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Engineering Vol 69 1st June 1900
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J UNE I, I 900.] E N G I N E E R I N G. 701
THE COST OF ELECTRIC POWER PRODUCTION.
TABLE VI. - C OST Ob' W ORKH\G SOME NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC ROADS PER CAR-MILE, 1898.
By PBILIP DAWSON.
IT is proposed in this article to consider briefly what connection, if any, exists between the first cost of a plant and that at which power can be Track in miles.·
produced. The initial cost of a plant may be roughly divided
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• • . .
into four parts : Land and buildings. Plant, includ- Onrs closed . . . . . .
inu all machinery in station. Mains, feeders, and ., open . . . . . . di:tributors. MiscellA.neous, which includes such Cars equipped with motors things as meters, instruments, cost of provisional , , , fenders
order, and such-like. Snow ploughs . . . . . .
T ABLE I.-C~parative Cost of Producing tht Board Car-miles rm1 . . . . . . of T1·ade Unit in a Lighting amd T'raction Plant. Passengers . . . . . .
Fuel . • . . . . Oil waste nod stores Wages and snlaries .. Maintenance . . . .
• • • •
Lighting in Pence. Traction in Pence. per car-mile .. 0.300 to 2.2110 0.09 to 0.50 " 0.050 , 0.380 0.005 , C.20 Round t l'i ps ..
. . •• • •
Fare (in pence) • • ••
0.28 , 1.600 0.03 ,. 0.40 Employ~ 0.054 " 0.600 0.0•·25 " 0.06
• • • •
• • ••
• • • •
•• • •
•• • •
• • • •
• • . . . . • •
•• • •
• • • •
• • • •
•• ••
Total .. • • 0.68! " 4.7 0.1275 " 1.16 Operating expenses per cent. of earnings
TABLE !I. - Cost of Power on Va1·ious .Eu1·opean Electric R epairs of road bed and track . . . . T1·amway Lines.
Name of Com· pa.oy.
Aix-la·Ohapelle.ot GP.ra . . . . Hamburg t .. Brussels . . . . Ho.nov('r . . . .
Cost of Pa·o· ' Cost ali duction per which Sold
Board of to T ramway Trade Unit. Company.
• • 1.32 0.94 1.09 0.84
d. 1.44 Lo 1.38
• • 1 24 . . • •
Quantit.y Company Gua rantee
to Buy.
1,500,000 ••
2,600,000 • •
••
Motive Power.
Steam ,, " " "
" " "
fences . . . . ..
buildings and fixtures ..
electric line construction
Reroontl of snow and ice ..
Repairs of cars . . . .
" equipment of cars
Car e of hm·ses . . . . . . Electric motive power ..
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
Wages conducting tl·a nsportation
• •
. .
. . • •
••
• •
• •
••
• •
••
• •
• •
• •
••
••
. . ••
• •
• •
• •
• •
. .
. . • •
• •
••
• •
•
••
• •
• •
. . Rome . . . . • • nresden! . . . . 0.96
1.77 1.56 1.15
• • Water Steam Water Steam
, and salaries , ot.h er . . . • . . . . • •
• •
Geneva . . . . Bnden· Voslnu ..
600,000 • •
1.64 • •
tt Electric Supply Company pays 7.68d. for e,·ery car-mile which tramwn.r company are prevented from running through its fault.
t Electric Supply Company pays 9.6d. for eYery car-mile which tramway company are prevented from running through its fault.
t Corporation pays 8d. for every car-mile which tramway corn· pany are pre,·en ted from ru nning through its fault.
Accident fund 2~ per cent. of g ross earnings ..
Fire insurance. . . . . . . .
Ot~·'"expenses, legal, printing, &c.
Total expenses per cnt'-mile ..
• •
• •
• •
Receipts from passengers per cnr·mile ..
Enrnings per car· mile . . • • • •
• •
• •
• •
• •
•
Winchester Avenue Railroad Company, West
Haven.
21.44 (including West Shore Ro.ilwnr
39)
39
52
50
60 4
746,801 4,381,462
5. 729
• •
155
2!, 5
G7.8
. 5720d.
• •
. 0493d.
. 0372d.
.0402d.
. 2096d.
. 247ld.
. 0.312d.
. 'i902d.
3.3070d .
.4266d.
. . .1045d .
. 09!3d . 6.6499d.
10.0620d .
10.7650d.
•
New Haven Sta·eet Railway
Company.
30.75
35
33
G 68
4
883,731
3,093,458
3.503
• •
100
2!, 5
60.6 . 2231d .
. 0477d.
. 0075d .
. 0767d .
.0526d.
.577d.
.1798d.
.€660d.
.0089d .
2.43!5d.
.21S6d.
. 0121d.
0.65 d.
. 1526d.
4.9627d .
8.1080d.
8.1850d.
Ho.a·tford Street Railwny Oom·
pany.
70.201
05
85
180
180
8 2,228,932
8,886,229
3.996
284,203
530
2!, 5, 7!, 10
69.2
. 5164d .
. 1734d .
. 137ld.
. 181d.
.1132d.
. 4132d.
. 2831d.
. 0706d .
. 9963d.
2.92''7d.
. 3905d.
.1939d.
.106-!d.
.1928d.
G.7988d.
9.8090d.
9.8260d.
Fair Haven and West,·ille Rnil· road Company.
29.853
52
46
88
88
1
1,283,642
4,898,303
3.816
170,0"'6
225
2,\- + 2t on t he - line
56.3
. 2855d .
• •
.0373d .
.Oi96d .
.0013d.
.2014-d .
.1305d .
• •
.520/d.
2.8235d.
. 7193d.
. 1251d .
.0263d.
.4253d .
5.4363d.
9.5025d.
9.653d.
Bridgeport T a·action Com ·
pa ny.
52.60
53
51
66
65
7
1,464,038
4,108,260
2.824
220,680
200
2!, 6, 7!
51.6
.0131d .
.0176d .
.0888d .
.0446d . •
. 0789d.
.3963d .
.345d .
.027d .
.4865d .
2.0555d.
.3895d .
.236d .
.0724d.
.2085d . 4.278d.
8.2165d.
8.284d.
T ABLE III.-Power Conswm.ption on Various European Lines per Car-Mue.
TABLE VII. - METROPOLITAN STREEl' RAILWAY C oMPANY, NEw YORK, W oRKING E XPENSRS.
12 .MOXTUS E~DIXG NOYE~tnER, 1898.
Name of Company. Grnde.
ALx-la·Ohapelle.. 1 in 11 Gera . . . . • • Hamburg . . . . Brussels, Ln. Pe- 1 in 25
tite Espinette Zwickau . . . . 1 , 25
Hanover . . • . level Konigsberg . . 1 in 24 Dortmund . . 1 , 40 LUbeck . . . . 1 , 20 Strnsburg . . 1 , 70 Rome . . . . 1 , 10 Zurich . . . . . . Bad eo· Voslnu . . . . Bristol . . .. 1 in 15 Leeds . . . . 1 , 20 Glasgow . . . . 1 , 14 Dover . . . . 1 , 25
Average Board of
Trade Units per Car-Mile.
.589 to 1.236 .975 .902
1.200 (heavy cars)
.670 on level, 1.230on incline
.681
.608
. 576
.592 .688 (large car)
1.056 . 782
0.490 1.000 0.960 1.370 0.980
Avera~e Speea
per Hour .
miles 8 8
6 to 12 16
6 to 8 8
7 to8 8 8
7 to 8 9 8 ~ 7 6 7
Pounds of Coal per
Oar Mile.
lb. 3.5 to 6.9
21 (lignite) 3.21
4.6 to 4.9
3.91 7
8
T ABLE IV.-Total Working Expe'll.ses in H amtburg in Pence per Car-Mile in 1898.
(Three trail car -miles are supposed equnl to oue motor car mile.)
Supply of electric power . . . . . . . . 0.609 Repairs and cleaning of trucks and motors . . 0.213 Wages and salaries . . . . . . . . 1. 650 Main tenance and depreciation of overhead
line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.101 Sinking fund . . . . . . . . . . 0.658 Track maintenance . . •. . . . . 0.018 Oar cleaning and mamtenance . . . . . . 0.144 Office expense~ and insurance . . . . . . O.U72
Total per car-mile . .
Car-mileage run by moLor cars .. , , , t ra i 1 , ..
Number of motor cars . . . . , trail , . . . .
Lengt h of single track in miles . .
• •
• •
• •
• •
• • • •
• •
••
• •
• •
• •
• •
3.555
10,287,000 4,241,000
401 300 150
TABLE V.-Cost of Running Leeds Elect·ric T rctmways dtvring 1898 in Pence per Car-Mile.
Electric power . . . . . . Wages and salaries . . . . Repairs and maintenance .. Road and maintenance. . . .
• •
• •
• •
•• Compensation and management • •
••
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
••
•• .. ••
d. 0.56 1.98 1.24 0.28 0.77
Total . . . . . . .. .. 4.83
In the early days, before polyphase high-t ension currents were known, the situation of the central station was practically imposed, very little latitude being possible owing to the maximum distance of economical t ransmission being limited. Electricity works being most required in crowded centres, it was not only difficult to obtain a site at all, but the
-
M.All\TENA!\CP. OF PER)IA:SE:ST W AY.
____________________ ..... _______________________ ..... Matetials and labour on trnck proper
Tube cleaners and oilers
Repairs to buildings ..
Snow and ice . . . .
R epairs of cable nnd labour
Total
••
• •
• •
••
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
• • . . •• • •
• • • •
• • ••
• • • •
• • • •
J)f aintenance of Equipment. Oars a nd vehicles . . . . . . . .
Cable or electric equipment, tools, &c. . .
Total • • • • • •
P ower.
Repairs to stenm plant •• • • • •
" , electric and cable plant • •
Harness and stable equipment • • • •
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
••
• • .. • • • •
• • ••
• • .. • • • •
• • ••
• • • •
•• • •
• • ••
. . • •
•• • •
• • ••
Horses, renewn.ls, feeding, hostlers, &c.. . . . . . . .
Engine and power service, fuel, light and power supplies ..
W atet· . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Total • • •• • • • • • . . ••
Tra:nsportation.
• •
• •
••
• •
•
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
••
• •
. , • •
Conductors, drivers, inspectors, ca.r lighting, oil, car house ex· penses, &c. . . . . . . . . . . . .
General Expenses. Offices, clerks, dnmages, &c. •• • •
Totnl operating expenses
Total car -mileage . . . . . . . .
Ratio of working expenses to receipts ..
•• • •
• • ••
• • • •
•• • •
• • • •
• • • •
• • • •
. . • •
• • • •
cost of the ground was very great. H enpe the necessity of crowding the greatest amount of power into the smallest possible space. The plants being mostly used for lighting, and only running a few hours each day, highly economical engines and boilers and labour-saving appliances were of but lit tle advantage. At present, circumstances have altered; electricity can economically be transmitted to any distance, and is utilised--and will be more and more so every day-firstly for power purposes, and secondly for lighting purposes.
H ence a modern plant, instead of running but a limited number of hours a day, will be practically running nearly 24 hours every day. The
CABLE.
Pence per Oar-Mile.
0.680
0.220
0.015
0.065
0.880 ----.-
1.760
0.285
0.180 ---
0.465
0.065
0.050
0.000
0.025
0. 775
0.090
1.005
3.935
-1.035
8.200
11,991,404
47.7 p er cent.
E LECTRIC.
Pence per Car· Mile.
0.110 0.030
0 005
0.020
0.000
0.165
0.200
0.210
0.410
0.015
0.005
0.000
0.235
0.545
0.040
0.840
3.075
0.010
6.100
'i,110,090
37.9 per cent.
H ORSE.
Pence per Car-Mile.
0.276
0.000
0.050
0.030
0.000
0.355
0. 190
0.000
0.190
0.000
0.000
0.090
3.075
0.000
0.035
3.200
4.245
0.935
8.926
15,994,912
65.8 per cent.
average cost for existing British plants, according to Mr. E. Garcke's Manual of Electrical Undertakings, expressed in percentage of total capital expenditure, is approximately as follows :
Land and buildings, 19 to 23 per cent. ; machinery and plant, 35 to 37 per cent. ; the various remaining items from 4 to 14 per cent. As regards the first item, the above average includes several old lighting stations, and there is lit tle doubt that , if a new plant were to be put down, the cost of land could be materially reduced. Th~ differ~nce which exists. betw~en a plant
workmg contmuously and only mterm1ttantly is at once seen in the average amount of coal consumed
•
•
j02 E N G I N E E R I N G. [JUNE I, 1900.
THE PARIS EXHIBITION CIRCULAR RAILWAY AND TRA YELLING PLATFOR~1.
per unit generA.ted. The type of engine used must, however, also be taken into consideration.
Thus, taking the published results of British electric-light plants, we find that the cost of coal per unit generated varies approximately between 0.3 pence and 2.2 pence. Comparing this to tract ion plants, we find the cost of co~l varying between 0.09 and 0.50 pence per unit generated (see Table I .). Again, considering the item of wages and salaries in a lighting station, we have 0.3 to 1.6 pence; in the case of traction, this is 0.03 to 0.40 pence per unit. Comparing the total cost of production of one Board of Trade unit generated in a lighting station and in a traction station, interest and sinking fund excluded, in the former, the unit varies from 1.00 to 4.00 pence, as compared to 0.25 to 1.00 penny for traction purposes. Table II. shows the comparative costs of producing electric power in average lighting and traction plants. Or, in other words, the cost of power when generated for traction and power purposes is one-quar ter of that when generated for lighting only. . . .
The amount to be added for mterest and sm kmg fund, of course depends on the length of the concession, on the terms of final purcha e, and on t he life of the machinery employed. The cost of p roducing power varies with the amou.nt to be produced, decreasing as the amount mc: eases. This shows the advisability of concentratmg. as much power as possible in one station, and reducmg t he number of units. The question as to the quali ty of coal to be employed is one. on :vhich authorities do not always agree, and wluch Will be d iscussed in detail in a future article.
In considering the yarious items which go to
•
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~ake ~ complete power or traction installation, mclud1ng the system of feeders, distributors track ~nd overhead line, the cost of the power ~tation 1s ~ut a. comparatively small item. The saving whi~h c.an be effected by a. properly designed statwn. IS v~rY: great, and a. little extra capital expenditure IS m many cases well justified.
The total cost of running an electric tramway or railwa! varies ~etween. 2. 50 and 8. 00 pence per car mile, according to ci_rcumstances ; the electrical energy ~t the power .station required varying from 0.49 units to 1.4 ';!nits per car~mile, according to the profile of the hne and the weight and speed of the cars. Ta~le III. gives the average consumption of
electric power at the switchboard per car-mile of several existing European lines; and Table II., the cost of production and charges tnade to tramway compan~es who do n<;>t generate their own power. Comparing these priCes to those at which current can be produced by a modern and properly designed and operated station, it will at once be seen that they are exorbitant.
The cost of the electric power necessary t o run light, and heat the cars forms from 10 to 40 pe~ cent. of the total working expenses. The three largest items in the running costs are power, wages and salaries, and sinking fund.
Tables IV., V. and VI., which give respectively the working of the Hamburg, L eeds, and of some New .England electric tramways, are interesting as sh~wing ~he P.reportion and the great variation wh10h exists In the various cases between the proportions of the various items.
Table VI. gives the detailed working expenses and other useful data. of the most important New England roads during 1898.
Table VII. is specially interesting, showing the results obtained on the New York lines by the substit ution of electric for cable traction. A few facts and figures r egarding this great system are interesting in this connection.
(To be continued. )
LITERATURE. Egyptia!n Irrigation. By W. WrLLCOOKS, C.M.G .• M.
Inst. C.E., late Director-General of Reservoirs. With an Introduction by Major HANBURY BROWN, C.M.G., late R .E., Inspector-General of Irrig,ation, Lower Egypt. Second Edition. London: E. and F. N. Spon. New York: Spon and Chamberlain. [Price 30s.]
"The Egyptian question is the irrigation ques-
E N G I N E E R I N G. The Nile itself runs between high banks, which ~onfine the flood to the channel, except where it Is led away by the canals. After the basins are emptied, the crop is sown, and grows rapidly. The harves~ follows, and then the fields are left parched and and for several months, except such portions of them as can be irrigated by water raised from wells, which is not very much. In perennial irrigation,. on the contrary, water is available all the year round, and the land is never drowned. In the flood-time the c~nals run full, while in the summer they are at a lower level, but water can always be obtained, either direct ly or by pumping. The result is that three crops can be obtained in a year, and products, such as sugar and cotton, can be grown which require to be planted at times which do not coincide with the abatement of the annual flood. This system has prevailed in the Fayoum since time immemorial, the water being derived from a cann.l called the Bahr Yusuf, which branched from t he Nile far south, and following an easier gradient, eventually delivered its water at a much higher level. The modern development of the system dates from about 1820, when Mehemet Ali Pacha. inaugurated very large irrigation works in the Delta. In 1873 a large area in Upper Egypt was also brought under perennial irrigation. Vast sums were spent on these works, and undoubtedly immense returns were obtained. But owing to Oriental methods of construction and management, the cost was far greater and the returns far less than they should have been.
When the British took the country in hand it was at once evident that the irrigation system was in a. deplorable condition, and that no one knew exactly what was needed to put it right. A number of irrigation engineers were obtained from India, under Colonel Moncrieff, Mr. Willcocks, the author of this book being one of t hem ; and they were sent into the country to feel their way, and to do what they could with very limited resources to prevent decay ripening into disaster. This volume is a record of what they have done, and it furnishes matter for pride to us, both aB engineers and Englishmen, to read what enormous benefits have flowed from the exertions of a few men who, in 17 years, have brought order out of chaos, and have rendered happiness possible to millions of fellaheen. Mr. Willcocks is peculiarly well adapted to be the historian of the movement, because he has been connected with so many important features of it . We are told by Major Brown, in the introduction, that Mr . Willcocks was the first to see that the Barrage was capable of repair : a discovery of immense importance, as it enabled the flow of water to all parts of the Delta to be greatly increased. He held the posit ion of Inspector of Irrigation of the Central Provinces of the Delta, and did much for the improvement of the district, and also for the abolition of the corvee, the system of forced labour which so grievously oppressed the peasantry. During the low flood of 1888, he accompanied and advised the Ministers of Public Works, on a. special mission undertaken to consider measures for meeting the difficulties of the sit uation. Afterwards, as Director-General of R eservoirs, he conducted the studies which led to the decision to make a reservoir above the First Cataract ; and he drew up the designs and estimates according to which the Assouam Dam and the Assiout Barrage are being built . Finally, he was en trusted with the work 9f ascertaining the rental value of all land in Egypt: a task which made him intimately acquainted with every part of the country.
tion," said N ubar Pacha ; and certainly no one was better able to speak on the subject than he. The matter, however, does not rest on authority; it is capable of easy demonstration. Egypt became a ''question " because it could not meet its liabilities, and thus furnished West ern Powers with an excuse to meddle in its affairs. Could it have obt ained a sufficient income to meet the payments on its debts, and t o have defrayed the cost of government, it might have pursued its own path, certain that the jealousies of the Powers would have been a safer protection than any armaments. Its indebtedness, however, grew faster than its resources, and it met the fate predicted by Mr. Micawber of all whose expenditure exceeds their income. The Egyptian revenue is derived, directly or indirectly, from a tax on agricultural products, and all agriculture in Egypt is dependent on the water of the Nile. When that is available in the required quantities, the cultivators can pay t heir taxes easily; while, when it is short in amount, they find it difficult enouo-h to live, without contributing anything t o the r~venue. Thus it is t hat irrigation- the system of delivering water when and where it is needed- is t he key to Egyptian finance, and through that to its international difficulties.
There are two systems of irrigation in Egypt, and probably always have been-basin irrigat~on and perennial irrigation. In the former, whiCh obtains chiefly in Upper and Middle Egypt, that is, south of Cairo, the country is divided by earthen banks into irregular portions of about 10 square miles area, on t he average, and in the autumn each basin is filled to a depth of 4 ft ., or 5 ft., or 6 ft . with flood water from t he Nile, and this water is allowed to lie for about a month. The country is not .flooded, as we understand such a phenomena here, but the filling and emptying is done in an ordered manner, by means of canals which are provided with sluices, or regulated by temporary ear then dams .
One is particularly struck with the fair-mindedness of the author of this work. He holds very decided opinions, but he does not conceal the fact that they do not meet universal acceptance. He entrusted the writing of the preface to a gentleman who differs strongly from him on certain points, and did not hesitate to defend his own ideas and practice ; and hence we have the unusual spect acle of an introduction which is also a. critiq'tte. Throughout the volume there are quotations from reports which are not in agreement with Mr. Willcocks' own conclusions, and the reader is t hus warned that the question of irrigation is not so simple as he might otherwise imagine. If it were confined to leading t he water to the crops, the matter would be fairly easy, provided the water were available; but the water has also to be drained away, in order to prevent the land "salting" and becoming sterile. Further, it is most important to prevent '' infiltration" - the rising up of water
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[JuNE I, 1900.
through the land-as that brings up the salt in large quantities. Mr: 'Yillcocks .is, therefore, a great advocate of periOdical washing, such as occurs in basin irri&ation; and he looks with apprehension at the great Increase of perenni~tl irrigation, if it is not carried on with greater care than has hitherto obtained. When the level of water in the canals is kept continually higher than the surface of the fields, there is always danger of infiltration.
. It is impossible, within the space available, to gtve any adequate account of the contents of this valuable work, and we must be content with a brief s~nopsis .of the .chapters. These are (I.) Egypt In relatiOn to Its geology, meteorology, agriculture, land system, imports, exports, and revenue. (I I.) The Nile from Lake Victoria to the Sea. (HI.) Basin Irrigation in Upper Egypt Part . I. (IV.) Basin Irrigation in Upper Egypt: Part II., beginning at the year 1886, and tracing the alterations and improvements introduced since t.hat date. (V.) Perennial Irrigat ion in Upper Egypt. (VI.) Perennial Irrigation in Lower Egypt. (VII.) Egypt by Provinces, dealing with proprietors, population, rent, taxes, manures, factories, crops, drainage, and the like. (VIII.) Drainage and Land Reclamation. (IX.) The Barrages. (X.) The Nile in Flood, explaining the regulation of the flood watero. (XI.) Engineering Details, in connection with regulators, canals, escapes, silt deposit, dredging, well-sinking, masonry, &c. (XII.) Duty of Water, and Agricultural. (XIII.) Administrative and Legal. (XIV.) Reservoirs, giving accounts of the various projects which have been suggested for storing water in Egypt. Eleven Appendices.
The most beneficent results that the English irrigation engineers have attained in Egypt have been to get the full benefit out of the works they took in hand. Before their t ime, everything was managed on the Oriental plan of doing as little as possible, and beating someone when a disaster occurred. They naturally changed all that. They insisted on the officials doing their duty, and t hey gradually-by minor alterations and improvements -brought order and regularity into a department which before had been characterised by sloth and waste. But the matters which appeal most to the imagination are the repair of t he barrages, and the building of the great dam at AssG>uan, which is now in progress. The barrages were weirs built across the two branches of the Nile where it forks at the head of the Delta, in order to hold up the level of the water in the summer where it enters the great irrigation canals. The works were completed in 1861, at a cost of 1,880,000l., exclusive of the cm"Vee, or forced labour of the peasants. In 1863 the Rosetta barrage was closed for the first time, but was reopened immediately, owing to a settlement of a part of the work. The ground under the weirs was practically soft Nile sand. The Rossetta weir was built on a platform, flush with the river bed, 46 metres (151 ft.) wide, and 3. 5 metres (11 ft. 6 in.). This was composed of concrete overlaid with brick and stonework. Upon this platform there was built a regulating bridge with 61 openings, each 16 ft. 5 in. wide. In each opening there is an iron gat.e, but this gate Ol'iginally did not., when lowered, reach the platform of the barrage ; it rested on an iron .grating 12 in. high, fixed into the pier~ just above the platform. This grating allowed a free passage of the water when the gates were down, and was put in to prevent deposits of mud. The Damietta. barrage has ten more openings than its fellow, and has a similar platform and superstructure. Curiously, all knowledge of the gratings seems to have been lost, and the spouting of the water through them· was held to indicate grave fissures in the foundations. The Da.mietta barrage was not closed ; that on the Rosetta. branch was closed when the Nile gauge stood at 12. 5 metres. The upstream gauge rose to 13 metres, while the downstream gauge fell to 11.25 metres, so that with a difference in water level, of 1.25 metres (50 in. ), there was a gain in water level of only . 5 metre (20 in. ). Gradually t he head fell to 1 metre, and the water level difference of level to . 35 metre.
Several engineers had been consulted at various times as to strengthening the barrages. Nothing, however, had been done, partly owing to want of money, and partly to the uncertainty of the operation, as it was known that the work had been shockingly sca.mped in places. In 1884 the irrigation engineers, under Sir Colin Soott Moncrieff, took the barrages in hand; and aided by a special
J UNE I, 1900.]
grant obtained from N ubar Pacha, they started on the work of strengthening them, the work being done principally under ~Ir. Willcocks, Mr. P erry, Colonel Western, and Mr. A. Reid. The tale is too long to tell in extenso, but it is well worth reading. In 1890 the repairs were complete on both dams, and the level of the water was held up to 14 metres. Much has since been done in the way of maint~nance ; and it is interesting to note that in 1896 and 1898, the piers were strengthened by ''stook ramming '' and cement grouting, on the plans devised by Mr. W. R. Kinip;Ple.
As to the reservoirs, we have so recently published (see page 318 ante) an account of the present condition of the great dam at Assouan, that it is not necessary to say more. In addition, however, to this site, Mr. "\Villcocks investigated several others, including the Wady R ayan, which was for ~everal years ably advocated by Mr. Cope Whitehouse, at a time when t he idea of storage of Nile water was considered more or less chimerical. Although it has been passed over for the simpler project of a dam in the bed of the Nile, there is always the possibility of its being revived. The ability of Egypt to utilise water is immense, and it is quite possible that it will outgrow the projected supply. It is more likely, however, that regulating work may, hereafter, be constructed farther south. Now that we talk glibly of the Cape to Cairo railway, and are opening up the way from Fashoda to Uganda, Egyptian irrigation is entering o.n a new phase, in which the possibilities for good are greatly increased. Whatever happens, however, Mr. Willcocks' book will remain a mine of valuable information, to which all future irrigation engineers will turn.
PARIS EXHIBITION RAILWAYS. (Continued from page 676.)
THE CIRCULAR ELECTRIC RAILWAY AND TRAVELLING PLATFORM.
IN a recent article (sAe ENGINEERING, page 647 ante) we illustrated and described, with some detail, the Timmis and Lavezarri system of electric sirnalling, adopted on the circular rail way that has b:en constructed for the convenience of visitors to the Paris Exhibition. It will be remembered how indispensable to passenger transport was the Decauville Rail way at the Exhibition of 1889, while four years later the World's :Fair at Chicago was provided partially with electric traction, and the travelling platform appeared for the first time. In this branch of engineering, matters have moved fast since 1893, so that not only has a steam-worked railway become obsolete for the present Exhibition, but it possesses a far more complete system, and one-thanks to the smaller area and more compact form of the grounds-of greater utility than was possible in Chicago. We have -already described the permanent extension lines that have been hastened to completion for the convenience of visitors to the Exhibition ; the present, and a subsequent, article will be devoted to the circular electric rail way and travelling platform which are essentially of a temporary character. The sketch plan which we publish on page 702 shows the course followed. The thicker line indicates the electric railway, and the thinner line, that highly popular mode of t ransport, the travelling platform; this ingenious mode of transport appears to afford endless delight to Exhibition visitors. It will be seen from the plan that the routes followed by the railway and the platform are similar, and that the latter is in places identical with that of the former. Fig. 1 shows the two lines at a station of the electric railway, with the travelling platform immediately above it. The stations on each are shown respectively by solid and open circles. Both lines commence at the upper part of the Esplanade des Invalides (Rue Fabert) and passing down this street, turn with a sharp curve to the Quai d'Orsay, which they traverse, parallel to the street of foreign pavilions and at the back of the A.rmy and Navy Building. In this way the lines reach t he A venue de la Bourdonnais, which they cross, leaving the Quai d 'Orsay with another sharp curve. At the upper end, where the Avenue de la Bourdonnais intersects the Avenue de la Motte Picquet, a third curve brings the lines into the last-named Avenue, following which they reach the point of departure in the Esplanade des Invalides. It will be seen from the plan that quite a large area outside the Exhibition, including parts of the Rues de Grenelle,
E N G I N E E R I N G.
Dorninique, and Universite, the Avenues Rapp and Bosquet, and the BouleYard de la Tour Maubourg are enclosed by the railways, which, moreover, are in places constructed quite outside the Exhibition boundaries. The works had therefore to be constructed in such a manner and at sufficiently high levels, as not to interfere with the traffic of the streets affected. How far the comforts of residents on the line of route may be interfered with by the constant passage of trains on the level of the first floor windows, is another matter.
A few words about the travelling platform are necessary here, on account of its close connection with the electric railway, although we reserve the details of its arrangement for another article. It was intended that the platform should be kept throughout its course at a certain levelabout 23 ft. -above the road, in order that passengers may see as much as possible during their extended and deliberate promenade ; and this condition has been admirably carried out. On the other hand, it was desirable for the convenience of passengers, and economy in construction, that the electric railway should, as far as possible, follow the ground level, and the various stations are practically on this level. But obviously this arrangement was impossible where the line follows the public streets; on such sections a sufficient elevation to clear all road traffic was necessary. Where road crossings occur they are for the most part made below the street le\·el, as was done with the little Decauville Railway in 1889. Under these conditions, it may be readily imagined that the line is one of frequent and steep gradients, as well as of sharp curves. The Esplanade des Invalides station (A, Fig. 2), is almost on t he ground level, but it rises sharply towards the Quai d'Orsay curve, where it is on the same level as the travelling platform ; it then fall s into cutting and tunnel to pass beneath the avenues converging on the Pont de l 'Alma. After this it rises to the ground level, and continues with an ascending gradient till it curves into the .Avenue de la Bourdonnais, and is again on the lovel of the travelling platform. Near here the line enters the Champ de Mars, and falls rapidly to the ground level, where, opposite the Mining and Metallurgical Building, is a station. Immediately beyond, the line falls quickly enough to pass beneath the Porte R app entrance to the Exhibition ; that is to say, near an entrance to the Textile Building, which, by the way, is sadly interfered with by the trestlework of the travelling platform. N ear this point there is a short branch leading to a service station, not accessible to passengers ; this station serves as a dep6t and repairing shops. The offices of both the electric rail way and travelling platform administrations are situated here. The whole of the traffic is controlled from these offices, the surveillance being greatly assisted by a very complete system of telephones common to the two means of transport, and about which we shall say more presently.
The last station on the Champ de Mars is at some 1ittle distance from the boundary, and is not opposite the end of the Machinery Hall, because at this point a rising gradient is lifting the track so as to take it out of the Exhibition limits, high enough to pass into the adjoining street. The high level is maintained after this, the line running down one side of the Avenue de la Motte Picquet, while the travelling platform at about the same height passes on the other side, in front of the first- floor windows of the Avenue. Passengers, especially those using the slower means of transport, can thus be entertained with passing views of the domestic arrangements of the first-floor residents, all of whom probably heartily resent the existence of the Exhibition. Continued on the high level, the electric railway enters the E splanade des Invalides, where it commences to fall rapidly, and terminates at the same level at which it commences in the Invalides station. From the foregoing explanation it will be realised that the circular tour by this line offers other attractions besides conveniences to passengers-those of sharp curves, severe gradients, and glimpses of family life. On the ground level, in open cutting, and in tunnel, the railway works show nothing of interest, but the viaducts are quite important structures which should be fully described. They were constructed for the railway company, called the Compagnie des Transports Electriques de !'Exposition, by a very famous firm of engineers and constructors-the Societe de Constructions de Levallois-Perret. It was this company which,
in 1889, made and erected the Eiffel Tower, and much other important work for the 1889 Exhibition. ~fr. Eiffel was at that time the director of the works. Quite recently the same firm supplied the important viaduct carrying the Moulineaux-Champ de Mars station across the Seine, and which was recently illustrated and described by u~ (see ENGINEERING, page 578 ante). We are indebted to the Levallois-Perret Company for the illustrations of the circular rail way viaduct accompanying this article, and for the following information. The total length of viaduct is about 4620 ft . on a total length of rail way of 4 kilometres, or more than one-third ; the maximum height of rails above the ground is 19 ft. 8 in. F ollowing the same direction as when describing the route of the line, the first viaduct is 915 ft. long, divided into 19 spans varying from 28 ft. to 55 ft. 9 in. The second viaduct is 916 ft.long, with 23 spans of from 39 ft . to 54 ft. The third and most important viaduct is over 2700 ft . in length ; it is composed of 55 spans varying from 49 ft. to 66ft. in length. A considerable range in the spans of t hese different viaducts was obviously necessary on account of the r e· quirements of the traffic interfered with, and the widths of streets that had to be crossed. At the same time a similar type cf construction was necessary throughout, both on account of appearance, and for convenience in construction, But little description of the structure is necessary, as the drawings we publish explain themselves. Figs. 3 and 4, page 703 illustrate one of the current 49-ft. spans.
On those portions of the viaduct set out on curves with radii varying from 40 to 60 metres (131 ft. to 196 ft. ), the construction followed on the straight viaduct has been modified, as shown in Figs. 5 to 12. The chief alterations are in placing the cross-girders further apart (66 in. ), and the rails are supported by intermediate bearers. The mode of bracing the piers is also slightly different, as will bo seen from the illustrations. The erection of the viaducts was a work of considerable interest, and mtl.y be described in some detail ; for it is to be remembered that in work of this class, it is not the construction, which is ordinary enough, but In the erection in crow.ded thoroughfares, where ingenuity is required to overcome difficulties. The diagrams Figs. 13 to 15 illustrate the method of erecting both the trestles and the superstructure, which offered a great contrast to the primitive systems followed in the erection of the Exhibition buildings. The beton foundat ions for a series of trestles being completed, a travelling gantry, outlined in Figs. 13 and 14, and worked by hand, was brought to the spot where the trestle was to be dealt with. The headway of the stage was sufficient to lift the trestle clear of the ground, the attachment being made by hooks as shown, and the hoisting done with a winch. When the t restle was raised high enough, the gantry was manceuvred until the bedplate was exactly in position over the foundation ; it was then dropped into place, and the staging was shifted to the next pier. In this way the work advanced very rapidly, a temporary track being laid on the street for the travelling gantry. To erect the girders, the latter were laid conveniently upon blocks placed on t.he ground. The hooks of the gantry hoist were then made fast, as shown in the diagram, and one end was raised to a certain height. A second hoist was then brought into use ; this latter travelled on a track laid on the viaduct already finished, and its hooks were attached to the other end of the girderwork. The operation of lifting a span and lowering it on the bearing plates of the trestles was thus very rapidly accomplished. The spans were put together and riveted upon the ground, so that they were in the best position for hoisting (Fig. 15). The weight of a span complete was about 6 tons, and the whole arrangement reflects great credit on the Lavallois-Perret works, and on their engineer who devised the system. "The illustrations show the n10de of laying the track on the viaducts ; a metre gauge has been adopted, the rails are flat-footed, weighing 50 lb. a yard, and are laid on ordinary crossties. Parallel to the track is a third rail, by which current is transmitted ; it is exactly similar to the others, and is insulated by paraffin, the bonds being made with copper strips riveted to the rails. This conductor rail is connected with feeders at various points ; it is laid on the outside of the track, with reference to the stations, so that passengers cannot run any risks by coming in contact with the conductor rail. Moreover, the whole course of the
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E N G I N E E R I N G. [JUNE I, 1900.
THE PARIS EXHIBITION; THE CIRCULAR ELECTRIC RAILWAY.
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they are commodious, of good appea~anc~, and simple, as should be ~he c~se for thi~ km~ of service and a very brief exiStence. Fig. 1 IS a .good iilustration of a station, and it shows t~e
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vehicle ; but which is raised when the latter is run into shed, or manreuvred in the shunting yard.
The rolling stock, apart from the motors, has been supplied by the Societe Anonyme FrancoBelge, which has kindly furnished us with drawings. The motor cars already in service are nine in number, and 18 trailing cars have been delivered. The former carry 82 persocs, for whom 46 seats are provided. As will be seen by the illustrations, Figo. 16 to 20, the arrangements of these carriages are very good ; the construction makes it impossible for passengers to get down on the outer, or third rail, side. The total length of the carriage, outside buffers, is 41 ft.; the length of the frame is 37 ft. 8 in. The general features of construction are shown in the drawings. E:11ch ca!-riagt' is fitted with a Soulerin brake, and
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an electric air compressor which can be operated by the carriage axles; hand-brakes are also fitted. On account of the very sharp curves, of which, as we have seen, there are several on the line, central buffers only are used. The trailing cars differ only in some details from the motor cars ; naturally no "motor man " compartment is necessary, but they do not hold so many passengers, the dimensions being smaller. The length over buffers is 30ft. 6 in.; and over frames, 27 ft. 5 in. ; the distance between centres of axles is 14ft. 9 in. As will be seen, they are four-wheeled vehicles mounted rigidly on the axles. Each train is made up of a motor car, and two trailers. At t he present time really heavy traffic has not commenced; when it does, the intention is to run trains at intervals of 1! minutes, and as the speed will be 16 or 17 kilometres, in-
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eluding stops, it is fair to estimate that this little line will be able to carry 10,000 people an hour, a. nu m her of visitors seeking transport that will probably be often exceeded. The motors, together with all the fixed electrical plant, have been furnished by the important Societe Industrielle d'Electricite, which was founded by the American W estinghouse Company. vVe are indebted to one of the society's engineers, M. D. Welter, for information on this part of our subject. The illustrations show the positions of the motors under the carriages ; they are of the latest Westinghouse types, are each of 30 horse-power, and the running speed is reduced by gearing in the ratio of 20 to 62. It is, in fact, simply a normal tramway motor with steel frame, and very carefully encased to keep out dust. For 30 horse-power
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~evelo~ed on the axle, a speed of 500 revolutions 1s requ1red. The control apparatus include a controller in parallel, each motor group being regarded as a single motor for grouping in series or parallel ; ·there are also a rheostat, an automatic interrupter, a disjunctor, and safety fuses.
We have already (see page 647 ante) very fully d_escribed the Timmis-Lavezarri system of electric s1gnals that has been adopted, and we neeJ, therefore, not dwell on this part of the installation. It was at .firs~ c?nsidered. unnecessary .to equip a closed c~rcu1t . hne of th1s character wtth signals, t~e spee~s be1ng low,_ and the trains always runnmg on s1ngle track 1n the same direction. But M. ~arechal, the engineer-in-chi.ef of the company, deCided that too great precautwns could not be taken, especially at the sharp curves on different parts of the line, and the Timmis-Lavezarri system was accordingly adopted. At 50 metres in front of each curve a signal is located, but the contact which closes the signal is placed 30 metres away, so that the train has passed in front of the signal before the contact placed under the motor car closes the circuit. On the other hand, at a distance of 250 or 300 metres beyond the same curve, is another contact for closing the circuit, and as the train passes it opens the disc and clears the track without the employment of any other signal. The train then ceases to be protected, a condition that applies to the straight portions of the line, and which are certainly free of danger. It may be remarked, however, that the two signals protecting the curve at the entry to, and exit from, the Rue F abert, where the line follows the Esplanade des Invalides, are coupled, because they are so close to~ether ; they are worked under the normal condit ions we have already described, and to which we refer our readers.
We have now to speak of the power station that furnishes current for the traction and lighting of the rail way and travelling platform ; in this, the latter plays a somewhat important part, the stations, lines, and carriages being all well lighted. Tpe arrangement presents nothing of special interest however, but it includes a great number of incandescence lamps. The working current is transmitted frem the transformer station to the travelling platform, as well as to the railway, and our present description of it will render it unnecessary to return to this part of the subject when we come to describe the platform. It is a transforming, and not a generating, station, because the Societe des Transports Electriq ues, found it more economical to purchase, instead of generating, current , on account of the temporary character of the installation. They accordingly made arrangements with the Western Railway Company, which, as we have already seen, is establishing a large station at Moulineaux for working its trains on the new railway we recently described. Unfort unately, this power station is not yet complete, so that the Societe des Transports Electriques had, for the time at all events, to look elsewhere. They were therefore compelled to t urn to one of the Paris Sector companies to furnish them with the necessary current, for the present at all events, and they were thus able to run trains from the commencement of the Exhibition. It has also to be mentioned that the completion of the transformer station was delayed by a deplorable accident, no other than the loss of the cargo boat Pauillac belonging to the Compagnie Transatlantique FranQaise. Together with a large amount of Exhibition material from the United States, the Pauillac carried the greater part of the French W eatinghouse Company's plant for the station in question, and it required a considerable amount of energy and prompt resource on the part of the French Company to re,lace this lost material.
The traYelling platform is fed by a group of transformer3 consisting mainly of a triphase motor workin <Y with a 5000-volt current delivered from the m:ins of the Paris Sector Company before mention ed ; this motor develops 850 horse-power. It is coupled direct to a tramway generator of 550 volts and 600 kilowatts effective continuous current, capable o! working as a. maximum to 2000 amperes, wh10h corresponds t~ the effor t required for starting. To produ_c~ this t he speed is raised by means of an auXlhary gr?u p, the generator working as a motor ; the ex01ters are then cut out and the circuit made between the generator add the platform ~o.tors. Wit~ ~he same auxiliary group the exCiting effort 1s Increased, till the platform is started ; as soon as
E N G I N E E R I N G. t his takes place, the speed is also increased, and when the normal rate of movement is reached, the generator is transformed into a self-exciter, and the auxiliary group is cut out. As already said, the same station furnishes power to the railway; for this purpose a 600-kilowatt generator had been sent fron1 Pittsburg, and was lost in the shipwreck of the Pauillac; it was therefore replaced by one of 450 kilowatts. The 5000-volt triphase current is reduced by three monophase transformers, each of 170 kilowatts, the original scheme having provided for three of 225 kilowatts. The generator is compound wound, and the transformers are arranged under special conditions to allow of over-compounding. It is satisfactory to note that, in spite of the many difficulties encountered, both the railway and the platform, work admirably, and that both were ready for the public on the earliest days of the Exhibition.
(To be continued.) •
HAND AND MACHINE LABOUR. (Concluded from page 647.)
SCREWS. THE introduction of automatic screwing machines
has had a great influence upon the manufacture of screws, although in many cases- thirty, forty, and fifty years ago-screws were being turned out at one operation by machine tools ; and it should be noted, too, that, according to the report before us, from six to twelve of these automatic machines are now operated by one person. In one cas~, with six machines to attend, the wage is !Os. 6d. per day ; in some, with 10 machines, 9s. 6d. ; and in others, with 12 machines, 10s. 6d. per day, all of 10 hours.
The greatest difference in the time required under the hand and machine system is in the case of iron screw posts, ! in. by 1! in., of which 10,000 are now made in 16.7 minutes, as against 1250 hours in 1840, a ratio of 4491 to 1 in favour of the machine. The principal worker now gets double the wage, and the labour cost of manufacture is 3!d., including power, keeping machinery in order, &c., as compared with over 26l. In this case the machinist attends twelve machines, and earns 10s. 6d. per day of ten hourR. This difference is the greatest recorded by the inquiry resulting in the report now before us. In the case of other screws the saving in time is very considerable- in several instances the reduction is to a twentieth part of the time taken in the early sixties. Here is a typical case :
TABLE XC.-P?·oduction of 100 Cup-Pointed Steel Machine Set Sc1·ews ~ In . by 2i I n .
Mode of Production. Hand. Machine. Date... ... .. . ... 1862 1896 Number of different opera-
tions involved ... . .. Number of workmen em-
ployed .. . ... ...
5
3 42 h. 0 m. 9.55 dols.
6
6 2 h. 30 m. .46 dol.
Number of hours worked Cost of labour ... . .. Average rate of wages per
hour ... . .. .. . . 23 cents 18.4 cents
In the hand systeu1 a vice and saw were used in cutting the stocks into lengths, whereas with a cut-off machine the work was done in 56 minutes instead of 2 hours. The next operation was the forming of the screw, which, with a lathe, occupied 30 hours, then threading, done with lathe, dieplate, and pliers, requiring 8 hours more, or 38 hours for the work, which an automatic machine does in 1 hour 12 minutes at a labour cost ls. l ! d. , against 35s. 5d. for the old-time labour.
HAND-TooLs.
Comparison is mat;le of the cost of manufacturin~ hand-tools, such as saws, hammers, chisels, &c., and the data are as interesting as those for work done by those tools. In t he case of hand-saws it is remarkable to no to that such ad vantage as is gained by the application of 1uachinery has gono very largely in wage. Thus, with hand labour in 1895 the time taken was 325 hours, against 218 hours 52 minutes by machine methods in the samo year, a di~erence in favour of the latter of 33 per cent. ; but 1n the 1abour cost the decrease only equals 7! per cent .-69.25 dols. against 64.06 dols. now, the avera~e wage having increased from 101d . . to l s. 3~. ~n the making of circular saws there 1s a savmg In time and wage of about 55 per cent., both processes being of date 1895. A hand rip saw with a 26-in.
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- [JUNE 1, 1900.
blade cost now a trifle over l i d. A. steel cold chisel ~ in. by 6 in. cost rather less than !d., as compared with 3d. 30 years ago. The time required for making 100, was, in 1870, 28 hours 36 minutes, and now it is 7 hours 20 minutes, so that here also there has been a slight increase in the average wage. In the modern system, shears, trip hammer and tongs, trimming press, grindstone and polishing wheel, all take the place of the smith's hand-tools, and the band-worked grindstone.
In the making of hammers it is found that the cost of labour is reduced to from a tenth to a fif teenth what it was in the sixties. We take as a typical case the making of 12 dozen engineers' hammers, of solid cast steel, 2 lb. weight.
TABLE XOI.-Jitlanufacture of 144 2-L b. Engineers' H ammers.
Mode of Production. Hand. Date... ... .. . . ... 1860 Number of different ope-
rations involved .. Number of workmen em-
ployed ... ... ...
8
2 792 b. 0 m. 124.80 dols.
Machine. 1895
27
28 44 h. 36 m. 9.07 dols.
Number of hours w01ked Cost of labour .. . .. . Average rate of wages per
hour .. . ... .. . 15.7 cents 20 cents Thus t he engineer 's hammer costs 3d. to make
with steam-driven tools of pretty much the same class as those used for making the chisels, while with blacksmiths' tools, files, vise, &c., the cost for each was 3s. 6d. In the case of plain eye riveting hammers, of solid cast steel, and weighing 9 oz., the results are ~lniost, although not quite, as satisfactory ; the cost now being oneeleventh what it was in 1860, as against a fourteenth with the engineer's hammer. The number of men and operations were the same in both cases; but the gross of hammers were made in 36 hours 24 minutes, as compared with 432 hours, and the cost has therefore been reduced from 69.60 dols. to 6.31 dols. ; so that wages have in this case only increased fractionally- from 8d. to 8fd. per hour. The cost of making each riveter's hammer is rather less than 2d. Again, in making hickory handles for hammers, there has been a great saving. With steam-driven saws, lathes, and "belting " machines for finishing, 100 handles can be made in two hours, whereas the woodworker of 1870 took 66 hours 40 minutes. Wages have been reduced from 2.50 dols. to 2 dols. per day, and thus the labour cost has been reduced from 16.66 dols. to 40 cents; the rate being now five handles for ld.
LoADING AND U NLOADING RAILWAY WAGONs, &c. In the United States the work of loading and
emptying railway wagons has been brought to great mechanical perfection, while at the same time traction charges have been so reduced as to make it a matter of small moment whether ore or coal supplies have to be brought 1000 or 100 miles ; and the figures we give on this point are therefore of great importance as a standard to be aimed at in this country. In the matter of loading ore, we have results for 1891, when the primit ive shovel and wheelbarrow were used, and for 1895 when the steam shovel was utilised on an improvised railway. Taking 100 tons as a unit, we find t hat 200 hours were required, which at a daily wage of 2 dols. works out to 40 dols., or ' l s. 8d. per ton, while with the steam shovel operated by an engineer, craneman, and a fireman, with the help of a trimmer in the car, we have the same work done in 68 minutes, at a labour cost of 30 cents. To t his, however, must be added the cost of laying lhe track for the steam shovel and cleaning up the iron ore afterwards, meaning 1 hour 43 minutes, at a cost of 26 cents, but the total time is only oneseventieth that for hand labour, and the cost for the 100 tons- 55 cents- is little more than the cost of loading 1 ton with the primitive tools.
We take next the case for unloading coal, from a canal barge to a bin 400ft. distant. Labourers ~n 1859 earning 7~d. per hour, unloaded 100 tons In 120 hours, at a"' labour cost of 19.50 dols., or lOd. per ton. In 1896 the ~rimmers got l s. an ho:u for shovelling the coal Into steam .elevators di~charging into cars worked by grav1ty to the b1n where t hey tipped the coal. 'l'he work was thus done in one-twelfth the time- 10 hours at a labour cost of 2. 50 dols., or l i d . per ton. This includes overseering charges in each case ; wages, too, were higher for all hands.
Our next and concluding Table gives the results for transferrin a 1000 bushels of wheat from storage
0
bins to steamships :
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] UN E I , I 900. J E N G I N E E RI N G. TABLE XCII.-Loading 1000 Bushels of Wheat in Ships.
Mode of Procedure. Hand. Maohine. Date... . . . . . . . . . 1853 1896
1. Tissues made in the ordinary loom, and represen~ed as a class by calico weaving.
2. Tissues less closely woven, and with the warp and weft threads tied together by "whip thread." Gauze weaving is the representative of this class .
3. Tissues produced in the J acquard loom, such as brocades.
or more round a warp thread, is then t urned to connect it with another adjacent warp thread, around which it makes similar turns, and so on. The process is so mew hat similar to that indicated for gauze weaving, except that the binding thread from the bobbin, after being twisted once or twice round a warp thread, passes on to the next one to repeat the same evolution, and so on. A slow movement is given to the warp in the direction of its length, the bobbins passing to and fro cont inuously as the warp is displaced. This product is characteristic of the various tulle fabrics. The special purpose of the mechanism is to obtain a r eticular tissue having clear open spaces, with uniformly divided and secure connections, giving at the same t ime a special decorative effect. This method is often corn bined with the use of additional threads twisted around single threads or groups of threads of the warp; these passing from one to the other, according to the nature of the design, can be made to produce figured materials of great beauty. A piece of tulle is illustrated by t he diagram Fig. 10; it consists of a series of parallel threads, round which each weft thread makes one turn in the body of the fabric, and two t urns at the selvage. The intersections are made as follow: One set of
Number of different opera-tions involved . . . . ..
Number of workmen em-5 10
ployed . . . . . . . . . 31 36 37 h. 0 m. 6 45 dols.
8 b. 56 m. 2.50 dols.
Number of hours worked Cost of labour .. . . .. Average rate of wages per
hour ... . .. ... 17.4 cents 28 cents
4. Openly-woven t issues, the threads of which are mutually and continuously interlaced · tuJles are the representatives of this class. '
5. Lace tissues. Our last comparison, associated also with transport, is in the repairing of " dirt " roads, where pick, shovel, and rake have been superseded by the road machine; the advantage in favour of the latter is 40 to 1 in respect of time, and 3 to 80 as to cost. Indeed, it is almost impossible to find any example in th~ whole range of industrial enterprise where mach1nery has not been of great value in increasing the volume of production , reducing its costl an~ at th~ same time ena:bling high~r wages to be pa1d, whlle greatly reducmg the sellmg price of the commodities; so that in the end the worker is a gainer from both points of view. 'J.lhis fact is not new by any means ; but we think our series of articles has demonstrated that it operates to a wider and greater exten t than was quite realised even by that ubiquitous and erudite individual- the man in the street.
6. Close-woven tissues in which the weft threads are knotted on the warp to produce a pile ; of this class, so m~ natures of tapestry, carpets, &c., are representat1ve.
TEXTILE MACHINERY AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION.
(Continued from page 673.) HAVING described the more important devices
for testing the counts and physical qualities of threads and yarns, which are exhibited in the Textile Machinery building of the Exhibition, we may pass on to consider briefly the principal characteristics of tissues which are produced from such yarns. In doing this we may be t raversing some of the ground covered by elementary textbooks; but a recapitulation of the distinguishing features of differen t fabrics will be useful as an introduction to the different machines that produce them, and which are shown in the Exhibition. The word '' fabric ' ' serves not only to define all classes of stuff made from textile materials, and suitable for clothing, upholstery, &c., but its use is extended to combinations of interlaced thread, employed for a variety of purposes. All woven materials may be broadly divided, according to their characteristics, into four principal categories. 1. Ordinary tissues, such as calicoes, &c., produced in the common loom. 2. Upholstering goods, such as carpets, hangings, &c. ; thi8 class is distinguished by great variety of colour and richness of design. 3. Hosiery. 4. Tulle, lace, &c. Tissues may be defined generally as fabrics produced from threads interlaced according to some regular method, and weaving is the operation by which such fabrics are produced. But this classification and definition of tissues is too general for practical purposes, and, moreover , is not strict ly correct; because such a material as felt, for example, may be classified as a tissue, because it fills certain purposes of a fabric, although no operation of weaving is required for its production; on the other hand, wire cloth cannot be defined as a tissue, although it is actually a woven material. Again, knitted goods may be spoken of as tissues, though the operation by which they are produced cannot cer tainly be called ' "eaving.
7. Open knotted t issues, such as fishing nets. 8. T1ssues p roduced by the involutions of one
thread, ~uch as hosiery a!ld knitted goods. W e w11l endeavour bnefiy to describe the charac
teristics of t hese different classes of tissues a clear understanding on this point being absolutely necessary for useful examination of the machines by which t hey are produced.
1. Tissues P1·oduced in the Orclin,ctry Loom. (The Fr~n?h definition. for this is Oroisement Simple.)Thls IS the most stmple method of producing fabrics. A thread crosses at right angles to a series of parallel threads passing under and over these the c?aracter . d~pending upon the system of alt~rnatwns ; t~Is Is tJle work pro~uced by the ordinary weaver 1n a s1mple loom, 1n which t he alternate threads of the warp rise and fall simultaneously. Or instead of being at right angles, the travel of the weft may be made obliquely between a warp of a given width, the threads of which pass alternately one below and the next above on the line of meeting, the angle of the weft being made eq ual and opposite for each adjoining width. This method of weaving only produces a stable fabric if the warp an~ weft are sufficiently close, as in linen tissues, or if they are fixed by dressing, as in certain classes of muslins.
2. TisSt~;es less Closely Woven, a;nd 'With the W arp and W eft Threads Tied together by Spi1·al Ligattwes (01·oisements Lies). - The special purpose of this method of weaving is to supply the lack of stability unavoidable in producing fabrics by the previous method. It is illustrated in Fig. 9, where it will
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be seen that a whip thread is twisted round each warp thread, and locks around it and the weft at every point of intersection of the two threads, which cross at d gh tangles to each other. This whip thread consists of a second but finer longitudinal thread, which envelopes the first one with an alternat ing spiral; it also ties the transverse thread at each point of intersection, and is then twisted under the lower longitudinal thread. The structure so produced is that of gauzes in their most simple form : it is made by means of special devices added to the ordinary loom, and is capable of various modifications, producing different effects. In order to avoid these difficulties a more com
plicated terminology has been adopted . The professor of spinning and weaving at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, of Paris, defines a t issue as follows : '' A stable aggregation of flexible elements, producing compact or open coverings, uniformly flexible, and of a limited thickness;" this definition allows felt to be included as a stable aggregation of flexible elements, but it excludes cotton wool which is an unstable aggregation, as well as t he many variet ies of passementerie which do not form coverina surfaces. I t would appear, therefore, more logical, and certainly more practically useful, to distinguish the different classes of tissues according to their textures, as illustrated by characteristic types, and by the methods of laying and interlacing the component threads, which furnishes the clearest and most characterist ic distinctions from a practical point of view. I t is this mode of classification that we propose to adopt in dealing with the textile exhibi ts at Paris, and we shall find that it leads to eight comprehensive divisions, as follow :
3. 1.'isSttes P1·odtu;ed in the Jacqtta?·d Loom, such as B1·ocade (Enveloppements Fnwtiones). -This operation, which is simple in principle, but very delicate in operation, consists in passing from left to righ t, for example, between the raised and lowered threads of a part of the warp, a small special shuttle, t hen in returning this shuttle from right to left between the other raised and lowered threads of the same group of the warp, and continuing this operation between the same or other groups of threads, following a progressive or intermittent system, according to the requirements of the design. This is the decorative and supplementary work executed on ordinary tissues, either locally or over their whole surface, or produced continuously, according to the pattern, on highly finished brocaded t issues, in which the tnost elaborate and richly coloured designs can be woven.
4. Openl11 Woven Tissues, t.he Th1·eads of ~rhich m·e MttttwllAJ and OO?ttinmottsly I n terlaced (Enveloppements Oonlinus H elictiidal).-This variety is produced by a binding thread which, twisting once
Fig.10.
weft threads travelling in one direction and another, symmetrically in the opposite direction, are twisted around each warp thread so as to form sixsided meshes, as is shown in Fig. 11, which represents t he t issue obtained by the three series of threads when the warp is no longer stretched on the loom ; one set of the weft thread~; draw t he warp to the right, and the other set to t he l~ft, as indicated on the diagram. W e shall see later on that varieties of this method of interlacing are shown at the Exhibition on some very remarkable machinery in operation.
5. Lace TisSttes (Torsion Mt,tuelle).- This method in principle is the interlacing of two threads twisted together ; this operation is not continuous as in spinning ; two threads coming from two different points meet, and turning one around the other either with a half twist or one complete t urn at the Inost, separate in order to repeat, each on its own side, similar evolut ions with other threads. This i.nterlacing is p~oduced in its most simple form In a meAhed tissue, where each thread is twisted successively around its neighbour to right and left. It is, in fact, an imitation by mechanical means, of the tedious but highly artistic work of t he hand-lacemaker executed with so much skill, but to the uninitiated onlooker, in a capriciously irregular manner, according to the requirements of the design and by means of pins fixed in pillows ; these worker~ ~lso employ .other and ordin~ry meth~~ of twi~tmg, and oc~swnally of knotting, to consolidate their work. ThlS class of interlacing in t he loom involves the use of a number of separate
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7IO E N G I N E E R I N G. [J UNE I, 1900.
2500 HORSE-POWER TRIPLE-EXPANSION ENGINES AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION. CONSTRUCTED BY MESSRS. A. BORSIG AND CO , BERLIN.
(For Description, see Page 712.)
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t hreads wound upon spools, each of which , acting quite independently of the others, can be brought into any necessary direction in order to meet other threads coming from an opposite direction.
6. Tissues 'with Knotted Wejts A rotund the Warp (Ervveloppements :Nouis) .- In this division a weft thread is wrapped around one or several warp threads, with at least one complete twist, and is then locked against it or them, by a knot made in passing the free end through t he loop formed by the evolution around the warp. I t follows from t his method of interlacing that any pull exerted on the end of the enveloping thread tends to lock it more securely. In a tissue of this kind the necessity of employing a continuous weft involves the
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operation of passing the shuttle or bobbin carrying the thread which forms the loop through the latter. From this microscopic and difficult operation results the production of very beautiful piled fabrics, ex· amples of which are to be found in the celebrated Gobelins tapestries; in these, each loop is attached in t he manner described by a running knot to the threads of the warp, which renders the finished fabric extremely solid without affecting the execution of a variety of work admirable alike in design and colour.
7. Open Knotted Tissues (Noev.ds Mutuels). - This differs essentially from the previous method of interlacing, in which the knot, formed by the enveloping weft, can obviously be made to slide
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along the enveloped warp. I t is produced by two threads, which are knotted together at given points of their length. I t is necessary that the knot should be a. fixed one and occupy a definite position, and that the two threads should make similar and opposite movements in order that the two loops formed by them should interlace and be mutually looked. The production of fishing-nets is an example of this kind of work. I t can be made as a. trellis between the thrends of a single series, each of which is knotted alternately to its neighbour to the right or left; the formation of the knot requires either a single loop made simultaneously in the two threads to be knotted, and closed by them with a twist made by the two end&
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JuNE I, 1900.] E N G I N E E R I N G. 7It
2500 HORSE-POWER TRIPLE-EXPANSION ENGINE AND TRIPHASE DYNAMO. CON 'TRUCTED BY ~lE RS. A. BOR IG AND ~IE SRS. SIE!>rl~~NS AND HALSKE, BERLIN.
(For Desc'ription, see Page 712.)
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that traverse the loop, or by t wo successive and opposite twists traversed by the ends of the threads. In fishi ng-nets made by hand, only one thread is used, which is knotted at regular intervals with the meshes of the row already made, thus forming gradually a new row of loops.
8. Tissues P1·od1tccd by the I nvolrtttion of One Tlwead (Mailles).-This method of weaving is the interlacing of a thread upon itself by means of successive loops twisted into one another without the end of the thread ever passing through ~ny of the loops (see Fig. 12). Fron1 this it results that whatever may be the length of the interlaced portion, or of the ti~sue already finished, a pull
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are the result of interlacing threads of two classes: those previously arranged parallel to each other lengthways of the stuff, and called warp threads ; and those which are passed through the warp at rjght angles, half the threads of t he latter being raised, and the other half lowered for the passage of the shuttle containing the transverse or weft
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exerted at the end of the thread unfastens, one by one, and successively, all the loops, and consequently the entire tissue, just as a. length of chain stitch composed of a. series of loops can be unravelled. F or this reason, tissues of such a character require to be stopped from t ime to time, and especially at the ends, by a closed knot. The characteristic type of this class is hosiery, and it is also illustrated by knitting, produced either by hand or machine, by crochet work, &c.
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thread. The shuttle (navette in French, from navi1·e, a ship), carries the weft to and fro from one side to the other, the edge of the warp being the selvage of the material. Usually one or several, continuous threads are used for the weft (the lat ter where several shuttles are employed); but short weft threads are also used; in this case the length is about double the width of the stuff,
A few words remain to be added about some of the fundamental operations common to all classes of weaving, and which may be illustrated by the ordinary calico fabric. All tissues of this nature
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and is applied in such a way as to secure the selvage edges. The loops and free ends of the wef~ are left, in such a case, alternately on each side of the fabric, so that the salvages on each side parallel to the warp, are secured by the closed loop of t he weft, the alternating open ends being left free. In the warp, the left-hand thread is called the first thread, and these are thus divided into " odd and even," the same distinct ion being applied to the weft.
At the risk of appearing to introduce still fur ther elementary matters belonging properly to textile handbooks, a few more points have still to be mentioned as introductory to our subsequent notices of exhibited textile machinery, the operations of which dep_e~d upon fundamental principles. The superposltlOn of the weft a nd warp threads, r esultjng from the alternate raising and lowering the latter, may be shown graphically as in Fig. 13, where the black
. .18.
squares represent the lifted warp, and the white squares the positions of the weft. In the diagram c~lled the "pattern," Fig. 13, it is easy to see that the black squares 3, 5, 7, &c., represent the warp thread 1; and t he black squares 4, 6, 8 the warp 2, and so on. The white squares 3, 5, 7 are weft thread No. 1 ; and 4, 6, 8, weft 2. In order to determine the class of texture of any stuff, the pattern, Fig. 13, can be reduced as shown in Fig. 14. Two natures
. .14.
of pattern are required, one to determine the character of the fabric, and the other the quantity of warp or weft thread absolutely necessary for the completion of a pattern. Every pattern has, therefore, two functions : 1. The transverse function, r eferring to the number of warp t hreads shown by t he number of squares in the width of the material to be produced. 2. The longitudinal f~nction, showing the number of weft threads reqmred for the same pattern. The passage of two consecutive wefts under two warps lifted alternately, produces an interlacing indicated in Fig. 15. This inter-
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lacing has two definite characteristics : 1. The binding points L L1 at the top or bottom of each t hread as it passes over or under the weft. 2. The point of intersection E between each of the threads C D E . There are two distinct kinds of "'patt~rns " the weaving, and the figure pattern; the forme; are those which determine the modes of intersection, to constitute the underside of the fabric · t he other also shows the underside, but also d~termines a surface grain or configuration which is systematically repeated, and is known by various names, such as diagonals, lozenge, pheasants' eye, &c. There are f out ~undatnental ~in_ds of weavipg patterns, from whlCh many v~nettes of stQffc:~ are derived. They are : (1) linen ; (2) twills ; (3) ·serge ; . ( 4) satin. . T~ese ~at terns have t he two followmg charactenst1cs : 'Ihe first is that the transverse and longitudinal ratios are alike, because the number of intersections of the warp and weft threads are the same, conformabl.Y with the second characteristic, that t he sequence 1s the same for all the threads, warp and weft, r espectively. The. se~uen~e of a fundamental pattern and its derivat ives IS shown by the order of the black or coloured squares of t he pattern and of the squares left white, which compriseP, on t he whole length of the pattern, . a "Yeft thread selected as No. J ; the others followmg In the same order, but starting from a different warp thread ;
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E N G I N E E R I N G.
the variations thus obtained may be graded from left to right or right to left.
In calico weaving, the seq uenca is always one warp thread " taken," one " left. "
In batavia (fancy twill), the sequence is two '' taken ,., and two '· left. "
In serge (regular twill), with n squares, it is one " taken," and 1~-1 " left."
In satin (satin twill), with n squares, the sequence is the same.
It is the fi rst weft thread of each pattern that decides the sequence of the tissue, provided that the first square on the left indicates the commencement of the warp, numbering always by 1 or n threads taken. In figured linen the gradation is
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by one and one, continued diagonally. In the diagram, Fig. 16, the warp gradation is by one and one, t hat of the wefb by two and two. In Fig. 17 the gradations are by threes. The same order ·can be observed either transversely or longitudinally.
(To be continued.)
THE PARIS EXHIBITION ELECTRIC POWER STATION.
T HE BoRSIO AND SIEMENS-HALSKE I N TALLATION. ON page 606 ante we published a plan showing the
positions occupied by the various exhibitors, F rench and foreign, who have contributed to the magnificent power station of the Exhibition. Prominent among these are Messrs. Borsig and Co. and Messrs. Siemens and Halske, who supplied respectively the engines and generator occupying the location marked 27 on the plan. The four-cylinder t riple-expansion engine, ill us-
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from the crankshaft take the oil up to the purifier. Each half bedplate is made with two crankshaft bearings. Between the bedplate and the dynamo bearing is a 41-ton flywheel provided with a toothed ring on which an electric motor acts. On t he bedpJate rest two cast -iron standards with the guides, and two forgedsteel colums ; t heEe carry the two low-pt·essure cylinders, which are bolted together. The high-pressure and in termediate cylinders are supported by wroughtiron columns. These platforms are so arranged that if the iron columns are removed t he covers and pistons of the low-pressure cylinders can be taken out . After uncoupling the crossbeads the pistons can then be lowered int o reces~es in the bedplates which are usually covered in, and finally removed.
All the cylinders are packed with their own steam. The packing rings of the high-pressure piston are of the l<amsbottom type ; t he other pistons are provided with Buokley rings. The valve gear eccentriC's are all mounted on a shaft , which is carried in six bracket bearings situated behind the low-pressure cylinder. The pendulum governor is on an intermediate shafting which pasEes obliquely between the standards. The admission and exbaust valves of the four cylinders are actuated by means of levers and pawls. In the case of the inlet valve of the high-pressure cylinder, the release is controlled by a cam from the governor; in the other valves, stops have been provided for hand adjustment. The valves are all of the double· seat type, and are provided with Collmann's oil cataract. The casing of the cataract contains an ad· ditional spring, with the help of which and of a handwheel, the speed may be varied while the engine is in motion. For the high-pressure and intermediatepressure cylinders, one eccentric actuates both the admission and the corresponding exhaust valve; the low-pressure cylinder valves have each their own eccentric. The dimensions of the cylinders are :
Diameter of high-pressure cy-linder .. . .. . . .. .. . 760 mm. (29. 9 in.)
Diameter of intermediate pres-sure cylinder . .. . .. ... 1180 ,. (46.4 , )
Diameter of low-pressure cy-linder . .. .. . .. . .. . 1340 ,. (52. 7 , )
Length of stroke ... .. . ... 1200 , (47.2 , )
The revolving masses of the rods are counter· balanced by screwed-on weights. The stuffing-boxes
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trated on pages 710 and 711, was designed and built by Messrs. A. Borsig, of Tegel, near Berlin ; it is intended for a steam pressure of 210 lb., and for a speed of 90 revolutions ; working with condensation, it will develop 2500 horse-power. At t he Exhibition, how· ever, the engine runs with steam of 140 lb. and at 83.5 revolutions. The two cranks are plq,ced at an angle of 180 deg. The two· part crankshaft has at one end the dynamometer, and. on ~he other a pull?Y from_whioh the t wo single-actmg a1r pumps are dnven wh10h ~re placed in the basement, about 8 ft . below the engme floor. The bedplate of the engine consists of two part~ each weighing 29 tons, flanged and bolted together, and forming oil t.rougha, from whi?h two small cent rift1gal pumps, dnven by a steel w1re cord
receive their oil under pressure. The air pumps have only piston and cover valves, but no suction valves. The pistons are worked through links from the ends of a. beam, the shaft of which rests in two bearings on the pumps, Of\e end being driven by a lever and a connectingrod from the pulley on the engine crankshaft.
The boiler steam pipe extending from the main behind the engine, is interrupted by a. out-off vsl ve, placed between the high-pressure and intermediate cylinders, from which a short branch leads to the front of the former cylinder. A horizontal pipe then takes the steam to the intermediate-pressure cylinder, and thence through e. cast-iron chest into t he low-pressure cylinders. From each of the latter cylinders an exhaust pipe is carried down the st~·
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da.rds to the a.ir pumps. The four pla.tforms shown on the illustration a.re necessa.ry iu an engine which rises 41 ft . a.bove the floor level.
The triphase dyna.mo, supplied by Messrs. Siemens and Halsk e, of Berlin, will generate 2000 kilowatts at from 2000 to 2200 volts, with 50 periods ; the arm&· ture is stationary. The rotating field consists of a divided cast· iron rim, which is connected with the hub by eight cast· iron spokes, and is keyed directly t o the extended engine shaft. The poles consist of la.minated iron, held together by bolts, and a steel prism of approximately quadra.tio section. This prism conta.ins the threa.ds of the screws which fa.sten the poles to the cast rim, and which a.re inserted from inside. The winding of t he field ma.gnets consists of copper strips, 4 by 23 millimetres (0.16 in. by 0. 6 in. ), placed edgewa.ys. Each pole ha-s 40 windings, and the tota.l weight in the field a.mounts to 4 tons. To provide for efficient ventilation, the field cor es are split in the centres, and t he upper windings are ta.ken round hollow bronze castings, through which the air escapes rad ially. The excitation of the field requires from 28,000 to 42,500 wa.tts a.t 210 volts ; the tota l resistance of t he field coils is about 1 ohm.
The manner in which the sta.tiona.ry armature has been centred should be mentioned. If we imagine a hollow shaft, resting on two rollers, the sha.ft will be lowered or ra.ised in the vertioa.l plane, when both rollers are moved simultaneously. If the mot ion is confined to one of t he rollers, or if one is 1 a:sed while the other is lowered, the centra l axis of the hollow shafL will be shifted h orizontally. In this wa.y the shaft ca.n be adjusted horizonta.lly and vertic9.lly. W hat we have briefly termed a. hollow shaft is rea.lly !l'n inner and outer ring , connected by a. series of radia.l spokes and forming a. flat ring, which is turned on both surfaces. Two such rings, exactly equal, are placed pa.ra.llel and coa.xial, and then con nectt>d with one a.nother by interposing t he armature (Fig. 4). Each of t he two bearing rings rests on t wo rollers, as shown in the dia.gram. When the armature ha.s been cent red wit h the aid of these rings, it is bolted to latera.l blocks. The bolts are again removed should a.n adjustment become necessary .
The core of the a rmature is built up of sheets, 0. 5 millimetre (0. 02 in. ) in thickness. The armature itself, as well as the bearing rings mentioned, are ma.de up of four quadrants. The 648 grooves of the armature, 13 millimetres wide and 55 millimetres deep (0.51 in. by 2.2 in. ), contain each one copper r od of 7 by 44 millimetres (0. 28 in. by 2 7 in. ). When the rod has been put in posit ion, a.n insulat ing cover is forced into the groove. All t he rods of a. circuit a.re in series with one a.nother, and t he three branches a.re connected radially. The whole copper ma-ss of the armature weighs 2. 5 tons ; the r esistance is less than 0.057 ohm. The excitation is effected by a continuous-current series dynamo of 45 kilowatts at 210 volts, with external field and drum armature. The controlling instruments are of the Terravis type. They are a voltmeter, a. current meter, and a power meter, and are mounted all three on a. post about 14ft. high , which encloses t he respective wires. The dials have each a. dia.m~ter of 2 ft., a.nd scales a.re marked on both faces, front and back. The in· struments indicate the rea.l values, small transformers being interposed between generator and instrument . trhe regula.ting appa.ratus and s witches a.re placed on a. desk. The resistance for t he exciting circuit and the three-pole high tension out-out a re in the basement, but manipulated through ha.nd wheels from the switch desk.
MIDLAND LOCOMOTIVE AT THE PARIS EXHJBITION.
. Ox pages 682 and 683 of our last issue we published tllustra.tions of the fine express passenger engine, which is being exhibited a t Paris by the .Midla.nd Ra.ilwa.y Compa.ny, and this week we g ive, on our t wo·page engraving a.nd on pa.ge 718, further views of thi~ engine and its tender. As stated last week, t he e.Pgine, which was constructed at the works of the Midla.nd qompany, Derby, from t he designs of .Mr. Sa.muel \\ . Johnson, ha.s cylinder s 19i in. in dia· meter by 26 in. stroke, and it is provided wit.h 121 i ft. ?f hea.ting surface. As our engravings show, the engine ~s pr.ovided with a single pair of dri vera, 7 ft. 9! in. ID diameter, the weight available for adhesion being 18i tons. The locomotive is of a type which has p~oved itself capable of dealing most satisfactorily With the heavy and fast t raffic for which it was desi~~ed, while t~e bea.uti~ul finish of the engine exhibtted r enders 1t an admtrable example of British workmanship.
In order to accommodate such large cylinder s inside the frames, it has been necessa.ry to place the valve chests benea.th t he cylinders. The valves a re however, driven direct from the eccent rics with~ut the in~rvention of a. r ocking shaft, the centre line of both cyl~nders and valve stems being set at opposite inolina.1rions of l in 16, in order to admit of this. The valves are of t he piston type, and the reversing
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gear can, therefore, be handled with eo.se, in spite of the high-pressure ca.rried and the large size of the va.l ves. The va.lve gear is of the usual link type. The boiler shell is constructed of Ar - in. pla.ting, the rings being a.rra.nged teleecope fashion. The centre line is 8 ft. 1 in. above rail level. There are 228 tubes, 1& in. in diameter by 10 ft. lOi in. long. The t ubes, i t will be seen, are sharply bent, increa.Ring their flexibility and reducing a ll expansion strains. The firebox casing is 8 ft. long by 4 ft . 0! in. over the outside plates. The inside firebox is, of course, of copper; and, with the exception of t he tube-plate, is -Ar in. thick.
'l'he frames a re of the usual plate type, and are made from 1-in. steel plates. Th~ crank a.xle, it will be seen, i~ provided with four bearings, the inner journals being 8~ in. and the outer 6! in. in dia.meter. The crankpins are a lso Si in. in diameter, with a leng~h of 4! in. Tee crank cheeks have an elliptical profile, and are reinforced with steel rings shrunk on. A steam brake wi th blocks on each side of the drivers is fitted, and there is also a steam sa.ndin~ appa.ra.tus provided both before and behind the driving wheels.
The front of t he engine is carried on a. four-wheeled bogie, having wheels 3 ft. 10 in. in diame~er. The single t railing axle, which has wheels 4 ft. 4t in. in diameter, is situated immediately under the rear of the firebox.
'l'he general design of the tender is shown in Figs. 5 and 6, page 718. It is supported on two bogies, the axJe.boxes of which are connected with equalising Learns. It is designed to carry 4000 gdlons of wattr and 3! tons of coal.
' iV e give below some of the principal dimensions and pa.rt icula.rs of the engine and tender, in a. ta.bulated form: Cylitn.ders :
Diameter . . . . .. .. . . .. S troke . .. . . . . . . . .. L ength of ports . . . . . . . .. Width , . . . . . . . .. Piston valves, diameter .. . . ..
, lap . . . . .. , , lead in full gear
Wheels ( Ca3t Steel) : Driving wheels, diatr.eter Engine bogie wheels ... Trailing wheE'ls . . . . .. Thickness of tyres on tread ... Size of bogie journals .. .
, inside driving .. . , outside , .. . " trailing . . . .. .
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Boile1· (Telescopic) : Length of ba.rrel . . . . . . . .. Dia.meter of barrel inside .. . Thickness of barrel plates .. .
, smokebox tubeplate L ength of firebox casing outside Centre of boiler from ra.il .. . Number of tubes, copper .. . Diameter of tubes, outside .. .
Firebox (Copper) : L ength inside, at bottom .. . Width , , .. . Thickness of tu beplate . . . . ..
., top, baok, a.nd sides ... H eating Surface :
Firebox .. . • • • • •• • •• Tubes .. . ••• • •• • • •
Total heating surface ... Grate a.rea . . . . ..
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Working pressure Gross traoti ve power ...
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Tender :
19~ in. 26 , 171 , lB " 8 " la , ! "
7 ft. 9! in. 3 , 10 " 4 ,. 4~ ,
3 in. iB. in dia.. by 9 in.
" 7! , " 9 , , 9 ,
10 n. 6 in. 4 " ) ~ ,
,~ ID. i , ~ ft.
8 ,. 1 , 228 1ft in.
7 ft. 3 in. 3, 4 , 0, (I ,
0 , 0 1·~ "
147 sq. ft. 1070 "
1217 ,, 24.5 sq. ft .
180 lb. 14,800 ,
Coal capacity . . . . . . . . . 7 tons W. ater oopa01ty (imperia.l gallons) 4000 ~ta.meter of wheels (oast steel) ... 3ft. 6 in. Sll~e of journals . . . . . . . . 5~ in. dia. x by 9 in .
Wheelbase (Engine): Centre of bogie to trailing wh€el
Wheelbase ( T cncler ) : Extreme contres . . . . .. • • • 'l'ota l wheelbase, engine and
tend~r, extreme cen tres • • •
Weig}d3 ( Workh1g Order) :
On en~ine bo~ie . . . . . .. u dn ving wheels .. . •• trailing , .. .
Total weight, engine . . . . .. On lea~!ng tender bogie... . .. . , tratling , . . . . ..
Total weighb of tender, with 4000 gallons of wa.ter a.nd 3i tons coal ... . . . . . . . ..
T otal weigh b, engine and tender
19 ft. 11~ in.
16 ft. 9 in .
49 " 7! "
Tons Cwt. 16 16 18 10 14 Hi 50 3 26 0 23 2
49 2 99 5
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. PARA AND NEW YORK.- A Bill has been passed a.uthorismg the Governor of the State of Pa.ra to call for tenders for the esta.lJlishment of a. line of steamers between Para and New York . . A sub.vention of 7878l. per a.nnum for a term of 12 yea.rsl.S prov1ded for. Steamers of the new line are to make at least 12 round voyages in the first year and 24 annua.lly during ea.oh of the subsequent 11 yea.rs. '
NOTES FROM THE UNITED STATES. PBII.ADELPBIA, May 18.
TnE sudden collapse of dema.nd for iron and steel is the surprising feature of the market in all t rade centres. Productive ca.pa.city has been incr eased between 30 and 40 per cent. during the past t l\O years, and the momentum of expa.nsion will ca.rry t he increase considerably beyond 50 per cent . This fa.ot, in view of the uncerta in fu ture demand, makes manufacturers feel ra.ther serious at times. The increase in raw ma.teria l and labour will remain as a. permanent factor. The grea.t combinations can, a.nd, of course, will, gauge production to demand, so thg,t there need not be fea.red one of those destruoti ve depressions which in t imes past has dealt so severely with industrial interests. :Manufacturers a.re wa.tchi ng the situation wi~h considerable anxiety. They know that there are no stocks of crude iron a~ yet; but the great uncertain thing is the volume of demand during the latter half of the year. Steel ra ils and structural materia l continue high and a.ctive. Plates, sheets, bars, pig-everything else excep t ing, of course, Bessemer pig-are weaker and d eclining. Consumera can play this game three or four weeks. June must bring demand. By tha.t time the depression wiJl proba.bly have reached its limits. The pressure to secure business, which set in perhaps two or three mon1 hs ago, is increasiog. snd this pressure means lower prices. There is much new business in sight, from ra.ilroad sources espeoia.ll y, and this is r elied upon by ma.nufanturers to turn the scales in their favour before Midsummer. Inq uiriee are coming from Tra.nsa.tla.ntic sources for large quantities of coal. The coke market is easier. During the coming summer, capacity in coa.lfields will be ava.tlable. The ore shipping st>ason ha.s set in, and the grea.test season ever witnessed is now on. The stockbrokers view industria ls with suspicion and distrust; but they do not comprehend the strength behind them. Steel rails a re still 35 dols. , and Bessemer p ig 24 dols. Neither a re worth within 3 dols. to 5.00 dolP. of those pr ices, and big fortunes would be made at a. clean 5·dols. drop on both. Readjustment is the order of the day. Congress will adjourn June 10, leaving a. la rge amount of business until next winter, because i t is afraid to pass the Nicardgua. BiJl, the Subsidy Bill, a.nd a dozen other Bil1s. Several Sta.te Conventions have passed resolutions in favour of a more elastic currency. Since January 1 it has been increa~ed 45,000,000 d ols.; but the rank· and file think this is only a spoonful.
Ma.y 24. A great many contracts expire in June, especil:lolly
pig-iron contracts. Until then but little will be done. The advances in ore tr~~.nsportation and labour make much decline impossible in crude material, and the extraordinary consumption, coupled wit h the indication~ of a. broa.dening d emand, ha.ve had the effect of strengthening confid ence that was wea.k t-ned during t~e .Gates exposures. Yet there is a. pronounced d echmng tendency all a.long t he line. Consumers everywhere are holding ba.ok orders, just as they rushed o:ders in a yea.r ago. Prices are being shaded, espectally in the West. A good deal of mill capacity is to be shut down, in order to make extensive improvemeJ.Jts. A go?d ma.ny of the larger foundries in Pittsburg are runnmg double t~rn, and consumption will probably increase. Steel ra.tls ha.ve been sh~ded below 35 dole. in Western mills, but full prices a re held in Eastern mills, who~e surplus has export possibilitit s in its favour. Th~de~and for machinery and electrical equipmentshas &;ga.m 1mproved, and so~e extensive orders for trolley hoes have been placed Within a week. Plates COllt·inue " :ea.k, but s~apee hold their own. Bridge builders gtve a ro ... y vtew of t he sit uation. Bar iron has pro· La.bly touched bottom, and in finished iron there are al~ea.dy signs of.a. reaction t~wards firm er prices. One thmg can be rehed upon, vtz., that when the reaction ha.s ex?a.usted itself, an immense demand will spring up. for Iron and steel products. The opinion is stronger th1s week than last that t he limits of depression will be reached sooner than was thought possibl~ a mont h ago. A . strong mov-ement is started to ~ork up public sentiment to favour the expenditure of 62,000,000 dols . to make the E rie Ca.nal de~p enough to carry 1000-ton barges. The Lake shtpyar~s have a year 's work under contract. Coal compa.01ea are being formed to incJ;"ease t he production of bitu~inous coal o~ a. ~arge scale. N ea.rly a ll the more desirable properties m P ennsy lvania. and West Vi:g!nia.. have been brought up, and extraordinary actiV1ty m _d,~velopment is assured during the next ~ea.r. Inquir_Ies from Europe are quite frequent, and stx cargoes w1ll sta.rt as soon as vessels can be loaded. Much more coa.l would be sent abroad but for the absence of tonnage.
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A NEW TRANSATLANTIC CaBLE.- The American· Eu~o~n Cable Company is a.nnounced. The proposed oa.pttal1s 2,000,000l., and the object is to lay a cable from New York to the Portuguese const.
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E N C 1 N t E R I N G. [JUNE I, I 900 . •
• ARMOURED TRACTION TRAIN FOR SOUTH AFRICA . C 0 N S T R U C T E D BY 1\I E S R S. ,J 0 H N F 0 W L E R AN D C 0. , L I l\I IT E D, E N G IN E ER , LE E D S .
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THROUGH the courtesy of Messrs. John Fowler and Co., the well-known steam plough and traction engine builders, of Leeds, we are enabled to publish in this issue, illustrations of the armoured t raction t rain for South Africa, the t iial trip of which was deal t wi th in our issue of May 18. The complete t rain is shown in Fig. 1, and consist s, it will be seen, of an engine, three armoured trucks, and t wo howitzers bringing up the rear. Since these howitzers were not originally intended to be coupled up tandem fashion as shown, it was necessary to fit one of t hem with a special book to take the trail of its fellow. The engine is shown separately in Fig. 2, and i t will be seen that all the working parts have been completely boxed in with protective plates. These are 1 in. thick, and are made of a special nickel steel, containing a little chromium, and hardened by a process, which is the secret of the makers, Messrs. Cam m ell and Co. , of Sheffield. I t will be seen that the driver has a very restricted view. He is provided for at the right-hand side of the engine, and a peep hole in the project ing side of t he cab, enables him to see the road immediately in front of him. There is a similar p eep-hole on t he left-hand side of the cab, but this he ha-s to view by reflection in an adjustable mirror. In spite of these drawbacks the driver manccuvred his train on the t r ia l run with great ski ll. The total weight of the engine is 22 tons, of which the plat,ing is responsible for about 4t tons. The driving wheels are 7 ft . in dia meter by 2 ft. broad, and are provided with helical teet h made out of Abort strips of heavy T irons r iveted to the rims. The bite in loose ground can be increased by bolting on spuds to these wheels in t he usual way; whilst, as with the ordinary tractiou engines, a winding rope and gear a re provided, by the use of which t he engine can e:ctri~at~ it~elf and its tra in out of any of the worst drifts 1t IS hkely to meet in South Africa.. The grate is kept fairly high, but is nevertheless liable to b.e flooded in passing fords. In most cas~s there W I.ll even t hen be sufficient steam left m the bOiler t o permit of the engine completing the passage with its own steam but in t he case of wider rivers, two engines wo~ld be used? one hauling the other a.cr?ss in turn by means of smtable rope tackle. The eng~ne ba.s cylinders 6! in. and 11~ in. in diameter by 12 m. 8troke and t he working pressure is 180 lb. per square inch. 'The tank capa.ci ty is 400 gallons, and a t a pinch about 16 cwt. of coal can be carried. The arrangement and const ruction of the wn:gons are clearly shown in Figs. 3 .to 6. The .vert teal plating is i in. thick, bu t t he stde flaJ?B, 'Y~1ch are shown raised in Fig. 3 and lowered m Ftg. 4, are b~t .fg in. thick, since t hey will, ~nder normal condttions, be exposed merely to obhque fire. They are
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FIG. 2. ----. -· never theless quite proof to the .. Mauser bullet, even when the latter strikes normally, t hough at short ranges the bullet would then raise a burr at the back of the plate. The skids by which the howitzers eau be run into a wagon are carried on rests provided for the purpose at either side of the wagon, as seen in Fig. 3 ; whilst in Fig. 5 they are shown ready for use. The wagons are 15 ft. 6 in. long and 7 ft. 8! in. wide. Their weight when empty is about 5 tons, and they will each carry about 12,000 lb. of ammunit ion for the howitzers.
STERt.- The exports of unwrought steel from the U nited Kingdom in April were 29,389 tons, as compared with 21,506 tons in April, 1899, and 28,172 tons in April, 1898. In the four months ending April 30 this year the exports attained an a.g~regate of 120,837 tons, while in the corresponding penod of 1899 they did nob exceed 87 114 tons, and in the corresponding period of 1898 10i,529 tons. British India took 12,229 tons of unwrought
•
steel from the U nited Kingdom in the first four months of this year, as compared with 9176 tons and 11,722 tons in the corresponding periods of 1899 and 1898 respectively; Australasia, 13,684 tons, as compared with 9524 tons and 9313 tons respectively ; and Canada, 9871 tons, a-s compared with 734 tons and 1670 tons respectively. The exports to the United States increased to April 30 this year to 7954 tons, as compared with 3789 tons and 4606 tons respectively. The exports have increa.sd this year to Denmark, H olland, and }"ranee ; but they have decreased to Russia. and Germany.
AGRICULTURAL E NGINES.-The exports of portable agricultural steam engines have shown a further tendency to increa-se this year. In the four months ending April 30
1 these exports were valued at 215, 715t., as com
pared w1th 206,244l. in the correspondins period of 1899, and 134,706l. in the corresponding per1od of 1898. In these totals the exports to European countries figured for 159, 082t., 160, 772l., and 921163l. respeoti vely) and Australasia for 13,956l , 10,096l, and 6798l. respectJ.vely.
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E N G I N E E R I N G. [JUNE I, 1900, -
NOTES FROM THE NORTH. GLASGOW, "vVednesday.
GkuglJ1!' Pig_-Ircm Market.-Last Thursday was held as a hohday m honour of the Queen's Birthday and con~equently there was no iron market; and 'when busmess was resumed on the following day the market was very ~at. Some 20,000 tons of iron changed hand~ and 1t was reported that the trade ad vices from f\.mert~a were unfavourable-prices being easier, with 1ncreMmg stooks. Scotch iron lost 1s. per ton Cleveland 1s., and hematite iron 10d. per ton. 'rn the afternoon less than 8000 tons were sold and the market closed very flat-Scotch iron down 1s. '11~. on the day, Cleveland 11~., and hematite iron 1s. 4d. per ton. The settlement pnces were: Scotch iron, 6&. 7id. per ton; Clevela.~d, 72~. 1~d.; Cumberland hematite iron, 793. 9d.; and Middlesbrough hematite, 85s. per ton. Monday's forenoon market was very flat. The advices from New Yo~k read. most unfavourably, and led to a rush of selling which must have in~rea.sed the short position. Abo~t 15,000 tons were dealt m, and there was a decline ra:ngmg. from 7d. to 1s. 10~d. per ton. There was still a sttff back on cash transactions. In the afternoon the mar~et was very much depressed, Scotch iron being at ~:me t1me close on 2:J. per ton down, but the close was a l~otle better than the wors~. On the day Scotch fell in price la. 8d. per ton, Clevt>land 2:J. lO~d., and hematite iron ll. 4d. per ton. At the close the setlilement prices were: 67s., 6~s. 3d., 78s. 4~d. and 85s. per ton. About 15 000 tons were dealt in on Tuesday forenoon and there w~ a sharp ra~ly from the previous day's weakness. " Bears" covered m both Scotch and Cleveland, and the former rose 7d., the latter 4id., and hematite iron 10~d. per ton There was .a "back" of 7d. on Scotch iron and of 3d. o~ Cleveland Iron. Other 15,000 tons were dealt in at the afternoon market, and prices were firmer on continued "bear" covering. Scotch closed ls. per ton up on the day Cleveland 7~., and hematite iron l()id. per ton. At the close of the market the settlement prices were: 68s.,
and one of them will be floated in the course of a week or eo. Furth~r d.own two big British India boats occupy ~ertbs, O?e '!1thm a month of launching and the other JUS.t gettmg ~nto frame. On the slip the steam yacht Oriental,, ~h10h t~e firm builb nine years a~o for Mr. ?eter M Kmnon, 18 being overhauled, and so m the dock IS the Carron Company's steamer Thames.
NOTES FROM SOUTH YORKSHffiE. · SHEFFIELD, Wednesday.
L eeds and the Cost of (Joal.-While most of our large towns .have bad ~or some time to pay an increased rate for their gas, owmg to the great advance in coal prices Leeds-thanks to the foresight of the committee in laying by. for a rainy .day-has up to the present been a consptcuous exceptiOn. At length, however, they have been com.pelled to succumb, and an immediate increase is con. templa.ted. It is not only, however, the additional cost of co.al. that has hee.n upsetting the calculations of the West Ridmg CorporatiOns. The new conditions of contract laid down by the colliery proprietors will, if insisted upon make a considerable difference. For a tirue coalowners and the corporation have been a.b loggerheads, but from a c~nference held in L~eds last week, between representatives of the corporatiOn and coalowners, a modification of the latter't4 proposals seems possible. The gas producers made certain counter suggestions which the coalowners have promised to take into consideration. The various clauses in the proposed new form of tender were discussed The fi~t bad r~ga.rd to the proportions of delivery-40 pe; cent. ~n th~ s1x summer months and 60 per cent. in the s1x wmter months instead of 27 per cent. and 73 per cent. as now. A counter proposal was that the contracts sh_ou14 include a~ abatement of 6d. per ton for summer delivenes as an mducement to corporations to take the largest p ossible quantities and thus compensate themselves and the cost of stacking.
· 70a., 79~. 3d., and 853. per ton. A moderate business was done thlS forenoon, some 15,000 tons of iron changing hands The "bears" covered freely, and Scotch iron rose 4~d. pe; to~. 0 ther .15, 000 tons changed hands in the afternoon, and pnces recetved a smart drop; but the close was above the lowest. Scotch lost 6~d. from the forenoon close hematite iron 6d., and Cleveland 3d. per ton. Th~ settlement prices were: 67s. 9d., 693. 6d., 793. 1~d., and 85s. per ton. The following are the returns of the shipmen~ of pig iron from all Scotch ports for the week endmg last Saturday : To Canada, 165 tons · to India, 138 tons ; to Australia, 535 tons ; to Italy' 516 tons; to Germany, 1435 tons; to Holland, 577 tons'. to Belgium, 125 tons ; to Spain and P ortugal, 120 tons! to other countries smaller quantities, and 2662 tons coast~ wise. The week's total was 6614 tons, against 3947 tons in the corresponding week of last year. Here are the prices of No. 1 pig-iron makers' brands: Clyde, 88~. per ton; Gartsherne, 883. 6d. ; Summerlee and Calder, 903.; Coltness 92s. 6d.-the foregoing all shipped at Glas~ow ; Glengarnock (shipped at Ardrossan), 86s.; Shotts (shtpped at Leith), 92s. 6d.; Carron (shipped at Grangemouth), 90s. per ton. Dulness continues to prevail in all departments of the iron trade, and speculation is apparently dead. American and Continental reports show on all hands a declining tendency, and home consumers buy as sparingly as possible. The smallness of the stock, how. ever, and the certainty of its further decrease exercise a strong restraint on sellers taking liberties with the warrant market. The fluctuations during the week have been unimportant, and the amount of business passing is small. The number of blast-furnaces in operation is 85 agains t 83 at the same time last year. The stock of pig iron yesterday afternoon stood at 140,175 tons, showing a reduction amounting for the past week to 3946 ton~.
Finished I -ron a:nd Steel.-The Scottish Manufactured Iron Trade Conciliation and Arbitration Board announce that they have examined the employers' books for March and April, and they certify that the average realit~ed net price at the works was Bl . 93. 3. 40d. per ton. The effect of this will be an increase of 5 per cent. in the wages of the workmen.
Glasgow Copper Market. -Copper on Glasgow Exchange still continues idle, and the prices are quite nominal. The settlement price has varied during the week between 72l. 153. per ton and 71l. 5s.
The BeU R ook Lighthouse.-The Northern Lighthouse Board have accepted the offer of Messrs. Steven and Strutbers, Anderston Brass Foundry, to erect a new parapet, lantern, machine, lamps, and fog signal apparatus on the historic Bell Rook Lighthouse. They have also granted the firm permission to have the same fitted up and exhibited in complete working order at the forthcoming Glasgow International Exhibition, previous to being fitted up at the rook.
Mothe'1'1£ell Water Bill.-This BiU, which had already received the assent of the House of Lords, asked for powers to take an additional supply of water from the Culter Bum and other streams, the filters and clear water tanks to be in the parishes of Carluke and Cambusnethan, powers also being wanted to borrow to the extent of 200,000l. When it came before the House of Commons Committee last Friday, it was evident that there was a prospect of settling with the opposition, and shortly thereafter the Committee passed the preamble, and the clauses were adjusted.
Poitnthouse Shipbwilditng Yard.-At Messrs. Inglis's shipyard at Pointhouse every berth is filled a.t present, but there are one or two boats to launch very soon. Alongside the elip four olipp_!.!r steamera of about 500 tons Ol\~h are being built for the Nowfoundla.nd Goa.stio.r trade,
~EX!CAN RAILWAY .. -Mr. A. M. Rendel, consulting engmeer to the MexiCan Rail wa_y Company, Limited, reports that the total length of hne now laid with steel sleepers is 287:}: miles. The Pueblo branch is improving as steel sleepers are substituted for timber ones. Ware~ house accommodation at Mexico, N egalekl, and Vera Cruz has been materially increased. No addition has been made to the company's engine or carriage stook during the past half year, but 50 truQks, with a carrying capacity of 27 tons each, were added to the wagon stook. The ~overn~ent of Mexico has required that all rolling stock m Mex1co should be fitted with automatic couplings of a type to be approved by the Government.
.CATALOGUES -We have received from Mr. A. E. Ptllatt, of ~h~ Queen's-.road Works, Nottingham, a catal?gue descr1b1!1g the Ptllatt f~rna~e, and gtving illustratioas of certam works ab wh10h 1t has been applied.Th~ British Steam Specialities, Limited, of Fleet-street, Letcester, have sent us a copr of their catalogue of steam fi.ttings, amongst which are moluded steam traps, reductiOn valves, damper regulators, grease extractors and feed heate.rs.-A new catalogue of railway generato~ has JUSb been 1ssued by the Bullock Electric Manufacturing Com~any, of Cincinnati, O~io, U .S. A. The catalogue contams unusually full detatls as to the construction of the3e mao~ines, many of the constituent parts being separately Illustrated.-A pamphlet dealing with paints for wood, steel, and galvanised iron has been published by the Goheen Manufacturing Company, of Canton Ohio U.S.A., for w~om Mr. 9~arles E. Gritton, of 33,'King~ street, W.C., IS the BritlSh agent.-We have received from Messrs. S . A. Da.niell, Limited, of the Sun Works Edward-street Parade, Birmingham, a copy of thei~ !lew oa.ta~ogue illuatra.tin~ the leoter p~e~es, pipe-screwmg machmes, wrenches, Jacks, and drtlhng machines, of which they are manufacturers.- Messrs. Webster and Bennetb, of the Atlas Works, Coventry, have sent us a copy of their new illustrated catalogue of machine tools. :rhe s~oimens de~cribed inc.lude verti~l !>?ring and turnmg mllls, chucking macbmes, mult1•epmdled drilling machines, various types of milling machines, and other tools of modern and special design.- We have received from Messrs. I. Muller and Co., of 112, and 114, Goldenlane, London, E . C., their new priced catalogue of engineers' tools,, iron and tinplate working machinery, gunmetal, and uon steam £ttmgs, and contractors' plant and ~tores. The catalogue contains 312 pages and is profusely illustrated.-Messrs. Ruston, Proctor, and Co., Limited of Lincoln, have sent us a catalogue which they ha.v~ issued in connection with their exhibits at the Paris Exhibition. This covers a wide range, as, in addition to the agricultural and traction engines, by which the nam~ of the fi~m is so w~ll known;, fine specimens· of vertlOJ.l and horizontal statiOnary engmes are also on view at the stand.-Messrs. Dick, Kerr, and Co., Limited, of 110, Cannon-street, E.C., have just published excellently illustrated pamphlets descriptive of the cars they have supplied to the Waterloo and City Railway and to the Liverpool tramways.-Messrs. Joseph Wright and Co. of Tipton, have issued a new catalogue describing th~ special types of feed-water heaters, softeners, filters, and condensers, of which they are manufacturers.-An interesting catalogue is that recently published by the Delta Metal Company, Limited, of 110, Cannon-street E. C., which contains illustrations of some of the numerou~ complicated sections which they succeeded in producin~ by means of Mr. Dick's ingenious process of "extrusion. The letterpress of this catalogue consists, in the main, of particular3 as to the physical properties and practical adaptations of the different brands of Delta metal manufa.otured.-Mr. T. B. Batsford, of 94, High Holborn, London, ha.a issued a catalogue of sets of the Proceeding3 of the different technical and scientific societies, that he has on sale, and also of bound volumes of technical publications. Many of the publications listed are now rare.-The Dudbridge Iron Works, Limited of Stroud, have issued a neatly got up pamphlet desorihing the Dudbridge oil and gas engines.- The EleotrioitatsActiengesellsohaft vormals Schuokert and Co., Niirnberg, have recently published a strongly bound volume describing their make of electric tramway plant.-We have received a small and well got up abridged catalogue from Messrs. Alfred Herbert, Limited, of Coventry, containing an illustrated summarised list of the special machine tools they manufacture. These comprise chiefly automatic screw machines, capstan lathes, drilling machines, hexagon turret lathes, and milling machines, together with all tools and accessories. Particulars and illustrations of all these are set forth in the abridged oatalogue.-We have already described in our columns the excellently equipped factory which Messrs. Ludwig Loew and Co. have erected at Berlin for the production of machine tools and accessories, and we have now received from their London agent, Mr. H. F. L . Oroutt, of 30 and 32, Farringdon-road, E.C., sections of their illustrated catalogue describing certain of the firm's products in the matter of gauges, machine vices, index centres, chucks, reemers, and milling tools. Prices are given in all cases, whilst excellent illustrations make clear any special features of the articles listed. Mr. Oroutb has also issued a useful little pamphlet describing the equipment and arrangement of A modem machine ahop.
farkgate b·on and Steel Compatny, Limited. - The thtrty·ninth annual meeting of the shareholders of this company took place at the Royal Victoria. Hotel, Shef. field, last week, Mr. 0. J. Stoddart presiding. A dividend of 1s. 8d. per share, making with the interim dividend a total of 3~. 2d. per share, or 13 per cent. for the year, was declared.
West Rid!ing Electric Power Soheme.-At a meeting of the Y eadon Urban District Council last week a letter waa read from the secretary of the Yorkshire Electric Power Comp.any giving notice of an intention to promote an el~ctr1c power supply for the W est Riding. The letter satd. the scheme was being promoted by electricians, engmeer~, and others, who have had considerable experience in ~uch . undertakings at home and abroad, and that the Bill wlll be drafted as soon as the decision of the committee on the Lancashire and other Electric Powers Bill has been given. The principal object of the sohem~ .was to supply low-priced electricity to local a~tbont1es and other large consumers. The council deCided to ask the Board of Trade to extend the time of the electric lighti~g provisional order they obtained in 1894, and a~o to wrtte to the L eeds City Council asking if tbat authority would supply electricity in bulk to Yeadon in conjunction with the proposed tramway scheme. '
South Yorkshi re Coal T1·ade. - A large number of con~racts have been placed d~ring the past week, but many Important tenders are st1ll out. Prices generally have been from 5s. to 6s. 6d. per ton over last year'd rates. The Sheffield Gas Company's contract for 250 000 tons has been placed at advances ranging from 53. to 5s. 6d. per ton. For another large contract an offer of 5s. lld. advance was refused, ooalowners holding out for 63. per ton. The following offer, made to a German house affords a criterion of present pit rates: Best qualities' 16s. per ton ; thin, 15s. per ton ; softs, 13d. 6d. per ton ; branch nuts, 13s. 6d. per ton; steam, 15s. 9d. per ton.
Irm and Steel Trades.-The firms engaged in the heavy industries of the city continue full of work. and look forward with every confidence to the future. Users are fi~ding pig iron and many brands of partly finished m~ter1al very scarce, and manufacturing production is bemg somewhat retarded. The demand for SiemensMartin and Bessemer billets is well maintained. The li~~ter trades are still in a ~omewhat depressed con~1t10n, thoue-h there has recently been an improvement m the colomal demand.
NOTES FROM CLEVELAND AND THE NORTHERN COUNTIES.
MIDDLESBROUGH, Wednesday. The Cleveland b·m Trade.-Yesterday the attendance
on 'Change here was only thin, and the amount of business transacted was but small. Pig iron was scarce, and on the other hand, buyera were backward. It was very difficult to get at quotations. Makers, all of whom are well supplied with orders, would not, as a rule, quote at all, and merchants had very little iron indeed to disQose of. Ideas with regard to the future were mixed. Producers were inclined to look for a. good deal of activity throughout the summer and autumn months, but most of the buyers were very sceptical about the future. There were merchants ready to sell No. 3 g.m.b. Clevelan'd pig iron at 71s. for early f.o.b. delivery, and even that low figure did not tempt buyers. G enuine purchasers offered 70a. Most of the producers would not listen to anything below 7 4s. for No. 3. The general market rates for the lower qualities were: No. 4 foundry, 70s.; and grey forge, 69s. 6d. Middlesbrough warrants opened ab 693. 6d. and closed 69a. 10~d. cash buyers. East coast bematite pig iron was quite unobtainable, and inquiries for it were ignor~d. The nominal quotation for Noe. 1, 2, and 3 was 87s. 6d. Middlesbrough hematite warrants, of which there are now only some 2000, were not quoted. Spanish ore was steady. Rubio was put at 2ls. ex·ship Tees, and freights, Bilbao-Middlesbrough, were fixed at 6s. 10~d. To·day there was very little doing on 'Ohange. Quotations for makers' iron were the same a8 yeeterday. In the early part of the day Mid· dleibrough w"rrauts were idle, and there was no quottv
] UN E I , 1 900. ]
tion for them, but by the olose of the market they were weak at 693. 3d. c9.-sh buyer3.
!Jfanufactured Iron and Steel.-Nearly all the manufactured iron and steel makers give a good account of their condition, reporting that they have large orders on h&nd, and that they will nob accept new contracts except a.t similar rates to those that have ruled for some time. Easing of quotations in other districts has not influenced the market here. It musb be mentioned, however, that few new orders are being placed. Common iron bars are 9l. 103. ; be3t bara, 10l. ; iron ship-plates, 8l. 103. iron ship-angles, 8l. 7s. 6d. ; and steel ship-plates and steel ship-angles, ea()h 8l. 7s. 6d.-all less the customary 2~ per cent. discount for cash. Rail produce~ are kept pretty well employed, and they are not pressmg material on the market. Heavy sections of steel rails are 7l. 15s. net at works.
Coal and Ooke.-Coal prices are fairly steady, though bunkers show a tendency to ease. Coke strong. Average blast-furnace kinds keep at 29J. delivered here.
NOTES FROM THE SOUTH-WEST. Ca,rd~ff'.-There has been a. well-sustained demand for
steam coal; the best descriptions have made 23s. to 23s. 6:1. per ton, while secondary qualities have brought 20s. 6d. to 22d. 6d. per ton. H ousehold coal has exhibited a. firm tone; No. 3 Rhondda large has brought 223. 6d. to 23s. per ton. Coke has also shown strength ; foundry qualities have made 32s. 6d. to 33s. per ton, and furnace ditto 30s. to 31s. 6d. per ton. As regards iron ore, the best rubio has been quoted at 20s. 6d. to 21s. per ton.
The Bath a;nd West Of England Exhibition . -The annual exhibition of the Bath and West and Southern Counties Agricultural Society-the old Bath and West of England-which commenced at Bath on Wednesday, had 5766 ft. run of shedding devoted to agricultural implements, machinery, &c.
Keyham .. -About five years since the Lords of the Admiralty spent several thousand pounds in extending the gun·mounting store at Keyham. But the accommodation is still altogether inadequate, owing to the many different types of guns and mounting~ which are being introduced into the service. To meet the case temporarily, the store is to be further extended at a. cost of 2500l., and plans are under consideration for the erection of a new block of buildings for the storage of guns and their mountings on the site of the dockyard extension ab K~yha.m. The proposed new buildings for this purpose will cost aboutJ 5000l., and when they are completed the present building will be converted into a machine-~bop for Key ham factory .
JAPAN.-A censu~ of Japan taken in 1898, and just published, shows the population of the Japanese Empire, exclusive of Formosa, at that date, to have amounted to 45,193,605 persons, an increase since the last census of 1,960,000.
THE L ATE MR. THOMAS DA VID LrrrLE. -One of the many British engineers who have done splendid service towards the opening u~ and trade development of great tracks of jungle in Indta, has passed away in the person of Mr. Thomas David Little, who died suddenly at Che~ter on the 16th ult. It may be said that Mr. Little spent his whole life for the advancement of our great Indian dependency, for he went to that country forty years ago, and his work there absorbed all his attention. He served for three years, from 1855 to 1858, under the late ?vir. J. B. Clacy. the county surveyor for Berks, and was for a. few months in the dra.wing·office of the Great W estern Railway at Paddington, when he decided to enter the Public Works Department, and passed the usual examination in 1859. He was first located in the Presidency of Bombay; but various parts successively claimed his attention. His promotion was rapid, and in 1881 he reached the first grade of the executive branch. Miles of roads, and bridges of all types, some of them of the iron screw pile type, were built by him, and he practically laid out a great track of 1500 square miles of jungle in one of the native States. He became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1885.
E N G I N E E R I N G. •
MISCELLANEA. TIIR first factory in Sweden for the manufacture of s teel
balls for ball-bearings has been erected at the lower D onhult waterfall. The balJs will be pressed. The manufacture will be started at the rate of 50,000 balls per da.y, but it is intended to quadruple this, which will be a.n annual output of 60,000,000 balls.
The rail way station of the ancient a.nd holy Indian city of Bena.res, is to be lighted by the newest form of illumination-acetylene gas. The system employed is the " Thorscar" patent, the contract having been given to M essrs. L ockerbie, Limited, of Birmingham. There will be a. total of about 200 lights employed to illuminate the station and approaches. .
The traffic receipts for the week ending May 20 on 33 of the principal lines of the United Kingdom amounted to 1, 799,577l., which was earned on 19,865! miles. For the corresponding week in 1899 the receipts of the same lines amounted to 1,927,588l., with 19,604~ miles open. There was thus a decrease of 128,011l. in the rec~ipU~, and an increase of 26l i in the mileage.
In view of the forthcoming extraordinary meeting of the Institution of Electrical E ngineers at Paris on August 16 next, the Council of the Institution requested Messrs. T. Cook and Sons to make the necessary travelling a.nd hotel arrangement~. It is suggested tbatJ members should make an early application for such accommodation as they require, since rooms will be a.llotted in the order of application.
The Water Committee of the London County Council have prepared a report, in which they ask to be allowed to ~repar~ for legislation in the Session of 1901 Bills ~eal.ing w1.th the London water supply. The committee JUSti fy their request on the ground that "neither in reply to the .deputation which waited upon him, nor in the debate ID the J:Iouse of Comm~ns, iJ? which be opposed the second readmg ot the Coun01l's Bills, was any mdication given by the President of the Local Government Board of the course which the Government intend to pursue, t;lOr ~o we know whether they are likely to propose legtslatJOn based on the recommendation of the Royal Commission in favour of purchase."
. In a. paper recently read ~afore the Royal Institution, Sir Andrew Noble gave particulars of observations made with different powders in the Elswick lOO-calibre experimental gun. It is of interest to note that the Frenoh official smokeless powder, the B.N. is characterised by giving higher chamber pr~sures and lower muzzle pressur~ than other modern propellants, so that for a given maximum chamber pressure, the B.N. powder gives a lower muzzle energy than either cordite or ballistite. On the other band, the. B. N. powder g~nerates less heat per gramme than corc;hte, the re~pectiv~ figures being 1003 and 1272. heat·umts. Ly~dite, curiOusly enough, is a comparatively cool explosive, one gramme generating only 850.3 heat-units.
A new central .railway station was opened last week for traffic at N ottmgham. The station is jointly owned by the q.reat C~nt~al and the Great Northern Railway Compames, and IS Situated on the Mansfield-road in the heart of the city. The site and structure have cost about l,OOO,OOOl. The permanent way, stati~n offices, platforms, and the great spans roofing the statiOn are of the most substantial and most modern character. There are seven platformA, and, in addition to dealing with the whole of the Great Central through and local goods and passenger traffic, the station will carry all the through and local pa.ss.enger traffic of the Great N ortbern ~stem. The old station of the Great Northern system a.t L ondon-road will be practically closed for Great Northern traffic but some ~ondon and ~orth-Western trains will continu~ to utilise It under runnmg powers.
The A eronautical Journal relates that Major Baden· Powell, a brother of the defender of Mafeking had great difficulty in getting his war kites out to So~th Africa. when ordered to the front. He was refused permission to take them as personal luggage, or as ammunition or arms, and finally it is said smuggled them through as "medical comforts." The kite~, though their presence on the scene was due entirely to private initiative have proved Yery useful, as not only did they enable photogr~phs of ~uns, camps, &o., to be taken from great h~Ights, but have also .served to support the vertical Wires neede~, for ~arcoru's s~stem of telegraphy. When Mr. Marcoms assistants a.rrtved at the front with their coberers and. transmitters, they found neither poles nor ba.ll<;>ons available to carry their transmitting and receivmg wires. It was then the kites came to save the situati~n, and with their aid it was found possible to transmit messages over a distance of 85 miles.
THE LATE PROFESSOR CALLCOTT REILLY.-We regret to have to announce the death, in his seventy-second year, of Professor Callcott Reilly, who for so many years occupied with such conspicuous success the position of professor of engineering construction at Cooper's Hill. He commenced his engineering career as a millwright, serving his time with Messrs. E . and B. J ohnson, of Cheater, and for two years he was foreman patternmaker ab the works of Messrs. Knight and Wood, Bolton, then one year as principal foreman with Mr. J oseph Clayton, of Preston, and subsequently for one year as draughtsman with Mr. James Ho~_gson, shipbuilder and naval architect, at Liverpool. He next became ohief assistant to Mr. Edward Woods, a past-president of the Institution, and continued with him until 1872, when he became first professor of engineerin~ construction, and continued to occupy that position unt1l a few months ago. Thus many of the engineers now in India owe to Prof~sor Reilly much of their knowledge of engineering, and his death will awaken regret alike because of his urbanity as for his great ability as an engineer. He became an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1864 and a. member in 1870, and contributed a. classical paper on '' The Uniform Str~ses in Girderwork1, followed by another on "Iron Girder Bridges,, ea.rnmg the Telford medal and premium. He took part frequently in the discussions at the Institution, principally on the stresses of materials, a subject to which he devoted muoh ref\earch.
The Presi~ent of the .B<?ard of Education has approved of a. committee con~Istmg of The Right Hon. J. L. ~harton, M.P. (chauman) ; Mr. Stepben E. Spring Rt~e, C. B., of Her Majesty's Treasury ; Mr. T. H. Elh~tt, C. B., of the Board of Agriculture; General Festmg, C.B., of the Board of Education (Victoria and Albert Museum); Dr. H. F. Parsons, of the Local Government B<;>ard; Mr. W. T. Blandford, F.R.S., late of the Geolog1al Survey of I.ndia ,; Professor C. Lapworth, J?.R.S., of Mason Umversity College, Birmingham ;. WIth Mr. A. C. Cooper, Board of Education South Kensmgton, as secretary, to inquire into tl)e orga~isation a?d staff of the Geological Survey and Museum of Pract~ca.l Geol?gy ; to reporo on the p~ogress of the Survey smce 1881 , to suggest th~ o~anges m staff and arrangements necessary for brmgmg the Survey in its more gen~ral features to a ~peedy an.d satisfacto.ry termination, ha.vmg regard espectaJly to Its economic importance · and, furtbu, to report on the deairability or otherwise ef
------transferrin~ the Survey to another publio department. This comm1ttee is now sitting.
The Thames Conservators, in their report for 1899, which has just been issued, state that further progress has been made towards the completion of the deepening of the navigable channel of the river from Black wall to the Nore. F or that part of the channel from Gravesend to the Roya l Albert D ock entrance there remains about 3 miles, and from the Royal Albert Dock entrance to the lVIillwa.ll Dock entrance about ~ miles to complete by dredging. The survey from the Uhapman Lighthouse for a distance of 13 miles to the entrance of the Tilbury Docks shows that an improvement of the channel has resulted at the upper end of Sea Rea<lh. Above London Bridge the survey has been completed up to Vauxhall Bridge, and shows an improvement of from 1 ft . to 2 ft. in the depth of the channel. During 1899 the pollution from 17 towns and villages, with a population of 36,000, has beeQ diverted from tributary streams. In by far the greater number of cases where works have not yet been carried out for the prevention of pollution of the river, the local authorities are taking steps to meet the requirements of the Act, and at Witney, Thnme, Aylesbury, and Marlborol;Jgh dr~inage works have already been commenced. The mspect10n of farms, manufactories, &c., has resulted in pollution being diverted in 197 oases. On the subject of the water supply, the Conservators state that the summer and autumn of 1899 were, as in 1898, unusually dry. From January to May there was abundance of water in the river, but the supply fell off in June, and in tTn1y, August, and September the average flow over Teddington Weir was much below 200,000,000 gallons per day.
The Southern Pacific Railroad has for some years past been using '' Burnettised , sleepers for its lines. This process, it 'Yill ~e reme~bered, consists of impregnating the wood w1 th zm c t'hlonde. To check the efficiency of this impregnation, the following plan has been adopted, which experience shows can be successfully used by the foremen in charge of the works: A definite quantity of sample. boring~ fro~ the sleepers are burned to ash m a. porcelam roastmg dish by means of a gas jet. The ashes are collected in a platinum cup and distilled water added, together with an excess of hydrochloric acid. The solution of zinc is filtered off, and the zinc precipitated with carbonate of soda. The liquid is then made up to 3 .drachms, an~ t~e ~esulting milky solution compared With standard bqmds ID tubes of the ss.me size and shape as that contaimng the test sample. These standard liquids are grad~d to rep;esent .06, .0~, .12, .15, .18, .21, and .24 lb. of zmc chloride per cubtc foot of timber. qertain other Ame~~an railroads are using a. modificatton. of the Burnettistng process, which is claimed to be an .tmprove~.ent when t~e wood is to be exposed to trymg cond1t1ons. In t~Is modified proc.ess the wood is first freed from ~p and a1: by steam and by placing it in a. vacuum. Chlortde of zmc is next injected which is accomplished at a t emperature of 150 d eg. 'Fahr. and under a J?ressure of 100 lb. per square inch, about three ~o.urs bemg needed. Next a solution of gelatine is !nJected,. the. pres~ure.used being again 100 lb. per square mob,, which 18 mamta.med for about half an hour. This solution d oes not penetrate very far into the timber, since the J?Ores o~ the latter are already filled with the zino solutiOn. Fmally, a solution of tannin is injected which renders the gelatine insoluble, and c'lmpletes the process.
The Gr~at Wes.tern Ra.ilwa.y Company are bringing into use a corridor tram o~ a new type, in which the gangway runs not al~ng the stde of. the coaches, but along their centre. ThlS change has mvolved the total abolition of separate eo m partmen ts, a.nd ea~~ coach is now practically open fro~ ~nd to end, the partttJOns between the seats in no case nsmg to the roof of the carriages. First-class passenge~s are seated two in the width of the train-one on e!l'cli side of the central gangway; in the second-class carr1ages the seat.s a.~e arrang~d two on one side and one on the other; ~bile m the thtrd class they are two and ~wo. Hence, .m the last case at least, a given space ts ~ade to yield a substantial increase of accommodation, ~ co~pared with the corridor coaches now in vogue, sm ce ~nstead of three persons being placednot a.lway~ Without . some constriction-in the width of .the tram, room 1s found for four. A convenience whiCh, so far, the Great Western has not allowed its passengers nearly. so .freely. as the northern lines, is also to be fouJ?d m ~h1s tram, for in one of the middle coach~ there .Is a ki~h~n from which travellers can at any time. durmg th~Ir JOurney be served with refreshments Without leavmg their seats. All the coaches ~ave the olerestory roofs usual in Great Western main lm~ stock, and, of course, run on bogies· internally the1r uphols tery a~d decoration is all that ~ reasonabl~ traveller eau r.eqmre, the lighting is by electricity and a. stea.!D·warmmg apparatus is provided. Comm~nicatwn wtth the guard and dr.iver is effected by the method ~ec~ntly adopted by the rallw!l'y companies in generalmstde cords run along both sides of each carriage at the level of the top of the do?r, and w.hen either of these is p~lled down the a~toru~t10. br~ke 1s put on, a small red dtsc at the same t1me IDdtoatmg from which coach the alarm proce~ds. This new train is to be used for the triw~ekly s~~v1ce to Cork aJ?d the south of Ireland vid New Milford , 1t1 leaves Paddmgton on Tuesdays. Thursda s ~nd Saturdays at 4.25, and return from Milford at a.blut 6.30 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.
FREN CH STEAM .NAVIGATION.-A line of subsidised atAahers has been n~aug~rated at Havre under the title of. t e Franco-Canadtan hne. The steamers of the line ~:d:~x~rom ~avre to Quebec and Montreal, callin~ a~
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J UNE 1 , I 900.] E N G I N E E R I N G. •
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discourse next week (June 8), at 9 o'clock, at Albemarle-street, Piccadilly, W., will be delivered b} Mr. Allan Macfadyeo, M. D., D. Se. , Subject: "The Effect of Physical Age~ ts on Bac· terial Life." Afternoon lectures next week at 8 o c~~ck.-9n Tuesday, June 5. Mr. R. Warwick Bond, M.A., ou Rmkm, the Servant of Art."-On Thursday, June 7. The Rev. Oanon Ainger, ?!LA., LL.D., on " Ohaucer " (Lecture III.)- On Saturday, June 9. Sir Frederick Bridge, Mus. Doe. , on " The Growth of Chamber Music" (wi th musical i11ustra.tions) (Lecture Ill.).
TnE Rtl~TGEN SOCIETY.- Thursday, June 7, at St. ~arthlomews's Hospital, Electrical Department,_ entrance _Smtthfield. The chair will be taken at 8 p.m. Dr. Lewts Jones w tll show an infJuence machine of American design. Mr. James Wimshurst, F.R.S., will give a. shor~ statement of h_is _work in the d~ign and the perfectintr of the several forms of bts mflueuce machme. Mr. R6my, of Paris, will show a new localising apparatus.
ENGINEERING. FRIDAY, J UNE l, 1900.
THE NAVAL P ROGRAMME. THE t houghts of the nation are, at the present
t ime, so intently directed toward the land operations in South Africa., that we are apt to forget the paramount claim the sea service always has on our attent ion. The brief references lately made in the House of Commons to the present naval programme are, however, of such importance, and. are withal so instructive, that we propose coromentmg on them at some length. To do this we must go back to last F ebruary, when Mr. Goschen, in introducing the Naval Estimates, said that in t he naval programme he was limit ed to what he believed to be the output of the country in armour, hull, machinery, and a vast number of accessories. The country accepted this statement at the time in good faith, taking it for gr.a.nted that the belief of t he Board of Admll'alty was well founded ; that care had been taken to ascer tain the capacities of the various shipyards and engineering establishments, upon which the country places reliance to supply rnat6riel for t he fleet. For our own part, we were a little surprised to learn that a. state of affairs existed such a.s Mr. Goschen stated ; but, like the puhlic at large, we neglected what experience should have taught, and accepted the official statement of the Board of Admiralty in good faith. Some letters we have since received, and to which we shall presently make reference, have undeceived us in this respect.
Mr. Y er burgh has being doing useful work lately in stirring this matter up in Parliament. In the course of a question put to the First Lord of t he Admiralty, he repeated that Messrs. Armstrong,
·w hit worth, and Co. had said, "that t hey could, CONTENTS. if required, lay down three battleships and two
The Oost of Electric Powe:AGB The Volta. Contact Force . . P~~: large cruisers, giving delivery of t he same within Production . . .. .... .. .. . . 701 Notes .. ... .... ... .. .. .... 724 three years of receiving the order. " Mr. Goschen,
Literature .. ..... . .... .. . . 704 The Late Mr. William in his reply, said : '' I t should be understood that Paris Exhibition Railways Lindley . . .. · · · · · ... · · · · 726 M Ar 1. d 1. t t hin
( lu.strat<:A.IJ1 • • • . • • . • • r ou rtcan at ways ... . n ... -r~ ~o5 s th At · R ·1 725 essrs. ms"rong o no" cons rue mac ary, nor Hand and Machine Labour 708 " Road Locomotion" . .. . . . 726 a.t presen t make armour-plates ; and for their supply Textile Machinery at the The War in South Africa .. 725 in these respects they are dependent upon t he
Paris Exhibition (lllus- Foreshore Protection . ... . . 726 h d · l d h t rated) .. • •• • •. • • •• • • • • •• 709 Range Finders .. .. ... . .. .. 726 same manufacturers as t e A ml.l'a. ty a.n ot er
The Paris Exhibition Elec- The Accident at South- shipbuilders." trio Power Station (I ll u s- ampton (Illustrated) · · · · 726 The imputation clearly was that, though 1\'Iessrs. ltctted) ... ... . ... . ..... .. 712 Lending Library for Engi-
Midland Locomotive at the neers . ...... .. ........ . 726 Armstrong might be able to build the ships, t hey Paris Exhibition (I llus. ) 713 Naval Engineers · · · · · · · · · · 726 could not supply complete ships, but only the hulls. Notes from the United Power · Stamping Presses States . . . . . . _ .. .. . 718 ( Illustrated) .... .. . .. .. . 727 How unfounded this view was, was speedily shown,
Armoured Traction Train Industrial Notea . · .. · · · · · · 727 so far as machinery was concerned, by a letter for South Africa (lllus.) .. 714 The Action of Bilge Keels Messrs. Humphrys, Tennant, and Co. sen t to the Notes from the ~orth .. .. . . 716 (Illustrated) .... .... .. . . 729
Notes from South Yorkshire 716 Workmen's Compensation Times, in which they said they would ' ' be exceed-Notes from Cleveltwd and Oases · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 731 1'ngly glad to undertake the constr·uction and de the Northern Counties .. '116 Boiler Explosion nea.r New· -Notes from the South-West 717 castle . . . ... ... .. . .. 732 livery of t he machinery complete for the three Miscellanea. ... .. . ... . .. . ... 717 Compression and Liquefac· battleships and t wo large cruisers within three The Naval Programme . . .. 719 tion of Gases (l Umtrated) 732 years from the date of contract." I t need hardly The Patents E>'Xamination The Physical Society ... ... 734
Question .. .... .. ....... . 720 Accident at Crynant Sta.· be pointed out in these columns t hat the two firms Imperial Chinese Railways 721 tion (nlmtrated) .. .... .. 734 referred to have worked together for years past in Land Reclamation in Nor- " Engineering" Patent Re·
folk .. ........ .. ..... . .• 722 oord (Illustrated) .•..... . 786 producing some of the most successful war vessels With a Ttoo-l'a.g~ :Bnt;ramng of a PA SSENGER LOCO· t hat have ever ploughed the ocean; and so far a.s
!JlOTIVE FOR THE MIDLAND .Ri!ILW .AY AT THE una.rmoured cruisers were concerned, the difficulty \ P.a.IUS EXHIBITI ON, . of getting ships built was elearlf a myth. There
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remain , however, the t hree battleships which need armour ; but the Sheffield . manufacli~rers say that the presen t programme "1s utterly Inadequate to keep the Sheffield plant employed." To clinch t he matter, however, Messrs. Armst rong have state~, in correspondence referred t o by ~~· Y ~rburgh 1nf the H ouse on Monday last, that therr offer o laying down and delivering within three years from date of order three bat tleships and two large cruisers still held good : all the said ships to ? e delivered complete in all details - hull, mach1nery,
d " armour, an guns. Mr. Goschen- who, it will be re1nem.bered,
served for many years under the ''old P arha.mentary hand " par excellence-is by no. means at the end of his resources ; and when driven from one line of defence he promptly establishes hims~lf _in another. He will, he says, very shortly 1nv1te tenders for ships and machinery ; and when Mr. Yerburgh very properly, asks him if these will be part of the programme which was l imited by the output of the country, he says : '' Cer~inly ! It is part of the programme of the estrmates. I t would be folly t o go further until we know. h.ow far we can place the large orders we are now gl\~mg out."
But how is it that the F irst Lord of the Admiralty and his colleagues do not know, or, rather, did noli know, mon ths ago 1 'rhe firms that can supply ships, engines, armour, and guns are .all on the .Admiralty list, and a. circular letter, whiCh a junior clerk could have drafted, would have brought the needed information. H owever, letter or no letter , the Board of .Admiralty 1nust be singularly out of touch with t he engineering community if t hey have not discovered that the statements made a.s to inability of contractors to fulfil orders have been met with protest on all sides. We have ourselves received a great many communications, which prove conclusively how lame was Mr. Goschen 's excuse for not making fuller provision for strengthening the F leet . The head of one firm of t he higheot standing says : '' We are astonished at Mr. Goschen 's recent remarks as to his inability t o put forward a fuller naval programme on account of contractors being unable to execute the work. " Another eminent engineering contractor says : " I may tell you that Mr. Goschen's statement is making quite a stir among shipbuilders and steelmakers. There is no difficulty whatever in the Admiralty getting any number of ships built-double the number they are having built-and getting them constructed quickly. The means at the command of t he builders of the country are such t hat they could t urn out twice the amount of work. "
Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Co.'s present capability of executing Government orders has been made public ; it is, as stated, three battleships and three large cruisers. It is well known that they are completing, at their Openshaw works, an armour-plate plant that will render them independent of the Sheffield fi rms. I t may be stated further that in addition to their Elswick yard, which is equipped for the building of war vessels only, they have the Walker yard, a lit tle lower down the Tyne, from whence they have already launched several cruisers and two armourclads.
I t will be instructive if, from the many communications, both verbal and by letter , which we have received from Admiralty contractors, we here give a few extracts, selecting only those from well-known firms who stand highest in the public estimation. One of them says : '' We could undertake and guarantee to turn out one battleship and three first-. class cruisers, with propelling machinery an~ auxiliary machinery complete, within three years from date, commencing delivery of the first vessel in two years from receipt of plans." Another fi rm says : ' ' • . . we could lay down two large ships (either battleships or first-class cruisers) in 1900, launch them in 1901, and complete by t he end of 1903 ; could lay down six large ships in 1901, launch them in 1902, and complete by the end of 1904, and six per annum afterwards." This does not refer to hulls only but to hulls, engines, and armour. Still another firm, also in t he foremost rank, is at present prepared t o take orders for two battleships to be delivered in three years ; or , if preferred, three armoured cruisers. This also refers to the complete ships, including engines, armour, and guns. Another firm would under take at once two batt leships, or two first-class cruisers, or three second-class cruisers, or four third-class cruisers. The Navy Estimates provide for two battleships
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in the new shipbuilding programme of this year. \Ve have in the ahove statements assurance that 16 would be delivered by the end of 1904 or
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ear ter. We have made no reference to such craft as
destroyers; but most of our correspondents are prepared to undertake the buildinO' of vessels of this class, in addition to the larger ships mentioned ; whilst it is well known that there would be no difficulty in getting several destroyers laid down at once on the Thames. There are also other yards and engineering works in different parts of the country that are on the Admiralty list and where ships have been built for the Navy, th~t are not only willing but anxious to take contracts at the present time. We have, as stated, referred above only to firms in the foremost rank, and not to all of these, as we have made no effort to obtain a complete list of the private resources of the country; indeed, we are aware that in more than one big establishment, noted for the production of annoured warships and their machinery, there are slips vacant, and capacity for making en~ines and boilers in the shops.
The E~rl of Hopetoun, in his annual address as President of the Institution of Naval Architects, made some ren1arks on this subject which are worth recalling, if only from the fact that his Lordship is the representative of the Admiralty in the House of Lords. This official connection naturally debars him from freely criticising the policy of his friends; and, bearing this in mind, the words used in the address would alone be sufficient to cause serious misgiving. Speaking of the Royal Navy, he said: "the new shipbuilding programme appears at first sight to be a modest one" ; and he then proceeded to remind the members of the Institution that we have already under construction a large number of armoured and unarmoured vessels. This is very true, but it n1ust also be remembered that so large a proportion of warship tonnage still remains incmnplete, because the work has been delayed, and therefore the programmes laid down have not been adhered to. Mr. Yerburgh raised this point in his first question asked in the House, and in replying, the First Lord made what can only be considered an insufficient excuse, illustrating his contention by "an analogous case" that was almost childish in its want of parallelism. He supposed that the House voted 1000l. for a picture, and that the picture was not finished the first nor the second year, so that the money had to be re-voted three times. '' Surely it would be incorrect to say," Mr. Goschen remarked, "that the Government were responsible for not having spent the whole of the 3000l." In regard to one picture, that would be very true; but supposing the welfare of the country demanded that a picture should be painted every year, then the Government would be very much to blame for seeing that one thousand was spent each year instead of one thousand in three years.
Lord Hopetoun, however, appears inclined to take a more statesmanlike view than the First Lord, and allows that the " modest programme " involves a situation of difficulty which " might resolve itself into one of some gravity, or even danger;'' whilst, despite his official position, he " cannot believe we have reached the limit of our producing power." He could hardly say less in addressing a meeting of the principal shipbuilders and marine engineers of the country.
Lord Hopetoun, however, attaches most importance to the armour question. " The difficulty of procuring armour-plate seems to be the more acute of the two quest.ions," he says. The chairman of one of the big Sheffield firms has recently stated in public that '' there need be no alarm on the score of supplying armour-plates to Her Majesty's Government so far as Sheffield was concerned, and their own company in part.icular. Any demand that might be made upon them would be quite within their capacity; and in case of necessity they were prepared to go still further, and increase their output to meet the requir~ments ~f the British Admiralty whatever they mtght be. In regard to the latter 'statement, it may be said that the three large steelmaking firms of Sheffield - Brown's, Cammell's, and Vickers'-are stated to have spent recently about a million sterling in armour plant, and that they could supply yearly protective plates for nine battleships and nine armoured cruisers. This leaves out of consideration the new plant of Messrs. Arm strong, Whit worth, and Oo., at Manchester, which we believe iR ao far advanced that
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some plates have already been produced; and also the Parkhead Forge at Glasgow, where Krupp armour up to 6 in. thick can be made. One of the Sheffield firms alone has appliances for turning out Y.early 10,000 tons of mixed plates ; or, say, suffiCient for three large battleships taking 2500 tons each, and three cruisers taking 800 tons each. In regard to thinner plates, there are many steelmaking corn panies who would only be too glad to lay down the comparatively inexpensive plant needed for their production, were the Government to give encouragement. ~ncouragement, however, is just what the Ad
miralty will not give to contractors, and never will, so long as the position of .First Lord is gi ren simply as a reward for political services, and not because the recipient has a knowledge of, or is fitted for, the onerous duties he is called upon to fulfil. We hear a good deal about '' administrative capacity," and doubtless that is a first necessity for a man who is to govern the Queen's Navy; but what are we to think of the admini::;trative capacity of those who let the maritime defences of the country sink to the dangerously low ebb of the early seventies 1 Naturally, the Navy is not made for the shipbuilders and engineering firms, but none the less the Navy could not exist without them. One would think that the humblest gift of common sense- putting aside any genius for administrative capacity- would teach that for the Navy contractors to be well equipped, whether shipbuilders, engineers, or gunmakers (and we should need them all if it came to a push), they must be prosperous. It is not a question of exorbitant prices, but of a fair assurance of work. It is a thing the taxpayer has a right to demand, on his own behalf, for its absence kills competition. That was well illustrated in the case of armour-plate production, for so long in the hands of two firms, because no substantial encouragement was given to others to lay down the costly plant needed, and which might be idle for months, or perhaps years, at a time. Another instance is that of a well-known firm who construct torpedo craft. At times their yard would be full of work, and then, orders having been executed, there could be hardly arything to do for months ; so that the men would be dispersed, and the highly -paid permanent staff left without occupation. It is unnecessary to dilate on the loss that occurs when a big works is idle ; but this, it may be said, is '' the :contra.ctors' look-out., It is by no means the contractors' look-out ; it is the taxpayers' look-out. Contractors do not work at a loss, and the waste that takes place in slack times has to be made good by extra profits when work comes; besides which, these periods of depression frighten fresh adventurers from entering the trade. One would think that a very little administrative capacity would be needed to put this matter on a sounder basis.
The fact i~, "administrative capacity, of the Parliamentary sort is chiefly a capacity to fence successfully with awkward questions in the House; and for this reason there is something to be said in favour of a Peer as a First Lord, so that what should be a subsidiary duty may be left to the Parliamentary secretary. This skilful word-fencing, however, has very little effect, perhaps even a damaging effect ; for though, by a species of forensic adroitness, the Government representative may gain a verbal triumph, the public is mostly shrewd enough to arrive at a true general conclusion. However that may be, we evidently need a change of policy at the Admiralty. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, speaking lately at Bristol, said that the expenditure of the country was growing at ~'an enormous and dangerous rate," instancing the increase in the Navy Estimates ; and he went on to enunciate the extraordinary proposition that ''in the race of shipbuilding we should follow rather than lead." With such views as these from one m em her of the Government, backed up, as they hu.ve been, by the groundless assertion that we have outgrown the capacity of the country for producing warships, it is evident the country at large should do something towards setting its house in order. The first step, it seems to us, should be to get a First Lord of the Admiralty more in touch with the great engineering and shipbuilding indust ries of the nation, or at any rate to strengthen the Board in this respect. Both Sir William White and Sir John Durston have done what they could, but they havA no administrative position ; thPy are simply
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servants of the Board. As a matter of fact both have been away for some time, incapacitated by illness brought on by anxiety and overwork, both of which are largely due to the unp1·actical character of the Board of Admiralty- that is, unpractical so far as the building up of an engineering fleet is concerned.
There may be some who think that the present naval shipbuilding programme is sufficient for the nation's need. 'rhat the Government feel such is not the case is proved by the excuses put forward for not building more ships. These excuses we have shown here to be not founded on fact; and we trust that the fallacy having been exposed, the Government will take steps in accordance with the feeling of the country, and with the demands common prudence imposes with the present outlook.
THE PATENTS EXAMINATION QUESTION.
THE Board of Trade have appointed a Departmental Committee, and have referred to it the following:
''While Her Majesty's Government do not think it desirable, and do not propose to establish any general system of examination as to the novelty of inventions in respect of which applications for letters patent are made, and do not require any inquiry into any such system of examination, the Committee hereinbefore appointed is to inquire into the working of the Patents Acts with reference to the following questions:
u (1) Whether any, and, if so, what additional powers should be given to the Patent Office to
(a) Control, (u) Impose conditions on, or (c) Otherwise limit
the issue of letters patent in respect of inventions which are obviously old, or which the information recorded in the office shows to have been previously protected by letters patent in this country.
"(2) Whether any, and, if so, what amendments are necessary in the provisions of Section 22 of t he Patents, &c., Act, 1883, and
"(3) Whether the period of se-ren months' priority allowed by Section 103 of that Act to applicants for letters patent under the International Convention may properly be extended, and, if so, on what conditions.,
Thus, the questions to be considered have reference, respectively, to examination as to novelty, compulsory licenses, and the granting of patents for foreign inventions. To-day we shall confine ourselves to a few observations on the first of these questions, to which we shall hope to recur, whilst what we may have to say upon the remaining two questions will be reserved for later on.
As to the subject of preliminary examination, the language of the reference is peculiar, and seems almost to involve a contradiction, if not even calculated to mislead. At any rate, it is not obvious how, without examination as to novelty, Patent Office officials are to arrive at the conclusion that an invention in respect of which a patent is sought is obviously old, or is shown by the information recorded in the office to have been previously protected by letters patent in this country. Indeed, the terms of the reference appear to be about as unsatisfactory as were those of the report of a former Departmental Committee which led to the inefficacious legislation respecting registration of Patent Agents. Certain it is that the impression conveyed by the terms of the reference to the present committee is that nothing but a very ineffectual and perfunctory practice is contemplated so far as regards the action of the Patent Office in dealing with applications for P atents containing claims in respect of anticipated subject-matter. Nevertheless, we desire to warn inventors and all others interested in inventions and patents, that it behoves them to watch closely, and exert all their influence to prevent the adoption of measures which may spell injustice and disaster to themselves.
One thing above all others they will do well to resist by every constitutional means. They should strive to prevent the arming of Patent Office officials with power (which we feel assured the officials do not desire) to refuse unopposed applications for letters patent on the ground of alleged want of novelty, or to themselves endorse upon letters patent or specifications any adverse opinion, or any referenoe to suppostd anticipation~. ~a
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know of course, that some influential persons, having themselves made money in the past out of patents, would now lik~ .to close the d~or, in o~der to discourage competitiOn. But their plausible reasoning should not be allowed to preYail.
The practice which now obtains in unop~osed cases is to grant the p atent, even though 1t be perfectly well known to the Examiner that practically the identical thing is already described in one or more earlier patent specifications.
In many cas~s a. .specia~ sea.rch respectin.g tl~e novelty of a given InventiOn IS a task whtch, If undertaken by the inventor himself involves a serious amount of time, whilst if performed by a
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professional person is costl!. . . But in a Government office, where certain exanu
ners have to do particularly with inventions of a given class or classe.s,. t~ose ex~miners become to a certain extent f~m1hansed with what has been already patenh d, at any rate during the time they have acted as examiner3 ; and they have consequently, so to speak at their fingers' ends, a large amount of information which, if communicated to the applicant for a patent, would often be of the utmost value, provided he had the opportunity of freely revising and recasting his ~peci~ca.tion and claims in such a manner as to av01d cla1mmg what appe~red to be clearly_ old, and, at th~ same time to claim what he conceived to be the d1fterence (no matter how small) between his invention or supposed invention and the earlier ones.
It has sometimes been suggested-and the suggestion was e\en embodie l in a formal resolution at the Paris Congress of 1878, and subsequently in the Swiss law- that P~tent Office authorities should communicate the particulars of earlier inventions known to them to the applicant for a patent, in confidence, for his information, leaving him a.t liberty to abandon his application, or to amend his specification and claims, or even to proceed with his application for a patent without amendment.
But it must be remembered that there are two sides to every question. Viewed in this light, the above proposal would be eminently unjust.
If it be desirable (as we conceive it to be) that the applicant for a patent should be saved the expense of a search, and protected, so to speak, from the loss inventors now frequently incur through spending time and money over an invention which turns out to have been anticipated; on the other hand, the least that the public have a right to expect is that they shall be equally informed, so that every member of the community may be spared the expense he might otherwise be put to (if attacked by a patentee for infringement) in discovering for his own defence the facts already communicated at t he public expense to the patentee. In a word, the applicant for a patent and the public must be equally protected.
At the same time, in protecting both parties, the utmost care should be exercised to avoid injustice to either.
It rarely happens that two specifications describe identical subject matter. It frequently occurs that the subject matters of two are so much alike as to be practically identical. It has often been the case that the subject matter of one specification has differed from that of another only in some feature or features deemed not to involve invention, and therefore not to constitute patentable subject matter. Thus a United States examiner will report to an applicant that the subject matter he claims involves judgment, rather than invention, and therefore is not patentable.
Where judgment ends and invention begins, we will not vretend to determine. The whole question is very much one of opinion. But we say, unhesitatingly, that the manufacturing industries of this country have in the past benefited greatly from the commercial introduction of inventions under patents which, had preliminary examination and the power of refusal obtained, would probably have been refused, but which, having been granted, and having led to important industrial and commercial results, have been, with the practical evidence then available, upheld by the Oourts.
In Crane v. Price the invention consisted in the use of the hot blast with anthracite in the manufacture of iron. The hot-air blast had previously been used with bituminous coal; anthracite had been used wi~.h the cold blast. The patent was upheld.
But how would a Patent Office examiner be likely to deal with such an application, as:Bu~ing
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he had power to reject it, and that ~1is ~stru.ct~ons were to rej ect in every cas~ where, 1n his opn110n, t he subject matter claimed did no t involve patentable invention, regard being had to what was already publicly known 1
In the case of Betts v. Menzies, plaintiff claimed the manufacture of the new material, lead combined with tin on one or b oth of its sur faces, by rolling or mechanical pressure, as in his specification described. The prior specification of D obbs comprised lead coated with tin by mechanical pressure. Some judges took one view ; some another. Ultimately, t he point was upheld. But we have little hesitation in saying that a Patent Office examiner, having before him Betts' application and the prior specification of Dobbs, and having to determine t he q uestion of patentability, would, in all probability, have refused a patent to Betts.
We might give other examples and may do so hereafter. But the foregoing will suffice to illustrate the grave danger of casting upon Patent Office officials t he responsibility of determinining the question of patentability. As a rule, whilst the application for a patent is pending, there is not available evidence of the kind upon which t he validity or invalidity of letters patent is usually determined by the Courts.
Often enough an invention is not even te ted until after (sometimes long after) the grant of the patent. Even in unopposed cases i t is usual to give the applicant for a patent the benefit of any doubt. We, therefore, go so far as to say that, in an unopposed case, the patent should be granted even if, in the examiner's ovinion, there is absolutely no difference between what the applicant describes and claims and what the examiner knows to have been before proposed. But, for the protection of the public, t he applicant should be required to disclose in his specification what is already known. At the same time the patentee should be given an absolutely fair field. Nothing whatever should be done to · indicate the existence of any official ad verse opinion or doubt respecting the novelty of his invention, or the validity of his patent.
Very often the applicant for a patent set~ forth in his specification that certain things have been already proposed. Sometimes he proceeds to indicate what he conceives to be the disadvantages appertaining to t hoso known things. He then describes what he proposes to do. Having described what he deems to be his invention, h e makes his claims. Sometimes his statement of what is already known embodies reference to some prior patent or patents, or some publication or publications. All the same, in an unopposed case, his specification goes forth to t he world as his own stat~ment, made freely and not under official compulsion. With such a specificat ion he is able to approach those with whom he hopes to do business.
Assuming any kind of control to be exercised, such as appears to be contemplated by those who have drafted the reference to the Departmental Committee, then it should be carried out on such lines that, for all the outer world may b e able to gather, the specification upon which letters patent issue, may be in the exact words originally chosen by the applicant before lodging his application. In other words, there should be nothing whatever to show that any reference it may contain to anticipatory matters has been inserted at the instance of t h e Patent Office authorities.
Some readers may, at first sight, fail to appreciate the true importance of this point. But, commercially speaking, we conceive it to be of the utmost consequence to patentees. Because, in the United States and in Germany, the Patent Office aut horities are empowered to refuse patents for alleged want of novelty, there exists a widespread belief that when a patent is g1·anted in either of those countries it is practically indefeasible. This idea is wholly fallacious; but it has taken a strong hold.
Now, if in this country it :should become the practice to look into the question of novelty, and if, instead of allowing the applicant to re-cast his specification in the manner we have above indicated, the alternative course should be adopted of endorsing upon his patent, or upon his specification, or upon the Patent Office records, references to prior specifications or other publications, then the idea will take root that any patent in respect of which such offioial references exist is invalid or de· fective.
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The obvious consequence will be that .the unfo~tunate paten tee will, at bes~, be heavil~ handicapped (sometimes most unJustly), and ~~ ma~y cases will be absolutely precluded from t urnmg h1s invention be it more or less meritorious, to any profitable' account, bec~use the o~cial endorsement will be r egarded by ordinary bus1ness men as a sort of danger s ignal.
IMPERIAL CHINESE RAILWAYS.* AT the end of t he year 1897 the Imperial Chinese
Rail way system, about 600 miles long, stretched from Pekin on the west to Shan-hai-K wan on the east-a fair future lay before it . Westward, it might work along the great caravan ro~tes to Mongolia, Siberia, and the Far West ProVIncessouth and east to the wealthy Shantung Province, and ultimately to the Yangstse region-north-east into the rich lowlands of Manchuria.
But eighteen short months have gone, and what is the position-shut out from the south by the socalled Belgian line to Hankow-in reality, as we know, Franco-Russian; from the Shantung Province by the exclusive privileges, which, contrary to treaty rights in China, we have ceded to Germany ; barred n orth and east by the Russian occu · pation of Manchuria. and by the recen t AngloRussian agreement-" cribbed, cabined, and confined, " indeed, and in every direction- an apt illustration of t hat policy of '' the open door, " of which we have heard so much.
The recent development of affairs in connection with one section of the above, -to wit, that known as the Shan-hai-Kwan-Newchwang Extension, is so serious, and apparently, so little understood, that i t is desirable to call attention to it; and to make the situation clear, some refer ence to the past and r ecapitulation of what is now history becomes necessary.
Act 1 of the drama was the conception of a line, to run north from where the Great Wall at Shan-hai-K wan leaves the barrier mountain range, and crossing the short strip of plain to the sea, separates the provinces of Chih-li and Manchuria. This rail way would strategically connect the capital with the Manchurian towns of Koiin, Moukden and Newchwang, and was therefore of great political interest to China. It would also connect their trade, but from a commercial point of view especially it would tap t he whole rich valley of t he great river of Southern Manchuria, and pour its products into Ying-Kow or Port N ewchwang for export. Surveys and investigations had been n1ade during the years 1896 and 1897, and the Pekin-Tientsin line to Shanhai-Kwan had been pushed on some 40 miles beyond t he latter place t o Chung-ho-so. Negotiations were also in progress with an English Syndicate, supported by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, to find the necessary capital for the extension. At the end of 1897, however, came the Russian coup at Port Arthur, and their announcement of an intention to connect that fortress with their Siberian trunk road by a line running through Manchuria.
In the face of this the Chinese Imperial Rail ways thought it unadvisable to proceed with the whole of their scheme. They, therefore, abandoned the idea of carrying their line further north into Manchuria than Sin-ming-ting on the right bank of the Liao River, and possibly to Moukden, provided that a junction with the Russian line was considered desirable. And instead of carrying the line from Sin-ming-ting round to P ort Newchwang 'h'id Moukden, they decided merely to connect Kinchow with Port N ewchang by a short branch. In this way they hoped still to save a part of the Manchurian trade and to carry it 'Vid Kin-chow to P ort Newchwang, and thus also to preserve the importance of that place, which is so largely an en1porium of British trade and American. They concluded a contract with a British Syndicate to find the money, which was to be secured as usual by the hypothecat ion of the roads to be constructed and the revenue accruing from then1.
Act 2 cmnmences with a Russian objection being taken to this contract on the ground that there existed a prior and secret agreement between
* In our issue of May 11 we gave an account of the attempt which is being made to oust Mr. Kinder from the control of the Imperial Chinese Railways. We now supplement tha.t article by a detailed history of the ra.ih way proJects in China.
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Russia and China by which the former country acquired territorial rights over Manchuria. When one hears of a secret treaty between two Governments by which political objects such as offensive and defensive operations are provided for under certain contingencies, one recognises their validity. But what is to be said of secret treaties as between nations or individuals, which aim at upsetting vested or acquired rights openly obtained in the interim between the making and disclosure of such secret agree1nents 1 Can there be any 'ralid ground for such subversive action, so opposed to the common rights of individuals or of nations ? The Russians, therefore, demanded the total abrogation of the contract entered into, although it had been signed and executed. Questions were raised in Parliament, and just before the summer recess of 1898 the British Government gave a definit.e assurance that they would maintain and insist upon the due execution of the contract. During the recess, however, great pressure was put upon both the Chinese and Britidh signatories to the contract, with the result that t he original contract was torn up, and a f.resh one substituted for the construction of the lines in t heir modified and shown extent, but with this exception, that the British bondholders were not to have any lien on the lines to be constructed in Manchuria, but that the revenue therefrom only was to be devoted to the service of the loan. As a quid p'ro quo a lien was granted on the lines already existing in the province of Chih-li, e1·go, between Shan-hai-Kwan and Pekin, and the revenue from these lines was also hypothecated for the service of the loan ; and, in addition, the Chinese Government itself guaranteed both capital and interests. Besides the a hove, other safeguards to the contracts were authorised.
With this exchange the security was still ample, and as the Russian Government acquiesced somewhat reluctantly in the arrangement, the mattor, from the financial point of view, was sufficiently satisfactory. Still, there remained the fact that a definite contract which had been entered into, and which the English Government had undertaken to support, was materially modified in order to meet Russian desires. The loan was duly and successfully carried out, the English Government officially standing sponsor for it, vide the prospectus of the • ISSUe.
Act 3 now ensued. Hardly was the ink dry when the Chinese Government dismissed t he DirectorGeneral, who had been concerned with the Imperial Railways for many years, and also had been instrumental in the progress of the negotiations just brought to a close. An originally low-class Chinaman, of the name of Chang-yen-mow, more commonly known as Chang-yi, who for some time past had been manager and part owner of the Tongshan Mine, was appointed by the palace clique as Director-General of Rail ways. The motive was obvious, viz., that he might apply the products of the loan to enrich himself and friends at the cost of the English bondholders. He at once set to work. His first endeavour was to obtain possession of the proceeds of the loan, so that he might administer them in his own fashion. In this he was foiled by the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Bank, which refused to part with the money except on direct requisitions of the English officials engaged on the construction of the railway.
Then intrigues were set on foot to divert the course of the line from that set forth in the bondholders' agreement, so that it might pass through lands belonging to himself, or his friends, or should serve places in which they held an interest. Thwarted in this and in other devices he proceeded to memorialise the Throne, finding fault with the construction and maintenance of the existing lines and directly and indirectly attributing fault to the E?ropean officials. .This official who probably d1d not know the difference between a fish-bolt and a humn1ing bird, who up to the time of his appointment, not only possessed no special or even general kno~ le?ge of railways and their management, and who, If JUdged by the Chinese standar~ ~f knowledge a~one, antiquated and absurd as 1t 1s, was a mere Ignoramus had no hesitation in preferring charges, the truth ~r the falsehood of which carried as litt le information to his mind as the symbols X or Y. In one thing he was successful, in tha~ of tak~g possession of the revenues of the hne, wh1ch according to the agreement, were ~eek by week to be paid into the bank for the serv10e of the loan. Of course some part thereof stuck, as the moneys
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could be loaned out by him for short periods at those high rates which are comn1on in a country where there is such paucity of capital. These delays, coupled with the ill-effect of his appointment generally, had the effect of depreciating the shares in t he London market by nearly 10 per cent.
Our Government has made representations, demanded his dismissal, and so forth, but the months pass and nothing is done, because the Chinese will not act until they recognise that we are in downright earnest. Why we should not make this plain from the first is one of those things that no '' fellow can understand" outside of the Foreign Office.
On top of all this came the Anglo-RuEsian agreement. By that document the Russian Government is permitted ''to support applications by Russian subjects, or establishments, for concessions for railways, which, starting in a south-westerly direction, would traverse the region in which the Chinese line terminating at Sin-min-ting and Neweh wang is to be constructed." Instantly the Russian Minister in Pekin made application for t he construction of a Russian line from the Manchurian road to Pekin, and though the Chinese for the nonce declined to entertain it, the Minister withdrew the application with the significant remark that the Chinese Government would take cognisance of the fact that it was their intention to renew the subject. This line is, of course, a parallel and compet ing line with the Chinese Imperial Railways, either as a reality, destined to injure it, or as a. threat, under cover of which the Chinese will be induced to sell their own railways to Russia, and buy out the British bondholders under the term of the contract, after which the Russians will connect it with their Manchurian road, and alter the gauge so that they can go through to Pekin.
But this is not all, the Anglo-Russian agreement provides that ''as regards the line from Siao-heichau to Sin-min-ting, it is to be constructed by China herself, who may permit European-not necessarily British-engineers to periodically inspect it and to verify and certify that the work is being properly executed." These terms, as regards the Sin-minting portion, of the line are absolutely opposed to the conditions of the loan on which British bondholders subscribed. The spirit as well as the wording of the prospectus provide for British, not Chinese or other supervision. For what reason have the Russians demanded this alteration in the tenour of a contract to which they had agreed 1 and why has our Government given way on a point on which it had no right to give way, and by doing which it has broken faith with the British bondholders ?
A little examination shows why the Russians have desired to bring about the change- why our Government has acquiesced is more obscure, except upon the laissez-allet· principle. The line from Kin - chow to Sin - min - ting taFs the produce of a part of the rich Liao Valley, and conveys it to Port N ewch wang for shipment. Allow that line to be built and constructed by a Chinese administration, not British, and one may at once expect that it will be inefficient. The absence of the expected traffic will destroy the Shan-hai-K wan extension of its commercial 'raison d'et1·e-the political one has already gone. Therefore the English bondholders have subscribed their money in vain, and the way is paved for the Russian acqusition of the line. This last is debarred, it is true, by the tenour of the Anglo-Russian agree· ment, but there are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream, and we have never found our Russian friends over strict in the interpretation of agreements.
Let us look for a moment at the effect on the Port Newchwang or Ying-I{ow, which this line was destined to serve. This is one of the most important ports of China, and its trade is principally English and Japanese and United States. It has 18ft. of water on the bar and vessels come up to the town ; for three or four n1onths in the year it is ice closed, though it probably could be kept open by one of the new type of ice· breakers. At present, the straw braid and bean cake, which forms so large a proportion of its export are, during the winter months when the roads are hard, brought down for shipment during the following spring and summer. When the Russian line to Port Arthur is complete, preferential rates will probably be granted from the producing districts to 'fa-lien·wan by the Port Arthur Railway. The produce will be carried past Newchwang, which, having no adequ~te line to serve it, will languish and decay. When the
[} UNE I, 1900.
British interests there are destroyed, the Russians will slip in and restore N ewchwang to the importance it deserves, but that it will be an '' open port " then is more than human credulity can take stock in. This gradual disintegration of the Chinese Empire by steady pressure in the north, equally, these constant blows at English enterprise and interests, seem as yet to awaken few qualms at home, "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.'' Hinc illre lachrymre.
LAND RECLAMATION IN NORFOLI{. THE Norfolk Estuary Company was initiated in
the year 1837. Its main objects were : 1. To provide an improved outfall for the
drainage of the middle and south levels of the Fens. 2. To provide an improved navigable channel for
the port of King's Lynn. 3. The reclamation of 200,000 acres of land from
the Wash ; the latter item from time to time diminished, first to 150,000 then to 75,000, and finally to 32,000 acres.
The first Act of Parliament which 'ncorporated the company was passed in 1846.
The two first objects have been carr1ed out substantially as designed. The new outfall of the Ouse made by the company has enabled some hundreds of thousands of acres of fen land to be drained by gravitation instead of pumping, and the scourge of " fen ague " has been g1·eatly diminished if not abolished.
The port of Lynn, formerly approached by a tortuous and shallow channel, only workable by small vessels, now possesses an easily navigated channel used by ships carrying 2000 to 3000 tons of cargo. The first operations of the company were confined to the above objects, it was not until the year 1857 that the reclamation part of the scheme was entered upon. It was believed at that time that the whole area in question could be converted into cultivable land, in a very few years, some seven or eight as a maximum. This was the opinion of some of the most eminent engineers of the day. One prophet calculated that 115 tides would suffice to convert the sea into farm land. Costly works were undertaken in the form of jetties, breakwaters, and banks to exclude the sea, with a view to enclosing large tracts of land. These were washed away by the sea, and practically nothing was accomplished. It may here be remarked that even if these works had been successfully carried out, the actual failure would have been no less complete; as the enclosed space would have been mere sea sand incapable of cultivation. Dw'ing the progress of these attempts, the attention of an eminent engineer, who was consulted on the work, was directed to this point ; he replied, "That is a shareholders' question." In 1864 the total result to the company in return for all its expenditure, was 20 acres of enclosed land, and the "shareholders' question" had assumed a very serious aspect. The costly works were then abandoned, and the present system of land reclamation, or, more properly, accretion, was adopted.
This system was elaborated by the late Mr. Gerard C. Meynell, who for 30 years was chairman of the company. The main principles involved are, so far from fighting the sea and attempting to exclude it ; the sea is itself the maker of the land, and it must be freely admitted to the area to be "landed up. " Each tide brings up its load of warp and deposits it at t he time of slack water ; in order to r etain this deposit and to prevent the ebb tide carrying back a large proportion of it, it is necessary that the water should return to the sea slowly and easily. As the " salt marshes " very generally have a slope seawards of about 1 ft. to the mile, it follows that the tide water in ebbing off the marshes 1nust travel1 mile while the tide falls 1 ft. And as in this locality spring tides rise 23! ft. and neaps 16! ft., it is clear that the water will travel with considerable velocity, quite sufficient to churn up and wash away a quantity of light warp, besides cutting various winding and deep creeks, rendering the surface of the land rough and full of holes. The vital principle of the system, introduced by Mr. G. C. Maynell, consists in cutting small drains or "grips" 1 chain apart to conduct the waterway quietly seaward without having to travel over the whole stretch of marsh. This method has proved entirely successful in greatly accelerating the process of accretion, and has the further advantage of giving a smooth level
•
J UNE I, 1900.]
surface to the land. It will be seen that this proceSB is necessarily slow, especially as the land gets higher. At first, when the deposit is sand or silty mud it is comparatively heavy and its deposition more rapid, but for agricultural land it is necessary to wait for the ''warp" which is the soil which supports vegetation. Not only is this light and difficult to retain, but also it is not found to deposit very far below high-water mark, and the best land for enclosure is only that found between the levels of spring and neap high water ; so that only three or four tides in a fortnight have access. The late Sir John Fowler a few years ago wrot.e "Ambition and impatience are dangerous in reclamat ions., The land, being thus formed, can be enclosed with comparative ease; the land being high, only a low and consequently cheap bank is required, the usual dimensions being a bout 10 ft. in height with an outer or sea slope of 1 to 5, a 4-ft . top and inner slope about 1 to l i; the bank is flagged or sodded with the salt grasses. These banks, being made on high marsh, are in little danger of damage by the ;:;ea, an ordinary spring tide hardly reaching the foot of the bank ; and they are, moreover, made of much more tenacious material than the raw sand which was alone available for the high and much-exposed banks formerly attempted. They are further protected by an expanse of ' ' solid grass '' marsh outside.
Impatience to enclose, and a desire to enclose too much, are dangerous in a double aspect : first from the engineering view in bank-making; the higher the ground on which the bank stands, the smaller the bank can be made, and the safer it will be from damage. Secondly, from the agricultural view, the higher land is best, and it is found that the land, when enclosed, has a higher letting value when it has an expanse of grass marsh outside the bank for feeding stock, the salt grasses having excellent feeding qualities. There is now in one part solid grass marsh at a distance of over a mile from the last enclosure bank. The amount of land actually enclosed up to the present time is from 2000 to 3000 acres, and there are now some 1600 acres ripe for enclosure.
The question will naturally be asked, Does it pay 1 and that question may be answered in the affirmative. From what has been said above, it will be seen that no expensive operations are necessary, and the capital required is not large, though it remains a considerable time unremunerative. Land replamation would not be a suitable investment for a man desiring to trade on the principle of small profits and quick returns; it is, moreover, a business involving some risk and excitement; one tide may bring in a rich deposit of warp, and the next may come with a heavy gale fron1 a critical direction, and do serious damage to, or destroy the work of years, though n o serious damage has ever occurred to any of the works under the present system. Even the well-remembered tide and storm of November, 1897, which had such disastrous effects on low-lying lands in many places, did no damage to the reclamation works of the company. Though not properly a part of land reclaiming operations, it may be interesting to note the company's experience in the protection of the banks of the "Estuary Marsh Cut,, the new navigable channel to Lynn above-mentioned. It was found that these b~nks were subject to very severe erosion ; a tier of quickset fagots is laid under water in the line desired for the foot of the bank, thus forming a low submerged groyne parallel to the stream. It is found that silt is rapidly deposited behind the fagots until the top of the fagots is reached, when another layer is placed, and the operation repeated, until finally the tide water actually replaces or rebuilds the bank it had washed away. The conclusion arrived at is that in these operations fighting the sea ends in disastrous defeat, the sea is the land reclaimer's best friend and patient servant, and he will feel that he has attained the fullest success when it can be said '' Nature has done it all for you. "
THE VOLTA CONTACT FORCE. THE centenary celebration of Volta.'s great dis
covery last year revived the controversy concerning the nature of the Volta effect, and left it practically where it w~\S. It may appear strange that we should, in the course of a century, so distinguished by exact research, not have been able to settle the question, whether or not the electromotive force at the junction of two metals is independent of the
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medium which surrounds them. But so far no test ha~ been, or could have been, acknowledged as cruCial. In the absence of any well-established theory, we have, therefore, still to remain con tented with hypotheses. If we acquiesce in the view to which many members of the Como Conference see.me~ t~ incline, that th~ V. olta effect is something as 1nt rms10 and charactenstlC to the metal as its density and affinity, then indeed we would appear to be faced by a fundamental problem, about which we may speculate, but which we are not likely further to elucidate by experimental investigation. But although we can assign no reason why fluorine attacks nearly any other elementary substance with an almost vicious energy, whilst the sluggishness of argon seems to be above all temptation, we can reckon with those affinities and base calculations upon them. We have learned to calculate the electromotive force of an electrolytic cell, consisting of metals and their salt solutions, or simply of salt solutions of different concentrations ; but we have not agreed as to how to predetermine the V olta contact force. Yet few of us doubt that chemistry is in some way responsible.
The opposing sides of the old controversy used to be called contact theorists and chemical theorists. To have proved that this description, if ever correct, is not correct now, that both parties r ely in some sense on chemical affinity, and to have presented the whole controversy on its broadest basis with remarkable lucidity, both in mathematical and in popular language, has been the work of Professor Oliver L odge. As President of the Physical Society he has taken another opportunity, as he had previously done at British Association meetings, of raising this discussion. His presidential address was delivered in February. The discussion was adjourned till May, but, unfortunately, his opponents were then prevented from attending. Though the battle has n ot been fought, we may examine the q uestion.
Some of the electric phenomena, observed in a metallic circuit, are manifestly in close connection with heat . We have first the Seebeck effect, or ordinary thermo-electric current which is ohserved, not only when junctions of different metals are at different temperatures, but also, as has been established in recent years, when different portions of a homogeneous metallic circuit are at different temperatures. Further, the Peltier effect, the heat evolved (or absorbed) when a current is passed across a junction of different met9-ls; and, finally the Thomson (Kelvin) effect, convection of heat, in the sense of the positive current (copper) or against it (iron), when a current is passed through a conductor whose portions are different temperatures. Compared to the Volta effect, the apparent difference of potential of the order of about one volt, which copper and zinc assume in air, these effects are small. But in the Volta effect we have to deal with a dielectric, and scientists do not agree as to the interpretation of the various effects and their relation to the V olta effect, if there be any. Lord Kelvin holds that the j unction force at a boundary of two metals has nothing to do with any reversible heat effect observed there. In Professor 0 . Lodge's opinion, the reversible heat at a specified junction is a measure of the n1etallic electromotive force located there. Professor Perry regards the Peltier effect as a differential coefficient , the rate at which t he electromotive force varies with the temperature ; whilst Professor Lodge, from whom Mr. Glazebrook differs to a certain extent, argues that those holding this view confound the electromotive force, measured at a particular junction, with the whole electromotive force of the circuit, and bring the latter in comparison with the heat evolution at that particular junction.
But we had better first state the undisputed facts of the V olta effect. Two n1eta.ls in contact become oppositely charged, and these charges can be measured when the metals have been skilfully separated again. If a drop of liquid or of electrolytic moisture - not dry vapour- intervenes and connects the two metals momentarily after the true metallic contact has been broken, the charge will leak across the conducting bridge and disappear. If the metals are connected both metallically and electrolytically, we have a common voltaic cell. If connected both metallically and dielectrically, as in the ordinary Volta experiment, t hat is, insulated fro~ one. a~other except at one point where the dielectric 1s swept away, a charge results 'vhich is controlled by an electr0motive force of fixed value and by the
electrostatic capacity of the couple. Oppositelycharged bodies should attract one another. The difficult demonstration of this attraction, often attempted before without success, was given last year only by Majorana. But that demonstration does not decide t he question, whether the seat of the electromotive force is at the metallic junction or in the air in its immediate neighbourhood. Majorana, in fact, wished to demonstrate attraction for dissimilar metals and repulsion for similar metals, and he failed in the latter task.
As to the explanation of this effect, scientists had, as we mentioned already, arranged themselves in two camps. The contact theorists, the minority, headed by Lord Kelvin, say: We have to deal with three junctions, zinc-copper, copper-ether, etherzinc, and with a contact force at each j unction. The Volta effect is the sum of the three forces, and its seat is mainly at the zinc-covper junction. It is due to the direct affinity of the metals for one another, a tendency, as Professor L odge puts it plainly, to form brass. But we have no proof whatever that brass would bt) formed if we passed a current for years across that junction, even if we applied both metals in the thinnest sheets imaginable. The Peltier effect for copper-zinc is very small. On the other hand, certain experiments on the heat of combination, for instance, the renewed researches of J. B. Tayler,* seem to yield values which approximate to the order of the V olta force. Tay ler tried the heat of amalgamation. Galt and Baker have, independently of one another, dissolved mixtures of powdered copper and zinc, and alloys of the same composition in nitric acid ; the difference in the heat evolved would represent the heat of combination. Here again, values which would suit the contact theorists have been obtained, notably for the alloy Ou Zn2•
But the alloys were not uniform, and the complicated reactions which take place in nitric acid expose these experiments to grave objections. Bromine might answer as the solvent, in Professor Armstrong's opinion.
One of the chief points of the contact theorists is, however, that they have, on the basis of very feeble experimental evidence, maintained that the V olta effect is independent of the medium, and is the same in air, e. ~f., as in a vacuum, or in a hydrogen atmosphere. It had been assumed that it was only necessary to bring a zinccopper couple in a vacuum, and then charge the receiver with hydrogen, to change an air atmosphere into a hydrogen atmosphere; and as the electromotive force did not materially vary under these circumstances, the medium was said to be without influence. But we have to deal less with the surrounding atmosphere than with the gaseous films which settle on all solids, and which, as many electricians have learned from . experimenting with ROntgen tubes, are exceedingly hard to get rid of. Mr. F. S. Spiers, to whom we owe the most recent and excellent work in this field, has tried chemically to burn out the last traces of oxygen, which resisted the repeated action of heat and of the air pump, by means of hydrogen ; and he found that under these circumstances the electromotive force went down to almost nothing. His experiments were not brought to a conclusion, and, as the task is beset with difficulties, which perhaps only a chemist can fully realise, not decisive. For one thing, by this burning of the oxygen, he reintroduces moisture, which C. Ohristiansen, in the course of investigations extending over years, holds mainly responsible for the apparent Volta effect, an objection which is sustained by J. Brown, also a noteworthy investigator. To obviate all trouble arising from water-vapour and gaseous films, Professor H . .Armstrong has suggested to experiment in liquid gases; but he is quite aware that the eventual disappearance of the Volta effect might be ascribed to the low temperature.
Professor 0. Lodge locates the chief V olta force at the air boundary of each metal. He postulates two facts: (1) chemical affinity between oxygen and metal, in amount different for different metals; (2) the fact that oxygen atoms are, at any rate some of them, negatively charged. A layer of oxygen atoms seeks to move up to the zinc ; but t he atoms are unable to do so because there is no avenue for the supply of electricity of opposite sign. We have a kind of incipient polarisation, not a charge. The zinc is somewhat in the condition of an insulated sphere surrounded by a concentric nega ..
* See ENGINEERING, page 662 ante.
•
tively charged she11, so far as the interior of the s~ell is concerned. Outside, the conditions are dlfferent, and the cause of the stress is different. When at some point connection with a neutral or a less strained substance-copper-is established an avenue ~o! the reli.e~ of the strain is provided, ~nd positi~e electriCity flows across the junction 1nto the Zinc, and takes its abode on the sur· face, facing the oxygen ; the oxygen atoms ~pproach slightly nearer all round, the surroundIng molecules are polarised with their negative poles inwards and positive poles outwards a double layer is set up on the zi~c, an~ line~ of fo;ce appear all through the surroundmg dielectric. These lines reach from the zinc free surface to the copper free surface. The oxygen atoms are slightly further re· moved than ?efore from the copper, and have approached sbghtly nearer to the zinc. Thus his doctrine is not a doctrine of chemical corn bination but of chemical approach. I t signifies a voltai~ cell, whose electroly.te is replaced by a dielectric, and whose current IS momentary, not continuous · and if a current did pass, there would be actual oxi~ dation. That is precisely Dr. Lo.dge's meaning, and he demonstrates that, assuming an air film layer of a thickness of molecular dimensions sufficiently dense to be virtually a liquid, and a~ approach of the oxygen atoms by one hundred thous~ndth of their distance, we should get a potential difference between zinc and the air in its neighbour~ood of a few volts. A ~eal atmosphere is not r~qu1red; the film would suffice,. and the potential dtfference would, therefore, continue to exist under t he air puml?· . To get real o~idation, we must bring the plates wtthm molecular dlStances of one another squeezing out the films, or else bring them withi~ molecular distance of the parts of a liquid conductor, as is done in an ordinary voltaic cell.
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views, we ~hink th~~ many electricians will be glad to accept hts expositiOn. It helps us over difficulties without forcing novel hypotheses upon us.
NOTES THE STATE P URCHASE OF TELEGRAPH SUBMARINE
CABLES. OPINION is growing in favour of a closer State
control of submarine cables, if not of the State purchase ~~d working of them ; and ther~ is every proba~nhty of . an .inquiry being instituted to Investigate t he s1t uatwn, and the public obligations of cable. companies earning large Government grants, w1th reference not only to the strategical requirements of the Empire, but also to the commercial and social needs. The House of Commons tho Royal United Service Institution and th~ S?ci~ty of Arts have all discussed ti1e subject Within a w~()k, aud the general consensus of opinion has been In favour of fuller State control. Sir Henr~ H . Fowler, ¥.P., who speaks with the experience. of a Cabinet ~nister, in presiding at the SoCiety of Arts meetmg, seemed to ignore the Government fear that a public and independent inquiry would be inimical to the secrecy necessary for strategic reasons ; and, moreover, he was pronouncedly in favour of Sta~e ownership. Th?1:e is no question of the des.Irableness of all-Brihsh cables, and the duplica:twn, too, of means of rapid communication w~t~ all the ou.tpost.s of the Empire; and, where
[J UN E 1 , 1900.
were fired. Various types of shells and explosives were used for the purpose of gaining experience of their destructive effects. The Belleisle sank and seemed badly damaged ; but it is scarcely necessary, for the present, to enter into details ho~ever picturesque. The naval critics of th~ dally press, adding omniscience to their other qualities, have told us of the effects produced as a result of their observat ion of the interior of the ship from the shore, three miles or more distant and the wor~h of the de~uctions made upon such data. c~n eas1ly be .appraised. We are sufficiently p~triOtiC ~o recognise that the experience which will be gatned by the careful observation which is being made of the Belleisle, is too valuable to be noised abroad. Meanwhile, Mr. Goschen who with the Board of Admiral ty, witnessed th~ trials' has announced in the H ouse of Commons that' to the extreme surprise of all concerned the Bel: leisle did not take fire at all, as had' been repOI·ted. The spectators, who were at sorue distance, were misled by seeing clouds of steam rise over the ship. These were due to a. steam pipe having been cut, and, further, some of the shells especially the lyddite shells, as they burst in th~ water emitted a cloud of smoke, and gave the impression that the ship was on fire. There was a little smouldering fire in one of the cabins amongst some clothing, but otherwise the wood work alt hough shivered in every direction, had not bee~ consumed b:f fire in any d~g~ee. The fire pumps of. the Belle~sle were not InJured, and while the shtp was ~emg battered her pumps flooding the decks continued to work for a long time. There can be no harm in adding to the First Lord's s~tement the fact that this practical demonstratiOn of gun pow~r proved the efficacy of light armour for protectmg the upper works, especial1y against explosive shells.
mihtary necess1ty dictates, financial details must be settled somehow or other. It is also important that the social and business relations of the Empire s~ould be fostered b:y cheap telegraph communicatiOn, and here also Su· Henry F owler brushed aside the financial difficulties by pointing to t he popularity of. cheap ~ates within ~he United Kingdom, notWlthstanding that no Interest was paid on the capital involved. Sir Edward Sassoon, who brought THE RusTING OF IRON. forward the subject in the House of Commons and Ordinary red rust is essentially an oxide of at the Society of Arts, had many strong staten1ents ~on .conta~ing .combine? water and practically to make against the cable companies. It is not IdentiCal. wit~ Jewellers rouge, which is nearly necessary to enter into the details of these charges · pure fen~IC oxide, Fe2 0 3• ~he ordinary chemical but we are quite at one with him in the view that explanatiOn of the process IS that the iron comas railwa:r, electric, gas, and other undertakings bines with the oxygen of the air according to the have their rates, agreements, and concessions equat ion directly controlled by Government departments, 2 Fe2 + 3 0 2 = 2 Fe2 0 3,
cable companies earning subsidies should similarly or taking the combined water into account according come u.nd.er control. Bu~ in ;ega.rd to State pur- to the equation chase, It Is well to bear In mtnd that there is in-vol ved in the submarine and other colonial tele- Fe2 + 3 0 + 3 H2 0 = F e.2 Oa, 3 H2 0 . graph cables about 30 million sterling in capital, That these simple equations do not represent the and that the market value is very much greater. actual facts of the case ~as been k~own for years, I t is t rue that this capital is highly remunerative ; as well as the fact that 1ron placed m contact with but if, for strategic reasons, it is deemed necessary an alkali does not rust. To explain this fact it to be independent of foreign territory as well as has been suggested that the presence of carbonic of private enterprise, it follows that Inuch of the acid gas is n~cessary fo.r rust~g t o take place, and revenue now earned by " tapping" various foreign th~t tl.1e alkahes absorbmg thlS prevent rusting. On centres will be lost. Under all the circumstances this VIew the phenomenon of rusting, according to however, an inquiry would be welcomed, as it i~ Professor Crum Brown, takes place in two stages as certain to yield results of advantage to commerce. follows:
A PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION OJ:.' GuN PowER. 1. 4 [Fe + H2 0 + CO:.~] = 4 Fe COa + 4 H 2•
To throw light upon various problems associated 2. 4 Fe COa + CH20 + 02 = 2 Fe~ (OH)6 + 4 C02•
Professor L odge thus takes an intermediate position between meLallic and oxidation effects, and he has brought himself in harmony with modern views on chemical affinity, as Professor Armstrong re· marked. The peculiar behaviour of chromium to which the veteran electro-chemist Hittorf has drawn attention, possibly offers a parallel case of chemical approach, though Hittorf himself has not made any such suggestion. Chromium passes with a surprising facility from the active state, in which it stands voltaically near zinc, into t he passive state in which it behaves like platinum. The change may be effected by making the chromium the anode nf an electrolytic cell. It is due-as in the case of iron- to the fcrmation of an oxide layer on the surface. If we substitute for the attraction of metal for oxygen an attraction of matter for the electricity with which every atom is charged, we find ourselves on Helmholtz's ground. In any such surface effect, the condition of t he surface is necessarily of importance. The potential difference required to liberate hydrogen has been supposed to vary with the nature of the cathode; it is probably more correct to say that it depends upon the surface condition of the cathode. We know that burnishing increases the Volta effect, and in the potential differences between gases and liquids, surface tension plays an important part. Water particles, sprayed in air, surround themselves with a double layer, possibly, according to Usener, an adsorbed gaseous film in the electrically dissociated state. If the water is pure, it imparts to the air through which it falls, a negative charge. In the presence of salts, acids, or bases, this charge is diminished, and may turn into a positive charge (Lenard, J . J. Thomson); the sea water spray, for instance, electrifies the air positively. Now, according to J. B. Kenrick, the addition of electrically dissociated substances decreases the charge, whilst that of non-dissociated substances increases it, and this effect occurs parallel with the changes in the surface tension. There are, further, the experiments of S. J . Barnett on the surface tension of liquids under the influence of electrostatic induction. We know, on the other hand, from Lord Kelvin, that air bubbles passing through pure water electrify the water, and that the presence of other substances diminishes this electrification.
In the case of solid surfaces we do not as a rule speak of surface tension ; yet it is a factor to be reckoned with, and enters largely into lubrication problems, for instance. Failing the crucial test whether or not the Volta effect is independent of the medium, the controversy must remain undecided. But though some of the leading contact theorists have declared that Professor Lodge's deductions have not induced them to modify their
with gun power, and upon the effect of modern ex- A close investigation of t he matter has, howplosive shells, the British Admiralty gave one of our ever, led Mr. W. R . Duns ton, F .R.S. , to quesmost powerful ships an opportunity of attacking, with tion this theory, and to conclude that the pre~11 her might, the Belleisle, a. ship. which, although sence o~ C02 is ~y no means necessary for t he 1n some respects obsolete, was still endowed with productiOn of t his red rust. Thus five pieces moderate capacity for resistance. Built in 1878, of bright iron were taken, the first was placed with a length of 245 ft., the Belleisle has a load in. dr~ ox.yg~n, the second in water vapour, the line belt 12 in. thick in t he centre tapering to 4 in. th1rd ID liquid water, the fourth in a mixture at the end, and an armoured central battery of pure oxygen and water and vapour. In none about 70 ft. long, within which are four 25-ton of these cases was any rust formed . The fifth muzzle-loading guns and six smaller weapons. specimen, however, was placed in liquid water The old ship steamed out to a point off Selsey charged with pure oxygen, and the production of Bill where she was anchored over a shoal so rust was then quickly apparent, alt hough no C02 that even when she sank as the result of the attack was present. In fact, for this rust to be formed it it would be easy to board her and examine the is essential, Mr. Dunstan finds, t hat the iron shall effects. On Saturday morning she was p'repared for be in contact wit h liquid water, and with oxygen. action, s team rai.sed, guns set, splinter nets run out, A piece of bright iron placed in a receiver over a dish and a full set of brand new dummy men ordered to of water remained perfectly bright for sixty hours, quarters and to " man guns." Then t he flagship of provided that the temperature was kept constant, t he Channel squadron- the Majestic - steamed so as to prevent the condensation of the water on the round the deserted vessel, opening fire at about a metal. A similar piece, similarly suspended, but mile range, so as to rake the Belleisle from stern without any precaution against t his condensation, to stem. Cont inuing on its victorious but inglorious soon showed spots of rust. Reasoning on the results career, the Majestic ultimately got a broadside in of the experiments just describ ~d, and on the fact at 1000 yards range, finishing off with racking the t hat the alkalies J>revent the formation of rust, old ship from bow to stern. The period of attack Mr. Dunstan suggests t hat the real active agent is was less than ten minutes, during which some twelve hydrogen peroxide. To test this, iron was susshots from the four 12-in. guns, t hirty-two 6-in. pended in water, to which were added substances, shots from the six broadside ·quick-firers, and a son1e of which decompose this peroxide, whilst number of smaller projectiles from the 3-in. guns, . others have no such action. In every case the
E N G I N E E R I N G. } tiNE I, 1900.) ===========================~==================================~~~ former preven ted t he product ion of rust, whilst it vices· were very readily appreciated, and here he did joint patent of Mr. White and ~yself. . Professor Hele· always occurred in th e latt er. In addit ion to the work from 1863 onwards, similar to t hat by which 8haw's paper having been so Wldel~ prmted,. I shall be alkalies which destroy p eroxide, p otassium b1' _ Hamburg had profi ted, amongst t he most serviceable glad if you will allow me to make thts correotlOn. As Professor Hele-Shaw in his paper remarks that chromate, potassium chroma t e, p otassium ferro- of his Frankfort works being the Central station and "this engine obliges the use of spur gearing," I may say cyanide, and sodium nitrate, wer e tried. These, the sewerage system. Eight or nine cities in Germany that the shaft carrying the gear wheel connecting the two whilst destroying the p eroxide, are, unlike the owe their water supply or sewerage works t o him, crankshafts* is also the valve actuating shaft (of course alkalies, p owerful oxidising agen ts, yet n everthe- while amongst his last works was the preparation of running at half the cra.nksh~J.ft speed), a. point of imporless t hey proved efficient prot ectors of the metal. the designs of the sewerage and water works of tanoe in its simplicity.
W arsaw, and of the sewerage works for St . P etersburg Yours fo~thful1y In a.not her exp eriment a piece of iron was im- <N• '
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1 . in 1878-9. In the latter year he retired, leaving his F. C. NoNN, Aesoc. M. Inst. C.E.
merse 10 a so utwn of hydrogen p eroxide, which three sons- William, R obert, and Joseph Lindley, to May 21, 1900. was made j ust alkaline. Under t h ese condition s, continue his work. •
although the peroxide was decomposed and oxygen It may be said tha t the H amburg and Frankfort was freely libera ted a t the surface of the metal, sewerage systems have been accepted as models for the latter did n ot rust. The whole phenomena of German towns, and th ey have bad t heir influence on rusting is then, according to M.r. Dunstan, effected United States practice and on the L ondon sewerage, by the iron taking up U from the water , formin cr a Royal Commission having visited Hamburg many ferrous oxide, and producing p erox ide of hydrogen~ year a ago. In all his work Mr. Lindley anticipated the the latter then immediately combines the ferrous needs of a far future, and attached the highest importoxide to form the red rust. ance t o simplicity of detail and conscientious workman-
ship. An energetic worker, he was still a genial friend
• THE WAR IN SOU TH AFRICA . To THE E DITOR OF ENGINEERING.
Sm,-In "Field Officer's " interesting letter on the war in South Africa, in your issue of May 25, that gentleman pays a well-deserved compliment to the marching powers of volunteers, when he mentions the fact of 100 volunteers marching 22 miles in five hours, without a single man falling oub, when he says :
THE LATE 1\IR. WILLIAM LINDLEY. ' VE regret to learn of t he death of Mr. William
Lindley, a. well-known engineer , who carried out many important engineering works in Germany, and very deservedly received a special vote of thanks of the Senate of Hamburg ma ny years ago. H e was born in London, September 7, 1808, and was thus in his 92ad year when he died, at Blackheath, on May ~2. His father, Mr. Josepb Lindley, of H eath, in Yorkshire, was sometime assistant to th~ Astr onomer-Royal at the Greenwich Observatory. His connection with Germany commenced with his educa tion, as when 16 years of age he was tutored by Pastor Schroeder at W anabeck, near Hamburg, but returned to England, and in 1827 became a pupil of Mr. Franois Giles, a wellknown surveyor and engineer, and Jater beca me his assistant. With him he surveyed and prepared plans for many of t he earlier railways, including the ~ewcastle- Ct1rlisle, the London- Birmingham, LondonGreen" ich, and the London-Southampt on line!!. At the same time be wns associated wi th wor ks connected with the regulation of t he R iver Mersey, vaiious dra.inage works and the first Thames T unnel. Thus early, too, he had formed friendships with Telford, the two Stephensons, and the elder Brunei, so that ~ a me_asur~ he was one of the ~ast few remaining links Wi t h the early years of th1s, and the closing decades of la~t, century.
In 1834, after an absence of seYen years, he returned to Germany to lay out a line from Hamburg t o Lubeck; but difficulties with the Danish Government led t o the abandonment of the project upon Mr. Lindley 's sugge~tion; a.od, ins tead, he induced the company to bmld the fi rst lengt h to Bergedorf of the existing line to Berlin. It was on this line that he first introduced the long six-wheel railway carriages. He was about this t ime also requested by t he S tate of Hamburg to negotia~e wit h the British Government for a <'helper rate of pos tage between that State and this country. During the great Hamburg fire of 1842 he rendered splendid services. The fire lasted three days and nights, and when Mr. Lindley was called in to advise, be sugges ted the razing of part of t he city by gunpowder, to check the advance of the conflagration. The Sta te authorities approved; but the populace, frantic with excitement, believed rumours that the English were medita ting the destruction of the State, and Mr. Lindley bad a lively time · ~ut he and his staff wtre well protected, and lll the end he was_ formally. a~d publicly thanked by th~ Senate for h1s unrem1ttmg labours. His new ratlway to Bergedorf was qpened immedia tely, and served t o remove the homeless citizens. In the reconstruction of the town Mr. Lindley found scope for the development of a modern system of sewerage and water supply, and the Hamburg of to-day with its railw~y terminu~, its harbour goods sheds, ~ntrep6t~, &o:, Is largely his work. The water works were constructed in 1844-8, and were amongst t he first to give co_n~tant supply. In 184~ he was engaged upon the tr•gmometr1cal survey; m 1850-2 he negotiated the sale of t he steel yard on the Thames belonging to Hamburg, Bremeu, and Lubeck, and on the site t here now stands the Cannon-street Railway Station. In 1851 he reported upon the work c; of the New River Water Company in London, and this for med the basis of improveme_nts in connection with t he reservoirs, filters, and mam~. Gas works, publb baths, harbour improvements, water work extension were carried out ~y him in succession about this time in Hamburg; and m 1851 he was aleo entrusted by the British Government wi t h the construction of a great retaining wall in Heligoland. Indeed, the ten years between 1850 and 1860 were t he most a ctive in his life, and many work~ of ~h~ mos~ varied kind were designed by him, prm01pally m Germany . In 1860 in consequence of the illness of his wife, who' died in 1862, he spent some time in the South of France. The opponents always raised by success availed themselves ?f the opp?rtunit y of breaking his municipal connect10ns ; but m Fra.nkfort-on-the-Ma.ine his ser-
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and a generous employer , always recognisingwilling and faithful service. In the later years of his life he found pleasure in travel and in books. He was a. F ellow Qf the Geological Society , a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and of the mithsonian Institut ion. Germany will not soon forget his services, and in H amburg on the fift ieth anniYersary of the fire- in 1892-offioial recognition was paid, while his death has brought many appreciations of his great public services.
" The determmation to endure all and still go on requires greater pluck on a long and wearisome march than on the field of combat, where excitement lends ~ome im porta.n t a-ssistance."
This c. determination to endure " long marches is the outcome of the "ma.rchings out, " route ma.rcbings, &o., so zealously practised by the Middlesex (a prominent corp~, I presume) Volunteer Corps. It is now many years since the Queen reviewed the Volunteers in Windsor Great Park, but the writer well remembeta a march which would equal anything attempted by regulars -viz., after the review by the Queen of the Volun-
SOU TH AFRICAN RAILWAYS. teers, over 400 men of the volunteer corps of which A·r the S!.nnual meeting of the Cape Town Chamber the writer was a member, marched from Windsor
of Commerce some interesting information was afforded Great Park to Wimbledon Camp. The detachment as to the present position of South African railway representin1 nearly half the regimental number of enterprise. Although this information can scarcely the corps, eft the park at 8 o'clock p.m., and with the
exception of a halt for half an hour at about 11 o'clock be regarded as directly official, it is of so minute a at an inn where a. supper-pork pies and sandwichescharacter that it must have been derived from the bad been provided, the marching detachment did nob officials of the Cape Government lines, so that it may halt again until all reached Kingston Hill, where a halt be considered to be subst antially authoritative. The of a. quarter of an hour for a "drink " was made. The result of the working of the Cape Government lines in detachment marched into Wimbledon Camp a t a quarter 1899 was a profit upon t he capital engaged at the to four o'clock on the next morning, and with only one average rate of 4l. 12s. 7d. per cent. per annum. This man falling out who was. taken ill at the beginning of return showed some reduction as compared with the the march. A plucky l}t.tle drummer boy of about 10 correspond ing profit realised in 1898; but it is remark- years old marched as ~rlSkly a_s the rest _of the men, ably good, under all the circumstances. The revenue and showed not ~he slightest ~Igns .of fatigue. Aparb acquired sh d f ll ' ff f 160 116l b t ·fro_m the actual dtstanoe of Wmd~or Great Park from
, owe a a mg o . o , ·, u . a Wimbledon Camp, an extra 4. miles . was marched by se' e~e economy was enforced m_ all t he workmg the detachment, because the gmde durmg the night took detatls, and the ?et profit reahsed for 1899 was t~e wrong turning at a. cross- road, and the error was not actually 21, 954l. m exce~s of the net balance for dlScovered until the detachment had proceeded 2 miles 1898. This is somethi~g e~traordinary, in view of when the_y ~ad to return before striking the right road. ' the fact that commumcatwn was out off during When It 1s remembered that all these volunteers had nearly t he whole of the last quarter of 1899 with been paraded at Chelsea, Victoria, and ~a.ttersea stati<?ns the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, Kimber- at 6 a. ~- on t~e ~a.turday, a!ld that w1th tJle ex,cept10n ley' and Rhodesia. This, of course, caused a large of . restmg while m the tram ~rom those statlOns. to decrease in t he tariff receipts of the Midland and Wt'!dsor, they had l?een on theu fee~ th~ whole time E r h d . until they reached Wimbledon Camp, Ib Will be granted
astern. mes.; on t e other ban ' heavy t raffic .1n that the ".determination to endure all and still go on" connectiOn w1t~ the transport of ~roops and matenal wa~ great 10 the breasts of the volunteers. This is the of ~ar largely u:~.o;eased the .receipts .of the western sp~rit of scores ol vol'.lnteer corps, and one great and benesec~lOn.. In add1t10n to earnmg full Inter~st. on t~e fimal outco~e of the present war ~~ been the practical oapitalmvested by t he Cape Government m 1ts ra1l- demonstra.t10n of the work of our Citizen army, which now ways, t he lines contributed last year something over will no longer be looked on without a tinge of pride by 200,000l. to the general revenue of t he colony. Corn- all Engl~hmen, for it is this ~etermina.tion to endure plaint s are made of an insufficient supply of rolling all and ·still ~o on that ~as sust~med the volunteer fo~oes stock; and it is stated by the Chamber of Com- under the tna.l. of the gibes an4 Jeers they first met Wlth, meroe that while the movement of goods over that red ta.peiBm and ostramsm by the regulars at a th C G t 1. · d f later stage and the lukewarmness of the classes. The pre-
e .d.pe overnmen mes mc;case . rom ~20,000 sent war has given the volunteers the longed-for oppor-tons m 1890 t o 1,500,000 tons m 1898, showmg an tunity they so much desired of proving that they are not advance of 140 per cent . .' the num?er of trucks UJ?OD the very fe&therbed soldiers they were ab one time the network was only m creased m the eame penod dubbed. What other nation on earth could · show such a. t o t he extent of 84 p er cent . The only extension rallying of (c volunteers" from all parts of the world as opened in the Cap e Colony la c: t year was that from t?a.t shown by Englishmen in offering to sacrifice their Ashton to Swellendam. This extension will have the lives for .the "old flag. " True sons o_f the Empire! the effect , when a further section t o Riversdale now in far -rea.ohmg eff~ct of such. enthusta.sn; as has been course of construct= on, has been completed, of bringing shown ~y. C~na.<h&J?S, Austrah!lns, New Zealanders, and t he south-w€stern dist ricts of t he colony into closer others It Is _Impos~uble ~o pred1ct m the future, but how t h
·th ·t · · 1 . k proud, and JUStly so, will be the noble sons of the Empire ~me Wl . 1 s prmclpa oonsummg . mar ,et s. The when they return to their far distant homes and modestly
hne ~rom . Sn· Lo.wry Pa~s to Caledon! a d.1sta? ce of rel~te to the wife and children the gall~nt exploitS in 53 mtles, Is now In c?urse of. cons~ru~t10n ; It will .run w~:tch they have manfully done their share; those stories t hrough a good gram-growmg dtst n ct . Ot her hnes w11l become household t raditions that will cement the have aho been nearly completed from :Nialmesbury to future generat ions ~f loyal colonists and the Motherland :N!ooreesburg, and from Queenstown to Tarkastad m the way tba.t nothmg else could have done for now one while a line from Klipplaat t o Oudtshoorn is ex~ and all, from whatever clime they come, will feel that they peoted to be ready for traffic by the close of t his are part and parcel of the whole .British nation, and not year. In the nort h an extension northward t o the mere lopped-off younger branches. Za.mbesi and Lake Tanganyika has been started· Yours t~lyC S and,_ but for the outbreak of the war, this ex: Late 2nd (South) Middi · JlfiN~GlE, t C tensiOn would probably haYe been now completed May 26, 1900. esex 1 e 0 un eer orps. as fa r as Gwelo. On the 'east coast the line from Beira to Salisbury is being laid upon a 3 ft. 6 in. gauge: . This lin~ will be extended from Salisbury so ~s to.JOlD t he roam Bulawayo and Zambesi line; so that 1t wtll not be long-especially now that the close of the war is in sight-before Sout h Africans ~ill be able to travel by railway all the way from Cape Town to Beira, as well as to the Za.mbesi.
''ROAD LOCOMOTION." •
To THE E DITOR OF ENGINEERING. ~IR,-The balanced oil engine, mentioned in connection
wtth the name of Mr. H yler \Vhite in Professor H eleShaw's va.lua.ble paper on " R oad L ocomotion," is the
FORESHORE PROTECTION. To THE EDITOR OF ENGINEERING.
SIR,-I~ reply t~ the letter signed "W. H. T.," which a~ea.red m ~our ISsue of the 2~tb inst., may I be permitted to pomt out that experience and careful experiments enabled the late Mr. Case to construct tables which in the he:nds of an ~ngineer who understands the system: are reqmred for laymg out the elliptical curves decided upon. . It by no means follows as a. matter of course that ~a.t~erung t~e shore .and driving out the low-water mark 1s a.1med at m every Instance. The principle of the Oase
* See Fig. 28, page 63t ante.
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system is correct, but its application necessarily varies with circumstances.
As regards the Hastings foreshore, "W. H. T." appears to take the view that, though uniformity and protection might be secured by the adoption of the Case system, it would be more difficult for yacht and plea.sure-boa.t owners to work their vessels out and in. Of course, if the integrity of the long esplanade wall and the sa.fety of the whole frontage are of secondary importance to the con venience of the boat-owners, there is nothing further to be said; but one would certainly imagine that the constant breaches and deepening of t he water toward the wall-due to the ever-increasing erosion near the sea ends of the existing high groynes-would caus~ the ratepayers to feel very uncomfortable when they contemplate the possible-I should say probable-cost of protective measures which will be necessary in a few years' time.
With respect to the li~ht nature of the Case groynes b eing unsuitable to Hastmgs on account of the exposed situation, I may point out that these light groynes stand well at Southwold, at Glenbeigh, and at Dea.l, which are all exposed places liable to violent storms, and quite different to Dymchurch ; they present a very small surface to the action of the water, and therein lies their strength. A slender rod can be made to stand in a stream which would instantly carry away a rod of heavier scantling. These low groynes are not supposed to show more than 18 in. or 20 in. above the shore level, which is amply sufficient to enable them to fulfil their functions, aud the piles or uprights at intervals of 7 ft. 6 in. a re quite strong to hold the planks against any waves or longshore currents. When the work is firs t put in a. few piles are sometimes washed out by scours ; but, if the plan king is properly attended to, they are never disturbed by the lateral action on the planks themselves.
The concluding para.gra.Ph in your correspondent's letter is one which particularly mterests me. On October 4 last year I called attention, through a. letter in the T imes, to the absence of any official and reliable record of the changes annually taking place round our coasts-changes constantly affecting buildings and other works which have been carried out by a large outlay of public money. I had previously brought this matter forward at the meeting of the British Association at Dover, and, later on, wrote to the Board of Trade and the B oard of Agriculture. My idea was, roughly, that there should be a D epartment, or special branch of a Department, to look after that strip of neglected land which lies all round our coasts between high and low water marks.
A committee was appointed last year by the council of the British Association to consider the question of coast erosion, and arrangements have been made with the assistance of the Admiralty, to obtain returns from the coastguard s tations along the coast of protective works which may be carried out, and of the effects produced by such works. This may be a step in the right direction, but it does not go nearly fa~ enoug~, _and it is ~bvious that the coastguards are not m a pos~t10n from their training and equipment to take the sect10ns, make plans, and keep records in such a manner as would be serviceable to engineers when called upon to execute works. It would, for example, be very difficult for a coastguard however intelligent, to give anything like a satisfactory account of the u effects .Produced " by walls or groyne3 unless be had taken sectiOns, &c., when the work was started and would compare them with later sections, &c.
I n reply to my letter, the Board of Trade informed me that the establishment of the D epartment I suggested would entail very considerable expense, and would p~obably necessitate the revis ion of many Acts of Parhament, and that the scheme was not fea~ble at present.
Early in January of the present year, the B oard of A'Jriculture wrote to say that they had read m:r communica-tions with much interest, but that they dtd not t hink it at all probable that the Treasury would . feel justified in providing at the public cost for the considerable expenditure requisite for the purpose. The letter concluded by suggesting that my proposals might be brou~ht under the notice of both the Treasury and the Admualty.
Soon after this the South African war absorbed all the attention of the ~uthorities and the public, and I am only just about to revive the consideratiOn _of what I .cannot but feel in common with many others mterested m foreshore w~rks is a question of national importance.
' Faithfully yours, R. G. ALLAN~ON-WINN.
39, Victoria-street, W estminster, S. W., May 30, 1900.
RANGE-FINDERS. T o THE EDITOR OF ENGINEERING.
SIR -In the concluding portion of your notice of Captain Eugene Pierucoi's range-finder, on page 695 of your issue of ~lay 25, you make reference to Colonel W eldon's range·finder, and s tate that you are not aware _that _the W eldon instrument had undergone further ~od1fica~10?, or had become popular, since your first not1ce of 1b m your journal.
Will you kindly permit us, as. sole m~k!3rs of ~b.e \ Veldon range-finder, to state that, m the op~mon. of military experts, this instrument needs no modtfica~lOn, a.nd is all round the best yet invented: and, further, 1ts p opularity has been lately strongly endorsed by the large number purchased by officers (including the late General W. Penn Symonds) for use. in ~outh ~frioa.
With reference to Captam P 1erucc1 s new range: finder, it would seem that the gentleman named k?ew httle or n othing of the Weldon range-finder, otherw_Jse he .snrely would not have been to t~e trou~le to ~evl8~ an mstrument that is in every mam partiCular mfer10r to one already well known and in exte nsive use. W e refer to
E N G I N E E R I N G. the Weldon instrument, which is small enough to go into a waistcoat pocket. Its optical parts are prisms, not mirrors. It cannot get out of adjustment, for the simple reason that it has no adjustments. One man can work it alone, and therefore a double personal error is not possible. It will give the distance from each other of any number of places, without the observer occupying any one of them, &c. Its weight, complete, is under 3 oz. In what single direction can the Pierucci range-finder claim the slightest advantage?
Y ours truly, S uffolk-street, Birmingham. .R. FIELD AND Co.
THE ACCIDENT AT SOUTHAMPTON. To T~ EDITOR 0~' ENGINEERING.
SIR,-Many of the newspaper reports of the accident ab the New Cold Stora~e ab Southampton, which took place on May 28, have g1ven the impression that the permanent buildings had collapsed.
As the agent for H ennibique (patent), of which the building is being constructed, I trust that you will allow me space in which to contradict this wrong impression.
The true facts of the case are as follow: The contractors bad erected a large timber workshop to
contain the vertical moulds in which the ferro-concrete piles are cast. At the time of the accident there were about 300 finished piles 43ft. long, in the moulds weigh -
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ing R.bout 1200 tons. Just as the men had left. the VfOrl~s at dinner-time, the workshop collapsed, ca.rrymg w1th It the ferro-concrete piles which it contained. M ost of the piles were still green, and were, consequently, broken by their fall. The acciden t occurred about 200 yards from the permanent building now in construction, which is not injured in any way. The workshop bad been erected on made ground principally composed of chalk, a~d the accident is attributed to a sudden subsidence m the ground. The workshop had been in use for about twelve months.
I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully, L. G. M oucaEL.
G reat Western Railway Buildings, 124, Holborn, E. C. P.S.-I beg to enclose a photograph of the working
moulds above referred to.
LENDING LIBRARY FOR ENGINEERS. To THE E DITOR OF ENGINEERING.
SIR - W ould you allow me to inform those who answered my letter on the above subject, whic.h. appeared in your issue of February last, that the pet1t1on was forwarded to the President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and that I have received the following reply from the secretary : . .
"I am directed to m form you that the Coun01l are of opjnion that the formation of such a l~brary at the pres.ent t1me is, on various grounds, not practJCa.ble at the Inst1 tution and they therefore find themselves unable to accede
, h " to the request made to t em. E. HAMILTON WHITEFORD,
Assoc. J\I. Inst . C.E. Borough Engineer's Department, Municipal
Offices, Plymouth, M.ay 28, 1900.
NAVAL ENGINEERS. To THE EDITOR OF ENGINEERING.
SIR -I have seen the letters in your issue of April 27 on th~ above subject, and although I have no intention of entering into any controversy with ~our correspondents, I think it only just that the attent10n of your readers should be directed bo the fa.ot that such letters are merely ex parte statements. There are many good and obvious
_[}UNE I, 1900.
reasons why engineer officers should hesitate to write to the Press on the subject of the relative positions, duties, and responsibilities of themselves and their departmental subordinates. As a civilian engineer (not Royal Navy) who has long taken considerable interest in the subject of engineering in the Royal Navy, I therefore undertake to dispute two J;>Oints raised by your correspondent, Mr. A. Marshall, wh1oh do not come within the scope of mere personal opinions or arguments, and the correctness, or otherwise of which can be ascertained by reference to official records.
Mr. A . Marshall states that " chief engine-room artificers" have sole and absolute charge of the machinery of some vessels up to 2000 indicated horse-power, and this on a foreign station too." This statement is incorrect. I have carefully studied the official "Navy List" for April, 1900, and can find no such case as that to which he refers; the nearest aJ:>proach to the oases he mentions is that in ships of the Rosario, and similar classes, of 1400 indicated horse-power, the en~nes are in charge of "articer engineers," and not " chtef engine-room artificers." The Spider, of 2700 indicated horse-power, in reser-,;e at Devonport, also has an fl.rtificer engineer attached to her. These artificer engineers are warrant officers, and they must have at least ten years' con£ rmed service in the Royal Navy, and be not less than thirty-five years of age; as a ruatter of fact, they frequently serve nearly twenty years before qualifying for the warrant rank, and
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it may, of course, be safely assumed that such service has fully qualified them for that position.
It has also been stated that " chief engine. room artificers have been sent out as "Assistant Admiralty Ovc?'· seers." This is stretching the case with a vengeance. It is well known that, at the works of private contractors, an engineer officer R oyal N avy, is appointed as Admiralty overseer, and no doubt in this case, as in all others, he has an engine-room artificer to assist him, but your readers will be quite capable of appreciating the differenoa between this position and an appointment as "Assistant Admiralty Overseer."
In conclusion, I would like to quote a well-known clause of the regulations, which state that "All engineer officers below the rank of chief engineer, are, in addition to any special duties that may be a~portioned to them, to keep (when under steam) up to e1gbt hours watch per day, to insure the watches being placed in charge of ot}ice1·s." (The italics are my own.) · Obediently your3,
FAIRPLAY. •
A NEw ROUTE TO HARROGATE.-A new railway from L eeds to Harrogate (via Wetherby) is to be opened July 1. A large number of men are at work at Blrdsey and W et herby. At the latter place they are lowering the line for the south platform at the new station. Owners of landed property are anticipating the advantages which the new route will probably open up. At Linton, in the vicinity of Wetherby, not far from where the line takes a curve to join the old Spofforth branch, a lnrge estate is being laid out for building purposes.
RATING RAILWAY SJGNAL-BOXE~.-Thc Midland Ra.ilway Company has given the assessment committee of the Pontefraot U nion notice of its intention to appeal against the rating of the signal-boxes on its system. As. a ~st, the assessment of a box at Methley rated at 4l., 1s bemg ta.ken before the Quarter Sessions, and the Guardians on Saturday authorised the assessment committee to take such steps as they think proper to resist the appeal. It was suggested that as the q nestion is one affecting the whole country, the board ought to enlist the pra.otioa.l support of other boards, but it was decided not to do so unless the expense of reference to the higher courts be· comes necessary.
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J UNE I, 1900.1 E N G I N E E R I N G.
POWER STAMPING PRESSES. CON TRUUTED BY TAYLOR AND CH ALL EN
' ENGINEER , BIR~1IN G HAM.
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FIG. 1. DouBLE CRANK P owER PRESS. FIG. 2. An.M.A TORE DISC NOTCHING PRESS.
WE illustrate in ~'ig. 1 above a large double crank power press for cutting-out, stamping, and embossing, &c., sheet metal, constructed by Messrs. 'l'aylor and Challen, of Derwent Foundry, Birmingham. It is capable of exerting a working pressure on the dic3 of 100 tons. When fitted with suitable dies this press will cut out an armature disc 28 in. in diameter, and pierce the centre hole 12 in. in diameter at one stroke ; it is also capable of cutting the outside slots or notches, centre hole, and key slots of t his size of disc simultaneously.
The press is fitted with the makers' patent positi,·e stop action, by means of which the movement of the slide is always arrested at its highest position, this also enables t he toolmaker to set his tools without removing the belt, as t he crankshaft may be rotated in the normal direction wi thout cs.using the clutch to engage.
The dies for producing the disc with notches complete, especially the larger sizes, are ex pensive, and, unless large quantities of one size are required, it is better to use the armature disc notching press, Fig. 2. This machine will notch any size of disc from 5 in. in diameter to 36 in. in diameter, punching out one notch at each stroke. In this operation, extreme accuracy and speed are essential, both of which properties are embodied in this machine. When the disc under operation has made a complete revolution, notching is automatically stopped, ready for t he disc to be re· moved and a fresh one inserted. N otohing may be also instantly stopped at any point by actuating the hand lever provided for the purpose. The only adjustment needed for the various diameters of discs is obtained by revolving the baud wheel shown in . the illustration, which brings the slide to the re~wred position. A special feature in this arrangement 1s that the connections to the automatic stop, positive lock, and rotary feed, are in no way interfered with.
INDUSTRIAL NOTES. TH~ sixty-fifth annual report of the Boilermakers
and Iron • hipbuilders is signed by the new general secretary, .Mr. D. C. Cummings, who states t hat 1Ir. Robert Knight, J. P. , al though he. continued in office at the request of the membera unt1l the close
of 1 99, nevertheless thought that it would be best for the ~ew ,secretary to undertake the annual report. Nfr. Kmght s farewell address appeared in t he previous report, and in this report he expresses, through the present secretary, his thanks for the helpful aid of all the officials of the union during his long t erm of office. Few men have retired from such a position with general sentiments of good-will from employers, as well as of employed, of so ardent a character as :Mr. Robert Knight. To such men as Mr. Knight trade unions owe much of thei r present influence and power for good. He was able at once to uphold the rights of labour, and yet win regard from those whose position and interests were opposed to the demand s of the men represented by himself.
peaking of the past year the report says that " the trade of the country in 1899 was in a brisk condition, the world 's tonnage of shipping exceeding that of any previous year. " lt goes on to say that ''the glut of shipbuilding during the year, and the inability of the builders to complete intending orders in a given time, was without doubt the cause of some of the work leaving our shores, and the future can alone determine whether we can retain our position as the paramount ship producers when trade is in a more normal condition. However, work once lost is hard to recover again, and should prove to all workmen, our members included, the necessit.y of keeping good time and thereby d oing their part towards helping us to retain our position. , Some figures are given of the proportions of British and foreign· built t onnage.
The report rejoices in the fact that "the past year was singularly free from labour troubles involving great issues." Questions of demarcation of work from time to time caused uneasiness, but it is suggested that there is no reason why such questions should not ba more readily adjusted t han hitherto, if men "allow reason and common sense the right to decide, not allowing obstinacy and unreasoning doggedness to prevail. " This pronouncement is opportune, and ought to have some weight with all other unions and sections of labour. It is remarked that the shipbuild ing section made moderate and fair demands for advances in wages in 1899, the average advance being under 1s. 1d. per week, whereas in another group of industries the advance was nearly 4s. 9d. per week. The
engineering and shipbuilding group stood the lowest but one in all the groups of trades in this respect. Reference is made to the system of weekly payments, and a hope is expressed that the employers will see no reason to resort to the old system. The formation of sectional unions is deprecated, as disadvantageous to all concerned; to employers by reason of sectional differences and disputes as t o demarcation of work, and to workmen because of an increase in the diversity of interests.
The total number of branches at the close of 1899 was 273; the total number -of members was 47,417. A hope is expressed that the membership will reach 50,000 by the close of the present year. The income for the year was 155, 173l. 16s. 4d., of which total 124, 761l. 14s. 9d. were from contributions; entrance fees, 3748l. 13s. 3d. ; from investments and interest, 6787l. lls. 11. ; the remainder was made up of levies for the several funds, sale of reports, &c.
The items of expenditure are of most interest to the general public, and, as regards this union, they will bear examination without fear of adverse criticism. Sick benefit cost 28, 602l. 7s. 8d. , an increase over t he previous year of 1874l. 12s. 3d. Unemployed benefit, inclusive of travelling, cost 11,376l. 3s. 5d. In commenting upon this surprisingly large amount, in such e. busy year, it is explained that some of it was due to the fact that t he more aged members often find it d_ifficult to obtain regular employment even in good t tmes.
Superannuation benefit cost 13, 169l. 4s., an increase of 5319l. 6s. 6d. in the year. :Much of this increase is the result of larger payments under this head to aged members. Funerals cost 6609l . 5s. 2d .; bonuses (accident benefit) cost 5140l. , and 73l. 3s. Id. expenses of disabled members to doctors. Benevolent grants amounted to 2248l. Ss. 4d. To the above amounts must be added the payment of 6680l. h. ld. to surgeons for medical attendance at the various lodges of the union, and 212l. 1s. fares to situations. The whole of the foregoing amounts represent provi· dent benefits of the best kind, relief in sickness, and old age, when out of work, in cases of accident, and of distres~.
The total cobt of disputes only amounted to 878l. 18s. 5d. This is the smallest amount f:ince 1881,
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only twice before, since 1870, has the total been lower, in 1872 and 1873. The union is to be congratulated on the smallness of the sum expended.
The cost of management is moderate when it is remembered that there are all the officers of 273 branches, besides the general council and some district councils to be paid. The cost of the general and assistant secretaries, executive council, &c., in the general office, 1462l. Ss. 6d. ; presidents and vice-presidents, 4 72l. 23. 5d.; secretaries of branches, 2889l. 53. 4d.; treasurers, 78ll.; stewards, 969l. 1s. 1ld. ; trustees, 119l. 5s. 2d.; guardians, 124l. 5s. 6d.; audits, general office, and branches, 1023l. ls. 11d. Some of these items are due to sick and other benefits. Branch expenditure for benevolent purposes amounted to 3094l. 15s. 10d.; grants to hospitals, 29l. 4s. ; arbitration expenses, l37l. 10s. ; law expenses, 987l. 1ls. 6d. ; congress, 196l. 11s. 7d.; federation, 25l. 4s. 6d.; grants to other societies, 336l.; compensation, 70l.
Then there were costs of printing, 2006l. 17s. 2d.; posta.ges, &c., 70ll. 6s. 3d.; branch committees, 374l. l5s. lOd.; banking expenses, 268l. 14s. 9d.; district committees, 4826l. 16s. 6d.; rent and rooms for meetings, l079l. l4s. 7d. ; rates, taxes, and fuel, 95l. 4s. 3d.; missions on society's business, l288l. 6s. 8d.; and a variety of other items incidental to a union of this character, such as purchase of property, repairs, money orders, &c.
The balance in band at the close of the year was 291,329l. 19s. 8d., showing an increase of 55,883l. Os. 4d. This is the largest balance ever attained. In 1888 the total was 53, 028l. 6s. 7 d., only once before that year, in 1883, did the balance reach over 100,000l., and it fell largely below that amount during the next fiv~ years. A large amount of the cash balance is now invested in permanent securities, the market Yalue of the aggregate being 174,032l. 10s. 3d. on December 30, 1899. The investments are all of a high·class character, not likely to fluctuate to any extent. The gain on the whole was 168l. Ss. 1ld. in the year in value, as certified by the accountants, the whole of the securities being examined, as well as the bank books. There was still a large cash balance of l04,637l.15s. 10d. in the several branches, 9537l. 10s. in the council's hands, and 403l. l4s. 7d. in the hands of the several district committees.
The aggregate amounts expended on benefits from 1867 to 1899 inclusive have been as follow:
Sick benefit ... ... ... Funeral benefit .. . ... . .. Surgeon benefit ... ... Superannuation benefit ... Out of work benefib . .. • ••
Benevolent grants • • • .. . :E'a.res to situations ... ... Accident benefit ... ...
Total for provident benefit , dispute benefit ...
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...
...
...
.. .
...
...
...
£ 474,598 105,056 103,975 117,095 605,631 72,969 6,046
78,2~5
1,573,605 97,272
Aggregate .. . ... ... . .. 1,670,877
The above is a worthy record for a labour union. H is no mere fighting union, but one with important provident benefits attached. It does all that a labour union is expected to do, and IJ?-UC~ tha:t some have _of late years desired. It has faith m fnendly negotiat ion and it has won its way into the confidence of the employers in the vast industry which it represents.
The position of the engineering trades throug~~ut Lancashire is little changed as regards actual actlvity and employment. Establishments in practically all the leading departm.en~s contim~e fully en~aged on work in hand, but 1t I S complamed that, m many directions orders are being completed faster than they are being ~eplaced . It is admitted that this may not mean any actual slackness of trad? ?uring, at least, the remainder of the present year; 1t 1s regarded as an indication that the outlook for the not distant future is not quite so satisfactory as it was. some time. ago, nor as could be desired at the present time. But, 1t may be that the suspended orders-offers made that could not be accepted for early delivery, some of which, at least it is said, have not been placed elsewhere-may still 'be available when deliveries can be guaranteed by the accepting .firms.. Meanwhile ~mployll?'ent is good with no senous s1gn of slackenmg off m any impdrtant branch. of industry connecte.d with the engineering and a.lhed trades, or other 1ron, steel, and metal-using industries. Lu.tterly, also, the cotton trades have been so far prosperous as to influence t he tide in favour of the textile machine-maki;ng branch, which had, in some districts, been slackemng down ; thus prosperity in one branch reac~s fav.ourably on another. In the iron trade slow busmess 1s the order of the day. There has been a hanging back, both as to raw atld finished material ; only such purchases are made as may be required for present~urposes-a handto-mouth policy, .a~ it is termed. Singularly enough, American compet1t10n, although.afar off at p~esent,. as far as supplies are. concern~d, 1s a .more dtsturbmg element in Lancashire than m the Midlands. :Makers of finished iron are so well booked forward that they
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E N G I N E E R I N G. are not at all anxious about new orders, changes in prices, or American competition. There has been some little unsettlement in the steel trade, at least, temporarily.
The reports from the Wolverhampton district are not quite so satisfactory as they were some weeks ago. It is true that current quotations for all classes of finished iron are fully maintained, and that makers show no indication of yielding to reductions ; but there is a quietude in business which manifests a spirit of waiting, rather than an anxiety to purchase. Both marked bars and unmarked iron keep up well to or towards the full market rates ; but as black sheets have only been in moderate request, the makers have to ease the prices of a month or so ago to secure business. Stamping sheets have been in good request at full rates. There has been a good demand for hoops and gas strip, rivet and nail-rod iron, and prices have been pretty firm. There seems to be no falling off as regards the demand for steel of all kinds, which is being used more largely than ever in substitution for iron. On the whole, the position remains fairly good; but the outlook does not seem to be as rosy as it was some time ago. It may be, however, that the lagging is merely temporary. The engineering and allied industries keep tolerably well employed; even those who report trade as being only "moderate " show, by the figures that they give in their returns, that there is very little to complain of as regards employment. The secretaries of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers alone speak of trade as moderate. Ironfounders, boilermakers, bridge and girder constructors, tankmakers, gasholder erectors, smiths and strikers all report employment as good, as it also is in the railway sheds. Cycle makers are busier. The reports from the adjacent districts are similar in most instances-dull it hardly is in any branch. In the hardware industries, there are variations in activity; some are more pressed than others, but there are few that have any serious cause of complaint, for when a branch is said to be quiet, further inquiry shows that there is full employment, but less overtime, or no overtime, as the case may be. Altogether the position is favourable, and the outlook is not discouraging.
In the Birmingham district there was a tendency towa.rda weakness in several departments of the iron trades at the end of last week. It appears that new orders are scarce and difficult to obtain in comparison with some weeks past, and it is complained that specifications on old contracts are not so regular as they were. But there arE> large expectations as regards ~outh Africa, and inquiries are on foot in some departments. There is a general belief that there will be a great boom in the iron trade in that part of the world before many weeks are over. But hope deferred maketh the heart sick, and long delays in this instance may eventuate in the postponement of the realisation of the desire for a great boom in South Africa. There is a great deal of work in hand connected with the war, especially as regards railway work, bridge work, iron pipes, &c., in which departments employment is good. The export t rade continues to be well up to the average, but the famine in India is seriously interfering with orders from that vast Empire. The expectation is that the iron and steel workers' wages will again be advanced, so that the price of material- raw and finished-will keep up. So far the price of best bars and unmarked iron maintain their position fairly well. The idea of keen competition from America seems to be very much of a dream; in any case, there is none to be had before the autumn, by which time many things will have taken place. Some gas strip has, however, found its way here from America. The demand for steel continues good, but there is a scarcity of raw material. In one branch of the steel trade there is considerable competition for the orders offered, and some reductions have been accepted. Pig iron was "bea.red " down somewhat last week, but not to any extent. The iron and steel using trades are fairly brisk in most instances ; even in cases which are described as moderate, employment is good on the whole. This applies to all the engineering industries, and those connected therewith. The same is true generally of the other iron and steel using industries, and of those who work in other metals also, with the exception of bedstead makers and one or two others of lesser consequence. There is not, however, much to complain of.
The Bill which raises the age of boy-workers in mines is regarded as safe, a.CJ it has passed into the committee stage in the House of Lords; the object of the measure is a simple one-it raises the age at which child labour shall be employed from 12 to 13 years of age. The first Act, in 1842, raised, or rather fixed, the age at 10 years, previous to which there was no limit, as the report of the Employment of ChHdren Commission shows. It has taken nearly GO years to reach the age of 13, effecting a. saving of three years to be added to school and child life. Presently we may expect to see one year added, reaching 14 years
[JUNE I, 1900.
as the limit below which a child shall not work in a • m me.
The Lords rejected the Early Closing Bill for shop assistants, but the National Union of Shop Assistants had not been enthusiastic in its favour, as they rather supported the Bill of Sir Charles Dilke in the House of Commons, which is, indeed, the union's Bill. The union regards the speech of the Premier as a. God-send; they think that it will help forward the Bill in the Commons.
It would appear, from some ad verse criticisms in the newspapers that there is friction and danger in connection with two labour federations-the "National Federation," established as a result of the action of the Trade Union Congress, and the '' Engineering Federation," established some years previously, from which, however, the Amalgamated Society of Engin~rs seceded as soon as the federation was finally'. corn· plated. There need not be any friction or danger, and any attempt to stir up strife will be disastrous to all concerned, and harmful to employers. The object of the Engineering Federation was, and is, co-operation in matters affecting the engineering and shipbuilding trades, as regards matters of wages, hours of labour, and conditions of employment ; also to try and amicably settle questions of demarcation of work-matters of vast importance in those industries. It is not a military body, but rather one for conciliation purposes. A conflict between the two organisations would be mischievous.
The jealousy of trade unions, one towards another, is manifested, sometimes in one form, sometimes in another. The most frequent cause of disputes is demarcation of work, but there is one other not less disastrous when it occurs, and which is even less excusable-namely, attempts to keep out men from employment because they do not belong to a particular union. A case of this kind has recently happened in the East End of London, between the Amalgamated Union of Painters and the London East End Painters' Society. It appears that a certain firm wanted ten additional men, and the National Union forthwith E~ent ten men to fill the vacant places, whereupon the members of the other union struck work. The firm paid the union wages and fulfilled all the required conditions, and yet this paltry dispute. Could it be wondered if the firm said, "A plague on both your houses!" One wants to know what the National Federation is doing in the matter.
---It is feared by some that there will be a rush of
labour, a.s well as of capital, to South Africa, when peace is restored. It is thought that the labour market at home will become disorganised, and that in Africa there will be a glut. As a rule these things adjust themselves, but in a great crisis there is some danger of a rush to be first in the field. Pioneers often fare badly; they merely pave the way for others' success subsequently.
It is reported that many of the cotton operatives of Lancashire are migrating to Canada, Russia, Portugal, and Mexico, where high wages are offered to persons skilled in the cotton industry. It is said that millions of spindles have been exported to those countries and also to Austria, India, and J apan. If this continues we shall have increased competition, lower prices, and lower wages than of late.
---The great tramway strike at Berlin has ended in the
acceptance of a compromise under the mediation of the chief Burgomaster. The terms appear to be greatly in favour of the men, not merely temporarily, but per· manently, including a pension fund.
There is friction and a threatened dispute between the Birmingham Corporation and the 4000 workpeople employed. The men ask for a further advance in wages ; the officials reply that men will leave private firms to accept the present rates and advantages. The men threaten t o strike, but some think they will cool down.
It is reported that the great building strike of some 50,000 operatives at Chicago, which has lasted some months, is being settled by a compromise. The cost of the dispute is estimated at 25,000,000 dols.
A number of scrapers and painters employed at the Creat Central Railway Company's Dock Works at Grimsby struck last week for an advance of 4s. per week-20s. to 24s.-but offered to accept 22s. The company offered 21s., which the men refused.
There has been considerable excitement a.t Antwerp over the conviction of M. Fabir, the dock labour leader, over the recent agitation. It is feared, at date of writing, that the feeling will eventuate in a general st rike. A monster demonstration has been organised for Jlme l , and Lhe city authorities regard the pros· peot with considerable an~ety.
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J UNE I , I 900.]
THE ACTION OF BILGE KEELS.* By MR. G. II. BRYAN, Sc.D., F.R.S., Visitor.
I. INTRODUCTION.
~· Ta~ means adop ted for moderating the rolling of shtps have been r ecently brought before my notice m a pape~ by. ~r. \V., J. Luke, and the discussions accomP!l'nymg 1t m t~e T~a.nsac~ions of the Institution of Eogmeers and ShtpbUtlders m Scotland (XLIII. 2, 3) for D ecember, 1899, and. J a.nuary, 1900. On reading this paper,, I w~s m~c~ Impre.ssed by the efficacy of bilge k~els m extl.nguiehm~ rolhng, as these appeared to furn~h a. ?eaut1ful pr.a{)ttcal illustration of the proper ties of d1scon~muou~ mot10n, which have for many years been a favounte subJect of study am<?ng ~P.Plied mathematicians. I at one~ wrote to Dr. E lgar, mqUlnng how far the theory of ~he b1lg~ keel ha<l bs~n tre 1ted. from a hydrodynamical pomt of v1ew, and, 9:-t h1s suggest10n, the following paper has .been prepar~d, ~n the hopes that a. theoretical discussion of the prm01pl~ underlying the use of the bilge keel may prove of use m ~ny f~~~her experiments that may be u~dertaken. In S1r "'\Vtlnam White's paper of 1895 allus10n was made to the investigations then about to be, undertaken by 1\Ir. R. E. Froude, but from Mr. Luke d paper (page 23) it appears that an account of these ha~ not yet been published.
2. T~e p~im.ary object t? be kept in view in every d evice f?r extm~u~shn~g the os01llations of a ship is the absorptiOn or dtssipa.ttOn of the energy of the oscillatory motion. The use of m ternal water chambet's communicating with one another by .a la rge number of small holes, as described by ¥r. Watt~ m 1883 and 1885, affords an excellent illustratiOn of thlS property. In consequence of the resistance offered to the flow of water from one chamber to the ~~her .and back, energy is absorbed from the water and 1S ~lt1ma.te~y oonv~rted into heat, in much the same way as m Joules classwal experiment of determining the so-ca~led mechanical equivalent of heat.
Wtth the use of bilge keels, bhe energy of oscillation has to be absorbed by the water surrounding the ship · and there are three ways in which a fluid can absorb ener~y : (1) By ~iscosity ; (2) by the production of discontmuous motiOns; (3) by the generation of waves. Now, t?e effects of viscosity may na turally be expected to mamfest themselves more in retarding the motion of the sh~p than in extin~uishing oscilla~ion, and the fact that b1lge k~el s do not m crease the reslStance on the ship to .an aP.pre01able ext~nt ~bows that their action cannot primarily l?e .due to vtscos~ty. As to the effects of viscosity m deterrrunmg the ult1mate form of th~ dissipated energy, these are of no great importance to the naval arohttect.
W e are thus l eft to d eal with discontinuous motion and wave motion. The question a.s to the relative extent to which the action of bilge keels depends on these two causes may nob be devoid of practical interest. It is clear that a ship which readily expends i ts oscillatory energy in forming waves may, under other conditions, all the more readi lv absorb energy from certain types of wave~, on somewhat the ea.me lines as, in the radiation of beat, good radiators are good absorbers; in other words, a ship which generates the most waves when it rooks is the most ea~!ly .seb in motion when waves of the proper period stnke tt.
3. The object of this paper is to show that the efficacy of bilge keels in extinguishing roller motion, in vir tue of the discontinuous motions they produce, is materially greater than would be directly inferred from experiments on the coefficient of resistance of a. lamina moving in water. It must be clearly borne in mind throughout what follows that we a re not considering the total extinctive effects, but merely the amounts by which these are increased b y the addition of bi lge keels to a. ship which previously did not possess them. In a ship unprovided with bilge keels a nd possessing no sharp edges projecting into the watE-r, discontinuous motions cannot exist a.t the velocities due to ordinary moderate rolling motions. In such cases the extinction of oscillation is doubtless due to wave formation, aided to some extent by viscosity. But when a bil{{e keel is added with a sharp edge, discoutinuous motion 1S at once set up, the fluid motions being d ivided into two par ts by a surface of discontinuity thrown off from the sharp edge; and it is my purpose to prove that the advantage of the ship with bilge keels over the same ship without them, can be accounted for by discontinuous motions to a greater extent than would appear at fir3t sight probab'e. It is not con tended tha,t the effects of wave motion are not also of importance in this connection, but they probably are secondary in character, their action being due to the influence of the waves in modifying the di$continuous motions, as well as to the presence of the bil~e keels causing a. modification in the waves by which their absorption of energy may be materially increased.
For this reason wave motion ha~ been ent irely left out of account in the calculations which I have made, a sim· plification whioh is, moreover, necessary in order to bring the problem within the range of existing methods of mathematical ana.lysis. At the conclusion of the paper I propose to indicate lines on which experimen ts might be conducted with a view of putting the matter to a prac-tical test.
4. Sir \Villiam W hite tells us that the late Mr. Froude's experimen ts made with a. paddle oscillating in water gn:ve a. coefficient of resistance of 1.6 lb. per square foot, with a mean velocity of 1 ft. per second, and that th~ use of this c~efficient does not fully account for the experimen tal facts. "On the other band," Sir \Villi am ' Vhite goes on to say, "in the case of the Sultan, the agreement between Mr. Froude's estimate, based on the use of this
* Paper read before the Institution of Naval Architects.
E N G I N E E R I N G. ~oefficient and the experimental facts was very close mdeed." '
Now ~he diagram shows that the midship section of the Sultan IS ~ounder than that of the Revenge; and, moreover, the btlge keels were placed one near the bottom and the other rather below the point where the contour is most curved. The section given of the Revenge shows that the subme! ged portion is more nearly of the form of a . rectangl.e w1th rounded corners ; and, moreover, the bilge keel Is placed at the most protuberant part 0f the contou~. ~n Mr .. Luke's diagrams the angular forms of the mtd.shlp seot10~s of most ships and the far more ~ear~y ctrcular sectton of the Sul tan are noticeable, while m d u1grams of the Campania and Omrah kindly ~ent me by ~r. Elgar, the section is approxim'ately a reotaJ?gle Wlth the corners rounded off. A glance ab the d1agram.s suggests that the differences i n the behaviour of .the bil.ge keels largely depend on the forms of the mids~~p sections, and we a re thus led to the following propoSltlOn:
The. resistance. to dis?ontinuous motion due to bilge keels IS g reater m a ship of somewhat angular section than in a ship of circular section, provided that the keels are attached at the protruding corners of the section.
5. The angular contour of the midshiJ.> section increases the efficacy of .the bilge keel _in two distmct ways :
a. The. mot10n of the sh1p produces currents in the water w~10h fl.ow past th.e b~nds i~ the opposite direction to ~hat m which the shtp IS t~rmng, thereby producing an morea.se of pressure on the bilge keels.
b. ?-'he. dis?ont inuous motion past the bilge keels alters the dtstnbution of pressure on the sides of the ship and for a rectangular section the differences of pr~sure' thus produced have a moment always tending to retard the rolling motion.
Sir William White was evidently alluding to some such considerations as these in his remark : "But as the matte! at present stands, it would appear that the R evenge exper1ments point to a possibility which is also indicated by the results given by Mr. Froude in 1874. It appears that ~hen bilge keels are added to a ship they musb become eff~ctive, not ~erely as flat surfaces oscillating with the ship, and expen encing direct resistance, but by indirectly influencing the stream-line motions which would exist about the oscillating ship if there were no bilge keels."
II. Elt'FECT OF STREAM-LINE M OTIONS.
6. When a cylinder of other than circular section is rotating in fluid, whether the rotational motion be steady or oscillatory, stream-line motions are set up, the effect of w.hich is t? cause the fluid to flow past the more protrudmg J.>OrtJons of the cylinder in the opposite direction to ~hat m which the cylinder is turning. If a small lamma. or paddle be fixed projecting from the cylinder where it can int~rcept this counter current, the increased relative Yelooity of the fluid increases the pressure on the lamina., which we shall assume to vary as the square of the relative velocity.
In the case of an elliptic cylinder whose longest and ~hortest diam~ters are in the ratio of 3 to 2, this streamline motion would almost exactly double the pressure on a small lamina. projecting from the extremity of the lol'l_gest diameter.
For cylinder.:~ of section other than elliptical, the increase of pressure due to this cause depends, however, quite as much on the form of the section as on the ratio of its greatest and least radii, and it may be laid down as a general rule that, when the protruding parts are smoothly rounded, the stream velocity is small, while sharp bends produce a considerable increase in the stream 't'elooity, unti l, when the two sides actually meet at an angle projecting into the flnid, the stream velocity becomes infinite a~ the ~ngle, and .the stream-line motion is replaced by discontmuous mot10n.
1. The problem of the stream-line motions past cylinders of given section is, in general, very difficult of solution; but, by taking suitable forms for the stream function, we can obtain solutions for cylinders whose curve of section coincides with a given contour a t any number of assigned points. In this way the stream-line motion could theoretically be worked out for a cylinder of section approaching to the midship section of a given ship to any degree of approximation. The calculation, however, becomes very complicated, if the section approximates to a highly angular form.
In the small time available for the preparation of this paper, it has only been possible to work out a few simple cases. The points by which the shape of the contour lines have been determined are shown in the figures on the next page ; the intermediate form of the curves is merely roughly sketched in, and is not to be regarded as accurate.
F or the section shown in Fig. 1, the pressure at A 2 is increased by nbout 35.7 per cent., although the longest radius only exceeds the shor test by about 13 per cent. It is to be noted that the points A 3, A .,\1 A 6 lie in a. straight line.
F ig. 2 shows a section of rather theoretical interest, in which the increase of pressure at A'l amounts to 46.85, say, 47 per cen t. That only a difference of 11 per cent. exists between the caoos represented in Figs. 2 and 3 is due to the fact that the convex parts of both curYes are very smoothly rounded, and the difference of form chiefly lies in the presence of re·entrant corners in Fig. 2, which are much less effective than protuding angles in modifying the pressure3 at the protuberant parts.
In Fig. 3 we have a nearer approximation to a square section, the points A 0, A1, A'l, as also A ... A 5, A6, A7, As, being in a. straig ht line. In this case the stream-line motion increases the pressure at As and A 0 by 67 per oe~b.
These results represent what happens when the movmg body is a complete cylinder, symmetrical about 0 , rotating in an infinite mass of fluid. In addition to the stream motion producing counter. currents round the salient parts
o~ the. cylinder, it causes the fluid to move in the same d1reotion as the cylinder at the p~int~ nearest the axis, such as .Ao· If we suppose the fiutd, mstead of covering the cyh.nders, t? reach only half way up them, Figs. 1 and .3 gtve a fair general representation of the midship seot10p. of m~ny ships fi?ating in water. From what we have. J~St said, the mottons which were investigated in obta!nmg the above results cause the surface of the water to r~se and fall with the ship, an action opposed by grayity. So far. as. gravity is effectual in directly counter aotmg these var1at1ons of the water level, the result is to superpose counter-currents, which tend further to increase the e.ffeotive pressure at the protuberant parts. If we suppose the velocity of stream-line motion to be doubled by. these added counter-currents the increase of pressure w11l be more than doubled. It is therefore not Improbable that in a ship of eection si~ilar to Fi'g 3 the efficacy of bilge keels fitted ab A3 and .A9 may· b~ more than double that of a paddle osctllating freely in water. As a matter of fact, however, the action of gravity p rodu.ces waves and throws the calculations beyond the domam of exac.t ma.~hematical analysis.
8. T o test thiS .Pomt further, I adopted a different form of st~eam funot1on, chosen so as to make the vertical velo01ty zero at the surface of a horizontal plane. This represent:s w~at would be the stream-line motion, if a ship ~e~e rolhng m .water covered with a hard and perfectly rlgid sheet of Ice, supposin~ this ice to just allow the vessel free play to roll. The form choden for the con tour of .the ee?tion (Fig. 4) roug hly is somewhat like the midshlp sectiOn of the R evenge given in Sir "\Villia.m White's pa.~er, but with r~ther ligliter draught than any there mdt~ted, the modification being made to make thecalo~latiOn easier. In this case it was found that the effect~ve pressure at A 1 and A 3 was just over double-2.085 times .that due to the rotational motion of the ship alone. At pomts rather lower down the effective pressures would be somewhat greater.
The assumed surface condition at the horizontal plane Ao 0 A,. can be produced, even if the fluid be indefinitely ext~nded above the horizontal plane, by supposing the cyhnder completed, its section in the upper portions being of the form roughly sketched out in Ftg. 4 the equation of the curve of section being the same a~ for the subm~rged portion, and its form being thus completely determ mate. These are but rough examples, but they may ~erve t<? s~ow the gep.eral effecb of the shape of the ship m modtfymg the res1stances on bilge keels, and the importance of placing the keels in such a position as to encounter the strongest possible counter-currents past the sides of the ship.
III.-EFFRCT o~· NoN-Co-PEmonw DISTURDANCES.
9. The effect of wave motions whose period coincides with that of oscillation, whether these be due to the motion of the ship or to external causes will be to decrease ,or increase the effective pressure on' the bilge keels; accordmg as the currents they produce are in the same or th.e opposite direction to that in which the ship is rotatmg. Bub the effect of wave motions or other independent disturbances of different period will always be to increase the effective pr~sure on the keels.
For let V be the velocity of the fluid relative t o the bilge kee_l is undisturbed motion, v the added velocity due to the disturbance, k the assumed coefficient of resistana~; and first assume V> v. Then, if the two velocities are m the same direction, the resistance is k (V + v) 2 •
while, if they are are in opposite directions, the resista.n~ is k (V - v)'l. Assuming that it is an even chance whether the velociti~s are t~e same or in opposite directions, the average resistance IS
~ k { <v + v)2 +(V -1')2} = k{ v2 + v2 } ,
and is thus increased by an amount equal to that due to the mean square velocity due to the disturbance. If, however, V < v, then, wnen V is opposed to V the direction of the effective pressure will be revers~d, and the average resistance will be
! k { (V + 1·)2 - (V - v)2 } = 2 k V v,
which is more than double the pressure in undisturbed motion, since v > V.
In the first case the resistance is increased Ly a consta~t at;nou~t, and th~ additional work dona in any half os01llation lS proporttonal to the amplitude of swing. In t~e second case the resistance is p roportional to the velo01ty. '.l;he effec~ due. to non ·co-periodic disturbances thus seem likely to gtv~ n se t,o tarms proportional to the first power of the amphtude m the curves of extinction . The remarkable magnitude of these terms has been noticed by Sir Willi~m .White in the aforementioned paper. Among non-co-per10dic disturbances must be included a ste~dy .current! the effects ~f which, on a rotating or os01llatmg lamma, or body ~1th s~arp edges, can easily be, and doubtless have been, ~nves.ttgated ~xperimenta.lly. Whether the turbulent mot10ns mduced m the water in the neighbourhood of the bilge keels by the discontinuous motio.ns set up in l?r~vious oscillations ea~ be regarded as ful fi lhng the conditiOn assumed above, v1z., that it is a.n even chance whether the added velocities are in the same or the opposite direction to the motion of the keels is another ques~i<?n, on which it is perhaps premature ' to expr~s an opimon. IV. Ei'~ J.l'RC'l' OJi' PRESSURE VARIATIONS AGAINST TBE
SIORS Oli' TBE SHIP.
10. The second cause can be most readily understood by anyone who has noticed how readily a small boat will turn round, even when i ts rudder is set at right angles to the course, m which position the turning moment of the pressure on the rudder itse~f is pr~ct1ca.11y nil. T aking AB to represent the rudder m a hon~ontal plane (Fig. 5),
•
J UN E I , I 900.]
of the cylinder. The dead water, which is dragged along in the region behind the bilge keel in one half oscillation, is projected outwards, with a free stream line, in the succeeding half oecilla.tion. The motion is thus irreversible. and is accompanied by dissipn.tion of enerfY· The general result is to throw the liquid into a. state o turbulence.
16. In the purely theoretical aapect of the question, the impossibility of destroying free stream lines depends on the principles : (1) That a. surface of discontinuity is equivalent to a. vortex sheet; (2) that vortices alwa.:ys contain the same particles of fluid ; (3) that vor tex mot10n cannot be set up or destroyed in tbe interior of a. perfect fluid. Practically viscosity causes the vortex motion to diffuse outwards from the sheet, according to the same laws by which diffusion of heat takes place. This will cause the motion to assume the form of eddies, but is not likely to seriously affect the bilge keel resista.nces considered in the previous sections.
17. One effect connected with the pressures due to changes of motion may be noticed, namely, the effect of the speed of the ship m increasing bilge-keel resistance, due to the keels constantly coming in contact with fresh portions of liquid that have not been set into turbulent motion by previous oscillations. This effect is analogous to the effect of lateral velocity in increasing the air resistance of planes, which has been very fully investigated by Professor Langley, :Mr. Maxim, and many others in experiments conducted in connection with the problem of artificial flight.
18. It is obvious that the effect of the d rp I d t pressures must be largely affected by the same causes that we have shown produce such a marked increase in the extinctive moment of the! q2 pressures, vi j'.., the increased velocity of discontinuous motion due to the non-circular section of the ship, and the moments of the pressure variations on the sides of the ships. Their effect will thus be widely different (except for a. ship of circular section) from the corresponding actions on a. plane lamina moving through water. In fact, we have to take account of the a.ccelera.tions imparted to the masses of dead water behind the protruding parts of the ship to which the bilge keels are attached, and not merely to those which would be ent rained by the bilge keel if the ship were absent.
Practically the result of the fact that the motions set up when the ship beBins to swing are not annihilated when it comes to rest is to set up currents in the liquid a.s mentioned later on, and the production of these currents is sufficient to account for a. considerable absorption of energy.
VI. COMPARISON OF R ESULTS.
19. Sir William White tells us tba.b if the whole of the increased extinction in the Revenge be reP.resented by an increased coefficient of resistance of the bilge keel, this coefficient would come out to vary between 8 n.nd over 16 lb. per square foot; while, if we represent in this way only those terms determining the extinction curve, which vary as the square of the amplitude, the corresponding computed resistance coefficient comes out to be abQut 6, and remains constant for all amplitudes. This value is rath~r less than four times the value (1.6) found experimentally for a plane area.
Now we have seen that the increased relative velocity of the fluid due to stream-line motions pa.sb the eide of the ship may suffice to more than double the bilge keel resistance. In order to account for a fur ther doubling of the effective resistance, it is only necessary to assume that the retarding moments of the pressure differences induced on the sides of the ship is equal to the moment of tbe pressures on the bilge keels themselves-a very reasonable hy(otbesis.
20. I this view be accepted, there remain still unaccounted for the terms in the extinction curve, which are .P.roportiona.l to the first p ower of the amplitude, and the Idea ab once suggests itself that what we have called the d et> I d t pressures may be largely responsible for the increase in the value of these. 0 wing to the difficulty of investigating these pressures mathematically, it is desirable that the matter should be put to an experimental test. It is certain that these pressures have no inconsiderable influence, and the point at issue is whether they account for the whole or part of the remaining extinctive effects; and, if the latter, for what proportion ?
VII.-SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTAL VERIFIOATIONS.
21. The question a.q to how far actual bilge-keel resiste.nces can be accounted for by discontinuous motions alone, without invoking the aid of dissipation of wave-making energy, could be tested by laboratory ex.P.eriments on cylinders oscillating totally immersed in flmds with fixed boundaries, so that no wave formation is possible. Such cylinders could easily be ~et oscillating by attaching them to pendulums.
The case of a cylinder half immersed in liquid bounded by a rigid horizontal plane, with the object of preventing wave formation, the oounda.ry having just sufficient opening to allow free play for the oscillations of the cylinder, would be of considerable interest. A similar result could also be gob bv making the upper part of the cylinder of such a. form as to give zero vertical velocity across a horizontal plane, as sug~ested in Fig. 4.
Further informatiOn could be doubtless obtained as to the ultimate fate of the discontinuous surfaces by injecting coloured fluids into the water, either as close as possible to the edges of the mod~l bilge keels, or. along alternate quadrants of the section. Such experiments would test a. point which we have not yet considered, namely, the action of the bilge keels in producing circulating motions of the liquid ; in particular, that of sucking the water in at the sides and bottom of the ship ( Aq, A2o ..A.a. of Figs. 6 and 7), and. projecting it . outwa.~ds tn . the regions traversed by the btlge keels. durmg t~eu osc~tions. Professor Hele-Sba.w's beautiful experiments With
E N G I N E E R I N G.
thin liquid film~ unfortunately, would not answer the purpose in cases where the discontinuous motions in these are almost at once broken up by the enormous influence of viscosity. The turbulence which breaks up the coloured bands with thick films no doubt makes observations very difficult, but it is precisely this turbulence of which we want to take account in l>racbioe.
Lastly, experiments wtth vertical cylinders, with tubes let into them at various points, would enable the pressure variations on the sides of the cylinder itself to be measured. Practically, a long oscillating or rotating ver tical cylinder, projecting above the water, shows the same effects by the heaping up of the water in front of the projecting edges, and moreover shows the eddies thrown off very readily. A little dust scattered on the surface will show the currents produced in the liquid. Since writing the last words, we have tested the point in a simple way, by scattering powdered sealing-wax and bits of P.aper in a. basin of water, and causing a. glass plate to osctlla.te about a. vertical diameter. In this way anyone can easily see for himself the particles being sucked m at the middle of the plate, and shot out when they reach the ends.
VIII. CONCLUSIONS.
22. (i.) The efficacy of bilge keels in extinguishing rolling oscillations is largely due to their action in setting up discontinuous motions in the water.
(ii.) This action depends not only on the bilge keels themselves; but also largely on the form of the section of the ship, and the position in which the keels are fixed.
(iii.) The influence of the form of the ship depends on two causes, namely : (a) the effect of the stream-line motions past the sides of the ship in P.roducing countercurrents against a. sui tably-placed b1lge keel; (b) the effect of variations in the pressure on the sides of the ship due to the d iscontinuous motions caused by the bils-e keels themselves.
(1v.) The first of these causes is sufficient in cases similar to those existing in actual ships to more than double the bilge keel resistance, and a. like effect is doubtless produced by the second cause.
(v.) A considerable portion of the difference between the fourfold efficiency thus accounted for, and the still higher efficienoies found by experiment, may be attributable to other effects of discontinuous motion which are difficult to investigate mathematically. The effects here alluded to are those which depend on the changes of motion, i.e. , on the d ifferences of pressure CS\Used by the fact that the motion at each instant is not steady, but oscillatory.
(vi.) The effect of irregular disturbances, such as waves of period differing from the period of rolling, is to increase bilge keel resista.nce, provided that it is an even chance whether they increase or decrease the relative velocity of the liCJ,uid.
(vii.) The energy dissipated by the bilge keels is expended in setting up currents and turbulent motions in the water, such as can only be set up when sharp edges project into the fluid.
( viii.) The observed fact that motion of the ship increases bilge keel resistance is easily explained as a. consequence of the last conclusion, and is entirely in accordance with existing theories and experiments on artificial flight.
(ix.) In estimating bilge keel resistance it will be seen that we are not concerned only with the projecmng lamina. called the bilge keel· but we should rather regard the whole of the part of the ship on either side of a fore-and· aft section which projects beyond a circular section, together with the attached lamina., as constituting one large effective bilge keel. This way of thinking of bilge keel resistance makes it easier to understand the large amount of its effects.
(x.) But the presence of the projecting sharp edges is absolutely essential· for, without them, the fluid will simply flow round the rounded corners of the ship, and the whole of the dissipation of energy by discontinous motions will be done away with.
(xi.) In fact, in a ship with smoothly-rounded corners to its section. without bilge keels, energy of rolling for moderate oscillations can only be dissipated by viscosity and wave formation.
(xii. ) It remains a. matter for experimental investigation to determine how far it still remains necessary to attribute the bilge keel action itself to the production of wave energ;r as a seconda.qr cause, to be called into account in expln.ming irregula.r1ties or exceptional resistances not directly attributable to discontinuous motion.
23. These conclusions point to the importance of attaching the bilge keels at those par ts of the ship where their efficiency is a maximum. It appears, however, that existing practices pretty well ful fi l this condition.
One point still remains, however, to be noticed : it is very essential that the bilge keel should project sufficiently far to prevent the surfaces of discontinuity once thrown off from again closing round the sides of the ship, otherwise a greatly diminished resistance may be expected.
My thanks are due to Dr. E lgar, F.R.S., for his kindness in sending details relative to actual ships, which have proved of the greatest possible use in preparing this paper.
.ALGERIAN RAILWAYS.-The revenue collected last year upon the Algerian lines, owned by the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean Railway Company, was 390,842t. ; the working expenses of the year having been 216, 771l. ; the not profit realised for the twelve months was 174,071l., showing an increase of 23,023l. as compared with 1898. The net revenue collected for 1899 exceeded the guarantee of interest given by the French T reasury to the extent of 4506l.
731
WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION CASES. Hol1nes v. T he Great No1·the1•n Railway Cornpany.
This wa3 an appeal from the award of the County Court Judge ab Clerkenwell. It came on for hearing in the Court of Appeal on Saturday, May 26. It appeared that the applicant wa.s the mother of a workman who met his death on the line under the following circumstances : He was employed by the company as an engine cleaner, and on November 4, 1899, was engaged on work at King's Cross. On that day he was ordered by a foreman to P!'Oceed to the company's new engine shed at Hornsey. No particular instructions were g iven as to how he was to get to H ornsey, but he travelled on one of the c0mpa.ny's trains from King's Cross to H ornsey. On November 7 he proceeded to Hornsey as before, in coru pa.ny with other men, and on arrival they proceeded to cross the line in front of the engine of the train by which they bad travelled, which was then blowing off steam. While the deceased was so crossing the engine of an ex_Press train which was travelling in the direction of Kmrs Cross, caught him and injured him so much that he died next day. It was proved that there was a. footway across the line and also a. subway, by means of which the deceased might have crossed. The sole point in the case was whether the accident arose out of and in the course of the employment, the company contending that upon the principle of H olmes v. Macka.y [1899, 2 Q.B., 319] the employment did not commence unttl the hour of actual work had a.rri ved and the deceased was upon that part of the employer's premises where such work was to be performed. The County Court Judg-e, however, held that as the deceased was carrying out his foreman's orders at the time, he was in the course of his employment, and that, therefore, the applicant was enti tled to compensation in respect of his death.
Mr. Monta.gu Lush and Mr. Clutton Brook, who appeared for the company on a.p(>Sa.l, argued that a~ the workman was not under any obligation to cross the line, be could not be said to have acted in the course of his employment when he did so. While he was travelling by train, and until he reached his work, he was his own master.
Mr. Duckworth, for the applicant, was not called upon. The Court dismissed the appeal. In the course of his judgment, L ord Justice A. L.
Smith said : The only question which the Court ha.s to consider is whether there is any evidence to support the conclusion of the County Court Judge that this accident arose out of, and in the course of, the deceased's employment. It seems to me that there wa.3 an implied contract between the company and the deceased, that if he would get into a train at King's Cross they would take him by their line to his work and brins- him back again. There is a difference between the begmning of employment and the beginning of work. In my opinion the employment in this case began at King's Cross, and the workman was in the course of his employment when the accident happened. This appeal must be dismissed.
L ord Justice Va.ugha.n Willia.ms and L ord Justice Romer agreed.
CoAL IN FRANOE.-The im~orts of co~l into France in the first three months of this year show an increase of 610,000 tons, as compared with the corresponding period of 1899. The imports of coke also show an increase of 38,000 tons.
GoLn.- The effect of the Transvaal War upon our gold imports is beginning to be very marked. The receipts from all quarters in .AJ.>ril were only 645,953l., as compared with 2, 364, 939l. m April, 1899, and 5, 072, 794t. in April, 1898. British South Africa contributed to these totals 575l., 1,221,345l., and 1,218,303l. respectively. The imports of British Indian and Australasian gold also declined considerably in April, while deliveries ceased altogether from Russia., Eg7.pt, China, and Japan. In the four months ending April 30 this year, gold was imported to the value of 8.6551984l., a.s compared with n.387,851l. in the correspondmg period of 1899, and 14,331,635l. in the corresponding period of 1898. The imports of South African gold declined in the firBt four months of this year to 79,346l., as compared with 5,892,37-ll. in the corresponding period of 1899, and 5, 222,297l. in t he corresponding per1od of 1898. The falling off observable in this year's imports would have been even more marked but for the fact that gold was received from the U nited States to April 30 this year to the value of 2,577,586l., as compared with 5516l. and 27,247l. in the corresponding penods of 1899 and 1898 respectively. F rance sent us gold in the first four months of thts year to the value of 526,022l., as compared with 465,355l. and 2,115,733l. respectively. Australasian gold also came to hanrl to the value of onll 1t590,261l. in the first four months of this year, whtle m the first four months of 1898 the receipts from the same q~arter were 2,273,225l. The exports of gold from th~ United Kingdom in April were 929, 751l., as compared with 1,456,640l. in April, 1899, and 2,626,154l. in April, 1898, and in the four months ending April 30 this year 4,515,241l., as compared with 8,457,377l. in the corresponding period of 1899, and 12, 799,634l. in the corresponding period of 1898. The great fa.Jling off in the exports of gold this year has occurred in the movement to Germany and the U nited States. In the fi rst four months of 1898 we sent Germany gold to the value of 3,000,308l.; in the corresponding period of this year the exports declined to 4843l. Similarly, while we sent gold to the U nited States in the first four months of 1898 to the value of 6.229,731l., the corresponding movement in the first four months of this year only mounted to 7000l.
732
BOILER EXPLOSION NEAR NEWCASTLE. A FORMAL investigation under the Boiler Explosions
Act, 1882, hM been conducted by the Board of Trade at the Guildhall, Newcastle-on-Tyne, relative to an explosion which occurred on January 30, at North Farm, Great Usworth, owned by Mr. Roberh Meek. Mr. Howard Smith and Mr. Alexander Grey were the Commissioners; and Mr. Gough a.Ppeared for the Board of Trade.
In opening the inquiry Mr. Gough said the boiler in question was of the cylindrical egg-ended, externallyfired type, and was 14ft. long by 3 ft. diameter. It was of iron, and had been purchased some 16 or 17 years ago, by Mr. Meek; but the maker's name could not now be ascertained. When Mr. Meek bought it, it was secondhand, and he had the advice of a Mr. Milburn, who was then foreman 1lacksmith at a colliery. It did not appear to have occurred to Mr. Meek to ascertain what pressure the boiler was fit to be worked at, and nothing on the point had apparently been said either by him or Mr. Milburn. Mr. Meek used the boiler once or twice a week for grinding and threshing purposes, and found that a pressure of 50 lb. was required; so that the safety valve was loaded to blow off at that pressure, the weight being placed at the end of the lever. The boiler was fixed in the usual way, in brickwork; and it had not apparently occurred to the owner to have it examined periodically in order to ascertain its condition. From the time it was set up until March, 1895, there was no leakage; and Mr. Meek appeared to have considered that so long as the boiler did not leak it was fit to work. In 1897 there was some leakage from the plates at the firing end, and Mr. Meek had two new steel plates put in, and a patch applied to a third plate, which was grooved, the work being done by a blacksmith. But still no examination was made to determine the safe working pressure at that time. In December, 1899, the pressure-gauge was seen to be defective, and a. fitter who was doing some work mentioned the fact to Mr. Meek, but the gauge was not examined nor replaced. Mr. Meek attended to the boiler himself, and twice a year he emptied it and cleaned it out. Early on the morning of Tuesday, J a.nuary 30, he Jit the fire, and at about nine o'clock started pumping, the gauge at the time indicating 28lb. He then went to breakfast; but, hearing the valve blowing off, he went back and moved the weight to the end of the lever. Some time afterwards be found the gauge still registering 28lb., andt thinking there was more steam than that, he tapped tne gauge, but the pointer did not move. He again fired up, and was preparing to start the engine when the boiler exploded, parting in the middle circumferential seam, and being practically divided into two main portions. The front half was projected a d~tance of 88ft., and the back half was blown into several pieces, which were scattered around. The building in which the boiler was placed was wrecked, and great damage was done to the farm buildings; but fortunately no one was injured. Mr. Swan, of the Board of Trade, had examined the boiler and found that it was much corroded, particularly at the seam where the primary rent occurred.
The evidence of the various witnesses was then taken by Mr. Gough. Mr. ~leek, the owner of the boiler, said that he had no knowledge of boilers beyond the fac ~ that he had worked one himself for 30 years. The damage done by the explosion would. he calculn.ted, amount to more than lOOl., apart from the boiler. He was on the top of the boiler a few minutes before it exploded. He had not exe,mined the boiler regularly, nor caused it to be examined. There was no law to that effect. In his judgment the boiler was safe, and he had run it himself for man v years.
Mr. Thomas D. Swan, engineer-surveyor to the Board of Trade, who had made an examination of the exploded boiler, said that the fracture was along the line of the rivet-boles. At one place the plate was only t-o-in. thick, tapering to a knife-edge; but there was a point at whiob it did not break which was even thinner still. The plates externalJy were generally very much corroded.
After the taking of evidence Mr. Gougb submitted a. ist of questions on which he desired the judgment of the
Court ; and in reply to Mr. Howard Smith Mr. Meek said that he did not consider that he had been at all negligent, and there was no law for compelling the examination of boilers. He was "as careful as be could be."
The Court adjourned, the Commissioners meanwhile visiting the seen~ of the explosio~, and making a~ examination of the bmler. On resummg the proceedmgs the following day, Mr. Howard Smith reviewed at some length all the circumstances under which this old boiler, purchased secondhand 16 or 17 years ago, exploded. The boiler he said, was quite worn out ; and the plates were so reduc~d in thickness owing to external corrosion that they were incapable of resisting any useful pressure. The boiler should have been examined from time to time; but Mr. Meek took no measures to insure that it should work under safe conditions. The explosion was undoubtedly caused by the neglect of . Mr. Meek in not .having proper ex&~minations made. If It had been exammed bY; a competent engineer it wm1ld have been found to be quite t:mfi t for the pressure at which it was worked, and would ha:ve been condemned three or four years ago. It was quite true that there was no statute directing the owner of a boiler to have it examine_d; ?ub he owed a duty t? .the community to keep his bailor m good and safe condtt10n, otherwise it mjght become a source of grave danger. Fortunately for Mr. Meek, no person had been injured, and no property, other than his own, bad been da.m~ged by. the explosiOn. Otherwise be would have found hu~self .m a very serious position, and would have ascerta~ned, In a. striking manner, wha.t the law was. He p~eaded Ignorance for his neglect· but that was a plea wh10h could not be accepted by th~ Court. The neglect of the ordinary pre-
E N G I N E E R I N G.
cautions which he ought to have taken had oaul)ed the explosion.
Mr. Gough, on this decision, asked that Mr. Meek should be ordered to pay at least a portion of the oasts of the investigation.
Mr. Meek defiantly said that he could not, and would not, pay. If the Commissioners wanted any money from him, let them come and ta.ke him awav. There was no blame attaching to him : he bad done h{s duty.
Mr. Ho ward Smith advised Mr. Meek to adopt a different tone, and inquired what his means were; to which Mr. Meek replied that, like most farmers, it took him all his time to make a living.
Mr. Howard Smith said that the Court had seen the damage which Mr. Meek's ~roperty bad sustained. and they would take it into consideration. Bnt the case was one for which there could be no excuse, and Mr. lYieek must pay lOt. towards the costs of the investigation.
Mr. Meek said that he would not pay it, and the Board of Trade could "eome and get it."
Mr. Howard Smith in reply said that if Mr. Meek would meet the Government officials in a proper spirit they would no doubt give him time in which to pay the amount ordered; but he advised him not to adopt towards them the tone he had taken in the Court that day. If Mr. Meek refused to pay, he might be taken before the magistrates and sent to prison.
COMPRESSION AND LIQUEFACTION OF GASE8.*
By ARTHUR L. RrcE, Brooklyn, N. Y. THE first experimentation upon the liquefaction of gases
seems to have been suggested by Sir Humphry Davy, although Michael Faraday was the one to do the actual work. It was in 1823 that Davy, then the Director of the Royal Institution, instructed Faraday, his assistant, to heat hydrate of chlorine in a closed tube, not stating what r~sult :was ex_pected. This ¥araday did, and got a yelloWlsh, 01ly mOisture on the s1des of the tube, which he and a friend who was standing by took to be some foreign matter remaining from a previons experiment with the tube. Faraday filed off the end of the tube to cle111nse it, and was astonished by a violent explosion. He repeated the experiment and found, by testing, that the oily drops were liquid chlorine. This incident started him on a train of investigation, which resulted in the l iquefaction of sulphuret of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, cyanogen, ammonia, and hydrochloric acid, all during 1823.
A little work had been previously done, as Faraday himself afterwards stated, by Monge and Clouet some time previous to 1800, in hquefyiog sulphur dioxide, and in 1805 by Northmore, who liquefied chlorine and, possibly, sulphurous acid, using the same method as Faraday. The means employed seem ridiculously simple, when compared with the results obtained, but the two prime elements. pressure and cold, were both present. In one end of a bent glass tube (see Fig. 1) was placed a mixture
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•
of chemicals which, on heating, would give off the desired gas, and the tu be was then sealed ; enoug b material was used so that, in the closed tube, a very considerable pressure would be produced by the gas thus set free. The other end of the tube was plunged into a cooling mixture to condense the gas; a capillary tube, open ab one end, containing a drop of mercury, was p)aced inside the large tube, so that the number of compressions of the air mi~ht show the number of atmospheres pressure existing. With this apparatus the work of 1823 was done, the pressures being carried as high as 50 atmospheres, or 750 lb. per square inch.
The subject was then dropped for 20 years by Faraday, Colladon, an assistant of Ampere, meanwhile experimenting, but with no resulb. Colladon's apparatus was, however, with the single addition of a release-cock, the one with which Cailletet has sinne done much excellen t work. It consists of a tube (see Fig. 3}, at one end open, of large diameter and of thin gl&SE ; at the other closed, of small diameter, and wi th heavy walls ; the large end of the tube was placed inside a heavy iron chamber and
* Read at the New York December meeting of the American Societ.y of Mechanical Engineera.
[]UN E I , I 900.
&. packed joint made around the small part of the tube in which the gas was placed, and where it was compressed by pumping mercury into the iron chamber. Around the sm~ll part of the tube co.uld be placed a cooling bath. Ca1lletet added an expansiOn cock by which the pressure could be relieved suddenly and the gas thus further cooled; he also improved the form of the tube.
In 1845, Faraday again took up the experiments upon gases. He used air pumps combined as a two-stage compressor, pumped the gases into glass tubes, and inserted them in a cooling mixture. During the 20 years' interval, Thilorier had made liquid carbon dioxide by compression, and then, by evaporation of the liquid, had produced the solid snow; also Natterer bad, by the use of a mixture of carbon dioxide, snow, and ether, and by pumping away the vapours, so that a continuous evaporation was produced, succeeding in freezin&' mercury, so that the means were at hand for producmg a much lower temp~rature than at the time of the earlier experiments. Natterer bad also tried experiments on the compression of gases, going as high as 4000 atmospheres or 60,000 lb. per square inch on oxygen, but did not cool the gases, and therefore get no liquefaction. He did, however, get gases whose density was greater than that of their liquids, as it has since been determined, thus proving the fact, had he hub known it, of the existence of a critical temperature of substances. In his experiments of 1845, Faraday used the carbon dioxide-ether mixture of Natterer, and thus was enabled to obtain a temperature of -106.2 deg. Fahr. ( -76.6 deg. Cent.), at atmospheric pressure, or, at a vacuum of 1.26 of an atmosphere, !l. temperature of -166 deg. Fahr. ( -110 deg. Cent.); the bath would only last 15 minutes, so that his observations on the liquefied g&E~es were practically instantaneous. By this means be solidified sulphur dioxide, sulphuret of hydrogen, nitrous oxide, hydriodic and hydrobromic acids and ammonia. He tried, but failed, to liquefy hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon monoxide and coal gas, using pressures of from 27 to 50 atmospheres, not realising the existence of a critical temperature, and these gases were long known as incondensible.
This point was investigated a little later, in 1849, by Dr. Andrews, who proved, as bad Natterer before him, that some gases could nob be liquefied by any amount of pressure; but went further and showed that, by cooling, some of them would be condensed, thus determining the existence of a temperature below which, and only below which, a gas may be condensed to a liquid.
For a time aftP,r this the work of experimentation went on intermittently in several laboratories, but without notable result, although some improvements in the details of apparatus were made. An important suggestion was made in 1857, by Sir William Siemens, thab refrigeration might be produced by expanding a compressed gas, either in a cylinder doing work, or freely, to a lower pressure, and using this cold gas to cool, before expansion, the gas coming to the apparatus. It is on this basis that the latest investigators have proceeded, and it is this means which has accomplished, in the closing years of the century, the long-sought result of the liquefaction of all gases. During this time of apparent inertness, Messrs. Pictet and Cailletet, the one in Switzerland, the other in France, working in ignorance of each other's efforts, were reaching toward the same goal, but along different lines. Cailletet, using the apparatus of Colladon, modified as previously mentioned, was working as a man of pure science, interested in discovering facts; Picteb wanted to liquefy gases in quantity, so that they might be used for refrigeration or otherwise. The results were announced to the world at about the same time in December, 1877, but Cailletet is proven to have reached his result in the liquefaction of oxygen on December 2, while Pictet accomplished the same thing on December 22. Cailletet bad the liquid in a glass tube, could study its properties visually, and could liquefy the same gas again and again; but he could not get at it, and bad only a minute quantity. Pictet had his liquid in a steel tube, so that it could not be seen, and he could not repeat the experiment on the same charge of gas to verify a result, but he had about 1~ cubic centimetres of the liquid, a considerable amount as such things had gone up to that time. In his original ap_paratus, Pictet made no provision for drawing off the hquid, but in a later form this was accomplished by means of a pipe, and a cock outside the cooling chamber, though no means of preserving the oxygen in its liquid form had then been devised. The greater importance of Pictet's work lies in the apparatus which he devised. This was what is termed the cascade system (see Fig. 4) ; a circulating pump was used to draw tbe vapour from a jacket filled with liquid sulphur dioxide ; this vapour wn.s forced through a water-cooled condenser, and then compressed to liquid form, so that the action was much the same as in a modern refrigerating machine. The sulphur dioxide jacket was used to cool the vapour of carbon dioxide, this, in turn, being used to cool a tube into which oxygen gas was forced under pressure, by heating a large quantity of potassium chlorate m an iron bomb. A cock on the bomb allowed of the escape of part of the gas, thus cooling the remainder by expansion ; in this way, with the oxygen tube at -220 deg. Fabr. ( - 140 deg. Cent.), and at a pressure of 320 atmospheres, Picteb was able to get a tube one-third full of oxygen. The temperatures were -85 deg. Fabr. (- 65 deg. Cent.), at 5 atmospheres in the carbon dioxide chamber, and -13 deg. Fahr. ( -25 deg. Cent.), at 2.75 atmospheres in the sulphur dioxide chamber.
Cailletet experimented with various gases, among others laughing gas, acetylene, and carbon monoxide. H e also, as did Pictet, got a mist of hydrogen, but was not able to get it in liquid form; he is cr~dited wit~ being: the first to use liqUid ethylene as a coohng agent m the llque-faction of gases. . .
During the next decade, experiments were earned on
•
•
JUNE I, 1900.] • by two Polish chemis~, W roblewski and Olszewski, who worked in collaboration. They used Oailletet's form of apparatus, and, in the latter part of the work, used Pictet's cascade system for cooling the compression tube. In 1884 they confirmed the results obtained by Ca.illetet on hydrogen.
In this same year Dewar, at the Royal Institution, showed that liquid air could be produced by the use of solid carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide as cooling agents, giving -184 deg. Fahr. ( - 120 deg. Cent.), a compression to 200 atmospheres and subsequent expansion ; the amount
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liquefied was about 5 {>er cent. of the air compressed. He also devised for holdmg liquid gases the vacuum flasks which bear his name. By this means the rate of evaporation of a liquid gas is reduced to one-fifth of that in the open air; 1f the inner wall be coated with mercury to form a. heat mirror, the evaporation will be only onethirty-third of the free rate. These flasks were the means by which liquid gases were handled and kept in statio form, until very recently .
After Wroblewski's death, which occurred in 1888, Olazewski continued the experiments. He replaced the glass tube of Ca.illetet by one of steel, having a stop-cook
E N G I N E E R I N G. 733
by which the liquid could be drawn off, and was thua press the air again will d~pend upon t~e ratio of the enabled to get amounts of the gases which could be pressures, i .e., upon ~he ratioToh~ compr~totn, a.thd :hbu~~ handled in the Dewar flasks. be as small a:s posstble. 1s nece.ssi a ea . a 0
D ewa.r at first used the Oa.illetet apparatus as altered pressures be ht~h for tl~e most economiCal worklbg, henod by Wroblewski, but changed to that of Piotet, using, Linde works hlS maohme b.etween 200 a..tmo3p eres an however pumps to compress the gases previously made, 1G atmospheres for a!l the au by expa.ndmg through h the and for~e them into the liquefying Qha.mber; he used va.l ve a,· one-fifth 1s then expande.d to. 1 atmosp ere ethylene in place of carbon dioxide, placed the draw-off through the valve b so .as to cool .It still further, and cook inside the cooling chamber and, l.ater, added the .re- I n.bout one-f_ou!th of th1s a;mount ts oon?ensed. The generative principle suggested by Su~mens f<;>r ooohng expn.nded n.~r IS. sent ~ack 10 the O\lter p1pes as sho~, the chamber in the case of hydrogen hquefact10n. Pro· 1 the part wb10h lS at 16 atmospheres to the ooropress10n
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END VIEW SHOWING 1ST AND 2ND INTER·COOLER
• A
EXPANSION VALVES l)::=l • •
fessor D ewar is the most extensive of the modern experimenters in the field of the liquefaction of ~ases; he, first, liquefied oxygen m large quantities and held it in liquid form in 1891, and a. little later liquid nitrogen was produced. In 1895 he demonstrated
that air in the liquid form cottld be frozen to a jellylike solid by the expansion method, the jelly proving to be a mass of nit rogen with the liquid oxygen of the air contained in the interstices; this solid air melts instantly on contact with the atmosphere. In 1896, before the Chemical Society, the production of a. jet of liquid hydrogen by means of the expansion of the cooled and compredsed gas and the regenerative method of cooling the incoming gas was announced ; by the use of this hydrogen jet, oxygen and air were frozen to a solid white mass.
Continuing this line of research, in May, 1898, D ewar was able to collect hydrogen in static condition, and to hold it in this form by the use of the Dewa.r bulbs at a temperature of -396.4 deg. Fahr. ( - 238 deg. Cent.), only 65 deg. Fahr. above the absolute zero.
AltbouJJh liquid air has received considerable attention from the mvestigators already mentioned, they have been particularly interested in the scientific investigation of the properties of the elementary gases. The workers in this particular field have been Tripler, Linde, and Hamp· son, all of whom have been aiming at the simplification and cheapening of the production, so that the hquid may be made of use. All three have been working along the lines of a direct regenerative action, as suggested by Siemens. Dewar has also done work alon~ this line, combined with cooling by a separate fluid, but m a. smaller way, as would be expected in a. chemical laboratory. The principle is. this.: a perfect gas expanding to do work loses heat; 1f th1S cooled gas be exhausted so as to jacket the pipe t hroue-h which the incoming gas enters, it will cool that incommg gas; the process is oumulatiYewithout limit, if the machinery is frictionless and insulated against heat from the surrounding objects. Solvay built a machine on this principle, hub was unable to get lower than -139 deg. Fahr. ( -95 deg. Cent.), on account of the heat due to the friction of the pistons and to conduction.
In a perfect gas no lowering of the temperature would result from lowering of the pressure by free expansion, but none of the eo-called ~ases are perfect, and all are cooled somewhat by expansiOn through an orifice. Joule and Kelvin found that with air the fall of temperature is about 0.45 deg. Fabr. (i deg. Cent.), for each atmosphere difference of pressure at the orifice, at ordinary temperatures, and that the effect increases as the temperature falls, because the gases are coming more nearly to the vaporous state. If, then, air be compressed to a hi~h pressure and allowed to expand through a small ortfice, it will become considerably cooled and may be used to cool the incoming air whtob, in turn, will lose heat by expansion; the process may be carried on until some of the air, on or before lea.vin~ the orifice, is li~uefied.
Tripler's English patents of 1891 seem to be the first s~eoification of any definite machinery for thus liquefying an. Linde and H ampson did nob come forward with a. working apparatus until1895, and, at that time, Tripler 's apparatus was about perfected. The latest (1898) type of Linde's machinery is shown in Fig. 5. The fall of temperature, as previously stated, is proportional to the difference of pressures at the orifice, and this difference should, therefore, be large; the work required to com.
VALVE FOR DRAWING ll::::=l_......-J OFF THE UQUIO AIR " u
pump, and the rest to the atmosphere. f is a. separator and g a freezing bath, both being used to remove the moisture from t he air; a, is the compression pump, and e a pump for supplying at 16 atmospheres as much air as escapes at b. In the earlier form of the machine, none of the air was expanded below 50 atmospheres, and the air was cooled by a surface condenser supplied with water. With this apparatus, about .9 of n. quart of liquid can be obtained per hour with the use of 3 horse-power, this being about 5 per cent. of the air handled ; the first liqui~ will appear about two hours after starting up the maohme.
Hampson's apparatus is somewhat simpler and more compact. Three helices are arranged in the form of concentric cylinders, and connected so that air is forced throug~ them successively beginning at the outside; expansion occurs at the lower end of the inside spua.l, and the released air flows back along the outside of the three coils in a r everse direction and escapes to the at~osphere near the inlet. With this device Rampson clatms to have condensed about 1.2 quarts of air per hour at an expenditure of 3.5 horse-power, using a. pressure of 120 atmospheres expanded to 1, and getting 6.6 per cent. of the air handled as liquid; the liquefaction commences in 15 ~nutes from the t1me of startmg.
L ennox, a.? ~slStant of Dewar, reports the making of 1 quart of hqU1d per hour by the cascade system with an expenditure of 3 horse-power, and at a pressure of ~00 atmo~phe~es expanded. to 1. De war's latest apparatus 1s s~own m F1g. 6. I~ t~1s both regenerative act10n and ooohng by carbon d10x1de a re employed ; if air be drawn from steel cylinders at 200 atmospheres pressure and expanded to 1, the amount of air liquefied will be about 5 per cent. of that used, and the liguid will begin to flow in 6 minutes from the time of startmg.
These achievemen ts, though notable, seem petty when compar~d ~o the work ~f :rv.t;r .. Tripl.er in P.roducing gallons of tl:ie hqu~d, and .ha.ndhng 1t m ordma.ry tm cans with only a felt or a1r packmg from hea t absorpt10n. Mr. Tripler 's appa.~atus. (Fi.g. 7) consists of a three-stage compressor dra.wmg atr d.ueotly f.rom .th~ atmosphere and driven by a steam en~·me. The a1r IS taken first into the lowpressur~ cylin~er., where it is compressed to 65 lb. per square 1noh ; 1t 1s then sent through an intercooler to reduce. the tem.perature. to that of the atmosphere, and t&ken m to the mtermedta te-pressure cylinder · from that ~t a. pressure of 400 lb., ib is taken through a second mteroooler to the high-pressure cylinder where it is forced up to 2000 lb. to 2500 lb., and then~e sent to the after-cooler to be reduced again to the temperature of the atmosphere. The air is passsed through a separator to tak~ out ~11 the moisture ~nd the? passe~ to storage tubes m which oomP.ressed a:u, not m. the hquid form, may .be kep~. The hquefi~r 18 Mr. Tnpler's special inventlO~ ; th1s takes th~ air from the separator and, by ~xpans10n through a. coli of p1pe and a small orifice, cools 1t. to a.lo~ temper~tu.re i it passes up around the coil of Pll~e, cool~ng the atr mstde, and thus giving the regener~tlve aotton. The expansion valve is placed a.t a little d~stance a.b~ve the bottom of the coil, so that some liquid a1r collects m the ~otto~ of the coil, and thus serves to furthe~ coo~ t~e atr as It comes to the expansion cock. ';L'he a.1r which 1s to be. drawn off collects in the liquefier JU.sb below the expa.ns~on valve, and may be drawn off a.tJ w1ll: The expanded atr escapes to the atmosphere after havm~ been used to cool the coil of the liquefier The ca.pamty o~ th~ prese~t plan.t is 2 to 4 gallons pe; hour, and ~be au will begm to hquefy in 15 minutes after ~tartmg up. N~ data. are available as to the power used m the compreeston.
( 'l'o be continued )
•
734
THE PHYSICAL SOCIETY. AT the meeting of the Physical Society, held May 25
1900, Professor J. D. Everetb, F.R.S., vice-president i~ the ~hair, ~rofessor. ~· P. Thompson showed s~me exper1ments illustratmg the aberration called ''coma." If a.conve.rging lens is .Pl.aced obli~uely in a parallel beam of _hght, ms~ead ?f g1vmg a pomt 1mage, ib produces umlateral. d1stort10n, and the bright central spot is accompamed by a pear-shaped tail, which is known as a "coma." _The direction in w~ic~ this tail points depends up~.:>n the s1de of the lens whiCh 1s pre.~ented to the light. W1th a concavo-convex lens the convex surface gives an inward pointing coma, and the concave surface an out~ard pointing coma. The existence of this phenomenon 1s due to unequal magnification from different ~ones of t~e len~, a fact which was shown by covering the lens w1th a zone plate of three or four rings, and viewing on a screen the distorted images of the several zones. The form of a coma varies greatly with the distance of the screen fro~ the lens. A parallel beam of li~ht which has passed obhquely through a convex lens 1s capable of producing some curious shadows. The shadow of a rod can be obtained as a. circular spot and that of a grating made by stretching threads between two rods, as con~ cent~ic circular rin~s. Pr~fessor Thompson also showed a strmged model, illustratmg the paths of light rays in the formation of a coma.
Mr. R. T. Glazebrook then read some "Notes on the Measurement of Some S tatnda;rd Resistances." Three methods have been employed by the author for building up multiples of a standard resistance, such as a 1-obm coil. The first method consists in making as accurately as possible three 3-ohm coils. These in parallel can be compared directly with the standard by Carey Foster's method. Their resistance in series is very approximately nine times that in parallel, and hence an accurate determination of a resistance about 9 ohms can be obtained. If, then, this resistance is put in series with the standard an accurately known 10-obm resistance is obtained. By a similar process a 100 or 1000-ohm coil can be built up. The second method consists in calibrating a resistance box. The 1-ohm coils of the box are compared directly with the standard, and the other resistances determined accurately by a building- up process, using a subsidiary resistance-box. In comparing the high resistances the difference between the two boxes may be so great as to send the balance off the bridge wire. In these cases the third method is employed. The equal arms of the bridge are accurately known, and one of them is shunted with a resistance, which need not be accurately known, until the reading is brought back into the wire. The coils chiefly used tlirougbout the experiments are made of platinum silver.
Mr. Campbell asked if the same degree of accuracy could be obtained with manganin coils. If so, then the small temperature change of manganin would be an advantage.
Mr. Trotter asked if proper allowance could be made for the large number of mercury cups used in method I.
Mr. Rennie advocated the use of the build-up box in preference to the first method. With two mercury cups there is less chance of errors escaping notice than with eight. Every 10 or 100-ohm coil tested at the Board of Trade is subjected to a comparison with a box calibrated by a build-up process.
Dr. Harker asked if the resistance of the eight mercury cups in series had ever been measured, and if so, what was the magnitude of the result and what the uncertainty.
Mr. Glazebrook said he bad investigated the resistance of the mercury contacts, and it was negligible. In answer to Mr. Campbell, the author said he bad no experience of manganin coils himself, but he had seen some figures for German coils which agreed very closely.
Mr. J. J. Guest then read a paper" On tke St·rength of Ductile M aterials under Oombined Sflresses." The author throughout his experiments has used the "yield point " of a material as the true criterion of its strength and has rejected the elastic limit is being modified by local yielding. At present two theories are used in the calculation of strengths of materials . . ~he first is that the materi~l yields when one of the prmctpa.l stresses reaches a certa.m amount. This theory, which was adopted by Rankine and is used by engineers in England and America, is not in accord with recent experiments. The second theory is that the material yields when the greatest s train reaches a certain amount. This was advocated by St. Venantand is used by engineers on the Cc;mtinent. Besi~es th~e there is a third theory of elastic strength, m wh10b the condition of yielding is the existence of a shearing stress of a specific. amount. . In th~ ~e. of a sol~d bar subjected to torsion, there 1s a var1a.t10n m the str!l'm from the axis outwards, and consequently the matenals have been used in the form of thin tubes. This allows the application of an internal fluid pressure. The specimens were of steel, copper, and brass, t he state of set caused by drawing ha.vmg been removed by annealing. The tubes were subjected to (1) t~rque ; (2) torque and tension; (3) tension only; (4) tension and u~temal pressure; (5) torsion and internal pr_essure; an~ (6) mternal p~essure only. The axial elonga.t10n, the twist, and occas10nally the circumferential strain were measured. Towards the end of the experiments observations were made on bending. The results disprove the maximum .stress theory, and are at variance wtth the maximum stram theory. The maximum shearing stress develope~ and the corresponding she11-ring strain were comparatiyely consta!lt throughout the experimen~, and no other stmpl~ rela.t10n between the stresses or strams was even approximately oonstan~. The results of the experiments have been plotted synoptically on a cur ve, and the several lines ~ave been dr~wn upon which these points should be accordiDg to the van ous
•
E N G I N E E R I N G. theories. It is readily seen that the points cluster round ~he line which represents the existence of a specific shearmg stress. The author, therefore, favours the existence of this stress for any material.
The chairman read a communication upon the subject from Dr. Chree. Mr. Guest in his paper has regarded the shearing stress theory as a little known one. As the shearing stress is half the difference between the greatest and least principal stresses, this theory is the same as Professor G. H. Darwin's maximum stress difference theory. All the theories suppose that the stress strain law is linear and that strains are so small that their squares and products can be neglected. Mr. Guest concludes that in ordinary materials the law is linear to the elastic limit, which answers to a stress lower than that which answers to the yield point, and thab yield point phenomena arise between these. Nevertheless he focuEtses attention on the yield point as the criterion of strength and assumes that Hooke's law holds up to it. '
Professor Perry congratulated the author upon his paper, and said there was no time left to discuss it at length. The results obtained gave information upon a subject of which very little is known experimentally.
The Society then adjourned until June 8.
ACCIDENT AT CRYNANT STATION. THE explosion of a. locomotive boiler, on December 31
last, at the Crynant Statio.n on the Neath and Brecon Railway, is an accident of a type very unusual on British lines. and the report of the inquiry by Colonel Yorke and Mr. T. Carlton, lately issued by the Board of Trade, is consequently of considerable interest. The engine in question was a six-coupled saddle tank locomotive constructed in 1874 by the Avonside Engine Oompany, Limited, Bristol, and has naturally undergone very extensive repairs during its long life. The accident arose from the
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failure of the stays at the back of the firebox, as shown in the engraving annexed. The whole of the internal firebox had been renewed in 1893, and in 1896 a patch 3 fb. 2 in. by 2 ft. 10~ in. waa placed at the back of the box as indicated in the annexed engravings, and it was the stays betweon this patch and the outer firebox which gave way, causing the accident. The dimensions of the firebox internally were as follow: Height, 5 ft. 6 in. ; width, 3ft. 5~ in. ; length, 4 ft. ~ in. The plates of the internal box measured about irJ in. thick, the tubeplate, as usual, being more than this. The stays originally used were ~ in. in diameter, and were spaced at 4-in. centres. In making the repairs, however, the exceedingly doubtful procedure was adopted of using stouter stays, the diameter being increased to 1 in. The designed pressure was 120 lb. per square inch, and there being two Ramsbottom safety valves of 3 in. in diameter, it iB exceedingly unlikely that this pressure was exceeded at the ttme of the accident. Most fortunately, this occurred when the engine was at rest, so that the driver and his mate were able to jump off, and thus saved their lives, thou~h both were badly scalded. The examination of the bmler made by Mr. Oarlton showed that the back plate of the boiler was J>ractically worn out, the plate at the centre being but i m. thick, whilst the heads of many of the stays here were so worn that they held the plate by only a couple of threads. The engine bad been
[] UNE I, 1900.
examined on the previous day by the foreman mechanic of the line, who reported that some stays needed renewal; as, however, traffic requirements were heavy it was decided to work the engine a few days longer before laying it off for repairs. Mr. Carlton suggests that a fo~ema!l mec~anic is hardly competent for the task of boiler mspect10n, as usually such men are quite unable to calculate the strength of a boiler ; the fact that similar though less serious explosions occurred on the same company's lines in 1897 seems to give force to this opinion.. The company, ~oreo~er, do nob employ the hydrauhc test, wh10h, whilst hkely to be misleading unless backed by efficient inspection, would probably in the present instance have prevented the accident. The engines on the railway are, it would seem, very hard worked, so that the fireboxes wear out very rapidly.
RHODES' STEAMSHIP GurnE.- Messra. George Philip anrl Son, 32, Fleet-street, E.C., forward us a copy of this year's Rhodes' Steamship Guide, which is edited by Thomas Rhodes, and issued at 2s. 6d.-a very moderate price for a work containing so much valuable information to all connected with shipping as well as to stea.mship passengers. There are many hints as to outfit, &c., for the voyage, and a comprehensive record of the va.rious routes and lines to all parts of the world, an alphabetically arranged record of the particulars of all paesenger steamers, a gazeteer of ports, popular descriptions of the principles of naval construction and marine engineering, and, finally, a series of well printed maps showing the routes, &c., so that it will at once be recognised that the guide serves the puposes of a Bra.dshaw and more.
---BLAST-FURNACE~ IN THE UNITED STATEB.-The number
of blast-furnaces in activity in the United States ab the commencement of May was 292, as compared with 277
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at the commencement of November, 1899 ; 217 at the commencement of May, 1899 ; 196 at the commencement of November, 1898; 194 at the commencement of May, 1898 ; and 183 at the commencement of November, 1897. The weekly productive capacity of the furnaces in blast were as follow ab the dates named : May, 1900, 293,860 tons; November, 1899, 288,522 tons ; May, 1899, 250,095 tons ; November, 1898, 228,935 tons ; May, 1898, 234,163 tons; and November, 1897, 213,159 tons. The weekly productive capacity of the furnaces in blast in the U nited States has been a.s follows month by month this year: J anuary, 294,186 tons; F ebruary, 298,014 tons ; March, 292,643 tons; April, 289,482 tons; and May, 293,860 tons. It will be seen that production has, upon the whole, been maintained with remarkable steadiness this year. On the other baud, stocks of pig have appreciably increased in the U nited States in the same period, and they would appear to be still growing. At the commencement of Decem her, 1899, furnace stocke, sold and unsold, were returned at 113,693 tons ; ab the commencement of J anuary this year, ab 127,346 tons ; at the commencement of Jfebruary, at 148,336 tons ; ab the commencement of March, ab 185,152 tons ; at the commencement of April, at 197,532 tons ; and at the commencement of May, at 241,077 tons. U nless tb~ te?dency of stocks to increase can be checked, a reduct10n m production wonlci anoear to be inevitable,
-
J UNE I , I 900.]
"ENGINEERING" ILLUSTRATED PATENT RECORD.
COMPILED BY w. LLOYD WISE. IBIJKt""1'1ID'"' ABSTRACTS OF RBORNT PUBLIBB ED 8PBOIFIOATIONS
UNDER THB ACTS 1888-1888. The number of vi.ews given in th.e Specification Drawings i8 stated
in each ca8t ; where none atre menti<med, the Specification i8 not illustrated.
Where inventions atre communicated from abroad, the Names, ~c., of the Communicators are given in italt:C.S.
Copies of Specifications may be obtained at the Patent Otfl,ce Sale Branch, !6, Southampton Buildings, Chancery-lane, W.C., at the unif<mn price of 8d.
The date of the advertisemmt of the acceptance OJ a complete Specification i8, in each ca8e, given aJter the abstract, unless the Patent has been sealed, when the date of seaUng i8 given.
Any person may at any time within two months from the date of the adve-rtisement of the acceptance of a C07n1Jlete Specifi,ca.tion, give notice at the Patent Office oj opposition to the grant of a PatMt on anv of the ground8 mentioned in the A ct.
AGRICUL'l'URAL APPLIANCES.
3426. R. Bawden, Devon. One - Way Plough. [2 Figs. ) February 21, 1900.-A looking device for turn-wrests or one-way l'lougbs is the subject of this invention. The loolting deYice nons1sts of a toothed dog fixed on the shaft carrying the stems of the land and furrow wheels, the teeth on the dog •
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engaging with a looking bolt operated by the person driving the plough, by means of a lever extending from the plou~h handle so as to cause the looking bolt to occupy different posttions and engage or disengage the teeth on the dog, thereby enabling the land and furrow wheels to be locked and unlocked when reversing t he plough. (Accepted .April18, 1900.)
EI·ECTRICAI. APPARATUS.
4727. A. M. Taylor, Old Charlton, Kent. Conduits and Turn-Outs. [4 .Figs.] March 3, 1899.-According to this invention, which has reference to the conduit system of electrical street railway working, the plou~h channel is formed of two rolled iron rails. Contact studs and dummy contact studs
are employed and a channel intermediary to the conductor <JhMnel, or th~ conductor channel, is supplied wit~ insulating fluid under pressure. Contact boxes, sumps, a flexthle plou~h, and a dirt brush are some of the devices employed. The in\"eD· tion is stated to be applicable where the three-wire system is to be applied in a s ingle conduit. (A ccepted .Jlarch3, 1900.)
7105. A. OrltDg and G. G. Brnnnerhjelm, Stock· bolm Sweden. ControlllnJ Mechanism b~ Elec· trtcai Waves. [6 Figs. ] Ap~U 4, ~899. (q onventton ~ate February 27, 1899.}-Tbis present ~nven~1on pr?vtd~ a modified <Jonstruotion of apparatus des.cnbed m ~pe01ficat1on 1865 of 1899 for controlling the reversm~ meobamsms of rud~ers, &c., by means of elec-trical waves em1t~d from ~ t ranSIDltte! a~d made to influence a receiver which 1s located m an eleotr1o mr<Juit and the electrical resistance of which is diminished by the
influence of the waves emitted so as to cause. an elect romagnet coupled in the circuit to be sufficien~ly ~agnet1se~ to attract an annature and close a secondary cu cmt belongmg to at;tother electromagnet, the armature of which at each fresh attract~on r~veraes a switch connected wlth two electromagnets acting m opposite directions on the reversing apparatus. In the_apparatus previously desoriberl the receiver, after t~e waves emitted ~ave ceased to not upon it, continues for some t1me to oppose so ~lig~t a resistance to the electrical current that the secondary 01rcmt
E N G I N E E R I N G. ~emains closed ~n~ the reyersing apparatus consequently remains m the same pos1t10n. Th1s objectiOn is stated to be removed by the present invention in that when the armature of the electromagnet belongin~ to the secondary oirouit is attracted, it releases a mechanism wh1oh communicates sufficient shook to the objects contained in the receiver to destroy cohesion and break the secon· dary circuit, the mechanism being subsequently stopped by the re· turn of the armatu~e u~der the i~fiuenoe of spring force or gravi.ty. A construction of Clrcuit·closers 1s adopted whereby on the olosmg of one of t he circuits controlled by it the said circuit will be kept closed unt il the elect romagnet located in the secondary circuit again attracts its armature, a breaking of the circuit then takes place and the reversing apparatus is automatically returned to its middle position. Modifications are provided. (Accepted April 25, 1900. )
23,663. J. Burke, Berlin. Alternating Current Motors. [5 Figs. ] November 27, 1899.-Tbe object of this invention is the const ruction of armatures for alternating-current motors in such manner that all the parts can be mada by machinery, thus cheapening their manufacture. The armature core is made up in the usual way of laminre of iron or steel provided with notches intended to receive the windjng of the armature, and the winding consists of closed circuit elements placed into the slots of the armature core, each embracing two or more armature teeth, so that when the armature is placed in a rotating magnetic field independent currents will ciroulnte in
each individual conducting element, thus creating a turning moment between the armature and the rotating magnetic field. The figure here reproduced shows in side view part of an arma· ture core with closed circuit elements within the armature notches, each element embracing two armature teeth. The closed ci~oui t elements. may be insulated fro~. eaob other by placing tbtn layers of m1ca between them, but 1t IS stated that their inner resistance is so exceedingly low that even without insulating ma· terial between them there is no perceptible leakage across r::urface contacts existing between the single elements. (.A ccepted ..4.pri l 18, 1900. )
786S. F. M. F. Cazln, Hoboken, N.Y., U.S.A. Electric Incandescence Lamps. (7 Figs.] April 14, 1899.-The arrangemenlis described in tbis specification are stated to be in the main intended for the purpose of conserving the radiant beat of the incandescent fi lament and converting some portion of the saici heat into light. In one arrangement two globes are provided, the inner being at one par t unprotected , so that it may be cooler in that plaee than at others, so as to favour deposit of any volatile substance in the cooled portion rather
pu.~ ,
than generally over the whole interior surface of the globe. It is proposed that beat-insulating material, such as rare earths, shall be applied to filaments for which they have no chemical affinity in such manner as t.o be discontinuous in reference to the length of the ftlament so that they shall not serve to conduct current. Means are suggested for " chemically insulating" such oxides from carbon or other filaments for which they have affinity. There are 20 claims, occupying three pages. (Accepted .Ap?·il 25, 1900.)
9272. R. G. wnuams, Manchester. Wireless Telegraphy. [1 Fig. ) May 2, 1899.-Tbe inventor proposes to telegraph "graphic or other m~tter, su9h as pho~ograpbs, drawings, or the like automatically, w1thcut wues." It 1s stated that" The advantages of wireless transmissions of electrical actions or mani·
.---_,Fig ._z_. _ _ ·i:::::::::·---... ... ___ ... -- --·---· ----~- -----·---........... ------... ..... ... -- ... :· -----t-~-
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feste.tions are obvious. No \\ire to buy, lay, a..nd maintain, and consequently no inconvenience through damage or severaace of line wires.'' Patents 14,765, of 1894, and 6509, of 1895, are referred to. Apparatus such as is described therein is combined with \vireless transmission apparatus of known kind. (.Accepted Ap1-il 25, 1900.)
2797. A. s. Popov, Cronstadt, Russia. Coherers. [3 F igs.] February 12, 1900.-0oherers which are stated not to need decohering-that is to say, whose resistance becomes normal
•
735 as soon as electric waves are not acti ng upon them-are made by enclosing grains of crushed ''pear~ " of "merchant" steel within a glass tube provided with platinum contacts. A telephonic receiver is employed. It is stated that devices intended to
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(~$'/) I I " gun.Td against the effect the atmospheric electricity or telluric currents" may be used, and that when employing the telephonic apparatus, the operator "bears special sounds, which are dry." (Accepted April25, 1900.)
11,189. W. Lloyd Wise, London. (.Actien Gesell8chaft Blekt~·icitatswerke vo1·1nal8 0. L . Hummer arut Co., Dresden.) Dynamo-Electric Machine. [5 Figs.) May 29, 1899.-This invention has for object, inter aUa, to prevent the concentration of lines of force ati the leading born of the pole with cocsequent sparking at the commutator. The pole has m it on one side only one or more cutis or slits, which do not run in the direction of the axis of the pole but run at right angles thereto, and are only made in that side of the pole or core, at which the armature coils emerge from the ma~netio field. These cuts or slitsi which can be made to serve as a1r spaces or be merely part ing s its, increase the magnetic resistance of the pole or pole core only on that side at wbioh they are placed and then compel the lines of force at the opposite entrance or leading side to concentrate. A
•
strengthened field is thus produced and sparking is consequently prevented. The extreme end of the pole may consist of two parts, one being in one piece with the oore or pole body, and the other being attAched thereto by a screw. Tbe surfaces of separation between the detachable piece and the pole body or core increases the magnetic resistance at this side of the path of the lines of force and prevent their concentration. In a further modification both parts of the extreme end of the pole are deta<Jba.ble and are so constructed as to be interchangeable. The device is intended princil'ally to prevent sparking in continuous-current machines ; but it1s stated that it can, however, so far be applied to alternat· ing-ourrent machines as to lessen self-induction and improve the current ourve under varying loads. (Accepted April18, 1900.)
GUNS AND EXPLOSIVES. 6881. T. B. Burns, Bristol. Targets. [5 Fig8.]
March 30, 1899.-This invention has reference to penetratable targets, and is for the purpose of decreasing the depth of t rench or width of mantlet necessary to cover the target while it is
Fig.1. Fig.2.
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being repaired. The top or side of the target is hinged by rubber straps, and may be brou~ht inwards towards the marker by means of a handle when 1t is necessary to repair any portion of its surface. (Accepted Apn'.l 18, 1900.)
MINING, METALLURGY, AND METAL WORKING.
16,040. G. Smith and D. Corrte, Polmont, N.B. JCiectrtc Fuses. [4 .Figs. ) August 5, 1899.-The fuse wires or leads consist of two insula~d copper wires, which are braided or lapped together, and at one end a lead tube is threaded which is squeezed to the wires, and the flashing mixture is then put on in the usual way. The tuee bead th\ls pr epared is forced into a
Fig.2
. 1.
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small tapered copper tube, which is turned over on to the lead, wbioh is thus firmly fixed into the tube, the taper and "turn· over" of which prevents any movement, either backward or forward. This tube is pressed by a maohine into the detonator, where again the taper on t he small tube engages with the sides of the detonator, and makes the joint so tight that it is impossible
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to remove the inner tube from the outer, or to pull the wires b!lokwards or forwards. (.A ccepted .A.p1il 25, 1900 )
LIFTING AND HAULING APPLIANCES. 6803. Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whttworth, and eo.,
Llmtted,a~d L. Newttt, Newcastle·on-Tyne. Wt.nch Ge~r. [5 Figs.] March 29, 1899.-A~cording to this invention a hotst, such, for example, as an ammunition hoist of the kind described in th~ specification ~o. 33U, of 1898, is worked by two bevel w~eels wtthout ~eeth, etther of which can be brou~ht by a. l.ever mto contact With another bevel wheel which is preferably b.uilt up of ~brous material and driven by the shaft of a. contmuous-ru~nmgmotor. An automatic tripper gear, consisting of a. nut_working on a. screw th~ead.on the shaft, on which the pair of be\ el w~eels are free to slide 1s fitted. This nut is prevented from rota.tmg, and therefore moves along the shaft as the latter
revol ves until it comes against a. spring buffer on one or other of the bevel wheels, and carrying it with it along the shaft takes it out of c~mtact with the fibre wbeel, so . stoppin~ the machine and preventmg overrunning in either direction. An altern~tive arr~ngement is describe? and shown, in which belts are employed, whi~h run on a drum driven by the motor. The belts transmit their motion to other pulleys, and one belt being crossed enables a reversin~ action to be obtaine~. Th~s the motor may be left to run. contmuously, t~e belts act1~g on Idle pulleys, but should it be deSired to commumcate a motion to the pulley, either one or other of the belts is shunted on to the pulley which is attached to the shaft. The shaft is geared to the winch or worm and wormwheel. (.Accepted .A.pril18, 1900.)
SHIPS AND NAUTICAL APPLIANCES.
7192. W. D. Prlestman and B. Rlchardson, Bull. Dred~ers. [3 .Fif!s.] April ?• 1899 .. -A gr~b dre~ge~ constructed acc?rdmg ~ this mvent10n IS provtded With a wmdmg barrel, a sprmg,. whtch may conveniently be a.rran~ed within the barrel or otherWise, and a. strap or other friction orake. The relation of the barrel, the spring, and the winding chain are such that when
the grab is in its highest position the opening chain is wound upon the barrel, but the spring is unwound. As the grab is lowered the opening chain rotates the barrel, and, in so doing, winds or compresses the spring. When the grab is lifted the energy stored in the spring operates to rotate the barrel in the opposite direction, and thus to re-gather the opening chain. (Accepted .April 25, 1900.)
897. B. W. B. Branch, Tampa, Fla., U.S.A. Ship's BnJJ and Keel Cleaning. [2 Figs.] August 26, 1899.-A float or scow carries apparatus by means of which the hulls aud keels of vessels may be cleaned of barnacles and other matters while afioat, a. stern propelling wheel being employed to keep the float in proper position against the vessel being cleaned, and side propellers operated to move the float length wise of the vessel. A cleaning brush is supported on an iron frame, springs being
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arranged to hold the brush with its whole surface against the hull of the vessel as it is moved up and down. Lifting cables are connected to the frame, and extending over winding pulleys are operated from winding drums, and a drawing-down cable is connected to a further windin~ drum. In operation the brush, if in its lowermcst position is drawn upward by the lifting cables, and upon reaching the surface, the drums operating the lifting C<4bles are put out of a{}tion and the drawing-down c:.ble is wound up, so moving the brush downwards. (Accepted April 18, 1900.)
STEAM ENGINES, BOILERS. EV APOB.ATORS, &c. 6720. J. E. Thornycroft, London. Water-Tube
Boilers. [4 Figs.] March 28, 1899.-This invention relates to the kind of steam boiler wherein an upper steam drum is connected to a. lower pipe or vessel by a series of vertical and adjacent pipes or headers arranged in pairs, each pair bein~ conneoted toget her by straight water-tubes located above the firegrate. It will be seen from the figures here reproduced that the watertube -boiler formlng the subject of this invention has the steam drum arranged in front of the boiler above a lower water vessel which communicates with the water space of the steam d.rum by external downta.ke tubes. The vertical headers are arranged side by side between the steam drum and water vessel. Two headers constitute with their connecting tubes one steam generat-
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E N G I N E E R I N G. ing element.. Tile inclined water tubes connecting the two he~ders. formmg part o1 an element are arranged in pai~, each patr bemg c~nnect~d. at their rear ends tll a junction box which IS D?t fixed lD. p0Slt10n, SO that each V -shaped pair Of tubes, ob~me~ by thts arrangement, is free to expand and contt·act. With thts a rrangement water flows from the lower headers in an upward and backward direction through each of the tubes connected thereto, and through the juncbion box it passes upward and forwa!d through each of the corresponding tubes to the corresponding upper header. The upper and lower hea.dera of each .Pair are rtgidly connected together by bolts so that the combmed headers and water tubes form practically one piece
Fig. 7 . . . 2'
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lU.II.) ~----J : ' - t .. ... ... . .) that can be readily fixed in place and removed. Each lower header is connected in a readily detachable manner to the top of the water ves~el, and each upper header is similarly connected to the lower stde of the steam drum. The water vessel supports tl;le connected elemen~s at the front and at the back there is provtded a wall upon wh10h rests the lowest row of tube junction boxes. A further arrangement is illustrated wherein to obtain efficient combustion and good eva.porative results with inferior fuel, each fire~rate is covered witb a firebox of refractory brickwork h~ving 1ts roof II!ade in .two parts arranged at different
1 levels wtth a !?arrow ex1t openmg between their adjacent ends. (.Accepted ~pnl 18, 1900.)
18~8. F. Rensing, Germany. Water-Tube BoUer. [4 Figs.] January 29, 1900.-The boiler comprises an upper steam d.~m and two water boxes arranged vertically, one being fixed r1g1dly to th~ steam ~rum, the oth~r not being so fixed, but can move freely m followmg the expanston and contraction of a horizontal group. of tubes connecting th~ water boxes, and arranged above the mtddle firegrate of the boller. From opposite sides of the steam drum large tubes branch off, and are connected to water chambers arranged to constitute side walls of the boiler further tubes forming supports for the firebars of the side grates of the boiler, connect these water chambers to lower water chambers. The lower water chambers are connected to the upper part
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of the water chamber constituting the side walls of the boiler, by approximately vertical tubes, in such manner that between the connecting tubes and the vertically disposed portion of the side wall water chambers, are formed lateral furnace chambers. A middle firegrate is arranged between the two lower vessels. On disconnecting the joint between the large tubes branching off from the steam drum, and their corresponding water chambers, the horizontal water tubes and chambers to which they are connected can be removed. In a modified construction the middle firegrate is omitted, in which case the lower water chambers are arranged to meet, otherwise the arrangement is similar t:> the one before described. (.Accepted April 18, 1000.)
TEXTILE MACHINERY.
11,309. C. Rakto, C. E. Liebreich, and A. Downbrough. Bradford. Unwinding Bobbins. [ L Fig.] May 3L, 1899.-This invention ha.s for its object the unwinding of yarn from stationary flanged or other bobbins, by combining with each bobbin an appliance so arranged that the tension on the yarn as it is removed from the bobbin by the rotation of the spool cop or the like is reduced, therefore to reduce the liability to breakage of the yarn ; also to unwind the yarn from the fla.nged or other bobbin with more uniformity of tension than is the case when the bobbin is rotated by the drag of the yarn. The bobbins containing the yarn to be wound therefrom into cops, or upon spools or other bobbins, are placed in any suitable position on the frame, and the spindles for receiving the rope, spools, or other bobbins on which the yarn is to be wound, are mounted and operated in the ordinary manner, but instead of drawing the yarn direct from the flanged or other bobbin in a manner that the said bobb!n rotates, there is upon . each flange.d or other st~tionary bobbin a rotatable thread gutde or carrter arranged m such manner that the thread guide or carrier is caused to rotate around the bobbin, and thus unwind the ya.ru therefrom wit hout causing the bobbin to rotate. It is stated tha.t by forming the thread guide of light material and mounting the same so that it will ro-
[] UN E I , I 9CQ.
tate with very little friction, tb~ thread guide is not eo liable to overrun, and thus vary the tensiOn on the yarn, as is the case when
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the yarn is removed direct from the bobbin, and the bobbin caused to rotate in the manner hitherto common. (AcceptedApril25, 1900.)
11,278. J. B. Bolton. Colne, Lancs. Treating Yam. [2 Figs.] May 30, 1899.-This invention is for treating yarn in hank form in continuous succession, the banks being so arranged that they are passed in succegsion into and out of a vat or chamber and can be removed and replaced without stopping the maJhine, which is constructed with two or more endless or con-
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tinuo~s chains travelling parallel over a series of rollers and carrymg rods or bars at right angles to the chain pin. A number of hanks are passed over two of these bars and the bars are attached to the t ravelling chains by specified means. (Accepted Ap1il 25, 1900.)
MISCELLANEOUS. 14,40i. · W. Mather, Manchester. Apparatus for
Evaporating ~ubstances and Rendering them An· ~ydrous. [2 Pigs.] May 17, 1899.-Borax, cyanide of potasSium, or other substances, which by the application of heat become more or less liquid and capable of being taken up in the form ?f a. film on .the surface of a cylinder, and which, as their ~on tamed water IS evaporated, become again solid and anhydrous, ts fed from a hopper in a melted ~tate on to a heated cylinder. and, when necessary, under a spreading roll which reduces it to a film of uniform thickness and removes any bubbles it may con-
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tain. The heat of the cylinder rapidly dispels the contained water and the material is removed by a strippin~ doctor in a practically anhydrou!J condition. The cylinder, in the example shown, is heated by gas, and is caused to revolve by gearing, it is surrounded by a ca.sing provided with a. vapour outlet at top. which may have removable sieves so arranged as to catch any of the material which may become pulverised and carried away by the arising vapour. Both casing and vapour outlet may be steam jacketed or otherwise enclosed so as to prevent condensation of the vapour or ga~ prior to its leaving the machine. (.Accepted Ap1il l 8, 1900.)
UNITED STATES PATENTS AND PATENT PRAOTIOE. Descriptions with illustrations of inventions patented in the
United States of America from 1847 to the present time, and reports of trials of patent law cases in the United States, may be consulted, gratis, at the offices of ENGINEERING, 35 and 86, Bedford· street, Strand .
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