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ABRDAQARAAI ANDES |. 2% AAO A) AS De NI

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ee ey) | ay aera

THE QUARTERLY

TOURNAL OF) SCIENCE.

JANUARY, 1872.

I. THE DOLMEN-MOUNDS AND AMORPHOLITHIC
MONUMENTS OF BRITTANY.

By S. P. OLiver, Capt. Royal Artillery, F.R.G.S.,
Corresponding Member of the Anthropological Institute.

PATE Ie
The Dolmen Mounds of Brittany ; their History and Analogues.

f HE study of prehistoric archeology has now become a
recognised branch of accurate if not exact science, by
which valuable assistance is rendered towards the

elucidation of many problems of universal interest in philo-
sophy as well as ethnology. It increases our knowledge of
the progress of human thought as exhibited by the habits,
occupations, and arts of primitive man, whilst it also
furnishes a clue to the intricate currents of the tide of
ethnic migration; the first.is supplemented by comparison
with analogous modes of life, still found in existence amongst
tribes of modern savages, whilst the latter throws light upon
the primeval relationship of peoples, whose descendants are
at present separated by broad intervening obstacles, whether
seas, deserts, or other races of foreign stock.

Brittany offers to the ethnologist an unusually wide field
for investigation in this direction; ‘‘ La clef de lV’ethnologie de
la France est en Bretagne,” says Professor Broca, and the
numberless megalithic remains to be found in this province,
especially in the departments of Finistere and Morbihan,
offer promising mines of research. Brittany may well be
called ‘“‘La Terre des grands souvemrs.” Amongst these
interesting monuments, M.de Freminville is a sure guide to
their localities, as indeed he is to all the Breton antiquities,
which he has made his especial study.

M. de Freminville divides the megalithic (sometimes
wrongly termed cyclopean) remains under three heads :—
I. Religious; 2. Sepulchral; and 3. Memorial; and he
attributes them all to Celtic construction.

VOL. IX. (0.S.)—VOL. II. (N.S.) B

2 The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. [January,

1. In the first group he places all the dolmens and demi-
dolmens, which, following the popular ideas of his time, he
supposes to have been Druidic altars, on which human
sacrifices were performed, from the summit of which Arch-
Druids preached, and inside of which they also had their
habitation: where also an eternal pyre was kept burning,
from which source the neighbouring Gauls daily obtained
fire for their own domestic hearths, which were each night
extinguished by the inexorable Celtic law of couvre-feu, the
origin of which is lost in the gloom of prehistoric ages. He
places also under this class the circular and other enclosures
of upright stones, which he supposes to have been Druidic
temples and sanctuaries.

2. The sepulchral group include the menhirs and align-
ments of peulvens, as also the confused assemblages of stones
called in Celto-Breton ‘‘ Carneilloux,” which the Chevalier
supposes to have been cemeteries, the grave-mounds or
tumuli, to some of which, when composed simply of stones
heaped upon one another (cairns), the distinguishing
Celtic name of galgal is given.

3. To the memorial group are referred the isolated
menhirs of extraordinary size, commemorative of victory or
some momentous event.

Such were the ideas generally received some five-and-
thirty-years ago, when De Freminville wrote; but since, a
more perfect knowledge of various fa¢ts connected with
these monuments has wrought a revolution of opinion, and
the term Druid’s altar is now obsolete, and no longer to be
found in the antiquary’s text-book.

After careful examination of numerous cromlechs and
tumuli by excavation, the study and comparison of their
varied contents has led the first archzologists of the day to
conclude that all dolmens* were originally covered with tumult,
and that one and all of these and analogous structures are
satisfactorily proved to be of a sepulchral character. The
circles and alignments are, however, by some excluded from
this category, but they are admitted to have had some con-
nection with funeral rites and ceremonies.

* Tinclude in the word dolmen all megalithic chambers, whether enclosed
in mounds or deprived of their primitive coverings, and in treating of Breton
monuments I insist on their tumular character as a principle of universal
application. I know and admit of no so-called dolmen which does not or
should not come under this rule. This megalithic structure is a tomb in every
stage of dilapidation. It may be found totally enveloped or partially exposed,
or wholly denuded, and in every intermediate state, in which may be detected
the vestiges of the original tumulus. Instances of complete denudation are
comparatively rare.—Rev. W. C. LukIs.

1872.] The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. 3

It is to local museums that we must look for collections
of the stone implements, ornaments, pottery, &c., found in
the ancient sepulchres of the surrounding country; and in
this respect the Bretons are not behindhand. The Museum
formed by the Societé Polymathique of the Department of
the Morbihan at Vannes is well worth a visit from every
student in prehistoric archeology, and, although small, the
collection of neolithic implements and ornaments is well
assorted with special regard to the localities in which they
were found. By inspection of the catalogue which enume-
rates and classifies these “‘ objets de Page de la Pierre Polie,” it
appears that the museum contains 198 good specimens of
stone celts, besides fragments, as well as flint knives,
scrapers and flakes, hammer-heads, gorgets, torques, pen-
dants, &c., allfrom the surrounding department. The other
principal collections of relics of the stone period, from
Brittany, are at St. Germain’s, at Plouharnel (Madame Le
Bail’s), Mr. Lukis’s Museum in Guernsey, and Mr. William
Lukis’s collection in Yorkshire. Our public collections in
England are remarkable for their deficiency in Brittany
examples, there being but one in the British Museum, and
the Christy Collection, which is rich in celts from the
Auvergne, has nevertheless none from Brittany. In the
Blackmore Museum at Salisbury are a few specimens given
by Mr. Barnwell, but this model museum possesses an
instructive series of casts from those in the Vannes
Museum.

In respect to pottery, the Morbihan collection is poor,
whilst there is but a scanty show of flint-knives, flakes,
and arrow-points; with regard to the arrow-points, Mr.
Lukis says,—

*‘Tt is a circumstance which should be mentioned with
reference to the flint arrow-points, that the members of the
Polymathique Society of the Morbihan, after fifteen years’
labours, have succeeded in finding two only, and this cir-
cumstance has led them to remark that these objects are
very rare in the department; but I entertain a different
opinion, and conclude that they have not searched carefully,
for in one chambered barrow I have tound wine, in another
three, and in a third one; in each case after a previous dis-
turbance of their contents. They are small objects and
easily escape detection, more particularly when explorers
neglect to use a sieve. The truth is that explorations of
these buildings are generally carried on too rapidly, especi-
ally by those whose place of residence is at a distance, as

4 The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. [January,

well as by those who employ paid labourers, to whom,
therefore, time is of great consequence.”’*

The French savans have since been more successful in
finding these smaller relics. The accounts of the explora-
tions of the various tumuli, published by the society from
time to time in small pamphlets, are unusually interesting.
It is indeed enough to make our island archeologists die of
envy to read M. Galles’s account of the mining and excava-
tion of the huge tumulus of Mont San Michel, in September,
1862. There is an almost exciting description of the
moment when, a shaft having been sunk from the summit,
the small sepulchral chamber was first broken into, and the
enthusiastic explorer, placing his lamp within the aperture,
sees the glistening of the polished celts, jasper and tur-
quoise beads, &c.; and how, when entering alone into the
small kist, he hands out to his colleagues, Louis Galles
(“* gwHoffman ett nommé Vhomme aux dolmens”) and M.
Lallemand, one by one, these valuable relics, amongst
other things, eleven jade celts and six-and-twenty small ones
of fibrolite.

Unfortunately the members of the society could not
always be on the spot during the progress of the excavations,
and consequently many valuable celts and other ornaments
from this same tumulus are in possession of the neighbour-
ing farmers and peasantry, who are not unwilling to sell
them, whilst the proprietors of the small inns at Carnac
have some handsome specimens, which they keep to exhibit
to tourist visitors, &c., and of the value of which they have
rather an exalted opinion. ‘“‘ Helas!’ exclaims M. René
Galles, ‘‘ Le dirai-je; nos paysans vendent aux Anglais les
celtze de leurs péres!”

It may here be noted, for the information of visitors to this
locality, that there is a notorious manufacturer of pseudo-
celts in the village of Carnac.

The tumulus of Tumiac, on the Arzon promontory, was
one of the earliest attacked by the Vannes Society, where
the find was rich and encouraging; similarly, Manné-Lud, at
Locmariaquer, Le Moustoir, and the barrow in the grounds
of Baron Walbrook, at Kercado, with others, have been
opened with varied success; but perhaps the best worth
recording is the discovery of the dolmen under the large
mound named MANNE-ER-H’ROEK.

MANN&-ER-H’ROEK is a conspicuous tumulus outside the

* On a Remarkable Chambered Long Barrow, at Kerlescant Carnac,
Brittany, by Rev. W. C. Lukis, p. 6.

1872.] The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. 5

village of Locmariaquer, close to the sea-shore, and not far
from the Pte. de Kerpenhir, at the entrance to the Gulf of
the Morbihan. On the French naval charts it bears the
name of ‘‘ Butte de César,” but the only name by which it is
known to the native peasantry is Manné-er-h’vock (Montagne
de la fée). According to the French account, it is a long
barrow, measuring over a hundred yards in length by 60
in breadth, whilst it has a height of 33 feet. Its longer
axis is what would be termed orientated by those who see
orientation in all these remains, although it is within two
degrees of the S.E. and N.W. points of the compass.
Mr. Lukis considers this tumulus to have been originally
round, and that its elongated appearance at present is
owing to its sides having been removed in the course of
agricultural operations. At its base on the N.E. side are
two fallen menhirs of considerable size, whilst some smaller
stone, not far from the present base in the opposite direc-
tion, may perhaps be taken to indicate the remains of a
pervistalith which once surrounded the grave-mound.

In September, 1863, M. Lefebvre, the Préfet of the Morbi-
han, and M. R. Galles, caused this barrow to be explored; a
party of soldiers under their dire¢tion soon sank a
large crater about the middle of the mound, and it was
found that it was a galgal built up in the usual way, of
rough stones piled one on another, and not dissimilar to
the analogous mounds at Tumiac and Mount St. Michel.
Not far from the summit they found in the course of clear-
ance some Roman coins and débris of Roman vases ; deeper
they found beads of enamel, jasper, and agate; until in the
very centre they arrived at a sepulchral chamber 12 feet
long, 8 feet broad, and 5 feet high. It was not a megalithic
dolmen, but consisted of three roofing-slabs supported by
dry walling, and, according to Mr. Lukis,* who groups the
dolmens according to the construction of their roofs, may be
termed a cezled in contradistinction to the vaulted sepulchre.
Outside the entrance to this rude cell were found the three
fragments of a stone tablet with curious incised archaic
sculpturings upon them. These appear to belong to an
altogether different type of pattern to the elaborate orna-
mentation of Gavr’ Inis, and more resemble the ruder
engravings found on the slabs of Manné-Lud and on the large

* «On the Various Forms of Monuments commonly called Dolmens in
Brittany, pointing out a Progress in their Architectural Construction, with an
Attempt to Reduce them to Chronological Order.” By the Rev. W.C. Luxis,
M.A., F.S.A.—‘* Transactions of International Congress of Prehistoric Arche-
ology.” Third Session.

6 The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. [January,

cap-stone of the Table des Marchands; the peculiar pattern,
which is generally understood as representing the hafted
celt, occurs in all the latter dolmens as well as in the
chamber of the tumulus at Kercado. There may.be some
analogy between this memorial tablet being buried at the
entrance to the chamber under the enormous galgal, and
the ancient custom of the Scandinavians, as shown by the
finding of rune-stones inside the cairn during the oldest
period of the iron age; whilst the rich decorations and
hieroglyphics beautifully inscribed on the sarcophagi of the
Egyptian and Oriental tombs point in the same direction.
The fact of some of these rude characters being surrounded
with a species of cartouche or label in the case of the
Manné-er-H’roék inscription is worth noticing from the fact
that it is also found according to Professor Stephens, of
Copenhagen, enclosing Runic characters, but only of the
most ancient description, whilst its frequent appearance on
Egyptian and Phoenician monuments is well known. On
the pavement of flat stones in the interior of the chamber
were found exposed two celts and a ring, both of jadeite,
with three jasper pendants. The ring is partly oval, flat, and
polished, and is the only one of its kind in the Museum at
Vannes. Somewhat similar rings have been found in
Guernsey, where they are in Mr. Lukis’s Museum. One of
these shows signs of wear, and it is conjectured that they
were probably worn as a gorget ;* they are too small for the
wrist. But perhaps the most remarkable feature in the
exploration of this chamber was yet to follow, and that was
the discovery under the pavement before-mentioned of the
extraordinary number of 101 celts, gt of which were of
fibrolite, small, sharp, and perfect, whilst the larger ones
of jade, diorite, &c., were more or less fractured; some of
these last are noticeable as being pierced for the purposes of
suspension.

Such an unprecedented find of celts has never before or
since been equalled, at least in Europe; whilst the enormous
proportion composed of that rare material called jfibrolite,
which is not known in Europe as a native substance, is also
astonishing.

The significant facts, that all the small fibrolite celts are
in good preservation and appear to have never been used,
whilst the rougher and larger specimens show signs of wear,

* Flint Chips, p. 104. By E. T. Srevens, Hon. Curator of the Blackmore
Museum.

1872]. The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. 7

and were also apparently purposely* so fractured when
deposited, are well worthy of our closest attention.

Now it is found that in all interior or sepulchral finds the
celts made of fibrolite are at least 75 per cent of the
whole number found, whilst the surface and miscellaneous
finds produce but few of this material, being generally of
diorite and porphyry ; thus, wherever found, the fibrolite celt
is indicative of sepulchral associations, and was evidently
not made for daily use. A superstitious reverence probably
attached to the rare stone, as in China at the present day
the possession of a certain amount of jadet entitles the owner
to a certain rank, and as the jade celt also confers certain
rights of chieftainship in New Zealand. ‘This celt may also
have been used as an amulet or talisman, like the siger stone
(victory-token) and life-stone (against wounds and death)
used by the Norse and Swensk adventurers of Scandinavia,
which were worn on their weapons or armour, or on the
person in a small bag, and accompanied them to the
tomb.?

Although there is a slight difference in the exterior
contour of the great Dolmen-mounds of Tumiac, St. Michel,
and Manné-er-H’roék, the first being most conical, and the
second much the longest of the three, still they may be
placed in the same class as to their structure, being all
composed of alternate layers of sand and stones, the imple-
ments found inside of them being also similar. Therefore
we may with tolerable certainty assign them to a contempo-
rary period and the same race of builders.

At the same time Mr. Barnwell has rightly pointed out
the different methods of interment practised in each mound;
thus, in the chamber of Tumiac, the body had been placed
in its natural state, whilst in that of St. Michel complete
incineration had first taken place. In Manné-er-H’roék, on
the other hand, no human bones or least trace of them
could be found by the explorers. Could this last have been
a coenotaph ?

Whilst on the subject of cremation and inhumation, and as
an additional proof that both were practised at the same

* The spoon, mat, pillow, and spears of a dead Kaffir are laid beside their
owner in the grave; the shafts of the latter are always broken and the iron
heads bent, perhaps from some vague idea that the spirit of the deceased will
come out of the earth and do mischief with them.—Rev. J. G. Woop, Africa.

t “To Heaven alone is offered a piece of blue jade, cylindrical in shape
and a foot long, formerly used as a symbol of sovereignty.”—‘' Sacrifice by the
Emperor of China.” Vide WiLLtIamson’s Journeys in North China; ch. xvi.,
“ Peking,” by the Rev. JosepH Epkrns, B.A.

t Professor STEPHENS.

8 The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. [January,

time* we may notice the curious elongated tumulus of
Manné-Lud in the same neighbourhood, being only a mile
distant from Manné-er-H’roék. Here in one chamber were
found the remains of two human bodies, side by side, one of
which had ‘suffered incineration and the other simple
interment. At the western extremity of this mound a
magnificent megalithic dolmen has long ago been exposed,
whilst at the eastern extremity the explorers found a curious
arrangement of stones with an assemblage of burnt animal
bones, as if an sholocaust had been burnt in sacrifice. A
parallel instance of finding the bones of animals occurs in
an oblong barrow at Dalby Tyrstrup-hundred, South Jutland,
where the skeleton of an ox was discovered in 1840; a
golden head-ring was also found in the same mound.
According to Mr. Lukis, the practice of burning the dead
was nearly unknown to the builders of the megalithic
dolmens. The eastern portion of the tumulus of Manné-
Lud is probably of later date than the dolmen at the west.
The next example of a dolmen under a _ tumulus,
viz., that of Kercado, is taken as presenting a complete
contrast to those of Manné-er-H’roék, St. Michel, &c.;
as those huge tumuli enclose but rude, small, and im-
perfect sepulchres, whilst this modest hillock, one-tenth
of their bulk, contains within an highly finished mega-
lithic dolmen, consisting of a square chamber and gallery
of upright blocks supporting large cap-stones. On one
cap-stone and on two of the side blocks are signs of rude
ornamentation. It is suggested with great probability
by M. Galles that this tumulus must have been despoiled of
its contents previous to the visit of its late examiners in
1863, as but few objects of human workmanship were found
within, whilst bones comparatively well preserved, with
Roman pottery, were found within, indicating, according to
the Marquis de Valory, that the Romans had used this
aboriginal tomb as a place of burial during their occupation
of Armorica. A minute jadeite celt was found, a larger one
of diorite with callaist beads and some pendants of talc,

* A modern instance of several kinds of sepulture being practised by the
same people at the same time is to be found in Thibet. The Llamas of Thibet,
according to Huc, have four methods of disposing of their dead, viz.:—
1. Combustion; 2. Immersion in rivers and lakes; 3. Exposure on the
summits of mountains; and, 4, the most esteemed—Cutting up the bodies in
pieces and giving them to the dogs. As to this last method, the poor people
have the dogs of the suburbs for their mausoleum, but for persons of distinction
a little more ceremony is used. There are convents where sacred dogs are
kept on purpose to devour the corpses of rich Thibetans.

+ Le nom de callais a été imposé par M. Damour au minéral qui forme nos
grains de collier. Le couleur de cette matiére est le vert-pomme, se rapprochant

1872.] The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. 9

agalmatolite, and mica-schist, interesting on account of their
similarity with articles found in the lake dwellings of
Switzerland.

Another unusual type of dolmen is exhibited by that
exhumed at Kergonfals, in the Commune of Bignan, near
Locmine. In the first place, it is in the interior of the
department, at a considerable distance from the sea coast,
and therefore it is an exception to the generally received
supposition that the dolmens are universally found by the
shore, as the majority certainly are; but this, with other
examples, seems to prove that it is only the richer cultiva-
tion of the interior which has caused the demolition of the
stone structures, whilst the exposure of the site and sterility
of the soil have been the means of saving similar remains on
the coast from the plough of the farmer. Again, the tumu-
lus of Kergonfals is not built, as usual, on the summit, but
on the side of a slight eminence.

In company with two other dolmens, vzz., Le Rocher in
Plougemelen and Les Pierres Plates at Locmariaquer, the
allée couverte forms anangle. The plans of all three dolmens
exhibit a decided curve, although in different directions.

Another unusual feature at Kergonfals, also, is that the
eastern extremity of the gallery is at a higher level than the
chamber and adjacent passage, into which there is an abrupt
descent ; two portions, also, of dry walling divided the gal-
lery when first explored. The interior find was not large,
comprising three blunt quartzose cells of rude type and im-
perfect polish, two flint knives, and an empty pottery vase ;
but the explorers were fortunate in obtaining some human
bones, from a careful observation of whose position an ex-
pert anatomist (Dr. Mauricet) was enabled authoritatively
to state that they were the bones of a strong and athletic
man, whose body had been placed in a sitting or crouching

du vert de l’émeraude. Quelques echantillons sont comme marbrés de parties
blanches et de parties bleuatres; d'autres sont maculés de veines et de taches
brunes ou noires, par suite d’un mélange accidentel de matiéres argileuses.
Le mineral est translucide, 4 peu prés autant que la chrysoprase. Sa cassure
est compacte comme celle de lacire. II raie le calcaire, mais il est facilement
rayé par une pointe d’acier. Sa poussiére est blanche, infusible au chalumeau.
Cette substance est un phosphate d’alumine hydraté comme la turquoise
orientale, mais elle en différe sensiblement, aussi bien par les proportions de
ses principes constituants que par ses caractéres extérieurs. M. Damour,
d’aprés les différences appréciables que existent entre ces deux matiéres, les
sépare dans la classification des especes. Il emprunte a Pline le nom de
callais, qu’il applique a notre minéral, et réserve celui de turquoise a la pierre
précieuse de couleur bleu de ciel, si comme en joaillerie.—Voir la description
de la callais par M. Damour; Comptes Rendus de l’Academie des Sciences,
Tome lix., Séance du 5 Décembre, 1864.)

VOL. II. (N.S.) Cc

10 The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. (January,

posture, with the head down on the knees; a decision which
undoubtedly proves the tumulus of Kergonfals to have been
a place of sepulture by inhumation.

This burial in a sitting or crouching posture seems to have
been usual, at various periods, among the dolmen-builders,
as similar examples have been found in Scandinavia, as at
Goldhaon, in the Channel! Islands, as at Du-Thus, opened
by Mr. Lukis, where two skeletons were found, under the
cap-stone of one of the small northern chambers, in a simi-
lar position. At Charlton Abbots, in Gloucestershire, were
found as many as twelve, and at West Kennet, Wilts, six
bodies, all in a sitting position; so, also, at Uley and
Avening the same position is noticeable. Nor are there
wanting modern instances of burial in the sitting posture,
which is practised amongst the Japanese, Australians, and
Esquimaux. Among the Kaffirs, also, the body is never laid
prostrate, but the body is placed in the grave in a sitting
posture, the knees being brought to the chin and the head
bent over them.*

Some very slight traces of artificial working of the interior
stones seem to have been considered as doubtful by the ex-
plorers. We cannot but regret, in reading Mr. Galle’s
account of this examinatiori, that his party thought it neces-
sary to remove several of the cap-stones in the course of
their work, which, from our experience, can never be really
necessary. He says:—‘‘ Nous nous décidames a regret a
enlever les deux premiéres tables, apres avoir pris un croquis
exact de l’état des hieux.”

The better-known hollow tumulus of Le Rocher, which
has been noticed above, was cleared out by the late M. Bain,
the owner of the neighbouring property, as long back
as 1844, and the few objects found therein are still preserved
by his widow: these principally consist of a few fragments
of pottery, one of which was the base of a vase, containing
beads of blue jasper and dark jade, with a blade and arrow-
head, both of flint.

The grotto itself, beneath the superimposed galgal, or
cairn, consists of thirteen broad and flat cap-stones, sup-
ported by upright slabs, the interstices between which are
built up with dry walling. The angle which the eastern
gallery makes with the western portion is as nearly as pos-
sible in the centre of the structure; the angle is 125°, whilst
that at Kergonfals is more acute, being 108° only; as usual,

* Some Arab tribes, in the Hadhramaut, according to Von Wrede, yet
practise the ancient pre-Mohammedan (Himyaritic ?) fashion of interment,
with the knees drawn up to the head.

ee

1872.] The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. Ta

the allée itself and the stones composing it are larger in
width and height at the western than at the eastern ex-
tremity. Here we may observe that this is one of the few
monuments of its kind which it is a real pleasure to visit,
as it is kept free from rubbish and filth, which generally
render such grottoes so disgusting to penetrate, and when
illuminated presents a striking appearance. ‘The last time
We visited this sepulchre we found it arranged with seats at
the western chamber, and decorated with garlands in honour
of some little /éte, when it presented the appearance rather
of some nymph’s retreat than a dismal charnel-house. On
a bright day, after entering this vault without lights, after
allowing one’s eyes to get accustomed to the gloom, the day-
light through the entrance is quite sufficient to render the
stones in the chamber itself visible, and under these circum-
stances the angle of the gallery, as seen from the interior, is
impressive. There is some sculpturing on one or two of the
side slabs in this dolmen, which is of the same type of pattern
as those found at Les Pierres Plates.

This elaborate ornamentation, which is a marked charac-
teristic of some of the dolmens, may help archeologists in
determining the relative antiquity of the monuments in which
it is found. The most ancient markings are most probably
the so-called cup-markings, which have successfully baffled
hitherto all enquirers as to their origin and meaning, and
seem to be found in the New World as well as the Old. In
the Ohio mounds, and at Orizaba, in Scandinavia, the
Channel Islands, England, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, and
Switzerland, they are to be seen; their interpretation re-
mains a mystery. These cup-cuttings, in fact, hardly come
under the head of Archaic sculpture.

Irregular lines and a species of net-work seem to be the
earliest of any actual design or pattern, as at Kercado and
Kerozille ; next a pattern of pot-hooks, or boomerangs, as
at the Dol-au-Marchand ; all these last are rude and nearly
effaced. Whilst speaking of the Dol-au-Marchand, the re-
cent disfiguration of the western upright, which exhibits
these most interesting Archaic sculpture, deserves severe
reprobation. Some wilful hand has carved, with an iron
tool, in the centre of the slab, the word GazELLE, in large
letters: the mere mention of this fact, and the thought that
it is attributable to British visitors, is sufficient. The pro-
gress of sculpture, as developed at Pierres Plates and
Gavr’ Inis, is instructive. In the first the patterns are
more regular, but in the last they are more elaborate, and
seem even as intended to convey some information by means
of their hieroglyphics.

387 The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. (January,

One thing seems almost certain, and that is—that this
elaborate decoration of the interior of long galleries,* leading
to sculptured chambers, shows to us that these sepulchral
chambers were intended to be visited subsequent to the in-
terments; and this is the more likely, inasmuch as these
galleries are so orientated (at least 66 per cent are so in
Brittany) that, at some season of the year, the sun, on
rising, would brightly illuminate the interior of the tomb.
Ellis mentions an analogous custom amongst the Hovas, in
Madagascar, at the present day. He says :—‘‘ The Hova
chiefs manifest considerable solicitude about their graves;
and I was told that one of the chief officers, who died lately
at the capital, requested of his sons, shortly before his
death, that after his interment they would occasionally re-
move the large stone slab that would form the door of his
sepulchre, and let the sun shine in upon him.” t

Mr. Lukis’s classification of ceiled and vaulted sepulchres
in Brittany has already been mentioned; he supposes that
their various forms indicate not merely a prolonged residence
of their builders in the country, but also a progress in their
constructive science: thus several of their forms may have

* Compare Dr. Palmer’s account of the stone houses in Easter Island :—* At
_ the south-west end of this island, at the sea edge of the Terano Kau Crater,
are a number, say eighty or more, of houses of great age, now unused, mostly
in good preservation, which are built in irregular lines, as the ground permits,
their doors facing the sea. Each house is oblong-oval, built of layers of
irregular flat pieces of stone, the walls about 54 feet high. The doors are in
the side, as in the present grass huts, and of about the same size. The walls
are very thick, 5 feet at least, which makes the entrance quite a passage. On
entering, the walls are found to be lined with upright slabs, say 4 feet high, but
not so broad. Above these, small thin slabs are arranged like tiles, overlapping
and so gradually arching till the roof opening is able to be bridged over by long
thin slabs of some 54 or 5 feet, which are not more than 6 inches in thickness
and 2 feet in width. The inner dimensions of the ‘hall’ are about 16 paces
long by 5 paces wide and the roof is fully 6} feet high inside under the centre
slabs. The passage leading to it is paved with slabs, under which is a kind of
crypt or blind drain which extends to the distance of about 6 feet outside, where
also it is covered with flat slabs, and is of the same dimensions as the passage.
It is carefully built of stone squared and dressed; it ends abruptly and squarely.
In these drains, I was informed the dead men heated were kept till required
for the feasts. Outside the hall, and at right angles to it, are smaller chambers,
which do not communicate with it, and each of which has a separate door
from the outside. We were told that these were generally the women’s
apartments. The upright slabs which lined the hall, and those of the roof,
were painted in red, black, and white, with all manner of devices and
figures, some like the geometric figures of the Mexicans, some birds,
rapas, faces, symbolic figures of Phallic nature, &c. There was no
appearance of pavement in the halls, and in many of them enormous
quantities of a univalve—a maritime Neritina—which had been used
for food.”—Vide ‘‘ A Visit to Easter Island in 1868,” by J. LiInron PALMER,
F.R.C.S., Surgeon of H.M.S. “Topaze;” Journal of the Royal Geographical
Society, vol. xl., 1870.
+ Ex.is, Three Visits to Madagascar, p. 312.

eee

—-

1872]. The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. 13

been suggested by others which have preceded them, and
sometimes the side-chambers appear to be additions subse-
quently made to an older sepulchre, composed simply of a
chamber and entrance-passage. There are many remarkable
examples in Brittany of alterations, enlargements, and addi-
tions to the first building, whilst others indicate their side-
chambers to have been originally planned, and to form
important features of the structure ; the numerous diagrams,
plans, and elevations of typical examples which illustrate
Mr. Lukis’s paper fully bear out his theory.

The dolmen-mounds of Brittany may be classified ac-
cording to the characteristics of their internal structure, as
follows :—

(I.) The round barrow containing an ordinary kist-vaen,
either rectangular or polygonal, covered in with one or more
cap-stones. In Brittany this class does not appear to belong
to the earliest period ; for instance, the round tumulus in the
Forest of Carnoet, in Finistere, which was explored in 1843,
contained gold, silver, and silver-plated bronze ornaments,
as well as flint arrow-points, whilst bronze weapons were
found in another simple kist-vaen at Kerlivit, near Douar-
nenez.

(II.) The round barrow containing the ordinary megalithic
dolmen, consisting of a chamber, with a narrow covered
way or passage leading to it: this class is common every-
where throughout the province, and Mr. Lukis takes this
typical form as a basis from which all the other striking
varieties of ground plans observable in Brittany are deducible.

(III.) The same as the above, but containing two or more
chambers, in some cases additional and in others original, as
at Keriaval and Kludyer.

(IV.) In this class there are also several chambers, with
acommon gallery of communication ; but, although the gal-
lery is megalithic, the chambers are built up, and of the
bee-hive vaulted type. A good example of this unusual type
is to be found, partially exposed, at the Pte. du Rosmeur,
near St. Guenolé.

(V.) Long barrow, containing long and narrow cham-
bers; megalithic, as at Garren Dol and Parc-ar-Dolmen
(Finistére).

(VI.) Same type as the above, but with tolmen, or holed
entrances. A good specimen of this class has been recently
destroyed near Kerlescant; fortunately before its entire
destruction it was described by Mr. W. Lukis. There is a
similar monument, as yet unexplored, at Kerléarec, north of
the Chateau du Lac.

14 The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. [January,

(VII.) Round barrow, containing a megalithic dolmen,
consisting of a chamber with the gallery at a sharp angle to
it. Vide description already given of Kergonfals.

(VIII.) Same type; gallery forming an angle with sculp-
tured stones, as at Le Rocher and Les Pierres Plates.

(IX.) Round barrow, containing two or more megalithic
dolmens, either parallel, as Plouharnel and Kerlan, or at right
angles to one another, as Les Grottes des Kerozille.

(X.) Long barrow, containing a megalithic dolmen at one
extremity, and other smaller kists, megalithic and built up,
apparently of a secondary or additional period, e.g., Manné
Lud and Le Moustoir.

(XI.) Round barrow, containing long and straight avenue,
square chamber, and blocks of noble proportions, highly
decorated ; notably Gavr’ Inis.

(XII.) Immense tumuli, containing comparatively insig-
nificant kists, partially megalithic, partially dry-walled; for
instance Mt. St. Michel (Carnac), Manné-er-H’roék (Loc-
mariaquer), and Tumiac (Arzon).

The last five divisions are all more or less sculptured,
whilst cup-markings alone are found on some of the
others.

There are also found long barrows without any internal
structure: these are not unfrequently accompanied by a
menhir, as at Kerlescant; and in the same barrow were
found two rows of small-sized blocks of stone, a species of
revetment, perhaps marking the limit of the original barrow.
Mr. Lukis attributes these barrows to a late period, but this
will be alluded to in conne¢tion with the neighbouring
alignments.

Before approaching the subject of the dolmen-builders, it
may be as well to give a short description of analogous
structures in the Peninsula South of France, as well as to
make some mention of those which are found in such num-
bers in the North of Africa. The cromlechs in the British
and Channel Islands are too well known to need any allusion
being made to them.

In the Peninsula the cromlechs, when denuded, are known
under the name of Antas (a term about which there has been
much disputing, but which, after all, seems to signify
ancient altars used as landmarks) ; those partially enveloped
in the tumulus, or on the summit of a mound, are termed
Mamunhas (corruption of Mamua or Mamoa—tumulus) ; and
when covered in, as the allées and grottes of Brittany, they
are termed Furnas.

In the year 1734 over three hundred of these remains are

£O72.| The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. 15

mentioned as existing in Portugal, but in 1868 * M. da Costa
could only enumerate forty-two, of which twenty-eight are
in the Province of Aleutejo, twelve in Beira, two in Traz-
os-Montes, two in Minho, whilst none remain either in
Estremadura or D’Algarve.

The largest aggregation of these antas appears to be at
Contado d’Alcogulo, the property of M. Le Cocq, where
there are five remaining together. The only stone imple-
ments described by M. da Costa were found here, and
consist of half-a-dozen rude greenstone celts and a quartzite
muller. With the exception of four, all the above are de-
nuded and ruined antas ; the exceptions are two furnas near
Vizella in Minho, the Mamunha de Mamaltar in Beira, and
the Mamunha de Carrazedo in Traz-os-Montes. This last
is chiefly remarkable from the curious hollowed circular
mark, presumedly artificial, on one of its supports.

There is also one curious monument mentioned, as com-
posed of two rows of stones, near a menhir between Cepaes
and Fafe, in Minho. As this is the sole description of the
monument, and no dimensions mentioned, it is difficult to
judge of its composition. It may be analogous to two rows
of small vertical stones in the long barrow at Kerlescant,
already mentioned, or there may formerly have existed an
avenue of stones. Unfortunately it appears that the monu-
ment has been destroyed, and the stones made use of in the
construction of the neighbouring convent of Pombeiro.

The largest and most perfect furna in the Spanish Penin-
sula is, however, that of Antéquera, near Malaga. This
monument seems to be composed of five fine cap-stones,
supported by uprights, ten on either side, of large dimen-
sions.

The Algerian megalithic remains are much more nume-
rous, and form vast assemblages of grave-vaults, but the
structures themselves are on a much smaller scale than those
of France, England, and Scandinavia.

Messrs. Férand, Bertrand, Veltnez, Bourjot, Letourneux,
and Bourguignat, have all written on the subject of the
African dolmens, but the name of one writer best known to
English readers, not as an archeologist indeed, but as a
general, is that of General Faidherbe, who was in command
of the northern army of France during the late war ; not very
long since he gave a description of the necropoles of Con-
stantine.

There are four principal groups of cromlechs, not to

* Descripcao de Alguns Dolmins ou Antas de Portugal, par F. A. PEREIRA
Da Costa. Lisboa, 1868.

16 The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. [January,

mention smaller ones, in the Province of Constantine, v7z.,
Roknia, Mazela, Bou-Merzoug, and Djebel-Mehmel. These
consist of some thousands of megalithic tombs, arranged in
straight lines, sometimes forming enclosures. All of these
tombs have evidently been covered originally with tumuli,
now destroyed by atmospherical agency, and in nearly every
case the ancient enceinte of the tumulus can be traced.

General Faidherbe, who explored five apparently intact
tombs at Mazela, was not successful in finding either pottery
or implements. At this place the blocks composing the
cromlechs are of a more regular description than the ruder
ones of Roknia. At this latter place, however, M. Bour-
guignat * was more fortunate in his exploration of twenty-
eight of these monuments, selected at various points of the
necropolis. The larger tombs here contained one or two
bodies, whilst the smallest alone contained the remains of
three persons. Ornaments of bronze and one of silver-gilt
were found in five of the sepulchres and vases of rude pot-
tery, placed generally near the head of the skeleton. M.
Bourguignat assigns these tombs to a period at least 1000
years betore the Christian era, and he suggests an ingenious
and novel method of calculating the ages of these structures
by the layers of innumerable snail-shells found within them.
At Roknia the monuments are kist-vaens, formed of four up-
right supports, supporting a cap-stone. At Mazela the
single cap-stone, in many cases, is supported by dry-walling,
whilst around them circles of stones, generally laid flat, are
oftener found than at Roknia.

At Roknia the tombs are situate eon a crater, where
hot springs, now extinct, once existed. There is evidence
that the tombs were built whilst these springs were yet in
action. The neglect of the Romans and Carthaginians to
utilise these hot springs, whilst they formed bath establish-
ments at neighbouring thermal sources, is pointed out as a
proof that these springs were also extin¢t in the time of the
Roman occupation, and that, therefore, the construction of
these tombs was also prior to that period.

At Bou-Merzoug the late Mr. Christy found flint flakes
and arrow-heads close to the dolmens, and in the Museums
of Algiers and Constantine are various stone celts and flint
knives, found in connection with megalithic tombs, amongst
which may be cited a diorite celt found by Mr. Dutruge
close to an enormous monolith, at Kreuchela, near Con-
stantine. Mr. Papier remarks, with regard to the flint

* Histoire des Monuments Megalithiques de Roknia pres d’Hammam-
Neskoutin, par J. R. Bourcuicnat. Paris, 1868.

1872.] The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. 17

flakes, that they are not native, as no flint is to be found in
those localities, and that they must, therefore, have been
imported. These implements sufficiently connect the African
dolmens with the stone period of that country.

Mr. Palmer, of St. John’s College, Cambridge, has recently
given a most interesting account of some ancient remains
which he discovered in the large tra¢t of desert country
known as the Negeb, or South Country, and the Desert of
Et Tih.

These remains have been attributed to the Israelites
during the exodus, or to their enemies, the Amalekites, and
aboriginal tribes. They are evidently the remains of large
encampments; the hill-sides, for instance, at Erweis el
Ebeirig, are covered for more than a mile in every direction
with curiously arranged stones ; the larger enclosures occu-
pied by the more important personages, the hearths or fire-
places, &c., are still distinétly to be traced, whilst there are
traces of undoubted tombs outside. The Arabs call them
mahattat (t.e. camping grounds), In connection with them
are found nawdmis, or circular stone huts and circles, asso-
ciated with cairns and kists. The description of these huts
reminds us of the assemblages of tin-washers’ bee-hive
stone huts and circles on Dartmoor, described by Mr. Spence
Bate, and appears to belong to the samie type of rude
dwellings—such as Picts’ houses, brochs, borgs, or broughs—
which are found in Shetland, Orkney, Sutherlandshire, and
Caithness, and described by Sir H. Dryden and Mr. Ander-
son. The dimensions of these nawdmis average 7 feet high
by 8 feet in diameter, with an oval top. In the centre of
each is a cist, and besides that a smaller hole, both roughly
lined with stones, covered with slabs of stone over which
earth has accumulated. Human bones have been found in
these cists, but never perfect skeletons. In the smaller cist
the earth shows signs of having undergone the action of
fire, and small pieces of charred wood and bone have been
found. Flint arrow-heads have also been discovered in
them. Mr. Palmer opened some cairns (the size of the
largest of which was 20 feet in diameter, and height about
4 feet) and circles, but found nothing but charcoal and
burnt earth. He says, ‘‘ Whatever the people may have
been, whether Amalekites or an older race, it seems nearly
certain that they buried in cists, piled great cairns on the
top, surrounded the whole with a stone circle in the case of
more important personages, and offered sacrifices to the
deceased in small open enclosures within the ring. These

VOL. II. (N.S.) D

18 The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. (January,

may probably have been the ‘ offerings to the dead,’ the eating
of which was accounted so great a sin to the Israelites.”*

Until within the last few years the only dolmens known
were confined exclusively to that area of country inhabited
by the Celtic race, and hence all megalithic structures were,
with good reason, relegated to an origin wholly Celtic.
More lately, however, since the discovery of megalithic
tombs in other parts of the world, there has arisen consi-
derable doubt as to the race affinities of the dolmen-builders ;
and certainly the Celts possess no traditions of the sepulchral
character of these monuments, which, according to their
folk-lore, were the abodes of witches and fairies, and were,
according to the Bretons, the handiwork of the Korils and
Teuz (elves and fays).

There are many theories as to the original home of these
dolmen-building people, who have been variously named as
Proto-Scythians or Proto-Celts, and as to the direction from
whence they penetrated Western France and our own
islands.

There seems but little doubt that their ancient seat was
in Central Asia, and that they were, as M. Bertrand affirms,
a conservative and exclusive race, who, resisting absorption
by a superior people, were expelled from their aboriginal
home, from whence they spread westward; and it is an
indubitable fact that the most easterly point in Europe
where their sepulchres are found is the Crimean peninsula,
and that the megalithic tombs here are the most ancient of
their kind known.

Thence, according to M. de Bonstetten, one branch of
migration spread towards Greece, Syria, Italy, and Corsica ;
and another, skirting the borders of the great Hercynian
forest (via Silesia, where at Oppeln and Liegnitz are found
the next megalithic remains), took their route towards the
shores of the Baltic, where the cromlechs are considered
second only in antiquity to those of the Crimea.

Here there is some difference of opinion as to their line
of march. According to M. Bertrand they remained for a
lengthened period in Denmark, whence, again expelled, they
crossed the water, and reached the Shetland and Orkney
Isles, whence they can be traced on either side of the Irish
Channel to Brittany, and finally re-crossed the Channel
to Brittany. On the other hand, M. de Bonstetten
is of opinion that from the Baltic the tide of migration
overran Germany,—Friesland, Dreuthe, Schleswig-Holstein,

* Vide Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement, New Series, No. 1,
January, 1871.

1872.) The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. 19

and Jutland,—and, following the coast line, traversed Bel-
gium, the North of France, Normandy, finally reaching
Brittany, where the numerous dolmens attest their prolonged
stay. Part are then supposed to have crossed over by the
Channel Islands, which are rich in dolmen-mounds, to
Cornwall and Devon, gradually reaching the S.E. of Ireland
and Wales (the absence of such remains in the West of
Ireland and in East England is very marked). Another
portion left Brittany, and penetrated southwards along the
coast as far as the Gironde, whence, leaving the sea-board
to avoid the sandy plains of Gascony, ‘they followed the
course of the Dordogne, and traversed France in the direction
of the Gulf of Lyons. Small detached bands seem also to
have penetrated into Savoy and Switzerland, as shown by a
few isolated dolmens in those localities. The mountains
seem to have delayed the onward progress of these nomades
for some time, in the Departments of Arriége, Upper and
Lower Pyrenees, but, at length crossing this obstacle, they
leave traces in Portugal, through Spain,—vza Cordova,
Granada, and Malaga,—and finally, crossing the Mediter-
ranean, have left their tombs in the northern coasts of
Africa, up to the very frontiers of Egypt.

The African dolmens are probably the most recent, and,
indeed, there are some who attribute them to the Roman
period, and assert that they are due to the presence of a
Roman legion raised in Armorica, who brought with them
from Brittany their national customs and Celtic mode of
burial; and there is a doubtful account of a dolmen in
Algeria, inscribed to the memory of an Armorican centurion.

Another hypothesis, supported by Messrs. Désor and
Rougemont, is to the effect that the stream of dolmen-
building tribes sprang from Africa originally, and were
Euskarian rather than Celtic, and poured in a northerly
direction over the Iberic peninsula, and thence into France ;
in fact, the reverse of M. de Bonstetten’s track. The evi-
dence in favour of this last theory is only negative, relying
on the absence of tradition in Africa pointing to an invasion
from the north, and the Celtic tradition in Ireland that the
Irish are of African origin.

For our own part, we believe the European dolmen-
builders to be of a Scandinavian origin, and for this reason,
that the Scandinavians have followed the ancient custom of
erecting chambered tumuli to a very late period; and in
their literature we find the records of their funeral cere-
monies, which accord with what we should expect to find
practised by the dolmen-builders. We are indebted to

20 The Dolmen-Mounds of Brittany. (January,

Professor Stephens’s work for the following translation from
the ‘‘ Elder Edda ;”—

“The Elder Edda.”—Sigrdrifumdl, verses 33, 34; Ed.
P. A. Munch. ‘Translation (quoted from the Fore-
word of Professor Stephens’s ‘‘Old Northern Runic
Monuments of Scandinavia and England.’)

Rede ninth rede I thee :—
rescue the lifeless,

a-field where-er thou find them ;
whether sank he on sick bed

or Sea-dead lieth,

or was hewn by hungry weapon.

O’er the breathless body

a Barrow raise thou,

hands and head clean washen ;
comb’d and dried eke

in his kist fare he,

and bid him softly slumber.

The fine picture of raising the grave mound over the folk-
lord, as found in our noblest English epic, ‘‘ Beowulf.”
After his awsome kamp (battle) with the fire-drake, which he
slays, but at the cost of his own life, the dying Weg-
munding’s last words are :—

Further on,

My life-day’s now over.

Bid my good barons
to build me a Low—
fair after fire-heap—
at the flood-dasht headland.
A Minne shall it stand there
to my mates and landsmen,
high-looming
on Hroneness.
so that seafarers
sithance shall call it
Biowulf’s * Barrow,
as their beak-carv’d galleys
out of hazy distance
float haughtily by.

_after some fragmentary lines describing

Beowulf’s (life-brand) burning of jus body (showing that in-
cremation was prevalent), the lay tells us :—

Gan then to make them—
those Gothic heroes—

A Low on the lithe,

lofty and broad,

by the fearless foam-plougher
seen far and wide,

till on the tenth day
towering stood there

the battle-chief’s beacon.

* Beowulf, near end of Fitte 38.

a

ee ee eee

1872.] Illumination of Beacons and Buoys. aI

The brand-scorcht floor

a mound covered

mighty and worshipful,

as found most fitting

their famousest sages.
Within the Barrow

laid they beighs and ornaments,
and such driven drink-cups
as in the drake-hoard

the furious warriors

a-fore had taken.

The earth be-gem they
with Earl-sprung jewels,
fling gold on the gravel,
where again it shall lie
to all as useless
as erewhile it was.

Round the How rode then
those Hilde champions,

all the troop

of those twelve athelings,
their Keen raising,

their King mourning,

word lays chaunting

and of (Walhall) speaking.

Mr. Spence Bate attributes the presence of the numerous
megalithic sepulchres and monuments of Dartmoor to the
Vikings of the North, who came thither in search of tin, as
testified by the enormous extent of ancient stream workings
on the West Webber, under Warren Tor; and supports his
theory as a philologist by an exhaustive analysis of the
etymology of the names of the rivers, hills and places,
fortified positions, &c., in the neighbourhood, the majority
of which he traces to a Scandinavian origin.

Whether the Scandinavian Norsemen derive their blood
from an Asiatic stock is a question for anthropologists to
discuss.

Il. THE ILLUMINATION OF BEACONS AND
BUOYS.

i UCH has been done to reduce the chances of ship-
wreck upon our coast, always so difficult of naviga-
tion, and yet very little is generally known of the
progress in the application of science to indicate to the
mariner his proximity to danger. There are two ways of
assisting seamen in their passage on a coast-line—by the
lighthouse, of use by day and night; and by the buoy
or beacon, of use by day alone. But often, and indeed
in the majority of cases, the rock or projecting spit is

22 Illumination of Beacons and Buoys. (January,

too small and not sufficiently important to allow of the
erection of a lighthouse with the necessary expensive appa-
ratus and shelter for the keepers; some other expedient
must then be found, and recourse is had to the mooring of a
buoy, or the erection of a light ironwork beacon. It is evi-
dent that the value of these substitutes is but small, as they
are visible by day only, and that the advantages to be
derived from their illumination are all important; for it
must be borne in mind that a vessel when in mid ocean is
perfectly safe compared with her position when nearing the
coast. The dangers, too, increase with the time of being
out of sight of land, because a seaman on a long voyage
may, by fogs and cloudy weather, be prevented the verifica-
tion of his course by solar or lunar observations, thus
rendering it difficult for him to determine accurately the
situation of a dangerous point. The erection of suitable
sea marks is, therefore, a matter affecting equally our
foreign commerce and our coast service.

The sources of illumination for beacons and buoys, Mr.
Thomas Stevenson, C.E., in his recently published work on
‘** Lighthouse Illumination,” considers the following :—

‘‘rst. The adoption of apparent or borrowed lights.

“and. The use of dipping lights for indicating the position
of shoals, by depressing the lamp and apparatus, so as
to cover with the light the ground that is dangerous.

“3rd. The conduction either of voltaic, magnetic, or fric-
tional electricity, or that produced by the efflux of steam,
through wires, submarine, or where practicable, suspended
in the air, so as to produce a spark either with or without
vacuum tubes, or by means of an electro-magnet and the
deflagration of mercury.

“ath. The conduction of gas from the shore in sub-
marine pipes.

“sth. Self-acting electrical apparatus, produced by the
action of sea-water or otherwise at the beacon itself, so as to
require no connection with the shore.”

This last method was suggested by Mr. T. Stevenson, in
the ‘‘ Transactions of the Society of Arts for 1866 ;” and it
is worthy of note that Mr. A. Bain, in 1848, produced and
maintained a steady light off Brighton by the use of sea-
water as the meee Gd fluid of the galvanic arrangement.

The use of apparent or borrowed light is now,, from
its simplicity, almost generally known. It consists of a
certain combination of prisms contained in a lantern
erected on the sunken rock, for producing the divergence of
parallel rays emitted by a distant lamp placed on the shore.

1872.] Iilununation of Beacons and Buoys. 23

Thus the light seen by the seaman is merely a reflection of
that on shore, the parallel rays of the shore-light being
undistinguishable at the distance from which the apparent
or reflected light is seen. One of these apparatus is erected
at the Bay of Stornoway, a well-known anchorage in the
Island of Lewis, the reflecting beacon being erected on
Arnish point, a sunken reef on the south side of the
entrance. This beacon is distant 530 feet from the real
lighthouse, and consists of a truncated cone of cast-iron
bearing the reflectors, which are exactly on a level with the
window whence the light is projected. The beacon thus
directly marking the spot to be avoided is only accessible at
the low water of spring tides, and this is, therefore, the only
kind of light available. But there are situations in which a
beacon cannot, owing to a great depth of water, be erected,
and it becomes necessary to ascertain whether a buoy
could be employed. From experiments made on different
parts of the coast, Mr. T. Stevenson finds the application
would be perfectly practicable. The difficulty to be sur-
mounted is the swinging of the buoy at its moorings; this,
however, can be compensated by causing the rays from the
shore to subtend a sufficient space to always include the
reflectors.

The apparent light is such a marked improvement upon
the dipping light, which merely illuminates the sea covering
the dangerous spot, at a very small additional expense, that
there can be no doubt of its substitution.

The third method of illumination, not as yet fully deve-
loped is, however, of paramount importance, as providing
light for those situations where the apparent light is inap-
plicable. Faraday’s discovery of the magneto-electric
spark was first adapted to lighthouse illumination by Pro-
fessor Holmes, and employed by the Trinity House in 1858,
at the South Foreland Lighthouse. In 1862 this apparatus
was placed at Dungeness, and here it has continued to give
out its light nightly, having been extinguished on only one
occasion, and then but for four or five minutes. Professor
Holmes’s machine consists of a number of powerful
magnets, fixed into an o¢tagonal frame. Bobbins or rods of
soft iron, around which are coiled helices of silk-covered
copper wire, are caused to rotate before the poles of the
magnets, the result of this rotation manifesting itself as
powerful electric currents in alternate directions. These
currents, brought to one direction by means of a commu-
tator, are conveyed from the machinery-room to two carbon
points fixed in the lantern of the lighthouse. The carbons

24 Illumination of Beacons and Buoys. [January,

being raised to incandescence are gradually consumed; and
this consumption is the weak point of the system, necessi-
tating a delicate automatic arrangement to maintain a con-
stant distance between the points. Of the merit of the
light evolved, Mr. Stevenson says :—‘‘ Through the kind-
ness of the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House, I had an
opportunity of inspecting Dungeness Light after nightfall, at
different distances. The weather being very favourable,
there was an excellent opportunity of viewing it, and the
French revolving light of Grisnez on the opposite coast.
The result was upon the whole very satisfactory ; the Dun-
geness sixth-order light, though showing continuously all
round the horizon, contrasted well with the revolving, and
therefore, more concentrated and first-class (oil) light of
Grisnez, when viewed from a distance of about twelve
miles. The electric light was generally very effective and
striking in its appearance, though it frequently fell off,
suffering prodigiously in volume; and once or twice it
disappeared altogether for a second or two. This temporary
extinction, though no doubt an evil, is not, from its very
short continuance, a practical defect of any importance.”
But there is the important fact to be observed that the
electric light appears to possess less power to penetrate the
atmosphere than does the oil light. ‘‘ When viewed from
Dover, a distance of about eighteen miles,” says Mr. W.
Stevenson, ‘‘the result was decidedly in favour of Cape
Grisnez.” Still this loss of penetration could be com-
pensated by increasing the original power; while it should
be remembered that the order of the lamps differed greatly.
Electric lamps for lighthouse purposes, moreover, are generally
of too small dimensions, and hence, as the angle of diver-
gence of the rays within the apparatus must be larger, any
variation of the carbon-points from the true focus will give
rise to a more extensive displacement of the emergent rays
than would be the case with lamps of the size used for the
oil light. In furtherance of this view, Messrs. Stevenson,
in their Report of November 27th, 1865, to the Northern
Lighthouses, recommended the adoption of apparatus of the
third and fourth orders as being preferable to that of the
sixth. This would entail some alteration in the form of the
lenses in order to produce a greater amount of vertical
divergence.

The penetrating power of the electric light is not, how-
ever, a question that need be raised in its application
to the illumination of buoys and similar surface sea-marks ;
for it is generally sufficient that their light should be seen at

1872.] Illumination of Beacons and Buoys. 25

a few miles’ distance. But there is a corresponding diffi-
culty. Neither Holmes’s nor Wilde’s machine can be
employed, because, as the light is produced by the rapid
consumption of the carbon-points, there is involved the
requirement of lamp machinery too delicate to withstand
the buffets of the waves. Mr. Stevenson therefore decided
on the employment of vacuum tubes, or the electric spark
without carbons. In order to increase the intensity of the
light, Professor Swan suggested the use of a Ruhmkorff’s
induction coil and condenser. From the experiments insti-
tuted between the 2nd and 13th of January, 1866, Mr. T.
Stevenson deduced some important results, which were
communicated to the Royal Scottish Society of Arts.
Platinum electrodes were employed, and the primary cur-
rent was kept passing for a week without any sensible waste
of the metallic points. To put these results into practice
was the next step, and a submarine cable. was procured
by the Commissioners of Northern Lights. But the condi-
tions of working a cable were not so well known as now,
and the intense secondary current could not be made to
take the desired path. Mr. Siemens was then appealed
to, and he submitted a very ingenious device by which
the extra current, as it is called, from the coils of an electro-
magnet, situated at the buoy or beacon, in the primary cir-
cuit, was utilised in the production of the spark. The
electro-magnet was, made to work its own contact-lever,
and the luminous effect was increased by forming one
electrode of a vessel of mercury, renewed by the action of
the eleCtro-magnet on a small pump. This arrangement
was placed at Granton Harbour, and although the light was
vivid and the current easily managed, insuperable diffi-
culties arose from the deposition of mercurial vapours upon
the apparatus. Experiments with the induCtion-coil were,
therefore, resumed, and following some improvements sug-
gested by Professor P. G. Tait, were attended with success.
The battery and break were retained on shore at Granton
pier-head, while the cable extended a distance of half-a-mile
to Trinity Pier, where two induction coils with condensers
and the optical apparatus were placed. The coils together
contained about eight miles of wire, and the spark was
induced by sixteen Bunsen elements, two additional cells
being used for working the break. The light was very vivid
and striking. With the exception, however, of some
enquiries made by the Trinity House, which led to the repe-
tition of the experiments in 1869, to the present nothing has
been done, although the recent improvements in electrical
VOL. IT.” (N-S:) E

26 Illumination of Beacons and Buoys. [January,

apparatus would certainly warrant the endeavour to bring
this source of illumination into pra¢tice. The greatest
obstacle to the adaptation is in the case of floating buoys,
where the cable would be subject to abrasion against the
sea bottom, in situations where the light would be most
useful, always of the worst kind. Yet the wear could be
brought, as we know from experience with telegraph cables,
within such limits as would be practically reparable.
Recent experiments with Wilde’s magneto-ele¢tric machine
without carbons have been made with much better results.
From various trials Mr. Stevenson has also found that the
most brilliant light is Geta when bismuth points are
employed.

The remaining source of illumination is that by gas. In
1853, Admiral Sheringham illuminated a buoy in this
manner off Portsmouth. The gas was conveyed as far as
possible in iron pipes, the condué¢tion being continued
through a gutta-percha tube to the beacon. The gas was
lighted by means of a platinum wire rendered incandescent
by the passage of a voltaic current from a small battery on
shore. The results, however, were not published till quite
lately.

A beacon on the Clyde, near Port Glasgow, was, in 1861,
lighted with gas, and has since been maintained. This
beacon is 300 feet from shore, and the supply of gas is
regulated in a very ingenious manner. A float is so
arranged in the principal burner that a certain pressure is
requisite to admit of the passage of the gas, consequently,
when the gas is shut off from the main each morning, the
light would be completely extinguished were it not for a
small burner that, being fed from a gas-holder of about ten
cubic feet capacity, situate in the body of the buoy, remains
alight all day. Again, each night as the pressure increases,
the float closing the supply-tube to the principal burner
rises, and the beacon is fully illuminated. The objection to
this system, however, is the liability of the flame to extinc-
tion—a risk from which the ele¢tric spark is free. The
accumulation of water in the pipes is another serious
obstacle; while in the case of ele¢tricity the risks of faulty
insulation would be compensated by the use of duplicate
wires.

These numerous experiments, however, go far to prove
that the illumination of buoys and beacons from the shore is
perfectly feasible, and the time is not perhaps very distant,
when, following the suggestion of Messrs. Stevenson, the
entrance to the Port of Liverpool, for example, will be lit up

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 27

from either shore by apparatus easily managed by one or
two men. The illumination of Arnish Point by the apparent
light for eighteen years, and the conveyance of gas under
water at the Clyde for nine years, in both cases with very
slight repairs, are facts demanding a more general extension
of these principles. It is no longer a question of expense,
as in the erection of the Eddystone and Bell Rock Light-
houses, but an easy expedient calling for speedy recognition.
While there are many situations where it would be impos-
sible at any expense to construct a lighthouse, these
generally admit of the employment of one of the apparatus
described, and which would be equally efficacious. The
* good done by the erection of our lighthouses in the saving
of life and property is almost incalculable, and is fully
an encouragement to proceed with the illumination of the
smaller sea-marks.

III. NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLIGHT.

RTIFICIAL flight is by no means an idea of me-
dizval or of modern times. Setting aside its
consideration as a poetical and legendary attribute,

there are tolerably authentic accounts, if not of the actual
flight of man, of the imitation of the movements of birds in
well-constructed automata. Archytas had a wooden dove
capable of flight, and Regiomontanus made a wooden eagle.
These, however, are merely historical records, and there are
not many definite plans left to us until 1683, when Wilkins,
Bishop of Chester, published his plans of an aérial chariot.
From that time to the present hardly a year has passed
without the appearance of some proposal, more or less
visionary, to solve the problem of aérial navigation. But
these proposals have only resulted in ignominious failure,
sometimes fatal to the experimenter; and this is hardly a
matter of wonder when we consider that, for long, little or
nothing was known of the laws of gravitation and of the
medium to be controlled. The methodical study of the laws
of the natural flight of birds and insects has been negle¢ted
even up tothe present time. It is, then, hardly just to
condemn the student of aéronautics as one needing friendly
care, until a complete series of experiments, conducted ac-
cording to the light of present science, shall have shown the
futility of the idea of artificial flight. It was an intention
of research that called the Aéronautical Society into life,

28 Natural and Artificial Flight. [January,

five years ago, and although the Society has not, as a body,
undertaken experimental investigation, individually there
has been much done to prevent wasteful work, to point out
essential principles, and the causes of failure hitherto. But
the thanks of the Society are mainly due to MM. Marey and
De Lucy, who, by their able investigations of the laws of
natural flight, have done much to elucidate the subject.

Aérostation may be considered under two heads. 1. Bal-
looning, in which ascent is gained by means of a gas
specifically lighter than air. 2. True flight, in which the
acts of rising and suspension are due to expended force.
There are two obvious reasons why balloons have not been
successfully navigated. It is difficult to apply a directive
force at the point of suspension of the balloon, while any
force applied to the car merely serves to tilt the balloon.
Again, a body to be propelled against a current of air, even
that created by its own motion, must have a weight in pro-
portion to its surface. This law will become apparent in
endeavouring to throw a block of wood and a cube of paper
to the same distance.

It was for long generally supposed that birds were sus-
pended or balanced by a certain volume of rarefied air
confined in the lungs, bones, and feathers. But this ex-
planation will not bear the least reflection, for (the density
of the air being 781 times less than that of water) a bird
weighing a kilogramme, together with its wings, cubes about
4 decimetres, and can therefore only displace 4 decimetres
of air, the weight of which is 5 grammes 20 centigrammes.
Hence it follows that a raven weighing 1 kilogramme, to
be supported in the air, should have a volume of at least a
cubic metre.

In considering the phenomena of flight it is necessary, ~
then, to observe the weight, or gravitating force, the surface
or resistance of the air, and the force of projection. The
point immediately presenting itself, under this consideration,
is the determination of the relation of the extent of wing-
surface to the weight of the bird. This question gave rise
to much controversy amongst naturalists, until M. de Lucy
undertook its settlement by a series of decisive measure-
ments. He sought to establish a common unit between
birds and insects in this matter, and, although here not
perfectly successful, the experiments clearly proved that
birds of large size and great weight are sustained by a much
smaller proportional wing-surface than those of smaller
size. If the wing is considered as the means of elevation,
that is, as an instrument with which to strike the air, and

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 29

thus derive a power of ascension, there are geometrical
reasons why the greater weight of the larger bird should
not have a proportional wing-surface. Consider two objects
similar in shape,—for instance, two cubes,—one having
twice the diameter of the other, then each of the faces of
the larger cube is four times the size of each face of the
smaller cube, while the larger cube has a weight eight times
that of the smaller. This is but a familiar illustration of
the fact that all geometrical solids with linear dimensions,
bearing a stated relation, have their surfaces proportioned
as the square, and their weight as the cube, of their similar
linear dimensions. So that two birds of the same form, but
one having a width of wing from tip to tip twice that of the
other, will have their wing-surfaces proportioned as I: 4,
and their weight as 1:8. Applying these principles, Dr.
Hureau de Villeneuve has endeavoured to determine the
extent of wing that would enable a bat of the same weight
as a man to fly, and he has found that each of its wings
would be less than three metres, or a little more than three
yards, in length.

The most important points in the consideration of the ul-
timate capability of man’s flight still remain. They are—
can man exert sufficient force? and can that force be me-
chanically employed to raise himself from the ground?
The second of these questions is yet to be answered; the
first has been solved by the experiments of M. Marey, of the
College of France. It is evidently only necessary to con-
sider the power of a bird to raise its own weight, because,
when once in the air, by the simple extension of its wings,
the bird is converted into a natural parachute, counteracting
the direct action of gravity, so that it does not acquire even
the descending velocity of nearly 17 feet in the first second,
but traverses a much less space,—in fact, a space that does
not increase as the square of the time. Therefore it follows
that a bird has not, as calculated by Borelli and Navier, to
employ force to countera¢t gravitation, because it finds a
counter-balance in the resistance of theair. The force, then,
to be expended is only that necessary to prevent the fall for
a fraction of a second. Now, M. de Lucy asks, what is the
space traversed in one-tenth of a second by a body left to
itself? This space is 19°29 inches; but as a bird is supplied
with a large surface of suspension the space may be esti-
mated as much less, orat 25 centimetres, in English measure
9°84 inches. The bird, then, has to expend a force sufficient
to raise itself, say a weight of 1 kilogramme, or about 24 lbs.,
9 or Io inches at each flapping of the wing. Now,

30 Natural and Artificial Flight. [January,

supposing ten strokes of the wing to be made per second, the
total force expended per second amounts to 2 or 3 kilogram-
metres. But as between each stroke of the wing there
lapses one-tenth of a second, during which the bird does not
fall, but elevates itself under the impulse that is given to it,
five strokes of the wing are sufficient, and the force required
will be only i or 1} kilogrammetres. Now these hypo-
thetical calculations are very closely related in result to the
direct anatomical investigations of M. Marey, who found,
by exposing the great pectoral muscle, and exciting it elec-
trically to cause motion, that the force of contraction supported
a weight of 2 kilogrammes 380 grammes. Admitting that
the electrical agent cannot produce so powerful a muscular
contraction as that called forth by the will, and doubling or
quadrupling the results obtained, there still does not result
the force that Koster attributes to the muscle of man.
Hypothetically, a bird capable of sustaining itself must ex-
pend a force proportional to its weight, and consequently
ought to possess a proportional weight of muscle. This has
been found experimentally true, and it appears, from the re-
searches of Hastings, published in the ‘‘ Archives Neér-
landaises”’ for 1869, that the weight of the pectoral muscle
is about one-sixth of the total weight of the bird. It would,
therefore, be a natural conclusion that we should admit the
wings of birds to possess the same velocity, and from this
point of view the duration of the stroke will increase with
the linear dimensions of the bird,—that is, large birds will
make fewer strokes than small ones. M. Marey has invented
a novel and most ingenious apparatus for the measurement
of the frequency of the strokes of the wings of a bird, and
the relative duration of the periods of elevation and de-
pression: By his method the bird is made to record the
movements of its wings, by the swelling of its pectoral
muscle as it contracts to draw the wings downward. The
bird flies in an inclosure 15 metres square and 8 metres high.
The registering apparatus (Fig. I) consists of a revolving
blackened cylinder, upon which a style traces a crenulated
line corresponding to the motions of the wings. A double
connection is established between the bird and the registering
apparatus; one by eletricity, conveyed through two fine
wires to contact points fastened to the wing of the bird ; the
other by flexible India-rubber tubing, about 12 metres in
length. This apparatus is applied to a pigeon by means of
acorset. Under this corset, between it and the peCtoral
muscle, is placed a small, shallow metal basin, containing a
spiral spring, and covered by a thin sheet of rubber (Fig. 2).

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 31

Any pressure applied to the rubber forces the air out of
the basin into the tube, and if the pressure ceases the air
re-enters the basin, in consequence of the elasticity of the
spring. The registering apparatus comprises a_ similar
basin, to the rubber of which is attached a lever carrying a

Fic 1.

tracing-style. The motion imparted to the first basin is
transmitted, by the air confined in the India-rubber tube, to
the membrane of the receiving apparatus. In employing
India-rubber tubing it is necessary to prevent the elongation
of the tube by its own weight as the bird rises in the air, as

Fie. 2:

the elongation would cause a rarefaction of the air in the
interior of the tube, and consequently interfere with the
signals recorded. The bird is thrown off at one end of the
enclosure,, the dovecote in which it is ordinarily kept being
placed at the opposite end. The bird, in endeavouring to

22 Natural and Artificial Flight. (January,

reach its cote, causes the traces on the blackened cylinder
shown in Fig. 3.

The tracings vary with the kind of bird placed in the
corset; but in all may be seen the alternation of two mo-

FIG. 3.

Tracings of the Expansion of the Pectoral Muscle of Various Birds
during Flight.
I. Tracings of a Tuning-Fork making 200 vibrations a second. II. From the muscle of a
Pigeon. III. From a Wild Duck. IV. From a Hen Hawk. V. From a Harrier.

tions, a and b, produced during each vibration of the wing,
that of a corresponding to the a¢tion of the muscle elevating
the wing, and that of 6 to the muscle depressing the wing,
Anatomically, a shows the swelling of the median pectoral,
and b that of the great pectoral. Nothing more should be
expected from these tracings than they naturally furnish,
that is to say, the number of vibrations of the wing, the

Fic. 4.

greater or less regularity of its movements, the equality,
inequality, and energy of each of them. Confining the in-
vestigation to these limits, we obtain the following results :—

Number of Wing Vibrations
per Second.

SPAELOW cs ots) ce Res eeoeees pe ec 3 (00)
Waldduck=./.aeele: os 2 ) O00
Pigeon Z's. ,.ad100

Buzzard (Buteo vulgaris) . « 5°75
SCrEech (OWL eae ho comers eu to GOO.
Harrier(Civcus:vujus) =~ = “3 37°00

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. ae

At the commencement of the flight the strokes of the
wings are fewer, but more energetic ; in mid-flight they at-
tain a regular rhythm, becoming again irregular at the
moment of the descent of the bird. Fig. 4 shows the
difference in amplitude and frequency of the wing-strokes of
a pigeon during a flight of 15 metres. The extended
tracings to the left indicate the movements at the com-
mencement of the flight. A glance at the preceding table
will be sufficient to show that Nature has here established a
compensation for the diminutiveness of the organs of the
smaller birds by rapidity of movement.

To complete the series of investigations M. Marey studied
the phenomena of natural flight, not analytical as hitherto,

Fia. 5.

=?

,
i]

but as a whole. During flight two distinct effects are pro-
duced,—the bird is upheld against the force of gravity, and
it is propelled horizontally. And now arise the questions :—
Is the bird sustained at aconstant elevation, or does it oscillate
in a vertical plane? Is there a series of altations and de-
pressions, the amplitude and occurrence of which cannot be
observed by the eye? Is there any variation of velocity in
the horizontal course? Does the action of the wings im-
part a jerking motion? These questions are of the greatest
import, if we observe the flight of birds with the view of
applying the laws discovered to the subject of the artificial
flight of man; and although some of them might have been
answered by deductions from the result of preceding ex-
periments, there can be no doubt of the correctness of
VOLS 1. (N-S.) F

34 Natural and Artificial Flight. (January,

M. Marey’s decision to still further investigate, and to depend
on experimental results alone. The laws that might be de-
duced involve in their deduction such complicated calcula-
tions that it would be easy for an errorto creep in. Besides,
possessing the means by which distant motions can be regis-
tered, or rather caused to register themselves automatically
throughout their whole amplitude, the experiment becomes
a matter of no great difficulty. The problem to be solved
is that of so arranging the membrane of the apparatus
shown in Fig. 1 as to record the bird’s rise and fall in a
vertical plane,—that is to say, the rise and fall of the bird
should produce a varying pressure on the membrane of the
metallic drum. Supposing that a flying bird carries on its
back a drum of the form described, with the membrane up-
permost,—if this membrane follows the motion of the bird
there will be no displacement of the air in the apparatus,
and the style will remain motionless. But if the membrane
is prevented from following the motions of the bird, if there
can be given to it a tendency to remain at rest, while the
body of the drum attached to the bird is moved, the air in
the apparatus will be compressed or rarefied, and motion
imparted to the registering style. This tendency can
clearly be produced by loading the membrane with an inert
body, such as a disc of lead. Fig. 5 illustrates this; the
drum is seen attached to the registering apparatus, with the
inert mass, the disc of lead, upon the membrane. Practi-
cally there are several discs, which may be added or removed
as the exigencies of the experiment require. The move-
ments in the horizontal direction are not registered, because
elevation and depression can alone affect the inertia of the
leaden discs, for when the bird ascends the inertia of the
mass resists the upward movement, and causes a record
similar to that which would have taken place had the mem-
- brane itself been subjected to pressure, and the drum had
remained motionless. To prote¢t the apparatus from acci-
dental pressure by the wings of the bird, a wire cage was
employed. There is, however, still the objection that an
inert mass placed on an elastic membrane may execute
vibrations peculiar to itself, and that the apparatus will
record these vibrations, as well as the oscillations of the
bird. How can this complication be removed? ‘The law
of vibrations teaches that the greater the mass, and the
feebler the elasticity, the longer will be the period of vibra-
tion. Then as the motions we are studying are tolerably
frequent, if we arrange matters so that the vibrations of the
disc shall be of a longer period than the oscillations of the
bird, we get rid of the difficulty.

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 35

Experiments with several birds—ducks, harriers, hen-
hawks, and owls—have shown that, in relation to the inten-
sity of the oscillations in the vertical plane, very varied
types exist. Fig. 6 shows tracings furnished by these birds.
The upper crenulated line is produced by a tuning-fork vi-
brating roo times per second. Thus the tracings may be
estimated absolutely, or in relation to each other. A still
clearer view will be obtained of the actions, during the bird’s
flight, if the oscillations of the bird vertically and ‘the move-
ments of its muscles are recorded at the same time. The
tracings represented by Fig. 7 will then be obtained. The
duck presents two energetic oscillations at each revolution

Fie 6.

; Tracings,
I. From the Tuning-Fork. II. Wild Duck. III. Buzzard. IV. Screech Owl. V. Harrier.

of its wing; the one at 0, at the moment when the wing re-
laxes, is easily understood; the other, at a, at the moment
when the wing rises. ‘Yo explain the ascension of the bird
during the time of the elevation of the wing, it seems to me,
says M. Marey, indispensable to call in the action of a boy’s
kite. The bird, moving forward with acquired velocity, pre-
sents its wings to the air in an inclined position, similar to
that of the kite, and thus transforms its horizontal force into
an ascending one.

The preceding experiment furnishes a very precious lesson
in the theory of flight. In fact, if the bird executes a series
of ascents and descents, the duration of the descending
period will approximately inform us of the amount of
positive work which the bird must perform to rise again to
the height from which it fell; and we see that the duck,
which makes nine vibrations of the wing per second, executes

36 Natural and Artificial Flight. [January,

two vertical oscillations during each vibration, or eighteen
ina second. Each oscillation is composed of arise anda
fall, so that each descent of the bird cannot last more than
1-36th of a second. Now, if we subtract the effect produced
(as in a parachute) by the outspread wings of the bird, we
find that a body which falls during 1-36th of a second tra-
verses only 52 millimetres. This fall, repeated eighteen
times a second, constitutes a total rise of 9°36 centimetres,
necessary to maintain the bird in the same horizontal plane
during one second. In the tracings of the harrier the
descents are less than in that of the wild duck, probably on
account of the large surface of the wings of this bird.

Fic. 7:

The two upper lines are the muscular tracing and the tracing of the oscillations of
the duck. The lower lines are tracings from a harrier. Underneath the undula-
tion a, indicating the elevation of the wing, is seen a vertical oscillation ; and
again beneath 8, indicating the lowering of the wing. The oscillation at a inthe
lower tracings of the harrier, corresponding to the elevation of the wing, is less
marked than in the duck,

The remaining question to be solved relates to the deter-
mination of the phases of rapidity of flight. The solution
can be found by placing the weighted drum vertically upon
the bird’s back. The tracings furnished are, however, so
analogous to the oscillations in the vertical plane, that they
show very little more than a proof that during the descent
of the wing the speed of the bird is accelerated.

At last, then, we are in possession of the principal facts
upon which the study of the mechanical power developed by
the bird during flight can be established, and we see that it
is during the descent of the wing that the entire motive
force which sustains and directs the bird in space is deve-

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 37

loped. We have also seen that man possesses the requisite
strength to raise himself, could the mechanical means be
devised. What has been effected by the mechanical means
already devised? Almost nothing, for so little has been
done upon principle. The ‘‘Chalon” machine, drawings of
which were exhibited some time since at the Aéronautical
Society’s meetings, appeared as one of the best perfected
schemes,—consisting in elevation primarily by means of
gas, wings then giving control to the machine. But even in
this case the relative proportion of surface to weight was
overlooked ; it would be almost impossible to direct such a
machine against the wind. It follows, evidently, that if gas
is to be employed as a means of elevation, when elevation is
attained some other agency must take the place of gas.
Perhaps the machine attended with the greatest practical
success has been that of Mr. Charles Sinclair, who managed
to raise himself some 15 feet in the air without the assistance
of a specifically lighter material. His plan consisted in
fastening to the body of the aéronaut a series of parallel
aéro-planes, somewhat similar to a set of shelves made of
light frame-work, covered with canvas, and arranged at
about 2 or 3 inches from each other. Running against the
wind with these quasi-wings attached to his body, Mr. Sin-
clair, in his first experiment, found himself elevated a few
feet, when one of the planes shifted, and he was violently
hurled to the ground. ‘The machine mended, with several
improvements in its constru¢tion, he again essayed to attain
some slight elevation, and, with a preliminary run of roo feet,
rose steadily in the air to a height of 15 feet. This experi-
ment would seem to point to some modification of a boy’s
kite as a means of elevation. Anyone who has seen a
Canadian ice-boat has observed how, at the slightest check,
such as that afforded by a small block of ice, the vessel is
raised by the force of the wind upon the sails, and carried
over the impediment. Similarly the boy runs with his kite
to raise it ; but we must seek some other means of imparting
the required momentum, probably by the inclined plane for
that afforded by running. Until some motor is found
capable of working in a small compass, and with a moderate
weight of fuel, the idea of flying by the aid of extraneous
machinery must be given up, and man must trust to his own
strength. But, despite failures, there can only be offered to
aéronauts an argument similar to that offered to Watts and
Stephenson,—‘‘ Man never has flown,’—but we must stop
short of saying—‘“‘ and he never will.”

38 The Coal Commissioner’s Report. [January,,

IV. THE COAL COMMISSIONER’S REPORT.

Yh HE question which gave rise to the appointment of the
eu Royal Commission, whose Report* we are now about

to review—namely, the probable duration of the coal
resources of the United Kingdom—was, according to Mr.
Jevons’s account,t first raised by one John Williams, a
mineral surveyor, who, in a work published by him in 1789,
entitled ‘‘ Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom,” gave
a chapter to the consideration of ‘The Limited Quantity of
Coal of Britain.” At that time the coal production of the
United Kingdom amounted only to about 7,500,000 tons
annually. This subject was also referred to by Sir John
Sinclair, in his ‘‘ Statistical Account of Scotland,” and
again in 1812, by Robert Bald, ‘‘in his ‘‘ General View of
the Coal Trade of Scotland.” Later still, Dr. Buckland
prominently brought it before the public, both in his
evidence before the Parliamentary Committees of 1830 and
1835, in his ‘‘ Bridgwater Treatise,’ and again in his
address to the Geological Society, on the 1gth ef February,
1841. Up to this time, however, the public generally
did not express any great interest in the matter; and it was
not until the publication of Mr. Hull’s workt on the
subject, in 1861, that its real importance began to be better
appreciated. This was shortly afterwards followed by
Sir William Armstrong’s celebrated address as President of
the British Association, at Newcastle, on the 26th of August,
1863, in which he stated that “‘the entire quantity of
available coal existing in these islands has been calculated
to amount to about 80,000 millions of tons, which, at the
present rate of consumption, would be exhausted in 930
years; but, with a continued yearly increase of 2} millions
of tons, would only last 212 years.” This announcement,
by which the real importance of the question was put before
the public in a pra¢tical shape, caused at the time consi-
derable excitement throughout the country; and it soon
became clear that some confirmation or refutation of the
statistics first published by Mr. Hull in his work above
referred to, and subsequently promulgated by Sir William

* Report of the Commission to Inquire into tne several Matters relative to
Coal in the United Kingdom, July 27, 1871.

+ The Coal Question: an Inquiry concerning the Progress of the Nation,
and the Probable Exhaustion of our Coal Mines. By W. STANLEY JEVONS,
M.A., &c. 1866.

+ The Coal Fields of Great Britain. By Epwarp Hutt, B.A. 1861.

1872.] The Coal Commusstoner’s Report. 39

Armstrong, was desirable in the public interest. On the
12th June, 1866, the subject was brought before the House
of Commons, by Mr. Hussey Vivian, in a very able speech,
in which he moved for the appointment of a Royal Com-
mission to inquire into several questions connected with the
coal resources of the United Kingdom. ‘This motion was
agreed to, and on the 28th idem, the Commission was
accordingly appointed, consisting of fifteen members,* with
the Duke of Argyll as chairman.

The special instructions to the Royal Commission were
as follows :—

“To investigate the probable quantity of coal contained
in the coal-fields of the United Kingdom, and to report on
the quantity of such coal which may be reasonably expected
to be available for use.

‘‘ Whether it is probable that coal exists at workable
depths under the permian, new red sandstone, and other
superincumbent strata.

**To inquire as to the quantity of coal at present con-
sumed in the various branches of manufacture, for steam
navigation, and for domestic purposes, as well as the
quantity exported, and how far and to what extent such
consumption and export may be expected to increase.

‘And whether there is reason to believe that coal is
wasted by bad working, or by carelessness, or neglect of
proper appliances for its economical consumption.”

The first a¢ét of the Commissioners was to form amongst
themselves five committees for the following purposes :—

Committee on possible depths of working.

Committee on waste in combustion.

Committee on waste in working.

. Committee on the probability of finding coal under
permian, new red sandstone, and other superin-
cumbent strata.

5. E. Committee on mineral statistics.

Riera arg
CONE

Without confining ourselves in any way to the order
in which these Committees subdivided the several questions
submitted for their investigation, we now proceed to give
briefly the results arrived at by them, and which have been
embodied in their respective reports, or brought out in
the evidence taken by them.

* Sir R. J. Murchison, Sir W. G. Armstrong, Messrs. H. H. Vivian, G. T.
Clark, J. Dickinson, G. Elliott, T. E. Forster, J. Geddes, R. Hunt, J. B. Jukes,
J. Hartley, J. Percy, J. Prestwich, A. C. Ramsay, and J. T. Woodhouse.

40 The Coal Commissioner’s Report. [January,

There is but Jittle reason for doubting that British coal was
used in small quantities in the days of the Roman occupa-
tion of these islands, as it has been found amidst the
remains of Roman civilisation in the city of Ut1iconium
and elsewhere. Statements respecting the use of coal
before the twelfth century are, however, exceedingly frag-
mentary ; since that period there is tolerably ample infor-
mation to be obtained respecting the coal trade from the
rivers Tyne and Wear, but very little relative to the produc-
tion at this period of coal in other parts of the kingdom.
The first record dates back to the year 1180, when Bishop
Pudsey, of Durham, granted some land to a collier, to pro-
vide coals for a smith at Coundon, in the county of
Durham ; similar grants being also made at Sedgefield and
Bishop Wearmouth. In 1213, a charter was granted by
King John to the men of Newcastle to dig coal. The
earliest record of coal being used in the South of England
is in 1279, when coal was purchased at Dover for the use of
the castle. In the year 1300, coal was used in quantity by
the brewers and smiths of London; which was, however,
prohibited in 1306, on the ground of its being an into-
lerable nuisance, but fifteen years afterwards it was used in
the royal palace. The first Government tax was laid on
coal as early as 1379, amounting to two-pence for every
chalder ;* but in the reign of Elizabeth it was raised to
twelve-pence per chalder, which was regularly enforced to the
time of Charles II. Duties were laid on sea-borne coal
to assist in building St. Paul’s church and fifty parish
churches after the great fire of London; and in 1677,
Charles II. granted to his natural son, Charles Lennox,
Duke of Richmond, and his heirs, a duty of one shilling a
chaldron on coals, which continued in the family until
it was purchased by Government in 1799, for the sum
of £400,000. This impost was known as the ‘‘ Richmond
shilling,” and produced soon after it came into the hands of
the Government £25,000 a year.

The practice of coal mining had arrived at such a degree
of importance at the beginning of the eighteenth century,
that we find treatises published as guides to the system of
exploration. Many of the collieries were then extensive,
and accidents were not unfrequent. An account is given
by one authort of a “blast” which occurred in October,

* This was probably the Newcastle chalder, containing 53 cwts. of coal.

+ The Compleat Collier: or the whole Art of Mining and Working Coal
Mines, &c., as is now used in the Northern Parts, especially about Sunderland
and Newcastle. 1708.

1872. | The Coal Commussioner’s Report. AI

1705, when ‘‘ there was above thirty persons, young and old,
. slain by a blast, perhaps in less than a minute’s time.”

In 1771 there was formed a combination among the coal
owners who shipped their coal by the three rivers, the Tyne,
the Wear, and the Tees, to raise the price of coals to con-
sumers by restricting the quantity supplied. This combi-
nation, known as the “‘ limitation of the vend,” lasted, with
but a few temporary interruptions, until 1845. As this
restriction did not apply to coal shipped to foreign parts, it
frequently happened that coal was sold to foreign markets
at 40 per cent under the prices in the London market.
About 1791 a feeling grew up in favour of obtaining coal
from the midland and other coal-producing counties for the
London market. .

Coal was first worked in Cumberland, at Whitehaven, by
Sir John Lowther in 1660, but there does not appear to
exist any record of the quantity raised until towards the end
of the 18th century. Little appears to be now known of the
early history of the Lancashire coal-fields. In the Cheshire
coal-field, coal is said to have been first opened in Nerse
township in 1750. ‘The early history of coal mining in
Yorkshire is very obscure; but it is stated in an early
number of the ‘‘ Leeds Intelligencer,” a local newspaper, that
in 1752 a petition was prepared for Parliament for rendering
the Calder navigable, the chief object being the conveyance
of coal. The Derbyshire coal-fields are referred to by
Pilkington,* who wrote in 1789; and Cambden, in his
‘* Natural History of Warwickshire, A.D. 1730,” was perhaps
the first to record any fa¢ts relative to what is known as the
Staffordshire coal distri¢t. Shropshire from a very early
period appears to have yielded from its stores fuel for the
use of man. Shropshire coal has been found in the ruins of
Uriconium. The earliest record of any colliery workings in
this county however, appear in the “‘ Leeds Intelligencer” for
November 23rd, 1756. The first notice of the production
of coal in the Forest of Dean appears to be supplied
by the records of the Justice Seat held at Gloucester in
1282, where it is stated that sea coal was claimed by six of
the ten bailiffs of the Forest of Dean. Coal was sent
to London from South Wales as early as 1745, and in North
Wales the Mostyn Collieries date from the 23rd year of the
reign of Edward I. Amongst the earliest reliable accounts
of the Scotch coal-field, we find that in the twelfth century,

* A View of the Present State of Derbyshire, with an Acconnt of its most
Remarkable Antiquities, &c. By James PitxineTon. Derby, 1789.

VOL AL... (Ness) G

42 The Coal Commissioner’s Report. [January,

William de Vetereponte granted to the monks of Holyrood,
““totam decimam de carbonaris meo de Carriden.” ‘This is
the name of a small brook flowing into the Firth of Forth,
about three miles north of the ancient palace of Lin-
lithgow. This was in the time of William the Lion,
during whose reign the monks of Newbattle worked coal
on the margin of the Esk. Arthur Dobbs, author of an
‘‘ Essay on the Trade of Ireland,” writing in 1728, says,
““We have of late discovered coal mines in the counties of
Cork and Leitrim.”

Having thus, in the briefest possible manner, touched
upon the early history of the coal-fields of the United
Kingdom, we pass on now to notice the amount of coal that
has been raised from time to time. The estimated pro-
duction of the whole kingdom is thus given in the Commis-
sioner’s Report :-—

‘“‘In the three centuries before 1800, it is computed that
not less than 850 millions of tons of coals were raised from
the coal-fields of the kingdom. During the next fifty years
there was a constant and steady increase in the production,
and fully two thousand millions of tons of coal were
extracted. Up to this time the records of coal produce
were most imperfect, and it was not until the year 1854 that
reliable returns have been in existence. The average pro-
duction in 1851, 1852, and 1853, may be taken at 50,875,000
tons per annum. In the years 1854 to 1869, both inclusive,

1,343,793,705 tons were raised, which added to the figures
above given, and estimating the return for 1870 at 110,000,000
tons, show that we have “already drawn from our original
stores of fuel not less than 4,456,000,000 tons* of fuel.”

Space will not admit of our entering into any minute
detail regarding the consumption of coal, but it may be
stated that, of the 1074} millions of tons raised in 1869,
32,446,506 tons were employed in iron manufacture;
25,327,213 tons in manufactures; 3,277,562 for steam navi-
gation, 2,027,500 for railways, locomotives, &c.; 18,481,572
in domestic consumption ; and 9,775,470 tons were exported.

Large portions of some of our coal-fields lie at a greater
depth than has yet been reached in mining, and it is consi-
dered that the increase in temperature which accompanies
increase of depth is the only cause which it is necessary to
consider as limiting the depths at which it may be practi-
cable to work coal. In this country the temperature of the
earth is constant at a depth of about 50 feet, and at that

* The Report says 4300 millions of tons, but in this figure the returns for
the three years 1851 to 1853 appear to have been omitted.

1872.] The Coal Commisstoner’s Report. 43

depth the temperature is 50° F. © The rate of increase
of the temperature of the strata in the coal districts of
England is in general about 1° of Fahrenheit for every
60 feet of depth. The depth at which the temperature of
the earth would amount to blood heat, or 98°, is about
3000 feet. Under the long wall system of working, a dif-
ference of about 7° appears to exist between the temperature
of the air and that of the strata at the working faces, and
this difference represents a further depth of 420 feet; so
that the depth at which the temperature of the air would,
under present conditions, become equal to the heat of the
blood, would be about 3420 feet. Beyond this point the
considerations affecting increase of depth and temperature
become so speculative as to render it necessary to leave the
question in uncertainty; but, looking to possible expedients
which the future may elicit for reducing the temperature, it
is considered that it may fairly be assumed that a depth of
at least 4000 feet might be reached.

Before considering the supplies of coal which still remain
for consumption, within a workable depth, it is necessary to
refer briefly to the waste that now occurs in working, and
through imperfect combustion.

The theoretical value of 1 lb. of coal is 14,000 units of
heat, which, if properly applied, should be equal to the
power of lifting 10,800,000 lbs. 1 foot high, whilst the
highest practical result which has been realised is 1,200,000
lbs., or less than one-eighth of the theoretic value, and this
without counting the impurities of ordinary coal, which
cannot be taken at lessthan 10 per cent. Theoretically, 1 |b.
of pure coal should evaporate about 13 Ibs. of water;
practically, 1 lb. of ordinary coal does not evaporate 4 lbs.
The best results are stated to have been obtained in the
boilers of Cornish engines, or in boilers constructed upon
tneemodel af the, “Cornish boiler”. ‘he “duty.” of the
best Cornish engines since 1814 shows that, up to a certain
point, there was a gradual increase in the number of pounds
lifted 1 foot high by the combustion of 1 bushel (94 lbs.) in
the earlier tables, and of 1 cwt. (112 lbs.) in the latter ones;
and that, after the maximum had been obtained, there was
a steady decline in the effective power obtained; but the
highest recorded duty is about 98,300,000, in 1857. Upon
the general question of coal consumption, the conclusion
arrived at by the Commission is, that ‘‘ for some time past,
in our manufactures, there have been constant and perse-
vering efforts to economise coal, by the application of
improved appliances,” and there is reason to believe that,

44 The Coal Commissioner's Report. - {January,

**in some branches of manufacture, the limits of a beneficial
economy appear to have been nearly reached, and that in
other cases a gradual effort would continue to be made for
saving fuel.” It may be assumed, therefore, that the pro-
gress of economy in using coal is not likely to operate in
future with greater effort in keeping down the increase of
consumption than it has hitherto done. The present con-
sumption of coal for domestic use is generally estimated at
I ton per head of the whole population, and the future
increase under this head may be expected to coincide with
the increase of population; whilst, as regards the future
exportation of coal, there is reason to doubt whether much
further increase will take place in this direction, owing to
the steady development of the coal-fields in other countries.

With regard to the available supplies of fuel yet re-
maining, a not unimportant consideration is the amount of
waste incident to mining coal. It is clear, from the evidence
adduced on this subject, that, although in many instances
waste in working is reduced to a minimum, and although
manifest improvement is being made in the working of coal,
especially by the extension of the system of “ long wall,”
nevertheless coal is wasted by bad working and by careless-
ness, and that to a very considerable amount in proportion
to what is actually used. Under favourable systems of
working the loss is about Io per cent, while, in a very large
number of instances, the ordinary waste and loss amounts
to 40 per cent, irrespective of what is sacrificed by the ne-
cessity for leaving coal for barriers, for the support of
buildings, and for other objects. This is a very considerable
evil, and one which requires immediate attention. If it be
necessary to husband our coal resources, means should be
everywhere encouraged, not only for the introduction of an
improved system of getting coal, so as to reduce the waste
to a minimum, but for the better utilisation of small coal,
none of which should be permitted to be left below that can
possibly be raised. One method of utilising small coal,
which is briefly referred to by Committee E, in their Report,
is by the manufacture of patent fuel, but this is not at
present carried on to a sufficient extent to have much effect
upon the general question.

In considering the quantity of coal in known coal-fields,
4000 feet has been adopted as the limit of practicable depth
in working, and a certain proportion has been allowed for
waste and loss incident to working the coal. With these
provisions, the estimated quantity of coal in the ascertained
coal-fields of the United Kingdom is 90,207 millions of tons,

>< =e

1872.] The Coal Commussioner’s Report. 45

whilst at depths below 4000 feet it is computed that there is
a further supply amounting to 7320 millions of tons, which
might be obtained if existing obstacles to working at a lower
depth than 4000 feet were overcome. Space will not admit
of our even touching on the considerations upon which the
Commissioners express themselves in favour of finding coal
under the permian and newer strata. The supply from
this source, within the depth of 4000 feet, is roughly esti-
mated at 56,273 millions of tons. It is also considered
probable that coal measures may possibly extend beneath
the south-eastern part of England; but Sir Roderick Mur-
chison contends, in opposition to this theory, that ‘‘ in con-
sequence of the extension of Silurian and Cambrian rocks
beneath the secondary strata of the South-east of England,
and of the great amount of denudation which the carbonife-
rous rocks had undergone over the area of the South of
England previous to the deposition of the secondary forma-
tions, little coal could be expected to remain under the
cretaceous rocks.” As this question is still one of theory,
no attempt has been made by the Commission to estimate
the quantity of coal lying under the unexplored area of the
South of England.

Omitting the probable amount of coal below 4000 feet in
depth, there thus appears to be an aggregate quantity of
146,480 millions of tons which may be reasonably expected
to be available for use ; and it remains now only to see how
long that quantity, with an increasing consumption, is likely
to last. The bases upon which calculation may be made,
as to the probable duration of our coal supplies, are nume-
rous, and varying conclusions have been consequently
arrived at by different authorities. The two great principles
upon which such a calculation should be based are—the
annual increase in population, coupled with the increase in
consumption of coal per head of the population. Now,
from the year 1811 to 1821 the increase in population was
16 per cent, while in the last decade, from 1861 to 1871, it
was 11% per cent. These two rates of increase, in con-
junction with those of the intervening decades, have been
taken as the elements of a curve which, carried forward,
shows the extent of the population in future years, supposing
no disturbing causes to arise. The rate of consumption of
coal per head of the population appears to have been very
irregular; but, on an average, the increase in fourteen years
‘amounts to nearly 3 per cent per annum, but it is not thought
probable that this rate will be maintained. From statistical
tables furnished by the Commissioners, it appears that the

46 The Coal Commiussioner’s Report. (January,

absolute increase of the consumption of coal between 1855
and 1859 averaged 0°035 ton per head per annum; that the
next six years, 1859 to 1865, averaged 0°145 ton per head
per annum; while the last four years, 1865 to 1869, only
averaged o'0463 ton per head per annum. From this it
would appear that the annual increase has passed through
a point of maximum increase, and that it is now dimi-
nishing.

Basing their calculation, however, upon an arithmetical
instead of a geometrical increase in the rate of consumption,
and simply adding a constant quantity equal to the average
annual increase of the last fourteen years, taken at 3,000,000
tons, the Commissioners arrive at the following result,
namely, that at the end of a hundred years the consumption
would be 415,000,000 tons per annum, and that the now
estimated quantity of coal available for use would represent
a consumption of 276 years. Taking, however, another
view of the case, and supposing that from this time the
population of the whole country, and the consumption of
coal per head of that population, will remain constant, or
merely oscillate without advancing, our available coal would
represent a consumption of upwards of 1273 years, at the
rate of 115,000,000 per annum.

These two calculations, as tothe probable duration of our
coal resources, given by the Coal Commission in their
Report, may probably be taken to represent two extreme
cases, between which the actual truth may probably be
found. Whilst, then, we may confidently anticipate the
continued existence of coal for some 300 years at least, it
by no means follows that its price will remain as at present.
With increased depth of workings, and an increased diffi-
culty in raising coal, its price must necessarily rise; and
although, therefore, there is no fear that coal will become
actually scarce in our time, the same effect will, in a great
measure, be secured by its increase in price. The prevention
of this evil can, apparently, only be effected by still greater
economy in combustion, and the enforcement of a law that
no coal, either large or small, shall ever be left in a working
beyond what it may be impossible to gain.

1872.] (47 )

V. THE SPECTROSCOPE: ITS IMPERFECTIONS
AND THEIR REMEDY.

By Munco PontTon, F.R.S.E.

y AHAT the spectroscope, as at present constructed, is an
(es imperfect and fallacious instrument has been already
: indicated in a previous paper, entitled ‘‘ Molecules,
Ultimates, Atoms, and Waves.” It is now proposed to
show in what respect the instrument is objectionable, and
how it may possibly be improved.

To understand the subject, it is needful to have some
acquaintance with the laws of chromatic dispersion. An
investigation into these laws will be found in the “ Philo-
sophical Magazine” for 1860, pp. 165, 263, 364. When
those researches were undertaken, the only existing measure-
ments of the wave-lengths corresponding to the principal
fixed lines of the spectrum were those left by Fratinhofer.
These wave-lengths, however, have been recently re-mea-
sured with more perfect appliances than Fratinhofer could
obtain, by M. Angstrom, of Upsal, who has published the
results in his work on the Normal Spectrum, accompanied by
an illustrative atlas, in which all the most remarkable lines
of the spectrum are laid down onan extended scale according
to their wave-lengths.

Since that work was published, M. Angstrém’s measure-
ments have been analysed, and it has been ascertained that
the whole of the wave-lengths corresponding to the principal
fixed lines are capable of being calculated from one—
namely, that corresponding to the more refrangible of the
two lines marked E. The formule expressing the relations
on which these calculations are based will be found in a
memorandum contained in a work recently published.* It
is there shown, moreover, that there is another curious
relation connecting the whole of those wave-lengths to-
gether. While the other seven are all capable of being calcu-
lated from that of the more refrangible E, the sum of the
three equations, by which are thus calculated the wave-
lengths corresponding to the three lines A, B, and C, is equal
to the sum of the four equations by which are calculated the
wave-lengths corresponding to the four lines, D, F,G, and H.
This remarkable relation seems to indicate that the wave-

* «The Beginning,” &c. Longmans and Co. The memorandum is
inserted between the notes and the description of the plates.

48 The Spectroscope : [January,

lengths of these lines are all interdependent, resembling the
strings of a perfectly-tuned instrument, the key-note corre-
sponding to the more refrangible E.

The extreme closeness of the agreement between the
wave-lengths as given by M. Angstrom’s observations, and
those calculated by the formule, combines with this last-
mentioned relation to show both the accuracy of the obser-
vations and the truth of the relations which the formule
express. Great confidence may therefore be placed in the
correctness of the wave-lengths as calculated from those
formule.

It became interesting to inquire to what extent the laws
of chromatic dispersion, as deduced from Fraunhofer’s
normals, might be affected by this alteration in the wave-
lengths corresponding to the principal fixed lines. Investi-
gation shows that those laws remain unshaken in their
principles by this change in the elements of calculation.

The important practical use to which those laws may be
applied is to check the accuracy of observations on the
indices of refraction corresponding to the principal fixed lines
in different media, for the observed indices rarely give
results which tally quite exactly with the laws; but the
alterations which they must undergo, to render the agree-
ment perfect, are in general so small as to establish the
laws, which may accordingly in their turn be employed to
correct the indices.

The media, whose indices of refraction for the different
fixed lines have been experimentally determined, fall under
two categories,—Ist, regular; 2nd, irregular. ‘The former
embraces by much the larger number of media; and as it is
only with such that the spectroscope has any connection, it
is to them that attention shall here be confined.

In all media whatever, the relation between the wave-
length in the free ether and that within the refracted medium
may be expressed by one and the same formula. If U re-
present the normal undulation, and w its reduced length
within the medium, then is

ae

é
where « and a are two quantities constant for the medium
and temperature, while x is a small quantity peculiar to
each wave, and represents what is termed the irrationality
of the medium, or, in other words, the extent to which the
fixed lines are extruded or thrust out of their proper places.
It is this quantity x, however, that is all-important in the

1872.} | its Imperfections and their Remedy. 49

correction of the observed indices of refraction; because it
is regulated by peculiar laws, and the indices may be cor-
rected by bringing them into conformity to those laws. If
uw represent the refractive index in any medium corresponding
to the undulation belonging to any fixed line, we have, of
course, in every case,

But it is only where pw, the index of refraction, is quite cor-
rect that the quantities represented by x conform to their
proper laws.

These quantities represent additions to or abstractions
from the internal wave-lengths, that would arise from the
more simple formula,

[OPA
—«a.

ee

They constitute an evidence of a transfer of energy from
one set of waves to another within the medium, and by its
action. Now the general law of the conservation of energy
requires that this transfer should involve an exacét compen-
sation,—that what is lost in length by one set of waves
should be exactly the same as what is gained in length by
another set, or, symbolically, the quantities represented by
+x must be exactly equal to those represented by —x. In
every good set of observations on the indices there is a close
approach to this equality, and this constitutes the first law
regulating those quantities. It applies to all media, whether
regular or irregular.

In all regular media the sign of x is plus for the three
waves corresponding to the lines D, E, and F, and minus
for the four waves corresponding to the lines B, C, G, and H.
In the former the formula is always

for the latter it is

If by, cx, dy, &c., represent the quantities x, corresponding
to each internal wave, we have, in all regular media,

30x + 2¢x—dx=3hxt2gx—fx.
VOL, II. (N.S.) H

50 The Spectroscope : (January,

If the difference between b, and h, =6, that between c, and
g, =6,, and that between d, and f, =8,, then the differences
between each pair of 6,, 6,, and 6,, constitute an arithmetical
progression.

In all regular media there are two nodes, at which the
sign of x changes from plus to minus, the one situated be-
tween C and D, the other between F and G. Irregular
media differ from regular in the position and number of these
nodes, and in the arrangement of the quantities plus x and
minus x; but the sums of each of these are always equal.

These laws, and the mode of their application to the
correction of the observed indices of refraction, may be illus-
trated by a single example. For this purpose the specimen
of flint glass marked No. 30 by Fraiinhofer may be seleCted.
The indices of refraction, as determined by him, are as
hayalere

Be Cc D. Ey F, G. 1Ble
1°623570, 1°625477, 1°630585, 1°637356, 1°643466, 1°655406, 1°666072.

The normal wave-lengths corresponding to these seven
lines, as observed by Angstrom, and corrected by the
formulz according to which they are calculated from E, are
as follows, E being assumed as unity, and the others stated
in reference to that standard :—

B. c: Det car he G. H.
1°3033839, 1°245493, I°1189003, I, 0°922576, 0°8175183, 0°7464871.

The lines D, E, and H, in the spectrum are double; but it
is the less refrangible D, and the more refrangible E and H,
whose wave-lengths are here given.

The internal wave-lengths in flint glass, No. 30, are found
by dividing each of the above normal wave-lengths by its
corresponding index of refraction. This gives the following
aes F——

b. Cs d. é. Fr g. h.
0°802789, 0°766232, 0686196, 0°610741, 0°561360, 0°493848, 0°448052.

The constants, < and a, for the formula

U
= Uy
é

are found thus :—
-— (3B+2C+D)—(F+2G + 3H)
(3b+2c+d)—(f+2g+ 3h) ’

and its value in this case is 1°570504. ‘Then, calling the

1872.] tts Imperfections and their Remedy. 51

sum of the seven normal wave-lengths =S, and the sum of the
seven corresponding internal wave-length =s, we have
(S=e)55
Sek ee a

7

and its value in this case is 0°026605.

=
From the formula

é
we obtain a second set of values of the internal waves, as
follows :—
bo. One do. €2. ioe 22. gultae

0°803309, 0°766448, 0°685842, 0°610133, 07560834, 0°493948 07448712.
The differences between these and the former set are the
quantities represented by x, and they stand as under :—

x minus.
bx 0°000520
Cx 0°000216
&x O'OOOI0O
h, 0°000660

x plus.
d, 0°000354
€, 0°'000608
fi 0°000526

Sum o'001488

Sum o*o001496

The equality here, although near, is not perfect, showing
that a slight adjustment is required to bring these quantities
under the dominion of the general law of the conservation
of energy, Neither do they perfectly agree with the other
laws before mentioned, but the difference is small. When
these quantities are adjusted according to the laws, neglecting
the prefixed cyphers, they stand thus :—

x plus. x minus.
dx 355 by 521
€, 609 oe de
fe 520 gx 93
h, 660
1490 1490
We have also—
x plus. x minus,
36, 1563 3hz 1980
20, A32 2g, 186
1995 2166
Wess.) 355 Wess 7, 520
1640 1640

52 The Spectroscope : [January,

We have further the following arithmetical progression :—

h, —by =139
6) — 8, — 123

— 16 |
fe—d, =171I |
hz —b, =139 ; Common difference 16,
fie- dy, = I71I
Cze—Lx —123
ee ee

thus corresponding to the laws. By calculating backwards
from these adjusted quantities we obtain the corrected in-
dices of refraction, which will be found to differ but slightly
from those derived from observation, as shown in the
following table :—

Observed. Calculated. Difference + Difference —

B. rO22570 1°623571 0°000001

C. = 1°625477 2: 1°025477

IDy 1°630585 1°630582 0°000003
E. 1°637356 1°637350 0°000006
FE. 1°643466 1°643463 0°000003
G. 1°655406 1°655398 0°000008
isle 1°666072 1°606061 O*OOOOII

Also the value of « becomes 1°570518, and of a 0°0265908.
These small differences are far within the limits of probable
errors of observation.

Reverting to the normals, as wave-length is in the dif-
fracted spectrum inversely equivalent to refrangibility, it
follows that the positions assigned to the different lines in
M. Angstrom’s Atlas being fixed according to their wave-
length, these must be their true positions in the normal
spectrum, and that in so far as—in the spectrum produced
by any set of prisms composing a spectroscope—the relative
positions differ from those assigned to them in M. Angstrom’s
Atlas, such differences must be due to the action of the
prisms.

To show to how great an extent the lines are displaced in
M. Kirchhoff’s spectrum, it is needful to compare the rela-
tive positions there assigned to the lines with those in
M. Angstrom’s Atlas. Fortunately this is not difficult ; for
the interval between the more and less refrangible lines
marked D, which in M. Angstrém’s Atlas occupies six divi-
sions, in M. Kirchhoff’s occupies four; and as the relative
positions of those two lines cannot differ appreciably in the

1872.] its Imperfections and their Remedy. 53

two spectra, each division of M. Kirchhoff’s scale may be
reckoned equivalent to a division and a half of M. Ang-
strom’s. It is only necessary, therefore, to add a half more
to each of Kirchhoff’s intervals to make them equivalent to
Angstrom’s. The following table exhibits the intervals
between the lines in the two spectra thus compared :—

Angstrém’s. Kirchhoff’s. Differences + Differences —

A—B. 737 285 452
B—C. 305 153 152
C—D. 667 463 204.
D—E. 627 781 154
E—F. 408 834 426
F—G. 553 1162 609
G—H. 374 1542 1168

3671 5220 2357 808

A simple inspection of this table suffices to show how
much the lines are displaced from their true relative posi-
tions by the action of the prisms in M. Kirchhoff’s spec-
troscope.

For the sake of further comparison, suppose a spectroscope
to be constructed with prisms having the same refracting
angles as those in M. Kirchhoff’s instrument, namely, three
with the angle 45°, and one with the angle 60°, but composed
of flint glass, No. 30 of Fratinhofer. The following are the
ultimate differences of deviation in seconds between the
different lines, which would be given by such an instrument:

eee). =f ES FG: G—H.
1826, 4902, 6524, 5926, 11642, 10458. Sum 41,278

For a short interval like that between the more and less
refrangible of the two lines marked D, the differences of the
indices of refraction may be assumed to bear to the differences
of wave-length the same relation as they do in the case of
the adjacent principal lines, which are here the less re-
frangible D and the more refrangible E. The difference
between the relative wave-lengths of these two lines is
o°118g9003, and the difference between the wave-lengths of
the more and the less refrangible D is o°0011378—the former
difference being nearly 104°5 times that of the latter. The
difference between the refractive indices of the less re-
frangible D and the more refrangible E for flint glass, No. 30,
is 0°006768 ; and on the supposition that this difference is
104°5 times greater than that between the indices of the
more and the less refrangible D, the latter difference will be

54 The Spectroscope : (January,

0'000065. This corresponds to a difference of deviation
of about 62” for the four prisms. As these 62” of deviation
correspond to six degrees of Angstrom’s scale, if we take
a tenth of the deviations we shall have the intervals for this
flint glass according to M. Angstrom’s scale, sufficiently near
for the present purpose. The intervals between the lines
resulting from these four flint glass prisms, as compared
with those from M. Kirchhoff’s four, and with the normals,
will accordingly stand thus—

Normals. Flint Glass. Kirchhoff's. Dien Berto
B—C. 305 183 153 —122 +30
C—D. 667 490 463 Savi ary
D—E. 627 652 781 + 25 —129
E—F. 408 503 834 +185 — 241
F—G. 553 1164 1162 4 611 + 2
G—H. 374 1046 1542 +672 — 4096

It will be perceived from this table that the intervals
of the spectrum, produced by the flint glass, No. 30, of
Fratinhofer, approach more nearly in character to those of
the normals than do those of M. Kirchhoff’s, and that the
increased dispersion of this last is in a great measure due
to an excessive enlargement of the interval between G and
H. The peculiar features of M. Kirchhoff’s spectrum are
probably traceable to his having given to his prisms curved
faces, which, while increasing the dispersion, has augmented
the irrationality in a still higher degree.

As all media tend to alter the intervals between the lines
to a greater or smaller extent, it is evident that, if prisms
are to be retained in the construction of the spectroscope,
some device must be adopted in order to give those intervals
their true value before the instrument can be regarded as
satisfactory. The means that appear available for this
purpose are the combining of different media, the giving of
one or more of the faces of one or more of the prisms some
peculiar curvature, or the introduction of both of those
means of correction to render it more perfect. If, as in
M. Kirchhoff’s instrument, curvature of the faces of the
prisms has so greatly increased the irrationality of the in-
tervals, it seems probable that a similar device applied in a
different way might be rendered available to restore them
to their true values. The aim has hitherto been to obtain
a very large spectrum by means of a great amount of dis-
persion, irrespective of the displacement of the lines;
whereas the correct principle of construction should be to
obtain an accurate spectrum, corresponding exactly with
that obtained by diffraction, trusting to magnification by the
telescope for increase of size.

1872.] tts Imperfections and their Remedy. 55

In Mr. Grubb’s spectroscope recourse has been had to a
combination of flint and crown-glass in the construction of
the prisms; there being a central prism of dense flint-glass
and large angle, having cemented on each of its two re-
fracting sides, in the reverse position, a crown-glass prism
of one-fourth of the angle. Without knowing the exact
refractive indices of the two kinds of glass employed for
each of the fixed lines, it is impossible todo more than show
approximately the effect of this combination on the inter-
vals ; but such an approximation may be made by assuming
the indices. Suppose, then, that the flint-glass prism has
the same indices as Fratinhofer’s No. 30, and that the
crown-glass has the same indices as Fraiinhofer’s No. 9,
which, when corrected by the laws, are as under :—

B. C. D. 1B, F, G: lel
1°525832, 1°526849, 1°529587, 1°533000, 1°536052, 1°541659, 1°546566.
The differences between these and the observed indices are
still more trifling than in the case of the flint-glass. Sup-
pose the refracting angle of the flint-glass prism to be go”,
and that of each of the crown-glass prisms to be a fourth
of this, or 22° 30, the ultimate differences of deviation
arising from such a compound prism would be in seconds as

under :—

B—C. C—D. D—E. E—F. F—G. G—H.

754, 1862, 2548, |2360,' 4728, 4372.
The difference of deviation between the two lines marked D
is 32”; consequently, if we take one-fifth of the above devi-
ations, we shall have the intervals, according to M. Ang-
strom’s scale, sufficiently near for the present purpose.
They will then, in comparison with the normal intervals,
stand as under :—

Normals. Comp. Prisms. Diff. + Diff. —
B—C 305 I51 154
C—D. 667 B72, 295
D—E. 627 510 117
E—F. 408 407 I
PG. 553 946 393
G—H. 374 874 500

It is thus evident that, while the character of the irration-
ality is much altered by this combination, it is far from
being removed. The almost perfect coincidence of the
intervals E—F, in the above spectra, is remarkable.
It might nevertheless be possible, by the expenditure of a
great amount of time and skill, to find a combination of

56 The Spectroscope : (January,

prisms of diverse media, which, combined with a certain
curvature of the faces of one or more of the prisms, might
bring the intervals into a more or less perfect agreement
with those of the normals.

The true and most effectual remedy, however, appears to
be the having recourse at once to the diffracted speCtrum in
the construction of the spectroscope. There are, doubtless,
great practical difficulties in the way of making a handy
instrument on that principle; but it is believed that it will
be found possible to surmount these more easily than to
overcome those attending the obtaining of a refracted spec-
trum which shall exactly correspond with the diffracted.
It is comparatively easy to produce a diffracted spectrum,
by means of a system of equidistant fine lines viewed
through a telescope at a distance of about 12 feet. The
difficulty is to secure a good large spectrum, from sucha
system, within the compass of an easily portable instrument.
Until that be accomplished, it would be well that every
spectroscope formed with prisms should have its individual
spectrum carefully compared with the normal spectrum
formed by a standard instrument, and that a table should
be constructed showing how much the positions of the
principal fixed lines, and of the borders of the colours,
differ in the refracted spectrum from what they are in the
normal, such table to be attached to the instrument.

It may not be amiss, however, to throw out a few hints
as to the practicability of constructing a compact spectro-
scope on the diffracting principle. Mr. Lewis Rutherford,
of New York, has recently exhibited in London sets of
equidistant lines ruled on glass, of which there are 1500 to
the inch; and even with these fair diffracted speCtra can
be obtained. But it is better to have the lines very much
closer than these. It is not difficult to obtain copper wire
1-200th of an inch in diameter. Suppose wire of this
description to be so wound on a square frame as to leave
between each strand an interval exactly equal to the
diameter of the wire; this would give a hundred strands
and a hundred equal intervals for each inch. A square
frame, therefore, of 100 inches free space would contain
‘10,000 strands of wire, and the like number of equal inter-
vals. It is believed that such a frame might be constructed
without much difficulty, and, were it once construéted, any
number of photographs might be taken from it, reducing its
size to one quarter of an inch. The photograph would thus
have 10,000 equidistant lines in the space of a quarter of an
inch. These photographs might be taken on thin plates of

1872.] ats Imperfections and theiy Remedy. 57

quartz, cut parallel to the axis of the crystal, and the lines
could be covered with a similar plate to prevent access of
dust. By using quartz the extreme ultra violet lines could
be obtained without absorption, and be rendered visible by
means of a fluorescent screen. To prevent the effects of
diffraction between the lines, in taking the photographs, the
wire frame should have fine, thin, white paper placed behind
it, through which the light should be admitted to pass
through the frame, and all other light should be excluded
from the camera.

Having thus procured the system of fine equidistant lines,
the next point is to make such arrangements that a highly
magnified spectrum could be obtained from them by means
of a telescope placed at a moderate distance. Suppose a
box to be formed about 18 inches in length, and that the
system of fine lines, with its slit and collimator furnished
with quartz lenses, are placed at the top of the box, about
the centre, so that the spectrum formed may be thrown
down to the centre of the interior of the box, an arrangement
being provided for shifting the system of fine lines along a
graduated scale, so as to bring successively the different
parts of the spectrum into view. Suppose a very small
plane reflector, of silver or speculum metal, to be placed in
the centre of the interior of the box, at an angle of 45° to-
wards the roof, to receive the image of the spectrum, and
let the image formed by this mirror be in the focus of a
parabolic reflector placed at one end of the box, so thatx.,
the rays reflected from the small plane mirror shall be re-
flected parallel towards the opposite end of the box. Exact,
opposite to this parabolic reflector let there be placed a
reflecting telescope, the parabolic reflector of which shall
receive the parallel rays, and concentrate them in its own
focus on another small plane mirror, where they may be
viewed by the eye-piece to: be composed of quartz lenses.
By this arrangement the light would never pass through
any other medium than quartz, which does not absorb the
ultra-violet rays. The rendering the rays parallel at once
would obviate the necessity for viewing the spectrum from a
distance, in order to obtain sufficient magnification, which
might be secured of any desired amount, by means of the
reflecting telescope, without much loss of light. For viewing
the ultra-violet rays a fluorescent surface might be substi-
tuted for the first of the small plane mirrors.

The chief practical difficulty would be the procuring of
two good parabolic reflectors for the instrument ; but it is

VOL. II. (N.S.) I

58 Modern Cannon Powder. _ [January,

believed that these can now be made of accuracy sufficient
for this purpose.

Great care would be required in taking the photograph of
the fine equidistant lines, to secure their being accurately in
focus; but the true focus once found and fixed, the photo-
graphs might be multiplied indefinitely, at a moderate cost.

These hints are merely thrown out for the consideration
of practical opticians, and it is quite possible that there
may be graver difficulties which have been overlooked.
Nevertheless, the devising of some means for constructing
a spectroscope on the diffracting principle is well worth the
consideration of those engaged in the manufa¢ture of this
instrument; for until this principle be adopted, accuracy,
certainty, and uniformity of results, cannot be attained.

VI. MODERN CANNON POWDER.
es

he the year 1779, nearly a century ago, General
sl Sir William (then Captain) Congreve was sent to

Plymouth to examine the gunpowder with which the
Fleet was then supplied, on which occasion he reported that
there were only four barrels of serviceable powder in the
whole of His Majesty’s ships. This state of affairs was no
doubt due to the fact that the country was then entirely
dependent on private manufacturers for its supply of
powder, and that the proof to which it was subjected was
not such as to ensure its being of good quality. On discovery
of the gross frauds which were thus being carried on with
impunity, the Government Gunpowder Factory at Waltham
Abbey was established, and, under the able superintendence
of Sir W. Congreve, the quality of the powder supplied to
the army and navy was greatly improved.

From this date until the general introduction of rifled
guns in 1860, very little progress was made towards the de-
velopment of this important manufacture, the only changes
being in the direction of improvements in the preparation
and purification of the ingredients, the quality of the finished
powder being thereby improved, while its character remained
unaltered. During the whole of this period the description
of powder used with all cannon was what is technically
called ‘‘ L.G.,” or “‘ Large Grain,” in contradistin¢ction to
‘““E.G.,” or “ Fine Grain,” which was used with small arms
and muskets; but this powder was believed to be too violent

1872.] Modern Cannon Powder. 59

for use in the rifled breech-loading guns introduced about
twelve years ago, and a modified kind was therefore
adopted, on the recommendation of Sir William Armstrong.
The modification consisted in making the powder much
larger* in the grain, and in addition, coating it with a thin
film of graphite, so as further to retard its combustion and
thus to reduce the strain upon the breech-closing mechanism
of the gun.

This new powder was at first called “‘A,,” but its name
was afterwads changed to ‘‘R.L.G.,” or ‘‘ Rifle Large Grain”
powder, when its use was extended to both muzzle-loading
and breech-loading rifled guns. Now at the time of the in-
troduction of this modified powder, the means of testing the
action of the charge in the bore of a gun were very imperfect,
and the change then made was founded almost entirely
upon theoretical considerations. In order to understand
these, and also the results of more modern experiments, it
will be necessary to say a few words on the subject of the
combustion of gunpowder.

In the first place it must be borne in mind that gunpowder,
unlike nitro-glycerine, fulminate of mercury, and other
detonating substances, is not a chemical compound, but only
a mechanical mixture. By the incorporating process during
manufacture the three substances of which powder is com-
posed—saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal—are so intimately
mingled that the eye cannot detect the presence of any one
of them in a free state. They are notwithstanding only
mixed, and the saltpetre can be readily dissolved out by
water, or the sulphur sublimed, in the form of vapour, by
the application of a moderate heat, leaving in either case
the other two ingredients chemically unchanged. The
more intimate the mixture, the more nearly does gunpowder
approach to a chemical compound, and the more violent is
its combustion; but there always must remain a vast differ-
ence between the most complete mechanical mixture and the
most unstable chemical compound.

For this reason the combustion of gunpowder is only very
rapidly progressive, and not instantaneous as is the case with
the violent explosives mentioned above. It is this difference
that renders gunpowder so valuable as a propelling agent,
for, were it not for its comparatively mild action, no gun
could be made sufficiently strong to resist its force. The

_* The size of grain in “ L.G.” powder is such that it will pass through a
sieve of 8 meshes to the inch and be retained on one with 16 meshes, while
the limits of “ R.L.G.” or “A,” powder are between a 4-mesh and an 8-mesh
sieve.

60 Modern Cannon Powder. | [January,

material of the cannon would be broken before the inertia
of the shot could be overcome.

Now supposing one grain or particle alone to be ignited,
it will be first inflamed over its whole surface, and the pro-
gressive combustion will take place from the exterior to the
interior. Its vate of combustion will therefore depend upon
both its shape and size, leaving out entirely for the present
the question of density and hardness. A particle of spherical
or cubical form will expose less surface to ignition, in pro-
portion to its volume,than one of an elongated or flat shape,
and will consequentlyrequirea longer period forthe combustion
of its entire mass: the larger the particle also, the longer
will be the time required for its consumption. Looking, then,
at one grain of powder by itself, we may safely say that the
larger it is, and the more nearly does its form approach to
that of a sphere, the longer will its combustion take, and the
slower will be the evolution of the gas. When, however,
we come to regard the action of an aggregation of such’
particles, as in the charge of a gun, the rate of ignition of the
whole charge is also affected by the size and shape of the
grains. The part of the charge first ignited is that near
the vent, or touch-hole, and the remainder is inflamed by
contact with the heated gas generated by the combustion of
this portion, so that the rate of ignition of the whole mass
will be regulated by the greater or less facility with which
the gas can penetrate throughout the charge, which is
itself dependent upon the size and shape of the interstices
between the grains. If the grains be spherical and regular
in form, the interstices will be comparatively large and
uniform, and the gas will penetrate the mass with facility ;
again, the larger the grains, the larger the interstices between
them. If, on the other hand, they be flat or flaky and
irregular in shape, the passage of the gas will be more
difficult, and the rate of inflammation of the charge reduced.

We see, therefore, that the considerations which affect the
more or less rapid combustion of an individual grain of
gunpowder also affect the rate of ignition of a charge of
such grains, but in an opposite direction ; so that a form of
grain which will individually burn rapidly may offer an
increased resistance to the passage of the heated gas through
the charge, and thereby retard its ignition, while a grain
which will burn more slowly may allow of the charge being
more rapidly ignited. By varying the size and shape of the
grain alone, a powder may therefore be obtained a charge of
which shall be ignited rapidly throughout but burn com-
paratively slowly, or one which shall be ignited more slowly,

1872.] Modern Cannon Powder. 61

but when once inflamed burn very rapidly. It is necessary
to draw a clear distinGtion between a rapidly igniting and a
quickly burning powder: this difference will be more apparent
when we come to the discussion of more modern powders.

The grains in both L.G. and R.L.G. powder are very
irregular in shape, and the latter is double the size of the
former, so that the individual grains will burn more slowly. It
was, therefore, believed on theoretical grounds that the larger
powder would exert a less violent strain upon a gun, and it
was adopted, as we have said, for our rifled guns, the
question of density being regarded at that time as of minor
importance, though it was already attracting some attention.
It has since been conclusively proved by experiments that
the density and hardness of the grains of powder are of quite
as vital importance as their size and form, in determining
the rate of ignition and combustion of a charge.

The density depends on the amount of pressure to which
the powder meal has been subjected during manufacture,
while the hardness is greatly affected by the amount of
moisture present in the meal when pressed; one term
applies to the mass, while the other refers more particularly
to the surface of the grains. A dense powder may be
generally stated to be a slow-burning powder, while a hard
one is slow lighting. Density retards the combustion both
because there is more matter in the same volume, and con-
sequently more powder to be consumed in proportion to the
ignited surface of the grain, and also because the heated gas
finds greater difficulty in penetrating the solid mass of the
grain. A hard powder need not of necessity be very dense;
it is even possible, by pressing it in a moist state, to obtain
a very hard powder which shall at the same time be light
and porous in the interior of the grains. Such is the
Russian prismatic powder (of which more hereafter), and it
may be taken as a good specimen of a slow lighting but
quick burning powder.

With the improved appliances now used in testing powder,
the quality of the large stock of L.G. and R.L.G. in store
in this country has been found to be very variable, prin-
cipally due to variation in the density of different brands.
Previous to the year 1868, the proof to which all cannon
powders were subjected was very imperfect, and failed
utterly in ensuring uniformity in those passed into the
service. The density was only roughly ascertained by the
process of ‘‘ cubing,” as it was called, while the strength
and uniformity of the powder was tested by the “‘ Mortar
Eprouvette.” ‘‘Cubing” consisted in weighing a cubic

62 Modern Cannon Powder. [January,

foot of the powder, a box made to hold that amount being
filled by pouring the substance loosely into it; the weight
therefore depended, to a great extent, upon the closeness
with which the powder packed itself, as well as upon the
absolute density of the grains. The shape of the grains,
and the amount of glaze the powder has received, affect the
closeness with which it packs itself, and would therefore
lead to errors in determining the density in this way. At
the present time the density is accurately arrived at, by
means of a mercury densimeter, in which the weight of a given
volume of powder is compared with that of an equal volume
of mercury: the density of mercury (correCted according to
the readings of a barometer and thermometer at the time)
being known, that of the powder is easily calculated.

In the “‘ Mortar Eprouvette” a round shot, weighing 68 lbs.
was fired from an eight-inch mortar with a charge of from two
to three ozs. of the powder under examination, and the range
of the shot from the muzzle of the mortar was measured.
The greater the range the better was the powder believed to
be, the only limit being a low one. The fallacy of this
belief was proved beyond a doubt as early as the year 1864,
by comparing the velocity of shot fired with different
powders, by means of the accurate instruments then
generally in use for that purpose. It was then found that
powers which gave the best results in very small charges
fired from a mortar were often very inferior when fired in
comparatively large charges from guns, and the immediate
adoption of a new proof of powder, by measuring the velocity
of shot fired under service conditions, was strongly re-
commended. This recommendation was not, however, carried
out until four years later, when Colonel Younghusband, the
present Superintendent of the Government Gunpowder
Works at Waltham Abbey, introduced the velocity proof
which is now in force. The instrument used at Waltham
Abbey for measuring the velocity of a shot is an ele¢tro-
ballistic chronoscope, invented by Captain Le Bouleuge, of
the Belgian Artillery,* which surpasses all similar instru-
ments in simplicity and facility of manipulation, though the
principle upon which it acts is the same as in others. In it
electricity is employed to record the exact instant at which
the shot passes two points at a known distance apart, a
short space in front of the gun. From this the time occupied
by the shot in traversing the distance between these two

* This instrument, and the method of using it, is described in detail in a
pamphlet by Lieut. C. Jones, Royal Artillery, Instructor Royal Gun Factories.
Printed by order of the Secretary of State for War.

1872.] Modern Cannon Powder. 63

points is known, and the velocity with which it is moving is
readily ascertained, and affords a direct indication of the
strength and uniformity of the powder. Every kind of
powder now passed into the service is subjected to this
proof, in addition to being tested by the mercury densimeter.

We have stated that R.L.G. powder was adopted in 1860
for our breech-loading guns, and that its use was afterwards
extended to the charges of all rifled guns. When, however,
the size of our heavy ordnance was increased more and more,
it soon became apparent that even this powder was totally
unfit for the large charges then used, and its violent action
earned for it abroad the unenviable soubriquet of “‘ poudre
brutale.”

In the year 1858 the gunpowder question was referred to
a Committee, composed of the Superintendent of the Royal
Gunpowder Factory, the Superintendent of the Royal La-
boratory, and the Chemist to the War Department ;* and it
was, in fact, some of the earlier experiments of this Com-
mittee that led to the introduction of A, or R.L.G.
powder. The means at their disposal for determining the
manner of combustion, and the pressure exerted upon
the gun by different kinds of powder, were very limited.
Nevertheless the conclusions they arrived at, as set forth in
their Reports of 1859 and 1866, were very correct, and have
been entirely corroborated by subsequent researches. As
early as 1860 they had satisfactorily proved that the density
and hardness of powder exercise an important influence on
its character, and in all their subsequent experiments these
points were strictly attended to. In their final report (1866)
they recommended the adoption of a cylindrical ‘‘ Pellet”
powder of a density between 1°492 and 1°50, but pressed
comparatively wet, so that, though light, the powder should
beratherhard. The form of this powder is shown at Fig. 1,
Plate I., the cavity or indentation having been introduced in
order to increase the surface exposed to ignition. This
powder was adopted entirely upon experiments carried on
with various natures of Armstrong breech-loading guns and
smooth-bored mortars, and it is evident that a light, but
hard, powder, such as this is, which would be slow lighting
but quick burning, would be exactly suited to breech-loading
guns, in which the initial resistance of the tight-fitting, lead-
coated projectile is very great, as the lead has to be bodily
forced forward into the grooves of the rifling.

B sais Askwith, R.A.; Captain Boxer, R.A.; and F. Abel, Esq., R.A.,

64 Modern Cannon Powder. (January,

The pellet form was recommended principally as a con-
venient method of making a large grain powder of consider-
able uniformity in size and density ; but the Committee did
not consider that the subject of gunpowder had been ex-
hausted by them, and closed their Report with a recom-
mendation that ‘‘ systematic artillery experiments should be
instituted with this pellet powder, of a sufficiently compre-
hensive character to test thoroughly the system.”

In the meantime, while the labours of this Committee
were still progressing, other experiments were being carried
on in this country. In 1863-4 a proposal was made to press
granulated powder into discs the size of the bore of the
gun, and perforated with holes to facilitate the passage of
the gas. These discs varied in thickness from 2 to 3 inches,
and were made of powder of various-sized grains, the amount
of the compressing force differing in different specimens.
The results of these trials were not sufficiently satisfactory
to lead to the adoption of this form of powder. About the
same time a similar description of powder, proposed by
Dr. Doremus, an American, was tried unsuccessfully, both
in America and in this country; and again, in 1866, discs—
made by compressing the powder meal—gave even less
satisfactory results.

The Americans, about this period, introduced an irregular
large grain powder, which they called ‘‘ Mammoth,” and
still use in the large charges fired from their enormous cast-
iron smooth-bored guns, to which they obstinately ad-
hered for years after the remainder of the civilised world
had been armed with rifled ordnance of wrought-iron or
steel. The size of this powder ranges from o'15 inch to
0°30 inch, and its density is very moderate, being 1°70 to 1°75.

‘‘ Prismatic”? powder appears, also, to have been tried in
America in 1865; it had already been fired with good results
from the heavy steel breech-loading guns which the Russians
and Prussians have obtained from Messrs. Krupp, of Essen.
This powder is shown at Fig. 2, Plate I., being made in the
form of regular hexagonal prisms about 1 inch thick and
o’8 inch in the side, perforated with seven holes about
o'r inch in diameter. In making up charges of this powder,
the prisms are built up regularly in the cartridge bags, like
honey-comb, which are then tightly tied at the mouth, so
that the grains are kept firmly in their place. The perfora-
tions thus form long tubes through the charge, by which the
gas permeates the whole mass.

The powder meal is pressed into the shape of these prisms
in a very moist state, but the pressure is not great, as the

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density of the finished powder is only 1°67. The surface is,
however, very hard, and, being to a certain extent covered
with a film of saltpetre, which is deposited by the moisture
when the powder is dried, it is comparatively difficult to
ignite ; when once inflamed it burns very rapidly, being light
and porous, and in this respect is very like the pellet powder
recommended in 1866, being particularly suitable for breech-
loading guns. Though this pellet powder was decidedly a
step in the right direction, as the strain upon our guns was
considerably reduced by its use, it was only nominally
adopted into the service in 1867, and was never issued either
to our ships or batteries. The reason for this was that there
existed no machinery for manufacturing a sufficient supply,
and, while the necessary machinery was in preparation, the
results of the experiments of the present Committee on
Explosives* led to its abandonment in favour of ‘‘ Pebble”
powder.

This Committee was appointed in May, 1869, to enquire
generally into the value of various explosive substances,—
such as gun-cotton, nitro-glycerine, &c.,—in use, or pro-
posed, for military purposes, and more particularly into the
powder question, in which, through mismanagement rather
than ignorance, we had fallen behind the rest of Europe.
They at once entered on an extended series of experiments,
with a view to the “determination of the description of
gunpowder whose employment in large charges is attended
with the least risk of overstraining the heavy guns” we now
employ, and have rendered two Preliminary Reports on this
subject.f From these it appears that no less than forty
descriptions of British and foreign powders have been fired
in large charges from heavy guns, out of which number four
varieties were selected for further experiments.

The guns used in these experiments are an 8-inch wrought-
iron smooth bore of 63 tons, and a Io-inch gun of 18 tons:
the latter was first used as a smooth bore, andafterwards rifled.

The means employed by the Committee, in the investiga-
tion of the action of the large charges fired from these
guns, are very ingenious, and may be briefly described as
follows :—

* This Committee consists of the following :—President—Colonel Young-
husband, R.A., F.R.S. Members—Captain Singer, R.N.; Major Haig, R.A.,
F.R.S.; Captain V. D. Majendie, R.A.; Captain Stoney, R.A.; Captain
A. Noble, late R.A., F.R.S.; F. Abel, Esq., F.R.S. Secretary—Captain W. H.
Noble, R.A.

+ Preliminary Report of the Committee on Explosive Substances; printed
- the War Office, February, 1870; and Progress Report of the same, January,
1871.

VOL. Il. (N.S.) K

66 Modern Cannon Powder. | January,

1. The determination of the time taken by a projectile in
traversing various intervals within the bore of the gun,
which was effected by means of a chronoscope invented by
Capt. A. Noble, a member of the Committee, and made at
the Elswick Ordnance Company’s Works. ‘This will be
described hereafter.

2. The determination of the pressure direCtly, by means
of Rodman’s pressure-gauge fitting on the exterior of the
gun, and communicating with the interior of the bore by
means of a hollow screw-plug.

3. The determination of the pressure directly, by means
of an inner gauge termed a “ crusher,’”’ which was designed
by the Committee to overcome certain defects inherent in
the Rodman gauge.

4. The determination of the velocity of the projectile
after leaving the gun, by means of Navez-Leur’s or Le Bou-
leugé’s electro-ballistic apparatus, commonly used for this
purpose.

The chronoscope and the method of connecting it with
the interior of the gun are shown in Plate II. The prin-
ciple of action consists in registering, by means of electric
currents, upon a recording surface travelling at a uniform
and very high. speed, the precise instant at which a shot
passes certain defined points in the bore. The instrument
may be divided into two portions; the one consisting of the
mechanical arrangement for obtaining the necessary speed,
and keeping that speed uniform; the other forming the
electrical recording arrangement.

The first consists of a series of thin metal discs, AA, each
36 inches in circumference, fixed at intervals upon a hori-
zontal shaft, s Ss, which is driven at a high speed bya heavy
weight, B, arranged according to a plan originally proposed
by Huyghens, through a train of gearing multiplying 625
times. The driving weight is continually wound up during
the experiment by means of the handle u, and the requisite
speed is obtained by accelerating the motion by the handle c.
The precise rate at which the discs are moving is ascer-
tained by the stop-clock, D, which can, at pleasure, be
connected, or disconnected, with the revolving shaft, BE, and
the time of making any number of revolutions of this shaft
can be recorded with accuracy to the 1-1oth part of a
second.

The speed attained is generally about 1000 inches per
second linear velocity at the circumference of the revolving
discs, so that each inch represents the: 1-10o0oth part of a
second, and, as the inch is subdivided by the vernier, v, into

1872.] Modern Cannon Powder. 67

a thousand parts, a linear representation is thus obtained at
the circumference of the discs of intervals of time as minute
as the one-muillionth part ef a second. Asa small variation in
speed would affect the relations between the several records
obtained, the uniformity of rotation is ascertained, on each
occasion of experiment, by three observations,—one imme-
diately before, one during, and one immediately after, the
experiment, the mean of the three observations being taken
as the average speed. The accuracy of the workmanship
in the instrument is shown by the great degree of uniformity
at which the speed is maintained. The Report gives the
observations in six consecutive rounds ; in two of these the
speed was absolutely uniform, while the greatest variation
in any round is as follows :—

Ist observation, 625 revolutions made in 21°2 seconds.
and % r» »» 209,»
3rd 2? 29 a) 20°7 39

The arrangement for obtaining the electrical records is as
follows :—The edges of the discs are covered with a strip of
white paper, and each is connected with one of the secondary
wires, G, of an induction coil. The other secondary wire,
H, carefully insulated, is brought to a discharger, I, opposite
the edge of its corresponding disc, and is fixed so as to be
just clear of the latter. The surface of the paper on the
discs is coated with lamp-black, so that the passage of a
spark from the discharger to the disc burns away the black,
and marks the spot perforated by exposure of the white
paper beneath.

In order to connect the primary wires of the induction
coils with the bore of the gun, so that they may be cut by
the shot in its passage, the gun has been tapped ina number
of places (see Plate II.) for the reception of hollow steel
plugs, carrying at the end next the bore a cutter which pro-
jects slightly into the bore. This cutter is held in position
by the primary wire, which is carefully insulated and passed
down the plug, through the cutter, and back out of the
plug, the ends being conne¢ted to the main wires leading to
the induction coils. When the shot reaches the point where
a plug is screwed in, it presses the cutter in flush with the
bore, and, by so doing, cuts the primary circuit, thereby
causing an induced spark to pass from one of the dischargers
to the corresponding disc. As each plug is reached, a spark
is delivered on the disc in conne¢tion with it, and thus the
passage of the shot up the bore is recorded at regular inter-
vals. By means of the micrometer, v, the distance between

68 Modern Cannon Powder. [January,

the sparks on the discs is read off, each spot being brought
in succession exactly opposite the discharger belonging to
the disc it is on: the speed at which the discs are moving
being known, the time occupied by the shot in passing from
one point to another is readily ascertained, and its velocity
of translation calculated.

In order to test the accuracy of the instrument, it is only
necessary to cut the whole of the primary wires simulta-
neously, when the whole of the sparks should be in one
straight line, and the deviations from a straight line, that is,
from an absolutely simultaneous record, give the instru-
mental errors.

Great difficulties were experienced in securing a simul-
taneous rupture of the primary wires, and only two methods
were found at all satisfactory. One arrangement was to cut
the wires by a flat-headed bullet fired from a rifle, across
the muzzle of which they were all tightly stretched ; in the
other they were all wound round a detonating fuze, the ex-
plosion of which severed them almost instantaneously. A
number of the observations thus obtained are given in the
Report, and the errors—including those due to the impossi-
bility of obtaining an absolutely instantaneous rupture of all
the wires—seldom exceed 0°000003 second, while the maxi-
mum error is only 000002 second!

In addition to the holes tapped to receive the cutting-
plugs already described, the gun is also bored to take a
number of Rodman or ‘“‘crusher” gauges. When any of
these holes, which are twenty-one in number, were not re-
quired in the experiments, they were filled with solid steel
plugs. The Rodman pressure gauge is shown in position in
the gun (Plate II.): it consists of a piston, working in a
hollow screw plug open to the bore, the outer end of which
carries a pointed knife, against which a piece of copper is
placed. When the gun is fired, the gaseous pressure on the
base of the piston forces the knife into the copper, and the
indent is a measure of the pressure which has acted on the
base of the plug. In this instrument the gas has a consi-
derable space to travel between the powder chamber and
the piston ; thus, before reaching the latter it attains a high
vis viva, especially in quick burning powders, and a¢ts upon
the piston more like a blow than a pressure, and the records
are therefore much higher than should be the case.

To remedy this defe@t the “‘ crusher” gauge was devised
by the Committee (see Fig. 3, Plate I.) : the reduced dimen-
sions of this instrument allow it to be placed so close to the
bore of the gun that the gas has no space to travel before

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1872.) Modern Cannon Powder. 69

reaching the piston. It consists of a screw-plug of steel,
having a movable base which admits of the insertion of a
small copper cylinder, B. One end of this cylinder rests
against an anvil, A, while the other is acted upon by a
movable piston, c, which is kept tight against the cylinder by
the spring, z. The cylinder is retained in the centre of the
chamber, c¢, d, e, f, by a small watch-spring. A gas-check,
D, is inserted against the lower extremity of the piston, and
should any gas get past this there are passages by which it
can escape into the open air. Upon the explosion of the
charge the gas, acting on the area of the piston, crushes the .
copper against the anvil, and, the amount of pressure re-
quired to produce a definite amount of compression of the
copper having been determined by previous experiments, the
pressure on the piston is at once ascertained. The area of
the copper cylinders used in the 8-inch gun was 1-12th of a
square inch, and that of the piston 1-6th of a square inch.
We have stated that four varieties of powders were
chosen out of a large number for further experiment: these
were—R.L.G. service powder, pellet service powder, Russian
prismatic powder, and ‘‘pebble” powder No. 5. When
fired from the 8-inch gun, in charges which best suited each
kind of powder, the following results were obtained :—

Nature of Powder. Charge. ve poe ee
Lbs. Feet. Tons.
eG. 5 eek, > 30 1324 29°8
Russian prismatic. 32 1366 20°5
metvice, pelleh . 5 30 1338 17°4
Pebble No.5 =. « 35 1374 15°4

From this table it is evident that the Service R.L.G. is
far inferior to all the others, while the pebble is manifestly
the best.

“* Pebble” powder, so called from its resemblance to small
black pebbles, was first tried in Belgium, but the powder
which gave the above satisfactory results is an improvement
on the foreign powder, being more uniform in size and
density. It consists of irregular cubes, having edges, from
5-8ths to 4-8ths inch in length, made by cutting up the
““press-cake”” into the required form; the powder is as
usual glazed in a revolving barrel, which operation removes
the sharp edges. Its manufacture is therefore very simple,
little or no new machinery is required for its produ¢tion, and
it is cheaper than any of the other descriptions. Its density
is high, about 1°8, but owing toits large size and comparatively

70 Modern Cannon Powder. [January,

uneven surface it is a quick-lighting powder: the whole
charge (if of the proper form) is quickly and uniformly
lighted, and the maximum pressure in the powder chamber
is consequently even throughout its surface, while with
powders which are both quick lighting and quick burning,
like the old L.G. and R.L.G., intense local pressures,
varying in different parts of the chamber, are produced.
As an example of this the following results obtained in the
10-inch gun its smooth bore state are given.

Pressure per square inch by
Crusher Gauge at
ane

= a
ve B. C.
Powder and Renae Muzzle Axisof Centreof Front of
Charge. * Velocity. Bore. Charge. Charge.
Feet. Tons. Tons. Tons.
12G.200dbS.y j24 16 1273 49 28 29
Pellet 64 lbs... 43 1377 21d Zan 21
Pebble 70 lbs. . 6 1435 22 22 23

The explanation of these local pressures caused by quick
burning powders is very clearly stated by Captain A. Noble,
in a paper read at the Royal Institution, on the “ Tension of
Fired Gunpowder,” and may be expressed briefly as follows :—
The products of combustion of the first portion of the
powder inflamed, in travelling from one end of the chamber
to the other, attain a very high velocity before meeting with
any resistance, and the re-conversion of the wis viva thus
acquired into pressure at the base of the shot and the end
of the bore; gives rise to the intense local pressures at those
points, while the rapidity of combustion of the powder at
that part of the charge is probably enormously accelerated
by the tension under which it is exploded. ‘The time
during which these abnormal pressures are kept up must
be exceedingly minute, even when compared with the in-
finitesimal times we are considering ; for we find the chrono-
scope pressure, which may be regarded as representing
the mean of pressures of a violent oscillatory character,
hardly altered at all, even although the local pressures are
increased 50 per cent.”

At Plate III. a representation is given of the pressure
curves calculated from the chronoscope observations, and in
the following table the pressures in tons shown by the crusher
gauge are compared with those obtained by the chronoscope
in the 10-inch gun.

1872.] Modern Cannon Powder. 7

Pressure per square inch at

a aaa ea ———_ “me -—_ra
Mean of
2 A B Cc Band C I 4 To. 14

ie eee eae OOF ———— ————— ce" OX

ey ee oO o é oO o oO o o

~ c Qa, Q Qa a a Qa oO, ay

© Oo is} fo} 5 ° fo} fo} ° fo} fo)

13) 8 1S) i?) is) is) i=) i?)

be laa A se oe ieee ee ok a Bee ORS

eS Ss) 8 2S ee ee Bs ee fe be aie

= Sy Se ie A ere ee er ee 2S 8 & oY

o ae Wie 3s oS 5 et Sie, CE ie cS i S| os cS) ea ce

Yo Ce tS) 48) Se eg Cm OY SY we oe

Be iS SSS S&S & & S&S SBS SS SS SF S&S |S S&S &

= B aoanmnmAmn vA a am Q A A aoamara wa
ee exer Gre

—6o lbs. } 1327 4824 51°4 — 32°5 — 263 — 294 24°53 — 10°5 124 89 4°8 6°5 3'2 4'5
D 1742)
Pellet— 64

lbs. Ds} x57 5164 25°0 — 22°99 — 20°I — 2I'5 22°2 — 104 II'2 9g'0 5°2 63 — 43
1677 .-

eres. | 1344 4947 189 — 17°77 — 180 — 179 193 14'7 123 170 99 7° 70 8'7 49

—6r lbs.
W.A. Peb-

Me Bh 5384 20°9 — 21°3 — 20°0 — 20°7 21'9 160 13°5 12°2 114 g'0 82 4°0 5'0

T3752), =:

The letters and numbers refer to the plugs, reading from
breech to muzzle as in the 8-inch gun Plate II., and it is
evident that, with the mild kinds of powder the mean
maximum pressure in the powder chamber, and also the
pressure at different parts of the gun, arrived at by these
two perfectly different methods of observation, agree very
closely; while the intense’ local, or wave, action of the
violent R.L.G. is also very apparent. The intensity of
this local action depends, moreover, ina great measure upon
tnesleneth of the cartridge; if this be- excessive these
objectionable strains at once begin to appear even in the case
of pellet or pebble powder, as has been clearly demonstrated
in the the 11°6-inch 35-ton gun, firing 120 and 130 pounds
of powder, and also in the ro-inch gun when tried with
proof-charges of 87°5 pounds.

The specification upon which pebble powder is received
mony the trade is very strict. Not only must the
powder be very uniform in size and density of grain,
but it is also further tested by firing battering charges
(35 pounds) of every supply from an 8-inch gun, when
the pressure in any part of the powder chamber must not
exceed 20 tons on the square inch, and the variations
in velocity must be comprised within narrow limits. By
thus severely testing the whole of our supply of this new
powder, the committee are able to ensure that it shall never
depart in any important degree from the required standard.
The admirable results obtained in the 8-inch and 1o-inch
guns with pebble powder have been maintained in all the
heavier natures, insomuch that the use of this powder,
while materially reducing the strain upon the guns below

72, Modern Cannon Powder. [January,

that caused by R.L.G., has at the same time augmented
their power to a very considerable extent, as shown in the
following table :—

Mean pressure

Nature of per square : Total ener
Gia: Charge, lbs. inchianiisowder Muzzle velocity. ofaked sy
chamber.

FSO OO ~~ OS
R.L.G. Pebble. R.L.G. Pebble. R.L.G. Pebble. R.L.G. Pebble.
Lbs. Lbs. Tons. Tons. Feet. Feet. Ft.-tons. Ft.-tons.

12 inch, 25 tons 67 85 23 19 T180 3300 5793 7030

1G) fp si gq — (ayo) 70 32 23 1298 1364 4693 5160
9 » I2 wy 43 50 21 15 1336 1420 3094 3496
8 oy Oty) ao 35 30 20 1363 1413 2319 ©2492
ht Oe 2 30 17 10 1430 1525 1631 1855

With this, the result of the experiments of the last
fourteen years, we will leave the subject, though there are
many other points of scientific and practical interest to
artillerymen which have been set at rest by the committee’s
researches, while there are others which they are at the
present moment investigating.

At one period, as we have already stated, this country
was allowed to fall behind some foreign nations in the all
important question of powder for heavy guns, and the
capabilities of our magnificent Naval O:dnance were
sacrificed, and their endurance endangered, by the use of a
variable and violent powder. All this has now been set
right, and it is satisfactory to feel that our ships and forts
are not only armed with the best guns in existence, but
that they are also being rapidly supplied with a powder in
every respect suitable for their use.

1872.] 75")

NOTICES, OF *BOO KS,

Report on Spiritualism by the Committee of the London Dialectical
Society ; together with the Evidence, Oral and Written, and
a Selection from the Correspondence. London: Longmans
and Co.

Tue London Dialectical Society is an association professing
perfect liberty of thought and speech. It was designed for the
free discussion of every topic—social, political, and religious—
and the hearing of all opinions and theories, however strange or
heterodox, subjecting all equally to the ordeal of open debate,
in confidence that the conflict of minds will promote the advance-
ment of the truth, whatever that may be.

A creed so novel and strange as that of Spiritualism could not
expect to escape the ordeal of examination by such a society.
But too little was known of it to provide material for debate, and
therefore a committee was appointed to inquire into the subject
and to report upon it to the Society. The members of that
committee were fairly selected, comprising a few votaries of the
faith to be investigated, but an immense majority of positive
unbelievers, and of those who knew nothing at all about it. But
it comprised a great variety of minds and callings—men of
science, literary men, lawyers, men of business—the whole being
a jury of more than average qualifications to pronounce a fair
verdict.

The committee resolved to divide their labours into two parts:
the first business was to receive evidence of the experience of wit-
nesses; the second duty was to examine and test the phenomena
personally by the aid of their own senses and intelligence.

The General Committee took upon itself the work of examining
the witnesses who might tender themselves for or against the
new faith, and no difficulty was found in procuring them. Careful
notes were taken of the examinations and cross-examinations,
and the business was strictly limited to this. In addition, a
great number of letters on both sides of the question from persons
of distinction, scientific and social, were received, and these,
with the reports of the viva voce examinations, occupy the greater
portion of the volume.

We must say that in our judgment it was a mistake to have
printed anything more than narratives of facts: the committee
were appointed to inquire into phenomena, not to investigate
causes. Aconsiderable part of the Appendix is occupied with mere
opinions, many of them ingenious, but some ridiculous and wild,
which can interest nobody and are utterly worthless. In any
future edition these should be omitted.

VOL. II. (N.S.) L

74 Notices of Books. (January,

After all, the evidence is only the assertion of so many
individuals that each had witnessed something which he
describes, and carries with it only the weight of one voice. But
the Investigation Sub-Committees are of vastly more importance,
for they were appointed to witness the alleged phenomena, and
to apply to them such tests as ingenuity might devise. Five-
sixths of their members were entirely sceptical, and went to the
work confident that they should discover a delusion or an
imposture. They adopted every practical security against
deception: they would not employ a professional medium, but
looked for, and fortunately found, one in private life—a lady in
high social position—who gave them her assistance through the
entire of their protracted enquiry; and this lady had never seen
any of the phenomena previously to its being accidentally dis-
covered that they occurred in her presence.

Sub-Committee No. 1 was the most regular and persevering,
holding altogether no less than forty meetings, of each one of
which a careful note was taken, which is published inthe Appendix
to the volume before us. The Report states briefly and clearly
the results of that careful examination.

_ Although five-sixths of the members were wholly sceptical
when they commenced the inquiry, at its close all who had
attended the meetings, so as to witness the phenomena and
apply the tests, were completely satisfied that the phenomena were
genuine—that it was not imposture nor delusion, as they had ex-
pected ; and they state their conclusions to be :—

‘First: That under certain bodily or mental conditions of
one or more of the persons present, a force is exhibited sufficient
to set in motion heavy substances, without the employment of
any muscular force, without contact or material connection of
any kind between such substances and the body of any person
present.

‘‘Second: That this force can cause sounds to proceed, dis-
tin@tly audible to all present, from solid substances not in contact
with, nor having any visible or material connection with, the
body of any person present, and which sounds are proved to
.proceed from such substances by the vibrations which are
distinétly felt when they are touched.

“Third: That this force is frequently directed by intelli-
gence.”

It will thus be seen that the Committee of the Dialectical
Society, comprising a large body of sceptics, after cautious
examination by a different class of experiments from those
detailed in this journal, arrived at the same conclusion as
Mr. Crookes,—that there is a psychic force that operates upon
inanimate matter beyond the bounds of actual muscular contact
or connection; that this force is associated with some special
organisation in certain persons; and that it is often directed by

1872.) ; Notices of Books. 76

some intelligence. But to the conclusions of the sub-committee,
the objection was taken that possibly their senses were deceived
—that they were themselves in the condition to which the absurd
and non-scientific name of Electro-Biology has been given, and
that they saw and heard only what the medium willed them
to see and hear. Improbable as was this explanation, it was not
absolutely impossible, and it was to test it beyond doubt that
Mr. Crookes devised the mechanism described in former numbers
of this journal. Wood and metal at least were not capable of
being biologised, whatever that may mean; these materials
were not subject to the influence of fear or wonder, but could
record only the impression actually and physically made upon
them. ‘The reader already knows the result of the experiments
made with these passionless agents ; they are on all-fours with
the results obtained by the forty experimental meetings of the
Investigation Sub-Committee. Two or three of the tests
employed by the Committee are worth recording, to show the
care and ingenuity with which those tests were applied.

So long as there was actual contact with the table, even by a
single finger, there was no absolute certainty that muscular
force was not the motive power. The attention of the Com-
mittee was therefore directed to obtaining, if possible, motion
without contact. In this they were entirely successful—not
once only, but so frequently as to place the phenomenon beyond
doubt. The experiment was contrived thus :—The backs of the
chairs were turned to the table, and the party knelt upon the seats,
thus precluding possibility of contact with the feet. The arms
were laid on the backs of the chairs with the hands extended
over the table, in full light, so that the slightest motion of any
person would be visible to all the others. The hands were thus
held at first at a distance of 6 inches from the table—a heavy and
large dining table. It moved several times over a space of from
4to7 inches. The hands were withdrawn successively to dis-
tances of g, 12, 18, and 24 inches from the table: still it moved
as before, and the sounds came from it. Then the party stood
round it at a distance of 3 feet from it, holding hands, and in
this position the table moved over a space of 2 feet at one
lurch, and frequently over lesser spaces. This did not occur on
one evening only, but the experiment was repeated again and
again with the same results. It must be observed that the
psychic was not a paid or professional medium, but one found in
private life whose uprightness was beyond question.

The Committee of the Society limited their investigation to
the testing the reality of the phenomena. It was no part of their
duty to inquire into the causes, and therefore being completely
satisfied, although entirely sceptical when they commenced their
labours, they contented themselves with reporting the results, and
the minutes of each meeting as they were verified by the signa-
tures of those present are published in the Appendix.

76 Notices of Books. (January,

This, however, forms the smallest, though the most important
and valuable portion, of the Report. It contains also the evidence
taken viva voce of the experiences of a great number of dis-
tinguished as well as undistinguished persons, who describe a
vast variety of phenomena very different from those which the
calm and vigilant eyes of the sub-committee were enabled to
view. Without questioning the veracity of any of those witnesses,
it is sufficient to say that some portion of the marvels they
narrate are explicable by certain well-known principles of mental
action, whereby ideas formed im the mind are by the mind pro-
jected as it were outside itself, and appear to itself as if they were
impressions conveyed by the senses, when, in fact, they are existing
only in the sensorium. It may fairly be anticipated that the
scientific examination with which this Force will be subjected
everywhere, now that its existence is established, will solve also
many of the problems in which the more obscure phenomena of
Psychology are at present involved, and we shall obtain a clear
insight into the causes of some things which now are inexplicable.
At all events, the plain duty of Science is to submit to the most
careful and elaborate examination and test all those physical
phenomena of Psychic Force that are capable of scientific
examination.

Following the viva voce evidence are letters received by the com-
mittee from a great number of persons eminent in science, literature,
and art, who state frankly their opinions—some accepting, others
denying, the truth of the phenomena. But it is worthy of remark
that all who are convinced have become so after personal examina-
tion of these phenomena; while all who deny them, without
a single exception, have either never seen them at all or have not
bestowed upon them the same patient trial as they would have
given toexperiments inchemistry ormagnetism; and it is a striking
fact that there is not a solitary case of any person after a patient
investigation coming forward to declare that he had discovered
an imposture, and to show by what contrivance the trick was
done so that it might be imitated by others.

The Editing Committee have been, we have said, ¢oo impartial
in the introduction of opinions, for they have occupied many
pages with mere speculations, such as those of Miss Blackwell,
which were certainly not within the proper scope of an inquiry
that was designed to collect facts, not opinions. Should a ~
second edition be called for, and we hear that the sale has
already become very large, we would recommend to the com-
mittee to omit all this portion of the work, and so to reduce its
bulk and price. It will thus be introduced to a very wide circle
of readers, who now can procure it only from the book club or
the circulating library, but who would prefer to possess it for
reference as well as for reading. It has made a great stir in the
world, and must produce results still more important, for this
Report is the testimony of a skilful and intelligent body of men

1872.) Notices of Books. |

to the reality of phenomena which have been neglected only
because they have been erroneously assumed to be delusions or
impostures. Now that they are proved to be neither, but facts
in Nature, they will be seriously examined by thousands, and
by that examination truths of the utmost importance to physio-
logical science cannot fail to be elicited.

The Antiseptic System: a Treatise on Carbolic Acid and its Com-
pounds ; with Inquiries into the Germ Theories of Fermenta-
tion, Putrefaction, and Infection ; the Theory and Practice of
Disinfection; and the Practical Applications of Antiseptics,
especially in Medicine and Surgery. By ArtrHur ERNEST
Sansom, M.D. Lond., M.R.C.P., &c. London: Henry
Gillman. 1871.

Dr. Sansom has succeeded in avoiding any display of that
enthusiasm generally attached to the investigation of a single
agent; the failures as well as the successes in the application of
carbolic acid meet with due recognition. Considering the
theories of fermentation, putrefaction, and infection that have
been promulgated, Dr. Sansom, after much deliberate inde-
pendent investigation, concludes that the germ theory, notwith-
standing its formidable opponents, still holds its ground, if,
indeed, it may not be considered to have taken an established
position. He leans to the opinion that the active agents in
. inducing the changes in fermenting masses are vegetable, not
animal, structures. ‘The mobile bacteria and vibriones observed
in the early stages of organic decomposition are considered to be
non-essential to the processes of decomposition, while the
fungoid elements play an essential part. In putrefaction the
material affords a more fitting pabulum for forms of animal
life, and the complications due to the appearance, vital acts, and
mutual decompositions of animalcule, are superadded to make
the process still more complex. But merely theorising is not
Dr. Sansom’s aim ; he places in a light clear to all the numerous
practical applications of carbolic acid in the destruction of
noxious fungi and insects, and in preventing putrefaction; the
action of carbolic acid on inoculable virus; on the poisons of
infecting diseases, &c. The action of carbolic acid in surgical
cases is treated in the most interesting manner, the details of
each case being stated, while the pros and contras are carefully
reasoned out. Dr. Sansom says of the action of carbolic acid
on putrefactive decomposition that, ‘“‘ Abundant experimentation
has proved that carbolic acid prevents the putrefaction of organic
substances. A piece of meat soaked in a 1 per cent solution of
carbolic acid for one hour entirely resists putrefaction. Gut, skin,
&c., in like manner resist decomposition. Animal size and glue
in solution mixed with small quantities of carbolic acid are

78 Notices of Books. [January,

perfectly preserved in hot weather. Albumen precipitated by
carbolic acid does not putrefy. A perfectly fresh egg placed in
a sealed bottle, whose interior is coated with a thin lining of
carbolic acid, may be preserved perfectly fresh for two months,
although the bottle contain plenty of air; nearly the whole of
the albuminous material is unchanged by the carbolic acid. Meat
treated in like manner may be preserved untainted. A sparrow
preserved by Lemaire presented at the end of a month no signs
of decomposition, its features being as firmly implanted as just
after death. Putrefactive decomposition has also been prevented
in the cases of foecal matters and of blood. As well as preventing
decomposition in cases in which the process has not yet com-
menced, it has also been proved that carbolic acid can arrest
putrefaction when once it has set in. Thus meat was hung in
the air till the odour of putrefaction was strong. It was divided
in two pieces; one was soaked in a 1 per cent solution of carbolic
acid; the other in a solution of chloride of lime. In a few weeks
that soaked in chloride of lime solution was very offensive,
whilst the other presented no bad odour. When vessels were
lined with carbolic acid, if by chance air were introduced so that
volatilisation of the agent could take place, putrefaction com-
menced; when, however, the substance experimented upon was
soaked in carbolic solution no putrefaction took place.” Thus it
will be seen that the work is essentially practical, what the agent
might effect having been left out of the question. The medical
applications and the toxic action of carbolic acid, not within
our province, are similarly treated. Carbolic acid as a dis-
infectant receives full attention, the deduction from experimental
evidence being that carbolic acid is inferior to metallic salts as an
antiseptic when water is freely present; but that when it is a
question of the immediate disinfection of the semi-solid excreta,
then a strong solution of carbolic acid, or emulsion of oil of tar,
is highly valuable, or a carbolic powder may be employed. We
cannot do more than recommend our readers to peruse Dr.
Sansom’s work, not merely for its special interest, but as con-
veying clear knowledge of the nature, the action, and of what
is required of antiseptics.

Address delivered at the Spring Meeting of the Royal Institution of
Cornwall, on the 23rd of May, 1871. By Wi iam Jory
HeEnwoop, F.R.S., F.G.S., &c., President of the Institution,
Truro: Netherton. 1871.

Turs address is one which might serve as an example to future
presidents of many institutions and associations; each page
shows an extensive reading and deep research into the matter
in hand—chiefly the mineralogy of Cornwall. Mr. Henwood
very clearly explains the technical and local terms in use among

1872.] Notices of Books. 79

the miners, and gives a description of the principal geological
characteristics of the lodes and elvans. But the most striking
feature of the address is the list of works consulted and referred
to. The address concludes with an interesting history of the
several steam-engines and their boilers employed in pumping
water from the mines.

Organic Philosophy. Vol. III. Outlines of Biology.—Body,
Soul, Mind, and Spirit. By Hucu DoHErRTty, M.D. London:
Triibner and Co. 1871. 556 pp.

Works on speculative philosophy cannot be noticed in a few
words, because there is no standard sufficiently recognised to
which they can be at once adjudged. Further, links in the chain
of reasoning that may seem accurately forged to some, to others
may appear as bearing an undue tension. This is the case in
this instance. The views of Aristotle and Anaxagoras, which
have been current with many schoolmen, seem to Dr. Doherty
unsatisfactory, and their division of the subject illogical. Yet
all these views may to a certain extent be correct. As faras they
deal with things tangible we can say whether they are correct or
incorrect ; but the moment the imagination is called into play
the standard is removed, and the judgment falls back upon in-
dividual reasoning. Then the chances of error that present
themselves are innumerable, for of the actual working of the mind
we know comparatively nothing; the functions of our intellectual
nature may in their complexity possess a paradoxical simplicity,
but as yet they are practically entirely unresolved. With this
saving clause we can proceed to the consideration of Dr. Doherty’s
analysis of vital unity. ‘“‘The Body,” he says “is a complete
physiological aspect of synthetic unity; the Soul is a complete
psychological aspect of synthetic unity ; the Spirit is a complete
pneumatological aspect of synthetic unity; the Mind is a com-
plete noological aspect of synthetic unity.” Hence, according to
these definitions, we have the physical functions of the body, the
spiritual functions of the spirit, the instinctual functions of the
soul, and the mental functions of the mind, as the entire
functions of vital unity. How nearly the last three divisions are
correct is, as has been said, a matter for individual reasoning.
Granted that the subject is correctly so divided, Dr. Doherty
certainly follows a logical course of reasoning, and his collateral
remarks show a most extensive reading, not only in the
branch of philosophy of which he treats, but also in the exact
sciences.

The book is well worthy mature deliberation. It isthe third of
a series of five volumes. ‘The first volume is an outline of
Episcosmology (the three kingdoms of nature on our globe, epi-
cosmos) ; the second is a general view of Ontology (eternal forces;
laws, and principles); the fourth will be an outline of Systematic

80 Notices of Books. [January,

Sociology; the fifth a treatise on Dialegmatics, or Biological
Methods, in parallel with mathematics, as a science of method.
In treating of Spiritual Genealogy under the principal division of
Spiritual Biology, the author speculates—‘ Palzontology testifies
that inferior types of animal organisms have preceded superior
types in their first appearance on earth, and therefore the latter
must either have started into life at once, without progenitors, or
come into this world by the procreative co-operation of inferior
types. We suppose the latterto be not impossible, although no
instance of such a fact has been recorded in history during the
last 6000 years; and natural selection with hereditary transmission
mark such very small degrees of variation within known limits that
we cannot give it credit for the real origin of species. The possible
incarnation of superior types by nearly related inferior progenitors
is, then, a rational mode of accounting for the terrestrial origin
and metamorphic evolution of individuals and species. Pre-
existence may account for both the rise and fall of mankind on
earth, as well as for the appearance, development, decline, and
final disappearance of any collective realm or species of animal
or vegetable organism, and thus ultramundane origin is not less
important than mundane genealogy in problems of spiritual
evolution. If uncultured and indocile races of spirits were in-
carnated on a large scale during many generations in the families
of a highly cultivated and morally refined nation, such a process
would eventually bring the nation down to barbarism and ruin.
New revelations and religions may disorganise old nationalities,
and re-construct them on new foundations of laws and doctrines,
as history shows in all past ages; and in either case ultramundane
causes, in the shape of extraneous incarnations or spiritual
revelations, produce the mundane effects of social and religious
evolutions and revolutions. These are problems of collective
biology which we shall have to deal with again, when questions
of sociogenesis will suggest those of realmogenesis, still more
puzzling and complex; for although we may account for the
spiritual conservation and progressive evolution of extinct races
of mankind by successive incarnations in superior races living
on the earth, we cannot easily conceive the transformation of
lost paleontological types of animal organism and instinct by
successive incarnations, since this would not be heterogenetic
evolution in outward form alone, but also in organic constitution;
a problem of ultramundane as well as of mundane evolution.
The Darwinian theory would account for all kinds of creation
by mundane variations transmitted to posterity, but that ignores all
worlds of life beyond the natural and the lymbic, and pre-supposes
the destruction of souls as well as bodies at the death of in-
dividuals. P 5 : Incarnation means the descent of
immortal spirit into a mortal body by the process of embryo-
genesis. Resurrection means the rising of immortal spirit
from the mortal body. This is not the vulgar notion of the

1872.] Notices of Books. 81

resurrection of the mortal body as a mass of dust which had
long been scattered to the winds.” Such reasoning is beyond
the scope of, and cannot be criticised in, a mere notice. The
full consideration would absorb many pages of this journal, and
in the end would but express the reviewer’s opinion.

Miscellanies. By JoHN ADDINGTON SymonpDs, M.D., Selected
and Edited, with an Introductory Memoir, by his Son.
London: Macmillan and Co. 1871.

BESIDES a memoir these miscellanies comprise articles on
general subjects, scientific studies, papers on the social and
political aspects of medicine, as well as poems and translations
from classical authors, all from the pen of the late Dr. Symonds.
Dr. Symonds was one of those men who derive their energy
from a strong desire of cultivating the beautiful, and who,
working quietly and intensely during their lives, leave their
biographer to astonish the reading world with the versatility of
their achievements. The chief essay is that on the Principles
of Beauty, following up Mr. Hay’s idea that the harmony of
forms can be explained by the proportion of the component
angles; that is, a form is beautiful when the space which it
encloses can be analysed into angles which bear proportions to
each other analogous to those which subsist between the notes
of music. The elaborate manner in which Dr. Symonds has
worked out this subject is characteristic of the remaining essays.
The tranglations in verse from the Greek Anthology everywhere
present the delicate appreciation of a scholar and of a refined
mind. This book should certainly be set on the shelves devoted
to the lighter literature of science.

Animal Plagues: their History, Nature, and Prevention. By
GeEoRGE Fieminc, F.R.G.S., President of the Central
Veterinary Medical Society, &c.; Author of ‘“‘ Horse-Shoes
and Horse-Shoeing,” &c. London: Chapman and Hall. 1871.

Tuts essentially is a chronological history of animal plagues
from B.c. 1490 to A.D. 1800. Mr. Fleming endeavours to show
the baneful effects of the maladies, particularly those of a con-
tagious or spreading character, on the agriculture of the country,
and how much has been lost by neglecting to study these maladies
—a study, says Mr. Fleming, inwhich the comparative pathologist,
physician, general historian, agriculturist, or statesman will find
much material for reflection. The author presents a volume
bearing on every page evidence of the most patient research.
Latin, French, and German accounts of murrains that have
VOL. II. (N.S.) M

82 Notices of Books. [January,

from time to time appeared are cited chapter and verse, giving
the reader the advantage of making fuller reference for himself
should it be required. The arrangement is good: given disease
or date, the rest is soon found. But besides the history of each
plague there are many valuable conclusions drawn by Mr. Fleming
as to the probable cause or causes of the pest. Apart from its
special value, the book is very interesting as a general history.

Description of an Electric Telegraph. By Sir Francis Ronatps,
F.R.S. Second Edition, London: Williams and Norgate.
1871.

Tuts is a reprint of a work published in 1823 when telegraphy
was in its extreme infancy. Sir Francis Ronalds describes a
telegraph now considered as ranking amongst the historical
curiosities of the employment of electricity as a means of com-
munication between distant places, being, in fact, an application
of a static charge to cause the diversion of a pith-ball electrometer.
The interest of the little work is consequently purely historical ;
but we cannot wonder that the author should seek to claim
attention to his share in the introduction of that connecting
link between nations—our present system of telegraphy. The
method of testing for faults in the insulation of his line is, in
its completeness, quite worthy of the present system.

Insects at Home.—Being a Popular Account of British Insects,
their Structure, Habits, and Transformations. By the Rev.
J. G. Woop, M.A., F.L.S., &c.; Author of ‘Homes Without
Hands,” ‘*Common Objects of the Sea-Shore and Country,”
&c. 700 Illustrations. London: Longmans and Co. 1872.

Mr. Woop is so well known by his former works that anything
new from his pen will be certain to find favour; but even were
he unknown as an author the work now presented to the public
would be sufficiently meritorious to establish his fame. ‘Inse¢ts
at Home” is a most comprehensive account of the infancy,
maturity, and we may say social life of English insects. More-
over, it is an introduction to the study of entomology; and here
the beginner will derive great advantage from the clear definition
of the many hard names peculiar to this branch of natural
science. The task of identifying an insect is by no means an
easy one when, as in many entomological works, a very fair
knowledge of Greek is required to render the terminology in-
telligible; but by clear definition and a system of reference by
numbers, the author has effectually surmounted this difficulty.
The plan of illustration is novel. As the colouring of the woodcuts

1872.! Notices of Books. 83

throughout the work would have greatly increased the cost,
the figures are but slightly shaded, and in many cases only
outlined. This admits of the reader colouring the woodcuts
according to the description given in the text, affording him by
these means an illustrated entomological encyclopedia of great
fulness at a low price. The filling-in of the colours by the
reader has a further effect—it impresses upon his mind the dis-
tinctive features of representative class insects. The mounting,
modes of preparation and preservation, and all matters relating
to the cabinet, are likely to prove extremely useful to the student
and to the curator.

Elementary Treatise on Physics, Experimental and Applied.
Translated and Edited from Ganot’s ‘‘ Elements de Physique.”
By E. Arxinson, Ph.D., F.C.S., Professor of Experimental
Science, Staff College, Sandhurst. Fifth Edition. London:
Longmans and Co. 1872.

ANOTHER edition of Dr. Atkinson’s work has been called for, and
he has availed himself of the opportunity by adding many new
illustrations, and much new matter selected from those subjects
calculated to take a permanent place in elementary instruction.
A larger type has been adopted in this edition, rendering the
work still more easy of reference. All that need be said is, that
this has been long the standard text-book of physical science.

A Manual of Anthropology or Science of Man, based on Modern
Research. By Cuarves Bray, Author of ‘The Philosophy
of Necessity,” ‘‘ Force and its Mental Correlates,” &c.
London: Longmans and Co. 1871.

Mr. Bray is sufficiently known as the author of some very per-
tinent works on psychology to render unnecessary any reference to
his peculiarly pointed style—he may, indeed, be termed a common-
sense writer. This, when the apparent difficulty of taking a
common-sense view of the subject is considered, is certainly more
than amerecompliment. The book endeavours to show the Unity
of Force, and that all Power is Will Power, conscious or automatic,
or, as Mr. W. R. Grove has put it, ‘Causation is the Will,
Creation the act of God.”

‘‘Physics and Metaphysics, Physiology and Psychology,” says
Mr. Bray, “‘ thus become united, and the study of man passes
from the uncertain light of mere opinion to the region of Science.”
The habit of quotation, for which perhaps this author is remarkable,
here stands him in good stead, and while it gives weight to his
reasoning, prevents that straining after the unknowable, so common

84 Notices of Books. [January,

with writers on that difficult threefold question of the Whence,
Why, and Whither. We are glad to see that Mr. Bray has
touched upon the phenomena of will or soul force—in fact, a
necessary part of his theory. He says:—‘‘The sun has an
atmosphere, the world has an atmosphere,and sohas man. . .
We all know how we are drawn to some people and repelled by
others when we are brought within their sphere. But the
character of the emanations around us has never been very
definitely determined even where its existence has been admitted.
Of its existence, however, there can be no doubt, although it is
not recognised by physiologists or medical men except in some
cases of disease. . . . ~. Vital force is so strong in others
that they possess a curative power by its transmission in
cases where healthy vital force is deficient. Old people imbibe
vital force when sleeping with young ones, and all persons
deficient in vital force draw largely from those with whom they
sleep, causing or greatly increasing rheumatic and other pains.
In the transmission of force from brain tissue we not only
transmit mental states, but these other forces come more or less
under the dominion of the Will, accounting for much in electro-
biology, mesmerism, and so-called spiritual phenomena. But
these are abnormal states; in the natural state the ‘released heat
taking its character from the tissue,’ (Dr. Bird’s theory) mixed
with more material emanations, forms our personal atmosphere,
and people are much more under its influence than they are
disposed to credit. Our thoughts and feelings are greatly in-
fluenced by those with whom we come in contact, and especially
by those with whom we habitually associate, the influence
depending upon the particular brain tissue from which the
force emanates. . . . . The extent to which we give
and take depends upon the constitution. Highly nervous
people are very sensitive to the impressions about them.
Medwin, writing of Shelley, says: ‘So sensitive was he of
external impressions, so magnetic, that I have seen him, after
threading the crowd in Lung’ Arno Corsos, throw himself half
fainting into a chair, overpowered by the atmosphere of evil
passions, as he used to say, in that sensual and unintellectual
crowd.’ These phenomena are now illustrated on a very large
scale in what are called spiritualist circles. All that is wanted is
observation and experiment; but we must look in the right
direction for spirit, not spirits, and for nervous and bodily forces
and emanations.” Mr. Bray continues, ‘‘ Professor Owen, writing
about what he calls ‘thought-force,’ says, ‘if lines of thought-force
were visible, the ghost (of Samuel) would not therefore be more
material.’ May, then, thought-force, ever become visible? It
is evident Professor Owen does not think it impossible. Does
what is called by spiritualists ‘a medium’ supply the conditions?”

Mr. Bray’s work should certainly be read. His creed seems to
be—know the knowable, et permitte cetera Deo.

£072.) * Notices of Books. 85

Rudimentary Treatise on Geology. Part I1.—Historical Geology.
By Rateu Tarte, Assoc. Lin. Soc., F.G.S, Corr. Mem. Acad.
Sciences Philad., &c. London: Lockwood and Co. 1871.

Tus little work, partly based on Major-Gen. Portlock’s Rudi-
ments of Geology, is one of the admirable Weale’s series. This
second volume forms a complete epitome of the “ History of the
British Stratified Rocks.” All the principal varieties of fossils
are illustrated. The reputation of Mr. Tate as a geologist is a
sufficient recommendation that the work will be found accurate
in detail.

The Great Pyramid of Gizeh. By A. F. D. WackerBarrtu,
F.R.A.S., Professor of Mathematics in the University of
Upsala. Translated from the ‘ Tidskrift fir Matematik och
Fysik.” Southampton: Gutch and Cox. 1871.

Tue Great Pyramid constitutes a subject which is now being
investigated by an increasing number of researchers, and from
numerous points of view. The literature of the subject is rapidly
growing, and it therefore becomes us, when—as it has already
been said in our pages—‘‘ theories of such momentous import-
ance are in the balance,” not to pass over unnoticed any contri-
bution thereto which may be fairly expected to tend further
in the direction of unveiling the still deeper hidden interpretations
of realities, which have remained shut up unheeded in _per-
durable granite and limestone from pre-Abrahamitic ages, down
to these latter days, when the light primevally enclosed in
thickest masonry of truest form in line and angle seems ready
to illumine whole horizons of high antiquity, which have become
overlain with multiplied wrappings of misty scales concreted in
succeeding darker ages.

Under the principle of founding our acceptance or rejection of
theories whenever and by whomsoever propounded, only when
they accord or disagree with hard facts, we have examined the
latest contribution to the literature of the Great Pyramid,
whereof the title appears in the heading of this article. Much
pleased, indeed, should we have been if that we could add
the work had withstood the test; glad should we have been
to sound abroad that its conclusions are founded on a basis as
stable as that of the material Pyramid itself; yet in a sentence
it must be said, that as the root is planted in fiction, it foreshadows
for itself as certain, and like unto that of all half-done work,
a precarious and at most but an ephemeral life.

Yet such an assertion on our part is valueless without evidence
of being rightly founded. We will, then, endeavour in a few suc-
ceeding pages to show forth the true character of the work
which has caused us to conclude as aforesaid.

The very opening sentence of the work declares that “the
number of Egyptian Pyramids amounts to several hundreds,”

86 Notices of Books. [January,

and that the largest and oldest amongst them is the Great
Pyramid of Gizeh. How utterly contrary to fact the former
part of this assertion is may be gathered by reference to page
189 of the preceding volume of this journal, and to the writings
of Howard Vyse, who explored the Pyramids more extensively
than anyone else in modern times. We quote his words :*—
‘«“The Pyramids of Middle and Lower Egypt are thirty-nine in
number. They are situated on the western side of the river,
and chiefly on the desert hills which form the western boundary
of the valley of the Nile.”

I was in the Nome, Latopolitis.
33 ” 29 Memphitis.
” 9 Heracleopolitis.
3 ” 9 Crocodilopolitis.
Total 39

In order to make up even this small total number there are
included many which were originally small and unimportant, and
now become mere rounded rubbish heaps of decay-stricken bricks
orunwrought stone. Hadthere been somany as the aforesaid ‘‘ hun-
dreds,” they must necessarily have become a long- maintained Egyp-
tian institution, and it would have occupied the Egyptians all
through their history to build them. But quite contrary to that, it
is abundantly proven that the idea of a Pyramid was introduced to
the land at once perfect, full, and completely developed; it was
to some extent, never entirely, never in anyone of its essential
characteristics, imitated by a few succeeding generations, in per-
petually descending dimensions and order of construction, until
finally, and that long before the zenith of ancient Egypt, when
both kings and subjects had wealth and power enough to erect
any and every kind of building for themselves, Pyramid building
had altogether ceased among them. Hence the Pyramids of
Egypt occupied but a short period only of the early history
of that people, just as they stretch over but a small portion of
the earlier settled part of the country—namely, from the apex of
the Delta to about fifty miles south thereof.

It is stated in the work before us, that in the lowest chamber
of the Pyramid there “is a well formerly supplied with water
from the Nile.” The fact, however, is that this hole is not
a well, but merely a shaft sunk by Howard Vyse and Perring, in
1837, in their search after a lower chamber; and as the bottom
of this shaft does not reach down to the level of the highest Nile
inundations of the present day, when they are hypsometrically
10 feet above their ancient rise, it is perfectly clear, that whereas
the subterranean chamber is near 40 feet higher still, the waters
of the Nile could never have reached it by natural flow or

* Pyramids of Gizeh, by Colonel Howarp Vysg, vol. iii. p. 1.

1872.] Notices of Books. 87

infiltration. In the same breath is another mystification, thus—
“‘the chambers are all destitute of hieroglyphs.” With somewhat
of astonishment would the years’-stricken author of ‘* The Monu-
mental History of Egypt” hear this! And what would the
shades of Howard Vyse declare could they address us? And
Richard Lepsius.too, with the very first plate in his world-famous
‘* Denkmaeler,” exhibiting some of the very hieroglyphs them-
selves as they were found by Vyse, painted in red minium, in
some of the ‘‘chambers of construction?” Strangely significant
is it that in the sectional drawing of the Pyramid forming part
of this Swedish work, the essential five ‘‘chambers of con-
struction” above the ‘‘ King’s Chamber” are omitted. Among
the most important testimonies which the entire building con-
tains are these particular hieroglyphs, and notably among them
the cartouche of Shufu; they not only confirm the date of the
building and name of the king by whom, Herodotus tells us,
the Great Pyramid was built, but more than that, they show
that the date made out on astronomical grounds is true also.
The hieroglyphic, historic, and astronomical dates all closely
agree to something near about the year B.c. 2170.

Proceeding onwards we are assured that ‘this singular theory
(7.e., the modern metrological and esoteric theory), was first
broached by a Medical (sic) Professor of Oxford, Dr. Greaves.”
In his ‘“ Pyramidographia,” however, published in 1647, the
same John Greaves announces himself as “ Savilian Professor of
Astronomy at Oxford,” and this is confirmed, too, by the learned
Dr. Hooker: whilst as if to destroy altogether at one blow the
labour of modern researchers, it is asserted that ‘this” (Pro-
fessor Greaves’s) ‘‘ view has been lately revived by the Astro-
nomer-Royal for Scotland, Professor Piazzi Smyth,” which,
however, as being so excessively wide of the fact, any candid
reader may be satisfied of by a careful examination of the last-
named Professor’s ‘‘ Life and Work at the Great Pyramid,”
wherein doctrines exactly opposite to those of Greaves’s are
advanced.

As concerning the size of the monument, at page 5 of the dis-
sertation, is to be found a host of erroneous statements, far
too numerous to receive attention individually within the limits
of a mere review, as to what the Scottish Astronomer-Royal has
propounded. We may instance the following :—“ He is obliged
to make a number of arbitrary assumptions, among which we
signalise his assumption ‘that the ancient Hebrew standard of
length or sacred cubit was exactly 25°025 English inches, equal
to our 1o-millionth part of the earth’s polar semi-axis.’” M.
Wackerbarth seems lamentably ignorant, if in strict sincerity he
so writes. Has he acquainted himself with the directions left to
his successors by no less a philosopher than Newton, who some
I50 years ago wrote how the true measures of the ancient
cubits, both sacred and profane, would eventually be found

88 Notices of Books. [January,

by better admeasurements of the stones of the Pyramid? Has
he studied the several indications which the stones give, indeed,
of two widely distinct cubits having been employed? One, by
numerous indications giving a value slightly on the + side of
25 inches, or so close to 25°025 inches, that that particular
length is marked out by no less than five different represen-
tations! The other by as many, indicating 20°7 as the length of
the common or profane cubit; whilst both are doubtless identi-
fied in many more representations now gradually being unfolded !
M. Wackerbarth, too, may be surprised to learn, that whilst indi-
cations of the linear value of these two cubits have been
hitherto found scattered at different parts throughout the
structure, very lately they are discovered to be laid up together
in a specially-set-apart portion of the ante-chamber, with
their subdivisions as plainly marked as in an ordinary 2-foot
rule; nevertheless the two cubits are so strikingly placed there,
that whilst both visible to simultaneous contrast, they are
still separated as the sacred and profane ever must be, even so
that they cannot touch each other.

On the same page as that from which the preceding passage is
quoted we find it stated, that ‘‘ Professor Smyth, moreover,
assumes, in the teeth of all that is historically known about the
Pyramid, that, though built before the age of Abraham, it is not
an Egyptian but a Hebrew building,” which is simply not true ;
as anyone may be assured of by turning to ‘“ Life and Work,”
vol. ili., Div. 3, chaps. 2 and 5, on the Egyptian Quarry Marks
and Egyptian History of the Times of the Great Pyramid.

Further on it is stated that Professor Smyth, instead of using
the mean of the base-length quantities ascertained by him,
assisted by Messrs. Aiton and Inglis (which quantities, be it
remembered, were from the very nature of the circumstances
under which they had been ascertained, at best but uncertain
approximations), adopts a length of g142 inches, and in another
place g166 inches, because to bring out two different results
which the theory involves, these two values are called into
requisition; all of which in mild expression—is a most un-
unjustifiable misrepresentation of what the said Professor has
set out. It would be well that those who have not seen suff-
cient as yet to accept the modern theory of the Pyramid,
should remember that the several individuals who have worked
at its evolution have not attempted to assert anything except in
cases where the chain of evidence leads up unbroken to a
definite index, where doubts exist, as they certainly do, in regard
to the length of the originally perfect base side, the pro-
babilities of certain eventual results have been discussed, and no
one has more openly confessed that than Professor Smyth, by
publishing to the full all the observations of the only accurately
marked base-side features, viz., the ‘‘ socket corners,’ which
he has been able to collect; and finding them to differ from g102

1872.] Notices of Books. 89

to 9168 inches, has admitted the difficulty of drawing at present
any final conclusion. Professor Smyth has furthermore pointed
out on what grounds he at the time of writing deduced 9142
inches as the more probable length, but with an uncertainty
about it of = 25 inches nearly. And who will come forward to
show (not merely assert) that Professor Smyth was not acting
aright, in not putting implicit trust in the mean value evolved
from the joint measures made by himself with Aiton and Inglis,
especially when those made by the Royal Engineers in 1869
gave 9130 inches, or a value immensely closer to his deduced
quantity of 9142 than giro is. When, however, M. Wacker-
barth takes the mean between the Royal Engineer’s measure
of g130 inches and the aforesaid g110, or g120 inches as being
the real length of the base-side, and totally ignores the more
carefully measured quantities of the French Academicians—
Colonel Howard Vyse and Perring—respectively 9163 and 9168
inches, he himself, on his own showing, tampers with the
published measures to confirm a theoretical result of Sir Henry
James’s long since exploded; according to which it was
sought to prove that the base contained 500 Greek cubits of
18-2415 inches—a cubit, indeed, that was never heard of by
any ancient Egyptian, nor known in Egypt, until 1500 years
after the Pyramid was built; declared, too, in total disregard
of what Herodotus told his Greek audience, viz., that the
Egyptian cubit was the same as the Samian, Asiatic, or
Persian cubit, which so far from being anywhere near the
assumed quantity of 18-2415 inches, was 20°7 inches nearly ;
and this corresponds completely with what Sir Gardner Wil-
kinson and other modern Egyptologists have ascertained.
More than remarkable, too, is it, after what our author has
previously said, that he should even be found to testify to the
same important truth. For in his table of Egyptian measures
(page 15), evidently reprinted from an abstract of a former
paper, published in the ‘“ Proceedings of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh ” (vol. vi., p. 235), he distin¢tly sets forth the cubit of
20°699 inches as a grand culminating quantity. The imme-
diately preceding measure being an alleged equivalent of the
Greek Szapy' = g:61925 inches, the supposed cubit of 182415
inches not being even acknowledged as a possibly distinct
standard quantity. It is almost useless to add that such a
position is too glaring to need comment.

In paragraph 2, page 6, M. Wackerbarth alleges, that whereas
Professor Smyth had only rough stone steps to measure from, he
nevertheless “‘ by taking means, and then again means of means,
of different measurements of the angles of the remaining stones,”
made his measurements being out for the side angle of the
Pyramid, 51° 51’ 14°3' ‘= hypothetical x angle. We require to
answer such an assertion by merely stating that anyone who will
take the trouble to refer to “Life and Work” (vol. i1., pp. a

VOL. Il. (N.S.)

go Notices of Books. (January,

vol. iii., p. 28), will find that Professor Smyth never attempted any
such unscientific or blundering procedure; but from several
sources (all of which gave values of the angle of rise due to the
true ~ angle), found that the residual features of the building
afforded evidence of that particular angle in preference to any
other. On this same page also it is stated, that ‘Sir Henry
James has completely solved the mystery of the Pyramid’s
gradient angle, by the simple observation that the corner lines
rise g units in height for every 10 units of horizontal distance
along the angles.” It is true, indeed, that in the pages of a con-
temporary Sir Henry James did try to make out such a case, but it
does not appear to have been known in Sweden that that particular
attempt had not been recognised as successful in this country.

With regard to what indications the Pyramid has been shown
to afford concerning the mean value of the solar radius-vector—
most notably, too, just at the time when astronomers are divided
into two mighty opposing armies on the point, waiting to settle
their differences on the occasions of the coming transits of
Venus,—M. Wackerbarth seems unaware that that particular
feature was evolved by W. Petrie, although he ascribes it to
Professor Smyth, and omits to notice how the discussions of
Powalky in 1864, and Professor Simon Newcomb in 1867, point
out W. Petrie’s Pyramid quantity; and that it falls right in the
middle of all the values declared by no less than thirteen of the
foremost modern astronomers.”

Touching the coffer, a statement purporting to be a description
of this vessel is given on page 7, full to overflowing with mis-
statements and omissions of facts published by various observers,
and not by any means free from abuse of the vessel itself for any
scientific purpose, by reason of what M. Wackerbarth supposes
to bé monstrous irregularities of figure. These irregularites are,
however, so proportionately small, that they had escaped the
notice of all observers prior to Professor Smyth; and although it
is sounded in high tones, re-echoed from these observations
alone, that no one of the surfaces is “ plane,” and attempts are
made to show them in error by an amount really hideous to
an accurate mind, yet the unalterable facts remain. And they
assert that the errors in the plane of the east side of the coffer
are in height absolutely invisible, and in length over a run of
gi inches, under 0:02 of an inch, or almost certainly within
the probable error of the measuring scale, and not the slightest
notice is taken of what later observers have shown as qualities—
nay, commensurabilities due to the particular irregularities of
figure in question. Nor is it even hinted at that certain others—
and notably Captain Baker, R.E.,—attach first-rate importance to
the concavity of three sides, and the flatness of the fourth,
or eastern one.

Pages 8,9, and 1o contain misrepresentations far too numerous

* See Proc. Phil. Soc., Glasgow, vol. vii.
+ See ‘‘ Papers on the Pyramid,” by St. Joun V. Day. 1870.

1872.] Notices of Books. or

to mention and refute. The following may therefore serve as an
example of the whole. Professor Smyth’s measurements of the
entrance passage, and the accuracy of the angle thereof, are
sought to be invalidated by the large differences among the
observations of other travellers. But if the account of obser-
vations made by the Scottish Astronomer-Royal be searched,
it will be found that these were at least ten times more numerous
than any of his predecessors, and made with far more powerful
instruments too. Next, the astronomical explanation of the angle
of the entrance passage begun thirty-five years ago, by Sir John
Herschel, and completed by Smyth, is most unfairly set forth,
and treated as of no moment, because shorn—/irst, of the patent
fact of the entrance passage being im the plane of the astrono-
mical meridian, even more correctly than many modern obser-
vatories; second, of the consilient meridian data of both the
Pleiades-stars and the Vernal Equinox, with the polar star of the
passage a Draconis.

With regard to this last star an attempt is made to show that
in the star map, ‘“ Life and Work,” vol. ili., it is marked as of
the second magnitude; whilst in Ptolemy’s time, it seems to have
been of the third magnitude; and that Sir John Herschel says it
is now only of the fourth magnitude. Yet what are the facts?
In Sir John Herschel’s letter* to Howard Vyse, he connects
the star not with the fourth but with the third magnitude; and
Smyth, in the particular star-map alluded to, has not entered

Draconis*as of the second, as M. Wackerbarth states, but of
the fourth magnitude.

We must, however, conclude our unhappy duty of pointing
out the exact value of this most condensed example of mis-
statement which it has thus far fallen to our lot to examine. We
might, indeed, carry our examination much further, but that
is needless ; and we close this paper with the feeling that if the
supporters of the modern theory of the Pyramid have only such
opposition to contend with, it may be matter of congratulation
to them that their “‘enemy did write a book.”

The Micrographic Dictionary: a Guide to the Examination and
Investigation of the Structure and Nature of Microscopic
Objects. By J. W. Grirrity, M.D., &c., the late ARTHUR
Henrrey, F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. Third Edition. Edited by
y W: Grirrire, M.D., &c.; assisted by the Rev. M. J. .
BERKELEY, M.A., F.L.S., and T. Rupert Jones, F.G.S, &c. |
Parts I. to III. London: J. Van Voorst.

Tue rapid progress of Microscopical Science since the publica-
tion of the last edition of this well-known book of reference
in 1860, has rendered the work of revision and addition abso-

* See Vyse’s Pyramids of Gizeh, vol. ii., ps 170 (foot-note).

92 Notices of Books. (January,

lutely necessary. This has been ably accomplished so far as can
be judged by the small portion at present issued. The introduc-
tion, treating on the construction of the microscope, its accessory
apparatus, and the methods of investigation employed, ha's been
corrected as closely as possible to the date of publication. The
assistance of Messrs. Berkeley and Rupert Jones augurs well for
the treatment of such very interesting microscopical subjects as
Cryptogamic Botany, the Foraminifere, and Micro-Geology.
The text has been added to wherever needed, and the biblio-
graphical notes extended; further additions, however, might
have been made in this department with advantage, as one of
the student’s greatest difficulties is to find references to books.
The plates have been corrected; some, however, which have
been re-engraved after those in the former editions by Tuffen
West have lost, as might be expected, somewhat of their
original delicacy; and the microscopist who is familiar with the
style of this accomplished artist will miss the work of an
old friend whose place can be to him but ill supplied.

The book, saving in this respect, is in no way inferior to the
preceding issues, and still forms a most valuable addition to the
library of the working microscopist. Considering the great
increase in the number of those who now make use of the
microscope, principally owing to the formation of societies
in and around London and in the country, it seems a question
whether the work might not have been profitably issued at a
somewhat lower price than formerly; for, although the cost
is spread over a large period by the issue in parts, yet the work
is still an expensive one, and beyond the means of many earnest
students who might be induced to purchase it if obtainable
by the expenditure of a smaller sum.

A Systematic Handbook of Volumetric Analysis ; or, The Quantt-
tative Estimation of Chemical Substances by Measure, applied
to Liquids, Solids, and Gases. By Francis Sutton, F.C.S.,
Norwich. Second Edition. London: Churchill. 1871.

Every chemist will welcome the second edition of Mr. Sutton’s
handbook. So much has been done in chemical science since
the first edition was published seven years ago, that the revision
of even a standard work has been necessary. Volumetric
analysis presents nothing very new, but there are many modifi-
cations and improvements in the processes. This system of
analysis requires, perhaps, a more extended experimental know-
ledge of the reaction of bodies upon each other than is required
in gravimetric analysis; but given this knowledge, there is an
immense saving of time and labour. Dr. Frankland and Mr.
W. Thorpe, F.C.S., have contributed largely on the analysis of
water to this second edition; and Mr. Herbert M‘Leod, F.C.S.,
Professor of Chemistry and Experimental Science at the Indian

1872.] Notices of Books. 93

Civil Engineering College, furnishes much information on the
analysis of gases. The work is too well-known as a technical
handbook to need any recommendation. Mr. Sutton must,
however, be thanked for keeping pace with the progress of science.

Life Theories: their Influence upon Religious Thought. By
LIoNnEL S. Beare, M.B., F.R:S:, F.R.C.P., &c. London:
J. and A. Churchill. 1871.

Tue physical theory of life, despite its many advocates and its
present vigorous propagation, seems destined to decline at no
distant period. It has to meet an almost insuperable difficulty
at its outset; for it appeals directly against all the religious
prejudices of mankind, while it holds in view no sufficient
recompense—except to those enthusiasts and zealots whose
recompense is to be known as its propagators. Moreover, its
fundamental proposition is founded on assertion, for although
influential philosophers have stated that the non-living passes by
insensible gradations into the living, no matter in the state of
transition has ever been brought to light. This is the point
taken up, and ably so, by Dr. Beale in his examination of the
present theories of life. He shows how the present hypotheses
of spontaneous generation are supported by only the vaguest
conjectures, pointing out the true opposition of the living and
non-living, of formative agency and formed matter, and that
formative agency is not mere force, but force conquered and
regulated. Who would say that force was competent to con-
struct a wheel or build a mill ? and yet there are men who hold
that the sun’s force constructs a worm or a plant. Vitality is
not the slave of force, but has ever proved its master. Then,
says Dr. Beale:—

“If the phenomena of living beings cannot be fully accounted
for by physics and chemistry, it is a question still open for
discussion whether or not life is due to the working of some
agency or power distinct from matter, and the idea of a much
higher power capable of influencing all matter may not only be
entertained without inconsistency, but an additional argument is
gained in its support.”

** Of Power and Force.—I beg the reader to consider the vast
difference between power, force, and property, for these are
quite distinct from one another. Power is capable of activity;
it may design, arrange, form, construct, build. Property is
passive, and belongs to the material particles, and is no more
capable of destruction than the particles themselves. Force
differs from property in that its form or mode may be changed
or conditioned and assume other forms, and be afterwards restored
to the original one. Power may cease and vanish, but property
is retained, and force in one form or other is persistent.”

94 Notices of Books. (January,

If vitality be at all acknowedged it must logically and
essentially follow that living matter of all kinds and at all periods
differs altogether from non-living matter.

‘The transcendant difference is not due tochemical composition
or to physical constitution or property, but to the presence and
activity of a power which cannot under any circumstances be
developed from matter that has not been made to live by the
influence of that which is already living.”

We have, then, in all living beings two distinct sets of phe-
nomena—vital and physico-chemical; and while the physical
properties always remain, the vital may disappear, never to
reappear. But can the living exist independently of the non-
living ? Here we touch upon one of the most difficult and
strained questions of the day—a question which has received
considerable examination in the immediately preceding numbers
of this journal.

‘‘It must be acknowledged that we are not able to adduce
scientific evidence in proof that the living can exist independently
of the non-living, because the only evidence obtainable by us is
obtained from and through the material. Such a conception,
however, may present itself to the mind, and it seems not
unreasonable to believe that vitality may after all belong to
an order of activities or immaterial agents of which we can
really learn nothing directly by the assistance of our senses.
Nevertheless, from the effects of the supposed agency upon
matter, we can conceive of it as an actual existing power; and
by studying accurately the results of its working, why should we
not succeed in drawing a correct conclusion concerning its
nature and the mode of its action upon matter?”

‘«‘ After having studied the phenomena of living matter for a
length of time and with all the advantages I could obtain,
the conviction has been forced upon my mind that vital pheno-
mena must be referred to the influence of an agency distinct
from the physical forces of nature. The hypothesis I have been
led to adopt is this. I suppose that there is operating upon
every particle of every kind of living matter, a forming, guiding,
directing power or agency, which is constantly at work, being
transmitted from atom to atom.”

“Do not the words ‘physiology,’ ‘biology,’ ‘ pathology,’
‘health,’ and ‘disease,’ imply processes that are not simply
physical,—imply, in fact, a psychical factor ? In spite of all that
has been urged to the contrary, there is not one of the actions
properly called physiological, biological, pathological, healthy, or
diseased, that can be regarded as wholly physical, mechanical, or
chemical in its nature. Thoughtful persons have long felt
extremely dissatisfied with the material doctrines of life now so
prevalent, and though doubtful concerning the precise terms in
which the influence of some non-physical power ought to be

7872.] Notices of Books. 95

stated, have acknowledged that the facts rendered imperative
the admission of an agency belonging to an order very different
from that in which physical and chemical actions are com-
prised.”

Not to speak of what is desirable as truth, there arises the
ennobling contemplation of a spiritual agency—of an_ all-
knowing, all-directing, and everywhere-present Creator. While
the physical theory of life cramps the mind and unsettles the
faith of the thinking man—

‘The doctrine of vitality points in an opposite direction.
The mind which contemplates vital power will naturally be led
to ponder upon the spiritual. The aspirations of the mind will
progressively advance, while the intellect increases in strength,
encouraged by the hope that it may succeed in forming some
conception of the manner in which ever-present, ever-active
power designs, guides, and causes to be carried out the never-
ceasing changes in living matter.”

Why cannot life be re-called ? Because ‘ life would never re-
appear unless some power able to overcome ordinary tendencies
and capable of setting at nought natural laws intervened.”

Anyone reading Dr. Beale’s convincing arguments must con-
clude with him that—

‘Vitality is as distinct from matter and material properties as
is ever-active mind from the inanimate passive substance which
it fashions, and upon which it may impress its own fleeting, and
perhaps but momentary, conceptions.”

And that—

‘‘ A theory of vitality (non-material, psychical) will alone enable
anyone to account for the facts demonstrated in connection with
the life of all living things. Although an immaterial agency
cannot be demonstrated to the senses, the evidences of the
working of such a power are so distinct and clear to the reason
that the mind which remains unfettered by the trammels of
dogmatic physics, and is free to exercise judgment, will not
deny its existence.”

We have before us in these quotations the opinion of a man not
only eminent as an author, but well-known to be a shrewd and
careful investigator, who has given years to the examination of the
functions of the human frame. The account of the researches as to
the construction of living tissue is most interesting. Dr. Beale
shows that there are two states of matter in living beings; one
manifesting truly vital phenomena, nutrition, growth, and
multiplication, while the other is the seat of physical and
chemical changes only. It appears that of any living being, but
a part of the matter of which it is constituted is really living at
any moment, and that in the case of adult forms of the higher
animals and man, indeed only avery small portion of the total

96 Notices of Books. (January,

quantity of their body-matter is alive at any period of existence.
The living matter or bioplasm, in which wonderful changes occur
as long as its life lasts (which changes cannot be explained by
physics and chemistry), can be examined at any time, and the
principal and most remarkable phenomena can be demonstrated
with the aid of a y:th of an inch object-glass magnifying 700
diameters. Bioplasm exists in all living beings, and upon it
their structure, composition, and actions depend. ‘There is
not,” says Dr. Beale, ‘‘at any period of life, in health, or disease,
a portion of any tissue of man’s body the size of a pin’s head,
with perhaps the single exception of the teeth of the adult and
in old age, that does not contain some of this living matter
or bioplasm in which purely vital phenomena take place.
Every tissue may be divided anatomically into elementary
parts. Each elementary part consists of the living matter or
bioplasm, and the lifeless formed matter (cell-wall, envelope,
tissue, intercellular substance, periplastic matter) produced at
the moment of the death of the particles of the first. Formed
matter accumulates in the tissues as age advances, and thus
interferes with the free access of nutrient matter to the bioplasm.”
In examining tissues under the microscope, it is a very advan-
tageous fact that the bioplasts, the germ of each cell, may be
artificially and permanently coloured by an ammoniacal solution
of carmine, and thus every particle of living matter in a tissue
can be clearly distinguished. And what will be seen, say in a
small portion of the thick layer of epithelium covering the
papilla of the tongue, is a number of little particles of living
matter, often less than the 1-2000th of an inch in diameter,
separated from one another at tolerably equal distances by the
material they have produced. ‘These living bioplasts attract
through the pores of the lifeless matter already formed by them
materials suitable for their nutrition. Thus we can see how the
new elementary parts gradually grow up from beneath and
supply the place of the old ones which are cast off from the free
surface. But these phenomena cannot be explained by physics
and chemistry, or without calling in the aid of the hypothesis of
vital power. ‘‘ Elements which have the strongest affinity for
one another are separated from their combinations, and, perhaps,
made to combine with elements with which they have no
natural tendency to unite; and all this is effected, not as we see
it done in the laboratory by the skilful chemist after prolonged
experience and with the aid of complex contrivances, but silently,
and, as it were, by a fiat, without any apparatus whatever.”

It cannot, then, be said that the matter of the world and its
material forces necessarily give rise to the development of life ;
life must be regarded as transcending mere matter and its
forces—a later gift of an All-Wise Omnipotence.

1872.] (97)

PROGRESS IN SCIENCE.

MINING.

AmonG the many difficulties with which the miner has to contend, some of the
gravest are those which beset his attempts to carry shafts through water-
bearing strata. It unfortunately happens, however, that the Permian beds,
which extend over large areas of our coal-measures, are often so highly
charged with water that the operation of piercing them in sinking a pit-shaft
becomes a task not only ruinously expensive, but fraught with the greatest
danger to life and limb. Nevertheless, the future development of our coal-
fields must depend in great measure upon the possibility of winning coal from
beneath these newer rocks; and, consequently, unusual interest attaches to
any improvements which tend to reduce the difficulties of such work toa
minimum. For some time past Messrs. Kind and Chaudron have been suc-
cessfully engaged in boring deep shafts through watery ground; anda valuable
account of their system as at present practised in Belgium has been lately
given to the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers, by Mr. Warington
W. Smyth, F.R.S. The peculiarity of this process consists in sinking the
pit @ niveau plein, that is to say, in carrying on the boring while the water is
“at full level” in the shaft. By this means no pumping machinery is
needed during the boring, and hence one of the chief items of expense
is eliminated, whilst safety to the workmen is ensured by conduéting the
operation at or near the surface, after the manner of boring an Artesian well.
Mr. Smyth’s observations were made on a pair of pits now being sunk by
this process in the concession of Maurage, on the north rise of the Bassin du
Centre, in Belgium. The coal-measures are here overlain by a considerable
thickness of cretaceous and tertiary strata, consisting chiefly of sands, marls,
and chalk, which in the upper part hold a great amount of water. The
foundation of the iron tubbing in these pits is to be fixed at a depth of 636 feet.
The four or five men employed in sinking each shaft work upon a platform
about 16 feet below the surface. At this working floor the shaft is nearly
1g feet in diameter; but immediately below, it contracts to 15*4 feet, and is
carried down of this size to the water-level, which is situated at a depth of
about 98 feet. No attempt is made to remove the water until the dangerous
ground is pierced through; but the work is carried on by boring, while the
shaft—which is nothing more than a gigantic bore-hole—remains filled with
water up to its natural level. The boring is effected in two or more stages:
during the first, a cylindrical hole is made about 5 feet in diameter,
and when this has advanced to a depth of 30 or 4o feet, the upper part
is enlarged to the full diameter of the pit. The cutting-tool, or trépan,
consists of a horizontal bar of wrought-iron, armed upon its lower surface
with steel teeth, and attached to thick rods of pine, which are screwed
together and fastened at the upper end, by a strong flat chain, to one
extremity of a simple lever, the other end of which has dire@& conneéction
with the piston-rod of a steam-engine at the surface. By admitting
steam above the piston, that end of the lever is depressed, whilst the other end
carrying the rods is elevated; the fall of the boring-tools is secured by their
own weight. The cutter for the large bore weighs about 16 tons, while
that for the smaller hole varies according to the nature of the ground; but in
piercing hard rock—such as flint—may amount to 8 tons. When the watery
measures are pierced, the iron tubbing is let down into its place. This
tubbing is made in short lengths, or rings, each with a flange above and below.
The bottom flange of the lowest ring is securely seated on a bed cut in
water-tight ground, and is surrounded on the outside by a wall of tightly-
pressed moss. Upon this moss, as upon a cushion, rests a ring, which slides
over the previous piece, and upon this sliding tube the tubbing is built up ring
VOL. II. (N.S.) o

98 Progress in Science. (January,

by ring. The successive rings are bolted together, and sheet-lead is inserted
between the planed faces of the flanges, while the annular space between the
rings and the wall of the pit is filled in with concrete. The water is then
pumped out of the pit, and additional security is given to the tubbing by
cutting a lower seat, and building up a few lengths of tubbing, tightly wedged
under the moss-box. By this ingenious system several pits have already been
sunk, safely and successfully, through very dangerous ground.

In spite of the spread of scientific knowledge, the aid which geology is
capable of lending to the miner appears still to be too often ignored. One of
the most glaring instances of unscientific mining has recently been recorded
by Mr. Bristow, F.R.S. During the prosecution of his duties on the Geologicat
Survey, he lately came upon a spot near Easton, in Somersetshire, where a
shaft, with steam winding machinery in full operation, was being sunk in the
vain hope of reaching coal at a depth of several thousand feet below the lowest
strata of the true coal measures. Commenced in the lower limestone shales,
the shaft had entered the old red sandstone, which it penetrated to the depth
of 112 yards—every yard carrying the explorers so much further from the
obje@ of their search. The want of scientific knowledge 1s nowhere more
strikingly seen than in such futile experiments, which can only result in the
useless expenditure of capital and in keen disappointment to the speculators.

Some remarks on the prospeé of finding coal to the south of the Mendips
have been contributed to the ‘‘ Geological Magazine,”’ by Messrs. Bristow and
H. B. Woodward; and, in the same journal, Mr. S. Sharp has cited several
instances of sinking for coal in Northamptonshire almost as absurd as that at
Easton. In Northamptonshire, however, the borings have been made in
oolitic rocks, beneath which the coal, if it exist at all, must be hidden at
depths almost unattainable. Yet a proposal has been recently made to renew
workings in a shaft which was sunk several years ago at Kingsthorpe, near
Northampton. This shaft, after passing through the great oolite, inferior
oolite, and lias, entered the new red sandstone, and eventually attained a
depth of 967 feet from the surface. The project was then abandoned, but
£30,000 had already been expended upon the workings. Mr. Sharp now
calculates that workable coal cannot be expected to occur at less than 4000 feet
from the bottom of the present shaft, thus making a total depth of about
5000 feet from the surface. Still, this undertaking, unpromising as it appears
to the geologist, is not without its supporters among unscientific speculators.

As acontrast to these examples of ill-dire@ed energy, we may point to the
results which have recently rewarded the spirited enterprise of Mr. J. C.
Dawes, who for many years past has been exploring the borders of the South
Staffordshire coal-field. It appears that after seven years’ search, at a cost of
about £20,000, he has now discovered at the Hales Owen workings a portion
of the Staffordshire thick coal, about 14 feet in thickness.

During the past quarter, the Colliery Inspectors have issued their Reports
for 1870. These reports may be advantageously compared with the corre-
sponding documents for the previous year. Thus, in 1869, there were
108,000,000 tons of coal raised in Great Britain by 345,446 colliers, whilst in
1870 the production rose to 113,000,000 tons, and gave employment to 350,894
miners. Yet the total number of separate accidents in 1869 amounted to 854,
and resulted in 1116 deaths; but in 1870, notwithstanding the greater activity,
there were only 830 accidents, resulting in the loss of ggt lives. In other
words, one life was lost for every 99,777 tons of coal raised in 1869; but in
1870 not less than 113,900 tons were raised for every life sacrificed. During
1870 there were 56 explosions of fire-damp, whereby 185 deaths occurred;
whilt in the previous year, with only 48 explosions, not fewer than 257 lives
were lost. It would be difficult to carry the analysis of these reports further
without introducing tabular statements unsuited to the pages of this journal.

In the iron-stone mines which are under government inspection, there
occurred, during the year 1870, 51 accidents, resulting in 55 deaths. In
addition to the statistical information which these official reports contain,

1872.] Metallurgy. 99

there will also be found in them, as usual, much information and many sugges-
tions which cannot fail to be highly valuable to the practical miner.

To a recent number of the “ Annales des Mines,” M. A. Henry contributes
a long paper on the different explosive substances employed in mining.
In this memoir he discusses at some length the comparative value and the
conditions of safety in the manufacture, transport, storing, and the use of the
several explosives which have been introduced as substitutes for gunpowder,
namely, gun-cotton, nitro-glycerine, dynamite, dualine, and lithofracteur. It
appears unnecessary to give an analysis of this paper; for, although only
recently published, it was written upwards of a year ago, and its publication
delayed by the unhappy state of affairs which interfered with the regular issue
of most of the scientific journals in France.

METALLURGY.

Any mechanical process which may be suggested for superseding the laborious
work of manual puddling deserves serious consideration. It may be remem-
bered that. some time ago, Mr. Menelaus, of Dowlais, bestowed considerable
attention upon mechanical puddling; but after patient and skilful research he
failed to secure satisfactory results. Mr. Samuel Danks, of Cincinnati, now
claims to have successfully solved the problem by means of his revolving
furnace—a furnace which does not, however, appear to materially differ from
some of those previously devised for the same purpose. The fire-grate is
supplied with a fan-blast below, and with jets of air from above to ensure
perfe@ combustion of the fuel; whilst a valve serves to regulate the blast, and
thus keep the temperature of the furnace under complete control during the
process. The gases generated by the combustion are conveyed across the
fire-bridge through a cylinder into the revolving chamber. This chamber rests
upon rollers, and by means of a toothed wheel may be made to rotate freely.
The foundation of the lining of the apparatus consists of a mixture of
pulverised iron ore and lime, mixed with water to a proper consistence.
Upon this “initial lining,” the fettling proper is applied. At first a certain
quantity of pulverised ore is introduced and allowed to melt ; lumps of ore are
then thrown into the molten mass; and, when the liquid has set, fresh
pulverised ore is introduced; this process being repeated until the fettling is
sufficiently thick. In the experiments at Dowlais, much of the difficulty con-
sisted in producing a suitable fettling; but Mr. Danks asserts that any iron
ore containing not morethan 5 per cent of silica will answer his purpose. The
pig-iron may be charged in either a solid ora molten state. When the iron is
melted, the furnace is caused to rotate once or twice per minute during the
first five or ten minutes of the operation. A stream of water is injected at a
certain point, and a portion of the cinder is thus solidified; this is carried
down into the molten iron ina continuous stream. After the temperature has
been raised, and the cinder run off, the velocity of rotation is increased, the
charge becomes violently agitated, the mass acquires a pasty consistence, and
the particles gradually cohere into a ball. During the process some of the
rich fettling is reduced, so that the puddled produ& adtually exceeds in weight
the pig-iron introduced. It is said that furnaces of this construction are at
work with excellent results in several parts of the United States. Reliable
information respecting the merits of the invention will no doubt be obtained
by the deputation sent to America for the purpose of examining the process, at
the instance of the Puddling Committee of the Iron and Steel Institute.

During the last ten years important alterations have been made in the
dimensions of the blast-furnaces erected in the Cleveland distri@. This
subject has been discussed by Mr. John Gjers, at the Dudley meeting of the
Institute. Although the first blast-'urnace in Cleveland was built in 1851 by
the late Mr. John Vaughan. there are scarcely any furnaces still in existence
in that distri& which were erected prior to 1859. The old furnaces were built
of small size, the earliest having a height of only 42 feet, a diameter at the
bosh of 15 feet, anda capacity of 4566 cubic feet. Gradually the dimensions have

100 Progress in Science. (January,

been increased, and in 1871 furnaces were constructed with a height of
95 feet 6 inches, a diameter at the bosh of 24 feet, and a capacity of 28,950 cubic
feet. Indeed, one of the furnaces erected in the previous year held not less
than 41,149 cubic feet. In the opinion of the author, the useful maximum
both in height and in diameter have been already attained, if not, indeed,
exceeded. Within certain limits, showever, increase of size leads to increase
of make, to economy of fuel, and to improvement in the quality of the pig-iron.
The author proceeds to give a detailed description of the Ayrsome Iron Works,
on the River Tees. Two furnaces are already in blast, and two others will
probably be ready for blowing in the spring. The furnaces are closed by a
cup-and-cone arrangement, and the waste gases are carried down to an
underground culvert. Each furnace has a height of 85 feet, and a maximum
diameter of 25 feet.

A subje@ somewhat akin to this, but more local in its bearing, was brought
forward at the same meeting by Mr. T. W. Plum, in his paper ‘On
Increasing the Height of Blast-Furnaces in the Midland Distri@s.” The four
Old Park furnaces, built half a century ago, were each 45 feet high; but a new
furnace, 60 feet high, has recently been erected in place of one of these old
forms, whilst an additional height of 15 feet has been given to another of the
furnaces by carrying up a casing outside the former tunnel-head. Hence
there are now two 6o-feet furnaces and two 45-feet furnaces working side by
side. At the time the paper was read, but little experience had been ob-
tained respecting the comparative merits of the two forms of furnace; but
even from the results then in possession of the author, he felt justified in con-
cluding that a considerably increased yield had been effected by the increased
height, and that in districts where tender cokes were used a height of 60 feet
might, under existing conditions, be safely attained, but not perhaps
exceeded.

From some recent experiments on the evolution and appropriation of heat
in blast-furnaces where raw coal is employed, Mr. I. Lowthian Bell is led to
conclude that in the Ferrie self-coking blast-furnace, which has been worked
with very economical results, one-half of the saving of fuel may be referred to
the increased height of this furnace, and the other half to the combustion of
the inflammable gases in the flues constructed in the upper part of this form of
furnace.

Mr. Barclay, of Kilmarnock, has proposed certain improvements in the
construction of blast-furnaces, whereby a considerable saving of fuel is said to
be effe@ed. An annular flue, concentric with the shaft, is constructed in the
masonry near the top of the furnace; and a portion of the gases escaping
from the upper part of the charge gains access to this flue by a series of
radiating passages. A number of vertical pipes arranged around the furnace
serve to convey these gases downwards to a lower level, where they enter
another annular flue; and, becoming ignited by contact with jets of atmo-
spheric air, again enter the furnace. The heat evolved by the combustion is
thus imparted to the materials of the charge, while the admission of air
is so regulated that no oxidising action is exerted upon the contents of the
furnace.

Some valuable researches on the composition of the gases evolved from the
Bessemer converter during the blow have been undertaken by Mr. Snelus, of
the Dowlais Iron Works. Analyses were made of the gases given off at
different periods of a blow lasting eighteen minutes, and the author thus seeks
to gain some insight into the nature of the process which goes on within the
converter. The analyses are presented in a tabular form,* and show the
relative proportions of carbon and silicon which are successively eliminated at
different stages of the operation.

* See Chemical News, O¢t. 6, 1871, p. 159.

1872.] Mineralogy. IOI

MINERALOGY.

An extraordinary discovery of native iron, apparently of meteoric origin,
Was made in 1870 by the Swedish Arctic Expedition when exploring the coast
of Greenland. It was not, however, until the autumn of last year (1871) that
the largest of these specimens were brought to Europe. So much interest is
connected with this discovery that it formed the subje@ of a recent communi-
cation from the Embassy at Copenhagen to the Foreign Office. From some
remarks made by Mr. David Forbes upon this communication when submitted
to the Geological Society, we learn that the largest of these masses of native
iron weighs not less than twenty-one tons English, whilst the next in size
weighs about g tons. The former is now deposited in Stockholm, the latter in
Copenhagen. The iron contains nearly 5 per cent of nickel, with from
I to 2 per cent of carbon, thus agreeing in general composition with many aéro-
siderites. Moreover, this agreement is strengthened by the development of
the well-known figures considered to be characteristic of meteoric iron, when
a polished face of the metal in question is etched with acids. The masses of
iron were lying on the shore between the ebb and flow of tide, resting
immediately upon basaltic rocks probably of meiocene age, in which they
appear to have been embedded; and it is curious to note that these neigh-
bouring rocks contain fragments and disseminated particles of similar iron,
whilst the so-called meteorites in their turn enclosed fragments of the basaltic
rock. Are we, then, to believe that the iron and the basalt were contempo-
raneous—that, in fact, we are here dealing with fossil meteorites, the relics of
a meteoric shower in meiocene times? Such appears to be the view held by
some mineralogists, including Professor Nordenskjéld. More cautious in his
conclusions, Professor Maskelyne believes that the question of their origin,
whether meteoric or telluric, can be decided only by examining the basalt at a
considerable distance from the objects in question, and thus determining
whether the metallic iron is disseminated through the entire mass of rock or is
confined to the immediate neighbourhood of the masses of iron. It should be
remembered that the Swedish specimens are by no means the first examples of
what have been recognised, with more or less probability, as fossil meteorites.

Another species has been added to the short list of minerals already known
to contain vanadium. Herr Frenzel, of Freiberg, announces the discovery of
a vanadate of bismuth to be named Pucherite, after the shaft where it was
obtained. The mineral occurs in very small rhombic crystals, of a reddish-
brown colour, with a specific gravity of about 5°9. The crystals appear to be
disseminated in tolerable abundance through the impure carbonate of bismuth
now being raised at the workings at the old Pucher Mine, near Schneeberg, in
Saxony.

Professor Church has published in the ‘* Chemical News” the analysis of a
fine specimen of Pitticite from Redruth, in Cornwall. Excluding the water
evolved at 100°C. as accidental, the mineral contained as much as 37°25
per cent of arsenic pentoxide, with only 35°67 of ferric oxide. Phosphorus
pentoxide was present to the extent of 1°39 per cent, and the remaining con-
stituents were sulphur trioxide 7°98, and water 17°71 per cent.

A molybdate of molybdenum has been discovered in the lead mine of
Bleiberg, in Carinthia, and described by Professor Hanns Hofer under the
name of I/semannite—a name suggested by the late Von Haidinger in honour
of J. C. Ilsemann, formerly of Clausthal. The mineral occurs in earthy or
crypto-crystalline masses, of a black or blue-black colour, soluble in water. It
contains MoO2z.4Mo03; and has probably been produced naturally by the
action of sulphuric acid upon the wulfenite, or molybdate of lead, well known
to occur abundantly in this mine.

The same mineralogist describes a new fossil resin from the coal of Sonn-
berg, in Carinthia, to be termed Rosthornite.

Some researches on the felspars have been published by Professor Streng.
In addition to the theoretical views which he enunciates respecting the

102 Progress in Science. [January,

chemical constitution of this group of minerals, he describes the result of his
microscopic examination of two or three special felspars. He is thus led to
regard the albite of Harzburg as a mixture containing 96°34 per cent of albite,
with 3°66 of anorthite, whilst the orthoclase of Harzburg, although presenting
the crystalline form of a potash-felspar, really contains almost one-half its
weight of albite. The well-known orthoclase from St. Piero, in Elba, is also
rich in soda, and specimens viewed under the microscope are seen to contain
albite to the extent of at least one-sixth or one-eighth of the mass. It is
needless to indicate the bearing which such facts have upon the theory of the
constitution of the felspars as elaborated by Tschermak.

Further information respecting the conditions under which the diamonds
occur in South Africa have been sent to this country, and will be duly pub-
lished in the “ Journal of the Geological Society.” Mr. Tobin, who has
recently returned to England, has brought with him a most interesting
specimen, exhibiting an aggregation of crystals of diamond, apparently asso-
ciated with asmall quantity of foreign matter, which may perhaps represent
the matrix. The specimen was found at Du Toit’s Pan, which appears to
be the present focus of the workings.

A mineral from Arendal, in Norway, hitherto regarded as a variety of garnet,
has been found by M. Damour to be really an idocrase. The same chemist
publishes the analysis of a garnet from the Rancho de San Juan, in Mexico.

M. Daubrée calls attention to the recent discovery of masses of phosphate
of lime in the South of France. These masses, although extremely unpromising
in external appearance, are sufficiently rich to prompt ative search for similar
substances elsewhere.

In Mr. Collins’s recently published work on the Mineralogy of Cornwall and
Devon,* we are presented with a valuable account of the many minerals found
in our two western mining counties. The author’s position as lecturer to the
Miners’ Association is a sufficient guarantee for the general trustworthiness of
the book. Of course itsespecial value lies in the detailed lists of localities, but
its interest is by no means purely local. Among the most interesting parts,
we may point to the chapter on blowpipe reactions, and to the tabular
schemes by which minerals are classified according to their most obvious
physical characters. The second part of the work is really a dictionary of
mineralogy, and contains lengthened descriptions of the species arranged
alphabetically, and illustrated by ten lithographic plates of crystals, remarkable
for the accuracy and clearness of their outlines.

ENGINEERING—MILITARY, CIVIL, AND MECHANICAL.

Guns.—In the Engineering Chronicles which appeared in the “ Quarterly
Journal of Science,’ some reference was made to experiments carried out by
Government between the Prussian and English g-pounder field-gun. The
Prussian gun is known in Prussia as a 4-pounder, that being the weight of the
round shot it carries; but asit fires a g°5 lbs. cylindrical shell, it should really
be taken as a gun of the latter capacity. Last November, some further com-
petitive trials were carried out at Shoeburyness between these guns; the
practice being made against four rows of targets, each having a frontage of
54 feet wide by g feet high, the rows being placed 60 feet apart, one beyond
the other, thus giving a depth from front to rear of 180 feet. At a distance of
2500 yards, the Prussian gun (breech-loader) with common shell, made in ten
rounds a total of 144 hits, whilst the English gun (muzzle-loader) made only
107 hits. With shrapnell shells the respective performances were, with the
Prussian gun 125 hits, and with the English gun 312 hits. At a range of
3000 yards, the effective performances with common shells were 21 hits and
38 hits respectively, and in subsequent experiments with shrapnell shell, the

* A Handbook to the Mineralogy of Cornwall and Devon; with Instrudtions for their
Discrimination, and Copious Tables,of Localities. By J. H. Collins, F.G.S., &c. Truro and
London, 1871.

1872.] Engineering. 103

English gun gave still higher performances. From these experiments it has
been shown that the Prussian gun had reached its maximum range at
3000 yards, as the curve of its trajectory is very high, whilst the trajectory of
the English gun being much flatter is much in favour of the latter.

During the last quarter the new 35-ton 7oo-pounder gun, known as the
** Woolwich Infant,” has passed through the last stage of its trials at the proof
butts, Woolwich Arsenal. At first the diameter of this gun was 11°6 inches,
with which bore it gave very singular and uncertain results as regards pres-
sures and velocities, and it was found not to consume the whole of its powder.
In order to remedy these defects the bore was enlarged, by which means it
was anticipated that the whole of the charge, being shortened, would be
consumed, and that better results would be obtained. In its altered state it
was tried, last October, with r1o lbs. and 115 lbs. powder charges and a flat-
headed 700 lbs. projectile, when the highest initial velocity obtained was
1355 feet per second with 115 lbs. of Belgian S.G. powder, the highest with
Waltham L.G. powder being 1300 feet per second; but as the pressures with
the Belgian powder were much higher than those given with the Waltham
powder, even proportionately to the velocities, that disadvantage may be
considered to more than counterbalance the slight increase in velocity. The
carriage for this gun was designed by Captain R. A. E. Scott, R.N., upon his
compound pivotting principle. The skeleton of the carriage is of cast-iron,
plated with wrought-iron, weighing r1 tons, with gear complete, and measuring
g feet in extreme length at thebase. The gun is carried in a saddle-piece, the
ends of which work in slides in the cheeks of the carriage, and have a step
arrangement for giving the gun three different planes of elevation. The
results were, on the whole, satisfactory, notwithstanding some slight defeés
discovered themselves, which were due chiefly to the manner in which the
carriage was mounted. On the 5th of December, when the last rounds were to
be fired previously to its removal to Shoeburyness, a defect was discovered in
the steel lining of the bore. We shall have more to say on this subjeé@ when
we give an account of the further experiments at Shoeburyness, which will
shortly be carried out.

Mr. Bessemer has recently published an account of his monster gun, by
which the inventor anticipates that a weight of metal may be thrown far in
excess of anything that has yet been attempted, combined, at the same time,
with a lighter form of gun, requiring the employment of less metal in its con-
struction. To achieve this end, he seeks to consume his powder charge in
such a manner as to utilise the whole of its effective force, and, at the same
time, to avoid throwing any sudden and excessive strain upon the gun. In
the present system a given charge of gunpowder may exert at the moment of
explosion a force of 60,000 Ibs. per square inch on the chase of the gun, and
by the time the projectile has traversed a distance of 10 feet, the pressure may
be reduced to a mean of 15,000 Ibs. per square inch through the entire length.
Mr. Bessemer proposes to substitute for this violent and unequal action a
continuous force of only some 3000 lbs. to the inch, maintained upon the shot
throughout the entire length of its extended travel along the bore of the gun,
hoping to obtain an equivalent duty with a vastly reduced strain. The inner
tube of the gun may consist of several thick plates of iron, each bent into a
tube, and welded, the inner and outer surfaces being bored and turned so as to
receive a series of steel hoops placed on hot, and exerting an initial force on
the gun. At the ends of the inner tubes are flanged hoops forthe purpose of
connecting the several lengths together by bolts. The breech may be secured
by a movable breech plug screwed into the end of the tube, and made gas-
tight by an expanding metal elastic cap, forming a knife edge on the plug, and
forced against a ring of copper, or other soft metal, let into a groove formed
around the breech for that purpose. In order that a continuous supply of gas
under pressure may be generated and made to aé on the projectile as it
advances, a cartridge or powder chamber is provided, which fits loosely inside
the gun; it consists of a cylindrical mass of steel, in which a large number of
small holes or chambers have been drilled parallel to the axis of the gun.
From 20 to roo of these chambers are made according to the size of the

104 Progress in Science. [January,

ordnance, and varying from 2 to 5 inches in diameter, into which the explosive
material is placed. By preference, Mr. Bessemer recommends the use in each
chamber of a number of separate charges of powder, separated from each
other by diaphragms having a fuze for communicating the ignition, or else
parted by a thin layer of meal powder. The quantities of powder in these
charges increases at every succeeding discharge of the series,and the intervals
of time between the discharges diminish, so as to keep time with the increasing
velocity of the projectile, and thus keep up the pressure in its rear nearly
uniform throughout its entire movement from the breech to the muzzle of the
gun. By this means, it is expected that a projectile may be thrown whose
weight may be measured by tons, which clearly could not be effected under the
present method of gun construction.

Torpedoes.—At page 292 of our last volume, we gave a brief account of
torpedoes adopted by the English Government. The Harvey torpedo has
since then fully maintained the high opinion we then expressed regarding it,
and it would appear to be the one finally adopted for purposes of attack.
The Germans, also, have recently introduced a similar offensive weapon in
their fleet, and three boats are stated to be now under construction in
Deyrient’s Dockyard at Dantzic, the destination of which is to place torpedoes
under, and thus to destroy an enemy’s ship. These boats are built almost
entirely of iron, and, being about 60 feet long and only 6 or 7 feet broad, they
have nearly the form of a fish. The deck is not flat, but round, so as to be*but
little exposed to damage from an enemy’s shot; and, while employed in active
operations, no one will be visible on board. These boats will be steered from
the bows; and on the deck, above the rudder, there is a slight elevation to
allow the steersman to stand on his feet, and a small opening, about an inch
wide, to serve him as a look out. As they are intended to operate close to an
enemy’s vessel, the armour will be as thick as is consistent with high speed.
The most curious part of the invention, perhaps, is, that these tiny screw-
steamers use petroleum as fuel, which is contained in a number of iron
receptacles in the stern, of sufficient thickness to be impervious to projectiles.
The chimney is so small that it can scarcely in any case be hit. The hold for
the torpedoes is in the middle of the boat, as well as the quarters of the
crews.

Pulverised Fuel—Many devices have from time to time’ been put forward
with the view of utilising small coal. Amengst others, may be noticed that of
pulverising it and burning it as a jet, mixed with air. In the year 1831, one
J. S. Dawes took out a patent in this country for applying pulverised fuel to
the blast-furnace through the tuyeres; it, however, proved unsuccessful,
owing, doubtless, to the fact that the agency of fuel in the blast-furnace is
chemical as well as physical. In 1846 a patent was taken out by one
Desboissiers for pulverising fuel and blowing the dust into the furnace, but
though the conception involved some correct ideas, the machinery was totally
impracticable. In 1854 Mouchel suggested the injection cf powdered fuel and
ores, either separately or together, upon a hearth or inclined plane of a cast-
iron box, heated by waste heat from other furnaces. Mushet proposed, in
1856, to use pulverised coal, carried by a blast into a reverberatory furnace to
produce the oxidation of the iron. More recently still, Crampton has taken
up the subje@, and achieved tolerable success in the combustion of powdered
coal for locomotive and other steam purposes. The plan, however, which
appears hitherto to have beenattended with the greatest success, is one by
Messrs. Whelpley and Storer, of Boston, at whose establishment pulverised
coal is applied to metallurgical and other purposes. A description of this
method has recently been given by Lieutenant C. E. Dutton, U. S. Ordnance
Corps, in a paper read before the Franklin Institute, from which the following
particulars have been taken. One great improvement in Messrs. Whelpley
and Storer’s process is, that the pulverising and blowing of the fine coal into
the furnace is effeéted by one and the same machine. ‘Conceive an
ordinary blowing-fan with the following modifications.” We are now quoting
from Lieutenant Dutton’s paper. ‘ The box is about 18 inches in diameter, and
about the same length. Instead of opening at both ends, one end is tight

1872.] Engineering. 105

round the journal. The box is divided into two chambers by a diaphragm, so
that, really, we have two fans on the same shaft, and their boxes communicate
by a hole in the diaphragm around the shaft. The fan at the closed end of
the box is in’ form and function a blowing-fan. The outer fan is the pul-
veriser. The coal, fed into the open end of the pulverising chamber, is
caught by the swiftly revolving paddles, and reduced to powder, and is then
sucked by the fan through the diaphragm, whence it is expelled by the
ordinary tangential pipe along with the blast. The coal is fed in the form of
coarse gravel; it is delivered as fine as flour. The function performed by this
machine is a double one. It pulverises the fuel, and delivers it, along with
the blast, into the combustion chamber, by a single and indivisible operation.”
It has been ascertained from practice that the most suitable velocity for the
pulveriser is about 10,000 feet per minute for a point on the periphery of the
paddle, which, for an 18-inch pulveriser, would be about 2100 or 2200 revolu-
tions per minute. -The feed of fuel must, of course, be determined primarily
by the requirements of the furnace, and the minimum quantity that will effec
the desired temperature should, in each case, be determined experimentally.
The amount of air admitted should be sufficient to float readily the pulverised
coal, and no more. If excessive, the increased draught through the pulver-
ising chamber will float out much larger particles than can burn effectively.
Generally speaking, it is advisable to keep the supply of air quite small. The
18-inch pulveriser, commonly applied to furnaces, reduces 200 lbs. per hour of
anthracite coal, the proportions of size being about like the yield of millstones.
It requires about 3} horses’ power to effect this. The same power reduces
about 300 lbs. of bituminous coal, a large proportion of it being very fine.
The entire yield will burn easily, wafted through a hot furnace. A 42-inch
pulveriser, requiring about 15 horse-power, will deliver 1000 to 1200 lbs. of
anthracite per hour, 2000 Ibs. of bituminous coal, 2500 to 3000 lbs. of quartz,
2000 to 2500 lbs. of top cinder, 3500 to 4000 lbs. of limestone, goo lbs. of
unburnt bone, and 50 bushels of wheat.

Patent Gas.—It is some time since any radical change has been introduced
in the manufacture of coal gas. Dr. Eveleigh has recently succeeded, not
only in manufa@uring a gas purer than is generally obtainable, but he likewise
converts the residual products into permanent gas in a manner at once
practical and economical. The process introduced by Dr. Eveleigh consists of
the distillation of coal in iron retorts, at the comparatively low temperature of
goo° (Fahrenheit). The hydrocarbon oils go over with the gas, and they are
carried together to a condenser, where the oily matters are rapidly condensed,
the gas passing on to its own condenser and purifier. The hydrocarbon oils
are collected and passed first into a heated pan, where they are re-vapourised,
the vapours being conducted to a re-distillation retort charged with charcoal,
and heated to a temperature of about 1200° (Fahrenheit). By passing these
vapours through charcoal, it is found that they are decomposed and converted
into a permanent gas, which, however, is of a lower illuminating power than
that produced directly from the coal. This secondary gas is passed through a
condenser, from whence it is condu@ed through a receiver containing the pri-
mary gas with which it is mixed, the union of the two giving a gas of very
high illuminating power. Dr. Eveleigh’s experience during a long course of
trials at his works is, that the retorts, the heating pans, and the re-distillation
cylinders require only two-thirds of the quantity of fuel employed in the
ordinary process, owing to the superior quality of the coke produced. As
regards the results of working, he finds that 1 ton of Pelaw Main (Newcastle)
coal, without the aid of Cannel, produces 11,000 cubit feet of 18-candle gas,
with only 2 grains of sulphur in any form in roo cubic feet, or about one-
twentieth of that usually found. By slightly increasing the distilling heat,
12,000 cubit feet of 17-candle gas can be obtained from the same quantity and
description of coal as above, but with a slight increase of sulphur, not, how-
ever, exceeding 5 grains. The yield of oil is found to be twenty gallons per
ton of coal, and in its re-distillation two valuable produéts are obtained
in addition to the gas. One is the pitch, which has been assessed at a very
high market price ; and the other is a drying oil, which is of value for varnishing

VOL. VIII. (0.S.)—VOL. II. (N.S.) P

106 Progress in Science. [January,

or painting external work, especially for iron work, either exposed to the
atmosphere or submerged in water. There appears to be no difference in the
quantity of ammonia obtained, but it is stated to be produced in a better,
purer, and more marketable form.

Mont Cenis Tunnel.—We have on several former occasions referred to the
operations in connection with this chef d’euvre amongst engineering works,
and its course of progress has thus been duly noted. On the present occasion,
when we have to record the final completion of this gigantic undertaking,
it may not be uninteresting at the same time to note a few of the leading par-
ticulars regarding it. On the last day of August, 1857, Victor Emmanuel fired
the first blast on the Italian side of the tunnel. On the 25th of December, 1870,
the headings from either end met under Mont Fréjus; and the official inaugu-
ration of the tunnel took place on Saturday, the 16th of September last, when
Italian ministers passed through it from Bardonnéche to receive French con-
gratulations at Modane. The length of the tunnel is 13,364 yards, or rather
more than 74 miles, and its sectional area is 71} yards, so that about 960,000
cubit yards of rock had to be excavated and carried to spoil with an average
lead of 1°875 miles. The weight of the mass of excavation could not have
been less than 2 millions of tons, representing a work of 32 millions of ton-
miles in the carriage to spoil. The ground cut through by the tunnel may be
divided into six zones. 1. The anthracite zone that is first followed in
leaving Modane, after traversing 420 feet of loose earth, and which is the
most ‘elevated in the order of superposition of the beds. It represents an
oblique thickness of 6456 ft. 6 in., corresponding to a real thickness of 3732 ft.
6 in. 2. The quartzite zone, 1251 ft. 3 in. thick, following the axis of the
tunnel, and of an absolute thickness of 725 ft. 6 in., the thinnest and best
defined of all. 3. The gypso-calcareous zone, of an oblique thickness of 2815 ft.
and an actual depth of 1627 ft. 3 in. 4. The upper calcareous zone, which
has an oblique thickness of gto4 ft. 10 in., and a normal thickness of 5263 ft.
Ir in. 5. The middle zone of calcareous schist which the tunnel traverses for
8563 ft., and the thickness of which is 4950 ft.6in. 6. The lower zone of cal-
careous schist, which extends to the Bardonnéche opening of the tunnel. Its
oblique thickness is 11,482 ft. 11 in., corresponding to a depth of 6638 ft. 8 in.
The total cost of the tunnel amounted to 65 millions of francs, of which Italy
will pay something less than 20 millions of francs, and France will have to
pay 25,500,000 francs.

Ballooning.—During the late siege of Paris, no less than fifty-four balloons
left that city between the 2oth of September, 1870, and the 28th of January,
1871, charged with letters and despatches ; the letters thus transported being
about 2,500,000 in number, and weighing altogether about 10 tons. Besides
this freight about a hundred persons were conveyed from Paris by these postal
balloons. The principal dimensions of these balloons were as follows:—
Diameter, 51 ft. 8 in.; superficies, 8390 square feet; and contents, 72,240
cubic feet. The balloons were of a spherical form, and were made of highly
glazed calico varnished, each being composed of forty gores. The gores were
cut to shape with perfect regularity, and were strongly sewn together with a
coarse double waxed thread. This being done, the exterior received two coats
of varnish, and then as soon as the balloon was dry it was ready for inflation,
ordinary coal gas beingemployed for the latter purpose. In the lower aperture of
the balloon was fitted a woodenring, 2 ft. 7} in. diameter, which was united to
the sheet-iron pipe, 5 ft. long, which placed the balloon in communication with
the gas pipes. Above, the balloon was fitted with a valve, consisting of a ring
of oak, 2ft. 74 in. in diameter, provided with a couple of semicircular valves,
kept close by india-rubber bands, and arranged so that they could be opened by
means of a cord which passed down to the car through the interior of the
balloon. The balloon was enveloped and conneéted to the suspension ring by
strong tarred hempen cords, while the suspension ring, which was 3 ft. 34 in.
in diameter, by 3:2 in. high and 2 in. thick, was provided with gabillots, to which
were attached the eight cords of the car. The latter was made of wicker work
and Indian reeds, and was 3 ft. 7} in. deep, by 4 ft. 7 in. long, and 3 ft. 74 in.

1872.] Engineering. 107

broad, whilst the distance between it and the suspension ring was 6 ft. 7 in.
The total height of each balloon was 68 ft., and its weight 913 Ibs.

Sewage Works.—On the 23rd of October last the sewage irrigation works at
Leamington, which have been constructed at a cost of £16,000, were formally
opened. The sewage has all been taken by the Earl of Warwick, who has
undertaken to dispose of it for a term of thirty years, for which purpose he
has laid out a farm of rooo acres on his estate. The population of the
distri@t, according to the last census, was 23,429. In order to raise the sewage,
two condensing beam engines have been erected at the pumping station, either
of which will pump 1,500,000 gallons in twelve hours; but in ordinary weather
it is expected that one pair of pumps will be sufficient. At the preliminary
trial, one engine pumped 20,000 gallons of sewage in an hour and a-half.

The Sewage Inquiry Commission appointed to inquire into the question of
the best means of disposing of the sewage of Birmingham has recently issued
its report. The town of Birmingham stands almost on a ridge of high land,
and is remote from any large river. Hitherto almost all its sewage has been
drained into the small river Tame, polluting its waters to such an extent, that
the Right Honourable Sir C. B. Adderley, through whose estate the contami-
nated waters run, has obtained an injunction from the court of Chancery to
restrain the Corporation from continuing to poison this river, and hence the
appointment of the Commission. The population of Birmingham is 345,000,
and the number of houses in the borough is 73,200, having an average of 59
persons to an acre on the area built upon. The average dry weather flow is
17,000,000 gallons per day, notwithstanding that not more than 20,000 persons
are accommodated with water-closets, leaving 325,000 dependent on the open
middens with which the town abounds, and which together cover an area of
no less than 13} acres. Analysis of the water in the wells, from which not
less than 105,000 of the population are entirely dependent, shows that it con-
sists in reality of filtered sewage. Thus the Birmingham Town Council have
to deal with their sewage in such a way, not only to meet the requirements of
the court of Chancery, but also to improve the sanitary condition of the town
itself, whilst, as there exist no means of disposing of the sewage in an unpu-
rified state, some mode of purification becomes a necessity. From the
inquiries made by the Commission from other towns they report as follows :—
1. That the land improves greatly under irrigation. 2. That as a rule,
no complaints are made of nuisance arising therefrom. In the few instances
in which nuisance has arisen, it has been the result of carelessness in con-
ducting the irrigation. 3. The health of the distri@ where irrigation is carried
on is not injuriously affeted. 4. Cattle thrive on the irrigated land, and no
case of their being affected with entozoa has ever been heard of. 5. No other
manure has been found necessary for the crops, and the produce, both
in quality and quantity, is very satisfactory. 6. The water, after passing
through the land, is purified in a satisfactory manner, and in one case cattle
drink the effluent water. As at least 10,000 acres would be required to deal
with the sewage by irrigation—an extent of land which could not be procured
for that purpose—the Commission recommend that 800 acres of land should
be purchased, and the purification of the sewage be accomplished by a simple
system of downward filtration. The outlay required for this purpose is esti-
mated at £14,160, and the returns at £9,200, thus leaving an annual deficit of
£4900, which would have to be made up by local taxation.

Extensive works are now being constructed by the Native Guano Company
at Crossness, with a view to utilise a portion of the sewage of the Metropolis
by means of the ABC process. The daily outfall of sewage at Crossness is
about 50,000,000 gallons, or more than 223,000 tons; at first, however, the
Native Guano Company propose to deal with only about 500,000 gallons in
the twenty-four hours, which will be drawn from the culvert through which
the sewage flows into the great reservoir; and from this point the sewage
will flow through a large pipe into the sump of the engine on the Company’s
works. From this the sewage will be pumped into the mixing room, where
there is a cylinder and four A B C mixing pits, all fitted with mechanical
Stirrers. The cylinder contains one minute’s supply of the sewage, which

a

108 Progress in Science. [January,

enters at the bottom, and rising with the A B C mixture, whilst being gently
stirred overflows by a trough into the settling tanks. The four mixing pits are
fed by troughs from a crushing mill, in which the ingredients of the A BC
mixture are pounded up with from 82 to 84 per cent of water. The mixture
is kept stirred in these pits, and is drawn from them by gravitation into a
small pumping well, fitted with duplicate earthenware pumps, each capable of
throwing a quantity of mixture equal to from } to 1} per cent of the sewage
to a hopper, placed at such a level that it flows thence by gravitation into
the rising main containing the sewage at the point where it enters the mixing
cylinder. 10,000 grains of raw sewage are to be mixed with from 10 to 18
grains of the ABC ingredients, exclusive of water. The compound com-
prises from 2 to 3 grains of crude sulphate of alumina, 3 grains of animal char-
coal, ro grains of clay, and a fraction of a grain of blood. Assoon as the mixture
enters the settling tanks it begins to throw down the precipitate. Each tank
when full is allowed to remain for six hours, and at the end of that time the
floor will be covered with a deposit of sewage mud, while all above will be
clear water. The water will then be run off and passed through filter beds,
from which it will flow into the river. The mud will then be run off into covered
acidifying tanks, where, after further settlement, and removal of more water, it
will be treated with sulphuric acid, in the proportion of.1 pint of acid to a ton
of mud, in order to fix the ammonia. The mud is then dried on an iron floor
closely roofed in, the products of combustion from the furnace passing over it,
and which, together with the steam exhaled by the mud, is passed into a
vessel or tank, where it is made to pass through water in order to remove any
noxious properties before escaping into the air. It is computed by the
company that the 500,000 gallons of sewage to be treated daily at Crossness
will result in the production of 4 tons of native guano.

TECHNOLOGY.

Dr. Jeannel has recorded the results of a series of experiments, from which
it appears that food, both animal and vegetable, boiled at 95° is more nutritious
and of better flavour than when boiled at or above 100°. The author illustrates
this point by referring to the experience gained in mountain localities (every
Ioo metres’ rise above sea level make a difference of }° C. less in the boiling-
point of water); as, for instance, at Potosi, at 4061 metres above sea level,
and an average barometer reading of 454 m.m., the water boils at 86°2°;
at Mexico, 2277 metres above sea level, 569 m.m. barometer, water boils at
92°1°; at Briancon, 1321 metres above sea level, 643 m.m. barometer, at 95°4° ;
these results are also confirmed by the action of the so-called Norwegian
cooking apparatus.

The utilisation of crude petroleum for fuel has attraéted the attention of
many scientific men. The great aim is to discover a process whereby the ten-
dency to carbonisation should be overcome. This difficulty an American
inventor has now overcome. From the ‘Chicago Evening Mail,” we learn
that his apparatus consists of a cylinder, like a small locomotive boiler set on
end, with a smaller cylinder within it, the intervening space being filled with
petroleum. The smaller cylinder is filled with six hundred small copper tubes,
and through these superheated steam passes, producing vapour from the oil
that fills the interstices between the tubes. This vapourised oil rises through a
layer of prepared sponge, and just at the point of exit is mixed with super-
heated steam in any required proportion, thus producing hydrocarbon gas.
This gas passes through iron tubes to the point where the fuel is needed, and
is there burned, very much like common gas. In the case shown in illustra-
tion the kiln was filled with stone, and in a very short time after the fire was
lighted the heat was more intense than can be expressed by comparison. All
this time the fire was under perfe@ control, and by a simple turn of a screw
the combustion was made more or less intense. The experiment was varied
by admitting a greater or less proportion of steam into the pipes, so that in
some cases the fire was fed with fifty per cent or more of water, and the
remainder of vapourised oil.

1872.] Technology. 109

A cheap and good process for the utilisation of leather waste has long been
a desideratum. This waste represents millions of dollars annually. A pro-
cess that could reproduce a texture of these cuttings, only half as good as the
original leather, would be one of national importance, and would at once
establish a new industry. The ‘Scientific American” describes a process
invented by Mr. P. J. McKenzie Oerting, which is said to make uniformly an
artificial leather even superior to ordinary tanned sole leather. Examination
of these specimens reveals the following facts:—It is much harder than
ordinary leather, and does not yield to hammering or compression nearly as
much. It is very flexible and elastic. Thin shavings of it possess as great
tensile strength as shavings of equal thickness of common oak-tanned leather.
It is nearly, if not quite, impervious to water. It cuts smoothly and easily
in working. With regard to its durability under wear, it would probably wear
longer than sole leather, as it is said not to decompose or change under the
ordinary circumstances of wear to which leather is exposed in its various uses.
The method under consideration was first brought out in Copenhagen.
The ingredients employed and their proportions are as follows :—For first
quality, one pound caoutchouc for each three and a quarter pounds leather
pulp. For other qualities, the proportion of leather pulp is increased variously
up to six pounds for one pound of caoutchouc. The caoutchouc is dissolved
in benzol or other solvents, and, when sufficiently dissolved aqua ammonia
is added in the same proportion as that of the rubber, and the mass is
thoroughly stirred until it assumes a grayish-white colour. The leather pulp
is then added, and the whole is kneaded into a plastic homogeneous dough of
uniform consistency, which can be pressed or moulded into any required form,
or rolled into sheets, as may be required. The ammonia is said to a&
upon the animal glue in the cuttings, restoring to it its original properties
which it had lost to a great degree in the process of tanning. The following
are some of the properties and uses of this remarkable substance, as
given by Mr. Oerting:—Its waterproof quality makes it especially valuable
for pump leather, as well for cold as hot water, and also for harness,
as even a continued exposure to all kinds of weather has no effe& on it,
occasioning neither rot nor crack. It can be made endless, or of any length,
width, and thickness required, and of perfect uniformity as to wear, which is
generally well known to be impossible with leather belts made of shorter
pieces of different hides, and of unequal wearing capacity. It will stand any
amount of heat and fri@tion, as well as the most intense cold, will stretch less
than any other belting, and can be changed from one pulley to another with
ease and rapidity. It is very strong and substantial in the edge, and will stand
a great amount of ill use without suffering any injury, and through its com-
bined properties will supply a desideratum much needed. By suitable
machinery for moulding, or forming the material in its doughy state into hose,
fire buckets, &c., for which purpose it is especially adapted on account of its
flexibility, impenetrability by water, and its capacity to withstand any amount
of hardship, as well as extreme heat or cold, it will certainly make the
best as also the cheapest material yet produced for such purposes. By
a different mixture and proportion of the ingredients, a matting for floor
covering is made, which on account of its cheapness, its waterproof proper-
ties, and its capacity to keep rooms protected from cold and dampness, makes,
it is said, an unequalled article for covering offices, passage ways of public
buildings, &c., which will withstand an immense amount of wear, and can very
easily be cleaned.

At a recent meeting of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society,.
Mr. John Hopkinson, B.A., D.Sc., detailed some experiments on the subject of
the rupture of iron by a blow, the results of which are—ist. That if any
physical cause increase the tenacity of wire, but increase the produé of its
elasticity and linear density in a more than duplicate ratio, it will render it
more liable to break under a blow. 2nd. That the breaking of wire under a
blow depends intimately on the length of the wire, its support, and the method
of applying the blow. 3rd. That in cases such as surges on chains, &c., the

110 Progress in Science. (January,

effect depends more on the velocity than on the momentum or vis viva of the
surge. 4th. That it is very rash to generalise from observations on the breaking
of structures by a blow in one case to others even nearly allied without care-
fully considering all the details.

In a paper by Mr. H. Wild on an improved method of filling barometer
tubes without the necessity of boiling the mercury and without the danger of
breaking the tube, the author describes a method of purifying mercury from
zinc and other metals which are not easily removed by distillation. Take
1ooo grms. of that metal, pour itintoa strong flask capable of holding 2000 grms.
of water. Take, next, 30 grms. of a solution of chloride of iron (made up of
I part of the dry salt and 3 parts of water), add this to the mercury, and, after
having closed the flask with a cork, shake it vigorously until the metal is so
finely divided that with the naked eye no more globules can be seen. Water
is next poured into the flask, and the contents, having been well agitated, are
left for a moment to settle, and the impure solution poured of; this operation
is repeated twice, after which the greyish mass of very finely divided metal is
poured into a porcelain basin, which, having been placed on a water-bath, is
made dry, and next brought to its normal state of aggregation by rubbing in a
glazed porcelain mortar. The metal is next filtered through good tough
writing-paper wherein a perforation has been made with a needle.

Dr. Sézille has described a new process of panification. The wheat is first
deprived of its outer cover, or husk, by means of properly constructed machinery ;
the decorticated grain is next several times acted upon by tepid water at about
80° for the first bath and 40° for the subsequent ones, whereby the gummo-
resinous cover of the grain is dissolved and removed. This removal is neces-
sary on account of the fact that this substance becomes very deep brown,
almost blackish, coloured by fermentation of the dough; the grain at the same
time absorbs from 65 to 70 per cent of water, and is then reduced to a paste
by means of machinery very similar to that used in chocolate mills. This
perfeGly white paste is next leavened, and after fermentation is ready for
baking. By this process, from the same quantity of grain which by the usual
process only yields 108 to 110 kilos. of bread, the yield is increased to 145 kilos.
of very superior quality and far greater nutritive power; moreover, a very con-
siderable saving of labour and expenses connected therewith is effected by the
application of this new process, which has beenthoroughly tested by competent
and independent scientific as well as practical men.

A method of coating metallic objects with a very durable black-brown varnish
is given by Dr. C. Puscher. On the bottom of a cylindrical cast-iron vessel,
x8 inches high, is placed a layer, } inch thick, of coal-dust ; upon this is placed
an iron grating, and thereon are put the iron, steel, or other metallic objects
intended to be coated with the varnish. The vessel, having been first closed
with a well-fitting lid, is next placed on a bright coke fire, and heated for about
a quarter of an hour just to incipient red heat. The vessel is then removed
from the fire, and on the lid being removed, after about ten minutes, the
metallic objects will be found coated very uniformly with a good and durable
varnish, which resists bending, as well as a high temperature, without cracking
or coming off. Very small objects, such as hooks-and-eyes, for instance, are
better placed along with some coal-dust in a coffee-roasting apparatus, and
this turned, as is usual in the roasting of coffee, until the metallic objects have
obtained the desired depth of colour and are uniformly coated with the varnish.

By the use of types made of an elastic material, A. Ae. Wilbaux prints on
glass by means of fluoride of calcium incorporated in printing ink; the glass
thus printed on is next treated at a suitable temperature with sulphuric acid,
and after having been washed with water it contains in an indelible engraving
the figures of the types.

An elaborate essay on the pigments and dyes known to and used by the
ancients has been published by M. E. Rousset. From the contents it appears
that the author’s primary objeé is to prove that the ancients were not so
ignorant in industrial matters as is commonly supposed to be the case.
Among the white pigments they were acquainted with white-lead, which,

1872.] Technology. I1I

according to Pliny, was prepared especially at Rhodes. As black pigments,
various kinds of charcoal and soot were used by the ancients, the same as
nowadays; while they dyed animal skins black with nutgalls and sulphate of
iron. By their acquaintance with the use of various kinds of ochre, and by
mixing these, either with each other in various proportions, or with black
pigments, brown pigments of various shades were obtained. Under the name
of Alexandria blue, the ancients (the author includes in that term the ancient
Egyptians, as well as Greeks and Romans) largely used a pigment containing
oxide of copper, and they also were acquainted with a pigment containing
cobalt. Indigo was not unknown to them, but it was not used for dyeing,
their blue-dyed fabrics being obtained by the use of pastel-wood, Isatis
tinctoria. They used the following yellow pigments:—Ochre, massicot,
orpiment, and realgar; the latter are poisonous, and do not cover well; the
former are devoid of any brilliancy. As to the yellow dyes used by them
nothing is positively known, but it seems that woad, saffron, and other native
plants were employed. Referring to yellow pigments discovered by modern
chemistry, Naples yellow (antimoniate of lead), mineral yellow (oxychloride of
lead), and the chromium colours, discovered by Vauquelin (1797), cadmium
yellow, discovered by Stromeyer (1817), are mentioned. Among the modern
yellow dyes, purrhee and picric acid are enumerated. Vermillion, red
ochres, and minium were known from a remote antiquity, though neither
Greeks nor Romans were acquainted with the artificial preparation of vermil-
lion, which has been known to the Chinese for a very lengthy series of
centuries past. As to red dye-stuffs, there can be no doubt that madder was
known and used not only for dyeing fabrics but also in the shape of so-called
lake. Kermes, a dye-stuff little known in this country, but yet used in France,
was known to and used by the ancients, being undoubtedly used in Egypt in
the time of Moses. Among the green paints the ancients were only
acquainted with some native green-coloured compounds of copper, and with
the acetates of that metal; the number of green pigments discovered in modern
times is very large and need not be here alluded to. Of purple dyes known to
and used by the ancients, the celebrated Tyrian purple is here at length
spoken of. Among the molluscs from which this dye was obtained is the
Fanthina prolongata, yet found in the Mediterranean, and a very common
object in that sea near Narbonne (in this very ancient city there were Tyrian
purple dye-works at least 600 years B.C.), where in our days some experiments
have been made by Dr. Lesson which really prove that the mollusc just
named yields, though only in very small quantity, an exceedingly beautiful
purple. Dr. Bancroft was also acquainted with this fact, and made several
trials for the purpose of ascertaining whether this dye-stuff might be again
industrially applied.

A cheap mode of preparing pure dextrine is given by O. Ficinus. 500 parts
of potato-starch are mixed with 1500 parts of cold distilled water and 8 parts
of pure oxalic acid, and this mixture placed in a suitable vessel on a water-
bath, and heated until a small sample tested with iodine solution does not
produce the reaction of starch. When this is found to be the case the vessel
is immediately removed from the water-bath, and the liquid neutralised with
pure carbonate of lime. After having been left standing for a couple of days
the liquor is filtered, and the clear filtrate evaporated upon a water-bath until
the mass has become a paste; this is removed by a spatula, and, having been
made into a thin cake, is placed upon paper and further dried in a warm
place ; 220 parts of pure dextrine are thus obtained.

Dr. F. Stolba gives the following direCtions for cleaning glass vessels wherein
petroleum has been kept. Thin milk of lime, used for washing glass vessels
wherein this liquid has been kept, forms with the petroleum an emulsion, and
renders it possible to remove all traces, and, by the addition of a small quantity of
chloride of lime toa second washing with milk of lime, even the smell is taken
away so completely as to render the vessels fit for pouring and keeping beer
therein ; if warm milk of lime be used, the operation, which otherwise takes
considerable time for completion, is rendered shorter.

112 Progress in Science. [January,

MM. Montéfiore-Lévi and Kiinzel have published a work on the use of divers
alloys, and more especially of phosphorus-bronze, for the casting of ordnance
and other purposes. In it is given a detailed account of an extensive series of
experiments made on the large scale on the preparation of various alloys of
copper and tin, and the effe& produced thereon by the addition of phosphorus
in small quantity. It appears, on the whole, that the addition of this element
is of great value in producing alloys possessed of excellent properties, especially
for the manufacture of bronze guns. The Academy has appointed a committee
of six of its members, among them MM. Dumas and Frémy, to study this
important matter, and report thereon.

The extraction of animal fats to be used either as food or for cosmetic
purposes forms the subject of a memoir by Dr. H. Vohl. The fresh fat is first
as much as possible freed from membranes and flesh, next cut up either into
small discs or cubes, and then thoroughly washed with cold water, which
should contain the least possible quantity of lime, until all blood is entirely
removed. The fat is next put into a cylindrical stoneware vessel, 1°25 metres
high and 0°5 metre inside diameter, this vessel being placed in a water-bath
and provided with a tap at the bottom, so placed that the vessel may be
emptied without removing it from the water-bath. The vessel having been
three-fourths filled with fat, there is placed on the top of it a stoneware per-
forated disc, and next very dilute pure hydrochloric acid is poured over it. The
stoneware vessel is then closed with a well-fitting cover, and the water-
bath heated. From the fat, while melting, the perforated cover carries, by
slowly sinking downwards, all the impurities, as far as they are not dissolved
by the acid, which at the end of the operation is run off by aid of the tap.
The fat is then, while molten, washed several times with warm water, to
which, for the last washing, some carbonate of magnesia is added. The fat is
next treated with refined petroleum spirit, and the solution separated by
decantation from any membranes, &c. which may remain. The solution of
the fat is freed by distillation in a water-bath from the petroleum, and the
result is the production of a very superior fat, which being absolutely free from
water and other nitrogenous organic matter, is not liable to become rancid,
and may be preserved for many years.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE.

Dr. J. Lefort has made some important observations on the alteration which
well-water undergoes by the proximity of burial-grounds. The contents of
this paper bear more especially upon the effect of a decree, dated March 7th,
1808, whereby it was enjoined that no wells should be bored or dug out at aless
distance than 100 metres in direction from any burial-ground. The author,
having found that not only in many country villages, but also in several towns
this regulation was not observed, has made some experiments on the water of a
well at Saint Didier (Départment de l’Allier). This locality is situated on an
alluvial soil; the water is used for drinking purposes by the parish priest and
a portion of the inhabitants, and, on examination, the author found it to
contain not only a large proportion of ammoniacal salts, but also, on evapora-
tion, to leave a very large quantity of a dark-coloured organic matter mixed
with carbonated salts, which, on being mixed with some hydrochloric acid,
gave off an offensive carbonic acid gas, the smell being somewhat akin to a
mixture of a concentrated solution of glue and butyric acid. The well is very
deep, and the water is quite clear and bright, but exhibits, especially in summer
time, a very vapid taste, while, in the warm season of the year, it rapidly
becomes putrid. The author comes to the conclusion that in any soil a well
dug at the distance of 100 metres from either burial-grounds or battle-fields
is certain to be so contaminated with organic and other injurious matter as to
make it imperatively necessary to make new and sound regulations on this
subjeét, so as to prevent wells (for obtaining potable water for domestic use)
being sunk without a stringent inquiry as to where the water comes from, and
through what strata of soil it may have to pass.

1872.] Chemical Science. 1 Be

Mr. J. Parry has devised and carried out practically a new form of gas
apparatus, which possesses advantages over those of Bunsen and Frankland
and Ward. The measuring or gas tube, a, is enclosed in a glass cylinder
filled with water, and dips into the mercury trough, B. The absorbing and
eudiometer-tube, c, is connected with a by a well-fitting elastic tubing of
double thickness, firmly wired to the capillary glass tubing shown in the sketch.
The use of this apparatus hardly requires to be described. By alternately
raising and lowering the mercury reservoir, R, both a and c are filled. The
gas for analysis being then bubbled up
into A, and measured with the usual pre-

caution. The liquid absorbent required Fic. 8.

is poured into the cup, G; R is lowered, i)
M opened, thus drawing the test into c, a ©}
little being left in the cup to prevent ad- 4
mission of air. The tap,N, isnow opened, Ls)

and the gas drawn into c; both M andN are
to be kept closed while the gas is being
subjected to the action of the absorbent.
The latter must always berun into c as de-
scribed, or it is drawn into the measuring-
tube. Tocleanc the gas is passed back
into A, N is closed, and m opened, B lowered,
and the mercury and absorbent allowed to
flow out to about the level of L (see
dotted line). Unscrewing the nuts H and
D, the lower part, w, is taken out, the test,
&c., falling into a large basin placed under.
While the mercury, &c., is falling down
the tube, c, water must be poured into the
cup, G, for washing out traces of the
absorbent. The eudiometer-tube, c, is
well washed with pure water, with the
pipette, o (which consists only of an
ordinary pipette joined to a long glass
tube by a short piece of elastic tubing) ;
it is evident the long tube may thus be conveniently passed up c, and the water
blown through and up c, flowing down the sides of the tube into the basin.
The part w is made of ironor steel of the form shown; a plug of caoutchouc
is firmly cemented into the short iron tube; the platina wires for explosions
insulated in glass tubing, also the glass tube (wired to the elastic tubing, F, by
which the reservoir, R, is raised and lowered) are passed air-tight through the
caoutchouc plug. The flanges, &c., w and L, should be well made with smooth
true surfaces ; a washer of caoutchouc is placed between the flanges, also the
end of c presses down on the plug when the nuts H and D are screwed down.
By means of this apparatus analyses are rapidly and conveniently done;
explosions are accomplished without difficulty, with far less trouble and risk
than with the ordinary eudiometer; the gas for explosion may be expanded to
any required extent by lowering R, and any risk of bursting c is thus entirely
obviated. Water may be substituted for mercury in the trough, B, but of
course, with less accurate results. The eudiometer, c, may be supported by
clamps attached to a long iron rod, and R raised or lowered by a pulley.

aul

(SOs oes Se So

Dugald Campbell, F.C.S., has recently analysed some ancient Jewish glass
obtained from Bessant, secretary to the ‘‘ Palestine Exploration Fund,” and
which, that gentlemen writes, ‘Is all from shafts round the Temple, and found
at depths varying from 20 to 8o feet,” and as its history is truly interesting and
its composition is somewhat curious, an analysis may not be out of place in
the pages of this journal. The sample of glass weighed altogether about
3 ounces, and consisted of a number of small pieces, many of which in parts
had undergone a change both in structure and colour by time and exposure.
The portion sele@ed for analysis was from pieces which appeared to have
undergone the least if any change, and the results were as follows, in roo parts : —

VOL. Il. (N.S.) Q

114 Progress in Science. [January,

Silica aur 46 as ate 3¢ ae 56 69°30
Lime be ae S2 aie oe 50 50 8°50
Magnesia 310 50 ws oe aie bc 0°55
Soda Si a 55 ae a6 ae af 13°79
Potash! |}. < ei Bc ar te 50 3c 1°49
Alumina .. re Do a6 ye a0 on 3°20
Oxide of iron (Fe203) .. a 56 ae a0 2°00
Oxide of antimony .. ee oe 5p Ac 0°29
Oxide of lead .. oe ot ae os 60 trace
Phosphoric acid ac So.) Gs 56 Re 0°80
Loss in analysis oF a are ac on 0°08

The specific gravity of the glass is 2°430.

Wagner, in ‘‘Versuchs Stationer Organ,” xiil.,6g to 75, and 218 to 222,
describes the results of his experiments with kreatine as a source of nitrogen
for plants. Maize plants grew and developed seeds in a solution in which
kreatine was the only nitrogenous substance present. The kreatine was
absorbed unchanged, and was detected in the plants. Wagner refers to the
fa& that Hampe had found that urea is absorbed unaltered by plants. The
same observation was made by Dr. C. A. Cameron in 1857, and was reported im
the ‘* Transactions of the British Association” for that year, in the ‘* Chemist,”
for November, 1858, and in the ‘* Repertoire de Chemie, Pur et Appliqué,’
Paris, December, 1858. Dr. Cameron finds that plants can absorb unchanged,
and apparently derive nitrogen from, potassic nitrite, potassic cyanurate, and
potassic ferrocyanide.

An examination of the gases occluded in coal forms the subject of a paper
by Dr. E. Meyer. Lumps of hard and compact Zwickau coals (Saxony) the size
of a walnut were put into a flask, previously partly filled with thoroughly well-
boiled and hot distilled water; the flask was next closed with a perforated
caoutchouc stopper wherein a glass tube was fitted, which, serving as gas con-
veying tube, was carried into a vessel filled with water deprived of air. The
apparatus thus arranged was kept at boiling heat for some time in order
thereby to eliminate the film of air which adheres mechanically to the coal.
The boillng was further continued after the gas-conducting tube had been
placed over a graduated glass tube, previously filled with distilled water freed
from air and placed on a pneumatic trough. The gas thus collected (con-
stantly evolved from the lumps of coal) was analysed according to Bunsen’s
method, and found to consist in the first sample operated upon of :—Carbonic
acid, 16°9; marsh-gas, 20°43; nitrogen, 53°3; oxygen, 1°73; heavy carburetted
hydrogens absorbable by fuming sulphuric acid 7°7 per cent. Second sample—
Carbonic acid, 22°4; marsh-gas, 22°3; nitrogen, 48:0; oxygen, 471. The
large quantity of nitrogen and the small quantity of oxygen deserve special
notice. The samples of coal experimented with had been kept in a cellar for
a period of several months in contaé with air so that it would appear that the
oxygen of the air absorbed has served for the oxidation of the coal and forma-
tion of carbonic acid.

The presence of manganese has been shown by G. Campani to be a perma-
nent constituent of blood. This subject was taken up by the author in conse-
quence of a paper published in a scientific Italian periodical, wherein Dr.
Pollacci asserts that manganese is an integral constituent of blood. It appears
from the author’s experiments, made with blood of oxen, that the globules as
well as the serum contain, along with iron, weighable quantities of manganese.

As bearing somewhat on this subject, we may here record a very delicate test
described by Dr. Béttger for the detection of minute traces of manganese. A
few grammes of chemically-pure chlorate of potassa are first fused in a test-
tube. and, while fused, there is put into it a minute quantity of the substance,
mineral or organic, to be tested for manganese. If at the end of the reaction
the contents of the thoroughly cooled tube exhibit a peach-blossom red
colour, the substance thrown into the fusing chlorate of potassa contained
manzanese, the presence of which may be thus ascertained in wood, human

1872.] Chemrcal Science. 115

hair (especially the reddish coloured), coal, and minerals, of all of which only
minute quantities are required.

Dr. Roux has published a note on the existence of copper in certain waters.
The experiments were chiefly made at the request of the Maire of Saint-
Jean-d’Angely (Charente Inférieure), bearing upon the question that some of
the spring-water of that town had become impregnated with copper, owing to
the waste water of a coppersmith’s shop having by percolation through
the soil found its way to the spring. The result of very minutely conducted
assays of the soil, as well as of the water in the neighbourhood of the works,
revealed the presence of copper, but only in very small quantity. Water from
Rochefort, pumped up by the aid of copper pumps, contained rather more
copper; but in neither case was the quantity of that metal found in the waters
alluded to so large as to be capable of giving rise to any injury to health, the
less so as the French, by daily using copper cooking-vessels, obtain from these
a sufficient quantity of copper in their system to render the detection of that
metal in their blood an easy matter.

In the gold mines at the Thames, New Zealand, there are found tolerably
large quantities of grey antimony ore, or stibnite, associated with the quartz
and other rocks of the elder series, from which geld is extra@ted. Mr. Pattison
Muir has examined a sample of this stibnite. It has the appearance of a large
mass of steel-grey crystals, radiating chiefly from a central point, some of the
crystals being fully an inch in length, and generally very perfe@ly formed.
_ The crystals are prisms belonging to the trimetric system, soft, and easily cut
with the knife in the direction parallel to the principal axis, showing, when
cut, a brilliant metallic lustre. Adhering to the crystals is a small amount of
gangue, composed seemingly of siliceous matter. For the purpose of analysis
a large crystal was broken off perfectly free from any foreign matter. The
specific gravity of the crystals = 4°625. Onanalysis it was found to contain—
Antimony, 71°09; iron, 0°24; arsenic, traces; sulphur, 28°47 per cent.

In making some experiments on the action of sulphur on paraffin, Mr. John
Galletly found that a mixture of these substances, either in equal parts or with
a larger proportion of sulphur, wnen heated in a flask not greatly above the
melting-point of the sulphur, begins to evolve hydrosulphuric acid, and con
tinues to give off this gas steadily, while kept moderately heated for a consi-
derable time. This process is a most convenient one for laboratory use.
With a round flask holding about a pound of the materials fitted with a tube
bent at right angles about }-inch bore and 12 to 18 inches long, containing a
little loose cotton-wool, and having a smaller tube fitted to the end of this for
dipping into the liquid through which it is desired to pass the gas, a convenient
stream can be obtained lasting several days. The production of the gas can
be stopped and renewed at pleasure by withdrawing or applying the heat.
An Argand lamp should be employed, or if a Bunsen is used, the top piece
should be on the tube for spreading the flame, so as to avoid heating on
one spot. Heavy paraffin oil used for lubricating machinery can be substi-
tuted for the solid paraffin, and good results are also obtained with commercial
stearic acid, but with the latter the tube conveying the gas soon becomes
covered with drops of a milky liquid, which is probably water and finely
divided sulphur. With paraffin the tubes remain clear and bright, except for
a little sulphur sublimate close to the neck of the flask. Reinsch recommends
a laboratory process for obtaining pure hydrosulphuric acid by heating in a
glass flask equal parts of sulphur and suet. The recommendation does not
seem to have been generally followed, but the advantages resulting from the
substitution of paraffin for suet may lead to the more usual adoption of this
process.

Drs. K. Kraut and O. Popp have described a series of experiments made
with solutions of carbonate of potassa of different strength, into which sodium
amalgam was placed and left for a longer or shorter time, the result being the
formation of a crystalline potassium amalgam, mixed, however, with a very
small quantity of sodium, which the authors consider to have been left in
combination with the mercury. The percentage composition of several of the

116 Progress in Science. [January,

amalgams thus obtained is quoted ; as instances, we mention the following :—
Hg, 98370; K, 17560; Na, 0-036. Hg, 98420; I, 1303) Na, cosmo:
Hg, 98,044; K, 0934; Na, 0641. Potassium amalgam—formula, K,Hg2,;
in percentages—Hg, 98°41; K, 1°59. Sodium amalgam, NazH¢gy2, containing
1°88 per cent sodium.

Dr. Berthelot, who has worked long and successfully on the chemistry of
the different varieties of carbon, has now treated on the properties of the
carbon met with in the Cranbourne (near Melbourne, Australia) meteorite.
This carbon must be considered as having been first in state of solution in
molten iron, and to have separated therefrom on cooling. Next, the carbon
obtained from oxide of carbon, by the decomposition of that gas by iron at a
relatively low temperature, is considered. From the reactions of these
substances, the author comes to the conclusion that native graphite, about
the origin of which very little is known, is certainly not, at least as far as
experiments can throw light on this point, derived from either anthracite or
from decomposed masses of meteoric iron which contained carbon.

The presence of milk sugar in a juice of vegetable origin has been demon-
strated by Dr. G. Bouchardat, who has examined a specimen of sugar obtained
(1837) from the juice of the Achras sapota, at Martinique, the specimen being
preserved among the objects known as belonging to the Matiére Médicale de
Mérat. By treating a portion of the sample of the sugar alluded to with
boiling alcohol at go per cent, there was left undissolved a substance which,
on further investigation, was found to possess all the physical and chemical
properties of milk sugar. A careful quantitative analysis of the sample
established the fad that it contains 55 per cent of cane sugar and 45 per cent
of milk sugar. This latter variety was also found to exist in the ripe fruit of
the same tree recently brought from Egypt and analysed by the author.

As a reagent for alcohol, Dr. Berthelot recommends benzoic chloride.
When this compound is put into conta with water it is only very slowly
decomposed, but if the water contains any alcohol (even as little as 1 in 1000
parts of water) benzoic ether is at once formed; this ether is set free by a
single drop of aqueous solution of caustic potassa, the odour of the ether
being very peculiar and prominent.

From a lengthy memoir on the nature of the sea-water along the coast of
Bohuslan (Sweden) by Professor J. L. Ekman, we quote the most interesting
point—viz., that, as regards the quantity of salt contained in the sea-water on
the west coast of Sweden, there is greater difference than for any other now
known sea. The coast alluded to is, on the one hand, washed by the North
Sea, and on the other by the Baltic. In the more northerly part the water at
the surface contains rather less than 2 per ¢ent salt, at 60 feet depth 2°5 per
cent, at go feet depth 3 per cent; in the more southerly portion the discre-
pancies are greater, but at 600 feet depth 3°5 per cent salt is met with. The
average quantity of salt of the oceans is 3°44 per cent; while in the Atlantic,
from the equator to from 55° to 60°N. latitude, the quantity ofsalt in the surface-
water is 3°606 per cent, and at depths of from 500 to 10,000 feet 3°578.

LIGHT.

Conversion of cane sugar in the state of solution into glucose under the
influence of light has now been proved by E. M. Raoult. The author placed,
on May ro last, a concentrated solution of sugar in water in glass tubes, and
sealed the tubes while boiling; these were placed close to each other in the
same locality and under identically the same conditions, with the exception
that one of the tubes was kept completely in the dark, the other tube being
exposed to bright daylight. On October 20 the tubes were opened, and the
contents examined. The solutions were perfectly clear, and did not, on being
microscopically examined, exhibit the least trace of vegetable matter. The
fluid in the tube exposed to light yielded an abundant red-coloured precipitate
with the cupro-potassic reagent, thereby indicating the presence of glucose,
while the contents of the tube kept in complete darkness did not manifest that
reaction at all.

5872:]\. ° Light. BLY

The difficulty of obtaining large specula for telescopes, together with the
disadvantages attending the weight, the brittleness, and liability to oxidation,
of the speculum metal generally used, has induced Mr. Nasmyth to turn his
attention to the employment of silvered plate glass for telescopic purposes, as
it possesses perfect truth of surface, is lighter than metal, is not liable
to oxidation, and a greater quantity of light is reflected from it than from any
metallic surface. To give a concave or convex form to a disc of plate glass, a
certain pressure must be made to act equally over the surface. This equal
pressure is obtained on Mr. Nasmyth’s plan by taking advantage of the weight
of the atmosphere. A disk of silvered plate glass, 39 inches in diameter, and
3-16ths of an inch in thickness, is fitted and cemented into a shallow cast-iron
dish, turned true on its face so as to render the chamber behind the glass per-
fetly air-tight; by means of a tube communicating with this chamber,
any portion of air can be withdrawn or injected. To produce a concave
mirror so slight a power is required, that, on applying the mouth to the tube
and exhausting the chamber, the weight of the atmosphere, which amounts in
this case to 3558 pounds, acting with equal pressure over a surface of 1186
square inches, causes the glass to assume a concavity of nearly three-quarters
of an inch, which, in a diameter of 39 inches, is far beyond what would ever be
required for telescopic purposes. On re-admitting the air, the glass imme-
diately recovers its plane surface, and on forcing in air with the power of the
lungs, it assumes a degree of convexity nearly equal to its former concavity.
The degree of concavity or convexity may be regulated to the greatest nicety,
and it is proposed to render the degree of concavity constant by placing in the
air-tight chamber a disk of iron turned to the required form, and allowing the
pressure of the atmosphere to retain the glass in the form given to it by its
close contaé with the iron disk. The curve naturally taken by the glass when
under the pressure of the atmosphere, is believed by Mr. Nasmyth to be the
catenary, inasmuch as its section would be the same as that of a line sus-
pended from each end, and loaded equally throughout its#length.

From America we hear of an ingenious application of photography as an
aid to locksmiths. Several of the “leading railway lines in America have
already become bonded carriers, and are ‘engaged in the transportation of
imported goods from New York to the interior, under custom-house seal. The
peculiar seal used for this purpose shows the practical value of photography to
the industrial arts. The photographer for the Treasury Department is now
engaged in preparing the seals for the new locks, to be used by that depart-
ment in the transportation of merchandise in bond, and in such other cases
where the protection they afford will be necessary. The lock itself is nothing
more than an ordinary padlock, which is provided with an arrangement by
which asmall piece of glass an inch square is passed over the key-hole and
_ held in place by a small spring, which cannot be reached without breaking the
glass itself. By no possible exercise of ingenuity can the lock be picked
or opened without breaking this piece of glass. Here comes in the value of
photography. A large sheet of glass, red on one side, is prepared in New
York, by marking it off into squares of the proper size. On each square
is marked a number in figures and irregular spots in red, the rest of the red
surface being cut away with hydrofluoric acid. One of these sheets cannot be
duplicated. The Government photographer receives them at Washington,
and makes three photographs of them, which give perfe&t fac similes of the
figures and spots on the glass, and then both glass and photographs are cut
into small squares corresponding to each other and packed in boxes, each
square of glass having with it three copies on paper. These are forwarded to
the officers who will use them. The officer at New York, for instance, whose
duty it is, locks the doors of the car containing bonded goods, places the glass
square over the key-hole, and forwards the photograph of the same to the
officer at Philadelphia or elsewhere whose duty it is to receive the goods. If
on thearrival of the car the lock has been disturbed, the inspector is at once
aware of it, and the company transporting is liable in bonds required pre-
viously. This is an ingenious and praétical application of photography to the
mechanical arts, and suggests numerous other applications of the art to the

118 Progress in Science. (January,

safe keeping of valuables, and even the dete¢tion of crime, in interference with
property, when the progress made shall have rendered automatic photography
practical, which is already possible.

Mr. Joseph Sidebotham has given an account of a microscopical examina-
tion he had made of dust blown into a railway carriage in which he was
travelling near Birmingham. Having collected a quantity of the dust by
spreading a newspaper on one of the seats near the open window of the
carriage, Mr. Sidebotham brought his microscope to bear on it, and thus
describes the result :—‘‘ With two-thirds power the dust showed a large pro-
portion of fragments of iron, and on applying a soft iron needle I found that
many of them were highly magnetic. They were mostly long, thin, and
straight, the largest being about o15 of an inch, and under the power used,
had the appearance of a quantity of old nails. I then with a magnet sepa-
rated the iron from the other particles. The weight altogether of the dust
collected was 57 grains, and the proportion of those particles composed wholly
or in part of iron was 29 grains, or more than one-half. The iron thus sepa-
rated consisted chiefly of fused particles of dross or burned iron, like ‘ clinkers ;’
they were all more or less covered with spikes and excrescences, some having
long tails, like the old ‘Prince Rupert’s drops;’ there were also many small
angular particles like cast-iron having crystalline structure. The other portion
of the dust consisted largely of cinders, some very bright angular fragments of
glass or quartz, a few bits of yellow metal, opaque white and spherical bodies,
grains of sand, a few bits of coal, &c. I think it probable that the magnetic
strips of iron are lamine from the rails and tyres of the wheels, and the other
iron particles portions of fused metal, either from the coal or from the furnace
bars.”

Some important experiments have been published by Dr. Budde, from which
anew theory of the photographic latent image may be deduced. Chlorine gas
is passed into a tube closed at one end, and the gas is confined by a column of
oil of vitriol saturated with chlorine. This must be done in comparative
darkness. A beam of light is then decomposed by means of a prism, and the
several coloured rays of the spectrum are allowed to fall in succession on the
tube containing the chlorine, an arrangement having been made by which any
alteration in volume that might take place in course of the experiment can
be detected and carefully registered. When the red rays fell upon the tube,
the effe& produced was very slight, the increase in the length of the gas
column being only the #,th of an inch. According to the degree of refrangi-
bility by the ray to which the chlorine was subjected, so did its expansion
increase, until when under the action of the violet, the effect’ was at its
maximum, the expansion being ten times greater than what was caused by the
action of the red rays. What is ascertained from this experiment is, that the
expansion of the gas is not due to heat, for were that the case the red rays
would have exercised the most powerful action, this point having been further
ascertained by delicate thermometers. To further establish the fa& that the
expansion is due solely to the action of light, and not to a decomposition of
the sulphuric acid by the chlorine, there was substituted for this acid,
saturated with chlorine, the tetrachloride of carbon, the same result being
obtained. The result of the experiment appears to warrant the conclusion
that the violet rays of the sunbeam act by decomposing the molecule of the
chlorine, setting free the two component atoms of which the molecule is
supposed to be built up. The two atoms occupy a greater space when
separate than when combined, and are also in a favourable condition for
entering into combination.

The estimation of the distance of the fixed stars has hitherto baffled the
skill of the astronomer. Mr. Fox Talbot has proposed the following manner of
effecting this obje@. Suppose the plane of the orbit of a binary system to
pass through the sun, 7.e., that the observer is in the plane of the orbit, and
that in the spectra of the individual stars there are lines belonging to the same
element. The spectra of the two stars, taken through the same slit, should be
observed and compared. When the stars appear in the same straight line, it

1872: ] | Light. 119

is clear that their velocities relative to the earth are the same, since both are
moving perpendicularly to the line of vision; the lines from the two stars will
therefore coincide. But when their apparent distance from each other is
greatest, the difference of their velocities relative to the observer is equal to
the velocity of either star, in its velocity in its orbit about the other. This
difference of relative velocity will produce a displacement of the lines, which
displacement may be observed and even measured. This gives the value of
that velocity; but we know also the periodic time. We have, then, at once
the circumference, and thence the diameter of the orbit. We know the
greatest angular distance between the stars; we have, then, the distance of
the stars from the earth.

M. Papafy has devised a series of sky-rockets adapted for telegraphic
service at night for armies when in the field, so arranged that each rocket is,
by a variation of coloured light, capable of transmitting six words, visible at
a distance of twenty English miles. These signals can be readily kept un-
intelligible to the enemy, while everything relating to military and strategical
matters can be easily expressed. The Prussian War Department has bought
the secret of this invention from the author, a Hungarian in service as captain
in the United States Army.

W. Miiller and Dr. F. Knapp have published a very exhaustive memoir on
that kind of glass which owes its beautifully red-purplish colour to gold. The
first portion of this monograph contains a review of the literature of the
subject alluded to, and of the various theories and opinions held on the con-
dition of the gold while acting as a pigmentary or staining matter. It appears
that the quantity of gold required to impart eolour to the glass mass is very
small indeed, since 1 part of gold in 100,000 of the metal (as the molten glass
mass is technically called) distinétly yields a rose-red colour. The authors
did not succeed in discovering by experiments what the condition is of the
gold in the glass; the chief reason of this failure is that the quantity of gold
is almost infinitesimally small.

At last there appears more than a probability that the oxyhydrogen light may
be employed with financial success. The experiments recently instituted at
the Crystal Palace at Sydenham with M. Tessie du Motay’s apparatus are in
every way satisfactory—that is, scientifically, for the statements as to economy
must at present be based only upon calculation. The apparatus employed is
extremely simple and may be described as follows:—A small one-cylinder
engine drives a set of three small air-pumps at a rapid rate; these pump air
into two retorts built up in a furnace, the external walls of which are about
1o feet long by 6 feet by 6 feet in section. These retorts are charged with
manganite of soda, mixed with some oxide of copper. The manganite has a
great affinity for oxygen and takes a large percentage out of the air, leaving
the nitrogen to escape by small iron pipes. The manganite is thus saturated
with the oxygen, which is carried over into a reservoir by a blast of superheated
steam, the manganite remaining free to again absorboxygen. In the reservoir
the steam condenses into water, leaving the reservoir filled with oxygen. By
means of the alternation afforded by the two retorts the process becomes con-
tinuous, and as fast as the air is pumped in so the oxygen is regularly given off.
In this way 1 cubic foot of oxygen is the product of 20 cubic feet of air and
15 of steam. The burner is in shape like a double ordinary burner with one
tap for the oxygen and one for the hydrogen. The top of the burner is dished
out into a hemispherical cavity, in the centre of which is the oxygen hole, and
surrounding it some eight or ten smaller holes for the hydrogen. There is
thus obtained a solid cone of light. The equivalent of 5 cubic feet of ordinary
gas burnt in the usual manner is, in the new light, 1 cubic foot of the same
coal gas with about ths of a cubic foot of oxygen. At too yards from the

candelabra of twenty lights in the centre transept of the Palace small hand-
writing can be easily read.

Mr. John Browning has favoured us with a record of the steps he has
taken towards the introduction of compound prisms. In 1864 he made for
Mr. Gassiot a very powerful battery of bisulphide of carbon prisms. Instead

120 Progress in Science. (January,

of the sides of these prisms being made of plane and parallel glass, crown
glass prisms were cemented on to them in the manner shown in the diagram
(Fig. 9), where A represents the fluid prism and BB the crown-glass prisms
added on either side. In a paper read before the Royal Society by
Mr. Gassiot, April 7th, 1864, he says :—‘‘ In place of giving to the fluid prisms
two pairs of parallel sides, advantage has been taken by Mr. Browning of the
difference between the refractive and dispersive properties of crown glass,
having a refracting angle of 6°, these have been substituted for one of the outer
plates of each prism, the bases of these crown glass prisms being brought to
correspond with the apex of the fluid prism. By this means the angle of
minimum deviation of the prisms is so much altered that eleven prisms can
be used instead of eight. An increase of dispersive ‘power, due to refracting
angles of 150° of the bisulphide of carbon, is thus gained, minus only the small
amount of dispersion counteracted by the dispersive power of the crown glass
prisms in the contrary direction.” In July, 1869, at the suggestion , of
Dr. Robinson, of Armagh, Mr. Browning made a large dense glass prism of 60°
into a compound prism, the refracting angle of the dense prism being altered
to go’. Hehas also made several compound prisms of very dense flint glass and

Fia. g. Fia. to.
BB

light crown glass for the present Earl of Rosse. These compound prisms are more
expensive than ordinary prisms, even allowing for the extra dispersive power ob-
tained, and in consequence of the minimum angle of deviation of compound prisms
being greater, and their length greater, the size of spectroscopes has also to be
increased, and thus will be rendered more cumbersome. A smaller number of
compound prisms will produce a given amount of dispersion ; but the number
of prisms to be made is, under the most favourable circumstances three
instead of two; and in the case of acircular battery the smaller number of
prisms will occupy a larger circle. The number of plane faces is also greater
for a given amount of dispersion, the practical difficulties in securing accuracy °
not being diminished by the fact that four faces out of the six in a compound
prism are connected together. On the score of saving light, such prisms
possess undoubtedly some advantage. Mr. Browning has made for Mr.
Rutherford, of New York, a compound prism of glass, on a plan which seems
to possess some advantages over any hitherto used. The diagram (Fig. 10)
represents this prism. In this diagram the two darkly shaded prisms are of
dense flint of go’, while the three other prisms are of crown. Such a prism is
very nearly equal in dispersive power to three ordinary flint glass prisms of 60°.
There is no loss of light at the two intermediate surfaces, and it is much more
compaé. Experiment has proved that the angles of the flint glass prisms in
this arrangement cannot with advantage be made more than go’, nor the
outside crown glass prisms less than 30°.

Microscopy.—A microscope lamp, combining most of the advantages of
existing ones, has been contrived by a committee of the South London
Microscopical and Natural History Club, for use at its meetings. It is
mounted on a stand supported ona solid ring, after the retort stand model,
which experience has proved to be less liable to overturn than any other.
The lamp revolves in its socket, so that either the edge or the flat side
of the flame can be used at pleasure. MHailes’s porcelain shade has
been adopted, which has the double advantage of protecting the eyes from the
glare of the lamp as effectively as a metal chimney without its disagreeable
heat, and affording an easy means of obtaining white cloud illumination. The
burner is a small one of the best American manufacture; and all the parts are
so simplified that the lamp can be supplied at a lower cost than the majority
of microscope lamps, which it quite equals for all practical purposes.

1872.] Microscopy. 121

Some microscope lamps have lately been constructed in which benzoline is
employed as fuel. This liquid possesses the advantage of being much cleaner
in use than paraffine, the leakage of which very penetrating fluid is always a
source of annoyance to those microscopists who have to carry a lamp from
place to place. The lamps are very small and compact, and are well adapted
for illuminating the achromatic condenser directly without using the mirror,
a mode of lighting preferred by many of our best observers. There is no
doubt that when the burner is properly adapted for the consumption of
benzoline, a light approAching in intensity and whiteness that of camphine
may be expected. Inthe few experimental lamps at present made, burners
like those for the combustion of paraffine have been used, and consequently
the quality of the light is much inferior to that which the fuel is capable of
yielding. A lamp giving a very small intense flame and requiring but little
attention is a desideratum. The camphine lamp is perfection in every respect,
but the care required to keep it in order is an impediment to its very extensive
use.

Dr. J. J. Woodward has succeeded in producing some fine photographs of
histological preparations by means of sunlight. Hitherto preparations of this
kind, stained and injected, have yielded very inferior impressions by daylight,
illumination with the lime, magnesium, or electric lights having given better
results. The light enters the dark room through an achromatic lens of
2 inches diameter and about ro inches focus, instead of the usual aperture,
and is received upon the achromatic condenser after diverging from the focus.
This illumination appears to have remedied the inconvenience caused by
diffraction and interference, which in former experiments caused great confu-
sion in the image. The low powers used in photographing these preparations
giving in most instances an almost instantaneous picture, Dr. Woodward
has contrived a means of regulating the exposure by a simple mechanical
contrivance, and for these rapid impressions has managed to dispense with
the use of the heliostat. A series of nine photographs, illustrating the capa-
bilities of the process, has been placed in the collection of the Royal Micro-
scopical Society.

Mr. H. J. Slack has continued his observations on deceptive appearances
presented by objects under the microscope. Some specimens of fine ruling on
glass and steel by Mr. J. F. Stanistreet, F.R.A.S., executed by a simple machine*
of his own contrivance, have furnished some singular results, which, as in former
cases, point to the necessity of using the greatest caution in interpreting the
results of observations on unknown substances. The objects supplied by
Mr. Stanistreet consist of stars composed of bands of fine parallel lines, inter-
secting each other as they approach the centre, and so forming a central star.
When examined on a dark ground with powers of 3 inches to 3 inch, the
idea of the rays standing up obliquely from the plane of the glass like the rays
ofa fan is suggested, the apparent slope being varied as the stage with the
objec is caused to revolve. Under a slight variation of the lighting, the inner
star caused by the intersection of the bands can be made to appear in a higher
plane than that of the primary star. The circular unengraved space in the
centre has the appearance of a deep hole; as in former instances, the eye is
perfectly satisfied with the focussing, which gives the appearance of the lines
being in different planes. In another star composed of radial lines, those
most brilliantly illuminated appear to stand above the rest. Complicated
patterns, in which the intersections are more numerous, viewed with a % inch
and Beck’s vertical illuminator, give at the most satisfaGtory focus the appear-
ance of solid threads to the lines, one under the other at the simple inter-
sections, and a tendency to make the spots of complicated intersection appear
higher than the rest. With a one-fifth and Powell and Lealand’s modification
of Professor H. L. Smith’s vertical illuminator, the complex portions of the
pattern are resolved, but with a decided suggestion that the cuts are elevations
or threads laid upon a semi-transparent surface like white porcelain.

* Mr. Stanistreet’s ruling machine is described and figured in the Monthly Microscopical
Journal for December, 1871.

VOL. II. (N.S.) R

122 Progress in Science. [January,

Captain F.,H. Lang and Mr. Tatem, of Reading, give a mode of re-mounting
or sele@ing diatoms from slides already mounted in balsam. The balsam-
mounted slide is placed upon a hot plate, and when sufficiently heated, the
cover is removed by means of a needle. The diatoms will either be on the
slide or the cover, according to the mode adopted in mounting. Apply at once
while upon the hot plate a drop of turpentine, remove the slide to the stage of
the disse@ting microscope, and add more turpentine. Have ready a clean slip
of glass, on which has been placed a drop of turpentine. In the case of large
discoid and other forms, having applied plenty of turpentine, they can easily
be transferred by means of a fine sable-hair brush from the original slide to
the pool of turpentine on the clean one. In the case of the finer forms, it is
better to place less turpentine on the original slide, colleé the diatoms into a
heap, allow the turpentine to dry a little, and then by a twist of the brush to
transfer them en masse to the new slide. In either case, having got them
there, push them together and mop up the superfluous turpentine, and then,
still under the dissecting microscope, slant the slide by placing a piece of
folded paper under one end, and apply a little benzole by means ofa clean brush
or glass rod, immediately above them, that is, on the end of the slide that is
raised, and allow it to float gradually overthem, care being taken that it does
not flow with too great a rush and carry away the diatoms with it. Repeat
this process some half-dozen times, till the whole of the turpentine and balsam
has been washed away, and till the valves are left dry and black after the
benzole is evaporated. They can then be transferred in the usual way to any
other slide.* If gum has been used to fix the diatoms, it may be found that
some of the valves, especially the discoid ones, remain obstinately adherent to
the glass after the turpentine has been placed over them. In such a case the
process as above detailed must be carried out on the original slide, and then,
after the benzole is thoroughly evaporated, water must be applied two or three
times in the same way as the benzole, for the purpose of washing away the
gum and freeing the diatoms, which can then, when dried, be lifted one by one
and transferred in the usual manner. By this simple and easy mothod,
selections can be made from balsam-mounted slides of any particular valves
required, and spoilt and unsatisfactory mounts re-set.t+

Mr. Browning has prepared four series of objects for the micro-spectroscope.
The first three consist of fluids in sealed tubes; one set of twelve being
devoted to chemical solutions; the second, a similar number of colouring
matters from vegetable sources, and the third set of six illustrates blood
compounds. The remaining collection consists of various blowpipe beads and
crystals. They are accompanied by a catalogue giving brief directions for
viewing them, and also a short explanation of the use of the various micro-
spectroscope apparatus constructed by Mr. Browning. In the absence of a
manual on the use of this important addition to the microscope, the specimens
and directions will be of great service to those commencing such studies. It
is much to be desired that some competent person would undertake a practical
work on the micro-speétroscope, as nearly all the information at present
published is contained in various scattered papers.

““ The Monthly Microscopical Journal” for September contains a paper by
Mr. H. C. Sorby, on ‘‘ The Examination of Mixed Colouring Matters with the
Spectrum-Microscope.” It forms a valuable sequel to many other contribu-
tions to a knowledge of the spectra of vegetable colours by the same author,
and consists chiefly of observations on various Alg@. The subjecé is too
elaborate to admit of an abstra&. Inthe same Journal is also ‘*An Account
of the Spectra formed by the Passage of Polarised Light through Doubly
Refradting Crystals seen with the Microscope,” by Francis Deas, M.A., LL.B.,
F.R.S.E.

Mr. H. G. Bridge communicates to the ‘“‘ Monthly Microscopical Journal ”
for November some remarks on the mode of mapping speétra with the
“ Bright Line Micrometer,” adapted by Mr. Browning to the micro-spectro-

* Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. i. (N.S.), Pp. 276.
+ Monthly Microscopical Journal, vol. vi., p. 217.

1872.] Heat. 123

scope. The paper is accompanied with a plate containing twenty-two figures,
drawn to scale, of the spectra of various coloured fluids, &c., compared with
the lines of the solar sperum.

Microscopists who are in the habit of making drawings with the aid of a
tuled disc in the eye-piece,* will find the ‘‘seétional paper’? of Messrs. Letts
convenient for recording theirobservations. This paper is ruled in squares of
twelve different sizes, varying from ,}, inchto rinch. The lines are of a very
pale-grey colour, so as to ‘be just visible, and scarcely interfere with the
finished drawing, while they are sufficiently plain to guide the artist in

copying from the ruled field of the microscope.

A simple and efficient erector, for use with the compound microscope in
dissection and other manipulations, has been contrived by Mr. E. Richards,
F.R.M.S. It consists of a glass mirror platinised on the front surface placed
over the eye-piece at an angle of 45°. The microscope is used in a vertical
position, which allows vessels of fluid to be placed on the stage, while the
observer looks forward at the reflected image. The reflection being from the
front surface, the confusion occasioned by the double image of an ordinary
mirror is avoided; the platinum surface retains its brilliancy for a longer period
than one of silver, and the definition is extremely perfec.

HEAT.

Captain J. Ericsson has constructed an apparatus for measuring the radiant
intensity transmitted by flames, to endeavour to prove that the radiant power
of flames is not less than that of incandescent solid substances. The measure-
ment of the radiant heat transmitted by flames is of great importance, as it
furnishes a means of measuring with precision temperatures which cannot be
ascertained by direct conta&. The construction of the apparatus is based
upon the law that the intensities of circular radiators of different size, im-
parting equal temperature at equal distance from the radiating surface, are
inversely as the squares of the sines of half of the subtended angles, that is,
the angles formed by the axes of the circular radiant surface and the heat rays
projected from the circumference to the substance receiving the radiant heat,
in the prolongation of the axes. It is thus possible to determine the
temperature of a circular radiator without knowing its size and distance. A
perforated diaphragm of polished silver is so arranged before a thermometer
that the circumference of the perforation may form a known angle with the
centre of the bulb of the thermometer. The metal cone containing the
thermometer and diaphragm is surrounded with a water-jacket. Suppose
the thermometer to indicate 282°, and the temperature of the surrounding
water to be 73°, then according to the law laid down, if the angle subtended by
the centre line of the conical vessel and lines drawn from the circumference
ofthe flame-disc to the bulb of the thermometer be 16° 8’, we know that its
temperature must be 12°gI times greater than that of the flame, or 2698° F.
(282 — 73 = 209; 209 X I2‘°gI = 2698). Captain Ericsson promises a full
extension of the application.

A simple apparatus for the observance of some beautiful phenomena con-
need with the vibrations of flames, &c., can be constructed as follows:—A
disk of white cardboard, with apertures oblong in radial diredtion, is set ona
spindle, so as to be rotated at any requisite speed. To examine, for instance,
the flame of a gas light (in a glass tube, to prevent disturbance by air currents),
place the disk in front of the light, so that the eye can see the light through
each slit as it comes to a vertical position. If the speed of the disk’s
rotation is such that the interval of time between two slits passing the eye is
just equal to the period of a vibration of the flame, the flame appears to be
motionless; but if the velocity be reduced, the flame is seen to go slowly
through its changes of form. If the interval be equal to, or one-half of, or
one-third of the period of the vibration of the light, the illusory appearance
of adisk having as many, or twice, or three times the number of slits really in

* Chemical News, vol. xxi., p. 30.

124 Progress in Science. (January,

the disk is seen. This phantom disk will appear to be motionless when the
periods coincide; but when otherwise, it revolves in one direction or the other.
It is obvious that the vibrations of the flame can be easily counted by this
means. The inventor, Mr. Charles J. Watson, counted, with a sixteen-inch
tube, 453 vibrations of the flame per second. By this instrument the undu-
lation of the vibrations of a wire can be seen to travel up and down the wire;
and if watched by both eyes through the slits, the spiral course of the un-
dulations can be observed.

F. Tommassi has described a series of experiments, illustrated by woodcuts,
for the purpose of proving the possibility of converting into dynamical work
the dilatation produced in liquids by heat; he proposes to utilise this motive
force for the purpose of working hydraulic presses.

A new application of the oxyhydrogen light to the separation of metals has
been patented by Tessie du Motay. It is especially applied to the metallurgy
of copper. The usual treatment of copper has had until now for its objet
the extraction of the metal of a certain class of ores, where it is found com-
bined with sulphur, arsenic, antimony, tin, lead, iron, &c. According to the
new method the metal is first smelted with a flux of silicates; metallic silicates
are formed, in which the sulphur and arsenic are eliminated and replaced by
silicic acid. These metallic silicates are then further treated in a blast furnace,
and submitted to the reducing property of incandescent charcoal; the metallic
oxides are reduced in a metallic state and fused, and thus collected in ingots.
The ingot thus obtained is composed of a variety of metals from which the
copper has to be separated; this object is attained by smelting these ingots
in a reverberatory furnace in the presence of atmospheric air, which oxidises all
the metals except the copper ; it is by this process of cupellation that M. Tessie
du Motay utilises the slowly oxidising property of the oxyhydrogen flame, in
order to facilitate the separation of the copper; he directs the flame, obtained
by burning a mixture of common street gas and oxygen gas, on to the fused
mass. The combustion of this gaseous mixture furnishes a certain amount
of carbonic acid and oxide of carbon, as well as a small proportion of water ;
it is this water, claims the inventor, which, at the high temperature to which
it is submitted, has the property of oxidising rapidly all the metals except the
copper and lead. The fused metal obtained is then pure copper, if the original
ingot contained no lead; and is composed of an alloy of copper and lead, if
the ingot contained these two metals.

Dr. A. Vogel records a series of experiments made to prove the well-known
fa& that sulphuric acid is a constant product of the combustion of coal-gas,
even when purified as perfetly as possible from sulphuretted hydrogen; the
source whence the sulphuric acid is derived is the sulphide of carbon present
in the gas.

The apparent volatilisation of silicium and boron has been observed by
L. Troost and P. Hautefeuille. They describe a series of experiments made
with pure silicium and boron, each by itself, placed in porcelain tubes, kept at a
very high temperature in a slow current of dry and pure hydrogen gas, and the
reaction which ensues by the admission into the tube of fluoride of silicium,
chloride of silicium, and fluoride of boron. Silicium is under these conditions
apparently volatilised, forming a brown-coloured smoke, which, in a cooler
part of the tube, is condensed sometimes as amorphous silicium, sometimes
deposited in crystalline state. The same obtains with boron, but this apparent
volatilisation is due to a simple mechanical effe@, conjointly withthe existence
of compounds of silicitum with chlorine and fluorine, which are only formed at
a very high temperature, and dissociated at red heat.

We extraé& the following graphic description of the action of cold on vapours
from the ‘‘ Chemical History of the Creation,” by J. Phinn, Editor of the New
York “ Technologist.” The book is full of similar striking illustrations, and
the subjeé is treated in a manner which makes it peculiarly interesting to
scientific men:—‘ It is a generally received opinion that all gases are merely
vapours of liquids that boil at a very low temperatures. Thus, while water
boils at 212°, common ether boils at 96°, and sulphurous acid at 0°. Con-

1872.] Heat. 125

sequently, while water is always a solid or a liquid in all parts of the earth,
ether would be a permanent gas in any place where the highest tropical tem-
perature prevailed, and sulphurous acid is always a gas except in the cold of
the polar regions. Even the dense and brilliant metal mercury, when
exposed to a temperature sufficiently high, becomes, in reality, a perfectly
colourless and transparent gas, and carbonic acid gas, when exposed to a
temperature sufficiently low, becomes first a yellowish, oily-looking liquid, and
then a beautiful snow-white solid. The only difference, then, between common
snow and carbonic acid snow is, that the one is much colder than the other,
while, on the other hand, the only difference between carbonic acid gas and
mercury gas is, that the one requires a higher temperature for its existence
than the other. There are certain gases, however, which no degree of cold
yet reached has reduced to the liquid, far less to the solid form. Prominent
among these are oxygen and hydrogen—the two gases that when combined
form water. But, after it had been observed that intense cold tended to
reduce all gases and vapours to the liquid form, it was supposed that, if
hydrogen and oxygen could only be made cold enough, they would become
liquid too. So they were cooled with freezing mixtures, but still they remained
in the gaseous state. Thena still more powerful freezing agent (solid carbonic
acid) was used. But, although mercury became solid, and alcohol, unless
very pure, became thick and pasty, instead of clear and limpid, still hydrogen
remained unaltered. After a time a still more powerful freezing agent
(liquefied laughing-gas) was discovered. Natterer, of Vienna, made a powerful
steel pump and pumped laughing-gas into a large iron receiver or bottle
until it became liquefied with the pressure. When a little of this liquid was
poured into the air it evaporated and produced the greatest degree of cold ever
observed—a degree of cold 257° below the zero of Fahrenheit’s thermometer.
Of such a temperature we have but a very faint idea. Let us begin at the
temperature of our own bodies, and gradually descending by well-known
stages, see if we can realise the fearful degree of cold that is expressed by
257° below zero. Human existence requires a temperature in the neighbour-
hood of 100°—a temperature which, under ordinary circumstances, is easily
maintained by the chemical and vital actions going on in the system, whenever
the external atmosphere does not sink below 60°. When the temperature of
the surrounding air falls below 60°, the animal carries on acontinual fight for
the maintenence of its normal temperature. At 32° the contest becomes
more energetic. Warm clothing is called into requisition, and, if the air should
be agitated by keen winds, the clothing must be warm and the fuel (food)
liberal, or the animal will suffer. When the temperature sinks to zero, even
on a clear, still day, there are few persons that do not feel it keenly, and, if
any wind should be stirring, ugh! how cold itis! But, keenly though we feel
it, we have just begun to descend the scale. Let us take a leap down to — 40°.
The mercury in our thermometers will now congeal, and, if we find it necessary
to expose ourselves, we must encase our persons in triple layers of fur. Let
us take another leap of equal magnitude, and descend to —80°. This is lower
than any natural temperature ever observed, and it is improbable that human
life could be long sustained in an atmosphere cooled to this degree. At six
degrees below this point, carbonic acid condenses to a liquid, and the breath
of our nostrils would condense as it issued forth, and would fall to the ground
in streams. Forty-four degrees below this point carries us to —130°. If such
a temperature could be produced over a large area, what strange phenomena
would present themselves! The air would be dry—drier than the summer
dust—for all moisture would have been precipitated from it long ere this tem-
perature had been reached. No animal could breathe such air, and if plants
could live and perform their functions at such a low temperature, they could
find no sustenance in an atmosphere as cold as this, for all the carbonic acid
would descend to the earth as beautiful white snow. The breath from the
nostrils of every animal, provided animals could exist, would yield a shower of
these flakes, and the air would be entirely purified from the produéts of respi-
ration. And yet we are not half way down to the point reached by Natterer.

126 Progress in Science. (January,

He went twice as far, and, even then, oxygen and hydrogen did not liquefy,
but maintained their condition as clear and beautiful gases.”

ELECTRICITY.

M. Ruhmkorff in continuing his many experiments on electro-magnetic
induction has met with some results which he considers worthy of publication.
When a bundle of iron wires is taken and covered with a very thin copper
wire destined to convey an intermittent current from a pile, and when on this
is wound another thin wire to obtain the induced current, if the latter is
wound on the centre of the bundle where no magnetism is manifested, there
is obtained an induced current of an intensity more than double that which the
same quantity of fine wire wound on one of the extremities would give.
M. Ruhmkorff then constructed an induction coil with an annular core, but only
obtained a spark of 2°5 m.m. in length. He then cut the ring, when the spark
increased to a length of 5m.m. Finally, a piece of wood of 5 m.m. in breadth
was inserted between the severed ends of the annular core, when the-spark
increased to 15 m.m. In doubling the thickness of the piece of wood, the
result remained the same.

M. Th. du Moncel has lately submitted to the Academy of Sciences of Paris
some results of a series of interesting and valuable experiments on the size of
the plates of a voltaic couple, relatively to each other, producing the best
working current. The experiments and the deductions have a great practical
bearing. The experiments were made with two Bunsen elements. In the one
the negative electrode was constituted of two plates of carbon plunged into
nitric acid in the exterior cup; the positive electrode, a single plate of amalga-
mated zinc was plunged into the porous cup containing acidulated water. In
the other element two plates of zinc, united at the bottom, replaced the two
plates of carbon of the first element, while a plate of carbon took the place of
the zinc. The liquids were the same, and the vases exactly equal in height.
The plates were freshly amalgamated. The plate of zinc of the first element
had a submerged surface of 224 square centimetres. The second pile, an
active surface of zinc of 544 square centimetres. The surfaces of the carbons
were of corresponding size. The intensities of the currents produced were
read off from a tangent galvanometer with a ring formed by a copper wire 0°7
m.m. in diameter, and 1°32 metres in length. The pile with the greatest
amount of surface of zinc gave a deflection of 78° 5'; the pile with a small
surface of zinc, 84° 10’. The temperature of the exciting liquids was—for the
first pile, 29°8°; for the second, 30°2°. The weight of zinc dissolved in the first
pile was 32 grammes; in the second, 38 grammes. One of the results would
appear to be that the consumption of zinc with regard to the amount of work
done is nearly the same in both cases. Therefore, in a pile where the current
is constantly in circulation, there is the advantage in the point of view of
economy of expenditure of zinc in the employment of positive electrodes of
small surface. The experiments also prove that the current gains in intensity
when the positive eleGtrode is smaller than the negative electrode. These
experiments accord with those of M. Delaurier, who found that a plate of zinc
of 9 m.m. in size, furnished at an expense of 115 grammes a deposit of copper
of ror grammes in 48 hours, while a surface of zinc ten times as large would
only furnish a continued action for one hour with a work represented by a
deposit of 5 grammes. The liquids were completely exhausted. A similar
observation has also been made by M. Ruhmkorff, who found that if the zinc
plate of a bichromate of potassa pile were plunged to one-fifth of its height in
the exciting liquid, the couple preserved during six hours an intensity that cor-
responded with that obtained from the total immersion of the zinc; and in the
latter case, when the entire plate was covered, the current could not maintain
a platinum wire at a red-heat for longer than ten minutes. These results are
strongly in favour of the use of small surfaces of zinc. In practice, where
generally commercially pure zinc is employed, oxidation goes on continually
all over the surface of the zinc; economy therefore demands the reduction of
the surface.

1872.] Electricity. 127

M. W. Beetz has lately made several determinations of the ele@tro-motive
force of various hydro-electric elements, employing a compensating battery
and a system which seems capable of great exactitude. A Bunsen’s element
he considers to give an electro-motive force = 1-799, a Grove’s element = 1°684,
and a Leclanché = 1°167 times that of a Daniell’s standard cell.

A printing telegraph for private wires, patented in America about a year ago
by Messrs. Pope and Edison, has lately been brought under the notice of the
English public. It is well adapted for private wires and for railway telegraphs,
being simple and durable in construction, and capable of being understood and
operated without difficulty by persons having no special knowledge of
telegraphy. The instrument operates upon what is known as the ‘open cir-
cuit” principle, each station transmitting with its own battery—the line at the
receiving station being connected directly through the relay to the earth,
without the intervention of a second battery. The printing apparatus is
placed upon a circular iron base in the centre of the table. In front of it is
placed a dial, containing the letters of the alphabet, arranged in a circle, and
provided with an index or pointer, mounted upon a horizontal shaft. This
shaft also carries a type-wheel and a scape-wheel, with racket-shaped teeth,
corresponding in number to the characters upon the type-wheel and dial. An
electro-magnet beneath the base is provided with an armature, attached toa
vibrating lever, the latter armed with pawls or clicks, so arranged in relation to
the scape-wheel that every time the electro-magnet attracts its armature the
wheel is made to revolve a distance of one tooth, and the type-wheel and index
upon the same shaft a distance of one letter. At the extreme right of the
circular base, and partly beneath it, is placed a second eleétro-magnet, whose
armature lever passes in a horizontal direction below the type-wheel. Diredly
underneath the type-wheel an india-rubber pad is fixed upon the lever, by
means of which an impression of the letter opposite it upon the type-wheel
may be taken, The lever is also provided with a simple mechanical device for
moving the paper forward the proper distance, as each successive character is
imprinted upon it. The type-wheel is provided with a suitable inking roller.
It will thus be understood that the printing mechanism is operated by two dis-
tind electro-magnets, one of which is so arranged that its successive pulsations
may be made to advance the index step by step to any required letter, while
the other forces the strip of paper against the inked type upon the wheel, after
it has been moved to the proper position by the first magnet. These two
electro-magnets are placed in the circuit of a local battery, which is brought
into action by a relay placed in the main line circuit, as in the ordinary Morse
instrument, and is the same in principle, with the addition of a device termed
the ‘ polarised switch,” which consists of a permanently magnetised steel bar
pivotted between the poles of the relay magnet, the polarity of which depends
upon the direction of the electrical current in the main circuit. The polarised
switch determines the direction of the local current, causing it to pass through
the magnet for moving the type-wheel, or through the impression magnet, as
may be required. Two lever finger-keys are connected to the poles of the
main battery in such a manner that, by depressing the right-hand key, the
positive pole of the battery is connected, through the relay magnet to the line,
and the negative to the ground, while the left-hand key, on the contrary, sends
a negative current through the relay and line inthe same manner. By depres-
sing the right-hand key a sufficient number of times in rapid succession,
a series of positive currents is sent through the relays at both ends of the line,
which series is repeated upon the local circuits of both instruments. The
positive currents defle@ the polarised switches to the left, so that the local
current is directed into the type-wheel magnet. The index and type-wheel of
both instruments, therefore, advance one letter every time the key is depressed,
and they may thus be readily brought to any desired letter. When this has
been done, the left-hand key is depressed, which sends a negative current,
reversing the polarised switch, and throwing the local circuit through the
printing magnet, producing the impression of the letter upon the strip of paper.
The apparatus, it will be seen, is entirely automatic, while it is also very

128 Progress in Science. [January,

simple and unlikely to get out of order. A battery of two carbon cells
per mile will work the instrument.

M. F. M. Raoult has lately submitted to the Academy of Sciences the
result of his researches on the calorific coefficient of the hydro-eleGric and
thermo-electric currents. The law he deduces is—that the heat evolved by an
electric current is independent of the nature of the galvanic element, the
calorific coefficient, Ke, being the same for all sources of galvanic (current)
electricity.

Count du Moncel has recently published, in the ‘Bulletin de la Société
d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale,” an interesting report on the
bichromate of potash battery, in which he states the following conclusions :-—
Of all the galvanic elements used in industry and the arts, those with
bichromate of potash yield the greatest eleftro-motive force, are the most
economical, and give off no irritating vapours, but are, on the other hand, not
very constant and become strongly polarised. These effects are less marked
in the Delaurier element with two liquids, and are also greatly obviated in the
Chutaux element with a constant discharge; the use of the Chutaux element
with sand and constant discharge offers peculiar advantages in every respect
for electric telegraphy and all similar applications, because this element is for
equal force more economical than the Daniell element. The Delaurierelement
with two liquids may be advantageously used instead of the Bunsen element
when strong electric currents are required. In order to obtain a continuous
and energetic action with the bichromate of potash battery, the most effectual
method is the application of a current of air, as invented by M. Grenet. By
the addition of bisulphate of mercury to the bichromate solution in the Chutaux
element a very continuous and energetic electric current may be obtained.

Dr. Alvergniat has described some new phenomena of phosphorescence
produced by frictional electricity. A vacuum is first made in glass tubes
about 45 centimetres in length. After the introduction into these tubes of a
small quantity of either chloride or bromide of silicium, the pressure inside
these tubes having been reduced to 12 or 15 millims., they are sealed before the
blowpipe. When such tubes are rubbed with a piece of silk, there appears
inside the tubes a bright luminous flash, which exhibits a rose colour with the
chloride, and a yellowish-green colour with the bromide, of silicium. Only
when a more perfect vacuum is made in these tubes the induction spark
produces a luminous phenomenon in them, but,then the phosphorescence by
friction entirely disappears.

All draughtsmen are acquainted with the simple device of puncturing holes
through a drawing for the purpose of obtaining an outline and afterwards
transferring the outline by sifting fine plumbago or other powder through the
small holes. The fatigue of making the holes by hand is very great, and
M. Cauderay, of Lausanne, proposes to employ the induction coil for this
purpose. A table covered with tinfoil is connected with the negative pole; on
it may be placed as many sheets of paper as the spark will pass through.
The positive pole, consisting of a metal bar, insulated with gutta-percha, can
serve as a pencil for copying the tracings. The metal point of the pencil
being moved about on the contour and outline of the engraving, electric sparks
spring across every time a connection is made, and puncture fine holes through
the paper. It is said to require little skill to guide the pencil, as the ink
tracings being good condué¢tors, carry the pencil easily along. In the case of
valuable engravings it is better to make a copy with the pantagraph and use
that for the punching process. The pantagraph is connected with the positive
pole of the induction apparatus, and it is placed upon a table, one-half of
which is covered with tin-foil, The drawing to be copied lies upon the
insulated half, and the sheets of paper to be punctured are laid upon the tin-
foil. The pointer of the pantagraph moves around the outlines of the
engraving, and between the pen and the foil the sparks pass to pierce the paper
upon which the outline is tobe made. In this way the engraving or original
drawing is in no way injured. ‘

£372.| Electricity. 129

S. H. Lockett, Professor of Engineering at Louisiana University, writing
from Niagara Falls, relates the following phenomenon :—‘‘ While crossing the
upper or new suspension bridge to-day, I had occasion, while conversing with
a friend, to point toward the falls with my walking-cane. As soon as I did so,
I heard distin@ly at the end of my cane a buzzing noise, like that made by
electricity passing from a heavily charged battery to a sharp-pointed rod.
Repeating the experiment, the same noise was heard. I stopped several
passers, and tried their canes with the same result, except in one case where
there was no ferule on the cane. I immediately supposed this might be an
electrical phenomenon, and set to work to test the correctness of my supposi-
tion. I took a key, and held it at arm’s length toward the falls, and heard the
same sound. Finally, at dark, I returned to the bridge, and pointed my cane
in the air, and had the satisfaction of seeing a clear beautiful electric brush on
its end. The best point to observe this interesting and beautiful phenomenon
is in the middle of the bridge, and the cane must be held at arm’s length, so
that its end may be at some distance from any part of the bridge. The
success of the experiment seems to depend a good deal on the direction of the
wind and the amount of vapour blown over the bridge. To-day the wind is
strong, and drives the mist directly from the falls to the bridge, but an
occasional shifting or lulling of the wind would cause a cessation of the
electrical noise or light. My explanation of the phenomenon is this :—As
Franklin with his kite and key caught the lightning from the clouds of heaven,
so here, from the suspension bridge, surrounded by vapours from the mighty
falls, we may stand and gather on our walking-canes the electricity generated
by the falling waters and contained in the floating mists. I think suitable
arrangements might be made to collect enormous quantities of electricity from
these mists, which might be used in producing grand and striking effects, thus
adding another attractive feature to the sights at this wonderful place.”

The duration of the spark of the Leyden jar has been measured by Professor
Rood by an ingenious apparatus, by which intervals of time, measured by
billionths of a second, areestimated. The wheel, painted black and carrying a
distin& white point on its circumference, is provided with some means of
giving it a uniform motion of rotation. Ifthe wheel makes one revolution in
one-sixth of a second, the white point will appear as a continuous circle; for
any impression produced on the eye remains during one-sixth of a second,
therefore during one revolution of the wheel all the successive positions on
the circumference occupied by the bright point remain impressed on the eye,
and hence the circle appears unbroken. Now, if a flash of light in the place
of the white point should last one-sixth of a second, the circle would appear
complete; but if it lasted one-twelfth or one twenty-fourth of a second, then
would the point describe one-half or one-quarter of the whole circle. Thus,
by this simple means—remembering that the smaller the arc of the circle, the
less the duration of the flash—we can readily measure from the length of this
arc very minute portions of time. If, instead of having one white point on
the wheel, we have too or more radial white bands drawn with the space
between them equal to their breadth, then, if the wheél makes ten turns in a
second, any radial white band will advance into the position previously
occupied by an adjoining black band in one-thousandth of a second, and if the
flash of light lasted one-thousandth of a second, all the white bands would,
during that interval, have advanced into the position of the black bands, and
vice versa, and the disk would appear without bands and covered with a
uniform grey tint. We can thus readily and accurately measure one-
thousandth of a second. With the above apparatus Arago about the year
1835, first showed that a flash of lightning lasted less than one-thousandth of
a second, but did not succeed in fixing the minimum limit to its duration.
Professor Rood, however, was more fortunate ; for during the well-remembered
remarkable display of lightning in August, 1869, with an apparatus similar to
the above (extemporised from a piece of pasteboard and a shawl pin), he
succeeded in measuring one five-hundredth of a second as the duration of
those vivid and extensive flashes. It was soon found that the velocity of the
revolving disk fell far behind that of the spark of the Leyden jar, for its flash

VOL. Il. (N.S,) s

130 Progress in Science. (January,

showed the revolving radial bars as absolutely at rest as when the disk was
stationary. But Professor Wheatstone, in 1834, substituted for the revolving
disk a mirror turning on a horizontal axis, and instead of the white point or bars
he used the image ofthe spark reflected from the turning mirror. If the spark
be instantaneous, then willit appear in the rotating mirror just as it is seen
when reflected from the mirror at rest; but if the spark last during even an
extremely minute fraction of a second, it will appear drawn into a line in the
direGion in which the mirror turns. Wheatstone thus measured the one
million one hundred and fifty thousandth of a second, and ascertained that
the electricity from a Leyden jar goes over a copper wire at the rate of
288,000 miles in a second, exceeding light itself in velocity. Professor Rood
has now combined the two methods above given by viewing the appearance of
stationary parallel and equidistant white and black bands reflected from the
revolving mirror while the flash of the Leyden jar illuminated them. The
direction of rotation of the mirror being across the length of the bands (which
were only sixteen-thousandths of an inch apart), if the flash lasted during the
time for the turning mirror to reflect a black band into the adjacent white
space, then the bands would entirely disappear, and the plate on which they
were drawn would appear of a uniform grey tint. By knowing the number of
turns the mirror makes in a second, and the number of bands in the space of
one inch, it is easy to calculate the time necessary for the obliteration of the
bands. Thus has he produced, by this simple combination, an instrument
surpassing in minuteness and accuracy of determination all that has gone
before—an accomplishment which cannot but reflect much renown upon
American science. He has succeeded (with a mirror making 350 turns in a
second) in measuring accurately forty billionths of a second, and has shown
that this is the duration of the flash of a Leyden jar having only 11 square
inches of surface and one twenty-fifth of an inch striking distance—an
interval of time just sufficient for a ray of light (going at the rate of
190,000 miles in a second) to travel over 4o feet. The flash from a jar having
II4 square inches of surface lasted four times as long as the smaller jar.
Thus, for the range of electric flashes we have measures from the five-
hundredth to the forty-billionth of a second. To enable the mind to form
some idea of the minuteness of the spaces of time measured by Professor
Rood, we may mention that the forty-billionth of a second bears nearly the
same proportion to a second as a second does to a thousand years.

Mr. George Gore, F.R.S., has, in pursuing his researches in thermo-electri-
city, constructed a liquid thermo-electric battery. This battery is sufficiently
powerful to give a deflection of 40° with a Thomson’s reflecting galvanometer,
having a resistance of 3040°7 British Association units (=77872°327 miles of
copper wire 1-16th of an inch in thickness). It consists of twelve glass tubes
three-fourths of an inch in diameter and zo inches in length, one end of each
tube containing a platinum wire hermetically fastened. Each tube is bent
into the form of the letter J, the lower limb being the open one. The open
end is closed by a cork, through which is passed a second platinum wire. The
tubes are fixed vertically in a wooden stand. A tin box, the bottom of which
has a long semicircular cavity so arranged as to cover the upper parts of the
tubes as with a cap, when it is filled with boiling water forms the upper part of
the apparatus and is the source of heat. A lamp placed under a projection
from one side of the bath maintains the water at the boiling-point. When it
is desired to charge the battery, alternate tubes are filled with a previously
boiled and cooled mixture of 1 part of sulphuric acid to 76 parts of water. The
remaining six tubes are filled witha similarly prepared solution of rro grains of
hydrate of potassium dissolved in 19 ounces of water. The upper and lower
wires are then conneéted to form an eleétrical series, the platinum wires in the
hot acid being the negative, those in the hot alkali the positive elements of the
upper ends; and the platinum wires in the cold acid the positive, in the cold
alkali the negative elements at the lower ends of the tubes of the battery.
The series is thus connected with acid to alkali and alkali to acid. Mr. Gore
believes that the ele@tric currents produced by the dire@ influence of unequal
temperature of copper and platinum electrodes, in conducting liquids which do

1872.] Electricity. 131

not act chemically upon those metals, have their origin in the temporary
changes of cohesion of the layers of metal and liquid which are in immediate
and mutual contact, and that these currents may therefore be considered as
very delicate tests of the kind and amount of temporary molecular movements
produced by small causes.

If a piece of amalgamated zinc is made to touch a piece of platinum
in the presence of acidulated water, the well-known extraction of hydrogen
bubbles takes place from the latter metal. Whilst trying a series of
such experiments, and also some of a similar nature, Professor Thomas
Bloxam observed an unequal evolution of bubbles from some parts of the
platinum plate, and accordingly submitted the matter to inquiry. The
first series of experiments had for their obje@ to ascertain the amount of
gas evolved in a given time from a zinc and platinum plate in contad.
Expt. 1. A tube graduated to 1 cubic inch was filled with water acidulated with
one-sixth of strong sulphuric acid; a strip of platinum as obtained from the
apparatus makers was cut 7 in. long, } in. wide, and introduced into the tube,
which was then inverted upon a small plate of amalgamated zinc also standing
in the same acid and water. The time at starting and at the termination was
accurately recorded, as also the temperature and pressure throughout all the
experiments. Time resulting from a mean of many experiments was 22
minutes. Expt. 2. The strip cleaned by heating it in oil of vitriol, and
thoroughly rinsing in distilled water, gave as a mean result—time 14 minutes.
Expt. 3. The strip merely passed through the finger several times. Time 28
minutes. It will be seen from these results that the platinum as it leaves the
instrument makers is absolutely, so to speak, chemically dirty; but the mere
contact with the hand is sufficient to materially modify the action. The strip
cleaned by oil of vitriol was dipped for a moment into solution of common
salt, and again tried, when the time required for collecting the cubic inch
of hydrogen was nearly doubled. The strip having been made dirty by
touching, was ignited in the flame of a good Bunsen lamp for one minute, and
then arranged in the cubic inch tube. The time required was 15 minutes,
thus showing that it had been in great measure cleaned, though hardly so
satisfactorily as in the heating with oil of vitriol. Expt. 4 was devoted to the
action of copper negative plates in similar strips to the platinum; the mean
results in these cases were that copper cleaned with nitric acid and washed in
distilled water gave the cubic inch of hydrogen in 21 minutes. The
strip passed through the fingers as in the platinum experiment. Time required
28} minutes. A strip of copper oxidised by heating in air furnished the
hydrogen in 10 minutes. It would appear from these results, that copper
behaves ina similar way as to cleanness of surface as platinum, and that the
oxidised surface tends rather to facilitate the liberation of the hydrogen—per-
haps from mechanical action, like platinised silver. Expt. 5. Platinised silver,
as obtained from the makers, arranged in the same way as the foregoing
experiments, furnished the 1 cubic inch hydrogen in 2} minutes. A strip
cleaned with oil of vitriol as usual, time 2} minutes. A strip made dirty by
the fingers, time 3 minutes. Hence it appears that the mechanical action of
the platinum surface is of great importance, as has been well known, and that
as received from the makers it is very considerably cleaner than the new
platinum, because, probably, of its method of preparation. It was also found
that, comparing smooth with mechanically roughened surfaces of platinum,the
latter furnished the hydrogen in two-thirds of the time taken by the former.
Expt. 6. A ceil of Smee’s battery was examined by the galvanometer, using in
every case a regular strength of acid, the same wires and all conditions the
same, when the following results were obtained :—The negative plate not
chemically cleaned, deflection = 52°. Negative plate chemically cleaned, 57°.
Negative plate made dirty by fingers, 48°. The platinum taken off the surface
gave deflection 50°. Here it appears, then, that the cleaning of the surface of
the platinised silver materially diminishes the resistance due to the counter-
current and polarisation. The last series of experiments were directed to
ascertain the influence of chemically clean surfaces upon electrolysis. A vol-
tameter, the electrodes of which were in their ordinary state, was attached to

132 Progress in Science. (January,

two cells of Bunsen’s battery, and the mixed gases collected with all precau-
tion. The time taken for 1 cubic inch was 2 minutes as a mean of many
experiments. The electrodes were then cleaned with hot oil of vitriol,
the Bunsens freshly charged, and the 1 cubic inch of gases was furnished in 1}
minutes ; thus showing that electrolysis is materially affected by the state of
cleanness of the electrodes at the time.

BIOLOGICAL NOTES.

M. Alph. Milne-Edwards has contributed to the Academy of Sciences a very
important paper on the Embryology and Zoological Position of the Lemuride,
having obtained from M. Grandidier (in his last Madagascar exploration)
specimens of four different genera of distin@ groups of these animals in the
foetal state, and submitted them to careful anatomical investigation. His dis-
sections prove that in regard to intra-uterine life there are essential differences
between the Lemuride and the Simiade. In the latter the placenta is small,
discoid, and closely connected to the uterine wall, and the umbilical vesicle is
very minute and soon disappears. Inthe Lemuride@ (taking Propithecus as the
highest type and nearest to the Simiadi@) the chorion is almost entirely covered
with thick and serrated villosities, forming a kind of vascular cushion, and
constituting a placenta which encaps the amnios, and which he names the
placenta en cloche, in contrast with the discoidal placenta of the human race,
and of the Simiade, the zonay placenta of the Carnivora, and the diffuse
placenta of the Herbivora. The villosities are in large tufts towards the
middle and upper parts of the ovum, and gradually diminish towards the
cephalic pole, when they disappear. The caduque utérine (uterine decidua) is
well developed and presents a corresponding arrangement.

Between the chorion and the amnios there is a large membranous sac
extending in the direction of the long axis of the ovum, and adhering to the
umbilical end by a short thin pedicle. This sac is prolonged at each end into
a kind of finger-shaped cornu, is only very slightly attached to the adjacent
membranes, and if air is inje@ed into it, under water, we see it expand and
its outlines become well marked. It represents the umbilical vesicle much
less developed than in most of the unguiculata.

The placenta presents the same character in the genera Lepilemur, Hapalemur,
and Chirogalus.

From this study of the fcetal membranes of the Lemurida, it follows that
they essentially differ from those of any other mammal. This special type
deviates further from that-presented by man, the apes, the Cheiroptera, the
Insectivora, and the Rodentia, than from that of the Carnivora; for if we
suppose for an instant that the caudal pole of the ovum of the dog is invested
by the villosities of the placenta, we have an almost exaét realisation of the
special characters of the Lemurian ovum; and it may be added that the
arrangement of the umbilical vesicle is very nearly the same in these two
types, while in the apes it is completely different.

These embryological characters are in complete accordance with those fur-
nished by the brain, the cranium, the dental system, and the hands.

The brain of even the highest Lemuride is not developed posteriorly so as
to cover the cerebellum,—a condition which separates them from the apes.

The orbit, which in the apes is completely enclosed outwardly, and separated
from the temporal fossa, communicates freely with the latter in all the Lemu-
vide, and gives their crania a resemblance to those of the Carnivora.

The teeth arming the lower jaw are very different in the two, the distinction
between the canines and the incisors being much the more marked in the apes.

The hands, in which the thumb is always well developed and usually
opposable to all the other digits, differ from those of the apes. They are
admirably adapted for climbing, but are unfitted for the prehension of food,
which these animals usually seize with the mouth. The fingers, instead of
tapering towards the ends as in the apes, enlarge at their extremities into dis-
coidal pads, imperfectly covered by the nail; and lastly, as is well known, the
index finger of the posterior hand terminates in a true claw.

1872.] Biological Notes. 133

On these and other grounds the author considers that the order Lemuride
must be removed from the Simiade, and placed in close affinity with the
Carnivora.

The embryo of Macropus major, the giant kangaroo, has been carefully
studied in situ by Professor Pagenslecher, and we extra@ the following
remarks from his article in the “‘ Verhand. des Naturh. Vereins zu Heidelberg,”
as translated in a late number of the “‘ Annals of Natural History :”—

‘The left tube contained an embryo, although no yellow body was to be
recognised in the ovary. The very vascular decidua separated pretty readily
from the walls of the tube, except a few stronger vascular adhesions. The
chorion had no connection at all with the decidua, so that it slipped quite
easily out of the envelope. The embryo was exactly of the size and maturity
of the specimen of which Owen says that it was born thirty-eight days after
copulation, and which he has figured. It was enveloped in the amnios. The
length from the snout to the extremity of the tail was about 4 centimetres.

“ Nothing was to be observed in the way of a preparation of the median sac
for the further retention and nourishment of the ovum, nor anything of a pre-
paratory dilatation of the lateral passages.

**In the ventral pouch the left teat was much longer than the right one; but
whether from previous sucking or as a preparation I cannot say.

** In comparison with other embryos that of the giant kangaroo is very con-
siderably inferior to an unborn rabbit or a newly born ferret; its size agrees
pretty closely with that of an unborn mouse.

“In this comparison the small development of the hinder extremities is
remarkable. Whilst on the fore feet the five toes are very distin@ly formed
even to the claw tips, the hind feet resemble a short-stalked fin, slightly
notched into three lobes; the inner lobe is again scarcely perceptibly divided
to correspond with the ultimate number of toes. This imperfection of a sub-
sequently most important pair of limbs, in contrast with the perfection of a
pair which are afterwards much weaker, is doubtless in accordance with the
general law, according to which early completion of form limits growth.

“In the anatomy of the adult animal it may be interesting to mention the
existence of a long but fine ductus Botalli, showing that even before birth the
formation of the partitions of the heart arrives at the same completeness as
in placental mammals.”

‘Professor Cope, of Philadelphia, has recently visited both the Mammoth
and the Wyandotte Caves, and has studied the forms of life occurring in each.
As the inhabitants of the former have been often described, we shall merely
give his list of the latter, with his remarks on their peculiarities and mode
of life.

““VERTEBRATA.—Amblyopsis, sp. (blind fish.)

“ ARTICULATA.—Insects: Anophthalmus Tellkamp fii (beetle); Anophthalmus,
No. 2 (beetle); Staphylinide, sp. 1 (beetle); Staphylinide, sp. 2 (beetle) ;
Phalangopsis, sp. (crickets); Flies: 2 species. Spiders: (beetle); Avanea-
like, Ofilio-like. Centipedes: Pseudotremia, sp.

“‘Crustacea.—Astacus pellucidus (blind crawfish) ; aquatic species with egg-
pouches external ; Lern@ide, species parasitic on blind fish, 14 species.

“The blind fish is very much like that of the Mammoth Cave; and dire&
comparison will be necessary to determine any difference if it exist. It must
have considerable subterranean distribution, as it has undoubtedly been drawn
up from four wells in the neighbourhood of the cave. Indeed it was from one
of these, which derives its water from the cave, that we procured our specimens;
and I am much indebted to my friend N. Bart. Walker, of Boston, for his aid
in enabling me to obtain them. We descended a well to the water, some
twenty feet below the surface, and found it to communicate by a side opening
with a long, low channel, through which flowed a lively stream of very cold
water. Wading up the current in a stooping posture, we soon reached a
shallow expansion or pool. Here a blind crawfish was detected crawling
round the margin, and promptly consigned to the alcohol-bottle. A little

134 Progress in Science. [January,

further beyond deeper water was reached, and an erect position became
possible. We drew the seine in a narrow channel, and after an exploration
under the bordering rocks secured two fishes. A second haul secured another.
Another was seen, but we failed to catch it, and on emerging from the cave I
had a fifth securely in my hand as I thought, but found my fingers too numb
to prevent its freeing itself by its active struggles,

“If these Amblyopses be not alarmed they come to the surface to feed, and
swim in full sight like white aquatic ghosts. They are then easily taken by
the hand or net if perfeé silence is preserved; for they are unconscious of
the presence of an enemy except through the medium of hearing. This sense,
however, is evidently very acute, for at any noise they turn suddenly down-
ward and hide beneath stones, &c. on the bottom. They must take much
of their food near the surface, as the life of the depths is apparently very
sparse. This habit is rendered easy by the structure of the fish; for the
mouth is direéted upwards, and the head is very flat above, thus allowing the
mouth to be at the surface. This structure also probably explains the fa& of
its being the sole representative of the fishes in subterranean waters. No
doubt many other forms were carried into the caverns since the waters first
found their way there; but most of them were, like those of our present
rivers, deep water or bottom feeders. Such fishes would starve ina cave river,
where much of the food is carried to them on the surface of the stream. The
Amblyopsis belongs, with two other genera of imperfect seers, to the family
Hypseidw, which, with the pike, shore-minnow, and mud-fish families, form
the order of Haplomi.

“Of the other animals, one beetle (Anophthalmus), the cricket (Phalangopsis) ,
a fly, the Ofilio-like spider, the centipede, and the blind crawfish, are probably
the same as those found in the Mammoth Cave. Two beetles and two crusta-
ceans are certainly different from those of the latter, and the centipedes are
much more numerous. The Gammaroid crustacean which we find in the
waters of the Mammoth Cave, and which is no doubt, in part, the food of the
blind fish, we did not find; but some such species no doubt exists.

‘The mutual relations of this cave-life form an interesting subject. In the
first place, two of the beetles, the crickets, the centipede, the Gatnmaroid
crustacean (food of the blind fish), are more or less herbivorous ; they furnish
food for the spiders, crawfish, Anophthalmus, and the fish. The vegetable food
supporting them is, in the first place, fungi, which in various small forms
grow up in damp places in the cave; they can always be found attached to
excrementitious matter dropped from the bats, rats, and other animals which
extend their range in the outer air.”

The history of the development of the wing of the butterfly in the larva and
the chrysalis has been carefully studied by Dr. Landois, who, after noticing
the labours of Swammerdam and later observers on this subject, proceeds to
describe—(1) The development of the wing in the caterpillar; (2) The
change which it undergoes in the chrysalis stage; and (3) The processes that
go on in the completed wing. The paper, which is too strictly anatomical to
admit of a popular analysis, is a very valuable one, and is illustrated by highly
magnified figures of the wing-germs of the fore and hind wings after the first
moulting of the larva, and likewise after the second and fourth moultings; of
a section of the wing in the chrysalis state; of the venation of the perfec
wing, &c.—(“ Zeitsch. f. Wissensch. Zoologie :”” Dritter Heft, 1871).

Mr. E. Ray Lankester has just published in the ‘“ Quarterly Journal of
Microscopical Science,” an elaborate paper entitled ‘‘ Observations and Expe-
riments on the Red Blood-Corpuscle, chiefly with Regard to the Action of
Gases and Vapours;” and the following paragraph contains his ‘ general
conclusions and summary.” The red blood-corpuscle of the vertebrata
is a viscid and at the same time elastic disk, oval, or round in outline,
its surface being differentiated somewhat from the underlying material,
and forming a pellicle or membrane of great tenuity, not distinguishable
with the highest powers (whilst the corpuscle is normal and living), and

1872.] Biological Notes. . 135

having no pronounced inner limitation. The viscid mass consists of,
or rather yields,since the state of combination of the components is not
known, a variety of albuminoid and other bodies, the most easily separable of
which is hemoglobin; secondly, the matter which segregates to form Roberts's
macula; and thirdly, a residuary stroma, apparently homogeneous in the
Mammalia (excepting so far as the outer surface or pellicle may be of a
different chemical nature), but containing in the other vertebrata a sharply
definable nucleus, this nucleus being already differentiated, but not sharply
delineated during life, and consisting of (or separable into) at least two com-
ponents, one (paraglobulin) precipitable by CO2, and removable by the action of
weak NH3; the other pellucid and not granulated by acids. The chemical
differentiation of the outer pellicle is rendered probable by the behaviour of the
corpuscles under weak NH3, which appears to dissolve this pellicle, and so
loose the viscid matter from that which restrained it to its oval shape; also
from the inability of CO, to act on the corpuscle until it has been subje@ed to
the influence of aqueous vapour, which may be supposed to remove or render
permeable this pellicle; also from the action of chloroform, oil, and cyanogen,
which cause the discharge or diffusion of the hemoglobin from the corpuscle,
perhaps by first removing or rendering permeable—at any rate modifying—this
outer pellicle. Steam, chloroform, benzine, bisulphide of carbon, ammonia,
and cyanogen, act on the red blood-corpuscle so as to cause the escape of the
hemoglobin. The further action of these reagents causes the elimination of
what may be called Roberts’s constituent, that which is stained by magenta
and set by tannin. A still further action of chloroform, of water, or of
ammonia, dissolves first the stroma, lastly the nucleus. The details of these
actions are given in the paper. Carbonic oxide and sulphuretted hydrogen
produce their respective changes on the hemoglobin, as demonstrated speétro-
scopically, without altering the form of the corpuscle, merely effecting the
radiation of its body.

In the same number of that journal Dr. Sanderson has discussed the ques-
tion of the supposed “ spontaneous generation of badteria in certain solutions,”
which attracted attention in France, and more recently, owing to Dr. Bastian’s
statements, in this country. Dr. Sanderson shows, First,—That neither
bacteria nor fungi ever develope in solutions raised to the boiling-point and
placed in carefully cleansed and boiled vessels, which are subsequently
closed. Secondly—That if such solutions in such flasks be exposed to
atmospheric air, no bacteria ever develope, but yeast-cells and ultimately blue
mould do develope (whence it is inferred that the germs of fungi but not of
bacteria are carried in the air). Thirdly—That if unboiled water be used,
or glass or other surface not duly cleansed be brought into contaé with the
above-mentioned solutions, bacteria always develope in great quantity (whence
it is inferred that water, and surfaces which have been or are more or less
damp, are the means of dissemination of baéteria).

Dead or Alive —A new and very simple method of distinguishing between
real and apparent death has been recently discovered by M. Laborde. When
a sharp steel needle (not cased only with steel) is driven into the tissues of a
living man or animal, in a short time it loses its metallic lustre and becomes
dim, or in scientific language—is oxidised ; while a similar needle may remain
for an hour or more in the tissues of a dead subje@ without undergoing any
apparent change. Hence the oxidation or non-oxidation of the needle affords
a decisive proof whether death is real or only apparent.

PSYCHIC) FORCE.

THE reception accorded to my previous paper on Psychic
Force has been so satisfactory that, had they been ina
sufficiently advanced state, I should not hesitate to continue
the publication of my investigations. Time which I hoped
to spend in research has been occupied in the necessary task
of vindicating my honour against adverse criticism. I wish
my scientific friends to have an opportunity of seeing my
reply to the attacks upon me; but I am reluctant to in-
troduce personalities into the pages of the ‘‘ Quarterly
Journal of Science.” I have therefore decided to embody
the answers to my objectors in a pamphlet, the publication
of which Messrs. Longman have been good enough to under-
take. Copies are bound up with the advertisement sheets
of this number.

Let me take this opportunity of explaining the exact
position which I wish to occupy in respect to the subject of
Psychic Force. I have desired to examine the phenomena
from a point of view as strictly physical as their nature
will permit. I wish to ascertain the laws governing the
appearance of very remarkable phenomena which at the
present time are occurring to an almost incredible extent.
That a new form of Force—whether it be called psychic
force or x force is of little consequence—is involved in this
occurrence, is not with me a matter of opinion, but of
absolute knowledge; but the nature of that force, or the
cause which immediately excites its activity, forms a subject
on which I do not at present feel competent to offer an
opinion. I wish, at least for the present, to be considered
in the position of an electrician at Valentia, examining with
the utmost refinement of instrumental means certain
electrical currents and pulsations passing through the
Atlantic cable, independently of their causation, and
ignoring whether these phenomena are produced by im-
perfections in the testing instruments themselves—whether
by earth currents or by faults in the insulation—or whether
they are produced by an intelligent operator at the: other

end of the line.
We:

meyrCilC FORCE

MmOVDEKN SPIRITUALISM:

AS REPLY TO) THE “ QUARTERLY -REVIEW 7

AND OTHER CRITICS.

BY

WEELIAM CROOKES, PF iSi5 (6c:

EON DO N.:
EON GAM ANS; GREEN, AND . CO.
1871.

Por GbE ceo iy

AND

MODERN SPIRITUALISM:

A KEPLY TO THE “QUARTERLY REVIEW.”

Tue Quarterly Review for October contains an article under the title of
‘‘ Spiritualism and its Recent Converts,” in which my investigations and those
of other scientific men are severely handled in the spiteful bad old style which
formerly characterised this periodical, and which I thought had happily passed
away. It has reverted to the unjustifiable fashion of testing truth by the
character of individuals. Had the writer contented himself with fair criticism,
however sharply administered, I should have taken no public notice of it, but
have submitted with the best grace I could. But with reference to myself he
has further mis-stated and distorted the aim and nature of my investigations, and
written of me personally as confidently as if he had known me from boyhood
and was thoroughly acquainted with every circumstance of my educational
and scientific career, so that I feel constrained to protest against his manifest
unfairness, prejudice, and incapacity to deal with the subject and my con-
nection with it. Although other investigators, including Dr. Huggins, Serjeant
Cox, Mr. Varley, and Lord Lindsay, are included in the indictment and found
guilty with extenuating circumstances, for me he can feel no tenderness, which,
were it not for my recent sins, he is good enough to observe he “ might have
otherwise felt for a man who has in his previous career made creditable use of
his very limited opportunities.’ The other offenders who are attacked can
well take care of themselves ; let me now vindicate myself.

It was my good or evil fortune, as the case may be, to have an hour’s
conversation, if it may be so termed when the talking was all on one side,
with the Quarterly Reviewer in question, when I had an opportunity of
observing the curiously dogmatic tone of his mind and of estimating his inca-
pacity to deal with any subject conflicting with his prejudices and preposses-
sions. At the last meeting of the British Association at Edinburgh we were
introduced—He as a physiologist who had enquired into the matter fifteen or

Az

4 Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism,

twenty years ago; I as a scientific investigator of a certain department of
the subje@; here is a sketch of our interview, accurate in substance if not
identical in language.

“Ah! Mr. Crookes,” said he, ‘‘I am glad I have an opportunity of speaking
to you about this Spiritualism you have been writing about. You are only
wasting your time. I devoted a great deal of time many years ago to
Mesmerism, Clairvoyance, Ele&ro-biology, Table-turning, Spirit-rapping, and
all the rest of it, and I found there was nothing init. I explained it all in my
article I wrote in the Quarterly Review. I think ita pity you have written
anything on this subje@ before you made yourself intimately acquainted with
my writings and my views on the subject. I have exhausted it.”

‘‘ But, Sir,”’ interposed I, ‘‘ you will allow me to say you are mistaken, if-- ”

‘““No, no!” interrupted he, ‘‘I am not mistaken. I know what you would
say. But it is quite evident from what you have just remarked, that you
allowed yourself to be taken in by these people when you knew nothing what-
ever of the perseverance with which I and other competent men, eminently
qualified to deal with the most difficult problems, had investigated these phe-
nomena. You ought to have known that I explain everything you have seen
by ‘unconscious cerebration’ and ‘unconscious muscular action ;’ and if
you had only a clear idea in your mind of the exact meaning of these two
phrases, you would see that they are sufficient to account for everything.”

COB Ut ol ——

“Yes, yes; my explanations would clear away all the difficulties you have
met with. I saw a great many Mesmerists and Clairvoyants, and it was
all done by ‘unconscious cerebration.’ Whilst as to Table-turning, everyone
knows how Faraday put down that. It is a pity you were unacquainted with
Faraday’s beautiful indicator; but, of course, a person who knew nothing
of my writings would not have known how he showed that unconscious
muscular action was sufficient to explain all these movements.”

‘Pardon me,” I interrupted, ‘but Faraday himself showed——” But it
was in vain, and on rolled the stream of unconscious egotism.

“Yes, of course; that is what I said. If you had known of Faraday'’s indi-
cator and used it with Mr. Home, he would not have been able to go through
his performance.”

‘But how,” I contrived to ask, ‘‘ could the indicator have served, seeing
that neither Mr. Home nor anyone else touched the—”’

“That’s just it. You evidently know nothing of the indicator. You have
not read my articles and explanations of all you saw, and you know nothing
whatever of the previous history of the subje@. Don’t you think you have
compromised the Royal Society ? It is a great pity that youshould be allowed
there to revive subjects I put down ten years ago in my articles, and you
ought not to be permitted to send papers in. However, we can deal with
them.’ Here I was fain to keep silence. Meanwhile, my infallible interlo-
cutor continued—

‘Well, Mr. Crookes, I am very pleased I have had this opportunity of
hearing these explanations from yourself. One learns so much in a conversa-
tion like this, and what you say has confirmed me on several points I was
doubtful about before. Now, after I have had the benefit of hearing all about
it from your own lips, I am more satisfied than ever that I have been always

A Reply to the Quarterly Review. 5

right, and that there is nothing in it but unconscious cerebration and muscular
action.”

At this juncture some good Samaritan turned the torrent of words on to him-
self; I thankfully escaped with a sigh of relief, and my memory recalled
my first interview with Faraday, when we discussed table-turning and his
contrivance to detec the part played by involuntary muscular effort in the
production of that phenomenon. How different his courteous, kindly, candid

demeanour towards me in similar circumstances compared with that of the
Quarterly Reviewer !

Now, let me ask, what authority has the reviewer for designating me a
recent convert to spiritualism? Nothing that I have ever written can justify
such an unfounded assumption. Indeed the dissatisfa@ion with which many
spiritualists have received my articles clearly proves that they consider me

unworthy of joining their fraternity. In my first published article the following
sentences occur :—

** Hitherto I have seen nothing to convince me of the ‘spiritual’ theory.
In such an enquiry the intellect demands that the spiritual proof must
be absolutely incapable of being explained away; it must be so
strikingly and convincingly true that we cannot, dare not deny it.”

** Accuracy and knowledge of detail stand foremost amongst the great aims
of modern scientific men. No observations are of much use to the
student of science unless they are truthful and made under test con-
ditions; and here I find the great mass of spiritualistic evidence to
fail. In a subject which, perhaps, more than any other lends itself to
trickery and deception, the precautions against fraud appear to have
been, in most cases, totally insufficient.”

“IT confess that the reasoning of some spiritualists would almost seem to
justify Faraday’s severe statement that many dogs have the power of
coming to much more logical conclusions. Their speculations utterly
ignore all theories of force being only a form of molecular motion, and
they speak of Force, Matter, and Spirit as three distinct entities.”

In a subsequent paper, I said that my experiments appeared to establish the
existence of a new force connected, in some unknown manner, with the human
organisation; but that it would be wrong to hazard the most vague hypothesis
respecting the cause of the phenomena, the nature of this force, and the corre-
lation existing between it and the other forces of nature. ‘ Indeed,” said I, ‘it
is the duty of the enquirer to abstain altogether from framing theories until
he has accumulated a sufficient number of facts to form a substantial basis
upon which to reason.’’ New forces must be found, or mankind must remain
sadly ignorant of the mysteries of nature. We are unacquainted with a
sufficient number of forces to do the work of the universe.

In a third paper, I brought forward many quotations from previous experi-
mentalists, which showed that they did not ascribe the phenomena to
Spiritualism. I then said that the name Psychic had been chosen for the sub-
ject “because I was most desirous to avoid the foregone conclusions implied in
the title under which it has hitherto been claimed as belonging to a province
beyond the range of experiment and argument.”

Do these quotations look like spiritualism? Does the train of thought run-
ning through them justify the Quarterly Reviewer in saying that ‘ the lesson
afforded by the truly scientific method followed by this great master of

6 Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism,

experimental philosophy (Faraday) . . . . should not have been lost upon
those who profess to be his disciples. But it has been entirely disregarded
. . . . by men from whom better things might have been expected ?”

I have devoted my enquiry entirely to those physical phenomena in which,
owing to the circumstance of the case, unconscious muscular action, self
deception, or even wilful fraud, would be rendered inoperative. I have not
attempted to investigate except under such conditions of place, person, light,
position, and observation, that contact was either physically impossible or
could take place only under circumstances in which the unconscious or wilful
movement of the hands could not vitiate the experiment. The experiments
being tried in my own house, assumption of pre-arranged mechanical con-
trivances to assist the ‘‘medium” was out of the question.

The most curious thing regarding this article in the Quarterly is that the
writer himself is a believer in a new force, and he arrogantly tries to put
down any attempt to bring forward another. He refers to various hy-
potheses—to Sir William Hamilton’s “latent thought,” Dr. Laycock’s ‘* reflex
action of the brain,” and Carpenter’s ‘ ideo-motor principle.” The reviewer
adopts, without hesitation, Carpenter’s hypothesis as the true and universal
solvent of the phenomena in question, notwithstanding that this hypothesis is
rejected by the physiologists most competent to judge it.

The whole tenor of the article, the numerous references to various “spiritual”
phenomena, and the account of some of the reviewer’s own experiences, show
that he knows little or nothing of any such phenomena as those which I have
commenced to investigate. He refers to mesmerism, curative influence, ‘ plan-
chette”’ writing, table-tilting, table-turning, and to the messages obtained by
these means. When he does not impute fraud, he explains the physical move-
ments by the hypothesis of ‘‘ unconscious muscular action,” and the intelligence
which sometimes controls these movements, delivers messages, &c., by ‘‘ uncon-
scious cerebration ” or ‘‘ ideo-motor action.”

Now these explanations are possibly sufficient to account for much that
has come under the personal cognisance of the reviewer.» I will do him
the justice to believe that, as he affirms, he did take every opportunity
within his reach of witnessing the higher phenomena of “spiritualism,” and
that on various occasions he met with results which were entirely unsatisfactory.
The error into which he falls is this: Because he saw nothing that he
thought worth following up, therefore it is impossible anyone else can be more
fortunate. Because he and his scientific friends were following out the
subject for more than a dozen years, therefore my own friends and myself
deserve reprobation for pursuing the inquiry for about as many months.

According to this reasoning science would proceed very slowly. How often
do we find instances of an abandoned investigation being taken up by another
inquirer, who, more fortunate in his opportunities, carries it to a successful
issue.

The reviewer has no grounds whatever for asserting that—

‘He (Mr. Crookes) altogether ignores the painstaking and carefully con-
ducted researches which had led men of the highest scientific
eminence to an unquestioning rejection of the whole of those higher

phenomena of ‘mesmerism’ which are now presented under other
names as the results of ‘ spiritual’ or ‘ psychic’ agency.”

A Reply to the Quarterly Review. |

Now I am quite familiar with these researches and with the various expla-
nations of them so elaborately set forth by Dr. Carpenter and others. I
made no reference to them, simply because the phenomena which came under
their notice are entirely different from the phenomena I have examined.
During my experiments I have seen plenty of instances of planchette writing,
table-turning, table-tilting, and have received messages innumerable, but I
have not attempted their investigation mainly for two reasons; first, because
I shrank from the enormous difficulty and the consumption of time necessary to
carry out an inquiry more physiological than physical; and, secondly, because
little came under my notice in the way of messages or table-tilts which I
could not account for.

My reviewer objects to the accordion being tried in a cage under the table.
My object is easily explained. I must use my own methods of experiment. I
deemed them good under the circumstances, and if the reviewer had seen the
experiment before complaining it would have been more like a scientific man.
But the cage is by no means essential, although, in a test experiment, it is an
additional safeguard. On several subsequent occasions the accordion has played
over the table, and in other parts of my room away from a table, the keys
moving and the bellows action going on. An accordion was selected because it
is absolutely impossible to play tricks with it when held in the manner
indicated. I flatly deny that, held by the end away from the keys,
the performance on an accordion “ with one hand is a juggling trick
often exhibited at country fairs,’ unless special mechanism exists for
the purpose. Did ever the reviewer or any one else witness this phe-
nomenon at a country fair or elsewhere? The statement is only equalled
in absurdity by the argument of a recent writer, who, in order to prove
that the accounts of Mr. Home’s levitations could not be true, says, “An
Indian juggler could sit down in the middle of Trafalgar Square, and
then slowly and steadily rise in the air to a height of five or six feet, still
sitting, and as slowly come down again.’ Curious logic this, to argue that a
certain phenomenon is impossible to Mr. Home because a country bumpkin
or an Indian juggler can produce it.

In the experiment with the board and spring balance the reviewer says that
“the whole experiment is vitiated by the absence of any determination of the
actual downward pressure of Mr. Home’s fingers.”

I maintain that this determination is as unnecessary as a determination of
his “ downward pressure” on the chair on which he was sitting or on his boots
when standing. In reference to this point I said :—

“Mr. Home placed the tips of his fingers lightly on the extreme end of the
mahogany board which was resting on the support.”

“In order to see whether it was possible to produce much effect on the
spring balance by pressure at the place where Mr. Home’s fingers had
been, I stepped upon the table and stood on one foot at the end of the
board. Dr. Huggins, who was observing the index of the balance,
said that the whole weight of my body (140 lbs.) so applied only sunk
the index 1} Ibs., or 2 lbs. when I jerked up and down. Mr. Home
had been sitting in a low easy-chair, and could not, therefore, had he
tried his utmost, have exerted any material influence on these
results. I need scarcely add that his feet as well as his hands were
closely guarded by all in the room.” ;

8 Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism,

“The wooden foot being 14 inches wide, and resting flat on the table, it is
evident that no amount of pressure exerted within this space of 1}
inches could produce any action on the balance.”

But as this objection had been made by several persons, I devised certain
experiments so as to entirely eliminate mechanical contact, and these experi-
ments were fully described in my last paper.

To show the singular inaccuracy of the reviewer’s statements and in-
ferences, I give below in parallel columns, quotations from the Quarterly
Review, to mark the contrast between its unfair statements and my own actual
language as printed in the Quarterly Fournal of Science.

(Quarterly Review, Oct., 1871).

‘* He admitted that he had not em-
ployed the tests which men of science
had a right to demand before giving
credence to the genuineness of those
phenomena.”

“He entered upon the inquiry,
of which he now makes public the
results, with an avowed foregone con-
clusion of his own,”

‘This obviously deprives his ‘ con-
vicion of their objective reality’ of
even that small measure of value to
which his scientific character might
have given it a claim if his testi-
mony had been impartial ?”

(Quarterly Fournal of Science,
Fuly, 1870).

‘““ My whole scientific education has
been one long lesson in exactness of
observation, and I wish it to be dis-
tin@ly understood that this firm con-
viction [of the genuineness of certain
phenomena] is the result of most care-
ful investigation.”

‘‘In the present case I prefer to
enter upon the inquiry with no pre-
conceived notions whatever as to
what Can or Cannot bes .1 eee
first, I believed that the whole affair
was a superstition, or at least an
unexplained trick.” . . . ‘I should
feel it to be a great satisfaction if I
could bring out light in any direction,
and I may safely say that I care not
in what direction.” ‘““T cannot,
at present, hazard even the most
vague hypothesis as to the cause of
the phenomena.”

‘Views or opinions I cannot be said
to possess on a subject which I do not
pretend to understand.” . . .. .-
‘* The increased employment of scien-
tific methods will promote exact ob-
servation and greater love of truth
among enquirers, and will produce a
race of observers who will drive the
worthless residuum of spiritualism
hence into the unknown limbo of
magic and necromancy.”

On page 351 the reviewer insinuates that the early scientific training of myself

and fellow-workers has been deficient.
scientific training could not well have commenced earlier than it did.

Speaking for myself, I may say that my

Some

time before I was sixteen I had been occupied in experimental work in a
private physical laboratory. Then I entered the Royal College of Chemistry,
under Dr. Hofmann, where I stayed six years. My first original research, on
a complicated and difficult subject, was published when I was nineteen ; and
from that time to the present, my scientific education has been one continuous
lesson in exactness of observation.

A Reply to the Quarterly Review. 9

The following parallel passages show that my reviewer and myself differ but
little in our estimates of the qualities required for scientific investigation,

(Quarterly Review, Oct., 1871.)

* Part at least of this_predisposi-
tion” [towards spiritualism] ‘de-
pends on the deficiency of early scien-
tific training. Such training ought
to include—r. The acquirement of
habits of correct observation of the
phenomena daily taking place around
us; 2. The cultivation of the power
of reasoning upon these phenomena,
so as to arrive at general principles by
the inductive process; 3. The study
of the method of testing the validity
of such inductions by experiment ;
and 4. The deductive application of
principles thus acquired to the pre-
diction of phenomena which can be
verified by observation.”

(Quarterly Fournal of Science,
Fuly, 1870.)

“Tt will be of service if I here illus-
trate the modes of thought current
among those who investigate science,
and say what kind of experimental
proof science has a right to demand
before admitting a new department of
knowledge into her ranks. We must
not mix up the exac& and the inexact.
The supremacy of accuracy must be
absolute.” . . . ‘The first requisite
is to be sure of facts; then to ascer-
tain conditions; next, laws. Accu-
racy and knowledge of detail stand
foremost amongst “the great aims of
modern scientific men. No observa-
tions are of much use to the student
of science unless they are truthful
and made under test conditions.”

. ‘In investigations which so
completely baffle the ordinary ob-
server, the thorough scientific man
has a great advantage. He has fol-
lowed science from the beginning
through a long line of learning; and
he knows, therefore, in what direc-
tion it is leading; he knows that
there are dangers on one side, uncer-
tainties on another, and almost abso-
lute certainty on a third; he sees to
a certain extent in advance. But,
where every step is towards the mar-
vellous and unexpected, precautions
and tests should be multiplied rather
than diminished.” . . ‘“‘ Inves-
tigators must work; although their
work may be very small in quantity
if only compensation be made by its
intrinsic excellence.”

The review is so full of perverse, prejudiced, or unwarranted mis-statements,
that it is impossible to take note of them all. Passing over 1 number I had
marked for animadversion, I must restrain myself to exemplifying a few of
them.

The reviewer says that in my paper of July, 1870, my conclusion was
“based on evidence which I admitted to be scientifically incomplete.”
Now in that paper I gave no experimental evidence whatever. After
testifying emphatically as to the genuineness of two of the phenomena, I
gave an outline of certain tests which in my opinion ought to be applied,
and, in a foot note, I said that my preliminary tests in this dire@ion had
been satisfactory. Is this admitting that I had not employed such tests ?

Is it fair to say that my results were “based on evidence which I admitted to
be scientifically incomplete ?”

IO Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualisin,

On p. 346, referring to the results obtained with the board and balance, my re-
viewer urges that it never seems to have occurred to me “to test whether the same
results could not be produced by throwing the board into rhythmical vibration by
anintentional exertion of muscular action!’ Yet will it be believed that at p.344
he gives in my own words an account of my trying this identical experiment ;
and if he had taken the trouble to refer to my other paper on p. 486 of the Quar-
terly fournal of Science, he would have seen that I had tested in like manner the
special apparatus to which he alludes. Has the reviewer learnt to blow both
hot and cold? has his memory faded? or has chagrin at missing the truth in his
long investigations spoilt his temper ?

The ‘“fac&t” spoken of on p. 347, that myself and friends attributed to
psychic force the rippling of the surface of water in a basin, when it was really
produced by the tremor of a passing railway train, is, like many other of the
reviewer's “facts,” utterly baseless; but as he is careful to tell us that in this
particular case the “ fact” is not one of his own invention, what is to be said
of his discretion in believing his ‘‘ highly intelligent witness?” No such
occurrence took place; nor will a passing railway train produce a ripple on
the surface of water in the basin in my room. I invite the “ highly intelli-
gent witness” to verify the fact.

On p. 348, in speaking of Mr. Varley, the reviewer says that ‘his scientific
attainments are so cheaply estimated by those who are best qualified to judge
of them, that he has never been admitted to the Royal Society.” It seems
natural it should follow that Mr. Varley is a Fellow of the Royal Society; he
was elected in June last. I seem to be safe in saying exactly the opposite of
the reviewer.

Not to weary the reader, I will deal only with three more mis-state-
ments, selecting instances where the reviewer conceives that he is perfectly
sure of his facts. In these three instances the reviewer commences his attack
upon me with the ominous words ‘we speak advisedly.” If this expression
has any meaning, it implies that the writer is more than ordinarily certain of
the statement it prefaces—that he speaks with deliberate and careful con-
sideration. Now I also speak ‘‘advisedly”’ when I affirm, with the proof in my
hand, that two if not all of these three charges fulminated against me are either
heedless or wilful misrepresentations.

The first charge is as follows :—

** Now we speak advisedly when we say that Mr. Crookes knew nothing
whatever of the perseverance with which scientific men with whom
he has never had the privilege of associating, qualified by long
previous experience in inquiries of the like kind, had investigated
these phenomena.”

This spiteful statement is utterly false. I should think there are few
persons in this country who have examined more carefully into the litera-
ture of the subject, or have read a greater number of books on spiritualism,
demonology, witchcraft, animal magnetism, spiritual theology, magic, and medi-
cal psychology, in English, French, and Latin. In this list I have even included
Dr. Carpenter’s article on Electro-Biology and Mesmerism in the Quarterly
Review for October, 1853.

The second well-considered charge runs as follows :—

A Reply to the Quarterly Review. II

“We also speak advisedly when we say that Mr. Crookes was entirely
ignorant of the previous history of the subject, and had not even
acquainted himself with the mode in which Professor Faraday had
demonstrated the real nature of table turning.”

As to my entire ignorance of the previous history of the subjea, that I
think is pretty well disposed of in the preceding paragraph.

In 1853 I was intimately acquainted with the late Robert Murray, at that
time manager at Mr. Newman’s, Philosophical Instrument Maker, Regent
Street. I was in his shop several times a week, and in May and June of that
year, Murray and I had many conversations on the subject of table turning. I
well remember his telling me one day that Professor Faraday had given him
the design of a test-apparatus by which he expected to prove that the rotation
of the table was due to unconscious muscular action. A day or two after, he
showed me the instrument which he was just about to send to Professor Faraday.
At that time I was not unfrequently favoured by the late Rev. J. Barlow, Sec. R.I.,
with invitations to his house in Berkeley Street, and on one of these occasions
on entering the room he thus accosted me :—* Mr. Crookes, I am glad you have
come, we are doing a little table turning, and have just been trying Faraday’s
new instrument. He is here, let me introduce you to him.” Professor
Faraday, in his kindly genial manner, explained to me fully the action of his instru-
ment,and instead of pooh-poohing the remarks of a mere boy—for I was only
21—listened to my objection that his instrument was based upon the assumption
that the supposed acting force from the hands would pass through the glass
rollers, and replied that he had thought of that, and had got over the difficulty by
tying the two boards together so as to render them rigid, when it was found
that the table rotated as well with the instrument as without it. Since then
I have frequently employed this device of a long delicate indicator to magnify
minute movements. Perhaps my reviewer is not aware that this device is one
of the commonest in physical laboratories, and was in frequent use long before
any of the present generation saw the light. I have adopted it from 1853 up
to the present time. In my early experiments I availed myself of Professor
Faraday’s test-instrument, but recently, when I have frequently made it a
sine qua non that the operator shall not touch the table or any portion of the
instrument, as in Experiments III., 1V., and VI.,* it would puzzle even the
ingenuity of my reviewer to say how Faraday’s instrument is to be applied. In
such cases I adopt the well-known and superlatively delicate index, a ray of
light.

The Quarterly goes on to magnify Faraday’s experiment on table turning,
utterly forgetting that Faraday did not come to a similar conclusion with the
reviewer ; at least, it was much more obscurely put if put at all. Faraday, so
far as I know, never spoke of a latent power within us, of which we are
unconscious, working in our muscles, and leading them to a@s which culminate
in a form of speech or writing by movements of a table. Faraday would have
held this a sufficiently great novelty if put before him as I endeavour to put
it before myself after reading the Quarterly’s article. My belief, however,
is that Faraday experimented with questionable phenomena only.

* Quarterly Journal of Science, Oct., 1871, p. 487 et seq.

EZ Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism,

The third charge in which the reviewer speaks ‘“ advisedly”” runs thus :—

“For this discovery [Thallium] he was rewarded by the Fellowship of
the Royal Society; but we speak advisedly when we say that this
distinction was conferred on him with considerable hesitation.”

In January, 1863, whilst the interest attaching to the discovery of the
element Thallium was fresh in the minds of scientific men, I was both
surprised and gratified at receiving the following rote from Professor
Williamson :—

“University of London,
Burlington House, W.,
16th Jan., 1863.

‘* My dear Sir,—I should be glad to see your name on the list of Fellows
of the Royal Society, and if you have no objection to my doing so,
would do myself the henour of proposing you for election into the
Society. Could you spare a quarter of an hour on Monday afternoon
to talk the matter over with me at University College, and oblige

* Yours very truly,
‘* ALEX. W. WILLIAMSON.”

This kindness being entirely unsought was the more pleasing to me. At the
interview, my certificate was partially filled up and left in Professor Williamson’s
hands for the purpose of obtaining the necessary signatures. After this
meeting with Professor Williamson I took no further steps in the matter, and
spoke to no one on the subject ; but in due time Professor Williamson wrote that
my certificate was duly received at the Royal Society and read at the meeting,
adding—

“There is on the part of the chemists now on the Council a sincere
appreciation of your high claims.”

Subsequently, the same kind friend wrote—

‘*T have much pleasure in congratulating you and ourselves on your being
one of the fifteen selected by the Council of the Royal Society for
election.”

I was formally elected on the 4th of June, 1863.

That discussion ensued when my name was brought before the Council
follows as a matter of course. When fifteen only are to be elected from
about fifty candidates, it is to be expected that the claims of each should
be rigidly scrutinised; but whatever my anonymous reviewer may say
“‘ advisedly” on the subject, the fact remains that I was elected on the first
application, an almost unheard-of honour for so young a man. Considering
the large majority of eminent candidates whose election is postponed from
year to year (sometimes even to ten years), there is no reason why my
election should not have been postponed for at least one year, had there been
truth in the statement that ‘considerable hesitation”? was evinced in confer-
ring this distinction upon me.

The grossness of the imputation, that the Royal Society admitted me
although my investigations had only a merit purely technical, is astounding
when the merits of the members generally are considered. I should consider
them nearly all as purely technical workers in science, when they have done
any work at all; but the curiosity is great when we find that the inquiry in
question is purely technical. Professedly, it is a question of apparatus,

A Reply to the Quarterly Review. 13

In entering upon an enquiry which I have endeavoured to keep within the
limits of broad, tangible, and easily demonstrable facts, what qualities would
common sense ask forin an investigator? Would an investigation be considered
trustworthy were it conducted by a chemical dreamer who could spin off theory
by the hour, and cover acres of paper with chemical symbols, but who in a
laboratory would be unable to perform the simplest analysis, or build up a
piece of chemical apparatus? Let it not, however, be supposed that I am
unmindful of the philosophical and fructifying labours of Hofmann, Williamson,
and others, in the field of Chemical Philosophy. But with reference to this
enquiry, surely it should be conducted by one “who is trustworthy in an
enquiry requiring technical knowledge for its successful condué.”

The reviewer assumes that the phenomenon of the suspension of heavy bodies
in the air, the up and down movements of a wooden board, and the registration
of the varying tension on a spring balance, are psychical, not physical ;
and he lays down a dictum that in such matter-of-fa& results which I have
obtained, one’s own eyes must not be trusted, for in such a case “ seeing is
anything but believing.” To show my unfitness for ascertaining the weight
of a piece of wood, he accuses me of being ignorant of the knowledge of
Chemical Philosophy! He does, however, from his Olympian height,
condescendingly admit that my ability is technical, that I have made
creditable use of my very limited opportunities, and intimates that I am
trustworthy as to any inquiry which requires technical knowledge for its
successful conduct. Now what does he mean by all this? I always thought
that these qualities which are so contemptuously accorded me were just those
of the highest value in this country. What has chiefly placed England in the
industrial position she now holds but technical science and special researches ?

But my greatest crime seems to be that I am a “ specialist of specialists.”
I a specialist of specialists! This is indeed news to me, that I have confined
my attention only to one special subject. Will my reviewer kindly say
what that subject is? Is it general chemistry, whose chronicler I have
been since the commencement of the ‘Chemical News” in 1859? Is it
Thallium, about which the public have probably heard as much as they
care for? Is it Chemical Analysis, in which my recently published
* Selec Methods” is the result of twelve years’ work? Is it Disinfection
and the Prevention and Cure of Cattle Plague, my published report on
which may be said to have popularised Carbolic Acid? Is it Photography, on |
the theory and practice of which my papers have been very numerous? Is it
the Metallurgy of Gold and Silver, in which my discovery of the value of Sodium
in the amalgamation process is now largely used in Australia, California, and
South America ? Is itin Physical Optics, in which department I have space only
to refer to papers on some Phenomena of Polarised Light, published before I
was twenty-one; to my detailed description of the Spectroscope and labours
with this instrument, when it was almost unknown in England; to my
papers on the Solar and Terrestrial Spectra; to my examination of the
Optical Phenomena of Opals, and construction of the Spectrum Microscope ;
to my papers on the Measurement of the Luminous Intensity of Light;
and my description of my Polarisation Photometer? Or is my speciality
Astronomy and Meteorology, inasmuch as I was for twelve months at the

14 Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism.

Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, where, in addition to my principal employment
of arranging the meteorological department, I divided my leisure time between
Homer and mathematics at Magdalen Hall, planet-hunting and transit
taking with Mr. Pogson now Principal of the Madras Observatory, and
celestial photography with the magnificent heliometer attached to the Obser-
vatory? My photographs of the Moon, taken in 1855, at Mr. Hartnup’s
Observatory, Liverpool, were for years the best extant, and I was honoured
by a money, grant from the Royal Society to carry out further work in
connexion with them. These facts, together with my trip to Oran last year,
as one of the Government Eclipse Expedition, and the invitation recently
received to visit Ceylon for the same purpose, would almost seem to show that
Astronomy was my speciality. In truth, few scientific men are less open to
the charge of being ‘‘a specialist of specialists.”

Whilst the scepticism of this reviewer in respect to the credibility of eminent
witnesses, who give their names and detailed statements of definite facts,
exceeds all reasonable bounds, his credulity in believing unattested statements
of others, or in expecting his readers to give credit to all the absurd stories of
his own experience, is refreshing in its simplicity. He gives five separate
accounts of certain séances, where he saw something take place, but he con-
descends to few details; with one exception, no names or tests are given,
nor is there a single clue by which the accuracy of his statements can be
verified. The only case in which a name and anything like detail is given is an
account of a visit to Mr. Foster. Amongst other strange things here recorded,
but by no means satisfactorily accounted for, even by our reviewer, is the
following :—

‘We were not introduced to him by name, and we do not think that he
could have had any opportunity of knowing our person. Nevertheless,
he not only answered in a variety of modes the questions we put
to him respecting the time and cause of the death of several of our
departed friends and relatives whose names we had written down on
slips of paper which had been folded up and crumpled into pellets
before being placed in his hands; but he brought out names and
dates correctly in large red letters on his bare arm, the redness being
produced by the turgescence of the minute vessels of the skin, and
passing away after a few minutes like a blush.”

The accurate answers to the reviewer’s questions are supposed to be
explained by ‘unconscious ideo-motor action,’ which, like ‘ unconscious
cerebration,” is to explain all phenomena, past, present, and to come.
Respecting the latter phenomenon, he says—‘‘ The trick by which the
red letters were produced was discovered by the enquiries of our medical
friends.” Ifthe reviewer will not believe my plain statement of facts fortified by
eminent witnesses, how does he expect his readers to believe these statements
on the simple word of an anonymous writer? His ‘ gullibility,” to use his own
coarse, but expressive word, is strongly shown in his implicit belief of an obviously
exaggerated account given by the well-known Robert Houdin of the way in
which he and his son performed some of their tricks.

It is curious to note how Dr. Carpenter is made to pervade the Quarterly
Review article. The reviewer throughout the article unconsciously manifests
his implicit conviction that Dr. Carpenter is to be regarded as the paramount

A Reply to the Quarterly Review. 15

authority in reference to the subtle psychological questions involved in the
so-called spiritualistic phenomena. The theories of the profound psy-
chologists of Germany, to say nothing of those of our own countrymen,
are made quite subsidiary to the hypotheses of Dr. William Carpenter.
An unquestioning and infatuated belief in what Dr. Carpenter says con-
cerning our mental operations has led the reviewer wholly to ignore
the fac that these speculations are not accepted by the best minds
devoted to psychological inquiries. I mean no disrespect to Dr. Car-
penter, who, in certain departments, has done some excellent scientific work,
not always perhaps in a simple and undogmatic spirit, when I ‘“ speak
advisedly ” that his mind lacks that acute, generalising, philosophic quality
which would fit him to unravel the intricate problems which lie hid in the
structure of the human brain.

Here I must bring this enforced vindication to a close. The self-reference
to which I have been constrained is exceedingly distasteful to me. I forbear
to characterise with fitting terms the spirit of this attack upon a scientific
worker ; it is enough that I have proved that in ten distin@ instances the
reviewer has deliberately calumniated me. It is a heavy and a true charge
to bring against anyone occupying the reviewer's position amongst scientific
men.

I cannot refrain from citing from the Birmingham Morning News the
following trenchant criticism from the pen of an eminent chemist—himself a
disbeliever in “ Spiritualism.” It will serve, as one instance amongst many,
to show the feeling of disgust which the article in the Quarterly Review has
excited among scientific men, whatever their opinions on this topic may be.
After a few prefatory remarks, the writer goes on to say :—

‘Either a new and most extraordinary natural force has been discovered, or
some very eminent men specially trained in rigid physical investigation have
been the vidims of a most marvellous, unprecedented, and inexplicable
physical delusion. I say unprecedented, because, although we have records
of many popular delusions of similar kind and equal magnitude, and specula-
tive delusions among the learned, I can cite no instance of skilful experimental
experts being utterly, egregiously, and repeatedly deceived by the mechanical
acticn of experimental test apparatus carefully constructed and used by them-
selves.

“As the interest in the subje@ is rapidly growing both wider and deeper, as
a very warm discussion is pending, and further and still more extraordinary
experimental revelations are in reserve, my readers will probably welcome a
somewhat longer gossip on this than I usually devote to a single subjed.

“Such an extension is the more demanded as the newspaper and magazine
articles which have hitherto appeared, have, for the most part, by following
the lead of the Quarterly Review, absurdly muddled the whole subjea@, and
ridiculously mis-stated the position of Mr. Crookes and others. In the first
place all these writers that follow the Quarterly omit any mention or allusion
to Mr. Crookes’s preliminary paper published in July, 1870, but which has a

16 Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism,

most important bearing on the whole subject, as it expounds the objec of all
the subsequent researches.

““Mr. Crookes there states, that ‘Some weeks ago the fa& that I was
engaged in investigating Spiritualism, so-called, was announced in a contem-
porary (The Atheneum), and, in consequence of the many communications I
have since received, I thinkit desirable to say a little concerning the investiga-
tions which I have commenced. Views oropinions I cannot be said to possess
on a subject which I do not profess to understand. I consider it the duty of
scientific men, who have learned exact modes of working, to examine pheno-
mena which attract the attention of the public in order to confirm their
genuineness, or to explain, if possible, the delusions of the honest, and to ex-
pose the tricks of deceivers.’ He then proceeds to state the case of Science
versus Spiritualism, thus:—‘ The Spiritualist tells of bodies weighing 50 or
100 lbs. being lifted up into the air without the intervention of any known
force; but the scientific chemist is accustomed to use a balance which will
render sensible a weight so small that it would take ten thousand of them to
weigh one grain; he is, therefore, justified in asking that a power, professing to
be guided by intelligence, which will toss a heavy body to the ceiling, shall
also cause his delicately-poised balance to move under test conditions.’ ‘The
Spiritualist tells of rooms and houses being shaken, even to injury, by super-
human power. The man of science merely asks for a pendulum to be sent
vibrating when it is in a glass case, and supported on solid masonry.’ ‘The
Spiritualist tells of heavy articles of furniture moving from one room to
another without human agency. But the man of seience has made instru-
ments which will divide an inch into a million parts, and he is justified in
doubting the accuracy of the former observations, if the same force is power-
less to move the index of his instrument one poor degree.’ ‘ The spiritualist
tells of flowers with the fresh dew on them, of fruit, and living objects being
carried through closed windows, and even solid brick walls. The scientific
investigator naturally asks that an additional weight (if it be only the roooth
part of a grain) be deposited on one pan of his balance when the case is locked.
And the chemist asks for the roooth part of a grain of arsenic to be carried
through the sides of a glass tube in which pure water is hermetically sealed.’

‘‘ These and other requirements are stated by Mr. Crookes, together with
further exposition of the principles of strict inductive investigation, as it should
be applied to such an inquiry. A year after this he published an account of
the experiments which I described in a former letter, and added to his own
testimony that of the eminent physicist and astronomer Dr. Huggins, and
Serjeant Cox. Subsequently, that is, in the last number of the Quarterly
¥ournal of Science, he has published the particulars of another series of experi-
ments.

‘‘]T will not now enter upon the details of these, but merely state that the con-
clusions of Mr. Crookes are directly opposed to those of the Spiritualists. He
utterly, positively, distinctly, and repeatedly repudiates all belief in the opera-
tions of the supposed spirits, or of any other supernatural agency whatever,
and attributes the phenomena he witnessed to an entirely different origin, viz.,
to the dire agency of the medium. He supposes that the force analogous to
that which the nerves convey from their ganglionic centres to the muscles, in

A Reply to the Quarterly Review. 17

producing muscular contraction, may, by an effort of the will, be transmitted
to external inanimate matter, in such a manner as to influence in some degree
its gravitating power, and produce vibratory motion. He calls this the psychic
force.

“‘ Now, this is direc and unequivocal anti-spiritualism. It is a theory set up
in opposition to the supernatural hypotheses of the Spiritualists, and Mr.
Crookes’s position in reference to Spiritualism is precisely analogous to that of
Faraday in reference totable-turning. For precisely the same reasons as those
above quoted, the great master of experimental investigation examined the
phenomena called table-turning, and he concluded that they were due to mus-
cular force, just as Mr. Crookes concludes that the more complex phenomena
he has examined are due to psychic force.

‘¢ Speaking of the theories of the Spiritualists, Mr. Crookes, in his first paper
(July, 1870), says :—

‘“«*The pseudo-scientific Spiritualist professes to know everything. No cal-
culations trouble his serenity; no hard experiments, no laborious readings;
no weary attempts to make clear in words that which has rejoiced the heart
and elevated the mind. He talks glibly of all sciences and arts, overwhelming
the inquirer with terms like ‘ electro-biologise,’ ‘ psycologise,’ ‘animal mag-
netism,’ &c., a mere play upon words, showing ignorance rather than under-
standing.”

‘* And further on he says :—

“¢T confess that the reasoning of some Spiritualists would almost seem to
justify Faraday’s severe statement—that many dogs have the power of coming
to more logical conclusions.’

“T have already referred to the muddled mis-statement of Mr. Crookes’s posi-
tion by the newspaper writers, who almost unanimously describe him and Dr.
Huggins as two distinguished scientific men who have recently been converted
to Spiritualism. The above quotations, to which, if space permitted, I might
add a dozen others from either the first, the second, or third of Mr. Crookes’s
papers, in which he as positively and decidedly controverts the dreams of the
Spiritualists, will show how egregiously these writers have been deceived.
They have relied very naturally on the established respectability of the
Quarterly Review, and have thus deluded both themselves and their readers.
Considering the marvellous range of subjects these writers have to treat, and
the acres of paper they daily cover, it is not surprising that they should have
been thus misled in reference to a subje& carrying them considerably out of
their usual track; but the offence of the Quarterly is not sovenial. It
assumes, in fact, a very serious complexion when further investigated.

“ The title of the article is ‘‘ Spiritualism and its Recent Converts,” and the
‘recent converts’ most specially and prominently named are Mr. Crookes
and Dr. Huggins. Serjeant Cox is also named, but not as a recent convert ;
for the reviewer describes him as an old and hopelessly infatuated Spiritualist.*

* It is due to Mr. Serjeant Cox to state that, so far from being an old Spiritualist, he had
seen nothing of Spiritualism until he joined the Investigation Committee of the Dialeétical
Society, confident that he should thus assist in dissipating a delusion or deteGting an impos-
ture; but by that elaborate examination he was satisfied (as he states in his Report) that many
of the asserted phenomena are genuine, but that there was no evidence whatever to support
the theory of Spiritualism ; that he was convinced by what he had seen that the Force was a
purely psychical one and in no way produced by spirits of the dead. He is, in fact, a decided

B

18 Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism,

Knowing nothing of Serjeant Cox, I am unable to say whether the reviewer’s
very strong personal statements respecting him are true or false—whether he
really is ‘‘ one of the most gullible of the gullible,” &c., though I must express
my detestation of the abominable bad taste which is displayed in the attack
which is made upon this gentleman. The head and front of his offending
consists in having certified to the accuracy of Mr. Crookes’s account of certain
experiments ; and for having simply done this, the reviewer proceeds, in ac-
cordance with the lowest tacties of Old Bailey advocacy, to bully the witness,
and to publish disparaging personal details of what he did twenty-five
years ago.

‘Dr. Huggins, whohas had nothing further to do with the subject than simply to
state that he witnessed what Mr. Crookes described, and who has not ventured
upon one word of explanation of the phenomena, is treated with similar
insolence.

“‘ The reviewer goes out of his way to inform the public that Dr. Huggins is,
after all, only a brewer, by artfully stating that, ‘like Mr. Whitbread, Mr.
Lassell, and other brewers we could name, Dr. Huggins attached himself, in
the first place, to the study of Astronomy.’ He then proceeds to sneer at
‘such scientific amateurs,’ by informing the public that they ‘labour, as a
rule, under a grave disadvantage, in the want of that broad basis of scientific
culture which alone can keep them from the narrowing and pervertive influence
of a limited specialism.’ The reviewer proceeds to say that he has ‘no reason
to believe that Dr. Huggins constitutes an exception’ to this rule, and further
asserts that he is justified in concluding that Dr. Huggins is ignorant of
‘every other department of science than the small subdivision of a branch to
which he has so meritoriously devoted himself.’ Mark the words, ‘ small
subdivision of a branch.’ Merely a twig of the tree of science is, according
to this most unveracious writer, all that Dr. Huggins has ever studied.

“If a personal vindication were the business of this letter, I could easily show
that these statements respecting the present avocations, the scientific training,
and actual attainments of Dr. Huggins are most gross and atrocious misrepre-
sentations; but Dr. Huggins has no need of my championship,—his high
scientific position and the breadth and depth of his general attainments are
sufficiently known to all in the scientific world, with the exception of the
Quarterly Reviewer. My object is not to discuss the personal question
whether book-making and dredging afford better or worse training for experi- -
mental inquiry than the marvellously exact and exquisitely delicate manipu-
lations of the modern observatory and laboratory, but to protest against this
attempt to stop the progress of investigation, to damage the true interests of
science and the cause of truth, by thus throwing low libellous mud upon any
and every body who steps at all aside from the beaten paths of ordinary inves-
tigation. The true business of science is the discovery of truth, to seek it
wherever it may be found, to follow the pursuit through bye-ways and high-

opponent of the theory of the Spiritualists, and has just published a book detailing his
experiments, entitled “Spiritualism Answered by Science.” The writer of the article in the
Quarterly must have been quite aware of this fact, for he actually cites a passage from
the letter to me in which letter Mr. Serjeant Cox expressly repudiates the theory of
Spiritualism.—W. C.

A Reply to the Quarterly Review. 19

ways, and, having found it, to proclaim it plainly and fearlessly, without regard
to authority, fashion, or prejudice. If, however, such influential magazines as
the Quarterly Review are to be converted into the vehicles of artful and elabo-
rate efforts to undermine the scientific reputation of any man who thus does
his scientific duty, the time for plain speaking and vigorous protest has
arrived. My readers will be glad to learn that this is the general feeling of the
leading scientific men of the metropolis ; whatever they may think of the par-
ticular investigations of Mr. Crookes, they are unanimous in expressing their
denunciations of this article in the Quarterly.

“The attack upon Mr. Crookes is still more malignant than that upon
Dr. Huggins. Speaking of Mr. Crookes’s Fellowship of the Royal Society,
the reviewer says, ‘We speak advisedly when we say that this distinction was
conferred on him with considerable hesitation ;’ and further, that ‘We are assured,
on the highest authority, that he is regarded among chemists as a specialist of
specialists, being totally destitute of any knowledge of chemical philosophy, and
utterly untrustworthy as to any inquiry which requires more than technical
knowledge for its successful conduct.’ The italics in these quotations are my
own, placed there to mark certain statements to which no milder term than
that of falsehood is applicable.

x * * *

“If space permitted, I could go on quoting a long series of mis-statements of
matters of fact from this singularly unveracious essay. The writer seems con-
scious of its general character, for, in the midst of one of his narratives, he
breaks out into a foot-note, stating that ‘T/is is not an invention of our own,
but a faé communicated to us by a highly intelligent witness, who was admitted
to one of Mr. Crookes’s séances.’ I have taken the liberty to emphasise the
proper word in this very explanatory note.

“The full measure of the injustice of prominently thrusting forward Dr.
Huggins and Mr. Crookes as ‘recent converts’ to Spiritualism will be seen
by comparing the reviewer’s own definition of Spiritualism with Mr. Crookes’s
remarks above quoted. The reviewer says that ‘ The fundamental tenet of
the Spiritualist is the old doctrine of communication between the spirits of the
departed and the souls of the living.’ This is the definition of the reviewer,
and his logical conclusion is that Mr. Crookes is a Spiritualist because he ex-
plicitly denies the fundamental tenet of Spiritualism, and Dr. Huggins is a
Spiritualist because he says nothing whatever about it.

“Tf examining the phenomenon upon which the Spiritualist builds his
‘fundamental tenet,’ and explaining them in some other manner, constitutes
conversion to Spiritualism, then the reviewer is a far more thorough-going
convert than Mr. Crookes, who only attempts to explain the mild phenomena
of his own experiments.”

For six months past false and injurious reports concerning me and
my recent investigations have been assiduously circulated in scientific
circles. Although aware of their existence and their origin, I forbore to
take public notice of them, thinking that their inherent falsehood would

20 Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism.

weight them too heavily to allow them to float long. The appearance of
the Quarterly reviewer’s attack on me, however, appears to have encouraged my
calumniator, and, emboldened by my prolonged silence, a letter was sent to the
Echo newspaper signed ‘“ B.,”* in which the writer put in a definite shape
some of these ugly rumours, giving as his authority a certain ‘‘ Mr. J.” Not
caring to carry on a paper war with an anonymous slanderer, I demanded
that the mask should be dropped, when Mr. John Spiller, F.C.S., came briskly
to the front, and in the Echo of November 6th accepted the responsibility of
“B.’s ” calumnies, adducing in corroboration of them a long letter he sent to
me six months before—a letter having no relation whatever to the falsehoods
related by ‘“ B.”

A reply to definite accusations, made by a man possessing a certain
reputation in the chemical world, is imperatively necessary, and regard for
my own reputation makes me decide that my vindication shall be neither
halting in language-nor doubtful in meaning. And first let me show how
little Mr. Spiller knows of the subject on which he speaks so positively.
He came to my house unexpectedly one evening in April last, when Mr. Home
and some friends had been dining with me. On that occasion nothing worth
recording took place: in faét, it was not until some weeks later that my ac-
cordion was purchased, and my experimental apparatus devised. Mr. Spiller,
however, appeared so struck with the little he did see that he begged me to
invite him on similar occasions as often as I could. Mr. Serjeant Cox having
given me a general permission to bring to his house any gentleman
who took an interest in the subje&, in accordance with this _per-
mission I invited Mr. Spiller to accompany me on April 25th to a strictly
private party, when Mr. Home was expected. Had I thought him
capable of committing so gross a breach of the laws of hospitality and good
breeding as to publish a garbled and untruthful account of what took place in
the privacy of a gentleman’s dining-room, I should certainly have considered
him not included in that general permission. However, we assembled, and
before sitting down it was agreed by the gentlemen present that any objection
on the score of suspected trick should be taken at the time, so that it might
be subje@ed to instant proof or disproof. To this condition Mr. Spiller fully
agreed.

The meeting at Mr. Serjeant Cox’s was not one of my series of “test séances,”
as Mr. Spiller tries to make out, but was purely private, and quite unconnected
with the experiments described in the Quarterly ¥ournal of Science. It was
a preliminary trial, to enable me to judge what class of phenomena could be
easiest verified, and what sort of test apparatus I should devise. Mr. Spiller
was never present at any test experiments, and saw Mr. Home only on the
two occasions I have mentioned.

During the meeting at Mr. Serjeant Cox's many striking phenomena
took place, and Mr. Spiller, being a stranger, was specially invited by Mr. Home
to examine everything to his heart’s content, and move about or get under the
table whenever he liked. In accordance with my usual habit of taking notes,
I was writing the whole time when I was not scrutinising the occurrences,
and it was, therefore, easy not only to take down a description of

* Echo, Oct, 31, 1873.

Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism. 21

the phenomena as they occurred, but also to record the actual words
or comments used by each person present. From time to time I repeated
aloud what I had written, and asked the company if it were correct;
when any correction was supplied it was invariably adopted. The narra-
tive of the proceedings was written in full immediately after, and a copy
was sent to Mr. Spiller, as well as to others who had been present, for them
to approve or alter. Mr. Spiller has dignified this paper by the name of an
affidavit, whereas it was purely a private memorandum, never intended
to be made public, and only drawn up so that each person might possess a
thoroughly truthful account of what was considered at the time to be a very
remarkable series of occurrences.

I have before me the paper which Mr. Spiller returned, corrected in pencil,
and each correction signed with his initials. Where he has not corre¢ted it is
clear that he tacitly assents. His objections are of an utterly insignificant
kind, and, comparing what he accepts with what he rejects, it will be seen that
he strains at gnats while he swallows camels.

It now appears that Mr. Spiller totally disregarded the agreement assented
to by all present—to speak out at the time, and thus to invite and facilitate the
most searching inquiry. He arrogates to himselfthe position of an infallible judge
instead ofanhonestinquirer. Whilsthe professed to a& openly and above-board,
he was really carrying on furtive observations of his own. He recklessly dis-
credits the other witnesses who were present, and expects the world to believe
his own unsupported assertion. Brought forward at the time, his observations
might have been of service, whilst at this distant date they are valueless.
Mr. Spiller seems to imagine that, whilst everything else in nature is to be
tested by careful experiment, his own hasty conclusions are to be accepted
unchallenged.

The first accusation launched at me by Mr. Spiller is of a suppression of
the truth. I am said to have recorded certain phenomena in the Quarterly
Fournal of Science, and to have ascribed their production to the action of a
hitherto unknown form of force, notwithstanding that Mr. Spiller had ex-
plained to me six months previously the “tricks ” by which these things were
done.*

From the various forms under which this accusation has been repeated it
appears that Mr. Spiller is trying to establish, either that he was present
at the test experiments on which my papers in the Quarterly Fournal
of Science were based, or that these papers were but a narrative of what took
place in his presence at Mr. Serjeant Cox’s. Now I have published no narra-
tive whatever of any experiments at which Mr. Spiller was present, neither
have I referred to them in any of my papers. His assertion, therefore, under
whichever form it is viewed, is false.

In the Echo of November toth I have gone fully into the analysis of these
several accusations, and by placing in parallel columns extraés from Mr.
Spiller’s printed letters and statements, plainly convicted him in each case of
a direct mis-statement of fact.

To show how ignorant I was of his reputed explanations of the few

* Echo, Noy. 6, 1871.

22 Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism.

trifling things he thought he found out at Mr. Serjeant Cox’s, and how
unsuccessfully I begged him to give the information he now says I was aware
of, I need only quote from a letter I wrote him on May 24th last. It runs as
follows :—

“You have now for the third time given a very mysterious hint that you are
in possession of a fact which would make me entirely alter my opinion about
Mr. Home. Now I put it to you whether it would not be more consistent with
our friendship for you to tell me fairly and candidly what you do know rather
than keep me in suspense, week after week. You say it is impossible for you
to write about it. That is a word I do not understand. If you will give me
a plain statement of facts, and will not insinuate dishonest condu@ on the
part of myself and family, I promise you that I shall not only be very grateful
to you, but will give what you tell me the most serious attention.”

Mr. Spiller never came, and to my earnest appeal to put me in possession
of his concealed facts I received no answer. And yet he has the audacity to
say that I was perfectly aware of his explanation of the phenomena’ he
witnessed !

But it is further reported that Mr. Spiller was my assistant during my test
experiments, and found out at my house how the accordion ‘trick ” was done.*
Mr. Spiller was not my assistant, nor was he present at my house on any
occasion when an accordion or any sort of apparatus was used. I refer
to what he said about the only occasion when he ever saw an accordion
in the same room with Mr. Home. I quote froma letter he wrote to me on May
3rd:{—‘‘ The accordion business [at Mr. Serjeant Cox’s] was rather curious,
but then I was not under the table at the time of ‘The Last Rose of Summer’
being played.”’ After experience of Mr. Spiller’s logical method I am not sur-
prised at the inference that this is the same thing as being under the table
and finding out how the trick was done.

It would occupy too much space to re-state the accordion problem, but I
will refer all who are interested to my description in the Quarterly Fournal of
Science for July last. If Mr. Spiller has really found out how this ‘ trick”
is done, why does he not publish it? for he would then have solved one of the
most puzzling problems ever presented to his notice—a problem still unsolved
by far wiser heads than his.

Debarred by the editor of the Echo from making further use of the columns
of that journal, Mr. Spiller retreats to the pages of the English Mechanic,t where
he reiterates accusations the falsity of which I have before exposed by means
of his own letters. He complains that his previous perverse mis-statements
and personal misrepresentations have brought him under sharp criticism.
Of course they have; but this criticism is simply a consequence of his
own unwarrantable attack. I cannot argue with my detractor about psy-
chic force, or the explanation of the phenomena recorded at my test
séances, for the sufficing reason that he was never present at any of these
experiments, and he has had no opportunity of knowing anything of the
subje& except from my published papers. Professing to criticise my in-
vestigations, he carefully avoids all reference to any of these papers, and keeps

* English Mechanic, Nov. 3, 1871.
+ Published by Mr. Spiller in the Echo for November 6, 1871.
+ English Mechanic, Dec. 1, 1871.

Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism. 23

harping on a weak remark of his own about the size of what he calls a
“ monster’ locket attached to Mr. Home’s watch-chain. A stranger to the
circumstances would imagine that something very important turned upon the
exact dimensions and reflecting power of this trinket. But what are the facts ?
In his letter to me of May 3rd,* speaking of an accordion which he saw playing
at Mr. Serjeant Cox’s in Mr. Home’s hand, Mr. Spiller says that he
‘saw a flash of light whilst under the dining-room table ”—a reflection from
the “shining surface” of this locket; and on October 31stf his friend “‘ B.” gives
(and he endorses) an entirely different tale about this light, which we are
now told for the first time ‘‘ was playing about Mr. Home’s fingers as they lay in
his lap,”—produced by the reflection from the “polished reverse side” of the
locket in question. Speaking for myself, I saw nothing of this alleged light, nor
did Mr. Home draw attention toit. My partinthe transaction was simple. Mr.
Spiller was the critical observer under the table on this occasion, and all I
did was to write down what he said. In my notes written at the time,
and acquiesced in by nine witnesses, I read— Mr. Spiller declared that
the accordion appeared self luminous while it was playing.” He subsequently
denied this. He is welcome to do so, for it is a matter of no consequence
whether he saw a light at all; the real question is, Did the accordion play
and how was it played? Whether Mr. Spiller observed any light at all, the
source of the light he said he saw, or the size of one of Mr. Home’s trinkets,
has nothing whatever to do with the subject of my investigations. The locket
might be as big as a dinner-plate, and might be polished to the lustre of a
speculum; the light it refle@ed might be as bright as the noon-day sun, and
all that it would prove would be my calumniator’s incompetency as an observer
for not discovering it, or his inaccuracy as a witness for not mentioning it at the
time when instant verification or disproof was possible.

Mr. Spiller speaks on one occasion of the “‘ shining surface’? of this locket ;
on another of its “‘ polished reverse side ;” whilst on a third occasion he draws
attention to the fac@ that platinum is ‘‘a white metal sometimes used for
reflectors.” Now to these inconsequential assertions I will oppose facts.
The locket in question is now before me. Its obverse and reverse
are almost identical, and the whole is so covered with ornamental engraving
that there is not a particle of polished platinum about it. Moreover,
on each side there are fifteen raised metallic ornaments of different shapes,
which still further diminish the amount of light reflected from the surface.
I have, moreover, carefully examined the optical properties of this locket.
Tested in an accurate photometer, the reflecting power of each side is found to
be equal to that of a silvered glass speculum 1°8 millimetres (less than 1-roth
of aninch) square! I advise Mr. Spiller to keep silent about this ‘‘ monster ”
locket in future, or, like a second Frankenstein, he will find he has conjured
up a monster from his own inward consciousness which will devour his
reputation.

But, ofall the unfounded statements which my disingenuous assailant has circu-
lated, the most outrageous is that he has been threatened with legal proceedings}

* Echo, Noy. 6, 1871.
7+ Echo, O4. 31, 1871.
+ English Mechanic, Dec. 1, 1871.

24 Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism.

because he refused to sign the narrative I sent him of the proceedings
at his séance at Mr. Serjeant Cox’s. Now, although the intrinsic ab-
surdity of such a threat, made under the very eyes of a serjeant learned in
the law, must be patent to everyone, it is necessary for me to state, which
I do in the most emphatic manner, that this disgraceful accusation is
totally untrue. I have never threatened Mr. Spiller with legal pro-
ceedings; I have never given him the remotest hint of such a thing; never
did such a thought enter my mind; and nothing that he has ever said or
written in connection with this controversy could induce me for a moment
to entertain the idea of legal proceedings.*

I hope I have now finished with the, to me, uncongenial task of combating
perverse mis-statements and refuting personal misrepresentations; and that I
may be able to devote myself once more to quiet research.

* Since this was written Mr. Spiller has been made to withdraw his accusation (English
Mechanic, Dec. 22, 1871). The ungracious manner in which he eats his offensive words “J
was threatened with legal proceedings” shows that his anxiety to say something spiteful has
led him to say the thing that was not.

Sp eee
Printed at the Office of the QUARTERLY JouRNAL oF ScIENCE, 3, Horse-Shoe Court, Ludgate
Hill, E.C.

THE QUARTERLY

moOURNAL OF “SCIENCE:

APRIL, 1872.

I. METEORIC ASTRONOMY.

By Ricuarp A. Proctor, B.A. (Cambridge),

Honorary Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society,
Author of ‘“‘ The Sun,” ‘‘ Other Worlds,” &c.

Ga Y awarding their Gold Medal to Signor Schiaparelli,
in recognition of his researches into Meteoric Astro-
“* nomy, the Astronomical Society may be said to have
definitely sanétioned the conclusions which have been
deduced from Schiaparelli’s propositions. These conclu-
sions are of such extreme importance, whether as viewed
direC@tly, or regarded in relation to the inferences which
seem to flow from them, that they may be regarded as
affecting our ideas respecting the present constitution as well
as the past history and the future fate of all the orbs which
people space. I propose to take the opportunity afforded by
the recent action of the Astronomical Society to consider
the position to which meteoric astronomy has at present
been brought, and to point out the connection between the
results established by Schiaparelli, and the subject of the
solar corona, which has recently occupied so large a share of
the attention of astronomers.

We need not consider here the history of the earlier
meteoric theories. It would be difficult to show that the
more correct ideas of the Greek and some of the Roman
writers who have spoken of meteors were less purely
speculative than the later view that meteors are mere
phenomena of our own air, like lightning or the aurora.
And although the theory that meteors are bodies which
have been expelled from lunar or planetary volcanoes was
discussed by mathematicians of eminence, yet it was not
based on exact observation; so that the calculations of
Laplace, Obbers, and others, serve rather to illustrate the
skill of those mathematicians than to establish any conclu-
sions of value.

Moe. I. \(N-S:) a;

138 Meteoric Astronomy. [April,

We may begin, then, by considering the first important
fact tending to prove the extra-terrestrial nature of meteors
and shooting-stars,—the circumstance, namely, that meteoric
displays occur commonly on certain days of the year.

It had been noticed in very early times that a display
of shooting-stars nearly always occurs on the night of
August 10. This being known in calendars as St. Law-
rence’s Day, the meteors which fall on that day have been
called the tears of St. Lawrence. Among astronomers,
however, they are more commonly called the Perseides, for a
reason presently to be cited. Not so early, but still many
years before the true theory of meteors began to be recog-
nised, it was known that on or about the 12th and 13th of
November, shooting-stars are commonly seen. When Hum-
boldt, after witnessing the remarkable display of 1799,
invited specia] attention to this circumstance, ancient
records were examined, and it was found for several centuries
this particular part of the year had been characterised by
star-showers. ‘‘ Time out of mind,” says Sir John Herschel,
“‘those identical nights more often, but sometimes those
immediately adjacent, have been habitually signalised by
such exhibitions.”

It cannot be too often insisted upon,—since doubts are
frequently expressed respecting the truth of the modern
theory of meteors,—that this circumstance of periodicity
suffices of itself to demonstrate the extra-terrestrial nature
of these objects. There are no meteorological phenomena
which recur persistently on August roth and on November
13th; terrestrial volcanoes are not, then, exceptionally
active; the moon on those dates may be in any part what-
ever of her orbit. The one circumstance to which pheno-
mena recurring on a particular date can be held to point
is the recurrent passage by the earth of a particular part of
her orbit on that date. If we picture the earth circling
around the sun in her wide orbit, once in each year, and
remember that year after year as she crosses the particular
point corresponding to August roth, and again as she
crosses the particular point corresponding to November 13th,
her air is alive (as it were) with meteors, we at once see
that this is because she comes across the meteors at those
stages of her circuit. It is precisely as though a person
who travelled continually on a certain road, noticed always
at certain stages some peculiarities, such as heat or damp,
or the like. He would be certain, after a few experiences of
the sort, that the phenomenon was local in its nature,—
peculiar, in fact, to the particular part of the road where it

1872.] Meteoric Astronomy. 139

was recognised. So we, who voyage with the earth on a
wide path round the sun, must conclude—must be absolutely
certain—that the two particular regions of circumsolar space
which we traverse on August roth and November 13th are
swarming with meteors.

Yet we cannot for a moment imagine that two clouds of
meteors are persistently present in these two regions. Each
meteor is as surely acted upon by the sun’s mighty influence
as this earth on which we live; and as surely as this earth,
if brought to rest in any way, would be attracted towards
the sun and fall upon his globe in about 643 days, so every
member of a meteor-cloud placed where the August and
November meteors are encountered would in about the same
time fall upon the sun and be destroyed.

It follows that the meteors must be in rapid motion, ona
course keeping them clear of the sun’s orb; and, moreover,
that the place of those which pass away from the region
traversed by the earth must be more or less continuously
supplied by arriving meteors. In other words, the August
and November meteors must form a more or less complete
zone or ring. The degree of completeness of either ring
must correspond to the regularity of the recurrence of star-
falls on the dates corresponding to either system. If it
frequently chances that the display is intermitted, either for
a few years or for many years in succession, the inference will
be that greater or less gaps mar the completeness of the
meteor zone; whereas, if no year passes without a display
of meteors belonging to a system, we must infer as at least
probable that the meteor system forms a complete ring.
Thus judged, the November system appears to be very far
from forming a continuous zone; since the display is often
omitted for more than twenty years in succession, and is
seldom repeated during more than four or five successive
years. The August system, on the contrary, seldom fails to
produce a display of greater or less splendour.

So much may be regarded as demonstrated by the evidence
already referred to. But to remove any doubt which may
remain as to the justice of the inference that the August
and November meteors are bodies travelling in a definite
region of interplanetary space, there remains a test of a
decisive nature.

Since, according to the hypothesis, all the August meteors
are travelling along the same orbital zone, they must cross
the earth’s track on paths appreciably parallel, moving also
with equal velocities. Now, regarding the earth with reference
only to her orbital motion, we see that every meteor of the

Se

ee

—
Oe Pe

—

140 Meteoric Astronomy. [April,

August system which actually encounters the earth must reach
the earth’s globe from one and the same direction inspace. If
the earth were actually at rest, the meteors of this system
would seem to fall like a shower coming from a definite
quarter. This, indeed, might not appear to be the case to
observers occupying a particular point on the earth’s surface,
—simply because the meteor-shower would be only partially
discernible by him, and the circumstances would be such as to
cause some illusion as to its origin and nature. But if we
regard the earth as a whole,—and for a moment as a
sentient being,—it will be obvious that, supposing she were
at rest, she would seem to be exposed to a meteoric shower,
many meteors falling upon her and yet larger numbers
passing by her, but all appearing to come from the same
quarter. But taking her orbital motion into account, we
obtain a precisely similar result, only the direction of the
shower becomes modified. ‘The case may be compared to
that of a railway carriage in a steady shower of rain; such
a shower will appear steadily to proceed from one quarter of
the sky whether the carriage isat rest or moving uniformly in
a given direction. Only in the latter case, the part of the
sky from which the shower seems to proceed will seem to be
somewhat nearer to the point of the horizon towards which
the train’s motion is carrying the carriage. So with the
earth passing through a meteor stream ; the meteor-shower
will seem to fall from one and the same part of the celestial
sphere though the earth is travelling rapidly onwards; only
the part of the heavens from which the shower seems to
proceed will seem to be somewhat nearer to the point
towards which the earth’s orbital motion is carrying her
than in the imaginary case of a fixed earth exposed to the
continuous downfall of the meteors belonging to the August
system.* But in either case the shower will seem to come
from a determinate point of the star-sphere enclosing the
earth on all sides.
Similar remarks apply to the November shower.

* In considering this matter we need not concern ourselves with questions
of perspective, which, though commonly introduced to explain the subject,
tend rather to perplex than to enlighten the learner. The case is exceedingly
simple in reality :— ;

Thus, let Ee, Fig. 1, be a small part of the earth’s orbit at the place where
any meteor system is encountered, and let Mm indicate a portion of the meteor-
orbit, ME’ being the course traversed by a particular meteor while the earth is
moving along E£', so thatthis meteor encounters the earth when she has
arrived at E'’.. Then to the observer on earth, unconscious of the motion from
E to E', the course on which the meteor seems to arrive is obviously in the
direction of a line from Mto £, so that a line, m’, parallelto ME is the seeming
path of the meteor’s arrival; and a point s’ on the celestial sphere, in the

April, 1872.

Quart. Fourn. Sct.

Plate I.

Fic. 1.
Ay
Fic. 2.
a
if .s!
m m : i
Hy ae
KY ay
‘ou

hy!

Illustrating the determination of the
real course of meteors when their
“radiant point” and velocity are

known. (See page 144).

Illustrating the existence of meteoric
“radiant points.” (See page 140).

Fic. 3.

7

¢
4. anemone

Showing how the arc on the heavens on which lies the true
radiant of the August meteors can be determined bya
simple construction. (See page 145).

1872.] Meteoric Astronomy. bAz

Thus a test of the interplanetary nature of meteoric
systems is at once afforded, and a test of a remarkably
effective nature. For owing to the earth’s rotation the star-
sphere appears, to rotate ; and thus the part of the heavens
whence a meteor shower seems to proceed is continually
changing its place with respect tothe horizon. Jf, notwith-
standing this continual change of apparent place, a certain
region of the stellar heavens continue to be that whence a
meteor shower seems to come, the evidence is so much
the stronger, because the test is applied under continually
varying conditions.

In the case of both the meteor systems referred to, the
test confirms the result already deduced. The meteors of
each system seem to come from a definite region of the
heavens,—or rather from a definite point of the star sphere.
In the case of the August meteors this point lies towards
the north-eastern part of the constellation Perseus, or, more
exactly, the R.A. of the point is about 3 h. 24 m., its north
declination about 55°. The November meteors appear to
come from a point in the constellation Leo, between the
stars « and € of that constellation, or, more exactly, the R.A.
of the point is about 9 h. 52 m., its north declination about
24. These points are called the ‘‘radiant points” of the
meteor systems, and because of the position of those points
the August meteors are commonly called the Perseides,
while the November meteors are called the Leonides.

It would be necessary to enter at this point on a consider-
ation of the appearances actually presented by the August
and November shooting-stars during any considerable
display, if it were my present purpose to give a full account
of what is known respecting meteors ; but I wish at present
to restrict the reader’s attention as far as possible to the
cosmical aspect of the subject.

The test here considered becomes, after it has served this

direction &' M' indefinitely produced, is the point of the heavens from which
that meteor seems to proceed. But the directions E’E' and ME’ are constant,
and the proportion of EE’ to M E’ is constant; therefore the direction EM or
©£'m’ is also constant. Hence every meteor of the system must appear to
proceed from the point s’ on the celestial sphere.

In reality every meteor of the system travels parallel to Mm, and therefore is
proceeding (at the time of crossing the earth’s track) as if froma point s on
the celestial sphere in the direction E’ m indefinitely produced.

Since the visible part of a meteor’s course in our atmosphere is a straight
line (approximately) directed from one and the same point of the heavens (so far
as a given meteor system is concerned), it follows that wherever the observer
may be, that course must appear to be such that if produced backwards it
would pass through that part of the heavens.

142 Meteoric Astronomy. (April,

particular turn, the means of proving the existence of other
meteor systems which produce no recurrent showers, or no
displays so persistently recurrent as to leave us assured of
their being due to a true meteor system.

For, if many meteors seen on any night appear to radiate
from a particular part of the heavens, we can infer very pro-
bably, though not quite certainly, that those meteors form a
single group travelling all in the same direction. We can
infer this, because we know that the observed event would
certainly happen if the meteors form such a group; but we
cannot be quite certain that one group only is in question,
because two meteor groups crossing the earth’s track at the
same place might have different directions and velocities
so adjusted that the members of each would seem to
encounter the moving earth in the same direction. The
unlikelihood of the coincidence renders the inference that a
single group is in question so much the more probable.
Now, if on the same night of other years,—or very nearly
at the same date,—more meteors are seen to proceed from
the same radiant point, we conclude that not a group but a
system is in question, since at the very spot where meteors
were really travelling in a definite direction in one year,
other meteors are found following in their track in later
years. Many millions of miles must separate the first set
from those seen later; and the inference is, that along the
whole range of those millions of miles there are meteors
travelling with equal velocity in one and the same direc-
tion,—in other words, traversing a definite orbit region.

Applying this principle, the observers of meteors—Alex-
ander Herschel, in England ; Professor Newton, in America;
Secchi, in Italy; Heis, in Germany; Quetelet, in Belgium;
and Schmidt, in Greece; besides many others—have estab-
lished the existence of seventy-six distin¢t meteor systems
having radiant points north of the equator; while
Neumayer, at Melbourne, and other observers, have noted
many others having southern radiant points. It may be
concluded safely that upwards of 150 meteor systems cross
the earth’s orbital track around the sun. Counting,—as
resulting probably from the existence of corresponding but
more important systems,—those falls of fireballs and of
aérolites which have been observed tu occur on or near cer-
tain definite days, and taking also into account the pro-
bability that some meteoric systems have hitherto escaped
recognition, we may infer that some 200 systems of bodies
traversing the interplanetary spaces pass close to the
earth’s orbit.

1872.] Meteoric Astronomy. 143

It does not follow, however, be it noted, that any one of
these systems centrally crosses the earth’s path, whether we
regard that path as the elliptic line traversed by the earth’s
centre or as the elliptic ring traversed by the earth’s globe.
On the contrary, the chances are that the earth does not
pass quite or even nearly through the cove of any meteor
system belonging to the solar domain.

Now when Schiaparelli commenced his inquiries, abso-
lutely nothing was known about the extent of any one
of the meteor systems traversed by the earth. To take the
August and the November systems, it was known that one
part of each lies near the earth’s orbit. It was known also
that the August system crosses the earth’s track at a
considerable angle, since even though the earth’s motion
brings the radiant point down (as it were) nearer to the
point towards which the earth is making on August 1oth (a
point close by the star é Arietis), the radiant is still some
37° from the ecliptic. It was known further that the
November system travels much nearer to the plane of
the ecliptic, and in a retrogratle course (that is, meeting
the earth), because the radiant lies within Io of the
ecliptic, and almost in the latitude of the point towards
which the earth is travelling on November 13th (a
point close by ¥ Leonis). But nothing whatever was known
as to the orbit range of either system—the major axis of the
mean path of these meteoric families. For anything that
had been shown to the contrary (setting aside as too
unsatisfactory to be trusted the estimates of the velocities
of the meteors while traversing our atmosphere), the part of
the systems traversed by the earth might be the portion
farthest from the sun, and the perihelion portion might
be quite close to his orb; or the part traversed might be the
perihelion portion, and the aphelion portion might have
any distance whatever,—from a range little exceeding the
earth’s mean distance to one exceeding many times even
the distance of Uranus or Neptune. ‘This ignorance as to
the meteoric orbit-ranges was necessarily accompanied
by ignorance as to the real velocity with which they cross
the earth’s track, and this in its turn involved ignorance as
to the true inclination of either system. Given the major
axis of either meteor orbit, the real velocity of the meteors
at the earth’s distance would be known; and since the
earth’s motion is known in velocity and direction, the
apparent direction of the meteor’s motion being also
known, the real direction of the meteoric motions follows
at once. That this is so can readily be demonstrated.

é

144 Metcoric Astronomy. (April,

Thus, let EE’ be taken to represent the earth’s velocity in
magnitude and direction, and let mm’ represent in magni-
tude the real velocity of any meteors which seem to
come in the direction s’ E; then we have only to describe
the circular arc, KLM, around BE’, with mm’ as a radius,
to obtain E’M the real direction of the meteor’s motion.
(Compare the note illustrated by Fig. 1). But this very
construction shows us that so long as the real meteoric
velocity, mm’, is unknown, we cannot tell the real direction,
s'E, of the meteor’s motion. The apparent velocity, ME,
would indeed give us what we want (the point M in fact);
but a meteor appears too suddenly and vanishes too quickly
for exact reliance on any estimates of the velocity with
which they traverse our atmosphere.*

Meteoric astronomy had reached this stage when Schia-
parelli, who had already directed much attention to the
subject, and had speculated somewhat boldly upon it, was
led to compare the motion of the great comet of 1862
(No. III.) with that of the August meteors. Observing
that this comet passed close to the earth’s orbit on a course
somewhat resembling that of the August meteors (on the
assumption that they are moving with a velocity exceeding
the earth’s), he inquired whether the agreement would be
found yet closer if the actual velocity of the comet where it
passes close to the earth’s orbit were assumed to be that
with which the meteors are travelling when they enter
the earth’s atmosphere.

As this was the sole assumption made by Schiaparelli, it
will be well to consider how far it affects the probability
of inferences based on the coincidence actually recognised
when this assumption has been made.

The real velocity of the August meteors. cannot possibly
exceed twenty-seven miles per second; since any greater,
where they cross the earth’s track, would give them a
hyperbolic orbit, whereas it has been shown that they form
a closed ring. Again, the real velocity cannot greatly fall
short of the earth’s, since otherwise the meteors of the
system would appear to come from a point lying much
nearer to that part of the heavens towards which the earth
is travelling on August 11th than is actually the case.

Thus, let EE’ be a part of the earth’s course on August

* In any exact investigation of meteoric motions the influence of our earth’s
attraction, as well as the effects of the earth’s rotation,—the former producing
a real, the latter an apparent, change in the paths of meteors—must be taken
into account. These circumstances do not, however, affect the general reasoning
given above, and their effets are unimportant compared with those due to the
circumsolar motions of the meteors and of the earth.

*1872.] Meteoric Astrononvy. 145

roth, §’ the point on the heavens towards which she
is travelling at the moment. Let E/ be a line directed
towards the radiant point of the August meteors, which hes
about 4o from &’. Then E’m perpendicular to E/ represents
the least possible velocity for the meteors (where EE’ repre-
sents the earth’s velocity). Coming from the direction of a
point, s, in the heavens, with this velocity they would seem
to radiate from 3, E'S being drawn parallel to El, since
a meteor which was at m when the earth was at E would
meet the earth at £’.. Again, if we take Em’, equal to the
diameter of a square of which EF’ is a side (that is equal to
Ek), this line will represent the greatest velocity a meteor
crossing the earth’s orbit can possibly have, if it 1s tra-
velling in a closed orbit. This gives the direction, s’m’E’,
along which an August meteor would actually travel, on the
supposition that it has this maximum velocity. We may
fairly assume that the meteors are not arriving on a course
intermediate to mz’ and EE’, because then their relative
velocity would fall much too far below the velocities esti-
mated by Secchi, Newton, Herschel, and others.

From some point on the arc ss’ upon the celestial vault,
therefore, the August meteors are certainly travelling; and
with some velocity intermediate to the velocities represented
by the lines m’r’ and me’, where EE’ represents a velocity of
185 miles per second. Moreover, the reader is not to
suppose that the figure deals with hypothetical relations,
and does not admit of being at once and definitely inter-
preted. ’ represents a real point on the heavens, a point
on the ecliptic close by the star 6 Arietis, towards which,
as already mentioned, the earth is actually travelling on
August roth. This point can at once be found on a
celestial globe. 4, again, is a known point, the radiant
of the August meteors (already indicated), and about 39°
from 3%. It can, of course, be found on a globe, since its
R.A. and declination have been given. Now let the end ofa
cord be held down on a globe at the point corresponding to
>’, and let the string be stretched over the globe across the
point corresponding to ¥, so as to pass beyond &. It will
indicate the position of the arc, s’s, on the celestial
sphere. It will lie in a circular arc of which 2% 3’ will
represent 39. And if we take points on it corresponding to

* Because if v be the velocity, it can be shown that a body moving in a
circle at a distance (d) from the sun, the velocity in a parabolic orbit will be
V2.v, at a distance (d) from the sun. The earth’s orbit is near enough toa
circle to render this relation applicable ; moreover, on August roth, the earth
is nearly at her mean distance from the sun.

GL. 11. (N.S:) U

146 Meteoric Astronomy. [April,

s and s’; in other words, so that s’ falls, as shown in Fig. 3,
about 26 from 3, and s go°? from 3, we shall have
on the celestial globe the arc ss’, along which the true
radiant of the August meteors must lie. In other words,
the August meteors are really travelling, when they cross
the earth’s orbit, as if from a point, this point lying
somewhere on an arc about 64° long, and having the same
place upon the star sphere that the string arc corresponding
to ss’ has upon the celestial globe.

Thus far there has been no assumption whatever. More-
over, without proceeding a step further, we can indicate a
surprising coincidence which Schiaparelli was the first to
recognise. The great comet of 1862 did beyond all question
cross the earth’s orbit from the direction of this very arc, ss’,
that is, as if travelling from a point lying somewhere on this
arc. The elements of the comet as determined by Oppolzer
sufficed to demonstrate this. Thus, without any assumption
whatever, it was proved that comet and meteors reached the
part E’ of the earth’s orbit along lines contained within one
and the same sector of space, sE’s’.

But Schiaparelli had already indicated reasons for
believing that the velocity of the meteors was nearly equal
to the maximum (indicated in Fig. 3 by the line m’E’).
What he now did was to point out that, granted this
assumption only, the point whence the meteors are directing
their course as they cross the earth’s orbit lies close to s’ (on
the side away from %, of course), and that the point
whence the comet was directing its course when it crossed
the earth’s track had appreciably the same posttion,—
the comet’s velocity, on this assumption, being identical
with the meteor’s velocity.

So that to sum up—Assuming nothing, 1t was demonstrated
that a comet and a meteor system, crossing the earth’s track at the
same spot, have directions certainly so far agreeing as to le in
the same sector in space—that sector having an angle of only
64 degrees; and, assuming for the meteors a velocity corre-
sponding to what had already been assigned as the probable value
of this element, the comet and meteors cross the earth’s track on
one and the same course and with identical velocities.

This in reality indicates the full extent of the coincidence
recognised by Schiaparelli. We must not go further, as
some have done, and say that the orbit ring of the meteors
was further found to coincide perfectly with the orbit of the
comets. Still less must we (as an additional proof of coinct-
dence) set the elements of the orbits side by side, as though
the agreement of the two in respect of eccentricity, inclination,

1872.] Meteoric Astronomy. 147

longitude of node and of perihelion, and so on, afforded
so many additional evidences of coincidence. The fact
is, that setting aside Schiaparelli’s assumption as to the
meteoric velocities, there is no agreement as respects any
of these elements except the longitude of the node. There
is a further coincidence not directly expressible in the
ordinary orbit elements, and this coincidence, as indicated
above, is sufficiently striking. It justifies, in fact, the
assumption of equal velocities. Then this assumption
being made, and leading to the coincidence of the actual
direction of the two orbits where they cross the earth’s,
the exact coincidence of the two orbits, in all respects,
follows inevitably,—since two bodies moving with equal
velocities and in the same direction as they cross one and
the same point in interplanetary space, must, by the law of
gravity, follow identical orbits.

Or the matter may be otherwise expressed thus:—It
follows from a discussion of the motions of the comet of
1862, that if the earth had been close by the place where
her orbit is crossed by the comet when the comet actually
traversed that place the comet’s course would have seemed
to be directed from the radiant of the August meteors. So
much 1s certain. Schiaparelli inferred that the actual course
of the comet as respects velocity and direction was identical
with the course of the August meteors as they traverse the
earth’s orbit. We have already had occasion to consider
the probability of such an inference, in speaking of the
probable association between all the meteors which on any
night appear to have the same radiant. The chances are
great against the coincidence being accidental.

If I were here dealing with the history of meteoric
astronomy, I should have to give a full account of the
recognition of a corresponding resemblance between the
motions of the November meteors and those of Tempel’s
comet (No. I., 1866). In particular, it would be desirable
to discuss the share which Professor Adams took in the
work. I notice with regret, by the way, that in Dr. Schel-
len’s useful work on ‘Spectrum Analysis,” the labours of
Adams are left wholly unrecognised, while the compara-
tively less important researches of Schiaparelli, Oppolzer,
Peters, and Leverrier, are pointedly referred to. This is not
the place to supply the omission ; but I may remark that if
we set aside the labours of Adams, the only circumstance in
which the discussion of the November meteors differed from
that of the August meteors were these: there was, first, a
reason for assigning a particular period to the November

148 Meteoric Astronomy. (April,

meteors, in the circumstance that great displays of these
shooting-stars occur at mean intervals of about 334 years, and
assigning a period amounted to assigning the velocity with
which the meteors cross the earth’s track; and secondly,
the comet which agrees in its motions with the November
meteors was dealt with separately, and the agreement only
recognised after both orbits had been independently worked
out. But the choice of 33+ years as the period of the
November meteors was still an assumption ; and there were
many eminent astronomers who regarded 34-33rds, or
32-33rds of a year as the more probable period. In any
case, assuming a period, the task of determining the orbit
from the observed position of the radiant was mere mathe-
matical child’s-play. But Professor Adams achieved a
much nobler work. For he proved from the observed dis-
placement of the node of the November meteors,—that is,
of the point where the meteors cross the earth’s track,—
that the period must be 334 years or thereabouts. This was
a task which none but a mathematician of the highest order
could possibly have accomplished: and even to such a
mathematician the task was a most laborious one. Ido not
say that Schiaparelli’s case was not made out without
Adams’s assistance. The chances against the observed
agreement as a result of accident were as great in the case
of the November meteors as in the case of the August
meteors, and the chances against both coincidences being
accidental were therefore overwhelming. But Adams un-
doubtedly removed whatever element of doubt still remained ;
and, furthermore, if Schiaparelli’s theory had never been
started, Adams’s work would of itself have sufficed to esta-
blish the true figure of the orbit on which the November
meteors travel. It has seemed fitting to say thus much in
recognition of the remarkable labours of our great English
mathematician ; but it need hardly be said that the value of
Schiaparelli’s ingenious researches and theories is in no
way affected by the matter here referred to. The great
importance of Schiaparelli’s work consists in the light which
it throws on cosmical problems of extreme interest and
difficulty.

The fact, then, is demonstrated that two of the meteor
systems encountered by the earth are so far associated with
two comets as to travel on the same orbits. We may not
unsafely infer that all the meteor systems encountered by
the earth are in like manner associated with other comets.
Nor is it very rash to assume that all comets are in like
manner associated with meteor systems. ‘Two cases may

1872.] Meteoric Astronomy. 149
seem insufficient as a basis for such wide generalisations as
these; but it must be remembered that they are the only
two cases we have yet been able to deal with satisfactorily.
It should be remarked, however, that some other comets
have passed close by the earth’s orbit, and that in several
cases meteoric radiant points have been recognised which
correspond fairly with the assumption that those comets are
followed by meteor trains. However, as nothing has yet
been proved respecting the relative length of meteoric trains
following after comets, we cannot expect that the track of
every comet should to any great distance be thus followed ;
and where the distance is relatively small, no evidence of
the kind just referred to would be obtainable even a year or
two (perhaps) after the comet had crossed the earth’s orbit.

And here a word or two may be permitted on the question
of the condition of comets freshly arriving on the scene of
the solar system. It is assumed sometimes that the train
of meteors already exists when the comet first comes within
the solar domain. But, however this may be in other
cases, there can be no question that in the August and
November meteors, the train, at least the train we are
acquainted with, must have been formed after the comet
had become a member of the solar family. This will be
evident if we consider how this last-mentioned result can
alone come about. Take the case of the November meteors,
the figure of whose orbit shows that the parent comet was
forced to become a regular attendant of the sun by the dis-
turbing influence of Uranus. Now, the circumstances
under which a comet approaching the sun on a parabolic or
hyperbolic orbit can be thus affected must be regarded as
exceptional. The planet’s influence must in the first place
be very energetically exercised ; in other words, the arriving
comet must pass very close to the planet; for under any
other circumstances the sun’s influence so enormously
outvies the planet’s that the figure of the cometic orbit
would be very little affected. Moreover, the planet’s attrac-
tion must produce an important balance of retardation.
The planet will inevitably accelerate the comet up to a
certain point, and afterwards will retard it; the latter influ-
ence must greatly exceed the former. ‘To show how greatly
the comet must be retarded, it is only necessary to mention
that the actual velocity of the November meteors, when
they cross the orbit of Uranus, is less than one-third of the
velocity with which Uranus himself travels; but their
velocity at the same distance from the sun, when they were
approaching him from some distant stellar domain, exceeded

ee

150 Meteoric Astronomy. [April,

the velocity of Uranus in his orbit in the proportion
of about 7 to 5. So that, roughly, their velocity at that
distance has been reduced in the proportion of more than
21 to 5, or by 7-gths of its original value. This is a reduc-
tion of about 43 miles per second. Now Uranus could
barely impart this velocity to a body approaching him from
an infinite distance under his sole influence, and coming as
near to him as the nearest of his satellites; but he could
not impart so much additional velocity to a body approach-
ing him (more rapidly of course) under solar influence. Now
the velocity a body can impart it can also take away. Hence
the retarding action of Uranus could under no circum-
stances account for the velocity of about 4} miles per
second, by which the motion of Tempel’s comet must have
been reduced, unless that comet passed closer to Uranus
than his nearest satellite. Indeed, the maximum velocity
which Uranus could impart to a body actually reaching his
surface (and exposed to his sole influence in approaching
from infinity) amounts only to 13°7 miles per second. Now
the distance of Uranus’s nearest satellite from the planet’s
surface is but about 84,ooomiles, and Uranus traverses such
a distance in less than five hours. So that the first and last
meteors so influenced by Uranus as to be forced to part with
a velocity of 43 miles per second out of their actual
velocity of about 6 miles per second, were assuredly not
separated by a distance equal to a five hours’ voyage, or in
miles (at 6 miles per second) by so much as 108,000 miles.
We may, indeed, safely infer that the actual distance was
much less than this. For though all the meteors along a
distance of 108,000 miles might have their velocity suffici-
ently reduced, yet in this case some of the meteors would
have their velocity too much reduced, and would thenceforth
pursue orbits differing very markedly from the orbits
traversed by the remaining members of the system.

It follows, not merely as a probable inference, but I think
as a demonstrated conclusion, that if the November meteors
came originally into our system as a comet travelling sun-
ward from infinity, then either that comet was very com-
pact, or else Uranus captured only a small portion of the
comet, the remaining portions moving thenceforth on orbits
wholly different from the path of the November meteors.

There is no escape from this conclusion; for no other
planet than Uranus can have brought about the subjection
of this comet to solar rule.

One is almost led to doubt the extra-planetary origin of
the November meteor system altogether, and to entertain

1872.] Meteoric Astronomy. I51

the theory that the comet which produced it was in the first
instance expelled from Uranus. We need not conclude, if
we accept such a view, that the period named by Leverrier for
the introduction of the comet into the solar system (A.D. 126)
was necessarily the epoch of the expulsion of the comet by
Uranus. The true epoch of this event may have been far
more remote.*

This, at any rate, is certain, that if the comets belonging
to our system have been introduced, as is commonly sup-
posed, by planetary perturbing influences, then the actual
number of arriving comets must have indefinitely exceeded
the number captured in this way. For an arriving planet
has a million chances of escaping for one of being cap-
tured,—so closely must it approach to one of the major
planets if its motion is to be sufficiently controlled to cause
it to become a permanent member of the solar system, with
a perihelion near enough for the inhabitants of earth to
recognise the comet, and with an aphelion not greatly
beyond the orbit of the disturbing planet.

But be this as it may, the connection between meteors
and comets remains an established fact, the existence
of many comets in the solar system is.a reality, and the fact
that the earth encounters more than a hundred meteor
systems cannot be disputed.

Now, if we consider what proportion of interplanetary space
the earth really traverses, we shall begin to recognise one of
the most surprising of the conclusions which are deducible
from these demonstrated facts. If the earth were really, as
she is sometimes pictured, a globe so large that in an ordinary
picture of her orbit around the sun she would be presented,
to scale, as a considerable sphere, there would be nothing
very remarkable in the circumstance that on her course
round the sun she should come into contact with many
meteor systems. But when we are reminded that on so
large a scale that the earth’s orbit would be represented
by a circle ten feet in diameter, the earth herself would
be but about the rgoth of an inch in diameter, so that the
path her globe actually traverses would be represented by a
circle 10 feet in diameter, and marked in with about as
stout a stroke as the down strokes of the letters in this
page, we see at once how minute a portion of sun-sur-
rounding space this ring-orbit really occupies. Remembering

* It is also possible to account for the present position of the November
meteor system by supposing that the encounter took place during that remote
period when Uranus (according to the nebular theory) occupied a much larger
region of space than at present.

152 Meteoric Astronomy. (April,

that nearly all the meteor systems encountered by the
earth travel on orbits largely inclined to the plane of
the ecliptic, and, therefore, cross that plane in two spots
(unequally distant in nearly every case from the sun),
it will be seen how wonderful the circumstance is, that
some 200 such spots should fall on the fine circle which
forms the earth’s true track in the ecliptic.

Fig. 4 is intended to illustrate the remarkable nature of
this circumstance." Here the circle &,E,E EF, nepresemes
the earth’s path around the sun, E being the place of the
earth at the time of the winter solstice. If we suppose the
width of the circular line E, E,E,E, reduced to about a thirtieth
part of its present value, we may regard this circle as
picturing the actual shape of the region traversed by the
earth. Now we know very little as to the real extent of the
seventy-six meteoric rings traversed by the earth; but
the cross section of each (regarded as cylindrical where
crossing the ecliptic) may average perhaps a million or a
million and a half of miles. According to the inclination of
each and the actual direction of motion, the cross section
with the ecliptic plane will be an ellipse of greater or less
eccentricity, and having its longer axis in such and sucha
direction (which may be any whatever), with respect to the
direction of the earth’s orbit at the place of transit. These
elliptical sections must, therefore, have some such arrange-
ment as is depicted in Fig. 4. And it may be noted that for my
present purpose, it is a matter of no importance whether
the cross sections of the meteor rings be exaggerated or the
reverse: since, on the one hand, if the cross sections are
really larger, the importance of the several meteor zones is
enhanced, but the circumstance that any given meteor zone
is encountered by the earth is rendered pro tanto less surpri-
sing; while, on the other hand, if the cross sections are
really smaller, we must infer that the number of meteoric
zones is proportionately greater, to give the earth a reason-
able chance of encountering so many systems. As to
the shape of the cross section, it matters little what opinion
we form; only if the real cross section is circular, the cross
section on the ecliptic must have different oval shapes
as shown in Fig. 4.

So far, then, as the meteoric systems which cross the
ecliptic descendingly are concerned, we may fairly assume
that their cross sections on the ecliptic form a scheme some-
what resembling what is pictured in the figure. It is
known that southern skies are as plentiful in meteors as
northern skies, if not more so; hence we must infer that as

Quart. Fourn. Sci. April, 1872.

Plate II.

Ideal view of the ecliptical cross sections of the seventy-six meteor
systems having northern radiant points. (See page 152).

Fic. 5.

? g ; Sun

Illustrating the increase in the richness of cometic distribution with
approach towards the sun. (See page 154).

, 1
, mI
)
.
\

1872.] Meteoric Astronomy. 153

many cross sections as are depicted in Fig. 4 should be
added (all overlapping the circle E,E,E£,E,) to represent the
meteor systems which cross the ecliptic ascendingly, or from
south to north. Moreover, an addition should be made for
meteor systems which have hitherto escaped notice, as well
as for a considerable number (perhaps nearly as many again
as all yet mentioned) which, because they strike the earth’s
course on its inner or sun-illumined side, fall on the earth
where day is in progress, and so escape recognition alto-
gether. Add also the more sparse systems of ‘“‘ heavier
metal” which produce fire-balls, and those others which
have supplied the countless myriads of aérolites which are
known to have fallen on the earth. I think it will be
granted, that if all these circumstances were taken into
acccount in Fig. 4, the earth’s orbit, as there pictured,
would be absolutely encumbered with the oval spots repre-
senting the cross sections of meteoric systems.

Now let it be remembered that each of the cross sections
corresponds to a long stream of meteors, if not to a
complete zone, the meteors travelling around orbits com-
pared with which the orbit E,E,2,E, has utterly insignifi-
cant proportions. Imagine the seventy-six cross sections of
Fig. 4 replaced by seventy-six curves carried on various
arcs, even only across the circular space E,E,E,E, (that is,
leaving out of account altogether those portions of the
systems which lhe farther away from the sun). Conceive
the like done for about twice as many more systems corre-
sponding to the orders just mentioned. ‘This considered, it
will surely begin to appear that the sphere of space around
the sun, which E,E,E,E, will represent, is occupied in a
remarkable manner by interlacing meteor-comet systems.

But it is certain that the earth’s orbit is not clustered
round with meteoric cross sections in the peculiar manner
depicted in Fig. 4. That all those cross sections are there
cannot be questioned, since so many northern meteor
systems have been recognised. But outside and inside
E,E,E,E, there must be meteor cross sections which the
earth does not traverse. To suppose otherwise is as though
a person who had traversed a certain route in a rain storm,
should suppose that no rain had fallen to right or to left of
his track. There is nothing in the earth’s orbit to attract
meteors. She herself has not the attractive energy neces-
sary either to compel meteors to approach her track or to
retain them against other attractive influences. It is only by
chance, as it were, that her track hes thus through those
special hundreds of meteor systems,—precisely as it is only

VOLE. 11. (N7S.) X

154 Meteoric Astronomy. [April,

by chance that such and such rain drops fall upon our
illustrative traveller.

Hence, we have no choice but to suppose that the whole
plane space within the circle 2,E,E,E,, aS well as an
immense plane extent of space outside that circle, is as
richly bespread by meteor systems as we have seen to be
the case with the circular track E,E,E,E,—that is, much
more richly than as pictured in Fig. 4. And here, too, we
recognise the small importance of the extent we have given
to the meteor cross sections in Fig. 4. Since, if the extent
of each were smaller, we should have to cover the space
within and without with greater numbers of these smaller
cross sections, in order to account fairly for the fact that the
earth’s track lies across so many of them.

But when we remember, further, the connection which
Schiaparelli has shown to exist between meteor systems and
comets, we find a reason for believing that not merely
a uniform degree of meteoric richness continues inwards
from the earth’s orbit up to or near the very place of the
sun, but that a great increase of richness takes place as the
sun’s place is approached. Mr. Dunkin, in his valuable
Appendix to Lardner’s ‘‘ Astronomy,” presents the actual
densities with which the perihelion points of observed
comets are distributed throughout sun-surrounding space.
He gives the following table :—

Distance from Sun Number of Relative Cubical Density of
in Millions of Miles. Perihelia. Space. Perihelia.
0 to 20 8°65 re 8°65
20 to 40 1170 7 1°67
40 to 60 20°50 1g 1°06
60 to 80 TV Z10) 27 0°47
80 to 100 20°80 61 0°34
100 to 120 8°65 gI (obs de)

Here it will be observed that the increase of density with
approach towards the sun is very rapid indeed in the sun’s
immediate neighbourhood. It is represented by the ordi-
nates of the curve cc’ in Fig. 5, the dotted part of the
curve being that inferred from the shape of the part which
has been determined by observation. Moreover, it should
be noticed that comets having their perihelia between 40
and 100 millions of miles from the sun are, on the whole,
more likely to be recognised than those whose perihelia lie
nearer to the sun.

We may fairly infer that the law indicated here for
comets is that which holds also for meteor systems. Now

1872.] Meteoric Astronomy. 155

let the following reasoning be carefully noted :—The
members of a meteor system in travelling towards their
perihelion open out their ranks, as it were, because travelling
there with continually increasing speed, so that a given
time difference between the place of two meteors corresponds
to a continually increasing distance. We overrate this
opening out in taking it as proportional to the square of the
distance from the sun. Now the volumes of spherical
spaces around the sun vary as the cube of the distance
within which they are enclosed. Hence, ceteris paribus, the
richness of meteoric distribution around the sun being pro-

number . .
——-, Must vary inversely as the distance.
volume

Thus, a set or group of meteors, which at a distance of go
millions of miles (about equal to the earth’s), would spread
with a certain degree of richness, would at a distance of 10
millions of miles be spread nine times more richly. Now,
the above table shows that at a mean distance of Io mil-
lions of miles (taking this as corresponding to the limits
o and 20 millions,—an assumption very unfavourable to the
argument) we have a density of perihelion distribution
represented by 8°65 as against a density of only 0°34 at
a distance of go millions of miles. Thus the density of
perihelion distribution is about 25} times greater at the
former distance; and the actual mean meteoric density
is about (g x 254, or) 230 times greater. Further, the illu-
mination of these meteoric bodies at the lesser distance is
81 times greater, since this illumination varies as the square
of the distance. Hence, under equally favourable conditions,
the total quantity of light reflected from meteors within a
given considerable space, at a distance of to millions of
miles, exceeds that reflected from a set within an equal
space at the earth’s distance, in the proportion of 230 x 8i
to I, or upwards of 2000 times. Nearer to the sun than
this still enormous distance the quantity of reflected light
must be vastly greater; and if any meteors become incan-
descent owing to the great heat to which they are exposed,
the total amount of light from these sun-surrounding regions
must be yet further increased.

It should be noticed that the only assumption which has
been made in the above reasoning is so far in accordance
with the evidence actually obtained that any other assump-
tion would have a considerable weight of probability against
it. For if Schiaparelli’s discovery has any cosmical import-
ance at all,—and every one admits that it has,—it implies
that all comets are followed by meteoric trains.

portional to

156 Meteoric Astronomy. (April,

The reader has only to turn to Fig. 4 and to conceive
the meteoric cross sections marked in all over the circular
space E,E,E,E, with that degree of increasing richness swn-
wards which has been indicated above (remembering also,
that as at present drawn, the figure shows less than half
the real number of cross sections overlapping the earth’s
orbit), to perceive how richly sun-surrounding space must be
crowded with meteoric systems. For not the ecliptic plane
alone, but every plane through the sun, must be similarly
intersected.

Albeit we must not forget that the meteor-systems seve-
rally are almost infinitely tenuous. It has been calculated
by Professor Newton, of America, that even on the occasion
of the great display of November meteors in America, in
1867, the portion of the system actually traversed by the
earth contained only one meteor in goo,000 cubic miles of
space: that is, in a cubic space nearly 100 miles long,
broad, and deep, so that even taking into account the
greatly increased richness close by the sun, we have not to
deal with a real crowding of cosmical material ; but, on the
contrary, with an excessive tenuity, using this word to
indicate the relation between the quantity of matter (how-
ever distributed) and the volume of the space within which
it exists.

The reader will doubtless have surmised already the
special purpose which IJ have had in view in the preceding
inquiry. It seems to me that we have, in meteoric pheno-
mena, as well as in the associated phenomena of comets,
the explanation of some at least of the features presented by
the solar corona. I cannot see how, on the one hand, the
irregularities of stru¢éture which the corona presents at
great apparent distances (up to twoor three solar diameters,
for instance) can be accounted for except by the theory that
during eclipse the complicated network of meteor systems
becomes discernible; nor, on the other, how the meteor
systems can by any possibility escape recognition when a
total solar eclipse is seen under favourable atmospheric
conditions.

It has been supposed that, because I have advocated
another theory in explanation of other features of the corona,
I have abandoned the meteoric theory which I had formerly
advocated. It is true that, in general, to advocate a new
theory implies that a theory formerly held has been aban-
doned. But, in the present instance, this is not the case.
The solar corona is a complicated phenomenon, and presents
features which are severally due to different causes. Its

1872.] Meteoric A stronomy. 157

irregularities may reasonably be attributed to one cause,
while such features as the straight radial extensions, rifts,
and so on may be (or rather must be) ascribed to another.
It may be compared, in this sense, with the aurora. In ex-
plaining the general nature of this phenomenon, we may call
into our aid the meteoric particles continually descending,
in an irregular manner, through the upper regions of
air; but in accounting for the auroral streamers, we have to
consider processes taking place along straight (possibly
along radial) lines.

It has been objected to the meteoric explanation, that the
parts of the corona near the sun do not present the appear-
ance which we should expect to recognise in meteors close
by the sun, and are furthermore much brighter than we
could expect even the innermost parts of the meteor region
to appear. In this reasoning the circumstance seems to be
overlooked that the meteor light which seems to come from
regions close by the sun (assuming the meteoric theory to
be true) does not come wholly, nor even chiefly, from
meteors really so close to the solar orb. We look through
a range of meteors two or three hundred millions of miles
deep (taking into account space beyond the earth’s orbit),
and it is the combined effect of the light coming from the
whole of this enormous range that we really recognise,—
not in the corona, but in that proportion of the coronal light
which is due to sun-illuminated meteors. The part of the
range nearest to the sun may be the part most densely
crowded and most brilliantly illuminated; but its extent is
limited compared with that of the whole range; moreover,
the meteors there situated turn but half discs (of reflected
light) towards the earth, those beyond showing a much
larger proportion of their illuminated halves. It is worthy
of notice, indeed, that the farther half of the range supplies
much the largest proportion of the light, on account of the
greater fulness of illumination,—for in such a case as this,
distance per se is an element which may be absolutely
neglected.*

It need scarcely be pointed out that the spectroscope
affords the best means for testing this question. If any con-
siderable proportion of the corona’s light is reflected from

* This at first sight may sound paradoxical; but it is stri@ly true neverthe-
less. The question is one of the apparent brightness of certain regions of the
heavens, not of the total quantity of light received from given groups of
meteors. A group of bright objects so far off as to appear like a cloud
would preserve its brightness absolutely unchanged however far off the
observer might remove. Its extent alone would diminish.

158 Meteoric Astronomy. (April,

meteors, this portion of the light should exhibit a solar
spectrum, though of great faintness; or, unless great
light-gathering power were employed, a faint continuous
spectrum would be seen. The Zodiacal light, also, should
exhibit a continuous spectrum if it represents the outer
portion ofthe sun-surrounding meteor families. Until within
the last few months the coronal light had been known to
give a continuous spectrum as well as certain bright lines
(or one bright line) ; and it had been stated that the zodiacal
light gives a bright line spectrum. The first evidence was
questionable; the second seemed opposed to the meteoric
theory. But Janssen has examined the coronal light with
the most powerful light-gathering means yet employed, and
he recognises the solar dark lines in its spectrum. This
evidence is unquestionable. And Liais, in the clear skies of
tropical South America, has examined the zodiacal light and
gets an infinitely faint continuous spectrum, so that what
seemed a strong objection to the meteoric theory is removed.
Let us pause, however. Liais has been charged with
drawing an ideal picture of the corona during total eclipse,
(his drawing by the way singularly countenancing the
meteoric theory.) But it was ideal; how, then, shall Liais’s
evidence be trusted on any other subject ? What, however,
if it was not ideal at all; but simply characteristic, because
Liais observed the eclipsed sun under singularly favourable
conditions at his southern stations in 1858? This is pre-
cisely the inference fairly deducible from (or rather the con-
clusion forced upon us by) the evidence of the observers of
the recent eclipse. Janssen speaks of special forms re-
sembling those seen by Liais; observer after observer
speaks of complicated structures within the corona; the
photographs tell the same tale; and, lastly, the skilful
artist Harrison, specially employed to ban the meteoric
theory, has blessed it instead, his drawing as described by
his friend Mr. Lockyer (so long the advocate of the atmo-
spheric glare theory) “strongly recalling” the long sus-
pected representation of the corona by Liais.

In conclusion, I believe little question can exist that a
large proportion of these phenomena which have seemed most
perplexing as well in the solar corona as in the zodiacal
light, admit of being very readily explained when studied
in the light of these theories of Schiaparelli’s, which, after
the usual term of doubt, have so recently received the san¢tion
of the highest astronomical tribunal in Great Britain.

—=

1872.] ( 159 )

i, THE COPPER MINES, OF CHILI.
By JAMES DoucGLas, Quebec.

TAS S the produce of the Chili mines now regulates the
vA price of copper all over the world, and all speculation
“~*> as to its future price must depend on the probable
future yield of these mines, their condition is a subject of
prime importance to all interested in the copper trade. I
have therefore thought that the following information,
derived in great measure from personal observation during
a visit made in the latter part of last year to several of the
principal mineral districts of Chili, would not be unaccept-
able to your readers.

All the copper comes, with the exception of but a trifling
quantity, from the coast range, and from within 30 miles
of the sea, and nearly two-thirds of it from the three great
mineral districts of Tomaya, Carrizal, and Chanaral. From
the Cordillera of the Andes little is extracted, partly by
reason of the drawbacks to mining at high elevations, where
for half the year the mines are closed by snow, and where
at all times hard work is impeded by difficulty of breathing,
and partly by reason of the heavy freight to the coast. But
apart from these obstacles, the copper deposits of the Andes
have asa general rule been delusive, offering most tempting
surface indications of great wealth, which further operations
have not realised, while the ore is generally contaminated
with other metals, whose separation is often difficult, and
which depreciate the value of the copper. A small quantity
of copper comes from the Cajon de Maipu in the Cordillera of
Santiago, and the Condes Mines in the Cordillera of the same
province produce 200 tons or so of 23 per cent ore annually.
The only Cordillera mines which augment notably the pro-
duction of Chili and the Cerro Blanco—which though
situated at the base of the Cordillera, a little south of the
Copiopo, prove their relationship to the Cordillera mines by
yielding arseniurets of copper and silver and lead ores; and
the Esploradora mines of Mr. Sievert, in the Atacama
Desert, 120 miles inland to the east of Pau de Azucar.

Proceeding from the south northward I shall briefly
describe the several mining regions, and the quantities of
copper they severally produce.

South of Santiago very little copper is found. A number
of small mines are worked both in the Cordillera and in the
coast range ; but their total yield falls short of 1000 tons of
fine copper annually. Crossing the line of 33°S. latitude

160 Copper Mines of Chili. (April,

there are upon the same parallel, extending from the coast
to the Cordillera, a series of important copper deposits—beds
and lodes. It includes the mines on both sides the Melon
Valley and the Catemo and San Felipe Mines. The metals
from the hills bounding the Melon Valley are simple copper
ores ; those from the Catemo and San Felipe mines yield a
little silver. The San Felipe ores are a grey sulphide;
but as a rule the lodes are narrow. An exception occurs in
the Paral Mine on one of the Coimas group of lodes, where
a lode of a yard wide yields on an average a 30 per cent
ore; but as the mine is very badly worked, and the stopes
are far below the foot of the shaft, twice as many men are
employed in pumping as in breaking the ore. The mines
throughout this whole district are languishing, and the total
amount produced does not exceed 3000 tonsa year. In all
probablity this yield will not be maintained. Most of the
ore is made into regulus and bars at smelting establishments
in the Melon and at Catemo. In the San Felipe Valley
Urmeneta and Errasuriz have attempted to use the peat—
which is here abundant—for smelting, but as yet without
advantage.

Travelling northward through the province of Aconcagua
and the southern parts of the province of Coquimbo, one
crosses chain after chain of hills, running E. and W.,
divided from one another by fertile, well-watered valleys.
The hills are so saturated with copper that a desmontes or
refuse heap enters as a conspicuous object into almost every
bit of mountain scenery, and innumerable slag heaps in
many a nook and corner mark the spots where furnaces
smelted the ore from neighbouring mines till the hill sides,
to the serious detriment of agriculture, had been denuded of
timber, when mining and smelting together necessarily came
to an end, on account of the heavy ‘cost of transporting on
mules the poor metals to the coast. Were the Coquimbo
Railroad extended through Combarbola to Illapel, this region
would again grow into some importance; but this is an
event little likely of accomplishment.

When we reach the river Limari, near Ovalle, we come in
sight of the Hill of Tomaya, the most southerly of the great
Chili minerales. It is an isolated mountain, some 3 to 4 miles
long, whose summit is 3000 feet above the plain, and 4200
above the sea. Its steep sides, furrowed with deep ravines,
rise toa rugged top; where, viewed from a distance, the rocks
seemed heaped pile on pile, as if, a stronghold of the Titans,
the hill had been overwhelmed and buried by the missiles of
an opposing host of giants—a string of white dots, the

i

1872.] Copper Mines of Chili. 161

houses of the several establishments, about two-thirds of
the way up, marks the position of the adits driven on the
great lode, and long white streaks reaching far towards its
base the enormous piles of desmontes, whose total amount
probably exceeds 200,000 tons ; and as one approaches nearer
the hill looks as if a net had been thrown over it, the cords
in their regular reticulations being the roads zig-zagging up
the almost perpendicular sides.

There is not a spring of water on the hill, and the mines
are so dry that they do not supply the needs of the establish-
ments. The Piké mine alone has expended as much as
600 dols. a month, for water-jigging in the English still hutch
is all the water concentration that can be effected.

The mznerale contains three systems of N. and S. lodes :—

(1.) The most easterly lode runs near the eastern base of
the hill. It yields very little copper.

(2.) The middle is the great Tomaya lode. It consists of
twin veins, with a N.and S. strike and dipping west at an angle
of 60°. They vary in distance from each other, being some-
times 5 fathoms apart, at others uniting to form large
bunches. The eastern lode is left standing because too poor
to work; but the largest stopes are at spots where the
E. and W. lodes come together.

(3.) The third system of lodes is on the western slope of
the hill. It was in working a mine on this lode that
Mr. Urmeneta commenced amassing the fortune which the .
Piké mine has helped to swell; but the production from
here has always been small compared with that derived
from the middle lode.

This, the second group referred to above, crops out so
near the summit as to form almost the crest of the hill. It
runs as a twin lode for from 3 to 4 miles; but when its
outcrop descends the N.and S. slopes of the ridge, it breaks
up into a number of stringers, which diverge from the N.
and S. course. The lode has not been traced as productive
beyond the hill on either side.

It is therefore from this isolated hill that a great pro-
portion of all the Chili copper came from the years 1860 to
1865 ; for Carrizal and Chanaral did not produce then what
they do now.

The principal mines on the Maslir lode proceeding from
south to north are :—

Of 400 varas each in length along the
strike of the lode. They were both rich
at surface, but have fallen off in depth.
VOL. II. (N.S.) Y

1. Almagro
2. Pizarro

162 Copper Mines of Chils. [April,

3. Piké or Pique of 400 varas. This mine is and always
has been the most produ¢tive on the hill. It is owned by
Don José Tomas de Urmeneta, whose perseverance in
prosecuting the work upon it during years of heavy ex-
penditure and disappointment has been rewarded by raising
him to the highest rank among successful miners, and
by enabling him to confer vast benefits on his country; for
Urmeneta was the first man to introduce into Chili first-
rate hauling and other mining machinery.

For some fathoms below the outcrop the mine yielded
carbonates and other oxidised ores. To these succeeded
mixed purple and yellow sulphurets, which gave place to
yellow only, about the 80-fathom level. This has become
more and more mixed with specular iron and carbonate of
lime the deeper the workings have been carried, so that the
ore has become steadily poorer at the same time that the
cost of extraction has increased.

A banded structure is very distinét in the lower levels.
From the floor of the lode there is—

I. A clay selvage.

II. A layer of almost pure specular iron ore.

III. A layer of pure yellow sulphuret.

IV. The rest of the lode consists of yellow sulphuret
mixed with quartz, carbonate of lime, and specular iron.

The yield of the lode from wall to wall is from 8 to Io
per cent, and its average size varies from 3 to 6 feet, but in
places it bulges to vastly greater size. The great riches of
the Piké were derived from some enormous stopes at about
60-fathom level, where the lode expanded to over 20 feet
in width, and yielded a purple ore, which, as it came from
the mine, averaged 30 to 35 per cent. It is supposed
Urmeneta netted in one year at that time from this mine
alone 1,100,000 dols.

The underground works consist of an adit level, run from the
western face of the hill, which cuts the lode at about 60 fathoms
below its outcrop. All above this levelis now abandoned to
piqueneros or tributers. The ore from below is hauled, by
means of a Corliss engine and admirable machinery fitted
with friction gearing, through three inclined shafts, which
attain a depth of 80 fathoms below the end of the adit ; but
the lowest level is nearly 60 fathoms below this again. The
ore is raised this last 60 fathoms on the backs of Apéres
(ore carriers) and by hand winches. ‘The lowest level of the
mine is therefore about 200 fathoms from surface. The
ladder shafts and all the galleries are inconveniently low
and narrow. ‘The stopes being very full and the ground

1872.] Copper Mines of Chilt. 163

insecure, the strain upon the timbering is tremendous, and at
every yard you meet pieces bent or broken; and as the habit
has been to repair the damage by simply adding others
without removing the old ones, the passages have been under-
going a gradual diminution in size. At present little is
being done to improve the condition of the mine, as the
Lecaros Adit is just completed, and henceforth it is intended
to draw the metals out by it. This work was commenced as
far back as 1840 by Don Ramon de Caros. It enters the
hill on its southern flank, at a spot where the lode was
supposed to crop out. It was driven but slowly and
irregularly till 1864, when Urmeneta bought the work
already done and continued it more vigorously. It conne¢ts
with one of the levels of the Piké at about 180 fathoms from
surface. This level has been run under the neighbouring
mine, the Chalaca, so that the total length of the adit is
about 1000 fathoms, nearly half the length of the hill at that
level. It is intended to sink a perpendicular shaft from the
level of the adit, as the cost of keeping the inclined shaft
in repair is found to counterbalance any advantage it offers.
As it is expected that the cost of tramming the metals to
grass will be much less than the present cost of raising them,
it is intended through it to empty the stopes, many of the
older of which are filled with 7 per cent ore, and to break down
from the walls large quantities of metal deemed formerly too
poor to mine. By drawing on these vast reserves the Piké
will be able to keep up its supply for many years to come,
even if the percentage of the ore from the workings should
fall off. There are now employed in the mine 50 miners,
but a larger number of tributers find employment in the
upper workings.

Urmeneta is driving another adit from the same slope of the
hill, but at a much lower level than the Lecaros. ‘This is,
however, being done only to secure certain setts which he
Owns to the west, on the dip of the lode, in obedience to the
Spanish mining law, which requires a certain number of
men to be employed on work tending to the development of
the claim.

In this mine another hardship of the Spanish mining
law in force in Chili is illustrated, though in this instance
it redounds to M. Urmeneta’s interest. His workings have
undermined the neighbouring sett on the same lode. It is
a small claim of only 200 varas in length by 100 varas in
width. M. Urmeneta owns the claim to the west. Now
as the lode dips W. at 60°, and the claims do not follow thé
lode, but are measured perpendicularly downward, M.

164 Copper Mines of Chili. [April,

Urmeneta owns and is working the Chalaca mine in depth
from the lower levels of the Piké. Even if he did not own
the sett to the W. he might undermine his neighbour, for
anyone may run into the adjacent mine, if his shaft be the
deeper of the two, and break what metal he can, the only
reparation to the injured man being one-half of the profits.
The reason of these anomalies is that as Government levies
an export duty of 5 per cent on all minerals, the law offers
every facility for their acquisition. All mines belong to
Government, which gives the first comer a title to them with-
out charge, the first condition being that he works them,
otherwise his title drops.

4. Chalaca mine of 200 varas, virtually worked out.

Both great mines, and deeper than the

5. Rosatio Piké; both yielded at the same depth

x San José purple sulphuret, and both have suffered

the same decline in the produce of the ore
as we have described in the Piké.

The Dichosa once produced largely,
but north of it the lode breaks up, and
though tributers make profits very little
regular work is done upon the branches.

The total production of these mines is about 1250 units
daily. Of this about half comes from the Piké; and of
this half may be said to be extracted from the regular
workings below the adit level, and half by tributers from the
abandoned stopes, or by ore pickers from the refuse heaps.
Half of this yield leaves the hill either hand-picked or jigged
to 25 per cent; the other half will stand at about 12 per
cent. The scarcity of water is greatly felt and occasions
great loss here as at all the other great mines. M. Urmeneta
expects to drain from his adit enough to run a concentrating
establishment near its mouth, in which beside a pair of
Huot and Guyler’s beautiful piston hutches there are twenty
English hutches to be worked by hand and twenty by steam.
He even hopes to run two buddles, but appearances hardly
justify the hope.

Every mine has its crushing and concentrating establish-
ment, in which generally a Blake’s breaker, and one or more
pairs of rolls and sizing sieves prepare the ore for English
hutches. At the old Piké establishment Petherick hutches
are used, but they do not give satisfaction. At the Rosario,
Mr. Lipkin collects the concentrated stuff on the sieve,
though the hutch is in other respects like and is worked
similarly to the ordinary still hutch. Considering the
scarcity of water, I think some form of Rittinger’s Pump-

7. Dichosa
8. Guias
9g. Morculago

1872.] Copper Mines of Chili. 165

Sitze would answer, if slightly modified by the addition of
endless chains to discharge the scimpings and concentrated
stuff. All attempts at slime concentration have resulted
unsatisfactorily. Krupp steel jackets are in general use for
the rolls, and are admitted by all to be in every respect
economical. A pair will remain in perfect working order
for over a twelvemonth, neither pitting nor wearing unequally.

The desmontes are enormous. ‘Those of the Piké are the
largest and probably the poorest. ‘They originally yielded
6 to 7 per cent, but having been picked over four times
probably do not now contain over 4 per cent. Their size
may be judged of by the fact that now in their fourth
bouleversement they are completely overwhelming a good-
sized village built on one of the shelves of the hill.

The hands employed in this minerale in every capacity
number about 4000. As all ages and sexes work, this
represents a population of about 8000. Urmeneta employs
about 600, and as many more work on his property as
tributers.

The rate of wages is for common labour 12 dols. a month,
and rations worth 15 cents aday. Miners (native) 18 dols. a
month, and rations of 15 cents a day. The same high rates
approximately rule throughout all the mining regions of
Chili. Cornishmen alone can be trusted with the timbering,
and they are even better paid; so that it is evidently a
mistake to suppose Chili owes her mining importance to
cheapness of labour.

A railroad 36 miles long, conne¢ts the mines with the coast
at Tongoy. It runs along an almost level plain to Cerillos,
at the base of the hill, where, if the shareholders had been
wise, they would have made the terminus. Thence it
ascends by grades as steep as 54°, and curves as sharp as
187 feet radius, to the very mouths of the mines.

About 7 miles in a north-easterly direction, following the
road, lies the monster lode of Panulcillo, forming also the
crest of a ridge, along whose summit it rises like a wall when
looked at from the south. The Tomaya people say that
Providence placed these great deposits almost side by side
that the ores of the one might serve to flux those of the other,
but human perversity and English stupidity interfered to
frustrate the kind intention.

The Panulcillo lode runs N. and S., and dips at first
slightly to the W., and then perpendicularly. It is traceable,
though barren, for over a mile to the S., and is visible as a
distinct ridge a long way to the N.; but its productive
portion is not very extensive. It has been opened—by an

166 Copper Mines of Chili. [April,

adit, driven on the southern extension of the lode, at a point
nearly a mile distant from the workings, but the lode proving
barren the work was dropped; by another adit, the San
Gregorio, likewise to the south of the mine, but much closer,
as it commences at the foot of the steep hill on which it
exists ; it is being pushed forward as the ground through
which it cuts is improving; by open workings along the
outcrop whence carbonates are still extracted; and by two
E. and W. adits, through which the ore is now brought to
surface by a steam engine in one case, and a horse whim in
the other.

The two excavations, known as the North and South
Mines, are separated from one another by a cross course,
which does not displace the lode. In depth the lode seems
to cut through it. The largest stope is in the North Mine,
400 feet long, 200 feet high, and in places 100 feet wide.
The principal stope in the South Mine is almost as enormous.
The workings more resemble a narrow rocky defile with
steep sides, connected here and there by natural bridges,
than the stopes of a mine. Paths are cut into the per-
pendicular cliffs, along which you climb by the aid of chains
or a hand-rail, every now and then crossing by the arches
left to support the walls. Into one of these immense caverns
the light streams through an opening to surface in the roof,
producing a most picturesque effect, which is heightened by
the echoes of the miners’ blows, and the plaintive chant with
which they accompany their work.

The western wall of the lode is well-defined. On it lies
a clay selvage; then a layer of galena of varying thick-
ness, and carrying a little silver; then the main mass of the
lode, which consists of a solid mixture of common iron
pyrites, magnetic pyrites, and garnet, with copper pyrites
and a small quantity of black-jack. Not more than 10 per
cent of what is broken is thrown away in picking, and there
is nothing left behind in the stopes. The yield of copper is
now about 4°6 per cent, 1 per cent less than it was three
years ago.

The cost of breaking, picking, and delivering the ore at
the works is low, otherwise so poor an ore could not be
worked. Spalling and picking is done for 1} cents a quintal
metrico = 123 cents per ton. At this rate good hands make
18 dols.a month. Driving is done by contra@t at 4o dols.
afathom. In stoping the principal cost is in fracturing the
huge masses which are dislocated from the lode by each
blast. It is intended to try dynamite for that purpose. In
stoping the miner is paid 1 cent per inch for boring. English-

1872.] Copper Mines of Chilt. 167

men superintend the native barretero, indicating the spots
where holes are to be made.

The picked ore is heap roasted at the mine, but very
rapidly and imperfectly, as the smelting works are constantly
ahead of the mine.

The smelting establishment was formerly at the mine’s
mouth, but has now been transferred to the railroad terminus
in the valley, which bounds the hill to the south. The ore
descends to it by an inclined tramway: for a certain distance
the descent is steep enough to enable the full waggon to
haul up the empty one; over the rest the hauling is done
by horses. The cost of the ore delivered at the smelting
works varies from 2°50 dols. to 3°00 dols. per ton.

There are now sent daily from the mine to the works
100 tons; formerly the daily yield was double that quantity.
There has happily been more than a corresponding diminution
in the number of hands employed, there being now at the
mine and establishment 500 to 1300 formerly.

The smelting establishment consists of ten large rever-
beratories, and four blast furnaces, erected last year by
Charles Lambert, jun. Only three of the reverberatories
are running, and these exclusively on the finer ore unsuitable
to the blast furnace. Each reverberatory smelts three
charges daily of go cwts. each, and produces a 45 per cent
matt, with the consumption of 1 ton of coal to 3°5 of ore.
The 8-tuyere blast-furnaces smelt each on an average 50
tons daily, with the consumption of 1 of coke to 7°5 of ore.
So fusible is the ore that the slags do not contain over
I-roth of Ir per cent of copper. The Panulcillo ore is
mixed with about an equal part of richer carbonate before
being smelted, a necessity that might be partly avoided by
a more careful preparatory calcination.

The management in every department of the establish-
ment is admirable; and had the same economy and prudence
reigned in days gone by when the price of copper was better
and the yield of the ore higher, immense profits, instead of
heavy losses, would have been made. As it is, even in the
past depressed state of the market, under Mr. Weir’s
superintendence, the mine has held its own, and now should
make most profitable returns. It is the only property in
Chili worked by an English Joint Stock Company with an
office in England, and though it has suffered from the
absence of that close scrutiny which is generally exercised
only when a property is under the eye of its owners, now
with Mr. Heatley in Valparaiso, and Mr. Weir at the mine,
and a good price for copper, the enterprise ought to take a
new lease of life.

168 Copper Mines of Chili. (April,

A branch of the Coquimbo and Ovalle Railroad terminates
near the smelting works. This railroad, in addition to the
large yield from Panulcillo, used to carry considerable
quantities of ore from Las Cardas, Cerillos, Tambillos, An-
dacolla, and other stations, all of which are now producing
so little that the profits of the road have dwindled to nothing.

Mineralogically one of the most curious copper deposits
in Chili is at Andacolla. A large bed of indurated magnesian
clay is more or less permeated with a black sulphuret of
copper. In drying the clay evidently cracked, and gave rise
to innumerable narrow fissures, which became filled with
the copper constituents of the bed. This has since under-
gone a very beautiful transformation in these veinlets near
surface into silicates and carbonates; at greater depths
into black oxide, red oxide, and metallic copper. In one of
these miniature lodes one sees sometimes a central thread
of undecomposed sulphuret, bordered by successive bands
of black and red oxides and metal.

So soft is the ground that powder is rarely used in mining
it. But the saving in this item is almost compensated for
by the cost of timber. Stoping is out of the question. All
the ore is extracted from galleries, which are timbered as
fast as they are driven, and remain open for a fortnight or
so, when the ground crushes in the timber tunnel, and the
miner may commence driving again in the same spot.

The mines are situated in an arid plateau, famous from of
old for its gold mines. The people, therefore, are accus-
tomed to the use of the dbatea, or conical wooden dish of the
gold washer, and therefore adopted it for the concentration
of these ores.

The ore as it comes from the mine is sorted, the rich vein
stuff separated from the bed stuff and the latter crushed to
one-fourth of an inch. Women squatted round long tanks,
wash the crushed ore in the batea, extracting less than one-
half of its total contents, which, however, they raise to
25 percent. A woman will wash 2 tons in twelve hours,
extracting about 2 cwts. of concentrated stuff. When copper
commanded a good price, even this wasteful method of
washing (the only one practicable from water) gave most
profitable returns; latterly, however, the pecuniary results
have been less favourable, and the yield of the muinerale
has become insignificant.

The next mine worthy of notice is the Brillador, belonging
to Charles Lambert. It is the nearest to the sea of all the
Chili copper mines, being not over three miles in a straight
line from the northern sweep of the Bay of Coquimbo.

1872.] Copper Mines of Chilt. 169

This may be the reason of its having been more extensively
worked than any other mine in the Indian and Spanish periods.
Indian burrows—for they were nothing else—18 inches
Square, were often met in the older workings of the Farellon
mine. From these narrow passages alone they extracted
the ore, as they were never found to terminate in a larger
excavation. Stone and copper hammers are still turned up
in the refuse heaps, identical in shape and mode of attach-
ment of the head to the handle with those from the Indian
workings in the Lake Superior mines. ‘There are three
mines on an east and west lode, with a dip to the south,
which can be traced for many miles, but is productive only
at three points, where three huge dykes form the north wall
of the lode. Adjacent to these dykes occur the chimnies of
ore which have made the mines so wealthy.

The lode, like the great Tomaya lode, is a double vein,
the richer being the southerly, the poorer the northerly.
They appear to bulge alternately, but where they run
together there such bunches occur as that from which Mr.
Lambert, in 1847, is reported to have made 1,000,000 dols.
profit. The northerly lode is left standing.

Of the three mines, work has always been most vigorously
prosecuted on the first and third—the Farellon and Panteon
mines; the intermediate mine, the Bronze, never having
been very rich.

The Farellon is worked to a great depth. At surface
it yielded carbonates, which gave place at once to yellow
sulphuret without the interposition of the vitreous ore,
which yielded the great riches of Tomaya. All these old
workings are quite abandoned, and the ore is now extracted
by an adit level, which strikes the lode at over 100 fathoms
from its outcrop. From the end of this adit a shaft is sunk
for 80 fathoms on the inclination of the lode, which carries
in the lower levels from 1 to 2 yards of solid yellow ore.
Although the ore is cut off to both the east and west by
cross courses, there are so many fathoms of solid metal in
view, that one cannot doubt but that if the Brillador were
again actively worked, it would again assume its old rank
among Chili mines. Neither Tomaya nor Carrizal can
show anything to compare with the face of ore in the
deepest workings of the Farellon. The realisation of Mr.
Lambert’s confident anticipation of a rise in the price of
copper may induce him to work his famous mine with
the force it deserves.

The Panteon Mine, at about a mile distant, once yielded
handsomely; but the lode was lost long ago during Mr.

VOL. Ir. (N.S:) Z

170 Copper Mines of Chil. (April,

Lambert’s residence in Chili, and all his skill and the expen-
diture of a couple of hundred thousand dollars failed to
re-discover it. The Panteon is a huge quarry, from which
from prehistoric times till to-day carbonated ores have
been mined. ‘The ores were, before Mr. Lambert came into
possession, smelted principally in a neighbouring valley.
The slag heaps were virtually heaps of regulus, as the
smelter of those days utilised only the bath of metallic
copper, which resulted from a single fusion of the rich car-
bonates, and was as ignorant of the mode of treating the
rich slag as he was of calcining and smelting sulphuretted
ores. ‘To this day not only do the old desmontes of the Pan-
teon supply the furnaces of the Compania (Mr. Lambert’s
Works, near Sirena) with carbonates, but the old Spanish
slag heaps are being still overhauled.

Mr. Lambert built the first reverberatory furnace in
Chili, and first smelted sulphuretted ores, which previously
had been thrown aside as unserviceable. The Farellon
Mine also was the first mine worked by stopes.

The dykes which, as before said, form the north walls of
the productive portions of the lode, are themselves filled
with little veins, which decrease in produce and size as they
recede from the lode.

Fourteen leagues north-of Sirena is the muinerale of
Higuera, several lodes of yellow sulphuret in a clayey
gangue, of very intermittent yield. The ores are smelted
at the mines and on the coast at the port of Totoralillos.

This is the last extensive minevale in the Province of
Coquimbo. Soon after crossing the line of the Province of
Atacama, and before reaching the river of Huasco, lies the:
minerale of San Juan, consisting like most other minerales, of
a group of copper lodes and a number of mines which have
been worked from time immemorial, but have never taken
rank with the great Chili mines. The most important
mines are those now worked by Messrs. Harker and Dickson,
at Lebrar.

If the traveller crosses the valley of Huasco, at Vallenar,
he enters the southern extension of the desert of Atacama,
known as the plain of Algaroval. A range of hills separates
this plain from the sea much as the coast range of Central
Chili confines the great valley of San Fernando. In these
hills at a distance of about six leagues in a straight line
from the coast, has always been known to exist, but has
been worked vigorously only within the last fifteen years,
the great munerale of Carrizal, which sends more ore to
market than even the hill of Tomaya.

1872.] Copper Mines of Chili. 171

There are, with a general direction of north-east and
south-west, six lodes, only one of which, however, gives
importance to the mnerale. This is the Veta Principal. It
forms the very crest of the hill of Carrizal, and then extends
across the valley to the south-west, after which its direction
is somewhat altered. Onthe hill it is wide, though broken,
and there occur the richest mines. In the valley to the
south-west it is narrower and more compact, yet yields well;
but to the north-east, after the highest crest of the hill is
passed, the mines are not producing profitably. On this
lode there are 16 setts, yielding monthly about 4000 tons of
I3 per cent ore; but most of this comes from six mines, the
Mondaca, Remolinos, Portazuela or Bazanillo Alto, Toro,
Cantado, and Santa Rita, all adjoining and situated on the
crest of the hill or on its slope towards the valley.

To the north are two other lodes—the Veta del Agua
and the Veta Malakoff, on both of which setts have been
taken, though the lodes are unproduC¢tive, and shafts are
being sunk by owners of mines on the Veta Principal
in order to secure that lode in depth; another instance, in
addition to that afforded by the Urmenita adit at Tomaya,
of the detriment the law does to mining by involving the
miner in useless expense in order to secure the permanency
of his mine. The shafts being sunk to the north of the
Mondaca mine should strike the Veta Principal—the
nearer, the Margerita shaft, at 130 fathoms; the further,
the Sebastopol shaft, at 165 fathoms. Unless these shafts
strike good ore, showing that the run of poor ground now
existing in the lower levels of the principal mines on
the Veta Principal is local and partial, the minerale will
rapidly decline, for none of the other veins show signs of
great productiveness.

To the south of the Veta Principal and near at hand isa
small lode, the Veta Santa Rosa, probably only a branch of
the Veta Principal.

Then at a considerable distance on the southern slope of
the hill are the Veta Greusa, and at its base the Veta
Lachos. On the former ten setts have been secured, which
yield perhaps 100 tons a month of 13 per cent ore, but only
one is covering expenses; on the latter the same number of
mines are being worked, and two only are returning profits.

The Veta de Verdiones, furthest to the south, is like the
Veta Malakoff, large but unproductive.

The deepest workings are in the Portazuela Mine, whose
shaft has reached a depth of 270 fathoms on the inclination
of the lode, but the most productive mine is the Mondaca.

172 Copper Mines of Chili. (April,

Its shaft attains a depth of 220 fathoms. An aneroid
barometer indicated a vertical depth of 1ooo feet. The
total length of the shafts, wings, and levels is about
7 miles. There are employed on Company’s account fifty
barreteros (miners); and 150 tributers work on their own
account in the abandoned upper workings.

The mine is supplied with good hauling machinery,
worked by a 15 horse-power engine. In all the mines in
this minerale great care is taken to condense the steam. So
perfectly is this done, that at the Mondaca 5000 gallons
monthly replace the loss in making steam and supply
the wants of the establishment.

The mine is admirably worked. The levels are straighter,
the shafts loftier, the timbering is better, and the explora-
tory work is further ahead of the stopes than in any of the
Tomaya mines, thanks to the wisdom of the principal
owner, Don Ramon Ovalle, and the skill of the manager,
Mr. McAuliff. But the same is generally true of all the
large mines in this region; due probably to the fact that
they have been systematically worked only since the intro-
duction of European methods of mining.

At surface and for some 60 fathoms below the lode is
narrow ; but here a branch, supposed to be the Veta Santa
Rosa, falls into it, and it bulges suddenly to tremendous
size. So at intervals it alternately contracts and expands:
here diminishing to a yard in width; there bulging to six or

- seven times that size. The largest excavation in the

Mondaca mine is 260 feet deep, 180 feet long, 45 feet wide.
‘Twenty-one miners have worked abreast upon a solid face
of ore. At about 120 fathoms from surface magnetic
pyrites comes to preponderate so largely that for many
fathoms the lode is left standing; but good yellow sul-
phuret of copper has reappeared in the central chimney of
ore, and it is hoped the mine will resume its former
richness. No banded struéture is observable. The copper
pyrites, mixed with quartz, magnetic pyrites, common
pyrites, and a trace of blende, being mixed irregularly
through the lode. A clay selvage occurs on the floor of the
lode, and on the hanging wall a mineral resembling
compact asbestos.

Although the lode is not producing as well as in the
upper levels, the yield has not fallen off, so great are the
reserves of good ore left to draw upon. ‘The following
table of the expense and production from 1862 to 1870,
kindly furnished me by Mr. McAuliff, gives a good idea

1872.] Copper Mines of Chili. 173

of the immense amount of work done and copper produced
from a single large Chili mine :—

Annual Produdction Cost of
Date. Annual Outlay. in Quintals Percentage. Extraction
Metrico. per Quintal.
Year. Dols. Cents. Dols. Cents. Cents.
1862 113,981 06 224,789 70 153 51
1863 ©6118,150 75 248,999 43 153 48
1864 158,061 20 352,453 16 153 45
1865 157,986 31 240,317 18 15 66
1866 145,449 13 261,590 44 15 56
1867 140,409 76 245,473 08 1330 a7,
1868 BI7.O52) 43 178,018 39 15 66
1869 119,329 37 203,000 13 134 59
1870 159,702 OO 266,000 00 Te 60

1,231,622 OL 2,220,641 51

The metrical quintal is equal to 1°971 English cwts.

About 4000 quintals monthly of rich oxidised ores are
still extracted from the outcrop of the lode by tributers,
consisting of carbonates and small quantities of black and
red oxides, and oxychloride.

The Portazuela and Bazanillo Alto, owned by Messrs.
Gonzales and Templeman, yields about as much. The
same deterioration in depth has, however, there taken
place as in the Mondaca.

Desmontes heaps cover the whole north-west face of the
hill. They contain probably 300,000 tons of 3 to 4 per cent
ore. The metal as broken from the lode probably carries
about 6 per cent of copper, for it takes 3 tons to yield 1 ton
of 13 per cent stuff, and the 2 tons thrown away contain
about 3 per cent. It is found that the loss in picking when
the ore is broken by a Blake, exceeds that incurred when
hand labour is employed; hence the tributers refused to use
it, but all the large mines find economy in treating the mine
ores by it.

Some of the ore is sold to the smelting works on the
coast, but most of it is heap-roasted and run into regulus
at two establishments in Carvizal Alto, near the mines, and
at two others at Canta del Agua, 5 miles from the mines, on
the road to Carrizal Bajo.

The scarcity of water entirely precludes water-dressing at
the mines. For a time a dressing establishment was run
with success by Mr. Ovalle at the Canta del Agua, the
water being obtained by cutting across the valley, and
arresting the brackish water which filters through it from

174 Copper Mines of Chili. (April,

the plain of Algaroval towards the sea. The water flows in
good sized streams into the eastern edge of that plain from
the Andes, but is soon lost in the sand. In its long passage
through miles of soil it becomes saturated with soluble
mineral matters, and among others with salts of lime,
which in the Canta del Agua form thin beds of limestone of
great purity. The strata of soil in the Canta del Agua
are :—
1 yard of loose sand, pebbles, and salt.
ree of sand, alternating with thin layers of carbonate
2 ya of lime, which on removal rapidly reform.
Sand and clay.
Old river bed—a compact mass of shale and
boulders of undetermined thickness, imper-
meable to water, and on which it flows.

Following the Canta del Agua into the Plain of Algaroval,
and across it in a south-east direction, the railroad runs
to Yirba Buena, 71 miles from Canta del Agua, and
gg from Carrizal Bajo on the Pacific. This station is
at the foot of the spur of the Andes, where occurs the argen-
tiferous copper lode of Corro Blanco. The lodes yielded at
surface antimoniate of copper rich in silver; this changed
at about 30 fathoms to argentiferous copper glance and
galena, and the grey copper was replaced by copper pyrites,
which is now the prominent product, though small quan-
tities of the other ores are still exploited. The principal
mines have been yielding largely and profitably for some
years. Beside the principal lodes at Carrizal and Cerro
Blanco, there are innumerable others worked on a small
scale by two or more poor miners, the yield from all of
which combined is considerable.

The next copper deposits worthy of note lie between
Copiap6é and Nantoko, in the hills bordering the river of
CopiapO. They are exceedingly numerous and yield rich
oxidised ores; but none of the mines are worked in the
same systematic manner as those of Tomaya and Carrizal,
nor do any of them promise to rise into great importance.
On the contrary, partly from the unskilful way in which
they have been worked, and partly from the high percentage
required by the smelter (18 per cent), which no mine can
continue to give after the rich outcrop has been removed,
unless water dressing is possible, the yield of the Copiapo
copper mines must continue to fall off.

Not so, however, that of the great mines back of the port
of Chanaral, in the desert of Atacama. From Chanaral de

1872.] Copper Mines of Chilt. 175

las Animas, on the Pacific, the valley of the Rio Salado, in
which water flows only after such exceptionally heavy rains
as may fall twice or thrice in a century, runs almost due
east and west for about 10 leagues to the mines of La Salado,
and at about half that distance a valley enters from the
south-east, in which is the mznerale of Las Animas. From
the Calita de las Animas,the former port of the minevale, the
first shipment of copper from Chili is said by Dr. Philippi
to have been made to Europe, in a whaler, in the year 1820.
It came from the mines of Las Animas, shortly before dis-
covered by Don Diego de Almeida. The lodes of La
Salado were not discovered till about 1840. Since then
both distriéts have been worked with very varying fortune,
and perhaps more money has been lost than in any other
Chili mines, owing to the cost of mining with high wages,
dear provisions, total lack of water, and long carriage. A
railroad, however, has just been opened from Chanaral to
La Salado, so that the yield of both mznerales, large as it is
at present, will probably be notably increased. The metals
are smelted in part at the port, in part at Mr. Sievert’s
establishment at Pan de Azucar, and partly sent south.
Very little can be picked to a high enough grade for ship-
ment to England.

A ride of five hours across the hills to the north brings
one to the Mina Descubridora de Carrizalillo, owned by the
estate of Mr. Watters, much of whose ore is rich enough to
bear exportation from the port of Pan de Azucar to
England. Watters’s curious and rich San Pedro mine lies
about 18 leagues in the interior, a little north of Tres
Puntas, and at a still greater distance in the interior, some
40 leagues back of Pan de Azucar, is Sievert’s Esploradora
Mine, the last of a chain of mines between the coast and
the Cordillera, worked by the same indomitable owner, who,
in making such out-of-the-way mines pay without the aid of
a railroad, has performed one of the greatest mining feats in
South America.

All these mines together produce about 7000 tons fine
annually.

Still further north, along the coast of Chili and Bolivia, as
far as Tocopillo, are innumerable copper deposits, as at
Paposa, El Cobre, and Cobijz, which yield in abundance
5 to 10 per cent carbonates, oxychlorides, and other oxi-
dised ore; but the distance from fuel, and the difficulty, in
most instances, of picking the metal to a high percentage,
have prevented their being profitably worked ; though consi-

176 Copper Mines of Chilt. (April,

derable quantities of metal are smelted at Taltal or sent
south to Lota.

The barilla of Bolivia is native copper, which occurs
disseminated in fine grains through a bed of sandstone,
which extends probably from Corocoro, in Bolivia, to San
Bartolo, in the northern part of the Desert of Atacama,
in Chili, through an extension of 53° of longitude. It was
worked at San Bartolo by the Indians before the Spanish
conquest; and since then one or two unsuccessful attempts
have been made to re-open the mines, but the difficulty of
transport through the desert has effectually frustrated
them. From Corocoro, however, though the metal has to
be brought on mule-back for 70 leagues to Tagna, and
thence by rail to Arica, the port of shipment, some 2000 tons
(fine) are annually exported, which is yet only half of what
was formerly produced.

The foregoing are the main sources of supply of the
copper, the news of whose fortnightly shipments are
looked forward to by all copper miners and speculators so
anxiously, as affecting so sensitively the price of the metal.

In round figures, the several mineral distri¢ts above
enumerated may be said to yield as follows :—

Tons.
Southern Chili, south of the Maipocho and
Maipu rivers . fs, ge eS ye coe OT
Catemo, and fe districts of Petorea,
tiapel and Combarbola. ~ .”.-...9.. 4 =30eq

Tomaya . gooo
Panulcillo, Cooniles Tambillos! sl aes
COMOm. da ee 3000

Brillador Mine, Higuera, al eaale mines in
the northern part of the Province of

Coquimbo. .-. 3000,
Pena Blanca, including San Juan ail Pee sqeyeye)
Carga os ete Ole TR ee eee
CermorBlanco-... <<. 2“ eae wae Seo
Copraper on 3 tN ae ee eGR

Chanaral, and mines of Mr. Watters and
Mr. Sievert. 2 a OE

Coast mines of Bolivia and Barilla ee ee OCU

48,000

Are these several distri¢ts going to maintain their yield ?
Wherever any quantity of copper is produced by poor
miners, working on their own small mines, there will

1872.! Copper Mines of Chili. 177

doubtless be a notable falling off. Wages are daily rising.
The Chili eon can get 1 dollar a day on the Peruvian rail-
roads, and will therefore no longer work at home for
25 cents. Numbers of small mines, yielding each a few
tons of picked ore annually, and which paid their workers—
who were often at the same time owners—small wages,
are being abandoned. Though the yield from each may
be insignificant, their total production is by no means
trifling. A great deal of the copper smelted at Guaya-
can and the Copiapo establishments is bought in small
parcels of a few cwts. each: the Catemo district espe-
cially will suffer from this cause. On the other hand,
improved methods of treatment and means of transport
are leading to certain ores being treated which would
formerly have been deemed valueless. An experiment
is now being made on some very extensive beds of 4 to
5 per cent purple sulphuret near Tiltil, on the eastern
slope of the coast range. They occur at an elevation of
5700 feet above the sea, and so perpendicularly above the
nearest spot suitable for a concentrating establishment, that
an aérial wire-road, which carries the ores from the mines,
descends 2250 feet to the mill, with an average grade of 33°.
There is during most of the year water enough for buddling,
which is effected by eleven concave buddles, for which the
ore is crushed by a Blake, four sets of steel-jacketed rolls,
and a battery of twelve stamps. The Hunt and Douglas
method is used for reducing the ore to metal in the wet
way. It is a bold attempt, surrounded with many diff-
culties; but being under the management of Mr. Waring,
one of the best mechanical and mining engineers in Chili,
it bids fair to be remunerative. If the experiment succeed,
other deposits of a like nature wiil be worked, and may
supply the deficiency certain to arise from the causes just
referred to.

Tomaya will doubtless produce less in the course of a few
years; for the desmontes, which have for some years been
yielding a considerable portion of its quotum, will hardly
bear re-picking: the old workings, abandoned to tributers, are
of course not inexhaustible, and the mines have invariably
and steadily grown poorer in the deeper levels. Increased
cost of production going on simultaneously with diminution
in the percentage of the ore, must result sooner or later ina
serious falling off. The facility of extracting poor ores,
which the Lecaros adit may afford, may ward off the evil
day for some years; but within the next decennial period

VOL.i1. (N.S.) 2a

478 Copper Mines of Chilt. [April,

the supply from this quarter must decrease, and that consi-
derably.

Panulcillo sails so close to the wind that if copper falls it
will inevitably fall; if copper stands at even 15s., there
seems to be no reason why it should not live and prosper ;
for although the mine has been worked improvidently,
and the necessities of the company have prevented any
unproductive work being done, in the course of a twelve-
month or so of good prices the evil might be rectified and
the supply of ore brought up to the old figure. No large
Chili mine depends so entirely on a slight variation in the
price of copper as Panulcillo. As at the late low price it
managed to hold its own, a rise of 2s., or even Is. per unit,
would make the enterprise profitable.

No doubt the Brillador could yield more than it does.
Higuera and the mines back of Pena Blanca taken all in all
are as likely to fall off as to increase.

Carrizal, if the Veta Principal continues to grow poorer,
has seen its best days; if, however, the new shafts now
being sunk strike good ore, the mznerale will produce more
than ever. Judging from the experience of Tomaya,
Carrizal, Catemo, and other mines, the Chili lodes steadily
grow poorer in depth, the ore becomes more and more
mixed with iron either as sulphuret or oxide; but as the
deepest mine has not reached 300 fathoms in the inclination
of the lode, it is unsafe to conclude that the deterioration
will be progressive. Should it be so, Chili, even with the
advantage of better prices, will not again bring up her pro-
duction to that of 1869.

Cerro Blanco may continue producing as-much as at
present for some years tocome. ‘The Copiapo, suffering as
it does from the increase in wages and the emigration of its
population to the new silver mnerale of Caracoles, will
probably decline; but Chanaral, now that it has a railroad,
mav be expected to increase its yield. Bolivia is rapidly
falling off in her production.

There is very little chance of any new mines of conse-
quence being opened. A copper lode in a desert country
cannot escape detection, more especially in Chili, where all
the inhabitants are dire¢tly or indire¢tly interested in mines,
and where proiessional mine hunters are constantly search-
ing even the most arid and elevated regions for mineral.
All the great lodes now worked, except, perhaps, those of
the Salado and othersinthe Atacama desert, have been known
and worked from time immemorial. ‘There is, therefore, no
probability of an increase in the production of Chili, but

1872.] Copper Mines of Chili. 179

every probability of a steady decline. But that decline will
not be sudden nor speedy. All the large mines have ore
enough in sight, or reserves, to keep up the supply to
nearly its present proportions for years tocome. ‘The great
vacillations in the quantities shipped from month to month
do not indicate a like vacillation in the production, which
the railroad returns of ore or regulus carried to the coast
from the different mines show to be comparatively constant.
Mine owners and smelters are able in Chili as well as in
England to hold large stocks in anticipation of a favourable
turn in the market. Larger shipments than usual may be
looked forward to as a result of the present favourable
price,—since some large stocks are held, especially in the
north. But advanced prices are not likely to increase the
-_production to any great extent ; for even if they rose suffi-
ciently to justify ore being broken which has heretofore
been left standing on account of its poverty, miners to do
the work could not be found.

It is pretended that the new railroads penetrating the
Cordillera, in Peru, will bring to market vast quantities of
ore heretofore shut out by heavy freights; but it remains to
be ascertained whether Cordillera copper mining in Peru
will reverse the universal ill success which has attended it
in Chili.

Copper Smelting in Chili.

As is well known, the conditionin which the copper comes
to England is not that of ore. Twenty-five years ago very
little copper was smelted in Chili; whereas, in 1870, only
3°16 per cent was exported as ore, while 55°35 per cent was
exported as bars and ingots, and 41°48 per cent as regulus.
The previous review of the mines has shown how little ore
of high produce is or can be obtained. It is therefore impe-
rative that it be smelted as near the mine as possible. But
the high price of fuel—the average cost of Chili coal deli-
vered at any of the northern ports being 8 dollars a ton—
renders smelting so expensive that only by the exercise of
the greatest skill can it be profitably conducted.

Mr. Lambert, as already stated, erected the first rever-
beratory furnace in Chili about the year 1837, and by him
were built the first extensive smelting works in the port of
Coquimbo. But smelting received its greatest impulse
from the operations of the Mexican and South American
Smelting Company, whose large establishment at Herradura,
near Coquimbo, was run from 1848 to 1857 with persistent
loss. It, however, benefitted Chili by introducing Napier’s

180 Copper Mines of Chili. [April,

method, which with certain modifications has continued to
be that used in making bars.

There are throughout Chili about ninety furnaces making
regulus, and about sixty calciners and furnaces making bars
and ingots.

The two largest establishments are at Lota and Guayacan.
The former is owned by a company, which likewise owns
and works some coal beds in the neighbourhood. The
steamers carrying coal north to the smelting works at the
mines return laden with ore; hence the Lota Company,
with coal of their own at hand, and being their own carriers
of ore, can afford to smelt even poorer mineral than can the
furnaces at the mines. The Guayacan works are owned
by Messrs. Urmeneta and Errasuriz, and are among the
largest in the world, running ordinarily seventeen triple
hearth calcining furnaces, thirteen smelting reverberatories,
and two refining furnaces. When in full blast the works
can turn out monthly from 15 per cent ore, as regulus, bars,
and ingots, equal to 1000 tons fine. The same proprietors
have furnaces at Cerillos, at the foot of the Tomaya hill,
where the poorer Tomaya ores are run into regulus, and
other works at Tongoi, the port of Tomaya, where the
rest of the Piké and some other Tomaya ores are run into
regulus, and where also some bar copper is made; but most
of the regulus of Cerillos and Tongoi is sent for further
treatment to Guayacan.

On the other side of the neck of land which divides the
Bays of Herradura and Coquimbo lies the town of Coquimbo,
with the abandoned smelting works of Charles Lambert and
of Don Ramon Ovalle and Co., and the active works of
Edwards and Co., where such care is taken in the sele¢tion
and smelting that their bars and ingots bring a better price
in the English market than those of either Lota or Guayacan.
They run into bars all the calcined regulus produced at the
Compania establishment of Mr. Lambert, situated on the
Elqui river, just beyond the town of Sorena, and on the
opposite side of the bay to Coquimbo. In the days of old
activity there were here seven reverberatories running, each
with its three-storied calciner attached ; now only two are
are running. At the Compania are the only sulphuric acid
works on the west coast. The acid is consumed in the
manufacture of blue vitriol from the carbonate ores of the
Panteon mine. The sulphate of copper finds a ready
and profitable sale to the amalgamating works of the
Copiapo.

But there are many other furnaces scattered throughout

1872.] Copper Mines of Chili. 181

central and northern Chili, either at the mines themselves
or at the nearest ports. The following are approximately
the number of furnaces running regulus in the several
districts :—

Lota

Catemo ay eee
Cerillos and Tongoi
Guayacan.
Edwards .
Brillador .
Panulcillo

Higuera

Copiapo

Pena Blanca
Carrizal

Chanaral .

Pan de Azucar .
Tocopillo .

H

Ou DNABRW AOC

Lea!

Jrun

go

This number tallies with that obtained by estimating the
number of furnaces from the work done. There were
produced from January to July, 1871, in bars regulus
410,679 quintals of fine copper, which would represent about
876,111 quintals of 50 per cent regulus. Asa furnace smelts
about 300 quintals of Io per cent ore into, say, 55 quintals of 50
per cent regulus daily, it would require eighty-seven furnaces
running constantly to furnish the quantity above stated.

The proportion of coal consumed to ore smelted in making
regulus is, at Panulcillo, in the reverberatories as I to 3°5;
at Guayacan as I to 2°8; at the Compania as I to 2°6; and
at Carrizal as I to 2°6. The coal principally used is the
Chili coal of Lota and Coronel, whose smelting value is
about one-seventh less than that of English smelting coal.

At Caldera, the port of Copiapé, there is a smelting estab-
lishment in operation, and two up the river, one at Punta
del Cobre and another at Nantoko, at both of which oxidised
ores of 18 per cent are run into 62 per cent regulus; and
argentiferous and auriferous regulus are made by smelting
copper ores with the poorer class of silver and gold ores, and
even gold tailings.

At Guayacan the operations are as follows :—A mixture is
made of 15 per cent ore. Sufficient carbonates can gene-
rally be had to avoid the necessity of calcining any of the
sulphuret. This mixture is run into a 50 per cent regulus.

182 Natural and Artificial Flight. (April,

In making bars the regulus is calcined dead, in accordance
with Napier’s recommendation; but at Guayacan it is,
before entering the calciners, crushed between Cornish rolls
to 1-8th of an inch, instead of being disintegrated in water,
as is done at the Compania.

The result of the fusion of the calcined regulus is a bath
of 96 per cent metal, which is run into bars, and a rich matt
of 70 percent. This 70 per cent matt is then smelted into
blister copper and a rich slag. The blister copper is refined
in charges of 15 to 20 tons. Willow rods are used in polling,
and in addition to anthracite dried aloe stems are thrown
upon the bath of metal.

Mr. Francis, the smelter, to whose intelligent superin-
tendence Guayacan owes much of its prosperity, says he
can make a ton of refined ingots out of 13 per cent ore with
5 tons of coal. ©

IlIL NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLIGHT.

eo
‘i ever the important problem of Artificial Flight is to
alt be solved, it is reasonable to conclude that the same

laws and forces which produce Natural Flight must be
discovered and applied. Imbued with this belief, Dr. ].
Bell Pettigrew, of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh,
has made a series of elaborate inquiries into the structure
and function of natural wings, and the peculiar properties
requisite in artificial wings to produce artificial flight. Dr.
Pettigrew has been engaged in these researches since 1865,
and has carefully analysed, figured, and described, not only
the movements of the wings of insects, bats, and birds, but he
has also examined in detail the movements of a large number
of animals fitted for swimming, such as the otter, seal,
sea bear, walrus, penguin, turtle, crocodile, porpoise, fish, &c.
By comparing the flippers of the seal, sea bear, and walrus
with the fin and tail of the fish ; and the wing of the penguin
(a bird which is incapable of flight, and can only swim and
dive) with the wing of the inse¢t, bat, and bird, he has been
able to show that a close analogy exists between the flippers,
fins, and tails of sea mammals and fishes on the one hand,
and the wings of insects, bats, and birds on the other; in
fact, that theoretically and practically these organs, one and
all, form flexible helices or screws, which, in virtue of their
rapid reciprocating action, operate upon the water and air
after the manner of double inclined planes.

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 183

Guided by these indications, he has especially directed
his attention to the twisting flaiJ-like movements of the wings
of insects, of the flippers and tails of sea mammals, and
of the fins and tails of fishes. These he finds all act upon
the air and water by curved surfaces, the curved surfaces
reversing, recriprocating, and engendering a wave pressure,
which can be continued indefinitely at the will of the animal.

In order to prove that sea mammals and fishes swim, and
insects, bats, and birds fly, by the aid of curved figure-of-8
surfaces, which exert an intermittent wave pressure, Dr.
Pettigrew constructed artificial fins, flippers, and wings,
which curved and tapered in every direction, and which were
flexible and elastic, particularly towards the tips and posterior
margins. These fins, flippers, and wings were slightly
twisted upon themselves, and when applied to the water and
air by a sculling or figure-of-8 motion, curiously enough not
only reproduced the curved surfaces referred to, but all the
other movements peculiar to the fins and tail of the fish
when swimming, and to the wings of the insect, bat, and bird
when flying.

To Dr. Pettigrew is due the discovery of the celebrated
figure-of-8 or wave theory of flight which has been exciting
so much attention on the Continent and in America. As
early as 1867 Dr. Pettigrew gave his novel theory to the
world in an evening lecture, delivered at the Royal Institution
of Great Britain. On that occasion (vide Proc. Roy. Inst.
of Great Britain, March 22, 1867) he pointed out the in-
teresting fact that the wing was a screw structurally and
functionally ; in other words, that the wing when at rest was
twisted upon itself, and that when it was made to vibrate or
reciprocate it twisted and untwisted figure-of-8 fashion. The
wing was shown to be as effective in water as in air, and the
tail of the fish was represented as lashing from side to side,
after the manner of an oar in sculling. In June of the same
year (1867) he read a memoir on the subject to the Linnean
Society of London (Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. xxvi.), in which
he described, figured, and compared the movements made
by the fins and tail of the fish and the wing of the bird in
flying and diving. These movements he showed were re-
ciprocating movements, produced by helicoidal surfaces, which
were mobile and plastic, and acted at a great variety of
angles, so as to obtain a maximum result with a minimum
of power, and, what is not less important, with a minimum
of slip. The fish was represented as throwing its body into
figure-of-8 curves in swimming, and the wing of the bird
into similar curves in flying and diving—the figure of 8,

184 Natural and Artificial Flight. (April,

when the animals were progressing at a high speed, being
opened out or unravelled to form first a looped, and then a waved
track.* The following quotation from his memoir will explain
the relation :—‘‘ The water and air are acted upon by curve
or wave pressure, emanating in the one instance from the
body of the fish, and in the other from the wing of the bird
—the reciprocating and opposite curves into which the trunk
and wing are thrown in swimming and flying, constituting,
in reality, a mobile helix or screw, which, during its action,
produces the precise kind and degree of pressure adapted to
fluid media, and to which they respond with the greatest
readiness.” He also contrasted the screw formed by the
wing with that at present employed in navigation; and
showed that the latter, which is rigid, cannot be compared
in point of efficiency with the former, which is flexible and
elastic. ‘The rigid screw of the ship is made to revolve, the
one blade following the other in rapid succession, and all
striking at a given angle which never varies. One blade, as
a consequence, virtually performs all the work. From the
fact that the one blade, which may be taken to represent
the whole, moves in only one dire¢tion (it revolves round a
given axis), it cuts out as it were the portion of water which

corresponds with its area of revolution—a circumstance
which greatly increases the slip, while it correspondingly
diminishes the actual propelling power of the screw. It is
otherwise with the screws formed by the tail of the fish and
the wings of flying animals. ‘These are flexible and elastic,
and, when they are made to vibrate, they are also made to
reverse the direction of the stroke, and reciprocate in such
a manner that the stroke from above downwards, or from
right to left, as the case may be, is made to produce a
current, which being met by the wing or tail when it makes
a counter stroke from below upwards, or from left to right,
greatly augments the propelling power. This holds true of
every successive stroke made by the wing or tail. This
power is further augmented by the elasticity and flexibility
which contribute to the continued play of the natural screw,
and by the fact that the wing of the bird and the tail of the
fish strike at a great variety of angles—this peculiarity
enabling them to diminish the slip to a minimum and to
increase the propelling power to a maximum. Dr. Pettigrew

* Nearly two years after Dr. Pettigrew wrote, Professor Marey, of Paris,
obtained similar results by the aid of the sphygmograph; and since then M.
Senecal, M. de Fastes, M. Ciotti, and others have been labouring in the same
field. These investigators have confirmed Dr. Pettigrew’s original hypothesis,
but, so far as we are aware, have added no new fa¢ts.

1872.) Natural and Artificial Flight. 185

arrived at these results from a careful study of the extremities
and travelling surfaces of a large number of animals fitted
by nature for moving in water and air, and from numerous
experiments with artificial fish tails, fins, and wings, which
he made to vibrate with steam by a dire¢t piston action.
Continuing his researches, Dr. Pettigrew presented a second
memoir on the subject to the Royal Society of Edinburgh,
on the znd of August, 1870. This is published in vol. xxvi.
of the ‘‘ Transations”’ of that Society, and in it he gives the
details on which the conclusions arrived at in his first memoir
were based.* Dr. Pettigrew shows that the wing acts as a
kite both during the down and up strokes, and that it elevates
and propels in either case—the rising and falling movements
gliding by insensible degrees into each other to form one
pulsation; that when the wing rises the body falls, and
vice versa; that the wing, when the body of the flying
animal is advancing in space, describes a waved track, the
body describing a similar but smaller wave; that the wing
is twisted upon itself when at rest and when in motion;
that the blur or impression produced on the eye by it when
made to vibrate rapidly is concavo-convex and twisted; that
the under or concave surface of the wing, in virtue of its
being carried obliquely forward against the air by the body,
is effective during both the down and up strokes; that the
wing rotates in the direction of its length and breadth as it
rises and falls; that it reverses its planes more or less com-
pletely at every stroke; that it produces during the one
stroke the currents by which it is elevated during the suc-
ceeding stroke—the wing literally rising on a whirlwind of
its own forming ; that the wing is movable and flexible as
well as elastic, and capable of change of form in all its
parts; that it is forced into waves during its action, and
impinges upon the air as an ordinary sound does; that it
produces a cross pulsation, the pulsatile waves running in
the direction of the length of the wing and across it; that
during its vibration it moves on the surface of an imaginary
sphere ; that the natural wing when elevated and depressed
must move forwards; that the movements of the wing are
comparatively slow at its root, but very rapid at its tip; that
balancing is in a great measure effected by purely mechanical
arrangements which operate independently of the will of
the animal; that weight is necessary to horizontal flight ;
that the wing acts upon yielding fulcra; that a regulating

* These memoirs extend to some 220 pages quarto, and are illustrated by
nearly 200 original engravings and woodcuts.

VOL. 11. (N.S.) 2B

186 Natural and Artificial Flight. [April,

power is necessary in flight, the wing being at all times
thoroughly under control; that the wing in the bird descends
as a long lever and ascends asa short one, the tip of the wing
describing an ellipse as it does so; that the wing forms a
parachute from which the body is suspended both during the
down and up strokes; that the wing of the bird opens and
closes as it rises and falls, and has a valvular action; that
all wings are drawn towards the body and partly elevated by
the action of elastic ligaments, &c.

Dr. Pettigrew’s researches are dual in character. He first
carefully describes and figures what is found in nature, after
which he proceeds to demonstrate that the structures and
movements which he has described and figured may be re-
produced artificially. He takes, e.g.,a fish’s fin or tail, and
shows that during its a¢tionit lashes from side toside figure-of-8
fashion—the margins of the fin or tail throwing themselves
into double or figure-of-8 curves as it does so. He then
takes the wing of an inse¢t, bat, or bird, and by placing the
creature in certain positions the spectator can clearly trace
the figure of 8 made by the tip and margins of the pinion.
He, however, goes further. He points out how the tail of
the fish and the wing of the bird may be imitated both as
regards its structure and function. He, in fa¢t, proves
experimentally that the fish-tail and the wing have many
features in common, and that propellers formed on the fish-
tail and wing model are the most effective that can be
devised, whether for navigating the water or the air. To
operate efficiently on fluid, yielding media, the propeller
itself must yield. Dr. Pettigrew has made this point very
clear; and in this, we think, he has made a valuable dis-
covery, for there can be little doubt that the propeller at
present employed in navigation is faulty both in principle
and application.

In the concluding part of his second memoir, Dr. Pettigrew
explains that the inclined planes hitherto employed for water
and air are vigid, whereas they ought to be flexible and
elastic ; that the old rigid inclined planes are made to attack
the water and air at one angle and at a uniform speed,
whereas they ought to strike at a great variety of angles
and at a variable speed ; that the inclined planes at present
in vogue either advance in a straight line or revolve in one
direction, whereas they ought to reverse and reciprocate
to form vibrating amine; that the inclined planes at present
employed draw a current after them, which, being never
met, is consequently never utilised; that the artificial fish-
tail and wing create the currents on which they mainly

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 187

depend for support and progress by a peculiar reciprocating
figure-of-8 action. Dr. Pettigrew’s spiral elastic wings and
flexible elastic screws will be hailed with satisfaction by all
interested in the navigation of balloons. They possess
advantages for this purpose which will necessitate their
being universally adopted.

Dr. Pettigrew shows how an artificial insect, bat, or
bird’s wing may be made to vibrate with a wavy, con-
tinuous, reciprocating motion, devoid of dead points, the wing
literally floating on the air. He points out how a properly-
constructed artificial wing will, when elevated and depressed,
inevitably dart forwards in a series of opposite curves, and
that by altering the angle of inclination of the wing with
the horizon, it may be made to fly upwards and forwards,
horizontally, or downwards and forwards—flight, as he
explains, being essentially not a vertical but a progressive
and almost horizontal movement. He likewise gives
_ directions as to the nature of the forces to be employed in

driving artificial wings and propellers. The artificial wings
and propellers, he states, are made to resemble the wing of
the insect, bat, and bird, or the caudal fin of the fish. They
are composed of flexible and elastic material, which varies
in thickness, the thicker portions, which are consequently
the more rigid parts, corresponding to the root and anterior
margin of the wing and the root and lateral margins of the
tail of the fish. When made to vibrate or reciprocate, the
margins of the propeller formed on the wing and fish-tail
model are thrown into double or figure-of-8 curves, from the
fact that the propeller twists and untwists during its action.
This twisting movement enables the propeller to evade and
seize the water and air alternately with wonderful rapidity
and power—the efficiency of the propeller increasing in a
direct ratio to the velocity with which it is made to vibrate.
By adding springs which antagonise each other, the propeller
is lashed about with greater facility and with a more con-
tinuous play—a similar result being obtained by working the
steam expansively.

The subjoined passages and illustrations from Dr. Petti-
grew’s memoirs will serve to elucidate the figure-of-8 or wave
theory of flying, and cannot fail to be interesting to the
reader, the more especially as they are strikingly original.

“The Wing a Twisted Lever or Helix.i—The wings of
insects and birds are, as a rule, more or less triangular in
shape, the base of the triangle being directed towards the
body, the sides anteriorly and posteriorly. They are also

188 Natural and Artificial Flight. (April,
conical on se¢tion from within outwards and from before
backwards ; this shape converting the pinion into a delicately
graduated instrument, balanced with the utmost nicety to
satisfy the requirements of the muscular system on the one
hand and the resistance and resiliency of the air on the
other.

The neure or nervures in the inse¢t’s wing are arranged
at the axis or root of the pinion, after the manner of a fan
or spiral stair ; the anterior one occupying a higher position
than that farther back, and so of the others. As this
arrangement extends also to the margins, the wings are more
or less twisted upon themselves, and present a certain degree
of convexity on their superior or upper surface, and a
corresponding concavity on their inferior or under surface ;
their free edges supplying those fine curves which act with
such efficacy upon the air, in obtaining the maximum of
resistance and the minimum of displacement ; or what is the
same thing, the maximum of support with the minimum of
ship. (Video of Fig. 1, and 7g, sa, of Fig. A.) «sao

alte Bry

=
-

Fig. 1 repesents the oblique dire€tion of the Wasp seen from above and laterally. Shows
stroke of the wing in the flight of the how the wing twists upon itself during
insect (wasp)—hew the wing is twisted its aGtion, the posterior or thin margin

upon itself at the end of the up (a) and
down (0) strokes, and how the tip of the
wing, during its vibration, describes a

being inclined alternately forwards (g) and
backwards (¥) at the end of the downstroke,
and backwards (a) and forwards (s) at the

figure-of-8 track in space (a, ¢, 0). end of the up stroke. It also shows how

the margins of the wing form figure-of-8
curves, and how the margins and tip of
the wing form figure-of-8 tracks in space
(I, 2, 3) 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, II, 12, 13, 14).

All wings obtain their leverage by presenting oblique surfaces
to the air, the degree of obliquity gradually increasing in a
direction from behind forwards and downwards during
-extension, when the sudden or effective stroke is being given,
and gradually decreasing in an opposite direction during
flexion, or when the wing is being more slowly recovered
preparatory to making a second stroke. The down stroke
in inse¢ts—and this holds true also of birds—is therefore

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 189

delivered downwards and forwards, and not as previous investi-
gators have stated, vertically, or even slightly backwards.*
. - . To confer on the wing the multiplicity of move-
ment which it requires, it is supplied at its root with a double
hinge or compound joint, which enables it to move not only
in an upward, downward, forward, and backward dire¢tion, but
also at various intermediate degrees of obliquity. . . .

The wing of the bat (Fig. 2) and bird (Figs. 3 and 4), like
that of the insect, is concavo-convex, and more or less
twisted upon itself. The twisting is in a great measure
owing to the manner in which the bones of the wing are
twisted upon themselves, and the spiral nature of their
articular surfaces, the long axes of the joints always inter-
secting each other at nearly right angles. As a result of
this disposition of the articular surfaces, the wing may be

e

Fic. 3. Fic. 4.

Fig. 2. Right wing of the Bat as seen from behind and from beneath.
When so regarded, the anterior or thick margin (d f) of the wing
displays different curves from those met with on the posterior
(0 c) or thin margin, the anterior and posterior margins crossing
each other, as in the blades of a screw propeller.

Fig. 3. Left wing of Heron, partially extended, seen from beneath and
from behind,—shows the spiral configuration and crossing of the
anterior (d e f) and posterior (c a b) margins of the pinion; e,
anterior axillary curve pointing downwards; f, posterior axillary
curve pointing upwards; c a, posterior axillary curve pointing
upwards; 8, posterior distal curve pointing downwards. The
posterior axillary and distal curve are reversed in complete
extension (compare 0 ac of the present Fig. with b ac of Fig. 4.

shot out or extended, and retra¢ted or flexed in nearly the
same plane, the bones of the wing rotating in the direCtion
of their length during either movement. This secondary
action, or the revolving of the component bones upon their
own axes, is of the greatest importance in the movements
of the wing, as it communicates to the hand and forearm,
and consequently to the volant membrane, or to the primary

* The up stroke when the body is progressing at a high horizontal speed
is delivered upwards and forwards, so that the wing invariably aé@s obliquely
after the manner of a kite. Whether the wing is made to vibrate vertically
or horizontally, it, practically speaking, in progressive flight, strikes downwards
and ogra during the down stroke, and upwards and forwards during the
up stroke.

Igo Natural and Artificial Flight. (April,

and secondary feathers, the precise angles necessary for
flight. It, in fact, insures that the wing, and the curtain or
fringe of the wing, shall be screwed into and down upon the
air in extension, and unscrewed or withdrawn from the air
during flexion. The wing of the bat and bird may therefore
be compared to a huge gimlet or auger, the axis of the
gimlet representing the bones of the wing; the flanges or
spiral thread of the gimlet, the volant membrane or rowing
feathers.”

“ The Wing Twists and Untwists during its Action.—That
the wing twists upon itself structurally, not only in the
insect, but also in the bat and bird, any one may readily
satisfy himself by a careful examination, and that it twists
upon itself during its action I have had the most convincing
and repeated proofs. The twisting in question is most
marked in the posterior or thin margin of the wing, the
anterior and thicker margin performing more the part of an
axis. As a result of this arrangement, the anterior or
thick margin cuts into the air quietly, and as it were by
stealth, the posterior one producing on all occasions a
violent commotion, especially perceptible if a flame be
exposed behind the insect. Indeed, it is a matter for
surprise that the spiral conformation of the pinion, and its
spiral mode of action, should have eluded observation so
long; and I shall be pardoned for dilating upon the subject
when I state my conviction that it forms the fundamental
and distinguishing feature in flight, and must be taken into
account by all those who seek to solve this most involved
and interesting problem by artificial means. The importance
of the twisted configuration or screw-like form of the wing
cannot be over-estimated. That this shape is intimately asso-
ciated with flight is apparent from the fact that the rowing
feathers of the wing of the bird are every one of them
distin@tly spiral in their nature; in fact, one entire rowing
feather is equivalent—morphologically and physiologically—
to one entire insect wing. In the wing of the martin,
where the bones of the pinion are short and in some
respects rudimentary, the primary and secondary feathers
are greatly developed, and banked up in such a manner that
the wing as a whole presents the same curves as those dis-
played by the insect’s wing, or by the wing of the eagle,
where the bones, muscles, and feathers have attained a
maximum development. The conformation of the wing is
such that it presents a waved appearance in every direCtion
—the waves running longitudinally, transversely, and
obliquely. The greater portion of the pinion may con-

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. IgI

sequently be removed without materially impairing either
its form or its functions. This is proved by making sections
in various directions, and by finding that in some instances
as much as two-thirds of the wing may be lopped off with-
out destroying the power of flight. Thus, in the summer
of 1866, I removed the posterior two-thirds from either
wing of a blow-fly, and still the insect flew, and flew well.
The only difference I could perceive amounted to this, that
the fly, while it could elevate itself perfectly, flew in circles,
and had less of a forward motion than before the muti-
lation. It had, in fact, lost propelling or driving power,
the elevating or buoying power remaining the same. I took
another blow- fly and removed the tip or outer third of
either wing, and found that the driving power was the same
as before the mutilation, while the elevating or buoying
power was slightly diminished. ‘These experiments prove
that the posterior or thin elastic margin of the wing is more
especially engaged in propelling, the tip in elevating. The
spiral nature of the pinion is most readily recognised when
the wing is seen from behind and from beneath, and when
it is foreshortened. It is also well marked in some of
the long-winged oceanic birds when viewed from before, and
cannot escape detection under any circumstances, if sought
for,—the wing being essentially composed of a congeries of
curves, remarkable alike for their apparent simplicity and
the subtlety of their detail.”

The Wing during its Action Reverses tts Planes, and describes
a Figure-of-8 track in space-—The twisting or rotating
of the wing on its long axis is particularly evident
during extension and flexion in the bat and bird, and like-
wise in the insect, especially the beetles, cockroaches, and
others which fold their wings during repose. In these in
extreme flexion the anterior or thick margin of the wing is
directed downwards, and the posterior or thin one upwards.
In the act of extension, however, the margins, in virtue of
the wing rotating upon its long axis, reverse their positions,
the anterior or thick margins describing a spiral course from
below upwards, the posterior or thin margin describing a
similar but opposite course from above downwards. ‘These
conditions, I need scarcely observe, are reversed during
flexion. The movements of the margins during flexion and
extension may be represented with a considerable degree of
accuracy by a figure of 8 laid horizontally. . . . It may
likewise happen, though more rarely, that the anterior
or thick margin of the pinion may be dire¢ted upwards and
backwards during the return or up stroke. I infer this from

192 Natural and Artificial Flight. [April,

having observed that the anterior margin of the wing of the
wasp (when the insect is fixed and the wings are being
driven briskly) is not unfrequently directed upwards and for-
wards at the beginning of the down stroke, and upwards and
backwards at the commencement of the up or return stroke.
A figure of 8, compressed laterally and placed obliquely
with its long axis running from left to right of the spectator,
represents the movement in question. The down and up
strokes, as will be seen from this account, cross each other,
the wing smiting the air during its descent from above,
as in the bird and bat, and during its ascent from below, as
in the flying fish and boys’ kite. The pinion thus acts asa
helix or screw in a more or less horizontal dire¢tion from
behind forwards, and from before backwards; but it has
a third fun¢tion—it likewise a¢ts as a screw in a nearly ver-
tical direction from below upwards. . . . If the wing (of
the larger domestic fly) be viewed during its vibrations from .
above, it will be found that the blur or impression produced
on the eye by its action is more or less concave (Fig. 5, aa’).

Fic. 5.

Blur or impression produced on the eye by the rapidly oscillating
wing of the Blow-Fly when the inse¢t is progressing at a high
speed. Seen from above and from the side a a’ represents the
waved track made by the wing in progressive flight.
This is due to the fact that the wing is spiral in its nature,
and because during its action it twists upon itself in sucha
manner as to describe a double curve,—the one curve being
directed upwards, the other downwards. The double curve
referred to is particularly evident in the flight of birds from
the greater size of their wings (Fig. 4, ba,ac). The wing,
both when at rest and in motion, may not inaptly be com-
pared to the blade of an ordinary screw propeller as
employed in navigation. Thus the general outline of the
wing corresponds closely with the outline of the propeller,
and the track described by the wing in space is twisted upon
itself propeller fashion. The great velocity with which the
wing is driven converts the impression or blur into what is
equivalent to a solid for the time being, in the same way
that the spokes of a wheel in violent motion, as is well

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 193

understood, completely occupy the space contained within
the rim or circumference of the wheel. . . . From these
remarks it will appear that not only the margins, but also
the direction of the planes of the wing, are more or less:
completely reversed at each complete flexion and extension ;
and it is this reversing, or screwing and unscrewing, which
enables the wing to lay hold of the air with such avidity
during extension, and to disentangle itself with such facility
during flexion,—to present, in fact, a more or less concave,
oblique, and strongly resisting surface the one instant, and
a comparatively narrow, non-resisting cutting edge the next.
The figure-of-8 action of the wing explains how an insect
or bird may fix itself in the air, the backward and forward
reciprocating action of the pinion being so regulated as to
afford support, but no propulsion.”

“<The Wing, when Advancing with the Body, describes a Waved
Track.—Although the figure of 8 represents with con-
siderable fidelity the twisting of the wing upon its axis
during extension and flexion, when the insect is playing its
wings before an object, or still better, when it is artificially

Fic. 6.

fixed, it is otherwise when the insect is fairly on the wing,
and progressing rapidly. In this case the wing, in virtue of
its being carried forwards by the body in motion, describes
an undulating course.”

VOL. Ii. (N.S.) 2c

194 Natural and Artificial Flight. (April,

“ How the Figure of 8 is Unravelled, and becomes a Waved
Track.—When the inse¢t flies in a horizontal dire¢tion, and
the speed attained increases with the duration of flight, the
wing reciprocates less and less perfectly, because the figure
of 8 sweeps described by it are converted into a looped and
then a waved track, as represented atabcdefghijkIlm
nopqrst of Fig. 6; the corresponding looped waved track
due to recoil being shown at similar letters of Fig. 7. The
body of the insect is carried along the curve represented by
the dotted line of Fig. 7.

The waved track formed by the ascent and descent of the
wing in the progressive flight of the bat and bird is origin-
ated in a similar manner, but in this case the figure-of-8

} eae een enema mennns

Qu

emcee wns cen ecccccwe mcs cneen = ccger ese —aeas nee”

Figs. 8and g show the more or less perpendicular direétion of the stroke of
the wing in the flight of the bird (gull)—how the wing is gradually
extended as it is elevated, 1, 2, 3 of Fig. 8—how it descends as a long
lever until it assumes the position indicated by 4 of Fig. 9—how it is
flexed towards the termination of the down stroke, as shown at 4, 5, 6 of
Fig. g, to convert it into a short lever, a b, and prepare it for making the
up stroke. The difference in the length of the wing during flexion and
extension is indicated by the short and long levers a b and c d of Fig. 9.
The sudden conversion of the wing from a long into a short lever at the
end of the down stroke is of great importance, as it robs the wing of its
momentum, and prepares it for reversing its movements.

loops are disposed more vertically, because of the more
vertical direction of the stroke as represented at I 2 3,
4 5 6 of Figs. 8 and g.

The unravelling process is shownabcdefghijkimn
o p of Fig. 10; the completed wave-track being seen at s fu
v w of the same figure.”

“The Natural Wing, when Elevated and Depressed, must move
forwards.—It is acondition of natural wings, and of artificial

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 195

wings constructed on the principle of living wings, that when
forcibly elevated or depressed, even in a strictly vertical
direction, they inevitably dart forward. This is well shown
in Fig. 11.”
If, for example, the wing is suddenly depressed in a vertical
direction, as represented at a6, it at once darts downwards and
forwards in acurve toc, thus conne¢ting the vertical down

Fic. Io.

stroke into adown oblique forward stroke. If, again, the wing be
suddenly elevated in a strictly vertical direction, as at cd,
the wing as certainly darts upwards and forwards in a curve
to e, thus connecting the vertical up stroke into an upward
oblique forward stroke. The same thing happens when the
wing is depressed from e¢ to f, and elevated from g toh. In
both cases the wing describes a waved track, as shown at
é g, g 1, which clearly shows that the wing strikes downwards

Fic. 11.

and forwards during the down stroke, and upwards and
forwards during the up stroke. The wing, in fact, is always
advancing, its under surface attacking the air like a boy’s
kite. If, on the other hand, the wing be forcibly depressed,
as indicated by the heavy wave line ac, and left to itself, it
will as surely rise again, and describe a waved track, as
shown at ce. This it does in virtue of its flexibility and
elasticity, aided by the recoil obtained from the air. In
other words, it is not necessary to elevate the wing forcibly
in the direction c d to obtain the upward and forward move-
ment c e. One impulse communicated at a causes the
wing to travel to e, and a second impulse communicated
at e causes it to travel to 7. It follows from this that a
series of vigorous down impulses would, if a@ certain interval
were allowed to elapse between them, beget a corresponding
series of upimpulses, in accordance withthelaw of aétion and
reaction, the wing and the air under these circumstances

196 Natural and Artificial Flight. [April,

being alternately active and passive: I say if a certain in-
terval were allowed to elapse between every two down
strokes; but this is praétically impossible, as the wing is
driven with such energy that there is positively no time to
waste in waiting for the purely mechanical ascent of the
wing. That the ascent of the pinion is not, and ought not
to be, entirely due to the reaction of the air, is proved by the
fact that in flying creatures (certainly in the bat and bird)
there are distinct elevator muscles and elastic ligaments,
delegated to the performance of this function. The reaction
of the air is therefore only one of the forces employed in
elevating the wing; the others are vito-mechanical in their
nature.”

“The Body and Wings move in Opposite Curves.—I have
stated that the wing advances in a waved line, as shown at
ace giof Fig. 11; and the same remark holds true, within
certain limits, of the body, as indicated at I, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of
the same figure. Thus, when the wing descends in the curve

Fic. 12.

a e, it elevates the body in a corresponding but minor curve,
as shown at I, 2; when, on the other hand, the wing ascends
in the curve ce, the body falls or descends in a corresponding
but smaller curve (2, 3), and so on ad infinitum. ‘The undu-
lations made by the body are so trifling when compared with
those made by the wing that they are apt to be overlooked.
They are, however, deserving of attention, as they exercise
an important influence on the undulations made by the wing,
the body and wing swinging forward in space alternately,
the one rising when the other is falling, and vice versa.
Flight may be regarded as the resultant of three forces :-—
the muscular and elastic force, residing in the wing, which
causes the pinion to a¢t as a true kite, both during the down
and up strokes; the weight of the body, which becomes a force
the instant the trunk is lifted from the ground, from its ten-
dency to fall downwards and forwards; and the recoil obtained
from the airy by the rapid aétion of the wing. These three
forces may be said to be active and passive by turns.”

“The Wing acts as a true Kite both during the Down and Up
Strokes.—If, as I have endeavoured to explain, the wing, even
when elevated and depressed in a striCly vertical direction,

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 197

inevitably and invariably darts forward (Fig. 11), it follows as
a consequence that the wing, as already partly explained, flies
forwards as a true kite, both during the down and up strokes,
as shown atcdefghijkim of Fig.12, and that its under
concave or biting surface, in virtue of the forward travel
communicated to it by the body in motion, is closely applied
to the air, both during its ascent and descent, a fact hitherto
overlooked, but one of considerable importance, as showing
how the wing furnishes a persistent buoyancy, alike when
it rises and falls.”

“‘Where the Kite Formed by the Wing Differs from the Boy’s
Kite.—The natural kite formed by the wing differs from the
artificial kite only in this, that the former is movable in all
its parts, and more or less flexible and elastic, the latter
being comparatively rigid. The flexibility and elasticity of
the kite formed by the natural wing is rendered necessary by
the fact that the wing is articulated or hinged at its root ;
its different parts travelling at various degrees of speed in
proportion as they are removed from the axis of rotation.
Thus the tip of the wing travels through a much greater
space in a given time than a portion nearer the root. If the
wing was not flexible and elastic, it would be impossible to
reverse it at the end of the up and down strokes, so as to pro-
duce a continuous vibration. The wing is also practically
hinged along its anterior margin, so that the posterior
margin of the wing travels through a much greater space in
a given time thana portion nearer the anterior margin. The
compound rotation of the wing is greatly facilitated by the
flexible and elastic properties of the pinion.”

“Compound Rotation of the Wing.—The wing during its
vibration rotates upon two separate centres, the tip rotating
upon the root of the wing as an axis (short axis of wing), the
posterior margin rotating upon the anterior margin (long
axis of wing). Vide abandcd of Fig. 13. This compound
rotation goes on throughout the entire down and up strokes,
and is intimately associated with the power which the wing
possesses of alternately seizing and evading the air. It is
this arrangement which enables the wing to present an in-
finity of inclined surfaces to the air—the angle of inclina-
tion being increased or diminished at any stage of the down
and up stroke.”

“* The Wing of the Bird Cranked slightly Forwards—the Com-
pound Rotation of the Rowing Feathers.—It will be observed
from Fig. 13 that the wing is cranked somewhat forwards
(compare position of axis a 6 with that of axis cd), a very
slight movement of rotation at cd being accompanied by a

198 Natural and Artificial Flight. (April,

considerable rotation of the posterior margin (h7jkl). This
figure also shows that the individual primary, secondary,
and tertiary feathers of the bird’s wing have each what is.
equivalent to a long and a short axis. Thus the primary
and secondary feathers marked h2j7k/ are capable of rota-
ting on their long axes (vy s) and upon their short axes (mn).
The feathers rotate upon their long axes in a direction from
below upwards during the down stroke, to make the wing
impervious to air; and from above downwards during the up

Fig. 13.

SS

a Ae

stroke, to enable the air to pass through. The primary,
secondary, and tertiary feathers have thus a distinétly val-
vular action. They rotate upon their short axes (mn)
during the descent and ascent of the wing, the tip of the
feathers rising slightly during the descent of the pinion and
falling during its ascent.”

“* The Wing during its Vibration produces a Cross Pulsation.—
The oscillation of the wing on two separate axes—the one
running parallel with the body of the bird, the other at right
angles to it—is well worthy of attention, as showing that
the wing attacks the air on which it operates in every
direction, and at almost the same moment, viz., from within
outwards, and from above downwards, during the down or
effective stroke ; and from without inwards, and from below
upwards, during the up or return stroke. As a corollary to
the foregoing, the wing may be said to agitate the air in two
principal directions, viz., from within outwards, or the
reverse, and from behind forwards, or the reverse, the agita-
tion in question producing two powerful pulsations—a longi-
tudinal and a lateral; the longitudinal running in the
direction of the length of the wing, the lateral in the
direction of its breadth. As, however, the curves of the

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 199

wing glide into each other when the wing is in motion, so
the one pulsation merges into the other by a series of inter-
mediate and lesser pulsations.

The longitudinal and lateral pulsations occasioned by
the wing in action may be fitly represented by waved tracks
running at right angles to each other, the longitudinal
waved track being the more distinct.”

“ Analogy between the Wing in Motion and the Sounding of
Sonorous Bodies. —It is a remarkable circumstance that
the undulation or wave made by the wing when the insect
and bird are fixed or hovering before an object, and when
they are progressing, corresponds in a marked manner with
the track described by the stationary and progressive waves
in fluids,* and likewise with the waves of sound.t This
coincidence would seem to argue an intimate relation
between the instrument and the medium on which it is
destined to operate—the wing acting in those very curves
into which the atmosphere is naturally thrown in the trans-
mission of sound, in order, as appears to me, to secure the
maximum of progression with the minimum of slip. Can
it be that the animate and inanimate world reciprocate, and
that animal bodies are made to impress the inanimate in
precisely the same manner as the inanimate impress each
other? This much seems certain :—The wind communicates
to the water similar impulses to those communicated to it
by the fish in swimming; and the wing in its vibrations
impinges upon the air as an ordinary sound would. The
extremities of quadrupeds, moreover, describe spiral tracks
on the land when walking and running; so that one great
law would seem to determine the course of the insect
in the air, the fish in the water, and the quadruped on the
land.”

“Weight contributes to Horizontal Flight.—That the weight
of the body plays an important part in the production of
flight may be proved by a very simple experiment. If two
primary feathers are fixed into an ordinary cork, and the
apparatus is allowed to drop from a height, the cork does
not fall vertically downwards, but downwards and forwards,
and for the following reasons. The feathers are twisted
flexible inclined planes, which arch in an upward direction.
They are, in fact, true wings in the sense that an insect wing
in one piece is a true wing. When dragged downwards by
the cork, which would, if left to itself, fall vertically, they

* Handbook of Natural Philosophy. Vol. on Ele@ricity, Magnetism, and
Acoustics, pp. 366-7. By Dr. Larpner. London, 1863.
t+ Op. cit., pp. 378, 379, 380.

200 Natural and Artificial Flight. (April,

have what is virtually a down stroke added to them. Under
these circumstances they inevitably dart forward, a struggle
ensuing between the cork tending to fall vertically and the
feathers tending to travel in a horizontal direction. Asa
consequence, the apparatus describes a curve before
reaching the earth. ‘This is due to the action and reaction
of the feathers and air upon each other, and to the influence
which gravity exerts upon the cork. The forward travel of
the cork and feathers, as compared with the space through
which they fall, is very great. Thus, in some instances,
they advanced as much as a yard and a half in a descent of
three yards. If the body of the sea gull depicted in Fig. 14
be taken to represent the cork, and the flexible mobile helices

Sea Gull suspending its body from its wings as from a parachute, and
converting (by the aid of its wings) the vertical fall of the body
into horizontal travel. This figure shows the twisted con-
figuration of the wing of the bird, and how the anterior (x st v w)
and posterior (q p 0) margins are disposed in different planes and
appear to cross each other.

formed by the wings of the bird the primary or quill
feathers, the conditions of the above experiment are repro-
duced with the utmost exactitude. A bird cannot be said to
be flying until the trunk is swinging forward in space and
taking part in the movement.

When the gannet throws itself from a cliff the inertia of
the trunk at once comes into play, and relieves the bird
from those herculean exertions required to raise it from the
water when it is once fairly settled thereon. A swallow
dropping from the eaves of a house, or a bat from a tower,
afford illustrations of the same principle. However flying
creatures acquire momentum, whether by throwing them-
selves from elevations or by the vigorous flapping of their
wings, there can be no doubt, that the weight of their
bodies operating upon the inclined planes formed by the
pinions, contribute largely to the production of flight. This
circumstance alone can explain why the albatross is able to
sail about for an hour or more at a time, without once

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 201

flapping its wings. Once launched into space, its motion-
less outspread pinions, which act as true kites, cause it even
in a calm to descend not vertically, but in a downward and
forward curve; and if a breeze be blowing, the air plays on
the under surface of the wings in such a manner as enables
it to pursue a horizontal course, or to ascend, descend,
or wheel in any direction whatever. Weight is therefore a
principal factor in flight. By its aid a flying animal is
actually enabled to rest on the wing. But for this arrange-
ment, the protracted migratory journeys of birds would be
impossible.”

“The Wing at all times thoroughly under control.—The
advantage which the wing derives from being movable in
all its parts consists in this, that it can be intelligently
wielded even to its extremity. This enables the insect, bat,
and bird, to tread and rise upon the air as a master—to sub-
jugate it in fact. The wing, no doubt, abstracts an upward
and onward recoil from the air, but in doing this it exercises
a selective and controlling power: it seizes one current,
evades another, and creates a third; it feels and paws the
air as a quadruped would feel and paw a treacherous
yielding surface. It is not difficult to comprehend why this
should be so. If the flying creature is living, endowed
with volition, and capable of directing its own course, it is
surely more reasonable to suppose that it transmits to
its travelling surfaces the peculiar movements necessary to
progression, than that those movements should be the
result of impact from fortuitous currents which it has no
means of regulating. ‘That the bird requires to control the
wing, and that the wing requires to be in a condition to
obey the behests of the will of the bird, is pretty evident
from the faét that most of our domestic fowls can fly
for considerable distances when they are young and when
their wings are flexible; whereas when they are old and the
wings stiff, they either do not fly at all or only for short dis-
tances, and with great difficulty. This is particularly the
case with tame swans. This remark also holds true of the
steamer or race-horse duck (Anas brachyptera), the younger
specimens of which only are volant. In the older birds the
wings become too rigid and the bodies too heavy for flight.
Who that has watched a sea-mew struggling bravely with
the storm, could doubt for a moment that the wings
and every individual feather of the wings are perfectly
under control ? The whole bird is an embodiment of anima-
tion and power. The intelligent active eye, the easy grace-
ful oscillation of the head and neck, the folding or partial

VOL.) 11. (N.S.) 2.0

202 Natural and Artificial Flight. (April,

folding of one or both wings,—nay more, the slight tremor
or quiver of the individual feathers of part of the wings so
rapid that only an experienced eye can detect it,—all confirm
the belief that the living wing has not only the power
of directing, controlling, and utilising natural currents, but
of creating and utilising artificial ones, which is not less
important. But for this power, what would enable the bat
and bird to rise and fly in a calm or steer their course in a
gale? It is erroneous to suppose that anything is left to
chance where living organisms are concerned, or that
animals endowed with volition and travelling surfaces
should be denied the privilege of controlling the movements
of those surfaces quite independently of the medium on or
in which they are destined to operate. What would we say
of that quadruped or that fish which depended for the major
portion of its movements on the ground it trod, or the water
it navigated? I will never forget the gratification afforded
me on one occasion at Carlow (Ireland) by the flight of a
pair of magnificent swans. The birds flew towards and
past me, and I had my attention directed to their presence
by a peculiarly loud whistling noise made by their wings.
They flew about fifteen yards from the ground, and as their
pinions were urged not much faster than those of the heron,*
I had abundant leisure for studying their movements. The
sight was very imposing, and as novel as it was grand. I
had never seen anything before, and certainly have seen
nothing since, that could in any way convey a more adequate
idea of the prowess and guiding power which a bird may
exert. What particularly struck me was the perfect mastery
which they seemed to possess over everything. They had
their wings and bodies visibly under control, and the air

*T have frequently timed the beats of the wings of the common heron
(Ardea cinerea) at Warren Point (Ireland). In March, 1869, I was placed
under unusually favourable circumstances for obtaining reliable results. I
timed one bird high up over a lake for fifty seconds, and found that in that period
it made fifty down and fifty up strokes; z.e., one down and one up stroke per
second. I timed another one in a heronry belonging to Major Hall. It was
snowing at the time (March, 1869), but the birds, notwithstanding the inclemency
of the weather and the early time of the year, were actively engaged in hatching,
and required to be driven from theirnests on the top of the larch trees by knocking
against the trunks thereof with large sticks. One unusually anxious mother
refused to leave the immediate neighbourhood of the tree containing her tender
charge, and circled round and round it right overhead. I timed this bird for
ten seconds, and found that she made ten down and ten up strokes; i.¢., one
down and one up stroke per second precisely as before. I have therefore no
hesitation in affirming that the heron, in ordinary flight, makes exa¢tly sixty
down and sixty up strokes per minute. The heron, however, like all other
birds when pursued or agitated, has the power of greatly augmenting the
number of its beats.

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 203

was attacked in a manner and with an energy which left
little doubt in my mind that it played quite a subordinate
part in the great problem before me. The necks of the
birds were stretched out, and their bodies to a great extent
rigid. They advanced with a steady stately motion, and
swept past with a vigour and force which greatly impressed,
and to a certain extent overawed, me at the time.* Their
flight was what one could imagine that of a flying machine
constructed in accordance with natural laws would be.”

So much for Natural Flight ; and now for a few words on
Artificial Flight.

“* How to Construct an Artificial Wing on the Insect Type.—
The following appear to me to be essential features in the
construction of an artificial wing :-—

The wing should be of a generally triangular shape.

It should taper from the root towards the tip, and from
the anterior margin in the direction of the posterior margin.

It should be convex above and concave below, and slightly
twisted upon itself.

It should be flexible and elastic throughout, and should
twist and untwist during its vibration, to produce figure-of-8
curves along its margins and throughout its substance.

Such a wing is represented at Fig. 15, and as it is forced
into undulations when it is made to vibrate, I propose to
designate it the wave wing.

If the wing is in more than one piece, joints and springs
require to be added to the body of the pinion.

In making a wing in one piece on the model of the insect
wing, such as that shown at Fig. 15, I employ one or more
tapering elastic reeds, which arch from above downwards
(a b) for the anterior margin. To this I add tapering elastic
reeds, which radiate towards the tip of the wing, and which
also arch from above downwards (g, , 7). These are so
arranged with reference to the anterior margin of the wing,
that they confer a certain amount of spirality upon the wing as
a whole. The anterior (a 6) and posterior (c d) margins are
disposed in different planes, and appear to cross each other.
I then add the covering of the wing, which may consist of
india-rubber, silk, tracing cloth, linen, or any similar
substance.

The artificial wave wing just described is endowed with
the very remarkable property that it will fly in any direction,
demonstrating more or less clearly that flight is essentially

* The above observation was made at Carlow-on-the-Barrow, in October,
1867, and the account of it is abstracted from my note-book.

204 Natural and Artificial Flight. (April,

a progressive movement, 7.¢., a horizontal rather than a
vertical movement. ‘Thus, if the anterior or thick margin
of the wing be directed upwards, and the angle which the
under surface of the wing makes with the horizon be some-
thing like 45°, the wing will, when made to vibrate by the
hand, fly with an undulating motion im an upward direction,
like a pigeon to its dovecot. If the under surface of the
wing makes no angle, or a very small angle, with the horizon,
it will dart forward in a series of curves, in a horizontal
direction, like a crow in rapid horizontal flight. If the angle
made by the under surface of the wing be reversed, so that
the thick margin of the wing be dire¢ted downwards, the
wing will describe a waved track, and fly downwards, as a
sparrow from a house-top or from a tree. In all those
movements progression is a necessity. ‘The movements are

Fic. 15.

Fig. 15. Elastic spiral wing, which twists and untwists figure-of-8 fashion
during its action to form a mobile helix or screw. This wing is vibrated
by a direét piston aétion, and by a slight adjustment may be made to act
vertically or horizontally, or at any degree of obliquity.

a, b, Anterior margin of wing, to which the neure or ribs are affixed. c,d,
Posterior margin of wing crossing anterior one. 4%, Ball-and-socket joint
at root of wing, the wing being attached to the side of the cylinder by the
socket. ?t, Cylinder. 7, Piston, with cross heads (w w) and piston head
(s). 0, 0, Stuffing boxes. e, f, Driving chains. m, Superior elastic band,
which assists in elevating the wing. m, Inferior elastic band, which
antagonises m. The superior and inferior elastic bands assist in securing
continuity of vibration, by removing the dead points at the end of the
down and up strokes. To the superior and inferior elastic bands an
anterior and posterior horizontal band is added. These run at right
angles to the former and limit the action of the wing in an anterior and
posterior direction.

continuous gliding forward movements. There is no halt or
pause between the strokes, and if the angle which the
under surface of the wing makes with the horizon be properly
regulated, the amount of steady tractile and buoying power
developed is trulyastonishing. This form of wing, which may
be regarded as the realisation of the figure-of-8 or wave theory
of flight, elevates and propels both during the down and up
strokes, and its working is accompanied with almost no slip.

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 205

It seems literally to float upon the air. No wing that is
rigid in the anterior margin can twist and untwist during
its action, and produce the figure-of-8 curves generated by
the living wing. To produce the curves in question, the
wing must be flexible, elastic, and capable of change of
form in all its parts. The curves made by the artificial
wave wing are largest when the vibration is slow, and least
when the vibration is quick. In like manner, the air is
thrown into large waves by the slow movement of a large
wing, and into small waves by the rapid movement of a
smaller wing. The size of the wing curves and air waves
bear a fixed relation to each other, and both are dependent
on the rapidity with which the wing is made to vibrate.
This is proved by the fact that insects, in order to fly, require,
as a rule, to drive their small wings with immense velocity.
It is further proved by the fact that the small humming
bird, in order to keep itself stationary before a flower, requires
to oscillate its tiny wings with great rapidity, whereas the
large humming bird (Patagona gigas), as was pointed out by
Darwin, can attain the same object by flapping its large
Wings with a very slow and powerful movement. In the
larger birds the movements are slowed in proportion to the
size, and more especially in proportion to the length of the
wing, the cranes and vultures moving the wings very leisurely,
and the large oceanic birds dispensing in a great measure
with the flapping of the wings, and trusting for progression
and support to the wings in the expanded position. This
leads me to conclude that very large wings may be driven
with a comparatively slow motion, a matter of very con-
siderable importance in artificial flight secured by the flapping
of wings.”

“ The Artificial Wave Wing can be driven at any speed—it can
make its own currents, or utilise existing ones.—One of the
distinguishing features in the artificial wave wing is its
adaptability. It can be driven slowly, or with astonishing
rapidity. It has no dead points. It reverses instantly, and
in such a manner as to dissipate neither time nor power. It
alternately seizes and evades the air so as to extract a
maximum amount of support with a minimum of slip, and
a minimum expenditure of power. It supplies a degree
of buoying and propelling power which is truly remarkable.
Its buoying area is nearly equal to half a circle. It
can act upon still air, and it can create and utilise its own
currents. I proved this in the following manner :—I caused
the wing to make a horizontal sweep from right to left over
a candle; the wing rose steadily as a kite would, and after

206 Natural and Artificial Flight. [Arril,

a brief interval, the flame of the candle was persistently
blown from right to left. I then waited until the flame of
the candle assumed its normal perpendicular position, after
which I caused the wing to make another and opposite
sweep from left to right. The wing again rose kite fashion,
and the flame was a second time affected, being blown in
this case from left to right. I now caused the wing to
vibrate steadily and rapidly above the candle, with this
curious result, that the flame did not incline alternately
from right to left and from left to right; on the contrary,
it was blown steadily away from me, 7.e., in the direction of
the tip of the wing, thus showing that the artificial currents
produced met and neutralised each other always at mid
stroke. I also found that under these circumstances the
buoying power of the wing was remarkably increased.”

‘“How the Wave Wing creates Currents, and rises upon them, and
how the Air assists in elevating the Wing.—In order to ascertain
in what way the air contributes to the elevation of the wing,
I made a series of experiments with natural and artificial
wings. On concluding these experiments, I felt convinced
that when the wing descends it compresses and pushes
before it, in a downward and forward direction, a column
of air corresponding to its area. The air rushes in
from all sides to replace the displaced air, and so produces a
circle of motion. The wing rises upon the outside of the
circle referred to, so that it is not difficult to comprehend
how the air comes indirectly to assist in elevating the wing.
The artificial currents produced by the wing during its
descent may be readily seen by partially filling a chamber
with steam, smoke, or some impalpable white powder, and
causing the wing to descend in its midst.”

“ The Artificial Wave Wing as a Propelley—The wave wing
makes an admirable propeller if its tip be directed vertically
downwards, and the wing be lashed from side to side by a
sculling figure-of-8 motion, similar to that executed by the
tail of the fish. Three wave wings may be made to act in
concert and with a very good result; two of them being
made to vibrate in a more or less horizontal direction with
a view to elevating, the third being turned in a downward
direGtion, and acting at right angles to the others for the
purpose of propelling.”

“4 New Form of Aérial Screw.—If two of the wave wings
represented at Fig. 15 be placed end to end, and united to
a vertical portion of tube to form a two-bladed screw,
similar to that employed in navigation, a most powerful
elastic aérial screw is at once produced, as seen at Fig. 16.

1872.] Natural and Artificial Flight. 207

This screw, which for the sake of uniformity I denominate
the aérial wave screw, possesses advantages for aérial purposes
to which no form of rigid screw yet devised can lay claim.
The way in which it clings to the air during its revolution
and the degree of buoying power it possesses are quite
astonishing. It isa self-ajusting, self-regulating screw, and as
its component parts are flexible and elastic, it accommodates
itself to the speed at which it is driven, and gives a uniform
buoyancy. The slip I may add is nominal in amount. This
screw is exceedingly light, and owes its efficiency to its shape
and the graduated nature of its blades, the anterior margin
of each blade being comparatively rigid, the posterior margin

Fiac. 16.

Fig. 16. Aérial wave screw whose blades are slightly twisted upon themselves
(a b,c d; ef, gh), so that those portions nearest the root (d h) make a
greater angle with the horizon than those parts nearer the tip (bf). The
angle is thus adjusted to the speed attained by the different portions of the
screw. The angle admits of further adjustment by means of the steel
springs, z, s, these exercising a restraining, and to a certain extent a
regulating, influence which effectually prevents shock.

It will be at once perceived from this figure that the portions of the screw
marked m and ” travel at a much lower speed than those portions marked
o and p, and these again more slowly than those marked qand yr. As,
however, the angle which a wing or a portion of a wing, as I have pointed
out, varies to accommodate itself to the speed attained by the wing, or a
portion thereof, it follows, that to make the wave screw mechanically
perfect, the angles made by itsseveral portions must be accurately adapted
to the travel of its several parts as indicated above.

x, Vertical tube for receiving driving shaft. v, w, Sockets in which the roots
of the blades of the screw rotate, the degree of rotation being limited by
steel springs, z, s. ab, e f, Tapering elastic reeds forming anterior or
thick margins of blades of screw. dc, h g, Posterior or thin elastic
margin of blades of screw. mun,op,qy7, Radii formed by the different
portions of the blades of the screw when in operation. The arrows
indicate the dire¢tion of travel.

being comparatively flexible and more or less elastic.
The blades are kites in the same sense that natural wings
are kites, and are flown as such when the screw revolves.
I find the aérial wave screw flies best and elevates most
when its blades are inclined at a certain upward angle, as
indicated in Fig. 16. The aérial wave screw may have
the numbers of its blades increased by placing the one
above the other, and two or more screws may be combined
and made to revolve in opposite directions so as to make

208 Natural and Artificial Flight. (April,

them reciprocate, the one screw producing the current on
which the other rises, as happens in natural wings.”

“The Aérial Wave Screw operates also upon Water.—The form
of screw just described is adapted in a marked manner for
water, if the blades be made of carefully tempered finely
graduated steel plates and reduced in size. It bears the
same relation to, and produces the same results upon, water
as the tail and fin of the fish. It throws its blades during
its action into double figure-of-8 curves, similar in all respects
to those produced on the anterior and posterior margins of
the natural and artificial flying wing. As the speed attained
by the several portions of each blade varies, so the angle at
which each part of the blade strikes varies; the angles
being always greatest towards the root of the blade, and least
towards the tip. The angles made by the different portions
of the blade are diminished in proportion as the speed with
which the screw is driven is increased. The screw in this
manner is self-adjusting, and extracts a large percentage of
propelling power with very little force and surprisingly little
slip. A similar result is obtained if two finely graduated
angular-shaped steel plates be placed end to end (vertically
or horizontally matters little), and applied to the water by a
slight sculling figure-of-8 motion, analogous to that executed
by the tail of the fish, porpoise, or whale. If the thick
margins of the plates be directed forwards, and the thin ones
backwards, an unusually effective propeller is produced.
This form of propeller is likewise very effective in air.”

IV. THE GEOLOGY OF THE STRAITS OF DOVER

By WILLIAM ToPLEY, F.G.S.,
Geological Survey of England and Wales.

ey :
NGINEERS have for long busied themselves with
aH, discussions upon the feasibility of connecting Eng-
land and France by railway, and during the last few
years the question has come much before the general public.
The late war for a time laid all such discussions on one side,
but recently they have been revived, and once more have

come prominently forward.

* The authorities especially referred to in fhe preparation of this paper are
as follows:—the Admiralty Charts; the Maps of the Geological Survey of

England, Sheets 3 and 4; the Memoir on Sheet 4, by Mr. F. Drew; the
Papers by Mr. PuiLuips and Dr. Firron, in the ‘ Geological Transactions,”

1872.] Geology of the Straits of Dover. 209

The various schemes proposed are of three classes *:—
a Bridge over the sea, a Tube on the bed of the sea, anda
Tunnel beneath the bed of the sea. With the second of
these, or the tube scheme, Geology has nothing to do.
Concerning the first, there is the important question of
foundation, upon which-a geologist’s opinion might be
sought; but whether the answer were favourable or other-
wise would but little affect the project. It is a question
which can easily be settled by actual experiment, at compa-
ratively little cost; and even if a good foundation were hard
to find (an improbable supposition), engineers would be at
no loss to make one: the question is solely one of expense.

With the third scheme, that of tunnelling, the case is
very different. Here nearly all the questions which arise at
the outset are such as can only be fully appreciated by one
having some geological knowledge; they are, chiefly, the
depth and thickness of the various rocks beneath the
Channel, their extent, physical characters, permeability, &c.
Perhaps in the present state of the question we shall be
doing some service by (1) briefly narrating what is actually
known of the geological structure of the coasts bordering
the Straits of Dover; (2) by enquiring what help this
knowledge affords us towards ascertaining the actual con-
dition of the sea-bed ; and (3) by testing the various tunnel
schemes by the data thus obtained.

The physical geography and geological structure of the
opposite coasts of the Channel have so many characters in
common, that a description of one side will in great part
serve for that of the other. There are, however, some
points of difference which are of great importance in this
question. .

The most striking features of the Straits of Dover are the
Chalk cliffs, rising steeply from the shore, of great height,
and of dazzling whiteness. The similarity in the appearance
of these cliffs led many old writers to speculate on their

vol. v., 1st series and vol. iv., 2nd series ; the Statement of the Executive Com-
mittee of the Channel Tunnel, with Engineer’s Report and Diagram (1869).
The thicknesses of the oolitic rocks in the Bas-Boulonnais are taken from a
Paper by M. Ricavux, in Bull. Soc. Acad. de Boulogne (1865) ; the geology of
the Bas-Boulonnais is partly from a Map by M. pu Sourcu, and partly from
original observations. A detailed account of the strata passed through in the
Calais Well is given by Mr. Mackie in the Geol. and Nat. Hist. Repertory,
vol. i., p. 122: this is taken from a table and specimens preserved in the
Museum at Calais. . .

* The proposal to constru@ large ferry-boats which will convey trains of
carriages over the Channel does not concern us here.

VO. 1...(N-S:) 2E

210 Geology of the Stratts of Dover. (April,

former extension across the straits, uniting England and
France. We shall presently see that the strata immediately
underlying the Chalk present similar resemblances, a fact
which the old writers overlooked.

Richard Verstegan was one of the oldest writers “who
gave any good and sound reasons for this opinion.* Others
had suggested it before, but, says Verstegan, ‘‘ These
authors, following the opinion the one of the other, are
rather content to think it sometimes so to have been, than
to labour to finde out by sundry pregnant reasons that so it
was indeed.” ‘‘ These cliffs on either side the sea, lying
just opposite the one unto the other, both of one substance ;
that is of chalke, and flint, the sides of both towards the
sea, plainly appearing to be broken off from some more of
the same stuffe or matter, that it hath sometimes by nature
been fastened unto, the length of the said cliffs along the
sea shore being on the one side answerable in effect, to the
length of the very like on the other side, and the distance
between both, as some skilfull saylers report, not exceeding
24 English miles; are all great arguments to prove a con-
junction in time long past, to have been between these two
Countries ; whereby men did pass on dry land from the one
unto the other.” Verstegan supposed that the separation
has occurred since the Deluge, because all beasts were then
destroyed but such as were taken into the ark. ‘“* But long
after it could not be before the ravenous Woolf had made
his kind nature known unto man, and therefore no man,
unless he were mad, would ever transport of that race for
the goodness of that breed, out of the continent into any
Isles. . . . . But our Isle, as is aforesaid, continuing
since the flood fastened by nature to the great continent
these wicked beasts did of themselves pass over.”

In following the chalk cliffs of England trom Dover to-
wards Folkestone, we find that near the latter place they
terminate as sea-cliffs, but strike away inland in a fine cliff-
like range of hills, which is known as the Chalk escarpment.
The outline of this at Folkestone Hill is shown in Plate III.,
the height here is 575 feet. Standing on the edge of this
escarpment and looking westward, we see the steep face
sink rapidly down into the lower ground to the south; the
beautifully rounded forms which chalk hills assume can no-
where be better studied than here. One of the most promi-

* Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, in Antiquities concerning the most
noble and renowned English Nation, &c. This work was published in Antwerp
in 1628. The quotations here given are from the edition of 1653, chap. 4.

1872.] Geology of the Straits of Dover. air

nent points of the range is a projecting spur crowned by a
fine camp; it is known. as Cesar’s Camp, or Castle Hill.

Looking northward from the crest of the escarpment, we
see that the land falls away with an almost imperceptible
slope. This plateau is furrowed by long valleys, which,
commencing near the escarpment, run northward into the
larger valley of the Dour, which enters the sea at Dover.
Beyond the valley of the Dour the ground rises in a second
escarpment, the high land of which again falls away north-
ward into the low-lying lands of Deal and Minster.

Returning now to the sea-cliff at Dover, and examining
the rock of which it is composed, we shall find that, although
all of chalk, it is of various kinds of chalk. The hill on
which Dover Castle stands, and all to the north of it, is
‘* Chalk-with-flints,” or ‘‘ Upper Chalk.”*. The hard flints,
generally white outside but black when fractured, lying in
regular rows, each row gradually inclining to the north, and
thus showing the dip ot the beds. Passing again towards
Folkestone, we find, soon after leaving Dover, that the chalk
of the lower part of the cliff loses its flints, whilst they still
continue on above, but get higher and higher above the sea-
level, until at Folkestone Hill they only cap the cliff and
escarpment. The lower division of the chalk is known as
the “‘ Chalk-without-flints,” or ‘“‘ Lower Chalk.” Most of
it resembles the Upper Chalk, save that flints are absent ;
but the lower part of it is different in character. This
is less pure in composition, contains some clayey matter,
and is darker in colour than the overlying beds. This is the
“*Grey chalk,” or “‘ Chalk marl,” the latter name being perhaps
more properly employed for only the lowest part. The Grey
Chalk rises from the shore a little east of Lydden Spout, and
forms the base of the cliff, until we reach the undercliff,
where it is in great part hidden by masses of fallen rock.
It reappears at the base of Folkestone Hill, and can be
traced from thence all along the lower slope of the escarp-
ment. It is through this Grey Chalk that one proposed
tunnel is intended to be driven.

Emerging from beneath the Chalk, we find a thin band of
green clayey sand (Upper Greensand). On the shore below
the undercliff it is 20 feet or more in thickness, but inland
it thins away, until, at the foot of Castle Hill, it is only
18 inches thick; still further east it apparently disappears
altogether for many miles. It is an important formation in

* The chalk of the Isle of Thanet i is higher in the series than this. See a
Paper by Mr. WuiTakeR, Quart. Journ. “Geol. Soc., vol. xxi., p. 3953; and
Dowker, Geol. Mag., vol. vii., p. 466.

212 Geology of the Straits of Dover. (April,

Surrey, Hants, and Sussex, containing there some hard beds
of “‘ firestone’”’ and ‘‘ Malm rock,” which form a small es-
carpment. Compared with the overlying Grey Chalk the
Upper Greensand is a permeable bed, or one through which
water passes with tolerable freedom.

At the base of the chalk slope is a broad tract of clay,
known as the Gault. This may be distinguished all round
the country, at the foot of the Chalk escarpment, by most of
it being in pasture. In Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, it ave-
rages about 100 feet in thickness. This bed is very constant
in character; it is a stiff bluish and blackish clay, wholly
impervious to water, and makes a strong dividing line
between the partially porous beds above and the alternations
of highly porous and partially impervious beds below.

The series of beds underlying the Gault is known as the
Lower Greensand: the characters which they present are
important, because it has been proposed that a submarine
tunnel shall start from the English coast near Folkestone,
in which case the tunnel would first be driven through these
beds.

The Lower Greensand in Kent presents four well-marked
divisions. Underlying the Gault is a bed of sand, known
as the Folkestone Beds. It makes a very light soil, and is
thus strikingly distinguished from the neighbouring Gault.
It is highly porous, water passing through it with great
rapidity. ‘The division next below (Sandgate Beds) consists
of clay and sandy clay; compared with the Folkestone Beds
above, it is impervious to water, but it is much less so than
the Gault. Its outcrop is frequently marked by a line of
springs, and the water of wells sunk through the Folkestone
Beds is held up by this stratum.

The third division of the Lower Greensand is known as the
Hythe Beds: it consists of alternate beds of limestone and
calcareous sand, the former being locally known as ‘‘ Kentish
Rag,” and the latter as ‘‘ Hassock.” ‘This division, like the
Folkestone Beds, is highly porous. Below this is a band of
clay, known as the Atherfield Clay, which geologists class
with the Lower Greensand, because the fossils which it con-
tains are, like those of that formation, of marine origin:
for our present purpose it might be classed with the great
mass of Weald Clay which underlies it, the fossils of which
are of fresh-water origin.

The Wealden Beds extend along the inland border of
Romney Marsh, and form the high cliffs of eastern Sussex.
They consist of alternations of clay and sand, the former
largely predominating in the upper part, and the latter in

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1872.) Geology of the Straits of Dover. 213

the lower part. The Weald Clay, as the highest division of
these beds is called, can hardly be more than 500 feet thick
on the Kentish coast,—probably it is less than that; but
here there is no evidence by which we can determine its
exact thickness. As a whole it is a stiff impervious clay,
but it contains some thin beds of sand and limestone, which
yield water.

The more sandy division below is the Hastings Beds:
here are thick beds of porous sand and sandstone, divided
by the Wadhurst Clay, which closely resembles Weald Clay
in character. The Ashburnham Beds form the base of the
Hastings Beds. ‘These, as exposed on the coast, differ from
the overlying Wealden division chiefly in the larger quanti-
ties of coloured clay which they contain. As a whole, this
division is impervious, but there are many bands of sand-
stone which hold water.

All the beds here described dip to the north-east, and suc-
cessively disappear as we pass in that direction. A well
sunk through any one of the strata described will certainly
meet with that which has been described as underlying it ;
but it is by no means certain that a well sunk, say, through
the Chalk, would necessarily pass through the whole of those
described. ‘The reason of this we will immediately see.

Passing now to the French coast, we will suppose our-
selves at Calais. This town stands on a wide flat of Tertiary
beds covered up by sand and gravel. These beds underlie
the whole of the flat country which stretches in a south-
easterly direction past Guines. To the south of this there
is rising and undulating ground, formed by the Chalk, which
ends, as in Kent, with a fine escarpment. The various divi-
sions of the Chalk are well seen along the cliffs between
Sangatte and Wissant; these resemble those seen on the
English coast, differing only in thickness, the Chalk-with-flints
being much thinner on the French side of the Channel than
on the English side. The lower divisions of the Chalk are
more nearly alike.

Cropping out from beneath the Chalk we find, at first, the
same beds as on the English coast; there is a thin band of
Upper Greensand, a thicker band of Gault clay, and below
these the top sandy division of the Lower Greensand (Folke-
stone Beds). These beds, as seen near Wissant, very
closely resemble those of the English coast, differing only
in thickness, they being each much thinner on the French
than on the English coast. Perhaps the Folkestone Beds
are the only division of the Lower Greensand which is here
represented, for below them come some mottled clays, with

214 Geology of the Straits of Dover. (April,

sand, ironstone, and pebbles, which represent the thick
Wealden formation of the English coast. The thickness of
these is uncertain, but probably it nowhere exceeds 100 feet.
Below them come the Oolitic rocks, which are not exposed
on the coast of Kent or Sussex. We need not minutely
describe these rocks. Only the higher divisions (Portland
and Kimeridge Beds) are seen along the coast, the lower
divisions cropping out inland. On the north-east of Mar-
quise there are still lower beds, of the Carboniferous, De-
vonian, and Silurian formations, which occupy only a few
square miles of the surface, but are known to underlie the
higher rocks, at no great depth, over a great extent of
country.

The Chalk escarpment which is cut by the coast near
Wissant passes in a curved line round the country, and
meets the coast again near Neufchatel, on the south of
Boulogne. In a similar manner, the Chalk escarpment
which is cut by the English coast at Folkestone passes
round the country to the west, and reaches the Channel
again at Beachy Head. ‘The large district thus enclosed
by the Chalk escarpment, on the English side, is known as
the Weald. ‘The similar district enclosed by the Chalk es-
carpment on the French side of the Channel is known as the
Bas-Boulonnais. Although these two districts are now
separated by the English Channel and the Straits of Dover,
geologically considered they are one and the same.

Such being the geological structure of the coasts, we have
now to consider what is the probable structure of the bed of
the Channel. Here, of course, we can only be guided by
analogy. We are entitled to assume that beds which have
a constant character wherever we can study them, will pro-
bably maintain that character throughout the short space
which intervenes between the French and English coasts.
The beds of Chalk, which resemble each other on both sides,
will, without doubt, have the same charaé¢ter beneath the
bed of the Channel. When the beds are thicker on the one
side than on the other, as is the case with the Chalk-with-
flints, the intervening area will be occupied by that forma-
tion having its proper general character, but gradually
diminishing in thickness as we pass from England to France.
So, again, with the Gault ; as there is no place all round the
Weald and the Bas-Boulonnais where this division is ab-
sent, we may be perfectly sure that it is present in its proper
position in the bed of the Channel, but with diminishing
thickness as we pass from England to France. So, also,
with the Folkestone Beds, which in the south-east of

1872.] Geology of the Straits of Dover. ars

England is the most constant division of the Lower Green-
sand, and in the Bas-Boulonnais is probably the only
division of that formation which is represented. ‘The
Folkestone Beds at Wissant differ only in thickness from
those at Folkestone; and there is no reason to doubt that
this division also passes right across the Channel.

But here our certainty ends. We have seen that the
Wealden formation 1s of very great thickness on the English
coast; it is there not less than 1rooo feet thick, and is
perhaps considerably more. In the Bas-Boulonnais the
Wealden Beds are probably not more than too feet in
thickness, and it is quite uncertain which part of our
English series they represent. Somewhere in the bed of the
Channel the well-marked division of the English Wealden
Beds must disappear, and they must gradually put on the
characters which we find them to possess in the Bas-
Boulonnais ; but where this change takes place, and whether
it is gradual or comparatively sudden, we have no means
whatever of knowing. In the map which accompanies this
paper I have shown the Weald Clay and the Hastings
Beds striking out from the English shore in the dire¢tion
in which, for some few miles, they will probably range.
On the French side of the Channel I have also shown the
Wealden Beds ranging for a short distance parallel with
the Folkestone Beds; but I have not ventured to prolong
the line far into the Channel. And, notwithstanding the
fact that in some maps and seCtions which have appeared
on this subject the lines have been projected with apparent
confidence, there is not the slightest evidence to show in
what direction the outcrops run.

In mid-channel there are two shoals, known as the
Varne and the Ridge. Itis a matter of great importance
to know of what rocks these are composed; they will
probably, however, be Portland or Wealden. From some
experiments undertaken by M. Thomé de Gamond it seems
probable that they are the former. The Portland Beds
form the cliffs at Cap Grisnez, and under them there are the
Kimeridge Beds. These rocks dip to the north-east; and,
supposing M. de Gamond’s observations to be correct,
somewhere between Cap Grisnez and the Varne the
Kimeridge Clay would wholly disappear. Somewhere to
the west of the Varne and nearer to the English coast the
Portland Beds would also disappear, and would be overlain
by the Wealden series. Probably the Hastings Beds would
immediately overlie them, and above these the Weald Clay

216 Geology of the Straits of Dover. [April,

would come on; but where the outcrop may be, or what
the thickness of the various beds, we do not know.*

A similar doubt hangs over the submarine range of the
Lower Greensand divisions, other than the Folkestone
Beds. We have seen that the clayey Sandgate Beds and
the calcareous Hythe Beds are well developed, and have
their normal characters, on the Kentish coast; whilst on the
French coast they are wholly absent. Somewhere, then,
in the bed of the Channel these also must disappear; but
where this change takes place we cannot tell.

There are two principal schemes proposed for connecting
England and France by a submarine tunnel. ‘There is
that with which the names of Low and Hawkshaw are
associated, which is proposed to run from near the South
Foreland to a point between Sangatte and Calais. This
tunnel it is supposed will be made wholly through the
Chalk. The other is that of M. Thomé de Gamond, which
he proposes to take from Eastwear Bay, near Folkestone, to
Cap Grisnez.t This would pass through a number of
different beds; how many we cannot tell, for it crosses the
lines along which the changes above indicated must: some-
where occur. There is no doubt that it would pass through
all the English divisions of the Lower Greensand, for these
it would intersect very near the coast; and we cannot
suppose that the change which these must undergo takes
place suddenly. Farther out in the Channel it would
probably go through Weald Clay, possibly it might touch
the Hastings Beds, beyond this it might intersect the
Portland, and, finally, it would cut through the Kimeridge.
But as we have no certain knowledge, nor even probable
conjecture, where the outcrops of these various divisions
occur, we cannot tell where the tunnel would intersect
them. The various beds intersected by this tunnel are of
very different characters ; some are highly porous, some are
wholly impervious. They all crop up somewhere in the bed
of the Channel, and the porous strata among them are no
doubt fully charged with water. There are two tunnels on
the South Eastern Railway which pass through the Lower
Greensand. There is that on the main line to Dover at
Saltwood, which is driven partly through the porous
Folkestone Beds and partly through the underlying Sand-

* M. Thomé de Gamond dived to the bottom between the Varne and the
English shore, and brought up specimens of ‘‘ Weald Clay;” but the exact
spots at which they were obtained is not stated.

+ M. de Gamond has apparently given in his adhesion to the schemes of
Messrs. Low and Hawkshaw, so that there is really only one proposal now
before the public.

Quart. Fourn. Sct.

Plate IV.

VERTICAL SECTIONS

April, 1872.

ILLUSTRATING THE GEOLOGY OF THE STRAITS OF DOVER.

Lower
Greensand.

CRETACEOUS BEDS.
ae

FRENCH COAST
(and neighbouring parts of

ENGLISH COAST.
the Lower Boulonnais).

Sandgate Beds

Hythe Beds
Atherfield Clay

Weald Clay

( Tunbridge Wells
Sand

| Wadhurst Clay

Wealden Beds.

Ashdown Sand

Hastings Beds.

Ashburnham Beds |==

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1872.] Geology of the Straits of Dover. 217

gate Beds. An account of the great difficulties which had
to be surmounted here is given by Mr. Simms.* The Seven-
oaks tunnel, on the new line to Tunbridge Wells, was driven
through the Hythe Beds, and partly through the underlying
Atherfield Clay. The former in their lower parts were
largely charged with water, which pours out in a fully-
formed stream from the tunnel’s mouth.

The tunnel which it is proposed to take from the South
Foreland to near Sangatte will, it is supposed, go entirely
through the Chalk-without-flints.

The one great danger to be dreaded in driving a tunnel
under the Channel is water, in quantities so great that it
cannot be mastered. It is only in view of this danger that
engineers need be much concerned with the geological
structure of the Straits of Dover; for, supposing there were
no great influx of water to be anticipated, it is a matter of
comparatively little consequence whether the tunnel be driven
through clay, sand, or chalk.

Water may occur chiefly from two causes:—the natural
porosity of the rocks allowing water to pass freely down
from the sea along the bedding into the tunnel; or faults
and fissures cutting through the beds, and thus letting in
water. We will consider the former first.

We have seen that two divisions of the Lower Greensand
in East Kent are exceedingly porous (the Folkestone Beds
and the Hythe Beds); these are naturally porous, and water
passes freely along the bedding whether fissures be present
or not. Any tunnel driven through them would, without
much doubt, meet with very large quantities of water. Again,
as regards the Wealden Beds; a large proportion of the
Weald Clay is a stiff impervious clay, very well adapted for
tunnelling where clay only occurs; but at various horizons
within it we meet with beds of sand, which would most
probably be charged with water. Still lower, and further
out to sea, there would be the Hastings Beds, the sands of
which are finer in grain, and perhaps less pervious to water
than those of the Folkestone Beds, but still sufficiently so
to make tunnelling through them a hazardous operation.
The Portland Beds are mainly porous, whilst the Kimeridge
Beds are mainly impervious; but in the latter series there
are beds of sandstone which would probably yield much
water.

If the tunnel could be driven wholly through the Gault
there need not be much fear of water. But this cannot be

* Practical Tunnelling as exemplified in the particulars of Bletchingley and
Saltwood Tunnels. 1844. 2nd edition, 1859, by W. D. HasKELL.

VOL. Il. (N-S:) 2

218 Geology of the Straits of Dover. (Apri,

done; the bed is too thin for this on the French coast.
‘There is no other bed of clay which can be chosen, for no
other goes right across the Channel. The Weald Clay of
the English coast disappears, or else vastly changes its
character before reaching the French coast. The Kimeridge
Clay of the French coast may not pass beneath the English
coast, and if it does so it would be at too great a depth to
be of use. Moreover, these clays contain beds of sand,
which if tapped by the tunnel would be, to say the least,
exceedingly troublesome.

The Chalk now remains to be considered. This, there is
no reason to doubt, passes evenly beneath the Channel from
shore to shore, and throughout it may be expected to
maintain its usual characters, subject only to the decrease
in thickness already noticed, The Chalk is well known to
be a water-bearing bed; all the deep wells near London get
their water from it. But in this respect it is not all alike.*
The Upper Chalk is more pervious to water than the Lower
Chalk, and in that the water does not pass at all readily
through the mass of the chalk, but runs along joints and
fissures, and especially along the lines of flint. In sinking
wells through the Chalk it is frequently found that water is
got at some of the bands of flint, whilst the intermediate
bands of Chalk are either without such water, or else allow
it to pass much more slowly.

In the drainage works at Norwich it was found that water
percolates slowly through the re-arranged chalk which occurs
there, but ‘“‘in the hard and undisturbed chalk the water
sooner disappears, although in larger quantities, through
the various joints and fissures, and along the horizontal
beds of flint, until it reaches the level of saturation.”

The following paragraph is of sufficient importance to be
reprinted here : t—

‘““The most important point in the sewerage works, as
bearing indirectly upon the excavation of the proposed
Channel Tunnel, is the fat that the chief difficulties
met with in engineering operations occurred beneath the
river level. Here the chalk and marl (re-arranged chalk)
are thoroughly saturated, and, at only 20 feet below the level
of the water in the river, it was found necessary to close-
timber the top and sides of the tunnel before the brickwork
could be put in, on account of its giving way by the pressure
of water. The springs under the head of only 20 feet also

* These and similar questions are fully discussed by Mr. PresTwicuH in his
“ Water-Bearing Strata of London,” 1851; pp. 57 to 74, and 134 to 142.

+ J. E. TayLor and A. W. Morant: “The Water-Bearing Strata in the
Neighbourhood of Norwich. ‘ Geological Magazine,” vol. vil., p. 121, 1870.

1872.) Geology of the Straits of Dover. 219

boiled up with great force. On the contrary, above the
water level, driftways were driven hundreds of feet in length,
and left for months together without any timber shoring
being required. It requires little imagination to perceive
how great will be the pressure of water, and how immense
the difficulties arising from it in the proposed Channel
Tunnel excavated beneath 20 or 30 fathoms of water,
and through a bed of hard chalk, doubtless abounding in
joints and fissures. It has been the low level, 20 feet
beneath that of the river, which has created the chief
engineering difficulty and expense attending the sewerage
works at Norwich.”

If the foregoing description of the works at Norwich may
be taken as a fair example of what would occur beneath the
Channel, of course it is idle to think of driving a tunnel
more than 20 miles long through such rocks, the whole of
the water met with having probably to be raised to the
surface by pumping. But there is no reason to think that
the Chalk beneath the Channel will resemble this; rather is
there every reason to think that it will be very different
from it.

In the first place we must remember that these Norwich
works were in the Chalk-with-flints, wherein water is some-
times abundant along certain lines. They were carried on
very little below the river, and consequently any small joints
or fissures would serve to convey the river-water down;
whereas with a larger mass of rock above the works the
joints and fissures might die out, or give place to others
along different lines, and thus the water-channels would not
be continuous.

But there has been no proposal to carry a tunnel through
the Chalk-with-flints. It is proposed to make it mainly, if
not entirely, through the iower part of the Chalk-without-
flints, which is not itself a truly permeable bed. Indeed,
even if it were fully charged with water, as probably it
would be, it would yield only a small quantity of that water
from its own mass; almost the whole of the water met
with in the tunnel would enter by joints and fissures.

Joints and fissures in rocks are not formed as open cracks
in the rocks; they become so by the incessant passage of
water along them. Wherever water is passing through a
jointed or fissured rock, especially if that rock be calcareous,
it is gradually enlarging the cracks, and is rendering the
passage of water more easy. But if the rock be beneath
the sea, although it may be fully charged with water, this
water may not, and probably would not, pass through it; hence

220 Geology of the Straits of Dover. (April,

there would be no tendency for the joints to increase in width.
They would probably be closed cracks, not always easily
detected, even by a tunnel intersecting them. In a similar
manner we would not expect to find openings or small
caverns in the Chalk, such as well-sinkers sometimes meet
with ; for these also are caused by the incessant passage of
water wearing away the chalk more along certain lines than
others.

There is one other point connected with this subject which
may be noticed here. It was said above that a deep well sunk
through the Chalk would certainly meet with the bed next
below it, but might not pass through the whole series of
rocks if continued to a greater depth. The reason of this is,
that under the north of France and the south-east of
England there is a ridge of Palzozoic rocks, a part of
which is exposed in the Bas-Boulonnais. It has been
found in the deep well at Calais, and in wells at Harwich
and Kentish Town. So far as is known the Chalk series
is always perfect above it; some of the Gault is also
found, but below that we may come directly on to the older
rocks; or there may be a thickness, great or small, of the
Lower Greensand and underlying beds.

As this ridge of old rocks is always, as far as is known,
well below the Chalk, it is almost certain that a tunnel
driven through the Chalk would not meet with it. But a
tunnel driven through the underlying beds might do so. It
is not at all likely that such would be the case, for on the
French coast there isa good thickness of Oolitic strata above
the old rocks. Apparently these old rocks are more deeply
covered up by secondary strata as we pass westwards.

But if the Palaozoic rocks were met with in the tunnel
it would probably not cause any inconvenience in the work.
Perhaps it might turn out to be a verv great advantage ; for
where these rocks have been reached in wells no water has
been obtained. It may be that these rocks are destitute of
water, certainly the water that they contain, if any, does
not rise in the wells; and hence the wells and borings
referred to have failed as sources of water-supply, although
the information they give is of great interest and importance.

It is not likely that any tunnel crossing the Straits of
Dover would meet with these old rocks; yet, as they are
known to underlie the Chalk at no great depth, they may
prove of great service; for if the shafts, which will be sunk
on both coasts in starting the tunnel, were carried down
well into the old rocks, the water might pass from the
tunnel, down the shafts, into these old rocks, and there
disappear.

April, 1872.
Plate V.

Quart. Fourn. Sci.

2,

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1872.] Geology of the Straits of Dover. 221

What is here suggested is often done on a small scale,
where a dry mass of rock is known to underlie the surface.
In quarries the water which collects in the bottom, being
perhaps held up by an impervious bed of clay, immediately
beneath the stone that is worked, is often got rid of by boring
a hole down to a lower porous bed which contains no water.
Of course this fa¢t must first be ascertained, or the boring
may bring up more water into the quarry. All well-sinkers
are, however, familiar with the faét that water found ina
well at one stratum is often lost if the well be continued
further down ; and therefore they often rest content with a
comparatively small supply, rather than continue the well
further down, and thus risk losing the whole.

Wet lands, overlying chalk or other limestones, are often
drained by sinking a pit to such rocks, and conducting the
surface drains into the pit. Town sewage has been disposed
of in a similar manner, perhaps to be again pumped up by
neighbouring deep wells.

Whether or not the Palzozoic rocks will carry off water
in the way here suggested can easily be ascertained by ex-
periment. If they tail to do so, then the water must be
raised to the surface by pumping. If they do thus carry off
water, there will not only be an immense saving in the cost
of pumping, but, what is of far greater importance, there
will be no danger of a great influx of water drowning out
the tunnel.*

One great danger anticipated by some people in driving a
tunnel beneath the Straits of Dover is, that of meeting with
some great fault, or enormous dislocation of the strata, to
which they suppose the formation of the Straits to be due.
‘There is, however, not the slightest evidence to warrant any
such anticipation. So far as we can judge from a study of
the shores the chalk seems to pass evenly across the
channel-bed, and such examinations of that bed as have
béen undertaken tend to confirm this opinion. ‘The Straits
of Dover have been worn through by the slow and long-
continued action of the waves. It is, however, very likely
that at one time, when the land stood at a higher level, and
before the sea had eaten out the Straits, that a river ran
from south to north through the chalk escarpment, which
then stretched across from Folkestone to Wissant. The
higher streams of this old river are the Rother on the

* I do not wish much importance to be attached to these suggestions; for
the rocks may be full of water and yet yield no rising water to wells; or they
may be comparatively dry and yet so compact in structure as to prevent water
from passing readily through them.

222 Geology of the Straits of Dover. (April,

English side, the Wimereux and the Slack on the French
side. Perhaps at that time, or at a still earlier period, the
South Downs also stretched across the Channel, to join the
chalk escarpment on the south of Boulogne. Between the
North and South Downs there would be a mass of high
land, ranging nearly east and west, jeining the high cliffs of
Fairlight with those of La Créche.

The North Downs are now cut through by several rivers
which drain the Weald; they are from east to west,—the
Stour, the Medway, the Darent, the Mole, and the Wey.
Whatever causes may have formed their valleys will also
have formed the old valley in the Straits of Dover, which
we may call that of the Rother. But there is no evidence
to prove that any one of these valleys owes its formation to
disruption of the strata; they have all been wholly excavated
through the solid rocks by the rivers which run in them.
We have, therefore, no reason to suppose that the Straits
of Dover has been caused by faults or dislocations. On the
contrary, we have every reason to suppose that the beds
range uninterruptedly across from shore to shore.

There is probably no geological formation in England
through which more tunnels or deep cuttings have been
made than through the Chalk. All the railways, in ap-
proaching London, from the north, west, or south, must pass
the Chalk escarpment; and although advantage has usually
been taken of valleys which break through the escarpment,
yet in many cases tunnels have been necessary. These
tunnels and deep cuttings are generally driven through the
lower beds of the Chalk,* the same as those through which it
is proposed to take the Channel Tunnel. There are hun-
dreds of wells in the London district which penetrate more
or less deeply into the Chalk.

There is, therefore, abundance of information available as
to the kind of work which must be undertaken. All these
tunnels and cuttings are, however, driven above the sea-
level, and similar works undertaken below the sea may meet
with far greater difficulties. But this is not at all sure to
be the case. The lower beds of chalk beneath the sea may
contain no more water than those beneath the neighbouring
shores.

There are numerous cases in the mining districts, both of
metal and coal, in which the workings are carried far out

* Some of these were described in a Paper by Mr. S. HuaGues, ‘ On Chalk
Excavations, and on the Means adopted under Different Circumstances of
Intersecting the Great Chalk Ridges of England, for the Purposes of Railway
and Canal Communication.” Civ. Eng. and Arch, Journ., vol. ii., p. 207, June,

1839.

1872.] Geology of the Straits of Dover. 223

below the bottom of the sea; yet it is only in exceptional
cases that an extra quantity of water is met with in such
workings; often, indeed, the workings are drier beneath
the sea than beneath the land. Faults, too, are cut in the
coal-workings beneath the sea, as beneath the land; but
these give no more trouble and yield no more water in the
one case than in the other. The same fault is frequently
cut several times in parallel lines of workings.

To sum up the main geological points of this paper :—
We have seen that the Chalk, the Gault, and the Folkestone
Beds, have the same charaé¢ters on both shores of the
Channel, and that they may fairly be assumed to pass
evenly across the bed of the Channel. The beds below
the Folkestone Beds differ on opposite sides of the Channel,
and we have no means of telling how these various beds run
beneath the Channel, nor their probable thickness at different

oints.

: Any tunnel driven through beds lower than the Folkestone
Beds would therefore be undertaken with this disadvantage,
that there would nowhere be any certainty as to the rocks
which would have to be pierced. Of this, however, we may
be quite sure,—that the water-bearing beds of these rocks
would be fully charged with water, and that they are of such
a nature that water would be discharged in large quantities
into the tunnel.

A tunnel driven through the Chalk would have this ad-
vantage,—that it could certainly be taken through the
Lower Chalk for most, if not all, the way; and though the
Chalk itself may be fully charged with water, yet it would
not readily discharge that water into the tunnel, except
through fissures ; and we have every reason to suppose that
such fissures would be far less common and of far less
importance than those met with in Chalk above the sea-
level.

Lastly, there is no reason to suppose that any great fault
will be met with during the progress of the work.

( 224 ) [April,

Ve “THE GOLD + COINAGE:
ee right of coining in England, as in other countries,

has always been the privilege of the Crown, and a
national gold coinage begun with Henry III., but
before that time gold pieces of money known as “‘ byzants,”
of the value of about ten shillings, were coined at Constanti-
nople and circulated freely in England. At a subsequent
period ‘‘ florences” were circulated in the same way, their
name being derived from the fact that they had been struck at
Florence. English gold coins have borne various names at
different times. The ‘‘ noble” of the reign of Edward III.
was followed by the ‘‘ angel” and “‘ rose noble,” or “‘rial,” of
Edward IV.; then came the ‘‘ double rial,” or ‘‘ sovereign,”
of Henry VII., and the ‘‘ laurel” of James I.; the latter coin
was adopted by Charles II. at the Restoration, and afterwards
became known as the “‘ guinea.” The present “‘ sovereign ”
was issued by a proclamation, dated July 1st, 1817, under the
authority of the latter part of section ii. of the Act of 56 of
George III., cap. 68, passed in 1816. Its standard of fine-
ness is 22 parts fine gold and 2 parts alloy; as it is impos-
sible to obtain an exact admixture of metals in coining, a
“‘margin” has at all times been allowed to Mint masters ;
this margin of departure from the standard for gold coins is
at present fixed by law at 2 parts per 1000. There is also a
“‘margin ” permitted by law of departure from the standard
weight, but modern improvements in machinery have per-
mitted this departure to be confined within very narrow
limits, although in former days it seems to have been used
to some extent in defraying the expenses of coining. The
present standard weight of a sovereign is 123°27447 grains,
and the variation from the standard weight permitted by law
is 1°6 in each 1000 parts.

Any person may take gold of not less than standard fine-
ness to the Mint, and the Mint is bound to return for it the
same weight in coin. The gold so ‘‘imported,” as it is
technically termed, must be accompanied by a “‘ trade assay
report,” stating its degree of purity, and the importer or his
agent must be present to verify, with the Mint officers, the
weight of the importation. The bullion is then assayed at
the Mint, and if the importer does not object to the degree
of fineness thereby determined, it is melted with the proper
proportion of alloy, and coined. The ‘‘alloy” is copper.
Practically, however, the Bank of England is the only im-
porter of gold bullion, because the owners of ingots can

cy

1872.) Gold Coinage. 225

readily realise their value by selling them at the Bank,
which is compelled by the Bank Charter Act of 1844 to pur-
chase them at £3 17s. gd. per oz. If they took the gold to
the Mint they would get three-halfpence per ounce more for
it, but then there would be the delay of melting and coining,
and the disadvantage of receiving the money in sovereigns
instead of bank-notes: the latter might be carried away
in a purse, and the former might have to be carried away in
a sack. The Bank of England accepts gold in ingots,
weighing as a rule 200 ozs., from Rothschilds, Raphael and
Sons, Browne and Wingrove, and other large houses, and
they bear the “brands” of the said houses. The Bank of
England makes a profit of about £2000 on each million by
this three-halfpence per ounce.

As regards light gold coins, the law is that any person
who is tendered such, “shall, by himself or others, cut,
break, or otherwise deface, any such coin tendered to him in
payment.” Light gold is received by the Mint at the same
rate as ingots. As only the Bank of England and a few
other bodies comply with the requirements of the A, it is
to be feared there is much light gold in circulation, whereby
the public will be the losers. Formerly coins were
““ sweated” by attrition or by being shaken together in large
quantities in a bag; but comparatively recently the aid of
electricity has been invoked, and precious metal is removed
from coins by ele¢tro-dissolution. An interesting case of this
kind was tried at the Central Criminal Court, January 31st,
1870.

The operations of the Mint may be divided into two
classes—the metallurgical and the mechanical.

After the ingots reach the Mint from the Bank of England,
the mechanical methods of turning them into sovereigns are
very simple, although the machinery employed is necessarily
made to do its work with the greatest precision and accu-
racy. The gold is first melted in a crucible about as big as
a man’s hat, then it is poured into moulds, whereby it is
made into bars 24 inches long and half an inch deep. These
bars are then rolled cold, by different sets of rollers, till they
each form a band. These bands are then forcibly dragged
between two motionless surfaces of steel to bring the band
to a standard thickness, from which “ blanks ”’ for sovereigns
can be punched. After the little blank discs are punched,
they are passed through a machine which raises but does
not mill their edges. Inthe next machine the sovereign is
finished by stamping, and the one blow both impresses the
effigies and dates and mills the edges. Next they are

WGI. FL. (N.S.) 2G

226 Gold Coinage. (April,

weighed by automatic machinery, which separates those
which are of wrong weight from those which come within
the limit of error permitted by law, and the former are sent
back to the melting-pots to go all through the processes
again. At various stages in these operations the gold has to
be assayed by the Chemist of the Mint. The melting and
rolling processes are of much the same character as making
rails for railways, only the process with regard to gold is
more delicate and exact; there are also special precautions
to prevent loss of metal.

The ingots are assayed when they first reach the Mint,
and then the amount of fine gold or of copper to be added to
them, to bring them to the standard required by law, is cal-
culated by a rule-of-three sum. Copper is used as the alloy.
About 1200 ozs. of gold and alloy are sent to each melting-
pot, and this operation is called ‘‘ potting the ingots.” It is
advisable to consider the various processes in greater detail,
and commencing with the operation of melting, it may be
observed that there are seven furnaces at the Mint which are
used for the fusion of the gold, each 1 foot square and 2 feet
deep to the top of the bars. The melting-pot is made of a
mixture of Stourbridge clay and plumbago ; it is 9+ inches
deep and 7 inches in inside diameter at the top. The potis
placed in the furnace on a bottom which rests on two bars,
then it is covered by its muffle and lid, and surrounded by
fuel, which gradually heats the pots to redness; the ingots
are then placed in it, and the alloy added through a funnel.
When the whole mass is melted, the foreman stirs it witha
rod made of plumbago and clay, and can tell by the feel
when the metal reaches that particular state of viscosity
which causes it, when moulded, to form a workable bar.
The firing is then poked out, the muffle and lid of the pot
removed, the pot lifted out with a tongs, and by suitable
means supported by a loop of iron and a cord hanging from
the ceiling. Before the melting, pieces of charcoal are
placed in the bottom of the pot, for the purpose of reducing
any oxide which may be present in the alloy, for copper will
dissolve oxide of copper, and oxide of copper often makes the
gold very brittle. This charcoal afterwards floats on the
top of the melted gold, and a piece of stick held at the
mouth of the pot whilst pouring into the moulds, stops the
charcoal but not the gold. Each pot of gold forms seven
bars. The moulds are made of cast-iron, and a large
number, about twenty, of these moulds are mounted on a
tram, which can be moved from one part of the building to
another on rails. Each bar is marked to show from what

1872.] Gold Coinage. 227

pot it was poured; it is also marked with a letter which
indicates the date of moulding. Bars for sovereigns are 2 feet
long, I°375 inches broad, 3 inch thick, and have an average
weight of 180 ozs. Troy. Bars for half-sovereigns are 2 feet
long, 1°125 inches broad, 4 inch thick, and weigh 170 ozs.
Troy. Assay pieces are cut from each bar, and so labled as
to show from which bar they come. The assay piece is
flattened out, and from a bar a piece is cut, which is sent
to the Assayer of the Mint.

The bars next have to be rolled. They are passed be-
tween steel rollers about seven times, the distance between
the two rollers being reduced each time, and the mechanical
arrangements are such that this rolling greatly lengthens
the bar and reduces it to a band, but does not materially
increase its breadth. Owing to the wear of the moulds in
which the casting is done, the bars are never of exactly the
same size. After the process of rolling, the resulting bands
are very hard. Their ends are sheared off, and then they
are 20 inches long.

The sheared bands, if for half-sovereigns, have next to be
annealed. They are placed in copper tubes made without
solder, and the ends of the tubes are luted on with clay.
These tubes are then placed on an iron carriage, and run
into the furnace, in which they are left for twenty minutes.
Then the hot tubes are plunged into cold water as quickly
as possible, with the bands inside. This rapid cooling pre-
vents the oxidation of the copper; also, if they were cooled
slowly, the gold would become so pasty and soft as to stick
to the machinery. The bands are then rolled a little more,
and passed through the last or ‘“‘ gauging” mill. Now
and then the workman at this mill will punch a blank
sovereign out of the fillet, and weigh it, to see that he is
giving the fillets the right thickness, and he has the power
of accurately adjusting small differences in distance between
the rollers.

The fillets after being weighed are taken to the ‘‘ drag”
room, for they are not made of uniform thickness by simple
rolling. The ends of the fillet are then passed to the extent
of 2 inches through the rolls of a flatting mill. Then the
fillet is passed to the draw-bench, where it is dragged be-
tween two pieces of steel, soas to become of the exact gauge.
The flattened end is first put between the pieces of steel ; an
iron “dog” then bites hold of the end, and drags the rest
of the fillet through the opening. ‘The rolling mills and the
dragging machinery are, of course, all driven by a steam-
engine. After the fillets have passed the draw-bench, they

228 Gold Coinage. [April,

are cut into lengths of 18 inches, and sent to the ‘‘ trier,”
who punches out one or two blanks from each length, and
weighs it or them very carefully, and he allows for a slight
loss which will afterwards arise from annealing. The fillets
are next taken into the cutting-out room, where the blanks
for sovereigns are punched from them ; the rest of the fillet
then looks like a ribbon full of round holes, and these perfo-
rated bands or ‘‘ scissel” are returned to the melting-pots.

The ‘blanks are frequently examined, to see that their
edges are smooth, and they are frequently weighed: this
part of the operations is called ‘‘ pounding.” ‘They are then
put into bags in batches of about 720 ounces. Afterwards
they are ‘‘rung” by boys, to sort out those which may be
dumb or cracked. Cracked blanks are caused by bubbles of
air enclosed in the metal at the time it is cast into bars.
Next the blanks are taken to the edge-compressing machine,
which rolls each blank with slight pressure, so as to give a
“collar” to it. This machine rolls 700 blanks per minute.
The blanks are afterwards annealed in copper tubes,
2804 being placed in each tube; the lids of the tubes
are luted with clay, and then they are placed in a re-
verberatory furnace for about twenty minutes. They are
then taken out, and when they are at a.very low red heat,
or at a temperature lower than that at which copper com-
bines readily with oxygen, the tubes are plunged into a
cistern of cold water. When the tubes are cold the blanks
are removed, and after drying in sawdust they are ready
for transmission to the coining-press.

The old atmospheric presses of Watt and Boulton are
still in use at the Mint, and the obverse and reverse of the
coin, as we]l as the milling of the edge, is completed at one
operation. These old presses, which have done their work
for so long a time, certainly are efficient, and there is no
doubt that—looking to the nature of the coins produced by
them—they leave but little to be desired; but a report of a
Commission which visited the various Mints of Europe states
that in all the European Mints visited, with the exception
of Constantinople, the coining is performed by lever presses
of German or French construction. The noise of the old
atmospheric press is deafening, and doubtless the advantages
and disadvantages of substituting the lever press for it will
be duly weighed. And here we might venture to suggest
that the designs on the coinage do at least admit of a
somewhat more artistic treatment than that shown on
the coins now in circulation. It should be remembered,
however, that within the last two years Pistrucci’s beautiful

1872.) Gold Coinage. 229

design of St. George and the Dragon has again been restored
to the sovereign.

The last mechanical operation to which the finished coins
are subjected is the weighing, which is performed by auto-
matic balances devised by the late Mr. Cotton. It is impos-
sible to describe these beautiful machines without the aid
of diagrams; it will be sufficient to state that the coins are
not only weighed, but are divided into three classes, the
light, the heavy, and those which are either of standard
weight or are within the ‘‘ remedy” or allowance permitted
by law.

Formerly the law directed that the ‘‘ remedy” should be
on a pound weight of the coins, but the Coinage Act of 1870
specified the actual legal weight of each individual coin,
and rendered it necessary that each separate piece when
issued, instead of each pound weight of pieces, should be
within the limits of weight and fineness assigned to it: for
instance, the weight of the sovereign is, as has been already
stated, 123°2747 grs., and the variation permitted is 2-1oths
of a grain above or below this weight.

It will be evident that in aCtual working a considerably
smaller ‘“‘ remedy” must be used in order to render it im-
possible for a coin, the weight of which exceeds the
prescribed limits, to pass into circulation. It will be evi-
dent to all who are familiar with the small dimensions of a
weight which represents the 1-1oth of a grain, that the at-
tainment of accuracy in coinage must be attended with
many difficulties. It is nevertheless the fact that the aggre-
gate weight of the coins representing many millions in value
does not exhibit a greater variation than I oz. from the
exact standard.

It must be remembered that the law also directs coins to
be produced of an alloy the true composition of which is
rigorously guarded; therefore the most important chemical
operations of the Mint is the process of assaying. A piece
of metal is first brought to the exact weight by cutting or
filing : each weighed portion is then added to molten admix-
tures of lead and silver contained in porous cups or ‘‘cupels”
of phosphate of lime, which are arranged in rows in a
muffle or small oven. The proportions of the latter metals
are calculated so as to bear a definite relation to the sup-
posed amount of gold and base metals present in the alloy.
The lead oxidises and is absorbed by the porous “‘ cupel,”
together with the copper and other oxidisable metals, and
the silver and gold remain in the form of a button, which
may also contain platinum, iridium, or metals possessing

230 Gold Coinage. [April,

similar properties. The button is reduced by rolling to a
thin strip, which is annealed and bent into a loose coil or
“‘cornet.” The cornet is placed in nitric acid of the specific
gravity of 1°25, and the acid is maintained at incipient
ebullition for fifteen minutes; the coil is then treated in a
similar manner with nitric acid of the specific gravity of 1°4,
the result being that the silver is removed by the action of
the acid, and the gold remains in a spongy state. The
sponge of the gold retains the original form of the coil, but
it is necessary to impart a certain degree of coherence to
the metal by annealing it at a dull red heat. A small quan-
tity of silver is invariably retained with the gold. It is
necessary therefore to make check assays on the pure gold,
or on standards of known composition, upon which the
accuracy of the result will in a great measure depend. The
concluding process consists in weighing the gold cornet.
The weights employed beara decimal relation to the original
weight of the assay piece operated upon, and the amount of
gold therefore present in the alloy is at once indicated with-
out further calculation.

Analysis of assay reports,* extracted from an official
memorandum by the Chemist of the Mint, shows that coins
taken from half a million of gold pieces, issued by the Mint
in the year 1870, had the following composition :—

; ; Per Mille of Gold.
a per centol the coins’contained . . 32 2) Ord

a0) PP oe 5 ote « « OOM

25 5 ¥s a oS ue fe oe (Once

29 . », were of exact standard 916°6

14 s 5» Contained i . . “+ sonar,

9 ns - Ae oe S| ee ORNS

8 i ‘rf Pe es 6 «2 “, “OllOng

2 AA 3 A toe Se HOES
100

Mean composition of the coins . | oe ae

I,000,000

That this result exhibits the attainment of a very high
degree of accuracy will be evident when it is remembered
that the allowance prescribed by law would have permitted
a variation, above or below the exact standard, of two parts
in the thousand.

* Appendix to First Annual Report of the Deputy Master of the Mint (1870).

1872.] Gold Coinage. 231

It is well to allude to a difficulty incidental to coining,
arising from the occasional brittleness of the gold alloy, which
is generally due to the presence of minute quantities of lead,
antimony, arsenic, or bismuth. Occasionally the use of
impure copper to alloy the gold introduced these other
metals, so very great care is taken in the selection of pure
samples of copper. Imperfect annealing will sometimes
make the gold brittle. The brittleness, however, is more
frequently due to the admixture of baser metals. There is
a remedy, however, for the evil, which is found to be the
most simple and efficacious. It consists in sending a stream
of chlorine gas through the molten alloy; the gas rapidly
acts upon the baser metals, combines with them, and the
chlorides are then driven off as vapour. In order to test the
process, an experiment was made on gold made brittle by
the addition of 0°05 per cent antimony and 0'05 per cent of
arsenic, making a total base alloy of o'r per cent, while 0°05
per cent of either metal would have produced very brittle
gold. By passing a stream of chlorine through this gold, for
33 to 4 minutes, it was converted into gold of excellent quality.

Formerly, when bars of gold were found to be unfit for
coinage, the impure metal was returned by the Mint to the
importer, and the original melters, who were held respon-
sible, not unnaturally objected to bear the loss. Now, in
consequence of the successful result of the above-mentioned
experiments, the Mint no longer rejects bars which during
the process of coining are proved to be brittle: thus all
vexatious disputes have been avoided.

Of late years there have beem many important changes in
the establishment of the Mint: of these probably the most
important was that effected in 1848, namely, the abolition
of the contract system, by which for many centuries the
Mint had been worked. The old ‘‘ Masters of the Mint”
were Contractors under the Crown, and their operations
were controlled by officers, the principal of whom were the
Warden and Controller, and the Assay Master, each exer-
cising independent functions, the Assay Master being
responsible to the Crown and to the people for the ‘‘ standard
fineness” of the coin.

After the abolition of the office of the “‘ Moneyers,” emi-
nent scientific men have held the office of Master of the
Mint. Now the office devolves upon the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and the appointment of an officer with the title
Chemist of the Mint proves that the scientific requirements
of the Department have been duly provided for ; indeed, the
Reports which lately have been presented to Parliament,

232 British Artillery Matériel. April,

while they abundantly show that the Department has un-
dergone a thorough re-arrangement,. also attest the fidelity
and accuracy with which the operations of coining are
conducted.

VI. BRIEF NOTES ON RECENT CHANGES IN
BRITISH ARTILLERY MATERIEL.

by Capt..o. P. .OLiver, Eh.G.s,
ee

N looking through the Extraéts of the Quarterly Report
al of Proceedings of the Department of the Director-
=> General of Ordnance (from vol. viil., part 1, to vol. ix.,
part 3), it will be observed that the labours of the various
committees have not been light or unsuccessful. The re-
sults of various experiments and proposals are given by at
least a dozen of these said committees, of whom the prin-
cipal are the following, viz., committees on mitrailleurs, on
torpedoes, on range-finders, on gunpowder and other explo-
sives, on ship’s deck and turret targets, on mountain artil-
lery equipment, on rifled shell guns for field service and
heavy rifled howitzers and mortars for vertical fire, on
Palliser’s method of strengthening cast-iron guns with in-
ternal tubes, on Palliser’s projectiles, on traversing arrange-
ments, on wads for preventing erosion of bore, on Moncrieff
carriages, on shells and percussion fuzes for field service, on
improvements of bronze, on proportions of ammunition for
ordnance and small arms to be maintained in fortresses at
home and abroad, besides Noble’s important electro-ballistic
experiments, and Majendie’s experiments relative to the
distance of cartridge-filling sheds, &c.

From an inspection of the reports of the above, it would
appear that the following results are noticeable as affecting
future warfare and modern requirements :—

I. The immediate introduétion into the service of the
small Gatling gun of 3 cwts., with musket-proof shields,
and to be drawn by two horses. ‘This gun is found to be a
most effective weapon in defending villages, field intrench-
ments, caponniéres, for covering the approach to bridges or
tétes-du-pont, for defending a breach, and for employment in
advanced trenches and field-works where economy of space
is important. For naval purposes these machine guns are
well adapted for use in the tops of vessels of war, for boat
operations, service up close rivers, &c.

1872.] British Artillery Matériel. 233

II. Gunpowder Service P.* (as the pebble-powder described
in the last number of the ‘‘ Quarterly Journal of Science” is
officially designated) is to be introduced for battering charges
of all rifled guns of 7-inch calibre and upwards, and for all
service-charges of 40 lbs. and upwards, so soon as a sufficient
quantity has been manufactured.

III. Additional experimental proof of the special value of
compressed gun-cotton for demolition of stockades, bridges,
&c., and for submarine mines. Capt. Noble also proposes
to apply gun-cotton yarn as a fuze priming, it possessing the
advantage of consuming almost instantaneously, thus not
interfering with the burning of the fuse, whilst its sensitive-
ness makes ignition certain, even by the lowest charge.

IV. ‘‘ Picric powder” is not unlikely to be used in future.
It is an invention of the War Department chemist, Mr. Abel,
who has been designing this explosive agent specially pro-
vided for charging shells. This mixture is neither so violent
in its aétion as gun-cotton, nitroglycerine, or picrate of
potash powder, but at the same timeis a much more power-
ful explosive than gunpowder, and has other properties
which appear to render it peculiarly adapted for employment
in shells; it is readily and expeditiously prepared, can be
pressed and granulated without difficulty, andat the same time
is particularly remarkable for its safety as compared with all
other explosive agents; it is, in fact, somewhat less sensitive
to ignition by percussion than gunpowder. By recent expe-
riments made it appears that picric powder, when used as a
bursting charge for Palliser shells, will sustain the action of
battering charges of R.L.G. powder in guns up to and in-
cluding the g-inch of 12 tons: the safety of this substance is
being further tested from 10-inch and 12-inch guns.

V. The last explosive compound to be noticed, as likely
to take no small part in future warfare, is Kreb’s patent
* lithofracteur,” which is in use in the Prussian service.
From Mr. Abel’s analysis it appears to be composed as
follows :—

PCLOSIVCERING 5 ny ee 6 eats

Riteepe ere sodae yo... ee Serial st ee he
SUG i Sa ies Moai dali hide slnenat as ”

Sand, siliceous earth, sawdust, and
EGarsely-powdered coal. . 9. : 20" ‘5,
TOON 755

* See ‘Modern Cannon Powders,” Quart. Journ. of Science for January,
1872, p. 58.
VOL. Il: (N.S.) 28

234 British Artillery Matériel. 7 (April,

The “ lithofra¢teur” differs from the nitroglycerine prepa-
ration called ‘‘ dynamite”’ chiefly in containing a proportion
of gunpowder constituents, viz., saltpetre, carbon, and sul-
phur, mixed up with the other ingredients. From the sam-
ples analysed it appears that this substance is crudely mixed,
varies considerably in composition, and possesses no im-
provement over dynamite. On the 2oth February, 1872,
some exceedingly instructive trials of this compound were
. made—by Professor Engels, of M. Kreb’s Cologne factory—
at Mr. France’s Breidden Quarry, on the banks of the
Severn, near Shrewsbury, before the W. O. Committee,
when it appears to have most favourably endured the various
tests, both chemical (to ascertain the fuming and explosive
points) and mechanical (to test its safety under heavy blows
and concussion) ; for instance, 5 lbs. of lithofracteur was
exposed to a fierce flame and consumed without explosion.
Cartridges of it were subjected to heavy blows, such as the
fall of round shot upon them, when the plastic substance,
although squeezed out, neither inflamed nor exploded.
Similarly, it was ignited by a Bickford fuse in confinement,
and inflamed without explosion. Naked cartridges fixed to
buffers of a railway truck, allowed to run on an incline into
violent collision with a stationary one, also failed to explode.
On the other hand, the same substance when fired with a
Bickford fuze and detonator, inthin zinc tubes 4} inches in
diameter, either against stockades, in mines, or under water,
exploded with inconceivable violence, the explosion in each
case being perfect. It was stated that M. Rietschoten has
conceived the bold proposition of cutting through a sand-
bank of 1500 yards breadth, off Rotterdam, and so forming
a deep channel through it by sinking tubing of that length
charged with 10 tons of lithofra¢teur. For the defence of
channels and entrances to our harbours nothing can be
imagined more effective. The serious objection against it
seems to be that, after keeping, the folds of thin paper of
the cartridge become saturated with nitro-glycerine, absorbed
from the material within, so that, according to Mr. Abel, in
the application of it the hands of the operators must become
soiled with that poisonous substance. No doubt this will
be obviated.

VI. For the better prevention of the erosion in the bores
of rifled guns, various descriptions of wads have been pro-
posed and experimented upon. The Royal Laboratory
paper wads appear to be objectionable on account of pieces
of them flying back in a state of ignition, which has, in the
case of the Bolton’s wads, been already supposed to account

1872.] British Artillery Matértel. 235

for a dangerous accident on board H.M.S. Minotaur, when a
14-lb. cartridge exploded in the hands of No. 3 of a detach-
ment, by which two men were severely burnt and eleven
others scorched and singed. A coating of Szerelemy’s Zo-
pissa cement applied to Bolton’s wads has also been found
impracticable, as it is found not to prevent them catching
fire and burning to a very dangerous extent. Col. Reilly
proposes a hempen wad with tin or copper edges, similar to
that used in the Prussian breech-loading rifled guns, which
has been found to effectually check the rush of gas over the
seat of the projectile. Capt. Noble has experimented on
several natures of wads, consisting either of tin cups with
short deep or split flanges, or of cowhide cups with similar
flanges, or a combination of cowhide and tin cup; the con-
clusion arrived at being against the tin cups, in consequence
of their tendency to fly about in front of the guns, whilst
the cowhide cups with deep flanges appeared to answer best
as agascheck. Although Major Bolton has succeeded in
making wads of an uninflammable material, it is found that
the scoring of the bore is not entirely prevented, and at pre-
sent the question of wads in any known form remains in an
unsatisfactory state.

VII. Although the traversing arrangements for naval guns
are such that heavy muzzle-loading rifled guns, at close
intervals, are worked with ease and rapidity between decks,
still hitherto on shore batteries—especially in casemates,
where there is more room than on board ship—the old luff
tackle traversing gear has been adhered to; and Sir Col-
lingwood Dickson, the Inspector-General of Artillery, con-
siders the present land traversing gear as utterly ineffective,
the guns moving so slowly that it is impossible to obtain
that rapidity of fire so absolutely necessary against ships
moving under steam. Mr. Cunningham’s ingenious training
gear, fitted outside the rear racer, has been found to interfere
with the convenient service of the gun; but a new system
of coupling two fore or two hind trucks together, and
driving by friction, the power being communicated by means
of bevelled and toothed gear, is now recommended for gene-
ral adoption: this plan possesses the great advantage of
having the gear wholly contained in the platform ; the mat-
ter is, however, of so much importance that the various
details must be well considered before patterns are sealed.

VIII. The facilitation of loading heavy guns is also a
question of importance, especially in bringing up the heavy
shell and placing it in the bore; consequently various alte-
rations have been made to shot-bearers and barrows, slings,

236 British Artillery Matériel. [April,

muzzZle-derricks, &c. With the same view it has been de-
cided to ease off the loading side of the grooves at the
muzzle, to facilitate the entry of the projectile into the
bore. This is done by cutting away the lands, and thus
widening the grooves to the extent of I inch, tapering down
to the original width of the groove in a length of 2 inches,
measured parallel to the axis of the bore, the corners being
well rounded off.

IX. Amongst other changes, necessitated by the intro-
duétion of pebble powder, have been the regraduation and
assimilation of Land-service and Sea-service tangent sights ;
and advantage has been taken of this opportunity to secure,
as fully as the various classes of projectiles will allow, the
introduction of an uniform system of applying the informa-
tion which is engraved on the sight bars; and as the slow-
motion elevating screw in tangent scales for land service is
abolished in sights for guns of 64-pounder calibre and up-
wards, the land and sea service sights for guns of these
natures will be interchangeable. Takethe 7-inch M. L., for
instance, the following information is to be found on the
hexagonal bar of its centre hind sight :—On one side is given
for double shell full range in yards, next common shell full
fuze, common shell full yards, Palliser shot or shell and
common shell battering yards, common shell battering fuze,
and double shell full fuze.

The above are, of course, only a very few of the numerous
alterations which are gradually changing the character of
our Artillery matériel; but these few desultory notes, in
which our heavy ordnance manufacture and trials between
targets and shot and shell are necessarily excluded, will
“serve to show that our factories are not at a standstill. It
is reported that Mr. Scott Russell has in hand a gun on an
entirely new principle, with whick he is going to astonish us.

1872.] ( 237 )
NOTICES. OF. BOOK’.

The Debatable Land between This World and the Next. With
Illustrative Narrations. By RoBerrt DALE Owen. London:
Triibner and Co.

SIXTEEN years ago the author of this book, then American
Minister at Naples, spent the evening of the 25th of March at
the house of the Russian Minister, Mons. K—, in the company
of several visitors from different parts of the world, among whom
were the Chevalier de F— (the Tuscan Minister) and his lady.
Madame K— introduced the subject of automatic writing; and
declared her conviction that some persons had the power of thus
replying correctly to questions, the true answers to which were
entirely unknown to them. It was proposed to try the experi-
ment; and each person present accordingly took pencil and
paper, and waited the result. After a few minutes one lady’s
hand began to move, making irregular figures on the paper.
Mr. Owen proposed that questions should be asked ; whereupon
Madame de F— said ‘* Who gave me these pins?” pointing to
three gold-headed pins that fastened her dress; adding “If
Mrs. M— can answer that I shall believe.” After a short time
the lady’s pencil slowly wrote out—(the last two words being
written backwards)—‘‘ The one that gives you a Maid and a
Cook. E.” Madame de F— turned pale, and cried ‘“ Magic, if
there be such a thing;” and then told the company that the
pins had been given her by her cousin Elizabeth, who lived at
Florence, and who at her request had sent her, a few days before,
a lady’s maid and a cook. Mr. Owen pondered over this strange
occurrence, and determined to get to the bottom of it. Mrs. M—
was not a Spiritualist. Madame de F— had only been a few
weeks in Naples, had not mentioned even her cousin’s name to
any one, and had the slightest possible acquaintance with
Mrs. M—, having only just exchanged cards with her. She ex-
pressed the strongest conviction that the three or four facts,
accurately stated in the few words written, could not possibly
have become known out of her own family. Mr. Owen was
then a complete sceptic; but this circumstance induced a course
of study which has been continued for fifteen years, and which
eventually changed the whole feelings and tenour of his life.
He is now a confirmed Spiritualist; that is, he not only believes
the phenomena to be real, but he has satisfied himself that they
furnish a sufficient proof of a future existence for man. Yet, it
may surprise some of our readers to hear, he is fully imbued with
the spirit and teachings of modern science; and his book is one
continued protest against the miraculous. He maintains that all
these phenomena happen under law, just as much as do the
various phenomena (many of them still inexplicable by science)

238 Notices of Books. [April,

presented by plants, animals, or man. He treats this question
seriously and dispassionately, as the great question of the age ;
which he may well do, since he claims that it furnishes an expe-
rimental proof of immortality. He writes with the earnestness
suited to such a theme, and with the sense of responsibility of
one who, by long and patient study, has arrived at important
truths of the highest value to his fellow men. Rationalism, he
tells us, cannot object to this belief, that it contravenes the doc-
trine of law; for its phenomena occur strictly under law: nor
yet that it assumes the existence, in spiritual matters, of that
direct agency of God which the naturalist finds nowhere in the
physical universe; for its revealings come to man mediately
only: nor yet that it is dogmatic, exclusive, or intolerant, as
Infallibility is; for its adherents adduce experimental evidence,
open to all men, and gleaned after the inductive method, for the
faith that is in them. He shows us how important it was for the
welfare of man that the belief in such phenomena should die out
when it did, and leave us free to develope the doctrine of law,
and to overthrow the very idea of infallible or absolute truth in
matters of religion. All the horrors of witchcraft, and all the
persecutions of priests, arose from the dogma of infallibility ;
for if that dogma had been true, persecution would not have been
a crime, but a duty. The world could not reach the fundamental
truths of these phenomena, or understand their real import, as
long as they believed in the devil and in their own infallibility.
Now, they are able to investigate the phenomena calmly, and
reason upon them logically; and it is a suggestive fact that a
large proportion of investigators are persons untrammelled by
dogmatic creeds, and fully imbued with the teachings of modern
science and philosophy. Mr. Owen thinks that the belief in
modern spiritualism is spreading as fast as can be wished, and
even faster than can be expected, considering that almost every
educated man is prejudiced against the very attempt to investi-
gate it. He well remarks, that the growth of any new-born
hypothesis so startling in character, resembles that of a human
being. During its infancy its suggestions carry small weight.
It is listened to with a smile, and set aside with little ceremony.
Throughout its years of nonage it may be said to have no rights
of property, no privilege of appropriation. Proofs in its favour
may present themselves from time to time, but they are not
deemed entitled to a judgment, by the rules of evidence; they
are listened to as fresh and amusing, but they have no legal
virtue; they obtain no official record; they are not placed to the
credit of the minor. An adolescent hypothesis is held to be
outside the limits of human justice.

One of the best features of the book, as a literary work, is the
distinctness with which each piece of evidence is presented, and
the fulness and logical force with which its teachings are dis-
cussed. This is so different from what is usual when ghost

1872.] Notices of Books. 239

stories are narrated (the authors appearing afraid to contemplate
the logical consequences of a story they yet maintain to be true)
that it will be well to give a few of the cases in outline, with the
author’s summing up at length, in order to see what a well-
educated and highly-intelligent man can say in favour of what is
generally considered to be an exploded superstition. Let us first
take an old but well-authenticated story. Lord Erskine related
to Lady Morgan (herself a perfect sceptic) the following personal
narrative. On arriving at Edinburgh one morning, after a con-
siderable absence from Scotland, he met, in the street, his father’s
old butler, looking very pale and wan. He asked him what
brought him to Edinburgh. The butler replied, ‘* To meet your
honour, and solicit your interference with my Lord, to recover a
sum due to me, which the steward at the last settlement did not
pay.” Lord Erskine then told the butler to step with him into a
bookseller’s shop close by, but on turning round again he was
not to be seen. Puzzled at this he found out the man’s wife,
who lived in Edinburgh, when he learnt for the first time that
the butler was dead, and that he had told his wife on his death-
bed that the steward had wronged him of some money, and that
when Master Tom returned he would see her righted. This Lord
Erskine promised to do, and shortly afterwards kept his promise.
Lady Morgan then says, “ Either Lord Erskine did or did not
believe this strange story: if he did, what a strange aberration
of intellect! if he did not, what a stranger aberration from
truth! My opinion is that he did believe it.” Probably hun-
dreds of readers of this narrative by Lady Morgan have said
with her, ‘‘ What a strange aberration of intellect!” and have
thought no more about the matter. Mr. Owen is not satisfied
with this careless mode of getting over a difficulty. His remarks
are as follows: ‘‘ What sort of mode to deal with alleged facts is
this? A gentleman distinguished in a profession of which the
eminent members are the best judges of evidence in the world—
a gentleman whom the hearer believes to be truthful —relates
what, on a certain day, and in a certain place, both specified, he
saw and heard. What he saw was the appearance of one, in life
well known to him, who had been some months dead. What he
heard, from the same source, was a statement in regard to
matters of which previously he had known nothing whatever;
which statement, on after enquiry, he learns to be strictly true ;
a statement, too, which had occupied and interested the mind of
the deceased just before his decease. The natural inference
from these facts, if they are admitted, is that, under certain cir-
cumstances which as yet we may be unable to define, those over
whom the death change has passed, still interested in the con-
cerns of earth, may, for a time at least, retain the power of
occasional interference in these concerns; for example, in an
effort to right an injustice done. But rather than admit such an
inference—rather than accept disinterested evidence coming

240 Notices of Books. | (April,

from a witness acknowledged to be sincere, and known to the
world as eminently capable—a lady of the world assumes to
explain it away by summarily referring the whole to the ‘ dog-
ears and folds of early impression!’ What human testimony
cannot be set aside on the same vague and idle assumption? It
is time we should learn that the hypothesis of spiritual interven-
tion is entitled to a fair trial, and that, in conducting that trial,
we have no right to disregard the ordinary rules of evidence.
Either Lord Erskine, one morning in Edinburgh, issuing from a
bookseller’s shop, met what wore the appearance of an old
family servant who had been some months dead—or else Lord
Erskine lied. Either Lord Erskine heard words spoken, as if.
that appearance had spoken them, which words contained a cer-
tain allegation touching business which that servant, dying, had
left unsettled—or else Lord Erskine lied. Either Lord Erskine
ascertained, by immediate personal interrogation of the widow,
that her husband, on his death-bed, had made the self-same alle-
gation to her which the apparition made to Lord Erskine—or
else Lord Erskine lied. Finally, either, as the result of this
appearance and its speech, a debt found due to the person whose
counterpart it was, was actually paid to his widow—or else Lord
Erskine lied. But Lady Morgan expresses her conviction that
Lord Erskine did not lie.”

“<n itself, the thing was a trifle. Thousands on thousands of
such cases of petty injustice occur, and pass away unnoticed and
unredressed. ‘To the widow it was, undoubtedly, of serious
moment; but I think no sensible man will imagine it a matter to
justify the direct interference of God. If so, and if Lord
Erskine spoke truth, an apparition is a natural phenomenon.”

How is such evidence as this refuted or explained away ?
Scores, and even hundreds, of equally well attested facts are on
record, but no attempt is ever made to explain them. They are
simply ignored, and, in many cases admitted to be inexplicable.
Yet this is not quite satisfactory, as any reader of Mr. Owen’s
book will be inclined to admit. ‘ Punch” once made a Yankee
debtor say—

‘‘ This debt I have repudiated long ago;

’Tis therefore settled. Yet this Britisher
Keeps for repayment worriting me still!”

So our philosophers declare that they have long ago decided
these ghost stories to be all delusion; therefore they need only
be ignored ; and they feel much “‘ worrited”’ that fresh evidence
should be adduced and fresh converts made, some of whom are
so unreasonable as to ask for a new trial on the ground that the
former verdict was contrary to the evidence Let us, however,
consider another case, the parties to which are intimately known
to our author, and whose character is vouched for as above
suspicion.

1872.] Notices of Books. 241

A young lady, Miss V., while at her aunt’s country mansion,
was, owing to press of visitors, asked to occupy a room believed
to be haunted. Miss V. accepted it willingly, being quite fearless.
Awaking in the night, she saw in her room a woman in old-
fashioned dress, who, after a little while, came towards her, and
seemed to try in vain to speak. Miss V. became frightened,
drew the clothes over her face, and when she looked again the
figure had disappeared. She then jumped up, and found the
door of her room locked on the inside. With the light of day
the impression somewhat faded; she began to think “she must
have imagined or dreamt it, and ina short time thought no more
of the ghost. Some time afterwards Miss V. met with a friend
interested in spiritualism, and had with her several séances. At
one of them an alleged spirit announced herself as Sarah Clarke,
a name unknown to both ladies. A communication was then
received to the effect that she had many years ago been house-
keeper in Miss V.’s family, and had ‘vainly endeavoured to com-
municate with the young lady while she was staying in the old
mansion; that her object was to confess a crime of which she
had been guilty, and to ask her old mistress’s pardon for it. She
had stolen some family plate, and begged Miss V. to tell her
aunt, and beg for her forgiveness. Next time Miss V. visited
her aunt, she ascertained that Sarah Clarke had been housekeeper
in the family thirty or forty years before,—that some plate had
mysteriously disappeared, but that Sarah was much trusted, and
was never suspected. The aunt declared that if Sarah Clarke
had taken it she freely forgave her. From that time the
haunted chamber was free from all disturbance. Mr. Owen
comments on this, as follows: ‘‘ Knowing the standing of the
parties I am able to vouch for the truth of this story. Let us
consider what it discloses as to the next world. ‘There is re-
pentance there as here. There is restless regret and sorrow for
grave sin committed while here. There is anxious desire for
pardon from those whom the spirit wronged during earth-life.
In other words, the natural effects of evil doing follow us to our
next phase of life; and, in that phase of life as in the present,
we amend, and attain to better things by virtue of repentance.

Another corollary is, that when such spiritual
phenomena present themselves, an endeavour to establish com-
munication with the manifesting spirit may result in benefit,
alike to a denizen of the other world and a disturbed inhabitant
of this. In this way Mrs. Propert (see p. 224), getting rid of the
midnight foot-falls, might have been in quiet possession of her
villa at this day. I invite attention also to the strong proof of
identity furnished by Miss V.’s story. The name of the house-
keeper was unknown to both ladies when her (alleged) spirit gave
the message. There was nothing to suggest such a name or
such a confession as was made. Yet on enquiry both name and
confession were found to correspond with facts that had taken

VOL. If. (N-S.) ; 2

242 Notices of Books. (April,

place thirty or forty years ago; to say nothing of a new fact,
tallying with all the rest—the cessation of the spiritual visits, as
soon as the visitor had no longer any motive to show herself.”

‘‘ How extraordinary,” many readers will exclaim, ‘‘ that a man
of Mr. Owen's ability should waste his time in discussing ghost
stories!” It is indeed extraordinary ; for do we not know all
about possible and impossible spirits? Our men of science and
our philosophers are not quite sure that a spirit is possible ; but
if possible, they are all quite clear that spzvits would never behave
in the ridiculously human way in which reputed ghosts invariably
act. Let us, therefore, refuse to listen to these ghost stories
told by people we know nothing of, and hear what Mr. Owen has
to tell us of the wonders he has himself witnessed.

He spent an immense deal of time in trying to discover that
gross imposture, the spirit rap, but in vain! For this purpose
he once lived for a week in a medium’s house, with full power to
investigate. He walked all over the house with the medium, but
the raps came everywhere. They sounded on the floor, walls, or
ceiling of every room, on every article of furniture, on doors and
windows, on the marble mantel-piece, and the steel grate. With
the same medium they occurred on board a steamer, on the stool
he sat on, on the keel of a small boat in the water, on the ground
out of doors, on trees, and on rocks by the sea-shore. With
every test that he could apply, he could find no physical cause
for these sounds. Sometimes they occurred as delicate tickings,
at others like blows of a sledge hammer—so tremendous that it
seemed impossible any article of furniture could resist them: yet
the table on which they resounded showed not a scratch! On
almost all these occasions the rooms were searched, the doors
were locked, and the mediums were held fast; yet Mr. Owen
could never find out the trick! How strange, when the thing is
said to be so simple that our men of science will not even take
the trouble to refute it !

In the matter of table-moving he had no more success. When
Faraday exposed table-turning, he remarked that experimenters
who thought tables even rose in the air should suspend them in
a balance, and see if the weight was affected by this supposed
force. Mr. Owen, at the suggestion of the late Dr. Robert
Chambers, did this. Together, they suspended a table, weighing
exactly 121 lbs., about 8 inches from the floor, by a powerful
steelyard: two mediums were present, whose feet and hands
were attended to; yet, without any contact whatever, the table,
when requested, became lighter, coming down to 60 lbs., having
thus lost half its weight: when requested to be made heavier it
weighed 144 lbs. What are we to make of this? ‘Two tho-
roughly reliable witnesses and a balance tell us one thing; but
men of science say it can’t be true: which are we to trust ?

Continuing his researches, Mr. Owen had sittings alone with
a medium. He examined the room, he locked and sealed the

1872.] Nottces of Books. 243

doors, and took with him privately marked slips of paper. He
held the medium's hands; yet writing was somehow effected on
the paper placed under the table, both in pencil and ink. Yet
more ; on one occasion he saw part of the writing done, by a
small luminous hand on the floor, holding the pencil. Cn this
experiment Mr. Owen remarks as follows: ‘‘ Were these sp:ritual
autographs? What else? Had I not seen one of them wr.tten ?
Had I not seen one of these slips rise higher than the table, and
sink back again? Had I not felt Kate’s two hands under mine
at the very time when that hand wrote and that paper rose and
fell? Did Kate write eight or ten lines with both her hands
clasped? Did I write them with my left hand without knowing
it? Or had Kate brought the slips ready written? I picked them
up, and examined them critically, one by one. My private mark
on one corner of each—letters of the German alphabet, written
in the German character—still there! What way out? Are the
senses of seeing, hearing, and touch, in sane healthy persons,
unworthy to be trusted? For me, common sense bars that way
out. I see nothing unlikely—not to say incredible—in the theory
that God may vouchsafe to man sensible proof of his immor-
tality. For others, to whom spiritual intercourse seems an
absurdity,—for those more especially to whom the hypothesis of
another life wears the aspect of a baseless dream,—let them
select their own path out of the difficulty. I think that, on any
path they may take, they will have to accept theories infinitely
less tenable than those they decide to reject.”

Mr. Owen also saw much of Mr. Foster, the medium who has
names written on his hands and arms. On one occasion
Mr. Foster extended his hand upon the table; it was perfectly
free from any mark whatever. Gradually a faint red mark ap-
peared on the wrist, which increased till it formed the letter F,
remained visible two or three minutes, and then faded away.
This was the initial letter of a name Mr. Owen had secretly
written on a piece of paper, and folded up tightly, and which was
mixed with about twenty others on the table. Dr. Carpenter
tells us (in a letter published in ‘“‘ The Spiritualist ” of March 1s,
p- 21) that this is done by first tracing the writing on the tense
skin with a hard point, and then rubbing the place to bring out
the red blush. But unless we are to believe that Mr. Owen and
the late Dr. Robert Chambers, as well as many other careful
observers who have narrated their experiences with Mr. Foster,
all make grossly false or imperfect statements, this explanation
by no means covers the fa¢ts; as will be admitted by all who
read Mr. Owen’s narrative or the evidence of Mr. E. L. Blanchard
given at page 135 of the ‘‘ Report of the Committee of the
Dialectical Society.”

Having seen so many inexplicable things himself, Mr. Owen
is quite ready to believe others, when they narrate their expe-
riences; yet he often takes an immense deal of trouble to test

244 Notices of Books. [April,

and confirm them, as is well shown in the marvellous story of
M. Bach and the old Spinet. To be properly understood this
must be read in the full detail given by Mr. Owen: in outline it
is as follows: Mons. Leon Bach purchased, at an old curiosity
shop in Paris, a very ancient but beautiful spznet, as a present to
his father, who is a great-grandson of the Bach, and is a com-
poser and musical amateur. The next night the elder Bach
dreamt that he saw a handsome young man, dressed in old court
costume, and who told him that the spinet had been given to him
by his master King Henry. He then said he would play on it an
air, with words composed by the King, in memory of a lady he
had greatly loved: he did so, and M. Bach woke in tears, touched
by the pathos of the song. He went to sleep again; and on
waking in the morning was amazed to find on his bed a sheet of
paper, on which was written, in very old characters, both words
and music of the song he had heard in his dream. It was said
to be by Henry III., and the date inscribed on the spinet was a
few years earlier. M. Bach, completely puzzled, showed the
music to his friends, and among them were some spiritualists,
from whom he heard, forthe first time, their interpretation of the
phenomena. Now comes the most wonderful part of the history.
M. Bach became himself a writing medium; and through his
hand was written, involuntarily, a statement that inside the
spinet, in a secret niche near the key-board, was a parchment,
nailed to the case, containing the lines written by King Henry
when he gave the instrument to his musician. The four-line
stanza, which it was said would be found on the parchment, was
also given, and was followed by the signature— Baldazzarini.
Father and son then set to work to search for this hidden scroll ;
and after two hours’ close examination found, in a narrow slit, a
piece of old parchment about eleven inches by three, containing,
in very old writing, nearly the same words which M. Bach had
written, and signed—Henry. This parchment was taken to the
Bibliothéque Impé€riale, and submitted to experienced antiquarians,
and was pronounced to be an undoubtedly genuine autograph of
Henry III.

This is the story; but Mr. Owen is not content with ascer-
taining these facts at first hand, and obtaining photographs of
the spinet and the parchment, of both of which he gives good
representations. He also sets himself to hunt up historical
confirmation of the story, and after much research and many
failures, he finds that Baltasarini was an Italian musician, who
came to France in 1577, and was in great favour with Henry III.;
that the King was passionately attached to Marie de Cleves, who
became wife of the Prince de Condé; and that several of the
allusions to her in the verses corresponded to what was known
of her history. Other minute details were also found to be
historically accurate.

Mr. Owen then carefully discusses the nature of the evidence,
the character of the persons concerned, and the possibility of

#

1872.) Notices of Books. 245

deception. M. Bach is an old man of high character; and to
suppose that he, suddenly and without conceivable motive,
planned and carried out a most elaborate and complicated
imposture, is to suppose what is wholly incredible; but Mr.
Owen shows further, that the circumstances are such that
M. Bach could not have been an impostor, even had he been so
inclined, and concludes by remarking: ‘I do not think dispas-
sionate readers will accept such violent improbabilities. But if
not, what interesting suggestions touching spirit-intercourse and
spirit-identity connect themselves with this simple narrative of
M. Bach’s spinet!”’

Recurring to Mr. Owen’s own experiences, perhaps the most
astounding is his account of the gradual formation of an appa-
rition, distin¢tly visible to several spectators. Every precaution
was taken to render trick or imposture impossible; yet if so,
what marvel of modern science is equal to this? What natural
phenomenon so worthy of investigation! Our author’s remarks
on this case will sufficiently indicate its nature. -He says: ‘“‘ My
faith in the reality of this appearance is not at all shaken by re-
flecting that a Signor Blitz, or a Robert Houdin, having a theatre
at command, arranged with ready entrances and exits, with
practical trap-doors, with dark lanterns in the wings, with the
means of producing dissolving views, could , probably reproduce
all I witnessed. But here were a few ladies, in private life and
in moderate circumstances, quietly meeting in two apartments
which were daily used as schocl-rooms by one of their number,
containing not even arecess where a chair could be hidden away,
They meet to satisfy a laudable curiosity, admitting visitors now
and then by courtesy only. No remuneration is demanded, nor,
very surely, would any have been accepted. They meet, on this
occasion, at my request, after having discontinued their researches
for months, vexed with unjust suspicions. They allow us to lock
every exit, after a close examination of the rooms. Here is
neither motive nor opportunity—to say nothing of qualification—
for deception. The coin of the realm may be counterfeited, but
the coiners must have professional skill, an appropriate location,
and expensive machinery. Nordo counterfeiters ply their unholy
calling except with the prospect of large gains. Certain it is
that I beheld the gradual formation of the figure; that I witnessed
its movements; that I received from its hand an actual flower ;
that I saw the figure disappear. Add to this, that the place of
its disappearance was illuminated by invisible agency, in answer.
to an unexpressed thought of mine.” .

We may particularly commend to the sceptical reader’s atten-
tion the very full account of the bell-ringings at Major Moor’s,
at Greenwich Hospital, and other places, continuing for months,
and baffling all attempts to find a cause for them; to the dis-
turbances at Lydersterne Parsonage, continued for sixty years;
and to many others, none of which have ever been explained.

246 Notices of Books. (April,

Mr. Owen is not content to let these matters rest (with the scep-
tical), or contemptuously to ignore them (with the scientific); but
actually imputes them to spirits, whose agency he believes is
proved by other evidence, of the nature of which we have already
given some examples. This evidence, taken as a whole, proves,
he thinks, that there is not habitual intercourse between the two
worlds; that we seem, probably, something like apparitions to
those spirits who visit us; that they often seek communion,
from affection or from other motives; that they have difficulties
in reaching us,—difficulties wisely interposed, because, if spiritual
intercourse were as common as earthly communion, we should
many of us be dissatisfied with our lot, and neglect our earthly
duties. ‘They seek from time to time to visit us. But coming
from their world of spirits, invisible to ordinary sight, inaudible
by ordinary speech, how are they to make their presence known ?
How are they to attract our attention? In what manner does a
traveller, arriving under cloud of night before a fast-closed man-
sion, seek to reach the in-dwellers—seek to announce his
presence? Is it not by KnocxinG or Rineginc?” This is our
author's reply to sneers at ‘‘rapping” and ‘ bell-ringing ”
phenomena.

We have devoted so much space to a sketch of Mr. Owen’s
book, because, in the first place, it merits notice as a literary
work of a high class; and in the second, it brings prominently
before us what is either the most gigantic and mysterious of
delusions or the most important of truths. In either case it de-
serves a full and fair discussion. Neither is such a subject out
of place in a scientific journal, for, in whatever light we view it,
it is really a scientific question. If a fallacy or a delusion, it is
of so wide-spread a nature, and influences such numbers of well-
educated and even scientific men, that we have a right to demand
of science a full and satisfactory exposure of it. If a truth, then
it is certainly, as Mr. Owen maintains, a science of itself; a new
science, and one of the most overwhelming importance in its
bearings upon philosophy, history, and religion. It is now be-
coming almost a common thing to acknowledge that there is a
certain amount of truth in the facts; with a proviso, always, of
the writer’s repudiation of the spiritual theory. For my own
part, the only thing that makes the facts credible on evidence zs
the spiritual theory. Mr..A., or Prof. B.,- or DritC7, "may state
that they know certain of the facts are true, but that all these
facts can be explained without calling in the aid of spirits.
Perhaps they can. But why should I, or any other reader, accept
A., B., or C.’s facts, and reject Mr. Owen’s, when the former are
not one whit more intrinsically probable, or supported by one iota
better testimony, than the latter? Yet these latter actually force
upon us the spiritual theory, just as the facts of Geology force
upon us the belief in long series of ancient living forms, different
from those now upon the earth. I must accept all the equally

1872.] Notices of Books. 247

well-attested facts, of equal intrinsic probability, or reject all. I
cannot believe in Cretaceous fossils as realities, and reject Silu-
rian as freaks of nature; neither can I accept the facts B. may
have witnessed, and reject those of the rest of the alphabet.
Yet if all the main classes of facts are admitted, the spiritual
theory appears as clearly a deduction from them as the theory of
extinct animals follows from the facts presented by their fossil
remains. ‘The position of the Quarterly Reviewer is, that there
are no facts worth speaking of, and, therefore, no true spiritual
theory can be founded on them. This is safe ground, as long as
all the evidence for the facts is carefully denied, misrepresented,
or ignored. But when there are ten thousand witnesses to these
facts, of whom say nine thousand are as good and competent as
A. or B., it is not safe ground for A. or B. to admit just so much
of the facts as they have witnessed themselves, and reject the
rest. The problem we have now to solve is—how much of the
facts are true. ‘Till this is done by some better test than indivi-
dual experience, it is premature to discuss what theories may or
may not explainthem. In the meantime, let no one prejudge
the question till they have studied Mr. Owen’s facts and carefully
weighed his arguments.
ALFRED R. WALLACE.

Spectrum Analysis in tts Application to Terrestrial Substances
and the Physical Constitution of the Heavenly Bodies.
Familiarly explained by Dr. H. ScHELLEN. Translated
from the Second Edition by JANE and CaroLine LassELt.
Edited, with Notes, by W. Huaains, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S.

Tue first edition of this work, though a valuable contribution to
the literature of Spectroscopy, was not free from defects, and,
although published so late as 1870, it failed to give as complete
an account as could be wished of some of the more remarkable
applications of spectroscopic analysis. The present edition (we
refer for the moment to the German editions) has been carefully
revised, and several of the sections have been enlarged and en-
riched, more particularly those which relate to observations of
the sun. The work thus forms a sufficiently complete and tole-
rably exact synopsis, as well of the phenomena of spectrum
analysis as of the methods by which they have been applied to
the interpretration of some of the most recondite problems of
nature.

Such a work well merited translation into English, and those
students of spectroscopic analysis in England and America who
do not read German owe thanks to the Misses Lassell for under-
taking the labour of translation, and to Dr. Huggins for editing
and annotating this excellent treatise.

The work is divided into three parts. The first deals with the
artificial sources of high degrees of heat and light; the second,

248 Notices of Books. (April,

with spectrum analysis in its application to terrestrial sub-
stances; and the third, with the application of the analysis to the
heavenly bodies.

We need say little about the first part of the work. It is ob-
vious that the book would have been incomplete without: an
account of the chief artificial sources of light and heat; and the
fifty pages devoted to the description of the Bunsen burner, the
magnesium light, the oxyhydrogen flame, the lime-light, and the
electric light, cannot be regarded asin excess of the requirements
of the practical student of spectroscopic analysis.

With the second part we cannot express ourselves wholly sa-
tisfied. The explanation of the fundamental principles of
prismatic analysis is insufficient, and even in part unsound.
Indeed we cannot but notice that where Dr. Schellen approaches
a subject involving mathematical considerations, his conceptions
are wanting in clearness and exactness. His explanation of the
‘‘indivisibility of the pure colours of the spectrum” may be cited
as an instance, and in some respects a very remarkable instance.
The subject matter is obsolete, to begin with, since it relates in
reality only to Newton’s recognition of the fact that light from a
given part of the spectrum cannot be resolved into light of other
colours,—a fact of no importance in the present position of the
science. But Dr. Schellen, in attempting to explain this, falls
into the mistake of asserting what is untrue, though it would be
unquestionably most important if true. He says, ‘If a small
round hole be made in the screen, in any portion of the image of
the spectrum,—the extreme red, for instance,*—a red ray passes
through it, and appears on the opposite wall as a round spot of
red light. If a second prism be interposed in the path of the
ray that has passed through the screen, the ray will suffer a
second refraction, and the image be thrown upon another place
on the wall: this new image, however, is simply red like the in-
cident ray, and by a careful adjustment of the prism shows no
elongation, but appears perfectly round.” ‘This, of course, is
utterly erroneous; were it true, our spectroscopists would gain
nothing by employing more than a single prism in any of their
researches. In extending the reasoning, Dr. Schellen introduces
a figure representing the action of a second prism on the central
colour of the spectrum ; but in ¢hzs figure the second prism is so
placed as to reverse the action of the first, the contrary being
the case in the figure illustrating the former part of his reasoning.
In the case illustrated by the second figure a round spot of light
would naturally be obtained, the second prism restoring to paral-
lelism the rays which the first prism had caused to diverge.

But although in dealing with theoretical considerations Schellen
is thus not unfrequently inexact, the description of the practical

* The reference in the text is to Fig. 28. It should be Fig. 32, as will appear
by a reference to the first German edition.

1872.] Notices of Books. 249

details of spectroscopic analysis is in nearly every instance
trustworthy; while in the few instances where there 1s room for
questioning Dr. Schellen’s accuracy, the editor supplies, in a
foot-note, the necessary emendation. The latter portion of
Part II., in which the various orders of spectra are described,
and the application of the analysis to the investigation of terres-
trial substances is considered, becomes thus exceptionally
valuable ; for to Schellen’s own familiarity with the subject, and
his careful study of the labours of Bunsen, Kirchhoff, Thalén,
and other continental spectroscopists, is superadded Dr. Hug-
gins’s independent mastery of this departnient of the new science.
And we cannot but notice here how little acquaintance with the
history of spectroscopic analysis is displayed by those who sup-
pose that Dr. Huggins’s application of the analysis to the heavenly
bodies includes the whole of his labours as a spectroscopist.
We would invite those who entertain this opinion to the study of

BiGa 7.

Changes in the form of a Prominence.

Dr. Watts’s useful treatise, the ‘“‘ Index of Spectra,” noting that
all the work by Huggins recorded and tabulated in that work
preceded those astronomical labours which have been regarded
as justly entitling him to be called the Herschel of the Spectro-
scope.

Before passing to the consideration of the last part of Schel-
len’s work, we would invite attention to the extreme interest of
those spectroscopic researches whose difficulty depends on the
™minuteness of the quantity of matter placed under analysis. If
our wonder is excited when we see a Huggins or Secchi ob-
taining, from beyond the immeasurable distances which separate

VO. dks (N:S.) 2K

250 Notices of Books. (April,

us from the stars, information respecting the structure of those
orbs, we have equal reason to contemplate with interest the re-

Fic. 18.
=~ =
¥ es Zs
a 4
& &
3 te)
ee ee ge BO OS ES A Sn ee
» 2 =) o o @ o o o o o ° ° °
5 3 5 ° ie] ° ° ° Q ° ° < < <
Ww Los) Lend Lal Leal Leal ~ dS N n
un > 4 Hq lo) io o a n + wn N wo °

12
1
1
|
|
|
|
1
|
SM AC ANA ALN WN

S MS: M

Mm
2

Respicghi’s observations of the Prominences round the entire limb of the Sun.

cognition of the existence of the 10,o0oth part of a grain of some
eleinent in solution, or of yet minuter portions, by the use of the

1872.] Notices of Books. 251

induction spark,* or the discovery, by this potent means of
analysis, of elements which had previously escaped recognition.

The third part of the work occupies two-thirds of the volume.
The sections treating of the solar spectrum and its lines are well
written, and being illustrated by reduced copies of Kirchhoff’s
maps and scale, and of Angstrém’s and Thalén’s maps with
wave-length scales, are of great value to the student of practical
spectroscopy. A sufficient account is also given of the atmo-
spheric lines which make their appearance in the solar spectrum
when the sun is near the horizon.

Schellen passes thence to the consideration of the solar spots,
and, having remarked that it would lead him too far from his
subject to dwell on their phenomena, naturally proceeds to supply
about a score of pages of descriptive matter, for which the reader
might very well have been referred to astronomical treatises.
The discussion of the spectra of spots and faculz, which follows,
is full and satisfactory, save that Schellen places rather more
reliance on Secchi’s observations, and especially on his asserted
recognition of the presence of aqueous vapour in the solar spots,
than we believe to be justified by the evidence. Secchi, on one
occasion, could recognise the bands of aqueous vapour, due to the
passage of a cloud over the sun, more clearly in the vicinity of
spots than elsewhere on the solar disc, and therefore somewhat
hastily concluded ‘‘ that the absorptive power in the sun producing
these bands is intensified by the absorptive action of the aqueous
vapour contained in the earth’s atmosphere; and that the cause
of the absorption in the sun in the neighbourhood of the solar
spots is therefore the same as that which is present in a fog,
namely, aqueous vapour.” It does not seem to have occurred to
him that the general absorption in the spot spectrum would ren-
der the atmospheric bands apparently more distinct in that spec-
trum, without any increase in the real darkness of those particular
bands. The editor remarks, very justly, that Secchi’s result
appears to him to need confirmation; and we could even have
wished that he had more pointedly indicated the fallacy in
Secchi’s reasoning.

The phenomena of solar eclipses are treated very fully, and in
a very interesting manner. The sections relating to this part of
the subject are also abundantly illustrated. We speak of the
phenomena of eclipses as including the prominences and sierra,
though in reality the most valuable observations of the last-named
phenomena have been made when the sun has not been eclipsed.
In dealing with the history of the method by which this has been
accomplished, Dr. Schellen falls into some mistakes which are
corrected by the editor. In particular, it is to be noticed that
Schellen fails to ascribe the open slit method, by which the actual

* In this way the 100,000,oooth of a milligramme of strontium, or the
80,000,000th of a grain of Crookes’s new element, thallium, can be made to
reveal its presence.

252 Notices of Books. (April,
figures of the prominences can be studied whenever the sun is
visible, to Zollner and Huggins, who independently enunciated
the method—Huggins accompanying his paper with an account
of the first successful observation of a prominence by this me-
thod. ‘The coloured illustrations of this part of the subject are
very beautiful, and add largely to the value of the treatise. They
include views by Zollner, Respighi, and Young, the coloured
views by the two Jast-named observers being now published in

Fic. 19.

Gould’s Drawing of the Corona, August 7, 1869. (4h. 58m.)

England for the first time we believe. The accompanying
ficure 2s (17 and 18), though instructive, afford but a faint idea of the
weird Beauty of the enlarged coloured drawings of particular
prominences

In dealing with the corona (a subject which he somewhat
unhappily intermixes with the treatment of the prominences)
Schellen merely sums up without submitting to analysis the
evidence which had reached him. Accordingly he arrives at no
definite conclusion on the question whether the corona is a solar

1872. ] Notices of Books. 253
or terrestrial phenomenon. The extract given by the editor
from the Report of the Council of the Astronomical Society
appears to us, we must admit, to be scarcely more satisfactory,
since it speaks of theories as admissible which could not at the
time be possibly entertained in the presence of evidence already
available. Of course after the results of the recent eclipse all
the doubts thus expressed must be regarded as definitely disposed
of ; the reality of the corona, even to its utmost visible limits, as

Fic. 20.

Gould’s Drawing of the Corona, August 7, 1869. (5h.)

a solar appendage of wonderful extent and complexity, being now
admitted by all. But it is worthy of notice in this place how
feeble had been the evidence on account of which the true theory
of the corona was so long disputed. The difficulty of delineating
an object so delicate, and the consequent differences between
pictures taken by different observers:at different places, and under
different atmospheric conditions,—changes supposed to have
been recognised by one and the same observer,—and imagined
differences between photographic pictures really resembling each

254 Notices of Books. (April,

other very closely,—such was the evidence urged against the
long array of facts pointing the other way.

As respects the second point, we may illustrate the nature of
the evidence, by showing the two drawings, Figs. 19 and 20,
by Dr. Gould on which chief stress was laid by the advocates
of the atmospheric glare theory. It will scarcely be believed
that the differences between these drawings (differences which
are so readily explained by the changes of condition to which
the air was subjected through which a solar corona must
necessarily be seen, as well as by the changing power of the
eye to appreciate the outer faint coronal light) were urged as
demonstrative of the fact that the corona is a phenomenon of
our own atmosphere!

As respects the third point above referred to, it is necessary to
point out that the argument relating to the photographs by Lord
Lindsay and Mr. Brothers (pp. 372, 373 of the present work) is
vitiated by the circumstance that in some unexplained way
Lord Lindsay’s photograph was inverted. The perfect agreement
between the prominences shown in all the photographs when
Lord Lindsay’s picture is re-inverted abundantly proves this, and
thus the supposed discrepancy between a photograph taken at
the beginning and one taken at the end of totality has no real
existence.

The sections of the work relating to the fixed stars, nebule,
and comets, are extremely interesting, and may be accepted as
fairly presenting the present position of the subje¢t,—with one
exception only, that undue prominence is given to Father Secchi’s
study of star spectra. Of the section on meteors we find our-
selves unable to speak altogether with approval. Dr. Schellen
does not sufficiently distinguish between the points which have
been demonstrated and those which remain matters of speculation.
Nor is the history of the subject quite accurately rendered.

However, such blemishes as these do not importantly detract
from the value of Schellen’s excellent treatise. It could, indeed,
scarcely be expected that so large a volume should be free from
some defects; and, on the whole, the work before us is as sound
and trustworthy as it is wide in range and exhaustive in treat-
ment. It is a treatise without which no scientific library can
be regarded as complete. The work of translation has been
accomplished carefully, and all things considered, satisfactorily.
Here and there occur passages which appear to us somewhat
cumbersome, a fault chiefly due, we believe, to the anxiety of the
translators to follow their author as closely as possible. But
such passages are few and far between; and, apart from its
scientific value, the book is very readable. The editorial notes
greatly enhance its value.

1872:] Notices of Books. 255

Elementary Treatise on Natural Philosophy. By A. Privat

DESCHANEL, Inspector of the Academy of Paris. Translated
and Edited by J. D. Everett, M.A., D.C.L., &c., Professor
of Natural Philosophy in Queen’s College, Belfast. In four
Parts: Part III. Electricity and Magnetism. London:
Blackie and Son. 1872.

Tus part of the translation of M. Deschanel’s “ Traité Elemen-
taire de Phvsique” may be considered as the masterpiece of

Fic. 21.

Image of the Carbon Points.

Professor Everett’s series of three volumes now before the
public. French writers appear to be but very slightly acquainted

256 Notices of Books. [April,

with the researches of Faraday in electro-magnetism, and of
Sir William Thomson in general electric principles. There has
therefore been much to add, and Dr. Everett is to be congratu-
lated on his happy method of collating the experiments neces-
sary to an English work. The description of the various forms
of electrometers, for instance, leaves nothing to be desired.

We must again commend the illustrations, and express our
indebtedness to Messrs. Blackie and Sons for being able to lay
before our readers a specimen of the exquisite woodcuts. The
one selected exhibits the image of the carbon points of the
electric lamp as viewed through a lens, the natural size of the
carbons being indicated by the sketch at the right hand. The
book is well bound in limp cloth covers, a style of binding every
student will appreciate.

Experimental Mechanics. By Robert STAWELL Batt, A.M,
Professor of Applied Mathematics and Mechanism in the
Royal College of Science for Ireland (Science and Art De-
partment). London and New York: Macmillan and Co.
1871.

Turis volume contains the substance of a series of twenty evening

lectures upon ‘“‘ Experimental Mechanics” delivered by the Author

at the Royal College of Science for Ireland. The aim has been
to create in the mind of the student physical ideas corresponding
to theoretical laws, and thus to produce a work which may be
regarded either as a supplement or an introduction to manuals of
theoretical mechanics. We cannot praise the attempt too
highly, nor congratulate Professor Ball too sincerely upon his
success. The laws of mechanics are essentially simple, and in
this work they meet with an appropriate exposition. No com-
plicated formule are introduced into the calculations, numerical
or geometrical illustration being chiefly employed. The method
of treatment of the laws relating to friction, to the mechanical
powers, to the strength of timber and structures, to the pendu-
lum and to the laws of motion, is original and extremely explicit.

But it must not be misunderstood that the work is too simple for

the advanced student,—far from it. Mr. Ball has well distin-

guished between the class of students who know mathematics
and those who do not. Therefore we can safely recommend the
book to the notice of all.

1872.] (257)

PROGRESS IN SCIENCE,

MINING,

OnE of the most important branches of enquiry undertaken by the Royal Coal
Commission related to the statistics of the production, consumption, and ex-
port, of our mineral fuel. The labour of this enquiry—which is represented
by the third volume of the Report, consisting of 500 pages—devolved almost
exclusively upon Mr. Robert Hunt, F.R.S., the share taken by the late Sir R.
Murchison being merely nominal. In consequence of this additional work,
followed as it unhappily was by a return of illness, the Keeper of Mining
Records was unable to issue his annual volume of ‘‘ Mineral Statistics ” last
year. During the past quarter, however, the official returns have been pub-
lished,* and we hence learn the amount and value of the minerals raised in the
United Kingdom in 1870. According to our usual custom, we here present a
general summary of these Statistics :-—

Tons. £

Coal) =. es Pic Ke 110,431,192 27,607,798
Iron ore a6 56 a 14,370,054 4,951,220
Copper ore... 56 56 106,693 437,851
Tin Ore =. ac 46 Be 15,234 1,002,357
Lead ore a oe oe 98,176 1,200,209
Zinc ore 5 Ae xs 13,586 41,058
Iron pyrites (sulphur ore) .. 58,428 36,026
Arsenic t ay Re Bf 4,050 17,739
Gossans, ochres, &c. .. a0 4,844 4,261
Wolfram and tungstate of soda 51 653
Manganese Bs Se i 4,838 19,499
Nickel .. 6 ie He £ 27
Barytes .. Ae Ae ye 6,515 33771
Clays, fine and fire (estimated) 1,200,000 450,000
Earthy minerals, various (do.) a 575,000
Salt ois Ae os ae 1,489,450 744,725
Coprolites (estimated) Ss 35,000 50,000

Total value ete 5 a exe £37,142,194

In discussing these figures, Mr. Hunt calls attention to the increase in the
production of coal, the produce of 1870 having exceeded that of the previous
year by upwards of three millions of tons. The great activity in the iron
trade caused the consumption of a large proportion of this additional coal, but
at the same time our exports were increased.

With the statistics of our own coal produdtion it is interesting to compare
that of the United States. From the American official returns for 1870 we
learn that during that year the total produétion of coal of all kinds amounted
to 34,600,461 tons. Of this quantity 15,368,437 tons consisted of anthracite
and semi-anthracite which had been sent to market, and 3,842,876 tons of
similar fuels retained for home consumption. The bituminous coal sold
amounted to only 4,589,148 tons, and even out of this quantity 420,683 tons
had been imported ; but, in addition to what found its way into the market, it
is estimated that 10,800,000 tons of bituminous coal were mined and con-
sumed in the United States, without being included in the tabular returns.
The statistics further show that, in the great coal-producing counties of

* Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, for the year 1870.
With an Appendix. By Ropert Hunt, F.R.S., Keeper of Mining Records. London: Long-
mans, and Stanford. 1872.

t Nearly 2000 tons of this arsenic will have been obtained from the burning-houses on the
tin pie A considerable quantity is produced at Swansea, of which no return has been ob-
tainable.

VOL. II. (N.S.) 2.

258 Progress in Science. (April,

Schuylkill, Northumberland, Columbia, and Dauphin, 129 fatal accidents
occurred during the yéar, but it is notable that only s¢x of these deaths resulted
from explosions of fire-damp.

At arecent meeting of the Wigan Field Naturalists’ Society, Mr. Perrins
read a paper on the probable duration of the important coal-field of Wigan.
Coming from one of the leading mining surveyors of the town, Mr. Perrins’s
estimate deserves attention. For the purpose of his enquiry he considers that
the coal-field occupies an area embraced within a radius of two miles from the
parish church. In this district there are about twelve workable coal-seams,
and the author describes the geological features of each of these in succession.
He divides the field into a number of belts, each of which is separately
examined, and its yield of coal estimated. We pass over these details, how-
ever, and arrive at once at the aggregate result. The whole of the Wigan
coal-field originally contained an amount of mineral computed at 231,810,000
tons. Of this quantity 96,285,000 tons have already been removed, thus
leaving 135,525,000 tons still underground. At the present rate of working
about 2,000,000 tons are removed annually; and assuming this rate to con-
tinue, without increase or diminution, the Wigan coal-field will be exhausted
in little more than fifty years. Seeing that these collieries employ, directly
and indirectly, about 7a00 men, the gradual diminution of the coal must have
a serious social influence upon the locality. It is cheering, however, to re-
member that the iron trade around Wigan has of late received a great impetus,
and it is therefore to be hoped that the development of this industry may
compensate for the decline of the coal trade.

A successful trial of Mr. G. L. Scott’s recently-patented steam-ventilator
has been made at the Lower Moor Colliery, at Oldham, where a 4-feet seam
of coal, faulted in all directions, is worked by intricate galleries extending for
a distance of a mile from the shaft, the shaft being 888 feet in depth. A brick
chamber, in communication with the upcast shaft, is covered by perforated
iron plates carrying 72 vertical cast-iron pipes, each about 5 feet in length and
7 inches in internal diameter. Inside each of these pipes is a small vertical
steam pipe, which terminates by an orifice, ;3,ths of an inch in diameter, at
about 2 feet below the top of the larger pipe. The system of pipes forms a
rectangular arrangement occupying a space about so feet square, and is supplied
with steam by a 4-inch pipe from the boilers of the winding and pumping en-
gine. The results obtained by the use of this simple steam-ventilator compare
favourably with those of the old furnace system, but it was not considered
necessary, at the trial in question, to test the full power of the new apparatus.
It is almost needless, however, to state that any ventilator which—like this
steam apparatus—can be placed at the surface, so as to be under complete
control, must possess great advantages over the ordinary system of ventilation,
in which the apparatus is lodged in the pit itself.

To prevent accidents from over-winding in mine-shafts, an ingenious appa-
ratus has been patented by Mr. W. Walker. The load to be raised is carried
by chains or ropes attached to the lower ends of two curved metal levers,
hinzed together in the middle, and connected above with the winding-rope or
chain. These levers are so constructed that when the load is being raised
their lower ends diverge, whilst the upper extremities remain closed together,
and hold the winding-rope between them. On the other hand, if the levers
turn upon their common hinge, the lower parts are brought together, and the
upper ends open out so as to release the rope, At that point which forms a
limit to the raising of the load, and beyond which it would be dangerous to
wind, there is a fixed beam, with an aperture sufficiently large to admit the
winding-rope and the head of the safety apparatus. In the event of over-
winding, the upper parts of the levers pass through this aperture, but the rest
of the apparatus is arrested by a guard-plate, or collar, which is placed over
the levers, and comes in contact with the under side of the beam. As the load
now tends to rise, the distended ends of the levers are brought together by
pressure against the sides of a slot in the collar, and as the lower ends of the
levers come together, the upper parts forming the head fall apart, and rest upon

1872.! Metallurgy. 259

the top of the beam so as to support the load, whilst the released rope is
carried upwards by the continued winding.

Through the Geological Society of London, Mr. G. Milner Stephen, of
Sydney, announces the recent discovery of a very valuable deposit of tin ore
in New South Wales. The ore occurs in crystals and rolled fragments, in
beds of conglomerate and in granite. It appears that the deposit extends over
an area of several miles in the district of New England.

From the same authority we learn that a party of four men, induced by the
offer of a reward by the French Government, have discovered gold on the
banks of the River Bondé, on the N.E. coast of New Caledonia. Hitherto
only auriferous drift has been found, but it is expected that quartz reefs will
soon be discovered.

In a paper “‘On Gossans,” by Mr. W. Argall, of Great Huel Vor, recently
tead before the Miners’ Association of Cornwall and Devon, the author sug-
gested that a collection of these products might advantageously be preserved
for reference in some central museum, the collection being accompanied by
analyses of the specimens and records of the conditions under which they oc-
curred. Remembering the great value set by miners upon the occurrence of
gossan as superficial indications of mineral deposits beneath, the suggestion
seems to be worthy of notice. Unfortunately, however, these gossans are
rather unattractive to the eye, consisting as they generally do of ochreous
oxide of iron mixed with cellular quartz; the result, in fact, of the alteration
of the upper part of the ore by atmospheric and other influences. Some of
the richest deposits, especially copper lodes, bear masses of this unsightly
gossan on the outcrop, or ‘‘ back,” of the vein; and Continental miners, not
less than Cornishmen, attach great importance to the occurrence of this
Chapeau de Fer, or Eiserne Hut, as likely to betoken the existence of a pro-
ductive vein of ore. A collection of gossans, chiefly Cornish, has for many
years past been exhibited in the Museum of Pra@ical Geology.

With the opening of the new year there appeared a new monthly magazine
devoted to the mining interest of this country. Under the editorship of Mr.
Nelson Boyd, F.G.S., the ‘“‘ Mining Magazine and Review” promises to become
a technical journal of much value to those engaged in mining, quarrying, me-
tallurgy, and kindred pursuits. The three numbers already issued contain
many interesting articles bearing upon these branches of industry.

METALLURGY.

Our chronicles last quarter contained a brief account of Danks’s rotary fur-
nace for puddling iron by machinery. Soon after the publication of that
number, Messrs. Jones, Snelus, and Lester, the three Commissioners appointed
by the Puddling Committee of the Iron and Steel Institute, having returned
from their visit to the United States, issued their Report. This Report has
been published in the Journal of the Institute, and contains an elaborate
description of the furnace, details of the mode of fettling, the consumption of
fuel, and the quality of the iron produced. The visit of the Commissioners
has convinced them that the process can be successfully carried out, and that
even in its present state it ae commercial advantages over hand-puddling.
At the same time they believe that the process is only yet in its infancy, and
is capable of rapid development. Materials were taken out from this country
to be experimented upon in the presence of the Commissioners, and samples
of the fettling materials and of the iron produced in the furnace have been
brought home. It has been arranged with the inventor that the royalty to be
paid in Great Britain shall not exceed two shillings per ton on machine-made
puddled iron.

We learn from the ‘“‘ Mining Journal” that an improved furnace for puddling
iron by machinery, the invention of Mr. A. Spencer, has recently been at work,
with the most encouraging results, at the West Hartlepool Iron Works.
Spencer’s revolving furnace is a box-like vessel, of square or rhomboidal
transverse section, furnished with circular ends having apertures.through which

260 Progress in Science. (April,

a communication is established with the fire-grate on the one hand and the
chimney on the other. The sides are built up of a number of flanged plates,
bolted together into a polygonal form, and cast with honeycombed or cellular
sides so as to form cavities for receiving and securely holding the fettling with
which the converter is lined. This fettling consists chiefly of mill-furnace
cinder, or ball-furnace tap; and having been melted in a cupola furnace, is
either run direétly into the converter or moulded into masses, which when cold
fit the cavities in the sides. When the molten charge of cast-iron has been
introduced into the converter, the charging-holes are closed, and the vessel is
caused to revolve by means of large spur-wheels attached to the end-plates :
the liquid metal becomes rapidly agitated against the flat sides, and in about
half an hour the balls of wrought-iron may be removed, at least 6 cwts. of
metal being turned out at each heat.

Some improvements in mechanical puddling-furnaces have also been lately
suggested by Mr. W. Ferrie, of the Monklands Iron Works. He causes the
movable bed or hearth of the furnace to revolve by fixing to it a cylindrical
flange which proje&s downwards into a circular gutter filled with water,
sand, or ground fire-brick, by which means a connection is sealed between the
fixed and the moving parts of the furnace, without interfering with the freedom
of motion.

An elaborate essay on the Metallurgy of Silver in Mexico, by M. P. Laur,
has been published in two recent numbers of the “* Annales des Mines.” After
noticing the mode of occurrence of the ores, the author describes in detail
the several metallurgical processes used at the different works,—namely,
amalgamation at ordinary temperatures by the fatio process; amalgamation
in the cazo, or vessel containing a boiling solution of common salt; and the
old Saxon process of amalgamation with iron in rotating barrels. M. Laur
raises many objections to the generally-received theory of amalgamation by
the patio process, and advances an original view of the reactions which occur
in the patio. It may be well to state that the torta, or heap of materials used
in the reduétion of the silver ores by this method, consists essentially of a
mixture of common salt, ‘“‘ magistral”” or roasted copper pyrites, mercury, and
silver ores usually in the state of sulphides. According to most metallurgical
chemists, the chloride of sodium and the sulphate of copper in the magistral
react upon each other, and thus produce sulphate of soda and chloride of
copper: this chloride then converts the sulphide of silver into a chloride,
which dissolves in the salt water present in the torta ; the mercury then rapidly
attacks the solution of chloride of silver, reducing the metal and becoming in
turn converted into calomel, whilst the free silver forms, with some of the un-
altered mercury, an amalgam, which is retorted, and the mercury distilled off
while the silver remains behind. Modifications of this theory have been pro-
posed, but the essential points remain—that the silver is formed into a
chloride, and this is decomposed by the mercury. M. Laur’s Mexican expe-
rience leads him to believe, on the contrary, that the sulphide of silver is
reduced directly to the metallic state, and does not pass threugh the interme-
diate condition of a chloride. By the reaction of the magistral with the salt,
sulphate of soda and protochloride of copper are formed :—

NaCl+ Cu0.SO3 = NaO.S034 CuCl.

This chloride is then reduced to the state of a sub-salt, which combines with
the sodium chloride to form a double salt—

2CuCl+ NaCl+Hg = NaCl.Cu,Cl + HgCl.
The double salt reacts dire@ly upon the silver sulphide, and effects its
reduction :—

NaCl.Cu,Cl+AgS = NaCl.CuCl+CuS+Ag.
The protochloride of copper passes again to the state of subchloride, while the
sulphide of copper is oxidised into sulphate, and the cycle of change thus
commences afresh.

Messrs. Hargreaves and Robinson, of Widnes, have patented certain im-

provements in the method of treating metallic sulphides, especially pyrites,

1872.] Mineralogy. | 261

by which they are made to yield the greatest amount of sulphur, and are then
converted into chlorides. The pyrites is first roasted in a series of tall vertical
retorts, so arranged that each becomes in turn the first, intermediate, and last
vessel of the set, with respe& to the passage of air or gas through the series.
A current of chlorine or of hydrochloric acid gas is passed through the spent
pyrites contained in these retorts and maintained at a high temperature.

Other improvements in roasting pyrites have been patented by Messrs.
Perret Brothers and Olivier, of Paris. The heat generated in the furnace in
which the crude pyrites is roasted is conducted into another furnace, where it
is utilised in further roasting the ore, so as to drive off the sulphur more com-
pletely. The operations may be conducted in a single furnace, built with
several floors, through which the heat circulates.

From Mr. Hunt’s volume of ‘* Mineral Statistics’? for 1870 we are able to
extract the following table, showing the quantities and value of the metals
obtained from the ores raised in the United Kingdom during that year :—

Pig-iron .. a < ee 5,903,515 tons. 14,908,787

Tin. Se wa as Sc 10,200 ,, 1,299,505
Copper... aie ic ic GPG [le fe 551,309
Lead es te +e er 735420 55 1,452,715
Zine Sic xe oe ote 3,936 ,, 74,096
Silver ee 5c we ae 784,562 ozs. 196,140
Gold Sic TOL 5; 750
Other metals (estimated) a — 3,500

£ 18,486,802

MINERALOGY.

Among a number of “ Mineralogical Communications” recently made by
Prof. Vom Rath to “ Poggendorff’s Annalen,” perhaps the most interesting
are those which relate to the constitution of the felspars. Several lime-soda
felspars have been carefully examined, including specimens of andesine from
Vesuvius, Frejus, and Predazzo; of oligoclase from Nieder-mendig and
Veltlin ; and of labradorite from Iceland. These studies confirm Tschermak’s
views regarding the composition of the lime-soda series, and tend to show that
these so-called species may all be represented as isomorphous mixtures of
albite, or pure soda felspar, and anorthite, or pure lime felspar. Hence we can
never expect to find an oligoclase quite free from lime, or a labradorite free
from soda. It has indeed been supposed that the mineral called Evrsbyite
represents a labradorite without soda, but Vom Rath’s investigations show
that this species cannot be referred to labradorite, but should rather be placed
with scapolite.

In a former number of this Journal allusion was made to the discovery
of crystals of boracite in the salt-mines of Stassfurt, in Prussian Saxony.
These crystals have since been described by Dr. Schultze, from whom we learn
that they were found among the residual matters obtained from the treatment
of salts which had been raised from the upper beds of these great deposits,
and had been lixiviated in the chloride of potassium works at Stassfurt. The
author offers some theoretical views on the probable origin of this boracite,
and the formation of certain nodules containing alternating layers of boracite
and other minerals. The double sulphate of soda and magnesia, termed
Simonyite, has been found in the Anhalt portion of these salt-mines. Simo-
nyite contains NaO.SO; + MgO.SO3+4HO; and the sulphate of soda present
in the salt may render it of economic value in the manufacture of carbonate
of soda.

Fulianite is the name proposed by Prof. Websky for a new species some-
what resembling fahlerz, but possessing isomorphous relations with buntkup-
fererz. It occurs in small groups of cubic crystals, presenting a dark grey
colour, and containing AszCu3S¢, part of the arsenic being replaced by anti-

262 Progress of Science. (April,

mony and iron, and part of the copper by silver. The ore was formerly found
in the Friederike-Juliane Mine, at Rudelstadt, in Silesia.

Under the name of Beyrichite, Prof. Liebe describes a new species from the
Westerwald. It is found in groups of macled prisms, of a lead-gray colour,
with a faint metalliclustre. Its compositien may be formulated as 3NiS.2NiS2 3
but the mineral contains a variable proportion of iron, which, in this calcula-
tion, is supposed to replace the nickel: if the iron, however, be due to the
presence of iron pyrites, the formula of Beyrichite becomes 2NiS.NiS3.

A native silicate, hitherto undescribed, has received from Herr Frenzel the
name of Bismuthoferrite. It occurs, with a variety of hypochlorite, at Schnee-
berg, in Saxony, and contains Biz03.2Fe203.4Si0O3.

Trigerite and Waipurgine are two new species, of which preliminary notices
have been lately published by Weisbach, of Freiberg. Both are arseniates of
uranium from Schneeberg, but the composition of ‘the former may be repre-
sented as 5Ur203. 2AsO;+20HO, whilst that of the latter coincides with the
following formula :—(5Bi2,03.3 Ur203)2AsO5+10HO.

Some little time back a new fluo-phosphate of alumina was described by
MM. Des Cloizeaux and Moissenet. As the mineral came from the tin-mines
of Montebras, in Central France, it received the distinctive name of Monte-
brasite. The substance occurs abundantly in parts of the gangue of these
veins, and is accompanied by fluor-spar, apatite, chalcolite, wavellite, and tur-
quois. Its analysis led to the following formula :—2(Al,F3.3 MF) + 4A1,03.3POs.
M. Pisani, not satisfied with its determination as a distiné species, has lately
examined the mineral afresh, and from his analysis declares it to be identical
with the mineral known as Amblygonite. It appears, then, that the mineral
of Montebras does not possess characters sufficiently diagnostic to entitle it to
take rank as a distiné&t species; but, nevertheless, the discovery of so rare a
mineral as amblygonite in large quantity in these mines is a matter of much
mineralogical interest.

Dr. Streng announces the discovery of Tridymite (Vom Rath’s species of
silica) in an orthoclase porphyry near Waldbokelheim, where it occurs in
crystals of similar form to those found in trachytic rocks.

Some zeolitic minerals from the dolerites of the Bergonne limestone have
been described by M.Gonnard. The dolerite is strongly magnetic, and certain
specimens exhibit marked polarity. Where the rock becomes amygdaloidal
the cavities contain zeolites, of which three are here specialised—namely,
mesole, in globules of dull white colour; christianite, not the felspar so named
by Montecelli; and the variety of chabazite known as phacolite.

The Greenland meteorites noticed in the last number of this Journal have
been made the subject of a further communication to the Geological Society,
in which Prof. Nordenskjold describes carefully the conditions under which
the masses of iron occur at Ofivak, and also gives analyses of the metal. A
portion of one of the largest blocks yielded—lIron, 84°49; nickel, 2°48; co-
balt, 0:07; copper, 0°27; magnesia, 0-043 sulphur, 1°52; phosphorus, 0°20;
chlotine, 0°72} organic matter, water, and loss, 10°16. Nordenskjéld adneres
to his opinion that these remarkable masses of metal are genuine meteorites.

Success continues to attend the diamond workings in South Africa. At
present the most active operations are going on at the ‘* New Rush,” on the
Colesberg Koppie. Mr. Gilfillan has just returned to this country with some
remarkably fine diamonds, accompanied by samples of the associated rocks
and detrital matter. We have had an opportunity of examining these speci-
mens, and believe that the results of Mr. Gilfillan’s observations on the con-
ditions under which the diamonds are found will shortly be communicated to
the Geological Society.

1872.] Engineering. 263

ENGINEERING—CIVIL AND, MECHANICAL.

Guns.—In our last quarter’s chronicles reference was made to a crack which
had been discovered in the lining of the new 35-ton gun known as the
‘* Woolwich Infant.” Three theories have been advanced to account for this
internal injury, which were recently stated by Capt. Dawson, R.N., in a leGture
on Guns, at Plymouth. The first theory is, that the bottom stud, flattened by
the blow above the shot caused by the escaping gas, overrode the groove,
causing a squeeze which delayed its exit, and led to an accumulation of gas
in the powder-chamber. 2nd. That the wabble caused by balancing the shot
on two studs, and the irregular action of the powder above it, due to the non-
centreing of the shot, wrenched out or sheered off the stud, and set up a
motion of the shot across the bore, which enhanced the difficulty of its escape.
3rd. That pebble powder developed some new quality, when ignited in 120-lb.
charges, which it did not possess when fired in quantities of 100 lbs. and
under. Captain Dawson is evidently of opinion that the Woolwich system of
rifling is one of the primary defects in this new gun, and that the injuries were
attributable to the vicious system. of grooving on an increasing twist, which
necessitated the concentration of rotary effort on a single row of studs inca-
pable of giving adequate rotation with the present amount of spiral, and this
angle of spiral could not be increased, because the studs would not endure the
extra effort, but would be sheered off, and cease to aé at all. Contrasting
other long iron bearing systems which had undergone official trial with the
present short bearings, Capt. Dawson showed that, whilst the whole effort of
rotating a 700-lb. shell was now thrown upon a total of 54 inches of stud
bearing, it would under the Scott iron flange system be diffused over 13 feet
of bearing; and that this latter system had narrower shallower grooves, which
took only one-fourth the quantity of metal out of the gun, and therefore made
less space for escaping gases to erode the bore; whilst, instead of the lower
groove being spiked by its own stud, Scott’s iron flange would receive the
shock on a rib 22} inches long. Inthe trial between two 7}-ton guns on this
system, the Woolwich rifled gun was declared incapable of further firing,
except ‘‘ under precautions ” against bursting, whilst the grooves and lands of
Scott’s gun were perfectly uninjured. Yet Scott’s guns gave the greatest
hitting power at the muzzle, and projected its shot 1500 yards with 2 degrees
of elevation, using 20 lbs. of powder, whilst the Woolwich one required 25 lbs.
to reach the same distance. Comparing the work done by the respective
projectiles, the Scott iron bearing r1o-lb. shot escaped from its charge so much
more easily than its studded rival, that—though the conditions were exadly
alike in all else—the Scott hit a muzzle blow 133 foot-tons heavier than the
French projectile, and no less than 260 foot-tons more powerful than that of
the present 7-inch gun, the charges of which have to be reduced to make
amends for its lack of endurance.

Navigable Balloon.—The experimental balloon recently constructed by the
French Government, upon M. Dupuy de Lome’s system, rose from the court-
yard of the Fort Neuf, at Vincennes, on the 2nd of February last, having on
board MM. Dupuy de Lome, Lédé (Engineer in the Marine), Yon, and Dartois
(aérostats), and ten other persons, forming altogether a total of fourteen men.
The construction of this aérial machine starts with the principle that, in order
to obtain a navigable balloon, its permanence of form must be maintained
without any sensible undulation of surface, and a horizontal axis of least
resistance must be obtained in a direction parallel to the propelling force.
The permanence of form is assured by a fan carried in the car, and put in
communication by a tube, with a small balloon placed within the large one at
its lowest part. The volume of this small balloon is one-tenth of that of the
large one. It is furnished with a valve opening both within and without, and
regulated by springs. The large balloon is provided with two hanging tubes
open to the air, and falling for a distance of 25 feet from the lower part of the
balloon. The inflation of the little balloon causes the hydrogen to fall more
or less in the hanging tubes, but never sufficiently to force it out of their open
ends. To obtain a horizontal plane of least resistance, the form given to the

264 Progress im Science. (April.

balloon was that developed by the arc of a circle turning round its chord, and
in which the versed sine was nearly one-fifth of the length of the chord. The
extreme total length of the balloon is 118 feet 6 inches; its greatest diameter
48 feet 9 inches; its extreme height 95 feet 6 inches; and its cubic contents
122,000 feet. The screw is 29 feet 6 inches in diameter, and the total ascen-
sional force of the balloon 3°799 tons. The rudder for steering the balloon
consists of a triangular sail placed beneath it, and near its rear, which is kept
in position at the bottom by a horizontal yard 1g feet 18 inches long, turning
round a pivot on its forward extremity. The height of this sail is 16 feet
4 inches, and its surface 161 square feet, Two ropes for working the rudder
extend forward to the seat of the steerer, who has before him a compass fixed
to the car, the central part of which is large enough to carry a crew of fourteen
men. The screw is carried by the car, and is driven by four men, or by eight
men working at a capstan. The gas-escape valves, of which there are two,
are placed at the top of the balloon, immediately over the pendant tubes, and
through which the cords for working the valves pass into the car. The con-
clusions arrived at by M. Dupuy de Lome, from the results of the trial trip, ©
were,—that the stability of the balloon was perfect, that it manifested no signs
of oscillation under the action of the eight men working the screw, and that
the shifting of the weight in the car produced no sensible movement. The
vertical axis was only shifted, under the most trying conditions, a small part
of a degree, and longitudinally there was no change. In comparing the direc-
tion of the balloon drifting freely before the wind with the direction given to
it when the screw was in operation, it was found that the resultant made with
the normal direction an angle of 12°. It is stated, also, that the speed given
to the balloon with 274 revolutions of the screw was 6$ miles an hour, whilst
the rate due to the wind alone was from 26 to 37 miles an hour.

New Railway Projects.—The number of plans deposited at the Private Bill
Office of the House of Commons, in connection with new railway projects,
amounts to 144. There are also 28 tramway Bills, and 53 Bills of the miscel-
laneous class, including docks, harbours, local improvements, gas, water, and
irrigation works. Amongst the railway schemes there is a proposition to con-
nect the Great Eastern, the North London, and the East London Railways,
with the Metropolitan and Metropolitan Distri@ Railways. The London and
South Western Railway Company propose to effect a junction between their
line and that of the London, Chatham, and Dover Company, by means of a
railway from their Waterloo Station to the Blackfriars Station of the latter
Company. The Metropolitan Distri& Company propose an extension of their
line to that of the South Western Company at Barnes. The Metropolitan
and St. John’s Wood Railway Company propose three new extensions,—to
the Hampstead Junction Railway near the Edgeware Road, to join the Midland
Railway at the Finchley New Road, and to Green Street, Grosvenor Square,
respectively. The Mid-London Railway consists of a series of lines starting
from the West end of Oxford Street, and running to the London, Chatham,
and Dover Railway near Farringdon Street, and to the East London Railway
at St. George’s in the East, with junctions to the authorised lines of the Cen-
tral London and of the East London Railways. Another Mid-London scheme
consists in the construction of a railway from the London and North Western
line at Willesden to the West end of Oxford Street. Turning to provincial
plans, the first proposition of magnitude is the old Brighton, Eastbourne, and
London Railway scheme: commencing by a junction with the London,
Chatham, and Dover Railway at Penge, and the South Eastern Railway at
Beckenham, it runs thence to Brighton and Eastbourne, having branches to
Westerham and to the Surrey and Sussex Junction Railway at Oxhead, and a
goods branch at Lewes. This scheme involves terms and conditions to be
entered into with no less than fifteen existing companies. Most of the main
lines have suggestions for extensions in different directions, amongst which we
notice one by the London and North Western Railway Company for a line
from their Bettws-y-Coed Station to the Festiniog Railway, to be constructed
on a gauge of 1 foot 11} inches, the same as that of the Festiniog Railway.
There are four sets of plans deposited for crossing the Severn by bridges,
and one for a line to pass under it by a tunnel.

1872.] Engineering. 265

Railway Brakes.—Numerous railway accidents might have been easily pre-
vented had there existed sufficient brake power on the train to enable it to be
pulled up more quickly than can be done with brakes on the ordinary system.
Naylor’s continuous brakes, which have been designed to enable brake power
to be applied to each carriage throughout the train, were tried not long since
on the Sevenoaks branch of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. For
a long time it has been feared, in many quarters, that if a set of brakes were
applied nearly simultaneously, on a train travelling at a high speed, it might
create an unpleasant sensation to the passengers. The above-named trials
showed, however, that if the application of the brakes is duly regulated no
such effect is produced. Thus, with the experimental train travelling at
57 miles an hour, down an incline of 1 in ror, the driver on the engine applied
the set of continuous brakes, shut off his steam, but did not reverse his
engine, while his fireman applied the tender brake, yet, even with this suddenly
applied retarding force, no unpleasant sensation was experienced by any one
in any part of the train. The following are some of the results obtained at
the experiments above referred to :—

Speed in Distance travelled after Time
No. Gradients. Miles applying Brakes and required
per hour. Shutting off Steam. to pull up.
I I in ror down. 53 Distances not measured. 55 seconds.
Do. 43 460 yards. 38° 5;
I in IOI, up not quite
3 {athe partlydown; 35 PUP cp 20) 5)
an incline.
4 I in 101 down. 57 750) 33 Go);
5 Level. 50 7oo ,,

Mr. Naylor has four different methods of letting his brakes on and of taking
them off again. In every case the brakes are let on by slackening out the con-
tinuous chain, and the variations in the plans consist in the different methods
adopted for tightening this chain, and thus taking the brakes off. Mr. Naylor,
in describing the application of his brakes, remarks :—‘ Everything connected
with my brakes is fixed below the under frame of the carriage, and is attached
by longitudinal angle irons; between these angle bars two plates are suspended,
that carry two pulleys in a fixed position; between these two pulleys there is
a third one, which is moved up and down, in connexion with the brake lever,
by the continuous chain that runs from carriage to carriage. The force upon
the brake lever is obtained by angular links, one attached to the frame, and
the other to the end of the brake lever. To the knee joints of these links is
applied the tension of the spring. It is obvious that the force pressing upon
the brake lever depends upon the strength of the spring, and therefore anything
that is required can be accomplished, even to the extent of skidding all the
wheels ; consequently this brake, when once applied, must be as powerful as
any other.”

An arrangement for retarding locomotives, by the admission of steam
against the pistons, is being introduced by Mr. William Bouch, at the North-
Eastern Railway Works at Darlington. A pipe leads from the steam space of
the boiler to a longitudinal pipe, which conveys the steam to branch pipes,
through which it is admitted into each end of the cylinders at the same time,
this steam being admitted after the main supply of steam has been shut off
from the ordinary valve boxes of the cylinders, and when it is necessary to
retard the progress of the engine or to stop it entirely. The supplementary
portion of steam fills both ends of the cylinders, and presses against each of
the pistons alternately, so as to act as a cushion in the to-and-fro movement.
This mode of retarding the progress of the engine may be used in conjunction
with the brakes already fitted to act against the wheels, or it may be used
alone, in which case the entire stoppage of the engine would be under the
control of the steam cushion.

The Sand Blast.—Tilghman’s sand blast has, during the past year, created
considerable sensation in the United States. Its objec is to drill, cut, or
VOL. Il. (N.S.) 2M

266 Progress in Science. (April,

grind, hard substances, such as granite, metal, or glass, and its action depends
upon the expulsion, at a considerable velocity, of quartz sand, by a steam or
air jet passing through a tube, and strikingithe material operated upon. In some
early experiments made with this apparatus, a hole, 1} inches in diameter and
13 inches deep, was drilled through a block of corundum in 25 minutes, with a
pressure of steam of 300 lbs. With roo lbs. pressure a hole, 1 inch by
4. inch, and 4 inch thick, was cut through a hard steel file in ro minutes.
At the fair of the American Institute, at New York, last year, a diamond was
sensibly reduced in weight in one minute, and a topaz was entirely destroyed.
It is a curious feature of this invention that, whilst hard substances are thus
rapidly affected, soft and delicate materials are left untouched when exposed
to the same influence. Thus, if a thin stencil sheet of india-rubber be laid
over a block of granite or marble, and the blast turned upon it, the stone is cut
or drilled, while the rubber remains untouched. If a photographic film of bi-
chromatised gelatine be placed on a sheet of glass, and the jet applied, a pic-
ture may be engraved, and in the same manner flowers and fern-leaves may be
reproduced with the utmost delicacy. For grinding glass a very slight pressure
is sufficient, that produced by air under 4 inches of water being ample for the
purpose.

ENGINEERING SOCIETIES.

Institution of Civil Engineers.—At the fifty-fourth Annual General Meeting
of this Institution it was announced that there were on the books, on the 30th
of November last, 14 honorary members, 724 members, 1048 associates, and
203 students,—together 1989, as against 945 ten years ago. At the first
meeting in January, Mr. Hawksley, who was elected President at the Annual
Meeting, took his seat, and delivered an excellent Address, the leading topics
dwelt on being—the use of the Engineering profession to Government in times
of war, railway construction, and hydraulic engineering. On the 23rd of
January a paper was read on ‘“‘ The Somerset Dock at Malta,” by Mr. Charles
Andrews. This dock is situated in the French Creek. The works were com-
menced in 1865, from designs by Col. Clarke, and under the superintendence
of Mr. Andrews. The length on the floor is 428 feet; the length over all,
468 feet; the width of the floor, 42 feet 6 inches; the width between the
copings, 104 feet ; and the width of the entrance, 83 feet. The depth of the
invert, floor, and entrance, below the average sea level, is 33 feet 6 inches.
The cost of the Dock, inclusive of the caisson, has been about £120,000.
The entrance cost £ 30,000, exclusive of clearing the rock from the site.

An important paper, ‘On the Value of Water, and its Storage and Distri-
bution in Southern India,” was read by Mr. George Gordon, on the 30th of
January last. From this paper we learn that there are two general systems
employed in India, namely, Tank and Channel Irrigation. The existing. tank
irrigation is chiefly of native origin, and may be divided into three classes :—
1. Tanks formed by the closing of the passage of a considerable river through
a narrow gorge, in a range of hills, by means of a high dam or ‘ bund.”
2. Those formed in the plains by embankments carried across the drainage of
the country, and impounding the water of one or more streams, these tanks
being of great superficial area, but shallow. 3. Tanks which might be consi-
dered intermediate between the other two, having in general a greater length
of dam than the first and a greater depth of water than the second. Few
examples of the first kind remain entire. Under the head of Channel Irriga-
tion, it was stated that only rivers of the larger class, which had a continuous
flow for several months, were available for extensive irrigation projects. The
smaller rivers were merely torrents, which quickly carried off heavy falis of
rain and then became dry again. The water, however, is in many cases inter-
cepted by chains of tanks, of the second or third class, built across these
torrents. The details of irrigation channels were then dwelt upon, and other
particulars,—such as their cost of construction, the net profit per acre upon
various crops, loss by evaporation, &c., which it would occupy too much space
to follow out in further detail now.

1872.] Mechanics. 267

Institution of Mechanical Engineers —The Members of this Institution met
at Birmingham on the 25th of January last. Amongst the papers then read
were two to which we shall here refer, viz., ‘On the Strength and Proportions
of Rivetted Joints,” by Mr. Walker Brown, of Bristol, and ‘‘ A Description of
the Disintegrating Flour Mill, and Machine for Pulverising Minerals, &c.,
without Grinding, Crushing, or Stamping,” by Mr. Thomas Carr, of Bristol.
In the former paper, four different modes of fracture possible in rivetted joints
were described, consisting in—shearing of the rivet; crippling of the plate, or
elongation of the rivet hole in the line of strain; fra@ture of the metal between
the rivet hole and the edge of the plate in the line of strain; ortearing of the
plate along the line of the rivet holes, at right angles to the line of strain.
From the consideration that a perfe& joint would be one offering equal resist-
ance to each of these modes of fracture, the proper proportions were deduced
for the various descriptions of rivetted joints, with the aid of data furnished
by different experiments previously recorded, and by a series of experiments
recently made for the purpose by the writer.

In the process of disintegration by Carr’s Disintegrator, the particles of the
material operated upon are shattered in mid-air by a succession of blows deli-
vered with extreme rapidity in opposite directions, and are thus pulverised by
the force of the blows alone, without being subjected to the compression or
friction which accompanies the ordinary processes of grinding, crushing, or
stamping the material between two surfaces. The disintegrator consists of a
pair of circular discs, rotating in contrary direCtions upon two shafts situated
in the same line; the opposing faces of the discs are studded with a series of
short projecting bars, or beaters, arranged in successive concentric rings or
cages; and the rings of beaters fixed in one disc intervene alternately between
those fixed in the other disc, and revolve in the opposite direction. The ma-
terial to be pulverised is supplied through an opening in the centre of one of
the discs, and receives from the innermost rings of beaters a centrifugal
motion, propelling it towards the circumference of the discs: in its course
through the machine it encounters successively the several rings of beaters
revolving alternately in opposite directions at a high speed, and the particles
are thus dashed violently by each beater against the beaters in the next outer
ting running in the contrary direction, whereby the material is effectually
broken up and reduced to powder.

MECHANICS.

At the Meeting of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts on the 11th of March,
an apparatus was exhibited by Dr. R. M. Ferguson, for showing the motion of
waves on the surface of a liquid, and for illustrating more particularly the pro-
pagation, reflection, and interference of the waves of sound. It is similar in
principle to that exhibited by Professor Morton, in Philadelphia, and described
in our last October number. It has the advantage, however, of greater sim-
plicity, and is merely a combination on an ordinary chemical stand of things
generally in the hands of a teacher of science, and used for the most part for
other purposes. The accompanying cut shows the arrangement. / is the
illuminating lens of a magic lantern. misa plate-glass mirror placed at 45° to
turn the horizontal light into a vertical direction; ss is a glass saucer made by
cutting the end from an ordinary glass shade; / a photographic lens; mz a
second mirror to turn the light again horizontal but at right angles to its first
horizontal. direction upon a screen. The glass dish is partially filled with
methylated spirits, and the dropping apparatus, d, intended to excite the waves,
is filled with the same liquid. This last consists of a Wolff’s bottle funnel,
furnished with a glass stopcock (of the ordinary German make), bent into the
form shown, and having its lower extremity where the drop issues drawn out
into a pipette point. The whole can be fitted to a retort stand with the aid of
the usual rings and clamps that form the complement of its “‘ fixings.”” The
great difficulty in making a successful arrangement for exhibiting what must
necessarily lie horizontal on a vertical screen, is the full illumination of the
object to be exhibited. The diverging cone of rays that falls on the surface of

268 Progress in Science. [April,

the liquid is in no way altered in its divergence when it passes through a flat
transparent vessel. The surface of the liquid is perfe@tly transparent and
does not catch the light. The cone of rays therefore continuing to expand as
it approaches the defining lens /, passes
Fic. 22. for the most part outside of it, and hence
the imperfect illumination. The glass shade
and its liquid contents form a converging
lens, which throws the whole light incident
on it through the lens /, and thus no light is
lost. The course of the light is shown by
the dotted lines. In Professor Morton’s
apparatus, a horizontal lens is placed imme-
diately under the flat-bottomed vessel con-
taining the liquid to effe& the necessary
convergence. In Dr. Ferguson’s arrange-
ment the lens and containing vessel are
one and the same thing. Such composite
lenses were stated to be singularly accurate
and effective, and give considerable latitude
in regard to size. The glass dish used was
8 inches in diameter, and was filled to form
a lens 6 inches in diameter. It was cut from
a shade whose cylindrical part was Io inches
across. The surface of the liquid was in
focus with the lens used at about 9 inches,
but the waves were best seen when the
lens was 15 inches distant. The dropping
apparatus can be brought over any part of
the surface, and the rapidity of the drop
regulated by the stopcock. When the glass
dish is full, different figures with upright
sides of metal plate can be placed in it so as
to alter the shape of vessel at will, and
illustrate the conformation of the wave
systems of plane figures of all kinds. The
sides of these refle& the waves, and the
outer edges can be darkened with paper
so that only the inside is seen. The waves
were exhibited by the aid of the lime-light,
on a screen 15 feet in diameter, with sin-
gular beauty and clearness. The same
apparatus was used to illustrate a course
of lectures on Sound, in the Edinburgh
Museum of Science and Art. The screen employed in this case was a
square sheet of ground glass, 3 feet in size, when the demonstrations could
be distinctly seen by the audience in the full blaze of the gas of a hall well lit
by sunlights. Spirits were used instead of water, as under the conditions they
give a slower wave and a clearer definition.

Lockwood and Co. will publish on April 1st the first number of a new Quar-
terly, under the title of ‘‘ Naval Science,” a magazine intended to promote the
improvement of Naval Archite@ture, Marine Engineering, Steam Navigation,
and Seamanship. Its appearance is looked for with considerable interest
in naval and scientific circles, as it is to be edited by E. J. Reed, C.B., late
Chief Constructor of the Navy, and the contributors will include the most
eminent authorities in the several branches of the above subjects.

LIGHT.

In the oxyhydrogen light the use of cylinders of burnt dolomite in place of
ordinary lime is recommended as increasing the regularity of the light.

1872.] Microscopy. 269

An interesting observation upon the influence which the temperature of the
prism exercises upon the position of the lines has been made by M. Blaserna.
It has already been noticed by Verdet, that where liquids are used for prisms,
the displacement of the lines is quite noticeable, the index of refraction
altering with the temperature. For solid prisms, however, it was assumed
that the influence of change of temperature upon their refractive power was
quite insignificant. M. Blaserna has found, however, upon observation, that
this is not so unimportant as is generally believed ; but that, while much less
sensitive than liquid prisms, the displacement of lines could readily be
observed with one of flint glass. The prism used in the experiment was one
of Duboscq’s, and was exposed for some time to the dire& rays of the sun. It
was then quickly placed in a spectroscope in the shade and some prominent
line observed, when it was found that as the glass cooled the refractive power
increased. (An opposite result is obtained for bisulphide of carbon). He was
able to observe in this manner a displacement of the p line, amounting to 3"
for a difference of temperature equal to 1° C. In the instrument used
the interval between pD and Dp’ is 12”, so that a change of 4° C. would
suffice to place D in the position of p’. M. Blaserna remarks, as the result of
his interesting observation, that an error might very readily be made in spec-
troscopic work, by comparing together observations made in sunlight and
in shade, or those made in the morning with those in the night.

In “ Poggendorff’s Annalen,” M. L. Schonn contributes a paper on the employ-
ment of cylindrical lenses in spectroscopic observations. As in observations of
the spectrum we have to do with lines of light, and these, moreover, straight
ones; and as, in addition, it is not necessary that the rays falling on the
prisms should all be parallel to each other, but only that they should all be in
parallel planes, M. Schonn thinks it would be far better to make use of
lenses suited to this especial purpose, and to employ throughout none but
cylindrical lenses also for illuminating the slit. From a preliminary examina-
tion he has ascertained that one thus obtains well-defined spedtra, in which
the full extent of the prism is rendered available. Perhaps, also, another dis-
position of the spectrum might at the same time be recommended—namely,
one wherein the image of the slit should be horizontal, inasmuch as lines that
lie in a horizontal position are seen with greater precision.

Just before going to press we received, through the Royal Astronomical
Society, an announcement of the discovery of a minor planet (118), Peitho, at
Bilk, by Dr. R. Luther.

M.T. at Bilk.

, ”

1872. 5 ail RE h,; m. Js: a
March 15 14 18 59°6 [Revi Ss 1G] AAS PaIR INoleHID), = Fe) 1 BI)
From an observation made by Dr. Tietjen, at Berlin :—

M.T. at Berlin.

1872. hs ms: Dies.
March 21 g 33 23 Resor if a1oPs(6) NSE: Ds — 79) 201 4675
The daily motion obtained from these observations is in R.A. — 60°6", and in

N.P.D.—3' 45". The planet is of the 11th magnitude.

fo} , ”

Microscopy.—An improved erector for use with binocular microscopes has
been contrived by R. H. Ward, M.A., M.D., Professor of Botany and Micros-
copy in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, U.S. The lenses of a 1} or 2-inch
objective may be packed or screwed into the upper end of an adapter, which
when screwed into the nose-piece of the microscope, carries them up close to
the binocular prism, and into the lower end of which the obje&-glass may be
screwed. A more convenient arrangement is an adapter with a sliding tube
adjustment, which varies to the extent of an inch or more the distance
between the erector and objective. Different powers and distances will of
course be used according to the wants of different observers. The combina-
tion considered most convenient by the inventor consists of a 2-inch erecting
lens close to the binocular prism, and a 3-inch objective at a distance mea--
sured to its lower end of from 3 to 44 inches below the erector, giving powers

270 Progress in Science. [April,

of from ro to 50 diameters, and requiring a working distance between the stage
and the binocular prism of 4} to 5 inches, which is quite practicable with large
stands. Where sufficient working distance cannot be obtained, the object may be
placed upon the sub-stage, or more conveniently, the sub-stage removed,
and the body racked down, so as to focus through the empty stage upon
the table, where the object may be supported by any convenient method.
A modification of the above has been arranged by Mr. F. Oxley, of the
Quekett Microscopical Club. Into the nose-piece of the microscope he
screws a 3-inch or 4-inch objective, and has a sliding fitting made with the
universal screw to carry an objective placed beneath the stage. The object to
be viewed is placed on the table, where it can be very conveniently manipu-
lated; a 13-inch objeGive beneath the stage answers very well in combina-
tion with a 4-inch (the single combination of Ross) on the microscope.
This arrangement has the advantage of being inexpensive; it can be
adapted to any microscope at a cost of a few shillings. This erector is
free from many of the objections to the usual erec&tor placed within the
body. The view given of the object is extremely good, and considerable
variation of magnifying power may be obtained by altering the distance
between the two objectives. The microscope is really converted into a
telescope of short focus, the inverted image being formed by the combination
below the stage, and again inverted and consequently erected by being
viewed with the binocular microscope. The contrivance is especially valuable
to those who have dissections or other manipulations to condué& under
the microscope: all such operations can be carried on in the most comfortable
manner, with the hands resting on the table, and the body free from the con-
strained stooping position involved in the use of single microscopes; and
all these advantages combined with the large field, fine definition, and capa-
bility of distinguishing vertical distances which are so peculiarly the properties
of a good binocular instrument.

“ Silliman’s Journal” contains an account of a new eye-piece micrometer
and goniometer, designed by Dr. H. T. Porter and Mr. J. P. Southworth.
The scales in both instruments are made by photography instead of the usual
process of engraving with a ruling machine and diamond. The original scale
being drawn upon paper and consisting of 100 heavy black lines about jth
of an inch apart, the lines marking every ten divisions are 6 inches long, and
extend 1 inch on each side of the scale; those marking each five divisions are
5 inches long and extend half an inch on each side; the remaining lines are
4 inches long. A negative is taken in which the scale is reduced to 2 inches
in length. From this a transparent positive is taken reducing the scale to
about half an inch in length. In this the lines are ,3,th of an inch apart. A
thin glass cover is cemented on with Canada balsam for the protection of
the lines; it is then mounted in a similar manner to Jackson’s micrometer.
For the goniometer, a circle about 18 inches in diameter is drawn with
India ink, and divided into degrees. The centre is indicated by a dot, and one
diameter is drawn. Every five and ten degrees are indicated by longer lines
than those indicating single degrees ; every ten degrees of each quadrant are
numbered from 0° to go’. A negative of this diagram is taken as before, and a
reduced positive of a size to fit the tube of the microscope; this disc
is mounted to fit the tube at the focal point of a positive eye-piece. A cobweb
is drawn across the diameter of the lower lens. When a crystal is to be
measured, the stage is moved until the apex of the angle coincides with the
centre of the goniometer, and the diameter with one side. The eye-piece is
now turned till the cobweb crossing the diameter at the centre coincides with
the other side of the angle. The number of degrees can be read off at
the circumference without the trouble of looking outside as in ordinary con-
trivances or reading the verniers of a rotating stage. The inventors claim for
these photographic scales the advantages of cheapness and greater legibility
than that of the usual ruled ones. The transparent spaces are quite clear
enough not to seriously impair the definition of the instrument.

In the course of some remarks on the structure of the Arborescent Lycopo-
diaceze of the Coal Measures, delivered before the Royal Microscopical Society,

1872.] Heat. 27%

by Mr. W. Carruthers, F.R.S, it was mentioned that the late W. Nicol
of Edinburgh, well known as the inventor of the single image prism, was the
discoverer of the mode now in use of making sections of fossils for microsco-
pical examination. His large collection is now deposited in the British Museum.

A good substitute for a cement which is a favourite with many microscopists,
although far from trustworthy, viz. asphalte, will be found in a varnish
employed by Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite in the process of etching ther-
mometer tubes and other glass instruments. Ordinary varnishes were found
to fail for this purpose, as they permitted the hydrofluoric acid to creep under
the ground and so cause a rough imperfect line to be etched; the new varnish
resists the acid perfectly. Its good qualities for the microscopist are—that it
adheres well to glass, and when hard does not become brittle, but comes
away in shreds when scraped, like gold size, the most reliable of varnishes
for fluid mounting ; its advantage over gold size is that it possesses more body,
owing to an admixture of a suitable quantity of copal. This property renders it
very suitable for making cells on the turntable; these are, however, much
improved by baking at a moderate temperature, like japanned wares, without
which process all cells formed of oil varnish are liable to be softened by sub-
sequent coatings: neglect of this precaution is a frequent cause of objets
mounted in such cells being spoiled by the running in of the cement.

HEAT.

M. Laborde has made some experiments on calefaction. He let a thin
thread of water pass through the jet from the blowpipe, and he found on
examination that the water which had thus passed through a heat capable of
melting almost any metal was but slightly warmed; in fac, the difference
was but 3°. Ifa jet is passed through an ordinary flame the increase in
temperature is considerably higher, probably owing to the incandescent
particles carried away by the liquid from the smoke. A sheet of water
presents similar evidence. If the jet from the blowpipe is directed against it
it is not pierced, nor is there any sensible heating effe&; the finger can be
brought to within a few millimetres of the flame, and yet there is no sensatiom
to indicate the near proximity of an otherwise so potent source of heat.

“The event of the séance,” says the Abbé Moigno, in ‘‘ Les Mondes,”
speaking of a recent meeting of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, ‘‘ was a
truly singular and noteworthy incident connected with the subject of the sun’s
temperature. On the one hand, Father Secchi maintained, and attempted
to establish, his figure of ten million degrees of temperature (centigrade)
against MM. Ericsson, Zéllner, and Faye; on the other hand, M. Vaulle,
Professor of the School of Mines, and formerly a Laplace prizeman, estab-
lished by means of a very learned and novel theory, a maximum temperature
of 10,000 degrees. Thereupon, M. Henry Sainte-Claire Deville announced
that he is engaged in determining the temperature and pressure at the sun’s
surface, and asserted (as the result of his first researches) that the sun’s tem-
perature exceeds some three or four times the temperature at which platinum
melts, amounting, therefore, to from 6000 to 8000 degrees. Next, M. Fizeau
stated, that having compared (like M. Leon Foucault) the solar light with that
of the glowing carbon points of the electric light, he had estimated that the
former is about three times as intense as the latter; hence, inferring the
relative calorific intensities from the observed relative luminosities, he also had
deduced a solar temperature of 8000 degrees. So that, according to French
science, the solar heat does not exceed 10,000 degrees; and, in fad, it is
emitted by ignited and dissociated terrestrial elements.

MM. E. and M. Becquerel have made some observations on the differences
of temperature at divers depths between turfed and denuded soil, when both
were covered with snow. They were made in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris,
two contiguous pieces of ground being chosen for the purpose, one of which
was covered with short vegetation, the other being bare. The thermo-eledric
pile was used to detect the differences of temperature. Snow commenced to
fall at Paris about two o’clock in the afternoon on the 7th of last December ;

272, Progress in Science. [April,

the next day the earth was covered with a layer having a mean thickness
of between 7 and 8 centimetres. The temperature of the air rapidly fell on
the gth, the minimum observed at the Jardin des Plantes was 20°7° C., and at
the Observatoire 21°5° C. The table of observations of the temperatures
observed at different depths beneath the snow-covered soil, show, however,
that at no time was it lower than the zero of the centigrade scale in the case
of the turfed ground, at depths of 0°05 m. and 0:03 m. At the depth of o'05 m.,
the temperature, starting about o’05° C., rose to 0°7° C.; at o-1 m. and 073 m.
the temperatures were 1 and 2 degrees, and the variations 1 and ,%,ths of a
degree, indicating a tolerably constant temperature at each station. At these
depths, therefore, in ground of this kind, roots, seeds, and other organic
bodies are preserved from the ill effects of a frost even of 20° below zero. In
the case of denuded soil, it was otherwise from the 2nd of December to the
6th, at a depth of 005 m.; the temperature was always below zero, and on the
15th at zero. On the 7th it was 1°, after which it continued to fall till the roth,
from which it again rosea few tenths daily up to the 15th. From the preceding
observations, it therefore appears, that a bed of snow 7 or 8 centimetres
in thickness, completely protects objects at a depth of 0:05 m. from even such
a severe frost as 20° C., if the earth is turfed ; whilst when it is bare, the tem-
perature at the same depth is 1°5° below zero. Seeds and roots will therefore
be kept with perfe@ security in turfed ground, which, if the ground had been
ploughed or otherwise tilled, would undoubtedly have perished.

MM. Leygue and Champion have invented an apparatus for measuring the
temperature of the detonation of explosive compounds. The apparatus
is founded on the known distribution of the temperature in a metallic bar
heated at one of its extremities, and consists simply of a copper bar of 0025 m.
diameter and of 0-60 m. length. Small cavities are drilled in the bar at
distances o‘ro m., these cavities being filled with oil in which the bulbs of
small thermometers are immersed. The following are some of the tempera-
tures of the detonation of the chief explosive compounds; the degrees are
centigrade. Chassepot powder, 191°; fulminating mercury, 200°; Abel’s prot-
oxide, 205°; sporting powder, 288°; picrate of potash, 336°; nitro-glycerine,
256° to 257°; artillery powder, 380°.

M. Fosselli has succeeded in producing an amount of cold just below
the zero of the Fahrenheit scale by simple mechanical action, creating rapid
evaporation. He employs a wheel formed of a spiral tube, both ends of
which are open, set vertically and half immersed in the fluid to be cooled, so
that the latter passes constantly through the whole length of the tube, half
of which is constantly above the liquid, and being wet, gives rise to active
evaporation and consequent refrigeration within it.

M. Ch. Tellier describes an arrangement and apparatus whereby the
vapourisation of ether is employed for the production of intense cold, provision
being made to recover the ether in a very ingenious way, by causing it to be
absorbed by sulphovinic acid, from which it is afterwards again separated by a
simple distillation. An apparatus is now being made according to the
author’s instructions with which it will be possible to manufacture a ton
of solid ice per hour, while the apparatus, of great simplicity and without any
complicated fittings, will admit of constant action, and thereby making the ice
at a very low price.

Mr. Fletcher has brought out an improved gas furnace and hot-blast blow-
pipe. The speciality of this furnace is the burner. It is as simple as an
ordinary Bunsen’s burner, but the flame is solid to the centre. Copper
will fuse in any part of the flame; and to make a crucible furnace simply
requires a support for the crucible, and a fire-clay jacket to prevent radiation.
The lower part is a chamber 6 in. by 3 in., open at the bottom, in which the
gas is partially mixed with air. This mixture is conducted to the top of
the burner through a mass of fine tubes, with an arrangement to supply
between each exactly the amount of air necessary to consume it instantly. A
flame produced by this means, consuming 20 feet of gas per hour, is about 2
inches high and almost colourless. The whole of the available heat is

1872.! Electricity. 273

generated below the obje& to be heated, which, therefore, is not also cooled
by the passage of unburnt gas and air. The point of greatest heat commences,
as with a blowpipe, at the point of the blue cones, about } in. or } in. above
the tubes; and if the flame is protected with a ring of fire-clay, continues
uniform for some inches above. The great heating power of the hot-blast
blowpipe is obtained by an arrangement which enables both gas and air to be
supplied to the jet at an exceedingly high temperature. The jet will fuse
a strand of 6 or 8 fine platina wires into a bead with a small point of flame,
and will give a small light with a cylinder of lime. With the gas fully
turned on, it will melt 3 ozs. of 18-carat gold on pumice-stone. Steel wire
burns readily, with brilliant scintillations, and wrought-iron wire is readily
fused. The additional heating power may be used or not at will, and the
blowpipe can be used either with the mouth or a foot-blower; when used with
the mouth the head is not confined in one position, as in case of the old form,
and both hands are at liberty. The extreme power is exerted to the best
advantage on as smal] objects as possible, and when the gas is turned down to
a blue cone of about 1 or 1} inches long. The point of this blue cone
will fuse a few grains of platinum, supported on lime, in five or six
seconds, if a foot-blower is used. If, however, a smaller quantity is taken—
say half a grain—it is fused into a bead instantly, either with the mouth ora
foot-blower. If a platinum wire is used, it should be held with the point
exactly in front of the point of the blue cone. With care, a bead may be
fused on the end of a platinum wire almost as thick as ordinary copper bell
wire. If a very fine wire is used, it will melt almost as quickly as it can be
passed along the flame: in these experiments the eyes should be protected
from the blinding glare of light, more especially in fusions on lime. For
soldering and heating platinum crucibles, the gas should be turned full on, so
as to produce a large rough flame, the heating power of which is about double
that of the ordinary blowpipe. The lower burners need never be turned
on more than is necessary to allow the flame just to reach the top of the coil.

ELECTRICITY.

The electric currents obtained by the bending of metals have been examined
by P. Volpicelli. After relating at length his method of experimenting, he
summarises the results of his experiments in the following points :—All metals
when being bent or twisted give rise to the development of an ele@tric current,
but copper exhibits this phenomenon in the highest degree. Lead, although
not an elastic metal, also gives rise to the generation of an ele¢tric current,
thus exhibiting an instance of the conversion of mechanical force into
electricity ; the electric currents thus produced are not perceptibly due to the
development of heat due to the action of bending or twisting. When the
bending is accompanied by the tearing asunder, or, rather, the distending, of
the two ends of the metallic wire, a current is produced in an opposite direction
from that obtained by putting the two ends nearer together; by increasing or
decreasing the velocity of the bending, the intensity of the ele@tric current is
also increased or decreased. A metallic wire made of various metals soldered
together produces, other conditions being the same, a less intense current by
bending than when the wire is made of one and the same metal.

M. Eugenio de Zuccator has invented a novel method of rapidly copying
manuscripts or designs, whether produced by hand or photography. An ordi-
nary letter copying press is used for printing from the design, which is formed
upon a varnished metal plate. This plate, which is of iron, is either coated
with a shellac varnish, and the writing or design to be copied then traced
thereon with a metal point, or it may be coated with gelatine and bichromate,
and the design produced by means of photography with a transparent positive.
In any case the lines are formed of bare metal upon a surface of varnish. One
wire of an electric battery is connected to the bed of the copying press, and the
other to the upper plate of the instrument, so that when the press is screwed
down and the top and bottom plates come in contaét, an electric current passes.
The varnished metal plate, upon which a memorandum has been scratched, or

VOL. II. (N.S.) 2N

274 Progress in Science. (April,

otherwise produced, is covered with a few sheets of copying paper wetted with
an acid solution of prussiate of potash, and then screwed into the press. The
characters or design upon the varnished plate are formed of bare metal, and in
these parts an electric current is set up ; this action permits of the union of the
iron with the potash, and the consequence is, Prussian blue is formed in lines
corresponding to those upon the varnished plate. Copies thus produced in
blue ink may be printed at the rate of 100 per hour. The patent is the property
of Messrs. Waterlow and Sons.

Ata recent meeting of the Royal Society, a paper was read by Professor J.
Clerk Maxwell, F.R.S., ‘ On the Induétion of Electric Currents in an Infinite
Plane Conduéting Sheet.” The paper contained a scientific demonstration of
what takes place in a conductor of infinite extent, acted upon by a system of
magnets or electro-magnets. It is of singular importance in giving an insight
into the action of dampers on magnetic needles, such as Harris’s copper ring
surrounding a ship’s compass ; in fad, into those causes which check the vibra-
tion of needles, and which seem to exercise a kind of unseen friction on sus-
pended magnets. The author states that former writers do not take into
account the induétive action of the currents on each other, though the existence
of such an action was recognised. In his investigation a system of magnets
or ele@ro-magnets is supposed to exist on the positive side of the sheet; and
to vary in every way by changing its position or its intensity. The nature of
the currents induced in the sheet, and their magnetic effect at any point, andin
particular their reaction on the electro-magnetic system which gave rise to
them, are determined. The result is presented in a simple form by the aid of
the principle of images which was first applied to problems in electricity and
hydrokinetics by Sir W. Thomson. The essential part of this principle is that
we conceive the state of things on the positive side of a certain closed or
infinite surface (which is really caused by actions having their seat on the
surface) to be due to an imaginary system on the negative side of the surface,
which, if it existed, and if the action on the surface were abolished, would give
rise to the actual state of things in the space on the positive side of the surface.
The state of things on the positive side of the surface is expressed by a
mathematical function which is different in form from that which expresses the
state of things on the negative side, but which is identical with that which
would be due to the existence, on the negative side, of a certain system which
is called the image. The image, therefore, is what we should arrive at by
producing (stretching), as it were, the mathematical function, as far as it will
go; just as in optics the virtual image is found by producing the rays, in
straight lines, backward from the place where their direction has been altered
by reflection or refraction. In the case of a plane conducting-sheet there is a
moving train of images. If positive and negative images, according to the
sides of the plane, are formed and started at given intervals of time, a train
or trail will begin with a single positive image, followed by an endless succes-
sion of pairs of images. ‘This trail when once formed continues unchangeable
in form and intensity, and moves as a whole away from the conducting-sheet
with a constant velocity. If the conduétivity of the sheet were infinite, or its
resistance zero, that velocity would be zero. The images, once formed, would
remain stationary, and all except the last formed positive image would be
neutralised. Hence the trail would be reduced toa single positive image, and
the sheet would exert a repulsive force on the pole, whether the pole be in
motion or at rest. This case does not occur in nature as we know it. Some-
thing of the kind is supposed to exist in the interior of molecules in Weber’s
theory of diamagnetism.

With the first day of this year the eleGtric light was introduced at the South
Foreland Lighthouse, which is situated between Dover and Deal. The posi-
tion is of great value owing to its situation with regard to the opposite coast of
France and the approaches to the’ North Sea and the mouthof the Thames. The
completion of the works at the Foreland will form a triangle of electric lights
described by those of Dungeness, Cape Griznez, and the South Foreland. The
South Foreland towers are 449 yards apart, and their lights are respectively
372 feet and 275 feet above high water of spring tides. Buildings for the

1872.] Electricity. 275

requisite machinery and apparatus for the production of the electric light have
been erected midway between the two lighthouses. The ele¢tricity is
generated by one of Professor Holmes’s magneto-electric machines, worked by
a small horizontal condensing engine. There are four of these engines, two
being for the service of each lighthouse—one used ordinarily, but in times of
fog both. They make 400 revolutions per minute, effecting with this speed an
alternation in the direction of the currents of 6400 times in the same period.
The electrical currents are sent from the machines by underground wires to
the lantern of each lighthouse. The steam-engine, boiler, and magneto-
electric machines are all duplicated in case of accident or want of repair to any
part. The supply of water for the steam-engines is obtained from a well sunk
through the chalk a depth of 280 feet to the high water level of the sea. This
well, although the water is remarkably pure and free from salt, is curiously
affected by the action of the tide. During each flood-tide the well is quite dry,
but throughout each ebb-tide there is an abundant supply of water. The
optical apparatus in each lantern is of the dimensions of a third order for fixed
light, but has been especially designed and manufactured for the purpose of
the electric light. From the high lighthouse 246 degrees of the arc surface is
illuminated, and from the low lighthouse the arc illuminated is 106 degrees,
The landward arc of the light, instead of being waste light to the mariner, is
also utilised, and is in each case carefully gathered up, and by reflecting prisms
arranged on each side of the main apparatus, equally distributed over the
portion of the surface illuminated by the latter, thus adding very considerably
to the power. Each apparatus is provided with an efficient oil-lamp as a
further precaution in case of accident.

M. Trouvé has found a new application of electricity to medical purposes in
his eleétric probe for bullet wounds. This probe consists of three distinct
parts, the battery, the probe, and the indicator; and the adaptation is founded
on the conduétibility of metals. The battery is an ordinary zinc-carbon
element, the exciting liquid being bisulphide of mercury. The probe is flexible
or rigid, and is a conduétor. The indicator has in its interior a very small
electro-magnet with a vibrator and two small rods of steel, very sharp and
insulated from each other; and as soon as these points, which are in con-
nection with the battery, touch any metallic substance, the vibrator begins to
move. The surgeon with this apparatus can even distinguish the different
metals from one another. If the metal is lead, the trembler vibrates regularly ;
if, however, it is iron or copper, the trembler has a jerky movement. Iron may
be distinguished from copper by its action upon the needle of a galvanometer.

Dr. Joule has given a note of some experiments on the polarisation by
frictional electricity of platina plates, either immersed in water or in alternate
series with wet silk. The charge was only diminished one-half after an
interval of an hour-and-a-quarter. It was ascertained both in quality and
quantity by transmitting it through a delicate galvanometer. He suggested
that a condenser on this principle might be useful for the observation of
atmospheric electricity.

Some investigations of a novel kind relating to the dire@ive power of large
steel magnets, bars of magnetised soft iron, and of galvanic coils in their
action on external small magnets, have been brought forward by Dr. Airey,
C.B., P.R.S., Astronomer Royal, and James Stuart, M.A. The experiments
show the distribution of force in the sphere of magnets, and a marked difference
was observed between the behaviour of an ordinary steel magnet and that of a
galvanic coil without a core; for whereas in the instance of the steel magnet
the focus lies within, and some distance from, the end of the bar, the focus of
the coil was found to be at the centre of the end of the coil. It would be
interesting to know if this be so, for it might be supposed that the focus is a
little distant from the flush end, perhaps little more than one-twelfth part of
the diameter of the coil’s wire from it. The presumption would be that the
rings of the coil have, unless clasping a core, each a magnetic action of their
own, besides their combined aétion, and that it is the last ring which deter-
mines the focus alluded to. The apparatus used for the experiments is a bar

276 Progress in Science. (April,

magnet, 14 inches in length, placed, in one series, with its edge towards the
small compass on which its directive power is estimated, and another series
with its flat side towards the small compass; also a galvanic coil, 13°4 inches
in length, animated by a battery of three cells, and in the same coil, with the
insertion of a soft iron coil. In the field of experiment the earth’s magnetism
was sensibly neutralised by external large magnets. The observations with
the small compass were taken in thirty marked stations in one oval ring sur-
rounding the magnet, and in thirty-eight stations of another oval ring outside
the first one. The following specific points are remarked:—At a constant
distance from the steel the greatest force exerted by a magnet is not the
longitudinal force at the end, but the transverse force near the end. In going
round the magnet there are six maxima and six minima of force. The law of
attraction of the core of a galvanic coil is not very different from that of a
magnet. The force produced by the core within the coil {s very much greater
than that produced by the coil alone. In some positions of the small compass
it is about forty times as great, and in some about one hundred and seventy
times as great. The law of force at different parts of the coil differs greatly
from that at corresponding parts of the magnet or core. In the coil it is pro-
portionally far greater at the end, and its direction is different. Near the end
of the magnet or core the directions of force converge to a point within it
distant from the end by about one-twelfth of its length. Near the end of the
coil the direGtions of force converge to a point as exactly as possible at the
centre of the end of the coil.

M. Becquerel, in a paper ‘‘ On the Chemical Effects of Caloric in the Action
of Powerful Electric Discharges,” states that the reduction of oxides of silver,
lead, tin, and copper, can be effected by mixing these substances with charcoal
dust in U-shaped tubes, and exposing them to the heat derived from the dis-
charge of a powerful induction apparatus; the oxides of nickel, cobalt, iron,
and chromium, mixed with charcoal powder and powdered sugar, and put ina
platinum crucible, are also reduced. Silica and alum are fused, and small
crystals are sometimes found in the fused mass.

In spite of the labours of Faraday and of L. Foucault, and in spite of the
excellent arguments of these two great physicists in favour of the condudtibility
of liquids without electrolysis, this conductibility is not generally admitted.
M. Favre has endeavoured to elucidate the subject, and has sought to show
that, under some circumstances, the electrolysis of a liquid traversed by an
eleG&tric current is impossible. He placed in circuit with a single Daniell’s
cell an electrolytic cell of sulphate of copper: after a quarter of an hour there
was a deposit of copper in the pile, but on the negative plate of the voltameter
there was found neither the metal nor its oxide. On the porous cup of the
element there was also copper deposited. With the voltameter out of circuit
and the circuit of the element open, copper was deposited on the porous cup
only. And by several carefully considered experiments M. Favre shows that the
volume of gas disengaged in the voltameter is by no means equivalent to the
reduction and oxidation of the materials of the pile, thus proving that a portion
of the current must have traversed the liquid without electrolytic effect. He
finds, also, that three Smee’s cells are needed to decompose sulphuric acid;
it requires, it would seem, a force corresponding to 45,000 calories in order to
electrolyse the acid.

Sir W. Thomson gives the following law for rendering galvanometers
sensitive with a minimum of wire. The curve forming the transverse section
of the coil is expressed by—

eta ( x iF en
a

x being the abscissze from the zero point, passing through the magnet; y, the
ordinates; and a, a constant.
Prof. Osborne Reynolds, from some experiments on the electro-dynamic

effe& the induction of statical electricity causes in a moving body, has been
‘led to the consideration of the induction of the sun as a probable cause of

1872.] Technology. 277

terrestrial magnetism. If an electrified body be placed near a moying con-
ductor so as to induce an opposite charge in the moving body, this charge will
move on the surface of the conductor so as to remain opposite the electrified
body, whatever the motion might be. Suppose the moving condu¢tor to be an
endless metal band running past a body negatively charged, the positive
charge would be on the surface of the band opposite to the negative body;
and here it would remain, whatever might be the velocity of the band. The
effect of the motion of this negative electricity on the conductor would be the
same as that of an electric current in the opposite direction to the motion of
the band. If the moving body consisted of a steel or iron top spinning near
the charged body, the effect of the electricity on the top would be the same
as that of a current round it in the opposite direction to that in which it was
spinning. It might be that the electricity in the inducing body would produce
an opposite magnetic effect on the top; but even if this were so, its effect,
owing to its distance, would be much less than that of the eledtricity on the
very surface of the top. If no account were taken of the effect of the inducing
body, the current round the top would be of such strength that it would carry
all the electricity induced in the top once round every revolution. If the top
were spinning from west to east by south it would be rendered magnetic with
the positive pole uppermost, that is, the pole corresponding to the north pole
in the earth or the south pole of the needle. In one of the experiments, to
show that such a current might be produced, a glass cylinder, 12 inches long
and 4 inches across, was covered with strips of tin-foil, parallel to the axis,
with very small intervals between them. These strips were about 6 inches
long and 4 an inch wide, and the intervals between them ;1,th of an inch.
In one place there was a wider interval, and from the strips adjacent to this
wires were connected, by means of a commutator, with the wires of a very
delicate galvanometer. This cylinder was mounted so that it could be turned
1200 revolutions in a minute, and brought near the conduétor of an ele¢trical
machine. This apparatus, after it had been thoroughly tested, was found to
give very decided results. As much as 200° deflection was obtained in the
needle, and the direction of this deflection depended on the direction in which
the cylinder was turned, and on the nature of the charge in the conductor.
When this was negative, the current was in the opposite direction to that of
rotation. It may be taken as experimental proof of the fact previously stated,
that, if a steel top were spinning under the inductive influence of a body
charged with negative eleGtricity, the effet would be that of a current round
the top such as would render it magnetic. The cause of terrestrial magnetism
has not been the subje& for so much speculation as many other more unim-
portant phenomena, being regarded as a cause from which other phenomena
might result, but not, as itself, the result of other causes, and yet when two
phenomena have a relation to each other there is good reason for believing
them connected in some way, either one being derived from the other, or else
both springing from the same cause. The direction of the earth’s magnetism
bears a marked relation to the earth’s figure, and yet it can have had no hand
in giving the earth its shape, which is explained as the result of other causes.
Assuming that the figure of the earth has something to do withits magnetism,
its rotation, which keeps it in shape, causes it to be magnetic. We are led to
believe the cause of this magnetism to be associated with the sun, from the
influence it exerts on this magnetism, although the cause itself cannot be the
result of either the sun’s heat, light, or attraction. The analogy between the
magnetism produced by a spinning top by the induétive action of a distant
body charged with electricity, and the magnetism in the rotating earth, probably
caused by the influence of the sun, which influence is not its mass or heat,
seems to suggest what its influence really is. If the sun were charged with
negative electricity, it seems to follow, from Prof. Reynolds’s experiments,
that the inductive effe& upon the earth would be to render it magnetic, the
poles being as they are.

TECHNOLOGY.

Ordinary brick-dust, made from hard-burnt, finely pulverised bricks, apd
mixed with common lime and sand, is universally and successfully employed

278 Progress in Science. [April,

as a substitute for hydraulic cement in the Spanish American dominions. It
is regularly known in Cuba as an article of commerce, and sold in barrels, by
all dealers in such articles, at the same price as cement. The proportions
used in general practice are one of brick-dust and one of lime to two of sand,
mixed together dry, and tempered with water in the usual way.

For curiosity’s sake we quote the following account of a series of experi-
ments made on January 27th last at Fort de Montrouge, in the presence of
His Majesty Don Pedro II., Emperor of Brazil, for the purpose of testing
dynamite :—‘ An iron-hooped, well-made, oaken cask, of 2 hectolitres (rather
more than 44 gallons) cubic capacity, was placed in a vertical position, then
filled with water, and a square hole left in the lid, the size of the hole being
sufficient to admit of throwing through it a parcel of four cartridges, each
containing 20 grms. of dynamite, care being taken to light the fuses previous
to casting the cartridges into the water. After the explosion not a trace even
of the cask was to be seen, and on the spot where it had been standing a
funnel-shaped hole was formed, 4 decimetres (15°748 inches) deep.”

According to Dr. Sézille’s new process of panification, which is spoken very
highly of on the Continent, the wheat is first deprived of its outer cover, or
husk, by means of properly constructed machinery; the decorticated grain is
next acted upon several times by tepid water (about 80° for the first bath and
40° for the subsequent ones), whereby the gummo-resinous cover of the grain
is dissolved and removed. This removal is necessary on account of the fa@
that this substance becomes very deep brown, almost blackish, coloured by
fermentation of the dough; the grain at the same time absorbs from 65 to 70
per cent of water, and is then reduced to a paste by means of machinery very
similar to that used in chocolate mills. This perfectly white paste is next
leavened, and after fermentation is ready for baking. By this process, from
the same quantity of grain which by the usual process only yields 108 to 110
kilos. of bread, the yield is increased to 145 kilos. of very superior quality and
far greater nutritive power}; moreover, a very considerable saving of labour
and expenses connected therewith is effected by the application of this new
process, which has been thoroughly tested by competent and independent
scientific as well as practical men.

M. Deligny’s process for the preparation of pyrophosphate of lime for
agricultural purposes is as follows:—The coprolite, or other native tribasic
phosphate, or bone-ash, is first treated with hydrochloric acid, and the mixture
thus obtained dried in a reverberatory furnace, leaving a pyrophosphate of
lime, which, according to the author, contains 55 per cent of phosphoric acid,
while the hydrochloric acid used is—at least in a great measure—recovered.
The reaction is based upon the faé& observed by the author, that from a mixture
of acid phosphate of lime and chloride of calcium, when heated to 100°, the
hydrochloric acid is driven off by the acid phosphate, leaving a bibasic phos-
phate, which is very readily assimilated by plants.

Dr. Louvel has experimented on the large scale on a process of preserving
grain, ship-biscuits, and flour, and especially preventing these articles being
damaged by insects, rats, and mice, by placing the same into strongly-made
iron (boiler-plate) vessels of sufficient capacity to contain ro cubic metres
(27°512 bushels) of grain or flour, and next, after having hermetically closed
the man-hole of this vessel, producing a vacuum in it by the aid of an air-
pump, it being sufficient for practical purposes that the vacuum be from ro to
I2 centimetres of mercury, that is, a reduction of about from one-sixth to
one-seventh of the ordinary atmospheric pressure. The results of these
experiments (sufficient time having been amply given to test their real value)
is satisfactory in every respe@. The cost of the apparatus, including air-
pump, gauges, tubing, and fittings, is about £64, but one air-pump can be used
for a number of these vessels. It should be observed that the quantity of
grain lost or rendered unfit for human food by the ravages of insects, rats,
mice, worms, &c., amounts on an average to fully 13 per cent of a crop, while,
moreover, by this mode of preserving, much labour required for shovelling
grain about in the granaries is rendered unnecessary.

1872.] Chemistry. 279

CHEMISTRY.

Dr. S. Meurier states that when a piece of meteoric iron is fixed to the
positive pole of a Bunsen battery, the other pole being a piece of silver, and
the electrodes are placed in an aqueous solution of bisulphate of potassa, and
contact made, there will appear on theiron an iridescent colouration similar to
the colouration brought about by heating the polished iron; if no contact
takes place, there is produced upon the iron a figure similar to that which
acids produce, but by this method it is more readily and more neatly
brought out.

Professor J. Lawrence Smith has given a detailed description and analyses
of the large masses of meteoric iron in North Mexico, with the description
of a new mass—the San Gregorio Meteorite. This immense mass of meteoric
iron is situated on the western border of the Mexican desert. Its shape
bears some likeness to that of a blacksmith’s anvil. Its greatest length is
6 feet 6 inches; it is 5 feet 6 inches high, and 4 feet thick at its base. On
one part of its surface ‘‘ 1821” is cut with a chisel, and above this date is
the following inscription :—‘‘ Solo dios con un poder este fierro destruera, por
que el en mondo non habra quien lo puedo deschacer”’ (Only gods can have
the power to break up this mass of iron, for there is no body on earth who
can break it to pieces). The weight of this mass is nearly 5 tons; it lies near
to the spot where it has fallen, but nothing is further known of its history.
A small detached specimen of this stone, which is of the softer meteoric
iron (sp. gr. = 7°84) gives the following chemical results:—Iron, g5:o1;
nickel, 4°22; cobalt, 0°51; copper, minute traces; phosphorus, 008. The
Mexican desert has an extension of 400 miles from east to west, and 500 miles
from north to south, equal to an area of 200,000 square miles. The United
Kingdom has an area of 121,518 square miles.

In works on chemistry, indigotine (pure indigo blue) is described as a body
insoluble in water, alcohol, ether, fatty and essential oils, and dilute acids
and alkalies ; yet strong and boiling alcohol, and even somewhat more so
methylic alcohol (not methylated spirit), dissolve enough indigotine to become
blue-coloured, but, on cooling, the greater part of the dissolved substance is
thrown down again. By experimenting with phenic acid, M. C. Méhu has
found that this substance is an excellent solvent for indigotine, which may be
extracted readily and in pure state from indigo, care being taken to wash this
latter substance first with water, then with dilute hydrochloric acid, and next
several times with boiling alcohol: in order to prevent the solidification of
phenic acid on cooling (heat has to be applied to dissolve the indigotine),
some camphor may be added to it. With 500 grms. of phenic acid, 2 grms.
of indigotine may be readily obtained in one operation, and in very pure
well-defined crystals. Indigotine is also soluble, to some extent, in phenic
acid when cold, this solution exhibiting a very deep purple colour.

Mr. C. Bullock has published the results of a few experiments to solve
approximatively*the question, ‘* What amount of acids or alkalies is necessary
to give a distin@ change of colour to the test-paper?”’ Blue litmus-paper
should be distin@ly blue, but not a deep shade, in colour; the directions given
by Dr. Fresenius in his ‘‘ Qualitative Analysis” will afford a sensitive paper.
When carefully made it atfords the reaction with one drop of acetic acid at
30 per cent in the following quantities of water:—In 4 ozs., it turns red
immediately ; in 6 ozs., completely red in half a minute; in 10 ozs., changes
on the edge in one-fourth minute, and is completely reddened in 1 minute; in
13 Ozs., it is completely red in r3} minutes, and remains red when dry; in
16 ozs. of water the limit of distin@ reaction is found. Reddened litmus
should havea purple-red colour, and the paper when dry a distinc red colour
free from blue. With 1 grain of anhydrous carbonate of soda in 32 ozs. of
water the paper turns blue in 1 minute; in 56 ozs., in 3 minutes; in 64 ozs.,
in 4 minutes; in 80 uzs., in 7 minutes; in 160 ozs. of water the limit of dis-
tin@ reaction is found; the blue shade can be seen before the colour is
dissolved from the paper. In these experiments the paper was submerged in
the liquid.

(280) (April, 1872.

QUARTERLY LIST OF PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED FOR REVIEW.

Index of Speéra. By W. Marshall Watts, D.Sc. With a Preface by H. E.
Roscoe, B.A., Ph.D., F.R.S. Henry Gillman.

A Synonymic Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera. By W. F. Kirby.
F. Van Voorst.
The Laws of the Winds prevailing in Western Europe. Part I. By W.

Clement Ley. Edward Stanford.
Geology of Oxford and the Valley of the Thames. By John Phillips, M.A.,
F.R.S., F.G:S. Oxford : Clarendon Press.

Theory of Heat. By J. Clerk Maxwell, M.A., LL.D., F.R.SS. L. & E.
Longmans & Co.

A Manual of Zoology for the Use of Students. By Henry Alleyne Nicholson,
M.D., &c. Second Edition. Revised and Enlarged.
William Blackwood & Sons.
Technical Arithmetic and Mensuration. By Charles W. Merrifield, F.R.S.
. Longmans & Co.
A Dictionary of Chemistry. By Henry Watts, B.A., F.R.S. Supplement.
Longmans & Co.
The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection ; or, the Preservation of
Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. By Charles Darwin, M.A.,
F.R.S. Fohn Murray.
A Chart of the Northern Hemisphere of an Equal-surface Projection, with a
Key-map on the same Projection. By R. A. Proctor, B.A., F.R.A.S.
A New Star Atlas. By R. A. Proctor, B.A., F.R.A.S. Longmans & Co.
Astronomy and Geology Compared. By Lord Ormathwaite. ohn Murray.
Dr. Pereira’s Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. Edited by
Robert Bentley, M.R.C.S., F.L.S., and Theophilus Redwood, Ph.D., F.C.S.
Longmans & Co.
A Treatise on the Theory of Fri@ion. By John H. Jellett, B.D.
Macmillan & Co.
Elementary Natural Philosophy. By J. Clifton Ward, F.G.S. Trubner & Co.
Experimental Steam Boiler Explosions. By Professor R. H. Thurston.
Yournal of the Franklin Institute.
The Natural History of the British Diatomacee. By Arthur Scott Donkin,
M.D. Fohn Van Voorst.
The Year-Book of Faéts in Science and Art. By John Timbs.
Lockwood & Co.
An Elementary Treatise on Curve Tracing. By Percival Frost, M.A.

' Macmillan & Co.
Science Primers—Physics. By Balfour Stewart. Macmillan & Co.
Science Primers—Chemistry. By H. E. Roscoe. Macmillan & Co.

Monograph of the British Graptolitidea. By H. Alleyne Nicholson, M.D., &c.
William Blackwood & Sons.

New Theory of the Figure of the Earth considered as a Solid of Revolution,
founded on the Dire@ Employment of the Centrifugal Force instead of

the Common Principles of Attraction and Variable Density. By William

Ogilby, M.A. Longmans & Co.
Corso di Geologia del Professore Antonio Stoppani. Vol, i., Dinamica
Terrestre. Milano: G. Bernardont.

ErrATUM.—In No. 33, page g, line 26, for ‘‘ quartzose cells,” read ‘‘ quart-
zose celts.”

THE QUARTERLY

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

JULY, 1872.

lr. THE MUSIC OF SPEECH:
By the Rev. R. WiLxti4m Hiaas, Oxford Scholar.

SVQ
GF all the gifts of God to man, the most godlike, that
of rational speech, is universally the most neglected.
The neglect is without extenuation, and particularly
in the matter of our native tongue. A sonorous and yet
easily modulated language, English offers many advantages
to the elocutionist. The language as a language has been
studied most thoroughly. So much might be said of the
languages of all civilised countries. But can we go a step
further and say that speech has been so far studied that
anyone of moderate attainment in science can explain how
sentiment, logical continuity, or logical conclusion are ex-
pressed in elliptical sentences or phrases,—can tell how a
“‘ves” may imply negation or a ‘‘no” affirmation? Certainly
not. Yet we send our sons to school or college to imbibe
what is generally understood as the ‘‘je ne sais quot” of in-
tonation without thought as to whether or no that peculiar
and admired style is imparted upon principle or only by
imitation. Need it be said how often imitation is too late
discovered to have been the routine pursued. And what
are the consequences? ‘The boy completing his education
enters a profession or the counting-house, and in addition
to hisown mannerism falls into those most prominent among
his fellows. Thus he obtains a peculiar intonation, pleasing
or the reverse—thus is there one set tone pervading certain
cliques of society, too hackneyed a subject for re-considera-
tion here.

We Englishmen, or those of us who cry so loudly for
“* progress,” should be proud that the discovery that speech
has a peculiar music of its own is due to a member of an
English-speaking nation. Dr. James Rush, of Philadelphia,
in his ‘‘ Philosophy of the Human Voice,” has shown that
the sentiment and the logic of our speech have a distinct
mode of expression apart from the subject-matter—has, in

VOL. II. (N.S.) 20

ack

282 Music of Speech. [July,

fact, discovered the true meaning of ‘‘ correct intonation.”
His views and researches have not been published to-day; in
America the work has reached the sixth edition; here it is
comparatively unknown. In the following pages, then, will
be attempted an epitome of Dr. Rush’s investigations,
showing that a standard of correct elocution is no longer a
matter of arbitrary taste, but has passed into the defined
and law-ruled realms of science.

The constituents of the human voice may be referred to
the five following modes :—

Quality,
Force,
Time,
Abruptness,
Pitch.

The quality of a voice is sufficiently distinguished by the
metaphorical terms—rough, smooth, harsh, full, thin,
musical. This mode does not require any elucidation.
‘‘Even in simple conversation,” says M. Garcia, ‘‘if the in-
tention be to represent anything extensive, hollow, or
slender, the voice produces, by a moulding movement, sounds
of a corresponding descriptive character.”

There is a peculiar quality pertaining to the voice of an
actor or orator of long pra¢tice, ordinarily described as
‘“‘roundness of tone,” the ore rotundo of Horace. This
orotund quality may be acquired without that long and
wearying toil to which the professional speaker must submit,
as, indeed, may be acquired any vocal mode by diligent
analysis. First we notice in this quality of voice a resonance
similar to that possessed by a musical instrument, the tone
of which has become mellow by age. Again we notice that
in coughing a certain fullness of tone can be sometimes
recognised in the short percussive vocalities. The resonance
of the musicai instrument arises from a definite relation of
the vibrating body of air within the instrument to the
number of vibrations made by: the reed or string per second.
In speaking into a vase there are some notes of the voice
which find, as it were, an answer, and are produced with
greater sonority. When in coughing we contract portions
of the pharynx, this resonant cavity of the mouth then con-
tains a body of air capable of being set in vibration by the
tone uttered; the result is a peculiar fullness or breadth
amounting occasionally to hoarseness. The vocality of the
cough has the duration only of the passing breath; keeping
the organs in their assumed position, and prolonging the

1872.] Music of Speech. 283

breath, we obtain the desired orotund quality of voice. We
have artificially placed our vocal organs in the position
assumed by those of an experienced speaker. We have,
too, found that there are two distinct forms of respiration—
the one continuous, in which the orotund is first produced ;
in the other the breath issues in interrupted jets. In con-
tinuous breaths we sigh, groan, and sneeze. The interrupted
jets of breath are employed in speech, in laughing and
crying. Having acquired a continuous orotund vocality—a
child first cries in long wails—the student must learn to
interrupt this continuity and to speak in the orotund voice,
soon as easy to him as his colloquial speech. Thus a
thoughtful investigation gives immediately that which in
long years even assiduous practice may fail to accomplish
by mere imitation.

The terms usually employed to denote variation in degrees
of force are also self-descriptive.

Mr. Millard,* who with Professor Bell, of University
College (Lond.), has devoted considerable attention to the
scientific study of vocality, very clearly subdivides the
time or duration of the voice into—

I. Quantity or sound heard ;
Ze Winates
3. Pause or rest.

“By quantity is meant the length of sounds heard
separately; by rate the pace of sounds heard in succession;
and by pause the measure of silence or rest.” Mr. Steele,
in his ‘‘ Prosodia Rationalis” (1779), gives examples of an
application of the symbols of music to his idea of the time
of discourse. But these are constituents of speech each
worthy a separate volume to consider and exemplify.

Exception might, perhaps, be taken as to the correctness
of giving a specific division to abruptness; but Dr. Rush
thinks this a mode of the voice quite distinct from that of
force. It is perhaps a delicate point. Abruptness is
analogous to the staccato of the ~musician. We come
now to the most subtle and the least understood constituent
of speech, variation in pitch or the variations of the voice
between gravity and acuteness. And here we must assume
that the reader has a slight acquaintance with the intervals
of the notes of music. ‘‘As music and speech,” says Dr.
Rush, ‘“‘ when regarded under the mode of pitch, are sub-
divisions of the general science of tunable sound, the reader
will perceive the necessity of designating and explaining

* A Grammar of Elocution. Longmans,

284 Music of Speech. [July,

those terms which belong alike to both, or are restrictively
appropriated to each.” The different degrees of pitch in
music are denoted by what is termed the scale, the relation of
which to speech may be thus illustrated. When the bow
is drawn across the string of a violin, and the finger at the
same time gradually moved, with continued pressure on the
string, from its lowest attachment to any distance upwards,
a mewing sound, if it may be so termed, is heard. This
mewing is caused by the gradual change from gravity to
acuteness, through the gradual shortening of the string:
and as it thus rises by a succession of uninterrupted
momentary changes, each continuous or concreted, as it
were, in its increments of time and motion, let it be called
a concrete sound. ‘This movement of pitch on the violin is
termed a slide.

The reader may himself exemplify this concrete sound by
uttering the single syllable aye, as if he were asking a
question with the expression of earnest surprise, yet rather
deliberately, beginning at the lowest and ending at the
highest limit of his voice. The gradual rising-movement in
this case is concrete; yet as the voice, and any other tunable
sound may be continued in one interrupted movement upon
the same line of pitch, without rising or falling, it 1s proper
to remark that the term concrete is in this paper applied
only to an uninterrupted movement in a visemg and in a
falling direction. Now, the sounds of what is called the
scale in music do xzot rise by connected or concrete move-
ments; but are made by drawing the bow only while the
finger is held stationary at certain successive places on the
string, thus showing an interruption of the continuous
upward slide. These places are seven in number; their
distances from each other being determined by a natural
law, and rendered precisely measurable by a scientific rule
for subdividing the string, which we need not consider here.
Other sounds, still ascending on the string above these seven,
may be made bya similar interrupted progression. But
since the second series of seven sounds, though of higher
pitch, yet adjusted by the same rule, do each to each in order
so nearly accord with the first seven that they may be con-
sidered as a kind of repetition of them, and as the same is
true of all the series of seven that may be formed between
the lowest and the highest limit of sound, the whole extent
of variation in acuteness and gravity is regarded as consisting
of the simple scale of seven sounds, repeated in different
series or ranges of pitch. Thus, while we take the line in
the annexed diagram to represent the concrete progress of

1872.] Music of Speech. 285

the voice, the positions of the notes, represented by the
black discs, will distinguish the discrete progress in singing
or on the pianoforte. While the progress between two notes

of music may be represented by two discs, 2 the progress
of the voice in speaking may be well represented by 4 or
more elegantly thus— oS ° denoting the full, rotund opening

and the delicate attenuation of the inflection. This ex-
planation of the manner of concrete and discrete progressions
in an upward dire¢tion is to be understood of the downward
course, under a reverse movement of the gradual slide on

7th
)
Tone
6th :
Tone a
in |
Tone 3 \ a /\\
th 2 Interval of a fifth.
: °
Semitone =
3rd | e /\\
Tone o Of a third:
2nd |
Tone i) Of a second,
Ist \7 \V \Y or tone.

the string. The variations of pitch on most musical in-
struments are discrete. The violin and its varieties derive
much of their expressive power from being susceptible of
the concrete movement, this movement being one of the
great sources of expression in the human voice. Having
thus pointed out the distinction between the discrete move-
ments of the voice in singing and the concreted movement,
also termed the slide or inflection in speaking, we may at
once proceed to analyse these movements of the speaking
voice, and to ascertain their corresponding mental conditions.
We shall see that each mental state—enquiry, surprise,
assertion, command, remonstrance, threatening, scorn, and
sarcasm—has a corresponding mode of inflection, these modes
collectively forming a natural language intuitive alike to all.
It is the perversion or disconnection of the tone of voice

286 Music of Speech. (July,

from its corresponding mental condition that makes ordinary
reading aloud “like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and
harsh.” ‘A natural expressiveness,” says Professor Bell,
‘may and should be given even to the A B C.”
Inflections are either—

TL2iSimple sor,

2. Compound,
both forms being either rising orfalling. A simple inflection
consists of a single slide of the voice in either an upward
or downward direction; thus, / or \. The compound in-
flection is obtained by uniting two or more simple inflections ;
thus, /\, or \/. When the last interval is an upward in-
flection the compounded inflection is said to be rising; and
when the reverse is the case the compound inflection is said
to fall. ‘The expressiveness is in all cases limited by the
interval through which the voice passes.

Simple Inflections.

Compound Inflections.

a
QL N

SA ULY

It is clear that the limbs or constituents of a compound
inflection may be equal or unequal. Of the multiform per-
mutations of the several inflections we cannot here give
an account, nor is it necessary; for let once the principle be
grasped, and the deduction of specific rules is an easy matter.
Mr. Millard says:—‘‘ The fundamental law of inflection,

—$———————— a ——

ae

1872.] Music of Speech. 287

under which, indeed, nearly all the rules written by
elocutionists may be included, is as follows:—The rising
inflection is indicative of doubt and incompleteness of
expression; the falling, of certainty and completeness of
expression; the length of the slide varying in accordance
with the speaker’s intensity.

Thus, if I put the question, ‘Do your know your lesson?”
to a boy conéident in his knowledge, he would give his
affirmative with one of the falling intervals:

Mes:
And here the verbal and vocal sign would justly and ex-
pressively coincide. If, on the other hand, he were doubtful,
though affirming by the word, the rising inflection, which
by the natural law he would employ, would overrule the
verbal sign and betray his doubtful state of mind:

js
Yes.

From this general law all specific rules for the management
of the voice may be deduced. Thus, with regard to
questions which, in their purely logical form apart from
sentimentality, may be considered as conveying neither affir-
mation nordenial,the meaning being evolved from the answer,
the inflection is naturally a rising one, the lowest limit of
the interval being a major third. This moderate degree of
inflection is, however, rarely to be met with in ordinary
conversation, sentiment or a false habit of intonation ex-
tending the interval employed to a fifth or even more. And
here arises one of the causes of failure of an untrained
speaker on a public platform—he having at most only an
octave and a third or fifth at his command, and seldom even
this, in using the extended intervals to convey ordinary
meaning, leaves literally no room for effect; and in rendering
impassioned passages requiring relatively longer inflections,
degenerates iato a scream or a monotonous growl. Perhaps
the day may not be far distant when from all professorial
chairs of elocution students shall be taught to restrict their
mere assertion within proper vocal limits, leaving the re-
maining notes of their voices to the cause of expression.

Questions are sometimes assertions in disguise, and may
be regarded as, or even more than, assertions; for instance,
““Who said so?” may be fully rendered (with the downward
inflection), ‘‘ Tell me who said so. Finally, the belief implied
in a question may be overruled by the passion with which it
is asked. Thus, where Byron says, ‘‘ Shall he expire, and

288 Music of Speech. (July,

unavenged ?”’ the belief of the speaker is accompanied with
anger, indignation, and other states of mental excitement.

Imperatives will of course take a downward diretion, as
also will exclamations. In the latter case how often do we
hear on the amateur platform the exclamation of Macbeth,
What hands are here!” rendered with the rising inflection as
a question. We cannot here dwell upon the numerous
rhetorical forms of speech—a little thought on the reader’s
part will soon enable him to class them as being subject to
a continuative rising or a decisive falling inflection, bearing
in mind the direction of one of our oldest poets—

‘The wise Plato sayth, as ye now rede,
The word must need accorden with the dede;
If men shall tellen proprely a thing,
The word must cosin be to the werking.”

The simple musical intervals and their correlated mental
states may be recounted as follows :—

The Tone.—This interval should be consideredthe interval
of unimpassioned speech; for, as we judge of all musical
intervals relatively, it matters little what we adopt as a unit.
However, from the peculiar nature of the musical scale, the
tone only is the unit that can be adopted in rational speech.
If this be done the rising tone will be indicative of con-
tinuity, and the falling tone of the approaching completion
of the sense. Finally, three successive falling tones indicate
the completion of a merely assertive sentence.

The Third.—Two tones, or a third, is the musical interval
correlated to that state of mind which may be termed
moderately assertive or appellatory. As has been said, the
interval is naturally employed (either in three successive
syllabic tones or otherwise) in the completion of an assertion.

The Fifth.—Falling; this interval denotes command, ex-
ceeding confidence, wilfulness, or petulance; rising, it
appeals in surprise or passion. While the octave is expressive
of still more passionate feelings.

The reader may exemplify to himself these intervals by
the utterance of the following formulated phrases :—

Rising :
ard. 5th.
Is it gone? Can it be gone?
Falling :
3rd. 5th.
It is gone. It must be gone!

There is yet another interval, the semitone, which, as can
be most easily exemplified by repairing to the pianoforte,

1872.] Music of Speech. 289

is expressed of plaintiveness or melancholy. ‘‘ Pity the
sorrows of a poor old man” is a sentence that to be read
with effect should be read entirely in semitones.

We must now pass to the consideration of the complex
or compound inflections correlated to complex states of mind.
Perhaps there is no better proof of the truth to nature of
the system of musical inflection (if we can call that a
system which is really natural) than is afforded by an
analysis of these complex intervals. They will be found to
consist of united simple inflections, being thus antithetic in
their nature. A complex interval is employed only in
reference to some matter previously understood. For
formulated expressions conveying an idea of the movements
of the voice the student of speech is indebted to Professor
Bell, whose endeavours to render speech graphically were
long ago recognised by the Society of Arts. He exemplifies
the compound tones as follows :—

Rising: ’
3rd. 5th, or Octave.
(Remonstrance) (Threatening)
Not— Certainly not—
Falling:
3rd. 5th, or Octave.
(Scorn) (Sarcasm)
But— Or rather—

the dash being supplied by the accented word. Let the
reader make a few trials with the word ‘‘so” or ‘ thus;”
his ear will soon be enabled to measure the intervals.

This measurement of the intervals is the great difficulty
of the system; a certain but essentially slight musical
training is necessary to enable the student to cultivate his
own voice or judge of the intonation of others; yet the
difficulty is so small, and the consequent rewards so great,
that one would not imagine it to impede the progress of
the analytic study of the voice. This would, however,
appear to be the case, since teachers of elocution delight
more in the enunciation of arbitrary rules than in the
enquiry how Nature provides for the utterance of the
thoughts of man.

Science has advanced so far that it may be stated almost
generally that that which is evident to one sense may be
also made evident to another. In Leon Scott’s phonautograph,
and in Konig’s manometric flames we have two beautiful
illustrations, where speech, as sound evident to the ear

VOL. II. (N.S.) Zee

290 Music of Speech. [July,

alone, is stopped in its vibratory path and made to record
1tseli to the eye:

These instruments are now too well known to need
description here; it may perhaps suffice to say that the
author has with these instruments analysed visibly many
of the complex modulations of speech, reducing them to
the principles first evolved by the fertile brain of Dr.
Rush.

Of the remaining constituents of expressive speech, such
as emphasis, full or median stress, &c., it is here needless
to speak—they are sufficiently well known to students of
music in their occurrence in the singing voice. But there is
an almost distinét chara¢ter—it cannot be termed a con-
stituent—of beautiful speech upon which we must dwell.
It is rhythm. And again the English reader meets with
assistance from the character of his language. With the
French language the case is different. It has, indeed, a
perceptible variation in the force of its accents, and in the
duration of its quantities; but not sufficiently marked, nor
of such a systematic character as to make an available
prosodial meter.. The French epic and dramatic lines, for
they cannot be called prosodial measures, properly consist
each of twelve syllables, though thev have sometimes ten or
eleven. Among them is occasionally found a succession of
accent and quantity resembling the various structures of
English verse. ‘There is an example of anapzstic measure
in the first canto and second line of Voltaire’s Henriade,
“* Et par droit de conquéte et par droit de natssance.”

Allowing for the manner of the French in prolonging their
syllables many like correspondences to the usual English
measures may be gathered from what they call their heroic
rhyme. But all such cases are accidental in French
versification, and do not accord with the general character
of its irregular succession—a succession shocking to the
English ear, and utterly without a flowing rhythmus either
as poetry or prose. Speech would not be convenient for the
interchange of thought and passion if every syllable of every
word were successively accented. For by this uniform
accentuation it would want that vocal light and shade, and
that pronounced relief required for a distinct picture of ideas
—words, and consequently ideas, would not be easily dis-
tinguished from each other, and speech would be inconveniently
slow. Whether this slowness would result from the hiatus
in passing from one syallable to another, each with a full
radical stress upon it, we need not here inquire. Thus, to
the alternation of strong and weak accent, with the variations

1872.) Music of Speech. 291

of long and short quantity, is ascribable much of the power
and beauty of speech. This being the character of the
accentual function, Mr. Steele, by an original view of the
relations between accent, quantity, and pause, made a division
of the line of speech, analogous to that of the bars of musical
notation. These may be called accentual seCtions. We
will attempt to explain part of the system of Mr. Steele
by the following sentence, using italics in place of his
symbol for the accented syllable, and numbering the sections
merely for reference :—

I 2 3 4 £5, 8 6
|] Inthe | sec—ond | cent—u-ry | 1 of the | christ—ian | e—ra |
7 8 9 10 Ir 12
lthe | em—pire of | Rome | | compre- | hend—edthe | fair—est |
13 I4 15 16 17 18
part ofthe | earth] | landthe | most] | civ—i-lised | por—tion |
19 20
1 of man | kind. |

Mr. Steele first assumes the time of the several bars to
be equal, like that of the bars in music, the term bar
meaning not the vertical lines but the space between them.
He next subdivides a sentence into bars, each of equal
time, that time consisting either altogether of verbal sound
or of a verbal sound and of a silent time or pause. Supposing,
then, a bar or accentual section to contain in its verbal
time, one, and never more than one, accented syllable,
or heavy Poze, as he calls it, and one or more unaccented,
which he calls the light Poize ; ; the beginning of the bar is
always occupied by the Baay. accent, mand the end by the
light, or in their absence by a respectively equivalent silent
time or pause (1). In the first bar of the above example there
is no heavy accent, for the sentence begins with two light
syllables, but its time is indicated by the symbol of a silent
pause; while the two light are set at the end of the
accentual section. The word second, in the next bar, has a
heavy syllable followed -by a light one, and thus makes
a full and audible time. In the third bar, the word century
has a heavy, followed by two light syllables. The fourth
has the same time in syllable and pause as the first. And
soon. It is worthy of remark, that if this sentence is read
without its linear divisions, the voice of a good reader is
disposed to make its pauses in those very places, and of that
duration, visibly indicated by the vertical lines placed before
the accented syllable and by the symbols of pauses both in
the light and heavy part of.the bar. It will, perhaps, be
asked here—What is the meaning of these divisions? And
what useful purpose they serve in instruction? All works on

292 Music of Speech. (July,

elocution, before the time of Mr. Steele, recommended the
accurate accentuation of words, and a stri@ attention to
their separation at the proper places for pausing. And
although Mr. Sheridan has given particular cases of nota-
tion for rhetorical emphasis and for pause, he has proposed
no broad rule to direct a pupil on these points, as Mr. Steele
has done, in his simple divisions by bars placed before the
heavy accent. The importance of the subject in our early
schools may be learned from the manner in which children
begin to read ; for their hesitating utterance, and their close
attention to the single word, lead them to lay an equal
Stress on every syllable, or at least on every word. ‘This
habit continues a long time after the eye has acquired a
facility in following up discourse, and in some cases infects
pronunciation throughout subsequent life; as it is not
till the tongue goes tripping, or rather halting, with its firm
and tender step on words, that the ear becomes sensible
of the use and beauty of accent.

Dionysius, of Halicarnasus, in a summary of the consti-
tuents of an elegant elocution, describes rhythmus, as sup-
porting or ‘‘ sustaining the voice ;” and it must be admitted
that a well-marked arrangement of the varying stress and
quantity of syllables does sustain the voice, by keeping
it from that careless staggering of speech, that running
of words against each other, which by crossing and arresting
the easy step of language, confuses and thwarts the expec-
tation of both the ear and the mind. ‘‘ From the pen of a
person of fine rhythmic perception,” continues Dr. Rush,
“even a letter of business, with its enumeration of particulars,
may flow with graceful variety, and terminate with decisive
satisfaction to the ear; for the Greek idea of rhythmus
sustaining the voice in discourse, applies not more to main-
taining a rhetorical dignity, than to preserving common
language from a loose and unmeasured rudeness.”

Of the power of rhythm to confer freedom of speech none
are perhaps more aware than those who undertake to cure
stammering and stuttering, it being the corner-stone of
their systems: the defined beat of a well-marked line can
be made to coincide with the pulsation of the stutterer.
When talking toa stutterer one will find occasionally very
difficult combinations of letters uttered with perfect freedom,
simply because the rhythm has not been interrupted. Very
few who stutter in speech do so when singing.

The further details of the subject of rhythmus must
be left to the rhetorician. We have said enough to show
that, in the words of the great Vandenhoff, ‘‘ The human

1072.) The Decimal System. 293

voice is to be considered as a musical instrument—an organ
constructed by the hand of the Great Master of all harmony.
It has its bellows, its pipes, its mouth-piece ; and when we
know the ‘stops,’ it will discourse most eloquent music.
It has its gamuts, or scales of ascent or descent; it has its
keys or pitch, its tones, its semi-tones, its bass, its tenor, its
alto, its melody, its cadence. It can speak as gently as the
lute—‘ like the soft south upon a bed of violets’—or as
shrilly as the trumpet ; it can tune ‘ the silver sweet note of
love,’ and the iron throat of war. ... The art that wins
this music is elocution.”

Il; A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE DECIMAL
SYSTEM.

not only in England but also in most, if not in all,

countries. The fact that all nations count by tens
would seem to point to some one and the same cause in-
fluencing all nations alike. This cause is probably found
in the fact that man has ten fingers. It 1s very common to
indicate any number by holding up the same number of
fingers. This is observed in our own country, and many a
man in a strange land, with the language of which he was
not familiar, has noticed the same method of explaining
what number has been mentioned.

Now man having only ten fingers, when any larger number
is to be denoted by this method all the fingers are held up,
the hand is then closed, then all the fingers are again held
up, and so on until the requisite number of tens has thus
been indicated, when as many fingers are displayed as may
be required to denote the units.

Thus the simple fact that man has ten fingers seems to
have settled what is really a question of some importance,
viz., the scale of notation to be employed by the whole human
race. It seems questionable whether the decimal system Is
really the best; indeed, many who are considered the highest
authorities on the subject seem to incline in favour of the
duodecimal scale, or counting by twelves. One argument
in favour of this scale over the decimal is that the radix 12
is exaétly measured by the numbers 2, 3, 4, and 6, besides

ee decimal system of notation is the system in vogue

204 The Decimal System. [July,

itself and unity, whereas Io is only thus measured by
2 and 5.

It does not, however, seem at all probable that we shall
change our present system of notation, at all events for some
very considerable time to come. The use of another system,
however, presents no very great, and certainly no insur-
mountable, difficulties, as any one may easily convince himself.
Let us take, for example, the duodecimal system. Here it
will be necessary to introduce two new names, for we are
now about to count by twelves instead of by tens. The first
ten numbers can retain their old names, but the names of
the other two, eleven and twelve, which belong essentially to
the old system, must be changed. Instead of these let us
take maun and bar respectively, and let us call the system
of counting by twelves the ‘‘ bar” system.* In writing in
figures we should have to introduce two new symbols, viz,
one for ten and one for eleven, or maun as we will call it.
Under the bar system, twelve or bar will be represented by
Io in the same manner as ten under the decimal system.
Let the symbol v represent ten and « stand for eleven.

Our system would then be as follows :—

One. . 27 Seven... 7 Bar-one. . mm Barseventeaa
Two .2 Hight. 8 Bar-two. *12 Bar-eightieem
Bar-three . 13 Bar-niney ing

Three. 3° Nine . 9

Four. 4 °'Ten. « v Bar-four: ...14 (Bar-tenwygeare
Five .5 Maun. «= SBar-five: ..15 ~-Bar-maunieee
six. 6 Bar. . 20 .Bar-six .. 16° “lwo-banaeeeas

and so on, two-bar-one 21, &c., up to three-bar 30, four-bar
40, &c., ten-bar vo, maun-bar <o, and one “‘ gross” 100, or
bar times bar. The word “ gross,” being convenient and
already used in English to denote a dozen dozen, has been
retained.

Then one gross and one Iot, &c., one gross one-bar IIo,
one gross two-bar 120, &c., one gross ten-bar Ivo, one gross
maun-bar I<0, and so on, two gross 200, three gross 300, &c.,
up to bar gross 1000, which we will call ‘‘ one range.” A
range of ranges might be called a bi-range, and so on a
tri-range, &c. Anyone can frame a multiplication table,
using the bar system in the same manner as is usually done
in the decimal system, and anyone so doing will find that
he will have no difficulty at all so long as he confines himself

* The word “bar,” first suggested by the Hindoostanee word barah, meaning
twelve, has been retained in consequence of its English signification, being
used here in much the same sense as in the phrase ‘“‘a bar of music.” The
word ‘‘ maun’’ was selected merely in order to have a short word, and one
which should sound differently from the name of any other unit.

1872.] The Decimal System. 295

to the bar system ; but if he should wish to translate into the
decimal system some slight difficulty would present itself,
though of course the conversion from one scale of notation
to another is a simple mathematical operation. What is to
be noticed is, that there is no inherent difficulty in the bar
system any more than in the decimal system of notation.

We will now examine the decimal system in reference to
Weights, Measures, and Coinage.

Starting from the fact that the decimal scale of notation
is in general use, and, by reason of this fact, the decimal
system is the one best suited for employment in our weights,
measures, and coinage ; for in this manner all the so-called
compound rules of arithmetic, and those depending on our
present system of tables, such as reduction, are done away
with, and other rules, such as interest, discount, &c., are
much simplified.

Seeing, then, that there is such a manifest advantage
in favour of a decimal system of weights, measures, and
coinage, how comes it that we have not that system? Who
originated the system, or rather the medley or absence of all
system which is in use in England at present? Topsy’s
answer, when asked who made her, would be appropriate
here—‘‘I s’pect I grow’d. Don’t think nobody never made
me.” This was certainly the case. The foot, like the pied
in France, was the length of the foot of the reigning king;
and it seems to be a well-ascertained fact that this length,
the standard length of the kingdom, changed, in some cases at
all events, from reign to reign, according to the actual length
of the king’sfoot. ‘Then, too, in measures and weights there
were local usages in different parts of the country, and from
these at last there grew up one standard system for the whole
country ; but many local usages had to be subjects of severe
legislation before they were finally abandoned.

It now becomes a question whether the heterogeneous
system of weights, measures, and coinage now in use ought
to be continued, or whether we ought not to abolish it, and
replace it by a decimal system.

We will first consider the question of the weights and
measures separately. Just let us take a glance at what it
is necessary for an Englishman to know if he would be
thoroughly acquainted with the weights and measures of
his own country.

We have three distinct tables of weights, viz., Avoirdupois,
Troy, and Apothecaries’: Weight. We have, it may be said,
one table for the measure of Length, but in reality there are
more, for the link, the chain, and the pole are never used

296 The Decimal System. [July,

except by surveyors, and the hand is only used in measuring
horses, &c. Then, too, the Admiralty knot differs from the
geographical mile, which differs again from the ordinary
mile. Next we have square measure, which, introducing
the squares of the numbers used in long measure, introduces
greater confusion. ‘This is still more the case in cubic
measure, for here the cubes of those numbers come into
use. Again, wine measure differs from ale and beer measure,
and, lastly, we have dry measure. ‘This leaves out of account
such things as the weight of a sack of flour, the size of a
square of flooring, the different kinds of tons or loads, &c.

We will now give an example to point out the absurdity
of the present system :—You are asked, ‘“‘ Which weighs
the most, a pound of gold or a pound of feathers?” At
first you feel indignant at such an insult. ‘‘Why, of course,
they weigh the same.” You are told ‘‘No;” and on thinking
the matter over you remember that gold is weighed by troy
weight and feathers by avoirdupois weight ; and then if you
have a good memory you recollect, or if not, you find on
reference to the tables, that the pound avoirdupois weighs
7000 grains, while the pound troy weighs only 5760 grains,
so that the pound of feathers weighs more than the pound
of gold. Your questioner proceeds further, and says,
““ Which weighs most, an ounce of gold or an ounce of
feathers ?”” Remembering the last, you say, ‘‘ Why! the
ounce of feathers.” But no, the pound avoirdupois is
heavier than the pound troy, but the ounce avoirdupois
is lighter than the ounce troy. Is it not ridiculous? Is it
not disgraceful for the greatest commercial nation on the face
of the globe?

Again, a hogshead or a puncheon of beer contains less
than a hogshead ora puncheon of wine. Such differences as
these have no use whatever, and are extremely inconvenient.

In speaking of the weights and measures at present in
use in England, we have several times made use of the
word ‘‘system.” This has been convenient, but it should
not be understood to imply that there is any uniformity in
any particular table of weights or measures. With a small
exception, to be noticed presently, no such uniformity
exists. Thus in avoirdupois weight we have—

TO drams . .«'. « » make mounce

TOPOUDICES ° «|. fea) is bos, ee pOUae

A pounds: 7.09% sain, JEeStones

2 stones, or 28 pounds. ss), LA QUIAELeR.

4 quarters,or112 pounds ,, 1 hundredweight.

20 hundredweights . . 4, aon.

1872.! The Decimal System. 297

There is certainly very little uniformity or rule about this,
but we might have chosen worse examples.

The exception spoken of just now is a testimony borne to
the worth of the decimal system by engineers, surveyors, &c.
They used a chain of 22 yards or 66 feet, and this they
divided into roo links for their own convenience. It will be
seen that a link 1s no exact number of inches. Its length
is 7°92 inches. Taking the chain as the unit of what may
be called “‘ surveyors’ measure,” we have—

too links make 1 chain.
io chains ,, 1 furlong.

And in square or superficial measure—
Io square chains or 100,000 square links make I acre.

It is a case of rebellion from the existing system to the most
convenient system for working with, viz., the decimal
system. There are other cases of rebellion. Thus, the inch
is not unfrequently divided into tenths and hundredths ; and
the metrical system has been adopted in some scientific
works, notably in books on chemistry.

But on the subject of the inconvenience of our present
system of weights and measures there is no need for long
argument. We have all been schoolboys; and who is
there who does not remember either in his own person or in
the person of the majority of his schoolfellows the immense
amount of trouble caused by the ‘*‘ Tables?” How often
does the schoolmaster (supposing that he does not allow
reference to the tables) hear the excuse, “‘ Please, sir, I know
how to do it, but I don’t know my tables.” Further, we
very much suspect that it is scarcely necessary to go back
to school-boy days. How many Englishmen are there who
are perfect in all their tables? We appeal to every reader
to judge for himself. It is to be feared that the proportion
is very small indeed. If this state of things were inevitable
there would be nothing to say against it: but it is far from
being so.

There is a system already in use, not only by the nation
which first employed it, but since then more or less com-
pletely adopted by several others. It is scarcely necessary
to say that allusion is made to the Metric System introduced
by the French.

The first idea of the metric system was to obtain one
standard, that of length, which could always be reproduced
by calculation, and so to avoid any difficulty as to the
necessity of having a material standard which would be
liable to be destroyed. In order to get this the length of the

VOL, 11..(N.S.) 2 Q

298 The Decimal System. (July,

circumference of the earth was obtained from the measure-
ment of an arc of a meridian, and this length was divided
into 40,000,000 equal parts to obtain the unit of length,
which received the name of ‘‘ metre.’ But as other
measures of the circumference of the earth have given some-
what different results, it is plain that this first obje¢t of the
metric system has failed. Not so the other objects. Having
obtained the métre, the standard of length, all other standards
are derived from it, so that it is only necessary to keep one
material standard, viz., the métre.

For square or superficial measure we have the square
métre, but for the measure of land another unit is employed.
Surveyors in France make use of a chain, a decamétre, or
10 metres in length (about half our English chain), and the
surface of a square decamétre is taken as the unit for
measuring land, and is called an “‘ ave.”

In solid measure the cubic métre is used, or in measuring
fire-wood, &c., the amount of wood which can be piled in
cubic métre is called a “steve.” It will be seen that there
is a difference. There is not a cubic métre of wood, but
the pile of wood, on account of the interstices, occupies
a cubic metre.

For dry and fluid measure the litre is the standard. It is
the volume contained in a hollow cubic decimétre; or, in
other words, it is the volume contained in a cube whose
side is a decimetre or the tenth part of a metre.

The gramme is the standard of weight, and is the weight
of a cubic centimetre of distilled water at its maximum
density.

The standard coin is the franc, a piece of silver weighing

grammes.

In the metric system the learning of tables is a very simple
matter. It consists in acquiring the names of the different
standards, and remembering that the Greek words, deca, hecto,
and filo must be prefixed to indicate respectively ten times,
one hundred times, and one thousand times the standard ;
and that the Latin words, dect, centi, and milli prefixed to any
standard signify the tenth, hundredth, and thousandth part
respectively of the standard. This needs no comment; the
facts speak for themselves.

A friend in England happened a short time ago to send
me in India the following cutting from a local newspaper :—

“* The Metric System.— 7 he “Times,” in discussing the pro-
posed adoption of the metric system, says:—The essential in-
convenience would be the utter subversion of all existing con-
ceptions of length, magnitude, and proportion. Atleast nine-

1872.] The Decimal System. 299

tenths of our fellow subjects are tied and bound toa multitude
of common English facts, inextricably entangled with the soil,
the village, and the town. They have a farm or garden of
so many acres or roods; they dwell so many miles from the
village, railway, or county town; they live by selling
quarters of corn, bushels of potatoes, gallons of milk, or
pounds of meat; their wives buy clothing for themselves
and their children by the yard; they purchase the food of
the household in pounds, and its luxuries in ounces; they
measure their drink by pints, and their bread is bought in
quartern or half quartern loaves. All these things are no
more than names to people who never have occasion to con-
sider any but large quantities ; but to the middle and lower
classes they are the elements of daily existence; they are the
measures, not of mere pecuniary transactions, but of their
resources, possessions, wants, and enjoyments. A quartern
loaf, for instance, is not so much a thing of a given value;
for its price may vary; but it is a known quantity of bread,
good for so much food, and likely to last for such and such
atime. The cost of a dress isa matter of choice, but not
So ais size. Ihe rent of an acre of land is a@ variable
quantity, but in the mind of every farmer an acre represents
a score of associated realities. It will take a known time to
plough, it will feed so many sheep, it will take so much
manure, and so on. What, then, we are asked to do by
Mr. J. B. Smith and his friends is to take all these people
out of a world they know, in which all the dimensions,
relations, and necessities of existence are familiar to them,
and plunge them into a world in which everything will be
strange to them, in which all their old bearings will be
rendered obsolete, in which they will be puzzled every day
to know where they are standing, how much they are eating
and drinking, what they are selling, and what they are
buying. How is a countrywoman to understand how many
metres she wants for her petticoat, or how many decagrammes
of milk she must buy for her baby? If the measure could
be enforced, the mass of the population would be placed, as
it were, in a new country, with all the daily conditions of
life uncertain.”

I must first premise that I knowno more of the argument
of the writer in the ‘“‘ Times” than what I have learnt from
this quotation, and any remarks that may be made in this
article will necessarily refer only to this quotation.

The writer begins thus:—‘“‘ The esssential inconveniences.”
From this we are, I think, justified in concluding that he
goes on to state what he considers to be the strongest
arguments against the adoption of the metric system.

300 The Decimal System. [July,

In his next sentence it appears to me that there is at least
one word too many, viz., the word ‘‘ inextricably.” For, in
other countries with measures and weights as much unlike
the metric system as our own, with a people not a whit
more enlightened, and as much tied and bound to a multitude
of common facts, just as inextricably entanged with the soil,
the village, and the town as is the case in England, the
change to the metric system has been already made and
with the greatest success.

In aid of his argument the writer brings forward instances,
all, or at least most, of which are such as are constantly re-
curring, and which are just those things which will be most
quickly learnt. Allowing that a man accustomed to buy
his pound of tea may be somewhat confused when he goes
for the first time after the introduction of the new system
to make his customary purchase, can we suppose that this
confusion will last long? Will he be slow in forming his
estimate of the weight of a kilogramme or he¢togramme,
when he constantly has to buy a kilogramme or so many
hectogrammes ?

The quartern loaf forms a great part of the writer’s bill
of fare. It seems that ‘‘it is a known quantity of bread,
good for so much food, and likely to last for such and such
atime.” Precisely, and so is a loaf which weighs a kilo-
gramme “‘ good for so much food, and likely to last for such
and such a time;”’ and it will be hard to persuade most people
that a housekeeper would be more than a few days in finding
out exactly how much food the new style of loaf is good for, and
exactly how long it is likely to last. It would then become
in only a few days “‘a known quantity of bread.” The same
would apply to all other instances, which occur frequently,
and the very rarity of the occurrence of others diminishes
their importance. ‘The summing up of this truly alarming
quotation is appalling. ‘There would evidently be a famine,
or some dire calamity. ‘‘All the daily conditions of life
uncertain: ” only think of it !

It does not seem to have occurred to the writer that pre-
cautions might be taken to mitigate the evils which he
foresees; that it might be made generally known beforehand,
for instance, by means of printed bills, &c., that a metre is
about 392 inches; that a kilométre is about 1100 yards, or 5
furlongs, or 2ths of a mile; that the he¢tare is about 23 acres ;
the kilogramme about 2; pounds; that 50 kilogrammes are
about 1 hundredweight; and rooo kilogrammes about a ton;
whilst the litre is about 13 imperial pints, so that 43 litres
are about 1 gallon. Yet even such a simple precaution as

1872.] The Decimal System. 301

this would do away with most of the inconvenience of which
he so loudly complains.

Further, it must be remembered that while the advantages
of the change will extend to all ages, the zuconveniences will
be confined to the generation existing during the transition
stage, and to most even of them fora year or so at the furthest.
The shorter the transition stage the less will be the inconvenience.

We will now turn to the question of the system of coinage.
Here another consideration complicates matters, viz., what
metal shall be employed as the standard. In England we
have gold, whereas the French standard is silver. As it is
to be expected that gold and silver will vary in their relative
value, it is necessary to choose one of the two as our standard,
so long as we employ them for the purposes of the currency.
Opinion in England seems decidedly in favour of keeping
gold as the standard; and, moreover, the franc, the standard
coin of the French, is very small for such a purpose.

It has been proposed to coin a piece of 25 francs, and to:
divide this into tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. This
would differ but little from our present sovereign, and if
France would adopt gold as her standard, this system would
seem the most feasible that could be devised.

It would be a great advantage to introduce the decimal
system for coinage at the same time as the decimal system for
weights and measures. ‘There would thus be only one
change. ‘The metric system of weights and measures has
already been largely adopted, and therefore it seems desirable
for us to adopt that system in preference to any other decimal
system. ‘The franc, too, has been adopted to some extent,
as, for instance, by Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. It
would be a step gained, therefore, if we could adopt a decimal
system of coinage which would chime in as much as possible
with the system already in use in several countries.

The afore-mentioned proposal would effect this. A coin
might be struck exactly equal to 25 francs, and approximately
to our present sovereign. Thismight becalled the ‘‘ standard,”
and would have the advantage of giving as its tenth part a
piece equal to 2 francs 50 centimes exactly, and approximately
equal to our florin, and also (what 1s of no mean importance) to
the vupee, which may be called the universal coin of India.
The hundredth part of the standard would be exactly 25
centimes, or approximately 23 pence, and the thousandth
part exactly 23 centimes, or about our farthing. The tenth,
hundredth, and thousandth parts might, if it were thought
desirable, receive names, and for this purpose the words
““ dimes,” “ cents,” and “‘ mills” have been proposed.

302 The Decimal System. (July,

Each coin should bear its name in words, and also its
value as a decimal part of the standard stamped on it.
It would be an improvement to place the abbreviation St.
after the number indicating the standards, and before the
numbers indicating the decimal parts. The St. would always
then indicate the position of the decimal point.

The following might be the system of coinage :—

Gold Coins.

Approximate Exact value in

English value. Francs, &c.

Frs. Cents.
One standard . 1 St. £1 25 O
Hive dimes & . St. OF IOS. Be 50
Three dimes. ~+.St:.0°3 6s. 7 50

Silver Coins.

Onewdime. <3. St. 08 L333 2 50
Pivercents .) 2 sot. 0°05 ES. I 25
(EMREeICentss.; 35 MSEssOr03 7h. 0) 75
Twovcents, = .129b 0702 5d. O 50
One cents, . “= bt. 0,05 PASSE O 25
Copper Coins.
Four mills . . St. 0°004 as ) 10
Two mills . . St. o°002 4d. O 5
One mill."% . St. o700r id. fo) 2k

In this table there are seven coins which may be said to be
in existence now, viz., the first two gold coins, the first two
silver coins, and all the copper coins; for the difference
between the coins now in existence and the coins spoken of
above would be very slight.

It will be noticed that a new gold coin has been placed in
the list, viz., a piece of 3 dimes, of the value of 74 francs.
As will be remembered, the French have a gold coin of the
value of 5 francs. ‘This is of a suitable circumference, but
is rather thin; whereas the coin here proposed, being worth
exactly half as much again, would be better in this respe¢t,
and would be found very convenient.

The new silver coins advocated here are those of I, 2, and
3 dimes, of the value of 25, 50, and 75 centimes respectively.
From their likeness to our twopenny, fourpenny, and six-
penny pieces, it is reasonable to conclude that they would
be useful, and would cause no confusion.

1872.] The Decimal System. 303

The copper pieces being to all intents and purposes the
same as those now in use call for no remark.

Supposing that England were to introduce this system for
herself and for her colonies and dependencies, it is almost certain
that all those nations which at present use the franc, having
silver as their standard, would make gold their standard,
and come into the system so as to obtain uniformity, for the
change would be slight and insignificant for them. More-
over, let us think what is meant by the phrase Great Britain
and her colonies and dependencies. ‘There is only need to
mention the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
India, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada to show the
importance of the phrase. Then, consider the amount of
commerce which is carried on by this assemblage of nations,
both among themselves and with foreign nations, and it
becomes a matter of extreme probability, almost amounting
to certainty, that if Great Britain, her colonies, and depen-
dencies were to adopt the metric system of weights and
measures (already largely adopted by other nations), together
with the decimal system of coinage here advocated, these
systems would become universal over the whole civilised
globe.

Whether such were the case or not the gain to Great
Britain and her dependencies would be enormous. Let us
compare the account books of the present system with those
which would be used under the system advocated here. In
this latter, besides the columns for the number of standards,
there would be one column each for dimes, cents, and mills.
This contrasts favourably with the present system; for,
besides the column for pounds, there are now in reality four
columns, viz.,a double column for shillings, and a column each
for pence and farthings. Further, under the decimal system
it is merely a case of simple addition, whereas under the
present system there are three different reductions to be
made, viz., the division by 4 to reduce the farthings to pence,
by 12 to reduce pence to shillings, and by 20 to reduce
shillings to pounds. One result of the change would then
be that bankers’, merchants’, tradesmen’s, and, in fact, all
account books, would be more easily and more corre¢tly kept.
The gain to any one individual in any one day might be small,
but when we consider the gains of all the people concerned, the
total gain becomes considerable even in one day ; if, further,
we consider all the gains of all the people concerned for a year,
or still more for all future time, the total becomes simply over-
whelming.

The advantage, too, to the commerce between England

304 The Decimal System. [July,

and India alone would be very great in the uniformity that
would thus be established in all accounts.

To India, too, considered alone, the benefit derived from
the system advocated would be very great. The substitution
of a rational system of weights and measures for that now
in use would be highly beneficial, and the introduétion of
gold coins would be a great relief. It is hardly realised in
Eng gland, because not experienced, what a nuisance in
carriage ‘and loss of time in counting is occasioned by the
payment of any large sum of money in silver.

I do not at present recollect the exact proportion between
the weight of the sovereign and that of the florin or rupee,
but it will be near enough for our present purpose to use the
following equation :—

The weight of 5 florins or rupees=the weight of 8
sovereigns = 2 ounces troy.

In order, then, to pay a sum of £40 we, in India, have to
pay 400 rupees, that is to say, a weight of about 160 ounces
troy as against a weight of about Io ounces, which would
be necessary to pay the same sum in England. In other
words, we have now to use in India 16 times the weight of
a coin that would be necessary to pay any sum were a gold
coinage in circulation here. And since any weight of silver
occupies more space than the same weight of sold, it follows
that the comparison between the bulks of gold and silver coin
necessary to pay any sum is still more in favour of the gold.

It would seem, then, that there is a large amount of
argument in favour of England’s making a change to a
decimal system of weights, measures, and coinage, and that
for the weights and measures the metric system should
be adopted; whilst for coinage it should be a decimal
system 7” connection with the system used in France, Belgium,
Switzerland, and Italy, and which is a part of the metric
system. It must here be noted that it is of importance to
adopt a system in connection with one in use by several
nations, rather than with one in use by one nation only,
although that one nation may be of the combined importance of
the several nations ; for we thus have the adhesion of several
nations instead of one only, and are to this extent nearer to the
realisation of a universal system of weights, measures, and
coinage; and the wniversality of the system is only second
in importance to the fact of its being a decimal system.

The proposal to introduce a decimal system of weights,
measures, and coinage seems to have set people to work to
endeavour to find out all the difficulties of the scheme. This
looking out for the difficulties of any new scheme is but

1872.] The Decimal System. 305

reasonable, but it should be done in the spirit of a brave
man, who, being convinced of the desirability of some object,
looks first to see what difficulties lie in the way of its
attainment, in order that he may be prepared beforehand,
and be the more ready to meet and overcome them. Instead
of this, we as anation have been content to let the difficulties
which look big and threatening prevent our adoption of a
system which would be a great blessing to the land. We
ought rather, having found the difficulties which oppose us,
work heart and soul to remove them, and they would soon
be found to be much less formidable than they appear. We
all know that possession is said to be ‘“‘nine points of the
law ;”’ and it is this and this only which has enabled the
old system to hold out so long as it has done.

Even the opponents of the decimal system admit that
there is no more, and perhaps, in fact, much less, difficulty
in its working than in that of the system now in vogue.
What they object to is the change, and not the system itself.
Are we, then, for the sake of some temporary tnconvemtence to
decline a permanent advantage? Are we, in fact, to suffer a
permanent inconvenience because we are afraid of incurring
a temporary trouble? Should we not rather constantly aim
at attaining the permanent advantage, and at the same time
endeavour to find out how we can make the temporary in-
convenience as small as possible? In doing otherwise we
merely add one more to the already long list of illustrations
of the old saying, that ‘‘ It is the lazy man who gives himself
the most work.”

Once understood, the new system would be easier than,
and far preferable to, the old, and it is not 7m ttself difficult
to understand. ‘The only difference lies in the fact that we
are familiar with the old system, and consequently refer all
questions of weights and measures to it; but once our
conceptions of weights and measures formed in the new
system, we should think in kilogrammes, metres, litres,
&c., and it would no longer be necessary to translate into
the weights and measures of the old system. It is exactly
the same as with languages. We, being English, think
French difficult, and vice versa. In learning a foreign
language the beginner generally translates every phrase
mentally into his own tongue, but after he has properly
acquired the other language he no longer makes any mental
translation but seizes the meaning direct. So much is this
the case that frequently an individual, although knowing
thoroughly well the meaning of some passage of foreign
language, may yet be totally unable to render the same

WOL. “I. (N-S.) ZR

306 The Decimal System. [July,

exactly in his mother-tongue. The best way of learning a
foreign language is undoubtedly to do without the aid of
one’s own as soon as possible, and the same is true with
regard to the change to the decimal system of weights,
measures, and coinage. The less comparison there is
between the old system and the new the better, and the
more we learn the new system, so to speak, from itself, by
its use and without reference to the old, the quicker and the
better shall we be able to understand it.

The great argument of our opponents seems to be that
‘‘the common people would not understand the system, |
and would not be able to use it.” Now on what is this
belief based? Is there any reasonable ground for supposing
that this would be the case? The change has been success-
fully made in several other nations under as great difficulties
as we should have to encounter. Do our opponents wish us
to suppose that our own common people are below the
common people of other nations in intelligence? For my
own part, I cannot but think that, having the experience of
other nations before our eyes, there is no reason to believe
that we should fail on this score, and surely the common
people of the United Kingdom are not willing to lie under
the imputation thus thrust upon them. No; let us take all
needful precautions; let us make the change as easy as
possible; let us give all reasonable means to every man,
woman, and child of learning the use of the decimal
system, and then we need not fear to make the change.
Moreover, I submit that, in that case, we should not be
justified in delaying the change. It is neither reasonable
nor desirable to make the lower classes the measure of the
nation. We are bound to give them facilities for acquiring
the use of the system, but, having done that, it is not our
fault if they do not choose to avail themselves of those
facilities; and the rest of the nation should not be deprived
of an advantageous reform on their account.

Let us now see how the change might best be effected ; by
what precautions we can best overcome the difficulties that
must inevitably arise.

In the first place, as we have seen, the difficulty les
in the change itself, and only exists during the transition stage.
What is the conclusion? It is, that the transition stage
should be made as short as possible. How may this best
be done? Let it be agreed that the present system shall
remain in force until some certain date, say, for instance,
until the 1st of January, 1874, and that, from that date, its
use shall be zlegal, and the use of the decimal systems here

1872.] The Decimal System. 307

proposed compulsory. Meanwhile, from the present date,
numbers of specimens of the new weights, measures, and
coinage might be made by the Government. These should
not be for actual use in business, but merely for exhibition,
in order to render the public familiar with them. We have
already said that it is desirable to avoid translation as much
as possible, and learn the new system from itself alone, and
by its use.

Let the Government supply each shopkeeper with a set
of such weights or measures, on the new system, as he
would use in his business on the condition of his displaying
them in his window. On the ist of January, 1874, these
sample weights and measures would become the property of
the shopkeeper, and the Government would take up his old
weights or measures and destroy them as such, utilising
them in some other manner.

Further, every school should be supplied with a complete
set of weights and measures according to the new system,
and the scholars should be instructed in their use, and made
familiar with their appearance and size.

Tables, of course, would be prepared showing the exact
relations of the weights and measures of the new system to
those of the old; but at the same time the comparison
between the two systems should not be encouraged beyond
what was absolutely necessary for the equitable settlement
of claims.

If we do not adopt the decimal system for our weights,
measures, and coinage we shall deserve even greater
reproaches than have been heaped upon the workmen
who destroyed the machinery of Arkwright and_ his
brother inventors. For here we have a machine which is
beautifully simple, with the working of which we are
already familiar, and which would save labour to every man,
woman, and child in the kingdom, and we refuse even to
apply it to a new use.

There is no nation which has such a commerce as our
own, and, consequently, there is no nation which would
benefit so much by the adoption of a decimal system.
Let us, therefore, no longer delay; let us recollect that the
longer we delay the greater will the change be, and let us
boldly make the change at once.

In conclusion, it is scarely necessary to state that the
present article has not been meant as a dissertation on the
decimal system. There are already many and excellent
publications on the subject. The writer of this article is
convinced that it can only be the fact that the great

308 The Construction of the Heavens. [July,

mass of the nation are content not to think on the subject,
or has its time too fully occupied to do so, which has thus
long delayed the introdution of the system into England.
In this belief the present article has been written, in the
hope that, by putting the matter in a plain, and, so to speak,
everyday point of view, the thoughts of the public generally
might be turned to the subjeét, which, in the writer’s
opinion, would be sufficient to seal the fate of our present
system for ever.

Ill; THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE HEAVENS:

By Ricuarp A. Proctor, B.A., Cambridge ;

Honorary Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society ;
Author of ‘* The Sun,” ‘‘ Other Worlds,” &c.

“A knowledge of the construction of the heavens has always been the ulti-
mate object of my observations.”—Sir W. HERSCHEL (Pil. Trans. for 1811).

(eS)

‘ji, 1 may appear strange, but is nevertheless strictly true,
a that though the name astronomy implies the science
=> which deals with the laws of stellar distribution, yet
astronomers as a body have given less attention to the dis-
cussion of these laws, or, in other words, to the solution
of the probiem of the construction of the heavens, than to
any other department of their science. The observation of
the stars has indeed occupied a large share of the labours
of astronomers; but such observation has been directed to
the exact determination of the position of individual orbs
upon the vault of heaven. At the great public observatories
the prosecution of such work—the importance of which, be
it understood, I am very far from questioning—has been the
object of many years of patient labour by many hundreds of
skilful astronomers: catalogues in which star places are
recorded by hundreds of thousands are now in existence,
and the magnitude, colour, proper motion, annual parallax,
and other relations of multitudes of stars have been care-
fully recorded. But these labours have not been carried
out for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the
structure of the sidereal universe. ‘They have all related to
the recognition and accurate placing of individual stars; and
indeed it may be said, without exaggeration, that they have

1872.] The Construction of the Heavens. 309

all been intended to subserve terrestrial purposes rather
than to extend our knowledge of celestial relations.

And it is particularly remarkable how few of the astro-
nomers whose names stand highest in the roll of scientific
fame, have taken any considerable degree of interest in the
problems presented by the stellar heavens. Hipparchus
and Ptolemy studied the stars in order to obtain information
respecting the earth. Copernicus neither formed nor
attempted to form any theory of the sidereal system. He
expressed, indeed, the opinion that the universe of stars is
spherical, but he based this opinion on considerations far
removed from the actual study of the stars. Kepler, in like
manner, did not direct his attention to the distribution of the
stars, and the evidence which that distribution may afford
respecting the constitution of the heavens; he, like Coper-
nicus, expressed an opinion respecting the sphere of stars,
but the opinion was based on fanciful analogies, not on
observed facts.* Galileo limited himself to the observation
of the stars with his telescope, enunciating only the theory
that the Milky Way consists of a multitude of stars, as
demonstrated by his telescopic researches. Hevelius did

* His reasoning is so remarkable that I venture to quote it in this place, for
it affords a very suggestive insight into the nature of Kepler’s mental organi-
sation, especially when we consider that the work in which these ideas are put
forward—the ‘“ Epitome,” was published partly in 1618, and partly in 1620,
while the three laws of Kepler were published in 1609 and 1619; in other ©
words, that he was bringing out a farrago of fanciful and baseless speculations
during the very period which saw him force from nature the key to one of the
noblest of her secrets. After explaining that the stars are necessarily
enclosed within the substance of a spherical shell having the sun at its centre,
he proceeds to reason thus :—The radius of the concavity enclosing the sun is
determined by a simple proportion. Saturn, the outermost planet, travels at a
distance from the sun equal to 2000 times the sun’s radius; therefore by
the harmony of relations the distance of the sphere of the fixed stars is equal
to 2000 times the distance of Saturn from the sun. But the thickness of the
crystalline (the spherical shell enclosing the stars) can also be determined.
All the matter of which the universe is formed is divided into three equal
parts. One third is included in the body of the sun; another third forms the
substance of the planets and of the celestial ether which fills up the space
within the sphere of the fixed stars; the remaining third forms the crystalline.
Now since the ether fills a space exceeding the sun’s volume 64 trillions
of times [(4,000,000)*], its density must be proportionately small compared
with his. And the density of the crystalline must be a mean between the sun’s
density and that of the ether. Thus the crystalline has a density 8000 million
times [(4,000,000)?] less than the sun’s; and as its mass is equal to the
sun’s, its volume is 8000 million times greater. Hence, since its inner
diameter is known, it is easy to calculate its thickness, which is found to
be equal to the 6oo00th part of the sun’s radius—or, according to nineteenth
century measurements, to about seventy miles.

It would appear, as Struve points out, that Kepler in thus reasoning was
chiefly striving to accommodate the Copernican theory with the ideas enter-
tained in his day respecting the waters above the firmament spoken of in the
Pentateuch.

310 The Construction of the Heavens. [July,

not discuss in any way the relations presented by the stars.
Huyghens, however, in his ‘‘ Cosmotheoros,”’ made many
judicious reflections respecting the stellar system, and
advanced opinions which were carefully based on observed
facts. We owe to him the definite enunciation of the
theory that the stars are suns like our own, probably, like it,
the centre of planetary schemes. Huyghens, like his pre-
decessors, failed to discuss attentively the configuration
of the star groups, whether those seen by the naked eye or
those revealed in the telescope, with the purpose of thence
ascertaining the laws according to which the stellar universe
is constituted. Newton, Halley, Flamsteed, and their con-
temporaries, paid in like manner very little attention, or
none at all, to that stupendous problem, the solution of
which Sir W. Herschel afterwards set before him as ‘“ the
ultimate object of his observations.” And passing at a step
over the interval separating Newton’s day from our own
times, it may be said that the Herschels and the elder
Struve have been the only astronomers who have attempted
to form broad and connected views respecting the structure
of the universe, while only half-a-dozen names need be
added, if we would include those who have given attention
to the subordinate problems associated with the great one of
determining the laws of the sidereal system.

But even more remarkable than the carelessness with
which nearly all the great astronomers of the last three
centuries have viewed this noble problem, is the faé¢t that
attention was first fairly called to the problem, and worthy
attempts were first made towards its solution, by men who
were not astronomers* in the true sense of the term, and
whose names, with a single exception, remain in un-
deserved obscurity. How seldom do we hear the names of

* Lest this remark should be misunderstood, I may as well explain in what
sense I use the word astronomer. I was somewhat roundly taken to task
when in the first edition of my ‘‘ Other Worlds” I spoke of Whewell in one
place, and of Humboldt in another, as not being astronomers. There cannot be
any question that Whewell had a clearer insight into many astronomical
subjects than many who must be described as astronomers; and a like remark
applies to Humboldt, Brewster, and others, as well as to these of whom
I speak above. Yet it is impossible for any astronomer to read many consecu-
tive pages of matter written on astronomical subjects by Whewell, Humboldt,
Brewster, Kant, and others, without feeling that they were emphatically not
astronomers. What then, it may be asked, is my definition of an astronomer ?
It is one which immediately removes anything that might seem invidious in the
distinction I draw between the above-mentioned eminent men, and others—not
more eminent, some far less eminent—whom I should emphatically call astro-
nomers. An astronomer is one who devotes the main portion of his scientific
life and labour to the study of astronomy, either generally or in some special
department. This definition excludes, and, as I take it, properly excludes,

1872.} The Construction of the Heavens. 311

Wright, Lambert, and Michell associated with those of
the Herschels and Struve; how seldom, indeed, are they men-
tioned at all; and if the name of Kant is held in high
honour, how little is this due to its association with astrono-
mical theories! Yet I do not hesitate to say, that Wright,
Kant, Lambert, and Michell did more to advance men’s
ideas respecting the constitution of the sidereal universe
than all the astronomers who lived before the time of Sir
W. Herschel.

We owe to Wright, of Durham, the enunciation of that
theory of the universe which is so commonly. presented
in our text-books of astronomy, as representing the “‘ out-
come,” so to speak, of the labours of the elder Herschel.
Nor did Wright simply enunciate that theory; he based it
on observation. All that was hypothetical in his reasoning
was the idea with which he started that the stars are
arranged with a certain general uniformity throughout the
sidereal system. ‘‘ It seems inconsistent,” he said, ‘‘ with
the harmony observed in all the other arrangements of
nature, that one scheme of stars should be arranged with
perfect symmetry, while another is scattered irregularly.”
It is far safer—so Wright reasoned—to conclude that the
seeming incongruity between the aspect of the Milky Way,
which is unquestionably a zone of stars, is due only to the
imperfect nature of our survey, both as respects extent
of space and duration in time. ‘‘ When we reflect,” he
proceeds, ‘‘upon the various configurations of the planets, and
the changes which they perpetually undergo, we may be
assured that nothing but a like eccentric position of the
stars could occasion such confusion among bodies otherwise
so regular; in like manner we may conclude, that as the
planetary system if viewed from the sun would appear

those who turn for awhile from their special branches of research to the study
of some special astronomical subject, however skilfully they may treat that
subject. It also excludes those (and again, as I take it, the exclusion is right and
proper) who have made all science their subject. But unlike other definitions
which I have heard advanced, it does not exclude any class of astronomical
workers orthinkers. If we take a familiarity with any special branch of astrono-
mical lore, whether observational or mathematical, or theoretical or historical,
as essential to the character of the true astronomer, we must in every case
exclude many who have given nearly the whole of their scientific life and
labour to the advancement of the science of astronomy. We might thus
adopt a definition excluding Adams and Leverrier, or another excluding Airy
or Challis, or another excluding Huggins and De la Rue, or another excluding
Dawes and Webb, and Knott and Browning. Newton could be excluded
because he was not an observer of the heavens; Sir W. Herschel because he
was not an adept in manipulating the formule of Laplace and Lagrange. In
fine, we might successively exclude every student of astronomy that has ever
lived, with perhaps the single exception of the younger Herschel.

252 The Construction of the Heavens. (July,

perfectly symmetrical, so there may be some place in the
universe where the arrangement and motions of the stars
may appear most beautiful. If we suppose the sun to
be plunged in a vast stratum of stars of inconsiderable
thickness compared with its dimensions in other respects, it
is not difficult to see that the actual appearance of the
heavens may be reconciled with a harmonious arrangement
of the constituent bodies of such a system with respect
to some common centre, provided it be admitted at the
same time that the stars have all a proper motion. In
such a system it is manifest that the distribution of the
stars would appear more irregular the farther the place
of the spectator was removed from the centre of the
stratum towards either of the sides. It is also evident that
the stars would appear to be distributed in least abundance
in the opposite directions of the thickness of the stratum,
the visual line being shortest in those direCtions; and that
the number of visible stars would increase as the stratum
was viewed through a greater depth, until at length, from
the continual crowding of the stars behind each other,
it would ultimately assume the appearance of a zone of
light.’*

It will be obvious that we have here a complete enuncia-
tion of what has been called the Grindstone theory of the
stellar system. The theory is based by Wright on observed
facts, precisely as it was afterwards based by Sir W.
Herschel on other observed faéts. Assuredly whatever
credit appertains to the invention of the theory must be
in justice ascribed to Wright, who thus in 1750 reasoned
out and clearly described the views to which Herschel was
led in 1784. Wright, indeed, did not convince his contem-
poraries. Either they were unwilling to examine the
reasoning he advanced, or they could not recognise its
force ; but neither remissness nor slowness of apprehension
on their part can afford just ground for depriving Wright of
the credit due to his ingenious analysis of known facts.

Kant’s speculations, so far as they relate to the present
constitution of the universe, must be regarded as simply an
extension of Wright’s theories. Kant had read Wright’s
work, the ‘‘ Theory of the Universe,” which had been
reprinted in a Hamburg journal of the year 1751, and
he admits that his views respecting the universe of stars
were suggested by Wright’s theories; but he found himself

* T have not followed here Wright’s actual text, not having present access
to his work. The above passage is taken from the abstract of Wright’s theory
in Professor Grant’s excellent ‘‘ History of Physical Astronomy.”

1872.] The Construction of the Heavens. 313

unable to indicate “‘to what extent his system is a repro-
duction or amplification of Wright’s.” There can be no
question that unconscious memory had a much larger
share in the production of Kant’s ideas as published in
1755, than he himself (in the absence of Wright’s work
to refer to) could probably have imagined.* The most
important point to be noticed in Kant’s work is his
extension of Wright’s speculations to other orders of
systems than observation had yet revealed. Wright had
considered that the nebulz indicate the existence of other
systems, not necessarily like our own star system, but
of the same order in the scheme of creation. Kant con-
sidered that these star systems are members of a new
system of a higher order. ‘‘ We trace here,” he added,
‘‘the first terms of a series of worlds and systems, and
these first terms of an infinite series enable us to infer the
nature of the rest of the series.” t

Strangely enough while Kant borrowed his views almost
wholly, though unconsciously, from Wright, he seems to
have been disposed to regard Lambert’s views—which in
reality were unlike his own—as borrowed from him. In his
correspondence with Lambert, Kant remarked in 1763, that
“‘the accordance between their ideas extended even to the
most minute details.” It will be seen, however, that in
forming this opinion Kant misinterpreted the theses of
Lambert.

Lambert, like Huyghens, Wright; and Kant, regarded
the stars as suns resembling our own sun in importance,
and like it surrounded by planetary systems. Each sun
with its family of planets formed in Lambert’s theory a
system of the first order. He considered that our sun belongs
to a vast globular group or cluster of stars, forming a

* Professor Huxley, in his fine essay on ‘‘ Geological Reform,” remarks
that Grant, in his ‘‘ History of Physical Astronomy,” makes but the briefest
reference to Kant. The reason for this may probably be found in the circum-
stance that, in describing Wright’s ideas, Grant had already presented all
those of Kant’s views which could properly find a place in a history of
physical astronomy. The student who is anxious to inquire into those more
speculative ideas of Kant which are not to be found in Wright’s ‘‘ Theory of
the Universe,’ should refer to Kant’s original work, ‘‘ Allgemeine Natur-
gesichte und Theorie des Himmels; oder Versuch von der Verfassung und
dem mechanischen ursprunge des ganzen Weltgebiindes nach Newton’schen
Grundsatzen Abgehandelt.”—Kant’s Sammtliche Werke, Bd i., p. 207.

+ I omit all reference to the ideas of Wright, Kant, Lambert, and others, as
to the existence of central suns, simply because those ideas were purely
speculative. I may add here, however, that analogy now no longer requires
that we should consider every system as necessarily governed by a central
orb. We now know from observation that many systems of orbs exist in
space which have have no dominating centre.

VOw, iE. ((N-S.) 258

314 The Construction of the Heavens. [July,

system of the second order, including all those stars, spread
over all parts of the heavens, which do not belong to the
milky way. He further held that there are many systems
of the second order, and that these are not distributed
throughout all space, but are all found near a certain
principal plane or mean level, and being ranged one behind
the other to a great depth, form by their concourse the
Milky Way. This is a@ system of the third ordere
Analogy suggests, he added, that there are in the universe
many Milky Ways; ‘‘ perhaps, for instance, the nebula in
Orion may be a Milky Way, nearer to us than the rest.
Should this be the case, telescopic research will reveal
many others, forming together a system of the fourth order.”
And he proceeded thence to the inference that there may be
systems of yet higher orders.

It will be observed that in regarding the Milky Way as
formed, not directly of the concourse of many stars, but
of the concourse of many clusters of stars, Lambert adopted
a totally different conception of its nature than Kant had
formed. Nor was this view of Lambert’s, any more than
his other opinions, merely speculative. He based it on the
observed irregularity of the Milky Way, on the different
richness of its various parts, and on its branching figure.
In passing, it may be observed that Lambert here antici-
pated the conclusions to which Sir William Herschel was
led after he had abandoned the principle of star gauging.

Lambert thus describes the grandeur of the universe of
systems as pictured in his theory :—‘‘ How far soever we
may extend the scale,” he says, ‘‘ we must necessarily stop
at last. And where? At the centre of centres, at the centre
of creation, which I should be inclined to term the capital
of the universe, inasmuch as thence originates motion
of every kind, and there stands the great wheel in which
work the teeth of all the rest. F‘rom thence the laws are
issued which govern and uphold the universe; or rather,
there they resolve themselves into one law of all others the
most simple. But who would be competent to measure the
space and time which all the globes, all the worlds, all the
worlds of worlds employ in revolving around that immense
body—the Throne of Nature and the Footstool of the
Divinity! What painter, what poet, what imagination is
sufficiently exalted to describe the beauty, the magnificence,
the grandeur, of this source of all that is beautiful, great,
and magnificent ; and from whence order and harmony flow
in eternal streams through the whole bounds of the
universe.”

1872.] The Construction of the Heavens. 315

Michell limited his attention to the lucid stars, not enun-
ciating any complete theory respecting the galaxy. The
most important of his theoretical views, or rather the most
important of the facts which he established,* is that which
relates to the existence of laws of arrangement (even among
the stars visible to the naked eye), according to- which
the stars form systems, separated from each other by rela-
tively vacant spaces. ‘‘ We may conclude,” he says, ‘‘ that
the stars are really collected together in clusters in some
places, where they form a kind of systems; whilst in others
there are either few or none of them, to whatever cause this
may be owing, whether to their mutual gravitation or to
some other law or appointment of the Creator. He then
proceeds to inquire whether the sun “likewise makes one of
some system.” He considers that this is probably the case,
and he endeavours to separate those stars which probably
belong to the same system as the sun from those which do
not. ‘‘ There are some marks,” he says, ‘“‘ by which we
may with great probability include some and exclude
others,—while the rest remain more doubtful. Those stars
which are found in clusters and surrounded with many
others at a small distance from them, belong probably
to other systems and not to ours. And those stars which
are surrounded with nebule are probably only very great
stars, which upon account of their superior magnitude
are singly visible, whilst the others which compose the
remaining parts of the same system are so small as to
escape our sight. And those nebulz in which we can

* Amongst the facts which Michell established must be included the
existence of binary star systems. Nothing can be more complete or demon-
strative than Michell’s reasoning on this subject; and I can conceive no
reason why the credit of the discovery should be refused to the man who
deduced it by exerting the noblest of human faculties—the power of abstra@&
reasoning, in order that it should be handed over to another (however eminent)
who deduced it from direct observation. It is true Michell failed to convince
his contemporaries, and that his reasoning if it had not been subsequently
confirmed by Sir W. Herschel’s observations might have remained to this day
unappreciated, save by the few. But this does not do away with the fa@ that
Michell’s demonstration was complete; and his credit ought not to be
diminished because the many could not grasp the full value of the proof. A
very slight extension of such a method of judging might deprive the Herschels
in their turn of the credit now (as I think unjustly) assigned to them for the
discovery, to make it over to the first person who (say) by obtaining photo-
graphic records of double stars, should enable every one to see for himself that
one component circles around the other. Surely the reputation of the
Herschels does not require that any credit should be assigned to them which
is justly due to another. Michell has indeed been particularly unfortunate in
such matters, since, to mention no other instances, the so-called Cavendish
experiment for weighing the earth was not only devised by him, but the very
instrument with which Cavendish conducted the experiment was constructed
‘under Michell’s superintendence.

316 The Construction of the Heavens. (July,

discern only a few stars even with the assistance of the best
telescopes, are probably systems which are still more
distant than the rest.”” On the other hand, he inferred that
those stars ‘‘which being placed at a greater distance
from each other compose the larger constellations, and such
as have few or no smaller stars near them when examined
with telescopes, belong probably to our own system. -
Variable stars he also regarded as in all probability members
of the system of stars to which our sun belongs; though
the reasoning on which he based this opinion is not such as
can now be admitted; for he considered their variations of
brilliancy to be due to variations of distance (a cause which
would necessarily be more effective in the case of stars
relatively near to us); but we now know that this explana-
tion is not the true one. He also judged red stars to
be much larger and nearer than their apparent brightness
would suggest, and hence inferred that they also belong
to the system of stars which includes our sun.

In passing to the work of Sir W. Herschel as a student
of the sidereal heavens, I cannot but express some degree of
surprise that so little has been done to bring the records of
his labours properly before the student of astronomy. His
papers merely collected into a volume would form a most
important accession to astronomical literature. But if
suitably edited and illustrated by the work of his son, and of
others who have succeeded in the same field of research,
the volume would do more to advance the study of sidereal
astronomy than any work which has been published during
the last century. It must be added that nearly all that has
hitherto been done in making Herschel’s words and work
public, has been rather an injustice to his memory than
otherwise. It seems to have been supposed that his
own account of his work might be treated as we should
treat such a work as Sir John Herschel’s “Outlines of
Astronomy,” and that extra¢ts might be made from any
part of any paper, without reference to the position which
that paper chanced to occupy in the complete series. It
does not seem to have been noticed that not only was there
a progression in the ideas as well as in the work of the
great astronomer, but that there was a complete change in
his opinions during the progress of his labours. Hence
views expressed by him in his earlier papers are not uncom-
monly in strong contrast with those which he advocated in
later years; opinions which he regarded as certainly just at
one time were rejected as most probably incorrect after
a few years of fresh labour; and whereas in 1785 he enun-

1872.] The Construction of the Heavens. 317

ciated with some definiteness a theory respecting the con-
stitution of the universe, he not only abandoned this theory
(implicitly) in 1811, not only gave up the very principles on
which it had been based, but he did not consider himself in
a position during any subsequent part of his career to state
with the same degree of definiteness any theory whatever
respecting the constitution of the heavens.

It is to be premised, however, that even the theory of
1785* is not properly described in our text-books of astro-
nomy, and that some of the accounts which purport to be
descriptions are the merest travesties of the noble concep-
tions of Sir W. Herschel.

The sole point in the remarkable paper of 1785 which seems
in any degree to correspond with the account usually given,
is the hypothesis on which the principle of star-gauging is
based. Herschel adopts a general uniformity of stellar distri-
bution within the sidereal system as a means of forming some
idea of the shape of that system. If there were actual uni-
formity, it would be sufficient to turn a telescope successively
to different parts of the heavens, to obtain a sufficiently accu-
rate idea of the extension of the stellarsystem inthose different
direCtions ; for, obviously, the farther away the boundary of
the system might lie in any direction, the more stars would
be seen in that direction. But though Herschel thus adopts
a principle resembling that usually associated with the
method of star-gauging, and though he arrives at a conclu-
sion in some sense resembling that which has received the
name of the Grindstone Theory (though it would more
properly be called the Cloven Disc Theory), yet it is only on
the most cursory reading that either the principle of gene-
rally equable distribution, or the conclusion that our sidereal
system forms a cloven stratum of stars, can be regarded as
according with Herschel’s real views. He fully recognised
the existence of subordinate systems within our sidereal
system. This is shown by his remark that it is ‘‘a very
extensive, branching, compound congeries of many millions
of stars, which most probably owes its origin to many

* It will be observed that I pass over the paper of the year 1784, in which
Herschel first began to discuss the constitution of the heavens. That paper
is so obviously a mere introduction of his subject, so obviously preliminary,
that one cannot but be amazed to find how much stress is laid upon it inmany
works on astronomy, and especially among French writers. We doubtless
owe this to Arago’s misapprehension of the purport of the paper. . Struve has
pointed out, also, very justly, that Arago has misconstrued the details of
Herschel’s theories. There scarcely exists, indeed, a less trustworthy account
of Herschel’s works and theories than Arago’s, whom yet many English writers
accept as an authority on the subject.

318 The Construction of the Heavens. (July,

remarkably large as well as pretty closely scattered small
stars that may have drawn together the rest.”

Again, let the reader carefully study the following extracét
from the paper of 1785, and he will find that whereas it is
perplexing in the extreme if the sidereal system be regarded
as a mere cloven stratum of stars, pretty uniformly dis-
tributed, it becomes perfectly clear (and wonderfully striking)
when we remember that Herschel considered the milky way
to be compound in structure and branching in figure :—

‘‘ Tf it were possible to distinguish between the parts of an
indefinitely extended whole, the nebula we inhabit might be
said to be one that has fewer marks of profound antiquity
upon it than the rest. To explain this idea, perhaps, more
clearly, we should recollect that the condensation of clusters
of stars has been ascribed to a gradual approach; and who-
ever reflects upon the numbers of ages that must have
passed before some of the clusters could be so far condensed
as we find them at present, will not wonder if I ascribe a
certain air of youth and vigour to many very regularly scat-
tered regions of our sidereal stratum.”

Yet more strikingly opposed to the common conceptions
of Herschel’s earlier theory, is the following passage from
the paper of 1785 :—-‘‘ Our system after numbers of ages
may very possibly become divided so as to give rise to a
stratum of two or three hundred nebule ; for it would not
be difficult to point to so many beginning or gathering
clusters init. This view of the subject throws a consider-
able light upon the appearance of that remarkable collection
of many hundreds of nebulz which are to be seen in what I
have called the nebulous stratum of Coma Berenices. It
appears from the extended and branching figure of our
nebula, that there is room for the decomposed small nebule
of a large, reduced, former great one to approach nearer to
us in the sides than in other parts. Nay, possibly, there
might originally be another large joining branch, which in
time became separated by the condensation of the stars;
and this may be the reason of the little remaining breadth
of our system in that very place; for the nebulz of the
stratum of Coma are brightest and most crowded just oppo-
site our situation, or in the pole of our system. As soon
as this idea was suggested,” he adds, ‘‘ I tried the opposite
pole, where accordingly I have met with a great number
of nebulz, though under a much more scattered form.”

It will be quite obvious, I think, that Herschel enter-
tained at this time ideas altogether different from those
usually ascribed to him. In particular, it is to be noticed

1872.] ' The Construction of the Heavens. 319

that he regarded the nebule in two aspects at this time.
‘There were some which he held to be parts of a much larger
nebula, possibly parts of our own Milky Way. Others he
held to be external Milky Ways, and therefore themselves
made up of subordinate nebule. At this stage of his career,
however, he seems to have entertained no doubt as to the
stellar characterof any nebule ; and it is to the ideas he thus
early promulgated respecting the nebule, that we must
ascribe the common but altogether erroneous opinion, that
Herschel regarded all the nebule as external galaxies of
suns. He never entertained so general a theory as this; but
even the theory he did entertain in 1785 respecting some of
the nebulz was modified ere long as respects a very large
proportion of those objects.

He had not changed his views, however, in 1789, when he
compared the nebulz of various orders to plants in various
stages of growth. The following passage does not relate, as
has been asserted, to his hypothesis of the development of
nebulz into stars, but relates to various orders of stellar
systems. ‘‘ This method of viewing the heavens,” he says,
referring to the view that differences of antiquity may
account for the different appearances of nebule, ‘‘ seems to
throw them into a new kind of light. They now are seen to
resemble a luxuriant garden, which contains the greatest
variety of productions in different flowering beds; and one
advantage we may at least reap from it is, that we can, as it
were, extend the range of our experience to an immense
duration. For to continue the simile I have borrowed from
the vegetable kingdom, is it not almost the same thing
whether we live to witness successively the germination,
blooming, foliage, fecundity, fading, withering, and corrup-
tion of a plant, or whether a vast number of specimens,
selected from every stage through which the whole plant
passes in the course of its existence be brought at once to
our view.

Butthe time was approaching when Herschel was to form
entirely new views respecting the constitution of the heavens.
I pass over the paper of 1796—though if space permitted I
might quote passages from it, suggesting in a very interest-
ing manner the progression of Herschel’s ideas—and turn to
the paper of 1802. There can be no mistaking the import
of the following passages from this important paper :—‘‘ The
stars we consider as insulated,” says Herschel, ‘‘ are also
surrounded by a magnificent collection of innumerable stars,
called the Milky Way, which must occasion a very powerful
balance of opposite attractions, to hold the intermediate

320 The Construction of the Heavens. (July,

stars in a state of rest. For though our sun, and all the
Stars we see, may truly be said to be in the plane of the
Milky Way, yet I am now convinced by a long inspection and
continued examination of it that the Milky Way itself con-
sists of stars very differently scattered from those which are
immediately about us. ae - “Qna very slight ex-
amination it will appear that this immense starry aggrega-
tion is by no means uniform. The stars of which it is
composed are very unequally scattered, and show evident
marks of clustering together into many separate allotments.”

ack ‘The “milky appearances deserve the name of
clustering collections, as they are certainly much brighter
about the middle and fainter near their undefined borders.
For in my sweeps of the heavens it has been fully ascer-
tained that the brightness of the Milky Way arises only from
stars; and that their compression increases in proportion to
the brightness of the Milky Way.” . . . “We may
indeed “partly ascribe the increase both of brightness and
compression,” in these clustering regions,” to a greater
depth of the space which contains these stars; but this will
equally tend to show their clustering condition ; for, since
the increase of brightness is gradual, the space containing
the clustering stars must tend to a spherical form if the
gradual increase of brightness is to be explained by the
situation of the stars.”

It was in this paper that Herschel first put forward the
hypothesis that many nebule are formed of some substance
possessing ‘‘the quality of a self-luminous milky luminosity,”
and “possibly at no great distance from us.” But the
requirements of space render it advisable that I should
leave untouched the whole of those considerations which
Herschel adduced, in this paper and elsewhere, in favour of
his nebular hypothesis.

That portion of Herschel’s observing career which we have
now reached may fairly be regarded as including the most
important of his researches into the constitution of the
heavens. His mental powers were now attheir prime. He
had acquired great experience. His circumstances were such °
that he could give his whole attention to scientific work.
Moreover, he had seen the importance of being solely
guided by known facts, since the theory which he had
adopted more than a quarter of a century before (and almost
in the beginning of his observations on the stars) had had
to be abandoned.

Nine years of earnest labour passed before he again spoke
at any length on the subject of the star-depths. lt will be

1872.] The Construction of the Heavens. 321

admitted that we should attach especial value to the an-
nouncements he then made. Yet the striking words with
which he prefaces the paper of 1811 seem almost to have
escaped notice :—‘‘I must freely confess,” he says, ‘that
by continuing my sweeps of the heavens my opinion of the
arrangement of the stars and their magnitudes, and of some
other particulars, has undergone a gradual change; and,
indeed, when the novelty of the subject is considered, we
cannot be surprised that many things formerly taken for
granted should, on examination, prove to be different from
what they were generally but incautiously supposed to be.
For instance, an equal scattering of the stars may be
admitted in certain calculations; but when we examine the
Milky Way, or the closely compressed clusters of stars, of
which my catalogues have recorded so many instances, this
supposed equality of scattering must be given up. We may
also have surmised nebule to be no other than clusters of
stars disguised by their very great distance; but a longer
experience and a better acquaintance with the nature of
nebulz will not allow a general admission of such a prin-
ciple, although undoubtedly a cluster of stars may assume a
nebulous appearance when it is too remote for us to discern
the stars of which it is composed.”

In the paper of 1811, however, Herschel does not (save in
these prefatory remarks) consider the structure of the
sidereal heavens. The paper is devoted exclusively to the
discussion of the nebular hypothesis as to the formation of
stars. It was not until 1814 that he endeavoured to extend
his reasoning so as to include the subject of stellar
grouping. ‘‘ The observations contained in this paper,” he
says in 1814, ‘‘are intended to display the sidereal part of
the heavens, and also to show the intimate connection
between the two opposite extremes, one of which is the
immensity of the widely diffused and seemingly chaotic
nebulous matter; and the other, the highly complicated
and most artificially constructed globular clusters of com-
pressed stars.” In this paper he enters also into a discus-
sion of ambiguous objects,—that is, objects ‘‘ of such a con-
struction or at such a distance from us, that the highest
power of penetration which hitherto has been applied to
them, leaves it undecided whether they belong to the
class of nebulze or stars.”

But the chief interest of the paper of 1814 resides (in
my judgment) in the remarks which Herschel makes
respecting the clustering condition of parts of the heavens.
He explains that his expression ‘‘ forming clusters,’ was

VOL. II. (N.S.) 20

322 The Construction of the Heavens. [July,

used ‘‘to denote that some peculiar arrangement of stars in
lines making different angles, directed to a certain aggrega-
tion of a few central stars, suggested the idea that they
‘(the former)’ might be in a state of progressive approach
to them ‘(the latter).’ This tendency to clustering seems
chiefly to be visible in places extremely rich in stars.
In order, therefore, to investigate the existence of a clus-
tering power, we may expect its effects to be most visible in
and near the Milky Way.” I invite the reader’s special atten-
tion to the circumstance that the Milky Way is here
pointedly referred to as a stellar region distin@t in its
characteristics from the region of stars forming our constel-
lations. In studying Herschel’s papers we have to be
continually on the watch for indications of the sort, since he
does not always judge it necessary to make definite asser-
tions of his opinions on such points.

He then describes the irregular clusterings of stars, noting
in particular, that ‘‘ though they are in general very pro-
miscuously scattered, they are yet sufficiently drawn
together to show that they form separate groups,” while
in many places a falling off in the number of stars sur-
rounding the clusters ‘‘indicates a tendency to future
insulation.” ‘‘ Those which are in and very near the Milky
Way,” he says, ‘‘may be looked upon as so many portions of
the great mass drawn together by the action of a clustering
power, of which they tend to prove the existence. In
describing the various orders of irregular clusters, Herschel!
is particular to notice vows and streams, ridges and shelvings,
of stars, as indications of a preponderating clustering power.

It is most important to notice here that Herschel had not
yet replaced the theory of 1785 by any complete new
theory.* He says at the close of the paper of 1814—“‘ The
extended views I have taken in this and my former papers
of the various parts that enter into the construction of the

* The careful Struve did not fail to recognise the distinction between the
theory of 1785 and Herschel’s subsequent labours. ‘Ou peut demander,” he
says, ‘‘pourquoi les astronomes ont-ils maintenu généralement l’ancien
systéme sur la Voie Lactée, énoncé en 1785, quoiqu’il ett été entierement
abandonné par l’auteur luiméme comme nous l’avyons démontré. Je crois
qu’il faut en chercher l’explication dans deux circonstances. C’était un
systeme entier, imposant par la hardiesse et la précision géométrique de sa
construction, et que l’auteur n’avait jamais révoqué dans sa totalité. Dans ses
traités publiés depuis 1802, on ne rencontre que des vues partielles, mais qui
suffisent, en les comparant entre elles, 4 comprendre l’idée finale du grand
astronome.” I should point out, however, that Struve somewhat over-esti-
mates the precision of the theory of 1785, and that he also fails to notice the
circumstance that the papers of 1817 and 1818 are distiné in all respects from
Herschel’s former work.

1872.| The Construction of the Heavens. 323

heavens, have prepared the way for a final investigation of
the universal arrangement of all these celestial bodies in
space.” He was now in his seventy-sixth year, however,
and though still in the full possession of his wonderful
powers, the time that remained to him for investigating the
universal arrangement of the heavens was short indeed,
when the wideness of the subject is considered. But
he was not even yet fully prepared to enter on the work.
For he proceeds to mention as a reason for not doing so,
that he is “still engaged in a series of observations for
ascertaining a scale whereby the extent of the universe,
as far as it is possible for us to penetrate into space, may be
fathomed.”

In the papers of 1817 and 1818, the last of the series, and
written, be it remembered, when Herschel was in his seventy-
eighth and seventy-ninth years, he describes the principle
here referred to, and its application to estimate the pro-
fundities of various parts of the stellar heavens. The
principle was essentially this—that the telescopic powers
necessary to reveal and to resolve star groups, or particular
star orders within groups, afford an indication of the dis-
tance at which those groups or orders lie. I conceive that
no question can exist that the principle is unsound, and that
Herschel would himself have abandoned it, had he tested it
earlier in his observing career, and when not his mental
power, but his mental elasticity, was greater than at the
advanced age which he had now reached. I have not here
space to enter into all the objections which present them-
selves against it. Presently, in considering Sir John
Herschel’s theoretical views, I shall have to adduce a con-
clusive instance of the unsoundness of the principle. Let
it here suffice to remark, that repeatedly in applying it, Sir
W. Herschel found regions of the heavens very limited
in extent, where the brighter stars (clustered like the
fainter) were easily resolved with low powers, but where his
largest telescopes could not resolve the faintest. These
regions, if the principle were true, must be long spike-
shaped star groups, whose length is directed exactly towards
the astronomer on earth,—an utterly incredible arrange-
ment, even if we could believe in the dynamical possibility
of such grouping.

Herschel did not live to carry out that final investigation
of the universal arrangement of all the celestial bodies
in space which he had looked forward to in 1814. In 1820
he read, as first President of the Astronomical Society, a
paper on the double stars, and soon after his health broke

324 The Construction of the Heavens. [fuly,

down, insomuch that, though he lived till 1824, he was
incapable of great or prolonged mental exertion.

Sir John Herschel’s labours among stars and nebulz were
directed almost wholly to the completion of the survey of
the heavens. I do not know that there is a single passage
in his works in which he‘touches on the subject of the con-
stitution of the heavens otherwise than as it were inci-
dentally. He nowhere definitely enunciates a theory of the
universe.

Two circumstances, however, in Sir John Herschel’s work
require to be attended to.

The first relates to the distribution of the brighter orders of
stars over the heavens. In his ‘‘ Outlines of Astronomy,”
he says that the stars of these orders, including those down
to and those somewhat below the range of the naked
eye), increase largely in number as the Milky Way is
approached. In his ‘‘ Observations at the South Cape,”
he asserts the reverse. ‘‘Ona general view it appears,” he
says, ‘“‘that the tendency to greater frequency, or the
increase of density in respect of statistical distribution in
approaching the Milky Way, is quite imperceptible among
stars of a higher magnitude than the 8th, and except on the
very verge of the Milky Way itself, stars of the 8th magni-
tude can hardly be said to participate in the general law of
increase. For the gth and iroth the increase, though
unequivocally indicated over a zone extending at least 30°
on either side of the Milky Way, is by no means striking. It
is with the 11th magnitude that it first becomes conspicuous,
though still of small amount when compared with that which
prevails among the mass of stars of magnitudes inferior to
the 11th, which constitute 16-17ths of the totality of stars
within 30 on either side of the gala¢tic circle.” He then
adds as a conclusion, ‘‘ following inevitably from this ” (and
this conclusion is to be carefully noted, since, if just, it is of
the utmost importance), ‘“‘that the larger stars are really
nearer to us taken en masse, and without denying individual
exceptions, than the smaller ones. Were this not the case,
were there really among the infinite multitude of stars con-
stituting the remoter portions of the galaxy numerous
individuals of extravagant size and brightness, as compared
with the generality of those around them, so as to overcome
the effect of distance and appear to us as large stars, the
probability of their occurrence in any given region would
increase with the total apparent density of stars in that
region, and would result in a preponderance of considerable
stars in the Milky Way, beyond what the heavens really
present, over its whole circumference.”

1872.] The Construction of the Heavens. 325

The discrepancy between the statements in the “ Out-
lines” and in the “‘ Observations” is so complete that I ven-
tured to communicate with Sir John Herschel respecting it,
though I was not without a tolerably definite idea as to its
origin. He replied as follows :—‘‘I thank you for calling
attention to that section in my ‘‘ Outlines.” Undoubtedly
there is a discordance of statements which requires cor-
rection. But the appeal there” (that is, in the “‘ Outlines’’)
“is rather to a vague naked eye impression than to the
statistical result of a¢tual enumeration; and assuredly ona
cursory view of the heavens on a clear night, stars down to
the 7th and 8th magnitude do affect the eye, though we
cannot fix them by reason of that strange law which curtails
a star directly looked at of a very large aliquot part of its
photometric effectiveness.” It will be seen that Sir John
Herschel here maintains at once the reality of the aggrega-
tion of the brighter stars on the viszble Milky Way, and the jus-
tice of the statistics which related to the Milky Way regarded
asa zone. This is undoubtedly the true explanation of the
matter, as my equal surface chartings have since abundantly
demonstrated. The brighter orders of stars, down to the
r1th, do unquestionably crowd upon the real Milky Way,—
that altogether irregular region of star streams and star
clusterings which has been aptly compared to a band of
broken cirrus clouds; but if we lose sight of these irre-
gularities, if we conceive of the Milky Way as of a uniform
zone, and take the average distribution of the brighter stars
over that zone, we no longer find that exceptional degree of
richness, for the gaps and lacune of the Milky Way are
as poverty stricken, notwithstanding their position in that
imagined zone of richness, as the brighter parts are rich in
respect of these higher orders of stars. But this explana-
tion shows that the conclusion based by Sir John Herschel
on the zone-statistics should be not merely abandoned but
replaced by tts converse. Let the reader carefully re-study-
it in the light of the above considerations, and he will see at
once that this is the case.

The second point to which I would invite attention in Sir
John Herschel’s work is his discussion of the phenomena
presented by the two Magellanic clouds. His reasoning
cannot be too carefully considered. It runs thus :—
“Taking the apparent semi-diameter of the Nubecula
Major as three degrees, and regarding its solid form as,
roughly speaking, spherical, its nearest and most remote
parts differ in their distance from us by little more
than a tenth part of our distance from its centre. The

326 The Construction of the Heavens. [July,

brightness of objects situated in its nearer portions, there-
fore, cannot be much exaggerated, nor that of its remoter
much enfeebled, by their difference of distance; yet within
this globular space we have collected upwards of 600 stars
of the 7th, 8th, gth, and roth magnitudes, nearly 300
nebule, and globular and other clusters of all degrees of
vesolvability, and smaller scattered stars innumerable of
every inferior magnitude, from the roth, to such as by
their multitude and minuteness constitute irresolvable
nebulosity, extending over tracts of many square degrees.
Were there but one such object, it might be maintained
without utter improbability that its apparent sphericity is only
an effect of foreshortening, and that in reality a much greater
proportional difference of distance between its nearer and
more remote parts exists. But such an adjustment,
improbable enough in one case, must be rejected as too
much so for fair argument in two cases. It niust, therefore,
be taken as a demonstrated fact, that stars of the 7th and 8th
magnitude and irresolvable nebule may co-exist within limits of
distance, not differing more in proportion than as nine to ten.”

I pass to the work of the elder Struve, but shall only deal
with that portion which relates to the distribution of the
Stars.

Having found reason to believe that stars of the brighter
orders are more crowded on the Milky Way zone than else-
where, Struve tested the matter by comparing the numbers
of stars in different hours of right ascension in Weisse’s
Catalogue of 31,085 stars, down to the gth magnitude,
included between 15° north and 15° south of the equator.
After estimating the numbers of stars which might be sup-
posed to have escaped recognition in the different ‘‘ hours,”
and so raising the total number of stars to 52,199 (of which
21,114 were hypothetical), he found a marked excess of
richness in the Milky Way “hours.” Thus, taking the four
hours, 5, 6,7, and 8 (crossed centrally by the “Milky
Way near Orion), and the four hours, 17, 18, 19, and 20
(crossed centrally by the Milky Way near Aquila), he found
an average of 3031 stars for each hour; while the average
for the remaining sixteen hours was but 1747 stars.

So far Struve’s procedure was legitimate enough. But
he now extended his reasoning somewhat too daringly.
For he first regarded all the stars in each hour division as
gathered on the equator, though the divisions extended
thirty degrees in declination, and having thus a fine equa-
torial ring of 52,199 stars unequally rich in different parts,
he conceived this ring converted into a flat disc by a radial

1872.] The Construction of the Heavens. 327

spreading of the stars towards the several parts of the ring,
this spreading being uniform between the distances corre-
sponding (according to Struve’s estimate) to the position of
stars of magnitudes 1 to 6, of 7th magnitude, of 8th, and
lastly of gth magnitude. It seems impossible to attach the
slightest weight to the evidence afforded by the resulting
disc, since the construction of the disc is based on supposi-
tions (as to the uniform scattering of stars radially towards
the equator), which are directly contrary to Struve’s own
clear recognition of a want of uniformity circularly round
the equator.

Struve deduced from this imperfect method of reasoning,
combined with the study of Sir W. Herschel’s star-gauges
and a theory on the extinction of light, the conclusion that
the Milky Way is unfathomable in its own level. He consi-
dered this view to be in accordance with the results obtained
by Sir W. Herschel in his papers of 1817 and 1818.
Herschel did not, however, find the Milky Way unfathomable
all round the central line of the zone, but only in certain
definite directions—towards the heart, in fact, of certain
clustering aggregations. Struve misunderstood Herschel’s
remark that ‘‘ when his gauges would no longer resolve the
milky way into stars, it was not because its nature is ambi-
guous, but because it is fathomless,” for he thus renders
Herschel’s words into French, ‘‘ nous pouvons faire la con-
clusion que sz nos jauges cessent de résondre la Voi Lactée
en étoiles, ce n’est point parce que la nature en est douteuse,
mais parce qu’elle est insondable.” Doubtless he read
Herschel’s ‘‘ when” as equivalent to the German “ wenn.’’*

As Sir John Herschel has remarked, disposing thereby at
once of Struve’s infinite extension theory and of his reason-
ing respecting the extinction of light, ‘‘We are not at
liberty to argue that at one part of the galaxy’s circum-
ference our view is limited as by a sort of cosmical veil,
which extinguishes the smaller magnitudes, cuts off the
nebulous light of distant masses, and closes our view in
impenetrable darkness; while at another we are compelled
by the clearest evidence telescopes can afford to believe that
star-strewn vistas lie open, exhausting their powers and
stretching out beyond their utmost reach, as is proved by
that very phenomenon which the existence of such a veil
would render impossible, viz., infinite increase of number
and diminution of magnitude, terminating in complete

* Thus is explained what Sir John Herschel and Professor Nichol clearly

found perplexing, viz., Struve’s conviction that the elder Herschel’s results
confirmed his own remarkable theory. ,

328 The Construction of the Heavens. (July,

irresolvable nebulosity.” This reasoning is complete against
Struve’s inferences as based on Struve’s assumptions. It is
not, however, the less certain that irresolvable nebulosity
does not necessarily imply that the objeéts producing it
‘stretch out beyond the utmost reach of the telescope,” as
is proved by the irresolvable nebulosity discovered by Sir
John Herschel himself within the bounds of the Magellanic
clouds.

I shall treat very briefly of the results to which I have
been led by my own researches into the subject of the con-
stitution of the heavens, because they have been fully pre-
sented elsewhere.*

The purposes I have had in view throughout my inquiries
have been two—First, to proceed in perfect independence of
all preconceived theories—to inquire how the stars and
nebule are spread in space, how they differ in magnitude or
constitution, and what laws govern their changes and move-
ments, instead of adopting any assumptions on these points
as bases for reasoning; and, secondly, to endeavour in every
case to render palpable to the eye the relations which have
hitherto been presented only in elaborate catalogues or in
tables of statistics. It is to subserve the latter purpose,
which is obviously associated most intimately with the
former, that I have adopted the methcod of equal-surface
charting. In dealing with the proper motions of the stars
I have drawn from each star an arrow whose length and
direction shall indicate the rate and direction of the star’s
proper motion. I venture to believe that by these and other
contrivances I have been enabled to exhibit the above-
mentioned relations altogether more intelligibly than has
hitherto been the case, and that laws hitherto unrecognised
have thus been brought to light.

In the first place, 1 have been able to showthat the stars,
down even to the sixth magnitude only, are markedly
crowded upon the milky way, and that, moreover, there are
two rich stellar regions (as respects these lucid stars),
nearly opposite each other, one covering the constellations
Cepheus, Cygnus, Cassiopeia, and Draco, the other occu-
pying the space included between the heel of Argo, Crux,
and the Greater Dog. The following table (shortened from
one in my ‘‘ Essays”) indicates the numerical relations
involved, the numbers in the second column representing
the total number which would be visible if the whole

* | may be permitted to point out that the researches themselves, as origi-

nally submitted to the Royal Astronomical Society, are contained in my
«Essays on Astronomy.”

1872.] The Construction of the Heavens. 329

heavens were as richly spread as the several regions indi-
cated in the first column :—

Richness.
Northern Milky Way. . . . - + 9,940
5 rich region . . 9,050

33 poor region (equally larg ae 2,507
Gaps iiMaley eWay 8s © .. 26.23 (S - 9240

Southern poor region. . y 208
z rich region (equally lar ge) . 1p 0
Milky Way . eas oe ey 19,500

It will be observed that the richness of the whole Milky
Way would be represented by 11,768, exceeding more than nine
times the number representing the distribution of stars over
the gaps and lacunz of the Milky Way.

By extending the process of charting to include all the
324,198 stars in Argelander’s series of forty charts, even
more decisive evidence is obtained of the absolute inter-
mixture in space—+.e., within certain definite clustering
ageregations—of stars of the brighter orders and the
telescopic stars studied by the Herschels. For in the very
regions where the Herschelian gauges showed the minutest
telescopic stars to be most crowded, my chart of 324,198
stars shows the stars of the higher orders (down only to the
11th magnitude) to be so crowded that by their mere
aggregation in the mass they show the Milky Way with all
its streams and clusterings. This evidence, I venture to
affirm, is altogether decisive as to the mein question,
whether large and small stars are really intermixed in many
regions of space, or whether the small stars are excessively
remote. It is utterly impossible that excessively remote
stars could seem to be clustered exactly where relatively
near Stars are richly spread. This might happen, no doubt,
in a single instance, but that it could be repeated over and
over again, so as to account for all the complicated features
seen in my chart of 324,198 stars I maintain to be utterly
incredible.

By applying the process of equal-surface charting to the
nebulz, I find that they are so arranged over the heavens
as to leave no room for doubting their association with the
sidereal system. Moreover, they are found to run into
streams or branches, intimately associated with streams of
stars. And strangely enough, as the great star-streams
seen in Eridanus and Aquarius are prolonged so as to
enclose the Magellanic Clouds, so the great southern nebular
streams extend themselves to the same groups. The asso-

VOL. II. (N.S.) 215

330 The Construction of the Heavens. [July,

ciation of these streams of nebulz and stars could scarcely
be regarded as accidental; but the fact that both sets of
streams converge upon those very regions where stars and
nebulz are so strangely intermingled removes all doubt
from the conclusion that in the nebule (for these streams
include all the known southern nebule) we have not to deal
with external galaxies, but with objects belonging to the
sidereal system.

The charting of the stellar proper motions has further led
me to the discovery of the fact that the stars in many parts
of the heavens are travelling in systems—or as it were
drifting—through space. Thus the five stars, 6, , 4, «,
and ¢, Ursze Majoris, are found to be all moving together, as
one grand scheme.* In Gemini there is a much more
remarkable instance of drift, nearly all the stars of that
constellation (Pollux is one of the exceptions) travelling in
one general direction. In Taurus there is also well-marked
drift. ‘These instances of drift suffice to afford independent
testimony in favour of the existence of systems subordinate
to the great sidereal system.

The general conclusions to which I have been led by
these and other methods of research, which space will not
permit me to particularise further, are chiefly these :—The
sidereal system is altogether more complicated, altogether
more varied in structure, than has hitherto been supposed.
Within one and the same region co-exist stars of many
orders of real magnitude, the greatest being thousands of
times larger than the least. All the nebule hitherto disco-
vered, whether gaseous or stellar, irregular, planetary, ring-
formed, or elliptic, exist within the limits of the sidereal
system. They all form part and parcel of that wonderful
system whose nearer and brighter parts constitute the
glories of our nocturnal heavens.

It has been supposed that the new views to which I have
been led would, if accepted, tend to reduce our estimate of
the scale on which the universe is constructed. ‘This, how-
ever, is not the case. It is true that I cannot recognise in
the clustering regions of the Milky Way the profundities
commonly believed in; but I believe in profundities far
vaster. It is true that I believe the varieties of structure

* More than two years ago, speaking of this discovery, which I had then
but recently made, I expressed my conviction that if ever Dr. Huggins was
enabled to determine the proper motions of these stars in the line of sight, he
would find them to be all travelling one way, either receding or approaching.
Quite recently he has tested the matter, and he finds that not only have these
five stars similar speétra unlike the spe@tra of a and n, but that whereas a is
approaching, and 7 receding more slowly, the five are all receding at the rate
of thirty miles per second.

1872.] The Construction of the Heavens. 331

brought into view by higher and higher telescopic powers to
be real and not apparent; but if I thus recognise the
existence of stars much smaller than neighbouring orbs, it
is because I recognise in the larger orbs suns which surpass
our own thousands of times in volume; while this very
variety enhances out conceptions of the wonders of the
sidereal system. It is true, again, that I cannot recognise
in the star-cloudlets the external galaxies spoken of in our
text-books of astronomy, that I recognise parts of our
sidereal system where hitherto the common opinion has
been that outlying universes are in question ; but I reason
thus, because I have been led to the conclusion that our
sidereal system is much more extensive than has hitherto
been supposed. I do not draw the nebule inwards to the
star-depths, but I extend the star-depths outwards until
they include the nebule. According to my views, the range
of our telescopes is neither greater nor less than has been
hitherto supposed: if, then, I conceive that the sidereal
system reaches to unknown depths beyond that range, it is
not because I would reduce our estimate of the scale on
which the sidereal system is constructed, but because I
would enlarge that estimate, and that not by a little but
indefinitely.

A few last words on the wonderful scene presented by the
star depths. Let us reflect on what we know about our
own earth and its wonders, what seems to our conceptions
its vast extent, and the activity that pervades its every por-
tion, whether we consider life upon its surface or the physical
forces at work in all parts of its gigantic globe. Regarding
this orb on which we live as one among many which attend
upon the sun, all speeding with inconceivable velocity
around that glorious star, how wonderful becomes the
thought that the dimensions of all the members of the solar
system—nay of the sun himself, are reduced to utter insig-
nificance, compared with the range of that system. Next
let us dwell upon the thought that that whole system is
travelling bodily through space with utterly inconceivable
velocity; and that the region of space thus traversed by the
solar family is so vast that the dimensions of the solar
system are in turn dwarfed to utter insignificance. Then
let us picture the scheme of suns of which our sun is a
member; not the sidereal system, scarcely even an appre-
ciable fraction of the sidereal system, but the particular
family of suns to which the sun belongs; and let us consider
how the domain of the sun, the region of space over which
he holds sway,—a region so vast that millions of years would

332 The Construction of the Heavens. [July,

be required for him to gather in from its outermost parts
the material over which his sway extends, is in zfs turn
reduced to mere nothingness by comparison with the
scheme of suns of which our sun is a member. Then
lastly—so far as human researches are concerned, but by no
means lastly in real truth—let us picture to ourselves
that the scheme of stars to which our sun belongs is but one
of the atoms, so to speak, of which the frame of the
sidereal system is built. We can speak of these things, but
who shall understand them: who shall form adequate con-
ceptions respecting them? The astronomer can spread out
the figures which represent these wonders, but there his
power ceases; he can neither conceive them himself nor
render them conceivable by others. I know not, then, how I
can more fitly draw my subject to a conclusion than by
quoting that wonderful dream in which the German poet
presents the feebleness of human conceptions in the pre-
sence of the infinite wonders of the universe. It may,
indeed, truly be said, that on the one hand astronomical dis-
coveries have made this dream a reality, while on the other,
if we accept as well what the poet’s words suggest as what
they actually present, they exhibit the truest picture which
words can convey of that universe which nevertheless is
unpicturable :—

‘““God called up from dreams a man into the ves-
tibule of heaven, saying, ‘Come thou hither, and see
the glory of my house.’ And to the servants that stood
around his throne he said, ‘Take him and remove from
him his robes of flesh, cleanse his vision, and put a new
breath into his nostrils: only touch not with any change
his human heart, the heart that weeps and trembles.’ It
was done: and with a mighty angel for his guide, the man
stood ready for his infinite voyage; and from the terraces of
heaven, without sound or farewell, at once they sailed away
into endless space. Sometimes with the solemn flight
of angel wings they fled through Zaharas of darkness,
through wildernesses of death, that divided the worlds
of life; sometimes they swept over frontiers that were
quickening under prophetic motions from God. Then,
from a distance that is counted only in heaven, light
dawned for a time through a shapeless film; by unutterable
pace the light swept to them, they by unutterable pace
to the light. In a moment the rushing of planets was upon
them ; in a moment the blazing of suns was around them.

“Then came eternities of twilight that revealed but were
not revealed. On the right hand and on the left towered

1872.] Medieval and Modern Ordnance. 333

mighty constellations, that by self-repetitions and answers
from afar, that by counterpositions built up triumphal gates,
whose architraves, whose archways, horizontal, upright,
rested, rose, at altitude, by spans, that seemed ghostly
from infinitude. Without measure were the architraves,
past number were the archways, beyond memory the gates.
Within were stairs that scaled the eternities around; above
was below, and below was above, to the man stripped
of gravitating body; depth was swallowed up in height
insurmountable, height was swallowed up in depth unfa-
thomable. Suddenly, as thus they rode from infinite to
infinite, suddenly as thus they tilted over abysmal worlds, a
mighty cry arose, that systems more mysterious, that
worlds more billowy, other heights and other depths, were
coming, were nearing, were at hand.

“Then the man sighed and stopped, shuddered and wept.
His overladen heart uttered itself in tears; and he said,
‘Angel, I will go no farther; for the spirit of man acheth
with this infinity. Insufferable is the glory of God. Let
me lie down in the grave, and hide me from the persecution
of the infinite, for end I see there is none. And from all
the listening stars that shone around issued a choral voice,
‘The man speaks truly; end there is none that ever yet we
heard of!’ ‘End is there none?’ the angel solemnly
demanded: ‘Is there indeed no end? And is this the
sorrow that kills you?’ But no voice answered, that he
might answer himself. Then the angel threw up his
glorious hands to the heaven of heavens saying, ‘End is
there none to the universe of God? Lo! also there is no
beginning.’ ”

IV. MEDIZ VAL AND MODERN ORDNANCE
AND PROJECTILES COMPARED.*

By Capt. S. P. OLiver, Royal Artillery.

Lefroy (now Governor of Bermuda), Captain H.
Brackenbury, and others, the history of European
and foreign ordnance, from its hazy origin in the middle
ages down to modern times, is tolerably familiar to all military

¢

ios to the deep researches of Major-General

* I. “On Two Large English Cannon of the Fifteenth Century, preserved at
Mont S. Michel, in Normandy.” By Brigadier-General Lerroy, R.A., F.R.S.
—‘ Proc. Roy. Art. Institution, Woolwich,” vol. iv., No. 1, 1864.

II. “ Mons Meg, the Ancient Bombard, preserved at Edinburgh Castle.”
By J. Hewitt, Esq., War Office.—“ Journal of Archeological Institute,” No. 37.

334 Mediaeval and Modern Ordnance. [July,

and naval artillerists through the medium more especially
of the periodical publications of the Royal Artillery Insti-
tution at Woolwich.

On the contrary, however well up (thanks to the daily
press) in the size, weight, and power of contemporary
cannon, and in the velocity and penetration of elongated
projectiles, &c., the public are too apt to regard with con-
tempt what they consider the puny prototypes of our present
magnificent guns; and perhaps would be surprised to learn
that the cannon and missiles, both European and Oriental,
whilst the art of their construction was yet rude and still
in its infancy, attained a size and weight equal to, if not
exceeding, our largest and latest pieces and projectiles.

The Orientals were farin advance of the Europeans in their
acquaintance with metallurgy, and there is good authority
for supposing that bronze was known to them at a remote
age, and, according to Fergusson, ‘‘the Indians were as
familiar with the use of iron in the fourth century B.c., as
the Greeks themselves were, and for anything we know to
the contrary, may have understood the art of extracting it
from the ore and using it for arms and cutting tools before
these arts were practised in Europe” (‘‘ Rude Stone
Monuments,” p. 480). Indeed, it is not impossible that
bullets were used in Asia when our ancestors were not
beyend flint arrow-heads; at all events it seems certain that
gunpowder was used in India and China before the Christian
era. Weare apt to take a certain pride in our forgings
when we read of iron bars 270 feet* in length being coiled
on a mandril to form the coil of a gun in the nineteenth
century A.D.; but Mr. Fergusson rather takes the conceit
out of us when he informs us of the existence of an iron
pillar in the courtyard of a mosque near Delhi, consisting
of a solid shaft of wrought-iron standing 22 feet 6 inches
out of the ground, and 26 feet deep in the ground, that is
nearly 50 feet in total length, and 5 feet 6 inches in
circumference. Mr. Fergusson adds that such a single

III. “ Ancient Cannon in Europe.” By Lieut. H. Brackenbury, R.A.—
“ Proc. Roy. Art. Institution, Woolwich,” vol. iv., No. 10, 1865, et. seq.

IV. “An Account of the Great Cannon of Muhammad II., recently
presented to Her Majesty by the Sultan, with notices of other great Oriental
Cannon.” By Brigadier-General Lrerroy, R.A., F.R.S.—‘‘ Proc. Roy. Art.
Institution,” vol vi., No. 6, 1868.

V. “ Notice of a Stone Cannon Ball Dredged up in Falmouth Harbour, and
of the use of Stone Shot.” By Sir Charles Lemon, Bart., M.P., F.R.S.—
““Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Royal Institution of Cornwall.”
Truro, 1845.

* The bar of iron to form coil for new 36-ton gun will be 1200 feet in length.

1872.1 Mediaval and Modern Ordnance. 335

forging “‘ could not have been made in Europe before the
introduction of steam machinery, nor, indeed, before the
invention of the Nasmyth hammer.” There is an inscription
on the pillar which leaves no doubt that the pillar must
have have been erected in the third or fourth century of our
era. Mr. Fergusson leaves it ‘‘to those practically skilled
in the working of metals to explain how any human being
could work in close proximity to such a mass heated to a
welded heat, or how it was possible without steam machinery
to manipulate so enormous a bar of iron.” If Mr. Fergusson
considers that it was necessary to heat at one time the whole
pillar to a white heat it was doubtless a difficult task to
manipulate it, although a man need not be a human sala-
mander to approach it closely ; and when cooled to the cherry-
ved heat requisite for forging it could easily be approached
without inconvenience. But in all probability this pillar
was built up, being formed in lengths placed from opposite
sides in the furnace, and welded under a huge stone or metal
hammer, which was probably lifted and dropped after the
style of a pile-driving monkey. Indeed among the Chinese
there is in use (and among the Chinese that means also has
been in use for the last thousand years) a hammer or stamper
not dissimilar to the *‘ Schwartz hammer” or ‘‘ belly-helve”
of modern days. A colossal hammer of this description
could readily be erected and used by artificers unacquainted
with steam machinery.*

The earliest authentic record of the existence of cannon
in Europe is found in a document dated 11th February,
1326 A.D., and fifty years afterwards we read of cannon
throwing projectiles of 200 Ibs. weight at the seige of Odruik,
and a contemporary chronicle also gives an account of a
450-pounder gun being used by the Duke of Burgundy in 1377,
the diameter of whose bore must have been at least 21 inches.
In Italy, however, the manufacture of cannon developed
most rapidly. Capt. H. Brackenbury gives an interesting
account of the performances of two huge Venetian bombards
in 1380 at Brondolo. One named the “ Tvivisana”’ was

* Capt. C. B. Brackenbury, R.A., describes the endurance of the men at
Mr. Krupp’s Essen establishment as being severely tested when large steel
castings aremade. He says, ‘‘It has occurred that some of them have shaken
their heads about undergoing so terrible an “ordeal by fire” during hot
weather, but the energy of Mr. Krupp has carried all before him, and by extra
pay for heavy work, and exciting their undoubted esprit de corps, they have
been brought to face anything, although many of them have fainted under
the trial when large castings have necessarily been made in hot weather.”—
Vide Report of a Professional Tour of Officers of the Royal Artillery under
Col. A. C. Pigou, R.A., 1865, p. 116.

336 Mediaeval and Modern Ordnance. [July,

a 295-pounder, and the other, the “‘ Veneziana,” was a 145-
pounder. “‘ Pisani established these guns in battery on the
bank, and proceeded to bombard Brondolo. On the 22nd
January the great bombard was fired, and it struck the Cam-
panile of Brondolo, knocking down a great piece of the
wall, the stones of which struck and killed the Genoese
general and his nephew. On the 23rd the same bombard
knocked down a great piece of the wall of the same Cam-
panile and killed twenty-two men. Capt. Brackenbury,
after tracing the history of cannon through the second half
of the fourteenth century, states in the following few per-
tinent words the conclusions to which he is led :—‘‘ Cannon
of iron and bronze under the various names of guns, bombards,
cannon, sclopi or schioppi, are found bound down to large heavy
wooden beds, and employed in sieges both for attack and
defence throughout the whole period. Projectiles of lead,
stone, and, in Italy, iron, and even bronze were thrown by
them ; also arrows and Greek fire. But it appears from the
length of time which sieges lasted that the art of opening a
practicable breach by means of cannon had not yet been
invented. Indeed it is very doubtful whether with such
powder sufficient force could have been obtained for that
purpose. This powder was still a comparatively feeble
agent; the ingredients pounded by hand in a mortar were
themselves but imperfeCtly purified, and when reduced to a
state of fine powder the gas must have passed very slowly
through the mixture, and an immense quantity of the charge
must have been blown out without being ignited. To prevent
excessive windage the leaden shot were driven forcibly home
into the bore of the piece by means of a mallet and drift,
and the soft nature of the metal allowed them completely to
fill the bore. With iron and stone shot fired from the large
guns no drift was used, but the shot was inserted from the
muzzle and the powder by a scoop from the breech, which
was then closed by a wooden tompion ; the hot iron was still
used to fire the charge through a vent, which was often
coveredto keep the powderdry. But rough as these appliances
were we must not despise too much the cannon of the fourteenth
century. They were suited to the age. To knock down
such a piece of wall as to kill twenty-two men at once is a
feat which is not easy even in these days.”

Fortunately for military archeologists, there are in
existence good examples of early ordnance whose date is
well established; the oldest known being two English guns
abandoned at the siege of St. Michel, Normandy, at the
end of October, 1423, and which now remain in front of the

Fuly, 1872,

Plate I. ‘

Quart. Fourn, Scr.

I

TZAR-POOSCHKA. ty YIY|MWqdKd..NR ddd
ZZ Lz

Li

THE Great GuN or Moscow.
Cast A.D. 1586.

Diameter of bore, 36 in.; dia-
meter of chamber, 19 in.; length
of bore, 122 in.; length of cham-
ber, 70 in.; total exterior length,
210 in.; weight, 385 tons.

Il.

GREAT GUN OF
BEEJAPOOR.

THE Marrk-I-MyDAN, oR
MASTER OF THE FIELD.

Cast A.D. 1548.

III.
CANNON OF
MUHAMMAD II.
(A.D. 1464). Z
Length, 17 ft.; diameter of |Z
powder chamber, 10 in.; dia- Z
meter of bore, 25 in.; weight,
18 tons 14 cwts. 3 qrs. The stone
shot weigh 670 lbs.
IV.

THE DULLE GRIETE. wy

WROUGHT-IRON GUN AT

HENT.
Probable Date A.D. 1430.
From measurements by Pro-
fessor W. Pole, F.R.S., Septem-
ber, 1264.

ij — :

Vv.
YG “uy
GREAT GUN OF AGRA. |AHyxyXxzZ Yj YH.

DHOOL DHANEE.
Cast A.D.1628. Broken up and
sold for the metal, 1832.
From a drawing by Captain J. |
F. Boileau, Bengal Engineers, 7/7
April 28, 1832.

Walls
MONS MEG.
A.D. 1460.

EDINBURGH.

VII.
MICHELETTE.

La GRANDE.

VII.
MICHELETTE.

La PETITE.

SCALE OF FEET.
5 Vi

5
—<—_—

Quart. Fourn. Scr. Fuly, 1872.

Plate II.

I.
MALLET’S 36-INcCH
MORTAR,

OF 42 TONS.

Tried at Woolwich, 1857-8.

Il.
I2-INCH WROUGHT-IRON
MUZZLE-LOADING
GUN, 35 TONS.

Rifling :—No. of grooves, 9;
depth of groove, 02”; width, 1°5
(i.e, same as 10-inch); twist,
from 0 to I in 35 cals.

III.

KRUPP’S I1-INCH
PRUSSIAN BREECH-

y jij). LOADING GUN.

Ze ae
ZZ

IV.

13-INCH SEA-SERVICE
MORTAR.

Weight, 100 cwts.

We

68-POUNDER.
95 cwts.

VI.
ARMSTRONG.

7-INCH BREECH LOADER.

1872.] Medieval and Modern Ordnance. 337

second gateway of the fortress on Mont St. Michel. Pro-
fessor Pole took great trouble in measuring these guns and
the granite cannon balls he found within them in 1863. He
estimates the weight of the larger gun at about 54 tons, and
that of the smaller at 3} tons. He says the largest gun is
1g inches in calibre, and 12 feet in total length, of which
the chamber composes more than one-fourth; the granite
balls are about 18 inches in diameter; the smaller gun is
15 inches in calibre, and 11 feet g inches in total length.
The construction of the barrels is clearly visible; they are
formed of wrought-iron, being made up of longitudinal bars,
each about 2% inches wide by 1 inch thick, and round the
outside are seen the lines of hoops, each about 2% inches
wide placed quite close to each other. It is not possible to
discover whether the hooping is single or in several layers.

The exterior of the breech or powder chamber consists not
of hoops but of longitudinal bars, their flat surfaces giving to
it the section of a polygon. The next gun in point of age is
the far-famed “‘ Dulle Griete,” the great bombard of Ghent,
which dates about 1430. This enormous wrought-iron piece
is calculated to weigh 13 tons, and has a bore of 25 inches in
diameter. Professor Pole estimates the weight of the granite
ball, 24 inches in diameter, to be about 700 lbs. The next
on General Lefroy’s list is that ‘‘mickle-mouthed murtherer,”
Mons Meg,* the ancient bombard preserved at Edinburgh
Castle, which is supposed to have been built previous to
1460. She weighs 5 tons, and the diameter of her’ bore,
according to Lieut. Bingham’st drawing, is 20 inches. Mr.
Hewitt mentions the mode of construction of this Scottish
gun as being plainly shown at the point where it
has been ‘‘viven.” Longitudinal strips of iron are ranged
like the staves of a cask and welded together; and then a
number of rings or hoops, also of wrought-iron, are driven
tightly over them. The thickness of the bars is 23 inches ;
that of the hoops 3} inches. There is no core beneath the
strips, as in some of the early bar and hoop guns; but the
welded staves themselves form the cylinder. The magnitude
of this engine, the contrivance of its parts, and the nice
proportions of its outline, show that it is by no means one
of the earliest efforts of the gunsmith’s art.” ‘‘The name
of Mons borne by this bombard is generally attributed to its

* Mons Meg was brought into action at the siege of Dumbarton, 1489, and
at Norham, 1497, in the reign of James IV. of Scotland, and Henry VII. of
England.

+ The late Col. Charles Bingham, R.A., Deputy Adjutant-General, Royal
Artillery.

WO t1-\(N.S.) 2%

338 Medieval and Modern Ordnance. (July,

having been fabricated at the town of that name in Flanders;
and the probability seems to gather strength from the cir-
cumstance of the great gun of Ghent resembling it so closely
in model and construction. ‘These medizval wrought-iron
bar and hoop guns were manufactured up to the middle of
the sixteenth century; and there are yet in existence in the
Tower and in the Repository at Woolwich some very perfect
specimens, which, together with brass cannon, were re-
covered by Mr. John Deane in the summer of 1840 from the
wreck of the ‘*‘ Mary Rose” at Spithead, which ‘ goodlie
shippe of England was by too much folly drowned in the
middest of the haven; for she was laden with much
ordinance, and the portes left open, which were very lowe,
and the great ordinance unbreached; so that when the shippe
should turne the waters entered, and so dainly she sank.”
This occurred during the reign of Henry VIII., in 1545,
the very year in which cast-iron cannon were first made
in England. One of the guns is in an excellent state of
preservation, considering it to have been immersed for 300
years: it is composed of a tube of iron, whose joint or over-
lap is as its length; upon this is a succession of iron hoops
composed of iron 3 inches square; these appear to have
been driven on whilst red-hot. It has a movable breech
chamber, and is let into a solid block of elm, hollowed out
to allow of the breech-piece being drawn back for loading, a
wooden chock and iron wedge being used to keep the chamber
in position when forced home. Both the brass cannon (then
a new invention according to Grose, who dates the first
founding of brass cannon in England as 1537), and these
hoop and bar guns were found loaded, the brass guns with
iron shot, and the iron guns with stone shot. Stone shot
appear to have been common up to this period, as we learn
in Rymer’s Federa of two hundred stone shot being made
in the Folkestone limestone quarries as early as the 17th
year of Edward III., 1334; and in the same author is an
order of Henry V. to a mason of Maidstone to provide 7000
stone shot from the quarries there, which, like the Folkestone
beds, consists also of the lower greensand limestone for-
mation, and, besides, several ancient cannon shot have been
found there in the débris of the old workings. We cannot
leave this portion of the subject without regretting that
Captain Brackenbury has not yet been able to carry on his
history of the ancient cannon in Europe beyond the date of
1400, since February, 1866. ‘The Artillery Institution has
looked for Part III. on the ordnance of the fifteenth century,
which is not yet forthcoming. We must hope that the

1872.] Mediaval and Modern Ordnance. 339

Professor of Military History at the Royal Military Academy
will find leisure to publish a continuation of his interesting
history.

We will now turn the attention of the reader to the
Oriental cannon, and it should be noticed that General
Lefroy points out how these Indian and Russian ordnance
were in all probability copied from Flemish originals. Com-
paring the gun of Muhammad II., presented by the Sultan
to the Queen in 1868, and now at Woolwich, with the
Ghent Bombard, the General finds the dimensions, allowing
for the necessary difference between wrought-iron and
bronze, to correspond more closely than can be attributable ©
to accident, and this correspondence extends to the method
of construction in both cases, the powder-chamber being a
separate forging or casting, and screwed to the body.

In proof of the family resemblance of all the great bom-
bards which is so apparent on comparing drawings made to
the same scale, General Lefroy subjoins the following table
of their principal dimensions :—

List oF GREAT BomBarDsS Now or LATELY EXTANT.
Diameter. Length.

Nature. Date.

Bore.
Over
All

Weight in tons
Bore.
Chamber
Exterior.

" ” ” "

Before 5°3 Ig'0 5°75 30°0 9Q4'0

”

1970
1423 3°3 1570 5°OI 220 80°0 36°0 156°0

WrovuGutT-IRon :—
English guns now *, A
Mont Ss. Michel.. B

as
co = Chamber.
°

eee aee rt of ass 13'0 25° a = 39° 1272'0 56°0 197°
Before

Misas Mee, Edinburgh .f 1460 5°7 20°0 10°00 29°5 106°0 45'0 159'0

BRONZE :—

Cannon of Muhammad II.,

Woolwich... 1464 18°7 25°0 10°00 41°5 110'2 75°8 204°7
Malik-I-Mydan, great Gun
of Beejapore ..

a 1548 40°0 285 16°00 57°0 93°'0 60°5 170°6
Tzar Pooschka, great et

of Moscow 1586 38°5 36°0 19°00 63°0 122°0 70°0 213°0

Dhool Dhanee, great Gun
of Agra

1628 30°2 23°2 10°05 45°5 108°0 50°0 170°2

The hugest piece of ordnance ever known to have existed
was a celebrated cast-bronze piece at Agra, named the
Zufr Bukh, Giver of Victory, which weighed fifty-two tons,
according to the account extracted by Major-General
Boileau, ia: from a pamphlet in the Hindoostanee lan-
guage, by which the date of its fabrication appears to be
anterior to A.H. 1037, t.¢. A.D. 1627. What has become of

340 . Mediaeval and Modern Ordnance. [July,

this gun does not appear. Next in importance is the
renowned great gun of Beejapore, Malik-i-Mydan, or Lord
of the Plain, forty tons in weight, cast at Ahmednugger in
the reign of Boorhan Nizan Shah I., a.H. 956 or a.D. 1548,
under the superintendence of the General of Artillery,
Muhammad Vin Hassan Roumi, that is, of Constantinople.
Notwithstanding its great weight, Colonel Meadows Taylor
considers that this gigantic cannon could be brought to
Bombay, v4 Sholapore, whence it could easily be trans-
ported to the Repository at Woolwich. General Lefroy
says :—

“The superstition of the Hindoos long ago converted this
gigantic cannon into an object of worship, and they might
be seen placing offerings of flowers and copper coins within
the muzzle. It is believed to have been last fired on the
occasion of a visit of the Rajah of Sattara to Beejapore in
the last century, and the people gravely assert that it
caused all the pregnant women within hearing to miscarry.
The charge was 80 lbs. of powder. The shot, of which
several remain, are made of fine hard basalt, and weigh
about 1000 lbs. It is mentioned in the ‘‘ Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal” (Vol. I), that an Italian
who served in the Mogul armies under the title of Rumi
Khan, had this gun in his park of artillery, and used it
in several battles, occasionally firing sacks of copper coins
Outiol it.’

The Dhool Dhanee, ‘The Disperser or Scatterer,” or
great gun of Agra, cast in 1628, was broken up and the
material sold for over £3000 in 1832; fortunately Major-
General Boileau took careful measurements of it before its
economical and ignoble destruction. That these huge
pieces were by no means uncommon appears from the fact,
that the Malik-i-Mydan was one of 7o1 cannon abandoned
in the disastrous retreat from Kulliani, A.D. 1562. Many
other fine specimens of Indian guns, such as the large
Bhurtpoor cannon at Woolwich, cast as late as 1677, might
be quoted to show the remarkable skill in metallurgical art
possessed by the Asiatic races, in which the Chinese and
Japanese were not behindhand. Perhaps the most remark-
able gun, being the largest in calibre, viz. 36 inches, ever
cast, is the work of the gunmaker Andrea Ichowhow, of
Moscow, A.D. 1586, called the Tzar Pooshka, weight 38
tons. The outline of this gun (Plate 1) is reduced from
Plate 5, copied from a drawing obtained by General Lefroy
from Major-General de Novitzky, Aide-de-camp to the
Emperor of Russia.

1872.] Mediaeval and Modern Ordnance. 341

We now come to the great cannon of the Dardanelles,
which ‘‘ have been a subject of wonder to travellers and of
interest to artillerymen from the earliest period. There are
no other examples of guns which have remained in use for
four centuries, and are still in a very real sense effective
pieces of ordnance. ‘They testify to the former energy and
power of the Ottoman race as no other military monument
does, and remind us of an event which has had a greater
influence on the politics of Europe than almost any other
within the same period—the fall of Constantinople. “Monu-
ments of the military genius of Muhammad II., they
remind us also of ‘“‘the splendour and the havoc of the
East,” by their prodigious size and cost and power. They
form a class apart, and although there is reason to think
that they are referable to a Flemish original, they bear the
stamp of a national character and of an epoch of conquest
of which European history presents scarce any other
example.” These guns were formerly very numerous, there
being between forty to fifty of them at least. According to
Mr. Wrench, H.M. Vice Consul, there were extant—twenty-
one in 1868, three of which were since broken up, and two
others sentenced to the same end; so excluding the one pre-
sented to Her Majesty there now remain fifteen: ten of
these, comprising the largest (29°5 inches calibre), are in the
Fort Kilit Bahar, on the European side of the Dardanelles,
and the remaining five in the Sultanieh Fort of Chanak
Ckalessi, on the Asiatic side of the straits. The Kilit
Bahar guns average 25°25 inches calibre, the smallest bore
being 19°5, and the Chanak guns 23°6 inches; the date
of their construction extends from A.D. 1458 to 1521.
General Lefroy surmises that those guns dated 1521 may
possibly have been cast on the island of Rhodes for the sub-
jection of that fortress, which fell December 22nd, 1522;
and there is all the more reason for supposing this to have
been the case, when we consider the Turkish habit of
casting great ordnance on the spot where they were wanted
with extraordinary energy and readiness. ‘Thus, ‘‘in the
first siege of Rhodes, 1480, Muhammad caused sixteen
great pieces to be cast, called basilisks or double cannon,
18 feet long, and carrying a ball of 2 or 3 feet diameter;
and here also we are told that their mortars ‘‘ threw stones
of a prodigious size, which flying through the air by the
force of powder fell into the city, and lighting upon houses
broke through the roofs, made their way through several
stories, and crushed to pieces all that they fell upon;
nobody was safe from them, and it was this kind of attack
that gave the greatest terror to the Rhodians.

342 Medieval and Modern Ordnance. [July,

General Lefroy refers to the singularity of these guns
three or four centuries old taking part in modern engage-
ments, as in the memorable instance afforded in the passage
of the Dardanelles by Sir John Duckworth’s squadron,
on March, 1807.*

The Dardanelles proper, it must be remembered, is where
the channel is narrowed to little more than three quarters
of a mile. On each side of this narrow strait stands a
castle mounted with these heavy cannon. ‘They are called
the inner castles of Europe and Asia, or the castles of
Sestos and Abydos; so it will be noticed that these guns
could easily fire across the strait as Bishop Pococke,
writing about 1740 quaintly observes, ‘‘ they fire likewise
with bail in answer to any ship that salutes the castle,
as this does much damage where they fall, so the lands
directly opposite pay no rent. Jamestf in his naval history
gives the following account :—‘‘ It was at 7 a.m.on the roth
February, 1807, that Sir John Duckworth’s squadron
weighed and steered for the entrance of the Dardanelles.
The British ships then formed themselves in line of battle
in the following order :—Canopus, Repulse, Royal George,
Windsor Castle, Standard, having in tow the Meteor, Pompée,
Thunderer, having in tow the Lucifer, Endymion, Active.
At 8 a.m. the Canopus arrived abreast of the outer castle,
both of which opened fire upon her. At 9.30 a.m. the
leading ship of the British squadron arrived abreast of the
inner pair of castles which also opened fire within point-
blank shot; this fire was returned by the ships of the
squadron in succession as they passed, and doubtless with
some effect. The damage sustained by the British ships in
passing the Dardanelles, for that objeét had now been
attained, was comparatively trifling.” Nota mast or yard
had been shot away, but only a few spars injured. The
total—six killed and twenty-one wounded.” Then follows
the account of the destruction of the Turkish squadron,
which was burnt and blown up as it lay beyond Abydos,
whilst Lieutenant Nichols, R.N., with Lieutenant Finmore
of the Marines, and party, landed and took by assault
a redoubt, from which the Turks fled at their approach ;
he then set fire to the gabions and spiked the guns, eight of

* Baron de Tott relates how he saw one of these pieces loaded with 330
Ibs. of powder and discharged. He observed the shot break into three pieces at
600 yards from the gun, and these pieces crossed the Dardanelles, leaving the
surface in a foam where they struck, and went bounding up the opposite shore.

+ ‘Naval History of Great Britain, from the Declaration of War by France
in 1793, to the Accession of George IV.”” By WiLuIAM JAMES. New Edition.
Bentley, 1860. Vol. iv., p. 209 et seq.

1872.] Mediaeval and Modern Ordnance. 343

which were of brass, and carried immensely large marble
balls.

It was in repassing or rather escaping through the Dar-
danelles on the 3rd of March following, that Sir John
Duckworth’s vessels suffered such discomfiture from the
stone shot. The ships then proceeded down the channel in
nearly the same order in which they had sailed up. Hoping
to propitiate the Turks Sir John fired a salute of thirteen
guns, this produced an immediate return of shot and shell
from the two castles, and from the battery on Point
Pesquies. The other batteries on both sides, successively
as the ships arrived abreast of them, opened their fire,
and received a fire in return. The mutual cannonade was
kept up until nearly noon, when the British squadron
anchored off Cape Janizary, out of the reach of further
molestation.

The following is the detail showing the damage caused by
the stone shot :—‘‘ The Canopus had her wheel carried away
and her hull much damaged by the stone shot, but escaped
with the loss of only three seamen wounded. On board the
Repulse, a stone shot from the castle on the Asiatic side
came through between the poop and the quarter-deck, and
killed two quartermasters, five seamen, and three marines,
and wounded one lieutenant of marines, two corporals, and
five privates, also two quartermasters and a boatswain’s
mate: total, ten killed and ten wounded, the only loss
which the Repulse on this occasion sustained. The same
shot badly wounded the mizen mast, broke and carried
away the wheel, and did other serious damage. The Royal
George had several lower shrouds cut away, her masts
slightly wounded ; a large stone shot also stuck fast in her
cutwater. Her loss amounted to two seamen and one
marine killed, two officers, one petty officer, twenty-two
seamen, and two marines wounded: total, three killed and
twenty-seven wounded.

*“A stone shot of 800 lbs. weight struck the mainmast
of the Windsor Castle and cut it more than three quarters
through; her loss amounted to three seamen killed, one
petty officer and twelve seamen wounded. On board the
Standard, a stone shot from the castle of Sestos, weighing
770 lbs., and measuring 6 feet 8 inches in circumference,
and 2 feet 2 inches in diameter, entered the lower deck,
killed four seamen, and having set fire to the salt boxes
which were on the deck for immediate use, caused an
explosion, that badly wounded one lieutenant, three petty
officers, thirty-seven seamen, and six marines; the alarm of

344 Medtaval and Modern Ordnance. (July,

fire that followed ‘the explosion caused four seamen to
leap overboard, all of whom were drowned, making the
Standard’s total loss by this single shot (and which was all
she sustained) amount to eight killed and drowned, and
forty-seven wounded. The Pompée had the good fortune to
escape without being struck by a shot in hull, masts,
rigging, or sails. The Thunderer, on the other hand, was a
good deal damaged, and had two seamen killed, and one
lieutenant, one midshipman, ten seamen, and two marines
wounded. The Lucifer had no one hurt. The Active
received a granite shot weighing 800 lbs.,* and measuring
6 feet 6 inches in circumference, which passed through her
side 2 feet above the water, and lodged on the arlop deck
close to the magazine scuttle, without injuring a man.
The aperture made by it was so wide that Captain Mow-
bray, on looking over the side to ascertain what damage it
had done, saw two of his crew thrusting their heads
through at the same moment. Had there been a necessity
for hauling to the wind on the opposite tack she must have
gone down.”

Such was the last appearance, in European waters at
least, of huge stone cannon-shot during action, and if they
did as much execution in proportion during the siege of
Scutari, from June 22nd to the 21st July, 1478, inclusive,
a period of thirty days, they must have caused tremendous
destruction. At first there were two guns only placed
in battery against the place, which were gradually increased
to eleven towards the end of the siege; these guns varied
in calibre from 19°8 inches to 32°4 inches, and their weight
from 373 lbs. to 1640 lbs. Each gun fired on an average 16
shots a day, giving a total of 2534 rounds. The weight of
such a number of stone shot, which must have weighed at
least 1000 tons, leads General Lefroy to suppose that
these were cut on the spot, being dressed into spherical
form from blocks in neighbouring quarries by slave labour.
The relative sizes of these shot are shown in the diagram.
We will hope that our ironclad fleet of the present day
would not have to retreat after the fashion of Sir John
Duckworth’s squadron, although by this time ro-inch elon-
gated projectiles have probably replaced the stone shot
in the Dardanelles.

* General Lefroy considers the weight of the last shot exaggerated, and
suggests that the boatswain put his foot into the scale, as a ball 78 inches in
circumference will be under 25 inches in diameter, and not weigh more than
760 pounds. Some of these stone shot are at the Tower, others in the gun

wharf at Portsmouth, at Sir John Duckworth’s seat in Devonshire, and one
at Admiral Tucker’s, Trematon Castle, Cornwall.

RELATIVE SIZE OF ANCIENT & MODERN PROJECTILES

tl Journ, Scvence

M872

ANCIENT

or oe

A.D. 1586
TZAR POOSCHKA

MODERN

(Iron)

Weight’

i

wl
=
* >
| es " 2000 lbs ?
y oO CS 36 SS
w
=)
=
1478 mo
SCUTARI I 373 lbs.
x MUHAMMAD 4.98 LOS.
” 3 747 (BS.
< .
A S 870 lbs.
= SI 877 lbs.
) 1152 Lbs.
| 1640 lbs.
ie
; 1548 m
z s MALIK Y MYDAN
Z.< S
ae S
Nara ees :
zo |ow 265 7000 (bs.
— =} . ~
a.
: 1464
x MUHAMMAD HI. iM
5 < DARDANELLES.
a8
Re ”
= S ay
= S
1430 V.

FLEMISH.

DULLE CRIETE

i —, ae
r \
2. )

700 lbs.

ELONGATED PROJECTIEFS

1857

MALLET'S MORTAR

SHELL

2986 lhs

IL

[ 1s69 ).... 18 camv 25:5 long,

[ 160). dean
1871 UW diam

1860 > I dram

168 >......8 diam

7 diam

ese me} diam/ 154 long.

[> #7 diam 106 long

1869 >. JO dram’

30 Long.
325 long.
26-6 long.
44 ‘long

20 tong

a ait shell wt.

600 lbs.
600 Lbs.
7OOlbs.
100 lbs.
250 lbs.

180 lbs. -

115 lbs.
159 lbs. ©

64 lbs. z

FO Lhe.

1841

Il

68 lbs.

t

INDIAN

1628
DHOOL DHANEE

VI

FLEMISH?| MUSLIMAN.
P

SCOTCH?

Granule”

a

ANGLO NORMAN.

Granite’

1422
MICHELETTE
LA PETITE

300 lbs.
ae

Ix

eo 1

1000 lbs.

FRENCH.

1866

BEELZEBUB &

PURITAN

y;
ey

1866
RODMAN

Scace OF INCHES
2 30
ee

1100 lbs.

AMERICAN

450 los.

Yncent Brooks Day & Surfac

ree Lae r hy)
eed iit + =
ae an f
1
eee a
in 6 I
i }
.
i on
da h
i 5 : a:
fae: | oem i
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i 7 7
"Al
on
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a?
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fr ;
i Fe
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fa
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raven po
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7 7
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) ‘ ;
jm whe vee <

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oa
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ris
wi : j
1 " N \
t ‘
f
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ss
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An fay aot te

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+ oth a A RG Be etait tl
ee Ce ae ie

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Pe aaa ener te Ve

tt,
aa
i
;
i
mn
Di
i!

1872.] Mediaval and Modern Ordnance. 345

Having thus briefly glanced at the ordnance of Medizeval
times, and followed its characteristics as far as the time of
the Tudors, we may here notice that ever since that period
the architecture of artillery has been almost at a stand
still; and the accompanying table of the time of Charles I.
will give a good idea of the size of British Service Ordnance
and Ammunition in use during the seventeenth century;
and we know that those of the eighteenth century were not
far different until 1779-80, the period when systematic
improvements commenced in the manufacture of car-
ronades, followed by General Blomefield’s long naval pat-
tern guns, Congreves, Dickson’s, Millar’s, Monk’s, and
Dundas’s, the latest guns cast in the service.

Extracted by Colonel Clark, R.A., F.R.S., from ‘The Complete Souldier.”
Audore Thomas Smith, 1628.

at ane 8 Ss Bf 8 §
$3 S2 = Be. BAe ce 3
oA ag os ae Sa 8 35
Sof 25. (of sme tee. 22, 0 gs
The NamesoftheGreat 322 2% oS a Re iis ce}
Ordnance now used. caraie LG s OS Gq 238 mig
ocga 68 eae a2 Svs re O°
So eee | on a aan ce ye 1° =
"Bo Be ms s fa woe re] bo
35 O85 % BS 3o% 2 5
ag GEs <i cten ERIE at we
Cannon SQ os) G+ 8 7 64 250 32 8000 12
Cannon Serpentine .. 7 74 52 23% 26 7000 IIf
French Cannon.. .. 74 Gl 403 Pp wey 6500 17)
Demi-Cannon eldest.. 63 64 368 21-8, 20 6000 II}
Demi-Cannon ordinary 64 64 32 203 18 5600 104
Demi-Cannon .. .. 6 52 244 18$ 16 5000 II
Giivering! a.) sh. ss 53 54 19 ie 15 4600 13}
Ordinary Culvering .. 54 5 164 16} 12} 4300 12
Demi-Culvering Ao 4 44 11g 14} 9 3000 II
», something less. 4} 4 9 gy 3 2300 10
Saker ordinary .. .. 32 3h 6 ree 5 1900 94
Sakeret or Minion .. 34 3 42 1033; 343 1100 8
Falcon Soho Yeh acs 23 2% 24 852, 24 750 5]
Palconet =... <2 <=. 2} 2 1} as 14 400 6

Notwithstanding, the science of the theory of gunnery
regarding the flight of projectiles through the air were not
thought unworthy the careful notice of such illustrious
philosophers as Leonardo da Vinci in 1452, followed by Tar-
taglia (time of Henry VIII.), and Galileo, in his dialogues
on motion, published 1646. Later, the names Sir Isaac
Newton, Robins, 1742, Hutton, and Sir J. Herschel, bring
us down to our own times. But although modifications
had been occasionally made in the manufacture of ordnance,
the general principles of construction remained unaltered.
Captain Stoney tells us, that ‘“ Anyone who examines

VOL. II. (N.S.) 2

346 Mediaval and Modern Ordnance. (July,

the old guns in the Tower of London, or in the Museum of
Artillery, at Woolwich, may see that they are of the same
genus as modern smooth-bores, and even notice some
specimens quite as soundly and artistically cast as any
of those of the present century; nay more, he may infer
that our modern cast guns can scarcely be superior to their
prototypes in range, power, or susceptibility to rifling.*
Captain Stoney attributes this stagnation in the con-
struction of rifled ordnance to the backward state of metal-
lurgical science and mechanism, and not to the ignorance
of theory. ‘Thus the manufacture of cast-steel in large
masses has only recently been accomplished, whilst rifling
machines now work accurately and true to within x00 of an
inch.

But, after all, it is not with rifling that we have to do in
this paper, which is intended more to compare the size and
weight of the pieces of ordnance ancient with modern, and
to let alone all questions of their comparative energy,
velocity, and penetrative power. Having premised this, we
now proceed to consider our modern monster ordnance.
As first examples, although not illustrated, should be quoted
the French mortars, with shells of 13-inch diameter, which
they threw into Cadiz from a long range at its siege in
1810. ‘These notable pieces of ordnance (their weight is
not given, but one of them may still be seen raised as a
trophy in St. James’s Park, London), were invented by
Colonel Villantroys, and called cannon-mortars; they were
cast at Seville, and being placed in slings, threw projectiles
over Cadiz, a distance of more than 5000 yards.t To
obtain this flight the shells were partly filled with lead, and
the reduced bursting charge was too small for an effetive
explosion. ‘Towards the latter end of the siege of Antwerp,
in 1832, a mortar cast at Liége was placed in position
against the citadel. It weighed 7 tons; and threw shells
of 23°6226 inches diameter, which did but little actual
execution, but produced a great moral (or rather demo-
ralising) effect. This mortar was afterwards burst at
practice with a charge of g kilos. (about 20 lbs.). Although
the French adopted the Paixhan shell-guns as early as 1822,
and General Millar introduced ro-inch and 8-inch shell-guns

* « Text-Book of the Construction and Manufadture of Rifled Ordnance in
the British Service.” By Capt. F.S. Stoney, R.A., and Lieut. CHARLES JONES,
R.A. Royal Gun Factories, 1872.

+ At the siege of Cadiz cast-iron shells filled with lead, forming projectiles
of great strength and density, were thrown from mortars to a distance of
3% miles. Vide ‘‘ American Artillery Course,” p. 69.

1872.] Mediaval and Modern Ordnance. 347

in 1833, the effect of horizontal shell fire from guns of
very large bore was only fully appreciated by the British
authorities in 1855, in the early part of which year two
experimental malleable-iron guns of 13-inch bore were
ordered of Mr. Nasmyth, but the idea was given up and the
guns counter-ordered. In the following year Messrs. Hors-
fall, of the Mersey Ironworks, Liverpool, completed the first
wrought-iron 13-inch gun of 22 tons weight, length 15 feet
10 inches, which projected with great success solid shot
each weighing 280 Ibs. to a range of 6000 yards, with a
charge of 50 lbs. of powder at a point-blank elevation. This
famous piece, the first of its kind, was presented to the
nation, and is now mounted at Tilbury Fort. But slightly
subsequent in date to the last-mentioned piece, come
Mr. Mallet’s monster 36-inch mortar, which if not the
heaviest pieces of ordnance ever built, may certainly claim a
pre-eminent position among all pieces either ancient or
modern (the great gun of Moscow not excepted) as regards
the weight of their projectiles, which when filled weigh
nearly 3000 lbs. a-piece. These mortars, only two of
which were forged and built together, owe their origin to
the energy developed by Great Britain during the Crimean
War. Mr. Mallet’s original design was completed prior to
October, 1854, and the manufacture, due solely ‘to the
personal responsibility of Lord Palmerston, commenced in
1855 by Messrs. Mare and Co., of the Thames Ironworks,
Blackwall, who contracted to supply them at the rate of
£140 per ton within ten weeks; they each weighed about
Ao tons, and consequently cost £5600 a-piece. Mr. Mallet
thus revived the old principle of constructing built-up guns,
and next to Professor Treadwell, who first demonstrated the
superiority of coiled wrought-iron over steel barrels in 1842,
may be looked upon as the modern inventor of the “‘ vinged
structure” in guns. ‘The fact that an enormous accession of
strength could be attained by external rings with initial
tension being suggested to him by Mr. Clarke’s work on the
Britannia Bridge in 1850.

The mortar may be shortly described as composed of a
massive cast-iron base about 73 tons, in which is fitted a
wrought-iron breech piece in which is bored the chamber
proper, strengthened externally by two layers of wrought-
iron hoops and one heavy ring. On this rests the chase in

* The Story of the Thirty-Six Inch Mortars of 1855 to 1858. By Major-
General Lerroy, C.B., F.R.S., R.A. ‘Proceedings of Royal Artillery
Institution, Woolwich,” vol. vii., No. 4, 1871.

348 Medieval and Modern Ordnance. [July,

three lengths, each of two thicknesses, tied down to the base
with longitudinal bars or ties connecting the breech and
muzzlerings. In consequence of the failure of the contractors
the mortars were not actually finished until a year and ten
months after the order, long after the termination of the
war, being finished by Messrs. Fawcett, Preston, and Co.,
from forgings supplied by Horsfall and Co. ‘The author had
the pleasure of being present when some of the experiments
were made with the first of these mortars, one of which was
mounted for this purpose in the Woolwich Marshes. The
shells of nearly 3000 lbs. weight had a capacity for nearly
500 lbs. of powder, and were thrown to the maximum
observed range of 2759 yards with a charge of 8o lbs. of
powder, the. charge being arranged in bags by a gunner
standing in the bore of the mortar.

The shells, which cost by contract about £16 a-piece,
after describing their trajectories through the air with a
slow and noble motion,* penetrated into the moist soil to a
depth varying from 20 to 30 feet. It is to be regretted that
only nineteen rounds in all were fired, the great expenses
incident on the repairs of defective rings, wedges, &c., led to
the then Secretary of State for War, General Peel, putting
an end to further experiments. Mr. Robert Mallet attri-
butes the comparative failure of his mortars to the rapid
combustion and brisante quality of the brutal large-grain
cannon-powder employed; and, doubtless, had pebble- or
prismatic-powder been then invented and employed, the
results might have been far more satisfactory. It is not too
late to repeat these experiments yet, and the realisation of
Mr. Mallet’s cherished plans may not be beyond the bounds
of possibility. The second of the two mortars, which has
never been fired, is mounted in the Arsenal at Woolwich,
where it forms a conspicuous object ; whilst the first, having
been dismounted from its crumbling bed by the agency of
gun-cotton, still lies, perhaps not uninjured, in the Wool-
wich Marshes.

Superior in weight to the Mallet mortar, the American
Rodman guns do not throw such heavy projectiles; but
still as smooth bores, the 20-inch guns, ‘‘ Beelzebub” and
** Puritan,” the 1100-pounders, are formidable weapons of

* The hemispheres of these fine shell being painted black and white, the
gyrations were distinétly visible to the naked eye. Attempts were made
without success to trace the trajectory of these great globes by means of photo-
graphy, also by following with the point of a fine pencil the apparent fore-
shortened path of the shell on the ground-glass plate of the camera previously
divided into squares.

1872.] Mediaval and Modern Ordnance. 349

over 50 tonsweight. Unfortunately a diagram with detailed
measurements of these guns could not be obtained in time
to be inserted in the accompanying illustration; but their
projectiles are shown for the sake of comparison. These
cannon, shaped somewhat like a huge soda-water bottle,
are cast-iron shell guns, cooled from the interior; at pre-
sent, however, they may be looked upon as merely experi-
mental pieces, and they would give no signs of injury before
bursting. Lieut.-Colonel Owen rightly points out that the
bursting of one of these guns would probably completely
paralyse a ship’s crew and destroy all confidence in them.
Our wrought-iron gun, on the other hand, always gives timely
notice by the tell-tale gas-escape channel if any injury happens
to the interior steel tube, and an explosive burst is all but
impossible with proper powder if not with other explosives.
The great 1000-pounder of 50 tons, which was exhibited at
the Paris Exhibition by Herr Krupp, of Essen, in 1867,
must be remembered by all who saw it on that occasion.
The manufacture of this steel gun continued during
night and day for sixteen months at a cost of £15,750, and
resulted in this unique specimen. It has a forged inner
tube strengthened with three layers of rings over the
powder-chamber and two layers over the muzzle portion;
the rings having been forged from ingots without welding.
All these last-named pieces of large ordnance may be looked
upon as experimental weapons, and therefore hardly
come within the scope of comparison with the medizval
ordnance which were in actual use, and served in action,
sieges, &c. ; and therefore the first service gun which we have
to compare in weight and size of piece, bore, and projectile,
is the lately adopted English 35-ton gun. This has been so
lately described in the “‘ Quarterly Journal of Science” as to
need no further detailed description, which is familiarly
known to allinterested in heavy artillery. The first of these
which was built, “‘ The Woolwich Infant,” notwithstanding
the injuries it sustained during the crucial tests to which it
was subjected at proof, promises well for the future ;* and
others have been and are being manufactured. Already
nine others have passed the proof, and four more are all but
ready for the proof-butts. But however suitable for naval
purposes (for instance, the four guns of the Devastation’s
turrets will be able to hurl simultaneously a concentrated
broadside of 15 tons weight of iron projectiles on any given

* The defective inner steel tube of the ‘‘ Woolwich Infant” is to be replaced
by a new one, when it will be as good as ever it was.

350 Mediaval and Modern Ordnance. [July,

object), every artillerist agrees that they are not long
enough for our sea defences on land. As it is, we have
found to our cost that the muzzles of our g-inch and 10-inch
guns do not project far enough beyond Colonel Inglis’s iron
shields in the embrasures of our lately constructed forts at
Portsmouth and Plymouth; and from late experiments it
has been found that when the guns in these new-fangled
embrasures are traversed extreme right or left with extreme
elevation (about 11), the blast of the explosion at the
muzzle is felt with such violence within the casemate that
it would be impossible (in spite of the massive cable
mantlets erected inside to avert its effect) for a gun detach-
ment to fight the gun, whilst the shields themselves after
many rounds would be severely racked: the projectile
when it leaves the muzzle passing within an inch (if not less)
of the outer edge of the shield-plates.

In addition, a considerable portion of energy is lost in so
short a gun, for when large charges are fired a certain
amount of the pebble-powder is thrown out of the muzzle
unconsumed, and there is no doubt that a greater velocity
and penetrative force will be given to the projectile by
lengthening the gun. Consequently a new gun is to super-
sede the S.S. 35-ton gun, and we may hope shortly to see a
L.S. 36-ton “‘Infant”’ at least 3 feet longer than its elder
brother, and its performances at Shoeburyness will be well
worth looking forward to with interest. Preparations have
already been commenced at Woolwich for the manufacture
of the huge forgings which will be reyuired, such as a
stupendous new steam-hammer of 30 tons, capable of
striking a blow of many hundreds of tons, and other appli-
ances. Taking the 35-ton 12-inch gun as the type, we need
do no more than allude to the 12-inch of 25 tons, the
11-inch of the same weight, and the ro-inch of 18 tons.
Another 18-ton gun of the Hercules it appears has lately
(30th May) been permanently disabled when at target-
practice off Portland by the premature bursting of a shell in
the bore near the muzzle of the piece. As usual, it would
seem that the shell broke through its stud-holes where the
rifling offers the maximum resistance to their escape, both
the steel lining and outer chase coil being split. This is the
third gun of its kind which has been thus injured on board
the same ship during the past three years. The 12, 9, 7,
and 6}-ton guns, together with the 64-pounder, finish the
tale of our present wrought-iron guns, whose projectiles are
shown on the plate. And now for our cast-iron and bronze
pieces, which are not yet obsolete, for although rifled guns

1872.) Mediaeval and Modern Ordnance. 351

have come into fashion, smooth-bore must constitute for
some time, if not always, a considerable portion of our
armaments. The Woolwich gun-foundry, established 1717,
was virtually superseded by the forge in 1859,* the date of
the last bronze gun being cast there. The few cast-iron
guns which are occasionally required to keep the stock in
store up to the specified number are obtained by contract.

The two heaviest pieces are the well-known Dundas
68-pounder of 112 cwts., 1841, and the new pattern 13-inch
sea-service mortar of 5 tons, 1857. These are shown for
the sake of comparison as illustrating our heaviest pieces
during the first half of the nineteenth century, since the end
of which such tremendous strides in the art of gunnery have
been made. The old r110-pounder or 7-inch Armstrong
breech-loader is also given, and illustrates the transitional
epoch from the heavy smooth-bores to the heavier rifled
pieces with elongated projectiles. General Lefroy, in illus-
trations of the guns left at Mont St. Michel, contrasts the
68-pounder and the 110-pounder Armstrong with Michelette
and Mons Meg, which suggested the present paper. Dr.
Déthier also draws a comparison between the American
20-inch Rodman and the cannons of Muhammad II.

It should be remarked that there are still in our own
service pieces of ordnance, not yet obsolete, in whose con-
struction can be easily traced the ancient traditional propor-
tions descended from the earliest cannon, the “‘ bombards”’
and ‘‘crakys” of war in olden days; these will readily be
detected by anyone narrowly observing their sections ; and,
properly speaking, a diagram showing a section should have
appeared in the plate for the sake of comparison. I refer to
the brass coehorn howitzers of 4% inch howitzers cast at
Woolwich in 1738, and still retained in the service, together
with the royal and coehorn mortars of about the same date.
These apparently insignificant pieces, although small, are
very useful for colonial and mountain service or in the
advanced trenches of a siege attack, whilst the royal mortar
is fitted for firing Manby’s life-saving apparatus.

Whilst comparing the size of the guns and projectiles of
modern days with those of the middle ages, it cannot have
failed to strike the observant reader that there is much in
common with both; but beyond this all comparison ceases;
for instance, it would be absurd to compare the rough
hollowed elm block in which the gun from the Mary Rose

* Notes on Cast-Iron and Bronze Ordnance. By Captain F. S. STONEY,
R.A., Royal Gun Factories, Woolwich. 1867.

352 Medieval and Modern Ordnance. [July,

man-of-war is mounted with either Scott’s naval gun-
carriage and slide or Moncrieff’s elaborate elevating gear.
In fact, we have only to look at the numerous crafty
mechanical details involved in. a simple double-plate
wrought-iron carriage and platform with their fittings,
whether American, Elswick conneé¢ted screw-shaft, or
hydraulic or other compressors, not to see that it is more in
the delicate appliances, such as fuses, and minutie of
adjustments, such as sighting, &c., that our real superiority
obtains over the noble and massive, yet rugged ordnance, of
our ancestors.

1872.] (353)

NOT! C E°S: "OR “BOOKS:

Remarks on Recent Oceanic Explorations by the British Govern-
ment, and the Supposed Discovery of the Law of Oceanic
Circulation, by Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S. By Wituiam
LEIGHTON JoRDAN. Buenos Ayres: Imprenta Inglesa, 55,
Calle de Cuyo. 1871. 56 pp.

THERE have ‘been promulgated several theories attempting to
explain the phenomena of oceanic circulation; and among these
that best known to the scientific public, because most sedulously
advanced, originates with Dr. Carpenter. This author seems to
possess a peculiar and often very convenient disregard for the
objections of his confreres in science, more especially when these
objections are unanswerable, finding his reward in the applause
of a too credulous public. Despite the publicity given to the
facts advanced by Mr. Jordan in 1868, Dr. Carpenter, we believe,
still continues to ignore them. An adage says, “ Facts are
stubborn things,” consequently there cannot be much surprise
that they should again occur to Dr. Carpenter’s notice. Yet it
seems strange that in such a tangible science as geography these
facts should not have arisen dominant once and for all. To this
there appears to be only one answer, namely, that geography is
taught ordinarily in generalities ; the exceptions or anomalies to
these generalities being omitted by or unknown to the authors
of our books of reference. In dealing with the facts brought
forward by Mr. Jordan as opposed to Dr. Carpenter’s theory, we
shall quote extensively from the pamphlet sent us to review.

In the first place Mr. Jordan says, speaking of the explorations,
** My object is not to descant on the unquestionable merits of
these researches as regards the discovery of facts, but to deal
with deductions made by Dr. Carpenter from them, which I
consider erroneous.” He then proceeds to the consideration of
Dr. Carpenter’s arguments regarding the Mediterranean and
Baltic, and assuming them to be irrefutable, passes to the unsound
assertion that ‘‘ a vertical circulation must, on the same principle,
be maintained between polar and equatorial waters by the
difference of their temperatures.

‘‘ As regards this temperature theory,” continues Mr. Jordan,
“‘two incontrovertible facts exist, which combined are sufficient to _
annihilate it. The one, the fact that both in the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans the cold under-currents flowing towards the equatorial
regions tend to the eastern parts of these regions, where they
rise to the surface to flow westwards, becoming gradually
heated in their course until, on the west of each ocean, they
branch off northwards and southwards as warm currents. The

VOL. II. (N.S.) Bed

’

354 Notices of Books. (July,

other fact is, that if water were set in motion between the
Equator and the Poles by differences of temperature, the rotation
of the earth would immediately act upon it, tending to carry
that moving towards the Equator westwards, and that moving
towards the Poles eastwards; so that one of the most striking
features of the circulation would be the tendency of the cold
water to flow towards the Equator on the west of the ocean,
eastwards through the equatorial regions, and to branch off
northwards and southwards as warm currents, on the east of the
ocean. These general features are exactly the reverse of the
general features of the circulation which actually exists; and
therefore nothing more is requisite to explode the theory; for
what must be the result when fact and theory clash like this?

‘‘ Besides this broad discordance with actual facts, the details
of Dr. Carpenter’s theory are open to criticism. Is not the
assertion, that a difference of level in the ocean will cause a
surface current, rather reckless? Has it been certified by ex-
perience? or can any recorded phenomena be adduced in support
of it?”

The system of upper and under currents through the Strait of
Gibraltar and the Sound, Mr. Jordan goes on to show to be the
“result of differences in specific gravity, as explained by Captain
Maury’s theory, which had better be left in its original simplicity,
for this modification, with which Dr. Carpenter has attempted
to encumber it, is not an improvement, but an erroneous com-
plication.”

‘‘Captain Maury says wherever there is a ‘difference of
specific gravity between sea-water at one place and sea-water at
another,’ ‘whether it be owing to difference of temperature or to
difference of saltness, &c., it is a difference that disturbs
equilibrium, and currents are the consequence. The heavier
water goes towards the lighter, and the lighter whence the heavier
comes; for two fluids differing in specific gravity, and standing
at the same level, can no more balance each other than unequal
weights in opposite scales of a true balance. It is immaterial
whether this difference of specific gravity be caused by tem-
perature, by the matter held in solution, or by any other thing;
the effect is the same, namely, a current.’* This is sufficient to
account for the Gibraltar current without the necessity of a
surface current caused by difference of level, to set the cir-
culation in motion. The Atlantic water which supplies the waste
caused by evaporation in the Mediterranean flows in as a surface
current because it is lighter than that of the latter sea, which the
action of specific gravity consequently carries out below it.

‘‘ The currents in the Experimental Illustration of the General
Oceanic Circulation in which water in a long narrow trough, as
exhibited before the Royal Geographical Society, is heated at
the surface of one end by a lamp and chilled at the other by ice,

* Physical Geography of the Sea, par. 406.

1872.] Notices of Books. 355

can be explained by the action of difference in specific gravity
alone; the difference in temperature causes a difference in
specific gravity, and for the restoration of the equilibrium a
surface current of the lighter flows towards the denser water,
whilst at the same time an under-current of the latter flows
towards the former. The expansion caused by heat tends to
raise the level at one end, and the contraction caused by cold
tends to depress it at the other end; but if this difference of
level were produced without any difference in the specific gravity,
it would, in an open ocean, as already shown, be restored not by
currents, but by a tidal movement of the ocean, the higher level
sinking and the lower rising simultaneously.

‘Tt appears that in the Mediterranean the surface heat, resulting
from the action of the sun’s rays, causes evaporation, which
lowers the level and increases the density of water; and therefore
when, in treating of the general oceanic circulation, Dr. Carpenter
says that the level of Polar water is reduced and its density
increased by surface cold, it might be expected that he would
admit that the same effects are caused in the Equatorial regions
by surface heat, or at least give some explanation as to why it
should be otherwise. But instead of this Dr. Carpenter, with-
out explanation, deliberately asserts that in the Equatorial regions
the level of the water is raised, and its density diminished by the
surface heat to which it is exposed: that is to say, that surface
heat in the Equatorial regions causes exactly the opposite effects
to those which it causes in the Mediterranean. If the observed
effects in these two regions are really so diametrically opposite,
can they be the result of the same cause? or may not the
difference in the effects rather be the result of a difference in
the ratio which the evaporating action of the sun’s rays in the
two places bears to the respective amounts of fresh water
supplied by rivers and rain? But has it ever been shown that,
whatever be the cause, there actually are such different effects
in the two regions, or is this another reckless assumption to suit
the exigencies of a preconceived theory ?”’

But by no means do Dr. Carpenter’s anomalous deductions end
here. Besides the vertical circulation resulting from differences
in temperature, Dr. Carpenter says that ‘‘the Gulf Stream forms
part of a horizontal or superficial circulation in the North
Atlantic, of which the Trade Wind constitutes the primum mobile.”
Thus the general features of the theory seem to be that the
difference of temperature in Polar and Equatorial regions
causes a vertical, and the Trade Winds a horizontal circulation
throughout the ocean. This is brought forward not merely as
a theory by which a system of circulation might be caused, but
as an efficient cause of the circulation which actually exists in
the ocean.

Three years ago Mr. Jordan, making use of his own and Captain
Maury’s arguments, endeavoured to show the inefficiency of the

356 Notices of Books. [July,

winds as a cause for the existing currents of the ocean. He
said, ‘‘ ‘ Theoretically considered, it appears plausible enough to
assume that the winds must tend, to some extent, to cause a system
of currents, by driving the surface water before them; which,
wherever it accumulates against obstructions, must tend to run
off in streams. But, practically considered—that is to say,
considering what are the actual winds which blow, and what the
actual currents of the ocean—it appears to us incomprehensible
how any one who studies these systems of aérial and oceanic
circulation can reconcile them as cause and effect. It appears
to us surprising how, considering the enormous volume and
weight of water borne along in the oceanic currents, any one
can help doubting the power of the comparatively light
atmosphere to keep such a mass in motion, even if it were
shown that the course of the oceanic currents corresponded
with that which would naturally result from the action of the
winds which exist. But when it is found that the winds tend to
a great extent to neutralise each other, and that, even in the
region of the Trade Winds, where the power of the winds is
greatest, ocean currents, even on the surface of the ocean, run
across and against those winds, whilst in the lower strata
immense under-currents run their course regardless of the winds
which blow above; it then seems surprising how any one can
consider that the position and direction of the ocean currents
which exist are in accordance with the current-creating action of
the winds, even if it be assumed that the latter are sufficiently
powerful to control the enormous volume of water which is
carried along in those currents.’”*

He also endeavoured to show the inefficiency of the Tempe-
rature theory. And after making use of Sir John- Herschel’s
arguments, said: ‘‘‘ Besides the objections urged by Sir John
Herschel against the theory which makes differences in specific
gravity the prime cause of the currents of the ocean, we may
here observe that, if differences in specific gravity, resulting
from the difference of temperature and other conditions in Polar
and Equatorial regions, were the principal cause of ocean
currents—in consequence of the tendency of the heated and
cold water to exchange positions in order to re-establish their
equilibrium in specific gravity—then the heated water flowing
from the Equator would be under that influence of change of
latitude which tends to carry it eastwards, and the cold water
from the Polar regions would be under that influence of change
of latitude which tends to carry it westwards; so that, therefore,
the warm water would naturally flow from the Equator on the
east side of the ocean, and the cold water as naturally flow
towards the Equator on the west side of the ocean; whereas, in
fact, with the actually existing currents of the ocean, the very

* Vis-Inertiz, p. 62. London: Longmans, 1868.

1872.] Notices of Books. 357

reverse is the case: the cold water is brought to the Equator
partly by currents running towards the Equator on the eastern
side of each ocean, and partly by under-currents rising to the
surface chiefly in the eastern parts of the ocean; then it flows
westwards through the Equatorial regions, and flows from the
Equator on the west of the ocean as warm currents, having
been heated during its course through the Equatorial regions.’’’*

Afterwards alluding to this in connection with the winds he
remarks that: ‘‘‘ The idea of the Trade Winds being considered
a sufficient cause to account for this complete reversal of the
course which the currents would naturally take under that
influence of the axial rotation of the earth is one which I do not
suppose any one will seriously maintain.’+

“I suggested the action of the winds and specific gravity as
a means by which a system of oceanic circulation might be
caused, but at the same time rejected it as too preposterously at
variance with the actually existing circulation to be entertained
by any one conversant with the subject. In this I was mistaken;
for Dr. Carpenter now brings it forward in an elaborate article as
the true theory of the existing oceanic circulation.

** But how has Dr. Carpenter succeeded in making this theory
appear to explain the existing currents of the ocean ?

‘First: by utterly ignoring that influence of the earth’s
rotation to which I have alluded. This is the force which,
according to Halley’s theory of the Trade Winds, gives those
winds an easterly direction, making them N.E. and S.E. winds,
instead of N. and S. It is the force indicated by Captain
Maury as the cause of the Gulf Stream tending eastwards
after it leaves the Gulf of Mexico. It tends to carry the Gulf
Stream eastwards, because that current is running from the
Equator, and at the same time it tends to carry the cold Labrador
current westwards, because the latter is running towards the
Equator. Thus, by its action, those currents running in opposite
directions are made to flow side by side without intermixing.

*<Tf warm water at the Equator and cold water at the Poles
rush towards each other to re-establish their equilibrium, why
do not the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the cold waters
of the Labrador current, when brought into juxtaposition, inter-
mingle and at once restore their equilibrium? It is simply
because they are held in the grasp of the gigantic power created
by the earth’s rotation, and the puny powers created by differences
of temperature or specific gravity are impotent in its presence.
These latter appear in Dr. Carpenter's theory to be the paramount
forces, to which the Winds are secondary. If, then, the force
. of the above action of the earth’s rotation mocks the forces
created by differences of temperature where the latter do not

* Vis-Inertiz, p. 59. London: Longmans, 1868.
+ Ibid., p. 66.

358 _ Notices of Books. [July,

act in concert with it, how can the lesser force of the winds be
supposed to control it ? \

*«Secondly: without a word of argument, or a shadow of
proof, Dr. Carpenter assumes that differences of level in the
ocean must cause surface currents from the higher to the lower
levels; and such currents, flowing into the Polar regions, he
makes the first impetus of the circulation; so that the fact that
differences of level in the open ocean are naturally restored by
tidal movements, and not by currents of any sort, cuts away the
tap-root of his theory.

‘And thirdly: without any explanation, Dr. Carpenter treats
the action of surface heat as causing exactly the opposite effects
in the Equatorial regions to those which it causes in the
Mediterranean. With most astounding and glaring inconsistency
he makes (not by argument, but by mere assertion) the same
cause produce different effects, just as the exigencies of his theory
in different parts of the ocean require. Besides these things,
considering also minor details to which I have not alluded, I could
scarcely have believed it possible that such loose and reckless
theorising could have been perpetrated by a Fellow of the Royal
Society, and still less by a man selected by the British Admiralty
as their scientific representive, and this too in treating of a
subject with which the acceptance of the latter post makes it
his special duty to be well acquainted.”

Considering that, according to Dr. Carpenter’s theory, the
great predominant current-creating force is in the Polar regions,
it might be expected that some facts would be brought forward
in its support; but to this Dr. Carpenter does not condescend ;
for after the assertion that ‘‘the surface flow of Equatorial water
towards the North Polar area is a fact universally admitted,” and
an argument regarding the course from the Equatorial regions of
the water which ‘ passes north and north-east between Iceland
and Norway towards Spitzbergen,’ he branches off to draw
distinctions between ‘‘ the mere Physical Geographer” and ‘‘one
who takes a scientific view of the matter’’—rather an unhappy
distinction for the author himself it would appear. Certainly
the fact referred to is admitted; but will Dr. Carpenter contend
that in the latitude of the north of Norway the volume of the

-~surface-flow of warm water northwards on the east of the ocean
is anything like equivalent to that of the surface flow of cold
water southwards on the west of the ocean? And it should
also be observed that in those high latitudes, according to the
theory of the current-creating action of the earth’s rotation,
there exists, west of the surface flow of warm water, an under
current of the same flowing northwards with a surface current
of cold water immediately above it flowing southwards. A part
only of the warm current is tilted up to the surface on the east
of the ocean, whilst the remainder under-runs the cold current
flowing in the opposite direction. <‘‘ Be this, however, as it

1872.] Notices of Books. 359

may,” continues Mr. Jordan, ‘‘ why is it that no more facts from
that region, so important to the theory, are brought forward in
its support? Is it in consequence of a consciousness that
nearly all genuine facts from thence would be death blows to the
theory? It seems to me that it would be scarcely possible to
invent any theory by which, in the absence of other causes, a
system of oceanic circulation might be caused that could, in
those regions, be more completely at variance with the results
of actual researches than this temperature theory of Dr.
Carpenter’s.”

Much as weshould like to introduce an account of the arguments
diflidently advanced by Mr. Jordan, their length precludes such
a course in a notice of his pamphlet. But his views may be
thus recapitulated :—

“First: the very basis of Dr. Carpenter’s theory requires
that the force of gravitation should re-adjust the level of the
ocean, by bringing down the level in the Equatorial regions and
raising it in the Polar regions, in consequence of the existence of
the reverse effects resulting from differences of temperature. In
reply to this, practical researches tend to show that the action of
differences of temperature and other conditions between Equatorial
and Polar regions has the reverse effect from that which Dr.
Carpenter assumes them to have—that they tend to lower the
level in the Equatorial and raise it in the Polar regions; so that
the re-adjustment to be made by the force of gravitation is in
the opposite direction to that required by Dr. Carpenter’s theory.

«Secondly: Dr. Carpenter assumes that the action of gravi-
tation would cause a surface current through the ocean from the
higher to the lower level: and to such currents flowing into the
Polar regions he attributes the first impetus which sets the cir-
culation in motion. In reply to this it has been pointed out
that the action of gravitation would, in the open ocean, tend to
re-adjust such differences of level by tidal movements, the higher
levels falling and the lower rising simultaneously without causing
any current. So that therefore, even if Dr. Carpenter were
right in assuming the level of the Polar to be lower than that
of the Equatorial regions, no such surface currents would be
created by that difference of level as those to which he attributes
the first impetus which sets the circulation in motion.

“Thirdly: according to Dr. Carpenter’s theory, in the Polar
regions the surface currents flow towards and the under currents
from the Poles. In reply to this, practical researches tend to
show that the very reverse is the case:—that the cold waters
pour away from the Poles chiefly in the upper strata, whilst
warm currents flow beneath them towards the Poles. So that
the vertical circulation in the Polar regions—the great paramount
force-creating region, according to Dr. Carpenter—appears to be
the reverse of that necessitated by his theory.

360 Notices of Books. [July,

‘‘ Fourthly: if a circulation were caused by differences of
specific gravity, or any other effects resulting from differences
of temperature between the Equatorial and Polar regions, it has
been shown that the currents would flow towards the Equator on
the west of the ocean, eastwards through the Equatorial regions,
and from the Equator on the east of the ocean, and this course,
which would certainly result from Dr. Carpenter’s theory, is
exactly the reverse of that of the currents which form the
horizontal circulation in the Equatorial regions.

‘«‘Fifthly: Dr. Carpenter adapts the Mediterranean theory
to what is known of the vertical circulation of the temperate
and equatorial regions by reversing the action of surface-heat
from that admitted in the former regions; this strategic move-
ment, however, seems to be a descent from bad to worse, for by
it the theory appears to be placed in direct antagonism with the
source of its own creation; namely, the vertical circulation in
the Polar regions. And—to follow the parallel suggested in
Sir Roderick Murchison’s contingent eulogy—this gross deviation
from consistency has led Dr. Carpenter into such confusion that
where veins and arteries interlace he hastaken up veins for arteries
and treated arteries for veins, even supposing his location of the
heart to be exact; but in this he has made a still more grievous
mistake in imagining that source of circulation to le divided in
the cold extremities of the earth instead of in the vast expanse
of the Equatorial regions.

‘‘Dr. Carpenter’s theory of the action of surface-cold may
prove most valuable in the consideration of minor details of
oceanic circulation. But as a cause of the main features of
the existing circulation it is so absurdly incongruous and in-
adequate that in this Essay Dr. Carpenter must be said to have
lowered himself to the level of a ‘mere’ theorist. The negative
reply to the question whether the ‘so-called’ explanation of
oceanic circulation is or is not the ‘veal’ explanation, is so
glaringly obvious that it is surprising how any one acquainted
with the subject could be so infatuated as to take the false course
in which Dr. Carpenter has involved himself. It is a degradation
of the term ‘scientific’ to apply it to such theorising. How
much more really scientific—how much nobler is the spirit of
the true ‘Physical Geographer’ who completely subordinates
theory to fact. This is the spirit which breathes through Maury’s
writings, and enables the reader to turn over the pages with a
refreshing confidence that he need fear no delusion. A recently
increasing departure from it in too many English scientific
writers has culminated in this audacious effusion of Dr. Carpenter’s.
If such essays are to be brought forward by leaders of English
science, history will record a degradation of English intellect in
the present generation; and the laurel which the civilised world
by acclamation placed on England’s brow, in honour of Newton’s
discoveries, will soon be torn away to be worn elsewhere.”

1872.] Notices of Books. 361

Apart from the valuable theory which Mr. Jordan has advanced
in his work, we think he has performed a duty in thus clearly
proving the errors of a theory too assiduously expounded. But
it must be said that we lay down Mr. Jordan’s pamphlet with
feelings of the most intense surprise—surprise that such a
theory should meet with the slightest favour, and that Dr.
Carpenter should have evolved it in any moment but those of
“unconscious cerebration.”’

Coal Economy. By Frep. Cuas. Danvers, Assoc. Inst. C.E.,
of the Public Works Department, India Office, &c. London:
W. H. Allen and Co. 1872.

WHuILE public attention has of late years been directed again
and again to the serious waste of coal consequent upon our
present systems of coal mining, and to the recklessness with
which the fuel is too often consumed, it is curious that little or
nothing has been written on the injury and waste which the
coal suffers after it emerges from the pit’s mouth, and during
the successive stages through which it passes before reaching
its final destination.

Yet this loss is by no means insignificant; for it is obvious
that the coal in the course of being screened, and during
its transport, whether by land or water, must be continually
subjected to movements which tend to cause disintegration,
and inevitably result in the formation of more or less small and
comparatively useless coal. It is pleasing to find that this
neglected phase of coal economy has received the careful
attention of Mr. F. C. Danvers, who in the work before us dis-
cusses the several sources of waste, and points out the best
means of utilising the small coal, whilst incidentally he offers
much useful information on the machinery employed in connection
with the mineral traffic.

It is not with the waste in underground working that our
author has to deal. That question was fully examined by the
Coal Commission, and Mr. Danvers’s work begins exactly
where that of the Commissioners ended. Suffice it, then, to
say that in the steam collieries at least 40 per cent is usually
lost in working by the “pillar and stall” system, and about 15
per cent by the “long wall” system. If the small coal be raised
to the surface with the large coal, the pit is said to be worked
on the “‘ altogether” principle ; if the small coal is left under-
ground it is worked on the “separation” principle. In the
former case as much as one-half of the output may consist of
‘small,’ whilst in the latter case only from 5 to Io per cent
passes through the screens. The author describes the con-
struction of several forms of screen used in the South Wales

VOL. II. (N.S.) 3A

362 Notices of Books. (July,

coal-field, and in the neighbourhood of Newcastle—the two
localities selected as offering the best examples of modern
colliery appliances.

After leaving the screens at the pit’s mouth, the coal suffers
more or less breakage during railway transit. Mr. Danvers does
not, however, think that the amount of disintegration in a
waggon increases in proportion to the length of the journey ; for
after the first few miles the large lumps get firmly seated on a
bed of small coal formed by the mutual abrasion of sharp
corners. Admitting this, one may question the propriety of
screening at the pit, since the small coal thus removed would
evidently be useful in filling up spaces between the larger blocks.

It must not be supposed that the injury which coal suffers
stops at the end of its journey. If the fuel be stored in open
air it gradually disintegrates, and at the same time loses much
of its heating power: indeed, the value of steam coal may
actually be reduced one-half by exposure to the air for six
months. It is consequently important that coal should be pro-
tected in the depdts in which it is stored; and of late years
much attention has been paid to the construction of such
buildings.

After the employment of even the most approved machinery
in connection with coal traffic, there must needs be a considerable
amount of almost valueless small coal—duff, slack, or waste, as
it is usually called—and it remains to see how this can be
profitably utilised. Without following the author into his long
discussion of the principles of combustion and the economic
use of fuel, we may cite his opinion that the method at present
most convenient and most generally applicable for utilising small
coal is that of manufacturing it into artificial or patent fuel.
Several methods devised for this purpose are here described :
different patentees have suggested the use of pitch, tar, starch,
and alkaline silicates as the cementing material by which the
slack is formed into blocks. The author recommends that the
coal be washed to remove as far as possible the shale and other
associated impurities, and then be moulded into blocks by means
of a mixture of starch and bituminous matter.

Before closing the present work it is right to state that the
information which it contains was originally collected by Mr.
Danvers with the view of forming a Report for presentation to
the Indian Government.

Coal mining is at present in its infancy in India; but the
rapid extension of the railway system—not to speak of other
sources of demand—creates a growing increase in the want of
fuel—a want which the forests, in spite of all conservancy,
cannot continue to supply, and which must ultimately necessitate
the development of the coal-fields of India. But in a country
where the coal resources are but limited, and where the coal is
for the most part extremely tender and liable to suffer spon-

1872] Notices of Books. 363

taneous disintegration from the large proportion of associated
iron pyrites, it is evident that the greatest care and economy
should be exercised in the transport of the fuel. Hence Mr.
Danvers’s subject is invested with peculiar interest in our Indian
possessions. Nevertheless his book contains so much that is
valuable, that it may be studied with almost equal profit at home
by all who are practically interested in the welfare of the British
coal trade.

A Text-Book of the Construction and Manufacture of the Rifled
Ordnance in the British Service. By Captain F. S. Stoney,
R.A., Assistant Superintendent Royal Gun Factories; and
Lieutenant C. Jones, R.A., Instructor Royal Gun Factories.
Corrected up to January, 16th, 1872. Printed under the
Superintendence of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

Captain Stoney and Mr. Jones, in their carefully compiled Text-
Book, supply a want which has long been felt by students in the
Royal Gun Factories at Woolwich Arsenal. Both Naval and
Military as well as civilian Artillerists have all experienced the
great difficulty of keeping pace with the constant and rapid
change both in modern ordnance and its matériel, more espe-
cially since the introduction within the last ten or twelve years
of various systems of rifling, followed by their inevitable train of
new inventions, in the shape of fuzes, explosives, &c.

This difficulty has hitherto been enhanced from the fact
of there having been no authorised text-book to start from as a
recognised stand-point of departure.

It is with great satisfaction, then, that we hail the publication
of a work compiled by two such competent authorities as the
late Assistant-Superintendent and the present Instructor at
the Woolwich Gun Factories, to which department of the
Arsenal the volume is creditable.

In a technical work of this description there is naturally
no room for originality, but a practical gunner can alone fully
appreciate the vast amount of nice research required, and
the laborious care necessary to collect and arrange the formid-
able array of minute details which, however apparently trivial
in themselves, are in reality of the most practical importance as
a whole when brought together within manageable compass.

Such condensation can only result from sound knowledge
of the subject and ability on the part of the compilers; and,
judging from the result, the authors of the present volume under
notice appear to possess both.

The text is well illustrated with eleven lithographed detailed
coloured plates, comprising all the wrought-iron muzzle-loading
guns, as well as the small steel and bronze Abyssinian and
Indian guns, besides numerous woodcuts of details, fittings, &c.

364 Notices of Books. (July,

The work commences with a brief historical sketch of our
rifled ordnance, from Lancaster’s gun in the Crimea, and
Colonel de Beaulieu’s field pieces at Solferino, down to the
present Prussian system of Krainer, and our own Fraser cheap
construction Woolwich guns; then follows the consideration of
the various rival systems of rifling up to the latest date; and our
authors, in conclusion of Chapter I. remark, ‘‘ that the tests and
trials bearing on this question (that of construction), while
exemplifying the pains taken to obtain the best war materiel,
cannot fail to satisfy the most sceptical, that the present con-
struction of our guns is sound and durable, and also that
we have made marked progress of late years in heavy ordnance.
In Chapter II. we have Hart’s, Armstrong’s, Whitworth’s,
Palliser’s, Rodman’s, and Fraser’s systems of construction dis-
cussed, and our British ordnance is compared with foreign
to the manifest advantage of the former. ‘‘ For supposing the
American cast-iron guns are as durable and as little liable to
burst as our sinewy guns of wrought-iron, and that their
apocryphal charges are actually used, our guns possess the great
advantage of being able to pierce armour-plates with shot,
nay even with shell, which the American guns could only
crush or ‘vack’ with solid shot. Various examples of Prussian
guns bursting explosively are also given as a proof that the
uncertain character of steel renders it a dangerous material, and
that we must not trust it until greater improvements take place
in its manufacture. In Chapter III. the materials for ordnance,
such as bronze, cast-iron, steel, and wrought-iron are compared,
and their physical properties described. Its deficiency in hard-
ness, however tough and tenacious the metal, points out bronze
to be unsuitable, except under restricted circumstances, for
ordnance. However valuable the hardness of cast-iron, yet its
brittleness renders it unsafe, and only useful for converted guns
with a wrought-iron lining. The defects of steel, also, may
be stated to be brittleness, uncertainty, and deficiency in exten-
sibility, when strained beyond its elastic limits, which render it
unsuitable for the exterior portions of a gun; at the same time,
from its hardness, high tensile strength, and freedom from flaws
and defects, it is well suited for the inner barrel. Lastly,
wrought-iron is valuable as a gun material, on account of its
comparatively high tenacity, combined with its malleability and
ductility. The next chapter is taken up with an account of the
principal operations in the manufacture of wrought-iron
ordnance, the machinery employed, the methods of forging,
welding, and coiling on a large scale, the lathes, rifling, and
other machines. Further on we have the manufacture of the
breech-loading Armstrong guns, of which, although suspended
latterly, a knowledge is required by officers who have to deal
with this class of guns in the service. We will now proceed to
watch the progress of a 7-inch Fraser cheap-construction gun

1872.] Notices of Books. 365

through its rough process of manufacture, many details neces-
sarily being omitted. First, the gun consists of the following
parts :-—

I. An inner barrel or tube of steel, called the A tube.

II. Two single and slightly taper coils united together, called
the B Tube.

III. A triple coil, a trunnion ring, and a double coil, all welded
together, called the breech-coil or jacket.

IV. A cascable.

I. The steel for the A tube is received from the contractors in
the form of a solid ingot and severely tested. It is next roughly
bored and turned and becomes a tube, which is next toughened
by being thoroughly heated to a certain temperature, and then
plunged in a bath of oil until cool. This process frequently
warps the steel tube, and not unfrequently causes the surface to
crack ; the barrel is therefore slightly turned and bored again to
make it straight inside and out, as well as to remove any slight
flaws; and for fear some of these flaws should escape notice,
the tube is now subjected to the water-test. By certain
mechanical contrivances the tube is filled with water, which
is subjected to a pressure of 34} tons per square inch; if no mois-
ture exudes on the exterior of the barrel under this pressure the
tube is passed as sound.

II. The B tube is composed of two coils made and welded
together in the usual way, and rough- and fine-bored to the degree
of smoothness requisite for close contact with the steel A tube
on which it is to be shrunk; and here it may be remarked, that it
is found easier to turn an inner tube to fit an outer one than vice
versa.

III. The triple coil is formed by coiling three bars one over the
other and welded under a powerful steam-hammer and turned
down, being fitted with a shoulder for the reception of the
trunnion ring.

The double coil is similarly prepared also to fit the trunnion
ring, the trunnion ring being also ready; all three parts are
heated to redness, the trunnion ring is dropped upon the shoulder
of the triple coil, and the double coil dropped through the
upper part of the trunnion ring on the triple coil, and the whole
mass placed bodily in a furnace and raised to welding heat ;
being next placed under the most powerful hammer in the
department, six or seven blows suffice to amalgamate the three
parts together. The breech coil thus formed is next turned in a
very powerful lathe, the trunnion ring slotted smooth in a self-
acting vertical machine, and the trunnions themselves turned
down to shape in a break lathe. The jacket is next rough- and
fine-bored, and its muzzle end recessed on the inside so as to
overlap the breech end of the B tube.

366 Notices of Books. [July,

IV. The cascable is first forged from the best scrap iron
into an oblong block, then turned cylindrical and a bevel
thread cut on it; the button is turned on it, and a hole
is drilled through one end for the purpose of screwing it into
the gun.

All the parts are now ready for building up.

First the B tube is shrunk over the muzzle of the A tube, and
the A and B tubes shrunk up are placed together in a lathe, and
they are fine-turned to receive the jacket.

The half-formed gun being placed standing on its muzzle
in the shrinking pit, the jacket is heated and shrunk on, and
allowed to cool naturally, a jet of water playing up the bore
to keep the interior cool.

The cascable is next screwed in, an operation which it may
be imagined requires great care, for the front of it must bear
evenly against the end of the steel barrel. One round of thread
is turned off the end of the cascable, so that there may be
an annular space there, which in connection with a channel now
cut along the cascable and across the thread, will form a gas-
escape or tell-tale hole in case the steel barrel should split at the
end. Various finishing processes are next proceeded with pre-
vious to proof, which we need only enumerate, viz., fine-boring,
second rough cutting of chamber, finished boring, broaching of
bore and finishing chamber, lapping, rifling, and temporary
venting. The manufacture of the higher natures of guns are
on the same principle, and the only difference is in having
extra coils. All guns are minutely examined before proof,
and gutta-percha impressions are taken of the whole length
of the bore in four quarters. The bore of all guns of g-inch
calibre and upwards is also accurately gauged every 3 inches.
The proof is based on the highest charge which the gun will
fire on service, viz., two rounds of 14, the highest battering
charge and service projectiles; this will not improbably be
altered to the highest service charge with heavier projectiles.
After proof the guns are again tested by the water being
pumped at high pressure into the bore, and gutta-percha im-
pressions again taken and the bores gauged. If there should be
any doubt about a slight defect the gun is again subjected to five
more rounds, and if after that the defect does not appear to
increase the gun is passed.

The last chapter treats of the important duties of examining,
testing, and preserving guns, &c., as to their defects and
repairs, &c.

Finally, in a valuable Appendix, are given range tables and
fuze scales and other useful information.

We can only conclude by remarking that nothing could be
more opportune at the present time than the appearance of this
compendious and satisfactory text-book.

1872.] Notices of Books. 367

The Law of the Winds Prevailing in Western Europe. By W.
CLEMENT Ley. With Charts, Diagrams, &c. Part I.
London: Edward Stanford. 1872.

Tuis work is the first instalment of what promises to be a very
useful record of the main lines pursued by storms in their
courses about our own islands, and some of the neighbouring
countries. Whilst recording with care observations actually
made, both of barometric change and of direction of wind, Mr.
Ley attempts to classify the results, and we think with great
success; still he himself points out that much more observation
is requisite, and the combined efforts of many interested
observers are required before much accurate scientific knowledge
can be said to have been collected. We wish him and his fellow
labourers all success, and we are quite sure that the carefully-
prepared diagrams and the systematic character of the records
in this work will greatly facilitate the labours of future observers.
The description of the origin of circular motion in winds is
most clear and luminous, and is capable of being understood by
a mere child.

Observations of Comets, from B.c. 611 to A.D. 1640, extracted from
the Chinese Annals. ‘Translated with introductory remarks
and an Appendix comprising the Tables necessary for re-
ducing Chinese time to Euoropean reckoning; and a
Celestial Atlas. By JoHNn Wittiams, F.S.A., Assistant-
Secretary of the Roya: Astronomical Society, &c., &c.

London: printed for the Author. 1871.

Mr. Wittiams has done useful work which required a rather
peculiar combination of acquirements. It is not many persons
who unite a competent knowledge of the Chinese language with
an acquaintance with the latest discoveries in astronomy. The
work before us is the result, however, of such a combination,
and we must thank the author for having undertaken a work
requiring so much labour, and necessarily leading neither to
profit nor renown. To the few persons who will make use of
the lists here given, and they will naturally be few, this work is
invaluable, and they will no doubt feel doubly grateful and
assured of the accuracy of what is thus prepared for them, as
the author furnishes them with the means of testing his accuracy
and of going over the ground after him. The Chinese mode of
reckoning time from the earliest epoch of the present day is
described, and the divisions of the heavens among the same
people are fully explained. The labour of explaining all this in
a manner intelligible to those previously unacquainted with
sinology, of copying, translating, and explaining a great quantity
of Chinese records, must have been immense, and the reward is

368 Notices of Books. [July,

that the present work may become a work of reference for those
who may be investigating the paths of comets as in future time
they may appear to us.

Geology of Oxford and the Valley of the Thames. By Joun
Puitiurps, M.A., F.R.S., &c. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
1871.

THE work before us, the excellency of which is attested by the
name on the title-page, is calculated from its extremely practical
nature to do more for the study of geology than any amount of
scientific manuals. ‘To a young man whose mind is opening
as minds do open when they are first thrown amidst the new
intellectual arena to be found in a University town, a book like
this may be of inestimable value. We cannot imagine a present
more likely to influence for good the future career of a young
man for the first time going up to Oxford than one which should
give a purpose to his leisure hours, lead him to notice the world
around him, and supply a purpose to the time devoted to recreation
and to exercise. Such is Professor Phillips’s book. From the
Malvern and Gloucestershire hills to the Reculver; from gneiss .
and granite to the alluvium of the Essex marshes; from Cam-
brian fossils to bronze celts, the river which more than any other
contributes to the commercial superiority of England lays open
to the willing student pages upon which are written the history
of the great world of nature in a style less difficult to master
than the involved sentences of Thucydides, and in a continuous
history in which there is no fear of finding more of myth than
of fact. We shall hope to see the student, who in the morning
plods through the difficulties of the Greek historian, the legends
of the Latin chronicler, and the arguments of Greek philosophers,
obeying the impulses he receives from our English Bacon, going
forth to gain air and exercise, not to a mere bodily athleticism,
but, under the guidance of another professor, studying the stone
quarries of the neighbouring country, watching the flowing of
the water, and collecting day by day evidences of the changes
in what now is a river-basin, was more than,once a mighty
estuary, and has even formed the bed of a glacial sea. The
work of Professor Phillips is exhaustive. He traces the history
of those who have made the valley of the Thames their special
study; and when we remember that this begins with Tradescant
of the ‘‘ Physic Garden,” and includes Smith and Buckland, we
see that this is almost a history of English geologists. The
physical geography of the whole valley and its surrounding hills
is carefully treated with diagrams of the appearance of the
country submerged to various depths. The tributary rivers
receive a due share of attention, and are all traced to their source;
and then each geological period has a chapter to itself, in which

1872.} Notices of Books. 369

its various strata are described and localised, the fossils it
contains catalogued and delineated, and the theories derivable
therefrom remarked and discussed. In one chapter the changes
of the earth’s surface from upward and downward movement,
from the wearing away of rivers, and from the deposit of floods,
is exemplified from this one typical river-basin. Finally, a single
chapter discusses the economical questions of the amount and
quality of the supply of coal, iron, brick and pottery earth, ochre,
Fuller’s earth, glass, sand, and last, not least, water.

In this way does the Oxford Professor both inculcate the
theory ard show by practice that observation is necessary to the
foundation of this science; that geology is a philosophical study
branching off into many kindred sciences, and that it has a
practical value for chemist, agriculturist, miner, metallurgist,
and engineer; and like every other branch of natural science, it
leads from phenomena which our senses can observe to dis-
coveries useful to man in every career. é

Volcanos, the Character of their Phenomena, their share in the
Structure and Composition of the Surface of the Globe, and
their Relation to its Internal Forces. With a Descriptive
Catalogue of all known Volcanos and Volcanic Formations.
By G. Poutett Scropr, F.R.S., &c. Second Edition, with
Prefatory Remarks, and a List of recent Earthquakes and
Eruptions, &c. London: Longmans. 1872.

WE notice the second edition of this exhaustive work on
Volcanos, both because it is a long time, thirty-seven years, since
the first edition was published, and also because some con-
siderable additions have been made in the present issue. The
list of recent eruptions extends from 1860 to the end of August,
1871, and includes those disturbances which are not mentioned in
the body of the work nor in the catalogue of existing volcanos. This
makes the information rather scattered, and any one who wishes
to become possessed of the whole history of a particular
mountain, after he has read the account in the first Appendix,
has to search through the list in the second for the records of
subsequent eruptions. The other new objects discussed are the
igneous fluidity of the interior of the globe, the true character
of lavas, the coincidence of volcanic and atmospheric dis-
turbance and tidal action, the foliation of the (so-called)
metamorphic crystalline rocks, and the ratio of development of
subterranean forces. In the first case our author decides against
internal fluidity, and in favour of the origin of disturbance at
comparatively small depths. He is inclined to think that lavas
in their most molten condition are not homogeneous masses,
but include most of the crystals to be afterwards found in them
in a state of mechanical mixture in their more fluid materials,

VOL.. El.. (N-S:) 3B

370 Notices of Books. (July,

and that their fluidity is attributable to a certain extent to the
presence of interstitial water. The difference of barometric
pressure is adduced as one cause among others of the variation
of eruptive activity, since the boiling-point of water, which takes
such a large share in these phenomena, is in this way changed.
There appears to be no evidence in favour of greater activity of
volcanos in former ages than at present, though their action at
no time has been regular, rhythmical, or capable of being reduced
to an average. Our author therefore sides rather with the
Uniformitarians than with the Evolutionists, and he even goes
so far as to see no geological reason that would point to a gradual
cooling down of the planet.

Reports on Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse of December 22,
1870. Conducted under the Direction of Rear-Admiral B. F.
Sanps, U.S.N., &c. Washington: Government Printing
Office. 1871.

WE may without offence hope that the United States Navy may
never be worse employed than it was in the case of the expedition
of which the Report is now before us. The claims of hospitality
to the scientific men from the other side of the Atlantic, for
which several of the writers in this volume make grateful
acknowledgments, we shall ever be willing to liquidate: these
claims can never be so great that we shall not be anxious to
repay them with interest.

In the present volume we have the reports of the observations
of Professor Simon Newcombe, at Gibraltar; and Professors
Asaph Hall, Wiliam Harkness, and J. R. Eastman, at Syracuse;
and a letter from Capt. Tupman, of the Royal Marine Artillery,
accompanied by sketches. Professor Newcombe made his
observations from Buena Vista, a point about midway between
Europa Point and the town of Gibraltar, and about twenty miles
from the line of central eclipse. He enjoyed a fairly clear sky
during the period of totality, but was disappointed in the
brilliancy of the corona.

Professor Hall was on one of the bastians of the town of
Syracuse. He paid most attention to the corona, and though,
as in the former case, previously the clouds had impeded the
view during totality, he was able to make the required obser-
vations. An adjoining spot was occupied by Professor Harkness,
whose observations were principally with the polariscope, and
with the assistance of Capt. Tupman he also used the spectroscope
to the corona. Professor Eastman was about forty yards from
the former party. With the assistance of his wife he intended
to make observations with a clinometer polariscope (on moon,
sky, and corona) and photometer; he was, however, unsuccessful
with the latter.

1872.] Notices of Books. 371

The whole of the reports are exceedingly interesting and well
worth reading, though in one or two places they betray by their
language their American origin.

A Vision of Creation. A Poem. By CuTHBERT COLLINGWooD,
M.A. and M.B., Oxon, &c. With an Introduction, Geolo-
gical and Critical. London: Longmans. 1872.

Ir is not our custom to review poetry, and even in this case we
shall have but little to say about the literary value of Mr. Col-
lingwood’s work; it is the geological introduction which induces
us to notice the poem. The key to the title will occur to every-
one who has read Hugh Miller’s ‘‘ Testimony of the Rocks.” A
seer such as existed among the Jews before the Prophets of later
date displaced them—a seer cf visions in a patriarchal age—
whether Moses himself or some earlier worthy, is left undecided,
is visited by a heavenly messenger, who is commissioned to
communicate to him the mysteries of the origin of the universe,
but who first draws his attention to the physical phenomena
surrounding him, and describes how man shall in after ages
learn for himself from the records around him how the world
came into existence. This angelic being then conveys the seer
to a desolate region, and presents to his eyes visions of the early
condition of the world when emerging from its primeval
chaos into the full perfection of its present condition, and these
visions are accompanied with an explanation of the events as
they take place. The words of the Book of Genesis are used as
an outline, which is filled in by the light of modern science.
Thus the beginning is made to answer to the period anterior to
all geological record and to be suggestive of the Nebular
Hypothesis. ‘The earth, ‘‘ without form and void,” corresponds
to the Azoic age of igneous rocks. This state of chaos
the seer describes as “a world, yet not a world,” for which
the Greek is given, and a reference is added to Genesis i., 2.,
leading one to suppose that this is the Septuagint version
of that verse, which is misleading. The creation of light
is made simultaneous with the so-called metamorphic rocks
of the Laurentian and Cambrian series. The first appearance
ofa firmament or atmosphere is the period of the Silurian rocks
formed beneath a shallow sea of almost universal extent. The
appearance of dry land characterises the Devonian period, in
which the old red sandstone produces mosses, &c., whilst vege-
tation of marked type, both ‘‘ herb” and ‘ fruit-tree,” have left
their record in the carboniferous strata. The appearance of sun
and moon, already created, but until now hidden by dense mists,
denote the introduction of a new era, and the new red sandstone
accordingly marks the beginning of the secondary rocks, and
lies between the vegetation and the reptiles of the next age.

372 Notices of Books. [July,

These are the ‘‘sea monsters,” “‘the moving creature that hath
life,” the huge Saurians of the Lias and Oolite. The ‘ fowl” in
the expanse of heaven are first found in the Upper Oolite, but it
is scarcely so clear as the author would make out that the birds
were numerous in the period of the chalk. Perhaps we should
scarcely look for the remains of birds at the bottom of a deep sea,
and we hardly know what may have been the contemporaneous
land. ‘The sixth day describes in the Meiocene times the crea-
tion the huge mammals of the pachydermatous genus, whilst
man follows all in a period still antecedent to the present
‘seventh day,” in which the present order of things continues
mostly unchanged under a reign of law. All this is told plea-
santly in flowing blank verse, which rather weakly challenges
comparison with Milton.

Dr. Pereiva’s Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics.
Abridged and Adapted for the Use of Medical and Pharma-
ceutical Practitioners and Students, and Comprising all the
Medicines of the British Pharmacopceia, with such others
as are Frequently Ordered in Prescriptions or Required by
the Physician. Edited by Robert Bent ey, M.R.C.S.,
F.L.S., and THEopHILUS REDWooD, Ph.D., F.C.S. London:
Longmans, Green, and Co.

Tuis abridgment of Dr. Pereira’s great work will be welcomed
both by medical and pharmaceutical students. The original
work, valuable as it was, contained much matter which was not
required by the student, and its great bulk rendered it too expen-
sive for many to possess it. In 1865, Dr. Farre, Professor
Bentley, and the late Robert Warington, prepared an abridgment
which came within the reach of all, and which was certainly a
most useful book, the appearance of the ‘ British Pharma-
copoeia,” however, and the rapid progress of the science of
Materia Medica, rendered another edition necessary, and we are
glad that its preparation was entrusted to such competent men
as Professors Bentley and Redwood. The medicines described
comprise in addition to those of the ‘“ British Pharmacopeceia,”
many remedies frequently ordered by medical practitioners, and
more space might with advantage have been allotted to some of
these remedies, the information in some instances being, we
think, insufficient for the student. The first part of the work is
devoted to the new system of chemical notation (the symbols
and atomic weights being given according to both the old and
new systems); a description of medicines derived from the
mineral kingdom and definite chemical compounds, organic as
well as inorganic, which are obtained as products of decomposi-
tion. The second part embraces medicines derived from the
vegetable kingdom, including bodies of definite chemical compo-

1872.] Notices of Books. 373

sition obtained as educts from vegetable substances, and here
the latest discoveries are introduced. In the third division a
description is given of medicines derived from the animal king-
dom, including bodies of definite chemical composition obtained
as educts from animal substances.

In studying Materia Medica much assistance is gained from
good illustrations. We remember well the good we derived in
our own studies from Stephenson and Churchill’s valuable
work on ‘‘ Medical Botany ;” but as this work is far too scarce
for many students to possess a copy, we shall be glad, in a
future edition of the work before us, to see engravings of all the
more important plants, &c., instead of so many references to plates
in scarce or expensive works on Medical Botany, which, in most
cases can only be consulted at the Pharmaceutical or Medical
Libraries.

This abridgment of Dr. Pereira’s excellent work reflects the
greatest credit on its Editors, and we commend it to the student
of medicine and pharmacy as a necessary companion when
preparing for examination.

Official Handbook to the Marine Aquarium of the Crystal Palace
Aquarium Company. By W. A. Luoyp, Superintendent of
the Aquarium. Second Edition. 1872. Pp. 64.

Ir is not often that the guide book of a public exhibition comes

under the notice of the reviewer, such publications in the

majority of instances being mere catalogues, and but rarely pos-

sessing any scientific interest. The present little book is, how-

ever, an agreeable exception.

After explaining the arrangement and general contents of the
thirty-eight tanks comprised in the public portion of the aqua-
rium, the author devotes twenty-nine pages to the history of the
Marine Aquarium. Among the earliest notices is the following
quaint extract from Pepys’s Diary :—‘‘ Thence to see my Lady
Pen, where my wife and I were shown a fine rarity; of fishes
kept in a glass of water, that will live so for ever—and finely
marked they are being foreign.” The experiments of Madame
Power, the late Dr. N. B. Ward, Dr. George Johnston, and
Sir John Graham Dalyell, are described. These are followed
by an account of the first entirely successful marine aquaria,
the simultaneous results of the trials of the late Robert
Warington and Mr. P. H. Gosse, F.R.S. Then follows an
account of the various public aquaria, commencing with that of
the Zoological Society, and describing most of those at home
and on the Continent. The principles necessary to the main-
tenance of unchanged sea-water in a condition fit for the
support of animal life are discussed at some length, and a
detailed account given of the contrivances employed at the

374 Notices of Books. [July,

Crystal Palace. Mr. Lloyd justly places the greatest reliance on
constant circulation of the sea-water in the tanks; this is
effected by a steam engine and suitable pump, both in duplicate
to provide for accidents, capable of forcing from 5000 to 7000
gallons per hour through the range of tanks.

Nearly the whole of the pipes, strainers, and other apparatus,
including the pumps, are made of vulcanite, which has been
found effectually to resist the action of sea-water, the only
exception being some of the larger pipes, which are of stone-
ware.

Pages 38 to 64 are devoted to a brief and popular, but by
no means unscientific, account of the various animals kept in the
tanks. These are arranged according to their classes. Many
interesting facts relating to the habits of these creatures are
here given, much of which is derived from the author’s personal
experience in aquaria both at home and abroad.

The publication of this little work is a step in the right
direction, and Mr. Lloyd is to be congratulated on having pro-
duced a guide quite equal in its own department to the admirable
ones of the Royal Gardens and Museums at Kew.

Astronomy and Geology Compared. By Lorp ORMATHWAITE.
London: John Murray. 1872.

The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. By
CHARLES Darwin, M.A., F.R.S., &c. Sixth Edition, with
Additions and Corrections. Eleventh Thousand. London:
John Murray. 1872.

Man in the Past, Present, and Future. From the German of
Dr. L. Bichner.. By W. S. Dattas, F.L.S. London:
Asher and Co. 1872.

Tue title of Lord Ormathwaite’s work is that of the first Essay,
in which the evidence afforded by Astronomy and Geology are
compared with the view to ascertain the value of that of the
latter science. The third Essay treats of progress and civilisa-
tion. The author’s thoughts are throughout clearly expressed ;
and there is little need to tell the reader that under the
affliction of extreme dimness of sight an amanuensis has been
employed. The second Essay entitled, ‘‘ Remarks on the
Theories of Mr. Darwin and Mr. Buckle,” gives the points on
which Lord Ormathwaite is at issue with Mr. Darwin,
Mr. Buckle receiving but little consideration. Strangely, one of
the chief objections to Mr. Darwin’s theory is answered by
an addition to ‘“‘ The Origin of Species” in the present edition,
both works being published at the same time. We quote the
reply, because the argument is one often advanced against the
theory of the mutability of species. ‘But as my conclusions
have lately been much misrepresented,” says Mr. Darwin, ‘‘ and

1872.] Notices of Books. 375).

it has been stated that I attribute the modification of species
exclusively to natural selection, I may be permitted to remark
that in the first edition of this work, and subsequently, I placed
in a most conspicuous position—namely, at the close of the
Introduction—the following words:—‘I am _ convinced that
natural selection has been the main but not the exclusive means
of modification.’ This has been of no avail. Great is the
power of steady misrepresentation ; but the history of science
shows that fortunately this power does not long endure, It can
hardly be supposed that a false theory would explain in so satis-
factory a manner as does the theory of natural selection the
several large classes of facts above specified. It has recently
been suggested that this is an unsafe method of arguing; but it
is a method used in judging of the common events of life, and
has often been used by the greatest natural philosophers. The
undulatory theory of light has thus been arrived at; and the
belief in the revolution of the earth on its own axis was until
lately supported by hardly any direct evidence. It is no valid
. objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher
problem of the essence or origin of life. Who can explain what
is the essence of the attraction of gravity? No one now objects
to following out-the results consequent on this unknown element
of attraction; notwithstanding that Liebnitz formerly accused
Newton of introducing ‘ occult qualities and miracles into philo-
sophy.’”’

I see no good reason why the views given in this volume
should shock the religious feelings of any one. It is satisfactory,
as showing how transient such impressions are, to remember
that the greatest discovery ever made by man, namely, the law
of the attraction of gravity, was also attacked by Leibnitz,
‘as subversive of natural, and inferentially of revealed
religion.” A celebrated author and divine has written to me
that ‘‘he has gradually learnt to see that it is just as noble
a conception of the Deity as to believe that He required a fresh
act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of His
laws.” This quotation not only answers Lord Ormathwaite’s
objection, but it also removes the obstacle to the reception of the
Darwinian theory by the most timorous in acknowledging the
advancement of scientific inquiry. It may be said to be the
chief addition, as it is that embodying the widest principle; the
remaining corrigenda relate to natural science particularly, and
are further evidence in support of the theory.

Dr. Bichner divides his work under three heads: ‘ Our
Origim;” “What are We?” ‘* Whitheriare we. Going?” In
considering the origin of man, the author very carefully brings
to the surface all the geological proofs of man’s antiquity, buried
to the general reader in almost inaccessible works. The method
of the arrangement is admirable. ‘‘ What are we?” cannot
strictly be said to follow the Darwinian theory of evolution,

376 Notices of Books. [July,

because Dr. Biichner’s lectures were delivered before Mr.
Darwin’s ‘‘ Descent of Man”’ was known in Germany; but the
following obtains in the superior evidence brought forward by
Mr. Darwin. Dr. Biichner has answered the preceding ques-
tions; but the next he proposes, ‘‘ Whither are we going ?”—
we must agree with his translator, Mr. W. S. Dallas, F.L.S., in
saying that we do not arrive at the same conclusions. Man,
Dr. Buchner, who is a thorough materialist, considers to be
immortal, to the extent that the living principle which animates
the material form is transmutable, and, following the doctrine of
the conservation of energy, is never removed from this world,
being absorbed by other, on the decay of the present material ;
thus it is form only that suffers change. From this basis it
would appear that man is to go on improving until the struggle
for the means of existence becomes a struggle for existence
itself, guided by a fully developed intellect. Then the author
proceeds to depict this mundane paradise, governed by a
republic, possessing no restrictions as to private property, the
restoration periodically of capital to the community. In spite of
this philosophical Hades to which we are to be consigned,
it is certainly comforting to know that we are not an animal
system to be developed by-and-bye into a yet more perfect
organisation; but that the advance we make in this present
life will benefit us when we become somebody or something else,
or a portion of several somebodies or somethings else. Seriously,
while admiring the logical continuity of the first sections of the
work, it must be said that the last portion is liable to cause the
condemnation by many of the entire work. So far from being
the opinion that the theory of evolution logically results in utter
materialism, Professor Huxley has just said in the “ Fortnightly
Review,” that ‘‘ personally he was not a materialist, but, on the
contrary, believed that materialism contained grave philosophic
error.” And Professor Huxley is not only a naturalist second to
none, but an enthusiastic advocate of Darwinism. We recom-
mend the books collectively and individually to our readers.

A Manual of Zoology for the Use of Students. With a General
Introduction on the Principles of Zoology. By H. ALLEYNE
Nicuotson, M.D., D.Sc., &c., Professor of Natural
History and Botany in University College, Toronto, &c.
Second Edition. Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood
and Sons. 1871.

OnLy six months ago we noticed the first edition of this work as
fulfilling a want in our series of text-books. That there were
many to whom this work has proved acceptable is evidenced by
the early issue of this second edition. The author has taken
advantage of the opportunity to make many additions, the plan of

1872.] Notices of Books. 377

classification still being based essentially upon the views put
forth by Professor Huxley. Every care has been taken to render
the work self-explanatory. An admirable glossary is appended ;
the book being, indeed, the best hand-book on the subject.

Introduction to the Study of Biology. By H. ALLEYNE
NicHorson, M.D:, D:Sc., M-A., Ph.D.; F.R:S.E.,-F.G.S.,
&c., Professor of Natural History and Botany in University
College, Toronto. Edinburgh and London: William Black-
wood and Sons. 1872.

Tuis little work is something more than a school-book. It is
based chiefly upon the Introduction to Dr. Nicholson’s ‘‘ Manual
of Zoology.” We commend it for the concise description of
the several biological theories, their errors and agreements.
The book is well enough bound to form a useful and a
handsome present.

The Earth’s Crust. A Handy Outline of Geology. By Davin
Pace, LL.D., F.G.S., Professor of Geology in the College
of Physical Science, Newcastle-on-Tyne— University of
Durham. Sixth Edition. Edinburgh and London: William
Blackwood and Sons. 1872.

Tus is another edition of Dr. Page’s Outline-sketch of Geology,
now sometime out of print. It forms one of Messrs. Black-
wood’s Natural Science Series; and is admirably suited to the
student attending elementary lectures on geology.

Science Primers. 1. Chemistry. By H. E. Roscoe, Professor
of Chemistry in Owen’s College, Manchester; Author of
“The Spectrum Analysis,” ‘* Lessons in Elementary
Chemistry,” &c. III. Physics. By BatFrour STEwart,
Professor of Natural Philosophy, Owen’s College, Man-
chester; Author of ‘‘ Elementary Lessons in Physics.”
London and New York: Macmillan and Co. 1872.

In publishing these elementary works on Chemistry and Physics,
“the object of the authors has been to state the fundamental
principles of their respective sciences in a manner suited to
pupils of an early age.” Notwithstanding the difficulty of
describing in simple language experiments really scientific in
their nature, we need scarcely say Professors Roscoe and Stewart
have been eminently successful. They have accomplished their
object in a manner new to elementary treatises, that of teaching
by direct experiment. Nothing is advanced in either of these
little works that is not proved by a simple experiment. It ought
WOL. I1.. (N-S.) 20€

378 Notices of Books. [July,

to be said that the teaching follows the experiment, the young
pupils accompanying the teacher as assistants in the exploration
of the truths concealed by Nature. Chemistry and Physics in
the Science Primers are taught, certainly as they ought to be,
not as mathematical demonstrations, but as experimental sciences.
We do not hesitate to say that a Science Primer will soon be
found in every satchel. But these little books can be viewed in
another light: they show that the method of instruction, scientific
more particularly, pursued by a Continental nation celebrated
for its technical training, is being followed and improved upon by
our own schools. We may thus regard them as signs of pro-
longed national success.

An Elementary Treatise on Curve Tracing. By Percivat Frost,
M.A., Formerly Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge ;
Mathematical Lecturer of King’s College. London: Mac-
millan and Co. 1872.

Tus treatise requires, for its successful reading, only a slight
familiarity with the higher branches of algebra, and is, indeed, an
intellectual pleasure-ground for the student of moderate mathe-
matical attainments. The arrangement is in well-ordered
sequence.

A Treatise on the Theory of Friction. By Joun H. JELLeETT,
B.D., Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin; President
of the Royal Irish Academy. London: Macmillan and Co.
Dublin: Hodges and Co. 1872.

Mr. JELLETT has been the first to remove the theory of friction
from the trammels to which it was subject as a department of
applied mechanics, and to give it a new standing purely mathe-
matical. Such an endeavour is worthy of the highest encomium,
because we derive not only a subject rich in material for mental
labour, but are likely to arrive at improved construction of
mechanical appliances. It might be said to be an ascent from
rule to principle. To the mathematician, as well as to the
engineer, this work will be of the highest interest.

A New Star Atlas for the Library, the School, and the
Observatory. By RicHarp A. Proctor, B.A. Camb.,
F.R.A.S.; Author of “The Sun,” ‘“ Other Worlds than
Ours,” &c. London: Longmans and Co. 1872.

Mr. Procror quotes on his title-page the exclamation of Carlyle,
‘‘ Why did not somebody teach me the constellations, and make
me at home in the starry heavens, which are always overhead,
and which I don’t half know to this day?” How many before

1872.] Notices of Books. 379

and since these words were penned have had occur to them
the self-same thought, have desired a familiar acquaintance
individually, as it were, with the members of that celestial
system which, as far as we can tell, suffers no decay, and which
is the most approximate symbol of eternity. Had the exclama-
tion been uttered now, it is only due to Mr. Proétor to say that it
would have lost its point, for most worthily has he filled the post
of the “‘ somebody” so pathetically lamented by Carlyle. Anyone
who can understand a map can use Mr. Proctor’s little Atlas.
There are twelve maps, each exhibiting a tenth part of the
heavens. No pains have been spared to clear the maps of all
which could cause confusion to the beginner ; but this has been
done in such a way that the more advanced student will find
nothing wanting. We cannot enter into detail here; but those
accustomed to the use of astronomical maps will admit the
clearness of this Atlas when we say that a and 6 Andromede are
separate 1°25 inches. Not the least interesting portion of the
book to the general reader will be that devoted to the cursory
consideration of the errors some even of our most popular writers
have fallen into when describing a scene under a starry sky.
The work is intended as a companion to Webb’s “ Celestial
Objects for Common Telescopes,” and is, in fact, an epitome
of Mr. Proctor’s Large Star Atlas, so well known to telescopists.
We hope we may soon have to notice a second edition.

Theory of Heat. By J. CLERK Maxwe tu, M.A., LL.D. Edin.,
F.R.SS. L. & E., Professor of Experimental Physics in the
University of Cambridge. London: Longmans and Co.,
BOZL. 312° pp. Svo.

Technical Arithmetic and Mensuration. By CuHarLtes W.
MERRIFIELD, F.R.S., Barrister-at-Law, Principal of the
Royal School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineer-
ing, late an Examiner in the Department of Public Education,
&c. London: Longmans and Co., 1872. 308 pp., 8vo.

THESE volumes are two of the admirable series of text-books of
science, edited by Professor Goodeve, and published by Messrs.
Longmans. Perhaps no other series of elementary works can
show so many names of eminent men. We take them in the
order of publication, and have to notice first Professor Clerk
Maxwell’s treatise on the theory of heat. The opening chapters
are devoted to thermometry, calorimetry, and elementary dyna-
mical principles. Then, upon this basis, Dr. Maxwell proceeds
to lay before the student a perfectly systematised and simple
explanation of the difficulties likely to be encountered in pursuing
the study of the present theory of heat. There are necessarily
some mathematical formule introduced into the work, but these
are of the simplest kind, and present not the slightest obstacle

380 Notices of Books. [July,

even to an ordinary reader. The work is turned out with the
neatness characteristic of extreme care and of a knowledge of
the subject intimate in the highest degree.

The next volume we have the pleasure to notice is that by Mr.
Merrifield, the subject being the eminently useful one of technical
arithmetic. Technical arithmetic has been, till within the last
few years, a very misty affair, the operations being carried on
mostly by rule of thumb. ‘This has decidedly not been for the
want of published works on the subject, but arises simply from
continually treading the same path—rules not principles have
been inculcated. Mr. Merrifield reverses the order of things,
and teaches principles, leaving the deduction of rules to follow
in course. Nowhere is this more evident than in the extraction
of roots, a simple formula for the uth root being given, and which
can be easily remembered. Be it in the treatment of contracted
methods of working the ordinary rules, or in elucidating the
principles of solids of revolution, the arithmetic is the best we
have seen.

Natural Philosophy for General Readers and Young Persons.
Translated and Edited from Ganot’s ‘“‘Cours Elémentaire de
Physique.” By E. Atkinson, Ph.D., F.C.S., Professor of
Experimental Science in the Staff College. London:
Longmans and Co. 1872.

Dr. ATKINSON’s translation of Ganot’s ‘‘Eléments de Physique,”
the fifth edition of which we recently noticed, is better suited to
more advanced pupils, who are capable of mastering the mathe-
matical formule it contains. The present work is elementary
and abridged of all matter likely to prove too difficult for the
junior student. It must be understood that it is not a smaller
edition of the ‘‘ Elementary Treatise on Physics,” but a transla-
tion of Ganot’s ‘‘Cours Elémentaire de Physique,” a text-book
very extensively circulated in France. Dr. Atkinson has made
many additions, and at all times very happily. The illustrations
are highly praiseworthy ; they are far from resembling the linear
sketches with which many of our school-books are disfigured,
and, indeed, in some instances, are pretty little views. The
letterpress is clear. The work is well calculated to take its stand
as a text-book of physics for the middle and upper classes of
boys’ and of girls’ schools, and as a familiar account of physical
phenomena and laws for the general reader. It will form an
admirable hand-book for students studying to matriculate in the
London University.

A Manual of Chemical Physiology, including its Points of Contact
with Pathology. ByJ.L.W.TxHupicnum, M.D. London:
Longmans and Co. 1872.

In Dr. Thudichum’s experience as a teacher, the printed notes

to his ‘Researches Intended to Promote an Improved Chemical

—_

1872.] Notices of Books. 381

Identification of Diseases,’ published in several numbers of the
annual ‘Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council,”
have proved so useful that he has been tempted to submit them
to the public. The manual is a complete epitome of physiological
or animal chemistry, revised to the latest date; and is well adapted
to the requirements of the medical student preparing to meet the
examining board. A second part of the work is an analytical
guide, devoted to the assistance of those who desire to make
themselves practically acquainted with the phenomena and con-
stituents of animal bodies. The work is systematically arranged
throughout, and is well illustrated with engravings of the various
absorption spectra.

Elements of Chemistry : Theoretical and Practical. By WiLvtam
ALLEN Miter, M.D., D.C.L., LL.D., late Professor of
Chemistry in King’s College, London. Revised by HERBERT
McLeop, F.C.S., Professor of Experimental Science, Indian
Civil Engineering College, Cooper’s Hill. Part I. Chemical
Physics. Fifth Edition, with Additions. London: Longmans
and Co. 1872.

Tue call for a new edition of Dr. Miller’s ‘‘ Elements of Che-
mistry ’’ so soon after the lamented death of the illustrious author
is a proof, if any were needed, of the extensive circulation of the
work. The additions made by Professor McLeod are chiefly
from the Transactions of the learned Societies, and are most
carefully selected. In gas-analysis, and many other departments
of experimental science, Mr. McLeod is himself a high authority,
so that numerous little difficulties are smoothed away. This
edition is exceedingly complete.

The Discovery of a New World of Being. By GEorGE THomson.
London: Longmans and Co. 1871.

THIS is a most surprising work. One is surprised at the first
few lines, and afterwards at one-self for being surprised. With
the familiarity of an old acquaintance—for there is no preface or
introduction—Mr. Thomson commences to address the reader
thus :—‘‘In the year 1862 the author commenced to write a
series of essays on the Human Mind. Being then unacquainted
with the systems either of ancient orof modern philosophy . . .”
Just what many are so fond of doing—sitting down to write
about a matter of which they know, and have taken the trouble
to ascertain, nothing. But then the reader and Mr. Thomson
are such old acquaintances—sufficient reason that the reader
should be button-holed until the author says, in the last page but
one of the book, ‘‘ We must explain what, and how much, we

382 Notices of Books. [July,.

mean, by entitling this essay—The Discovery of a New World
of Being.” Surely very little more need be said. If the author
could explain his discovery in a page, why does he talk for
nearly three hundred? But this is but an additional proof how
much is needed an essay on the limits of the use of the imagina-
tion. ‘All the faculties of the mind,” says Mr. Thomson, “ are
only a series of flashes of the imagination.” What will next be
foisted upon the imagination, that convenient vantage-ground
for all that is inexplicable. If the use of the imagination is to
preclude good logic, and the ordinary courtesies due to the
reader, there will not long be many in its favour. There is,
however, some recommendation due to the work; Mr. Thomson
has a delicate appreciation of the beauties of our religion.

New Theory of the Figure of the Earth. By Wituiam OcIzsy,
MAL, Trin. Coll. Camb, F.G.S:, F.Z:S., &c) ondone
Longmans and Co. 1872.

Tue author of this brochure presents a new theory of the figure
of the earth, considered as a solid of revolution, founded upon
the direct employment of the centrifugal force, instead of the
common principles of attraction and variable density. Mr.
Ogilby thinks mathematicians have not yet succeeded in solving
the problem of the figure of the earth, and that they depend too
much upon algebraic analysis when reasoning upon physical
subjects. He says—‘‘It is high time that mathematicians
should moderate these unwarrantable pretensions (the omnipo-
tence of analysis to the exclusion of all other modes of philoso-
phical reasoning), understand that the laws of Nature do not
depend on the integration of a differential coefficient, or the
solution of a transcendental equation, and learn that there are
more secrets in Nature than are comprised in the analytical

Shibpelediee 2
dt?

The purpose is to deprecate the abuse, not the use, of the
science of mathematics, but ‘‘to employ it, according to the
recommendation of Bacon, and in imitation of Newton, not as
the mistress, but as the handmaid, of physics,—not as the
maker of the laws of Nature, but as their humble interpreter.”
With this view Mr. Ogilby sets out, making no hypothesis of any
description, nor requiring other data than those which are fur-
nished by observation and experience. Starting from the
admitted phenomenon that the earth is a heterogeneous solid,
whose mean density, magnitude, and periodic rotation are
known quantities, the author proceeds to examine the action of
centrifugal force in producing its present figure, determining
the law of gravity at its surface, the variation of curvature, the
length of the terrestrial axis, and the change of local ellipticity

1872.) Notices of Books. 383

at every point of the surface. The results obtained are de-
finite, and we commend them to the notice of our mathematical
readers.

Index of Spectra. By Wititam Marsnatt Watts, D.Sc.,
Senior Physical Science Master in the Manchester Grammar
School. With a Preface by H. E. Roscoz, B.A., Ph.D.,
F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in Owen’s College, Man-
chester. London: Henry Gillman. 1872.

Dr. Roscog, in the preface, alludes to the inconvenience arising
from the employment of different scales in mapping spectra.
Spectroscopists generally will agree with him. Nothing is more
annoying than to find, after collecting the measurements scat-
tered through many volumes, that before the measures are com-
parable they must be reduced to a common standard. This
difficulty will no longer exist. Dr. Watts has much facilitated
spectroscopic research, by collecting all existing measurements
of the spectra of the elements, and presenting them on a uniform
scale of wave-lengths, upon the basis of Angstrém’s measure-
ments of the wave-lengths of the principal Fraiinhofer lines.
This basis is without doubt the most accurate, for Angstrém’s
measurements are so very exact that it is unlikely that any cor-
rections which may be rendered necessary by new and more
exact measurements will affect them, except in the decimal
place. Besides Angstrém’s numbers, however, Dr. Watts gives
those obtained by Fraiinhofer, Ditscheiner, Bernard, Van de
Wiliigen, Mascart, and Esselbach. Of course we have the
mapping of the spectra of the elements by Huggins, Thalén,
and Kirchhoff; and where these three savants have not endorsed
the examination of the spectrum, in each case reference is made
to the original memoir. Mascart, Ketteler, and Miller’s num-
bers were obtained by direct observation of the diffraction
spectra. The measurements for chlorine, bromine, iodine, phos-
phorus, sulphur, selenium, nitrogen, and oxygen, are those by
Plicker, and are reduced to wave- ‘lengths by means of an inter-
polation curve drawn from the lines of oxygen and nitrogen.
The measurements and calculations have been verified, as eS as
possible, by Dr. Watts, upon his own spectroscope, while
twenty-eight of the results are checked by comparison with those
of Dr. Gibbs. The numerical results are well assisted by the
graphic illustrations, in which, on Bunsen’s plan, the intensity
of the line is indicated by the height. A complete set of chromo-
lithographs, of the double spectra of nitrogen, sulphur, and
carbon, is appended. Besides the method of graphic interpola-
tion, Dr. Gibbs’s interpolation and extrapolation formule have
been given, with simple and clearly-explained examples. We
are sure that every spectroscopist will agree with us when we
say, sincerely is Dr. Watts to be thanked for the laborious task

384 Notices of Books. [July,

he has undertaken. His work needs no recommendation ; it will
be, if it has not already been, placed on the shelves of every
scientific library. It should be known that the scale of wave-
lengths adopted is applicable to spectroscopes of all sizes; there
is consequently no difficulty in its universal application.

Index to Gmelin’s Handbook of Chemistry. By Henry Watts,
B.A., F.R.S., F.C.S., Editor of the ‘“‘Journal of the Chemical
Society.” London: Harrison. 1872.

THE last volume of this important chemical work has now been
offered to the public. To chemists, and to all interested in
chemical manufactures, the value of Gmelin’s ‘“‘ Handbook” is
incomparable ; and it is due to us to make known to those
intending to complete the set of these volumes that the earlier
volumes are becoming scarce, and that early application will be
needed to possess those remaining. Subscribers who have paid
their subscription for the year 1864 will have forwarded to them
the Index and the concluding (eighteenth) volume. The Index
is very copious, reference being made to volume and page.
Every subject is included under as many heads as possible. It
is entirely unnecessary to recommend the work.

The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art. By Joun Timps,
Author of ‘‘ Curiosities of Science,” &c. London: Lockwood
and Co. 1872.

Tuis is a well-arranged digest of the most important discoveries
and improvements of the past year. The title-page is faced with
a clear engraving from a photograph of Sir W. Thomson, F.R.S.

Elementary Natural Philosophy. Being a Course of Nine
Lectures, specially adapted for the use of Schools and
Junior Students. By J. Ciirron Warp, F.G.S., Associate
of the Royal School of Mines; of Her Majesty’s Geological
Survey. London: Triibner and Co. 1871. 215 pp., 8vo.

Tuis little book is evidently intended to serve a double purpose,
as a handbook for the very young student, and as an aid to the
schoolmaster who may wish to introduce the study of elementary
physics into his curriculum. It contains the latest experiments
likely to answer the end in view. The work is altogether very
praiseworthy.

1872.] ( 385 )

PROGRESS IN SCIENCE.

MINING.

Ir has often been remarked that the occurrence of colliery explosions is
closely connected with certain states of the weather. A valuable paper on
this subject has been read before the Royal Society by Mr. R. H. Scott, F.R.S.,
the Director of the Meteorological Office, and Mr. W. Galloway. After
reviewing the evidence bearing upon this subject, the authors conclude that
We are quite justified in maintaining that certain meteorological changes are
proximately the cause of most of the accidents in our coal mines. The con-
tinuous records kept at Stonyhurst Observatory furnished the meteorological
data used in this enquiry. Curves for the barometer and thermometer were
plotted for the three years extending from 1868 to 1870, while records of the
colliery explosions during the same period were obtained from the Government
Inspectors, either directly or from their published reports. On comparing the
actual dates of the explosions with the corresponding meteorological records,
it was found that out of 550 explosions 266 might be attributed to the state of
the barometer, and 123 to that of the thermometer, while the remaining 161
remained unaccounted for on meteorological grounds. In other words, exacly
70 per cent of the explosions were directly related to meteorological influences.
Some of the authors’ conclusions are of much practical value. Thus, they
show that we must not always expect an accident to follow immediately after
a fall of the barometer, but that in many cases explosions have not occurred
until two or three days after the barometric column had reached its
minimum. It appears that during violent oscillations of the barometer the
number of explosions does not correspond to the number of minima, but the
greatest number of accidents occur when a serious break follows a long period
of fair weather. Elevation of temperature must, of course, greatly interfere
with the natural ventilation of a colliery ; and hence, if a warm day occur ina
cold season, when natural ventilation is relied upon, it is very likely to be
followed by an explosion. For a like reason, the first hot days of spring are
too often marked by colliery accidents. -

A paper on increased safety in working coal was read by Mr. S. Firth,
M.A., at a recent meeting of the Midland Institute of Mining Engineers. By
carefully comparing the dangers incident to the present sy stems of w orking by
“bord and pillar” and by ‘“ long wall,” the author concludes that the latter is
by far the safer method. But although advantageous in many respects, the
long-wall system exposes the collier to considerable danger from falls of the
toof, from falls of coal, and from the use of gunpowder. Now, Mr. Firth
argues that these sources of peril may be almost entirely removed if coal- ‘
cutting machinery be employed in connection with long-wall work: the miner
is then no longer exposed to danger by falls of coal, the roof is much safer,
and no powder is required. Hence the author advocates the adoption of the
long-wall system coupled with the use of coal-cutting machinery, and believes
that the danger of colliery work will then be limited to such items as could be
readily held in check by strié attention to the Government rules. To use the
author’s words, it may thus become “possible for miners to work and win
coal without the operation being a perpetual fight for life.”

To encourage inventors in improving coal-cutting machinery, Mr. Firth has
liberally offered a prize of £500 for the machine which shall be best adapted
for general use in coal and ironstone mines, and shall reduce manual labour
toa minimum. The machines entered for competition are to work with com-
pressed air supplied at a pressure of 50 lbs. to the square inch. It is hoped
that this stimulus will lead to great improvements in coal-cutting machines,

VOL. Il. (N.S.) ' 3D

386 Progress in Science. (July,

and that the miner will thus eventually be relieved of one of the most
fatiguing and dangerous branches of his work.

An improved form of safety-lamp, which appears to offer considerable
advantages, has been constructed by Mr. H. D. Plimsoll. At the base of the
lamp is an air-chamber in form of a truncated cone, the upper rim of which
closely surrounds the wick of the lamp. The bulk of this cone is occupied by
the oil-reservoir, and the space between the outside of this vessel and the
inner wall of the conical cavity is reduced to a width of about one-eighth of
aninch. Air is admitted to this chamber through very minute orifices in a
metal plate, and passes through the narrow space to the wick. The brilliant
light thus obtained is not dimmed by any cage of wire-gauze, for the flame is
merely surrounded by a cylinder of thick glass. Should any fire-damp enter
the lamp, the quantity is said to be too small to break the glass by its explo-
sion. The flame cannot be communicated to the exterior, as it is cooled
down by the metal walls of the narrow air-chamber, while the explosion inside
the lamp at once extinguishes the flame, and thus prevents the lamp becoming
red-hot. If the air be very dangerous, Mr. Plimsoll cuts off all communication
with the outside, and connects the air-chamber of his lamp with a reservoir of
pure air, and as soon as this supply is exhausted the lamp is necessarily
extinguished. As the light is brilliant there is not much temptation for the
miner to unscrew the top; but should he do so, a self-extinguishing arrange-
ment comes into play and effeually thwarts his obje@.

Air-compressing machinery has of late been very successfully applied to
underground haulage and ventilation at the Ryhope Colliery, in Durham; and
a valuable description of the machinery, by Mr. W. N. Taylor, has been pub-
lished, with ample illustrations, in a recent number of the ‘* Transactions of
the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers.” The moving power is
a 150 horse-power steam-engine, with two horizontal cylinders, each 32 inches
in diameter, and having a 5-foot stroke. This engine is placed at the surface,
and works two air-compressing cylinders, each 33 inches in diameter, with a
stroke of 5 feet, dire@ly connected with the piston-rods of the steam-cylinders.
The air, after passing through four receivers, is finally conveyed to a double
hauling engine with two cylinders, 14 inches in diameter, and working with a
stroke of 18 inches. This engine is placed underground, and effects the
haulage by means of a rope-drum with spur-gear. A large and economical
power is thus available underground, and can be readily direéted to any part
of the workings; manual labour in hewing and putting the coals may in this
way be readily superseded. The compressed air is also a valuable ventilating
agent, freeing any working-place from gas, and lowering the temperature of
the workings so that our deep mines may be wrought with much more conve-
nience to the men and profit to the owners.

It has long been held by Mr. Godwin-Austen, Mr. Prestwich, and some
other distinguished geologists—although staunchly opposed by the late Sir
R. I. Murchison—that coal-bearing rocks may exist at comparatively moderate
depths beneath the newer rocks in the south-east of England. To decide
this point an experimental boring is about to be undertaken in the Wealden
area. The spot selected for the experiment is at Archer’s Wood, near Battle,
the property of Lord Ashburnham, who has nobly given the site, and has
further aided the undertaking by a liberal subscription. This boring will prove
by actual experiment what are the charaéters and thickness of the strata imme-
diately beneath the Ashburnham beds, or the lowest series of the Wealden
formation, in Kent and Sussex. At the same time it will decide whether
palzozoic rocks can be reached, at this locality, within a depth of 2000 feet ;
and, finally, whether the carboniferous strata of Belgium and North-Eastern
France extend across the Channel, as has been suggested, and are continuous
with some of our western coal-fields. The care of this scientific undertaking,
which is one of great national importance, is entrusted to a committee of some
of our most eminent geologists, and the work will be commenced at once, so
that something may be done before the British Association visits Brighton.
A subscription-list has been opened, and large sums have already been

1872.] Metallurgy. 387

subscribed. Should productive coal-beds be discovered at moderate depths, it
seems likely that the social aspect of south-eastern England would be com-
pletely changed, and agriculture give way to mining.

At a recent meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Mr. E. Bainbridge
read a paper explaining the ingenious method of sinking shafts through water-
bearing ground without the use of pumping machinery, as brought into
practice by Messrs. Kind and Chaudron. As the method was fully explained
in our chronicles last January, when noticing a paper read in the North by
Mr. W. W. Smyth, it seems unnecessary to refer again to the subject in this
place.

All who are interested in the welfare of our West of England metal-miners
must take deep interest in the progress of the Miners’ Association of Cornwall
and Devon. Each year this association issues a neat little report; and last
year’s report, whichis now before us, is not less interesting than its predecessors.
In addition to several short papers of local interest, Mr. J. H. Collins offers some
remarks on the successive Mining Schools of Cornwall, in which he traces the
history of the several schemes which have from time to time been projected
for offering technical instruction to the Cornish miner. The last and only
enduring scheme is that which set afoot the present Miners’ Association—an
institution which was founded in 1859 through the praiseworthy exertions of
Mr. Robert Hunt, F.R.S.

METALLURGY.

Although it seems likely that the success of Mr. Danks’s rotary furnace will
eventually lead to a complete revolution in our system of puddling iron, it is
obvious that the general introduction of his furnaces must be a work of much
time and great expense. In the meanwhile our ironmasters will no doubt
gladly avail themselves of any means of improving our present laborious
method of manual puddling without involving any material alterations in their
existing plant. Such a method has been lately brought prominently forward
by Mr. F. A. Paget, who at the last meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute,
and subsequently at the Society of Arts, directed public attention to M. Dor-
moy’s process of puddling with a rotating rabble. The rabble is thrown into
rapid revolution by steam-power, while its direction is readily controlled by the
hand of the puddler. A revolving shaft above the furnace carries a pulley
which is conneéted by a belt with another pulley below. This lower pulley is
secured to the outer end of the rabble, which is thus caused to rotate some-
what in the fashion of the well-known revolving brush used by the hair-
dresser. By means ofa handle jointed to the lower pulley, the puddler readily
dire&s the movements of the rabble. From 300 to 500 revolutions per minute
are made by the tool when white pig-iron is treated, and from 800 to rooo for
grey pig. The point of the rabble in the furnace carries a disc which agitates
the molten metal, and effectually renews the surface exposed to the air.
When the iron “ comes to nature,” another rabble is used, having, in place of
the disc, a short twisted point. Dormoy’s method has been successfully
employed in Austria and France. It is said that the yield of wrought-iron is
increased by at least 30 per cent, while the consumption of fuel is propor-
tionately diminished; that the puddler is relieved of much of his fatigue,
although the number of heats in a given time is considerably increased ; and,
finally, that the phosphorus and sulphur are removed to such an extent from
the metal that excellent iron may be obtained from inferior brands of pig.
It is right to mention that the rotating rabble, although first brought success-
fully into a@ual practice by M. Dormoy, was independently invented and
experimentally employed some time ago by Mr. Hutchinson, of the firm of
Messrs. Pease, Hutchinson, and Co., of Darlington; but we believe that the
results of his experiments, although satisfactory, were never made public.

A rotary puddling machine, recently invented by Messrs. Howson and
Thomas, was described by Mr. Howson at the late meeting of the Iron and
Steel Institute. This invention is said to be not so much competitive with
the Danks furnace as subsidiary thereto. Many of the details of the ordinary

388 Progress in Science. [July,

puddling furnace are retained, so that the improvements may be adapted, at
moderate cost, to the working plant at present in use. The ordinary hearth
is replaced by a revolving chamber, of which the best form is that of two cones
placed base to base; it is constructed of wrought-iron, with hollow cast-iron
trunnions mounted on rollers, which in their turn rest upon a carriage running
on wheels in a direction across the axis of the furnace. Motion is imparted
by an ordinary engine, and the machine makes from three to eight revolutions
per minute. The chamber is protected internally by a lining of bricks of oxide
ofiron. In order to remove the ball of iron when ready, the chamber is moved
from its normal position, and being slightly tilted the ball is readily pushed
out through the open trunnions. To avoid cooling the chamber by influx of air
through the space formed at the joint of the trunnions—for a certain amount of
play must be left to allow for expansion—the opening against which the
trunnion works is formed by two cast-iron rings enclosing an annular space,
which communicates by a flue or pipe with the space immediately above the
fire-crate. By the draught thus produced in the annular space the air which
leaks in at the joint is carried off by the most dire& route, and consequently
little or no air gains admission to the working chamber. This method of
checking the ingress of the air is found to be of great importance in the
practical working of the machine.

Mr. J. Head, of Middlesbro’, has described at some length the Newport
puddling furnace, of which a model is exhibited in the International Exhibi-
tion. The chief feature of this furnace consists in its economy of fuel.
Records of the working show that a given weight of puddled iron may be
produced by little more than half the quantity of coal required in the ordinary
furnace, while there is also a saving of about 10 per cent of iron. Thus the
average consumption per ton of puddled bar was 12cwts. 3 qrs. 63 Ibs. of coal,
and 20 cwts. 2 qrs. 24 lbs. of refined iron; in other words, the puddled bar
weighed 96} per cent of the iron charged. The fettling employed was made in
a tap furnace from various cinders and scraps, and contained no hematite or
other expensive ores.

It is almost needless to mention at this date that the detailed reports on the
now celebrated Danks furnace, by Messrs. J. Jones, Snelus, and Lester, were
submitted to the Iron and Steel Institute at their last meeting. ‘These reports
of the individual commissions supplement the general joint report dispatched
from America, and referred to in our Chronicles last quarter. It is gratifying
to learn that the high opinion expressed by the Commissioners has been fully
borne out by the results which have already attended the working of the
furnaces erected on this principle in England. The first of the new furnaces
was put up by Messrs. Hopkins, Gilkes, and Co., of Middlesbro’, and has
worked with great success. Ina purely scientific journal we may perhaps be
spared the pain of referring at any length to the technical objections which
were raised in certain quarters against the validity of Mr. Danks’s patent-
rights in this country.

Few points in the metallurgy of iron are more important than the elimina-
tion of phosphorus from pig-iron containing this prejudicial element. The
extent to which it may be removed by the Henderson process is well seen in
some determinations recently made by Mr. E. Riley, and published in the
“« Chemical News” (May 17, p- 237). At a trial made at the Blockhairn Iron
Works, in Glasgow, on the 23rd of last December, the charge consisted of
360 lbs. of No. 4 Dalmellington pig-iron, roo lbs. of ilmenite, ro lbs. of man-
ganese, and 42 lbs. of fluor-spar. The pig-iron contained 1°14 of phosphorus,
but this was eliminated at such a rate that samples of the refined iron taken
in succession at thirty, forty, and fifty minutes after fusion contained respec-
tively 0°23, 0°15, and o12 of phosphorus. Finally, the phosphorus was so far
removed that the wrought-iron contained only 0:07 per cent. On the other
hand, the cinder yielded 0°52 percent. Asit was found that all the phosphorus
had not passed into the cinder, some of it must have been volatilised during
the refining. Samples of bar-iron and plate rolled from iron puddled under

1872.] Mineralogy. 389

Henderson’s treatment, have been tested by Mr. Kirkaldy, and found to stand
a very high tensile strain.

At a recent meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Mr. I. Lowthian
Bell read an interesting paper on the conditions which favour and those which
limit the economy of fuel in the blast-furnace. As iron-smelting consumes
nearly one-sixth of all the coal raised in the country, it is important that the
highest degree of economy should be practised. Having determined the
quantity of heat absorbed in the process of smelting, and the calorific power of
the fuel employed, Mr. Bell proceeds to deteymine the weight of combustible
necessary to produce the required effet. Assuming that the ore yields 40 per
cent of pig-iron, and requires 15 cwts. of limestone as flux, it will need
theoretically about 25} cwts. of ordinary Durham coke to produce a ton of
iron. Mr. Bell discusses the theory of the hot-blast, and believes that its
values lies in this principle—that the rate of reduction must not proceed less
rapidly than that of fusion. By constructing the furnace sufficiently large the
use of hot-blast may be dispensed with, and yet no fuel sacrificed. Beyond a
certain limit, however, no advantage is gained by increasing the capacity of
the furnace.

Mr. E. F. Mondy has called attention to the magnetic properties of certain
copper-slags. Several specimens of ore-furnace slag exhibited strong polarity ;
those which presented a porphyritic appearance from included fragments of
quartz, being more strongly magnetic than a vitreous specimen. Polarity was
also evident, though to a less extent, in crystallised metal-slag and in roaster-
slag. Feeble magnetism was also exhibited in refinery-slags.

In the April number of the “‘ Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall,”
Mr. J. H. Collins publishes a note on a portion ofthe incrusted surface of a block
of jew’s tin found on Tremathack Moor, in the parish of Madron, and recently
acquired by the Institution. All ancient blocks of tin pass in the West of
England under the name of ‘“ Jew’s tin,” whatever may have been their origin.
The block in question was partially coated with a hard, brittle, brown incrus-
tation, which was found to contain go’62 per cent of binoxide of tin, 1°66 of
chloride of tin, 1°04 of peroxide of iron, 0°43 of metallic tin, 0°41 of silica, and
the rest of moisture evolved at 120° C.

MINERALOGY.

For a long time mineralogists were acquainted with only a single species of
crystallised silica. This was the well-known and ubiquitous mineral—
common Quartz—a mineral which, as every one knows, crystallises in the
hexagonal system, and has a sp. gr, of 2°6. Not long ago Professor Vom
Rath showed that silica was dimorphous, and described under the name of
Tridymite a new species which had a sp. gr. of only 2°3, and yet crystallised
in the hexagonal system, but with different parameters from those of quartz.
We now learn that silica is trimorphous, for a third form of crystallised silica
has been discovered by Professor Nevil Story-Maskelyne, F.R.S. For this
new species the name of Asmanite is proposed—a name fancifully derived from
Asman, the Sanscrit term for the thunderbolt of Indra. Indeed, Asmanite is
a meteoric mineral, and was detected among the constituents of the meteorite
which was found in 1861 at Breitenbach, in Bohemia, and is now deposited in
the British Museum. Asmanite has a low sp. gr. (2°245), and in this point
resembles Tridymite, from which it totally differs, however, in crystalline
form. Optical examination shows that it is a biaxial mineral, and crystallo-
graphic measurements prove that it belongs to the orthorhombic or prismatic
system. It is difficult, however, to measure the specimens, for the mineral
occurs only in minute grains, more or less rounded, and exhibiting but few
crystalline faces. Professor Maskelyne has nevertheless determined the ratios
of the parameters of the crystals, and the inclination of the optic axes. Its
hardness is 5°5._ Two analyses show that it consists essentially of silica, and
contains but a small percentage of foreign matter. The Asmanite is asso-
ciated in the Breitenbach meteorite with enstatite, chromite, troilite or
meteoric pyrites, and nickeliferous iron.

390 Progress in Science. [July,

Professor Viktor Von Lang has published an account of the crystalline form
of Guarinite, a mineral resembling sphene. This mineral was described by
Guiscardi, who referred it to the tetragonal or pyramidal system; but the
author shows that, from the optical characters of specimens in the British
Museum, it must be transferred to the rhombic system, although the angles of
the crystals and their general habit closely resemble those of a tetragonal
mineral. The same distinguished physicist publishes his crystallographic
determinations of the form of the rare mineral Leucophane.

In examining some of the fing crystals of cuprite, or red oxide of copper,
from near Liskeard, Professor Schrauf, of Vienna, has detected an icositetra-
hedron of the value 322, and therefore new to this species.

A note on the occurrence of cobalt in connection with the tin ores of Corn-
wall has been published by Mr. R. Pearce in the ‘‘ Journal of the Royal Insti-
tution of Cornwall.”” The author has found cobalt in a sample of tin-stone
from Dolcoath Mine, where it probably occurs as an arsenide of cobalt in the
mispickel, or white arsenical mundic, associated with the tin. He also finds
that the furnace-produc& known to tin-smelters as ‘‘ Hard-Head,” contains
cobalt derived from the tin ore which may have come from different localities.
One specimen of hard-head contained 4°4 per cent of cobalt, and Mr. Pearce
suggests that its extraction may be profitable, especially if the tin can at the
same time be obtained, as the specimen in question yielded as much as 16°25
per cent of tin.

Two new instances of pseudomorphism are recorded in ‘‘ Poggendorff’s
Annalen,” by M. Helland, of Christiania.” One of these is a pseudomorph of
mica after garnet from Rést6l, near Arendal, in Norway. The garnet is an
iron-alumina variety, rich in manganese, and occurs in small icositetrahedral
crystals of a reddish brown colour in a veinstone of pegmatite composed of
orthoclase, oligoclase, and mica. Some of the crystals, while retaining their
form, have become converted into a green potash-mica. A nucleus of un-
changed garnet remains in the centre of some of the partially altered crystals.
The second pseudomorph consists of steatite in the form of augite, and occurs
at Snarum, not far from the locality which yields the celebrated pseudomorphs
of serpentine after olivine.

It has been recently found by Professor Zirkel that the felspathic mineral
called Bytownite, usually grouped with the lime-soda felspars, so far from
being a pure and homogeneous mineral, is made up of at least four distiné
constituents. Microscopic sections show that it is really a crypto-crystalline
rock containing a triclinic felspar, a green hornblende, a mineral taken to be
quartz, and black granules of magnetic iron. Henceforth, then, Bytownite
must be expunged from our text- books on mineralogy.

Some experiments on the alteration which felspars suffer by the action of
saline solutions and other agents have been made by M. H. Birker and
R. Ulbricht, and are of interest as bearing upon the natural weathering and
alteration of felspathic minerals. The felspar used contained 8°51 per cent of
potash, 3°37 soda, 1°3 baryta, 16°03 alumina, and 65°52 of silica. The action
of the several agents was allowed to go on for 24 years. Distilled water had
practically the same solvent action, whether it contained air ornot. Carbonate
of lime, nitrate of lime, and several other salts exerted but little more action
than water alone. Carbonic acid, and carbonate of lime with carbonic acid,
increased the action on the alkalies and the silica. Lime-water dissolved more
of the felspar by acting on the silica; sulphate of ammonia had an energetic
action ; but of all the agents used magnesia was found to be the most active.

Aset of useful Mineralogical Tables, arranged by Dr. J. Emerson Reynolds, has
been published in a recent number of the ‘‘ Journal of the Royal Dublin Society.”
Although compiled primarily with a view to facilitate the examination of the
fine mineral collection in the possession of the society, these tables admit of
much wider use, inasmuch as they contain a considerable amount of general in-
formation, and form indeed a concise synopsis of the mineral kingdom. The
crystalline system, chemical formula, lustre, colour, hardness, and specific

1872.] Engineering. 391

gravity of each species are registered in these tables. In calculating the for-
mule, the new atomic weights have been employed, and the quantivalence of
the elements marked in most cases. Many of the formule are constructed,
however, upon an original plan proposed by Dr. Reynolds some time ago, and
described in the ‘‘ Philosophical Magazine.” ‘The tables are preceded by an
explanatory introduction, indicating the system adopted in the arrangement of
the collection, and containing notes on the more interesting species in each
group.

The third part of Dr. Schrauf’s great work—the ‘ Atlas der Krystall-Formen
des Mineralreiches ’—has lately been published. This part contains ten plates
comprising 160 finely-executed figures of crystals. The species are arranged
in alphabetical order, and the crystals figured in the present part extend from
“* Apophyllite”’ to ‘“‘ Barytes.”

ENGINEERING—CIVIL AND MECHANICAL.

Guns.—We have, on former occasions, recorded the history of the celebrated
‘Woolwich Infant,” as the first 35-ton gun was named. This gun has, since
the completion of its proof, remained inactive in front of the butts, not having
fired a shot since the trial was made which proved the non-importance of the
injury done to its steel lining. Nine other similar guns, completed at the
Royal Gun Factories, have since been tested, their proof consisting of three
rounds only, viz., two with the ordinary service charge of 110 lbs., and one
with the proof charge of 115 lbs. of gunpowder—a more severe strain than they
are ever likely to have to endure again.

On the 23rd of March last a paper was read before the Institution of Civil
Engineers by Mr. Bashley Britten, ‘On the Construction of Heavy Artillery,
with Reference to Economy of the Mechanical Forces Engaged,’ wherein it
was remarked that so long as nothing definite was known as to the power
exerted by gunpowder, the strongest guns were deemed the best. But a good
gun was a scientific instrument, which like any other engine, ought to produce
the greatest results with the highest economy of means. -When the principle
of the rifle was applied to cannon, and elongated projectiles were introduced,
the skill of engineers soon conquered the difficulty of producing ordnance
of ample power to resist high bursting pressure; but this success in the
manufacture of strong guns led to the disregard of other considerations of even
greater importance, chief amongst which was the use of the strongest powder,
which after from 500 to 600 rounds destroyed the interior of the guns by the
intense heat and the pressure of the gases. This led to the appointment, in
May, 1869, of the Committee on Explosives. From their report, printed in
1870, the following argument was founded. The Woolwich heavy guns were
designed for R.L.G. powder, and with it were found to be strong enough
to bear all the marginal proofs. The 8-inch guns had to bear a pressure of
from 25 to 30 tons per square inch, and the 1o-inch guns from 45 to 50 tons per
square inch, from the service charges; but henceforth, with pebble powder,
the pressure would never exceed about 15 tons in the former and 20 tons in the
latter case, as no benefit would be derived from a higher pressure. The prin-
ciples represented in the designs of the Woolwich system of ordnance were
examined under the following heads, viz.:—(1) the quality of the material
used ; and (2) the power of the charge; and it was argued that with the use of
pebble-powder cast-iron might be used with perfe& propriety for the exterior
of ordnance, at a saving of at least 50 per cent of the cost of the new guns
even of the present type. A comparison was then entered into with reference
to the proportion which the bore should bear to the length of the gun, small
bores and long chases being preferred on account of the greater amount of
expansion that would be utilised from the explosion of the powder charge
under such conditions.

On the 17th of May last Commander W. Dawson, R.N., read a paper before
a meeting of the officers of the two services, at Portsmouth Dockyard, upon
the “Seven-Inch Gun.” This paper related exclusively to the system of
rifling adopted in the manufacture of ordnance at the present day. After

392 Progress in Science. (July,

tracing the history of the introduction of rifling cannon in this country, the
author then gave the results of certain competitive trials which took place in
1863, and after describing the simplicity of the Scott centreing iron-bearing
projectile, and the peculiarities of its construction, it was observed that the
distribution of strain and the perfect centreing in the bore fully accounted for
the grooves of the Scott gun having been as perfect at the end of the compe-
tition as when the gun left the factory. It also explained why the centreing
shot of the same weight, fired with similar charges, escaped out of its gun so
much more readily than the French or Woolwich one, striking a far more
heavy blow. The relative merits of the uniform and increasing spiral were
then dwelt upon, and the superiority of the former system most conclusively
proved by reference to the results of actual experiment. It was shown that
the stud system of centreing was ill-adapted for any rapid twist of spiral, and
it was stated that the question of long-bearing centreing projectiles versus the
short-bearing non-centreing system was now under consideration.

Torpedos.—A very interesting paper was recently read by Mr. C. W. Merri-
field, F.R.S., before the Institute of Naval Architects, on ‘‘ Torpedo Warfare,”
the main consideration being as to how a vessel may best be constructed with
a view to defending it from the aétion of torpedos: the one great principle
advocated by Mr. Merrifield being that of sub-division. Extending armour
plates over the bottom of a vessel, whilst it would add considerably to its dis-
placement, would not afford any sure means of defence; for approaching a
coast known to be protected by torpedos, a number of small ironclads were
preferable to one large one, as in the event of a serious accident the loss in life
as well asin material would be less. Again, these vessels should be absolutely
subdivided into compartments, with air-tight coverings, so that in the event
of an accident to one compartment, the water might be driven out by means
of pumping air into it. In order to neutralise the effect of the blow given by
the explosion of a torpedo, the author proposes that the bottoms of
vessels should be constructed with double cells, the lower one being filled with
water, which, acting as a buffer, would distribute the blow of concussion and
render it less injurious to the fabric of the vessel; the upper cells should be
connected by means of pipes and stop-cocks with an air-pump, so that in the
event of the middle skin becoming broken the upper cell would be cleared of
water by means of a ‘‘ plenum.”

Sewage of Paris—Our neighbours across the Channel, no less than our-
selves, are engaged in the consideration of that most important of all sanitary
questions, viz., how best to dispose of town sewage. The Paris sewers at
present discharge themselves into the Seine at Clichy and St. Denis, by two
principal outfalls, giving a daily discharge of 8,850,000 cubic feet, which affects
the water of that river in three different ways. The sand and mud are depo-
sited near the outfall of the two collectors, and the volume of the deposits
reach the amount of 3} millions of cubic feet a year; they produce fermenta-
tion in the warm weather, and it is necessary to dredge constantly at a yearly
cost of about £8000. The light mud and organic matters rest on the surface
of the river and pollute the water for a considerable distance, and the soluble
matters produce serious impurities. Since 1867 experiments have been going
on, first at Clichy, and subsequently at Grenvilliers, for the purification of
the sewage waters with sulphate of alumina, and for utilising them for
fertilising purposes. The Conseil des Ponts et Chaussées now, after recom-
mending a complete dredging of the Seine, state that the experiments made at
Grenvilliers having given satisfactory results as to the disinfecting the sewage
water by their application to irrigation, and by their purification with sulphate
of alumina, and these results being such that, if they were known to have a
durable efficacy, they would prevent the discharge into the Seine of the impure
sewage water, they counsel the Municipal Administration to continue and
to develop these experiments. The Prefect has now submitted for the appro-
bation of the Municipal Council a proje& which will, however, only deal with
less than a third of the Paris sewers, but will form a part of the complete
scheme. Should the work be undertaken we hope to be able to give further
particulars regarding it it in a future number.

1872.] Engineering. 393

Clifton Tunnel.—This tunnel, which will be about one mile in length, is
being constructed with the view of affording railway communication between
Bristol and the new docks now in course of construction at Avonmouth. The
tunnel will be straight, and on an incline of r in 64 throughout its length.
The tunnel is being bored from each end, and, no water having been met with,
the working down hill is just as easy as working up hill. A top heading is
being constracted about ro feet wide and 8 feet high, and the widening
out of the tunnel is being carried on at some distance behind, the face
of the full-sized tunnel being generally about 30 yards behind the face
of the heading. One of Captain Beaument’s diamond drilling-machines is
being used for boring holes in the face of the heading, the rock being removed
by blasting. The enlargement of the tunnel to the full size necessary is done
by hand labour in the usual manner. The holes which are bored by the drills
are about 2} inches in diameter, having a core of 14 inches in diameter, and
from 3 feet to 3 feet 6 inches deep. The core is easily removed, and the hole
is then left beautifully straight and circular. Some difficulty is experienced in
getting out the central piece of the heading; but after this is done the
remainder comes down easily. The explosive employed is dynamite, which
is found to answer much better than powder. The material through which
the tunnel is constructed is very hard. The air-engine which drives the drill
works at about 130 revolutions per minute with the air at 40 lbs. The air is
compressed by a steam-engine at the top of the shaft, whilst the exhaust-air
from the boring machine ventilates the tunnel perfectly.

Subaqueous Foundations.—The method of sinking cylinders for foundations
by the use of compressed air was first suggested by Mr. John Wright, of
Rochester, about twenty years ago, when Resident Engineer upon the
Rochester bridge. Recently Mr. Wright has made certain modifications
in his previous invention, in order to provide a means by which tunnels can be
constructed on the beds of rivers or in other waters, to obviate the necessity
of having any thickness of earth between the top of the tunnel and the
bottom of the river. For this purpose, caissons or bells open at the bottom,
and from which water is kept out by air under pressure, are employed, and a
continuous foundation can be formed. The caisson having been lowered into
position where a section of a foundation is to be constructed, the water is
forced out in the usual manner, and the work of the foundation proceeded
with, the section of the work being made somewhat shorter than the diameter
of the caisson, in order that the latter may be lifted and moved a distance
after one section of the work has been completed. Upon a continuous
substructure thus formed, the tunnel is constructed in horizontal courses in a
similar manner, except that instead of the sections being made solid, they are
now formed of a sufficient width for the purpose, a bell of suitable size being
employed. While the upper part of the first course of blocks is being built
separately within the bell, a portion of the invert, or so much of the tunnel as
is to be contained in the height of the lower block is formed, the hollow of the
invert thus made being filled in with puddle to the full height of the block.
The sides of the tunnel may also be formed in suitably shaped blocks,
care being taken that the space contained within the sides is filled with clay as
the work proceeds, until the tunnel is completed by arched blocks forming the
roof; and when the joints are all made good, the puddle can be removed,
leaving the work finished. The caisson or bell can readily be raised and
shifted from place to place by a traveller, running upon rails supported on
piles, the traveller being fitted with a suitable engine and travelling gear.
inside the bell a tank or hopper is fixed, and from this a shaft rises through the
top of the bell to above the surface of the water, this shaft being open at each
end, and dipping a short distance below the mouth of the hopper. The shaft
and hopper are always kept filled with water, by means of which the escape
of air from the bell will be prevented. Within this shaft is conducted a set
of revolving buckets, by which all earth excavated from the bottom of the
bell and thrown into the hopper can be drawn up.

VOL. II. (N.S.) 3 E

394 Progress im Science. [July,

Hydraulic Boring Machine.—A novel invention by Mr. Theodore Allen, of
the American Society of Civil Engineers, has recently been adopted by the
Department of Docks of the City of New York, with a view to obtain a survey
of the hard bottom of the Hudson and East rivers, adjacent to New York City.
By Mr. Allen’s plan the boring rod is forced down by means of hydraulic pres-
sure. Asa basis it was considered that a pressure of 1000 lbs. to the square
inch upon the areaof the tube would be ample for all purposes, —that is, when
a resisting of density sufficient to withstand that force was met with, it would
more than suffice to sustain the weight upon the piles. The tube itself had to
be of considerable area in order to bear this pressure when unsupported
for some distance in the water or soft mud. A tube of 22 inches exterior
diameter, and 1 inches interior diameter was deemed the smallest that could be
used with safety. The length of sections of the tube was fixed at 8 feet, the
weight of a section of this length being as great as could be conveniently
handled. This tube was then secured or clamped to a cross head by a
contrivance which, while securely holding the tube, permitted it to be turned
round. At each end of the cross head a piston rod was attached, the pistons
moving vertically within a cast-iron cylinder of 6 inches diameter, and having
sufficient length to admit of a stroke or movement slightly greater than the
length of each section of the tube. The pistons are packed with cup leather
packing, and the cylinders are supplied by means of a fly-wheel pump, the pro-
portions of which enable 50 lbs. pressure per square inch in the steam cylinder
to exert a force of 500 Ibs. pressure per square inch in the pump barrel.
In order to regulate the pressure upon the tubes an ordinary weighted lever
valve is used, the raising of the lever informing the attendant that the
requisite resistance has been obtained. During the test, before the acceptance
of the apparatus, the safety-valve was set at 450 lbs. to the square inch,
causing a total pressure on the tube of 23,850 lbs., or 3674 Ibs. to the square
inch.

ENGINEERING SOCIETIES.

Institution of Civil Engineers.—Mr. Emerson Bainbridge read a paper on the
5th of March last, “‘ On the Kind-Chaudron System of Sinking Shafts through
Water-bearing Strata without the use of Pumping Machinery.” The author
pointed out that the plan of sinking pits hitherto practised in this country con-
sisted in dealing with the water by means of large pumping-engines, in leaving the
bottoms of the pits dry enough to allow the sinkers to block the well, and in
keeping back the water in the upper strata by metal rings, cast in segments about
4 feet long, and connected by wooden joints, which were wedged tight, when all
the tubbing was fixed. The evils of this system were :—1. The heavy first cost
of the plant when special pumping machinery was used. 2. The expense of the
wedging tubs, and the cost of fixing them. 3. The delay caused by the
sinkers being compelled to work always in water. 4. The first high cost
of the tubbing and of fixing it in the shaft, and the liability of the tubbing
leaking in consequence of the numerous joints. In the application of the
Kind-Chaudron system these evils were to a great extent avoided. This
system consisted of a combination of Mr. Kind’s well-known apparatus
for boring wells, with an ingenious device, invented by M. Chaudron, for fixing
cylindrical tubbing under water in such a manner as to make it quite secure
and water-tight. A comparison between the two systems showed, that whilst
with the system of sinking by the aid of pumping machinery, the average cost
per foot had amounted to £114 7s., and the rate of sinking to 8g feet per
month, with the Chaudron system the average of all the pits was equal to
£22'9 per foot, and the speed of sinking to 15°8 feet per month.

On the r2th of March last Mr. J. H. Latham read a paper ‘On the Soon-
kasala Canal of the Madras Irrigation and Canal Company.” This canal has
recently been opened for its entire length from Soonkasala to Cuddapah,
a distance of 190 miles. The objects of this canal are twofold; first, the con-
tinuous irrigation throughout the year of large areas of country in the Bellary,
Koonder, and Nellore Districts ; and the second purpose, apparently necessary
to the success of the first, was a means of communication by canals, by
which the produce of those areas could be sent to a market more cheaply than

1872. ] Light. 395

by cart or railway—more expeditiously than by cart, and more securely than
by railways. After giving a brief history of the canal, the author gave
detailed particulars of some of the most important works undertaken in its
construction; its capabilities for irrigation and navigation; and finally con-
cluded by a comparison between it and the Grand Junétion Canal between
Brentford on the Thames and Braunston.

A paper on ‘‘ Explosive Agents applied to Industrial Purposes,’”’ was read by
Mr. F. A. Abel, F.R.S., on the 14th of May. The nature and properties of gun-
powder, and its special advantages and defects as an explosive agent for indus-
trial purposes, was first briefly reviewed. The application of other compounds,
including the use of chlorate of potash, including “ poudre picrate,”’ and those
produced by the action of nitric acid upon organic substances, such as nitro-
glycerine and gun-cotton, were referred to, and the two latter particularly dwelt
upon and explained, and their advantages for blasting purposes were enume-
rated. In conclusion, after referring to some recent interesting experiments of
Dr. Sprengel, on the application of readily oxidisable and other powerfully oxi-
dising liquids in the production of violently-detonating mixtures, the author
showed that, even in the application of gunpowder to industrial purposes,
some decided advance had lately been made, for its violent explosion could be
developed, like that of all other explosive mixtures and compounds, through the
agency of a detonation, whereby its action might be considerably intensified,
and its application to some important classes of work, such as in submarine
operations, greatly facilitated.

Institution of Mechanical Engineers.—At a meeting of this Society on the
2nd of May last at Birmingham, after the adjourned discussion upon a paper
read at the last meeting, ‘“‘On the Strength and Proportions of Rivetted
Joints, &c..” a paper was read, ‘On a Steam Jet for Exhausting Air, &c., and
the Results of its Application,” by the President, C. W. Siemens, Esq.,
F.R.S., D.C.L. The form and application of the steam jet having remained
hitherto essentially the same as in the original steam blast of the locomotive,
it occurred to the author that much might be done to improve its effect by a
judicious arrangement of the parts, so as to avoid eddies in the combined cur-
rent of steam and air, and to utilise more completely the initial momentum of
steam. These objects have now been effectually accomplished by the employ-
ment of a very thin annular jet of steam, in the form of a hollow cylindrical
column, discharged from an annular nozzle. The air to be propelled by the
steam jet is admitted through an exterior annular orifice surrounding the jet,
and also through the centre of the hollow jet; and the area of the air passages
is gradually contracted on approaching the jet, whereby the velocity of motion
of the entering air is so much accelerated, before it is brought in conta@ with
the steam, as to avoid the great difference in the velocity of the two currents
at the point where they come together, which caused the eddies that pre-
viously impaired the efficiency of the steam jet. By the annular form of the
steam jet the extent of surface contact between the steam and air is greatly
increased, and the quantity of air delivered is by this means very much
augmented in proportion to the quantity of steam employed. The combined
jet of steam and air is discharged through an expanding delivery pipe of con-
siderable length, in which its velocity is gradually reduced and its momentum
accordingly utilised by being converted into pressure. This improved steam
jet has been applied for exhausting one of the pneumatic despatch tubes
employed at the Central Telegraph Station in London, for conveying the
carriers containing telegraphic despatches from one station to another.
Another application is to the lifting of water from a moderate depth; for
exhausting the vacuum pans employed in sugar-boiling; and as a blower for
accelerating the distillation of fuel in gas-producers for heating purposes.

LIGHT.

Mr. Harcourt has found that by heating to redness a mixture of hydrogen
and bisulphide of carbon vapour, the latter is decomposed into sulphuretted
hydrogen. The removal of bisulphide of carbon from coal-gas is thus

396 Progress in Science. [July,

rendered possible, for by heating the gas to redness the sulphur combines
with hydrogen to form sulphuretted hydrogen, which can be easily removed
by passing through a purifier containing oxide of iron. By passing coal-gas,
containing 30 grains of sulphur in too cubic feet, through a red-hot tube, and
then through an iron purifier, the sulphur was reduced to about 5 or 6 grains
in roo cubic feet. It might be imagined that the passage of the coal-gas
through a red-hot tube would deteriorate its quality ; but Mr. Harcourt found
the contrary to be the case. By passing gas of 14'g1 candles rapidly through
a tube heated to dull redness, the illuminating power was found to be 15°1
candles, and by passing the gas through a tube heated to bright redness
the illuminating power was increased to 16°66 candles. A parallel case to
this occurs when marsh-gas is decomposed eudiometrically into hydrogen
and carbon; the resultant gas occupies almost twice the original volume of
the gas, but possesses a far greater illuminating power than that of the
original marsh-gas, owing to the presence of ;acetylene or some such body.
It seems easy to deduce from Mr. Harcourt’s results a process for the
desulphuration of coal-gas.

In reference to the very simple and ingenious arrangement for a vertical
lantern made by Mr. Ferguson, and described in our last issue, we would
add a further suggestion made by Prof. Morton, President of the Stevens Insti-
tute of Technology, whose form of the same apparatus we published in our last
October number. This is to carry yet a step further the simplicity of the
instrument by substituting a watch-glass full of water for the photographic
or other objective lens. Dr. Morton also tells us that he finds this method can
be developed into a very striking illustration of refraction and the action of lenses
in the following manner :—A well-defined photograph on glass is placed as an
object in the vertical lantern, the place of the objective being supplied by an
empty watch-glass previously adjusted. There will then appear on the screen
no image, but only a nebulous mass of light. On pouring water into the watch-
glass, however, a sharply-defined image will come out as soon as the water
ceases to move in ripples. By removing the water and substituting alcohol
or some more highly refracting liquid, such as a solution of muriate of tin,
a lens of shorter focus and higher magnifying power will be obtained.

Dr. Morton sends us also the following explanation of the general relation
between the condenser and objective in the magic lantern, on which was
founded the plan first adopted by him of separating the ordinary lantern condenser
into two elements, one of which was placed before and the other after the
mirror of the vertical lantern, by which the efficiency of that instrument was so
largely increased. It is curious to note that this point seems to have escaped
the able constructor, M. Duboscq, who publishes in Les Mondes, vol. xxiv.,
p- 649, a vertical lantern in which this very important element is absent. “If
a system of condensers are well arranged, the front surface of the outside
lens will be evenly illuminated, as may be seen by placing a sheet of thin
paper against it, but from this surface the rays will travel outwards with alk
the irregularities of distribution caused by spherical and chromatic abberration,
and by the action of the condensers as image-producer of the source of light.”
“If now the objeét-glass while in focus with the obje@, is also in focus with
the front of the condenser, it will produce on the screen an image of the
equally illuminated surface of the condenser, the irregularities in direction of
the rays as they leave that surface having, as we know from the simple theory
of image formation by lenses, no effect inimical to such a result. But if the
object is moved forward on the cone of rays issuing from the condenser, then,
when the obje@-glass is in focus with this, it will tend to produce an image
of a section of the light cone made in the same plane.” Here, however, the
irregularities in distribution of the light before noticed have developed to the
extent of rendering the area of such a cross section very irregular in illumination
and colour, and this irregularly-illuminated surface the object-glass will
reproduce in the image which it throws upon the screen. ‘If in the vertical
lantern we place the condensers all together before the first mirror, then the
object above the mirror will be at a considerable distance from the front of
the condensers, and the ill results already named will follow. If, however,

1872.] Light. | 397

we place, first, only so much of the condenser as will bring to parallelism the
rays diverging from the source of light, they will then pass on to the remaining
lens after reflection, exactly as they would have done had the condenser
occupied its usual position, and will evenly illuminate its surface in conta&
with which the ‘ object’ finds itself, and thus they will produce a field evenly
illuminated. It is this set of conditions which has defeated the attempt
frequently made to use large condensers with small pictures, by moving the
latter forward on the cone of rays coming from the former. For use with the
vertical lantern I find the following combination of lenses makes a very good
condenser :—Nearest to the light a plano-convex lens of 43 inches diameter
and focus of g inches; next to this, with its flat side also towards the light, a
plano-convex lens of 5 inches diameter and 7 inches focus; then beyond the
mirror a plano-convex lens 5 inches diameter and 8 inches focus, with its flat
face upwards or away from the light. One might naturally suppose that
with so rude a lens as a watch-glass full of water a very ill-defined and un-
satisfactory image would be formed; but this is not the case, because the rays
of light which pass through any point of the object do not spread over the
whole of the obje&-glass (as is the case with the rays from an object which
enter an ordinary portrait camera or telescope), but fall upon a small element
of the lens only. They therefore acquire only the spherical and chromatic
error proper to such a small element, and not that due to the entire lens. Any
one familiar with the action of lenses for other purposes will be astonished by
the accuracy of the image obtained in the lantern with a common plano-convex
lens whose curved face is turned towards the object.” “It is, of course, the
previous concentration and focalising of the rays by the condenser which
accomplishes this good result in the manner named.”

The ‘Journal of the Franklin Institute”? reports a lecture by Professor
A. M. Mayer, at the Sheffield Scientific School, which included a very
beautiful acoustic illustration of the method of determining stellar motions by
the spectroscope. The lecturer dwelt upon the analogy between sound waves
and those of light. Whenever one of the coloured waves composing white
light is lengthened, its colour is modified in the direction of the red end of
the spectrum, and vice versa. The motions of a star when at right angles to
the view is susceptible of telescopic measurement ; but, the lecturer continued,
the motion of a star when in the direction of the line of sight can only be
measured on the foregoing principle, the standard being the displacement
from their normal position of certain lines in itsspecrum. This principle is
capable of illustration by means of waves of sound. With the lantern an
image of a tuning-fork beating 256 times a second is thrown upon the screen.
By the side of one of the prongs, and just touching it, a cork-ball is suspended
by a filament of silk. On sounding a second fork tuned in accurate unison
with the first, anywhere in the room, even at a distance of 30 feet, the first is
thrown into vibration, and the image of the cork-ball projected a foot or two
away from the prong. When, however, the second fork is carried rapidly to or
from the first, no motion of the cork is perceived, the wave of sound being
shortened or lengthened by an amount sufficient to throw it out of unison with
those produced by the first fork. If a fork vibrating 254 times a second
be now rapidly approached to the first, the waves are so much shortened as
to be in unison with it and to throw the ball into motion. A fork vibrating
258 times a second carried rapidly from the first, exhibits by the lengthening
of the waves the same phenomenon.

Microscopy.—Dr. James Murie, F.L.S., &c., continues his paper* on the
classification and arrangement of microscopic objects in a communication to the
Royal Microscopical Society. The principles of classification are dwelt upon
at some length, a matter of especial value in the case of large and varied
collections. Several instances are given of the mode of settling the proper
place of objects which might be entitled to be located in any one of several
departments. For example, of egg-shell the author says, ‘“‘ Although com-
posed of the salts of lime, it is virtually an animal produ@, and therefore to

* Monthly Micro. Journ., vol. i., p. 69; vol. vii., p. 201.

398 Progress in Science. iJuly,

be excluded from the inorganic division. As to its physiological place, it may
take rank among component elementary bodies, supposing there is such a
group, and either form part of an embryological section, or come under a
division accessory to the generative organs of birds. Its most natural position
is illustrating the textural character and peculiarities of the enveloping masses
of the young of vertebrates, and therefore subsidiary to development near the
ovum.” Again, ‘insects in amber are kept not as typical of the stru€ture of
the amber itself, but as exemplifying a peculiar nidus wherein an insect may
become imbedded. I would incline, therefore, to place such an obje& among
the groups of inseéts: here either close to the genus which the inse&
represented, or in a separate and subsidiary heading devoted to ‘ Insects
imbedded in foreign substances’’ at the end of Insect structure.

“Ought pearls to go along with shells, or as examples of disease? This
again depends somewhat upon the nature of the collection. Strictly speaking,
pearls are but a morbid condition of the nacreous material of shells, and hence
are true examples of disease. They therefore, according to principle, should
be ranged among Pathological textures. Ina miscellaneous series, however,
where pathology forms either an unimportant factor, or is not meant to be
exemplified at all, then pearls necessarily come under the heading Mollusca,
or shell ; and a sub-series either together or after the representative genus to
which the shell belongs.

Respecting cabinets, after discussing the merits of the various contrivances
for storing objects, Dr. Murie advocates for large and increasing collections a
system of small cabinets of similar dimensions, each devoted to a group or
subsidiary division, and numbered and labelled accordingly, and so arranged
that to all intents and purposes they represent but one vast cabinet. In
support of this opinion, Dr. Murie calls attention to the great convenience of
such a system as exemplified in the Botanical Department and Inse& Room
of the British Museum. He says, ‘‘such is my beau ideal of a microscopic
cabinet, compound yet harmoniously single; adapted to meet the wants of a
limited, a moderate, or a numerous series; expansion being in the ratio of

increment of slides. But, further-
Gt more, the same principle is appli-
cable to very modest microscopical
collection; such, indeed, as even
the amateur, or those of limited
means may aspire to. As a
closing sentence to this clause, I
may even make bold to say that,
like other fashions and hobbies,
that of cabinets is an infectious
one; a piece of handsome furni-
ture is attractive. Would- that
the zest for a thorough mastery
of the contents was as powerful
a stimulant. The whole paper,
as well as the preceding one, is
worthy the attention of those
interested in the arrangement of
microscopic or other natural
history collections.

Mr. J.W. Stephenson, F.R.A.S.,
brings before the Royal Micro-
scopical Society an improvement
on his erecting binocular. The
prisms are very much reduced in
size, and are placed in a small
brass tube, which is attached to
the nozzle of the microscope in
such a manner that it projects
and enters into the interior of the object-glass mounting, and is thus brought

1872.] Light. 399

very close to the back combination of the objective ; this change of position,
and also the reduction of the amount of glass traversed by the divided
pencils, materially improves the definition of the instrument, which can now
be used satisfactorily with a power of ith of aninch. The dimensions of the
prisms are 0°68 of an inch in length, 0-412 of an inch in width, and 0-2 of an
inch in thickness, and are inclined to each other at an angle of 43°; this
makes the angle between the bodies g}°, and the imaginary point to which
they converge nearly 15 inches. Provision is made for the employment of
polarised light by substituting for the upper prism a plate of black glass so
placed that the light is reflected from its surface at the polarising angle of 563°;
a suitable alteration in the inclination of the bodies is made with this view
without in any way affecting the use of the microscope for ordinary observations.
This arrangement is found to give much better definition than a Nicol prism
placed within the body.

Captain Hutton gives, in the ‘‘ Monthly Microscopical Journal” for May,
an account of his examination of three kinds of vegetable fibres: those of
Phormium tenax, ‘‘ New Zealand Flax,” and ‘ Sizal” and ‘‘ Manilla Hemp.”
He remarks, as most persons do who have studied the subje& of vegetable
fibres, that there is no difficulty in distinguishing these substances when in
quantity; but that character is lost when only a small amount is available
for examination. The following results of microscopical observations are
given :—Manilla. Fibrous bundles oval, nearly opaque, and surrounded by a
considerable quantity of dried up cellular tissue, composed of re@angular
cells. The bundles are smooth; very few partly-detached ultimate fibres are
seen, and no spiral tissue. Sizal. Fibrous bundles oval and surrounded by
cellular tissue. Smooth and very few ultimate fibres projecting from the
bundles. More translucent than Manilla, and can always be recognised by
the large quantity of spiral fibres mixed up in the bundles. New Zealand
Flax (Phormium tenax). In machine-dressed Phoymium the bundles are
translucent and irregularly covered with tissue. Spiral fibres can be detected
among the bundles, but not in the same quantity that is seen in Sizal. Many
more ultimate fibres stick out from the bundles, which are flat instead of oval.
In those places where the bundles are entirely freed from tissue they are
generally divided longitudinally into two or more smaller bundles or fasciculi,
and in these places the number of half-detached ultimate fibres is greatly
increased; these are, however, rarely broken, most of them having the end
perfe&. Spiral fibres are here absent. In Maori-prepared Phormium the
bundles are almost entirely free from tissue, and quite so from spiral fibres.
They are always broken up into many fasciculi, which average, perhaps, some
twelve or fifteen ultimate fibres in each fasciculus. Many ultimate fibres are
semi-detached, and they are much more broken than in machine-prepared
fibre. For examination of the ultimate fibre Captain Hutton recommends
boiling for two or three hours in a weak solution of potash, and separation of
the fibres by dissection under the microscope in water. The ultimate fibres
of Sizal will be found to separate easily, those of Phormium with more
difficulty, while it will require great care to prevent breaking those of Manilla;
this latter fibre will require a much longer boiling to render separation easy.
According to Captain Hutton’s table of measurements, the average length of
the fibre of Phormium will be found to be nearly twice that of the others;
while the average diameter is not more than half that of Manilla, which is
again much less than that of Sizal. The cell wall of Phormium is also much
thinner than that of either of the other two. These researches are a
valuable contribution to a subject the histology of which is at present very
little known. Good and characteristic distin@ions among vegetable fibres are
much to be desired, and the present paper is a step towards grappling with
the great difficulties into which these researches are attended.

Dr. John Matthews about two years back produced a simple and ingenious
self-centreing turn-table; this proved very useful in varnishing slides, which
were originally truly centred; its convenience for this purpose, however, rendered
it quite useless in the case of slides which were, as in the majority of instances,
eccentric. This defect has been remedied by adding a second plate capable

400 Progress in Science. (July,

of allowing the slide to be thrown out of the centre to the extent required.
This new turn-table combines all the advantages of the old construction
with those peculiar to its original self-centreing form, and is also provided
with a convenient hand-rest, which will be found a great assistance in forming
cells with varnish, as it enables the brush to be held with very great steadiness.

Mr. F. H. Wenham has produced a }th objective capable of working, both
as a dry and immersion lens, with the same front. Its performance under
both conditions leaves nothing to be desired.

An account of ‘‘ An Improved Reflex Illuminator for the Highest Powers of
the Microscope”? is communicated to the Royal Microscopical Society by
Mr. F. H. Wenham.* It consists of a cylinder of glass (a) } an inch long

and ,4,ths of an inch diameter,

FIG. 2. the lower surface of which is

worked convex to a radius of
ssths of an inch. Starting
from the bottom edge, the
cylinder is worked off to a
polished face at an angle of
64°: close beneath the cylinder
is set a plano-convex lens of
1} focus. Parallel rays sent
through the lens, after leaving
the lower convex surface of the
cylinder, would be refracted
to the point shown by the
dotted lines if continued in
solid glass, but by impinging
on the inclined polished sur-
face (which is far within the
angle of total reflection) they
are thrown on the flat seg-
mental top; here they would
be totally refleted and beaten
down again to the point (d)
outside the cylinder; but if
an objec slide (c) be laid over
the flat top with an intervening
film of water, the rays proceed
on till the focal point reaches
the upper surface, or is slightly
beyond it; here total reflection now takes place; all the light is concentrated
to a minute spot in the centre of the field of view of the microscope, and
most of the rays are available for any obje& brought there by traversing the
slides over the water top of the illuminator, which must be kept full without
allowing any to run down the reflecting surface. This illuminator is fitted into
the ordinary sub-stage, and has an independent rotatory movement of its own
like that of Nachet’s prism. The cylinder is to be brought up nearly level
with the stage. The centre of rotation is set true by a dot on the fitting seen
with a 1} objective. A drop of water is then placed on the top, upon which
the slide is laid. The required obje@s on the slide are found with a low
power, and may be distinguished by their brilliant appearance, while those on
the cover are nearly invisible. The light is thrown up either by the plane or
concave mirror. The former is generally the best and most controllable; the
lamp should not be placed much beyond the stage, else its direct rays will get
underneath and mar the blackness of the field. Having got the best effect
by tilting the mirror, the illuminator is to be rotated, by which means various
effets are brought out. The paper reviews the author’s past contrivances
for the same purpose, and anticipates the objeGions that may be raised against

* Monthly Micro. Journ., vol. vii., p. 237.

1872.] Heat. 401

the new arrangement. It also contains some valuable remarks on total
reflection and the transmitting power of various media, which are too long
for quotation, and cannot be profitably given in abstract.

HEAT.

M. F. Tommasi has endeavoured to show the possibility of converting into
dynamic work the expansion produced in liquids by heat; and the easy appli-
cation of this motive force to the hydraulic press. He endeavours to show
that by the expansion of oil instead of water, the pressure being caused to act
directly upon the piston of the press, five-tenths of the quantity of heat
employed in the ordinary steam engine produces the same degree of tension.
The apparatus is very simple, consisting merely of a boiler in communication
with a piston-box, the boiler being filled with colza or other oil, and heated by
means of gas. It would appear that there is effected over other machines
a saving of about 75 per cent.

The “ Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin,’’ has an
important paper on the specific heat of carbon. Dulong and Petit showed by
experiments with twelve of the metals, that the product of the atomic weight
and specific heat—in other words, the so-called atomic heat—had the same
value, about 6°5, for all elements. Experimentalists have, from time to time,
observed many striking departures from that law, and a comparison made by
the author of the paper, H. F. Weber, of the numbers obtained by Regnault,
De la Rive, Kopp, and Willner, as representing the specific heat of carbon,
clearly shows that the different allotropic modifications of this element have
very different specific heats, no one of which obeys Dulong and Petit’s law;
while the values assigned by these physicists to the specific heat of any one
modification vary within wide limits. This is probably due to the fa& that the
specific heat of carbon in all its allotropic conditions varies with the tempera-
ture. Experiments with two large diamonds, conducted in the physical
laboratory of Professor Helmholtz, in Berlin, have shown that the specific heat
of carbon increases with the temperature to a degree surpassing any other
substance, the specific heat of diamond being trebled by an increase of
temperature from 0° to 200° C.

The following experiment has the advantages of certainty in its perfor-
mance and of novelty. Take a wide glass tube open at both ends, and some
little distance into the interior push a piece of fine wire gauze. If the gauze
is now heated to redness over an ordinary Bunsen burner and then removed,
it will shortly emit a shrill note for five to ten seconds.

The Real Evaporative Efficiency of Steam-Boilers Determined. — The
American Institute of the State of New York have made public the
result of an important series of trials of steam-boilers which was made at
their last annual exhibition. The committee appointed to decide upon the
merits of all steam apparatus and machinery entered at the “‘ Fair,” consisted
of R. H. Thurston, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Stevens Insti-
tute of Technology, Chairman; and T. J. Sloan and Robert Weir, well-known
engineers, Members. To secure an accurate determination of the amount of
water passing out of the boilers, both evaporated and unevaporated, it was led
into a large surface condenser. The weight of the water of condensation and
of the condensing water was exactly measured, and the temperature of the
water of condensation and the condensing water, of the steam in the boiler
and of the entering feed and injection water, was obtained by delicate thermo-
meters. The greatest care was taken to insure such accurate determination
as should make the results of these trials valuable as standards with which to
compare those of future similar trials. The log was kept by students selected
from advanced classes of the Stevens Institute of Technology, and under the
supervision of the chairman, himself a professional and experienced engineer.
The committee thus obtained results that are extremely valuable to the
engineer, as exhibiting the true efficiency of what they considered good boilers
of quite dissimilar forms, and hardly less useful to the physicist, as giving
the modulus of efficiency of large evaporating apparatus. The arrangement

VOL. II. (N.S.) 3 F

402 Progress in Science. [July,

described enabled a determination of the quantity of heat transferred to the
condenser from each boiler, during its twelve hour’s trial, to be readily made.
The weights of coal and wood were also recorded as is usual. To ascertain
the weight of water actually evaporated and that carried over unevaporated,
the committee use the formula, Hx+h(W-—«)=U, where H is the number of
thermal units transferred by each pound of steam, / the thermal units carried
over to the water of condensation by a pound of water, « the weight of steam,
and W — x the weight of water, by which the total quantity of heat U is trans-
ferred from boiler to condenser. Introducing other values from the log, and
solving for x, the results exhibited in the fifth column of our table are easily
deduced. At the end of the elaborate report of the committee is a very com-
plete table of results, from which we extrac the following :—

Bae vay Se
3 5 3) Die ° oe 5 a. 5 by
ia) Nas Bald mn eg <8 Bae) wee
Name. Style. SU tearm unger S32 Sgu 23
gn ofa) 26 e Baa of
Set vce aansely ure 5 Pain
Root .. ‘Sedtional*” 876} 23°59 32°5 o'00 416°6° F. 10°64 0709
Allen .. “Sectional*” 920 17:41 28:5 o'00 345°8°.F. Fo:60) e707
Phleger.. ‘‘Sectional*” 600 22°74 26:1 3°26 503°7°F. 10°49 0'699
Lowe .. ‘Tubulart” 913 21°63 24:2 6:90 389°6° F. 10°40 0°693
Blanchard ‘“Tubulart” 440 33°48 51°38 3:00 221°6° F. 11°34 0°756
ELECTRICITY.

M. Bouman, of Holland, has effeted a considerable improvement in the
arrangement of the Léclanché cell, rendering the pile still more constant. In
the flat-bottomed glass jar a plate of gas carbon and a rod of amalgamated zinc
are placed vertically, a short distance apart. The intervening space and the
surrounding parts of the vessel are then two-thirds filled with the usual
mixture of coarsely-pulverised coke and black oxide of manganese. In order
to prevent the zinc poles from coming into contaé with the black mass, it is
protected by a cover of woollen cloth. The porous cup is thus dispensed
with. Léclanché made the connection with the carbon plate by means of a
covering of sheet lead; but as this was liable to oxidation, complete contac
was often destroyed. Bouman remedies this evil by cutting a slit in the gas
carbon pole, and inserting a platinum wire, on the ends of which are clamps
in connection with the outer circuit. Thus modified, the elements were found
to run without interruption for a year sufficiently strong to drive an electric
clock, and to sustain an alarm clock for two years. Mr. Higgs, by arranging
a series of small-sized carbons and cylinders of zinc in alternate series in a
similar manner to the series of the old iron-zinc deflagrator, has been enabled
to dispense with additional celis, at the same time evolving the full ele¢tro-
motive force. He has succeeded in introducing into one small vessel twelve
couples of zinc and carbon (adopting M. Bouman’s method of surrounding the
zinc with felt), thus deriving the eleétro-motive force of about ten Daniell’s
cells from a very diminutive battery. Batteries exposing a larger surface are
being made on the same principle.

An improved method of nickel plating has been devised by Mr. Keith, by
which he obtains a flexible and tenacious deposit. The deposits at present
obtained are so brittle that the articles will not suffer the least bending. The
invention consists in adding to the various solutions of nickel, whether formed
of single or double salts, materials which by their presence prevent the decom-
position of the solution of the plating bath, and the deposition of oxide of nickel and

* Wrought-iron tubes. t With special provision for perfect combustion.
+Feed-water heater and mechanical draught.

1872.] Electricity. 403

other impurities upon the articles receiving the coating of nickel. There is added
to the solution of nickel one or more salts, either single or double, acid or
neutral, or associate, formed by the union of organic acids, acetic, citric, and
tartaric, with the alkalies and alkaline earths, ammonia, soda, potash, mag-
nesia, or alumina. These additions will, it is asserted, counteract the ten-
dency to decomposition of the solution by action of the electric current.
These various organic acid salts may be added interchangeably and col-
lectively, though the inventor prefers to use, in case of the double salts of
nickel and alkalies and alkaline earths, the organic acid salts which have for
their bases the alkali or alkaline earth which is associated with the nickel in
its double salt. Thus, when using a solution of nickel and ammonia, an
organic acid salt of ammonia is preferred, though the similar salts of soda and
potash will answer very well. In case of using a solution of a double salt of
nickel and potash, or a double salt of nickel and soda, an organic acid salt of
soda and potash is selected. Of the salts which can be used to accomplish
the effect, the tartrates are preferable. A comparatively small quantity of the
organic salts is necessary to be added, though more will not change the
character of the deposit. The following bath is said to work well:—To
20 gallons of a solution in water of the double sulphate of nickel and ammonia
of 7° Baumé, add 1 gallon of a solution, of an equal gravity, of neutral
tartrate of ammonia in water. Mix well, and the bath will be ready after
standing a few hours.

Two new electric detonators for mining purposes have been introduced at
the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, one for land, the other for marine service. The
first consists of a tin tuve filled with fulminating mercury, surmounted by a
spherical head of beech-wood. Through this head, and embedded in gutta-
percha to insulate them, run the electric wires, separated at their extremities.
In this separation, and between the fulminating mercury and the wires, a
small quantity of loose gun-cotton is placed. The passage of an electric
current generates sufficient heat to ignite the gun-cotton. The second deto-
nator is a modification of the old platinum wire fuse, and consists, like the
other, of a tin tube filled with fulminating mercury and with a beech-wood
head. To the ends of the insulated wires is attached about =s,ths of an inch
of platinum wire 0°003 inch thick. Some loose gun-cotton is placed around the
wire, and is ignited when the wire is raised to incandescence by the passage
of the current. The ignition of the gun-cotton explodes the fulminating
mercury, which in its turn explodes the powder.

M. Ruhmkorff has invented a new or rather modified apparatus for the
generation of ozone. The modes of preparation of this body have been :—
1. By the decomposition of water by the pile; 2. By means of phosphorus ;
3. By the action of concentrated sulphuric acid upon barytic oxide; 4. Finally,
by passinga series of sparks from an electrical machine or from an induction
coil through oxygen gas. The apparatus of M. Ruhmkorff is founded on this
last method. It consists of a rectangular wooden case containing several
horizontal ranges of metal plates, the alternate plates being connected, the one
set to one terminal and the other set to another terminal, in connection with
the poies of the battery or machine. These plates being thus arranged as
a condenser serve to increase the intensity and number of the sparks.
Tubulures connected with a reservoir of oxygen keep the case supplied, the
ozone being drawn off by an aspirator. With this apparatus many new
results have been obtained shortly to be brought to the notice of the scientific
world.

The metal cadmium has been found by Dr. Schonn capable of being ren-
dered, under certain circumstances, indifferent to the aétion of acids. It has
long been known that iron, if plunged into nitric acid of a certain degree of
concentration, acquires a peculiar surface condition, rendering it indifferent to
the action of the strongest acid. Iron which has undergone this surface
change has been termed passive. It appears, too, that such iron has acquired
some peculiar physical qualities, since it will form a galvanic circuit with
ordinary iron; the changed metal behaving electrically negative to the other.

404 Progress in Science. [July,

That such iron has really been decidedly altered in charaéer is evinced again
by the fact that it refuses to reduce copper from solutions of its salts. It
appears from Dr. Schonn’s observation, that if cadmium is wrapped with
some platinum wire, it may be placed, without being in the least a¢ted upon,
in strong nitric acid, though if the wire surrounding is removed, or if the
acid is diluted, the cadmium is instantly attacked, thus showing that the
passivity of the cadmium is due entirely to its contact with the platinum.
The same author has shown that tin will give a similar phenomenon.

M. D’Arlincourt has invented a relay said to be very easily adjusted and
effective inits working. At the negative extremity, a, of a powerful horse-shoe
magnet, c, are fixed the two poles of an eleCtro-magnet. A vertical bar of
iron, P, centred at b in the positive pole of the horse-shoe permanent magnet,

Fia. 3.

and therefore permanently positively magnetised, vibrates between the two
poles of the eleG&tro-magnet on the other extremity of the horse-shoe magnet.
When a series of currents are passed through the wires of the electro-magnet,
the bar Pp necessarily executes a corresponding series of vibratory movements,
being displaced from the positive pole of the ele&tro-magnet, to which it
returns on an interruption or change in the direction of the current. In this
relay it is said that the difficulty of residual magnetism arising from the
coercive force of the iron of the electro-magnet, is removed, and that the
degree of rapidity of the oscillations of the bar consequently depends upon the
rate at which the current can be made and interrupted in the line. With
the relay disposed as a translating apparatus at Paris, messages were trans-
mitted from Marseilles to London, traversing the cable at Dieppe. The trial
showed the relay capable of being worked at a high speed and with great
precision.

M. Lenz has lately submitted a valuable paper on the properties of iron
deposited by the eleGtric current. He arrives at the following conclusions :—
That iron and copper deposited by the galvanic current retain a gas, princi-
pally hydrogen. The volume of the gas absorbed by the iron varies between
very wide limits, being sometimes as much as 185 times itsown volume. The
absorption of the gas takes place principally in the first layers of metal
deposited. The absorbed gas may be disengaged by heating the iron to a
temperature of 100° C. These researches are likely to throw great light upon
the electrolytic deposition of metals, and the obtaining of a reguline deposit.

M. Volpicelli finds that the least flexure produced in a strip of metal gives
rise to an electric current when the strip forms part of a condudtive circuit.
This was shown for the first time by Peltier, and the results of his experiments
were confirmed by M. A. dela Rive. Peltier formed a large circle with a
copper wire, which he put in communication with a galvanometer of small
resistance, and found that by bending the copper wire he produced a current
in the galvanometer that could not be attributed to the magnetic influence of
the earth. M. Volpicelli has repeated these experiments with a reflecting
galvanometer, and has arrived at numerous new results. He finds that the
electric current due to flexure may be obtained not only with iron, but with all
metals; but that copper, under the same circumstances, produces on an
astatic needle a greater deflexion than any other metal. These currents
present the remarkable fact of an entire transformation of force into

1872.] Electricity. 405

elearicity. The currentsdo not sensibly depend upon the heat produced by
flexure. Flexures in contrary direGtions in the length of the wire produce
currents in opposite directions. A diminution or augmentation in the rapidity
of flexure produces a diminution or augmentation of the intensity of the
electric current. A strip of different metals soldered together gives a current
of less intensity than a strip of a single metal.

It is interesting and not uninstructive to occasionally take retrospective
views of progress in science, and to note the previsions of the more striking
inventions. Whether Shakespeare when he made Puck say, “Tl draw a
girdle round the earth in forty minutes,” had dreams of the then future
eleGric telegraph, cannot be supposed; but we have more definite fore-
shadowings in Strada’s ‘‘ Prolusiones Academice,” 1617, proposing a dial with
alphabet and magnetic needle. Addison alludes to this invention in the
“« Spectator,” No. 244, 1712. Glanvill, in his “‘ Vanity of Dogmatising,” 1662,
says :—‘ To confer at the distance of the Indies by sympathetic conveyance
may be as useful to future times as to us in a literary correspondence.”
Evidently he is here thinking of the magnetic needle, for he continues after-
wards to discourse of ‘“‘conference at a distance by impregnated needles.”
Bailey’s ‘‘ Dictionary,” 1730, article “‘ Loadstone,” says :—‘‘ Some authors write
that, by the help of the magnet or loadstone, persons may communicate their
minds to a friend at a great distance; as suppose one to be at London and the
other at Paris, if each of them have a circular alphabet, like the dial-plate of a
clock, and a needle touched with one magnet, then at the same time that the
needle at London was moved, that at Paris would move in like manner,
provided each party had secret notes for dividing words, and the observation
was made at a set hour, either of the day or of the night.” Sir Francis Ronalds,
in 1816, constructed a tension telegraph at Hammersmith, the signals being
read off pith balls. In 1816 also Andrew Crosse said :—‘‘I prophesy that
by means of the electric agency we shall be enabled to communicate our
thoughts instantaneously with the uttermost parts of the earth.” This
remark, then a wild chimera, has been quickly achieved; not only can we com-
municate with the most remote continent, but we could, undoubtedly, had we
the wires laid, telegraph a signal eight times round the world in one second.

In Pfliiger’s ‘* Archive,” Professor L. Hermann has described some experi-
ments as to the condudtibility of living muscle. He finds that living muscle
offers very much greater assistance to an electric current passing across the
fibres than along them, in the ratio of 7:1. Muscles in the condition of rigor
mortis do not show this difference. The specific resistance of living muscle in
the longitudinal direction, taking the length of mercury as unity, 1s 2,330,000,
and in transverse direction 15,134,000. A similar difference occurs in the case
of the nerves, the ratio being then 5:1. The specific resistance of nerve in
the longitudinal direction is 2,554,000, and in the transverse direction 12,586,000,
the resistance of mercury being again taken equal to 1. The longitudinal
resistance of nerve is augmented by heating it to 50° C. (122° F.), the trans-
verse resistance simultaneously diminishing. Professor Hermann thinks
these differences of the resistance of the longitudinal and transverse sections of
muscle and nerve due to the different polarisation of the sheath and nucleus of
the fibres, and elucidates this by mathematical formule.

Professor J. T. Bottomley, M.A., F.C.S., describes the improved form of
gravity battery, as devised by Sir William Thomson, and in use in the
Physical Science Laboratory of Glasgow University, as follows:—The cell is
of glass, a pan made by glass-blowers for containing milk. The diameter is
21 inches. A disc of thin sheet copper is laid on the bottom; and a thick
copper wire covered with gutta-percha is soldered to the copper disc, and rises
to the top of the cell as an electrode. In the upper part of the cell is a heavy
mass of zinc, cast into the form of a circular gridiron, with three ears or pro-
jections, which rest on the edges of the glass. The gridiron shape is adopted
in order to permit the hydrogen to escape. The distance between the zinc
and copper plates is about 24 inches. A large sheet of parchment paper covers
the under surface of the zinc, and the corners and edges of the paper are

06 Progress in Science. [July,

brought up round the vertical sides of the zinc, so as to form a kind of bag
round it. The parchment paper is thus a separator between the mass of
liquid in the cell and that immediately surrounding the zinc. There is a
circular hole in the middle of the zinc, and the tube of a glass or earthenware
funnel passes through this and through a hole in the parchment paper, the
edges of which are tied round the tube, down to the bottom of the cell. The
cell is then filled up with a saturated solution of sulphate of zinc till the level
of the liquid is higher than that of the top of the zinc; and on the top of this
a layer of pure water 2 or 3 inches deep is poured carefully, so as to avoid
mixing. The pure water forms an atmosphere into which the sulphate of zinc
formed during the action of the battery may diffuse, and thus crystallisation is
avoided. To set the cell in action crystals of sulphate of copper are put into
the funnel. The dense solution flows down over the copper plate at the
bottom, and in less than five minutes the cell is in full work. The average
resistance of each cell is o-19 of a B.H. unit.

Professor G. Carey Foster, F.R.S., has recently brought forward some
valuable observations and improvements on the Wheatstone bridge. The
fault of this instrument in its usual form is, that the resistance of the copper
bands at the two angles is not taken into account. When large resistances
have to be measured the importance of this omission is very small; but when
resistances are to be measured smaller than the resistance of the apparatus, it
is at once apparent that the mistakes incurred become serious. The essence
of the fault lies in this, that the same amount will be added for resistance
of the band whether the measurement be one or a thousand; and to make it
quite flagrant, the nature of the fault is of the kind that would make (1+a)
a thousand times less than (Iooo+a). Suppose a to be 1 only; then 2 would
be made to answer for the thousandth part of roor. For the purpose of
making accurate measurements of very small resistances, such as those of
short lengths of wires, it is essential that we should either have a standard of
comparison, the value of which can be changed continuously, or, in other
words, by indefinitely small amounts ; or, that the method adopted for compa-
ring the unknown resistance to be measured with an invariable standard,
should be such as to enable us to vary continually, or by indefinitely small
amounts, the indicated ratio between the unknown resistance and the
standard. The former of these alternative means of measurement, namely a
continuously adjustable standard, is afforded by the rheostat of Wheatstone
and Jacobi; and the second, or a continuously adjustable method of compa-
rison, is afforded by those forms of Wheatstone’s ‘ Differential Resistance
Measurer”’ in which the ratio between the resistances to be compared is
established by moving one of the galvanometer contacts backwards and for-
wards along a graduated wire, until a point is found which causes the current
in the galvanometer to vanish. But neither the indications of the rheostat
nor those of any of the adjustable forms of Wheatstone’s bridge can be
accepted immediately as trustworthy, where anything like minute accuracy is
required. The direc indications of both instruments are liable to require cor-
rections, the most important of which are those required on account of
the resistance of connections not represented in the resistance of the scale,
and those required on account of irregularities in the diameter or conducting
power of the wire by which the adjustments are made. Professor Foster pro-
poses to employ a graduated wire as an adjustable standard for the measure-
ment of any resistance less than its own, in such a way as to eliminate
entirely from the result the resistance of the connections by which it is united
with the rest of the circuit. A German silver wire, EF, one metre in length,

Ages k Clk Dp
E F

graduated in 1000 millimetres, is connected at the ends with a copper band,
which passes at right angles to each end of the wire, and runs parallel to
it on the opposite side, where it is interrupted at A, B, c, and D, for the intro-

1872.) Electricity. 407

duction of conductors of known and unknown resistances. In the ordinary
use of the apparatus, the gaps A and pD are closed, either with thick copper
latches of insensible resistance, or by wires, the resistances of which are
known in comparison with that of the standard wire, EF. The resistances to
be compared are inserted at B and c. The battery wires are connected with
binding screws at g and h, one terminal of the galvanometer being connected
to the screw, k, the other galvanometer contact being in connection with a
sliding contact, which is moved backwards and forwards on EF, until the posi-
tion is found which causes no current to pass through the galvanometer. It is
then clear that the scale reading corresponding to this position would in general
indicate the true ratio of the resistances at B and c, only when the resistance of
the copper band is an insensible fraction of these resistances as well as of the
resistance of the wire, EF. But if the resistance to be measured is less than
that of the whole metre wire, a measurement of it in terms of the latter, which
is quite unaffected by the resistance of the connections, can be made by
obtaining the balance by the sliding conta& on EF; first, when the unknown
resistance is inserted at p, and a conneétor of insensible resistance at A; and
secondly, when the two have been interchanged, the gaps B and c being occu-
pied by any convenient conductors which do not differ more in relative resist-
ance than the wire to be measured, and the whole of the wire, EF. By
inserting two resistances at a and D, and getting the balance upon EF, and
then interchanging them, and getting the balance again, the difference of their
resistances is obtained in terms of the resistance of the standard wire. For
resistances inserted at A and D are equivalent to ungraduated prolongations
of EF, and, therefore, when the balance has been obtained by adjusting
the sliding contac, in order to maintain it after interchanging the conductor at
A and D, the contact must be shifted a length of EF, the resistance of which is
equal to the difference of the resistances at the two ends. When the resist-
ance of one of the conductors A or D is negligible, that of the other is given by
the shift of the sliding contact required to maintain the balance when this
conductor is inserted; first at one of the end gaps and then at the other.
Thus the wire, EF, becomes an adjustable standard of resistance, the indica-
tions of which are unaffected by the resistance of the end connections.

M. Béttger states that copper and brass may be coated with metallic zinc
in the following way:—Finely divided zinc, in a non-metallic vessel, is
covered with a concentrated solution of sal-ammoniac; this is heated to
boiling, and the articles of copper or brass, properly cleansed, are introduced.
A few minutes then suffice to produce a firm and brilliant coating. The
requisite fineness of the zinc is produced by pouring the molten metal into a
mortar, and triturating it until it solidifies.

Not an unimportant feature in eletrical science is its application to military
telegraphy. At a recent meeting of the Society of Telegraph Engineers,
Capt. E. D. Malcolm, R.E., read an interesting paper, detailing the progress
made in our military field telegraphs, as calculated to supply the communica-
ting link between the outposts and the army. It appears that we have at pre-
sent one troop of the Royal Engineer train devoted to this service, this troop
being divided into three sections, each carrying twelve miles of wire in half-
mile lengths. These pieces can be conveniently joined together by means of
an ebonite jointer, which makes a practically water-tight joint in less than
half a minute, and which, in the case of searching for faults, can be divided in
a shorter time. The cable is a strand of seven No. 22 B. W.G. copper wires,
insulated by Hooper’s compound. It is 3 in. thick and weighs 300 lbs. per
mile. It is rolled on wooden drums, placed on waggons drawn by six horses.
The poles are of wrought-iron tubing in two lengths, the butt ro feet long and
1} inches in diameter, the top g feet long and 1 inch in diameter, fitted inside the
lower half and fixed by a bayonet catch. The wire is carried and insulated in
a wooden plug fitting into the top of the pole. The earth plates are of
wrought-iron, 18 inches long, 44 inches wide, and } inch thick, and strong
enough to be driven home in any soil; while they are accompanied by a
six-gallon cask of water to insure moist earth. The office-van contains a pair
of Morse recording instruments, fitted with Siemens’s polarised relay, and

408 Progress in Science. [July,

with Digny’s ink-roller. The battery is a form of Daniell’s, arranged by
Sergeant Mathison, R.E.

TECHNOLOGY.

According to Dr. J. M. Maisch, an excellent liquid glue about the consistency
of molasses is made by dissolving glue in nitric ether; this fluid will only dis-
solve a certain amount of glue, consequently the solution cannot be made too
thick. It is much more tenacious than that made with hot water. By adding
a few pieces of caoutchouc, cut into scraps the size of buckshot, and allowing
the solution to stand a few days, frequently stirring, it will resist dampness
twice as well as glue made with water.

In a long interesting paper on the alloys now frequently employed for
making imitation jewellery, known as Abyssinian gold, Talmi gold, &c.,
Dr. C. Winkler points out that the alloy is not galvanically gilt, but is plated ;
that is to say, a very thin sheet of gold is made to adhere to a yellow metal
by rolling them together, and afterwards shaping, moulding, and chiselling by
means of steel tools, the amount of gold varying from 1°03 to 0'03 per cent.
As regards wear and tear, the author admits that, by careful plating, these
articles really answer well.

The use of inks of a similar composition to that now generally employed
appears to be of more ancient date than is generaily supposed, for on
examining a manuscript of the year gto, and belonging to the papers of the
Cluny Abbey (Paris), Dr. Balard found that the ink it was written with was
similar in composition to that now in use: it appears that MM. Coupier and
Collin have succeeded in preparing an ink which is not aged upon by nitric
and hydrochloric acids, chlorine, or bromine; it is not, however, quite proof
against alkalies.

The very common use, especially in England, of soda for washing linen is
very injurious to the tissues, and, moreover, has eventually the effec of
yellowing it. Dr. Quesneville states that in Germany and Belgium the
following mixture is now extensively used :—2 lbs. of soap are dissolved in 25
litres of water as hot as the hand can bear it; three large-sized tablespoonfuls
of liquid ammonia and one spoonful of best oil of turpentine are then added.
These fluids are incorporated rapidly by means of beating the soap-suds and
other fluids with a small birch-broom. The linen, &c., is then put into
the liquid and soaked for three hours, care being taken to cover the washing-
tub with a closely-fitting wooden lid; by this means the linen is readily
cleansed, requires very little rubbing, and there is also a saving of time and
fuel. Ammonia affects neither linen nor woollen goods, and is largely used as
washing-liquor in the North of England.

The following method is recommended by M. Méne for dyeing veneer wood.
The wood is first steeped for twenty-four hours in a solution of caustic soda,
and boiled with it for half an hour. It is then washed, to remove all the
alkali, and having become as soft as leather and equally elastic, as well as
capable of absorbing dye-stuffs, it is immersed for twenty-four hours, first in a
decoction of logwood, and then, after having been superficially dried, into a
boiling solution of sulphate of iron. When required to be yellow-dyed, it is
immersed in a solution of picric acid to which ammonia is added. Wood,
after steeping in soda, may also be dyed with coralline. The dyes are fast,
stand varnishing, and thoroughly penetrate through the whole of the wood,
which, after drying, may be sawn and veneered.

C. Daniel has described a method of painting with oil paints upon tin-foil
stretched uniformly on sheets of plate glass until the painting and varnishing
are finished. The tin-foil thus prepared is used instead of paper-hangings, and
for decorative purposes ; gilding can also be applied.

A rapid dryer for oil-paints and varnishes is formed by dissolving in 100
parts of water by the aid of heat, 12 parts of best shellac and 4 parts of
borax; pouring the solution, after cooling, into bottles, which should be
well corked. According to M. Méne, this solution is mixed with oil of turpen-
tine, and added to oil-paints; the liquid may also be employed as a varnish.

1872.] Chemistry. 409

A very good wood varnish for furniture and other wooden objects is made by
adding to 1 kilo. of fluid copal varnish 15°62 grms. of best boiled linseed oil,
and heating the mixture. The wood to be varnished is first coated with
a solution of gelatine, to which either some precipitated chalk or some red
ochre is added, according to the nature of the wood. When the coat of var-
nish is dry the article is rubbed with a solution of wax in ether.

It is well known that it requires some tact to bend a glass tube with an even
curb and without collapsing its sides, and many chemists never do succeed in
bending them skilfully. Prof. J. Lawrence Smith bends them satisfactorily by
using the flame given by the Bunsen burner described in his article on
alkali determination in silicates in vol. xxiii. of the ‘Chemical News.” The
extremity of the burner is flattened out sa as to give a short and thin but
broad flame, something like the flame of an ordinary gas-burner. The tube is
placed in this flame and turned round and round, until a good heat is given to
the tube; it is then withdrawn from the flame and can be bent with a perfe&
curve and without collapse of the sides of the tube. A tube of 1 centimetre
and more can be thus bent very readily.

Sulphur is recommended by M. J. Ménard as a lubricating material. To 100
kilos. of good colza oil add 5 kilos. of sulphur, and heat this mixture to from
130° to 140° until all the sulphur is dissolved. It is said that, being a bad con-
ductor of heat, sulphur prevents the heat caused by the friction of machinery
being carried over upon the oil, which can therefore serve for a longer period than
usual as a lubricating medium.

Glycerine has been found by experience to be useful as a means of
increasing the elasticity and strength of leather. C. Méne states that hides
which have been partly tanned by the usual process, may be greatly improved
—especially if required for machine-belts—by being soaked for some time in
glycerine.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE.

It will be remembered that in 1869 a Lectureship was founded by the
Chemical Society in honour of the illustrious Faraday, to be held by some
eminent foreign savant, who during the term of his tenure, was to deliver a
discourse before the Society. The second ‘“‘ Faraday Lecture” was delivered
on May 30th by Professor Cannizzaro, of Palermo, at the Lecture Theatre of
the Royal Institution. The learned Professor’s discourse was entitled ‘* Con-
sidérations sur quelques Points de l’Enseignement Théorique de la Chemie.”
On Friday a dinner was given to the Professor, at which about 150 were
present, including the Italian Ambassador and the Right Hon. the Chancellor
of the Exchequer.

At the meeting of the chemical section of the German Association for the
Advancement of Science, at Rostock, Professor Schulze read a paper on the
direct oxidation of carbon by means of permanganate of potash in an alkaline
solution, which excited lively debate, and was justly regarded as one of the
most important chemical discoveries of the year. In addition to copious
quantities of oxalic acid and of other produés not yet determined, the author
obtained an acid to which he has given the name of anthraconic, and which
he found to closely resemble mellitic acid in its properties. The experiment
was repeated with charcoal purified in a stream of chlorine gas, also by
calcining cream of tartar, by the reduction of carbonic acid with phosphorus,
and from graphite. All of these varieties of carbon yielded analogous results.
So great was the interest manifested in the announcement, that the leading
chemists adjourned to the Professor’s laboratory, there to repeat the tests and
to examine into the nature of the incidental products. They soon came to
the conclusion that the new body was identical with mellitic acid. By treating
the anthraconic acid with caustic soda, benzol was produced, which was con-
verted into nitrobenzol in the usual manner, and from this produé aniline
was manufactured.

VOL. I. (N.S.) 3G

410 Progress in Scrence. (July,

According to a decree in France, dated March 7, 1808, it has been enjoined
that no wells shall be bored or dug out at aless distance than 100 metres in
all directions from any burial-ground. Dr. Lefort having found that not only
in many country villages, but ‘also in several towns, this regulation has not
been observed, has made some experiments on the water of a well at Saint
Didier (Département de l’Allier), which locality is situated on an alluvial soil.
This water is used for drinking purposes by the parish priest and a portion of
the inhabitants, and, on examination, the author found it to contain not only
a large proportion of ammoniacal salts, but also, on evaporation, to leave a
very large quantity of a dark-coloured organic matter mixed with carbonated
salts, which, on being mixed with some hydrochloric acid, gave off an offensive
carbonic acid gas, the smell being somewhat akin to a mixture of a concentrated
solution of glue and butyric acid. The well is very deep, and the water is
quite clear and bright, but exhibits, especially in summer time, a very vapid
taste, while, in the warm season of the year it rapidly becomes putrid. The
author comes to the conclusion that, in any soil, a well dug at the distance of
100 metres from either burial-grounds or battle-fields is quite useless to prote&
the water of even deep wells from becoming so contaminated with organic
and other injurious matter as to make them very dangerous to health.

A Detroit druggist, assisted by two gentlemen, resolved to make a number
of experiments on spontaneous combustion. They first took a piece of cotton
cloth, which had once formed part of a sheet, and which had been used until
quite threadbare, and smeared it with boiled linseed oil. An old chest was
placed in the loft of a store-room back of the drug store, a piece of zinc over it,
and another piece under it, and then the chest was filled with paper and rags, and
this particular piece of cloth placed in the centre. Although the room was
not a light one, and the weather cold, in eight days there was such a smell of
fire about the trunk, and the chances were so good for a conflagration within
it, that the contents were emptied. An examination showed that the fibre
of the oil-cloth had untwisted and shrivelled up, and that the rag looked as
if it had been held too near a hot blaze. In April, when the rays of the sun
were stronger, a pair of painter’s overalls, literally covered with paint and
oil, were rolled up, a handful of pine shavings placed inside, and these were
crowded in next to the roof boards of the loft. The experiment was not a
week old when, during one warm afternoon, a smell of smoke alarmed a work-
man in the next room, and he found the overalls burning, and so tinder-like
was the cloth that it had to be crowded into a pail of water to prevent total
destruction. During the hot weather of August, a handful of old cotton rags,
in which two matches were placed, but which were not smeared with oil or
other matter, were shut up in a tin box, and hung up in the loft, a rear window
allowing the afternoon sun to shine directly on the box for several hours.
Toward the close of the fourth day the druggist took down the box to see
how the experiment was progressing, and found the contents to consist of
nothing but a puff of black cinders, which flew all over him as the lid was
lifted. Having a vacant corner in his brick wood-house at home, the druggist
took the trunk up there, where there was no danger of burning a building.
He filled the trunk with the contents of the paper rag-bag, and then smeared
one with benzine and threw it in last of all. The trunk was shut tight, every-
thing cleared away from its vicinity, and he commenced watching. One day
the family came home to find a few ashes marking the place where the trunk
stood, while the bricks above and around were badly stained with smoke.

At the last meeting of the Chemico-Agricultural Society at Belfast, under
the presidency of Dr. Knox, late Poor Law Inspector, the subject of whisky
adulteration was brought under consideration by Dr. Hodges, who exhibited
a specimen of that liquid brought to him by two men who had been physically
incapacitated by drinking a small portion of it in a public-house. He found,
on analysis, that it contained a large amount of naphtha. He had also dis-
covered that ingredients of even a more deleterious character were used in the
process of adulteration,—mixtures containing sulphate of copper (blue-stone),
cayenne pepper, sulphuric acid (vitriol), and a little spirits of wine. One

1872.] Chemucal Sctence. 411

specimen submitted to Dr. Hodges by a number of provision cutters and
curers, was composed of naphtha and a slight colouring of whisky. The men
who had imbibed a small quantity of it were affected with serious symptoms;
and this, said Dr. Hodges, was a fair specimen of the drink sold in low-class
public-houses. The trade in this noxious compound is carried on withimpunity,
no local authority in Belfast or in the Province of Ulster caring to exercise
the powers with which the legislature has invested them for the suppression
of the traffic.

Mr. J.T. King recommends the following process for detecting sulphuric acid
in vinegar. It will dete@ the 5ooth part of free sulphuric acid, and is accurate
for all practical purposes. An ounce of the vinegar to be examined is, by
evaporation upon a water-bath, reduced to about half a drachm, or the con-
sistency of a thin extrac ; when quite cold half a fluid ounce of strong alcohol
is thoroughly incorporated; the free sulphuric acid will be taken up by the
alcohol, to the exclusion of any sulphates; the alcoholic liquid solution should
stand for several hours, and then be filtered; add to the filtrate 1 fluid ounce
of pure distilled water, and evaporate off the alcohol by the application
of a gentle heat ; the remaining liquid is again left standing for several hours,
and again filtered; to the filtrate, previously acidulated with a few drops of
pure hydrochloric acid, a solution of chloride of barium is added, which, if
sulphuric acid be present, will yield a white precipitate.

Dr. Personne accidentally obtained a small piece of a chocolate-brown
substance, which originally was apparently a paste, but is now hard. On
further examination it was found to consist of a lime-soap, mixed with myrrh,
olibanum, benzoin, and probably some essential oil. The author states that
at the present day there is sold in Egypt as a perfume a substance of similar
composition, and locally known as Bouh-Kourre-bare, which means perfume
from the Arabian frontier.

M. A. Muntz has instituted, with great care and on a praétically large scale,
a series of experiments, with the view of ascertaining the quantity of
materials consumed by the hop-plant during its growth and development from
spring to autumn (hop-picking time), for a number of 6316 plants placed ona
hectare (= 2°47 acres). The quantities alluded to, expressed in kilos., are—
Water, 11270°270 kilos.; carbon, 2624°361; hydrogen, 315°547; oxygen,
2011°393; nitrogen, gt'141; phosphoric acid, 22°699; magnesia, 24°352;
potassa, 41°812; soda, 0455; non-specifically determined mineral matters,
133°278.

According to G. Salet, when a crystal of iodine is put into a hard glass tube,
the tube sealed, and then strongly heated to redness at some distance from the
iodine, the latter substance will be seen, after the heating of the tube has been
discontinued, to become volatilised, and to exhibit when entering the still hot
portion of the tube a brilliant red light. This experiment may be also made
by means of a glass tube provided with a spirally-wound platinum wire, which
is made red-hot by means of an eleétric current.

A new product of decomposition of commercial aniline has been found by
R. Braun and Ph. Grieff. When a large quantity of commercial aniline is
distilled along with lime, the last portion of the distillate is not quite freely
soluble in hydrochloric acid ; further investigation led to the conclusion that
the properties of that substance agree with those of carbazol, as described by
Graebe and Glaser. Carbazol is present in crude tar oil, but the authors
surmise that this substance might be formed by the drying of the mixture of
aniline and lime in contac with the very hot metal of the iron still.

Based upon experiments very successfully made with animals, Drs. Eulen-
berg and Wohl propose the use of animal charcoal, made up into pills as an
efficient antidote against the bad effets of phosphorus in the lucifer
match manufadtories ; they prefer this substance to oil of turpentine, which,
though an effectual antidote against phosphorus, causes, in many instances,
severe headaches when internally taken.

412 Progress in Science. [July,

The magnetic sand, which exists in immense quantities on all sides of
Mount Etna, has a sp. gr. of 2°813, and is scarcely aGed on by acids. The
results of its analysis by J. B. Hannay gave—Silica, 52°71; magnetic oxide of
iron, 19°44; alumina, 19:09; lime, 6°61; and magnesia, 1°85.

THE PROGRESS IN SCIENCE AT THE INTERNATIONAL
EXHIBITION OF 1872.

STEERING the South Gallery we are in the department apportioned to

recent scientific inventions and new discoveries. This year the depart-
ment presents no striking feature, so that we must proceed to notice the
exhibits as they occur tous. At the entrance of the South Gallery stands the
Electric Motor Clock of Messrs. Cooke and Son, of York ; this clock, a€tuated
by a not very powerful battery, controls and drives the many clocks required
in the Exhibition buildings. The instrument has now stood a very severe
test, this being the second year of its working successfully. The construction
is exceedingly simple. There are several excellent electric clocks exhibited by
Messrs. Moseley and Co., in the French annexé, of which we are sorry no
description has been given. Continuing, however. our walk through the South
Gallery, we pass a bowser, for tightening and holding ropes, exhibited by
A. Paget and Co., several hoists and pulley-blocks, by Tangye Brothers and
Holman, and by Head, Wrightson, and Co., and arrive before a model of a house,
constructed entirely of waterproof paper, and over which a plentiful rain of
water is continually flowing. The paper is rendered waterproof by the cupro-
ammonium process, now the property of the Waterproof Paper and Corrugated
Fibre Company, and can be seen in the roll, single or double. There are also
combinations of cotton or linen fabrics with waterproof paper, in slabs, flat or
corrugated, of various thicknesses, for roofing or building purposes, waterproof
tubing, panels, &c. Cupro-ammonium is stated to be prepared by the immer-
sion of copper scraps in concentrated liquid ammonia. The fluid becomes
deep blue in colour, and possesses remarkable solvent and agglutinising pro-
perties with regard to paper, linen, silk, and bone. Fibrous material treated
with this fluid is rendered waterpoof. It is stated that oxide of copper preci-
pitated and re-dissolved by ammonia does not possess the solvent power of the
solution obtained by the immersion of copper-turnings in ammonia. Any
paper sent to the company is made waterproof and corrugated at an expendi-
ture of 40 percent on the original cost. Near to this exhibit are two non-
conducting cements for covering boilers and steam-pipes by Messrs. Fox,
Head, and Co., and by Messrs. Leroy and Co. Mr. Barlow, F.R.S., exhibits
a very clever instrument for calculating the cubical contents of earthwork.
Messrs. T. A. Skelton show a Catoptric Street Lamp now in use on Waterloo
Bridge, devised to prevent the waste of light from the higher parts of the
lamp. The invention consists in arranging strips of silvered glass in such a
way that the maximum amount of light is thrown upon the pathway. Messrs.
Lynch and Co. exhibit a knobbed blue-glass poison-bottle to prevent the use of
poison by mistake in the dark. Captain E. Sawyer contributes three drawings ofa
pivot-revolving gun-carriage on rails. This year there are exhibited many
very useful little inventions, all of which it is impossible that we can
enumerate. Among the most prominent is a contrivance for the prevention of
guttering in candles, the contribution of the Rev. J. Langton Clarke, a small
glass socket fitting on the candle. This socket is studded with small points
of coloured glass, forming a very pretty as well as useful ornament. Another
of these minor inventions, and one that will be appreciated by artists, is a
reservoir palette for flat tints, preventing evaporation, by Messrs. Ackermann.
Returning to what must really be the true object of an exhibition of this
nature, the development of manufactures, we have a model of a patent
Puddling Furnace, by Mr. Danks; a model of a kiln for burning bricks, by Mr.
Batchelar; and a cutting and crushing sugar machine from Belgium, contri-
buted by Léon Goffin. Captain W.H. Noble, R.A., contributes some speci-

1872.] The International Exhibition. 413

mens of gunpowder (R.L.G., L.G., pebble, pellet, and prismatic) recently
tried by the Committee on Explosives; also a crusher-gauge for dire@ly
determining the pressure of fired gunpowder. Messrs. Bessemer have a very
complete series of sectional models illustrating the Bessemer principle of
constructing Continuous Low Pressure Ordnance. From Sir Joseph Whit-
worth and Co. there are excellent models of a Six-pounder Breech-loading
Rifled Gun and Carriage, made of Sir Joseph Whitworth’s patent compressed
metal; and models of a breech-loading field-gun and a breech-loading naval
gun and carriage. Major W. Palliser, C.B., shows a Service Muzzle-loading
64-pounder Rifled Gun, converted on the Palliser principle from a smooth
bore 32-pounder gun, and having fired 2300 rounds. These are in the
West Arcade. Returning to the South Gallery we have, completing the list
of furnaces and heating apparatus, the Newport Patent Puddling Furnace and
Boiler invented by Jones, Howson, Gjers, and J. Head; also a seétional
model of Whitwell’s Patent Hot-Blast Fire-brick Stove, ereéted at the
moderate cost of £850 to £1000. Near at hand is a model of an admirable
Boat Lowering Apparatus invented and exhibited by Mr.E. J. Hill. This
apparatus appears to be extremely simple; by a peculiar form of eye it is con-
trived that should either end of the boat alone touch the water, the eyes are not
liberated ; should the boat touch the surface of the water in the complete plane,
the eyes are immediately disengaged and the boat set free. The direct applica-
tion of recently discovered scientific principles meets with but slight repre-
sentation in the present Exhibition. Dr. Siemens, F.R.S., exhibits his Deep
Sea Photometer, an apparatus for comparing the intensities of light at
different depths of water. This photometer was used on board H.M.S. Shear-
water, in August, 1871, in the Straits of Gibraltar. Dr. Siemens also contri-
butes an Apparatus for Working Pneumatic Despatch Tubes on the continuous
current system, as established for the transmission of postal telegrams
between the West Strand and Central Telegraph Stations, together with an
exhauster or steam-jet for drawing the air through the tubes. Colonel
H. Stuart Wortley exhibits some results of his New Dry Photographic
Process, for working, by the use of collodio-bromide of silver, without a silver
bath. Passing from the gallery containing the preceding exhibits, the visitor
interested in the useful application of science to every day purposes, will pause
before the table at which an attendant of Messrs. D. Nicoll and Co. explains
the use of a Fire-proof Starch. This starch renders fabrics uninflammable
without affecting their colour, strength, or appearance, and requires only
ordinary treatment by the laundress; it can be obtained in small quantities at
a moderate price.

Science, as represented in its own division, may be said to have now been
exhausted by our imaginary visitor; but the ground upon which Science and
Art marshal their combined forces is where the several kinds of musical
instruments are exhibited. The instrument of general interest, the pianoforte,
appears either in the gorgeous case-work of Messrs. Hopkinson and of
Messrs. Erard, whose instruments are marvels of marqueterie work, or in the
full-toned bijou pianofortes of the former firm, certainly the most powerful
of the middle-class instruments, and in this respect not inferior to some of
the grands exhibited. The Iron-Bijou-Grand Pianoforte, as well as the Full
Concert-Grand contributed by this firm, are worthy of notice in a scientific
point of view, from the substitution of iron for wood in those portions of
the instrument subject to strain. When we consider that the strings of a
seven-octave pianoforte tuned to concert-pitch exert a tension equal to nearly
a half-score of tons, the employment of some material occupying less space
and of more regular structure than wood is evidently desirable.

The applications of eleétricity are yearly becoming more numerous, and
since its first employment in organ construétion by Mr. Barker, of Paris, it has
received considerable attention from Messrs. Bryceson Brothers and Co.,
who built their first electric organ for Her Majesty’s Opera in 1868. The
organ exhibited in the present Exhibition consists of one manual and eight
stops. A voltaic battery, electro-magnets, and attenuated air as a motive
power, are the chief agents employed. Each key is connected to a separate

414 Progress in Science. [July,

electro-magnet in the organ, the armature of which is attached to the lever
valve of a pneumatic pallet of peculiar construction. On pressing a key an
electric current is completed around its corresponding magnet, and the
armature being attracted causes the pallet to open and admit wind to the
pipes; immediately the key is released the current ceases, the armature
returns, and the pallet is closed. Powerful west gallery organs may thus be
played from the east end of the church entirely through a cable of insulated
wire an inch in diameter, or attached to additional manuals provided for that
purpose at a mechanical organ placed close to the choir. The eleétric current
is supplied from four cells of a single fluid battery, the electrodes of which are
automatically withdrawn from the exciting fluid when the wind is out of the
organ.

The processes of envelope manufacture are among the most interesting
exhibits, chiefly by Messrs. Goodall and Son, and by Messrs. John Dickinson
and Co. The process commences at the northern end of the gallery, where
the paper, as it arrives in endless rolls from the mill, is fixed to the cutting-
machine to be cut into sheets of the required size. The paper has next to be
‘‘olazed.” This is done by interleaving it sheet by sheet with plates of zinc
or brass, and passing it in small quantities between rolls under enormous
pressure varying from 20 to gotons. Out of this paper the ‘‘ blanks” of the
required size are punched, and then have to be gummed on the ‘‘ nose,” that
portion which has to be wetted when fastening the finished envelope, 4000
envelopes being gummed in one hour. The blanks have now to be folded, an
operation effected by means of machinery. 300,000 envelopes can be com-
pleted weekly.

About three o’clock daily the centre of interest is the Marinoni machine,
printing the ‘“‘ Echo” newspaper at 12,000 copies per hour. The printing-
press is the consummation of scientific principle, and we regret not being
able to afford space for the description of the many admirable inventions.
We must, however, record the endeavours of Mr. Walter, M.P., to attain the
best form of ‘‘ perfecting”? machine, or one that prints both sides of the sheet
at asingle operation, in order to dispense with the manual skill required in
other machines to lay on sheet after sheet with the requisite accuracy. The
Walter press requires but two attendants, and the paper passes continuously
through the machine. At one end of the machine is placed a reel of tightly-
rolled paper, in the form in which it leaves the paper-mill, nearly four miles
in length. The paper is led from the reel into a series of damping cylinders,
and thence between the first and second of four cylinders raised perpen-
dicularly above each other. The top cylinder is encircled by the stereotype
casts of four pages of type, whilst round the lowest of the four cylinders are
the stereotypes of the remaining four pages of the newspaper. The paper is
thus printed first on one side and then on the other. Passing to other cylin-
ders, the continuous sheet is cut into lengths, each forming a complete news-
paper. 12,000 copies of the complete paper can be printed in one hour. It
should be said that it is to Mr. Walter that we owe much of the progress in
printing.

We understand upon authority that no ‘Official Report upon Recent
Scientific Inventions and New Discoveries” will be published this year.

1872.] ( 415 )

QUARTERLY LIST OF PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED FOR REVIEW.

Elements of Chemistry: Theoretical and Practical. By William Allen
Miller, M.D., D.C.L., LL.D. Revised by Herbert McLeod, F.C.S.
Part I.—Chemical Physics. Fifth Edition. Longmans and Co.

Introduction to the Study of Biology. By H. Alleyne Nicholson, M.D., &c.
William Blackwood and Sons.

On Mankind: their Origin and Destiny. By an M.A. of Balliol College,
Oxford. Longmans and Co.

Natural Philosophy for General Readers and Young Persons. Translated and
Edited from Ganot’s ‘‘ Cours Elémentaire de Physique.” By E. Atkinson,
BhiDr hb. C.5- Longmans and Co.

Essays on Astronomy. By Richard A. Proctor, B.A., Cambridge.
Longmans and Co.

Geological Survey of Ohio. Report of Progress in 1870. By J. S. Newbury.
Columbus : Nevins and Myers.

The Earth’s Crust. A Handy Outline of Geology. By David Page, LL.D.,
F.G.S. Sixth Edition. William Blackwood and Sons.

A Manual of Chemical Physiology, including its Points of Contaé with
Pathology. By J. L. W. Thudichum, M.D. Longmans and Co.

Man in the Past, Present, and Future. From the German of Dr. L. Biichner,
By W. S. Dallas, F.L.S. London: Asher and Co.

Conversations on Natural Philosophy. By Mrs. Marcet. Revised and Edited
by Francis Marcet, F.R.S. Fourteenth Edition. Longmans and Co.

An Exposition of Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin. By C. R. Bree,
MEDS PeZ.9- Longmans and Co.

Contributions to Molecular Physics in the Domain of Radiant Heat. By
John Tyndall, LL.D., F.R.S. Longmans and Co.

New Formule of the Loads and Deflections of Solid Beams and Girders. By
William Donaldson, M.A., A.I.C.E. E. and F. N. Spon.

Patterns for Turning ; comprising Elliptical and other Figures cut on the Lathe
without the Use of any Ornamental Chuck. By H. W. Elphinstone.
Fohn Murray.
PAMPHLETS AND PERIODICALS.

Report of the Miners’ Association of Cornwall and Devonshire.
Falmouth: W. Tregas kis.

Lectures Delivered in the Lecture-Room of the Industrial and Technological
Museum, Melbourne. Melbourne: S. Mullen.

On Experimental Stations. By E. Packard, jun., F.C.S. Read before the
Framlingham Farmers’ Club.

On Pressure Logs for Measuring the Speed of Ships. By James R. Napier,
F.R.S.

On the Method of Creation of Organic Types. By Edward D. Cope, A.M.

Catalogue of the Pythonomorphia found in the Cretaceous Strata of Kansas.
By E. D. Cope, A.M.

Sur une Combinaision de Bioxyde de Chrome et de Dichromate Potassique
dichromate Kalichromeque. Par M. D. Tommasi.

( 416 ) [July, 1872.

Sur un Nouveau Dissolvant de L’Iodure ,Plombique et de son Application a
la Pharmacie. Par D. Tommasi.

Hypotheses. By F. J. Finois.

The New Patent relating to the Sewage of Towns. By J. Brough Pow, Esq.
Naval Science.

The Popular Science Review.

The Geological Magazine.

The American Chemist.

The Westminster Review.

Macmillan’s Magazine.

Blackwood’s Magazine. od
The Civil Service Gazette.

Revue Bibliographique Universelle.

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES, &c.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archeological Association of Ireland.
No. 8. Dublin: McGlashan and Gill.
Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists’ Society.

Proceedings of the Newcastle Chemical Society.
Monthly Microscopical Journal. Robert Hardwick.
Proceedings of the Royal Society.

Ofversight af Kongl. Vetenskaps-Akademiens Forhandlingar.
Stockholm: Norstedt and Siner.

NOTICE TO AUTHORS.

* * Authors of ORIGINAL PAPERS wishing REPRINTS for
private circulation may have them on application to the
Printer of the Journal, 3, Horse-Shoe Court, Ludgate Hill,
E.C., at a fixed charge of 30s. per sheet per Loo copies,
including CoLoURED WRAPPER and TITLE-PaGE; but such
Reprints will not be delivered to Contributors till ONE MONTH
after publication of the Number containing their Paper, and the
Reprints must be ordered when the proof is returned.

Cases FoR BinpING the “Quarterly Journal of Science ”
may be had, Price ts. 6d, post free 1s. 8d., from the Publisher,
3, Horse-Shoe Court, Ludgate Hill, E.C.

THE QUARTERLY

POU k NAD Or sClean € i:

OCTOBER, 1872.

i THE ORIGIN OF THE GREAT CYCLONES.

By Professor THompson B. Maury,
United States Naval Observatory.

sILN his sketch of the early triumphs of science in England,
a Macaulay tells us, “‘One after another, phantoms
=> which had haunted the world through ages of darkness
fled before the light.” It was no wonder that men, taught
by Bacon to investigate instead of to imagine, should
have learned more in a day than all their fathers for a
thousand years before them. It was not strange that
unscientific prelates and courtiers and literary gentlemen
should have made brilliant discoveries in chemistry and
physics, where, for centuries, professional alchemists and
schoolmen had floundered in their own muddled dreams.
But it seems passing strange that the phenomenon of
storms and tempests should have escaped the eye of
true science till quite recently, and remained so long one
of those “‘ phantoms” of which the historian spoke. The
time has certainly arrived for a vigorous invasion of
the vast and splendid, but yet unsubdued, domain of
meteorology. The key to success in this aggressive move-
ment, I conceive, lies in the determination of the cause of
cyclones and the generation of the storms which perpetually
travel over their ordained and fire-sprinkled paths. As
Professor Buys Ballot, the eminent chief of the Royal
Dutch Meteorological Institute, in announcing the scheme
of inquiry for the General Congress of Meteorologists to be
held this year, has so well expressed it, “‘ the origin of de-
pression systems is the great problem to be solved.” ‘Vhis solution
I have attempted here. I am not unconscious of its im-
portance and difficulty. But no scientific inquiry conducted,
as I shall stri¢tly conduct this, upon the exciusive principle
of a sufficient induction of observed facts, can be justly
regarded as presumptuous. It is the glory of such a method
of inquiry that while it risks nothing it has the best
opportunities for solid and splendid acquisitions, and may
not inaptly be compared, as some one has suggested, to
VOL. (f (N.S.) 3H

418 The Origin of the Great Cyclones. (October,

Wellington’s strategy in forming the famous lines of Torres
Vedras.

The only theory for the generation of cyclonic storms
which has engaged more than an ephemeral existence is
that of M. Dové, the distinguished meteorologist of Germany.
Taking the West Indian cyclone as the type of all others,
beginning in the intra-tropical regions and extending into
high latitudes, M. Dové is the well-known advocate of the
doctrine that these storms ‘‘ Owe their origin to the intrusion
of the upper counter trade-wind into the lower trade-wind
current.”* Without now entering into a discussion of this
hypothesis, it will be proper for me to mention a different
one advanced some time ago by myself, as a substitute for
the older one of Dové, and as affording a satisfactory
solution of all tropical storms and cyclones. This hypothesis,
which will here be fully stated, was also based on the
agency of the trade-winds, but in a manner totally distinéct
from that assumed by the German meteorologist ; and in
the original statement of my own views it is asserted that
“‘the origin of cyclones is found in the tendency of the
South-East trade-winds to invade the territory of the North-
East trades, by sweeping over the Equator into our
hemisphere, the lateral conflict of currents giving an initial
impulse to bodies of air, by which they begin to rotate.”
This explanation will take us aside for a while to notice the
law of storms and the region of the trade-winds, upon
which, according to the two hypotheses, the tropical storm
has its birth.

It can hardly be necessary in stating the law of storms,
as first announced and established by Mr. Redfield, to do
more than call attention to its fundamental condition. In
Europe, meteorology has made rapid strides. Since the
institution of the Weather Bureau in the United States,
the eye of every American has become familiar with the
daily isobaric and other isometeoric lines on the weather
maps of the War Department, displaying with the fidelity
of an automatic instrument a tri-daily photograph of the
never quiet aérial ocean. He has learned to watch its
mighty pulsations. He traces from day to day the exactly
delineated area of every passing storm, and follows its
cloud-led march from shore to shore of the Continent.
Nothing of importance in the meteoric world in his own
country can escape him, for he is in telegraphic communi-
cation with every part and corner of its vast territory.

* Dove’s Law of Storms, p. 264.

1872.] The Origin of the Great Cyclones. 419

While philosophers and meteorologists, in many countries
less favoured with a system of weather telegrams, have
been discussing and disputing the reality of the law of
storms, he sees it daily verified and is himself a storm warner.

That ‘‘law,” first elaborated by Mr. Redfield and Col.
Reid, simply stated, is this :—‘*‘ All gales or hurricanes are
great whirlwinds, in which the winds blow in circuits
around an axis vertical or inclined; that the winds do not
blow in horizontal circles, but in sinuous spirals towards
the axis, a descending spiral movement externally, and an
ascending one internally, at the cyclonal centre; that the
direction of apparent revolution is always uniform, being
against the motion of the sun or against the hands of a
watch turned face upwards, or from right to left in the
northern hemisphere, and just the contrary in the southern
hemisphere. The moment a barometric fall occurs, or, in
any way, a sinking or depression of the atmospheric sea
takes place, that moment, from all sides, the air begins to
press inwards in radial lines upon the vortex. If the
earth was not revolving on its axis, and the surface was
smooth and polished so as to offer no friction, the air
currents would flow in the direction of the spokes of a
well-made wheel; on reaching the centre they would ascend
as in a hollow and somewhat erect cylinder of air until they
had restored the equilibrium of the agitated mass. The
earth’s diurnal motion diverts them, however, to the right.
Still they go forward to the centre of agitation, and, on
reaching it, ascend. In ascending they grow cooler and
cooler; their interstices grow smaller and smaller; their
moisture is wrung from them at the altitude of a few
thousand feet; and the evolution of the latent heat stored
away in the vesicles of their aqueous vapour now begins,
and the tempest begins to rage in earnest. This process
goes on as long as the storm cylinder or centre is fed with
the vapour of water, and, as we shall presently see, it
ceases when that supply fails, as quickly and necessarily as
the wheel or screw of the steamship ceases to revolve when
her engineer cuts off the steam from her cylinders.

Thus we behold the cyclonic meteor set in motion in-
ternally from the circumference to the centre, simply by the
formation of an atmospheric depression, and we see that
internal motion—the air blowing in sinuous spirals upon the
centre—prolonged, sustained, or intensified by the liberation
of the latent caloric of aqueous vapour condensed into rain
from the ascending air-current.

From this philosophy of the cyclone—which, as far as it

420 The Origin of the Great Cyclones. (October,

relates to the agency of aqueous vapour, is entirely in-
ductive—it would be inferred that great cyclones, hurricanes,
and typhoons ought to occur in regions of great evaporation,
where the intro-moving winds would take up large quantities
of moisture for the central area of the storm, and keep its
furnace well supplied with appropriate fuel. I need hardly
say that such an influence is sustained by actual observation
all over the globe. The tropical hurricanes of the West
Indies are violent indeed. But they do not attain the
violence of the East Indian typhoons; in the former the
barometer does not fall so low, and for a very obvious
reason. The water of the equatorial current in the Atlantic,
which leaves the Antilles, has been but a short time beneath
the tropical sun in its passage from the coast of Africa.
The waters of the Bay of Bengal, the China Seas, the
South Indian Ocean, have been more than three hundred
days under a vertical sun, and are all aglow with its heat,
and the evaporation from their superheated billows exceeds
that of all other waters on the globe. The moment a storm:
centre is formed in the Indian Ocean, and the intro-moving
air currents reach it, the quicksilver suddenly drops in the
barometric tube, and before the mariner can reef his sails,
they are often torn into a thousand ribbons, and his vessel
thrown on her beam ends.

It is a remarkable fact that the hurricane season in the
West Indies closes with heavy rains in the early or middle
part of November, when the sun has been nearly two
months below the line, when solar evaporation in the
Caribbean Sea has been partially arrested, and the reservoirs
of the air exhausted of their vapour or storm-fuel by the
drenching rains of which we speak.

From what has been said of the immense amount of con-
densation due to an ascensional movement of air in the
storm centre, it must not be supposed that the chilling
arises solely from the elevation of the air to colder regions
of the atmosphere. As the air ascends into the upper regions
the pressure of superincumbent atmosphere is taken off
from it on all sides, and it expands and loses heat, the force
required for the expansion being withdrawn from the store
of heat. The glass receiver of an air-pump full of humid
air, when exhausted partially, shows a frost of vapour and
clouds within, proying that the process of rarefaction has
chilled the contents of the receiver. Air was compressed
by Professor Tyndall, by means of a column of water
260 feet high, to an eighth of its original volume, and then
allowed to escape by a stop-cock. As it rushed out it

1872.] The Origin of the Great Cyclones. 421

expanded so violently and caused such an intense cold that
the moisture in the room was congealed “‘in a shower of
snow, while the pipe from which the air issued became
bearded with icicles.”

We are now prepared to understand the assumed agency
of the trade-winds in the production of cyclones.

The South-East trade-wind is in many respects like its
Northern counterpart, but decidedly fresher and stronger.
In the vicinity of the famous island of St. Helena, and from
that rock to the island of Ascension, it is perhaps the most
constant wind on the globe. Here its direétion is very
nearly fixed due S.E., and from the last-named latitude it
blows steadily and strongly right up to the Equator, and
crosses the line in the winter of the Southern hemisphere
with a marked velocity.

The South-East trades occupy a much larger area of the
earth’s surface, and sweep a wider zone than do the North-
East trades. The celebrated navigator, La Perouse, writing
in the month of September, 1785, while on his way to the
South Atlantic, says:—‘‘ We crossed the Equator on the
29th of September in 153° west longitude. Those sailors are
quite in error who are afraid of finding calms near the line
at this season ;”’ and the reason for this observation is that
the belt usually known as the equatorial calm belt is actually
and constantly penetrated in July, August, and September
by the South-East trades, which have come up from below
the Equator. Coleridge, availing himself of the popular
notions of his day, delineated this region of calms as a
terrible one for the mariner, in which his bark was calm-
bound under a hot and copper sky—

‘‘ Day after day, day after day,
We stuck ; nor breath, nor motion ;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.”
But, unless we except certain seasons of the year, this once-
dreaded region is not more tranquil than certain other spots
and districts of the Atlantic to which the name of Horse
Latitudes has in our time been given, but which was called
by the old Spanish sailors El golfo de las yeguas, ‘‘the mare’s
sea,” to denote its roughness. Certain it is the South-East
trade does cross the Equator in summer, and make itself
felt; Jatleast as: far as jthe parallel of ‘ro? N., Mrs Jaa.
Laughton tells us “‘ The S.E. trade inthe hurricane months
blows across the line far to the northward.” Dampier,
Horsburgh, Dové, Capt. M. F. Maury, and I believe all
writers without an exception, have fixed 10° or 12°N. as the

422 The Origin of the Great Cyclones. [October,

limit reached by the S.E. trade in summer—a faét which is
in remarkable contrast with the winter southern limit of the
N.E. trade, which, as we have seen, does not attain a lower
latitude than 3° N., or, as many observations give, 5° N.

Besides this fact, we have in the S.E. trade a powerful
and not a gentle wind. If we compare the average velocity
of the South-East trades with that of the North-East, we
shall find, according to the researches of the U.S. National
Observatory, that ‘‘velocity of the North-East trades is
from 14 to 18 miles per hour, that of the South-East from
25 to 30 miles an hour.” Add to this the yet more signifi-
cant fact, from the same authority, that ‘‘ The force of the
trade-winds (S.E.) as determined by the average speed of
2235 vessels sailing through them, is greater between 5°
and 10° south than it is between 25° and 30° south,” and we
have what amounts well nigh to a demonstration, that the
South-East trades do violently overleap the Equator. Ex-
periments also show that while the average force of the
freshest trade-wind in the North Atlantic taken just abaft
the beam of vessels is sufficient to propel them 6 knots an
hour, that of the S.E. trade-wind is sufficient to propel
them 8 knots an hour.*

With the facts now before us, we are in a position to
weigh and measure the wind-forces which meet and conflict
in the torrid zone, and, as it is claimed, give the initial
impulse to so many hurricanes or cyclones annually; and
especially to those which are generated in the West Indies,
and which subsequently come home to every American
citizen whose habitation lies east of the Rocky Mountains,
from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Superior and Maine, and,
I may also add, to every European.

It is a marked trait in nature’s workings, that the most
feeble and insignificant force may, and often does, work
gigantic results.

Scientific travellers tell us that, in their ascents of the
Alps, far up amid its sublime and dreadful acclivities, the
cautious guide is often so situated that he dares not open
his lips to speak lest the faintest agitation of the air may
dislodge immense masses of ice, and bury the party in an
instant beneath the avalanche or storms of snow. It can
be demonstrated by the laws of mechanics that the upward
discharge of a single cannon will produce a cylindrical
vacuum in the upright path of the projectile, and that,
under a calm and still atmosphere, such a discharge will

* Maury’s Sailing Directions, p. 853.

O72.| The Origin of the Great Cyclones. 423

generate acyclone. The spark from a rushing locomotive
may fire a prairie or a vast sea of forest, as has recently been
instanced in the majestic and expansive conflagrations of
the North-West; and, we must remember, that a sound
generalisation does not demand of the physicist that he
should assign a cause commensurate with every effect he
sees ; but only such a cause as is equal to the origination
of such an effect, or one that is sufficient to initiate it.
The engineer of the Great Eastern moves with perfect ease
the small lever which opens his steam valve, and, instantly,
the mammoth steam-ship responds; her wheels begin at
first slowly to revolve, condensation in her engines com-
mences, and soon the vessel is pushing back the mighty
waters and cleaving her way through the ocean. The touch
of the engineer’s hand has only opened a way for the pent-
up energy of her boilers to come into play; all the manual
force exerted in occasioning this result, if directly applied
to propelling the ship, would not have moved her an inch.
To revert to the former illustration, it has not done as
much to overcome the inertia of the floating leviathan
as is exerted by the tender foot-fall of the chamois on the
glacier of Mont Blanc, which sends the ice mass, whirling
and leaping with terrific ruin, thousands of feet below. It
must now be evident to the reader that there is a remarkable
coincidence between the occurrence of West Indian hurri-
canes and the conflict of the two great trade-winds.

(rz). This coincidence is true in regard to PLACE. The
West Indian cyclones are generated just where the
hypothesis I have advanced would lead us to look for them.
‘““The West Indian hurricanes arise,” says Dové, “at the
inner edge of the zone of trade-winds N.E. in the so-called
region of calms, where the air ascends and flows away in
the upper strata in the direCtion opposite to that of the
trade-wind. This renders it probable that the primary
cause of the cyclone is the intrusion of a portion of this
upper current into that which lies underneath it.* The
latter part of this sentence is conjectural, but the former
the geographical fact with which we have to do. Loomis
says, ‘‘ The West Indian hurricanes generally originate
near the equatorial limit of the trade-winds, where these
winds are irregular between the latitude ro° and 20° N.,
and longitude 50° and 60° W. This is just the region of
trade-wind interference, just the territory on which the over-
leaping S.E. trade, deflected a little by the land-mass of

Dove’s Law of Storms, p. 135.

424 The Origin of the Great Cyclones. (October,

South America, comes in conflict with the lighter and
feebler N.E. trade. I may further point out the equally
striking coincidence, due to analogous causes, that it is in
the very same region, the northern equatorial current of the
North Atlantic and the southern equatorial respectively,
under the propelling influence of the N.E. and S.E. trade-
winds, rush together off the archipelago of the windward
Antilles, and penetrating the meshes of this insular net-
work move westward to form the Gulf Stream.

(2). But striking and suggestive as are the coincidences be-
tween the origin of cyclones, and the conflict of S.E. and
N.E. trade with regard to place, they are equally or more
striking with regard to the TIME at which cyclones occur.

The West Indians occur most frequently from July to
October. From Poey’s “‘ Chronological Table of 365 West
Indian and North Atlantic Hurricanes, from 1493 to 1855,”
it appears that 42 occurred in July, 96 in August, 80 in
September, 69 in October. The most violent hurricanes
occur between the 15th of August and the 15th of October ;
but that of August ro, 1831, and that of October 29, 1867,
may be mentioned, with others, as noted exceptions to the
remark. But, as Professor Eastman well states, ‘‘ Storms
of this class seldom, if ever, occur in the West Indies later
than the 20th or 25th October; in fa¢t so well defined is
this limit supposed to be by the residents in that portion of
the world, that the end of the ‘‘hurricane season is
believed to be more nicely determined* than even the
change of seasons.”

(3). In point of iutensity also the coincidence appears to
be marked, not merely at the time when the irruption of
the S.E. trade is most impetuous, but in August and October
—the extremes of the “‘ hurricane season”’—which are the
two months of the most violent cyclones, as we may easily
see, the beginning and close of the battle of the trades are
the periods of most desperate conflict in the West Indies.
This conflict, it must be understood, is never settled, but
the contest is fought on another line, or rather upon a line
which ever sways backward and forward, at right angles to
the meridian, and nearly under the vertical sun.

(4.) The theory by which I have sought to explain the
generation of cyclones is fully sustained by the laws of
mechanics, as Professor Eastman, speaking of Dové’s
theory, and has Dové himself has shown, ‘‘a mass of air

* See an able discussion of this hurricane by Professor EASTMAN, of the
U.S. Naval Observatory ; prepared by order of Admiral B. F. Sands.

1872.] The Origin of the Great Cyclones. 425

moving towards the N.N.W. will, on coming in contact
with the trade-wind moving towards the S.W., have a
general direction towards the W. by N. (the regular path
of the West India hurricane), and will at the same time
fulfil all the conditions necessary to generate a cyclonical
motion in the direction E., N., W., and S.,”z.e., against the
hands of a watch. According to the old Redfield Law of
Storms, Mr. Buchan, discussing the moving dust whirlwinds
and pillars of sand so frequent in the East, says, “‘ The
direction of the eddy of the whirlwind, especially when of
small diameter, differs from the rotation of the winds in a
storm, in that it may take place either way according to
the direction of the stronger of the two winds which gave
rise to it. Thus, suppose a whirlwind produced by the
brushing of a north against a south wind, then if the north
wind be the stronger, and on the west, the whirl will be
in the direction of the hands of a watch; but, if the south
wind be the stronger, the eddy will turn in the opposite
direction* (cyclonical). In the theory, the south wind (the
S.E. trade), as we have seen, is the stronger. Dové himself,
though advocating a different view, admits the mechanical
eerrectness of this; and, indeed, were this the place, it
were easy to demonstrate its truth by a direct appeal to
mechanical law.

(5). The TyPHoons of the East Indies and of the Southern
Indian Ocean are explained by the theory now advanced,
as happily as are the hurricanes of the West Indies.

According to the testimony of all writers, which may be
stated in the words of Professor A. Keith Johnston,
**Cyclones originate in the space between the Equator and
the tropics near the equatorial limit of the trade-wind
during winter, when these winds are irregular, and during
the changes of the monsoons.”’t Out of all the hurricanes and
typhoons remembered and chronicled since the year 1600,
only three or four have occurred near the winter or summer
solstice.

It is, of course, impossible here to discuss the exact
limits of the monsoons in the East Indies. It is only
necessary to examine any monsoun-chart to see that the
region of vernal and autumnal monsoon changes and the
typhoon regions perfectly coincide. When the South-West
monsoon begins in the spring to blow over India it speedily
draws upon the belt of N.E. trade-winds in the North

* Handy Book of Meteorology, pp. 305, 306.
+ Physical Atlas, p. 62.

VOEs ile. (N.Ss) 31

426 The Origin of the Great Cyclones. [O¢tober,

Indian Ocean. Sailors have long known this influence, and
called it ‘“‘the backing of the monsoon.” ‘This backing
continually enfeebles the N.E. trade, finally absorbs and
turns it right about to the opposite point of the compass
from which it was blowing. Observation shows that the
S.W. monsoon then works its way backwards through the
northern trade-wind belt to its extreme equatorial limit.
When this process is complete, the S.E. trade, on reaching
the Equator, finds no adversary to resist its progress, and
sweeps on in the general draught of the S.W. monsoon to
swell its force. From May to August all goes smoothly
enough. The monsoon has everything its own way, and
the seaports of India have their harbours flooded with the
sea, and the mountains of India are drenched with torrential
rainfalls. In August the monsoon begins to change, and
then begins the same conflict, but on a somewhat more
terrific scale than we have witnessed in the Atlantic off the
Windward Islands in the same month between the aspiring
and impetuous S.E. trade and its northern congener.

In my first paper on this subjeét, published more than a
year ago, I said, ‘‘ In the Bay of Bengal the typhoon would
follow in August, from the conflict of the two lateral
currents of the South-East trade, and the North-East trade
enfeebled by the counter monsoon influence. It is doubtless
this enfeebling of the North-East trade that renders it an
easier prey to the impact of the South-East trade; and
this explains the violence of typhoons, which is greater
than that of West India hurricanes.”

Within a few weeks my attention has been called to the
following brief letter in ‘‘ Nature” from the distinguished
geographer, Mr. Joseph John Murphy, F.G.S., which, as an
able argument in point, is here partially quoted : —

‘Origin of Cyclones—In ‘‘ Nature” of the 23rd June, 1871,
there is an account of a paper, by Mr. Meldrum, on the
origin of storms in the Bay of Bengal, showing reason to
believe that the cyclones of the Bay of Bengal and the
Southern Indian Ocean originate in the meeting of the
trade-winds of the northern and southern hemispheres at
some distance north or south of the Equator. I do not
know of any equally complete evidence on the subjeCt for
the cyclones of other parts of the world, but there is very
strong reason for thinking that they always so originate.
The two trade-winds meet in the Atlantic a little to the
north of the Equator; for this reason cyclones are fre-
quent in the West Indies, but unknown over the South

1872.) The Origin of the Great Cyclones. 427

Atlantic, and they are most numerous at the end of
summer.—JOSEPH JOHN Murpuy, Old Forge, Dunmurry,
Co. Antrim.”

On referring to Mr. Meldrum’s paper, which I had never
before seen or heard of, I discovered with great pleasure
that his long-continued and accurate researches beautifully
sustain the theory.* Mr. Meldrum gave at length full
accounts of the particular storms which verified his belief,
but which our space does not permit us to quote.

The writer commenced by observing that in various
papers published during the last ten years he had stated as
the result of an examination of a large body of observations,
that the tropical cyclones of the Indian Ocean south of the
Equator originated between two contrary streams of air,
viz., the N.W. monsoon and the S.E. trade-wind; and, in
a paper read on the roth of November last, he remarked
that what had been found to hold good in that part of the
ocean might be found to do so generally.

As, then, observation had shown that the tropical cyclones
of the Indian Ocean, south of the Equator, were formed
in the belt of the calms between the N.W. monsoon, a
continuation of the N.E. trade and the S.E. trade-wind,
and nowhere else, there was at least a presumption that
the cyclones of the Bay of Bengal were also formed in that
belt, at those seasons when it stretched across the Bay, and
separated the N.E. trade-wind from the S.W. monsoon ;
and this presumption was strengthened by the fact that
most, if not all, of the cyclones that occurred there did so
at the change of the monsoons; that is, when two contrary
winds prevailed in the Bay, and were more or less in conflict.
These general considerations rendered it possible, if not
probable, that the cyclones of the Bay of Bengal were
formed between two contrary and pre-existing winds.
But that was not sufficient. It was necessary to bring
the matter to the test of facts; and this could only be
done by examining the observations taken in particular
storms.

The storms and cyclones reported and traced by the U.S.
Signal Service, as published from day to day in the press
telegrams, also seem to establish the theory which was at
first put forth with great diffidence. These reports show,
in general, that the cyclones which come to us from the
tropics and Gulf of Mexico move from the tropics westward,

* Mr. MELDRUM on the Origin of Storms in the Bay of Bengal.

428 The Origin of the Great Cyclones. [October,

curve to the north and east, and travel upon a parabolic
curve, which oscillates with the sun in declination. This
curve in summer strikes into the Florida coast, and the
storm which moves along its path strikes on the Georgia
and Carolina coasts, as did those of the 18th and 26th of
last August. Their cyclonic intensity is of course reduced or
nullified when they spread themselves on the land, as was
noticed in the latter of the two storms just mentioned.

In summer this curve does not run further westward than
Alabama and the Alleghanies, and hence the dry and arid
season in the north-west, whose plains and prairies are then
so parched that the cattle have often to be driven hundreds
of miles to the water-course, and kept there till late in Oc-
tober. Dové himself admits that the origin of cyclones is
explained ‘‘if we assume that a portion of the south-east
trade-wind travels far over the Equator into the northern
hemisphere.”* This I have assumed and proved. My
reasons for declining his explanation—viz., that “‘ the pri-
mary cause of the cyclones is the intrusion of the upper
current (from the coast of Africa) into the (N.E.) trade-wind
which lies underneath it ’—are quickly stated.

This view is based upon the existence of an abnormal
upper current of air which has ‘‘ ascended over Africa, and
flows away laterally in the higher strata of the atmosphere
as an easterly wind,” and has, to use Dové’s words, ‘‘ some
conneéction with the fal) of dust in the North Atlantic,—an
occurrence which is frequently observed.”—(P. 186).

To sustain this he cites the fact, noticed by Piazzi Smyth
on the Peak of Teneriffe, 10,700 feet above the sea, that this
dust obscured the sun; and he also cites the remarkable
occurrence of the erupted ashes of the volcano of Cose-
guina, in Central America, being ‘‘carried by the upper
counter trade-wind, not only as far as Kingston, in Jamaica,
a distance of 800 English miles against the direct (or sur-
face) trade-wind, but also 700 miles to the westward, where
they fell on the ship *‘ Conway,’ in the Pacific Ocean.
From this well-known faét he infers that ‘In the higher
regions of the atmosphere the air does not always move
regularly from S.W. to N.E., but that the regularity of this
movement is interrupted by currents flowing from E. to W.”
(See ‘‘ Law of Storms,” p. 186).

It must be allowed that these are very slender and meagre
inductions of fact to bear the weight of his hypothesis. I
do not deny that his upper current colliding with the surface

* Law of Storms, p. 264.

1872.] The Origin of the Great Cyclones. 429

trade would be able to generate acyclone ; but the existence
of such an upper current in the cyclone region is not esta-
blished by safe observations. The Peak of Teneriffe is near
the African coast, and under the influence of the North-
African monsoon. It is near the parallel of 28° N. lat. and
15° W. long., while the West-Indian hurricane region is in
10° to 15° N. lat. and 60° W. long. The sea-dust observed
off the coast of Africa, when examined by the great German
microscopist, Ehrenberg, was distin€tly pronounced by him
full of ‘‘ South-American Infusoria ;’* the same was true of
all the blood-rains and sea-dust of the Cape Verde Islands,
Lyons, Genoa, and other places, showing a southerly or
S.W. current in the high atmosphere, not from Africa, but
from South America, and, as Prof. Eastman says in his
little publication (p. 15, 5th clause), ‘‘ If a mass of air from
the return trade-wind, moving from the S.W., be precipitated
into the N.E. trade-wind, it will meet with equal opposition
along its whole front, and there will be no tendency to a rotatory
or cyclonical motion.”

On the r&th of July, when Prof. Dové’s easterly current
from over Africa should have been blowing, the astronomer
on the Peak writes :—‘‘ Long we gazed at the novel upper
clouds sailing over our heads from the south-west” (!) “‘ and
having moved his station to Alta Vista, 10,700 feet high, on
the 25th of August,” he went down to Orotar on business,
and ‘‘ leaving the station with a south-west breeze, changed
it, at an altitude of 6,700 feet, to a north-east. Returning
again on the 30th, he experienced a similar change at about
the same height, the strength of the wind increasing as he
ascended. Arrived at the station, the south-west wind was
found to be blowing with great violence, and it so continued
to blow for more than a fortnight, when, as the winter
seemed to have set in, the party quitted the mountain.”t

Here we see, by the very testimony Prof. Dové depends
upon, in the very midst of the ‘‘ hurricane season” in the
tropics, when his fancied easterly wind should have been in
full blast, Piazzi Smyth found only a south-west wind.
There is no evidence of an easterly wind except the long-
disputed dust of Ehrenberg.

If the stratum of the regular N.E. trade-wind is, in Cen-
tral America (what Piazzi Smyth, as we have just seen,
found it to be at Teneriffe), 6,700 feet deep (and it is proba-
bly three or four times as deep), it is easy enough to see how

* See EHRENBERG’s Passat Stanb und Blut Regen.
+ See Piazzi SMyTn’s Teneriffe, p. 113.

430 The Origin of the Great Cyclones, [O¢tober,

the ashes which fell on the ship ‘‘ Conway” while in the
Pacific, S.W. of Coseguina, were borne thither to her deck,
in the superior part of the surface trade-wind; and such is
the generally-accepted interpretation of the incident among
geographers.

Lastly, if the ingenious theory of Prof. Dové explains the
phenomena in the West Indies, it is totally inapplicable in
the East Indies. The inference forced upon the mind by
what has been proven of the mechanical and lateral inter-
ference of the great bodies of trade-winds, from both hemi-
spheres, fully explains the origin of the rotatory motion, and
the further development of the cyclone will follow from what
has been already laid down. If the rotation, at the moment
of interference, be anticyclonic, 7. e., with the hands of a
watch, the intro-moving winds will, before they reach the
depressed centre of the nascent cyclone, feel and obey the
mechanical or diurnal motion of the earth, and they will
quickly control the rotation of the atmosphere, and force it
to become cyclonic. Once formed, however small, and
though no larger than ‘‘a man’s hand,” the meteor grows,
and, being embedded in large air-currents, begins its pro-
gressive movement. It has often seemed unaccountable to
me that Mr. Redfield did not see and use this solution of
cyclones. He appears to have at one time entertained it,
but dismissed it, because, to use his own words, ‘‘ it cannot
always explain the uniformity of the direction of rotation,
nor the continued a¢tivity of the storms in their progress to
other regions and in higher latitudes, where their greatest
violence is sometimes developed.” But, as we have demon-
strated, ‘‘the uniform direction of rotation” is fully ex-
plained by the earth’s rotation, and the ‘continued activity
of the storms” by the continued or increased supply of
aqueous vapour to their centrical cylinders and the ensuing
condensation, acting and rea¢ting upon each other. It is
not a fact that the storm continues its activity from the mo-
mentum of the first rotation, as the fly-wheel of a machine
set revolving by a single impulse, but the rotatory intensity
rises or falls with the rise and fall of the barometer in the
centre of the meteor.

It is all-important, in the praCtical application of this
whole subject, to bear in mind the movement of the sun in
declination.

The solar forces, marshalled around the Equator at the
time of the Equinox, may be viewed as the extended lines of
some immense army in position, and girdling the entire
globe on this great circle. They must be daily conceived of

1872.] The Origin of the Great Cyclones. 431

as in motion—now, with slow, but steady and unfaltering
tread, marching upon meridian lines to the northern tropic ;
and now, having faced about at our summer solstice, with
unchanging step countermarching toward the southern
tropic. The day’s march of this imaginary but real host,
if measured in a line running due north and south, is the
invariable distance of about 15 geographical miles. Before
its forward and gleaming movement, either north or south
of the Equator, and in front of its ever-outstretched lines,
all opposing climatic forces waver, and finally give way.
The tropical belts of calms, the zones of the perennial
trade-winds, the bands of the fierce anti-trades, the monsoon
influences, barometric areas, the cyclone-breeding districts,
ocean currents, gulf streams, nay, the very ice barriers that
have intrenched themselves in strong cordon within the
mysterious periphery of the polar circles, swaying back and
forth, up and down on the earth’s surface, in ceaseless
vibration, ever and everywhere follow the lordly sun in his
declination, and strictly adjust their movements to his.

In nothing that has been said has it been at all my design
to assert that cyclonic storms originate nowhere but in the
intra-tropical regions and under the causal influence of the
conflicting trade-winds. I have discussed only the great
storms of the parent-zone of aérial disturbance. The
celebrated Royal Charter Storm, charted by Admiral Fitzroy,
and so memorable in meteorologic annals, is a type of a
large number that originate in high latitudes. No practical
meteorologist, accustomed to study every day the atmo-
spheric movements, and to chart the undulations of the
aérial ocean—

**Varium et mutabile semper ’—

can have failed to notice that the nuclei of storms are
formed without regard to latitude. The interference of
strong air currents of different temperatures, the upward
deflection of surface currents by mountain barriers, pro-
ducing condensation of aqueous vapour, the flames of a
burning city, as Chicago, the widespread conflagration of
a prairie, will often produce the physical circumstances
which give birth to depressions. In the present state of
meteorologic science it may be rash to go further. But,
whatever theories meteorologists may devise capable of
explaining how rotative or retrograde storms may be origi-
nated, I have not much hesitation in venturing the opinion
that future researches will show, as a matter of fact, they
are formed chiefly, if not exclusively, along the edges of the

432 Weather Prophecies. [O¢tober,

great atmospheric currents—the surface currents and the
upper currents alike—the polar streams which descend into
our valleys with their blasting frosts, and the ‘‘aérial gulf
streams” which move invisibly, but with benign influence,
above our heads. The great problem, therefore, in this
view for the modern meteorologist is to produce a chart of
the upper atmosphere. If the mechanics of the circulation
of the air were half so clearly unfolded as those of oceanic
circulation, the science of storm-warning would receive an
immense impulse. Weearnestly, but respectfully, commend
the subject to the congress of meteorologists soon to convene.

II. WEATHER PROPHECIES.

ee science of the weather may be said to have sprung
up within the last half century, and we must not
therefore wonder that, until very recently, meteoro-
logical science has rather been concerned with the weather
as it has been, than in prophecying what kind of weather
may be expected. Indeed, this is almost the case at the
present day ; for were it not for the telegraph, storm-signals
would be of little avail. Much was gained when, from the
conclusions drawn from a large number of observations, a
storm could be telegraphed from any place as coming, instead
of as happened. ‘This stage of the science is perhaps as far
as can be usually attained in the present day; in some
future time, from the careful study of the laws, it may be
possible to predict, with average certainty, the state of the
weather from day to day, or even for several days to come.
It remains to be seen how far this power has been attained ;
and it may not be uninteresting to notice, in passing, the
very unstable ground upon which weather predictions were
founded before meteorology included this second division.

Whether we take as type the old dame’s faith in the
gambols of her cat, the high flight of some birds and the
low flight of others, the ‘‘camel” in the clouds, the chir-
ruping of grasshoppers, or Marshal Beaugaud’s rule—

‘¢ Primus, secundus, tertius, nullus,
Quartus, aliquis,

Quintus, sextus, qualis;
Tota Luna talis ”»—

we have much the same arbitrary system, or rather want of
system, although these signs may not be without some

1872.] Weather Prophecies. 433

definite cause, more or less remotely connected with coming
changes in the weather. In many country places it is
common to hear it remarked that “the rain will soon clear
up, for the birds are singing ;” the coming change is perhaps
already sensible to their more delicate organisation. There
is also the appearance of the clouds; and to this indication
even the lamented Sir John Herschel attached somewhat of
a reliance, in that ‘“ anvil-shaped clouds” portended a gale
of wind. But as a rule, the moon may be considered to
hold the first place of influence upon weather predictions.
Halos round the moon are the phenomena most commonly
observed, and are readily explained by the laws of the re-
flection of light from the particles of aqueous vapour sus-
pended in the atmosphere. When these halos are coloured,
we may infer the presence of watery particles in the higher
regions of the atmosphere; when the halos are white, we
may conclude that the particles are frozen, and expect cold
weather. Crossed halos, mock moons, or highly developed
phenomena, indicate larger crystals of ice, and probably
frost, hail, snow, or heavy rain after three or four days,
according to the season of the year. Similarly the laws of
reflection of light indicate that the cause of a deep purple
morning or evening sky is the large amount of moisture
present in the atmosphere. Another effect of the moon,
when at the full, is to clear the sky of cloud, traceable, says
Sir John Herschel, to a distinct physical cause, the warmth
radiated from its highly heated surface; though why the
effect should not continue for several nights after the full
remains, in the opinion of the same accurate observer, pro-
blematic. Other lunar prognostics, founded on arbitrary
rules, as to the time of the day or night at which the
changes or quarterings take place, are worse than useless,
for they are calculated to mislead, and are generally included
in almanacs or note-books intended for sale only, being in
some cases attributed to an eminent meteorologist or astro-
nomer—Sir W. Herschel or others.

It is of course far from our purpose to enter here into a
disquisition on the theory of the trade and anti-trade winds,
and their barometrical indications—subjects that can be
usefully discussed only in a treatise on meteorology: we
limit ourselves to the present position of weather prognos-
tics, although it must be admitted that any advance yet
made or likely to be made in prognosticating the weather
arises from the study of such recurrent phenomena, the
investigation being much aided by the highly developed
character of the laws of the expansion of gases, upon which

VOL. Il. (N.S.) gals

434 Weather Prophecies. [October,

laws the theory of the wind is founded. Thus we know that
a rise in the barometer, together with a fallin temperature, as
shown by the thermometer, indicates the approach of a cold
northerly current of air; while a fall of the mercury in the
barometer, with a rise of that in the thermometer, indicates
that a southerly or warm air current is on its way. Northerly
currents may include winds from the north-west and north-
east, as well as from the north; similarly, southerly currents
may include winds from the south, south-east, or south-
west. When the barometer rises whilst a north-east wind is
blowing, with prevalent hail, rain, or snow, there may be no
change. Of barometrical indications alone, it is generally
known that a rapid rise portends changeable weather; a
slow rise, the contrary ; a rapid fall, heavy wind, rain, and
snow; while a fluctuating height of the column of mercury
indicates unsteady weather. With a heavy gale of wind in
the east or south-east, changing south, the barometrical
column may fal! until the wind shifts its quarter. Upon
such observations did Admiral Fitzroy base his code of
instructions, now to be found by the side of every baro-
meter, his forecasts depending on the indications of the
barometer and thermometer, with observations as to the
direction and force of the wind with regard to time and
place, and its previous course taken altogether. These
indications are thus not absolute, but relative to the pre-
ceding state of the weather. But also these indications are
valid for only a short interval before the actual advent of
the storm ; and in some instances, as in the Hyperborean
storm of 2nd and 3rd October, 1860, the interval is too
short for any advantage to be taken of the notice. The
particulars of this storm, which presents in true character
the difficulties which the meteorologist must encounter, are
too interesting to be omitted, and we shortly recount them
from the complete and admirably-conducted investigation
published by Professor C. Piazzi Smyth, in the Annals of
Scottish Meteorology for 1856 to 1871. The term Hyfer-
borean has been employed to prevent confusion with tropical
hurricanes; it has also been called, from its essential
locality, the Edinburgh storm. We have to consider only
the practical lessons to be deduced from the observations of
this storm; the account of the actual observations must be
read from the before-mentioned report of Professor Piazzi
Smyth. First, then, the barometric notice was insufficient
and too local to be of service, while the storm was too quick
in its movements. St. Hilda is the most westerly station ;
and even if the storm could have been telegraphed thence,

—_—

ee ee

1872.] Weather Prophecies. 435

the message would have allowed only two hours for pre-
paration, and would have arrived while the eastern men
were sound asleep. If a message could have been sent
from Iceland the day previous to the arrival of the storm,
many wrecks would have been prevented. So that we
see the present system of meteorology necessitates not
only diligent but earnest watching of the signals that
should be afforded by a network of cables and overland
wires, for it is by a series of connected observations, ex-
tended over a large area, that the usefulness of this branch
of meteorology is alone likely to be advanced.

But, it may be asked, what definitive knowledge can be
gained, say not of storms, but of average weather for some
future period? Here we must again refer to Professor
Piazzi Smyth’s report on the rock-thermometers at the
Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, and to the Proceedings of
our own Royal Society for the 2nd of March, 1870, in which
predictions of the weather during the winters of 1871-72
are attempted. The rock-thermometers have by their read-
ings shown some well-marked supra-annual cycles, the
relation of which to the sun-spot cycles will be known to
our readers. And on this point it may be stated that the
Radcliffe astronomer announces in his report for 1871, that
the mean azimuthal direction of the wind at Oxford, rigo-
rously computed from automatic records during the last
eight years, varies year by year through a range of 58° on
the whole, between maximum and minimum of visible sun-
spots ; the tendency of the wind to a westward direction
increasing with the number of spots; and with such west
wind, it is to be presumed, the amount of rain also. ‘‘ The
most striking and positive feature of the whole series of
observations,” continues Professor Piazzi Smyth, “is the
great heat-wave which occurs every eleven years and a
fraction, and nearly coincidently with the beginning of the
imerease of each sun-spot cycle of the same eleven-year
duration. The last observed occurrences of such _heat-
wave, which is very short-lived, and of a totally different
shape from the sun-spot curve, were in 1834°8, 1846°4,
1857°8, and 1868°8 ; whence, allowing for the greater uncer-
tainty of the earlier observation, we may expect the next
occurrence of the phenomenon in or about 1880'0. The
next largest feature is the extreme cold close on either side
of the great heat-wave: this phenomenon is not quite so
certain as the heat-wave, partly on account of the excessive
depth and duration of the particular cold wave which
followed the hot season of 1834°8. That exceedingly cold

436 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. [October,

period, lasting as it did through the several successive years
1836, 1837, and 1838, was, however, apparently a rare con-
sequence of an eleven-year minimum, occurring. simul-
taneously with the minimum of a much longer cycle of
some forty or more years, and which has not returned
within itself since our observations began. Depending,
therefore, chiefly on our later observed eleven-year periods,
or from 1846°4 to 1857°8, and from the latter up to 1868°8,
we may perhaps be justified in concluding that the minimum
temperature of the present cold wave was reached in 1871°1;
and the next similar cold wave will occur in 1878°8.” Be-
tween the dates of these two cold waves there are located,
according to all the cycles observed, even including that
earlier one otherwise exceptional, three moderate and nearly
equidistant heat-waves, with their two intervening and very
moderate cold waves, but their characters are quite unim-
portant. With regard to all the waves, it may be just to
state that there has been in observation more uniformity,
and will be therefore in prediction more certainty, for their
dates than for their intensities.

We have thus very briefly surveyed the position of me-
teorology, and little remains to be said beyond that the
results are highly in favour of the hopes of physicists to
render meteorology an exact science.

Ill. THE AMORPHOLITHIC MONUMENTS OF
BRITTANY,

COMPRISING THE CIRCLES, AVENUES, CARNEILLOUX, AND
OTHER ASSEMBLAGES OF SHAPELESS STONES.

By S. P. OLiver, Capt. R.A., F-R:G:s:

PART II.
We have hitherto assumed that all the megalithic
a0)

monuments have been constructed for sepulchral

purposes, but an important question has been
raised as to whether the dolmen-mounds are in any way
associated with the circles, avenues, alignments, and other
assemblages of upright stones found in their immediate
neighbourhood. Is their origin coeval? and, were the lines
constructed by the dolmen-builders, or not? Now, as to
their contemporaneity ; the Rev. E. L. Barnwell* states

* Rev. E. L. BARNWELL, Archeologia Cambrensis, 3rd series, vol. x., p. 57-

1872.] The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 437

that ‘‘of all the monuments usually called Celtic, whether
of pillar-stones, chambers, circles, avenues, &c., the simple
chamber, cromlech or dolmen, with or without its covered
gallery, is now generally acknowledged to be the earliest.”
But to us there seems every reason to suppose that the
stone avenues hereafter described belong to a period far
anterior to that when the menhirs and dolmens were erected,
when we compare their shape and position. These assem-
blages of stones are conspicuous for their want of uniformity,
absence of elegance, and, in fact, general shapelessness—
some globular, others rhomboidal, &c.—all sorts of irregular,
fantastic, rough, and bizarre forms. The finest appear to
have been chosen for their majesty of size and bulk alone,
and but little heed taken as to how or in what position they
should stand as long as they were in their proper alignment ;
they are erected any side uppermost, as often as not with
their heavier portion in the air, being well nigh balanced on
their smaller end; so much so, as would lead one to suppose
sometimes that they had been designedlyso placed. Although
it is possible that they were originally thus placed in
equilibrium, still it is more probable that they were left in
the readiest position which came to hand. ‘There is no
trace of their having been fashioned artificially. At all
events they present a striking contrast to the isolated pillar-
like menhirs of smooth elegant exterior, placed generally with
an especial view to their stability, and exhibiting a practical
knowledge of the position of the centre of gravity on the
part of those who erected them. Many of the menhirs
present the appearance of having been fashioned artificially,
as at Locmariaquer, where that magnificent specimen, Le
Grand Menhir, now lying in four pieces, exhibits the artificial
handiwork of man; whilst on the south side of the menhir,
La Boulaie (Moustoir-ac), are two sculptured figures in relief,
whilst others exhibit fluting, and other signs of ornamenta-
tion belonging to an advanced period of art. Again, we
know that the custom of erecting monoliths has descended
down to historic times; thus we have records of the
erection of memorial pillar-stones (the Bauta-stones and
Minne-stones of Scandinavia, for instance, and the Gullaunes
of Ireland)— ,

Blissful a Son is

tho’ born but lately,

his father already fallen ;
seldom Bauta-stones

bound the folk-path

save raised by kin to kindred.

The “ Elder Edda,” Havamél, v. 71.
Professor Stephens’s Trans.

438 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. (October,

whilst a modern Danish poet, M. A. G. Ochlenslaeger,
writes—

‘Rush to arms with ready tread ;
Raise a Rune-stone o’er mine head ;
Rune-stone rist as Ettin strong,
Ringing my fame time’s waves along!”

Now, we have no historical accounts of the circles, avenues,
and alignments being erected. In like manner, the dolmens
are still more remarkable for the admirable smoothness,
flatness, and clever adaptation of the huge slabs com-
posing them, whilst they, too, are found in many instances
elaborately ornamented.

Under the general head, therefore, of megalithic monu-
ments, which includes all the menhirs, avenues of pulvens,
and dolmens, &c., we may not be wrong in applying the
distinguishing term Amorpholithic to the lines and circles
in Brittany, or to any other assemblages of stones of a
similar shapeless character.

On this characteristic difference we venture to suppose
that the stone avenues are attributable to an age considerably
anterior to that of the dolmen-mound builders.

Mr. Fergusson infers, as far as speculation is possible,
that the French examples of rude stone monuments are, as
a rule, of earlier date than the British or Scandinavian,
and he denies that the semicircular or quadrangular en-
closures can be classed with stone circles proper, such as
those of Wiltshire and Cumberland, Moytura and Stennis,
so far as almost to deny the existence of circles in France.
We are almost inclined to agree with him.

If the isolated menhirs were erected by the same peoples
or their ancestors, it is not likely that they would be placed
so as to interfere with the evident design of the alignments ;
an example of which interference we find at Kermario, where
a single intruding menhir rises abruptly amidst the smaller
stones of the avenues, of which it is wholly independent,
and therefore is probably a subsequent erection.

In spite of their propinquity (for we find many instances
of menhirs and dolmens on either side of the lines, likened
by some French writers to the outposts of the main army;
but which M. de Freminville calls ‘‘pierres d’avertissement,”
which were placed to warn the approaching intruder lest he
should profane the neighbouring Druidical sanétuary), it
seems not unlikely that there was no conneétion between
the lines and assemblages of amorpholiths and the other
megalithic structures, or between the races of men who
constructed them: on the other hand, it is not improbable

1872.] The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 439

that the most suitable stones of the more ancient lines were
often taken to construct the neighbouring cromlechs. In
opposition to this we cannot help admitting that there seems
to be some analogy between the narrow entrance gallery
leading to the chamber, sometimes circular, of the dolmen-
mounds, and the narrow avenue, which widens as the circle
is neared.

The French savans appear to have confined their labours
to the contents of the interiors of the dolmens, and, with
the exception of a few vague speculations, have altogether
neglected to examine thoroughly the gigantic stone circles
and avenues, which are amongst the most conspicuous and
renowned objects in Brittany. The celebrated stone avenues
of Carnac are a series of alignments in the Commune of
that name extending from the borders of the Commune of
Trinité to a spot between Carnac and Plouharnel. It has
been taken for granted that these alignments were
continuous; and it is to the careful measurements and
plans made by two English gentlemen, Sir H. Dryden and
the Rev. W. Lukis, that we are indebted for their discovery
that these lines in reality consist of three totally distinét
groups.*

These groups are named for convenience after the villages
or homesteads nearest to them, viz.—(1) Menec; (2) Kervario;
and (3) Kerlescant. It is not improbable that the names of
these localities were acquired from the circumstance of the
stones standing upon them; for, according to Lepelletier’s
Celto-Breton dictionary, the word Menec signifies a memorial
or souvenir, and the word Kervarv the place of death. The
words Carnac and Carnetlloux are similarly identified with
Celtic words signifying a charnel house or ossuary: so in
the Cymri we find Carnedd as the Welsh for cairn, tumulus,
or tomb.

(1). Commencing with the group nearest Carnac, we find
a circle of stones, or rather the remains of one, on a slight
elevation enclosing several of the farm buildings and dwell-
ings of the village of Menec, after which the group is
named. This enclosure is somewhat elliptical in plan, its
largest diameter being g2 yards, and its shortest 80.

These stones, which are of uncouth form, are of con-
siderable size and bulk, having an average height and
breadth of about g feet, whilst they are rather flat and thin.
The circle forms the south-western limit of a_ series

* The author was unaware of the existence of Mr. Vicars’s map, since
re-published by Mr. Fergusson, when the above was written.

440 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. [OCober,

of eleven alignments, which stretch from this eminence in
a north-easterly direction over undulating ground gradually
sloping to a lower level, for a distance of 1025 yards. These
lines, the southernmost of which alone meet the circle, are
about II yards apart at their south-west extremity, and
converge to within 5 yards of one another at their further
extremity; the size of the stones composing them also
diminishing by degrees to an insignificant size. There now
occurs an interval of 600 yards before we reach the next
group of amorpholiths, the largest of which are on a
plateau near the farm of Kervario. Some of these stones
are the most gigantic in the Carnac series.

(II). At Kervario there is no terminal circle, although
some scattered blocks of no inconsiderable size may perhaps
indicate vestiges of one, but they are more probably blocks
left in transit towards their destined situation.

This group consists of only ten lines, 12 yards apart,
converging gradually for a distance of about 1250 yards,
until the traces of their termination are lost in the plantations
of the Chateau de Kercado.

It must be borne in mind that these lines are not ab-
solutely straight, but that each crest of hill or course of
brook there is generally observable some slight deviation in
direction of the alignments, which has probably arisen from
error in the original laying out of the lines, and not from
any intentional serpentine plan on the part of the architects,
as some writers would have us to believe. These slight
deviations go far to prove that the country presented the
same features and outlines of contour when these alignments
were planned as at present; at all events that its character
cannot have materially altered since the days of the con-
struction of the said lines.

(III). The third group to be described, viz., the Kerlescant
lines, is 400 yards beyond the last-named series, and differs
considerably both from the Kervario and Menec monuments.
Here there is a terminating enclosure (somewhat of an
horse-shoe form rather than that of an incomplete circle),
having a diameter of 96 yards, and associated with thirteen
lines of stones extending, however, in the same direction,

e., to the north-east, but only for a distance of 286 yards,
about one-quarter the length of the other groups, and yet
the breadth of the whole group is as broad as the Menec
series, viZ., 110 yards at the western end, giving to each
avenue an average breadth of g yards, which rapidly
diminishes, however, to 5 yards at the north-east extremity.

The eight southernmost lines alone are opposite the horse-
shoe enclosure, whilst in a corresponding position opposite

1872.) The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 441

the five northern lines is a long barrow, a significant fact.
Again, the avenue between the fifth and sixth lines is of
a greater width throughout its entire length than the others,
the lines composing it being nearly parallel.

There is also a certain symmetry observable, taking the
whole thirteen lines together, there being a centre group of
three lines, on either sides of which is a broader avenue
tolerably parallel, beyond again on either side is a group of
five lines converging, the breadths between which are largest
on the outermost side. Such are the three groups which,
together, constitute the celebrated lines of Carnac, and
which have been hitherto erroneously described as one
monument. There is another misconception of the site of
these circles and avenues, to which I may here allude in
order to correct. Some writers speak of ‘‘the great plain
of peulvens at Carnac* on the solitary peninsula of Quiberon,”
and ‘‘the rugged wastes of Carnac.” Now the neighbour-
hood of Carnac is not the desert that would be inferred
from the above-quoted descriptions; there are fields and
gardens, farms and villages, woods, and some almost pretty
scenery. It is certainly not om the peninsula of Quiberon,
celebrated for the ill-fated expedition of the Royalists in
1795. The peninsula itself is certainly solitary, and its
sand-dunes, by degrees being planted, are not inviting, and
there are some remains of lines and circles of stone upon
it, which will presently be noticed. Mr. Lukis, in speaking
of the view from Mt. S. Michel, talks of vast heaths, un-
dulating country, fir plantations, and small villages, nestling
among elm trees, and,. further on, of threshing yards and
gardens—that is a true description of the landscape, and
does not suggest “‘ the rugged wastes of Carnac.”

Before considering in detail the characteristics of these
curious alignments, we will proceed to describe the other
assemblages of amorpholiths in the departments of the Mor-
bihan and Finistére. Our poet laureate, Alfred Tennyson,
must surely have had these parts of Brittany in his view,
rather than Cornwall, when he wrote in ‘‘ The Holy Grail” —

** And then, with small adventure met, Sir Bors
Rode to the lonest tract of all the realm,
And found a people there among their crags,
Our race and blood, a remnant that were left
Paynim amid their circles, and the stones
They pitch up straight to heaven: and their wise men
Were strong in that old magic which can trace

The wondering of the stars, and scoffed at him
And the high Quest as at a simple thing.”

The most extensive of all the lines is not far from
VOL. II. (N.S.) ag &

442 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. [OGober,

Erdeven, stretching from the road south of the village
towards the south-east for the distance of over a mile and
ahalf. ‘There are, as well as can be made out (for there is
sometimes considerable difficulty in tracing these lines), ten
lines of stones nearly parallel; the convergence is very
slight, the breadth of the lines at the western end being
220, and at the eastern extremity 190 feet. But it must be
remembered that these alignments are not actually traceable
over the whole extent of this long tract of land; about
half way is an eminence, upon which are four dolmens and
a long barrow, and here traces of the lines are lost for some
distance; but the same number of lines occur again further
east, and continue toa spot not far from the huge dolmen of
Courconneau, and it is presumed that they formed a portion
of the same series. There is a slight deviation between the
direction of the eastern and western portions, but only of
3, the western portion being 117°, and the eastern 120° to
the east of the meridian.

From near the head of these lines is an alignment con-
sisting of 25 stones extending ina N.E. direction (42° E. of N.)
for a distance of 354 feet. The stones are at present all
prostrate, excepting erect menhirs at either end. They are
all large stones; in fact the largest masses to be found
throughout all the series of alignments in Brittany, the
largest measures 21 feet 6 inches long by 10 feet broad and
5 feet thick; two others are nearly as bulky within a few
inches. What the meaning of this diagonal line outlying
the main body of the Erdeven lines can be is a mere matter
of conjecture. It is certain that the blocks lie close
together as those composing the circles, at Menec and
Kerlescant. If this, therefore, was portion of a circle, it is
the sole example of one north of accompanying lines. At
the eastern extremity of the Erdeven lines, but at some
small distance, is an enclosure of stones nearly oblong,
measuring 150 feet long by 85 broad.

Whilst on this subject, it would be wrong to omit any
mention of the Red Carnac pebbles—although they are not
mentioned in Mr. Lukis’s paper, nor even alluded to by the
Vannes Society—which occur in multitudes, wherever there
are these lines of menhirs. Whether the sites of the align-
ments have been chosen from the presence of these pebbles,
or whether these pebbles are the concomitants or deposed on
the sites of the alignments, or whether they form part of a
regular geological deposit wholly distinét from any con-
nection with the menhirs, is at present undetermined ; and
these stones have proved a puzzle to some of the best

1872.) The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 443

geologists, and remain as hard nuts to crack for future
speculators. I have been permitted to extract the following
from the MSS. of Mr. Lukis, sen. :—‘‘ Over this district
(7.e. about Carnac) the surface of the ground produces red
pebbles, or worn stones, which at first sight resemble red
jasper, but they are evidently belonging to the alluvial of
‘the neighbourhood, and have eroded angles and surfaces of
a peculiar nature, resembling that of artificial rubbing by
the hand of man.’ In a note written to me by Dr. John
McCulloch, he says, ‘I can make nothing of these, unless
they are of barbaric art.’ These stone pebbles of Carnac
and its neighbourhood had also occupied the attention of
Dr. Buckland, who likewise considered them as the work of
man.

‘Mrs. Buckland, his widow, gave me several of them,
which had been the subject of much conjecture, and which
she said the learned doctor had shown to Chantrey, who
endeavoured to persuade him that these might have been
used for rude sculpture, in like manner as the bits of white
sandstone grit were used by himself when he wished to rub
the folds of garments during his employment.

** As these stones are found strewed about the neighbour-
hood of the menhirs of Carnac, they are given to travellers
by the native guides as relics left by devotees at the base of
the alignments. These remarkable pebbles differ from those
on the neighbouring beach, and are derived from a different
source: they are polished usually on all their faces, and
have a strong inclination to wear down in a rhomb, rather
than, like rolled pebbles on the beach, into round or nodular
form. Some appear to flatten on both sides, and become
pitted on both surfaces, as stones of silex do when acted on
by Eolian force mixed with sand.”

The St. Barbe lines are not a very remarkable group;
here traces of three lines exist for a distance of three hun-
dred yards. A few of the stones at the head of these lines
are of great bulk, the two largest measuring 14 ft. x 12 ft.
by 7 it. and 14 it. x rr ft: x- 4 ft. 71. respectively:

A short distance to the west of these alignments are four
stones, which may indicate vestiges of a circle, but they are
so doubtful as not to be included in the plan.

Not far from the St. Barbe lines are some conspicuous
stones near the mill at Plouharnel; they are called ‘‘ Les
trois pierres du vieux moulin ;” the largest is prostrate, and
measures 16 ft. long x x1 ff. x 5 ft. “The two others
standing are respectively 12 and 8 feet in height ; they seem
to have once formed the head of a series of alignments.

444 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. (October,

At Kerzine, near Plouharnec, are eight lines of stones in a
dilapidated state, extending one hundred and fifty yards,
whilst in the same neighbourhood, at Kercoenthue, is a line
of four large stones, with a detached one at some distance ;
the larger of these measures 16 ft. x g ft. x 5 ft.

The lines at St. Pierre, which lie on the sandy pit of
Quiberon, south of Fort Penthievre, are remarkable for the
fact that they are detached from the neighbouring circle,
which stands ninety-five yards distance to the south-west.
Traces of only five lines remain, some of which extend a
distance of two hundred yards to the coast line, and possibly
before the encroachment of the sea extended still farther.

Such is the description of the most remarkable lines in
the Morbihan, and we will now proceed to consider certain
noticeable alignments of Crozon, near Brest. The align-
ments on the promontory of Crozon, near Brest, are alto-
gether on a smaller scale than those at Carnac, and have
accordingly attracted much less attention than the latter
gigantic remains; but the whole locality is extremely in-
teresting, and literally teems with menhirs, alignments, &c.
De Fréminville mentions them, and gives accurate illus-
trations of the most important lines at Landaoudec and
Toulinguet in his volume on the Antiquities of Finistere.

We visited the three most extensive of these alignments,
viz. Landaoudec, Leuré, and Logatjar.

The most important of these is on the Lande by the mill
of Landaoudec, about half way between Lanvéoc and Crozon
villages. The stones are in rather an unintelligible position,
and most of them are now prostrate, whilst many of them
have evidently been removed into the banks on either side
of the road; but still there is the trace of an enclosure
associated with orientated lines, which also seem to have
converged. Near the eastern extremity of the longest line,
which extends some three hundred and fifty yards, are the
remains of a kist, and near the mill are some isolated
menhirs. The largest stones measure II feet 3 inches by
6 feet 6 inches, and g feet g inches by 4 feet 6 inches. The
largest stone standing is 6 feet g inches high by 5 feet 6
broad. According to De Fréminville there exist some scat-
tered stones to the north of the mill, but we did not examine
them.

The lines of Leuré are about two miles to the westward
of the last-mentioned group, and are not far from the little
port of Fret, where the steamer from Brest touches. These
lines exhibit the features usually distinctive of the Crozon
alignments, viz., lines at right angles to one another. ‘The

1872.] The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 445

longest line consists of eleven stones, arranged east and
west, and extending over one hundred and seventy yards,
and a shorter alignment (thirty-three yards in length) at
right angles, composed of four upright and three prostrate
blocks. In this last line are the largest stones. The
upright ones measure 7 feet 6 inches high by 4 feet thick,
and 4 feet broad; and 6 feet high by 6 feet 6 inches broad,
and 5 feet 6 inches thick.

The menhirs of Gatjar or Logatjar are situated on the
down above the village and port of Camaret.

They are by far the most conspicuous and clearly defined
of all the alignments on the promontory, as they are not
overgrown with furze bushes like the two last-mentioned
lines. Here, again, we find the characteristic features of
two short lines about fifty yards long at right angles toa
longer line two hundred and sixty yards long, lying north-
east and south-west. The short lines, one of fourteen, the
other of twelve stones, are on the north-west side of the
longer line. The conspicuous erect stone is 11 feet 4 inches
high ; the largest prostrate stone is 13 feet long by 4 broad.

Near all these alignments are outlying menhirs, which
M. de Fréminville terms ‘“‘ les menhirs davertissement,” which,
according to him, announced to the approaching visitor the
vicinity of a sacred enclosure.*

An outlying menhir at Gatjar, close by some stones which
may have formed a dolmen, probably stood at the foot of
the tumulus which formerly covered the sepulchral chamber.
One suggestion made as to the disposition of these align-
ments at Logatjar is that they commemorate a naval victory,
and that the arrangement of the stones indicates the position
of the fleets engaged. Admiral Thévenard, true to his pro-
fession, is the originator of this idea, in his ‘‘ Recueil de
*‘Mémoires relatifs a la Marine,” and supposes from the
position of these lines, erected on a lofty promontory over-
looking the sea, that they represent the order of battle of
the Armorican fleets.

There are several other assemblages of stones in this
neighbourhood. Amongst others there are some, probably
portions of alignments, near the village of Goulien, in the
bay of Dinan, and a Carneillou, perhaps a circle, with two
parallel alignments stretching eastwards from it, near the
cliffs overlooking the Anse de la Pallue, north of the Vec de
la Chévre.

Between the Pte. de St. Hernot and Pte. de Morgatte are

* Antiquités de Finistére, (2nde parte, p. 20 et seq.), par M. LE CHEV. DE
FREMINVILLE. Brest. 1835.

446 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. [OGtober,

also two enclosures, one with an avenue, the other with
double lines of stones, bearing the local name of ‘‘ Maison
du Curé.”’ On the banks of the River Laber, also, close to
the farm Raguénez, is an alignment, and there is a Car-
neillou at the manor of Trébéron, some distance inland from
the coast. This last is curious, from the fact that the
tumulus, which appears to be associated with these lines, is
named Le Tombeau d’Artus.* ‘These last we did not examine,
and they are therefore merely mentioned as a record of their
existence for the benefit of those who may intend to visit
these localities. The accompanying Table (p. 447) gives the
principal alignments in Brittany. And the following list
shows the angles of orientation, or bearings, of the principal
lines of stones; the variation being taken to be 23 deg. W.

E. of mag. N.

57 deg. omin. Camaret.

83) 5,° 4505, Menec tailk
86), 450 4. © Kervario:

87 , 30 , Kerdouadec.

Or ;, , 25 » ‘Menec head:

03 =, ~15 5 . Kerdowadec:
345) 30aqs ecUnc, Vo pant.
99 » On,, Wenure, 2 part

TOONS; O-,, /2rdeventhead:
1g 6 O-;, lrueleast

TE] 5 O,, Menlescane:
TES. yy © 3, ‘(Cojou-.

A ees Oo ,, St. Pierre.
EI5 ls o ,, Erdeven tail.
136 ,, oO. ,, st. Barbe:

EA5 ~3) Oo ,, Kerzine.

It is well worthy of remark that like everything else in
Brittany the origin of these avenues, menhirs, &c., is ascribed
to the ‘‘ fairies,” a superstition which is common to most
if not all countries where anything unusual exists, and
where any striking natural or artificial wonder is universally
attributed by the local traditions and folk-lore of the native
peasantry to pigmies and giants, and later, as priestly

* Artus or Artur. ‘Leroi Artus fut enterré dans l’ile d’Aval ou d’ Avalon,
sur les cOtes qui avoisinent Lannion, et a peu de distance de son séjour favori,
ce chateau de Carduel or Kerduel, si célebré par les chroniques de la table
ronde, et appartenant aux enfants de M. de la Fruglaye. Les Anglais ont
voulu, mais a sort, s’approprier ces localités.”—(DE FREMINVILLE.) From
this it would appear that the Arthurian legends are as much Armorican as
British. Vide ‘Traces of Affinity between the Bretons and the Cornish,”
*“* British Quarterly Review,’ No. 104, October 1, 1870.

447

The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany.

1872.]

Name of
depart- No.
ment.
I.
2.
Zi 3
=
5 +
io 4.
(e)
=
5.
Lee:
VE
ea] 8.
4
fea Q.
al
n 7
7 10.
|
{| 11.
eee
mo
- < 12.
as

Local name.

MENEc.
KERVARIO.
KERLESCANT.
ST. BARBE.
ERDEVEN.
St. PIERRE.

PLOUHINEC.
CRUCUNY.

KERDOUADEC.
LEURE.

LOGATJAR.

Cojou.

Description.

Eleven lines of stones with circle
at W.

Ten lines.

Thirteen lines extremely conver-
gent, and Horseshoe enclosure
at W.

Three lines remaining, original
number uncertain.

Ten lines nearly parallel, with a
diagonal line at N.W.

Five lines, the circle distant 290
feet to the S.W. of the head.

Eight lines.

Two lines, with nondescript en-
closure and divisions.

One long line and a short one at
right angles to it.

One long line and two short ones
at right angles to it.

Two parallel lines.

I000

1250
285

300

2680

172

140

Breadth
in feet.
en,
West. East.
339 8195
323 180
450 205
125.9 —
220 190
IIo —
240 —
80 —

Diameter.
of
circle.

290

180

Remarks.

Ends apparently certain.

E. end undefined.
Ends well defined.

E. end undefined.

Ends certain. Gap for some
distance about centre of lines.

W. end certain, E. end termi-
nated by sea coast.

Ends uncertain, much scattered.
Not measured.
Ends not defined.

Ends not defined.

Ends apparently certain.

A great part destroyed.

448 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. [O&ober,

influence was in the ascendant, to saints and demons. We
have classical authority for the popular belief that ‘there
were giants in those days,” the Greeks and Romans giving
to their god-like heroes supernatural strength. For instance,
take the boulder which Turnus in his last despair hurls at

/Eneas—
‘‘ He said no more, but looking round
A mighty stone espied,
A mighty stone, time-worn and grey,
Which haply on the champaign lay,
Set there erewhile the land to bound,
And strifes of law decide:
Scarce twelve strong men of later mould
That weight would on their necks uphold
To-day’s degenerate sons:
He caught it up, and at his foe
Discharged it, rising to the throw,
And straining as he runs.”

‘Nec plura effatus, saxum circumspicit ingens
Saxum antiquum, ingens, campo quod forte jacebat,
Limes agro positus, litem ut discerneret arvis ;
Vix illud leéti bis sex cervice subirent
Qualia nunc hominum producit corpora tellus ;
Ille manu raptum trepida torquebat in hostem,
Altior insurgens et cursu concitus heros.”
VirRGIL, ‘‘Aineidos,” lib. xii., 896 to goz.

In like manner the monkish legends represent the devil
throwing stones at some saint, and the saint replying with
interest, causing the demon to become lame by some menhir
dropped on his toe, &c.

It is not long since the Wiltshire shepherd would scarcely
pass near Stonehenge at eventide for fear of surprising the
unholy orgies of the giants, and believed in the possibility
of becoming the victim of an enchanted pixy-ring. Indeed,
the tradition is still prevalent that the stones of Stonehenge
were transported by miraculous agency from afar. Geraldus
Cambrensis, A.D. 1187, gravely affirms that Stonehenge was
removed from a mountain in Ireland to Salisbury Plain by
the magician Merlin. In Brittany accordingly we find the
neighbourhood of the dolmen-mounds, the peulvans, and
avenues to be haunted either by the durv or dwarf, and the
Karrigwen (Korrigan or Korils), the mischievous elves or
the Teuz, the benevolent fairies. Mr. John Lukis mentions
that one day he lately visited a fine cromlech on Mr. Bruce
Pryce’s property, near Cardiff, in Wales; on asking some
children who were playing about the name of the spot,
they at once replied ‘‘ Castle Korrig,” and was particularly
struck with the Celtic name of the Breton fairy as applied to
a cromlech in Wales. Similarly in Ireland, the mighty
Raths and Cathairs are frequented by ‘“‘ the good people,”

1872.] The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 449

either in the forms of the lovely and tiny Sheogues, the fair
and perfect Lianhaun-shee, or the quaint cobbler Lepfrechawn.
The banshee’s wail is heard by the solitary gullaune pillar-
stone ; whilst if we wish to find the mischievous cluricaune,
we would search the sites of the carnail or carns, the murs,
rutams or cumots, and for warlocks on the Slieve na Calliagh or
witches’ hill. As may well be supposed, archeologists and
travellers, both native and foreign, have advanced from
time to time innumerable theories more or less ingenious or
absurd, and mostly paradoxical as to the origin and destina-
tion of the circles and alignments of amorpholiths. Indeed,
as many, if not more, strange and opposite conclusions have
been drawn by various writers in respect to these monuments
in Brittany as has been the case with Stonehenge in our
own country.* Innumerable purposes have been proposed
for their construction, such as covenants, altars, boundaries,
deliverances, sepulchres, and victories, &c., whilst others
are in favour of the Epicurean hypothesis of zapéyxkd\wous or
arbitrary deflection. The peasantry of the neighbourhood
firmly believe that these ranks of stones are the effect of a
miracle ; the tradition is as follows:—St. Cornely, Pope,
and patron saint of Cattle, being pursued by an army of
pagan soldiers, and unable to escape, exercised’ his saintly
power, and converted the army into stone; hence these
stones are called in Breton Saint Cornili soudared. It is
evident that this tradition has only originated since the
arrival of Christian missionaries in Armorica, where semi-
pagan stone worship has yet some hold among the most
ignorant folk in the whole of France. The parish church
of Carnac is dedicated to Saint Cornely, and a figure of
him stands outside the tower, with some rather comical
sheep and oxen at his feet. Unfortunately, when this church
was built (A.D. 1639), some of the pagan soldiers were
broken up in order to supply building material, and there
are many gaps in the ranks in consequence. M. de la
Sauvagere, officier du génie, appears to have had curious
notions of Roman castrametation; he supposes that these
stones were erected “‘pour servir d’appuis aux tentes et le mettre

*« Mr, Samms, in his “ Britannia,’ will have the struéture to have been
Phenician ; Mr. Jones and Mr. Webb believe it to be Roman; Mr. Aubrey
thinks it was British; and Dr. Charleton derives it from the Danes. And
yet if the true old writing of the name be STAN-HENGEST, as the Monasticon
seems to tell us, I cannot see, says Bishop Nicholson, why the Saxons may
not have as just a title as any to the honour of it. There is a manuscript
treatise said to have been written upon this subjeé& by one Mr. John Gibbons,
and ’tis possible this gentlemen may have a different notion from all the rest.”

—(Preface to “* The Most Notable Antiquity of Great Britain, vulgarly called
Stone-heng on Salisbury Plain.”’)

VOL; Jt. 4N-S.) 3M

450 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. (October,

a Vabri du vent;” and the Comte de Caylus takes the trouble
to produce a quantity of evidence that the Romans were not
in the habit of encamping in such order. M. Mahé attributes
all the megalithic monuments to the Hebrews and Greeks;
whilst M. de Penhouet finds an identity between the name
of Carnac in Brittany and Karnac at Thebes in Egypt; the
same theorist also finds the Bas-Breton language as now
spoken to be of a pure Phoenician origin. Dr. John
Bathurst Deane saw here a temple in the form of an
enormous serpent. This not very satisfactory hypothesis
at one time found a supporter in Dr. Thurnam, who has,
however, now given up this ophite or dracontium theory as
untenable. At one time, indeed, such a reliable antiquary
as Canon Jackson,* of Salisbury, believed in this ingenious
invention of the highly-imaginative Stukeley. M.de Cambry
would have the lines of Carnac to form an enormous
astronomical calender (‘‘un théme céleste, un zodiaque’’),
each line representing a sign, of which the ancient Gauls
only (according to this theorist) recognised eleven; whilst
others would have these and similar structures to be con-
neéted with astronomical observations; take, for instance,
the following work published at Salisbury in 1771, entitled
“Choir Gaur; the Grand Orrery of the Ancient Druids
commonly called Stonehenge, astronomically explained and
mathematically proved to be a Temple erected in the earliest
ages for observing the motions of the Heavenly Bodies.”
Another astronomer (?), anonymous, by abstruse calculations
backwards, ascertained that about 2000 years ago an occulta-
tion of one of the planets (also anonymous), must have taken
place at such a point in the heavens as would have enabled

* ‘Tn England of course attempts to solve the riddle of Carnac have not
been lacking. One which has attracted much attention and support is, that
it was a temple in the form of a serpent—a kind of building which (so the
propounders of this doctrine told us) ‘the serpent worshippers or ‘ Ophites’
used to construdt, and to which they gave the name of ‘Dracontium.’”’ A great
deal of ingenuity and learning has been brought to bear upon this theory. I
myself, ‘‘ faute de mieux,” used rather to acquiesce in it, depending wholly
and entirely, as I did, upon the deliberate statements of its champions, that
such structures were made, and that ‘‘the ancients gave to them the name of
Dracontium.” Waving never met in the course of my own limited classical
reading with any thing or name of the kind, and beginning to wonder where
any notice of it was to be found, I consulted one of the first Greek scholars
of our day. He shook his head, and added that a Greek word with that
meaning was to him unknown. I ransacked lexicon after lexicon, but no
“« serpent-temple,” called by the ancients a Dracontium, was to be found. On
further investigation it came to light that the word ‘‘ Dracontium” was actually
coined by an ingenious but rather extravagant antiquary, Dr. Stukely, as a
name very suitable and convenient for a thing, which thing was also a creation
of his own brain. Upon making this discovery I took leave of the Ophites.—
Notes and Queries, 4th Series, Vol. iv., p. 3.

1872.) The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 451

an observer to view it through the celebrated cross stones of
Stonehenge ; his theory being that those cross stones were
purposely so placed to fix the point of observation per-
manently, so that astronomers in after ages might be able to
compare notes in their observations. Still later, Dr. Thurnam
watched the rising of the sun from the altar stone where he
stood, when it was seen to rise precisely over the top of the
isolated stone, which is Io feet high and about 200 feet
distant from the entrance tothe temple, apparently intended
to direct the observation at the summer solstice to the point
of the rising sun.

Latour d’Auvergne (le Premier Grenadier de France), in his
‘‘Origines Gauloises,” was one of the first to refer these
stones to a Celtic origin, in which supposition he is supported
by Le Comte de Caylus, as well as by MM. Pelloutier, Mahé,
and Déric. M.de Freminville, in company with Messrs. de
Robien Borlase and Pallas, is inclined to the belief that
these amorpholiths are the tombs of warriors slain in some
memorable victory of exceptional consequence, perhaps
erected by the Veneti (whose capital, Dariorig, is identical
with Locmariaquer across the Crach river), and the isolated
menhirs are supposed to indicate the graves of those slain
at the outposts. M.L. Galles, in a memoir of the Depart-
mental Archzological Society, quotes old Alaus Magnus
(Archbishop of Upsal in 1546), who gives examples of the five
different arrangements of these stone alignments; the
translation of the passage is as follows :—“ As to the obelisks
or huge stones erected by the hands of giants and athletes,
nowhere are they to be found more frequently than among
the Ostrogoths, Westrogoths, and northern Suconi, where
two or three roads meet, and as well in vast solitudes, which
have long since been depopulated by plague, famine, and
war, and which have not yet been restored to their former
state of cultivation through the negligence or apathy of
the inhabitants. These stones, erected in many places,
have a length of 10, 20, or 30 feet, and a breadth of 4 or 6
feet. Their position is wonderful, their order still more
wondrous, and their character most prodigious. In lines
straight and long, they represent the contests of athletes ;
arranged in square, the mélée of battle; in circle, the
sepulchre of families; whilst if the lines form an angle,
they represent an army of horse and foot, which either there
or close by has triumphed over its enemies.” So also there are
other inadmissible opinions, which would make these stones
to be memorials of the defeat of the Veneti* by Cesar, or a

* Mr. Fergusson’s latest theory will be discussed in Part III.

452 The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. (October,

cemetery of the same people, or a military trophy in honour
of Hercules, or a grove of sacred oaks, and these great
stones placed in lines like rows of trees. Mr. Yates has
written to prove that these lines of stones are merely the
result of agricultural operations by the clearance of natural
boulders off the fields.

There are not wanting, either, some who will not believe
that these stones were placed by the hand of man, but think
that all such remains as these in Brittany, and others, as
Avebury in Wiltshire, are so many freaks of nature, which,
by glacial or other means, has transported these masses
from a distance, and scattered them as moraines or erratic
boulders.

One of the most ingenious theories is that suggested by
Canon Jackson, of Salisbury, in ‘‘ Notes and Queries,” July,
1869. He supposes the original number of the stones at
Carnac to have been eleven thousand, and intended as a
great national memorial of the eleven thousand British
ladies who were wrecked, and perished on the coast of Ar-
morica, in the year of our Lord 381. Mr. Lukis disposes
of this presumed key to the rusty old lock, by showing that
the number eleven has been assigned to the rows of stones
at Carnac by careless observation, and that there are three
groups of stones—one of ten, another of eleven, and one of
thirteen rows.

Mr. Lukis, who (with his father, brother, and in company
with Sir Henry Dryden) has made the amorpholiths of
Finistére and the Morbihan his especial study for many
years, has established the principal characteristic feature of
these systems of avenues and enclosures as follows :—(Vide
‘* The Stone Avenues of Carnac,” a paper read at the Black-
more Museum, Salisbury, at the meeting of the Wiltshire
Archeological Society, 1870, by the Rev. W. C. Lukis,
M.A., F.S.A., Wath Rectory, Ripon.)

1. ‘The lines do not lie strictly east and west, but vary
a little to the north and south.”

2. ‘The narrow end is invariably eastward, and the head
or wide part is toward the west end, and on elevated ground.”

Referring to these features further on, Mr. Lukis remarks—
**There is a feature which is common both to groups of
rows of stones and to the sepulchres, which may help to
throw some light on the subject, viz., their orientation. By
far the larger number of the sepulchral monuments—those,
I mean, which are usually termed dolmens—have their
entrances between the east and south points of the compass,
v.¢., nearly ninety per cent are so turned, which, it must be

1872.) The Amorpholithic Monuments of Brittany. 453

admitted, cannot be an accidental circumstance. So, too,
the avenues are similarly orientated. If, therefore, the
builders of the tombs had a religious reason for this
arrangement, the same motive must have been dominant
in the minds of the constructors of the avenues; and the
inference is not without force, that the same people erected
both. This arrangement may be a token of their religious
reverence for the deified orbs of heaven, the sun and moon.”
—(P. 13 of Mr. Lukis’s paper). To this we would aad that
this orientation, which is attributed to all these monuments,
as regards the dolmens and tumuli, is well substantiated ;
but on looking at Mr. Vicars’s map of the Carnac district in
**Rude Stone Monuments,” and the position of the stone
avenues, we cannot fail to remark that the lines of Erdeven,
St. Barbe, and St. Pierre, are nearly at right angles to those
of Menec, Kervario, and Kerlescant ; and again, that whilst
the prevailing point of the entrances of the dolmens is south-
east, the general direction of the three Carnac groups of
alignments is considerably north of east. (Compare the
points of compass given in table of the alignments.)

3. ‘* The stones are always largest at the western termi-
nation, and of small size in the other direction. In the
Menec and Erdeven groups, however, the stones slightly
increase in size towards their commencement.”

4. “‘ Where there are circles connected with the lines,
they are always at the large ‘end.’”’

5. ‘ The circles are composed of stones differing in form
from those of the lines. They are thin and wide, and not
so tall as the tallest of the lines, averaging about 5 feet
above ground.”

6. ‘‘ The stones of the circles nearly touch each other,
whereas those of the lines have spaces of from 7 to 20 feet
between them.”

7. “The average distance between the lines at the west
end is. 30 feet, at the east end 18 feet.”

8. “In no case is there, strictly speaking, an attachment
of the’circle to thelines.”

Further, it appears probable to’ Mr. Lukis, ‘‘ that the
number of the lines in each series was determined at first,
and the whole number begun at once.” The size of the
stones indicates this. Again, he presumes “that they were
begun at the west end. Probably in all cases the circles
were added last, at least after the wider or west portion of
the series had been erected; because at St. Pierre, Qui-
beron, the circle is 77 yards on the south side of the lines,
at Menec the centre of the circle is south of the direCtion of

454 The Public Health Act, 1872. [October,

the central avenue, and at Kerlescant it is a large segment,
and not a complete circle.”

We do not quite follow Mr. Lukis in the last observations;
for does not the separation of the circle from the head of
the lines at St. Pierre rather intimate a certain indepen-
dence of the two monuments? or again, perhaps, indicate a
bi-fold arrangement, similar somewhat to that previously
noticed in this paper as occurring, either accidentally or
intentionally, at Kerlescant? Supposing that eight ad-
ditional lines ran easterly from the St. Pierre circle, we
should have an almost parallel example to those at Ker-
lescant and Menec.

The plan of the Kerlescant monument is evidently the
most complete example remaining to us, exhibiting, besides
its remarkable symmetry of design, an intelligible ending or
finish, viz., a series of avenues terminating in a circle, close
alongside of a smaller but similar series leading up to a
sepulchral barrow. Nowhere else do we find complete
circles, tumuli, and lines associated together. We meet
with lines without circles (see the table, p. cxxv.), although
traces of circles may yet be discovered in connection with
them, but seldom circles without lines. Two instances
alone of these latter are given by Mr. Lukis, one on the Ile
aux Moines, and the other on the Ile El-Lanic; but as the
sea has encroached on the south-east side of this latter
island, so as to have washed away a considerable portion of
the circle itself, some of the stones composing it being yet
visible below low-water mark, so, probably, there formerly
existed avenues leading to it.

1V.> Tee PUBLIC PEALIM ACi aaa.

HE A@ of Parliament bearing the above title, and
eu dated the roth August, 1872, is mainly an Act for the
division of the county into sanitary distri¢ts, for the
constitution of certain sanitary authorities, and for the trans-
ference to those authorities of all existing powers and
obligations of a sanitary nature.

Clause 51 of this Act enacts that “every sanitary authority
shall have power to direct the destruction of any bedding,
clothing, or other articles which have been exposed to in-
fection from any infectious disorder, and to give compen-
sation for the same.’”’ With this solitary exception, the Act

1872.] The Public Health Act, 1872. 455

gives no explicit direction as to how the sanitary authorities
are to conserve the health of the nation. In this respect
it differs from the original Bill as first brought into Parlia-
ment. That, as will be remembered, contained a multitude
of very minute, and in many respects arbitrary, clauses
relative to the pollution of rivers. These clauses, which
embodied the recommendations of the Royal Commission on
the Pollution of Rivers, were abandoned by the Government
as being altogether impracticable, and it is understood that
the Government is about to make an end to the investigations
of the Royal Commission, which have proved of so little
utility to the state.

We will endeavour briefly to describe the provisions of
the Public Health Act, which has just become the law of
the land.

First, it does not apply to Scotland, nor to Ireland, nor
to London. It applies exclusively to England outside the
Metropolis.

All England, with the exception of the capital, is divided
into sanitary districts, and these sanitary districts are of
two kinds, viz., urban and rural. ‘This Act constitutes local
sanitary authorities in each of these districts, bearing the
official title, ‘‘ Urban Sanitary Authorities,” or ‘‘ Rural
Sanitary Authorities.” The Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses
of a borough, or the Improvement Commissioners of a
district, or the Local Board of a district, are constituted the
urban sanitary authorities. In like manner the guardians
of arural union are constituted the rural sanitary authorities
in rural sanitary districts.

It will thus be seen that this Act creates no new official
body. It takes existing official bodies—the town councils
of towns, and the poor law guardians of country places, and
erects them into urban or rural sanitary authorities. The
department of the central government of the country which
is to preside over and regulate the aé¢tion of the local
sanitary authorities is the Local Government Board. Having
fixed the sanitary authorities in the different districts, the
Act proceeds to clothe them with authority, and to destroy
that which was previously in existence, and which clashes
with them. To these sanitary authorities revert all powers
and duties exercised under the Local Government Acts, the
Sewage Utilisation Acts, the Nuisances Removal Acts, the
Common Lodging Houses Aéts, the Artizans’ and Labourers’
Dwellings Act, the Diseases Prevention Act, and the Bake-
house Regulation Act.

The fourth section of the Artizans’ and Labourers’

456 The Public Health Act, 1872. [October,

Dwellings Act, 1868, and the fourth section of the
Sanitary Act, 1866, are repealed. The working of the
‘Alkali Act, 1863, and of the Metropolis Water Acts,
1852 and 1871, are confided to the Local Government
Board (which, as we have said, presides over the sanitary
authorities) by Clause 35 of the Public Health Act.

There are various enactments respecting the holding and
acquisition of property by sanitary authorities, and respecting
alterations of the areas occupied by sanitary authorities.
These enactments, however, need not occupy our attention.

Clause 10 is very important. It enjoins on every sanitary
authority the appointment of a legally qualified medical
practitioner as medical officer of health in its district. It
is further enacted that such appointment shall be made for
a period not exceeding five years.

Clause 34 enacts that ‘“‘the approval of the Local Govern-
ment Board, and not that of one of Her Majesty’s Principal
Secretaries of State, shall be required for the appointment
and removal of analysts under an act of the session, holden
in the twenty-third and twenty-fourth years of the reign of
Her Majesty, intituled ‘An Act for preventing the Adultera-
tion of Articles of Food or Drink.’ ”

The former of these enactments would seem to place the
officer of health too much under local influence. It is most
desirable, however, that this should not be so. If the
medical officer of health or the chemist does his duty
efficiently, he will often incur the opposition of wealthy
persons who are local sanitary authorities. He ought by
all means to be independent of them.

Intimately connected with the independence of these
officers is the amount of salary which they are to receive.
The duties of the medical officer of health are hardly com-
patible with his continuing to practise; and his salary
ought, therefore, to compensate him for the abandonment
of practice. It would, indeed, not be unwise, if the aban-
donment of active medical practice were made a condition
of acceptance of office as a health officer under the Public
Health Act.

It appears that nothing of this sort is in contemplation,
but that the health officer is to be underpaid, and left to eke
out his income as best he may. Under these circumstances,
something like the following state of affairs may be expected
to arise. A few high-minded men, who happen to be se-
lected as health officers, will prefer what they deem to be
the public interest, and sacrifice their own private advan-
tage to it. These will suffer a species of martyrdom.

1872.] Artificial Flight: An Aérial Ship. 457

Others, again, of an opposite cast of mind, will manipulate
their office so as to extend and develope their practice, sacri-
ficing, if need be, every public consideration to that end.
The vast majority, however, will simply recognise the fact,
that to discharge the duties which are thrust upon them
is impracticable, and will make no effort to do so.

This aspect of the case has, naturally enough, been dis-
cussed in medical circles. In particular, the British
Medical Association has dire¢ted attention to it, and has
pleaded for an allowance being made by the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, in order to admit of adequate payment of
the medical officers of health.

The Public Health Act, 1872, is admittedly only the pre-
lude to an adequate Public Health Act. Let us hope that
its successor will, at any rate, provide for the efficiency of
the health officers and analysts.

V. ARTIFICIAL FLIGHT: AN AERIAL SHIP.

and abroad, to subjugate to man the dominions of the

air, we must give attention to the most perfect of
aérial machines yet constructed—the aérostat of M. Dupuy
de Lome. We have first to consider the extended study of
the subject, in order to ascertain what had been done by
others, and the causes of their failure, partially or in
totality ; this, too, with the necessity of collating the data
from which conclusions might be drawn. The conception
may be viewed as perfected, as a means to an end, during
the siege of Paris, when many schemes of communication
between the besieged and those interested in their trials
were attempted. Out of many, the machine we are about
to describe is that only in which the difficulties presented
by an insufficiency of principle in the science of aérostation
have been met. It is now our obje¢t to show in what manner
these difficulties have been overcome.

Hydrogen gas was employed, and was obtained by the action
of sulphuric acid and water on iron-turnings, the gas being
afterwards washed and dried. The gas so obtained was
calculated to exert an ascensional force of 735 to 1120 grms.
per cubic metre, under an atmospheric pressure of 760 m.m,
at the ordinary temperature. M. Troost, Professor at the
Ecole Normale Supérieure, invented a varnish for the

VOL. 11. (N-.S.) 3.N

= os
ES continuing the record of what has been done, at home
ee

458 Artificial Flight: An Aérial Ship. [October,

taffetas covering of the balloon which was found to be yuite
impervious to water. This varnish has gelatine for its base,
and is prepared from two solutions, termed A and B
respectively. A consists of 1 part of pure gelatine, I part
of glycerine, 6 parts of pyroligneous acid. B consists of
I part of tannin, and pyroligneous acid 6 parts. The gly-
cerine is dissolved in the pyroligneous acid by the aid of
gentle heat, and while warm A is poured into B, the mixture
being stirred with a wooden spatula. ‘The mixture is re-
heated in an open vessel for some time, acid being added as
that in the mixture is evaporated. The balloon consists of
white silk taffeta, lined with india-rubber, and again with
nanzouk; and to the nanzouk lining the composition is
applied.

M. de Lome’s attempt, although so eminently successful,
cannot be characterised as ambitious, because, instead of
depending upon speed for the hold of the machine upon the
air, the object was the very modest one of giving to a
balloon, of the best shape and dimensions, a velocity of
about 8 kilometres with regard to the surrounding air. “Ehis
being attained the same aérostat would, of course, when
impelled by the wind, move at a more rapid rate ; thus, with
a iresh breeze, at the rate of 4 metres per second, tae
aérostat would be perfectly under command within an angle
of 33 on each side of the wind’s plane, or within a sector of
66°. And if we double the rate of movement of the wind,
we must inversely halve the angles within which the
aérostat may be considered safely under control. That the
plane of movement shall be dire¢tly under the control of the
aéronaut requires that much less resistance should be pre-
sented to the air than is the case with the ordinary balloon,
and careful calculation led to the following dimensions :—
Length, 36°12 metres (118 ft. 6 in:); diameter at-cemene.
14°84 metres (48 ft. 8 in.); the area of section through the
centre being 172°96 square metres (1862 square feet), and
the volume 3454 cubic metres (121,983 cubic feet). Merde
Lome, in his original paper, shows that to obtain a speed of
8 kilos. (about 5 miles per hour) it is necessary to maintain a
motive power equivalent to 30 kilogrammetres (or 217 foot-
pounds) per second, this motive power being preferably
obtained from manual labour utilised in rotating a shaft to
which is attached a two-bladed screw. In this case, if we
take R to represent the resistance of the atmosphere at a
speed, s, of the balloon in seconds, d the diameter of the
screw, p the pitch of the screw, and » the number of revo-
lutions per minute, then

1872.] Artificial Flight: An Aérial Ship. 459

and the work of the screw per second will be—

(ae
Rio (I+a)Rs.

Consequently the amount of work required to move the
aérostat is the last quantity plus the amount lost as friction.
The numerical examples quoted by M. Emile Leclert,
Architect of the French Navy, in a recent admirable article
contributed to ‘‘ Naval Science,” will here suit our purpose.
He shows that the resistance of a thin plane being taken
equal to 0°665 kilogramme per square metre (14 lbs. per square
foot) for a speed of 2°22 metres (7°25 feet), the resistance of
the balloon alone may be estimated at 6 kilogrammes (1°23 lbs.
persquare foot), and of the entire machine at 11 kilos. (2°25 lbs.
per square foot). With the values d = 9 metres (293 feet),
p = 8 metres (264 feet), fraction of speed of each blade at
the extremity 1-16th, and at the centre of action 1-roth,
the theory of the screw leads to the conclusion that a=o0'26.
From this conclusion values are obtained for 2 and T, giving
as a result that for a speed of 2°22 metres per second, or
8 kilometres (5 English miles) per hour, the labour of 4 men
in turning the winch is necessary, and 8 men for a speed of
2°22 metres + ¥,= 2°80 metres per second, or 10 kilometres
or 64 miles per hour. These numerical results are quite op-
posed to the conditions required by Navier’s theory,* being
a much smaller number of men.

M. Dupuy de Lome has found that a balloon to be suc-
cessfully navigated must always be maintained at an equal
degree of inflation, in order that the resistance to which the
balloon is exposed in its passage through the air should re-
main constant, and capable at any moment of being defined.
The balloon, at starting, being inflated fully with hydrogen,
the constant degree of inflation is preserved by means of the
hanging-tubes, H H, Fig. 2. These tubes have the ends
open, and are pendant about 25 feet below the balloon. As
the gas expands it forces itself down these tubes, while its
own pressure in the tube reacts upon the body of gas in the
balloon, preserving such an excess of interior pressure as
prevents the shape of the outer covering being altered by
the force of the wind. Still further to maintain a constant
surface there is provided a small internal balloon (termed a
ballonnet), which, as the gas escapes, through diminution of

* Memoires de l'Institut de France, vol. xi.

_ 460 Artificial Flight: An Aérial Ship. [October,
pressure, from the primary balloon, can be filled with air.
As the gas expands in the larger balloon it would be forced
out of the pendant tubes, were it not that a valve, opening
at a low pressure, is attached to the ballonnet. The

FIG. I.
a

5 b
SC ANNIN
\ AY

r ) WINN NM GOROUAN ies

Wh
BY

Se

oe ae et

Fics.1,2,3. A,the balloon; B,the car, with p, the net-work; aa, taffetas
covering; 0 0}, collar attaching the upper netting to the covering
of balloon; d d, silken ropes suspending the car; é e, balance ropes
for the car; f, small internal balloon; g g, line of intersection
of the surface of the balloon with that of small internal balloon;
E, gaff-sail, or rudder; H, pendant tubes, the length of which regu-
late height of the column of hydrogen; J, the cords regulating the
valves 8; T, tube for filling small balloon with air; m, crank for
working the screw, Q; /, stays, strengthening the screw.
ultimate proportions of the aérostat, as given by M. Dupuy
de Léme, are—
Height from top of balloon to keel of car = 29°12 metres
1
(952 feet).
Distance between screw shaft and major axis of balloon
= 20°45 metres (67°1 feet).
Distance of major axis from centre of gravity of complete
machine (without ballast) = 15°54 metres (51 feet).
The rudder is a triangular sail of 15 square metres
(1613 square feet) area, manipulated by cords from the
Car.

1872.] Artificial Flight: An Aérial Ship. 401

We come now to the description of the journey actually
undertaken in this machine, premising that instances of so
complete a fulfilment of calculation are very rarely oc-
current.

The ascent took place from the Fort Neuf of Vincennes.
The crew consisted of 14 men, with baggage and provisions
weighing 1°13 tons. There were on board MM. Dupuy de

ia —
pf

Léme, Zédé (Ingénieur de la Marine), Yon, and Dartois,
aéronauts. The instruments weighed 1°75 tons, and there
were 0°27 ton of packages to be carried to the destination of

462 Artificial Flight: An Aérial Ship. [October,

the balloon. The total weight, with o°59 ton of available
ballast, amounted to 3°74 tons, and the balloon, when thus
ballasted, had an ascensional force sufficient to keep it in
equilibrium close to the ground. In the first ascent 3 cwts.
of ballast were thrown out, the balloon rising from the
earth on February 2, 1872, at 1 o'clock. From 1 o'clock
to about a quarter past but little more was done than to
admire the graceful evolutions of the machine, and the
readiness with which it answered to both helm and screw.
At rh. 15 m. observations were commenced, and showed the
car to be 560 metres (1837 feet) above the departure station,
and moving in a north-easterly direction with a speed of
I2 metres (39 feet) per second. The course was then al-
tered to the south-east, at an angle of 83°, with the former
direction. The number of men working the screw, at 25
revolutions per minute, was eight, the aérostat moving with
regard to the earth at a speed of 16 metres (or 52°5 feet) per
second. Afterwards this speed increased, with 27°5 revolu-
tions of the screw per minute, to 17 metres (55°8 feet) per
second. ‘The speeds given by the form of anemometer em-
ployed, as due to the balloon, or rather to the screw, were
2°35 metres (7°7 feet) to 2°82 metres (9°3 feet). The descent
was commenced at 2h. 35 m., and was effected at the desti-
nation, Mondecourt, near Noyon, without any shock or the
slightest accident.

We should now consider the results that have been at-
tained in the experiments with the aérostat. They are—
the maintenance of a constant exterior surface by means of
the ballonnet; freedom from rocking motion, even while
two or three persons are walking in the car; and a perfect
control, the head of the aérostat being shifted to or kept in
any direction, with a maximum force of 60 kilos. from the
manual labour of the eight men.

These are the mechanical improvements that have been
achieved, but the most important result is that an impetus
will be given to the study of aérial navigation now that the
science has found a theory seldom paralleled in its applica-
tion. The remark of one of our greatest men, ‘‘ Impossible ;
I don’t know the word,” has indeed been practically shown
to be an admitted principle by M. de Lome.

M.de Lome further proposes to remove seven of the eight
men employed to work the screw, and substitute an engine
of eight-horse power, with one man as engineer. The bal-
last would then consist of the fuel and water, while the
aérostat could be impelled at the rate of 14 miles per hour,
at a much larger angle, with the plane of direction of the

1872.) Paper at the International Exhibition. 463

wind. There has thus now been opened to us a new path
in the science of aérostation, and it is difficult to limit the
imagination to those new wonders we may expect within
even a few more years.

VI. PAPER AT THE INTERNATIONAL
EXHIBITION.

By F. C. Danvers, Assoc. Inst. C.E.

io International Exhibition of 1872 is the second of
aay the series of annual International Exhibitions held at

: South Kensington. These Exhibitions, which will
henceforth take the place of their larger prototypes, so far
at least as this country is concerned, shall, it is intended,
be opened each year for the exhibition of special industries,
each in their turn. Last year, the classes to which the
Exhibition was confined were mainly three—the fine arts,
pottery, and woollen and worsted fabrics. This year, again,
it also consists of three main divisions—fine arts, manufac-
tures of cotton and cotton fabrics, articles of jewellery worn
as personal ornaments, paper and stationery. Printing also
occupies a prominent position, whilst musical instruments
of all kinds and acoustic apparatus are also represented.
The third division consists of scientific inventions and new
discoveries.

A notice of the principal exhibits classed under the third
division appeared in the last number of the ‘‘ Quarterly
Journal of Science,” and we shall not, therefore, refer
further to them now. ‘The fine arts division we shall also
upon the present occasion leave unnoticed; and as within
the limits of a single article it would be impossible to do
justice to all the manufactures classified, we purpose to
confine ourselves to those which occupy the most prominent
part of the Exhibition, namely, cotton and cotton fabrics
(so far as they may be said to be connected with paper
manufacture), paper, and stationery.

In respect of the exhibits which form the subject of our
present article, it cannot be said that there is a very satisfac-
tory show, foreign countries especially being hardly, ifat all, re-
presented by specimensof paper manufacture. Thissubjecthas
been very much neglected on former occasions, there having
been only eleven exhibitors from Great Britain in both the
Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862. Nevertheless, it cannot be

464 Paper at the International Exhibition. [October,

denied that paper forms a most important industry, espe-
cially in this country, and is capable of being applied to a
number of purposes with great advantage, where other and
more expensive materials are now principally used. In the
present article we shall not, therefore, strictly confine our-
selves to a notice of what is presented to the public eye at
this year’s International Exhibition, but we propose to
extend our review so far as to notice other uses of paper
which are not shown there, and, as a fitting introduction to
our subject, a brief history of paper manufacture may well
precede our further remarks on the subject.

Without going back so far as to the earliest periods,
when the only means of recording events were by engraving
in clay, stone, and metals, which were used by the ancients
for all matters of public notoriety; and passing by the
subsequent use of thin slices of wood, and skins of animals
for similar purposes, we shall come at once to consider the
use of those materials whence we may trace the origin of
paper manufacture from vegetable substances. Thus, then,
it would appear that the use of boards was in some measure
superseded by that of the bark and leaves of certain trees,
and it is from the latter that the first paper was manu-
factured. The plant whose leaves were mostly used for
writing on was the Papyrus, a kind of large rush, which
grew upon the banks of the Nile. At a very early period
the Egyptians appear to have manufactured a species of
paper from its leaves, or, as some suppose, from the stock
of the plant. It is uncertain when the use of the Papyrus
leaf was superseded by paper made from it; but Egypt
enjoys the honour of having invented the process, and
Isidore even fixes the locality of its first manufacture at
Memphis. Varo, the Roman, ascribes the date to the time
of Alexander the Great, after the founding of Alexandria;
but Pliny quotes a passage from the writings of Cassius
Hemina, an ancient annalist, in which he speaks of some
books found in the tomb of Numa, when it was opened 535
years after his decease, and asserts that these books were
of paper, and had been interred with him. As Numa pre-
ceded Alexander by 300 years, this circumstance, if ad-
mitted, would carry back the date of the invention anterior
to that time. Dr. Gill, in his Commentary, says, ‘‘ On the
banks of the Nile grew a reed, or rush, called by the Greeks
papyrus, or byblus, from whence come the words paper and
bible, or book, of which paper was anciently made, even as
early as the time of Isaiah.” This, then, if correct, would
take the manufacture back to a still earlier date.

1872.] Paper at the International Exhibition. 465

Egypt long had the monopoly of the manufaéture of
papyrus paper, and at the time of Augustus the trade was
considerable, not only at Rome, but throughout the world.
In the ninth century, the use of papyrus made in Egypt
ceased in Europe, and it was replaced, almost universally,
by paper made of cotton from the East.

It is a curious circumstance, that there is at the present
day no plant known to botanists which corresponds exactly
with the papyrus of ancient times. In the prophecy of
Isaiah a very remarkable prediction occurs with reference
to this plant, in the following words :—‘‘ The paper reeds by
the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and everything
sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be
no more.” So far as the papyrus plant is concerned, that
prophecy appears to have received an actual fulfilment.

The art of making paper from vegetable fibre, reduced in
water to a pulp, is said to have originated in China. The
oldest known records in that country are inscribed on very
thin slips of bamboo, carefully dried by artificial heat, and
many of these are preserved in the pagodas. At a later
period the Chinese made use of a peculiar kind of silk,
called silk paper; and finally, both were replaced by an
inventor named Tsai-lun, who made use of the bark of
certain trees, hemp, rags, old nets, &c., which he boiled
down to a pulp, and thus produced paper proper. According
to different authorities, this invention dates from between
A.D. 89 and 105, whilst by another it is stated that the
results of this invention were presented to the Emperor of
China about the year A.D. 153.

The manufacture of paper from the paper mulberry
(Broussonetia papyrifera) was introduced into Japan about
A.D. 610. Upto the year A.D. 280, silk, with a facing of
linen, was used for writing upon, and thin wood shavings
were also employed. In that year, however, paper was
imported from the Corea; and this appears to have been
the only paper known to the Japanese until the year 610,
when two priests named Douché and Hajo were sent over
to Japan by the King of the Corea. Doucho is said to have
been a clever man, learned in the Chinese classics, and,
moreover, a skilful artist. Besides the manufacture of
paper, he also introduced that of writing-ink and millstones
into the country. Although the paper made by Douché
was very good of its kind, it did not take ink well, and had,
besides, other drawbacks. In consequence of this, Shétoki
Taishi, a son of the reigning Mikado, who had learned
paper-making of Douchdé, introduced the manufacture of

VOL. I1..(N.S;) 2.0

466 Paper at the International Exhibition. (October,

paper out of the paper mulberry, which plant he caused to
be extensively planted all over the country, and the mode
of paper manufacture to be largely promulgated among the
people.

Some time in the seventh century the art of paper-making
became also known to the Persians, and about the year 700
it passed into Arabia. The Arabs carried the knowledge
into Europe in the earlier haif of the twelfth century, and
established a paper manufactory in Spain. Upon the au-
thority of Edresi, who wrote in 1150, a paper was then
made at Xativa, an ancient city of Valencia, equalled by
none produced elsewhere, and which was extensively ex-
ported to the East and West. From Spain the art extended
into France, in which country, as well as in Italy, there
existed paper factories at the commencement of the four-
teenth century. In Germany, too, a paper factory was
established at Nuremberg, in 1390, by Ulman Stromer, who
also wrote the first work ever published on the art of paper-
making.

Paper made from cotton became general at the close of
the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries,
but in the fourteenth century it was almost entirely super-
seded by paper made of hemp and linen rags. English
manuscripts on linen paper date as early as 1340, but it is
believed that the manufacture did not exist here until the
end of the fifteenth century: indeed, the earliest trace of
the manufacture in this country occurs in the Bartolomeus
of Wynkyn de Worde, printed in 1496 by Caxton, in which
it is said of John Tate, jun., whose mills were at Stevenage,
Hert fordshire,—

‘* Which late hathe in England doo make thys paper thynne
That now in our Englyssh thys booke is prynted inne.”

In 1858 Sir John Spielman, a German, established a
paper mill at Dartford, for which the honour of knighthood
was conferred upon him by Queen Elizabeth, who was also
pleased to grant him a license ‘‘ for the sole gathering for
ten years of all rags, &c., necessary for the making of such
paper.”

It is recorded in the ‘‘ Craftsman,” that William the
Third granted the Huguenots, who brought with them
many of the improvements which France had introduced
into the manufacture, a patent for establishing paper manu-
factories, and that Parliament likewise granted them other
privileges.

For a long time England imported almost all its paper
from France. Although the manufacture was introduced at

1872.] Paper at the International Exhibition. 467

the end of the fifteenth century, scarcely any but wrapping-
paper was made in this country before the Revolution, but
the manufacture afterwards advanced so rapidly, that by
1760 Britain was almost wholly independent of foreign
supply. In that year James Whatman, who had learned the
art of paper-making whilst travelling in the suite of the
British ambassador to Holland, where the best papers were
then made, established a paper factory at Maidstone. Not
long before this wove moulds had been invented by Basker-
ville, to obviate the usual roughness of laid paper.

Paper was made entirely by hand until about the year
1803, when M. Didot, a Frenchman, brought over to this
country a model of a continuous machine, which was taken
up by Messrs. Fourdrinier, at that time the principal sta-

tioners and paper manufacturers in Great Britain, and it was
' perfected and manufactured by Mr. Bryan Donkin, whose
firm are, at the present day, the principal manufacturers
of paper machinery in the United Kingdom. In 1809 Mr.
Dickinson, a paper maker, invented another method of
making endless paper; and in 1826 M. Canson, of Annonay,
first applied suction-pumps to the Didot and Fourdrinier
machines.

The principle of paper-making machinery is simply this:
instead of employing moulds and felts of limited dimensions,
as was originally the practice, the peculiar merit of the in-
vention consists in the adaptation of an endless wire gauze
to receive the paper pulp, and again an endless felt, to
which in progress the paper is transferred, and thus,
by a marvellously delicate adjustment, while the wire at
one end receives a constant flow of liquid pulp, in the
course of two or three minutes there comes out at the other
end of the machine a continuous length of paper carefully
wound upon a roller.

Having thus briefly recorded the history of paper manu-
facture, we pass on now to a consideration of the different
materials from which it is made; and, first of all, we will
refer to the raw products, as shown in the International
Exhibition. First of all, then, we must notice the cotton
exhibits, as, so far as we at present know, it was from the
raw cotton that paper was first manufactured, and, as has
been already stated, this manufacture had its origin in
China.

Various specimens of the cotton plant are exhibited,
growing in pots, with their cotton pods fully developed, in
a separate building or cunservatory, called the ‘‘ Cotton-
growing House,” in the west grounds of the Exhibition

468 Paper at the International Exlibition. (October,
building, where many varieties of Indian, Egyptian, Ame-
rican, Chinese, and other cottons may be studied in their
natural state. In Room I. in the west galleries, close by,
the further development of cotton through the various
stages of ginning, blowing, making into laps, carding,
breaking, finishing, drawing, slubbing, roving, the mule,
and weaving-looms, are all successively shown, most of the
machines being exhibited in a¢tual work, whilst cases along
the side walls contain specimens of almost all the known
species of cotton in their raw state, accompanied, in some
instances, with specimens of the manufactured article, in
all the various stages through which it passes before
arriving in the perfect state in what it is known as “‘ cotton
goods.” ‘The seeds of some species of cotton, after ginning,
have a certain quantity of short cotton fibre adhering to
them. ‘This is carefully cleaned, and the ‘‘cotton waste”
so obtained used for paper manufacture. The other prin-
cipal materials employed in the production of paper in the
various provinces of China are hemp, the young shoots of
the bamboo, the mulberry-tree, the rattan, sea-weed, rice
and wheat straw, silk cocoons, the bark of the Brousso-
netia papyrifera, and the pith of the Avalia papyrifera,
from which the celebrated Chinese rice-paper is made.
In Japan, the principal plant from which paper is
manufactured is the Broussonetia papyrifera, or paper
mulberry. Another plant, known as the Toroto, which
grows not unlike the cotton plant, yields a paper fibre from
its root, but neither the flower nor the seed are of any use
forthe purpose. There are also the Makoso, or paper plant,
the Kajiso, and the takaso, used for paper of an inferior
quality.

The following is a list of the Indian fibres used for paper-
making, samples of which are all exhibited together with,
in most cases, samples of paper made from them.

Punjab Flax, Linum usitatissimum.
Rheea, Behmeria nivea.

Puya Bark, Behmeria puya.

Puya Fibre, Baxhmeria puya.
Nilgiri Nettle, Urtica heterophylla.
Mudar, Calotropsis gigantea.
Bedolee Sutta, Pederia fetida.
Jute, Corchorus olitorius.

Sufet Bariala, Sida rhomboidea.
Ambaree, Hibiscus cannabinus.
Roselle, Hibiscus sabdariffa.
Indian Mallow, Abutilon indicum.
Bun Okra, Urvena lobata.

Himalayan Hemp, Cannabis sativa.

Sunn Hemp, Crotalaria juncea.

Jubbulpore Hemp, Crotalaria tenui-
folia.

Dunchee, Sesbania aculeata.

Pine Apple Fibre, Ananassa sativa.

Marool, Sanseviera zeylamca.

Agave, Agave americana.

Great Aloe, Fourcroya gigantea.

Adam’s nettle, Yucca gloriosa.

Plantain, Musa paradisiaca.

Screw Pine, Pandanus odoratissimus.

Red Bast, from Pegu.

Shaw Nee, Shaw Young, Shaw Layb-
way, and That Pootnet Shaw, all
from Burmah.

Nepal Paper Shrub,Daphne cannabina.

1872.] Paper at the International Exhibition. 469

Besides the above, there are also exhibited samples of
Indian paper made from gunny bags, refuse gunny, fishing
nets, old records, and bamboo.

From the Report of the New York Industrial Exhibition
of 1853, it appears that the materials principally used in
America for paper-making are raw cotton and cotton waste.
Linen rags are imported from Europe, but the principal
consumption would appear to be cotton, either as above
named or inrags. Sir William Hooker, in his Report on
Vegetable Products at the Paris Exhibition of 1855, gives
an exhaustive list of fibres produced in different countries,
many of which are used for paper-making. It would occupy
too much space to insert their names here, and we have
therefore contented ourselves with pointing out where such
information may be obtained.

The Indian, Chinese, and Japanese are by far the most
perfect collections of paper-making materials in the Ex-
hibition, and we have therefore given greater prominence to
the products of those countries. Queensland shows a
specimen of the Szda retusa, an indigenous weed, the
fibre of which is used as a substitute for flax, and the refuse
makes pulp for paper. Many of the exhibitors show
specimens of the Esparto grass, both Spanish and Algerian,
from which paper is now largely made, also of straw and
straw pulps, as well as of pine wood. One case exhibited
by F. B. Houghton shows all the different stages through
which pine wood passes from the rough block to paper pulp;
whilst another exhibitor, P. L. Simmonds, shows the various
processes for reducing the waste from cotton seeds, and
rough pine wood and bamboo, to the consistency of paper
pulp.

In passing now from a consideration of the different raw
materials used in paper-making, the next step is to review
briefly the various processes employed in paper manufacture.
Up to a certain point these processes necessarily vary with
different materials beyond which the same kind of machinery
may be employed. According to the nature of the raw
materials different treatments must be observed in reducing
them to a pulp, but after that stage has been reached
the remainder of the manufacture may be generally said to
be the same. We shall, therefore, first briefly notice the
machine for manufacturing the pulp into paper, and then
give a short account of how some of the raw materials are
first reduced to a state of pulp.

There are two excellent models of paper- making machines
respectively on scales of 3th and jth full size, exhibited by

470 Paper at the International Exlibition. [Oétober,

Messrs. B. Donkin and Co., of London, and by Messrs.
G. Bertram and Co., of Edinburgh.

The pulp, when sufficiently ground, descends into a
reservoir, in which it is kept constantly agitated in water.
From this reservoir the pulp passes into a trough, where it
is strained by means of a sieve, or ‘‘knotter,’’ as it is called,
the under part of which communicates with an exhaust
pump in order to facilitate the passage of the pulp through
the fine meshes of the “‘knotter.”” Passing from the strainer,
the pulp is next distributed equally throughout the entire
width of the machine, and is afterwards allowed to flow
over a lip or ledge in a regular and even stream, whence
it is received by the upper surface of an endless woven
wire band, upon which the first process of manufacture
takes place. This wire band, as it travels forward, has also
a gentle vibratory motion given to it in order to assist the
pulp to spread evenly over its surface, and to facilitate the
separation of the water, which latter is also further aided
by the action of a suction pump beneath, and thus the pulp
solidifies as it advances. The width of the paper is regulated
by deckle or boundary straps, which travel at the same rate
as the wire gauze, and so limit the spread of the pulp.

The partially solidified pulp now passes under the
“‘dandy”’ roller, which is employed to give any impression
to the paper that may be required, and in forming what is
called the ‘“‘ watermark,” to which we shall presently refer
more fully. The paper ‘then passes under two “‘ couching ”
rollers, which are simply wooden rollers covered with felt.
Merging from these the paper is received from the wire
gauze by a continuous felt, which conducts it through two
pairs of pressing rollers, and afterwards to the drying
cylinders, which are heated internally with steam. The
paper, after passing over these cylinders, is finally wound
upon areel. For the finer sorts of paper, and especially
for writing paper, a subsequent process of sizing must be
undergone, which in most cases is effected continuously
with the manufacture of the paper, and before it is finally
wound.

To convey some idea of the number of substances which
have been really tried for paper making, it may be stated
that in the library of the British Museum may be seen a
book, printed in low Dutch, containing upwards of sixty
specimens of paper, made of different materials, the result
of one man’s experiments alone, so far back as the year
1772. Infact, almost every species of tough fibrous vegetable,
and even animal substance, has at one time or another been

1872.] Paper at the International Exhibition. 471

tried. Cotton in its raw state requires far less preparation
than a strong hempen fabric, and thus, to meet the require-
ments of the paper-maker, rags are classed under different
denominations, as, for instance, Funes, Seconds, Thirds
(composed of fustians, corduroy, and similar fabrics), and
Stamps on Prints, as they are termed by the paper-maker,
which are coloured rags, distinguished by certain well-known
marks, indicating their various peculiarities. Samples of
these may all be seen in cases exhibited by Messrs. John
Dickinson and Co., and Messrs. T. H. Saunders, together
with specimens of the different chemicals used in paper
manufacture, and of the various colouring matters employed.

The first process necessary is to examine the rags, open
all seams, remove dirt, pins, needles, buttons, &c., which
would be liable to injure the machinery or to damage the
paper. Therags are then cut in small pieces, mostly by
hand, and sorted according to their quality. A machine for
cutting rags, jute, hemp, &c., is exhibited by Messrs.
B. Donkin and Co., and when this is used, sorting the rags
necessarily precedes the operation of cutting.

After cutting the rags are removed to a dusting machine,
in which all the dust and dirt contained in them is knocked
out. They are then boiled in an alkaline ley or solution,
made more or less strong as the rags are more or less
coloured, the object being to get rid of the remaining dirt
and some of the colouring matter. The mode of performing
this is by placing the rags in large cylinders, which are
constantly, though slowly, revolving, thus causing the rags
to be as frequently turned over, and into which a jet of
steam is cast. A large spherical boiler used for this purpose
is shown by Messrs. B. Donkin and Co. The rags now
pass into the comminuting machine, in which they are
ground into pulp, and afterwards the mass is condué¢ted into
another engine, where, if necessary, it is bleached by an
admixture of chloride of lime. The pulp is then let down
into large cisterns to steep, prior to being reduced to a
suitable consistency by a heating engine, after which it is
conducted to the paper-making machine, as has been already
described. :

Before passing on to notice various uses to which paper is/
applied, a short space may be advantageously devoted ea
giving an account of some special manufactures. For t
purpose we shall confine ourselves to a few only of ihe
most interesting. f

The well-known rice-paper of the Chinese is obthined
from the pith of the Avalia papyrifera, a plant allied to the

472 Paper at the International Exhibition. [OCtober,

Artocarpus, or bread-fruit tree. The pith is carefully taken
out, cut into sheets, and smoothed with an iron preparatory
to use.

The most important paper made in China is that from the
bamboo. In the month of June the bamboos, which are
on the point of producing new shoots, are cut down and
divided into lengths of 6 or 7 feet each. These pieces are
placed in a pit dug in the earth, and kept full of water, and
remain there for one hundred days or more; they are then
beaten with a mallet to remove the green bark which covers
their surface. The bamboo, thus prepared, is boiled in a
large wooden vessel full of water containing slaked lime,
and placed within a metal boiler. The fire is generally kept
up for eight days, and at the expiration of that time the
fibres are taken out and carefully washed; they are after-
wards plunged in a ley made from wood ashes, and then laid
in a boiler covered an inch thick with ashes from burnt rice-
straw, when water is added, and the whole is boiled; these
last operations are repeated in rotation during ten days.
By this time the fibres begin to rot, and they are then
pounded in large mortars, the stampers or pestles being
generally moved by water-power in a very simple manner.
When reduced to pulp, it is placed in vats, and a liquid
added, which is supposed to contain chlorine to whiten the
mass. ‘The sheets of paper are formed in the same manner
as hand-made paper in Europe, but the frame is composed
of woven fibres of the bamboo instead of wire; when formed
the sheets are laid one upon another upon a table, till a heap
of about a thousand is produced, when a plank is laid on
the top, and pressed down with great force by means of
cords passed round the table, and the paper is left to drain.
The drying is achieved by placing the sheets, one by one,
by means of a brush, on the outer surfaces of a hot stove
built of brick.

Some of the Chinese, and especially the Corean papers,
are smooth on both sides; this dress is produced by first
polishing the surface with dried leaves, and afterwards
pressing it by means of heavy rollers moved by hand.

The manufacture of paper from the Broussonetia papyrifera,
or paper mulberry, is thus condu¢ted by the Japanese :—
The mulberry stalks are cut into lengths of 23 to 3 feet,
which are then steamed in a vessel made of straw until the
skin begins to separate at thecut ends. The skins are then
stripped off by hand and dried, the stripped sticks being
used as firewood. ‘The drying is effected by hanging them
over transverse poles in the open air. After drying they

1872.) Paper at the International Exhibition. 473

are weighed into portions of about 32 lbs. each, and tied
up in bundles. They are then washed in running water, in
which they are left for a day and a night, after which they
are taken in, and the inner fibre separated from the outer
skin. The outer dark skin is then scraped off with a knife,
and is used for making an inferior kind of paper; it is
called ‘“‘ Saru-Rawa,” and after being thoroughly washed in
running water, which causes it to open out flat, it is boiled.
It is then allowed to rot, and is well beaten, after which
paper is made of it.

It usually takes two or three days to make paper from
the inner bark. ‘Tied into bundles of about 32 lbs. weight
each, it is taken to the river and thoroughly washed, and
afterwards steeped in buckets of water; the water is then
run off, and heavy stones placed on the fibre to express the
remaining liquid; they are then boiled in water infused
with the ashes of burnt buckwheat husks. It is afterwards
placed in a basket, and boiled a second time to get rid of
the ash infusion. After a third washing it is placed in a
wooden vessel and pounded into pulp. It is then mixed
with a paste made from boiling the roots of the Tororo plant,
and formed into sheets by hand moulds, and then dried in
the open air, except in wet weather, when it is sometimes
dried by the heat of a fire.

Paper manufacture from pine wood is extensively carried
out in Sweden, and the use of that fibre is, it is believed,
largely on the increase in this country. After the particulars
already given of the means employed for reducing fibres to
pulp, all that is necessary, in referring to the use of pine
wood on the present occasion, is to point out the principal
difficulties experienced in its use, and the manner in which
those difficulties have now been overcome. ‘The almost
inexhaustible supply of this material would naturally com-
mend itself to paper-makers ; but the obstacles to its ex-
tended employment arose from the large quantity of alkali
necessary for disintegrating the fibre, and the necessity for
very strong vessels in which to perform the operation,
because it is only by boiling at a high temperature with a
solution of caustic soda that this can be performed. ‘These
two difficulties have now been successfully overcome ; that
with regard to safe boilers by means of a process invented
by Mr. F. B. Houghton, which dispenses with the use of fire
under the boiler, and the expensiveness of caustic soda is
avoided by employing the process discovered by M. Tessie
du Motay, by which the tedious and expensive process of
evaporation and calcination, which had only for its object

VOL, 1. (N.S.) 35

474 Paper at the International Exhibitton. (October,

the destruction of the resinous matters taken from the wood,
is now performed without evaporation or calcination, by
simply passing a current of gas through the liquor which
has been employed for boiling the wood; this separates the
resin from the liquor, leaving it floating in it. It is then
coagulated and falls to the bottom, and the liquor can then
be treated as if it were new soda-ash. Finally, the resin,
instead of proving an obstacle, becomes a source of revenue
more than sufficient to pay all the expenses.

We must now briefly notice some of the manufactures of
which paper forms the basis. The one most completely il-
lustrated in the Exhibition is the manufacture of envelopes,
by Messrs. John Dickinson and Co. The paper, as it
arrives from the mill, each of about three-quarters of a
mile in length, in rolls, is fixed to the cutting-machine.
The sheet is first cut longitudinally by two circular cutters,
working, like scissors, on each other. It is then cut trans-
versely by a revolving knife at the end of the machine, and
which is so arranged that sheets of any required size can
be cut by it. The paper, on leaving this machine, is too
rough for writing purposes, and has next to be ‘ glazed.”
This is done by interleaving it, sheet by sheet, with plates
of zinc or brass, and passing it in small quantities between
rolls, under a pressure varying from 20 to 40 tons. The
paper is then put in bundles of sheets under a punching-
machine, which cuts out the ‘‘ blanks.” These have to be
gummed en “the nose,” that is, on that portion which has
to be wetted when fastening the finished envelope. The
girls who are employed on this work can gum some 4000
per hour. The blanks are then put into a chamber of racks,
heated by steam, in order to dry the gum. The next process
is the stamping, which is done by hand under a small ball-
press; and at this point the process of black-bordering,
when required, is carried out. ‘This is also done by hand,
the blanks being arranged in a row overlapping each other,
so as to leave a width of each uncovered equal only to the
width of the desired border. The blacking is then done
by hand, by means of a brush; two edges only can be
blacked at once, and when dry the other two edges are done
in a similar manner.

The blanks thus finished are placed by parcels into a
folding-machine—of which there are several different kinds
shown at work in the Exhibition—which folds and gums up
the envelopes entirely automatically. The finished enve-
lopes are then banded in packets of twenty-five, the
defective ones being thrown out. ‘Ten of these packets are

1872.] Paper at the International Exhibition. 475

then sealed up together and labelled. The black-bordered
envelopes are packed in boxes, each box containing one
gross.

The Waterproof-Paper and Corrugated Fibre Company
exhibit specimens of their manufactures, paper and other
fibrous materials being waterproofed by the solvent action of
cupro-ammonia. By the agglutinising property of the same
fluid, combinations of cotton or linen fabrics are made with
waterproof-paper. This material is manufactured in slabs,
flat or corrugated, of various thicknesses, for roofing and
building purposes, waterproof-tubing, panels, and so forth.

Messrs. Pavy, bretto, and Co. exhibit. all’ over the
building, elegant curtains made from paper, of very elegant
appearance, and which can be sold at a price so moderate
as to place them within the reach of all.

The material employed is called ‘‘felted fabric.” It is
not a real tissue, but rather a species of Japanese paper,
remarkable chiefly for its texture, being firm and tough,
yet pliable. In point of durability it must compare
favourably with most other materials used for similar
purposes, inasmuch as the colours with which it is printed
are indelible, and do not fade under the effects of sunshine,
damp, or dust. It is impermeable, light and warm for
quilts and curtains, and needs no washing. The fibres used
in this manufacture are subjected, under the influence of
heat and pressure, to very perfect operations of chemical
disaggregation, and comminution by mechanical treatment ;
it is then washed in alkaline and antiseptic baths, crushed
under ponderous cylinders, and then desiccated and bleached
by the sulphurous gas; it is then further washed, and the
fibres disintegrated by grooved cylinders, pulped in poachers,
and finally felted in a paper-machine modified for the
special requirements of the manufacture.

From Sweden there is a case exhibited, showing several
different uses to which pasteboard is applied in that country.
It is made from a mixture of straw and rags:—.

Yellow pasteboard, as it is called, is applied on the inner

part of the walls of a house to prote¢t the hangings.

Grey rag pasteboard, which apparently contains a mixture

of grey ragstone, is used for floorings.

Raw pasteboard, of which is formed asphalte and roofing.

Tarred pasteboard, employed to keep out draught and

moisture in buildings.

Asphalte roofing pasteboard.

In China paper is often used in the place of glass for
windows. This is mostly made in the Corea, and is often

476 Paper at the International Exhibition. (October,

of large size, and as strong as athick fabric. It is generally
rough, but sometimes well-glazed, in which case it is worth
sixpence or more per square yard. ‘This paper is submitted
to the action of steam, and then dressed with a mixture
formed of oils of Stevculia tomentosa and of hemp-seed,
mixed with white-lead and castor-oil seeds. The paper
used for covering umbrellas is prepared much in the same
way, and resists the effects of rain and sun for a long time.
It is, however, to Japan we must look for the most in-
structive information as to the different uses to which paper
may be applied. The Japanese are wonderfully proficient
in giving to paper the hardness and weight of heavy wood,
and manipulating it in all sorts of shapes. Some of the
common paper made is so tough that it can only be torn
with difficulty. Coats, hats, shoes, umbrellas, boxes of all
kinds, ornaments of every description, pocket-handkerchiefs,
fans, &c., are made from paper; in fact a Japanese will turn
paper into a hundred useful forms. The imitation-leather
paper is made by mixing oil with the pulp; in the same
manner all waterproof-paper is manufactured. ‘The juice
of persimmons is sometimes also used in making paper
intended to resist dampness. From that country we have
directions* for making paper-cloth warranted to wash, which is
known by the name of ‘‘ Shifu,”’ and which are as follows :—
‘Take some of the paper called ‘hésh6’ (used for letters,
book&, &c.), or some of the best ‘senka’ (paper used for
making rain-coats), and dye it of the colour required. Boil
some of the roots called ‘ Ron-niaku-no-dama,’ with the
skins on; try them with the inner portion of a rice-stalk;
when it penetrates easily they are sufficiently boiled. Peel
them and let the water run off, and then pound them into a
paste. Spread this paste on either side of the paper, and
let it dry in the sun till quite stiff. Then sprinkle water on
it until it is thoroughly damped, and leave it in that state
for a night. The next morning roll it upon a bamboo of the
thickness of the shaft of an arrow, and force it with the
hands from either end into a crumple in the centre; unroll
it, and repeat this process two or three times, rolling it from
each side and corner of the paper. Then crumple it well in
the hands by rubbing it together until it becomes quite soft,
and then sprinkle water on it again to damp it. Pull it out
straight and smooth, fold it up, and pound it with a wooden
mallet. It may then be put into water, as much and as
often as is liked, without sustaining injury, having become

* Vide “ Reports on the Manufa@ture of Paper in Japan.” Printed Parlia-
mentary Paper, No. 400 of 1871.

1872.] Paper at the International Exhibition. 477

a strong and lasting material. This cloth is made princi-
pally in the Daimiate of Seudai. Boxes, trays, and even
saucepans, may be made of this cloth; and saucepans thus
manufactured sustain no injury over a strong charcoal heat.
Bags may be made of it, in which wine may be put, and
heated by insertion in boiling water. Paper thus prepared
may be used for papering windows, and will withstand the
rain without being oiled.”

For the manufacture of oil-paper for rain-coats, &c., the
paper should be that locally known as ‘‘senka” or ‘‘ tosa-
senka.” The glue used for joining the paper is made of
young fern shoots, ground and boiled into a paste, and
thinned by admixture with the juice expressed from unripe
persimmons. The dye is usually green, yellow, red, or
black. Whichever colour is used, the colouring matter—
generally a powder—is boiled with bean paste, and the
paper is then painted with it. The preparation of the paper
consists principally in softening it by rubbing it in the
hands. ‘The oil used is a seed oil called ‘‘ Ye-no-abura.”

Amongst the specimens of Japanese manufactures at the
International Exhibition are the following :—A net coat,
worn next to the skin in warm weather by the better
classes. This is manufactured by rolling strips of strong
paper of equal size into a sort of string, and then working
them by hand into a neat net-pattern. It takes some days
to complete a garment of this kind, and it will bear washing.

Hats worn by the higher class of Yakunins are made by
working paper into a very heavy substance by placing many
layers over each other until it attains a very hard and wood-
like material. It is then varnished to render it waterproof.

Paper hats are also worked so as to resemble straw hats
by the paper being twisted, and then plaited, shaped, and
varnished.

Paper made to resemble leather is shown in the shapes of
a box and cover for sandals. It is much used by the natives,
and is well adapted for binding books, covering boxes, &c.

The above notices will suffice to show the variety of
purposes to which paper may be applied besides those which
are too well known to all to need any special notice on the
present occasion. Weshall conclude the present article by
a brief allusion to the art of the so-called ‘‘ water-marking”
of paper, which is now carried to a very high state of
excellency, so as almost to deserve being classed amongst
the fine arts. ’

The ordinary mode of effecting these paper-marks is that
of affixing a stout wire,in the form of any object to be

478 Paper at the International Exhibition. [October,

represented, to the surface of the fine wire gauze, of which
the hand mould, or machine dandy roller, is constructed.
To produce a line water-mark of any autograph or crest,
the pattern or device must first be engraved on some yielding
surface, from which an electrotype in copper is afterwards
taken in the usual manner, thus producing the device in
relief. ‘This is then affixed to the surface of the wire gauze
of the mould, and produces a corresponding impression on
the paper. Supposing perfect identity to be essential, as in
the case of a bank note, the device is first engraved on a
steel die, those parts which are intended to give greater
effect in the paper having to be cut deepest. The die is
then hardened and properly prepared in the usual manner, ~
and an impression transferred from it on to a plate of sheet-
brass by being placed under a steam hammer or other
stamping apparatus. ‘This being done, the die, with the
mould plate in it, is next taken to a perforating or cutting
machine, where the portion of the mould plate projecting
above the face of the die is removed, whilst the portion
embedded in the engraved design is left untouched. The
latter is subsequently taken from the interstices of the die
and placed ina frame upon a backing of fine wire cloth,
and so forms a mould for the manufacture of paper of any
pattern that may be desired.

Light and shade are occasioned by a very similar process,
but one which requires more care, and is consequently some-
what more tedious. Inthe former case the pulp is distributed
equally throughout the entire surface of the wire forming the
mould, whereas, to produce the effects of light and shade,
means have to be adopted for increasing, to a very great nicety,
the thickness or distribution of the pulp, and at the same
time to make provision for the water to drain away. This
has been accomplished by first taking an electrotype of the
raised surface of any model or design; and again, from that,
forming in a similar manner a matrix or mould, both of which
are subsequently mounted upon lead or gutta-percha, in order
that they may withstand the pressure which is required to
be put upon them in giving impression to a sheet of very
fine copper wire gauze, which, in the form of a mould, and
in the hands of the vat-man, suffices ultimately to produce
those beautiful transparent effects in paper pulp.

At the Exhibition there is a large display of water-marked
papers, consisting principally, so far as England is con-
cerned, of specimens of English and. Indian bank-notes;
whilst the Imperial State Paper Establishment of St.
Petersburg exhibits a large collection, including landscapes,

1872.] The Phystological Position of Tobacco. 479

portraits, and other designs. These collections of water-
marked papers are exhibited as_ transparencies, being
arranged in glass frames in front of windows, in Room 23,
in the south galleries of the Exhibition building.

Vil. CHE PHYSIOLOGICAL: POSITION OF
TOBACCO.

By WILLIAM E. A. Axon, M.R.S.L., F.S.S.

Recherches Phystologiques et Cliniques sur la Nicotine et le
Mavac, “Parte DocteursA.(BVATIN. Paris, 1870. Svo:

Ueber Tabak tn toxthologischer Beziehung, mit besonderer Be-
riicksichtigung der 1m Tabaksrauch enthaltenen chemuschen
Verbindungen. Vom Dr. HEeRM. VonL und Dr. HERM.
EuULENBERG (Vierteljahrschrift f. ger. Med., N.F., xiv., 2).
Svo.

Académie de Medicine L’ Absinthe et le Tabac. Par M. Jouty.
Panis, 1675. Sv:

Tabak ist Gift! Physischer und psychischer Einfluss dés
Tabaks auf den menschlichen Organismus. Von B.
LUNDAHL. Berlin. 8vo.

Du Tabac. Son influence sur la Santé et sur les facultés
intellectuales et morales. Hygiene des Fumeurs par
le Doéteur DRUHEN ainé. Deuxieme Edition. Be-
sancgon, 1867. 8vo.

Die Rauchhexe. Von J. V. STREBEL. Zweite Auflage.
Stuttgart, 1869. 8vo.

nS Tobacco good for the health of man? Does it add to
é his strength, make him readier for work, more capable
of endurance, add to his length of life and happiness ?

The question may for all praétical purposes be confined
to humanity, for, with one or two exceptions, the brutes
avoid the tobacco-plant, and we are not aware that any of
them are in the habit of burning its leaves and inhaling the
fumes in the manner adopted by man. We may conclude,
then, that if tobacco has any uses, to man is due the credit
of having discovered them.

In speaking of the physiological position of tobacco, we
have to deal with the action of the essential principles of
that plant upon the human system. The peculiar effects of
tobacco are due to the action of the essential oil of tobacco

480 The Physiological Position of Tobacco. [October,

in the case of chewing and snuffing, and to that combined
with the empyreumatic oil in smoking. Nicotine, as this
essential principle is called, is so deadly an alkaloid, that the
amount of it contained in one cigar, if-extracted and admi-
nistered in a pure state, would suffice to kill two men.
According to the experiments of Vohl and Eulenberg, the
nicotine is decomposed in.the process of smoking into pyri-
dine, picoline, and other poisonous alkaloids, which can
also be obtained in varying quantities by the destructive
distillation of other vegetable substances.

Nicotine, as for convenience we may continue to call the
poisonous principles of tobacco, can enter the body through
various channels—by the stomach, by the lungs, by sub-
cutaneous injection, and by the skin itself. But in what-
ever manner it enters the human system, its effects are, in
the main, uniform.

The most immediately noticeable symptom following
smoking is the undue acceleration of the labouring forces of
the heart. Under the stimulus of tobacco the heart beats
more quickly, as is evidenced by the rising pulse. We have
not the mass of detailed evidence as to this fact which
exists in relation to alcohol, but the experiments made by
Dr. Edward Smith, and related to the British Association
in 1864, are full of interest. ‘‘ The experiments were made
at 10 p.m., when the rate of pulsation naturally declines (as
he had proved by hourly experiments published in his work
on the ‘‘ Cyclical Changes of the Human System”), and at
least four hours after any fluid or solid food had been taken.
They were made in the sitting posture, after it had been
maintained fifteen minutes, and with the most absolute
quietude of body and mind; and thus all influences were
eliminated but those due to the tobacco. ‘The rate of the
pulsation was taken every minute for a period beginning
two or three minutes before the smoking began, and con-
tinuing during twenty minutes or until the pipe was
exhausted.

The following are the chief results obtained :—

Experiment I.
Pulsation before smoking was 74} per minute.

Smoking 6 minutes—79, 77, 80, 78, 78, 77 per minute=78'I
average.

Smoking 7 minutes—83, 87, 88, 94, 98, 102, 102 per minute
= 93 Andverage.

Smoking 8 minutes—I05, 105, 104, 105, 105, 107, 107, 110
per minute = 106 average.

1872.] The Physiological Position of Tobacco. 481

After smoking 11 minutes—112, 108, 107, IOI, I0I, 100,
100, 100, 100, 98, and gr.
There was thus a maximum increase of 373 pulsations
per minute.
Experiment 2.
(Smoking through camphor julep in a hookah).
Pulsation before smoking, 79$ per minute.
Smoking 6 minutes—8r1, 81, 81, 83, 82, 82 per minute = 81°6
average.
Smoking 17 minutes—85, 89, 89, 93, 96, 90, 94, 94, 93, 92,
95) 95. 95» 96; 94, 97, 93 = 93.

1

The maximum increase was 175 pulsations per minute.

Experiment 3.
(Smoking an empty pipe).

Pulsation before smoking, 78 pulsations per minute.

Smoking Tr minutes—76, 78, 77, 76, 79, 79, 80, 80, 79,78,
and 79.

There was no increase in the rate of pulsations from the
effort of smoking, or from its interference with the re-
spiration.

Experiment 4.

(To ascertain if, after smoking 6 minutes, during which the
effect is very small, and then ceasing smoking, any
increase in the effect would follow).

Pulsation before smoking, 75 pulsations per minute.
Smoking 6 minutes—76, 75, 79, 79, 76, 78.

Smoking I minute—82. Cease smoking.

Smoking ro minutes—81, 88, 83, 82, 84, 83; 83, 80, 82.

The rate of pulsations was maintained, but was not ma-
terially increased.

Experiment 5.

(To prove if the rapidity of smoking causes a variation in

increase of pulsation).

a. Greater volume of smoke.—

Pulsation before smoking, 70} per minute.

Smoking 6 minutes—68, 70, 71, 70, 72, 74 = 70°8 average.

Smoking 6 minutes—76, 77, 86, 89, 91, 94 = 85°5 average.

Smoking 4 minutes—98, 95, 96, 95 = 96’0 average.

The maximum effect was thus 273 pulsations per minute.

VOL; If. (N.S:) 310

482 The Physiological Position of Tobacco. (October,

b. Smoking faster.—
Pulsation of the last minute in the previous part of this
experiment, viz. 95 per minute—smoking 3 minutes,
945 94, 90.
c. The pipe recharged.—
Smoking 5 minutes—87, 93, 96, 96, 96.

There was, therefore, a large effect upon the pulsation,
but probably not more than would have occurred with
ordinary smoking.

Numerous other experiments were made with tobaccos of
different reputed strengths and upon different persons, and

the author gave minute directions as to the proper method
of making such inquiries.”

The heart, then, during the a¢t of smoking, was doing
extra work; in some of the experiments this additional
labour amounting to more than 50 per cent.

The effect upon the heart is not caused by dire¢t aétion
upon that organ, but by paralysing the minute vessels
which form the batteries of the nervous system. Thus
paralysed, they can no longer offer effectual resistance, and
the heart, freed from their control, increases the rapidity of
its strokes, expanding the vessels, with an apparent ac-
cession, but real waste, of force.

Its effect in lowering the animal temperature is very
striking. When the walls of the blood-vessels are dis-
tended with that fluid, the increase in volume decreases the
rapidity of the circulation and augments the local warmth.
When the walls partially collapse, the circulation becomes
quicker, but the heat diminishes. The heat; in faét, is
transformed into motion.

Blatin illustrates this by an experiment upon a dog. He
took a spaniel of medium size, and noted the arterial tension
in the carotid, and the rate of pulsation before and after the
subcutaneous injection of 0°004 m.grm. of nicotine into the
abdomen. ‘The tension increased from between o*r41
m.grm. and o'144 m.grm. to between o°148 m.grm. and
0°155 m.grm.; the pulse rose from 115 to 328 beats per
minute.

Again, he introduced the hamadynamometer into the ab-
domen of a dog four or five months old, and found the
pressure to be 0'082 m.grm. On injecting 0°002 m.grm. of ni-
cotine, the pressure increased to o'0g0 m.grm.

The spaniel named as the subject of the first experiment
was selected fifteen days after for another operation. Its

1872.] The Physiological Positicn of Tobacco. 483

pulse was at 120. Section of the pneumogastric nerve ir-
creased the beats to 210, but the injection of 0°004 m.grm.
of nicotine into the abdomen, whilst producing the usual
symptoms of poisoning, had no influence upon the circu-
lation. In a terrier dog, poisoned with 0°003 m.grm. of
nicotine, the pulse rose from 104 to Igo beats, and the
exposure of the pneumogastric nerve to the action of gal-
vanism did not diminish them. ‘Thus the increase of the
heart’s action, caused by tobacco, results from its paralysing
effect upon the pneumogastric nerve. The increase in pres-
sure he considers due, first, to the quickened heart-beat, and
secondly, to the paralysing influence of tobacco upon the
splanchnic nerve, which is to the vascular system what the
par vagum is to the heart. In small doses it increases the
excitability of these nerves; in large doses it diminishes it,
and that in proportion to their extent. The secondary
effect of this is to augment the arterial pressure and heart-
beats, and to contract the muscles of the vessels.

The vertigo and trembling noticed in animals poisoned
by tobacco are owing to the smaller calibre of the blood-
vessels, consequent upon the contraction of their walls pro-
duced by nicotine.

Blatin also endeavoured to ascertain the effects of tobacco
upon respiration. A small dog, making 16 respirations per
minute, was pricked ten times in the abdomen with a needle
dipped in an aqueous solution of nicotine; the effect was,
in five minutes, to increase the breathings to 38. Three
days after, a drop of pure nicotine was introduced into
a wound made on the inside of the leg. In an instant
the respirations rose from 16 to 25, another moment saw
them rise to 38; they then began to decrease, and in five
minutes had fallen to 12. Two more drops were now placed
on the wound; the breathings descended from I1 to Io,
then to g, stood five minutes at 8, and then another drop of
nicotine reduced them to 4. The respiration was now quite
irregular. Section of the pneumogastric caused no change,
and in a quarter of an hour the animal died. From this it
is clear that a small dose of nicotine accelerates, whilst
a large one progressively diminishes them. Section of
the pneumogastric produces the same effect as a strong
dose of nicotine. A small dose accelerates the respiration,
even after the section of the par vagum. This will be
caused by its action upon the spinal cord. Strong doses
cause the same paralysing action we have already noticed
acting upon the circulation.

Blatin was struck with the diminution or destruction of

484 The Physiological Position of Tobacco. [O&tober,

the excitability of the nervo-motors when the doses were
feeble. Sensibility is only affected by very large doses.
When a strong solution of nicotine is injected under the
skin of a frog, galvanism has little or no effect upon the
nervo-motors. ‘The effect is most noticeable on the nerves
nearest the wound.

From this he concludes that the paralysis is caused less
by the circulation than by absorption across the tissues.
This he tested further, by tying with ligatures one of the pos-
terior members of a frog, leaving only the blood-vessels and
nerves free, so that the poison could only reach the nerves
by the circulation. Some nicotine was then injected sub-
cutaneously into another member. ‘The poisoned limb did
not respond to electrical excitement, but the one which bore
the ligatures was evidently sensible to it, though not to the
normal degree.

The action of nicotine upon the iris is well known, yet
whilst some consider it to produce dilatation, others affirm its
effect to be contraction. ‘The iris is composed of two orders
of muscular tissue. The circular fibres influenced by the
motor oculi, and the radiating fibres obeying the great sym-
pathetic, perform the two functions of the iris, dilatation and
contraction. ‘The stimulation of the third pair of nerves
causes a contraction of the pupil; a larger dose of nicotine
destroys its susceptibility and dilatation follows, the upper lid
falls, strabismus ensues, the eyeball becomes fixed—in short,
the motor power of the eye is paralysed. M. Blatin con-
siders that the muscular fibre of the eye is not at all affected
by the poison.

To determine the influence of tobacco upon the secretions,
he made some experiments upon a dog, to which small doses
of nicotine were daily administered. An increased dryness
of the mucous system and a large secretion of urine were
the first result. A wound made on its leg had not cicatrised
in eight days, in spite of the well-known rapidity with which
wounds usually heal in dogs. The mouth became dry, the
throat inflamed, the animal, although constantly drinking,
was unable to quench its thirst. Some drops of water
placed upon the wound moistened it only a few moments.
As the pressure of the blood is increased by this poison, in
small doses it is a diuretic.

From all these experiments we may conclude that nico-
tine acts both on the heart and vessels, and is a vasculo-
cardiac poison.

Blatin proposes to divide tobacco poisoning into two
classes, acute and chronic. The first is the result of a large

1872.] The Physiological Position of Tobacco. 485

or unaccustomed dose; the second, the accumulative con-
sequences‘of doses, perhaps small, but continually repeated.

The unpleasant experiences of the first pipe will enable
most smokers to understand the nature of this acute poison-
ing. Children have even been made ill by sucking at pipes,
empty, but already coated with tobacco juice. Sometimes
a very slight dose exercises a fatal effect upon systems in
which tolerance has not been established. Thus a youth of
14, having smoked 15c. worth of tobacco as a remedy for
toothache, fell down senseless and died the same evening.*
Blatin also tells us of a medical student, aged 22, who, after
smoking a single pipe, fell into a frightful state—the heart
became nearly motionless, the chest constricted, his breath-
ing was extremely painful, the limbs contracted, the pupils
insensible to light, one dilated, the other contracted. These
symptoms gradually lessened, but did not disappear until
four days after.t

But it is chronic nicotism which has the greatest interest
for us. The poisonous effects of tobacco in larger doses
are too evident for denial, and need scarcely be insisted
upon. Far more important is it to learn whether tobacco,
in the quantities daily consumed by its habitual users, has
a permanently injurious effect upon the human system.

It is often only after a number of years that nicotic
symptoms appear, as though the poison acted by a process
of accumulation, until the system was charged to satiety.
And thus anything which disturbs the equilibrium of the
functions, and so diminishes the elimination of the poison,
may give rise to morbid phenomena.

There is a theory not unknown, even amongst medical
men, that the toxic influences of tobacco are only transitory,
and that all the poison is ultimately expelled from the
system. But it is certain, from an experiment of M. Morin,f
that the nicotine can be detected in the tissues of the lungs
and liver after death.

So little is the theory true which would have us believe
that the tobacco poison is immediately excreted, that the
very cannibals turn up their noses at the nicotised flesh of
smokers !§

Blatin made experiments upon three dogs to determine
the effects of chronic poisoning. From 15 to 30 c.grms. of
tobacco were mixed with their food, and given twice or

* DRUHEN, Pp. 44.

+ BLaATIN, p. 76.

t Year Book of Medicine (New Sydenham Society), 1861, p. 447, and BLATIN,
P- 93-

§ STREBEL, Pp. 30.

486 The Physiological Position of Tobacco. [October,

thrice daily. The vomitings which were noticed at first
soon ceased, the action of the heart became extremely
irregular, the circulation grew daily feebler, digestion
became difficult, appetite diminished, they were subject
alternately to diarrhcea and constipation, the mucous mem-
brane of mouth and pharynx soon became so dry that deglu-
tition was very difficult, the gums swelled, the teeth loosened,
and some of them fell out. These and other symptoms
preceded paralysis of the posterior extremities, blindness,
deafness, and death from sheer exhaustion. ‘Their autopsy
showed the heart to be pale, soft, slightly atrophied, the
blood poor in the red globules, fluid, and deprived of fibrine.

A closely parallel case in a human subject is given.
Brigitte V., a married woman, of 46 years, having lost one
of her children, took to tobacco as a consoler. She snuffed,
smoked, and chewed, spending about 2 francs weekly for
tobacco. When Dr. Le Briert was called, her voice was
rough, not a word could be distinguished, respiration was
difficult, pulse feeble and intermittent, the heart beat with
difficulty, the pupil dilated and insensible to the light,
hearing defective, but not absolutely lost, swallowing
difficult, &c., &c. Next day she died, all her organs being
in a manner paralysed by the influence of tobacco.

The rough voice of snuff-takers, and the ‘‘ smoker’s sore
throat,” are also due to the influence of tobacco. Some
smokers occasionally spit blood, often immediately after
going to bed, and this affection may be confounded with
true hemoptysis.

M. Blatin regards all these local affections as trifling,
when compared with the gradual saturation of the system
with nicotine, which, accumulating in the tissues, waits for
the opportunity, varying, according to individual habits and
constitution, of declaring its poisonous nature.

The trembling, which is one of the usual symptoms of
acute, is also a common result of chronic, nicotism. A very
distinguished Parisian physician had hands which shook so
much that he could not write. Whenever he remained
without tobacco for any length of time these tremblings
disappeared. Another case mentioned by Blatin is note-
worthy. A man of 45 years consulted him respecting violent
and numerous attacks of vertigo. When he felt one of
them approaching he was obliged to lie down wherever he
might be in order to avoid falling. In the country, where
he had plenty of exercise, they were less frequent than in
the town, where his occupation was sedentary. Cessation
from tobacco and a tonic regimen quickly restored him.

1872.] The Physiological Position of Tobacco. 487

A physician of 52 was afflicted with similar disagreeable
symptoms, and was also cured by abstinence. Habit had
become so strong that he could not resist at times the
temptation to slight indulgence. Finding that these returns
to tobacco were immediately followed by his old painful
attacks he renounced it for ever.

The circulatory system presents in chronic nicotism
similar symptoms to those found in acute poisoning. ‘The
most noticeable of these is the intermittent pulse, of which
many cases have been collected by Decaisne and others.

Decaisne speaks of narcotism of the heart, but Blatin
does not consider the action to be dire¢tly upon that organ,
but considers the effects described to result from an irregular
relaxation of the ganglia cf the great sympathetic nerve.

When a person suffering from intermittent pulse was
carefully examined, Blatin found the stoppage in the heart’s
beat followed a series of apparently normal movements.
The systole and diastole succeeded in due regularity, and
nothing in the play of the central organ indicated trouble,
when the heart suddenly stopped in diastole, sometimes for
the space of three arterial pulsations. When it awakens from
this syncope its action is abnormally quick, as if it wished
to make up for the lost time, and force the mass of blood
across the organs at one stroke. But, with force insufficient
for this purpose, it is exhausted in fruitless efforts, hesitates,
wavers, acquires fresh power, commences again, now violent,
now feeble, and fulfils very imperfectly the duties which it
should perform. Gradually it calms; a foreign element
seems to appease the tumult, the heart again becomes
regular. The explanation appears to be that the irritation
of the sympathetic nerve stops short the movements of the
heart, and thus causes the intermittence; then the suscepti-
bility of the nerve is lessened or paralysed, and the cardiac
functions are left to the sole direction of the auto-motor
ganglia; hence the disordered beats, which decrease as
the nervous force coming afresh from the pneumogastric
moderates and regularises it.

From intermittent pulse to angina pectoris the distance
isnot far. That tobacco may produce all the usual symptoms
of that painful disease has been abundantly shown by Beau.
To the cases which he has cited may be added an epidemic
of this nature noted by M. Gelineau, with which a great
part of the crew of the Embuscade were struck. ‘The
patients were all great smokers. It is worthy of notice that
this disease is much more common amongst men than
women.

488 The Physiological Position of Tobacco. [October,

Difficulty of breathing approaching asthma has also been
recorded. Blatin gives a case of a young officer whose
asthma could be attributed to no other cause, and who was
cured by simple abstinence and tonic medicines.*

Tobacco, aéting upon the cardiac and pulmonary branches
of the pneumogastric, is not likely to leave untouched its
gastric terminations. In an animal under the influence of
small doses of nicotine the gastric juice is secreted with
increased rapidity, and the action of the walls of the
stomach is more noticeable. With strong doses or long-
continued usage this secretion is very considerably
diminished, and the peristaltic motion enfeebled. ‘That is
to say, the tobacco acts upon the pneumogastric, excites it
in small, and paralyses it in large, doses. The smoker takes
his after-dinner pipe or cigar to aid digestion. Undoubtedly,
it excites the par vagum, increases the gastric secretion, and
accelerates the peristaltic motion. Undoubtedly, also, this
daily stimulation enfeebles the nerve, and digestion becomes
more difficult. The swing back from the excitement causes
a reaction, which only an increase in the doses can overcome.
The nerve is partially paralysed. The appetite fails, nutri-
tion is impeded, dyspepsia reigns conqueror.

A military man of 37 years fell into a consumption with- -
out any other affection antecedent or concomitant than
distaste for food, and salivation. Dr. Roques, after various
essays, learned that he was a great user of tobacco, which
had led to a sort of chronic fluxion of the salivary glands,
and an almost total cessation of the digestive funétions,
and consequently caused the feeble and consumptive state
into which he had fallen. Gradual diminution and ultimate
abandonment of tobacco led to a cure in about three
months.t

The influence of tobacco upon vision is well known.
One of the symptoms produced in acute nicotism is
blindness, and chronic nicotism gives rise to similar
affections. Thus Mackenzie found that patients afflicted
with amaurosis were mostly lovers of tobacco in some form.
Sichel found cases of complete amaurosis, which, incurable
by other means, were easily conquered by cessation from
the weed. Hutchinson found, out of 37 patients, 23 were
inveterate smokers. ‘The observations of Wordsworth and
others have so clearly established the fact that the continued
excitement of the optic nerve by tobacco sometimes pro-
duces amaurosis, that it is now generally cited in text-books
as one of the causes of that disease.

* BLATIN, p. 159, from l’Abeille Méd., t. iii., 1846.
+ Ibid., p. 165, from Mémoire de Med., et de Chir. Prat., t. v.

1872.] The Physiological Position of Tobacco. 489

We have completed our brief examination of the physio-
logical action of tobacco, but in concluding it may be well
to point to some portions of the evidence which are espe-
cially noteworthy.

The fact that tobacco reduces the animal temperature is
an important one. It shows the fallacy of those who smoke
to keep the cold out, and proves conclusively that tobacco
is neither a generator nor conserver of vital heat, but, Jon
the contrary, a wasteful destroyer of it.

The influence of tobacco in lberating the heart from
those restraints which regulate its healthy action, naturally
leads to the conclusion that in frequent doses that organ
must, sooner or later, undergo a structural transformation.
Although when thus excited it has less pressure to overcome
than when in a normal condition, yet the extra exertion
cannot but be evil in its results, since it causes an irregu-
larity in the supply of blood, and thus degrades tissue.

Tobacco belongs to the class of narcotic and exciting sub-
stances, and has no food value. Stimulation means ab-
stracted, not added, force. It involves the narcotic paralysis
of a portion of the fun¢tions, the activity of which is
essential to healthy life.

It will be said that tobacco soothes and cheers the weary
toiler, and solaces the over-worked brain. Such may be its
momentary effects, but the seguele cannot be ignored. All
such expedients are fallacious. When a certain amount of
brain-work or hand-work has been performed, Nature must
have space in which to recuperate, and all devices for
escaping from this necessity will fail. It is bad policy to
set the house on fire to warm our hands by the blaze. Let
it, then, be clearly understood that the temporary excitement
produced by tobacco is gained by the destruction of vital
force, and that it contains absolutely nothing which can be
of use to the tissues of the body.

Tobacco adds no potential strength to the human frame.
It may spur a weary brain or feeble arm to undue exertion
for a short time, but its work is destructive, not constructive.
It cannot add one molecule to the plasm out of which our
bodies are daily built up. On the contrary, it exerts upon it
a most deleterious influence. It does not supply, but
diminishes, vital force.

It has been denied that tobacco leads to organic disease,
but the evidence is very strong the other way, and it would
be very remarkable if continued functional derangement did
not ultimately lead to chronic derangement of the organs:
that it causes functional disturbance no one dreams of

VOL. Il. (N. S.) 3R

490 The Physiological Position of Tobacco. (October,

denying; indeed it has been remarked that no habitual
smoker can be truly said to have a day’s perfect health.

It is scarcely requisite that we should add that tobacco is
in no sense a necessary of life.

Even in our days, notwithstanding the vast consumption
of tobacco, it is a habit of the minority only. The female
sex, to their honour be it said, with very rare exceptions,
abstain from this indulgence. If the claims of the apolo-
gists of tobacco are corre¢t, why is it that an entire sex
avoids it? The frailer body and more mobile mind of
woman seem to stand in greater need of ‘‘ soothing” and
*‘ refreshing” than the coarser frame of man.

It is not necessary; for all men do not smoke, and the
abstainers are not subject to any inconvenience or disad-
vantage, but the reverse.

Homer sang his deathless song, Raphael painted his
glorious Madonnas, Luther preached, Guttenberg printed,
Columbus discovered a New World before tobacco was heard
of. No rations of tobacco were served out to the heroes of
Thermopylz, no cigar strung up the nerves of Socrates.
Empires rose and fell, men lived and loved and died during
long ages, without tobacco. History was for the most part
written before its appearance. ‘‘It is the solace, the aider,
the familiar spirit of the thinker,” cries the apologist; yet
Plato the Divine thought without its aid. Augustine described
the glories of God’s city, Dante sang his majestic melan-
choly song, Savonarola reasoned and died, Alfred ruled well
and wisely, without it. Tyrtzus sang his patriotic song,
Roger Bacon dived deep into Nature’s secrets, the wise
Stagirite sounded the depths of human wisdom, equally un-
aided by it. Harmodius and Aristogeiton twined the myrtle
round their swords, and slew the tyrant of their fatherland,
without its inspiration. In a word, kings ruled, poets sung,
artists painted, patriots bled, martyrs suffered, thinkers
reasoned, before it was known or dreamed of. Who of us
can realise Moses with a “‘ churchwarden ” in his mouth, or
St. Paul smoking a prime Havannah ?

Think of ancient Greece, of her glory in arts and arms
and song, of her poets, sculptors, architects, after whom the
moderns toil in vain. We do but follow in their tracks with
halting steps and slow, and yet they lived their lives, and
thought their deathless thoughts, and gave immortal beauty
to the silent stone, without tobacco.

What shall we say, then, to this habit? It is in no case
necessary or beneficial; it is a social nuisance; it is devoid
of all esthetic beauty; it is an unmanly leaning on a solace

1872.] The Physiological Position of Tobacco. 491

to care and labour neither sought nor needed by the weaker
sex; it is an enormous and yearly increasing source of na-
tional improvidence. Above all, it is the foe to youthful
development, the bane of youthful blood and brain. The
subject may seem to some too trivial for serious attention ;
but when we consider the extent of juvenile smoking, we see
that the national life and stamina are seriously threatened by
this ignoble habit. So a noble tree, heaven-aspiring, with
wide-spreading branches, whose leaves are a refuge for the
singers of God, may be attacked by some insignificant
parasitical plant, which winds round and round it in serpent-
folds, and sucks away its sap and vigour, till the green leaves
are blasted and the singers flee away, till the glory is de-
parted, and Death and Ruin alone remain.

(492) (October,

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

The Beginnings of Life; being some Account of the Nature,
Modes of Origin, and Transformations of Lower Organisms.
By H. Cuartton Bastian, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., Fellow of
the Royal College of Physicians, Professor of Pathological
Anatomy in University College, London, Physician to Uni-
versity College Hospital, Assistant-Physician to the National
Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic. In Two Vols.
London: Macmillan and Co. 1872.

QUESTIONS concerning the nature and origin of life have for
many years exercised the highest powers of the greatest minds.
It has always been admitted that at a certain point of the inves-
tigation our ability of realising the great mystery of vitality
ceases, and we are constrained to admit that—

“ All that we know is—nothing can be known.”
So

To attempt to bridge over the gap which divides the living
from the dead by patient and profound research is very laudable
and honourable. Experimental evidence has, in late years,
made an appreciable advance in this direction; but yet the gap
is very wide, and there is much danger that a too hasty general-
isation from as yet imperfect data may do harm, even to those
who have made the subject their special study—much more to
those who belong to the large class of scientific dilettanti. The
author has presented us with a work of laborious reasoning, and
records of many instructive and valuable experiments. He tells
us that rather more than three years ago he was content—

‘* Stare super vias antiquas ;”’

but his microscopic investigations led him to renounce many of
his old prepossessions for a new doctrine, which now he advo-
cates with the ardour of a convert.

Of the subject opened out, it is obvious that a small portion
only can be adequately discussed. The doctrine which the
author especially urges is the possibility of the origination of
living beings from the elements of dead organic matter. Until
the present time this view has been denominated the Theory of
Heterogenesis, or Spontaneous Generation. ‘The latter term,
however, certainly seems inapplicable when the idea of volition
is excluded. Dr. Bastian has therefore employed the less
objectionable coinage Archebiosis, which indicates the process of
passage of the non-living into the living, owing to the occurrence
of certain new molecular combinations.

The author commences with a Prolegomenon concerning the
nature of vitality, designed to show that philosophically there can
be no abrupt Jine of demarcation between dead matter and living

1872.] Notices of Books. 493

matter. Nevertheless, in our opinion, even with all the light which
the doctrines of the correlations of forces and the inter-relations of
force and matter give us, we are constrained to admit a vast
difference in kind, if not in degree, between the force-attributes
of a particle of matter living and those of a particle of matter
dead. We may show that the modes of manifestation of force
by a living being are purely physical, but that is not sufficient to
demonstrate that the force which controls or liberates, changes
or co-ordinates these is physical also. And even if we are to
renounce the idea of a special vital force directing the living
machine, the difficulties are scarcely less, for the relations of
force to matter, in reference to degree alone, would, in the case
of a living organism, be entirely inexplicable. We must imagine
matter supersaturated, as it were, with force, without there being
any appreciable affection of its surroundings, and the resultant
combination over-riding the laws which govern both force and
matter under ordinary conditions. We cannot see that the
author’s metaphysical speculations at all smooth the path for the
easy run of his theory, and we rejoice to find that he admits that
of an absolute commencement of life we know nothing what-
ever. ‘‘ The gradual transition from the not-living to the living
is still hidden from our view, and so, perhaps, it may ever
remain.”—(P. 128.)

Let us consider the present position of the question that the
author discusses. Our common experience of visible Nature
teaches us that living things originate from pre-existing living
things, and in no other way whatever. The modes of derivation
of progeny from parent are sometimes complex and elaborate,
at others direct, simple, and demonstrable. The progress of
research has tended to show that—even in parasites of parasites
of animals, the lesser fleas that bite the greater fleas—the parent-
age can be traced and demonstrated. And when the highest
powers of the microscope are brought to bear upon the subject,
the same law is found to hold good. The lowliest visible speck,
a mere assemblage of apparently structureless material, can be
seen to become detached from the parental mass, and in its turn
to propagate other individual buds of protoplasm in like manner.
The law, therefore, ‘‘Omne vivum e vivo,” is universal, in so far
as the direct interrogation of visible Nature declares. If there
is an exception to this law, in cases of any organisms, it is for
those who assert such exception to demonstrate it by evidence.
This is what Dr. Bastian attempts to do.

The logical methods which might be adopted for such demon-
stration are the following :—First, the synthetic method. The
fundamental ingredients of organisable matter are carbon, oxygen,
hydrogen, and nitrogen, with frequently traces of sulphurand phos-
phorus. If by taking these inorganic materials, and placing them
in juxtaposition, it could be shown that a material possessing the
attributes of vitality resulted, the proof would be complete; but

494 Notices of Books. [October,

this has never been done. The analytical method is equally
powerless for the elucidation of the problem, for, as we have just
said, in Dr. Bastian’s own words, the passage of dead molecules
into living matter can never be demonstrated. The method
therefore adopted is that of concomitant variations, and here it
must be recollected that the several conclusions present, at the
best, alternatives only.

Direct microscopical examination of a liquid in which the
lowest forms of life are prone to develope is considered to afford
many data for the elucidation of the problem, though it is ad-
mitted that the experience is not crucial. Dr. Bastian says,
‘When a fluid containing an organic substance in solution is
allowed to remain in contact with air, during moderately warm
weather, it soon undergoes changes of a putrefactive or fer-
mentative character.” It must be admitted, however, that this
statement is too general. All solutions of organic matter are
not susceptible of these changes. In those in which they do
occur it is acknowledged that an invariable accompaniment of
the changes is the appearance of specks of material, which in
the course of a few hours are evidenced as minute, rapidly-moving
bodies, known, for the most part, as Bacteria. It is urged that,
as these have no demonstrable origin from visible parents in the
fluid, they must, in all probability, have been formed out of the
non-living ingredients. The current views as to the nature of
these lowly organisms are very conflicting, and it must be ad-
mitted that their life-history has yet to be written. It would
appear, however, from morphological considerations, that they
are not the simplest form which living matter assumes. The
simplest organism with which we are acquainted is the Prota-
moeba: this consists of a mere mass of plasma, apparently
perfectly homogeneous and structureless, which multiplies by the
mere separation of a portion of its substance from the parent
mass: it is simply growing, moving, multiplying protoplasm.
In a slightly higher form of Amceba the constituent protoplasm,
instead of being perfectly homogeneous, is condensed in granular
masses at various points, which become discharged from the
parent as germs or ovules. It would seem that a bacterium
presents still a higher differentiation: it is of a more definite,
cylindrical shape; it moves with great rapidity in certain di-
rections, forward or backward, and multiplies in some cases by
fission, in others, as figured by Dr. Beale, who has examined
these organisms with the highest powers yet employed—by ovu-
lation. According to the view of the gradual evolution of the
living from the dead, it would seem, prima facie, most probable
that the simplest form—like the protamceba—should be first
formed, and the bacterium differentiated therefrom. No observer,
home has substantiated this view.

In the description of the first appearance of living specks in
an organic infusion Dr. Bastian’s observations closely follow.

1872.] Notices of Books. 495

those of Mantegazza. He insists, with a great probability, that
if these were derived from germs pre-existing in the fluid, such
germs must have been invisible under a power magnifying 1000
diameters. The dilemma, as regards the origin of bacteria,
therefore remains—‘ Either they have been developed from a
multitude of pretty evenly disseminated invisible germs, or they
have been produced in the fluid by a process of Archebiosis.”—
(P. 297). Considering the extreme minuteness of bacteria
themselves, it is surely not contrary to reason to suppose that
their germs are so minute as to be diffused through a fluid
without betraying their presence to the vision. Is it not as pro-
bable that they should be undetected, just as the particles of a
salt in solution are undetectable by the microscope? But Dr.
Bastian asks—What is the medium whereby such possible germs
could possibly be transmitted? He does not discern, with
Shelley, that—
‘“ Those viewless beings,

Whose mansion is the smallest particle

Of the impassive atmosphere,

Live like man.”

It is clear that the germs of fungi, as well as other vegetable
seeds, are transmitted by the air. As regards bacteria, however,
it has been clearly proved, by Prof. Burdon Sanderson, that the
great vehicle for their diffusion is water—that even ordinary dis-
tilled water may contain their germs ‘in such profusion that
even so small a quantity as is introduced into a glass in rinsing
is sufficient to render a relatively enormous volume of liquid
fruitful.”—(Thirteenth Report of Medical Officer of Privy Council.)
Dr. Sanderson recognises the particles of the germinal substance
of bacteria as of such minuteness as to be not only invisible
under the microscope, but insufficient to affect, so far as it was
possible to ascertain, the optical purity of the water through
which the electric beam was passed. We therefore do not
recognise Dr. Bastian’s objections as fatal to the view that the
lowest organisms observed ina putrefying infusion can be derived
from pre-existing living particles. Such particles may exist un-
detected, and may be transmitted by air, by water, or by both.

The next argument, one that has always played a very im-
portant part in the controversy, is that derived from the action of
heat, which, it is urged, if of sufficient intensity, must destroy the
life of any possibly pre-existent protoplasm in any given medium.
Dr. Bastian has subjected organic infusions and saline solutions,
in flasks from which air has been expelled, to temperatures
varying from that of boiling water in the first series of experi-
ments to upwards of 307° F.in other series. After the flasks
had been put aside for certain periods the contents were mi-
croscopically examined, with the result of the discovery, in many
cases, of various fungoid organisms and ba¢teria particles. In
considering thése results, we must at first not fail to make due
allowance for the very difficult nature of the experiments, and

496 Notices of Books. [October,

the liability to error in the conduct of them. All experimenters
have not attained the same success in the discovery of organisms,
after like experimentation, as Dr. Bastian. Dr. Burdon San-
derson in no case obtained evidence of organisms in fluids
heated from the ordinary temperature of boiling water, prolonged
for an hour or two in some cases to 200°C. in others. He is
very careful, however, to” avoid generalisation, and to say that
these results only occurred (but this uniformly) in the particular
putrescible solutions he employed : these fluids, however, included
serum of blood and Pasteur’s solution. Prof. Frankland also
repeated Dr. Bastian’s experiments, with the result of obtaining
“not the slightest evidence of life.”’ This is sufficient, we
think, to show that so difficult a mode of experimentation is not
free from sources of error. But fully admitting that Dr. Bastian
met with various fungoid organisms and bacteria, which he has
carefully figured, let us consider the possible signification of
these results, setting aside, for the moment, the hypothesis of
Archebiosis. In the first place, it is necessary to make a division
between those fungoid bodies, which it would be impossible to
assert to be actually living at the time of examination, and the
bacteria, &c., which positively manifested vital movements. It is
well known that fungi will occur in saline solutions if they con-
tain nitrogen; and it has been shown that they will freely
develope in salts, which might, prima facie, appear to afford very
unlikely pabula. Unless, therefore, every drop of the solutions
employed by Dr. Bastian had, before experimentation, been mi-
croscopically searched—a course obviously impossible—the
objection must be held valid that the fungi which he took out of
his solutions might be precisely those which he placed into them
originally. This, however, would not obtain in the case of the
actively moving bacteria which were met with in a few instances.
It is urged that direct observation has shown that a temperature
far short of that of boiling water, 127°5° F., is sufficient to
destroy the life of all bacteria. A fortiori, therefore, in case of
the higher temperatures, life must have been impossible.
Without entering upon the much-debated question of the limits
of vital resistance to heat, we may yet pause to enquire whether
it can be proved, with complete satisfaction, that every single
bacterium-particle in a solution, or in a glass vessel in which a
solution is contained, is of necessity elevated to the temperature
indicated by the external means of heating? It is an old
conjuring trick to plunge the hand, previously moistened with a
solution of soap, into molten lead, and even iron, and to with-
draw it completely unharmed. May we not conceive ba¢terium-
particles in a fluid to be in some cases protected, in like manner,
by a film ? It must be recollected that if a single particle escape
the destructive influence, it is capable of begetting myriads in
the solution. Davaine calculated that one bacterium-particle
would, in the course of 62 hours, become the parent of

1872.] Notices of Books. 497

71,000,000,000,000 similar particles. Moreover, Dr. Sanderson
has shown, with great probability, that the germinal matter of
bacteria may be imported simply by contact of a glass surface
which has not been superheated. We cannot but conclude that
the investigation on this particular point is so beset with diff-
culties and sources of error that careful repetition and recon-
sideration of the experiments are necessary. And then remains
the dilemma—either the doctrine of Archebiosis is true, or else
living matter is occasionally more able to resist destructive
influences than we should, from our own experience, think
probable.

A comparatively small portion of Dr. Bastian’s book is devoted
to the consideration of the phenomena of fermentation. There
is, however, a very vehement opposition to the views of Pasteur.
The changes which the author characterises as fermentations
would, in very many instances, be excluded from such a definition
by workers in this field of enquiry. Is it admitted that the
change of cyanogen into oxamide by hydrochloric acid, and the
decomposition of tartaric acid by heat into carbonic acid, water,
and pyrogallic acid, come under the category of fermentations ?
We believe it wrong to ascribe to Liebig the exclusive view that
dead organic matter is the determining cause of fermentations—
of course understanding the so-called catalytic changes. Cer-
tainly, in case of alcoholic fermentation, Liebig recognises the
determinative agency of the living yeast-plant. The latest ex-
ponent of this physical theory, M. Fremy, has been constrained
to adopt a hypothesis which gives a sort of half-life to the deter-
mining agencies of fermentations. M. Fremy classes the
organic materials which induce them as ‘‘ hémi-organisés.”
We rather think, however, that a perusal of the recent ‘‘ Comptes
Rendus ” will tend to the conclusion that the triumph of the con-
troversy remains with M. Pasteur.

Taking all the evidence adduced by the author, we cannot
accept the dogma of the origination of living beings from dead
organic matter as proved. Still more cogent reasons must be
advanced before we can conclude that the same lower organisms
which we see multiplying, by conversion of surrounding materials
into their own substance, and transmission out of their own
protoplasm of a countless progeny, are also formed out of lifeless
matter. We cannot yet discard the axiom ‘‘ Nihil frustra.”

The greater part of the second volume of Dr. Bastian’s work
is devoted to another phase of the enquiry, and the observations
contain many points of interest and value to naturalists. The
author, having satisfied himself of the truth of Archebiosis,
proceeds to consider the process of Heterogenesis. This has
usually been confounded with the former hypothesis, but the
author defines it as the process whereby “‘ the matter of already
existing living things gives birth to other living units wholly
different from themselves, and having no tendency to assume or

VOL. I. (N.S.) 3

498 Notices of Books. (October,

revert to the parental type.” Dr. Bastian has supplemented the
observations of Pouchet and others, which were said to demon-
strate the differentiation of the pellicle formed by the coherence
of bacteria, at the surface of a decomposing infusion, into
monads, paramecia, &c., by new investigations, tending to show
that areas of the same pellicle become converted into spores of
fungi. It is impossible to prove whether there is this conglome-
ration and conversion of bacteria, or whether the appearances
are due to developing ova or fungi seen below the film of bacteria.
In these observations the hypotheses of Archebiosis and Hetero-
genesis seem inseparably connected ; but not so in the next and
extremely interesting enquiry that Dr. Bastian takes up. The
mutability of living forms is acknowledged by all observers, the
divergence in their views being only a question of degree.
Those who legitimately doubt that a milk-globule can become
actually transformed into a penicillium (see p. 311, vol. il., et seq.)
will find much less difficulty in believing that living matter,
under various conditions, is able, Proteus-like, to assume an
endless diversity of forms. ‘The morphological views developed
by Dr. Bastian are worthy of very attentive study. The work
concludes with five appendices, containing details of experiments
and an enquiry concerning ‘‘ The Germ Theory in relation to
Epidemic and ‘ Specific’ Contagious Diseases.”

Although we have had occasion to differ from many of the
author’s conclusions, we are glad to acknowledge that Dr. Bastian
has made an important contribution to scientific literature, evi-
dencing wide research and laborious reasoning, and has spared
no pains to illustrate his meaning by well-executed wood-
engravings.

Air and Rain. The Beginnings of a Chemical Climatology.
By Rosert Ancus Situ, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.C.S., (General)
Inspector of Alkali Works for the Government. London:
Longmans, Green, and Co. 1872.

“WHEN we are children, air is to us nothing.” With this pithy
little sentence Dr. Smith commences his exhaustive treatise
upon the constituents of the atmosphere and the results of his
investigation; and while he shows how especially erroneous is
the idea of the nothingness of air we entertain as children (and
not unfrequently by our actions as children of a larger growth do
we give credit to this idea), he tells us how far we may be
alarmed, in invading with microscope and chemical test the
regions around us, by the army of aérial corpuscles and micro-
cosmic organic matter which our fears may endow with undue
power. ‘We have,” he says, ‘‘ many people so afraid of this
organic matter of the air, and of all its floating particles, that
they would like to filter it all out, and breathe the gases pure.
We must not allow our fear to go too far. We have no reason

1872.] Notices of Books.
499

to be sure that air free from floating particles would be whole-
some ; we have only the proof that, if there is an excess of some
kind, it is unwholesome. Apparently everyone can breathe air
tainted with any disease without being hurt, if the taint is small
enough. Inconceivably small particles injure; but we must
learn to divide even the inconceivably small. We can bear a
larger amount of taint if it is diluted enough. Dilute sufficiently
the air of a hospital, and infection ceases. One short time of
the infected air produces disease; a long period of the diluted
air produces none, although the number of particles that must
pass over a certain spot must be much greater in the long time
than when the stronger mixture passes in the short time. We
learn from this that the amount that does injury is not infinitesi-
mal; there must be a certain quantity. I do not doubt that we
shall measure that readily: we can readily measure the amount
of ammonia and organic matter in the infectious and non-infec-
tious atmospheres. The really practical work must begin after
this. It was my desire to have done so in one of the hospitals,
but having begun I was interrupted, and it must not be done in
a hurry. Ido not feel hopeless of being able to say that in a
scarlet-fever atmosphere there must not only be so much nitro-
genous organic matter and so many germs, otherwise infection
will be certain,”

For the actual chemical instruction relative to the matter
before us we must refer the reader to the work itself; but to the
general subject of ventilation we may here give some attention.

‘‘The demands of ventilation would be best explained,” says
Dr. Smith, “if we could reply to these questions :—What is the
smallest amount of carbonic acid which may be called injurious ?
and what is the smallest amount of organic matter?” The
answer to the former question Dr. Smith has determined very
accurately by means of a hermetically-sealed leaden chamber,
and the effects on his own person of remaining in different states
of the atmosphere. The amount for a healthy place is below
0*4 per cent, while about five times that amount affects a candle
sensibly. But the practical question—How often must we renew
the air of a room in order to maintain a given degree of purity ?
—is that most nearly affecting the general reader, and which we
shall endeavour to answer from the work before us. Suppose
that a man brings 100 cubic feet of air to contain 0°4 per cent of
carbonic acid in an hour from zero, he will bring 1000 cubic feet
to contain 0-04 in the same time, being at the end of the hour
ready for another 1000 cubic feet, in order not to exceed this limit.
But in actuality the air supplied also contains 0-04 per cent of
carbonic acid, and the space in which the man is situate cannot
be maintained at the degree of purity. The limit usually
assigned is 0°06: this being o:o2 higher than that which he re-
ceives as fresh, a man would require a constant supply of 2000
feet per hour. But then the air-supply of the majority is not

500 Notices of Books. [October,

so nearly pure as represented by 0-04, and it may be necessary
to increase the supply to 3000 cubic feet per hour. Now that we
know the quantity to be supplied per hour, we must ascertain the
rate of change at which the air-supply becomes dangerous as a
draught: this has been put down at a velocity less than’5 feet
per second, with an entry of 48 square inches and a similar out-
let, independently of the fire-place in the room; or, in other
terms, the 3000 cubic feet of air per head must be delivered so
that the whole air in the space inhabited is changed not oftener
than six times an hour. It is so difficult, or indeed impossible,
to effect so many changes per hour that separate ventilation
must be provided. Of the nature of this ventilation it is diffi-
cult to form an opinion, since it varies with every case. Thus
we see that in the case of a small room, with a large number of
inhabitants, the supply of air to prevent accumulation of carbonic
acid must amount to a draught that is in itself dangerous, and
that consequently the larger the number of persons the narrower
are the limits between the two dangers. But a third element
comes now to light, for with increase of numbers there is an in-
crease of heat, and a percentage of carbonic acid that could be
easily withstood under the influence of cold becomes exceedingly
injurious at a high temperature. ‘These reasons against over-
crowding are plain to any average intelligence; and in Dr.
Smith’s work so full are the illustrations that he must be dull
indeed who is not incited to a regard for healthful ventilation.
Most cordially do we recommend Dr. Smith’s book to our readers,
and we think it would in many cases be an admirable present
to those who could, if they knew how, render help to their
fellow-creatures by supplying information as to the extremes of
draught and slow-poisoning by bad air.

Essays on Astronomy: A Series of Papers on Planets and Me-
teors, the Sun and Sun-surrounding Space, Stars and Star-
Cloudlets ; and a Dissertation on the Approaching Transits
of Venus. Preceded by a Sketch of the Life and Work of
Sir John Herschel. By Ricuarp A. Proctor, B.A. Camb.,
Honorary Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society ;
Author of ‘*Other Worlds than Ours,” &c. - Londom:
Longmans and Co. 1872.

THESE are the collected essays, by Mr. Proctor, referred to in his
other works, particularly in ‘*The Sun” and ‘Other Worlds
than Ours,” and arranged in one volume, for the convenience of
readers who have no means of reference to essays published in
the ‘‘ Proceedings” of scientific societies.. The first three
essays relate to the life and work of Sir John Herschel; the re-
maining papers are devoted to dissertations on the planets Mars
and Saturn, meteoric astronomy, the zodiacal light and the solar

1872.| Notices of Books. 501

corona, star and star-cloudlets—their nature, movements, ar-
rangement in space, and aggregation into systems. Further,
there are ample appendices on the rotation of Mars and the
proper motion of the Sun, as well as three essays on the transit
of Venus. This breathless list conveys but an inadequate idea
of the labour which Mr. Proctor continually undertakes for the
benefit of the public; and, what is more, the popular descriptions
are given after the facts have been presented to and received by
some eminent Society. Thus Mr. Proctor has a twofold claim
upon the public, for hard work and for accuracy. We can recom-
mend this volume as being one of the most solid Mr. Proctor
has yet written.

An Exposition of Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin.
By C. R. Bree, M.D.,. F.Z.S., Senior Physician to~-the
Exeter and Colchester Hospital; Author of ‘‘ Species not
Transmutable, nor the Result of Natural Selection,” &c.
London: Longmans and Co. 1872.

WE cannot here enter into the discussion invited by Dr. Bree,
because we should be led beyond the limits of our space; but
we can recommend the work as a clear and earnest protest
against the exaggerated claims of the Darwinian theorists. But
the work remains, for all the care bestowed upon it by its author,
still only a protest. Dr. Bree has attempted too much. Had he
devoted his energies to single combat with Dr. Darwin some
sore wounds might have resulted to the latter, but when he en-
counters, also, Mr. Spencer and Professor Huxley, he should not
expect to make much mark against such redoubtable champions.
There are, in Dr. Bree’s present work, many valuable arguments
against the Darwinian theory, which’arguments may be consi-
dered to fail solely for lack of illustration. In saying so much
we have almost taken the field against Dr. Bree; this we do for
the reason that we think his high talent as an entomologist and
ornithologist would be serviceably employed if concentrated to
the answering of one point of the theory of evolution, for in the
sciences named Dr. Bree has corrected not a few errors made by
Dr. Darwin. Thus his work is calculated to lead to the ultimate
discovery of the truth; and we recommend to all our readers,
who like to know something of both sides of a question, the
perusal of Dr. Bree’s exposition.

Magnetism and Deviation of the Compass. For the Use of
Students in Navigation and Science Schools. By Joun
MERRIFIELD, LL.D., F.R.A.S., Head Master of the Ply-
mouth Navigation School. London: Longmans and Co.
1872.

THis is a work well adapted to the candidate in navigation.

The explanations are clear and well arranged, embracing every

502 Notices of Books. (October,

useful information on magnetism and the deviation of the com-
pass. The want at present felt by students, on account of the
alteration in the examinations conducted by the Board of Trade,
is well supplied in this manual, which will prove of great benefit
to those preparing for a nautical life.

As Regards Protoplasm. By James HutcuHinson SrTirR.Lina,
F.R.C.S., and LL.D., Edin. New and Improved Edition.
London: Longmans and Co. 1872.

In the present edition of Dr. Stirling’s controversial pamphlet
there is appended a second part, in reference to Prof. Huxley’s
second issue, and a preface in reply to Prof. Huxley’s ‘“ Yeast.”
The subject-matter is too well known to the public to need again
noticing in this place: we may say that the additions are too
personal to be either quoted or condensed with advantage. The
pamphlet should be read in its present form.

Patterns for Turning: Comprising Elliptical and other Figures
Cut on the Lathe without the Use of any Ornamental
Chuck. By H. W. EvLpuinstone. With Seventy Illustra-
tions. London: John Murray. 1872.

Mr. ELPHINSTONE, in this elaborately illustrated work, provides
directions for the cutting of elliptical and other figures, on a
lathe furnished with a division-plate, an ornamental slide-rest,
and eccentric cutting-frame, and an overhead motion. The book
is intended for perusal on the bench, and is admirably arranged
for the use of the practicat mechanic. The formule are exceed-
ingly simple, and require but a very elementary knowledge of
mathematics. Every amateur turner should obtain a copy of
Mr. Elphinstone’s work.

A Handbook of Chemical Technology. By RupoLpH WAGNER,
Ph.D., Professor of Chemical Technology at the University
of Wurtzburg. ‘Translated and Edited from the Eighth
German Edition, with Extensive Additions, by WILLIAM
Crookes, F.R.S. With 336 Illustrations. London: J. and
AG Churchill, 1872.

WE present to our readers a notice of this work, although criti-
cism is of course not within our province. We give a synopsis
of the contents, in the hope that our readers will find a practical
answer to many technical questions of daily occurrence. Under
the head of Metallurgical Chemistry the latest methods of pre-
paring iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, copper salts, lead and tin
and their salts, bismuth, zinc, zinc salts, cadmium, antimony,

1872.] Notices of Books. 503

arsenic, mercury, platinum, silver, gold, manganates, aluminum,
and magnesium are described. ‘The various applications of the
voltaic current to Electro-Metallurgy follow under this division.
The preparation of potash- and soda-salts, the manufacture: of
sulphuric acid, and the recovery of sulphur from soda-waste,
of course occupy prominent places in the consideration of
chemical manufactures. Soap manufacture will be found to
include much detail. The technology of glass, stone-ware,
limes, and mortars, will be interesting to the builder and
engineer. The technology of vegetable fibres has been con-
sidered to include the preparation of flax, hemp, cotton, as well
as paper-making; while the application of vegetable products
will be found to include sugar-boiling, wine and beer brewing,
the distillation of spirits, the baking of bread, the preparation of
vinegar, the preservation of wood, &c. Information is given in
reference to the production of potash from sugar residues, the
use of baryta salts, the preparation of sugar from beet-root,
tanning, the preservation of meat, milk, &c. The preparation
of phosphorus and animal charcoal are included in the technology
of animal products. The preparation of the materials for dyeing
have required much space. The final sections of the book are
devoted to the technology of heating and illumination, the pro-
duction of gas, coke, and tar from coals; the extraction from the
tar of benzol, carbolic acid, aniline, anthracen, asphalte, naph-
thaline; the preparation of tar colours, as rosaniline, aniline
blue, Manchester yellow, Magdala red, alizarine, iodine green,
picric acid, &c.

The work is illustrated with 336 engravings. In presenting it
to our readers we offer the latest improvements in chemistry, as
applied to arts and industry, with the endeavour to merit the
confidence of the manufacturer and the student.

Health and Comfort in House Building. ByJ.Dryspae, M.D.,
and J. W. Haywarp, M.D. London and New York: E. and
F.N. Spon. 1872.

In this work we have most valuable practical suggestions as to
the construction of houses with regard to warmth, comfort, and
ventilation. Drs. Drysdale and Hayward, after devoting much
time and thought to the subject, recommend that—in order to
obviate any ill effects resulting from the free ingress of cold air
into our rooms—a system of warming and ventilation be em-
ployed, utilising the heat of the kitchen chimney by means of a
syphon-shaft and foul-air chamber. The latter consists of an
air-tight zinc drum, about 6 feet in diameter by 5 feet high,
placed under the roof of the house, each room having a separate
escape-tube to the drum. The expansion of the water is pro-
vided for by a safety tube at the top of the circuit. This is the
high-pressure system. The low-pressure system consists of a

504 Notices of Books. [Oétober,

boiler, with pipes from 1 to 4 inches diameter, and a supply-
cistern; coils of tubing, about 2 inches diameter, are placed
where warmth is required, smaller pipes being used to convey
the water to the coils. The size and length of the apparatus
cause it to be rather unsightly, and the heat cannot be so equally
distributed, although it is preferable in places removed from
large towns, from the fact that an ordinary mechanic can attend
to any repairs that may be necessary. The high-pressure
system is better adapted to large houses, where several lobbies
require warming. That described in the foregoing work is an
admirable system, peculiarly adaptable to our climate, where the
direct admission of cold air to our rooms is endumeole only a
few months in the year with due regard to health; and we
commend the work to our readers as well deserving their con-
sideration.

New Formulas for the Loads and Deflections of Solid Beams
and Girders. By Wituitam Donatpson, M.A., A.I.C.E. ;
Author of ‘‘ Switches and Crossings,” and a “Treatise on
Oblique Arches.” London and New York: E. and F.N.
Spon. 1872.

Ir has been well said, by an American writer, that ‘* The least
deviation from the assumed standard (of pronunciation) converts
the listener into a critic.” And the same may be said of spelling.
In the present work we have formulas, the assumed standard
being formule. Now Mr. Donaldson may be more studious of
the formation of the plural in the English language than is per-
haps agreeable; for certainly this deviation from the assumed
standard not only causes the thoughtful reader to pause, but its
reiteration interferes with the grasping of the sense, and is most
damaging to the ready perception of the course of reasoning.
Where argument has to be so closely followed as in a mathe-
matical work, every consideration should be given that there
occurs nothing to distract the attention. This variation we
advise Mr. Donaldson to alter in future editions, at least in the
body of his work. We say advisedly in future editions, for the
practical worth of the work will be at once recognised by the
engineer. The formule are clearly deduced and plainly stated,
while the illustration of the applications is of a high order.

Contributions to Molecular Physics in the Domain of Radiant
Heat. A Series of Memoirs published in the ‘“ Philoso-
phical Transactions” and ‘‘ Philosophical Magazine,” with
Additions. By Joun Tynpatt, LL.D., F.R.S., Professor of
Natural Philosophy in the Royal Institution. London:
Longmans and Co. 1872.

Screntiric readers will recognise these memoirs which Dr.
Tyndall has now produced in a book-form; to the general public

1872.] Notices of Books. 505

the work will not be of interest, being a more technical investi-
gation than those elucidated in Dr. Tyndall’s well-known volumes.
To recommend the work is unnecessary, but we may say that
the additions conduce much to clearness.

On the Mechanism of Accommodation for Near and Distant
Vision. By R. E. DupGeon, M.D.

Tuts is an exhaustive pamphlet on the mechanism of accommo-
dation for near and distant vision, and evidences much careful
and experimental research, the more praiseworthy and valuable
as it is the endeavour of a professional man, of much daily ex-
perience, to throw light upon a difficult subject.

Hypotheses. By F. J. Finors. New York: Voytits, Ann Street.
1872.

Mr. Frvnois’s pamphlet of 33 pages contains as much matter
for thought as many volumes. Each hypothesis is included in
a short sentence, and deals with a certain phase of the subjects
generally classed under the heads of sidereal, sidero-terrestrial,
terrestrial, intellectual, mental, and social phenomena. We
quote an illustration from the division of intellectual phenomena.

“© § Objects have been accepted as self-existent, whilst space
has been declared to be ‘naught,’ or an abstract notion, which,
however, is measured by a yard stick.

‘** Space is therefore to be accepted as just so self-existent as
any object.

‘© § The Intellect never has succeeded in analysing an Atom, a
Force, and a point of Space, into any other elements.

‘‘ Matter, Forces, and Space are therefore to be accepted as
the ultimate constituent elements of the Universe, which itself
constitutes a sphere with diameters of infinite length.

*‘Forces occupy Atoms, and atoms occupy points of space.
Forces cause the atoms to change their places in space. Their
inseparable union and their mutual relation, to be called primor-
dial affinity, manifest themselves as motion, of which synthesis,
development, decadence, and analysis of compound forms is the
result.

‘‘§ There are three general senses for receiving impressions
made by the phenomena :—

‘‘ rt. The sense of sight pre-eminently for Space.

‘‘2. The sense of touch pre-eminently for Matter.

‘© 3. The sense of hearing pre-eminently for Force.

‘« The individual senses of smell and taste are auxiliaries of
the sense of touch, for Matter.

‘«*The senses assist each other, so that their combined action
alone furnishes complete sensations.

VOL. II. (N.S) 3T

506 Notices of Books. [October,

‘‘§ There are three general measures :—

‘¢1, Space is measured by the straight line, and its compounds
represented by the respective measuring instruments.

‘‘2. Matter is measured by weight.

‘3. Force, or its intensity of action, manifesting itself as ve-
locity, is measured by the diurnal rotation of the earth,
the day and its divisions, represented by time-pieces.

‘““§ Every language contains words which designate space,

matter, and force.

‘‘The mathematical formule of physics, pre-eminently the

science of motion, contain the signs of these elements.”

The book cannot be merely read; it must be studied line by
line, word by word, and is well worthy the trouble.

Treatise on the Manner of Testing Water-Wheels and Machinery.
By James Emerson, of Lowell, Mass. Lowell, Mass.:
Stone and Huse. 1872.

WHILE we cannot here enter into a description of the methods
of testing water-wheels and machinery employed by Mr. Emer-
son, his eminence as an American engineer will recommend his
work to the notice of all concerned in this branch of engineering
construction. ‘The book is fully illustrated with engravings of
the various wheels and turbines in use in American streams;
and contains tables of quantities of water, in cubic feet per
minute, flowing over weirs of different lengths, with varying
depths of water, as well as tables of the velocity due to head of
water. ‘The work contains much in little space.

Corso di Geologia del Professore Antonio Stoppani. Volume I.
Dinamica Terrestre. Milano: G. Bernardoni e G. Brigola.
EO7 1.

Tus course of geological study is virtually an enlarged edition
of the ‘‘ Note ad un Corso di Geologia,” published by Professor
Stoppani in 1865. ‘The present work will be comprised in three
large octavo volumes, of which the first is now offered to the
public. The subject of terrestrial dynamics is considered under
two heads—the dynamics of the exterior of the earth, atmo-
spheric and oceanic circulation, &c., and the investigation of the
action and results of subterranean forces. Under the latter head
we have a full but concise account of volcanic eruptions, parti-
cularly of the history of Vesuvius. The work is well illustrated,
and will form a valuable addition to the library of the geologist,
as being a record of geological facts founded upon the authority
of Dr. Stoppani.

1872.] Notices of Books. 507

Life of Richard Trevithick, with an Account of his Inventions.
By Francis TreEvitHIck, C.E. Illustrated with Engravings
on Wood, by W. J. WetcH. Volume I. London: E. and
F.N. Spon. 1872.

Very little has been said or recorded of Trevithick that is now
known to the general reader; yet the history of his inventions
is almost one with an account of the steam-engine, especially
with the earlier forms employed in mining operations. That
the present biography is written with a loving hand may at once
be gathered; and the book is remarkable from the fact that,
though the pen has been taken up by a friend, the faults and
peculiar temperament of the subject of the biography are by no
means glossed over. The true character of Trevithick is caused
to appear through the letters and documents of which the
biography, as written by Mr. Francis Trevithick, may be consi-
dered the setting. The work might also be called a history of
the steam-engine, and in its twofold character will be doubly
welcome to the student of this branch of engineering science.
The illustrations are capitally arranged, being at the same time
ornamental and descriptive. The book will be read with advan-
tage by all, while, as a record of the details of the progress of
steam, it will occupy a prominent place in the front ranks of
scientific literature.

Modern Examples of Road and Railway Bridges ; illustrating
the most Recent Practice of Leading Engineers in Europe
and America. By Witutam H. Maw and JAMEs DREDGE.
London: Offices of ‘ Engineering,” 37, Bedford Street,
Strand. Berlin: A. Asher and Co., 11, Unter den Linden.
1872.

WITHOUT in any way desiring to deny the value of sound theo-
retical knowledge as to the principles of bridge-building, it must
be admitted that, in the construction of such works, many cir-
cumstances may be expected to arise wholly beyond the reach
of any previous calculations. The treatment of such occur-
rences successfully requires often a master mind, possessed of
good practical skill rather than of theoretical refinement; and
this can only be obtained by experience, accompanied by a
knowledge of what has previously been accomplished. For this
reason any publication which deals in a scientific manner with
the best known achievements in any branch of modern science
cannot fail to prove a valuable contribution to scientific litera-
ture. Of such a character is the volume now before us, which
contains accounts of upwards of seventy bridges, of a variety
of types of construction, sele¢ted—as stated by the joint
authors in their preface—so as to iliustrate the most recent
practice of the leading engineers of this country, of the Conti-

508 Notices of Books. [October,

nent, and of the United States; but while the chief subjects for
illustration and description consist of the principal bridges
erected during the last ten years, the work includes also
accounts of special structures not generally classed under the
generic term ‘“ Bridge,” but which, strictly speaking, belong to
it; such as the sewer-crossings and other special structures on
the Metropolitan Railway, the arrangements for carrying gas
mains in connection with the Beckton Gas Works, railway station
roofs, &c.

This book is well got up, and printed upon a rich thick paper,
and the subject matter is illustrated with numerous well-
executed woodcuts, whilst there is, also, that great desideratum
for alt works of reference, a good index. The description of
each bridge is given in a clear and concise manner, accom-
panied by such statistics of weights, strains, &c., as are neces-
sary for a complete comprehension of the particulars in each
case.

Of course iron bridges and works occupy the greater portion
of the book; but there are also given specimens of bridges of
timber, masonry, and artificial stone, or the béton aggloméré
of M. Coignet. Bridges on the truss, girder, cast-iron, and
suspension principles are fairly represented, whilst swing-
bridges, piers, and methods adopted in the reconstruction of
bridges in France, are not omitted.

Whilst this work must be invaluable to professional men, it
will prove, we think, by no means uninteresting to the intelligent
general reader.

1872.] ( 509 )

ABSTRACT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH
ASSOCIATION.

BRIGHTON MEETING.—1872.

Retiring President.—S1r Wit.1aAM TuHomson, LL.D., F.R.S.
President.—Dr. W1Lu1aAM B. CarPENTER, LL.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S.

HE present Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science, held at Brighton, has been attended with the greatest success.
The arrangements of the Local Committee were admirable, and the many
places of interest near to the London of the Sea were freely opened to visitors.
It is unnecessary to enter into the detail of these arrangements, which could
interest but few, and which will be well known to many: it is our purpose to
present the reader with an Abstra@t of the Papers read before each Section.
With this view we present a consideration of the chief arguments advanced
in the Inaugural Address of the President.

“ON MAN AS THE INTERPRETER OF NATURE.”

It is recorded in earliest history, and remarkable at the present day, that
man, whilst declaring the faults of his fellows, regards his own with a very
partial vision. Of this inherent weakness we have a most flagrant example
in the Address of the President of the British Association to the ladies and
gentlemen assembled at Brighton to express their interest in the scientific
discoveries of the last year. Dr. Carpenter has taken upon himself to lead
them “to the consideration of the mental processes by which are formed those
fundamental conceptions of matter and force, of cause and effect, of law and
order, which furnish the basis of all scientific reasoning, and constitute the
Philosophia prima of Bacon.” Now, by Dr. Carpenter’s own showing, this
means his individual consideration of the mental processes; in fact, a close
adherence to the sophistry of judging others by the standard of self; for he
afterwards says, ‘‘ Nature is what he (each man of science) individually
believes her to be.”” Thus, that variation in conception which Dr. Carpenter
asks for in every other branch of science, he denies to mental philosophy. It
is not enough in his consideration of scientific exactness that the high probability
that the speGrum of a hydrogen flame means hydrogen when seen by Mr.
Lockyer in the spe&trum of the sun’s chromosphere, or that Dr. Huggins
should deduce from the different relative positions of certain lines in the
spectra of different stars, that those stars are moving from or towards us in
space—a probability that has been accepted by every scientific man as a
certainty, upon the assumption that the same lines represent the same
elements in every luminary (we use Dr. Carpenter’s own propositions through-
out)—but Dr. Carpenter must point out that these conclusions may or may not
be corre&. We then have a dire& aspersion cast upon all scientific men and
all scientific methods. Scientific men are told slightingly what they knew
before, viz., that they are as human beings fallible and individually liable to
form erroneous conclusions. Every scientific man shows his appreciation of
the fallibility of his judgment by carefully guarding against error,and by acknow-
ledging error when it occurs tohim. But, on the other hand, a philosopher has
hitherto been considered justified when the same event has happened or happens
always under the same conditions, in deducing a conclusion which he may
submit to his fellow-inquirers to stand or fall as it may be true. Yet this tacit
understanding of human fallibility does not satisfy Dr. Carpenter, who requires
that we should always qualify our deduction with ‘‘ may or may not be.” Not-
withstanding, that in no one of Dr. Carpenter’s own works do we find that he
. adheres to his own formula—and he should remember that even law-makers
are held bound to keep the laws they make—we cannot, and we think
scientific men generally cannot, but express the opinion that Dr. Carpenter
has exceeded all bounds of decorum. He has been guilty of proclaiming
either that scientific investigation is conducted loosely, or that scientific men

510 Proceedings of the British Association. [OGtober,

assert that which is not positively true, for in no other light will his address
be intelligible. In either case the assertion is erroneous, and calculated to
lower other men in popular esteem, and exalt Dr. Carpenter as the discoverer
of an imposition. Such conduct is unworthy a man holding the position of
President of the British Association.

We will now examine the assumption upon which the whole of Dr. Carpenter’s
address turns. He says, ‘‘I hope to satisfy you that those who setup their own
conceptions of the orderly sequence which they discern in the phenomena of
nature, as fixed and determinate laws, by which those phenomena not only
are within all human experience, but always have been and always must be
invariably governed, are really guilty of the intelle@ual arrogance they
condemn in the systems of the ancients, and place themselves in diametrical
antagonism to those real philosophers, by whose comprehensive grasp and
penetrating insight that order has been so far disclosed.”” Who doset uptheirown
conceptions as fixed and determinate laws ? Certainly not accredited scientific
men, and yet upon the assumption that such men, and those who so strongly
adhere to their own conceptions are the same, does Dr. Carpenter assail scientific
men not only collectively, but individually. Dr. Carpenter’s remarks would
be calculated to form a serious obstacle to the advancement of science, were
it not that, to use his own words, judgment ‘‘ is eminently a personal a@, the
value of its results depending in each case upon the qualifications of the
individual for arriving at a correé& decision.”

There is one convincing argument against the liability of error from indivi-
dual interpretation which Dr. Carpenter has overlooked. Itis that philosophic
principles are really not isolated, neither are they individual, for if each sub-
ject be taken up by one man there remains sufficient diversity to prevent error
in considering the conclusions collectively; but it happens that many men
with many theories take up the same subject with concordant results. So that
unless Dr. Carpenter flies dire@tly in the face of all received reasoning on pro-
bability of error, which being of error includes probability of correctness, his
remarks are childish.

Dr. Carpenter further places great stress upon the invidious distin@ion be-
tween “seems” and “really is,’ as regards the scientific interpretation of
Nature. Has science been proved sufficiently inaccurate to warrant such a
distin@ion? We think not, and that the distinction has been made by Dr.
Carpenter on his own authority alone. Again, he tells us that ‘‘ the philoso-
pher’s interpretation of Nature seems less individual than that of the artist or
the poet ;’’ and proceeds to reason upon this ground,—a veritable quicksand,
for whereas the artist and poet are allowed liberties on account of the ma-
chinery they employ, the philosopher is allowed none, even while his machinery
is of a more restricted order. Even generalisation Dr. Carpenter denies to the
scientific enquirer, who employs generalisation as the artist does his rules of
perspective or the poet the rules of prosody and grammar—that is, as a method
of order. But the simile of artistic and poetic interpretation is in itself
faulty, for the artist and poet are not required to represent Nature accurately,
but only so far approximately as may affect the feelings, whilst the philosopher
must most correctly trace Nature as she presents herself, if his interpretation is
intended for the eyes of common-sense men or of men co-equal in scientific
attainments, according to the speciality of the character of the phenomenon
to be interpreted: the one is an appeal to the feelings, the other to the reason.
The one calls not for accuracy, the other demands it.

Dr. Carpenter is far from understanding the difference between laws made
for men and those made by them: in the first there is not, and has never
been, a cessation of the direGing force, whilst in the latter the law is not al-
ways enforced. In the one case, given the same conditions the same results
are.inevitable, because the origin is constant; but in the other the results vary
with the origin. But this consideration brings us within the territory of The-
ology, with which, in common with Dr. Carpenter, we, as professed scientific
men, publicly have nothing to do; and as we do not recognise Dr. Carpenter
in any way as an authority on this new point which he appears anxious to
claim, we shall merely endorse the general belief that the boundaries of

1872.] Mathematical and Physical Science. 511

theology and science are, where they touch, perfectly defined, while we shall
certainly resent the endeavour he has made to place theology in supremacy
to science in the investigation of the Laws of Nature, whatever we may do
in investigation as to the Cause of those laws.

The very attributes of science have been attacked by Dr. Carpenter; and
whatever may be the issue of the matter, there remains the fad that he has
placed himself under the necessity of more clearly stating his reasons for
the attack.

SECTION A.—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE.

President.—Warren de la Rue, D.C.L., Ph.D., F.R.S., V.-P.R.A.S., V.-P.C.S.

Vice-Presidents.—Prof. G. C. Foster, F.R.S.; F. Fuller; James Glaisher,
FiR-S.; J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S.; J. Phillips, F-R.S.; H. J..S. Smith,
F.R.S.; W. Spottiswoode, F.R.S.; Sir W. Thomson, LL.D., F.R.S.; Sir
Charles Wheatstone, D.C.L., F.R.S.

Secretaries.—Prof. W. R. Clifford, M.A.; J. W. L. Glaisher, B.A., F.R.A.S.;
Prof. A. S. Herschel, B.A., F.R.A.S.; G. F. Rodwell, F.R.A.S., F.C.S.

The President opened the proceedings by stating that he would confine his
attention to astronomical photography. He showed that, at the very outset,
astronomical differs from ordinary photography, inasmuch as the image of the
obje@ which falls upon the collodion film is always in motion. Strata of air
are ever in motion between the plate and the object, and each of these strata
causing refraction the result is a * flickering” image to be impressed upon the
sensitive film, being a similar effect, from the same cause, of the appearance
of the ‘‘ twinkling”’ of stars. Dr. de la Rue has observed that this flickering,
at certain times, chances to be at a minimum, and it has been at such times
that he has obtained his celebrated photographs of the moon. He then de-
tailed the difficulties arising from the non-coincidence of the foci of the
chemical and visual rays of light, from which it accrues that, if the prepared
plate be placed where a visually well-defined object falls upon the film, the
focus not being that of the chemical rays the best result is not obtained. Dr.
de la Rue, to remedy this defect, employs a reflecting instead of a refracting
telescope. Mr. Rutherford, of New York, on the contrary, employs a refracting
telescope, but one in which special adjustments have been made. The rays of
light from the heavenly bodies are not only refracted during their passage
through the atmosphere, but are absorbed by floating particles, solid and
liquid, this absorption amounting to, perhaps, two-thirds of the chemical rays.
For these and similar reasons, it would appear advantageous that the British
Association or the Royal Society should possess a permanent observatory,
situated at a great elevation, in a climate as free as possible from cloud. The
President of the Section detailed the successful experiments of Lord Lindsay
and Mr. Rannyard, as to the question whether reflections from the back
surface of the photographic plate played any part in the production of the
fringes observed in some astronomical photographs. In these experiments
plates of ebonite and non-actinic yellow glass were prepared, and it was
soon found that the outer haze completely disappeared in the photographs
taken on ebonite, while on the yellow glass plates it was much fainter than on
ordinary white glass plates. A wetted black paper at the back of an unground
plate greatly diminished the outer haze; and a yellow glass plate ground on
both sides, the back coated with a black varnish, caused the outer haze to en-
tirely disappear, showing the greatest part of photographic irradiation to be
due to reflection from the second surface.

The failure of photography to present truthful pictures of nebulz and comets
was passed under consideration, and thought to be due to the variation in
atmospheric currents and the interposition of aqueous and solid particles. In
following up the consideration Prof. Zollner’s theory of the self-luminosity
and train of comets was commented upon, the President inclining to the view
that ele¢tricity may be demonstrated to be sufficient cause, provided it be
* granted that electricity may be developed by the action of solar heat,—if not
in the process of evaporation, at least in the mechanical and molecular dis-
turbances resulting from it. In conclusion, Dr. de la Rue expressed a hope

512 Proceedings of the British Association. [O€tober,

of seeing the photographic method, as applied to sun-observations, joined to
the work of Greenwich Observatory, and alluded to the importance of the
subje& now before the Royal Commission, presided over by the Duke of
Devonshire.

Colonel Strange proposed the vote of thanks to the President, and the pro-
position was seconded by Sir William Thomson.

The Eclipse Committee.—The Report of this Committee, by Mr. J. Norman
Lockyer and Dr. J. Thomson, was read by the Secretary, and detailed the re-
sults of the Melbourne and Indian Expeditions. The Indian Expedition made
known to us that the luminous hydrogen exists at the enormous distance of
seven or eight minutes from the sun’s limb, instead of only about ten seconds,
as previously calculated; and that there was strong radial polarisation of the
corona.

Luminous Meteors.—The Report of the Committee, read by Mr. James
Glaisher, F.R.S., included the notice of the August and November meteors.
The work done in determining the radiant points of the meteors occupied
much of the Report. Mr. Birt, F.R.A.S., then read a paper on “ Lunar
Objects Suspected of Change.”

The Spectrum of Hydrogen.—Prof. A. Herschel read Mr. Schuster’s paper
on the “ Spectrum of Hydrogen,” stating that the author thought the second
spectrum to be due to some hydrocarbon taken up from the india-rubber tubing,
from grease, or from impurities on the surface of the glass; and describing
experiments, with chemically-clean vacuum-tubes, in which an alteration of
the spectrum occurred.

Spectral Rays.—Prof. Clifford read the Report of the Committee on “ Spec-
tral Rays,’ arranged upon a scale of wave-numbers.

Astronomical Refraction.—Mr. Forbes, in a paper on ‘ Astronomical Re-
fraction,’ pointed out the sources of error, in the observation of stars, due to
the moisture of the atmosphere, and variation of barometric pressure in two
separate places of observation. As an instance of the latter cause of error,
he cited measurements taken during one month at Greenwich and Chislehurst,
only five miles apart, giving arange of barometric difference of ,38,ths of an
inch. Thus differences of atmospheric refraction would, perhaps, explain
discrepancies in observations of the polar distances of the stars.

A series of mathematical papers also were read, of which obviously we
cannot here give extracts.

On a subsequent day Sir Wm. Thomson, F.R.S., gave a summary of the
Report of the Tidal Committee, as well as a Report on the Gaussian Constants
of Terrestrial Magnetism; and later strongly supported the views of Dr.
Carpenter on Oceanic Circulation.

SECTION B.—CHEMICAL SCIENCE.

President.—Dr. J. Hall Gladstone, F.R.S., F.C.S.

Vice-Presidents.—Prof. F. A. Abel, F.R.S., F.C.S.; Prof. Williamson,
F.R.S.; J. H. Gilbert, Ph.D., F.R.S.; Sir Benjamin Brodie, Bart., F.R.S. ;
Prof. G. C. Foster, F.R.S.

Secretaries.—Dr. Mills; W. Chandler Roberts, F.C.S.; Dr. W. J. Russell,
DARE Ses) le vVood. bh D:

The Inaugural Address of the President opened with an admirable estimate
of the position of Chemical Science as a science and as a means of education.
He thought that chemistry was rapidly approaching the status of an exact
science,—that the chemist stood hourly more in need of the mathematical
training necessary to the physical inquirer. The relation of many branches
of physics to chemistry was very close, as instanced by spectroscopy and
eleGtro-chemistry. The President then stated that he considered chemistry
to be an essential branch of the education of every lady and gentleman. Yet
he thought the so-called educated classes in England were supremely ignorant
of science, and had not arrived even at the first stage of improvement—the
knowledge of their own ignorance. The cry of cui bono was unluckily too

1872.] Chemical Science. 513

prevalent, and the assistance offered to young and aspiring experimentalists,
though great, was ineffectual. Dr. Gladstone concluded his Address by
alluding to the magnificent liberality of Mr. J. B. Lawes, who has made over
his laboratory of Agricultural Chemistry to trustees, and endowed it, for the
benefit of science, with the sum of £100,000.

Professor Williamson proposed and Dr. Longstaff seconded the vote of
thanks to the President.

Essential Oils —Dr. Gladstone, Dr. Wright, and Mr. W. C. Roberts, of the
Mint, read a paper on the results of their experiments on the composition of
some essential oils used in perfumes, in which it appeared that the choice of
the sample greatly affected the value of the result.

The Fusion of Arsenic.—Prof. Mallet reported the successful fusion of ar-
senic in narrow glass tubing (barometer tubing) enclosed in an outer tube of
iron, and heated in a charcoal fire. Arsenic thus treated appears, on cooling,
as a fused, compact, crystalline mass, of steel-grey colour, and has a sp. gr.
of 5*70g at 15° C. The fusing-point is between that of antimony and silver.

Prof. Mallet exhibited also three specimens of meteoric iron from Augusta
Co., Virginia.

British Gold Coinage.—Mr. W. Chandler Roberts, the Chemist of the Mint,
detailed the precautions taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of the
gold-copper alloy, an account of which has appeared already in these pages.

Decomposition of Water.—On a subsequent day Dr. Gladstone read a paper
on the *‘ Mutual Helpfulness of Chemical Affinity, Heat, and Eledtricity, in
producing the Decomposition of Water.” Only certain of the metals are ca-
pable of displacing the hydrogen of pure water. Pure zinc does not do so,
but does so when the chemical tension is aided by the electrical tension set up
when the zinc is the positive plate of a voltaic couple. The effect of varying
the distance between the plates of zinc and copper was commented upon, and
it was stated that the chemical action increased slowly till the plates are
within an inch or so of each other; nearer the action increases at a rapidly
accelerating ratio. Heat assists the action. Magnesium alone decomposes
water, but more vigorously when in contact with copper, upon which some of
the hydrogen gas makes its appearance. If a more negative metal than mag-
nesium be employed in contac with an again more negative metal, there is
still a deflection of the galvanometer employed to measure the amount of
action. The order for pure water seems to be—platinum, silver, copper, iron,
tin, lead, zinc, magnesium.

Manufacture of Chlorine—Mr. Weldon read a paper on his process of
manufacturing chlorine by means of manganite of magnesium. The inventor
employs a still to yield an absolutely neutral still-liquor, consisting of a mixed
solution of chloride of magnesium and chloride of manganese. The liquor is
conveyed from the still to an iron pot, whence it is pumped or syphoned into
evaporating-pans, and thence again into a blind furnace, where the evaporation
is continued todryness. The residue is then gently heated with access of air,
the chlorine of the two chlorides being driven off, partly free and partly as hy-
drochloric acid, and manganite of magnesium produced. The loss during the
process is merely mechanical, the chemical loss being absolutely nz.

After this paper Dr. Crace Calvert read an interesting report on bleaching-
powders, with the idea of promoting useful discussion.

Ignition of Cellulose by Saturation with Fatty Oils.—Prof. Dewar read a
paper, by Mr. John Galletly, on the “‘ Danger of Ignition of Rags, Paper, &c.,
Saturated with Oil,” and it was shown that cotton-waste, saturated with either
boiled linseed oil, raw linseed oil, rape oil, Galipoli oil, castor oil, lard oil, or
seal oil, and confined in a closed chamber, became, after from 1o hours to
100 minutes, ignited to ash completely, or more or less charred. Sperm oil
refused to char the waste. The cause assigned is rapid oxidation, and the
author submits that the term ‘‘spontaneous combustion”? may be objected to
for the same reason that Gerhardt objeéts to spontaneous decomposition pro-
duced by oxidation. Heavy oils from coal and shale, chiefly the olefines,

VOL. II. (N.S.) 3U

514 Proceedings of the British Association. [October,

prevent this oxidation, even when mixed with a large proportion of fatty oils.
Twenty per cent rape oil gave no indication of heat at 17° F.

Precipitation of Silver by Copper.—Mr. Alfred Tribe contributed a paper of
great interest on this subject, stating that silver precipitated from its nitrate
solution by copper always contained the latter metal. The presence of the
copper he considered due to the dissolved oxygen in the silver solutions, or to
the absorption of that gas from the air by the produced copper-nitrate during
or subsequent to the precipitation.

Dust from Vesuvius.—Mr. George Gladstone, F.C.S., stated that analysis
of the dust thrown up by Vesuvius during the recent eruption proved it to
consist of aggregations of crystallised quartz, dotted over with the magnetic
oxide of iron. By boiling the sand in hydrochloric acid the whole of the iron
is removed. None of the samples contained titanium.

Chemical Nomenclature.—Dr. A. Crum Brown read an interesting paper on
chemical nomenclature, to which in an abstract we could not do full justice.

SECTION C.—GEOLOGY.

President.—R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., F.G.S.

Vice-Presidents.—Thomas Davidson, F.R.S., F.G.S.; Prof. P. Martin Dun-
can, M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S.; Rev. Thomas Wiltshire, M.A., F.G.S.; Prof. J.
Phillips, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.; J. Prestwich, F.RS.

Secretaries—Henry Woodward, F.G.S.; Louis C. Miall; George Scott ;
William Topley, F.G.S.

The President, in his Address, dwelt upon the richness in interest of the
county of Sussex to the geological observer, upon the place of the fresh- and
brackish-water formations on the geological scale, and upon the Wealden
formation, especially the Wealden formation of the European surface.

Prof. Phillips proposed and Prof. Hull seconded a vote of thanks to the
President.

The principal papers read in this Section were as follows :—‘t The North-
East of Ireland,” by Prof. Hull, F.R.S.; ‘* The Geology of the Neighbourhood
of Brighton,” by Mr. James Howell; ‘‘ The Sub-Wealden Exploration,” by
Mr. W. Topley, F.G.S.; ‘*On the Distribution of Goitre in England,” by Mr.
G. A. Lebour, F.G.S.; ‘‘ On the Discovery of a Zeuglodon in the Beds of the
Eocene Formation,” by Mr. H. G. Seeley; ‘‘On the Investigation of Plates
of Coral from the Mountain Limestone,’’ by Mr. J. Thomson, F,G.S.; ‘On
Brachiapoda,” by Mr. Thomas Davidson; ‘‘ Report on Fossil Crustacea,” by
Mr. H. Woodward, F.G.S.; and a paper ‘‘On the Prospec& of Finding Pro-
ductive Coal-Measures in Norfolk and Suffolk,” by Mr. John Gunn. All these
paper contain too much detail to admit of useful abstraction.

SECTION D.—BIOLOGY.

President.—Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S.

Vice-Presidents.—Prof. Balfour, M.D., F.R.S.; John Ball, F.R.S.; John
Beddo, M.D.; George Bentham, F.R.S.: J. Cordy Burrows, M.D.; T. Spen-
cer Cobbold, M.D., F.R.S.; Prof. Flower, F.R.S.; Col. A. Lane Fox, F.G.S.;
Dr. Hooker, C.B., F.R.S.; J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S.; J. Burdon Sanderson,
M.D., F.R.S.; Prof. Wyville Thomson, M.D., F.R.S. .

Secretaries.—Prof. Thiselton-Dyer; H. T. Stainton, F.R.S.; F. W. Rudler,
F.G.S.; J. H. Lamprey; Dr. Gamgee, F.R.S.; E. Ray Lankester; Dr. Pye
Smith, F.R.S.

The President opened the proceedings by reading the usual Address. He
pointed out the place that natural science should occupy in the curricula of
the schools, and then went on to say that the Darwinian theory of the Origin
of Species was much misunderstood. Mr. Darwin had called attention to a
vera causa, had pointed out the true explanation of certain phenomena; it
was quite another thing to assume, as was too often done, that all animals

1872.] Mechamical Science. 515

were descended from one primordial source. Passing on to consider the
valuable work done at Kew, the President said that any change would be cal-
culated to affe@ its completeness or impair its scientific character.

Dr. Carpenter proposed the vote of thanks to the President.

Mr. Spence Bate then read the Fourth Report of ‘‘The Marine Fauna of
the South Coast of Devon;” Prof. Newton contributed a paper on ‘‘ The
Extinct Birds of Mascareen Islands;”’ Mr. J. Robertson a paper on ‘ The
Pholades ;” and Dr. Dhorn a Report on Zoological Stations.

On subsequent days papers on Zoology and Botany, Anatomy and Physi-
ology, and Anthropology, were read, but are of too technical a nature to be
abstracted.

SECTION E.—GEOGRAPHY.

This Se@tion was under the presidency of Mr. Francis Galton, F.R.S.,
F.G.S., F.R.G.S.; and as the main subject was the discovery of Dr. Living-
stone, now perfectly familiar to our readers, we pass on to the consideration of
the proceedings of the next Seétion.

SECTION F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS.

President.—Prof. Henry Fawcett, M.A., M.P.

Vice-Presidents.—Sir John Bowring; Grant Duff, M.P.; Sir James K.
Alexander; Right Hon. J. G. Dodson, M.P.; James White, Esq., M.P.; R.
Dudley Baxter, M.A.; William Newmarch, F.R.S.

Secretaries.—J. G. Fitch, M.A.; Barclay Phillips.

Professor Fawcett, in his Inaugural Address to the Se@tion, considered the
present rise in prices, and the incompatibility of this rise with the possession
of a fixed income, the caution with which a man should leave only a fixed in-
come to his widow and children, when he has other means of disposing of his
money, and the time that must necessarily elapse before the incomes of the
clergy and others at fixed rates can be advanced to meet essential require-
ments. The danger of limiting the liberty of the subje& by over-legislation,
with the view to the amelioration of the condition of the poorer classes, was
the subject finally discussed.

Sir John Bowring, who proposed a vote of thanks to the President, then
read the Report of the Committee on Uniformity of Weights, Measures, and
Coins; and Mr. Burgess a paper on International Coinage.

On subsequent days papers were read upon—* Our National Accounts,” by
Mr. Frank P. Fellowes, F.S.S.; ‘‘ The Education of Women,” by Miss Emily
A. Shirreff; ‘‘On Preserved Meats,” by Dr. Edward Smith; and “ The Pol-
lution of Rivers,” by Major-General Sir James E. Alexander, F.R.S.E.

SECTION G.—MECHANICAL SCIENCE.

President.—F. J. Bramwell, C.E.

Vice-Presidents—John Hawkshaw, F.R.S.; C. W. Merrifield, F.R.S.;
Charles B. Vignoles, F.R.S.; W. J. Macquorn Rankine, LL.D., F.R.S.; James
Nasmyth, F.R.S.; W. Froude, F.R.S.

Secretaries.—H. M. Brunel; P. Le Neve Foster, M.A.; John G. Gamble,
B.A.; James N. Shoolbred.

The President, Mr. F. J. Bramwell, in his Address, dwelt chiefly upon the
subje& of “Coal,” as being that, at the present time, most prominent in the
minds of the public at large,—if for no other reason than this, that the steam-
engine is still the very crowning glory of mechanical engineering, and that
coal is the staff of life, and, so to speak, the breath of the nostrils of the
steam-engine. It was pointed out that the supply of coal is a finite quantity ;
that, unlike the fuel wood, which grows year by year to replace the annual
consumption, the fuel coal is given to us once for all; that we are therefore
dealing with a store that knows no renewal; that if we waste it the sin of
that waste will be visited on our children ; and that it becomes us to look upon

516 Proceedings of the British Association. [October,

coal as a most precious, valuable, and limited deposit, of which we are the
stewards and guardians. Mr. Bramwell then reviewed the other sources of
power within our reach, namely, the wind, the power of our streams, and the
power derivable from the rise and fall of the tide.

The most important paper read before this Section was one by Mr. F.
Ransome, on ‘Artificial Stone,” to which we shall refer more fully on a
future occasion.

Breech-Loading Small Arms.—Mr. Merrifield read a paper, presented by
Mr. A. Wylie, of Birmingham, on the “ Progress of Invention in Breech-
Loading Small Arms during the past Twenty Years,” with comments on the
Reports of the Small-Arms’ Committee.

Aérial Navigation.—A paper on this subje& was read by Mr. C. A. Bowd-
ler, who wished to see experiments with aérostats attempted with a view to
the introduction of these machines into military tactics. The author believed
in the practicability of aérial navigation by simple mechanical means. Manual
propulsion having been secured, the power of direction was the next deside-
ratum, and was accomplished by rotating the balloon to any required position,
by a rudder, consisting of a vertical disc fixed in a line with the axis of the
propeller. By turning the plane of the disc, the current of air forced from
the fan on the rudder caused the whole machine to rotate right or left, as in
the case of a ship.

Deep-Sea Soundings.—Sir Wm. Thomson, F.R.S., gave the results of some
experiments on deep-sea sounding, the weight or load being sustained by a
steel-wire of No. 22 gauge. The experiments had been made at a depth of
2700 fathoms, and had been attended with perfect success.

Lights at Sea.—Sir W. Thomson contributed a second paper on “ The
Identification of Lights at Sea,” recommending a system by which light-
houses could be recognised by means of signals in accordance with the Morse
alphabet.

Measurement of Waves.—A novel paper was contributed on this subject by
Mr. C. W. Merrifield, F.R.S., Principal of the Royal School of Naval Archi-
tecture, who considered it desirable to confine the measurement to the two
points of ascertaining the aggregate height of the waves and their number
during measured intervals of time. The machinery could consist of a float
sliding up and down strained wires, at the head of a pier or in a standard of
framework. A line from this float could pass over a pulley, the motion of
which, transmitted through its shaft, would give all the required measurements.
The measurement of the aggregate height of the waves would be effected by
simply connecting a ratchet-wheel, pawled so as only to turn one way, with
the float pulley. To count the waves it would be necessary to record the
number of times the float reversed its motion, the record being effected with a
pencil on aslip of Morse paper.

Other papers of interest were read, but their application is too technical for
abstraction.

Next year the British Association will meet at Bradford, under the presi-
dency of James Prescott Joule, L.LD., F.R.S.

1872.] (517)

PROGRESS IN’ SCLTENCE.

MINING.

Ir was stated in our *‘ Chronicles’’ last quarter, that Archer’s Wood was the
site selected by the Sub-Wealden Exploration Committee for their experi-
mental boring. But, as it was found that the geological features of that
locality would seriously interfere with the work, the operations have neces-
sarily been transferred to a new site. A beautiful spot in Councillor’s Wood,
in the parish of Netherfield—the property of J. C. Mappin, Esq., who has
most liberally given the site—has finally been pitched upon: here the plant
has been erected, and the boring commenced under the direction of Mr. Bos-
worth, an experienced boremaster from Leicestershire. The neighbouring
rocks are the shales and limestones of the Ashburnham beds, or lowest mem-
bers of the Wealden series. It is proposed that the bore-hole shall be g inches
in diameter, and shall be carried, if necessary, to a depth of 2000 feet. As
soon as a sufficient depth is attained, and the rods therefore become heavy
enough, it may be expected that good cores of rock may be drilled out; and
these g-inch cylinders will, of course, yield much information to the geologist.
Soon after the commencement of the boring, a large party from the British
Association visited the works, but the hole was then only a few inches in
depth, and the rock was churned up into a kind of mud. Scientific addresses
on the obje& of the exploration were delivered on the spot by Mr. Prestwich,
F.R.S., Mr. W. Topley, and Mr. H. Willett, whilst Mr. Bosworth, the engineer,
explained the mechanical details of boring. It cannot be too widely known
that this undertaking is a purely scientific experiment, for the purpose, mainly,
of ascertaining what older rocks occur beneath the Wealden beds in this
locality. Reasoning from well-known geological data, it is expected that some
of the secondary formations will be either entirely absent or but feebly repre-
sented, and that a ridge of paleozoic rocks will ve reached at a moderate
depth. Those palzozoic rocks, when found, may or may not contain coal; if
productive coal-measures be struck, so much the better; but. in either case,
the great object of the boring will be accomplished. There seems, however,
to be a popular notion afloat, that this is really a trial-sinking for coal in
Sussex—in fac&, a kind of commercial mining enterprise. No doubt many of
the subscribers to the Exploration Fund take this view of the undertaking, but
the geologists, who have set the work afoot, lend little or no support to such
an inference. It is nevertheless true, that though coal-measures may not be
found at this spot, the evidence there obtained may lead to a successful search
for coal elsewhere in the south-east of England. Anyhow, the Netherfield
boring is a work of great scientific interest, and reflects the highest credit on
Mr. Willett, the spirited projector of this enterprise.

Although we may never be able to burn Sussex coal, it seems likely that
Sutherlandshire coal may soon find its way into the market. Since the days
of Elizabeth, it has been known that deposits of coal exist in the neighbour-
hood ot Brora, on the east coast of Sutherlandshire—not the true fuel of the
palzozoic coal-measures it is true, but a very fair coal of oolitic age. These
deposits have not beén worked for many years, but the present high price of coal
has again turned attention to the Brora fuel, and Mr. Jones, of Shropshire,
has been employed by the Duke of Sutherland to report upon the Sutherland-
shire coal-field. Acting on this report, the Duke is about to renew workings ;
an engine is to beimmediately ereGed for pumping water from the old pits, and
a new experimental shaft is being driven at a place called Strath Steven, on
the sea-shore, about one mile east of the old works.

Anyone interested in the development of the minergl resources of Queens-
land should read the excellent paper by Mr. R. Daintree, published in the
August number of the “ Journal of the Geological Society ’—a paper which

518 Progress in Science. [Oétober,

may be advantageously studied in connection with the fine display of mineral
products exhibited in the Queensland annexe to the International Exhibition.
In the south of the colony, extensive beds of coal occur in lacustrine strata,
apparently of mesozoic age; and in addition to these secondary coals there is
a northern coal-field of even greater extent, which is supposed to belong to
the true coal-measures of palaozoic age. The coal of each period is charac-
terised by a distinét flora, Te@niopteris being the chara@eristic fossil of the
mesozoic and Glossopteris that of the palaozoic coal-measures. Auriferous
veinstones are extensively worked in Queensland, both in Devonian strata
and in metamorphic rocks. It is interesting to learn, that throughout the
whole extent of the great Devonian area in the colony, no rocks have yet been
found to include auriferous reefs which will pay to work, except where the
strata have been disturbed by intrusion of certain trap-rocks, either diorite,
diabase, or porphyrite. The gold from these veins is always alloyed with a
large percentage of silver. Thus, a specimen of so-called ‘“* spider-leg gold "=
that is, native gold with a filiform structure and a semi-crystalline surface—
yielded 89°92 per cent of gold, and g‘6g of silver. It seems clear, from the
structure of the veinstones, that they have been formed by hydrothermal aétion,
but it is difficult to conjecture how the gold and silver could have been simul-
taneously precipitated from a state of solution so as to form a homogeneous
alloy. In the Canoona Diggings, gold has been found in serpentine. Some
rich copper lodes have been worked in the metamorphic rocks, especially at
Peak Downs and Mount Perry, while stanniferous granites of extraordinary
richness have been discovered in the neighbourhood of the Severn River. One
of the most valuable features of Mr. Daintree’s memoir is the large number of
analyses of local rocks which it contains. ‘These are not only of great service
to the geologist, but, in many cases, may also be of much use to the miner;
for every practical man believes that the character of the ‘‘ country ” is closely
related with that of the mineral veins by which it is traversed.

Attention has been lately directed to the mineral resources of Newfound-
land, ard the best means of effecting their development. Valuable deposits
of lead ore occur on the shores of Placentia Bay, and have been worked at the
La Manche mine. Copper ore is found in association with serpentine rocks,
and workings have been carried on at Tilt Cove mine, south of Cape John.
The copper ore is said to be here intersected bya vein of nickel. Coal appears
to be abundant in the neighbourhood of St. George’s Bay, and fine marbles
are common in many parts of the island.

The results of Mr. Mark Fryar’s mineral explorations in the Mergui distri@
of Tenasserim have been published in India. One of the most remarkable
features of interest to the miner is the wide distribution of tin ore, in the shape
of detrital matter from stanniferous rocks. It appears, indeed, to be almost
universally distributed through the river gravels of the country, and Mr. Fryar
believes that a thorough examination of the hills through which the rivers
flow might be rewarded by the discovery of rich veins of tin-stone.

About twelve months ago, a thermal saline spring was noticed by some
miners working in the 160-fathom level of Wheal Seton, in Cornwall. As
operations were suspended at that part of the mine, no further notice was
taken at the time; but on recently resuming the workings, it was found that
the temperature of the spring had increased and the flow of water had aug-
mented. Between 40 and 50 gallons of water were discharged per minute, at
a temperature of nearly 100° F., while the air in the closed end was heated to
more than go®. On evaporation, the water leaves a white saline residue. A
sample examined by Mr. S. T. Rose, chemist of the Truro Agricultural Asso-
ciation, contained more than rooo grains of saline matter in the imperial
gallon. The spring occurs in a great cross-course, at a distance of between
three and four miles from the sea. It is supposed by local miners that the
heat of the spring betokens the presence of a strong lode somewhere in the
neighbourhood.

' Singing-flames, instead of being merely used for pleasing acoustical experi-
ments, promise to become of value to the collier in warning him of danger in

1872.] Metallurgy. 519

the pit. An ingenious application of such flames to the construction of a new
safety-lamp has been made by Dr. A. R. Irvine, of Glasgow. When a mixture
of an inflammable gas and air, in such proportions as to be explosive, is ignited
on the surface of wire-gauze, and a suitable tube or chimney is placed over
the flame close to the gauze, a musical sound is distinétly heard, varying in
pitch with the magnitude of the flaine and proportions of the chimney,
Applying this principle, Dr. Irvine has constructed an improved safety-lamp.
While the atmosphere is not vitiated by fire-damp, the lamp burns quietly ;
but when the quantity of inflammable gas rises to explosive proportions the
flame emits a musical sound, and thus the danger appeals to the ear, just as
in Davy’s ordinary lamp the combustion of the explosive mixture within the
gauze cage appeals to the eye. Several forms of the singing-lamp have been
devised. In one form, adapted to the use of the viewer, the air gains ad-
mission near the top of the lamp, while in another form, adapted to the
purposes of the working miner, a brilliant light is obtained by the use of
paraffin oil.

From an official report recently issued by a special committee appointed by
the War-Office to enquire into the subject of the transport and storage of Litho-
fracteur, it appears that the committee, whilst fully admitting the safety of the
explosive under ordinary conditions, find that, on exposure to a high tempera-
ture, part of the nitroglycerine separates from the solid substance by which it
was absorbed, and exudes from the cartridge. ‘lhe explusion of a single drop
of the pure nitroglycerine might determine the explosion of the entire charge.
It appears, then, that lithofracteur cannot be said to be a perfeétly safe
mining explosive.

It is said that no fewer than twenty-two distiné@ forms of machine for rock-
boring have been constructed by Messrs. McKean and Co. The ‘*‘ McKean
Rock Drill ’—the final result of their labours in modifying the Haupt Drill—
has lately been in successful operation on hard Scotch granite, in which it has
been drilling holes 2 inches in diameter, at the rate of about 64 inches per
minute. For use in «he mine, the drill is mounted on a vertical column fixed
rigidly by a telescopic and screw adjustment. The boring-tool is securely
fixed to a solid piston moved by steam or compressed air, and kept working in
suspension, the valve-ports being opened and closed so as to leave a cushion
at each end of the piston in its reciprocating movement. During the back
stroke of the piston, a rotatory motion 1s imparted to the boring-tool.

That coal-cutting machinery has not been more extensively introduced into
our collieries seems to be due, in great measure, to the enormous cost of laying
down pipes from the surface to convey the air into the pit, and thence to the
part of the workings where the machine happens to be in use. This difficulty
may be to a great extent overcome by a recent invention patented by Mr. E.
T. Simpson and Mr. F. Hurd. These gentlemen propose to use a portable
air-compresser, which may be worked in any part of the mine by manual or
animal power.

A correspondent of the ‘* Mining Journal” offers for public competition a
prize of ‘£20 for an essay containing the best description of the principal
machines and tools used in general mining and quarrying operations, with the
results of the writer’s experience in their use.

At the recent Cornwall Polytechnic Exhibition, some experiments were
made with the Burleigh rock-drill, and with a model illustrating Scott’s plan
for ventilating mines by inje@ing steam into one of the shafts. Among the
other exhibits were a model of Willoughby’s Spring Stamps, one of Borlase’s
patent ore-dressing machines, and an improved pulveriser by Mr. Sara, of
Redruth.

METALLURGY.

From an analysis recently published in the ‘“‘ Chemical News,” it appears
that a pure wrought-iron has lately been made on a large scale at the Bowling
Iron Works, at Bradford, by the Henderson process. The wrought-iron con-
tained 99°5 per cent of iron (by direct determination), with 0-272 per cent of

520 Progress in Science. (October,

carbon, and the barest traces of sulphur, whilst phosphorus, silicon, and man-
ganese were entirely absent.

The manufacture of charcoal-iron has just been resumed in South Stafford-
shire. On the same site as that originally occupied, by one of the earliest
charcoal furnaces in the county, Mr. Light has recently ereGted a furnace and
blowing-engine for the make of charcoal pig-iron, and other furnaces are in
progress. The chargeis raised in a cage moved by a water balance-lift. The
furnaces are blown by an engine having a blowing cylinder above the steam
cylinder, and the links conneéted to the beam working between the two
cylinders. By this means the engine works smoothly without a parallel
motion. The charcoal-iron run from these furnaces will bear the brand,
‘* Bradley Bridge Charcoal.”

Within the last few months the ‘‘ Barron Steel Process”’ is said to have
been successfully at work in the United States. The cast-iron tools to be
converted into steel are first placed in revolving drums, and the rough surface
which the castings present as they leave the mould is thus worn smooth by
attrition. They are then packed in layers in iron boxes, closely covered with
clay, and subjeed to the action of oxide of iron or some other decarburising
agent. After being annealed in these boxes for a period of from three to six
days, the tools are brought into the state of malleable iron, and it only
remains to convert them into steel. This conversion is effected by exposing
them in a large retort, in the centre of an oven, to the action of certain
gaseous compounds of carbon. By this means about a ton of iron tools in
the retort may be converted into steel in from eight to ten minutes.

Some improvements in the mode of removing slag from the blast-furnace have
been patented by Mr. D. Joy, of Middlesbro’. The slag, as it is run from the
furnace, is received into recesses formed on the rim of a cylinder or wheel,
and, having been carried through part of a revolution, is discharged from the
cylinder. During its passage through the machine, the slag is cooled by a
blast of cold air, or by both air and water, the water being the waste liquid
from the hydraulic machine by which the cylinder is caused to rotate.

At the recent meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute at Glasgow, Mr. John
Mayer read a paper on the rise and progress of the Scotch iron manufacture.
The author traced the history of the trade from 1760, and, of course, dwelt
especially on the discovery of the black-band ironstone by Mushet, and the
introduction of the hot blast by Neilson—the two great events which gave
such powerful impulses to the development of the iron industry in Scotland.

Two papers on Reversing Rolling Mills were brought forward at the same
meeting—one by Mr. J. D. Napier, of Glasgow, and the other by Mr. G. Ste- -
venson, of Airdrie. In the discussion on the comparative merits of the two
systems introduced by these gentlemen, opinion seemed to favour Mr. Napier’s
differential gear, an arrangement which has been successfully employed at
the Codnor Park Iron Works in Derbyshire, the property of the Butterley
Company.

MINERALOGY.

A new mineral] species, apparently of much interest, has been described in
the ‘‘ Chemical News’’* by Mr. Hugo Tamm. It presents the form of a
dense, crystalline, dark steel-grey powder, consisting of distiné crystals
strikingly resembling those of silicon, and having a specific gravity of 12°5.
Unfortunately but a very small quantity of the substance has been at the
disposal of the analyst, but it has been satisfactorily determined that the
mineral contains 88°05 per cent of tungsten, 5°6 of iron, and o'15 of manga-
nese. There yet remains 6:2 per cent of some undetermined substance, and
it is difficult to conjecture what this missing constituent is likely to be. Mr.
Tamm is prepared, however, to say that it is not oxygen, or sulphur, or
arsenic; but suggests that it may be phosphorus, nitrogen, hydrogen, or even
a new element. Should it be condensed hydrogen, the mineral will be of
great interest, as the first example of a native alloy containing hydrogenium.

* Vol. xxv., No. 659; July 12, 1872, p. 13.

1872.] Mineralogy. 521

After all, the author admits that the deficiency may be due to an analytical
error. As tungsten and iron are evidently the main constituents of this
mineral, the name Ferro-tungstine has been provisionaily adopted. Mr. Tamm
had indeed proposed that it should be termed Crookesite, but it will be
remembered by our mineralogical readers that this name has already been
appropriated to a Swedish species unusually rich in thallium, described a few
years ago by Prof. Nordenskjold.* Under these circumstances Mr. Crookes
Suggests that, as soon as the missing constituent be identified, the new
mineral may appropriately be designated Tammuite.

In compliment to the Keeper of Minerals at the British Museum, the name
of Maskelynite has been bestowed by Dr. Tschermak on a colourless cubic
silicate, having the composition of labradorite, from a meteorite which fell at
Shergotty in India, on the 25th August, 1865. The maskelynite is accom-
panied by augite and magnetite. Tschermak has also described a meteorite
which fell near Gopalpoor on May 23rd, 1865, and which consists of nickel-
iron, magnetic pyrites, chromite, chrysolite, bronzite, and a mineral resem-
bling felspar.

During the Swedish Expedition to Greenland, in 1870, it was observed that
many of the holes in the ice were covered at the bottom with a peculiar
deposit in the form of a grey powder, often agglomerated into small globular
masses. This glacial sand has been examined both microscopically and che-
mically. It does not possess the characters of a clay, but the main ingredient
seems to be a sandy trachytic mineral, for which Prof. Nordenskjéld suggests
the name Kryokonite. The origin of this ice-dust appears enigmatical:
whether it comes from the basalt region near the coast, or from the supposed
volcanic tracts in the interior of Greenland, or whether it is of meteoric origin,
are questions which the Professor at present hesitates to answer.

Under the name of Manganophyll, Herr Igelstrom has described a new
species of mica from theiron and manganese mine of Pajsberg, near Filipstadt,
in Sweden. It possesses a colour varying from bronze to copper-red, and
appears to crystallise in the hexagonal system. It contains 21°4 per cent of
protoxide of manganese, and is hence the richest manganese-mica hitherto
known. Manganophyll appears to stand very close to Breithaupt’s Alurgite,
from the manganese mines of St. Marcel, in Piedmont; and it is likely enough
that the two species may be united.

A preliminary notice of a new lead-ore has been published, in Leonhard
and Geinitz’s ¥ahrbuch, by Dr. Laspeyres. It seems to be a hydrated sul-
phato-carbonate of lead, a compound entirely novel in the mineral kingdom.
The new species was brought from Sardinia by Herr Max Braun, the well-
known mining engineer at the Vieille Montagne Company’s zinc mines near
Aix-la-Chapelle. Unfortunately the name Braunite has been appropriated, as
every mineralogist knows, to an oxide of manganese; and the Sardinian lead-
ore is, therefore, to be called Mavxite.

Some confusion is likely to arise in the application of the name Roepperite,
aname which has been lately applied by Dr. Kenngott to denote a manga-
nesian dolomite, described by Roepper, from Stirling Hill, New Jersey;
whilst Prof. Brush has independently used the same name to designate a
chrysolite containing zinc, described also by Roepper from the same locality,
but distinguished by Kenngott as Stirlingite.

Another new species has been detected by Prof. Wiesbach, of Freiberg,
among the minerals recently raised at Schneeberg, in Saxony. The mineral
is an arsenate of uranium and copper, and has been christened Zeunerite. It
strikingly resembles copper-uranite in its grass-green colour and its crystalline
form, but of course differs in being an arsenate instead of a phosphate.

For upwards of thirty years corundum has been recognised at several of the
gold-washings in the mountainous countries of North Carolina and Georgia,
in the United States. But within the last two or three years, the search for

* See Quarterly Journal of Science, October, 1867, p. 542.
VOL. II. (N.S.) 3x

522 Progress in Science. (October,

an improved kind of emery has led to the discovery of many new localities of
corundum in this region. Some of these localities have been described by
Prof. C. U. Shepard. The corundum seems to be found across a stretch of
country at least 170 miles long and about to miles broad; but it is likely that
this zone will be yet much extended. Throughout this region gneiss is the
prevailing rock, but the corundum occurs directly in a chrysolitic rock, re-
sembling serpentine.

Some crystallographic studies of the beautiful specimens of Datulite, well
known from the Bergen Hill Tunnel, in New Jersey, have been described in
‘*Silliman’s Journal’’ by Mr. E.S. Dana. Upwards of 200 specimens have
been carefully examined ; four distinct types are recognised, and many new
forms are described.

Mr. T. D. Rand has described some pseudomorphs of serpentine in form of
staurolite, from the neighbourhood of the soapstone quarry, on the north-east
bank of the Schuylkill, between Philadelphia and Montgomery counties.
Six-rayed stellate forms of serpentine have been found, identical in shape
with crystals of staurolite. Mr. Rand also describes the species Hisingerite
from the Gap Mine, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania ; and an alkaline incrustation,
consisting chiefly of sulphate of soda, from some decomposed mica-schists
cut through on the new line of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore
Railroad.

An analvsis of the mica from the granite of the Adamello group, south of
the Ortler, in Tyrol, has been published by M. A. Baltzer. From this analysis
it appears to be an iron-magnesia mica allied to Soltmann’s lepidomelane and
to Scheerer’s mica, from the Norwegian zircon-syenite. The Adamello
granite was regarded by Zirkel as a diorite, and by Vom Rath as a distin&
species of rock, whilst according to Baltzer, it is merely a variety of granite.

The same authority has examined the Blegi volite from Glarnisch, in the
Canton Glarns. This is an oolitic iron-ore, evidently deposited from the old
Jura sea. Treated with water, it yields a solution containing many of the
constituents of sea-water. The saline matter must have been derived from
the sea-water included in the mass at the time of its deposition.

Dr. Carl Klein, of Heidelberg, has published in Leonard and Geinitz’s Neues
Fahrbuch, the results of his crystallographic studies on the epidote and
apatite of the Sulzbachthal in the Pinzgau.

Extensive deposits of Cryptomorphite are said to have been recently found
in Nevada. The mineral occurs in large nodules, and is described as having,
in many cases, the appearance of French chalk.

ENGINEERING—CIVIL AND MECHANICAL.

Guns and Armour.—On the 5th of last July an important experiment was
made with our present system of guns and armour for our ironclads by an
attack upon the turret of the armour-clad steamer Glatton by one of the
25-ton guns fired from the Hotspur. The result of this contest proved that
up to the present the art of defence is in advance of that of attack, inasmuch
as the vessel attacked came out of the contest free from any material injury.
In this respect the present experiment corresponds in its results very much
with those obtained by the trials which took place in 1866, when the armour
of the Royal Sovereign was attacked by the g-inch 12}-ton gun of the
Bellerophon, and with the results of the experiment made in 1861 against the
cupola gun shield of Captain Coles on board the Trusty. In each case
the heaviest available artillery was brought to bear against the shield, and in
each case the defence proved superior to the attacking force. So far, then, it
may be inferred that our present system of armour-plating is sufficient pro-
tection against the heaviest artillery that can be brought against it; to what
extent it would prove effective against the enormous masses of iron which
low pressure guns upon Mr. Bessemer’s process might hurl upon it is a question
which may perhaps be safely deferred until that system has been adopted.

1872.] Engineering. 523

Railways.—The most important question in connection with railways that
has been brought prominently forward during the past quarter is that of the
proposed construction of a line along the valley of the Euphrates river, as
a means of obtaining more expeditious access to our Indian possessions.
This subject has recently been under investigation before a Parliamentary
Select Committee, whose report has now been published. This document
contains very extensive information regarding all that has hitherto been done
with the view of testing the practicability of construing a Euphrates Valley
Railway, and regarding the various alternative lines that have been proposed
for connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Persian Gulf by means of an
iron road. The recommendations of the committee are in favour of adopting
Alexandretta as the terminus of the proposed line at its Mediterranean end,
and the port of Grane for the Persian Gulf terminus; with regard to the latter,
however, they think that a local inquiry conducted by competent scientific
authorities is needed before finally deciding. With regard to the route, that
by the Euphrates is preferred to the Tigris Valley, as being considerably the
shorter and the cheaper to make, although the latter route might attra&t the
larger amount of traffic, and would conneé itself better with the projected
Turkish system. In the absence of any actual surveys it has been impossible
to fix any sum as the probable cost of either route, but it is thought probable
that the sum of ten millions sterling would be ample to cover the expense of
the shorter of the two routes.

From Mr. J. Danvers’s annual report on Indian Railways, which has just
been published, we learn that there are now in existence in India nine
guaranteed railway lines, four of which have now been completed, viz., the
East Indian, the Great Indian Peninsula, the Scinde, Punjab, and Delhi, and
the Eastern Bengal. The total length of the open lines is 5136 miles, and
further lengths aggregating g4o miles are under construction. There are
also twelve state railways sanctioned, having a total combined length of
1573 miles. Of these latter four are completed, namely the Nulhattee branch
to the East Indian Railway, the Calcutta and South Eastern, the Khangaon,
and the Oomrawattee lines. The total length of state lines open is 684 miles,
and 1503 miles therefore remain to be completed at present. Most of the
guaranteed lines have a 5-feet 6-inch gauge, whilst the gauge adopted for the
state railways is 1 metre, or 3 feet 3? inches; exceptions have, however, been
made in the case of some of those lines. The total estimated cost of all
lines sanctioned or completed in India amounts to little less than r1o millions
sterling, of which about g2 millions have already been expended.

The St. Gothard Railway Company has just concluded a contract with a
Swiss contractor, M. L. Favre, of Geneva, for the construction of a tunnel
under the Alps between Goeschenon and Airolo. This will be a more gigantic
operation than the Mont Cenis tunnel, inasmuch as its length will be 14°8
kilometres, or rather more than g English miles. The estimated cost for
excavating this great tunnel is 50 millions of francs, or, say, 2 millions of
pounds sterling, and the probable time that it will take in execution is
estimated at about 8 years.

Tunnels, however, cannot in all cases be adopted by railways requiring to
pass mountainous obstrudtions, and lines laid on steep inclines must then be
constructed. The Cantagallo Railway, in Brazil, meets with such an obstacle
in the Organ mountains, which intervene between the important coffee-pro-
ducing district of Cantagallo, situated on a high level, and Caxoeira in the
plains, whence a railway already exists to Rio Janeiro. This railway, from
Caxoeira across the mountain passes to Nova Friburgo and Cantagallo, is being
constructed with the same gauge as the Mont Cenis Railway, namely 1'1 metres,
or 3 feet 7,5, inches, and that part of it which traverses the coast side of the
mountains will be laid with the central rail. In a length of 7? miles, this
mountain portion of the line rises about 3000 feet, the gradient varying from
I in 20 to 1 in 12, and being for the greater part of the length 1 in 13, while
the curves are of 40 metres, or about 140 feet radius. In descending from
the summit level on the Cantagallo side, the mid-rail is dispensed with, the
gradients over the 12 miles extending to Nova Friburgo being easy.

524 Progress in Science. (October,

The value of light railways, especially for thinly populated distriéts, has re-
cently formed the subje& of a paper, read by Mr. Henry S. Ellis before the
Exeter Chamber of Commerce. Light railways are of three kinds, namely—
(1.) Those which follow as nearly as possible the surface of the ground,
avoiding the hills and the necessities for expensive over or under bridges, and,
by travelling at low speeds, avoiding the necessity for expensive signal and
other apparatus usually required by the Board of Trade for through lines.
The gauge is usually the national one, viz., 4 feet 8} inches. (2.) The patent
narrow gauge railway, invented by Mr. Fell, which, by being constructed on
timber supports of different heights, to suit the undulations of the country,
avoids, to a great extent, severance of land and expensive cuttings and banks.
The gauge of such lines varies from 8 inches to 2 feet. A railway of this
description, about a mile inlength, has been recently constructed at Aldershot,
in 45 days, for the purpose of conveying stores to the Victualling Office. The
gauge of this line is only 18 inches, but it is capable of conveying siege guns
7 tons in weight. The cost is about £2000 per mile. (3.) The wire tramway,
which, like the Fell system, is mounted on iron or timber supports, to suit the
undulations of the country; but it is only adapted for the conveyance of loads
not exceeding ro cwts., and is generally employed for short distances only—
250 yards to 3 or 4 miles. One has been constructed as long as 15 miles.

Mr. Ellis then gave some very interesting statements regarding a light
railway recently constructed by the Duke of Buckingham, from which the fol-
lowing particulars have been taken:—The cost of the Wotton Railway,
including sidings and two goods’ sheds (one 25 feet by 25 feet, and one 60 feet
by 25 feet), is rather less than £1400 per mile, exclusive of the value of the
land. The main line is very nearly 7 miles long. The gradients from
Quainton to Wotton are favourable,—two short inclines of about I in
78, in opposite directions, being the worst,—and the general inclination
being downwards to Wotton, which is 50 feet below Quainton. The gra-
dients from Wotton to Brill are heavy, the ascent being—with one exception,
not quite a quarter of a mile—continuous for 23 miles, varying from
I in 100 to r in 51. The latter is a quarter of a mile; but an incline of
I in 64, on a curve of 12 chains radius, for a quarter of a mile, is quite equal
to the steep gradient. The total ascent is about 130 feet in this portion of
22 miles. The line was q@mmenced on the 8th of September, 1870. The first
portion to Wotton was in use on the 1st of April, 1871, and the greater
portion of the remainder was brought into use for minerals, agricultural
produce, &c., in November: the last quarter of a mile and Brill Station were
brought into use last April, and another branch of 14 miles in length was in
course of construction last May.

Continuous Brakes.—With the extensive development of railway traffic,
and the extension of train services on existing lines, the necessity for some
more powerful control over the train, when going at high speeds, makes itself
more and more felt, especially on heavily worked lines. We have, on more
than one occasion, recently noticed the different designs which have from
time to time been put forward, with the view of providing an efficient conti-
nuous brake throughout the entire train, so that it might be placed under
more effective control, by enabling it to be suddenly brought to a stand-still,
and so avoid collision or other accidents which are now too often experienced.
The best brake of this kind that has hitherto been introduced is that known
as the Westinghouse Air-brake, which, although only just introduced into
this country, is already in use on some 20,000 miles of railway in America,
where it has been applied to 1200 locomotives and 4000 cars. It has already
been applied in this country to trains on the London and North-Western, the
Caledonian, and the Charing Cross Railways. Mr. Westinghouse’s invention
consists of three distinct parts :—First, the arrangements for compressing the
air; secondly, the appliances by which the air so compressed is conducted
along the train, and made available for applying the brakes; and thirdly, the
construction of the signalling apparatus. The latter, however, can only be
considered as an adjuné to the brake, as it is perfectly complete without it.
The first part of the apparatus consists of an air-compressing pump, fixed to

1872.] Enginecring. 525

the side of the fire-box of the locomotive, having a steam-cylinder and an air-
cylinder, by means of which the air is compressed into a reservoir, placed
beneath the foot-plate, and having a capacity of about 12 cubic feet. From
this reservoir the air is led by a pipe to a three-way cock, placed so as to be
conveniently under command by the engine-driver, the two other branches of
the cock communicating the one with the atmosphere, and the other with a
pipe leading to a duplicate line of pipes running under the carriages the whole
length of the train, by which the compressed air is led to the brake ma-
chinery. These latter pipes are connected together between the vehicles by
means of lengths of india-rubber tubing. Under the tender, and under each
carriage to which the brake is applied, is placed an air-cylinder with a piston
working inside, the piston-rod from which communicated with a thrust-rod,
and through it the pressure of the air upon the piston is applied to the brake
gear. By the adoption of a special mode of conneétion the brakes are left
free for application by the ordinary hand apparatus, if necessary. The appli-
cation of the brakes is effzcted simply by turning the three-way cock above
referred to, so as to admit compressed air from the reservoir into the lines of
pipes extending through the train. The air thus admitted into the pipes
passes into the cylinders, forces out the pistons, and thus, through the inter-
vention of the thrust-rods and brake gear, exerts the requisite pressure on the
brake-blocks. During a recent experimental trip on the South-Eastern Rail-
way—the train consisting of an engine, tender, and six carriages—the brake
was first put on at.a time when the speed was 30 miles an hour, and the train
was stopped in 18 seconds, and in a distance of 149 yards, up a gradient of
Iin 142. The second stop was made on a rising gradient of 1 in 120, the
speed being the same as before. In this case the time taken in arresting
movement was 16 seconds, and the distance 107 yards. The speed of the
train was 55 miles an hour when the third stop was made, on a falling gradient
of r in 120, the time required from the moment of applying the brake to
stopping the train being 32 seconds. On the fourth and last occasion the
speed of the engine had been increased to about 60 miles an hour at the
moment of putting on the brakes, and the train was brought up in a distance
of 400 yards, the road in this case being tolerably level.

Portland Breakwatey.—The completion of this magnificent work was in-
augurated by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, on Saturday, the
roth day of August last. So far back as 1794 the first conception appears to
have been entertained of the advantages that would be derived from the con-
struction of a breakwater at Portland, but it was not until fifty years after-
wards that any active steps were taken towards the accomplishment of that
object. In 1847 an Act was passed authorising the construction of the break-
water, and the preliminary works were commenced in the same year. The
work of constructing the breakwater was practically commenced in 1849, from
designs by the late Mr. Rendel, Mr.—now Sir John—Coode being the resident
engineer. On the 25th of July, in the same year, the Prince Consort laid the
foundation-stone, and ten years later the works were so far advanced as to
afford a safe anchorage during a storm. The Portland breakwater works
commence with a pier, which starts from the island of Portland near the point
where it is connected with the mainland by the Chesil Bank. This pier runs
due east for a length of about 1900 feet, at which point there occurs an
opening 400 feet wide, and having a minimum depth of 45 feet, to admit of
the entrance of ships of war of the largest class from the southward. On the
other side of this opening the breakwater proper commences, and is carried
out to sea for a distance of 6000 feet, from its starting-point.

The pier, or inner breakwater, consists of a rubble mound, composed of
stones of all sizes. After the mound had been consolidated, a trench was
excavated within it to the level of low water at spring tides, and a wall of
masonry was erected therein. The face-courses of this wall, up to 6 feet
above high-water level, are hewn granite. The sea-wall is strengthened by
counterforts, 20 feet apart, and conneéted by arches, so that a platform is ob-
tained 15 feet in width, exclusive of the footway and the parapet. The
breakwater proper is simply a rubble bank, the material of which it is

526 Progress in Science. [October,

formed being for the most part the ‘‘ cap-stone,’’ which covers the valuable
Portland stone, but which of itself is valueless, except for this purpose.

The total length of the whole work is about 13 miles, the width of the
structure at the base being 300 feet, at low-water level from go to roo feet,
and at the top 60 feet. The average height from the bottom is 70 feet. The
sheltered area afforded by these works is about 2100 acres in extent up to
low-water line. Connected with the works are two forts, an inner and an
outer one, placed one at the end of the pier and the other at the end of the
breakwater proper. The inner fort is 100 feet in diameter, mounts 8 guns,
and stands in g} fathoms of water. The outer fort, on the North Head, has a
rubble base, 45 feet high, and containing 140,000 tons of stone. The diameter
of the fort is 200 feet, and it stands in 10 fathoms of water.

Vienna Exhibition.—On the 1st of May, in next year, an Universal Exhibi-
tion is to be held at Vienna, which, from the dimensions proposed to be given
to the building, bids fair entirely to eclipse all former Exhibition buildings, the
space devoted for it being no less than 2,783,809 square yards. These propor-
tions will be better appreciated by a comparison with the areas covered by
former Exhibitions, which were as follows :—

London (Hyde Park), 1851 .. .. =~. 94,000 square yards.
Parish (Champs Ely Sees) i:555 1-eaectomnne e232) es a
London (Brompton), 1862 Bo 0D (ou ae ee
Paris (Champ de Mars), 1867... .. .. 527,645 ,, e

The design for the Vienna Exhibition building is due, we understand, to
Mr. Scott Russell. The central part of the building consists of an imposing
iron rotunda, or dome, with an outside diameter of 353°68 feet, and a height
of 275°5 feet. A conical iron roof, rising to a height of 158-0g feet, is sup-
ported by 31 iron columns, each 79’99 feet in height. This conical roof carries
an iron lantern, having an outside diameter of 10627 feet, and a height of
32°8 feet up to the roof, which latter rises 24°27 feet. Upon this is placed
another structure, 26°2 feet in diameter and 60°6 feet high. The whole space
covered by the rotunda has an outside circumference of 1111°20 feet, whilst
the inside circumference is 1038°28 feet, having an available space of 9722°28
square yards. The rotunda communicates with the main gallery, or nave,
which has a width of 82 feet and a total length of 2968-4 feet: this nave is
crossed, at equal distances, by 16 cross naves, 49°2 feet wide and 672-4 feet
long, creating thus, at both sides of the main gallery, 24 courts, which are
enclosed at three sides, and which have the same length as the cross nave and
a width of 114°8 feet.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES.

Mechanical Engineers.—The Institution of Mechanical Engineers held their
Annual Meeting at Liverpool, under their President, Mr. C. W. Siemens, on
the 30th of July last and following days. In his Address the President re-
ferred principally to the question of economy of fuel, which, in the presence
of ever-increasing demand and of failing supply, is rapidly rising into a
question of national importance; and he remarked that it would not be diffi-
cult to prove that—in almost all the uses of fuel, whether to the production of
force, to the smelting and re-heating of iron, steel, copper, and other metals,
or to domestic purposes—fully one-half of the present enormous.consumption
might be saved by the general adoption of improved appliances which are
within the range of our actual knowledge.

The papers read at this meeting were as follows, but space will not admit
of any more full reference regarding them :—

1. “On the Progress effetted in Economy of Fuel in Steam Navigation,
considered in Relation to Compound Cylinder Engines and High-
Pressure Steam,” by Mr. F. J. Bramwell.

2. “*On the Application of Water Pressure to Shop Tools and other En-
gineering Works,” by Mr. Ralph Hart Tweddell.

3. ** Description of Coal-Cutting Machinery with Rotary Cutter, worked by
Compressed Air,” by Mr. Robert Winstanley.

1872.] Light. 527

4. “On Buckholz’s System of Decorticating Grain, and making Semolina
and Flour by means of Fluted Metal Rollers,” by Mr. W. Proctor
Baker.

Tron and Steel Institute——The fourth Provincial Meeting of the Iron and
Steel Ins:itute was held this year in Glasgow, at the beginning of August
last, under the presidency of Mr. Henry Bessemer. In his Address the
President dwelt upon the various centres of iron manufacture which the
Institute had successively visited, and the special branches of the manufacture
for which each had become famous. The following papers were then read
and discussed :—

tr. On the Geological Survey, and the Geological Position of the Coal
and Ironstone Strata on the West of Scotland,” by Mr. James
Geikie, F.R.S.E.

2. “*On the Rise and Progress of the Iron Manufa@ture in Scotland,” by
Mr. John Mayer.

3 and 4. ‘‘On Reversing Arrangements for Rolling-Mills,” by Mr. Graham
Stevenson and Mr. R. D. Napier.

5. ‘*A new Miners’ Safety-Lamp, for Indicating by Sound the Presence of
Explosive Mixtures of Gas and Air, based on a new form of Singing
Flame.” by Dr. A. K. Irvine.

6. ‘*On the Rise and Progress of Iron Steam Ship-Building on the Clyde,”
by Mr. D. Rowan.

7. ‘*On Lauth’s System of Rolling Iron by Three-High Rolls,” by Mr.
Lauth, of Pittsburg, United States.

8. “On Further Improvements in Spencer’s Rotary Puddling Furnace,” by
Mr. Adam Spencer.

LIGHT.

An alcoholic solution of fuchsine introduced into a hollow prism produces a
highly anomalous spectrum, which, instead of proceeding regularly from the
red to the violet, like the ordinary solar spectrum, stops at a certain point,
returns backward, then stops again, and resumes a direct course to the end.

Drs. Zéllner and Vogel have succeeded in measuring the velocity of the
sun’s rotation by means of the spectroscope. The value obtained for the
motion of a point on the sun’s equator is 0°42 German mile per second from
one series of observations, and 035 mile from asecond. This new applica-
tion of the spectroscope visibly recording the sun’s rotation will develope great
interest, and we are sorry that the method of observation cannot be given
shortly.

Prof. Young has observed some peculiar phenomena relating to vision whilst
pursuing a series of experiments. He writes as follows :—‘ In the course of
some experiments with a new double-plate Holtz machine, belonging to the
college, I have come upon a very curious phenomenon, which I do not re-
member ever to have seen noticed. The machine gives easily intense Leyden-
jar sparks, from 7 inches to g inches in length, and of dazzling brilliance.
When, in a darkened room, the eye 1s screened from the direct light of the
spark, the illumination produced is sufficient to render everything in the
apartment perfectly visible ; and what is remarkable, every conspicuous objec
is seen twice at least, with an interval of a trifle less than one quarter of a
second—the first time vividly, the second time faintly ; often it is seen a third,
and sometimes, but only with great difficulty, a fourth time. ‘lhe appearance
is precisely as if the object had been suddenly illuminated by a light, at first
bright, but rapidly fading to extinction, and as if, while the illumination lasted,
the observer were winking as fast as possible. I see it best by setting up, in
front of the machine, at a distance of 8 or Io feet, a white screen having upon
it a black cross, with arms about 3 feet long and 1 foot wide, made of strips
of cambric. That the phenomenon is really subjective, and not due to a suc-
cession of sparks, is easily shown by swinging the screen from side to side.
The black cross, at all the periods of visibility, occupies the same place, and
is apparently stationary. The same is true of a stroboscopic disc in rapid

528 Progress in Science. ‘October,

revolution; it is seen several times by each spark, but each time in the same
position. There is no apparent multiplication of a moving object of any sort.
The interval between the successive instants of visibility was measured
roughly as follows :—A twning-fork, making g2} vibrations per second, was
adjusted so as to record its motion upon the smoked surface of a revolving
cylinder, and an electro-magnet was so arranged as to record any motion of
its armature upon the trace of the fork; a key connected with this magnet was
in the hands of the observer. An assistant turned the machine slowly, so as
to produce a spark once in two or three seconds, while the observer manipu-
lated the key. In my own case, the mean of a dozen experiments gave 0°22"
as the interval between the first and second seeing of the cross upon the screen,
separate results varying from 0°17" to 0°39". Another observer found 0 24" as
the result of a similar series. Whatever the true explanation may turn out
to be, the phenomenon at least suggests the idea of a reflection of the nervous
impulse at the nerve extremities, as if the intense impression upon the retina,
after being the first time propagated to the brain, was there reflected, returned
to the retina, and from the retina—travelling again to the brain—renewed the
sensation. I have ventured to call the phenomenon ‘recurrent vision.’ ”’

Investigations to test the influence of pressure on the spectra of gases have
been carried on by M. Cailletet. He fixed two platinum wires in the end of a
thick glass tube, into which the gases were passed. ‘The spark from an in-
duction coil connected with three Bunsen elements passed between the wires.
At ordinary pressure the bright lines of the spectra of the gases appeared on
a slightly illuminated ground, and as pressure was increased they grew
brighter; but they by-and-bye became merged ina continuous spectrum, whose
brightness also increased with the pressure. At a certain pressure (between
forty and fifty atmospheres) the discharge suddenly ceased; and though the
battery power was increased, and the distance between the platinum wires
reduced to one-half millimetre, it was not possible to obtain the spark beyond
this point. It is thus seen that a spark which passes easily in the rarefied
gas of Geissler tubes. or the electric egg, meets with considerable resistance
in compressed gas. The brightness of the spark at the point beyond which
the discharge is unobtainable is 200 times greater than at ordinary pressure.

Dr. Burt’s investigations upon the subje& of the influence of variously
coloured light upon vegetation shows that green light is almost as fatal to
vegetation as darkness; that red light is very detrimental to plants, although
in a less degree than green light; that although yellow light is far less detri-
mental than the preceding, it is more injurious than blue light; and that all
the colours taken singly are injurious to plants, and that their union in the
proportion to form white light is necessary for healthy growth.

M. P. Thomas, acting under instructions from the Paris Society of Civil
Engineers, has reported upon the process of the oxygen light of Tessie du
Motay. The report siniply treats of technical advantages and disadvantages,
leaving out of sight the economical question, which is somewhat to be
regretted, in view of the indistin@ statement of the causes which have led to
its removal from some of the streets of Paris where it had been introduced.
The conclusions arrived at are the following :—1. Theoretically, the combus-
tion of oxygen does not increase the illuminating power of a given volume of
SENS He Practically, however, it enables a burner to consume four times the
quantity of gas that can be burned in air, without detriment to the utilisation
of the light which may be developed. In particular, it utilises the entire
luminous capacity of the gases, however rich, and in almost any quantity.
Consequently it would be disadvantageous to employ it for ordinary street-
lighting, on account of the limited quantity of gas consumed by the burners,
the only advantage gained being the beauty of the light, provided the gas is
very rich. Here, unquestionably, would arise the objection of expense, from
the complication of the apparatus. But it is very advantageous, and the more
so in dire@ proportion to the richness of the gases employed, for great centres
of light (sun-burners, &c.), where a large volume of gas is to be consumed
without loss.

1872.] Light. 529

Prof. Morton writes to say that, from information received from Dr. Schel-
len, it would appear that M. Duboseq had previously been the maker of an
apparatus for projecting horizontal objects, which involved all the essential
features of the vertical lantern described by Prof. Morton in an earlier number
of this Journal (p. 396, July, 1872), the apparatus constructed by M. Duboscq
being, however, entirely unknown to Prof. Morton.

Microscopy.—A new instrument for making microscopical drawings is
described by Mr. Isaac Roberts, F.G.S., in the ‘‘ Monthly Microscopical
Journal,’’ vol. viii., p. 2. It consists of an adaptation of the pantograph used
in copying drawings. The smaller ends of the levers carry a thin glass disc,
with two cross lines ruled upon it: this is inserted in the eye-piece through a
slit in its side, and acts as a pointer; the pencil is attached to the opposite
extremity of the levers. When in use, the paper is supported on a desk level
with the slit of the eye-piece. The pencil is guided with the right hand, the
centre of the cross lines being moved over the objeé& to be delineated while
looking through the microscope. This contrivance, although very ingenious,
has most probably the defects of the ordinary pantograph, which can only be
used with advantage for the reduction of drawings, its powers of execution
being defective when used to enlarge, or even to copy, on the same scale.

Mr. Walter White, in ‘‘ Science Gossip” for August, describes an ingenious
machine for cutting vegetable sections. The great novelty is the use of a
wedge for raising the substance to be cut, instead of the usual screw with
micrometer head. The author claims for his invention the advantages of
cheap construction and efficiency. As a cutting instrument, Mr. White re-
commends a good ordinary razor, fixed in a bradawl handle and carefully
sharpened. For cutting transverse sections, the stems—previously prepared
by soaking-~are fixed in a cork just fitting the tube of the section-instrument ;
herbaceous stems are best packed in strips of the same stem. Leaves should
be placed between the two halves of a cork, cut lengthwise. Seeds, and other
small objects, are best cut when bedded in a mixture of wax and spermaceti,
formed into a plug by casting in the tube of the section-instrument. Wood
for cutting longitudinal sections can be fixed in the same manner. The razor,
while cutting, should be kept constantly wetted with methylated spirit, in which
stems for cutting are most conveniently preserved until wanted for sections.

Dr. R. H. Ward, in a paper read before the Medical Society of New York,
gives a valuable analytical catalogue of the objectives and medical and stu-
dents’ microscopes procurable in England, on the Continent, and in America.
The table of objectives comprises those of twenty-seven makers, giving the
nominal focal length, angular aperture, and price, with numerous explanatory
remarks. This is followed by a synopsis of students’ microscopes, in which
the advantages and disadvantages of the several patterns of stand, the mate-
rial used in construction, and the various appendages of the instrument, are
all clearly stated. A list of accessory apparatus is given, distinguishing
between that absolutely needed and that which may for some special purpose
be desirable. The paper concludes with a list of nineteen students’ micro-
scopes of American construction, giving name of maker, model of stand,
height in inches, weight, diameter of tube, material, adjustments furnished,
details of stage, mirror, oculars, objectives, range of magnifying power, acces-
sory apparatus, and price in dollars. It would have been well had this care-
fully classified table included the instruments of English and Continental
opticians, as inthe author’s list of objectives. The paper is, however, valuable
as giving in a convenient form the substance of the catalogues of a large
number of microscope makers. The paper is reprinted in the ‘‘ Monthly
Microscopical Journal’? for August.

M. Mouchet, in advocating the use of coloured glasses in Microscopy, for
the purpose of saving the eye-sight, reviews carefully the various positions in
which they may be placed: these are four in number,—before the mirror,
under the objea&, between the objective and eye-piece, and, lastly, above the
eye-piece itself. The position before the mirror necessitates the employment
of glasses of acertain size, but gives good results, and, when the coloured

VOL. I. (N.S.) Say

530 Progress in Science. (October,

glass is placed in contact with the flat side of a plano-convex condenser,
causes perhaps the minimum loss of light. The tinted glass placed under the
object increases the thickness of the mounting, and prevents very oblique light
passing through, and also interferes with the use of illuminators, such as the
achromatic condenser, &c.; glasses within the body cause trouble and loss of
time in fixing and removing them. The most convenient position seems to be
above the eye-piece. For this purpose M. Mouchet has constructed a revolving
diaphragm pierced with nine openings, each 1 centimetre in diameter. Seven
of the openings are fitted with coloured glasses corresponding to the tin‘s of
the solar spectrum; another with a silvered glass, according to Foucault’s
process; and the ninth with a very finely roughed glass, which may be removed
at will, and thus leave one opening free. This revolving diaphragm is attached
to a ring placed on the tube which receives the eye-piece. Although M.
Mouchet considers the apparatus useful in observations by direct sunlight, it
seems to have been forgotten that in the employment of condensed sunlight
the object needs protection from heat as much as the eye of the observer, and
this is effectually done by the cell of ammoniacal sulphate of copper used by
Dr. Woodward in modifying the illumination of objects to be photographed by
sunlight.

HEAT.

M. Toselli has recently invented a cooling machine, which he terms a
dynamic refrigerator. It consists of a revolving disc, formed of a metallic
tube bent into a complete spiral, having one end open, and with the other end
communicating by a hollow shaft or axis of rotation with an external tube,
this communicating with a worm contained in a separate vessel. This worm
terminates in a discharge-pipe, having outlet into another vessel containing
the revolving disc. The disc is half immersed in cold water, and as the surface
of the disc above the water is continually wet, there is exposed considerable
evaporating surface. At the same time a stream of water is forced through
the hollow spiral, parting with some of its heat under the influence of the
evaporation and by radiation, assisted by a current of air from a fan worked
by the same motive power. The stream of water lowered in temperature
passing through the worm refrigerates the liquid contained in the worm-tub.
The decrease in temperature is, to a certain extent, dependent upon the hy-
grometric condition of the atmosphere. The least effect is a diminution of
4° or 5°F., while the maximum effect in strong sunlight amounts to 32° to 33° F.
The invention, if found practicable, will be of great service to the brewer, and
to manufacturers, where large quantities of fluid have to be cooled quickly.

Experiments on the joint effect of pressure and heat upon paraffin have
been made by T. E. Thorpe and J. Young on the larger scale. 3} kilos. of
paraffin (fusing at 46°, sp. gr. at 13° = 0°g06) yielded about 4 litres of fluid hy-
drocarbons, of which o°3 litre boiled below 100°, 1’o litre at from 100° to 200°,
and 2:7 litres at from 200° to 300°; there remained a solid residue in the retort,
which, on being treated with ether, was found to have as constant melting-
point 41°5, and‘to consist, in roo parts, of—C, 8519; H, 15°34. By the action
of bromine, this body was found to belong to the CyH2n+2 series. The
authors next describe the results of the fractional distillation of these fluid
hydrocarbons. After treating the liquids thus obtained with bromine, these
substances were found to be—Pentan, boiling-point 35°to37°; hexan, 67° to 68°,
sp. gr. at 18°=0°6631; heptan, 97° to 99°, sp. gr. at 18°5°=0°6913; octan, 122°
to 125°, sp. gr. at 15°6°=0°7165 ; nonan, 147° to 148°, sp. gr. at 13°5°=0°7279.
These hydrocarbons are stated to belong to the series—

CH,— - —CH3....(nCH2)— - —CHz3.

To demonstrate the action of water and heat, or of heat only, upon sugar,
200 grms. of sugar and 1000 grms. of water have been kept for some
twenty-eight hours at the temperature of boiling water; the optical rotatory
power of the sugar has then quite disappeared. Sugar and water have
been enclosed in sealed tubes and kept for about thirty days at the tem-
perature of boiling water, with the result that the sugar had become entirely
converted into an uncrystallisable compound, probably identical with that

1872.] Electricity. 531

which Berzelius and Gelis have obtained by rapidly heating sugar to 160°. By
heating sugar for eight days consecutively in sealed tubes in steam of 5 atmo-
spheres pressure (75 lbs. to the square inch, and 153° C.), the sugar is con-
verted chiefly into carameline, CyzH,O,. M. Maumené states that sugar,
while being refined or extracted on the large scale, should never be submitted
to a higher temperature than 75°, because below that degree of heat sugar is
not perceptibly altered.

It is generally admitted that water freezes at 0°, and can only be cooled
down below its freezing-point by being kept perfe@tly tranquil. This holds
good for a cold of —10° or —12°, but is, according to C. Tellier, not true for
temperatures of —3° or —4°; because water may be cooled down to these
degrees of temperature, and will not freeze, even when the vessel containing
it is very violently shaken or stirred. Only a sudden and very violent shock
to the vessel will cause the water to become frozen, the temperature rising
to o°; but if, in water cooled down to —3° or —4°, the slightest particle of ice
or snow is put, congelation briskly sets in and crystallisation ensues, just as
in a supersaturated solution of sulphate of soda. Praétically this observation is
important, as it proves the necessity of water containing ice if it is desired to
coolit down to o° precisely.

Asbestos resists the joint action of friction, humidity, and high temperature,
and has therefore been proposed by M. Day as an excellent and durable sub-
stitute for hemp or flax in the stuffing-boxes of steam-engines.

The inconveniences attending the application of chloride of zinc and so-
called water-glass solution for protection of wood from fire are well known ;
according to F. Sieburger, it is preferable to first coat or wash the wood twice
with a hot and saturated solution of 3 parts of alum and 1 part of sulphate of
iron, and next with a more dilute solution of sulphate of iron, to which sufficient
pipe-clay has been added to render it as thick as ordinary oil paint. Another
excellent method is to repeatedly paint the wood with a hot solution of glue,
until a thin coat of glue remains on the surface; then the wood is painted
with a thicker solution of glue; a mixture of 1 part of sulphur, 1 part of ochre
or pipe-clay, and 6 parts of sulphate of iron, is applied with a dredger, the
ingredients having been first separately pulverised and thoroughly mixed.

M. Ch. Méne states that some officers of the Austrian navy have made ex-
periments for causing the smoke arising from the fuel consumed in steam-
ships to be discharged under water by the aid of a blowing machine; at the
same time a more active and regular combustion is obtained, and the chances
of fire on board greatly lessened, while the funnel or iron chimney, one of the
most vulnerable parts above deck, is rendered unnecessary. There is reason
to believe that the experiments were in every respect successful.

In order to test whether any bearings or parts of machinery become heated
by friction, Dr. Mayer proposes to cover the parts with a thin layer of iodide
of mercury, as this red-coloured salt becomes black when exposed to a tem-
perature of about 70°.

We are indebted to M. Collet for an account of the spontaneous combustion
of a wooden beam ina building at Ribemont (Aisne). The oak beam was
found to be on fire during one of the hot days in the summer; it was direly
exposed in an open yard to the concentrated heat of the sun’s rays; the com-
bustion, although proceeding slowly, was quite distin@, but was not attended
with flame; the smoke, however, had a peculiar appearance, and on blowing
the wood it burst into flame. The author asserts that the fire was entirely
due to the heat of the sun.

ELECTRICITY.

Captain Hans Busk has designed an eledtric bell aneroid, which indicates,
by ringing one or other of a series of ten different bells, any change in the
atmospheric pressure, amounting to 1-r1oth of an inch on the barometric scale.
The mechanism is put in ation by a constant battery of twelve Leclanché
cells. The bells are arranged in the back of the aneroid case, which is con-
structed similarly to that of a bracket clock, and to each bell is attached an

532 Progress in Science. [October,

electro-magnet, with vibrating armature and conducting wires. The dial of the
aneroid is formed of a disc of ebonite, 3-16ths of an inch in thickness. In this
disc are insulated the steel index of the instrument and sixteen platinum points,
forming terminals to the wires from the electro-magnets. To the index-hand
is fastened one end of a thin strip of platinum foil. As the hand passes from
1-1oth of a degree to another, it brings the platinum foil in contact with one
of the platinum points; and, as the hand is one terminal of the battery, the
bell corresponding to the platinum point brought into contact is rung, and
continues ringing until the hand passes into contact with another point, or
until the circuit is broken by a disconnecting switch. In the instrument con-
structed for Captain Busk by Mr. Browning there are sixteen points, but only
ten bells have been found necessary. The object of the inventor was to devise a
simple and efficient apparatus which should indicate unerringly, on board
ship, or to a person in charge of a lifeboat station, any important approaching
alteration in the state of the atmosphere; and it is interesting to note the
rapidity with which these changes occasionally suceeed each other.

Prof. Edwin J. Houston contributes the following to the ‘ Journal of the
Franklin Institute :’—‘* Having occasion recently to set up a large battery for
experimental illustration of the properties of the voltaic arch, I noticed a fact
which I believe has hitherto escaped observation. The battery consisted of
about eighty half-gallon cells; fifty-five were Browning’s modification of the
nitric acid battery of Grove. The negative element consists of sawed strips
of very dense coke, the positive element of zinc, so arranged as to use both
surfaces of the coke. The remaining cells were of the iron battery. When
first set up, the arch between the carbon points measured fully 2 inches, while
the flame frequently reached an equal distance above the upper carbon. The
quantity of the current was very good—much better, in fact, than the size of
the plates would have led me to expect. The phenomenon to which I would
call attention is as follows :—‘* Wishing to show the well-known experiment
of the rotation of the light bya magnet, I approached a compound bar magnet
to the light, holding it with one end pointing diredtly to the arch, in a hori-
zontal plane, equidistant between the carbon electrodes. When the nearest
end of the magnet was 4 inches from the electrodes, the light was instantly
extinguished. The regulator of the light which was employed is a form
recently patented by Browning, of London. ‘The carbon points are kept at a
constant distance from each other by the action of a small magnet, worked by
the battery current. Though inapplicable to small batteries, with the current
I employed it gave a light admirable for its steadiness. Thinking that the
extinguishing of the light was produced by some cause other than the approach
of the magnet, the experiment was repeatedly tried in a number of ways,
until it was clearly shown that the cause could not be attributed to accident,
but to the approach of the magnet. Though I have failed to find any pub-
lished notice of this phenomenon, it seems probable that it may already have
been observed, as the conditions of the experiment would be almost exa@ly
reproduced whenever the rotation of the light of the voltaic arch by the mag-
net was tried. Still it may be conceived that, though the necessary conditions
for success in this experiment have often been nearly produced, they have sel-
dom, if ever, been exactly produced; for it was noticed that in no case was
the light extinguished unless the length of the arch was nearly as great as the
tension of the electrode admitted ; that is, unless the electrodes were separated
by nearly their maximum distance, consistent with the passage of the current.
Were this condition not observed, in all cases, the approach of the magnet
produced no other effe& than the rotation of the light, until it assumed a posi-
tion in a vertical plane go° from a similar plane passing through the magnetic
axis of the bar. Then, again, another necessary condition is that both the
tension and the quantity of the current be of a strength greater than that of
the current on which the experiment of rotation is generally tried. I have
experimented with flames when these latter conditions were absent, and, al-
though the rotation was observed, the extinguishing of the light was in no
instance produced. The compound bar magnet employed is formed of three
bars, held together by brass screws. It is 1 foot long, 1 inch broad, and 3 inch

1872.] Electricity. 533

thick, and is not at all remarkable for the strength of its magnetism. As to
the cause of the phenomenon, I think it may be attributed to the tendency of
the flame to rotate on the approach of the magnet. This might cause the
extinguishing of the light in two ways :—either by the irregularities on the
surface of the carbon electrodes offering greater resistance to the passage of
the current from some points than from others, or by the current being unable
to pass through the greater distance of the arched path, which is always
assumed by the light on the approach of a magnet. Another assumption,
which, though perhaps not so simple as those already mentioned, at least as
probable, is that on the approach of the magnet there is a slight increase in
the non-conducting power of the medium between the electrodes, produced by
their polarisation, and which, though always acting, can only manifest itself
in a striking manner when the distance between the electrodes is near a maxi-
mum and the tension of the current is exerted to the utmost in passing through
the non-conducting medium. This assumption of the polarisation of the
medium between the electrodes and its consequently diminished power of
conducting the current seems to be somewhat sustained by the fact thata
powerful electro-magnet, in the form of a horse-shoe, when approached, did not
extinguish the light, although it produced rotation of the current ; for we may
conceive that the two poles acting simultaneously on the medium would neu-
tralise each other’s effects. I noticed, on several occasions, that the south
pole of the magnet would not extinguish the light until it was approached
I inch nearer than the north pole, namely, to within 3 inches of the electrodes.
This, however, may have been accidental.” .

Sir William Thomson desires to make known the following case, among
many constantly occurring under his notice, of the employment of inferior
copper wire in the construction of electrical apparatus. He received lately,
from a Glasgow bell-hanger, a large quantity of cotton-covered copper wire,
which was being largely used for the coils of electric bells; and upon having
it tested very accurately, by means of his new multiple arc conduétivity-box,
its resistance per metrogramme was found to be no less than 0439 of a B. A.
unit, that of ordinary good copper wire for such purposes being about 0°16 of
a B.A. unit.

M. J. Morin has arranged a new sulphate of copper voltaic element, with
the view of the application of continuous currents to therapeutic purposes.
It has for its object the complete avoidance of the inconvenience which re-
sults, in the ordinary sulphate of copper element, from the deposit of zinc
either on tlte copper or the porous cell. It consists of a cylinder of copper,
the interior of which is concentric with the cylinder of zinc; the annular
space comprised between these two metallic surfaces is divided into two equal
parts by acylinder of filter-paper. Ordinary sandstone is put between the
interior surface of the copper and the paper diaphragm, and sublimated sul-
phur on the side of the zinc ; the whole is plunged into a solution of sulphate
of copper, which penetrates through the mass, by means of the numerous
minute orifices, freely to the copper. Some hundred elements prepared in
this manner, and frequently in use, have been set up for more than twenty
months, and the alteration which they have undergone shows that this is but
half the time for which they may be worked: they have been perfe@ly closed
during this time, and have neither been subjected to repair nor inspection.

Professor Forster, in a recent number of “ Poggendorff’s Annalen,” gives an
account of a curious effect observed in a gold-leaf ele@roscope. He was one
day showing to an audience that if the leaves were ina state of divergence
through negative electricity, the divergence would be increased on approach
of a negatively electrified body, and that it would be diminished in the oppo-
site case. To prove this, he had a magnified image of the leaves projeéted on
the screen. He rubbed a rod of caoutchouc with cat-skin, and touched with
it the ball of the ele@roscope. On removing the rod the leaves showed about
70° divergence. He again rubbed the rod, and brought from above towards
the electroscope, the axis of the former being at right angles to the vertical
axis of the latter. Expecting the divergence to increase, he was surprised to

534 Progress in Science. [October,

find that it diminished, and on further approach became zero, while it increased
on slightly removing the rod. If the rod was withdrawn very slowly the di-
vergence remained zero, but rose again to the former amount as the rod was
further withdrawn. Frequent repetition of the experiment gave similar
results, only, he remarks, the electrical source must be a pretty powerful one.
After various futile attempts to explain the matter, there arose the doubt
whether the divergence which appears after making a rubbed caoutchouc rod
touch the ball of the electroscope was really due to negative electricity (—E).
He became convinced that while the rod is, of course, negatively electrified,
yet the leaves diverge with positive electricity (+E). He thus describes
his experiments :—‘‘ Let a caoutchouc rod be rubbed with cat-skin and
brought near the knob of a Fechner ele&troscope” (in which, it may be
explained, there is only one leaf suspended between the opposite poles of a
pile). ‘The leaf then moves to the + pole. The rod is therefore — eledtri-
fied. Nowrub the rod again, and touch with it the knob of the gold-leaf
electroscope’”’ (with two leaves). ‘‘Then remove the rod. Next, let the knob
of this charged electroscope be brought near the knob of a Fechner electro-
scope (uncharged). The leaf of the latter moves to the — pole; the leaves
of the former, therefore, diverged with +E; and thus the electroscope became
+ electrified through contact with the electrified rod. It remained to ascer-
tain the reason of this fact, which, once ascertained as a fad, removed the
difficulty in the first experiment. When the strongly — electrified rod is
brought near the knob, there takes place decomposition of the eletricity in the
electroscope. The +E flows into the knob, in which it is retained by the rod ;
the —E flows into the leaves, which diverge in consequence. While thus in-
fluenced by the rod —E escapes, and there is a progressive collection and re-
tention of +E in the knob. At the moment of contaé& between knob and
rod, the rod communicates the —E present at its point of contac to the knob,
and this neutralises in the latter a corresponding quantity of +E. As, how-
ever, the excited parts of the rod not in immediate contact with the knob do
not give up their —E, this surplus of —E still carries on the decomposition
and retention of electricity in the electroscope; so that there comes to be
much more retained +E in the knob than —E in the leaves (for a constant
waste of —E takes place in the electroscope). If the rod is now slowly re-
moved its retentive influence on the knob decreases, and a certain quantity of
—E flows into the leaves, neutralising there a certain quantity of —E. When
the rod is just so far removed that as much +E can flow from the knob into
the leaves as there is —E in these, the leaves become unelectrified and the
divergence zero, On further withdrawal, still more of the hitherto retained
+E flows from the knob to the leaves, and now commences a divergence with
+E. When the rod is entirely removed, the whole of the hitherto retained
+E is free, and produces strong divergence. As the rod is approached again,
these phenomena are witnessed in reverse order. This theory rests on the
supposition that the +E which has been separated and retained by the rod
preponderates over the —E communicated to the electroscope by contact
(which is easily understood, as an electrified non-condudctor gives up its elec-
tricity only at the point of contact). For this preponderance to take place it
is necessary, as has been said, that the electric source should be a very active
one. It can, further, be easily shown that in such circumstances the —E
flows away from the electroscope (without conduction) if the electrified rod be
brought near the knob without touching it. In this case no ele¢tricity can
flow dire@ly from the rod to the knob, and yet, if after a few seconds the rod
be withdrawn, the leaves diverge considerably with +E. The explanation is
simple. The fa&, however, that it is possible, by contact of the electroscope
with a negatively electrified body, to obtain + divergence, appears to me one
of considerable importance. Thus, supposing, in the absence of a pile elec-
troscope, it were required to determine whether a body rubbed with a certain
kind of material became + or — eleétrified, it would be a very likely method
to first cause divergence in the ele@troscope leaves with a rubbed caoutchouc
rod, and then test the electric state of the body in question by its influence on
the divergent leaves, and call it + or — accordingly. On the former suppo-

1872.] Electricity. 535

sition, that the leaves diverged with electricity of the same sign as the
caoutchouc rod, any such judgment would be absolutely false. A + eleérified
body would be taken fora —, and vice versa. Such error might be guarded
against if, instead of bringing the caoutchouc rod near the ele&roscope, a
small charge of —E were brought from the former, by means of a proof plane,
to the knob of the latter, as the proof plane would not colle& sufficient elec-
tricity to produce the disturbance observed in the other case.”’

Mr. Planté has recently described a new form of secondary battery. Two
plates of lead (20 inches long by 8 inches wide), are rolled up in spiral, being
separated from each other by a few strips of india-rubber. This spiral is
placed in a jar containing acidulated water, and having a gutta-percha cover,
on which are fitted bending screws connected with the plates. Twenty such
elements are placed in two rows of ten each, and charged from the primary
battery, which consist of two Bunsen’s couples. By means of a commutator
of peculiar construction these secondary elements may be connected either
for quantity or for intensity. When the elements are joined in series an
electro-motive force equal to thirty Bunsens is obtained, giving a current by
means of which platinum wire may be fused. In the secondary couples the
chemical action generating the current is the reaction of hydrogen on peroxide
of lead, the current from the primary battery having caused decomposition
of the water oxidising one of the plates, and developing hydrogen on the
surface of the other. By the above arrangement the quantity of electric
work from the direct action of the primary is transformed by condensation.
The case is somewhat similar to that of a hydraulic press or crane. Ina pile
driver, i.e., a heavy body raised by degrees toa great height, by a series of
successive efforts, is then left to itself, and gives back at once the greater
part of the work thus expended on it. So, when, after charging, the secondary
circuit is closed, the sum of the accumulated chemical actions caused by the
primary current is given out in the form of a very intense current of short
duration. The effect, when the couples are joined for quantity, corresponds
to the fall of a very heavy mass raised a small height; when joined for in-
tensity, to the fall of a small mass raised to a great height.

Mr. W. H. Preece, of Southampton, gives the following information about
lightning conductors :—Ordinary galvanised iron wire, known as No. 4, which
is }-inch in diameter, tipped with a gilded brass point or cone, is amply
sufficient for any dwelling-house. It costs about a penny per yard, and the
brass cones would cost about sixpence each. Thirty shillings would pay for
all the materials required for an ordinary house. The reasons for recommending
this wire are these :—When telegraph poles were first erected in this country
they were protected with lightning conductors. This practice was subsequently
found to be too expensive, and was abandoned. Such “‘ earth-wires”’ or con-
ductors, were, however, found to effect another and very important objea&, and
their use was continued on all main lines. Mr. Preece says, I have never
known a case of a pole so protected being damaged through a thunderstorm,
whereas scarcely a thunderstorm occurs without some unprotected poles being
injured. I remember, near Romsey, twenty unprotected poles being shattered
by one discharge, and upon the Basingstoke and Andover line 15 per cent
were found to have been struck. The line was renewed and earth-wired, and
not a single case of damage has occurred since, though some years have
elapsed. A pole was very recently found in South Wales with 8 inches of
its top shattered—the earth-wire only went so far; the charge from that point
went harmlessly to earth through the wire. The cross arms are frequently
found damaged as far as the earth-wire, never beyond. Instances could be
multipled ad infinitum, and as the wire used is generally No. 8 (170 inches in
diameter), and sometimes even smaller, I think I am fully justified in saying
that No. 4 wire, which is twice as thick, and offers half the resistance, is
amply sufficient for the protection of our houses. The precautions necessary
in fixing conductors are these :—(1) The conductor must be solid and con-
tinuous from its gilded point to the ground; (2) Its conneétion with the ground
must be sound and good. It may be connected with the iron, gas, or water

530 Progress in Sctence. [October,

mains, or be buried several feet deep in a bed of coke, or be attached to a
mass of metal in moist earth, or be carried down a well; (3) Each conductor,
if there be more than one, should make a separate earth if possible, and
they should all be connected together below the surface. The lead roofing
and all external masses of metal should be connected with them; (4) All
joints and connections should be soldered. It is better that each chimney
stack should have its own conductor, and they should be periodically
examined to see that their points remain inta&, and that their metallic con-
tinuity is perfect. The custom is to fix them, and then to leave them to chance.
The precautions that are unnecessary are these :—(z) It need not be copper;
(2) It need not be insulated; (3) It need not be carried externally to their
disfigurement in the cases of church spires, columns, and chimneys. I never
pass Trafalgar Square without regretting the disfigurement of Nelson’s statue.
It is, however, better to carry the wire externally in the case of dwelling-
houses, lest it pass too near the lead gas-pipes, which, being good conductors
and soft metal, might be fused. The wire can go round a corner as well as
through it, but acute angles are best avoided. The more direct the course to
the earth the better. The area protected by a conductor is said to be that whose
radius is equal to twice the height of the condudtor from the ground; but it
is safer to take the radius as equal to the height of the conductor. Thus, for
small houses one conduétor is enough, but it is safer to attach one to each
stack. If it project a yard above the stack it is sufficient, and it is within reach
for inspection. The stack pipes down the sides of a house are convenient
conduits for the wire, and there is no reason why it should not be carried
down to the ground inside them, so as to be out of sight. If there be no
convenient stack pipe the wire can be run up and stapled to the brickwork or
stone. With thirty shillings for materials and ten shillings for labour any
intelligent man can, with these directions and precautions, safely protect his
house from the destructive effets of thunderstorms.

Mr. J. Baynes Thompson has shown that common eleétro-plating is not
applicable to steel or iron, as these metals cannot be got perfectly clean, that
is, chemically clean; therefore no adhering coating can be obtained. In faét, for
all manner of plating or soldering, the first requisite is, that the two metals that
are to be applied to each other must be chemically clean, or no proper adhesion
can be obtained. This cleanness is obtained in various ways: in soldering
by various fluxes; in ele@ro-plating, to such metals as that method is applicable,
by dipping the article in an acid which will readily dissolve the metal of which
it is made, and not only so, but the salt formed by this solution of the metal in
the acid used must be readily soluble in water, or no clean surface can be
obtained. There is still another condition to be considered ; that is, when the
surface of the metal has been made thoroughly clean, it must be protected
from conta with the air in its transit from the cleansing-baths to the solution
wherein it is to be coated. This condition, not being recognised in the first
attempts at electro-plating, caused many failures and much trouble, until it
was discovered that a film of mercury prevented the contact of the air with the
cleaned metal. Moreover, mercury has the advantage that it amalgamates
with the metal tu be coated, and with the coating, though this amalgamation
is not absolutely necessary ; yet it facilitates the coating of metals with other
metals by electro-deposition, when the two metals will readily amalgamate.
There are cases where amalgamation is not possible ; for example, where one
of the metals will not amalgamate, as with steel or iron coated with aluminium
or nickel; not that it is impossible to form an amalgam with these metals, for
even steel can be amalgamated with the intervention of sodium, but it is not
possible for plating purposes, as a diluted solution of a mercuric salt must be
used. For all such cases as these, where the amalgamation process cannot
be used, pyro-plating is employed, this name being given to distinguish the
process from the eleéro-plating process, and because the coating is driven
into the surface of the metal on which it is put by means of heat and pneu-
matic pressure. It is not confined to coating with silver, as its name might
indicate, but it is at present applied to coating with gold, platinum, silver,
nickel, aluminium, copper, brass, or bronze and aluminium-bronze. ‘The

1872.] Technology. 537

process is very simple, but the details require much care and attention. Theend
to be obtained is simply this : that the metal to be coated shall be ‘‘ chemically
clean’? when immersed in the solution in which it is to be coated. There are
several ways in which the attainment of this end may be prevented—by in-
adequate means for cleansing; by a passage through the air of two or three
feet after being cleansed; by the metal being positive in the coating solution
—in this case the metal is fouledoncontacé. This refers to cyanide solutions,
to sulphur and chloride solutions, to double sulphates and chlorides, as of
nickel and ammonia, and of platinum and potash or soda. All of these may
be used in certain cases for pyro-plating, but they are not used. There is a
special solution used for pyro-plating in all cases, because most of these solu-
tions leave matters on the metal that is being coated if it be in the slightest
degree porous or ‘‘roaky,” as is the case with steel that has been badly
faggoted, and on the article passing through the furnace these matters volatilise
and cause an irruption in the coating. The amount of metal put on is ascer-
tained by having a test-surface put in with the articles, and the exadé time of
plating and the exact weight of the test noted. This test is carefully weighed
from hour to hour until the amount desired is put on. After being dried, the
articles are put into the furnace. The firing-furnace, as it is technically
termed, is of simple construction. A bright red heat is required in the chamber
where the articles are placed. In firing knife-blades and other cutting instru-
ments, care has to be taken that the heat is not carried higher than 450° and
500° F. This is ascertained by trials on a pad of prepared test-paper; a blade
is taken out from time to time and tried upon the pad, and the colour noted
—whether the blade scorches it straw-colour, yellow, pale brown, deep brown,
or black. After the desired heat is attained, the blade is instantly immersed
point downward in cold water, and all that were in the firing-chamber with it.
The theory of the process, which is technically termed ‘‘ burning in,”’ is this :—
On the instantaneous immersion in cold water, the coating is seized and
retained by the suddenly contracting under metal. This is seen to be the case
on filing or grinding the coating from the under metal ; for though the coating
may be filed or ground off until both coating and under metal are filed or
ground off together, yet the under metal remains spotted all over with an
infinity of little points, the pores filled by the coating metal.

TECHNOLOGY.

An American engineer recommends the following composition as a cement
for leather, wood, &c., resisting the action of water, both hot and cold, and
most of the acids and alkalies. Three parts, by weight, of shellac, and one
part of caoutchouc are to be dissolved, in separate vessels, in ether free from
alcohol, applying a gentle heat. When thoroughly dissolved, the two solu-
tions are to be mixed. If the glue be thinned by the admixture of ether, and
applied as a varnish to leather, it renders a joint or seam water-tight.

M. B. Renault has submitted to the Academy of Sciences a new method for
obtaining the reproduction of designs. ‘The design is traced with gummed ink
upon stiff glazed paper, over which fine brass or bronze powder is dusted. By
this means a kind of plate is obtained, admitting of the most varied designs
being taken off upon prepared paper. By softening the ink with vapour of
alcohol, the metallic powder can be removed when spent by use.

A method of testing petroleum and other inflammable fluids, and also of
determining their specific gravity, has been patented in the United States.
The apparatus consists of an upright glass cylinder supported in the top of a
chamber formed in the upper part of a base or stand. A lamp is placed in the
base, the heat from which is transmitted through the chamber to the lower
part of the glass cylinder, and the chamber may be made to contain air, water,
&c., as required to regulate its intensity. The glass cylinder contains a ther-
mometer, which is fixed therein, and is closed at the top with a brass cover.
The fluid to be tested is made to completely fill the glass cylinder, so that the
thermometer is entirely submerged and cannot be affected by the surrounding
atmosphere. An orifice in the brass cover is opened, to allow the escape of
vapour from the fluid under test, and when necessary the lamp is lighted.

VOL. I. (N.S.) 32

538 Progress in Sctence. (October,

A flame is held over the orifice, and at the moment the evolved vapour is
ignited the temperature of the fluid is corredily indicated by the thermometer.
In ascertaining specific gravities by this instrument, a hydrometer is also
placed within the glass cylinder in such a manner that its scale-tube is free to
move up or down through a hole in the brass cover. The surface of the fluid
tested is plainly visible through the glass cylinder, and the scale may be accu-
rately read.

A so-called rubber-graphite paint has recently been patented, said to be
waterproof and to present other advantages of reducing the corrosive influence
of exposure to the atmosphere, &c. It is a solution of pure india-rubber in
linseed oil, which is ground with graphite into a thick, elastic, smoothly-
flowing paint. Compositions of which india-rubber forms a part possess, in a
very high degree, the quality of resisting the action of moisture and of corrosive
gases. The graphite is a pure form of carbon; and it is well known that
paints containing carbon in form last longer than other kinds, holding their
body and colour when other paints are totally destroyed. So that the com-
bination may, as suggested, form a paint of great durability and highly-
protective qualities. Cream colour or drab paints can be obtained by this
method.

An admirable paper on the preservation of wood has been written by
M. Hermann Haupt, C.E. in an American contemporary. The experiments
show—That so long as the celts of wood are occupied by air and moisture, no
preservative solution can be introduced, and the expulsion of air and water must
be the first step in any effective process for preserving timber from decay.
That water can be expelled by a long-continued application of heat, but air
only by expansion in a vacuum, and the combination of heat and vacuum will
secure the most rapid expansion both of water and air. The preservative
fluid must be introduced while the cells are empty, consequently the process
must be carried on im vacuo. ‘That no pressure, however great, applied ex-
ternally to the surface of timber, can force fluid into the interior so long as
air or water is contained in the cells. When air alone is present, there may be
penetration to a limited extent, superficially, but water is practically incom-
pressible. If, however, the pressure is applied at one end only of a log, as in
the Boucherie process, a fluid may be forced through and exude from the other
end. An apparatus to fulfil the conditions which, from the preceding dis-
cussion, appear to be essential to success, must be founded on a process
similar to distillation in vacuo. It must consist of at least two vessels—one
a receiver corresponding to a retort, in which the material can be placed and
subjected to the action of heat; the other a condenser, in which all escaping
vapours can be condensed, and the vacuum maintained during the process in
both vessels. The condenser may be of much smaller capacity than the
receiver ; they should communicate by pipes furnished with stop-cocks, and
both be supplied with thermometers, vacuum gauges, and pumps. Asan illus-
tration, suppose wood is to be impregnated with dead oil or ony other fluid.
The receiver must be filled with the wood to be operated on, the door closed
air-tight, and the air expelled from both the receiver and condenser. The ex-
pulsion of the air may be effected in various ways. Steam may be admitted at
one end to drive out the air at the other end; the subsequent condensation of
the steam should leave a vacuum, but in the experiments of the writer this
plan has been only partially successful. The air may be exhausted by an air-
pump, but a perfect vacuum cannot in any way be secured. The vessels may
be filled with water, and the water removed by a pump below the level of the
bottom into which the water flows. This should remove all the air excepting
that which escapes from the cells. As the atmosphere supports a column of
water 33 feet high, pipes may lead to a tank at a level about 40 feet lower,
where the location is favourable, and thus by filling the vessels with water and
opening cocks to allow the water to flow by gravity into the tank, a very
perfect vacuum could be produced. This arrangement would be particularly
favourable for maintaining a vacuum in the condenser; a pipe in the condenser
could throw jets of water in spray from numerous fine perforations, and the.

1872.] Technology. 539

water would consequently flow in the tank 4o feet lower, maintaining a con-
stant vacuum without the aid of pumps. This objec can be accomplished in
almost any locality by placing the condenser at the top of a building or on
trestle work. Assuming that a vacuum has been created and provision made
for maintaining it during the whole process, the next step will consist in the
application of heat, which may be done most conveniently by steam-pipes
introduced in the receiver. The length of time during which the timber must
be subjected to the baking process will depend upon the dimensions of the
logs, and can only be determined by experiment. It is obvious, however, that
the circumstances are favourable to the most rapid evaporation possible; the
temperature can be regulated at pleasure, and the removal of pressure by
vacuum will give a very low boiling-point. As the vapours pass over they
will be immediately condensed. Should the vacuum become vitiated by
the escape of air from the cells, it may be improved by the use of an air-pump.
The condition of the vacuum will be indicated by the gauges. When sufficient
time has been allowed for the wood to dry thoroughly, cocks must be opened
connecting the bottom of the receiver with a tank of dead oil at a lower
level. As a vacuum exists in the receiver, the atmospheric pressure will force
up the oil and the timber will be immersed in the fluid. When the immersion
has continued a sufficient length of time, which also must be determined by
careful experiment, cocks may be opened at the top of the receiver to admit
air. The oil not absorbed will immediately flow back to the tank from which
it was taken; the air pressing upon the exterior of the cells, which are par-
tially filled with oil, while a vacuum exists in the interior, will force the oil
before it, and thus coat in its progress the interior of the cells. It is probable
that in this way a sufficient amount of dead oil may be introduced into the
cells to prevent fermentation and decomposition while still far below the
point of saturation, and the process may prove rapid and economical. Instead
of admitting air in the manner proposed to expel the oil from the receiver, it
is possible that better results may be obtained by allowing the oil to remain
until it becomes heated by the steam coils, and the vapour collecting at the
top expels the oil and penetrates the pores. Too much oil might be intro-
duced by this mode of treatment, and it is probable that the introduction of
air, followed, perhaps, by a second bath of oil to close the cells superficially
and exclude moisture, would give the best results. All these and other
questions that may arise can only be settled by experiment.

In China and Japan the rice-paper plant is cultivated upon the hills and
high-lying ground. In the autumn of each year, before the leaves fall, the
Japanese cut off the young shoots and cut them into slips, which are tied up
into bundles and boiled in large copper kettles or cauldrons closely shut down.
The boiling is continued until the bark has peeled off the wood, when the
former is carefully dried and stored away for future use. When it is required
for paper-making it is thoroughly soaked in water for three or four hours, after
which the brown skin is scraped off. At the same time the bark which covered
the younger shoots is separated from the older and tougher sorts, from which
an inferior kind of paper is made. Bark which has been kept for some years
is only fit to make the commonest packing paper, and is manufactured with
less care. When the bark is well cleaned and arranged in order according to
its quality, it is again boiled until the matter separates into a filamentous
substance. This boiling is succeeded by another operation, called washing,
which is of great importance in the manufacture of paper. If it is not con-
tinued long enough the paper will be of coarse quality; and if, on the other
hand, the substance does not receive enough boiling, the paper will be very
white, but too soft and greasy to write upon. The pulp is placed in a basket
which will admit the water on all sides, and this is plunged into a ewer and
stirred about with violence for some time. Then the substance is placed upon
a smooth table and beaten with wooden rollers. After the beating an infusion
of rice is poured upon it, and the mixture is suffered to stand until dry, when
the substance is raised leaf by leaf in the form of paper. These leaves are
placed between boards, and the remaining moisture gradually pressed out.
According to another account the stem is cut into lengths of 10 or 12 inches,

540 Progress in Science. (October,

and the pith forced out and placed in hollow bamboos, where it swells out to
its natural bulk, and dries into a compact mass. This pith is cleverly cut by
a workman, who holds a sharp knife against the side of the cylinder, which
is then turned round, so that the pith is cut into a broad strip about 4 feet
long. This is cut into small squares, and sold in packets for different
purposes. It is supposed that the paper made from the pith is the rice-paper
which is imported into this country. It cannot be made until the tree has
attained a considerable bulk, and is too old to produce many shoots such as
are ‘used in the first process. The tree from which this paper is made is
particularly abundant in the island of Formosa. It is at first a small
shrub, but after flowering it throws out several branches, and grows to a
height of about 25 feet. It is generally cut down before it attains its full
maturity, because the pith and bark degenerate in the older parts. Several
large palmate leaves crown the stem. It has been supposed by many botanists
that there are two or three different species of plants from which the Chinese
make their paper, and there are apparently several ways of manufacturing it.

An enamel for copper cooking utensils is made by fusing together 12 parts
of white fluor-spar, 12 of gypsum, and 1 part borax, dissolving the mass in
water to a thick paste, which is applied as a paint to copper vessels, and
when dry, this is rendered adhesive by being thoroughly baked.

An alloy, composed of 3 parts of tin, 39°5 copper, and 7°5 parts of zinc, is
very well adapted for joining brass or copper to iron and steel.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE.

Mr. A. P. S. Stuart, an American chemist, remarks that everyone who has
prepared hydrofluoric acid knows that sulphuric acid and fluor-spar form an
exceedingly hard compound, which it is very difficult to remove from a pla-
tinum retort. The formation of this hard mass may be prevented by mixing
with the fluor-spar about an equal weight of gypsum and the proper quantity
of sulphuric acid. After the expulsion by heat of the hydrofluoric acid, the
residuum in the retort is found in a pasty condition, easily removed by water.

M. Puscher recommends that, to coat zinc with iron, the objects should first
be plunged into a hot solution of 160 grms. of ferrous sulphate and go grms.
of sal-ammoniac in 2500 c.c. of boiling water. After two minutes’ exposure
they should be removed and brushed off in water. This has for its objec
simply the cleansing of the surface. They are again placed in the bath and
heated, without brushing or washing, until the sal-ammoniac fumes have
disappeared, then washed, and this operation repeated three or four times.
A coating of iron will be found formed on the zinc, which takes a fine polish
when scratch-brushed.

Prof. Bischof has found that the analysis of a clay gives a distin@ indication
as to its power of resisting extreme heats, on the ground that the value of a
refractory clay varies with the proportion of the alumina to the fusible matter,
and again with that of the alumina to the silica. The more alumina a clay
contains in proportion to the fusible matter (iron, alkalies, &c.), the more re-
fractory is it. Silica, on the contrary, augments its fusibility. Except in
certain determinate cases, the clays containing alumina, silica, and fusible
matter in equal proportions, have an equal power of resisting fire. If there is
taken for clays the general formula—mAl,03+nSiO,+RO, the degree of re-

sistance to fire is measured by the ratio of The higher the value of this
fraction, the more refractqry the clay.

In cases where tubes cannot be conne@ed by india-rubber, corks, &c., Mr.
Karsten makes a gaslight joint by bending the two tubes to be joined ver-
tically, the lower one capable of sliding within the other. When in this
position, the open end of the upper or outer tube’ is surrounded by mercury
retained in acup, through the bottom of which the smaller tube passes. The

whole apparatus is most easily constructed, and can readily be taken to pieces
and put together again.

1872.] Chemical Science. 541

M. J. Boussingault has made some experiments to investigate the condition
in which carbon exists in meteoric iron. In the meteoric iron of Caille, o-12
per cent of combined carbon was detected, while the celebrated Lenarto
meteorite was found to contain neither graphite nor combined carbon.

New forms and new modifications of apparatus are constantly being
proposed and described for the convenient generation of H2S, CO, and H
in laboratory work. Many of these are somewhat complicated and expen-
sive, more or less difficult to fill, and liable to breakage. Mr. William
Hutchings advocates a trial of the following application of an old principle :—
A large wide-necked jar is provided with a well-fitting stopper of cork or
caoutchouc. Owing to the difficulty of boring a large
hole in caoutchouc, cork will generally be preferred.
In this a hole is bored wide enough to take a piece of
large-bore glass tube, A B. This tube is of such a
length that it reaches almost to the bottom of the jar,
and projects 2 or 3 inches above the stopper. One end
of it, B, is held in the gas-blast, and turned round and
round till it softens and partially runs together, leaving
only a small opening. The other end is fitted with a
caoutchouc stopper, through which passes a glass tube
of suitable bore with a glass stop-cock, all fitting per-
feGtly tight. The tube reaches a little way below the
stopper, and 3 or 4 inches above it,and is connected by
india-rubber tube with wash-bottle, &c. The opening
at B is covered with lead-shavings, a plug of lead wire,
or pieces of glass, to allow the acid to rise into the
tube, at the same time preventing any of the bits of
marble, zinc, or sulphide of iron falling out. The tube,
A B, being filled, is closed by its stopper and stop-cock
tube, and inserted through the cork into the jar, which
is a little over two-thirds full of the dilute acid. Ac-
cording as the stop-cock is opened, a stream of gas of
any required amount is given off, and on closing the
cock the acid is all driven into the jar. It is evident
that the tube A B must not fit air-tight into the stopper
of the jar. The best way of arranging is, after boring
the hole in the cork for the tube AB, to cut a little
channel with the triangular file, just sufficient to
allow of the rise and fall of the liquid in the jar.
A jar about ro inches high, and appropriately wide,
with a tube of 1 to 14 inches bore, gives a very suitable
apparatus for ordinary use. By using a very large jar,
or a large cylinder, and larger and much longer tube, a constant stream may
be had for many days.

Professor Dewar recently exhibited, before the Royal Society of Edinburgh,
two modifications of Sprengel’s pump adapted to lecture illustration. In both
instruments the mercury receptacle is made of iron, and, instead of the india-
rubber joint of the original, a well-ground stop-cock, terminating in a Y-shaped
piece bored out of the solid. In the one form the drop-tube is of glass, at-
tached by means of marine glue; in the other, of carefully made india-rubber
tube, 4 or 5 m.m. in thickness, of a very small uniform bore, made expressly
for the purpose by the Edinburgh Rubber Company. The iron funnel-shaped
receptacles are ground at the inner apex, so as to fit perfedly finely-ground
iron tubes. By means of these tubes the preliminary exhaustions are made
by a hand-pump, and then they are withdrawn. This device saves a separate
joint. The barometer tubes are attached to solid T-shaped pieces of iron
tube, and between these pieces and the main tubes each has a small glass
bulb. Both forms work, for all practical purposes, as well as glass, and suit
admirably for Frankland’s water analyses, Graham's experiments, &c.

It would seem that the amount of ammoniacal gas absorbed by charcoal
continually decreases as the temperature rises from 0° to 55°, but at that point

542 Progress in Science. [October,

a sudden change occurs, and the amount of gas given off becomes considerably
diminished. In the case of cyanogen the absorption takes place very rapidly,
being confined almost entirely to the first ten minutes, and the curve repre-
senting the absorption between o° and 80° is continuous: the results obtained
may be given in tables, and also represented by absorption curves. Hydrogen
and nitrogen are very slightly absorbed by the charcoal.

M. Daubree gives the following result of his examination of the rocks of
native iron which were discovered in Greenland, in 1870, by M. Nordenskiold:—

WIGAN We Se Se oo MOo- de oo oo. .oo “ery!
Iron combined with oxygen, sulphur, and phos- } 71°000
OMS go oe. 66 oa oo GO 50 05 vn SYOMONG
Carbonsicombined 0 ee sell ol eet sn tee OOO ‘
< AECI US ess) feck fovap ers Lee yee) ee Seek 4/064
Nickel Se tata tise ae sk. efeu 2OOS

Cobalt Se ers en AeiEN) BORN Min: O'OGE
SUNOS Go. so oG oo 9Gd oo co Se So os BORE
Arsenic Sean Lo aONn PDR to MOCMENS EO eG. | OOD
Ios “Bd Go do oo co oo SO 56 od oo GORE
SHINGO Bach oa oo oo CO fad! oom co co ldo no *OO7E
INDINREREN GG go 06 of 55 GO oC co Sa oo vo GWO
(Osage) S55 pO 6O oo co 06 o5 ob oo 5a BRS
Combined wate Bre PO Oounocnn ocn OousEnos = so” oo. OLS

labyeoNNe WeIKee5 O65 oO oO O65 ob os co oo OBL
Sulphate of lime .. .. 1°288

Soluble substances —| Chora of calcium .. e30) 1°354
ay COD ALOR yy.) re) OLO2T7

Chromium, copper and loss .. Ms I‘OOI

A process of printing on cotton or silk, which promises to be of practical
utility, has been devised by M. Vial, of Paris. The cloth is first washed over
with a solution of a salt of silver; then a coin, a medal, or a metal design
—the metal being more elettro-positive than silver—is placed upon it, and
the design is produced by a deposit of silver in black lines in the fabric.

1872.] ( 543 )

QUARTERLY LIST OF PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED FOR REVIEW.

Life of Richard Trevithick, with an Account of his Inventions. By Francis

Trevithick, C.E. Vol. I. E. and F. N. Spon.
Health and Comfort in House Building. By J. Drysdale, M.D., and J. W.
Hayward, M.D. E. and F. N. Spon.

The Hygiene of Air and Water. By W. Proéter, M.D., F.C.S.
R. Hardwicke.

The Beginnings of Life: being some Account of the Nature, Modes of Origin,
and Transformations of Lower Organisms. By H. Charlton Bastian,
McA, M-D:, Fo Ros. Macmillan and Co.

Magnetism and Deviation of the Compass; for the Use of Students in Navi-
gation and Science Schools. By John Merrifield, LL.D., F.R.A.S.
Longmans and Co.

A Manual of Microscopic Mounting, with Notes on the ColleGtion and Exam-
ination of Objects. By John H. Martin. F. and A. Churchill.

The Natural System of Volcanic Rocks. By Baron Richthofen.

PAMPHLETS AND PERIODICALS.

Abstraés of Specifications of Patents gpEued for from 1854 to 1866. By

» William Henry Archer. Melbourne: ohn Ferres.
Mineral Statistics of Victoria for 1871. Melbourne: Fohn Ferves.
Statistics of New Zealand for 1870. Wellington : George Didsbury.

Monthly Review of Dental Surgery.

Statements relating to the Home and Foreign Trade of the Dominion of
Canada.

Report of Mineral Resources of Port Augusta.
Report of the Mining Surveyors and Registrars, Melbourne, 1872.
Catalogue of Pacific Coast Mosses. By Leo Lesquereux.

On the Early Stages of Terebratulina septentrionalis. By Edward S. Morse,
Ph.D.

Naval Science.

The Popular Science Review.

The Geological Magazine.

The American Chemist.

The Westminster Review.
Macmillan’s Magazine.
Blackwood’s Magazine.

The Civil Service Gazette.

Revue Bibliographique Universelle.

(544) (October,

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. Vol. IV., Parts 1 to 4.

The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archeological Association of Ireland.
McGlashan and Gill.
Monthly Microscopical Journal.

Proceedings of the Royal Society. -

Smithsonian Report, 1870.

1872.]

(545 )

INDEX.

B C Sewage process, 107
* Air and Rain,” by R. ANGUS

SMITH (review), 498

Air-compressing machinery, 386

Alcohol, reagent for, 116

Alloys for jewellery, 408

Amalgamated zinc and other metals,
action of acids on, 131

Amorpholithic monuments of Brit-
tany, I, 436

*‘ Animal Plagues ” (review), 81

** Anthropology, a Manual of,’ by C.
Bray (review), 83

“ Antiseptic System ” (review), 77

Apparatus for generating H25, CO2,
and H, 541

‘* Arithmetic, Technical, and Mensu-
ration,’ by C. W. MERRIFIELD
(review), 379

Armour and guns, 522

Artificial flizht, 457

Artillery, construction of heavy, 391

— matériel, British, 232

Asbestos in stuffing-boxes of steam-
engines, 531

Asmanite, new mineral, 39

Association, British, abstract of pro-
ceedings of, 509

“ Astronomy and Geology Compared,”
by Lord ORMATHWAITE (review),
374

“Astronomy, Essay on,” by R. A.
PRocrTor (review), 500

— meteoric, 137

ATKINSON, E., ‘‘ Elementary Physics”
(review), 83

— ‘Natural Philosophy ”
380

Axon, W.E. A., physiological posi-
tion of tobacco, 479

(review),

ALL, R. S., ‘“* Experimental Me-
chanics ”’ (review), 256
Ballooning, 106
Balloons, navigable, 263
Barron’s steel process, 520
BastiANn, H.C., ‘ Beginnings of Life”
(review), 492
Battery, bichromate of potash, 128
— gravity, 405
VOL. II. (N.S.)

Battery, new form of secondary, 535

Beacons, illumination of, 21

BEALE, L.S., ‘“‘ Life Theories” (re-
view), 93

‘ Beginnings of Life,’ by H. C. Bas-
TIAN (review), 492

Benzoline for lamps, 121

Bessemer converter, gases evolved
from, I00

BESSEMER’s monster gun, 103

Beyrichite, mineral, 262

Billionth of a second, 129

* Biology, Introduction to the Study
of,” by H. A. NicHOLson (re-
view), 377

Biological notes, 132

Bismutho-ferrite, mineral, 262

Blast-furnace, removing slag from, 520

— coal in, 100

Blast-furnaces in Cleveland distri&, 99

Blood, manganese in, 114

Blowpipe, hot-blast, 272

Boilers, evaporative
steam, 401

Boracite, mineral, 261

Boring machine, hydraulic, 394

— machinery, 97

Brakes, railway, 264, 524

Bray, C., ‘*A Manual of Anthropo-
logy ’’ (review), 83

Bree, C. R., “‘ Exposition of Fallacies
in the Hypothesis of Mr. Dar-
win ”’ (review), 501

British Association, abstra& of pro-
ceedings of, 509

Brittany, dolmen mounds and amor-
pholithic monuments of, 436

Buoys, illumination of, 21

Burt, Dr., influence of coloured light
upon vegetation, 528

Bytownite, mineral, 390

efficiency of

Guo S for microscopic ob-
jects, 398

Cadmium, passivity of, 403

Calefaction, 271

Caloric, chemical effets of in electric
discharges, 276

Calorific efficiency of electric currents,
128

4A

546

Canal, the Soonkasala, 394

Cane sugar, conversion of into elu-
cose, 116

Cannizzaro, Prof., “ The Faraday
Lecture, 409

Cannon powder, modern, 58

Carbazol in aniline, 4r1

Carbon in meteoric iron, 541

— — meteorites, 116

— oxidation of, 409

— specific heat of, 401

Carr’s disintegrator, 267

Cement for leather, 537

— new, for microscopic purposes, 271

Charcoal-iron, 520

— pills, an antidote to phosphorus,

4II

‘* Chemical Physiology,” by J. L. W.
THUDICHUM (review), 380

“Chemical Technology, Handbook
of,” by R. WaGNeErR (review), 502

‘“* Chemistry,” by H. E. Roscoe (re-
view), 377

“ Chemistry, Elements of,” by Dr. W.
A. MILLER (review), 381

“‘Chemistry, Index to Gmelin’s
Handbook of,” by H. Warts (re-
view), 384

— progress in, 112, 279, 409, 540
Chili, copper mines of, 159

Clay, analysis of a, 540

Cleveland distri@, blast-furnaces in,

99

Coal Commissioners’ Report, 38

Coal-cutting machinery, 385

“* Coal Economy,” by F. C. DANVERS
(review), 361

— exploration for in the Wealden
formation, 386, 517

— gas occluded in, 114

— in blast-furnaces, roo

— machinery for cutting, 519

— safety in working, 385

— search for, 98

— statistics of production, 257

— Sutherlandshire, 517

Cobalt in tin ores, 390

Coinage, gold, 224

Cold from evaporation of ether, 272

— on vapours, action of, 124

— production of by mechanical action,
272

Colliery explosions, 385

— Inspector’s Report, 98

CoLLINGwoop, C., ‘‘ A Vision of Cre-
ation” (review), 371

Combustion, spontaneous, 410

— — of a wooden beam, 531

“ Comets, Observations of from Chi-
nese Annals, by J. WILLIAMS
(review), 367

INDEX.

(October,

Compound prisms, 119

Conduétibility of liquids for eleCtricity,
276

Copper, existence of in certain waters,

115

— mines of Chili, 159

‘Cornwall, Royal Institution of, Ad-
dress to by W. J. Henwood” (re-
view), 78

“Corso di Geologia del Professore
ANTONIO STOPPANI’’ (review), 506

Corundum, 521

Cotton, printing on, 542

‘iCreation, Wision Of,” by C.sCore
LINGWOOD (review), 371

Crookes, W., Psychic Force, 136

Cryptomorphite, 522

Cuprite, mineral, 390

‘Curve Tracing,” by P. Frost (re-
view), 378

Cyclones, origin of the great, by Prof.
Maury, 417

Cylindrical lenses, employment of in
spectroscopic observations, 269

ALLAS, W. S., ‘‘ Man in the
Past, Present, and Future’’

(review), 374

Danks, S., mechanical puddling, 99

Danks’s puddling furnace, 259, 388

Danvers, F. C., ‘Coal Economy ”
(review), 361

— paper at the International Exhibi-
tion, 463

Darwin, C., ‘“ Origin of Species”
(review), 374

Datolite, mineral, 522

Dead or alive, 135

‘“Debatable Land between This
World and the Next,” by Rost.
Dae OwEN (review), 237

Decimal system, thoughts on the, 293

DESCHANEL, A. P., *‘ Natural Philo-
sophy (review), 255

Designs, reproduction of, 537

Detonators, electrical, 403

Dextrine, preparation of, 111

Diamonds, South African, 102, 262

Diatoms, re-mounting, 122

‘‘ Discovery of a New World of
Being,” by G. THomson (review),
381

Distance of fixed stars, 118

DoueErrty, H., ‘‘ Organic Philosophy”
(review), 79

Dolmen mounds and amorpholithic
monuments of Brittany, 1, 436

Dolomite for oxyhydrogen light, 268

Dona.pson, W., ‘“ New Formulas for
the Loads and Deflections of Solid
Beams and Girders”’ (review), 504

1872.]

Dovuatas, J., copper mines of Chili,
159

Dover, geology of Straits of, 208

Drawings, copying, 128

DrepceE, J., and W. H. Maw, ‘“ Mo-
dern Examples of Road and
Railway Bridges ’’ (review), 507

Dryer for paints and varnishes, 408

DrysDALeE, J., and J. W. Haywarp,
*“ Health and Comfort in House
Building,”’ (review), 503

DupceEon, R. E., ‘‘ Mechanism of
Accommodation for Near and
Distant Vision”’ (review), 505

Dust, microscopic examination of,
118

Dyeing veneer wood, 408

Dyes known to ancients, IIo

Dynamite, experiments with, 278

ae ARTH?’S Crust,” by D. Page,
(review), 377

“ Eclipse, Solar, of Dec. 22, 1870,
Observations of” (review), 370

Electric bell, aneroid, 531

— currents, induction of, 273

— — from bending of metals, 273, 404

— light in lighthouses, 274

— probe, 275

— spark, measurement of time of, 129

“Electric Telegraph, Description of
an,” by Sir F. RonaLps (review),
82

Electrical phenomena, atmospheric,

129

Electricity, condudtibility of liquids
for, 276

— progress in, 126, 273, 402, 531

Electro-magnetic induction, 126

Electroscope, curious effect observed
in gold leaf, 533

ELPHINSTONE, H. W., ‘ Patterns for
Turning” (review), 502

EMERSON, J., ‘‘ Treatise on the Man-
ner of Testing Water-Wheels
and Machinery ”’ (review), 506

Enamel for copper cooking utensils,
540

Engineering, progress in, 102, 263,
391, 522

Erecting binocular microscope, 269,
398

Erector for microscope, 123

Exhibition, Vienna, 526

Explosive agents, 395

— compounds, temperature of, de-
tonation of, 272

— substances used in mining, 99

Fe: extraction and purification
of animal, 112

INDEX.

947

Faraday le&ure of the Chemical
Society, 409

Felspars, alteration of, 390

— constitution of, 261

— researches on, IOI

FERRIE’S puddling furnace, 260

Ferro-tungstine, 520

Fibres, vegetable, microscopic exam-
ination of, 399

“Figure of the Earth, New Theory
of,” by W. OaiLBy (review), 382

Finois, F. J., ‘‘ Hypothesis”’ (review),
595

Flames, radiant power of, 123

— singing, 518

— vibrations of, 123

FLemMiInG, G., ‘ Animal
(review), 81

Flight, natural and artificial, 27, 182,
457

Food, preparation of, 108

“ Formulas, New, for the Loads and
Deflections of Solid Beams and
Girders,” by W. DOoNALDSON
(review), 504

Foundations, subaqueous, 393

“Friction, ‘Treatise on the Theory
of,” by J. H. JELLETT (review),

Plagues ”

3

peo P., “Curve Tracing ” (review),
378

Puchvine alcoholic solution of, 527

Fuel in blast-furnaces, economy of,
389 ©

— pulverised, 104
ALVANOMETERS, _ sensitive-

ness of, 276

Gas analysis, new apparatus for, 113

— occluded in coal, 114

— furnace, 272

— patent, 105

Gases evolved from Bessemer con-
verter, 100

— influence of pressure on spectra
of, 521

Geology of Straits of Dover, 208

‘Geology, Treatise on,” by R. TaTE
(review), 85

Glass, ancient Jewish, analysis of, 113

— printing on, 110

— tubes, bending wide, 409

Glue, liquid, 408

Glucose, conversion of cane-sugar
into, 116

Glycerine, employment of in tanning,
409

Gold coinage, 224

— colouration of glass by, 119

— in New Caledonia, 259

Goniometer, eye-piece, 270

548

Gossans, 259

Grain, &c., preserving, 278

GriFFiTH, J. W., ‘‘ Micrographic Dic-
tionary’ (review), 91

Guarinite, mineral, 390

Guns, experiments in, 102

— and armour, 522

— improvements in, 391

— progress in manufacture of, 263

— the seven-inch, 391

AYWARD, J. W., and J. Drys-
DALE “ Health and Comfort in
House Building” (review), 503
Health Ad, Public, 454
Heat, progress in, 123, 271, 401, 530
— dynamic effects of, on liquids, 4or
‘‘ Heat, Theory of,’ by J. CLERK
MAXWELL (review), 379
Heavens, construction of the, 308
HeEnwoop, W. J., ‘“‘ Address to Royal
Institution of Cornwall” (review),

7

Hiacs, R. W., music of speech, 281

Hisingerite, 522

Hop plant, analysis of, 411

Hopkinson, J., rupture of iron, 109

‘‘ House Building, Health and Com-
fort in,” by J. DRyspaLE and J.
W. Haywarb (review), 503

Huaains, W., “ Schellen’s Spectrum
Analysis ” (review), 247

Hydraulic cement, 277

Hydrofluoric acid, 540

‘‘ Hypotheses,” by F. J. Frnots (re-
view), 505

** Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin, Ex-
position of Fallacies in the,” by
C. R. BREE (review), 501

(egceS from Arendal, 102

Illumination of beacons and buoys, 21

Illuminator for highest microscopic
powers, 400

‘* Index of Spectra,” by W. M. Watts
(review), 383

Indigotine, solvents for, 279

Induction, electro-magnetic, 126

— of electric currents, 273

Inks, improvements in, 408

‘Insects at Home,” by J. G. Woop
(review), 82

Institution of Civil Engineers, 266, 394

— of Mechanical Engineers, 267, 395,
526

International Exhibition, progress in
science at the, 413

Iodine, phenomena of volatilisation,
411

Jron, analysis of native, 542

INDEX.

(O¢tober,

Iron-charcoal, 520

— discovery of native, 1o1

— electro, deposited, 404

— meteoric, 262

— — figures on surface of, 279
— refining, HENDERSON’S process, 388
— rupture of, 109

— stone mines, 98

— and Steel Institute, 527

— wrought, pure, 519
Islemannite, new mineral, ror

ELLETT, J. H., ‘“* Treatise on the
Theory of Friction” (review), 378
Jewish glass, analysis of, 113
“¢ Jew’s tin,” 389
Jorpan, W. L., ‘Oceanic Explora-
tions” (review), 353
Julianite, mineral, 261

KANGAROO embryo of, 133

Kreatine as source of nitrogen for
plants, 114
Kryokonite, 521

EATHER waste, utilisation of,
109
Leclanché cell, 402
Lemuride, zoological position of the,

132

Ley, W.C., “Law of Winds ” (re-
view), 367

‘Life of Richard Trevithick,” by F.
TREVITHICK (review), 507

‘Life Theories,’ by L. S. BEALE
(review), 93

Light, progress in, 116, 268, 395, 527

Lighthouses, electric light in, 274

Lightning conductors, 535

Lime, phosphate of, 278

Lithofraéteur, storage of, 519

Litmus paper, sensitiveness of, 279

Luioyp, W. A., ‘‘ Handbook to the
Marine Aquarium of the Crystal
Palace” (review), 373

N | AN as the interpreter of nature,

509
‘“Man in the Past, Present, and
Future,” by D. L. Bucuan (re-
view), 374

Manganophyll, 521

‘‘ Materia Medica, Pereira’s”’ (review),
372

Magnetic iron sand, 412

— properties of copper slags, 389

Magnetism, cause of terrestrial, 276

‘* Magnetism and Deviation of the
Compass,” by J. MERRIFIELD
(review), 501

1872.]

Magnets, directive force of, 275

Mammoth cave, life in the, 133

Manganese in blood, 114

— delicate test for, 114

Manuscript, &c., copying, 273

Mapping spectra, 122

‘““Marine Aquarium of the Crystal
Palace, Handbook to the” (re-
view), 373

Maury, Prof. T. B., the origin of the
great cyclones, 417

Maw, W. H., and DREDGE,
** Modern Examples of Road and
Railway Bridges” (review), 507

Maskelynite, 521

Maxite, 521

MaxwELL, J. C., ‘‘ Theory of Heat”
(review), 379

‘Mechanics, Experimental,” by R. S.
BALL (review), 256

‘Mechanism of Accommodation for
Near and Distant Vision,” by R.
E. DUDGEON (review), 505

Mercury, purifiying, 110

MERRIFIELD, J., ‘‘ Magnetism and
Deviation of the Compass” (re-
view), 501

— C. W., ‘‘ Technical Arithmetic and
Mensuration”’ (review), 379

Metallurgy, progress in, 99, 259, 387;

I

519

Metals, electric currents from bending
of, 273

— separation of by oxy-hydrogen
light, 124

Meteoric Astronomy, 137 7

— iron, figures on surface of, 279

— — carbon in, 541

Meteorite, the San Georgio, 279

Meteorites, fossil, ror

Meteorological phenomena and col-
liery explosives, 385

Mica, from Adamello granite, 522

‘* Micrographic Dictionary” (review),
gI

Micrometer eye-piece, 270

Microscope, deceptive appearance of
objects under, 121

— machine for cutting vegetable sec-
tions for, 529

— lamp, 120

Microscopes, analytical catalogue of,
529

Microscopic objeéts, classification of,
397

Microscopical drawings, instrument
for making, 529

Microscopy, progress in, 120, 269,
397, 529 ‘

— coloured glasses in, 529

Micro-spectroscope, objects for, 122

INDEX.

549

Midland distri, blast-furnaces in, 100

MILLER, W, A., ‘‘ Elements of Chemis-
try” (review), 381

Milk-sugar in vegetable juice, 116

Mineral statistics for 1870, 257, 261

Mineralogy of Cornwall and Devon,
102

— progress in, Ior, 261, 389, 520

Mineralogical tables, 390

Miners’ Association of Cornwall and
Devon, 387

‘““Mining Magazine and Review,” 259

Mining, progress in, 97, 257, 385,

EY)

‘* Miscellanies,” by J. A. SymMonps
(review), 81

‘*Molecular Physics in the Domain of
Radiant Heat, contributions to,”
by J. TYNDALL (review), 504

Molybdenum, mineral, ror

Mont Cenis Tunnel, 106

MortTov, H., vertical lantern, 396

Montebrasite, mineral, 262

Moray, TESSIE DU, progress of oxy-
gen light of, 528

Muscle, living, conductivity of, 405

Music of speech, 281

66 Nee Philosophy,” by J.
C. Warp (review), 384

“ Natural Philosophy,” by E. Arkin-
SON (review), 380

“Natural Philosophy, Elementary
Treatise on,” by A. P. Descua-
NEL (review), 255

‘Naval Science,”’ 268

Newfoundland, mineral resources of,
518

NicHo.son, H. A., ‘Introduction to
the Study of Biology” (review),

377

— ‘ Zoology for Students’ (review),
376

Nickel plating, 402

Nitrogen for plants, kreatine as source
of, 114

ss Qo Explorations.” by W.
L. JORDAN (review), 353

OaiLBy, W., ‘‘New Theory of the

Figure of the Earth” (review),

382
Ouiver, S. P., British artillery ma-
tériel, 232

— medizval and modern ordnance
compared, 333

— the dolmen mounds and amor-
pholithic monuments of Brittany,
I, 436

Ordnance, medizval
compared, 333

and modern

55°

““Ordnance rifled, Construction and
Manufacture of,’’ by Capt. F. S.
STONEY (review), 363

‘Organic Philosophy” (review), 79

ORMATHWAITE, Lord, ‘ Astronomy
and Geology compared ” (review),

374

Out R. D., ‘‘ Debatable Land be-
tween this World and the Next ”’
(review), 237

“‘ Oxford and Valley of Thames, Geo-
logy of,” by J. PHiLuirs (review),

35
Oxyhydrogen light, 119
Ozone, generation of, 403

AGE, D:, (othe Earthis, Crust”
(review), 377
Painting on tin-foil, 408
Paraffin, action of sulphur on, 115
— experiments on joint effect of pres-
sure and heat upon, 530
Panification, new process of, 110
Paper at the International Exhibition,
463
Paris sewage, 392
Patent gas, 105

‘‘Pereira’s Elements of Materia
Medica” (review), 372

Perfume from Arabia, 411

Petroleum, cleaning glass vessels

from, III

— for fuel, 108

— testing, 537

PHILuips, J., ‘*Geology of Oxford
and Valley of the Thames ”’ (re-
view), 368

Phosphate of lime, 278

— — from South of France, 102

Phosphorescence produced by friction,
128

Phosphorus bronze, 112

Photography as an aid to locksmiths,
II

Photographic latent image, new theory
of, 118

Photographs of microscopic objects,
121

“Physics,” by B. STEWART (review),

3
ss Pigaicn Elementary Treatise on”’
by E. ATKINSON (review), 83
Physiological position of tobacco, 479
Pigments known to ancients, IIo
Pitticite, analysis of, ror
Planet, new, 269
Polarisation of eletricity, 275
Potassium, reduction of by sodium,
115
Ponton, M., spectroscope, its imper-
fections and their remedy, 47

INDEX.

[October,

Portland breakwater, 525

Powder, modern cannon, 58

Printing on glass, I10

— telegraph, 127

Prisms, compound, I1g

ProcrTor, R. A., *‘ A new Star Atlas ”’
(review), 378

— construction of the heavens, 308

— ‘‘Essays on Astronomy” (review),

500
— meteoric astronomy, 137
Projectiles, medizval and modern

compared, 333
Pseudomorphism, instances of, 390
Psychic force, 136
Public health ad, 454
Pucherite, new mineral, ror
Puddling furnace, Danks’s, 259
— — Newport, 388
— machine, rotary, 387
— mechanical, 99
Pulverised fuel, ro4
‘‘ Pyramid of Gizeh,” by A. F. D.

WACKERBARTH (review), 85
Pyro-plating, 536
Pyrites, roasting, 261

UEENSLAND, mineral resources
of, 507

ABBLE, rotating for puddling
furnaces, 387

Radiation of heat by flames, 123

Railway projects, 264, 523

Red blood corpuscles, experiments on
the, 134

Refrigerator, dynamic, 530

Relay, telegraphic, 404

Resin, fossil, ror

Reversing rolling mills, 520

“ Road and Railway Bridges, modern
examples of,’ by W. H. Maw
and J. DREDGE (review), 507

Rock-boring, machine for, 519

Rockets for night telegraphy, 119

Roepperite, mineral, 521

RoNnaLDs, Sir F., ‘‘ Description of an
Electric Telegraph” (review), 82

Roscoz, H. E., ‘* Chemistry” (re-

view), 377

Rubber-graphite paint, 538

Se apparatus for mines,

\ 258

— lamp, 386

Sand blast, 265

Sanps, B. F., ‘‘ Observations of the
Total Solar Eclipse of Dec. 22,
1870” (review), 370

Sansom, Dr., ‘‘ The Antiseptic Sys-

tem” (review), 77

1872.]

SCHELLEN, H., ‘‘ Spectrum Analysis ”’
(review), 247

“Science Primers”’ (review), 377

Scotch iron manufacture, 520

Sea water, analysis of, 116

Sectional paper for drawings, 123

Sewage of Paris, 392

— works, 107

Shafts, sinking, 387, 394

Ship, aérial, 457

Silica, new mineralogical species, 389

Silk, printing on, 542

Silver, metallurgy of, 260

Silvered glass specula, 117

Simonyte, mineral, 261

Singing-flames, 518

Slag, removing from _ blast-furnace,
820

SmirH, R. AnGus, ‘Air and Rain”
(review), 498

Sodium, reduction of potassium by,

II5
** Solar Eclipse of Dec. 22, 1870, Ob-
servations of’’ (review), 370

Sound produced by heat, 4o1

‘* Species, Origin of, by Natural Se-
lection,” by C. DARwIN (review),
374 .

Speech, music of, 281

‘Spectrum Analysis,” by H. SCHEL-
LEN (review), 247

Spectroscope, its imperfections and
their remedy, 47

Specula, silvered glass, 117

SPENCER’S puddling furnace, 259

‘* Spiritualism, report on, by the Com-
mittee of the London Dialectical
Society ” (review), 73

Spontaneous generation, 135

— combustion of a wooden beam,

531

Spring, thermal saline, in Cornwall,
518

““ Star Atlas,” by R. A. Procror (re-
view), 378

Stars, distance of fixed, 118

Steam boilers, evaporative efficiency
of, 401

— jet, for exhaustion, 395

— ventilator, 258

Stellar motions, determination of, by
spectroscope, 397

STEwarT, B., ‘ Physics” (review),
S77

Stibnite, analysis of, 115

STIRLING, J. H., ‘‘ As regards Proto-
plasm ”’ (review), 502

Stirlingite, 521

SToneEy, F. S., ‘‘Constru@ion and
Manufacture of Rifled Ordnance”
(review) 363

INDEX.

oo5

Sugar, milk, in vegetable juice, 116

— action of water and heat upon, 530

Sulphide of carbon, removal of from
coal gas, 395

Sulphur, action of on paraffin, 115

— as a lubricating agent, 409

Sulphuric acid from coal-gas, 124

Sun, inductive aGtion of a cause of
terrestrial magnetism, 276

Sun’s temperature, 271

Sun’s rotation, measuring velocity of,

527

Sutherlandshire coal, 517

SuTTon, F., ‘* Volumetric Analysis ”’
(review), 92

Symonps, J. A.,
(review), 81

* Miscellanies ”’

ATE, R., ‘‘ Rudimentary Treatise
on Geology”’ (review), 85

Tin ore in New South Wales, 259

Technology, progress in, 108, 277, 408

Telegraph printing, 127

Telegraphing with skyrockets, 169

Telegraphy, early foreshadows of, 405

— military, 407

Temperature, influence of, and posi-
tion of spectrum lines, 269

— — of soils, 271

— — sun’s, 271

‘Thames, valley of, Geology of the,”
by J. PHILLIPs (review), 368

Thermo-electric battery with liquids,
130

TuHompson, G.. ‘‘ Discovery of a New
World of Being” (review), 381

Tuupicuum, J. L. W., ‘ Chemical
Physiology ”’ (review), 380

TopLey, W., geology of Straits of
Dover, 208

Torpedoes, 104, 392

TREVITHICK, F., ‘‘ Life of Richard
Trevithick ” (review), 507

Tridymite, mineral, 262

Trogerite, mineral, 262

Times, J., ‘‘ Year-Book of Fas in
Science and Art” (review), 384

Tubes connected by gas-light joint, 540

Tunnel, Clifton, 393

— Mont Cenis, 106

Turn-table, self centering, 399

‘* Turning, patterns for,” by H. W.
ELPHINSTONE (review), 502

TYNDALL, J., ‘‘ Contributions to
Molecular Physics in the Domain
of Radiant Heat” (review), 504

ANADIUM, mineral containing,
IOI
Varnish, black-brown for metallic
objects, 110

*

952

Varnish, for wood, 409
Vegetation, influence of
light upon, 528
Ventilator, steam, 258
Vertical lantern, 396
Vibrations of flames, 123
Vienna Exhibition, 526
Vinegar, detection of sulphuric acid
in, 411
Vision, recurrent, 527
Voltaic couples, researches on, 126
— element, new sulphate of copper,533

coloured

ACKERBARTH,A. F. D.,‘‘The
Pyramids of Gizeh”’ (review),
85
Waaner, R., ‘* Handbook of Chemical
Technology” (review), 502
Watuace, A. R., Review of R. D.
OweEn’s “‘ Debatable Land,” 237
Walpurgine, mineral, 262
Warp, J. C., ‘‘ Elementary Natural
Philosophy ”’ (review), 384
Washing linen, preparation for, 408
Water from wells in proximity to
burial-grounds, 112
— freezing of, 531
— value and storage of, 226
Warts, W. M., ‘‘ Index of Spectra”
review) 38 3
— H. ‘“‘ Index to Gmelin’s Handbook
of Chemistry ” (review), 384

List OF PLATES IN VOLUME IT:

INDEX.

Waves, motion of on surface of liquid,
267

Weather prophecies, 432

Wells near burial-grounds, decrees
relating to, 410

WHEATSTONE’S bridge, 406

Whiskey adulteration, 410

Wigan, coal field of, 258

WILLIAMS, J., ‘Observation of Comets
from Chinese Annals” (review),

367
“Winds, Law of,” by W. C. Ley, .

(review), 367
Wing of butterfly, development of,

134
Wire, inferior copper, 531
Woop, J. G., ‘‘Inse&s at Home”

(review), 82
— protection of from fire, 53
— preservation of, 53
** Woolwich Infant,” 103

EAR-BOOK of Faéts in Science
and Art,” by J. Timgs (review) 384

JERE Sar
Zeolotic minerals, 262
Zinc, coating copper and brass with,
407
— coating with iron, 540
“Zoology for Students” by H. A.
NICHOLSON (review), 376

(N.S.)

PAGE.

MopERN CANNON POWDER :—
Sectional Elevation of Crushing Instrument : : : : : 64
Chronoscope ° : 2 : 7 : 68
Chronoscope Pressure Curves ° : > 69
METEORIC ASTRONOMY c > ae 152
GEOLOGY OF THE STRAITS OF Dover . c 212
Vertical Setions illustrating ditto 217
Geological Map of Straits of Dover 1220
MEDIZVAL ORDNANCE . - 336
MopDERN ORDNANCE 5 : . 2 387
RELATIVE SIZE OF ANCIENT AND MopERN PROJECTILES : . - 344

LIST OF WOODCUTS IN VOLUME II. (N.S.)

Natural and Artificial Flight (7 figures) . 5 ¢ 0 . n 27

New Apparatus for Gas Analysis .
Compound Prisms (2 figures)

Natural and Artificial Flight (17 figures) . . :

Spectrum Analysis (4 figures)

113
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182

247

Image of the Carbon Points of Eleatric Lamp : - 255
Apparatus for Showing the Motion of Waves on the Surface of a

Liquid ‘ : : 6 A . A - 268

Erection for Binocular Microscope 2 308
Improved Reflex Illuminator for Highest Powers of Microscope >|" 1400
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