not always
available, and filtration is therefore the best where it can be carried
out. We here produce the description of a cheap and efficient filter
which bleachers or dyers may easily make for themselves. The dimensions
are of course dependent upon the quantity of water to be filtered, and
as a guide we shall describe a filter serving for a volume of water
of about 1½ cubic yards per minute. In the first instance a hole is
dug at a point where the water has sufficient fall to give it a head,
and here a cistern set in cement is bricked out, measuring about 30
yards in length, 2½ yards in width, and 2½ yards in height. Across
this cistern two partition walls are erected, one at the left resting
upon rails, and the other going down to the bottom of the cistern.
Between these two walls railway rails are laid crosswise, and over
these a floor of wooden laths. Over this floor the filtering media are
placed, consisting of a bottom layer of stones, then a layer of coke,
then a layer of gravel, and lastly of a top layer of river sand. The
water enters on the left-hand side into the space between the outer
wall and the partition, and descends under the floor of the filter,
through which it rises and passes in succession through the four layers
of filtering substance until it issues at the top, when it runs over
the partition, and out by the pipe shown in the right hand corner.
It will be seen that the course of the water is upward through the
filter, and in this respect contrary to the usual custom. The filter
is cleaned about once a month by reversing the course of the water,
and turning it indirectly on the top of the filter--causing it to
run but at the bottom--and thus carrying all deposits with it. Both
the central filtering compartments, as also the overflow cistern at
the right hand, contain, near the bottom, doors, through which, when
opened, the cleansing water runs off by a separate channel to the
river. The dimensions of the cistern can, of course, be made to suit
the situation.--_Tex. Manfr._

       *       *       *       *       *



THE VAL ST. LAMBERT GLASS WORKS.


During the recent meeting in Belgium of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers several interesting excursions were made, and by no means the
least interesting was the visit to the glass works of Val St. Lambert.

This is one of the largest glass works in existence, entirely devoted
to the production of domestic articles, such as tumblers, wine glasses,
lamp chimneys, and such like. A good deal of ornamental work is also
turned out, a staff of highly competent artists being employed in
painting glass vases, etc., such as are used for the decoration of
rooms.

The Val St. Lambert works stand on the right bank of the Meuse, in
the commune of Seraing, and about seven and a half miles from Liege.
As the head offices of Cockerill's vast establishment are located in
the old palace of the Bishops of Liege, so the Cristalleries of Val
St. Lambert occupy the site of the Abbey de Rosieres. Up to the year
1192 the site was almost a desert, but about that period the abbey was
founded. In 1202 Hughes de Pierrepont, Bishop of Liege, gave to the
monks a tract of land and woods situated in what was then called the
Champ des Maures, whereon was built the abbey. It prospered and became
powerful. At the end of the last century it was reconstructed, and at
that time were raised the fine buildings now used as a manufactory.
The rebuilding had hardly been finished when the Revolution came, and
with it the expulsion of the monks. It was sold by the nation, and was
used for various manufacturing purposes, until the year 1825, when
it was purchased by MM. Kemlin and Lelievre. There had previously
existed, at Vonêche, near Givet, a glass works carried on by M.
D'Artigues, its owner, aided by M. Kemlin, his nephew, and M. Aug.
Lelievre. This latter gentleman had left the Ecole Polytechnique of
Paris with distinction, and was the son of Mr. Anselme de Lelievre,
Inspector-General of Mines, and a distinguished savant of the last
century. MM. Kemlin and Lelievre both became naturalized Frenchmen.
However, the frontier traced by the Congress of Vienna for the new
territory of Belgium cut Vonêche off from France. The glass works
accordingly lost their only market, cut off from it by a heavy tariff.
M. D'Artigues left the place and went to France, while MM. Kemlin and
Lelievre found in the old Val St. Lambert Abbey what they wanted in
Belgium, and this was the origin of the glass works. Nor would it be
easy to hit on a better site. In the heart of a rich country, on the
borders of a fine river, in the center of a coal basin, and close to
the Marihaye Collieries, well provided with railway accommodation, the
Val St. Lambert glass works possess every advantage, and they have been
proportionately successful.

The establishment is worked by a company known as the Societé Anonyme
des Cristalleries du Val St. Lambert, under the Presidency of M. Jules
Deprez; and the company possess four distinct establishments, namely,
that at Val St. Lambert; one at D'Herbatte, near Namur, founded in
1851; a third in the Rue Barre-Neuvill, at Namur, founded in 1753; and,
lastly, one at Jambes, near the same town, founded in 1850.

We need not trace at length, says _The Engineer_, the history of the
works. It will be enough to say that for a long time they were carried
on with small or no profits; but a great advance was made when, in
1830, coal was first substituted for wood for heating purposes. Further
capital was introduced in 1836, and operations have been carried
on practically without intermission ever since. In 1850 the annual
turn-over was about £60,000. In 1880 the turn-over of the company was
£200,000. To give an idea of the magnitude of the operations carried
on, we may say that no fewer than 120,000 pieces are turned out _every
day_. To pack this there are used 50,000 kilos. of heather, 55,000
kilos. of straw, and 250,000 feet of boards per month. The sand of all
kinds used per year weighs 7,000,000 kilogs., and the weight of the
fire clay 1,500,000 kilogs. The weight of the finished goods sent out
per year exceeds 9,000,000 kilogs. The company employs in all about
3,000 hands, 1,800 of whom are at Val St. Lambert. Much attention is
paid to the welfare of the operatives by the company, and a species
of co-operative store is worked with great success. Many of the hands
have been on the works of the company for fifty years, and the managers
speak in the highest terms of their servants. They know nothing of "St.
Monday." They are laborious, assiduous, intelligent, and attached to
the works and the locality, which they rarely quit. These conditions
are the most favorable possible for the employers, and they are far
too rare in Great Britain. The Val St. Lambert hands, men, women, and
children, work uninterruptedly for eleven hours a day all the week
through, and some of the men even longer. This affords a remarkable
contrast with the hours of labor and customs of our English glass
workers.

We take it for granted that our readers know generally how glass is
made. That a mixture of sand and an alkali is fused into a kind of
pasty mass. The fusion is effected in pots of refractory clay, of which
the general form is something like that shown in the sketch. The mouth
of the pot is shown at A. The pots at Val St. Lambert are of various
sizes; the largest hold about 16 cwt. of glass. The duration of the
pots is very variable; they last sometimes only a few days, at others
several weeks or even months, much depending on the quality of the pot.
The temperature to which they are exposed is not excessively high. The
great thing to be effected in a glass melting furnace is the perfectly
equal distribution of the heat. At Val St. Lambert gas is used,
generated in Siemens or Boetius producers. There are in all twenty
furnaces. They are grouped in threes or fours, in the large buildings,
with high roofs. Formerly the furnaces were square, and held each eight
melting pots, which did not hold more than 250 kilos. of glass. The
modern furnaces each receive from twelve to fourteen melting pots. The
modern melting pots as made by the Battersea Plumbago Crucible Company
do not seem to be known here.

[Illustration]

The peculiarities of the construction of the glass melting furnaces at
Val St. Lambert will be gathered from the annexed sketch. The furnace
is circular, 14 ft. or 15 ft. in diameter, and from the roof, E, to
the floor is about 5 ft. 6 in. high. In the center of the floor is a
cylindrical opening, A, through which rises the mixture of gas and
air, the latter being introduced through four openings, three of which
are shown. Two of the pots are indicated by dotted lines at D D. The
equitable diffusion of the heat is effected in the following way:
Inside the furnace are constructed as many vertical flues as there are
pots. Two of these are shown at G G. They have small openings about 5
in. by 8 in. at the bottom. The course pursued by flame is indicated
by the bent arrows. The flame rising strikes the crown, E, and is
deflected downward and drawn off by the side flues, which deliver into
the second vaulted space, F. In this, in some cases, are annealed the
finished articles of glass. In others is fixed a boiler, steam being
generated by the waste heat. In others there is no opening at the top
of F at H, but there is one at the side instead, through which the
flame is led to raise steam in Belleville tubulous boilers. The steam
is used to drive the engines in the grinderies. Not much power is
required, and it is very easily obtained from the waste heat.

[Illustration: SECTION OF CLASS FURNACE]

The operations of the glass blower have been too often described to
need redescription here. One or two points, however, deserve notice.
One is the large use made of wooden moulds. In these are formed all
kinds of circular articles, such as tumblers and lamp glasses. The
moulds are in halves, and are kept soaked with water to prevent them
from burning. Inside they become lined with charcoal. The glass blower,
getting a knob of glass on the end of his blowing rod, blows a very
thick, small bulb; this he then places on the mould, which is closed by
a very small boy; in but too many cases mere children, seven or eight
years old, are employed. The child holds the two sides of the mould
together while the blower rotates the bulb within, blowing all the
time. The work is turned out very true. Up to a comparatively recent
period the tumbler was cut to the proper depth while hot with a pair
of scissors, but this has been abandoned, and an extremely ingenious
little machine is now used for cutting lamp glasses, tumblers, etc. The
article to be cut is placed vertically on a stand. At the proper height
above the stand is fixed a sharp steel point, and by touching the glass
against this a very small scratch is made. At the same level is fixed
a little mouthpiece through which issues, under pressure, a tiny gas
flame, not thicker than a sheet of note paper. This falls on the glass,
which is turned round by the woman attendant. The glass is heated in
an extremely narrow band all round. The touch of a moistened finger
suffices for the complete separation of the two parts of the glass
round the heated girdle. In fact, this is a very elegant application
to manufacturing purposes of the well known hot wire method of cutting
glass so often tried with indifferent success by the enterprising
amateur.

Glass grinding is carried out on a very large scale at Val St. Lambert
in huge well lighted shops. There are four grinderies at Val St.
Lambert, and one at Herbatte, the total number of which is 800, and
the floor space occupied is no less than 24,000 square feet. The first
steam engine was put down to grind glass in 1836. A great deal of
engraving is done with fluoric acid, the vessel to be engraved being
protected with wax in which the design is etched. Tilghman's sand blast
is also employed, as well as the old copper disk system; flats are
ground on tumblers by automatic machinery.

It would be impossible to do more than give a general idea of the
operations carried on in this vast establishment, every portion of
which was thrown open to the members of the Institution, while numbers
of heads of departments went round and answered every question, and
explained every detail with a frankness and a courtesy beyond praise.
It is impossible to inspect such an establishment as that at Val St.
Lambert without feeling how hard is the battle which manufacturers in
this country have to fight. There, as we have said, are to be found
every advantage of position, and to this is added a body of workmen,
active, sober, industrious, among whom is heard no talk of strikes, and
who are content to work every day and all day long; such men, directed
by heads possessed of no small scientific ability, and re-enforced by
the command of ample capital, cannot fail to make a mark in any market,
and we only speak the truth when we regret that we have not such works
and such men on English soil as there are to be found at Val St.
Lambert.

       *       *       *       *       *



MEASURING STARCH GRANULES.


It is well known that the microscopist can readily distinguish potato
starch from all other starches by the size of the grains. Saare has
found that the size of the potato starch granules increases with the
quality of the starch. In first quality starch they have an average
diameter of 33 micro-millimeters, in second grade 21, in third grade
17, in the rinsing water 12, and in that floated off on the water
only 8 micro-millimeters. Saare's paper may be found in full in the
_Zeitschrift fur Spiritusindustrie_, vi., 482.

       *       *       *       *       *



PROPER SHOEING.


In his article on horseshoeing Mons. Lavalard makes some good points,
and also some that appear to me to be erroneous. He says, in regard
to the frog, "It is evident, then, that the frog helps the hold, but
strange to say, it alone of the three parts has a share in the hold
when the hoof is shod."

We see nothing strange about this where horses travel over hard roads;
the case is otherwise on soft roads or race tracks. It is easy to make
the ground surface of such shape that it will have sufficient hold,
without the action of the frog. In the shod foot, the frog has more
to do with keeping the foot healthy than assisting in the hold. With
horses used for speeding purposes, the frog helps to sustain the sole
of the foot, as when the foot is brought down with great force and the
road soft enough to receive the imprint of the shoe. He further says
that: "Simultaneous with this preservation and regeneration of the
frog, the hold of the horse becomes firmer, and more equally divided
toward the heels, and when starting a load, there is no clamping with
the toe of the hoof, but the foot is brought down flat."

Let us examine this statement and see if the reason why the horse
brings the foot down flat is because the frog is good, and has a good
hold on the ground. The reason appears to _us_ to be because from the
manner of shoeing the horse cannot put his foot in any other way. The
shoes are much thinner behind than in front, and the heels pared low
enough to insure the frogs resting on the ground. Excessive paring
of the heels gives extra length to the shoe, which, being thick at
the toe, props the toe up in such a manner that the horse is _forced_
to let the foot remain flat when starting a load. Nothing is gained
by keeping the foot flat while starting a load, and to prove this,
we ask the reader to observe unshod horses when starting a load. The
frog having free access to the ground, see if the horse does not clamp
the ground with the toe when exhibiting the maximum of strength.
Also examine the imprint of horses' feet (especially the hind ones)
when drawing heavy loads over soft ground, and see if the shoe is
not pressed more firmly into the ground at the toe than at the heel.
This is not because he gets a better use of the frog by so doing, but
because the foot is in a better position for the horse to exert his
strength without injury to the back tendons. As a further test, place
yourself on an incline facing squarely up hill, and see how much power
you can exert; then place your feet exactly opposite in direction, and
note how much power you can then exhibit. What has made the difference?
Simply the relative position of the heels and toes. We do not, like
Mons. Lavalard, wish to force our horses to travel up hill all the
time, which is the case when shod as he describes.

Horseshoers, like other men who follow a special calling, are apt to
think that their theories and practices relating to their special
trade are superior to those of other men. I think it is safe to make
the assertion, without fear of successful refutation, that there is
not more than one horseshoer in ten thousand but what can convince the
average horse owner that he (the smith) knows just about all that is
worth knowing about horseshoeing.

And the same average horse owner is conceited enough to think himself
a better judge of a good job of shoeing than the intelligent animal
that wears the shoes till his feet feel as though they were full of
thistles. A horse's foot is not a thing that can be cut and slashed
into all shapes with impunity, but requires careful as well as
intelligent treatment. It is a great mistake to suppose that every
sound foot should be treated alike. Each foot has its individuality,
which must be _recognized_ and _respected_ if good results are to
follow shoeing. It is a lamentable fact, and one that cannot be
disputed, that most horseshoers have but a faint notion of what is
required to shoe a horse properly, even where no defects exist. If he
gets pay for the work, he gives himself no trouble to improve on his
methods. But with the owner the case is different. The usefulness and
value of the horse are largely affected by the condition of the feet,
and he must learn to know how his horse ought to be shod, and then
see to it that the work is properly executed. We know from personal
experience that this is hard to do. The smith must understand that
you are in earnest about the matter, and that you are bound to have
your orders obeyed. I have found some men very obstinate, and others
always ready to do anything that was an improvement on the old way.
First decide what kind of labor the horse is expected to perform. If he
is expected to go fast, great care and skill will be required to get
everything just as it should be, and don't blame the smith for charging
extra for extra work.

It will often be necessary to make several trials before you find out
just what suits the horse best, and don't fail to let the horse be
judge in the matter, for when he is suited you ought to be.

Place the horse on a smooth, clean floor, and note the set of each
foot, and whether it is in line with the limb above it. Cut away the
wall of the foot until you come to where it joins the sole; except at
the heels and quarter, it may not be quite as low; let the frog and
bars remain intact, but see that the shoe will not bear much on the
bars. Give the sole about its natural concavity of surface up to the
wall, but no further. Place the foot on the floor and see if it is in
line with the limb; if not, remove enough horn to make it so. The slant
of the front part of the fore foot should, as a rule, be the same as
that of the pastern; that of the hind ones a little steeper. Now stand
behind the horse while he is made to walk, and see if when the foot
approaches the floor both sides come down at the same time so that
there is no rocking motion from one side striking first. Disregard the
advice of some writers who recommend to have the sole bare on the iron;
that theory when put into practice doesn't work worth a cent.

In most cases it will not be necessary to remove much, if any, of
the horn from the sole, but there are cases where it will be found
necessary to remove quite an amount, or the sole will become so
inelastic that it will greatly interfere with the action of the
internal organs of the foot. It is evident that nature made the sole
of the foot so that it might be acted upon mechanically to remove its
surplus growth in the same way as the wall, for in the unshod foot it
receives the impact of all sorts of substances, from soft mud to sharp,
flinty rocks; and that, too, without becoming dry and brittle.

The bearing surface should be half an inch wide and made _positively
flat and level_, being without lumps or depressions, and not beveled
either way unless they are hard and inclined to pinch, when it should
be beveled to the outside, so that the weight of the horse when brought
upon its surface will cause the heels to open, thereby causing a more
healthy condition of the frog. The nail holes of the shoe should be
further from the outer edge of the shoe, especially at the toe, than
those usually seen in the market. The bearing surfaces of the foot and
shoe should be as nearly approximated as possible, else the hoof will
be bruised and the shoe soon loosened. The holes being further from
the edge, allows the nails to take a deeper and lower hold than is
usually given them; the direction of the nails is more nearly across
the grain or layers of horn, causing less splitting of its substance,
thereby securing a firmer hold upon the foot. Two large nails are
usually chosen, 5s or 6s being large enough for ordinary shoes. It is
not necessary to hammer down the clinches, if care has been taken to
draw the nails, finishing with light strokes of the hammer. The shoes
will stay just as long, as we can testify by four years' experience,
and the advantages are that the horn is not injured by filing below the
clinches nor by the strokes of the hammer during the operation.

Should the horse step upon the shoe, no horn will be removed with the
shoe, as is usually done when the clinches are left long and then
turned down with the hammer. In such cases, the shoe will be torn off,
no matter how solid the clinches hold, and it is better to come away
without breaking the hoof. We repeat and make emphatic that the bearing
surface of the shoe _must not be concave_, as it is almost sure to
make corns, and induce an inflammatory condition of the foot, and this
inflammatory action is the forerunner of the long list of evils that
are sure to follow, unless means are taken to relieve the parts. And
yet almost every horseshoer in the country gives the bearing surface
of the shoe a bevel to the center. Many smiths will deny this, but
after they have the shoe ready to apply to the foot, take a square and
place the edge across the bearing surface at the heel of the shoe, and
ninety-nine times out of one hundred the outside will be the highest.

The front action of a horse may be greatly modified by the weight of
the shoe, and here is where great caution, close attention, and a
thorough knowledge of the principles involved are required, or one will
be liable to throw his horse out of balance if he is used for speeding;
for slow work it is better to have the shoe somewhat lighter than the
horse might carry than to err in the opposite direction. It is not
intended by me to take up all the points of horseshoeing that might
be dwelt upon with profit, and no one who reads these remarks will be
more ready than I to learn a better method of shoeing than that I now
practice, and I sincerely hope that some reader of this paper will
favor us with more information on this important subject.--P. D. B.,
_in Wallace's Monthly_.

       *       *       *       *       *



[MILLING WORLD].

IDEAS.

By A. LOOKER-ON.

I.


There is yet a good deal to do in successfully applying the roller
process to small mills of from 25 to 100 barrels capacity. There has
been a great deal done, no doubt, but one thing is lost sight of in all
the patents that have been granted so far, and that is cheapness, not
only in the price of the machine, but also in its application to the
existing or original plant in the mill. It should be of such a nature
that as few changes in the machinery as possible should be made.

If a grain of wheat is examined, it will be astonishing to see the
chemical laboratory that is locked up in it. The most valuable
substances, gluten, is placed near the air and light, while the little
cells of the interior are composed of starch, which being the softest
is the first to break up under the influence of the rolls. Hence,
the flour of the first and second breaks is mostly composed of that
substance.

About three and a half per cent. of woody fiber can be removed from
a kernel of wheat by a moistened cloth; it is of no value, whatever.
The next coating holds nearly all the iron, potash, soda, lime, and
phosphoric acid. This wrapper is the granary, so to speak, in which
is deposited all the wealth of the berry, and like a good safe is the
hardest to open, by either the rollers or burrs.

The use of rolls in cleaning bran is now generally recognized, and they
have proved very useful and practical for this purpose especially in
large mills. Bran, however, can only be thoroughly cleaned by several
operations, and the previous condition of the bran has a great deal to
do with the number of operations it has to undergo on the rolls to be
well cleaned.

Each passage through the rolls changes the condition of bran, and the
oftener it goes through them the lighter and cleaner it becomes, until
all the floury portion is removed.

The Austrians use corrugated rolls for the purpose of cleaning bran,
the finest being on the last, as in the break rolls. It is more
scientific and philosophical to clean the bran in this way than to rub
off the flour between burrs in this way than to rub off some of the
branny portion as well as the glutinous part.

Rollers for the first cleaning are from eight to ten inches in
diameter and from three to five hundred corrugations are used, and
this increases up to one thousand for the last rolls used; but fine
corrugations wear out soon, and the rolls have to be frequently
corrugated or the bran has to be finished on burrs.

The use of rollers is preferable to that of stones for bran, and their
use is considered an important advance in milling by most German
experts.

As the advantage of the use of rolls instead of burrs consists in the
production of a greater amount of middlings, this advantage should be
experienced in the cleaning of bran. As the small starchy particles
adhering to the bran are separated in the shape of middlings instead of
flour, a better quantity of flour is produced from these middlings both
in color and strength than that which is made from the stones' product.

Differential speed in rolls is not only better in making middlings, but
in grinding bran as well. This has been proved by several experiments.

There is no doubt but that there is less care bestowed on the hanging
and care of shafting than upon any other means used in applying power
to manufacturing purposes. If the steam engine or the water wheel is in
good order, and performing their work properly, and the machines driven
by them are also in good order, there is seldom a thought bestowed upon
the media between the actuating power and its ultimate development,
except the necessary attention which must be paid to the belting, and
oiling of the machinery.

Often, when the result of the power is not satisfactory, it is not the
driving power that is at fault, but the result may be found in the
shafting, or other intermediate transferers of the power. Generally, in
such a case, the belts are examined and their condition assumed for the
imperfect transmission of the power from the prime mover.

The condition of the belts is a very important point in all
manufacturing, but more particularly in mills where a steadiness of
motion is a desideratum, and attention to them will save many dollars
in the course of a year; but there are other as important elements
which are not always taken into consideration, and the principal one
is the condition of the shafting. A line of shafting running perfectly
true, without jumping or jerking, turning smoothly and noiselessly, is
a delight to the mechanical eye; and the first thing always examined by
a thorough millwright when he enters a mill, is the shafting.

Perhaps there is nothing will strike a person who has been out of the
milling business for some time so much as the change in the system of
bolting. This is caused by the numerous separations, and it is in this
the whole secret of gradual reduction lies.

       *       *       *       *       *



PHOTOGRAPHS FOR STUDYING THE MOVEMENTS OF MEN AND ANIMALS.

By M. MAREY.[2]


When a series of photographs representing the successive attitudes
of an animal is taken on the same plate, it is naturally desirable
to multiply these images, for the purpose of getting the greatest
possible number of phases of the movement. But when the animals to be
reproduced do not move rapidly, the number of images is limited by
their superposition and the resulting confusion. Thus, a man running
at a moderate pace may be photographed ten times in a second, without
the impressions on the plate being confused. If, at times, one leg
is depicted on a part already bearing the trace of another leg, the
superposition does not alter the image; the whites become only more
intense in those portions of the plates receiving an impression twice
over, but the contours of both limbs are still to be distinguished. In
the case, however, of a man walking slowly, these superpositions are so
numerous as to render the reproduction very confused.

It is to remedy this defect that I have had recourse to partial
photography; that is to say, I have suppressed certain parts of the
image, that the rest may be more easily understood.

In the method which I employ, only white and light objects affect the
sensitive plate; it suffices, therefore, to clothe that portion of the
body to be suppressed in black. If a man dressed in a parti-colored
costume of black and white walk over the track, by turning the
white parts of his apparel toward the camera--the right side, for
instance--he will be reproduced as if he only possessed the right half
of his body. These images permit the various successive phases of
movement to be accurately followed, the rotation of the foot and leg
when both on the ground and lifted up, and the oscillation of the limb
at the hip joint while moving along in a continuous manner.

These partial photographs are also useful in the analysis of rapid
movements, because they allow of the number of attitudes represented
being multiplied. At the same time, as a man's leg is rather large,
its reproduction cannot be multiplied very often, owing to confusion
by superposition. I have therefore sought to diminish the size of the
images, so as to an admit of repetition at very short intervals. The
method consists in attiring a walker in a black costume having narrow
bands of bright metal applied down the length of the leg, thigh, and
arm, following exactly the direction of the bones of the limbs. This
plan permits the number of images formerly produced to be increased at
least tenfold; thus, instead of ten photographs per second, one hundred
may be taken. To do this it is not necessary to change the speed of
rotation of the disk, but instead of piercing it with one aperture, ten
holes are made equally disposed around the circumference.[3]

[Illustration]

The figure here shown is from one of the negatives projected on the
screen from the lantern. The dotted lines have been filled in to form
direct lines. The figure shows the successive phases of one step in
running. Only the left leg is represented; the lines correspond to the
thigh, leg, and foot; the dots to the joints at the ankle, knee, and
hip.

This diagram shows pretty clearly the alterations of flexion and
extension of the leg on the thigh, the undulating trajectories of the
foot, knee, and hip, and yet the number of images does not exceed
sixty in a second. A revolving shutter pierced with more holes would
give more perfectly the angular displacements of the leg on the thigh,
and the positions of the three joints. The finer the dotted lines
expressing the direction of the limbs, the more the images may be
multiplied; but in the present case, sixty times in a second more than
suffice to show the displacements of the limbs when running.

In this photographic analysis the two factors of movements--time and
space--cannot be both estimated perfectly; knowledge of the positions
the body has occupied in space requires that one should possess
complete and distinct images; in order to obtain such images, a
sufficiently long space of time must elapse between the two successive
photographs. If, on the contrary, it is desirable to estimate time
more perfectly, the frequency of recurrence of the image must be
greatly increased. To bring these two exigencies as closely together as
possible, lines and points must be chosen for the partial photographs
which best show the successive attitudes of the body.

It is curious to see that this expression of successive attitudes of
the trunk and limbs, by means of a series of lines expressing the
direction of the bones, has been precisely adopted by the ancient
authors as being the most explicit and capable of making the phases of
a movement understood. Thus, Vincent and Goiffon, in their remarkable
work on the horse, have tried to represent by lines at different
angles the displacements of the bones of limbs while taking a step.

It is not necessary to expatiate on the superiority photography has
over actual observation for this purpose, giving the true positions of
the limbs, while the eye is incapable of taking in such rapid actions
in such short spaces of time.

At the commencement of this century the brothers Weber had recourse
to the same mode of representation to explain the successive actions
produced in the walk of a man. It was by reducing the walker to
the figure of a skeleton that these eminent observers succeeded in
presenting, without confusion, a number of images expressing different
attitudes.

The method of constructing the bright metal bands which in the
photograph explain the position of the joints, requires special
mention. As the length of exposure is very short, a substance having
great brilliancy must be employed. The strips of metal are not equally
luminous down their entire length, because they do not reflect the
solar rays at the same angle; they present lines of unequal intensity
on the negatives. I have obtained the best results with small strips of
black wood with nails having hemispherical bright metal heads driven in
at regular intervals. Each little rounded surface reflected the image
of the sun very brilliantly. In the photograph these lines of nails are
reproduced as dotted lines. At the ankle, knee, and hip joints, nails
of larger dimensions were inserted, showing these centers of movement
by a much larger dot.

Partial photographs obtained by this method allow of the different acts
of locomotion being analyzed, as well as the movements of walking,
running, or jumping.

       *       *       *       *       *



DETECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY.


For several years Mr. D. N. Carvalho, the New York photographer, has
made a specialty of the delicate use of photography which is brought
into play more and more in connection with criminal cases in which
disputed handwriting, forgeries, counterfeit money, etc., are features.
The results now achieved are the outcome of years of experiment, and
the photographic expert becomes in the end an expert in handwriting.
Mr. Carvalho's gallery of records is an interesting illustration of
what perseverance and ingenuity, aided by photography, can do toward
solving apparently hopeless mysteries. To a reporter, who visited his
studio, he said:

"We can do a great many things to bring the truth to light by the aid
of photography. There is scarcely a case nowadays in which it is not
brought into play if disputed handwriting is concerned. Of course the
most famous case of late years was the Morey letter case. There is a
photograph of the Morey letter up there in a corner. It yet remains a
mystery, but we are certain that Garfield did not write it. I first
found by photography that the envelope had been tampered with by the
following process: Cutting the envelope open, so as to get a single
thickness of paper, I put it between two sheets of plate glass, and
placed it where the sun passed through it, the camera being placed
on the shady side. Although no half-erased writing could be detected
on the envelope with the naked eye or a glass, the difference in the
thickness of the paper where erasures had been made showed plainly, as
the light came through more clearly, and the erased words, which gave
rise to so much discussion, were discovered.

"Below the Morey letter is a photograph of the signature of Alonzo C.
Yates. Yates, you may remember, was a rich Philadelphia clothier, who,
late in life, married a cook in the Astor House, and died, leaving a
million or so to the wife. The daughters by a first wife disputed the
signature to the will. I was employed by John D. Townsend to show the
genuineness of the signature. We got thirty or forty genuine signatures
of Yates admitted by both sides, and showed that a man never writes
his name the same way twice. Then I took the signature of the will and
another admitted by both sides, and enlarged them until each was 9 feet
4 inches long. The peculiarities of the writing became so apparent when
shown upon that enormous scale--the signatures were so evidently by the
same person--that the contestants gave up the case.

"There is a portrait of Theophilus Youngs. He married a clairvoyant
many years ago in Boston and disappeared. His widow pretended to
recognize his body in one that was found in the bay soon after, and he
was given up as dead. Some years after his father died, and the widow
put in a claim for a share of the property. The contestants, by whom
I was employed, contended that Youngs was yet alive, and eventually
produced him in court. The alleged widow refused to recognize him,
and I was called upon to prove he was the man. The widow produced
a photograph which she said was one of the pictures of Youngs, her
husband. A good many years had passed, and although the likeness was
a strong one, there was enough difference in the appearance of Youngs
and the photograph to make a jury hesitate. I put Youngs in the same
position in which he was taken in the picture, the genuineness of which
was admitted, and made a photograph of the same size. Then the likeness
became more apparent, and exact measurements showed the two faces to
measure the same in all respects. For instance, the distance between
the mouth and the eye, which is seldom the same in two persons, was
exactly equal. Then one picture was made transparent and superimposed
over the other, and the two faces matched perfectly. The jury decided
that the claimant was not an impostor.

"In the case of Hall, the head clerk of the Newark Treasurer's office,
everything depended upon showing that he changed a figure 5 into a
figure 3. He ran away to Canada, and was brought back upon a charge
of forgery. His counsel claimed that the figure had not been changed,
and that if the mark of an eraser was found, and that the figure 5 had
been changed, it was caused by the accidental slip of an ink eraser
used in the margin. I made photographs of the page, and by means of a
stereopticon threw a picture of that particular figure upon a screen 10
feet high. Upon that scale several interesting things came out. It was
seen very plainly that the figure had been altered from a 5 to a 3, but
the erasure had been made with a different material from the erasure in
the margin. We tried a rubber ink eraser, and the result was the same
as seen in the margin. Then we tried a steel penknife, and the result
enlarged a thousand times was the same as seen over the figure 3. This
disposed of the 'accident' theory, and Hall was convicted.

"I was employed in the Cadet Whittaker case, and worked for weeks at
the famous letter of warning--a few words scribbled on a piece of
paper, which Whittaker was suspected of writing. All the cadets were
called upon to give specimens of their handwriting, and the writing of
No. 27 was declared by the experts to be that of the note of warning. I
believed that it was not, and, taking the specimen of No. 27's writing
upon which he was suspected, I duplicated the note of warning, cutting
the same letters out of 27's specimen, and placing them together as
nearly as possible in the order of the famous note. It was a work of
tremendous labor, but when done it showed the innocence of No. 27. It
was suspected that the scrap of paper upon which the note of warning
was written was torn from a letter sheet which Whittaker sent to his
mother, but that theory was disposed of upon enlarging the two edges to
the size at which a fine cambric needle looks like a crowbar. Then it
was seen that the two edges had never been together. The verdict in the
Whittaker case was finally reversed upon the ground that the court had
come to a decision from the examination of lithographs of the note of
warning, which I proved by comparison with a photograph were incorrect.
Whittaker, by the way, is teaching school now in the northern part of
this State. He made speeches for Cleveland in his neighborhood during
the election campaign last autumn."

       *       *       *       *       *



[Continued from Supplement No. 384, page 6127.]

THE HISTORY OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.[4]


The first electric telegraph in which Volta's memorable discovery was
utilized was that of Soemmering, of Munich, dating from 1809, and not
from 1811 as the statement has too oft been made in print. Soemmering
was led to take up electric telegraphy in a very curious way. It
was during the wars of the Empire. "It cannot be forgotten," says
Julius Zoellner, in the _Buch der Erfindungen_, "that the so rapid
and consequently so fortunate enterprises of Napoleon were especially
favored by the admirable means of communication which so rapidly
transmitted the will of one man to all parts of his army, and that it
was very often such rapidity alone that rendered its execution possible.

"The unfortunate blockade of General Mack in Ulm was an example that
Bavaria had seen from too close a distance not to take it into account.
And, when the entirely unexpected invasion of the Austrians, on April
9, 1809, and the flight of the King of Bavaria (who was obliged to
leave Munich on the 11th) were announced so quickly to Napoleon, by the
optic telegraph, that on the 22d of April Munich, that had six days
before been taken by the Austrians, was occupied by the French, and
when King Maximilian was enabled to re-enter his residence sixteen days
after leaving it, then the Bavarian minister, Montgelas, directed his
attention seriously to the high importance of telegraphy.

"On the 5th of July, 1809, while dining with Soemmering, a member of
the Academy of Sciences of Munich, he expressed to him a desire to
have this scientific body propose some systems of telegraphy. The
savant accepted this idea with the greatest eagerness, and, three days
afterward, under date of July 8, he wrote in his journal: ... 'Shall
be able to take rest only when I shall have realized telegraphy by the
disengagement of gas.'"

At this epoch, in fact, the decomposition of water was the sole
phenomenon known that would permit the electric current to be used for
telegraphy, and Soemmering had rendered himself perfectly conversant
with it. He at once bought silver and copper wires, insulated them by
means of sealing wax, and, on the 8th of July, constructed his first
apparatus (Fig. 5). Five insulated rods, represented by the letters,
_a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, _e_, dipped into a vessel, E, containing acidulated
water. From these rods there started wires which, combined into a
cable, _x_, _x_, and insulated from each other by sealing-wax, could
be put in contact with the poles of a Volta pile, S, of 15 elements,
formed of zinc disks, Brabant thalers, and felt soaked in dilute
hydrochloric acid. On causing a variation in the wires that he put in
connection with the poles of the pile, he was enabled to produce a
disengagement of gas upon any two definite rods, and thus to transmit
the letters that he had taken care to mark the different wires with.

The possibility of the system was recognized, and Soemmering at once
had an apparatus constructed according to it. On the 22d of July he
received it from the hands of the workman nearly such as it is shown in
Fig. 6. The decomposing reservoir was of an elongated rectangular shape
containing 35 gold rods that corresponded to 25 letters and 10 figures.
From these rods started 35 wires covered with silk and combined into
a bundle that was afterward covered with melted shellac. At the other
extremity of this cable the wires ran to 35 pieces of copper fixed
horizontally upon a wooden support, and each provided with an aperture
into which could be inserted one of the pins in which the pile wires
terminated.

When these latter were put in connection with the pieces corresponding
to any two letters whatever, gas was observed to disengage itself in
the reservoir upon the two corresponding rods, but in greater quantity
on the one connected with the negative pole. This fact was not lost
upon Soemmering, and he utilized it to render the dispatches more
rapid; for it allowed him to transmit two letters always at the same
time, with the proviso that the one upon the rod from which most gas
was disengaged had been written first.

No demand arose for this first apparatus, so Soemmering soon devised
one that operated by the aid of a paddle-wheel set in motion by the
bubbles of gas. But, a little later on, in August, 1810, he replaced
this by another and very ingenious apparatus which is shown in Fig. 6.
An inverted spoon, arranged horizontally in the liquid, collected in
its bowl the gases that were disengaged from certain rods, and then,
rising, caused the inclination at the same time of a rod bent at right
angles. This latter thereupon allowed a small copper ball to drop into
a glass funnel, from whence it fell upon a cup attached to the end of
a lever, and, through its weight, threw into gear a bell operated by a
clockwork movement.

[Illustration: Fig. 5--SOEMMERING'S FIRST TELEGRAPH.]

In 1811, Soemmering simplified his apparatus as regards the number of
signs. Instead of having 25 letters (a complete alphabet minus _x_)
and 10 figures, he did away with these latter and the letter J, and
introduced the _x_, the period, and a sign of repetition. The apparatus
was thus reduced to 27 wires.

The first experiments in telegraphy made with this system, on the
9th of July, 1809, were over a distance of 38 feet; on the 19th,
transmission was effected to 170 feet; and, on the 8th of August, to
1,000 feet; but it was not until he had perfected the insulation of his
wires by means of India rubber dissolved in ether, and had devised his
paddle-wheel call, that Soemmering decided to present his telegraph to
the Academy of Sciences of Bavaria during its session of August 28,
1809.

Some time afterward, Baron Larrey, Inspector General of the medical
service of the French armies, carried Soemmering's telegraph to Paris
and presented it to the Academy of Sciences at its session of December
5, 1809. This presentation gave rise to a series of letters addressed
by Soemmering to the Baron. His son, now a member of the Academy, has
had the goodness to communicate these to Count du Moncel, through whose
kindness we are enabled to cite the most interesting passages from them.

Soemmering writes on the 10th of November:

"I have the honor to remit to you herewith a memoir which, conjointly
with the trifles that you have had the goodness to charge yourself
with, will explain my meaning clearly and briefly. I am desirous of
learning the reception that His Imperial Majesty deigned to accord
to these ideas. The memoir, as you will see, sir, makes mention,
aphoristically, of a few quite varied experiments that I have been in
a position to perform. I dare to flatter myself that they will please
several members of the Institute. Independent of the major interest of
which they seem susceptible, that of novelty belongs to them. In my
opinion, there is no one who can dispute it...."

On the 5th of December, 1809, as we have said, the telegraph was
presented to the Institute, but the inventor does not seem to have been
at once informed of it; for he writes, under date of July 30, 1810:

"I have, sir, read your dissertation upon my telegraph with great
pleasure.... Has my succinct memoir on the telegraph, sent from here on
the 12th of November, reached you, sir, and have you had the goodness
to communicate it to the Institute?

"As the old wires that were pretty badly treated by many manipulations
had really suffered therefrom, and as it was only to save time that I
did not have them renewed before sending the apparatus, I wish that
they could be replaced by ordinary clavichord wires wound with silk,
inasmuch as the material in these is more durable than the copper of
the old ones. Had I been able to flatter myself, sir, that you would
have taken enough interest in this invention to be at the trouble of
carrying it to Paris, I should certainly not have failed to effect in
advance this small and necessary improvement, which, leaving time out
of consideration, will require but a care as to details. For, in fact,
I strongly apprehend that not only the brittleness of the copper wire,
but also the violence that trials anterior and even foreign to present
use have submitted these wires to, have possibly got the silk out of
order, or used it up here and there, thus producing immediate contacts
of metal and bringing about a premature closing of the galvanic chain,
whence would result a total disarrangement of the questions. I truly
regret, then, having (through being too jealous of time, which you
yourself know so well the value of) sent you the instrument in such a
state of imperfection, and I cannot do better than ask to have it sent
back here in good order. Permit me, then, to ask you at once to please
not let Prince de Neufchatel nor even His Majesty the Emperor see it
until the said repair has been effected, either by myself or (if the
sending back would seem to you to take too long) by some one of our
skillful artists at Paris. According to my convictions, there is but
this means of preventing its effect from failing us, even for ever. It
is a true pleasure to see it so infallible and complete as it is in
the new instrument of absolutely the same structure that I have had
constructed for the Academy of Munich."

The telegraph, which doubtless was repaired at Paris, was returned
to Munich only in May, 1811. The same year it was carried to Vienna
by the Russian Count Potocki, whom Baron Schilling had made known to
Soemmering, and who presented the apparatus to Emperor Francis the
First, on the 1st of July of the same year. Another model was sent
by Soemmering to his son William, then at Geneva, who showed it to
Augustus Pictet, to De la Rive, and to some other savants.

Despite all such presentations no high personage showed himself
disposed to aid Soemmering in making an extended application of his
invention. The committee named by the Academy of Sciences, and in which
figured Monge, Biot, and Carnot, does not seem to have made any report.
The apparatus was considered of small importance alongside of that of
Claude Chappe, and Napoleon himself, says Mr. Zoellner, treated the
invention as a German vision. On another hand, Bavaria and Austria
showed just as little enthusiasm; but Soemmering, reduced to his own
resources, continued his experiments none the less on that account.
On the 4th of February, 1812, he found it possible to telegraph to a
distance of 4,000 feet, and on the 15th of March of the same year he
operated his apparatus with complete success over a line 10,000 feet in
length.

This was certainly making great progress; but it is certain that,
even if Soemmering had not encountered universal indifference, his
telegraph would not have been able to become practical, because of the
large number of wires employed. A modification, however, would have
enabled it to play a role during the twenty-five years which preceded
the invention of more easily realizable systems. This modification is
the one Salomon Christopher Schweigger proposed in an appendix to the
memoir of Soemmering inserted by him in 1811[5] in his journal, the
_Polytechnisches Central--Blatt._

His proposition was that two unequal piles should be employed instead
of one, so that first one and then the other, or even the two combined,
should act; and, besides, that the number of wires should be reduced
to two, in taking into consideration the time during which the gases
were disengaged, as well as the interruptions of varying length, and to
which would succeed the action, first of the larger, and then of the
smaller pile. With these different modifications, it certainly would
have been possible to employ but two wires, and to render the laying of
the wires less costly.

After Soemmering, we may cite in the same category John Redman
Coxe, who, according to a note inserted in 1810 in the _Annals of
Philosophy_, proposed to utilize for telegraphy the decomposition of
water or metallic salts. Coxe, however, does not seem to have ever made
any experiments.

In 1814 John Robert Sharpe claimed likewise to have made experiments
in telegraphy in 1813; and these in all probability were based upon
electro-chemical action.

Upon the whole, the only important one of these electro-chemical
apparatus is that of Soemmering. This marks an epoch in the history of
electric telegraphy, but it was not capable of the extension that can
be given the apparatus based upon Oersted's discovery.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--SOEMMERING'S PERFECTED TELEGRAPH.]

_To be continued_.

       *       *       *       *       *



A NEW SULPHATE OF COPPER PILE.


Some studies made of the telegraph service of the Railway Company of
the East (France) have resulted in a happy modification of the Callaud
pile, rendering it easier of maintenance and reducing the consumption
of the materials employed.

As well known, the Callaud pile, which is exclusively employed for
telegraphic purposes by certain railroad companies, consists of a glass
vessel, of a circular piece of zinc suspended by hooks from the upper
part of the vessel, and of a strip of copper resting on the bottom of
the latter. This copper strip is riveted to a rod of the same metal
which constitutes the positive electrode. In the bottom of the vessel
there is placed a saturated solution of sulphate of copper, so that its
level reaches to within a short distance of the lower part of the zinc,
and the vessel is then filled with pure water. The zinc being attacked,
there is formed a zinc sulphate, which always remains at the upper part
of the vessel by reason of the difference in density of the solutions
of sulphate of zinc and sulphate of copper, and the reduced copper
deposits upon the strip in the center. It has been found necessary to
cover the copper rod with a sheath of gutta-percha in order to keep it
from being cut at the line of intersection of the two liquids, and this
is the first inconvenience of the system. It is necessary, moreover,
to keep the solution of copper at a certain degree of concentration by
placing in the bottom of the vessel a supply of crystals of sulphate
of copper. Hence it happens that the solution, being increased,
eventually reaches the zinc, and the latter is thereupon attacked to no
purpose, with a pure loss of copper through reduction. This is a second
inconvenience, which can be remedied by introducing into the pile
only a simply saturated solution without excess of crystals. It will
be seen that, in this latter case, it is necessary to visit the pile
quite frequently, to empty it by means of siphons, and to confide its
maintenance to experienced persons only.

This is why, up to the present, railroad companies have preferred
the Daniell to the Callaud pile for alarm bells that control signal
disks, despite the serious advantages of the Callaud pile and the
inconvenience of the porous vessel that enters into the composition of
the other.

[Illustration: NEW SULPHATE OF COPPER PILE.]

The modified Callaud pile is exempt from the defects that we have just
pointed out. It differs from the old form in the substitution of a
leaden tube, open at its extremities and dipping into the liquid of the
pile, for the piece of copper or positive electrode. The lead, which
is not attacked, and may serve indefinitely, is held in a vertical
position by means of a foot made by cutting slits with a pair of
scissors in the bottom of the tube, and bending back the strips thus
formed. This foot also serves to prevent the tube from touching the
zinc, by holding it in equilibrium.

In order to charge the element thus constituted, it is only necessary
to fill the lead tube with crystals of sulphate of copper and to pour
water into the glass vessel until its level reaches within a centimeter
and a half of the upper edge of the zinc. In an hour the copper will
have dissolved sufficiently to allow the pile to begin its action.

Experience has demonstrated that, whatever be the supply of copper that
is put into the lead tube, the saturated solution _will never reach the
zinc_, even in an open circuit.

In sum, the new arrangement given to the Callaud element presents the
following advantages: (1) It permits of the maintenance being confided
to anybody, since this consists simply in the introduction into the
central tube of crystals of sulphate of copper when it is seen that
the blue tint of the lower liquid is disappearing. (2) It permits of
proportioning the expense to the work really effected.--_La Nature_.

[Illustration: Lodges, Portington Grange, Eastrington.

Walter Hanstock, Architect.

GROUND PLAN.
CHAMBER PLAN.

SUGGESTIONS IN ARCHITECTURE.--ENGLISH LODGES.]

       *       *       *       *       *



LODGES.


The walls of the buildings are best scarlet pressed bricks with
white tuck joints; the wood framing is stained brown-black and well
varnished; the windows finished white; cement filling, flat cream
white; and Broseley strawberry tiles for roof. The buildings are
situated in the center of a plantation, and the combination of color
is most satisfactory. They are built at the principal entrance to
Portington Grange, Eastrington, near Hull, and belong to Thomas
Brearley, Esq., J.P. The works have been carried out under the
direction of Mr. Walter Hanstock, architect, Batley.--_Building News_.

       *       *       *       *       *



THE DECAY OF THE BUILDING STONES.[6]

By Dr. A. A. JULIEN.


The paper, which will be published in full by the Building Stone
Department of the Tenth Census of the United States, considers the
building stones employed in New York city and its suburbs, _i. e_.,
Brooklyn, Staten Island, Jersey City, and Hoboken.


I. THE BUILDINGS, THEIR NUMBERS, AND COMMON MATERIALS.

The materials of general construction occur in the following percentage
proportion to the total number of buildings in the cities stated in the
table below:

  +--------------+---------+----------+--------+--------+---------+-----------+
  |              |         |          |        |        |         | Entire    |
  |              | New     | Brooklyn | Staten | Jersey | Hoboken.|Metropolis.|
  |              | York.   |          | Isl'd. |  City. |         |           |
  +--------------+---------+----------+--------+--------+---------+-----------|
  | No. of       |         |          |        |        |         |           |
  |   buildings. | 100,193 |   75,526 |  7,725 | 20,880 |   6,284 |   210,608 |
  | Brick and    |         |          |        |        |         |           |
  |   stucco.    |    63.2 |     30.9 |    9.5 |   22.8 |    32.7 |      47.9 |
  | Frame.       |    24.3 |     50.9 |   90.0 |   75.2 |    64.7 |      42.5 |
  | Stone.       |    11.6 |      9.1 |    0.5 |    2.0 |     2.6 |       9.1 |
  | Iron.        |     0.9 |      0.1 |     .. |     .. |      .. |       0.5 |
  +--------------+---------+----------+--------+--------+---------+-----------+

In New York city proper, the several varieties of stone are used in the
following proportion to the entire number of stone buildings:


  Brown sandstone          78.6
  Nova Scotia sandstone     9.0
  Marble                    7.9
  Granyte                   1.8
  Ohio sandstone            1.6
  Gneiss                    0.9
  Foreign sandstone         0.1
  Bluestone and limestone   0.1

In Brooklyn, the Connecticut brownstone is the variety predominating
among the stone buildings (95.7 per cent.), and is employed almost
altogether for the fronts of residences. Very few iron buildings occur,
but over three times as many stucco fronts as in New York. The frame
buildings predominate, particularly in the outskirts, _e. g._, Long
Island City (80.5 per cent).

In Staten Island, stone enters in very small proportion into the fronts
of buildings, though commonly employed, as in New York and throughout
this district, for the dressing of apertures, the walls of inclosures,
and other masonry.

In Jersey City, the proportions of the materials are much as in Staten
Island. The selection of the dark trap from the Heights behind the
city, for the construction of many fronts or entire buildings, is a
local feature of interest.

In Hoboken, the same general features prevail as in Jersey City.

The annual reports of the Committee on Fire Patrol of the New York
Board of Fire Underwriters, for the years 1881 and 1882, have yielded
the following statistics, which, so far as they go, closely approximate
my own:


                                               Number of buildings.
  South of Canal Street                              10,553
  Between Canal and Fourteenth Streets               26,700
  Between Fourteenth and Fifty-ninth Streets         33,815
  Between Fifty-ninth Street and Harlem River        18,746
                                                     ------
  Total                                              89,814

The materials of construction for this district, which does
not include the 23d and 24th Wards, north of the Harlem
River, are reported as follows:

  Brick, with stone trimmings, and, in part,
    with stone facings                       64,783
  Brick and frame                             3,616
  Frame                                      21,415


II. THE BUILDING STONES, THEIR VARIETIES, LOCALITIES, AND EDIFICES
CONSTRUCTED OF EACH.

An exceedingly rich and varied series is brought to our docks, and
the number and variety are constantly increasing. A few of the more
important may be here mentioned.

Freestones (Carboniferous sandstone), commonly styled "Nova Scotia
stone," or "Dorchester stone," in various shades of buff, olive-yellow,
etc., from Hopewell and Mary's Point, Albert, N. B., and from Wood
Point, Sackville, Harvey, and Weston, N. B., Kennetcook, N. S., etc.
A very large number of private residences in New York and Brooklyn,
etc., the fences, bridges, etc., in Central and Prospect Parks, many
churches, banks, etc.

Freestone (Mesozoic sandstone), commonly styled "brownstone," from East
Longmeadow and Springfield, Mass., but chiefly from Portland, Conn., in
dark shades of reddish-brown, inclining to chocolate. This is the most
common stone used in the fronts of private residences, many churches,
Academy of Design in Brooklyn, etc.

Freestone (Mesozoic sandstone), "brownstone," from Middletown, Conn.,
Trinity Church, Brooklyn, etc.

Red sandstone (Potsdam sandstone), Potsdam, N. Y. Several residences,
buildings of Columbia College, etc.

Freestone (Potsdam sandstone), "brownstone," Oswego, N. Y. Part of
Masonic Temple in 23d Street.

Freestone (Mesozoic sandstone), "brownstone," in several shades of
light reddish-brown, orange-brown, etc., and generally fine-grained,
from Belleville, N. J. Very many of the best residences and churches,
_e. g._, cor. 60th and 64th Streets, and Madison Avenue, etc.

Also, varieties of the same "brownstone" from Little Falls, N. J.
(Trinity Church, New York), from the base of the Palisades (part of the
wall around Central Park), etc.

Freestone (Lower Carboniferous sandstone), commonly styled "Ohio
stone," from Amherst, East Cleveland, Independence, Berea, Portsmouth,
Waverly, etc., Ohio, in various shades of buff, white, drab,
dove-colored, etc. Many private residences and stores, the Boreel
building, Williamsburgh Savings Bank, Rossmore Hotel, etc.

Freestone (Mesozoic sandstone), often styled "Carlisle stone," from the
English shipping port, or "Scotch stone," from Corsehill, Ballochmile
and Gatelaw Bridge, Scotland; in shades of dark red to bright pink.
Fronts of several residences, trimmings of Murray Hill Hotel, the
"Berkshire" building, etc.

Also, varieties from Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, etc.

Blue sandstone (Devonian sandstone), commonly styled "bluestone," from
many quarries in Albany, Greene, Ulster, and Delaware counties, N. Y.,
and Pike county, Penn. The trimmings of many private residences and
business buildings, walls and bridges in the parks, part of Academy of
Design in 23d Street, Penitentiary on Blackwell's Island, house at 72d
Street and Madison Avenue, etc.

Freestone (Oolite limestone), "Caenstone," from Caen, France. Fronts
of several residences in 9th Street, trimmings of Trinity Chapel, the
reredos in Trinity Church, New York, etc.

Limestone (Niagara limestone), Lockport, N. Y., Lenox Library,
trimmings of Presbyterian Hospital, etc.

Limestone (Lower Carboniferous), styled "Oolitic limestone," from
Ellitsville, Ind. Several private residences (_e. g._, cor. 52d Street
and Fifth Avenue), trimmings of business buildings, etc.

Also, varieties of limestone from Kingston and Rondout, N. Y., Isle La
Motte, Lake Champlain, Mott Haven, and Greenwich, Conn., etc. Part of
the anchorages of the Brooklyn Bridge, walls in Central Park, etc.

Granyte, Bay of Fundy, N. S. Columns in Stock Exchange, etc.

Red granyte, Blue Hills, Me. U. S. Barge Office.

Gray granyte, East Blue Hills, Me. Part of towers and approaches of New
York and Brooklyn Bridge, etc.

Granyte, Spruce Head, Me. Part of towers of Brooklyn Bridge, bridges of
Fourth Avenue Improvement, Jersey City Reservoir, etc.

Gray granyte, Hurricane Island, Me. Part of New York Post Office and of
towers and approaches of Brooklyn Bridge, etc.

Granyte, Fox Island, Me. Basement of Stock Exchange, etc.

Granyte, Hallowell, Me. Trimmings in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Jersey
City Heights, etc.

Granyte, Round Point, Me. Seventh Regiment Armory, etc.

Granyte, Jonesborough, Me. Welles' building, panels in Williamsburgh
Savings Bank, etc.

Granyte, Frankfort, Me. Part of towers and approaches of Brooklyn
Bridge, etc.

Granyte, Dix Island, Me. New York Post Office, part of _Staats Zeitung_
building, etc.

Also, varieties from Calais, Red Beach, East Boston, Clark's Island,
Mt. Waldo, Mosquito Mountain, Mt. Desert, Ratcliff's Island, etc., Me.

Granyte, Concord, N. H. Booth's Theater, German Savings Bank, etc.

Granyte, Cape Ann, Mass. Dark base-stone and spandrel stones of towers
and approaches of Brooklyn Bridge, etc.

Granyte, Quincy, Mass. Astor House, Custom House, etc.

Granyte, Westerly, R. I. Part of Brooklyn anchorage of Brooklyn Bridge.

Granyte, Stony Creek, Conn. Part of New York anchorage of Brooklyn
Bridge.

Also, varieties from St. Johnsville, Vt., Millstone Point, Conn.,
Cornwall, N. Y., Charlottesburgh, N. J., Rubislaw, and Peterhead,
Scotland, etc.

Gray gneiss, New York Island, and Westchester county, N. Y. A large
number of churches, Bellevue Hospital, the Reservoir at 42d Street,
etc., and the foundations of most of the buildings throughout the city.

Gray gneiss, Willett's Point, and Hallett's Point, Kings county, N. Y.
Many churches in Brooklyn, the Naval Hospital, etc.

Marble, Manchester, Vt. Drexel & Morgan's building, church cor. 29th
Street and Fifth Avenue, etc.

Also, many varieties from Swanton, West Rutland, Burlington, Isle La
Motte, etc., Vt. The "Sutherland" building at 63d Street and Madison
Avenue, residences at 58th Street and Fifth Avenue, etc.

Marble, Lee, Mass. Turrets of St. Patrick's Cathedral, etc.

Marble, Stockbridge, Mass. Part of old City Hall, New York.

Marble, Hastings, N. Y. The University building, etc.

Marble, Tuckahoe, N. Y. Part of St. Patrick's Cathedral, residence on
the cor. of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, etc.

Marble, Pleasantville, N. Y., styled "Snowflake marble." Greater part
of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Union Dime Savings Bank, many residences
and stores, etc.

Also, many varieties from Canaan, Conn., Williamsport, Penn.,
Knoxville, Tenn., Carrara and Sienna, Italy, etc.; used generally,
especially for interior decoration, etc.

Trap (Mesozoic diabase), from many quarries along the "Palisades," at
Jersey City Heights, Weehawken, etc. Stevens Institute, Hoboken, N. J.,
Court House on Jersey City Heights, old rubble work buildings at New
Utrecht, etc., on the outskirts of Brooklyn, etc.

Trap (Mesozoic diabase), styled "Norwood stone," from Closter, N. J.
Grace Episcopal Church, Harlem.

Also, varieties from Graniteville, Staten Island, N. Y., and Weehawken,
N. J.

Serpentine, Hoboken, N. J. Many private residences, masonry, etc., in
Hoboken. Also, varieties from Chester, Pa.

In addition to the edifices referred to above, many public buildings
of importance are constructed of stone, _e. g._: Prisons in the city
and on the islands, bridges in the parks and over the Harlem River, in
which sandstone, limestone, granyte, and gneiss are used.

The sewers are constructed of gneiss from New York Island and vicinity,
as well as of bowlders of trap, granyte, etc., from excavations.

The Croton Aqueduct, the High Bridge, the Reservoirs in the Central and
Prospect Parks and at 42d Street, in which gneiss from the vicinity and
granyte from New England were used.

The walls, buildings, bridges, and general masonry in the parks are
constructed of the following varieties of stone:

Freestone (sandstone), from Albert, Dorchester, and Weston, N. B.

Brownstone, from Belleville and the base of the Palisades, N. J.

Bluestone and "mountain graywacke," from the Hudson River.

Limestone, from Mott Haven and Greenwich, Conn.

Granyte, from Radcliffe's Island, etc., Me.

Gneiss, from New York, Westchester, and Kings counties, N. Y.

Marble, from Westchester county, N. Y.

The fortifications in the harbor and entrance to the sound, constructed
of granyte from Dix Island, Spruce Head, etc., Me., gneiss from the
vicinity, brownstone from Conn., etc.

The stonework of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, as I am kindly
informed by Mr. F. Collingwood, the engineer in charge of the New York
approach, is constructed of the following materials:

Granyte, from Frankfort, Spruce Head, Hurricane Island, East Blue Hill
and Mt. Desert, Me., Concord, N. H., Cape Ann, Mass., Westerly, R. I.,
Stony Creek, Conn., and Charlottesburg, N. J.

Limestone, from Rondout and Kingston, N. Y., also from Isle La Motte
and Willsboro Point, Lake Champlain, and vicinity of Catskill, N. Y.

In the anchorages, the corner stones, exterior of the cornice and
coping, and the stones resting on anchor plates, consist of granyte
from Charlottesburg and Stony Creek, in the New York anchorage,
and from Westerly, in the Brooklyn anchorage. The rest of the
material is entirely limestone, mainly from Rondout, largely from
Lake Champlain. In the towers, limestone was chiefly employed below
the water line, and, above, granyte from all the localities named,
except Charlottesburg, Westerly, and Stony Creek. In the approaches
the materials were arranged in about the same way as in the towers.
Additional particulars are given concerning the quantity, prices, tests
of strength, and reasons for selection of the varieties of stone.

For roofing, slate is largely employed throughout these cities, being
mainly derived from Poultney, Castleton, Fairhaven, etc., Vt., and
Slatington, Lynnport, Bethlehem, etc., Penn.

For pavements, the bowlders of trap and granyte from excavations have
been widely used in the "cobblestone" pavements. The trap (or diabase)
of the Palisades across the Hudson, immediately opposite New York city,
and from Graniteville, Staten Island, is used in the "Russ" and Belgian
pavement; also, granyte from the Highlands of the Hudson, from Maine,
etc, in the "granite block" pavement in both New York and Brooklyn;
large quantities of crushed trap from Weehawken and Graniteville, for
the macadamized streets and roads in the parks and outskirts; and also
wood, concrete, and asphalt in various combinations.

For sidewalks and curbstones, the material generally employed is
the flagstone, a thinly bedded blue sandstone or graywacke from the
interior of the State, the Catskill Mountains, and from Pennsylvania;
also, granyte, chiefly from Maine. In the older streets, a mica slate
from Bolton, Conn., and micaceous slaty gneiss from Haddam, Conn., were
once largely used, and may still be occasionally observed in scattered
slabs.

Additional facts were given concerning the ruling prices for the
varieties of stone, tables presenting all the determinations obtainable
in reference to the crushing strength of the varieties used in New
York, lists of the dealers in building and ornamental stones, etc.


III. DURABILITY OF BUILDING STONES, IN NEW CITY AND VICINITY.

All varieties of soft, porous, and untested stones are being hurried
into the masonry of the buildings of New York city and its vicinity. On
many of them the ravages of the weather and the need of the repairer
are apparent within five years after their erection, and a resistance
to much decay for twenty or thirty years is usually considered
wonderful and perfectly satisfactory.

Notwithstanding the general injury to the appearance of the rotten
stone, and the enormous losses annually involved in the extensive
repairs, painting, or demolition, little concern is yet manifested by
either architects, builders, or house owners. Hardly any department
of technical science is so much neglected as that which embraces the
study of the nature of stone, and all the varied resources of lithology
in chemical, microscopical, and physical methods of investigation,
wonderfully developed within the last quarter century, have never yet
been properly applied to the selection and protection of stone, as
used for building purposes. Much alarm has been caused abroad in the
rapid decay and fast approaching ruin of the most important monuments,
cathedrals, and public buildings, but in many instances the means have
been found for their artificial protection, _e. g._, the Louvre, and
many palaces in and near Paris, France, St. Charles Church in Vienna,
Austria, the Houses of Parliament, etc., in London, England, etc.

In New York, the Commissioners of the Croton Aqueduct Department
complained, twenty years ago, of the crumbling away of varieties of
the gneiss used in embankments; the marbles of Italy, Vermont, and of
Westchester county soon become discolored, are now all more or less
pitted or softened upon the surface (_e. g._, the U. S. Treasury),
and are not likely to last a century in satisfactory condition (_e.
g._, the U. S. Hotel); the coarser brown sandstones are exfoliating
in the most offensive way throughout all of our older streets and in
many of the newer (_e. g._, the old City Hall); the few limestones
yet brought into use are beginning to lose their dressed surfaces and
to be traversed by cracks (_e. g._, the Lenox Library); and even the
granytes, within a half century, show both discoloration, pitting (_e.
g._, the Custom House), or exfoliation (_e. g._, the Tombs). To meet
and properly cope with this destructive action, requires, first, a
clear recognition of the hostile external agencies concerned in the
process. These belong to three classes: chemical, physical, and organic.

The chemical agencies discussed were the following: sulphurous and
sulphuric acids, discharged in vast quantities into the air of the
city, by the combustion of coal and gas, the decomposition of street
refuse and sewer gas, etc.; carbonic, nitric, and hydrochloric acids;
carbolic, hippuric, and many other organic acids derived from smoke,
street dust, sewer vapors, etc.; oxygen and ozone, ammonia, and sea
salt.

The mechanical and physical agencies discussed were the following:
frost; extreme variations in temperature, amounting in our climate
to 120° F. in a year, and even 70° in a single day; wind and rain,
most efficient on fronts facing the north, northeast, and east;
crystallization by efflorescence; pressure of superincumbent masonry;
friction; and fire.

The organic agencies consist of vegetable growths, mostly confervæ,
etc., within the city, and lichens and mosses without, and of boring
mollusks, sponges, etc.

The internal elements of durability in a stone depend, first, upon the
chemical composition of its constituent minerals and of their cement.
This involves a consideration of their solubility in atmospheric
waters, _e. g._, the calcium-carbonate of a marble or limestone, the
ferric oxide of certain sandstones, etc.; their tendency to oxidation,
hydration, and decomposition, _e. g._, of the sulphides (especially
marcasite) in a roofing slate or marble, the biotite and ferruginous
orthoclase in a granyte or sandstone, etc.; the inclosure of fluids
and moisture, _e. g._, as "quarry-sap," in chemical combination, as
hydrated silicates (chlorite, kaolin, etc.), and iron oxides, and as
fluid cavities locked up in quartz, etc.

The durability of a stone depends again upon its physical structure, in
regard to which the following points were discussed: the size, form,
and position of its constituent minerals; _e. g._, an excess of mica
plates in parallel position may serve as an element of weakness; the
porosity of the rock permitting the percolation of water through its
interstices, especially important in the case of the soft freestones,
and leading to varieties of discoloration upon the light-colored
stones, which were described in detail; the hardness and toughness,
particularly in relation to use for pavements, sidewalks, and stoops;
the crystalline structure, which, if well-developed, increases the
strength of its resistance; the tension of the grains, which appears
to explain especially the disruption of many crystalline marbles;
the contiguity of the grains and the proportion of cement in their
interstices; and the homogeneity of the rock.

Again, the durability of a rock may depend upon the character of its
surface, whether polished, smoothly dressed, or rough hewn, since upon
this circumstance may rest the rapidity with which atmospheric waters
are shed, or with which the deposition of soot, street dust, etc., may
be favored; also upon the inclination and position of the surface,
as affecting the retention of rainwater and moisture, exposure to
northeast gales and to burning sun, etc.


IV. METHODS OF TRIAL OF BUILDING STONE.

In such methods, two classes may be distinguished, the natural and the
artificial.

The former embrace, first, the examination of quarry outcrops, where
the exposure of the surface of the rock during ages may give some
indication of its power of resistance to decomposition, _e. g._, the
dolomitic marbles of New York and Westchester counties, some of which
present a surface crumbling into sand; and, secondly, the examination
of old masonry. Few old buildings have survived the changes in our
restless city, but many observations were presented in regard to the
condition of many materials, usually after an exposure of less than
half a century.

Another source of information, in this regard, was found in the
study of the stones erected in our oldest cemeteries, _e. g._, that
of Trinity Church. There could hardly be devised a superior method
for thoroughly testing by natural means the durability of the stone
than by its erection in this way, with partial insertion in the moist
earth, complete exposure to the winds, rain, and sun on every side,
its bedding lamination standing on edge, and several of its surfaces
smoothed and polished and sharply incised with dates, inscriptions, and
carvings, by which to detect and to measure the character and extent of
its decay. In Trinity Churchyard, the stones are vertical, and stand
facing the east. The most common material is a red sandstone, probably
from Little Falls, N. J., whose erection dates back as far as 1681, and
which remains, in most cases, in very fair condition. Its dark color,
however, has led to a frequent tendency to splitting on the western
side of the slabs, _i. e._, that which faces the afternoon sun. Other
materials studied consisted of bluestone, probably from the Catskills,
black slate, gray slate, green hydromicaceous schist, and white oolitic
limestone, all in good condition, and white marble, in a decided state
of decay.

The artificial methods of trial of stone, now occasionally in vogue,
whenever some extraordinary pressure is brought upon architects to pay
a little attention to the durability of the material they propose to
employ, are, from their obsolete antiquity, imperfection, or absolute
inaccuracy, unworthy of the age and of so honorable a profession.
They usually consist of trials of solubility in acids, of absorptive
power for water, of resistance to frost, tested by the efflorescence
of sodium-sulphate, and of resistance to crushing. The latter may have
the remotest relationship to the elements of durability in many rocks,
and yet is one on which much reliance of the architectural world is now
placed. Sooner or later a wide departure will take place from these
incomplete and antique methods, in the light of modern discovery.

Reference was made to certain experiments by Professor J. C. Draper on
the brownstone and Nova Scotia stone used in this city, by Dr. Page, on
a series of the building stones, and by Professors J. Henry and W. R.
Johnson on American marbles, in some cases with conflicting results,
which were probably due to the limited number and methods of the
experiments.


V. MEANS OF PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF STONE.

We have here to consider certain natural principles of construction,
and then the methods for the artificial preservation of the stone used
in buildings. Under the first head, there are four divisions.

_Selection of Stone._--As it is universally agreed that the utmost
importance rests upon the original selection of the building material,
it is here that all the resources of lithological science should be
called in. Only one investigation, aiming at thorough work, has ever
been carried through, that of the Royal Commission appointed for the
selection of stone for the Houses of Parliament. But the efforts of
these able men were restricted by the little progress made at that time
in the general study of rocks, and were afterward completely thwarted
by the discharge of the committee and by the delivery of the execution
of the work of selection to incompetent hands. There will be hereafter,
from investigations made in the light of modern researches, no excuse
for such annoying results and enormous expenses as those which attended
the endless repairs which have been required, since a period of four or
five years after the completion of the great building referred to.

_Seasoning._--The recommendations of Vitruvius 2,000 years ago have
been observed at times down to the day of Sir Christopher Wren, who
would not accept the stone which he proposed to use in the erection of
St. Paul's Cathedral, in London, until it had laid for three years,
seasoning upon the seashore. Since then little or no attention appears
to have been paid to this important requirement by modern architects,
in the heedless haste of the energy of the times. Building stone,
even for many notable edifices, is hurried from the quarries into its
position in masonry, long before the "quarry-sap" has been permitted,
by its evaporation to produce solid cementation in the interstices of
the stone.

_Position._--The danger of setting up any laminated material on edge,
rather than on its natural bedding-plane, has been widely acknowledged;
yet it is of the rarest occurrence, in New York city, to observe
any attention paid to this rule, except where, from the small size
or square form of the blocks of stone employed, it has been really
cheapest and most convenient to pile them up on their flat sides.

_Form of Projections._--The principle is maintained by all the best
English and French architects that projections (_i. e_., cornices,
sills, lintels, etc.) should be "throated," that is, undercut in such
a way as to throw off the dripping of rainwater, etc., from the front
of the building, but in New York this principle is almost universally
neglected. It was pointed out that the severity of our climate even
requires the further care that the upper surface of projections should
be so cut as to prevent the lodgment or long retention of deposits
either of rainwater or snow. It is immediately above and below such
deposits that the ashlar of our fronts is most rapidly corroded and
exfoliated, an effect evidently due mainly to the repeated thawing and
solution, freezing and disintegration, which are caused by the water,
slush, and snow, which rest, often for weeks, upon a window-sill,
balcony, cornice, etc. Thus from the initial and inexcusable
carelessness in the construction and form of the projections, and,
later, the neglect of the houseowner, due to ignorance of the
results involved, to remove the deposits of snow, etc., as fast as
they accumulate on the projections, is derived a large part of the
discoloration of the marble, Nova Scotia stone, or light colored
granyte, and especially the exfoliation of the brownstone beneath the
window-sills, balconies, etc., by the water alternately trickling down
the front and freezing, by day and by night, for long periods.

The artificial means of preservation are of two classes, organic
and inorganic. The former depend on the application of some organic
substance in a coating or in the injection of fatty matters; but, as
the substances are with greater or less rapidity oxidized, dissolved,
and carried away by the atmospheric fluids, the methods founded on
their use have been properly denounced by many authorities as only
costly palliatives, needing frequent repetition, and therefore exerting
an influence toward the destruction of delicate carving. The following
were discussed: coal-tar; paint, which has been used in New York for
many residences, as in Washington for the Capitol, and in London for
Buckingham Palace, etc., but lasts only a few years, and often even
permits the disintegration to progress beneath it; oil, often used
in New York, but as objectionable as paint; soap and alum-solution;
and paraffine, beeswax, resin, tallow, etc., dissolved in naphtha,
turpentine, camphene, oil, etc.

The preparations of an inorganic nature, which have been proposed and
used abroad, have in some cases met with success; but the exact nature
of their action, and the conditions to which they are each suited,
are yet to be investigated, especially with reference to the entirely
different climate by which the stone in our city is being tried. The
processes which have been proposed, and in some cases practically used,
involve the application of the following substances: waterglass, in
connection with salts of calcium or barium, or bitumen; oxalate of
aluminum; barium solution, in connection with calcium superphosphate
or ferro-silicic acid; copper salts, used by Dr. Robert in Paris to
stop the growth of vegetation on stone, etc. There is certainly a
call for processes by which, at least, those stones which are used
in isolated, exposed, and unnatural positions may receive artificial
protection, such as the stone sills and lintels of windows, stone
balusters, projecting cornices, and ashlar-stone set up on edge. It
will doubtless be found that only those stones which possess a coarse,
porous texture and strong absorptive power for liquids will be found
particularly available for protection by artificial preservatives, and
that such stones should indeed never be used in construction in a raw
or crude state. In the spongy brown and light olive free-stones, a
marble full of minute crevices, and a cellular fossiliferous limestone,
a petrifying liquid may permeate to some depth, close up the pores
by its deposits, and incase the stone in solid armor; while, upon a
more compact rock, such as a granyte or solid limestone, it can only
deposit a shelly crust or enamel, which time may soon peel off. The
carelessness with which stone is selected and used, and the ignorance
in regard to its proper preservation, when the decay of a poor stone
becomes apparent, have led to an increased use of brick and terra
cotta, much to be deplored; durable stones are to be obtained in great
variety, methods for the preservation of the porous stones can easily
be devised, and stones of a fireproof character do exist in this
country in abundance.

In conclusion, three suggestions were offered: 1st, that householders
invoke the magic use of the broom on the fronts of their residences as
carefully as upon the sidewalks; 2d, that house-builders insist upon
the undercutting of all projections, and the exclusion of brackets or
other supports to sills and cornices, which only lead to the oozing of
water and a line of corrosion down the ashlar; 3d, that house repairers
recut the projections in this way, whenever possible, and entirely
avoid the use of paint, oil, or other organic preservatives.

       *       *       *       *       *



ELEPHANTS MOVING TIMBER AT MOULMEIN, BURMAH.


"Elephants," says Mrs. A. H. Brackenbury, of Singapore, to whom we
are indebted for our sketch, "work in the timber yards of Moulmein,
carrying huge planks, sometimes two or three together, and with
great care and exactitude piling them in stacks one over another.
The old hands take a sidelong view with one eye closed to test the
perpendicularity of the stacks. The elephants lift the planks with
their proboscis on their tusks, and then tuck their trunks around the
burden, and march majestically off as if they were carrying nothing.
A man sits on each elephant's neck to direct him, which he does by
kicking or pressing behind their ears.

"In Africa the elephants are being so persistently slaughtered for the
sake of their ivory that they are likely soon to become extinct.

"Would it be possible to breed them on farms as ostriches are bred, and
then to employ them in navvy work, for which they are probably as well
suited (education being supplied) as their Asiatic cousins?

"Moulmein is a very pretty place, and its charms are enhanced by its
being out of the beaten track of tourists. It is up a river, and there
are many islands on which are perched the daintiest little gilt and
painted Burmese pagodas. The scene recalls the well known view on the
willow-pattern plate of our childhood, which plate has once more become
fashionable."--_London Graphic_.

[Illustration: ELEPHANTS MOVING TIMBER AT MOULMEIN, BRITISH BURMAH.]


       *       *       *       *       *



STRENGTH OF YELLOW PINE.


It is reported that a comparison of the relative strength of yellow
and Norway pine was made at Dayton, O., with the following results:
The specimens were dressed exactly one inch square, and these were
broken in a testing machine by placing them on bearings, one foot
apart, with the weight in the center. The southern pine had been air
seasoned for two years and upward, the Norway from a year to fifteen
months. The weakest yellow pine broke at 763 pounds, the strongest at
1,102; average of eight specimens, 904 pounds. The weakest Norway broke
at 501 pounds, the strongest at 790 pounds; average of ten specimens,
702 pounds, showing the yellow pine to be 28.7 per cent. stronger than
Norway, and that a yellow pine sill 4x8 inches dimensions is equivalent
to a Norway sill of 5½x8 inches, with the further advantage in favor of
the yellow pine that it can be got much freer of knots and consequently
stronger in comparison than these figures show, which are based on
clear timber. Another test was made at a meeting of the Master Car
Builders' Association, with the following results: Five pieces of each
variety, one inch square and eleven inches between bearing points,
were experimented upon, the pressure being applied in the center. The
outcome showed strength of yellow pine at 500, 510, 500, 490, and
530 pounds breakage strain, or an average of 506; while Norway stood
a strain of 620, 645, 730, 650, and 630 pounds or an average of 625
pounds. These experiments do not appear to throw much light on the
question of relative strength.

       *       *       *       *       *



THE EDUCATION OF GERMAN WOMEN.


"Our women in Germany," said the professor of a German university to
me, a few days ago, "must by all means be acquainted with the different
departments of housekeeping, and must interest themselves therein.
Those who stand highest as well as those who stand lowest, from the
wives and daughters of a Minister of State to the wives and daughters
of the meanest peasant. The Princess-Royal attends to the skimming of
the milk in her dairy." "I beg your pardon for interrupting you," I
said, "but an American lady would think that quite out of her sphere;
and if I were not convinced of your seriousness, I should imagine you
were amusing me by a piece of fiction." "I do assure you," replied
the professor, "that it is a well known fact that the Princess-Royal
keeps cows and superintends personally the management of her dairy,
and I have heard that the Queen of England does the same." "Please
to instruct me further regarding the education of women in Germany,"
I said. "I am very much interested in that subject, as, from my own
observations, I have seen that as a general thing the German ladies
are well read, not only in the literature of their own country, but
also in that of France and England." "Our women," he replied, "also
speak French and English, especially French, and many of them are able
to read the authors of those countries in the original." "This is the
more surprising to me," I remarked, "as they seem to be much occupied
with the cares of housekeeping, and I would like to know how they find
time to learn foreign languages, and to read all the principal works
of the poets and romance writers of three countries." "That," said
the professor, "is a part of their education, and in order that you
may understand in what manner German girls must utilize their time at
school, I will give you a brief explanation of the system of education
employed and of that knowledge which it is incumbent upon every German
girl to possess, whatever be her position in life, and afterward of the
different grades of education from that of the peasant girl to that of
the lady of the highest position in the State. Every girl in Germany
must learn to read and to write, to sew and to knit, to cook and to
do general housework, and to acquire besides some general knowledge
of grammar, geography, mathematics, and history. Beginning at the
daughter of the _Bauer_, or, as you say in America, _farmer_, the above
mentioned knowledge, which is the starting point for the education of
the other classes, is the limit of her education; and as it may be
interesting to you, I will mention that when the daughters of the Bauer
have learned thus much they quit school and labor in the field until
they are married, when they leave aside the field work and enter upon
the duties of the household and its immediate attachments, such as the
dairy, the chicken yard, the gardens, etc.; and while the products of
the field belong to their husbands, the garden stuffs, and the milk,
eggs, butter, etc., become their own property, and from the profits of
these, which they carry to the markets and sell, they provide their
pantries with the necessary teas, sugar, coffee, etc., and themselves
and their children with clothes.

"Between the peasant class and nobility there are many grades and
classes varying more or less in the refinement of their manners as
well as in the extent of their education, but as it would not be
possible and is also unnecessary for our purpose to describe them all
in particular, I prefer to include them all under the head of gentry,
and for these a more ample education is provided. The daughters of
the gentry must, in addition to the aforesaid rudiments of knowledge,
have a very thorough education in history as well as in grammar,
mathematics, and natural and physical geography. They must know French
and English, and have an intelligent understanding of the literature
of those countries, as well as of that of Germany. They must learn
fine needle-work and the art of governing a house and of educating
young children. They must also acquire a knowledge of good manners
and an understanding of society. They must be able to receive company
and do the honors of the house. In addition to this they will have an
intelligent understanding of music and art. For all of these branches
of knowledge there are schools provided, and according to the position
or wealth of the parents, or the intelligence and application of the
daughters, will vary the refinement and education of each. As, for
instance, the education of a country squire's daughter will be superior
to that of a wholesale merchant's daughter, and that of the wholesale
merchant's daughter will be superior to that of the retail merchant's
daughter. The daughter of a very wealthy banker will be educated above
the daughters of the merchants; the daughter of a professor of the
University above that of the daughters of a professor of the Gymnasium,
and so on; and each will fill a position in life differing from that
of the others, according to the respect in which the position of the
parents is held.

"The same system of education which we have described for the daughters
of the gentry will be incumbent on the daughters of the nobility, with
the addition of a more finished and thorough education in regard to
the manners and formalities which attach to their station of life, and
these will also vary in kind and extent, according to the position of
the persons concerned. A Duke's daughter, for instance, will be more
accomplished than a Count's. But the difference will be more apparent
than real; the actual knowledge of both will, as far as their education
provides, be the same. In the society of the Court, the ladies will
naturally acquire some knowledge of the affairs of State, which those
in private life and a more retired existence will not care to learn.
But in matters of art, in literature, in the general business of life,
all German ladies are expected to be well informed and to be able to
converse intelligently regarding them, while the special faculties of
law, of medicine, of theology, of chemistry, etc., etc., are left to
the higher ambition of their fathers and brothers, and they do not
meddle with them. But, above all, as I remarked in the beginning, a
German girl of whatever rank or condition must understand fully all the
matters concerning a _household_."

When the Professor had finished, I thanked him and expressed so much
admiration at the system of education provided for the women of
Germany, that he promised me at some future time a brief explanation of
morals and manners in Germany, which I shall be most happy to present
before the reader at the proper time.

  K.G.D.

       *       *       *       *       *



SCIENCE IN ANTIQUITY.

HERON'S PNEUMATIC AND COMPRESSING APPARATUS.


The most ancient of such instruments is certainly the syringe. The
Egyptians, says Herodotus (ii., 87), employed the latter in the
embalming of common people, for filling the belly with oil of cedar,
through injections made _per ano_, without opening the body and
extracting the intestines. Heron, in his "Pneumatics," describes an
instrument of this kind, called _Pyulgue_, which was designed for
sucking pus out of wounds.

The following apparatus, also described by Heron, is the first step
that was taken toward the production of the pneumatic apparatus
properly so called

"_Construction of a cupping glass that sucks without the aid of fire_."

Let _ΑΒΓ_ (Fig. 1) be a cupping glass (like that which is usually
applied to the skin), divided by a partition, _ΔΕ_. Through the bottom
let there be passed two tubes that slide one within the other by
friction--_ΖΗ_ being the external and _ΘΚ_ the internal one. In these
two tubes, external to the glass, there are two apertures, _ΛΜ_, that
face each other. The extremities of the tubes situated within the
apparatus should be open, and the external extremity of _ΘΚ_ should
be closed and provided with a key. Beneath the partition, _ΔΕ_, there
is another cock, _ΝΞ_, like the one just described, save that the
corresponding apertures are within the cupping-glass, and are in
communication with an aperture in the partition, _ΔΕ_.

"Things being arranged thus, the keys of the cock are revolved in such
a way that the apertures of the one at the bottom of the instrument are
in a line with each other, while the cock above the partition remains
closed, inasmuch as its apertures do not correspond. The chamber, _ΔΓ_,
being full of air, if we apply the mouth to the orifices, _ΛΜ_, and
suck out a portion of the air, and turn the key of the cock without
removing the mouth from the tube, we shall be able to thus keep up a
rarefaction of the air in the chamber, _ΓΔ_. The oftener we perform
this operation, the more air we shall remove. Let us now apply the
cupping-glass to the skin in the usual way, and open the cock, _ΝΞ_, by
turning the key. A portion of the air contained in _ΑΔΕ_ will pass into
_ΓΔ_, and we shall then see the skin, as well as the subjacent matters
that pass through its interstices, that we call unexplored spaces,
drawn into the space in which the air is rarefied."

As for the pressure fountain, this had reached perfection as long ago
as the Alexandrine epoch. The following description of it is borrowed
from the "Pneumatics:"

"_To construct a hollow sphere, or any other vessel, in which, if a
liquid be poured, the latter may be made to rise spontaneously with
great force so as to empty the vessel, although such motion be contrary
to nature_."

"The construction is as follows: Let there be a sphere of a capacity
of about six cotyles (about 2¾ pints) made of some metal tough enough
to withstand the pressure of the air that is to be produced. Let us
place this sphere, _ΑΒ_, upon any base whatever, _Γ_. Through an aperture
in its upper part we introduce a tube which runs down to that part of
the sphere which is diametrically opposite the aperture, but which
leaves sufficient space there for the water to pass. This tube projects
slightly above the sphere, to whose aperture it is soldered, and
divides into two branches, _Η_ and _Ζ_, to which are affixed two bent
tubes, _ΖΜΝΞ_ and _ΗΘΚΛ_, that communicate internally with _Η_ and _Ζ_.
Finally, in these tubes, _ΗΘΚΛ_ and _ΖΜΝΞ_, and in communication with
them, there is adapted another tube, _ΠΟ_, from which issues at right
angles a small tube, _ΡΣ_, that communicates with it and terminates at
_Σ_ in a fine orifice.

If, taking the tube, _ΡΣ_, in hand, we revolve the tube, _ΠΟ_, the two
apertures that face each other can no longer establish a communication,
and the liquid that rises will no longer find an outlet. Then, through
another aperture in the sphere, we insert another tube, _ΤτΦ_, whose
lower orifice, _Φ_, is closed, but which has upon the side, toward the
bottom, at _Χ_, a round hole to which is adapted a small valve of the
sort called by the Romans _assarium_. Into the tube, _τΦΤ_, we insert
another and closely fitting tube, _ΨΩ_. Let us now remove the tube,
_ΨΩ_, and pour liquid into the tube, _τΦΤ_. This liquid will enter the
cavity of the sphere, through the aperture, _Χ_. The valve will open in
the interior, and the air will escape through the apertures in the
tube, _ΟΠ_, of which we have already spoken, and which have been so
arranged as to communicate with the tubes, _ΗΘΚΛ_ and _ΖΜΝΞ_. When once
the sphere is half full of liquid, we incline the small tube, _ΡΣ_, so
as to shut off all communication between the corresponding apertures,
and then push down the tube, _ΨΩ_, and drive into the interior of
the sphere the air contained in _ΤτΦ_. This requires some force, as
the sphere itself is full of liquid and air, but the introduction is
rendered possible through the compression of the air, which shrinks
into the empty spaces that it contains within itself. Let us now take
out the tube, _ΨΩ_, again so as to fill the tube, _ΤτΦ_, with air, and
let us push down the tube, _ΨΦ_, again and force this air into the
sphere. On repeating this operation several times in succession we
shall finally have in the sphere a large quantity of compressed air.
It is clear, in fact, that the air introduced by force cannot escape
when the piston-rod is raised, since the valve, pressed by the internal
air, remains closed. If then, replacing the tube, _ΡΣ_, in a vertical
position, we set up a communication again between the corresponding
apertures, the liquid will be driven to the exterior through the
compressed air, and the latter will assume its normal volume again,
and press in the liquid beneath it. If the quantity of compressed air
is considerable, there will occur an expulsion, not only of the entire
liquid, but also of the excess of air.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.--HERON'S CUPPING GLASS.]

The valve of which I have spoken is constructed as follows (Fig. 2, 1
_bis_ and 1 _ter_): Take two pieces of brass about one inch square, and
about as thick as a carpenter's rule, and rub their surfaces against
each other with emery, that is to say, polish them so that neither air
nor liquid can pass between them. In the middle of one of the pieces
bore a circular aperture about 4/10 an inch in diameter. Then fitting
the two plates together by one of their edges, unite them by a hinge so
that the polished surfaces shall coincide with each other. When this
valve is to be made use of, the part containing the aperture is adapted
to the aperture that is designed for the introduction of the liquid or
air that is to be compressed. The pressure causes the other part of the
valve (which moves easily on its hinge) to open and allow the liquid
or air to enter the tight vessel, wherein it is afterward confined and
presses against the unperforated part of the valve and thus closes the
aperture through which the air entered."--_A. de Rochas, in La Nature_.

[Illustration: Fig. 2.--HERON'S FOUNTAIN.]

       *       *       *       *       *

PROFESSOR ADOLF MEYER has been experimenting upon the relative
digestibility of natural and artificial butter. The experiments were
made on a man of 39, and a boy of 9 years. He found that there was
but little difference, but in these individuals the natural butter
seemed to be more easily digested. While natural butter was all
digested, at least 98 per cent. of the artificial butter was also
digested.--_Chemiker Zeit_.

       *       *       *       *       *



FILTH DISEASES IN RURAL DISTRICTS.

By ALFRED L. CARROLL, M.D., NEW BRIGHTON, N. Y.


An editorial comment in _The Medical Record_ of April 14th, upon a
paper by Dr. Hamilton, of Philadelphia, may serve as an apology for
some remarks on a subject which ordinarily seems to possess scarcely
more interest for practicing physicians than for "practical" laymen;
both being wont to lay the finger of incredulity against the nose of
scorn when they turn their deafest ears to the voice of the sanitarian.
In the present very unsettled condition of professional opinion as to
the diagnosis of typhoid fever--passably good authorities in India,
on Western mountain peaks, and even nearer home, differing widely
thereanent--I shall not attempt here to discuss its etiology, or to
single out for reprobation any particular one of the several kinds of
bacteria which have been respectively described as its exclusive cause.
Suffice it merely to hint that there may be possible source of error
in statistical arguments touching its relative frequency in town or
country. But, waiving this, I am not aware that "professed sanitarians"
have ascribed to "sewer-gas" alone such pre-eminence over other
vehicles of filth or fungi as the article in question imputes. On the
contrary, I believe that the majority of cases of enteric fever which
have been traced accurately to their origin have been traced to other
and more tangible contaminations of food or water. Nevertheless there
is strong evidence, which has stood the test of much cross examination,
that the so-called "filth diseases" deserve their name in this respect:
that whatever be the specific _tertium quid_ which determines their
occurrence in the individual, filth-poisoning (_i. e._, the imbibition,
through some channel, of the products of organic decomposition) is an
essential factor in their genesis.

The first source of fallacy in the arguments referred to lies in the
misinterpretation of the term "sewer gas," connecting it with sewers in
particular instead of with sewage in general. Thus, I find it stated
that typhoid is "more prevalent in the suburbs and surrounding country
than in the cities subjected to the contamination of sewer gas;" that
diphtheria and scarlatina occur most fatally "in the country, where
sewer gas is wanting;" and that in Philadelphia the extension of the
sewage system into the rural sections has diminished the sickness
from fever. Now the facts on which most sanitarians lay great stress
are, that unsewered rural districts are more exposed to danger from
fermenting filth than cities, that the ineffable atrocities of leaching
cesspools and privy-vaults (those perversions of barbarism to which
the American rustic clings as to his most precious birthright) do
infinitely more to poison air, and soil, and water than all the
blunders of city engineers and plumbers combined; and that, granting
the worst that can be said of some city sewers which shall be nameless,
even a bad sewer is better than none at all--which is merely equivalent
to saying that it is better to carry away as much of one's sewage as
possible than to keep the whole of it on the premises to decompose
under one's nose. And the peril from this fount and origin of evil
is augmented a hundredfold where the mania for "modern improvements"
has invaded rural households. Long before sewers are thought of--even
before the importation of the agonizing pianoforte--the suburban
housewife insists on having a bath-room, including that sum and
substance of vileness, a pan water-closet on the bedchamber floor, and
a kitchen sink and "stationary tubs" down stairs; and these fixtures,
commonly constructed in the cheapest and nastiest manner, are connected
with an unventilated cesspool, serving as so many inlets to insure
the constant pollution of the house atmosphere with the gases of
decomposition. Then, in an uncemented basement a "portable furnace"
is arranged to transport to the upper rooms not only the cellar-air,
but the freely indrawn "ground atmosphere," laden with noxious vapors
from the soil-soakage of cesspools or privies. It is not saying too
much to affirm that for every one channel of filth-poisoning in a
paved and sewered city there are at least three in the average village
settlement, and if the evidence of insanitary conditions be found in
"not more than one house out of five," it is because, unfortunately,
very few physicians in this country have cared to learn how to look
for it--familiarity with the doses of drugs and the results of disease
being regarded in most of our medical schools as vastly more important
than _rerum cognoscere causas_.

I am not sufficiently informed of the morbility statistics of African
cities to appreciate the full weight of reasonings based upon their
alleged comparative salubrity; the occasional scattered returns which
I have seen from a few of them show death-rates ranging from 30 to
over 40 per 1,000. But I am free to admit, on general principles, that
it is less dangerous to let organic matter decompose fully exposed to
atmospheric oxygen than to store it in unventilated receptacles to form
sulphureted and carbureted compounds, or to saturate an undrained soil
with it. It is to be remembered that few, if any, sewage substances
are suspected of pathogenic power while in their fresh solid or liquid
state: the products of their subsequent chemical changes are what we
have to fear; and if these products be liberated _al fresco_ as fast as
they are formed, they are diluted to homoeopathic insignificance by
the surrounding air. Of the two evils, therefore, the Africo-Hibernian
practice of throwing house refuse promiscuously upon the surface is
preferable to the American village method of fostering and festering it
in cumulative concentration.

As regards the allegation that "the young men at work in the fields
were more frequently attacked (by typhoid fever) than the females,
who were generally engaged in domestic duties in or about the house,"
it may be observed: First, that agricultural laborers do not spend
all their time in the fields, but sleep in rooms from which, as a
class, they carefully exclude all ventilation; second, that, for some
unexplained reason, enteric fever seems to have a selective affinity
for robust young males. It is an affair of common observation that,
under apparently precisely similar conditions, fragile women may resist
the infection to which strong men succumb.

Facts, however, are more forcible than words, and I therefore subjoin
a few examples of coincidences which have very much the air of causes
and consequences. I have excluded instances where water-pollution
could be supposed to bear a part, and also those where careful inquiry
did not seem to eliminate the possibility of immediate or mediate
importation of contagium from a pre-existing case. And let me, at the
outset, deprecate the Liebermeisterian criticism that if an adynamic
fever with peculiar temperature curve, abdominal symptoms, etc.,
be not directly traceable to a preceding patient, it is not true
typhoid, but only something otherwise indistinguishable from it; or
that, without evidence of contagion, a pseudo-membranous angina with
grave constitutional depression is not genuine diphtheria, though a
remarkably good imitation of the real article. Grant only that there
are diseases--call them what you will--which closely resemble the
regulation nosological types, that people sometimes die of them, and
that they are intimately associated with the eating, drinking, or
breathing of filth-products, and I shall, for the present, leave the
question of diagnosis to be begged by whosoever cares for it.

I. _Typhoid._--Large country house with numerous "conveniences."
Two "pan closets" on second floor; one in a small windowless
hall-apartment, the other in a bath-room adjoining a bed-chamber;
basin and bath-wastes led into trap of water-closet; leaden soil-pipe
not continued above the line of fixtures, communicating directly with
cesspool, and badly corroded at bends of closet-traps. Servants'
pan-closet in basement with foul and leaky "retainer;" kitchen
and laundry wastes on same horizontal branch, constantly liable
to siphonage. Frequent illnesses of minor grade prevailed in this
household until the whole plumbing system was reconstructed on a proper
plan, since when the inmates have enjoyed excellent health.

II. _Typhoid._--Small house in village street. Under the cellar runs
the ill-covered channel of a former brook, which receives the sewage of
several adjoining tenements. The house-refuse is discharged into this
foul trench through an open untrapped conduit in the basement.

III. _Typhoid._--Cottage of better class. No plumbing fixtures except
kitchen sink, which discharges untrapped into an obstructed and very
foul drain; leaching privy-pit on higher ground than the basement,
which, with the foundation walls, is uncemented, affording ingress to
ground-atmosphere.

IV. _Diphtheria._--Elegant mansion, regarded by owner and "practical
plumber" as a model of sanitary construction. Soil-pipe extended above
roof, but without ventilation at its foot. Materials and workmanship
good. On a lateral branch was a down-stairs water-closet into the
trap of which the kitchen waste discharged, and into the dip of the
running-trap of this horizontal soil-pipe, in the basement, and within
a few feet of the furnace, was inserted a servants' hopper-closet
without any flushing fixture; excremental matter being, of course, thus
retained in the trap a great part of the time, and its decomposition
favored by the admixture of hot water from the kitchen. When the water
from the boiler was set running, the steam arose freely from this
hopper.

V. _Diphtheria._--Handsome country-seat. Plumbing work recently
overhauled and declared perfect by the plumber. Three foul pan closets
and numerous other "conveniences," all leading to unventilated
cesspool. In the bedroom occupied by the patient the "safe-waste" from
a stationary basin was carried into the soil-pipe, constituting a
direct inlet from the cesspool.

VI. _Diphtheria._--Presumably "first class" residence. Kitchen and
laundry wastes carried from basement into privy-vault, which was filled
to above the level of the pipes.

VII. _Typhoid?_ (two irregular cases).--Cottage in good neighborhood.
Bath and basin wastes discharging into trap of foul pan-closet with
"putty-joints." Two inch tin pipe inserted, with leaky slip-joint, into
bend of water closet trap, and carried with several angles to roof; no
other ventilation of soil-pipe, which connects with leaching cesspool.
Cellar riddled with rat-burrows (indicating probable connection with
some old drain), and airbox of furnace made of loosely jointed boards,
so as to convey the cellar air to upper part of house.

VIII. _Typhoid?_ (continued fever)--Cottage on high ground. Offensive
pan-closet on bedroom floor. Soil-pipe relieved by angular galvanized
vent. But carried without other ventilation or trapping to cesspool on
lower ground. Kitchen and laundry wastes untrapped and led to a row of
buried barrels which were filled with a most malodorous mess, the water
being allowed to soak into the soil as best it might.

IX. _Diphtheria._--House without plumbing fixtures. Cellar loosely
paved with bricks, and saturated with soakage from several privy-vaults
on much higher ground and close in the rear; the fæcal-smelling
semi-liquid filth actually oozing up between the bricks when they were
stepped upon.

X. _Diphtheria._--Cottage alleged by the owner, and innocently believed
by the tenant, to be "one of the best plumbed houses in the county."
Pan closet in a decadent and offensive condition, with untrapped bath
waste and insufficiently trapped basin waste led into its seal. Short
vent from bend of closet trap to outside of wall, with orifice closed
during winter "to prevent water pipes from freezing;" soil-pipe thus
without ventilation at top or bottom. Butler's pantry sink connected
by tin pipe with earthenware drain, which was badly laid and composed
of different sized pipes. Some distance beyond the junction of the
soil pipe and wastes, this drain was tapped by a "ventilating" pipe
carried into a chimney flue, with an occasional down-draught. Kitchen
waste opening directly into an unventilated cesspool. All lead pipes of
poorest quality.

XI. _Diphtheria._--Country farm-house. No plumbing. Uncemented cellar;
living room in wing built directly upon the earth. Overflowing
privy-vault within twenty feet and on higher ground, the soakage and
surface washing from which had permeated the soil around and under the
building.

XII. _Diphtheria._--Large and handsome house. Sanitary arrangements
satisfactory to plumber. Pan-closet with insufficient flush. Two-inch
tin vent from bend of soil-pipe carried with various angles into
cold chimney flue. Running under the whole length of the basement
was an eight inch earthenware drain receiving the soil-pipe and the
wastes from different fixtures; its large caliber and slight grade
precluded proper flushing, and it was thickly coated with refuse and
chilled grease. Into its upper end was inserted the overflow from a
tightly covered cistern, so that the only ventilation of the entire
house-drainage system was through the rain-water leader, close to a
"mansard" bedroom window.

XIII. _Typhoid?_--Two small houses of the poorer class, situated on a
road at the foot of a steep declivity. No plumbing. Two privy-vaults, a
pig-pen, and an indescribably filthy cow stable just behind and above
them, from which the washings were traceable into their cellars.

I could extend the list by scores of illustrations of rural
house-defects: soil-pipes disjointed from their outlet drains and
discharging their sewage under basement floors; cesspools "backing-up"
into kitchen sinks or laundry tubs, or pouring a reflux tide through
"overflow" pipes into drinking water cisterns; ingenious devices of
every sort to deprive the gases from pent-up filth of any escape, save
into the dwelling. And these among the "wealthier residents," whose
surroundings are commonly supposed to be above suspicion. As regards
the unplumbed poor, their chances of inhaling filth-polluted air or
imbibing filth contaminated water are often enhanced by inadequate
cubic space and faulty construction within doors, and ignorant neglect
of the very rudiments of hygiene in the environment; their cellars
and wells being sunk in soil saturated with putrescent refuse. In
the intermediate agricultural or mechanic class similar conditions
frequently exist, their potency for evil depending chiefly upon the
porous or retentive character of the soil; precautions to exclude the
ground atmosphere from cellars or basements are seldom found; cesspools
and privy-vaults are close at hand; and it is a common thing for a
couple of adults and two or three children to sleep in a "stuffy"
unventilated room with not more than 1,000 or 1,500 cubic feet among
them.

From a sanitary point of view it matters little whether the gases from
decomposing sewage escape from sodden soil or from a foul sewer; their
nature is alike in either case, and the aggregate dose may be even
larger in the former instance. But when, and why, and how, they, or any
of them, exert their most deleterious influences, are questions which
it is impossible to answer in the present state of our knowledge. It
is an indisputable fact that people may for a long while be exposed to
them without pronounced manifestations of "filth disease"--although
such people, in my experience, are seldom thoroughly well, even if not
specifically ill. But sooner or later an apparent qualitative change
may take place, and an acute zymosis declare itself. I have elsewhere
suggested the part that may be borne in this complicated problem by a
"personal factor," or temporarily altered individual susceptibility;[7]
but it seems necessary also to assume an alteration in the external
conditions; and such alteration is explained by many etiologists on
the hypothesis of the importation or evolution of specific pathogenic
micro-organisms. That certain varieties of schizophytes are associated
with some of the acute infections is beyond doubt; that in a few, such
"microdemes" are the conveyers,[8] if not the causes, of the infection
seems proved; but it must be remembered that in the diseases chiefly
under consideration no characteristic bacteroidal forms have been
defined. In typhoid fever, Klebs describes a bacillus where Letzerich
finds only micrococci; according to Wood and Formad, the micrococcus
of diphtheria is just like that of the ordinary buccal mucus; indeed,
nearly all of the acutest infectious diseases are attributed to these
ubiquitous micrococci, indistinguishable from each other in most
instances, and divided into species solely on the score of their
assumed physiological effects. Admitting all that the most ardent
advocates of the germ theory can claim for it, there are at least three
possible ways in which filth and fungi may be connected.

1. Taking the view of Naegeli and others as regards the mutability
of the bacteria, it is conceivable that the common "scavenger"
microphytes may acquire pathogenic properties by successive generations
of development amid the products of certain decomposing substances.
In favor of this conception may be cited the seemingly gradual
intensification of "filth poisoning" in numerous instances; sore
throats of a less septic type forerunning outbreaks of diphtheria;
diarrhoeal derangements preceding enteric fever; and, furthermore,
Koch has found both bacillus-spores and micrococci in surface soils,
the latter organisms preponderating where the earth is subjected to
excremental soakage.

2. Or, accepting the specific classification of the schizomycetes,
it may be supposed that some pathogenic germs obtain favorable
intermediate conditions for their development and multiplication in
these products of decomposition; a supposition almost necessary if the
specific-germ theory be applied to enteric or choleraic discharges.

3. Finally, if it be conceded that desiccated spores may retain their
specific vitality indefinitely, and be air-wafted almost unboundedly,
the predisposing action of our filth emanations maybe imagined to be
cumulative, slowly undermining the individual powers of resistance, or
rendering certain cell groups an easier prey to the intruding organisms
in the struggle for existence.

Which of these hypotheses, if either of them, will ultimately prevail
is a question only to be decided by experimental investigations which
are beset by a multitude of difficulties and sources of error.--_Med.
Record_.

       *       *       *       *       *



HORSE MEDICINE BIT.


Owing, no doubt, to the preponderance of horizontality over verticality
in the construction of the horse, there results a considerable
difficulty in administering medicine to that quadruped, and he
frequently has to undergo what may be said to amount to cruelty in
the endeavor to persuade him to swallow the unpalatable dose. It is
therefore with satisfaction that we bring under our readers' notice
a simple and effective invention which promises to do away with this
difficulty, and from humanitarian motives we hope to see it widely
adopted. It is the joint production of Mr. Philip Fonnereau, of Masons'
Arms Yard, Maddox Street, and Mr. Willoughby Fielding, of Lisle Street,
Leicester Square, London. The inventors have adopted the sensible and
very obvious plan of utilizing that which the horse is trained to
tolerate--viz., the bit. It will be seen from the annexed engravings
that the invention consists essentially of a tubular bit, with a funnel
attached, as shown at Fig. 1. The bit has a hole, which is close to the
horse's tongue when in its mouth. The upper part of the apparatus is
fitted with a rope, which is passed through a ring in the ceiling of
the stable. By this rope the horse's head is gently elevated, so as to
prevent the medicine from going in any other direction than down its
throat. When it has been properly adjusted, as shown at Fig. 2, the
medicine is poured into the funnel, and it immediately runs through
the hole into the horse's mouth, and the animal cannot help swallowing
it. The apparatus is then removed, and rinsed out for future use. Of
course the invention is adapted to liquid medicine only, but we believe
it is as easy to prepare medicine in a liquid form as in any other,
and therefore there need be no difficulty on that account. We commend
this invention to all having the care of horses as a practical means of
obviating the perpetuation of a hitherto necessary but now unnecessary
cruelty to animals.--_Iron._

[Illustration: Fig. 1.]

[Illustration: Fig. 2.]

       *       *       *       *       *



THE PHYSIOLOGY OF SLEEP.


As regards the vascular condition of the cerebrum during natural sleep,
there seems to be at present a virtual agreement among physiologists.
Whatever views may be held of the immediate or proximate cause, it is
generally admitted that during sleep the brain is relatively anæmic.
There are well-attested facts enough on record to substantiate this.
The brain, denuded of a portion of its cranial covering, has been
carefully watched during the waking state and in sleep, and it has been
ascertained that, both in man and in the lower animals, the organ is
comparatively bloodless during sleep, and its circulation more sluggish
than at other times.

In the early part of this century Blumenthal first enunciated this
theory, and supported it by the interesting case of a patient who
had lost a portion of the right frontal bone; during sleep the brain
was seen to be anæmic and in a collapsed condition. Dendy[9] relates
a similar case, which was observed in 1821. But Durham's memoir
on the physiology of sleep, which was published in the volume of
"Guy's Hospital Reports" for 1860, was the first really thorough and
scientific contribution to our knowledge of the vascular state of
the encephalon during sleep, and the relation of that state to the
phenomena of sleep. To Hammond also, many of whose experiments were
made prior to Durham's publication, we are indebted for numerous
original observations, and for the most exhaustive and conclusive
exposition of the subject yet given to the world.[10]

We may see that during sleep all the encephalic blood-vessels are under
a diminished pressure, as proved in fact by the manometer, and that
this lessening of the active flow corresponds with a diminution of
cerebral function. Even if no experiments had ever been made, inductive
reasoning would have led irresistibly to this conclusion. During the
intervals of digestion the gastric mucous membrane is relatively pale
and bloodless; the submaxillary gland does not become turgid with blood
until it begins to secrete saliva; a muscle in action becomes markedly
hyperæmic. It is so with the organs in general. The performance of
function is characterized by vascular activity and fullness. If in any
part there is a call for work, there is a call for more blood. The
nervous system forms no exception to this law, and there is the most
intimate and absolute correlation between the evolution of nervous
energy and the activity of the circulation. So true is this that it is
everywhere admitted that the induction of functional work in any such
apparatus as the digestive, the sexual, or the muscular produces a
degree of hyperæmia of the apparatus called into action sufficient to
prove a serious hinderance to the easy and satisfactory performance of
any severe mental task.

Professor Mosso, of Turin, has lately made some interesting experiments
on persons who had lost portions of the cranial bones, using Marey's
ingenious hydro-sphygmograph. Noting, like others before him, that
during sleep the brain diminished in volume, with shrinkage of its
blood-vessels, and that the lively blush characterizing its surface
during the waking state disappeared, he observed also that any sudden
impression, if sufficient to rouse the brain to partial activity, was
sure to be attended with an increase of its vascularity and its volume.
He has proved, too, that every effort of the intellect is normally
accompanied by a diminution of volume in the peripheral parts, the arm,
for example, and that, on the contrary, when the cerebral activity is
lessened the distant members are augmented in volume. Sleep is always
accompanied by a dilatation of the vessels of the extremities, and
particularly of the forearm, where this dilatation has repeatedly been
measured by Mosso with his registering apparatus. Every excitation
from without causes a contraction of the vessels of the forearm of the
sleeping subject, and the augmented blood pressure at once produces a
renewed afflux of blood to the brain. In this manner the fluctuations
of cerebral activity can be followed: a sound, a touch, a ray of
light falling on the closed lid of the sleeper, all give rise to
modifications of the cerebral circulation--unperceived, doubtless, but
possibly the source of dreams.[11]

The immediate cause of sleep is not simply the shutting off of a
portion of the blood current from the brain. There are more important
factors. Here Vulpian[12] is right. The lessening of the blood supply
to the encephalon is rather the accompaniment than the cause of sleep.
We cannot produce normal sleep in a person simply by exsanguinating his
brain, or else we should have in an ice-cap and a hot foot-bath the
speediest and most effective of hypnotics. The brain must first be in
a certain condition. There must be in the constitution of the supreme
nerve centers something that forbids further activity, and with that
cessation of activity there will be a lessening of the blood-flow to
the brain, in accordance with the physiological law before stated. What
is the particular modification of the cortical cells which renders
them less fit for the liberation of their special forces, and finally
compels a suspension of action, with a diminution of the blood supply?
Herbert Spencer has given a very plausible explanation, in accordance
with the theory of evolution:

The waste of the nerve-centers having become such that the stimuli
received from the external world no longer suffice to call forth
from them adequate discharges, there results a diminished impulse to
those internal organs which subserve nervous activity, including more
especially the heart. Consequently, the nerve-centers, already working
feebly, are supplied with less blood and begin to work more feebly,
responding still less to impressions, and discharge still less to the
heart. And so the two act and react until there is reached a state of
profound unimpressibility and inactivity. Between this state and the
waking state the essential distinction is great reduction of waste,
which falls so low that the rate of repair exceeds it.... During the
day the loss is greater than the gain, whereas during the night the
gain is diminished by scarcely any loss. Hence results accumulation;
there is restoration of nerve-tissue to its state of integrity.

According to Mr. Spencer, that rhythmical variation in nervous activity
which we see in sleep and waking is the result of adaptation, due to
survival of the fittest. "An animal so constituted that waste and
repair were balanced from moment to moment throughout the twenty-four
hours would, other things equal, be overcome by an enemy or competitor
that could evolve greater energy during the hours when light
facilitates action, at the expense of being less energetic during the
hours of darkness and concealment."[13]

With some qualification, the foregoing statement is about as
satisfactory as any that has yet been offered as to the proximate cause
of sleep. During the waking hours the vaso-motor center in the medulla
is doubtless under inhibition by the superior centers, and there is
relative relaxation of the cerebral arterioles, with dilatation of the
capillaries; when the cells of the hemispheres are exhausted, they
are no longer able to exercise this inhibition--in common parlance,
they no longer powerfully extract the blood--and the vaso-motor center
"puts on the brakes"; the blood supply is then no longer sufficient for
function, though enough for nutrition.

An ingenious theory has lately been proposed by Preyer, of Jena,[14]
according to which, to use a homely illustration, the fire ceases to
burn because the flues are clogged with cinders.

As Preyer puts it, the activity of the cerebrum is a sort of
respiration, while its repose is a sort of asphyxia of this organ.
It is certain that every psychical act, every thought, involves a
certain consumption of oxygen by the nervous substance. During waking,
this gas is furnished to the brain in the blood. If the blood supply
fails, those forms of activity which we denominate consciousness,
attention, volition, and thought cease. This is easily proved by
compression of the carotids. It is known that in the waking hours the
muscles, as well as the nerves and the nerve-centers, as a consequence
of that activity, produce substances easily oxidizable, among which
is lactic acid. Some have even attributed the sense of fatigue which
we experience after prolonged exertion to the presence of this acid
in the blood.[15] According to Preyer, after the work of the day is
done, and the quiet of sleep is sought, the waste materials of which
we have spoken, and which he proposes to call _ponogènes_ (substances
which cause fatigue), being accumulated in the tissues, little by
little undergo decomposition, by taking oxygen from the blood. They
thus divert a considerable quantity of this gas from the cerebrum, the
cells of which, deprived of this element so indispensable to their
activity, enter into a state of relative repose. These waste matters
are, then, the physical cause of sleep, which will be the more profound
and prolonged the more the blood is charged with the excrementitious
products of function. Preyer has experimented on animals by injecting
varying quantities of lactic acid into their blood, and has produced a
deep somnolent condition which could not be distinguished from natural
sleep. The use of lactate of sodium in the human subject has sometimes
been attended with a like hypnotic effect. Further researches are
needed before the question can be considered as settled.--_N. Y. Med.
Jour._

       *       *       *       *       *



PREPARATION OF CHLORHYDRINES.


The usual methods of preparing chlorhydrines are in part inconvenient,
in part unsatisfactory in yield. A. Ladenburg therefore proposes the
following process, using ethylen-chlorhydrine as an example:

Glycol is heated in a distillery apparatus to 148° C., and a _slow_
current of dry hydrochloric acid passed through it. The water formed
and the glycol-chlorhydrine distill over and are collected in tubulated
receivers. The temperature of the bath is gradually raised to 160°
C., when all the glycol is completely decomposed, except a trifling
residue. The distillate is mixed with two or three volumes of ether,
and then freed from any hydrochloric acid present with potassium
carbonate. The ethereal solution is drawn off, and completely dried
over freshly fused potassium carbonate.--_Berl. Ber._

       *       *       *       *       *



A NEW METHOD FOR THE DETECTION OF SUGAR IN THE URINE.


At a recent meeting of the Clinical Society of London, Dr. Oliver gave
a demonstration of the method he employs for the detection of sugar
in the urine by means of test-papers. The test-papers were charged
with the carmine of indigo and carbonate of soda. When one was dropped
into an ordinary half inch test tube, and as much water poured in
as just covered the upper end, and heat applied, a transparent and
true blue solution, resembling Fehling's in appearance, was obtained.
(A transparent solution could not, at the meeting, be produced from
the London water. The characteristic reaction with grape sugar was,
however, unimpaired).

If with the paper one drop of diabetic urine had been added, shortly
after the first simmer, a beautiful series of color changes appeared;
first violet, then purple, then red, and finally straw color; while, on
the other hand, one drop of non-diabetic urine induced no alteration of
color. The colors returned in the inverse order on shaking the tube,
which allowed the air to mingle with the liquid. Reheating restored the
colors again.

Confirmation of the presence of glucose was obtained by dropping
in a mercuric chloride paper, while the solution was still quite
hot, after the complete development of the indigo reaction. Then
there was produced immediately a blackish green precipitate. No such
precipitation occurred when a drop of non-saccharine urine was under
examination by the indigo test; then the blue solution was merely
turned into a transparent green one.

This test, as Dr. Oliver pointed out, discovers (_a_) the normal sugar;
(_b_) the varying proportions of sugar which fill in the gap between
the normal amount and that which characterizes diabetes mellitus, as
in liver derangements and vaso-motor disturbances; (_c_) diabetic
proportions.

It possesses the following advantages over Fehling's test:

1. It will detect sugar in any proportion in the presence of albumen,
peptone, blood, pus, or bile, and as readily as in ordinary diabetic
urine.

2. It gives no play of colors with uric acid.

3. It possesses portability, cleanliness, and stability.

Moore's, Trommer's, and Boettger's bismuth tests are all inferior in
delicacy.--_British Medical Journal._

       *       *       *       *       *



CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS MADE BY COMPRESSION.

By M. W. SPRING.


The author has previously shown the possibility of uniting the
fragments of solid bodies by the sole action of pressure. He also
established at the same time the possibility of forming chemical
compounds by means of pressure. Thus he obtained cuprous sulphide by
compressing a mixture of sulphur dust and copper; mercuric iodide, by
compressing mercuric chloride with potassium iodide, etc. Finally, by
compressing in the same manner mixtures of the filings of different
metals, he formed alloys having for equal compositions the same melting
points as those obtained by fusion.

The last mentioned facts certainly establish the possibility of
causing bodies to enter into chemical reaction by the mere agency of a
mechanical energy. This result is closely linked with another obtained
during the course of the same investigation: the polymerization of
certain simple bodies, _e. g._, sulphur, by the action of pressure.
The author had drawn a general conclusion from his experiments, and
had announced that matter takes, below a given temperature, a state
corresponding to the volume which it is compelled to occupy.

He has since undertaken a methodical study of the chemical reactions
accomplished by the action of pressure. He had already shown the
possibility of forming metallic arsenides by compressing mixtures of
arsenic and of the filings of different metals (_Bulletin de l'Académie
Royale de Belgique_, t. v., 1883), and he now communicates the results
obtained by compressing mixtures of sulphur and of certain metals
or non-metals. The results not merely confirm the author's former
conclusions, but they throw a new light on the relations of organic and
inorganic chemistry, and exhibit the so-called simple bodies as capable
of assuming a peculiar constitution varying according to the conditions
in which they are placed, and the actions to which they are submitted.

He used the metals in the state of fine filings immediately mixed with
flowers of sulphur previously thoroughly washed. The mixtures were made
in atomic proportions and were submitted to a preliminary pressure of
6,500 atmospheres. They then assumed the state of a hard compact mass,
showing, on examination with the microscope, that the reaction of
the sulphur and the metal had taken place wherever the elements were
in contact. The mass obtained was then reduced into fine powder and
compressed again from twice to eight times.

1. _Sulphur and Magnesium._--After six compressions there was obtained
a gray mass with a feebly metallic surface luster. It dissolves in
water at 50° to 60° with a slow escape of hydrogen sulphide, the
liquid becoming of a golden yellow. A drop of hydrochloric acid
occasions immediately a very strong escape of hydrogen sulphide, while
free sulphur is deposited. Hence magnesium and sulphur combine under
the action of pressure, forming magnesium sulphide and possibly a
polysulphide.

2. _Sulphur and Zinc._--Three compressions yield a block deceptively
similar to native blende with metallic luster. Dilute sulphuric acid
dissolves the block slowly with an escape of hydrogen sulphide.

3. _Sulphur and Iron._--After four compressions a block is obtained
which the file scarcely touches. Dilute sulphuric acid dissolves it
easily with continuous escape of hydrogen sulphide. If the product
of compression is heated in a closed tube no luminous phenomenon is
observed, the body entering into tranquil fusion. Hence the potential
heat of the free sulphur and iron has been realized during the
compression.

4. _Sulphur and Cadmium._--Three compressions give a yellowish-gray
homogeneous mass. The powder is yellow, but less pure than that of
cadmium sulphide obtained by precipitation. Strong hydrochloric acid
dissolves the mass with escape of hydrogen sulphide.

5. _Sulphur and Aluminum._--Result incomplete. After five compressions
a mass is obtained which, in contact with moist air, gives off an odor
of hydrogen polysulphide.

6. _Sulphur and Bismuth._--The combination takes place with great ease.

7. _Sulphur and Lead._--The combination is still more easy.

8. _Sulphur and Silver._--The action is slow; eight compressions are
necessary.

9. _Sulphur and Copper._--Three compressions complete the combination.
When the product of the compression is heated, there is no development
of heat or light.

10. _Sulphur and Tin._--Three compressions give a block which yields
a yellowish-gray powder, easily soluble in a hot solution of sodium
sulphide. Stannic sulphide is therefore formed by the compression of
sulphur and tin.

11. _Sulphur and Antimony._--After two compressions we obtain a
gray-black mass having the color and luster of stibine. When powdered
it dissolves with ease in hot hydrochloric acid, giving off hydrogen
sulphide.

12. _Sulphur and Red Phosphorus; Sulphur and Carbon._--Result entirely
_nil_; there is produced not the least trace of phosphorus sulphide nor
of carbon sulphide.


CONCLUSIONS TO BE DRAWN FROM THESE FACTS.

The negative results just mentioned have an especial interest. It is
established that red phosphorus has a higher specific gravity than
white phosphorus, that of the former being 1.96, and that of the
latter 1.82. The author's former researches (_Bulletins de l'Académie
Royale de Belgique_, 49, p. 323, 1880) have shown that if sufficient
pressure is applied to a body capable of assuming several allotropic
states, it takes under pressure the state corresponding to its greatest
density. It is consequently impossible to transform red phosphorus into
white phosphorus by pressure. But we know, on the other hand, that
red sulphur and red phosphorus may be mixed with impunity at common
temperatures without combination ensuing; to produce combination the
temperature must be raised to about 260°, the point of transformation
of red phosphorus into white phosphorus.

It is thus established that red phosphorus must first be changed from
its allotropic condition before entering into combination with sulphur.
The pressure opposing this change renders also the act of combination
impossible; red phosphorus appears to us like a body which has lost its
chemical faculties.

Thus, the combination of an element with itself, _i. e._, its
polymerization, has really the effect of extinguishing its energy,
rendering it incapable of fulfilling certain functions. The chemistry
of red phosphorus, more simple than that of white phosphorus, may be
considered as the chemistry of a deadened body. The phosphorus which
is found in combination with sulphur is phosphorus sulphides, and
that which enters into combinations of other kinds, is certainly not
phosphorus in the red state; it is even possible, if not probable, that
it is not even white phosphorus, but a substance still unknown in the
free state.

We arrive at a similar but more complete conclusion as to the nature
of carbon. It is known that the affinity of carbon for sulphur and
even for oxygen only becomes manifest at a temperature bordering upon
redness. Is not this tantamount to saying that, in order to enter
into combination with another body, carbon, like red phosphorus, must
first change its allotropic condition? This view is supported by the
following considerations: The specific heat of amorphous carbon, and,
_a fortiori_, that of graphite and diamond, form exceptions to the
law of Dulong and Petit; they are too small by more than one-half.
They would be normal if the atomic weight of carbon were greater than
it really is; in other words, free carbon were a polymer of combined
carbon. Rose has found that at a temperature of about 500° the
specific heat of carbon agrees with the law of Dulong and Petit. At
this temperature carbon undergoes a beginning of depolymerization, _i.
e._, its chemical affinities reappear, and it burns readily in oxygen.
Do not these facts show a complete parallelism between the chemical
history of phosphorus and that of carbon?

Crystalline carbon, and even free amorphous carbon, are without
chemical activity at the ordinary temperature; but when, in consequence
of a rise of temperature, they take another state, they are transformed
into a new kind of carbon, constituting a fourth allotropic state, and
endowed with a prodigious capacity of combination. If these conclusions
are well founded, we may venture a step further and ask, if the carbon
which enters into the composition, not of mere organic compounds,
but of organized bodies, is not a carbon of still another allotropic
state characterized by the appearance of new properties or forms of
combination which find their expression in the vital phenomena.

In other words, a derivative of carbon, before forming part of a living
body, must first undergo in its atoms a transformation similar to that
which permits amorphous carbon to enter into the composition of organic
compounds. In this order of ideas the carbon of organic chemistry would
be merely a first deadened form of the carbon of biological chemistry,
while free carbon is merely the defunct remains of the carbon of
organic chemistry.--_Bulletin de la Société Chimique de Paris; Chem.
News._

       *       *       *       *       *



COPPER ALLOYS AMONG THE ANCIENTS.

By Prof. E. REYER, PH.D., of Vienna.


The earth's crust consists in part of eruptive rocks, in part of
sedimentary rocks. Both of them have served from time immemorial for
building purposes; but at a very early period they were the only source
from which weapons and tools could be made. Subsequently metals became
known, and were employed for this purpose.

Metals are rarely met with in a pure state, but generally in
combination with oxygen or sulphur. If we examine the original material
of which the earth was composed, and which is frequently injected
through crevices in the earth's crust, and the superjacent sediment
as eruptive rock, we find it to be a mixture of different substances
of a complex nature. It contains silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium,
magnesium, potassium, and sodium. None of these are in a free state,
but are combined with oxygen. Silicon, the lighter metals, and heavy
iron do not exhibit their true metallic character, having all been
changed into stone-like compounds, "calcified by contact with vital
air," as the old chemists expressed it.

Of the heavy metals that are of such importance to civilization I
have only mentioned iron, for this alone, in its compounds, takes any
considerable part in the rock formations. Other heavy metals are met
with in smaller quantities in the rocks. They are scarcely taken into
account by geologists who consider the earth as a whole, but it is
these rare guests that are of the greatest importance to civilization.

The metals are met with as silicates in the eruptive masses; they
are also found as oxides or sulphides, scattered through different
eruptive rocks in small granules.[16] Besides these, the "ores," which
are workable metallic compounds, are here and there concentrated in
crevices or fissures, which exist in eruptive as well as in sedimentary
rocks.

_Iron_ is met with as oxide in the eruptive rocks, in fissures, and
finally in thick strata and deposits within the sediment; whole
mountains consist of iron ore.

_Tin_ occurs as oxide (tin stone), scattered through eruptive masses
rich in quartz, also in fissures.

_Copper_, combined with sulphur, is found distributed through dark
eruptive rocks, poor in silica, and also in fissures in those regions.

_Gold_ and _silver_ are mixed in smaller quantities with ores of other
metals.

All these are continually exposed to atmospheric agencies toward which
they act very differently. The oxidized ores of iron and tin do not
change their character. The sulphur compounds, at least when near
the surface, are oxidized, and hand in hand with this process goes
the partial reduction of certain metals to the metallic state. Gold
and silver, and to a less extent copper, are subject to this change;
they are unmasked and are exposed to day light, not as stones, but
as brilliant, malleable metals. Finally, the heavy ores and metallic
particles are loosened from the rocks by the destructive action of
water, floated off, elutriated, and washed. In undisturbed mountain
ranges the mineral treasures lie in masses before our eyes.

The native shining and malleable metals (gold, silver, and copper)
naturally first attracted the attention of man. They may have used the
separate nuggets for ornaments as they found them, or after hammering
them together into plates. This was surely the first step in the use of
metals. It can scarcely be supposed that this use of soft native metals
contributed much to the progress of mankind, and it is highly probable
that in those early times the noble metal had but little value. The
shining particles, as long as the natural supply lasted, seemed like
worthless tinsel. Copper, which can be made into tools and vessels,
as well as soft, poor weapons, was more highly prized. Such materials
were not, indeed, suitable and able to take the place of stone tools
and weapons; nevertheless, this working of metals served as preparation
for the more complicated work of later times. Man learned to hammer and
shape metals, and he found out that the operation was much facilitated
by heating the metal.

The discovery of iron meteorites may have had some value. In these the
smith first became acquainted with the properties of a hard metal. But
I would not attach too much importance to this. The art of working
metals is not the possession of a people that have a few meteoric
knives. In my opinion the metallurgical preparation of the hard metals
from their ores is alone decisive on this point.

The volks' sagas frequently mention some god or hero, who discovered
and taught metallurgy, yet there is scarcely any doubt that the "god,"
in most cases, was human ingenuity led by chance.

We have already seen that only certain metals are found native, while
the hard metals under normal conditions remain in the form of oxide or
mineral. They have a strong affinity for the oxygen of the air, and
can only be separated and converted into metals by powerful chemical
agents. There is _one_ substance which has a still more powerful
attraction for oxygen than those metals. This is ignited carbon, which,
in its fight with the metallic oxides, robs them of their oxygen.

Carbon has been separated from the carbonic acid of the air by the
life-giving force of the sun, and vegetable life dependent upon it. But
the isolated element waits impatiently for the impulse that will enable
it to unite with the vital air under flame and heat. Men that know how
to utilize this process of nature possess the means of resurrecting
those metallic treasures which, without its powerful assistance, would
remain forever hidden from their eyes. But accident, as we have said,
pointed out the way.

In numerous places visited by primeval man, as hunter and fisherman,
and afterward as nomad, conflagrations broke out. Not unfrequently
whole forests were burned, either intentionally or not. It could not
be otherwise than that the earth's surface would get red hot in such
places, and if a strong wind favored it, this would suffice to open
these treasures. The glowing charcoal would rob the ores of their
oxygen and leave the pure metal as melted drops or cakes.[17] Copper,
tin, and iron ores could have been reduced in this way; mankind not
only knew the result but also the method of reducing metals.

This process took place not once merely, but thousands of times in
various parts of the earth, and thus, in my opinion, metallurgy may
have become known to different races of people and at different times.

A simple trench in the ground, in which a heap of glowing coals and
some pieces of ore could be subjected to a strong draught of air,
suffices, under favorable circumstances, for the preparation of the
metal; the oldest metallurgists had scarcely any more complete means at
hand for their work.

In such primitive furnaces the well known and soft metals would
naturally be worked first, and afterward copper, tin, and iron would be
obtained from their ores. A variety of substances that occur together
in nature would be smelted together in mixtures, and different metals
would naturally be mixed and a great variety of products obtained.


CHARACTERISTICS OF COPPER ALLOYS.

The oldest civilized races used bronze for a long space of time as
their chief useful metal, although some neighboring races understood
the metallurgy of iron. These facts, which are in glaring contradiction
to the present condition of things, require some explanation.

First it must be mentioned that _iron_ frequently contains injurious
contaminations, sulphur, phosphorus, etc., and that it must have been
very difficult for these primitive metallurgists to remove these
contaminations, and to introduce the proper quantity of carbon into
the iron. We must also consider that even a good, pure steel would be
a useless product unless it was worked by a skillful and experienced
smith. Finally, iron is much more rapidly destroyed by oxidation than
bronze. These negative considerations certainly favored the rule of
bronze for a long time.

The following facts must be fixed in mind regarding the manufacture of
bronze in olden times:

1. In many districts copper and tin ores are found near together (as
in Cornwall), so that under these circumstances bronze could have been
obtained by smelting both at once, and together.

2. In olden times only the upper horizon of copper deposits were worked
in all districts. In these, as we know, the ores are mostly oxides
(with native copper). Such ores are easily worked and yield largely.

3. In regard to the mixing of metals, the metallurgists everywhere must
have soon learned by experience that the metal remained soft and red
when too little tin was added, while too much tin made it light colored
and lustrous, but, at the same time, very brittle. Hence, we find that
among all peoples the alloys used for weapons contain from 6 to 16, or,
more closely, 8 to 12 per cent. of tin. These mixtures have been found
to do the best.

4. Bronzes, as we shall see below, by slight admixtures and certain
treatment, can be made so tough and hard that they will compare with
moderately hard steel.

So we see: The metal was useful, and there was an excess of rich and
easily worked ores. Under such conditions, of course, the age of bronze
would flourish a long time.

Zinc ores frequently occur on copper beds, and yet zinc is rarely found
in quantity worth mentioning in the bronzes of the ancients. There are
two reasons for this:

1. Near the surface of the earth zinc occurs as calamine (silicate of
zinc), which is a gray, unattractive, earthy looking mineral, not heavy
enough to be taken for a metallic ore, and would naturally be thrown
away and not put in the furnace.

2. If some zinc ore did get into the furnace, part of it would be
volatilized and part oxidized by subsequent smelting.

In later times, however, we find zinc ores used a good deal. We can
distinguish three types of zinc alloys:

1. Copper with 10 to 20 per cent. zinc produces a red metal, red brass,
which is similar to bronze that is poor in tin.

2. Copper with 20 or 30 (and even 40) per cent. of zinc, gives a yellow
metal (yellow or ordinary brass), which has more of a golden color than
bronze with much tin, but quite brittle.

3. Statuary metal, which is made of copper with quite a good deal of
zinc and little tin (often lead) can be called brass containing tin.

All three types may be used for casting (ornaments, statues, and
coin), but are not useful for tools or weapons, because they have not
sufficient strength.

After discussing the natural association of ores, and the most
important alloys of copper, we will turn to the analyses of antique
alloys. I have found it necessary to divide them into two groups:

1. Alloys from which the weapons and tools were _forged_. These are
pure and genuine bronzes. I shall designate them as malleable metals or
weapon bronzes.

2. Alloys from which ornaments, vessels, statues, and coin were
_cast_. Some of these contain lead, some zinc, and some are varieties
of our brass. I shall designate these as cast metals or ornamental
alloys. Those substances present in some quantity were evidently put
in _intentionally_, and I have classed them as admixtures, while the
unintentional ones in small quantities I have designated as impurities.

                       I.--WEAPON BRONZES.
   _________________________________________________________________
            |                   |                      |
  Country.  |     Essential     |     Admixtures.      |Impurities.
            |   constituents.   |                      |
  __________|___________________|______________________|___________
            |                   |                      |
  Egypt     |Copper+ 6 to 14 tin|     ..               |Iron.
  Assyria   |  "   +10 to 14  " |     ..               |    ..
  Greece    |  "   +10 to 12  " |     ..               |Fe. Ni. Co.
  Italy     |  "   +11 to 16  " |Lead and Tin.         |Ni. Fe.
  Gaul      |  "   + 2 to 15  " |     ..               |    ..
  Britain   |  "   + 7 to 14  " |1 to 3 per. ct. lead. |Iron
  Alps      |  "   + 8 to 12  " |Trace to 1 p. c. lead.|Fe. Ni.
  Bohemia   |  "   + 5 to 11  " |     ..               |Fe. S.
  N. Germany|  "   + 8 to 16  " |     ..               |Nickel.
  Denmark   |  "   + 6 to 12  " |To 1 p. c. zinc.      |Ni. Co.
  Russia    |  "   + 9 to 16  " |Lead                  |Ni.
  __________|___________________|______________________|___________

                   II.--CAST METAL FOR ORNAMENTS.
   _________________________________________________________________
            |                   |                      |
  Country.  |     Essential     |     Admixtures.      |Impurities.
            |   constituents.   |                      |
  __________|___________________|______________________|___________
            |                   |                      |
  Egypt     |Copper+ 4 to 11 tin|7 to 17 lead.         |Traces
  Assyria   |  "   +10 to 14  " |     ..               |Pb. Fe. Ni.
  Greece    |  "   + 6 to 12  " |Lead.                 |Fe. Ni.
  Italy     |  "   + 1 to  7  " |Zinc, lead.           |Fe. Ni.
  Gaul      |  "   + 5 to 15  " |Lead                  |    ..
  Britain   |  "   + 5 to 15  " |2 p. c. lead.         |Nickel.
  Alps      |  "   + 4 to 12  " |Zinc.                 |Pb. Fe. Ni.
  Bohemia   |  "   + 4 to 11  " |Lead.                 |    ..
  N. Germany|  "   + 6 to 17  " |Pb. rarely zn.        |Ni.
  Denmark   |  "   + 5 to 12  " |1 p. c. zn.           |Fe. Ni. Co.
  Russia    |  "   + 7 to 16  " |Pb. zn.               |Ni.
  __________|___________________|______________________|___________


The following general statements are based upon these tables:

We see that the peoples named forged their weapons and tools from very
different alloys; pure copper at one extreme, bronze with 20 per cent.
tin at the other. Experience had everywhere taught them that copper and
bronzes poor in tin are too soft, while bronzes with an excess of tin
could not be used for weapons and tools on account of being too brittle.

They had also learned that lead and zinc considerably lessened the
strength and tenacity of weapon bronze, while small quantities of iron,
nickel, and cobalt are, at least, not injurious. So all races, although
we can prove that they tried very different mixtures, finally adopted
very simple and tolerably constant alloys. The bronze weapons of all
countries frequently contain from 6 to 16 per cent. of tin, but usually
between 8 and 12, with slight contamination of iron and nickel. Few
nations have allowed lead to be used, fewer yet some zinc.

For casting, the oldest races used the same kind of bronze as for
weapons and tools. In many cases a few per cent. of lead were added
to make the casting easier. The Romans used zinc in addition to lead
in large quantity as a constituent of their alloys, and they made old
bronze, bronze-brass, and brass. Afterward many nations of middle
Europe used zinc alloys.

Small quantities of iron, nickel, and cobalt are found for well known
reasons in nearly all bronzes as harmless impurities.

Traces of _sulphur_ are also found in them. This injures the quality
of the alloy, and discloses the fact that such bronzes were not made
from pure oxide ores, but from those containing sulphur pyrites. At the
time when such bronzes were produced the mines had probably reached a
considerable depth.

Some of the weapon bronzes made by the ancients contain traces of
_phosphorus_, an element as important in hard bronze as carbon is in
steel.


CASTING THE ALLOYS.

The Semito-Hamitic races made excellent castings at a very early date.
The Phoenicians may be mentioned as particularly skillful. It is
reported that there were two immense bronze pillars that stood before
the temple of Gades in the 11th century before Christ. The Tyrian
founders also made a pillar for Solomon's Temple, and a metallic basin
10 ells in diameter and 5 deep. Similar large basins have been dug up
in Assyria.

The art of casting statues is no less ancient. Small statuettes were
cast solid; larger ones consisted of several pieces which were riveted
together. In the later Grecian and old Roman days the art reached
a high stage of perfection. Many cities had thousands of bronzes;
gigantic pieces were constructed. The Colossus of Rhodes was 30 meters
high and stood with outstretched legs astride the entrance to the
smaller harbor. Ships could pass through it with sails extended. A
statue of Jupiter in Tarent was 20 meters high, and one of Nero was
erected in Pliny's time, 30 meters high, costing a million dollars.[18]

These facts give us a good idea of the technical ability of the old
founders of bronze.

Analyses of antique bronzes give us some idea of their art of mixing
and coloring. We presume that they soon abandoned the use of copper
and pure bronze; the former yields porous casts and of a poor color;
the latter material was, in later times, too costly. Lead was probably
used at first for its fusibility only, but afterward it was certainly
introduced for economical reasons. This cheap material was often added
in very considerable quantity until they learned that leaden bronzes
did not have a fine color either while fresh and clean, or when old and
covered with patina.

We have also seen that zinc, as well as lead, was often added. As the
color of zinc alloys was red to light golden yellow (red metal, brass),
they tried to dispense with tin entirely, as its price was higher
than that of zinc (cadmia, as it was called). But they soon became
convinced that for fine statues, at least, a small quantity of _tin was
a necessity_. Generally a zinc-brass was used for statues.

To prevent the metallic constituents from separating during fusion, the
mass was kept thick and pasty by putting in old scrap bronze that had
been often melted and contained oxides. The smelters also knew that the
metals, particularly the tin, grew smaller every time it was melted,
in consequence of oxidation, slagging, and evaporation.[19] The Romans
therefore added, besides the scrap bronze, an eighth part of "silver
lead," _i. e._, a mixture of tin and lead.

Finally, in regard to the color of the castings, the ancients collected
valuable experiences. Cadmia (zinc ore) was used to impart a golden
color to the bronze.[20] Alloys rich in tin were used for mirrors, and
arsenic was employed to make them white.[21]

The moulds originally employed were very primitive. For simple objects
a corresponding hole was dug in the sand or clay soil. Complicated
figures had to be formed in clay, and the metal was cast in the clay
mould. If the mould was to serve for several castings, it had to be
made of baked clay, stone, brick, or other durable material. Organic
substances were mixed with the clay to prevent uneven shrinkage and
cracking.

Hollow casting is more difficult; first a core is formed corresponding
to the hollow in the figure; over this the figure is formed, and over
that the mantle, _i. e._, the negative, or mould. The latter is taken
off, the figure taken away from the core, the mantle replaced, and
the metal poured into the space between the core and the mantle. In
this case it is difficult to take off the mantle so clean and put it
back so accurately that the parts will not be disturbed. To avoid this
difficulty a wax model may be built on the core, and the mantle formed
over this, and then when the mould is dry it can be heated and the wax
melted out.

The Phoenicians and Egyptians must have used one or the other of
these devices for their hollow castings.

The Greeks appear at first as pupils and imitators of the
Phoenicians, but they soon surpassed their teachers in forms as well
as skill. They knew how to make their moulds so perfect, and were able
to place their cores so near the mantles, that the castings were as
thin as cardboard. The master founders of to-day have not reached that
perfection.


HARD BRONZES OF THE ANCIENTS.

We have already seen that only very pure bronze is suitable for weapons
and tools. It must be well "cooked," and all sulphur, lead, and tin
must be completely removed by oxidation. The best results are obtained
with from 8 to 12 per cent. of tin. A bronze having this composition is
tenacious and has a hardness of at least 4.

But the ancients were able to make much harder wrought bronzes, as
proved by our collections of weapons and tools.

Unfortunately we have no record of the devices employed; but as we
are able to make just such products and with simple means, we may
assume that the ancients employed essentially the same methods. In our
experience the following conditions are essential for the manufacture
of hard bronze:

1. A particular treatment.

2. A small amount of phosphorus.

It is well known that normal weapon bronze, unlike iron, is softened
by rapid cooling, but is hardened by hammering and rendered more
compact.[22]

By repeating this process, the bronze gains in hardness and strength,
and sheet bronze becomes lamellar by hammering or rolling, and hence
acquires a certain elasticity.[23] Besides, a slight admixture of iron
or nickel seems advantageous, but a slight amount of _phosphorus_ is of
the highest importance. The latter point may be somewhat enlarged on.

Ordinary bronze always contains _oxides_ of copper and tin, the
quantity increasing with the number of times it is recast. This oxide
makes it pasty, so that the different constituents do not separate, and
the casting is homogeneous.[24] This admixture of oxide does no harm
for castings in which strength is not demanded; but is of importance
for weapon bronze; the strength of which is considerably diminished by
the presence of the oxide.

In this respect a slight amount of phosphorus is an advantage by
preventing the formation of oxides, and consequently the mixture
remains a thin fluid until it begins to solidify. On the other hand
the metals are liable to separate. This evil can be avoided if the
alloy is allowed to cool nearly to solidification _before casting_,
and then cooled rapidly. Under these circumstances a homogeneous alloy
is obtained that is nearly fifty per cent. stronger and about 200 per
cent. more tenacious than bronze that contains oxides. The hardness and
strength can be still further increased by chilling and hammering.

Besides the indirect influence of phosphorus, it also has the _direct_
effect of hardening the bronze, because the compounds of phosphorus
with copper and tin have a very considerable hardness. These facts,
as well as the circumstance that we possess antique bronzes of
extraordinary hardness, induced me, with the consent of Baron Sacken,
to test the hardness of the bronze weapons in the Vienna Cabinet of
Antiquities. Some hard pieces,[25] were sent to Prof. Ludwig, who
followed the question with interest and agreed on the method of making
the analyses. The results were satisfactory. The bronzes contained
traces and up to one-fourth per cent. of phosphorus. Its presence had
prevented the formation of oxides in these bronzes, and consequently
the weapons were of extraordinary hardness. It now remains to ascertain
how the ancients made these phosphorus-bronzes. It is evident that the
phosphorus was not put directly into the metal, as is generally done at
present. There is another method so simple that we can assume that the
ancients employed it unintentionally. I refer to smelting the copper
or bronze with charcoal and any salt of phosphorus. In this case the
carbon would liberate phosphorus from the phosphoric acid, and it would
be taken up by the melted metal.

The ancient metallurgists may have made use of the eruptive rocks that
contain apatite, and with which copper ores are so often associated,
for slag or flux, or the phosphates that occur in the gangue may have
been smelted along with the ores; in both cases some phosphorus would
get into the metal. Finally it is not impossible that the ancients did
not put in phosphorus salts in some form. First of all I would mention
certain vegetable and animal substances that are rich in phosphorus,
especially _blood_,[26] which was a favorite with the old metallurgists
and alchemists as having a powerful enchantment. In each of the cases
referred to some phosphorus got into the metal, which thus acquired a
considerable hardness that could be increased in the well known manner
by chilling and hammering. Under certain circumstances weapons and
tools were made almost as hard as steel.

We can easily comprehend how bronze with these excellent qualities
could compete with steel at a time when rich ores were still abundant,
and thus it checked and restrained the development of the iron industry.


SUMMARY OF ALLOYS USED BY THE ANCIENTS.

_Egypt_.--The wrought metal of the Egyptians is a pure bronze with 6 to
14 per cent. of tin; 22 per cent. is an exceptional case; 1 per cent.
of iron is not rare.

The Egyptian cast metal is a plumbiferous bronze, with 4 to 11 per
cent. tin, and 7 to 12 of lead; in one case 16 per cent. tin; rarely 2
or 3 per cent. of zinc.

_Assyria_.--The Assyrian bronze is very pure. It consists of copper, 10
to 14 per cent. of tin, and traces of iron and nickel; in one case 18
per cent. of tin.

_Greece_.--Their wrought bronze for tools and weapons contains 10 to 12
per cent. of tin and traces of nickel and cobalt; in one case 18 per
cent. of tin.

The cast bronze has in part the same composition as wrought bronze.
(Statues were rarely cast from pure copper.) A small quantity of lead
was sometimes added, especially in later times, for statues and coin.
The later coins contained 5 to 7 per cent. lead, even 20 per cent. in
exceptional cases. Macedonian coins were of quite pure bronze.

_Italy_.--Roman weapons (found at Hallstadt) contain 11 to 16 per
cent. of tin, in some cases some zinc or lead, also nickel and iron as
impurities. Roman hatchets found in Gaul contain 20 or 25 per cent. of
tin. We have too few analyses to give us a correct view of the matter,
but on the contrary we have numerous analyses of Roman castings.

Ornamental Roman bronze for flexible articles contains less tin and
lead. For less flexible objects bronze-brass with 1 to 7 per cent. of
tin, and 5 to 12 per cent. of zinc, was employed; and for brittle but
brilliant objects, like buckles and mountings, an almost pure brass was
used, with 15 to 24 per cent. of zinc and little or no tin. Lead is
found in all these alloys in small quantities, rarely more than 1 per
cent.

The statues contain from 6 to 10 per cent. of tin, 0 to 3 per cent.
zinc (in one case 14), and frequently from 10 to 12 per cent. of lead
(once even 20), so that Roman statue bronze may be called lead-bronze
with zinc in it.

Coin metal varied its composition at different times. In the days of
the Republic a lead-bronze rich in tin (5 to 12 per cent.) was used.
Under the early emperors brass or impure copper came into use. After
the time of Marcus Aurelius an improvement is noticeable; the metal
then in use can be called stanniferous brass (1 to 4 of tin). Under the
Byzantines, coins were again struck from impure copper.

These are the most important alloys of the Romans. In general we may
say that the zinc alloys held an important place among the Romans.

_Gaul_.--For weapons they employed a very pure bronze with 2 to 15 per
cent. of tin. Traces of nickel were rare. Cast bronze contained a few
per cent. of lead.

_Britain_.--The weapon bronze contained from 7 to 14 per cent. of tin.
Cutting weapons not infrequently contain 1 to 3 per cent. of lead, and
traces of iron. Ornament bronze does not differ from weapon bronze.
Traces of sulphur are not rare, which points to the use of pyritical
ores.

_Alps_.--Swiss weapon bronze contains 8 to 13 per cent. of tin (in
one case even 16 per cent.), not infrequently 1 per cent. of lead and
traces of silver, very often ½ to 1 per cent. of nickel and traces of
iron (once as much as 3 per cent. of iron). The Swiss ornamental bronze
has the same composition.

_Bavaria_.--Wrought bronze contains 8 to 12 per cent. of tin (in
tools 17 and even 25 per cent.), and often as much as 1 per cent. of
lead, traces of nickel and cobalt. Ornamental bronze has the same
composition. A few per cent. of zinc is also found.

_Bohemia_.--The wrought metal contains 5 to 11 per cent. of tin and
traces of iron and sulphur, from which we conclude that their ores
contained pyrites. Their cast metal also contains lead.

_North Germany_.--The wrought metal contains 8 to 16 per cent. of
tin, with frequently 1 per cent. of nickel. A sword contained only
5 per cent. of nickel, an ax 24 per cent. These are exceptions. The
ornament bronzes contain also a few per cent. of lead; exceptionally,
a considerable quantity of zinc. The ornamental metal in the Rhine
region, Nassau, and Hesse contains 5 to 15 per cent. of zinc with the
same of tin. At one time a rich bronze is used, at another quite pure
brass, and then a bronze-like brass.

_Denmark_.--The Danes employed the same metal for weapons that they did
for ornaments. It contained 5 to 12 per cent. of tin, and most of it 1
per cent. of zinc, but never lead; in one case only 2 per cent. of tin.
Nickel and cobalt often occur, ½ per cent. of each; iron in traces.

_Russia_.--The Russian weapon bronze contains from 9 to 16 per cent. of
tin, and traces of nickel. Arrows contain a little lead, up to 5 per
cent. Ornament bronze frequently contains in addition a few per cent.
of zinc.

The ornamental bronze of the Baltic provinces is a brass containing 15
to 20 per cent. of zinc, 3 to 4 per cent. of lead, and 1 to 2 per cent.
of tin.

In Russia, as in other countries, the brass alloys belong to a later
epoch; in older times real bronze was chiefly used for ornaments as
well as other purposes.--_Translated from advanced sheets furnished by
the author_.

       *       *       *       *       *



THE BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA.


We have previously spoken of the large _Sequoiæ_ of California, which
have justly a universal celebrity, and shall now render our remarks
upon the subject completer.

If there is any sight that can throw us into mute contemplation and
show us the littleness of our own nature, it is assuredly that of high
mountains like Mont Blanc, or waterfalls like Niagara. But yet we do
not at the first instant take in all the grandeur of these, but must
make the tour of Mont Blanc, or pass under the falls of Niagara and
study it at different points in order to obtain a just idea of such
marvels. And so it is with regard to the vegetable curiosities of the
Sierra Nevada, in California.

When points for comparison fail us, our eye, one of the most imperfect
of instruments, never gives us an accurate idea of objects, and it
is for this reason that we have placed upon the annexed figure a
five-story Paris house, drawn to the same scale as the "Grizzly Giant,"
one of the most ancient _Sequoiæ_ of the Mariposa Grove, in California.
This true vegetable giant is 105 feet in diameter at the base, and 69
feet at 13 feet from the ground. It has, like many of the _Sequoiæ_
that surround it, been struck by lightning, but, in spite of that,
its total height is still more than 300 feet. Some of its branches
are more than six feet in diameter. Those who have seen our old oaks
in the forest of Fontainebleau will be able to compare the effect of
time and lightning upon such venerable relics, these in California
being possibly contemporaries of the Roman Empire. A few of the trees
have been razed to the base, and serve as floors for dancing halls,
while others, that have fallen, have been cut lengthwise and serve as
bowling alleys. What especially distinguishes the wonderful region in
which these _Sequoiæ_ grow is the cleanness and beauty of the plains
upon which they are found. In the virgin forests of South America,
under the influence of a warm and damp atmosphere, the vegetation is
so rank that, in order to open a passage, one is obliged to use an ax
on the vines and thickets of interlaced plants. In California, on the
contrary, the _Sequoiæ_, which are situated at an altitude of from
5,000 to 7,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean, are easily accessible. The
routes are almost traced by nature, dangerous animals are rare, the
summer temperature is delicious there, and hotels are everywhere being
erected, as in Switzerland, to serve as a retreat and promenading place
for tourists.--_La Nature._

[Illustration: THE "GRIZZLY GIANT," ONE OF THE CALIFORNIAN SEQUOIÆ.]

       *       *       *       *       *

A CATALOGUE containing brief notices of many important scientific
papers heretofore published in the SUPPLEMENT, may be had gratis at
this office.

  THE

  Scientific American Supplement.

  PUBLISHED WEEKLY.

  Terms of Subscription, $5 a Year.

Sent by mail, postage prepaid, to subscribers in any part of the United
States or Canada. Six dollars a year, sent, prepaid, to any foreign
country.

       *       *       *       *       *

All the back numbers of THE SUPPLEMENT, from the commencement, January
1, 1876, can be had. Price, 10 cents each.

       *       *       *       *       *

All the back volumes of THE SUPPLEMENT can likewise be supplied. Two
volumes are issued yearly. Price of each volume, $2.50, stitched in
paper, or $3.50, bound in stiff covers.

       *       *       *       *       *

COMBINED RATES--One copy of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN and one copy of
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT, one year, postpaid, $7.00.

A liberal discount to booksellers, news agents, and canvassers.

  +MUNN & CO., Publishers,+
  261 Broadway, New York, N. Y.

       *       *       *       *       *


  TABLE OF CONTENTS.

                                                                  PAGE

  I. CHEMISTRY AND METALLURGY.--Preparation of Chlorhydrines      6452

    Chemical Compounds Made by Compression. By M. W. SPRING.
    6452

    Copper Alloys among the Ancients. By Prof. E. REYER.--A
    valuable and important paper, full of useful information,
    showing the geology of the metals.--Characteristics of
    copper alloys, with tables showing constituents used in
    different countries.--Casting the alloys.--Hard bronze of
    the ancients.--Summary of alloys used by the ancients         6452

  II. ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.--Bietrix's Vertical and
    Compound Engine.--With description and numerous figures       6439

    Improved Gas Engine.--With engraving                          6440

    Meters for Power and Electricity. By M. C. VERNON BOYS.--A
    valuable and instructive paper.--Showing the object of
    meters, the way in which some of them are made, and their
    manner of operating.--Several figures                         6440

    Raising and Moving Masonry Buildings.--With full page of
    engravings, illustrating various examples of large buildings
    composed of masonry that have been moved and raised           6443

  III. TECHNOLOGY.--Filter for Industrial Works.--Showing how to
    make and use the filter.--With engraving                      6443

    The Val St. Lambert Glass Works.--With full description and
    two illustrations                                             6444

    Proper shoeing.--Horses' feet should be treated in
    accordance with the work expected of them                     6444

    Ideas.--Relating to Milling. By A Looker-on                   6445

    Photographs for Studying the Movements of Men and Animals.
    By M. MAREY.--How to avoid confusion in photographing rapid
    movements.--With diagram                                      6445

    Detective Photography.--As applied to criminal cases          6445

    Strength of Yellow Pine                                       6449

  IV. ARCHITECTURE.--English Lodges.--With engraving              6447

    The Decay of Building the Stones. By Dr. A. A. JULIEN.--The
    building stones, their varieties, localities, and edifices
    constructed of each.--Durability of building stones in New
    York and vicinity.--Methods of trial of building stone.--
    Means of protection and preservation of stone                 6447

  V. ELECTRICITY.--The History of the Electric Telegraph.--
    First use of the Volta pile in telegraphy.--Description of
    Soemmering's apparatus.--With two engravings                  6446

    A New Sulphate of Copper Pile.--With engraving                6446

  VI. MEDICINE AND HYGIENE.--Filth Diseases in Rural
    Districts.--Showing why there is greater danger of poisoning
    from sewage in the country than in the city.--Several
    examples showing apparent causes and consequences.--How
    is the infection carried?                                     6450

    The Physiology of Sleep.--Giving different theories           6451

    A New Method for the Detection of Sugar in the Urine          6452

  VII. MISCELLANEOUS.--Elephants Moving Timber at Moulmein,
    Burmah.--With engraving                                       6449

    The Education of German Women                                 6449

    Horse Medicine Bit.--With two engravings                      6451

    The Big Trees of California                                   6454

    Science in Antiquity.--Heron's Pneumatic and compressing
    apparatus.--With two engravings                               6450

       *       *       *       *       *


PATENTS.

In connection with the +Scientific American+, Messrs. MUNN & CO.
are Solicitors of American and Foreign Patents, have had 38 years'
experience, and now have the largest establishment in the world.
Patents are obtained on the best terms.

A special notice is made in the +Scientific American+ of all Inventions
patented through this Agency, with the name and residence of the
Patentee. By the immense circulation thus given, public attention is
directed to the merits of the new patent, and sales or introduction
often easily effected.

Any person who has made a new discovery or invention can ascertain,
free of charge, whether a patent can probably be obtained by writing to
MUNN & CO.

We also send free our Hand Book about the Patent Laws. Patents,
Caveats, Trade Marks, their costs, and how procured. Address:

  +MUNN & CO., 261 Broadway, New York.+
  Branch Office, cor. F and 7th Sts., Washington, D. C.


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Royal Institution of Great Britain.]

[Footnote 2: _Comptes Rendus_ of the French Academy of Sciences.]

[Footnote 3: It is often desirable to make one of the apertures twice
the diameter of the rest; it causes a greater intensity to be given
to one image, and that facilitates the calculation of time, while it
furnishes points for the comparison of the movements of the lower limbs
with those of the arms.]

[Footnote 4: Ang. Guerout, in _La Lumiere Electrique_.]

[Footnote 5: Abbe Moigno, in his treatise on telegraphy, assigns the
date of 1838 to this publication; but Mr. Zetsche (_d.c._) gives it
as 1811. We shall consider the latter as the true date; for, in 1838,
there was no reason for publishing Soemmering's memoir, and especially
for proposing improvements in his apparatus.]

[Footnote 6: Abstract of a paper read before the New York Academy of
Sciences.]

[Footnote 7: Trans. Am. Med. Ass'n, 1880.]

[Footnote 8: In foetal syphilis it is assumed that the spermatozoa
may be the carriers of the disease; but no microscropist has yet
described a separate species of spermatozoon for such cases.]

[Footnote 9: "The Philosophy of Mystery," London, 1841; cited by
Hammond in his work on "Insanity."]

[Footnote 10: See articles by Dr. Hammond in this journal for 1865
and in the "Journal of Psychological Medicine" for 1869, also his
"Sleep and its Derangements," Philadelphia, 1872, and his "Treatise on
Insanity," New York, 1883.]

[Footnote 11: Yung, "Le sommeil normal et pathologique," Paris, 1883.]

[Footnote 12: "Leçons sur l'appareil vaso-moteur," t. ii., p. 154.]

[Footnote 13: "Principles of Psychology," vol. i., pp. 88, 89.]

[Footnote 14: "Les causes du sommeil," "Revue scientifique," t. xix.]

[Footnote 15: Yung, _op. cit._]

[Footnote 16: Magnetic iron and pyrites in basic rocks; tin stone in
granite and porphyry.]

[Footnote 17: Ancient authors report cases of this kind.]

[Footnote 18: The largest bronze statue of modern times is the
"Bavaria" in Munich, which is 20 meters high and weighs 80 tons. It
consists of 12 pieces and cost about a quarter of a million dollars.]

[Footnote 19: When a bronze is remelted six times the percentage of
tin is reduced to half the original (Dumas). The evaporation of the
metal can be shown by holding a cold plate on it while melted. Tin is
immediately deposited on it.]

[Footnote 20: They usually made a copper and zinc alloy, but it is
possible that they also understood the art of embedding the casting in
zinc ore (calamine) and heating strongly, whereby the surface of the
metal was "cemented" and colored.]

[Footnote 21: On examining a broken surface of an antique mirror, it
will be seen that only the outside is white. It is probable that the
finished mirror was embedded in some arsenical substance and heated,
which cemented and colored the surface.]

[Footnote 22: Uchatius makes his famous hard bronze by cooling and
hydraulic pressure. Bronzes with 8 to 12 per cent. of tin are most
benefited by this process. Bronzes with very little tin in them are but
little affected by chilling and hammering (Riche). Alloys that are hard
already, such as bronzes rich in tin and phosphorus, become too brittle
and useless by repeated hammering.]

[Footnote 23: When a cast sheet of inelastic bronze or brass is
hammered or rolled, it "feathers."]

[Footnote 24: The Romans preferred to put in some bronze that had been
repeatedly cast.]

[Footnote 25: One piece was scarcely scratched by feldspar, another
by quartz. The Greek and Roman weapons in the Berlin Museum were
tested as to hardness by Dr. Von Dechend at the suggestion of the
Director-General, Von Schone. All of them were scratched by fluorspar;
there were no hard bronzes among them. If the races of _classical_
antiquity were not acquainted with hard bronze, it is easy to see why
they soon began to use iron, in contrast with the Semitic-Hamitic
races.]

[Footnote 26: Excrements were also much used by the alchemists and
pharmacists of the middle ages.]


[Transcriber's Note:

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]





*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Scientific American, September 29, 1883 Supplement. No. 404" ***

Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.