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of work done at that point relatively to that done at other points. Again, if the diameters of the bases of these cones are made inversely proportionate to the time of the shot's action while their cubic contents remain the same, then the relative manner in which the work done on the plate is distributed when struck by shot of equal vis viva, but whose times of action are different, will be correctly

shown.

Let A B C and E F G be sections of two such cones equal in cubic content, and let A B and E F, the diameters of their bases, be to one another as t:t, respectively. Now it would not be difficult to prove that these cones obey a similar law to that which governs cones whose sections are bounded by straight lines viz., that their volumes vary as their height and as the area of the bases. The area of their bases also we know varies as the squares

of their diameters.

Hence

A B' x C D

- EF2X GD

CD: GD:: EF2: A B2 and EF: AB::t1:t

CD :GD::t:0

Therefore the height of these cones varies in versely as the squares of the times of the shot's action. But these heights are measures of the relative amounts of work done at the point of impact. Hence, the work done at the point of impact by shot of equal vis viva, but different times of action, varies inversely as the squares of those times. Now the work done at the point of impact is the measure of the resistance that the projectile can overcome at that point, that is to say, of its penetrating power. We thus perceive that the vis viva of a projectile is not a correct measure by itself of its penetrating power; for that a certain proportion of it will be distributed throughout the body, thus producing no effect at the point of impact. The proportion that does take effect at the point of impact, we have shown to vary inversely as the square of the time. Hence, in comparing the penetrating power of different projectiles, the time of their action must be taken into consideration, and the formula expressing their relative penetrative power will be w v2

recently come under our notice. It suffices the tubes. Mr. Chalmers enters carefully into
for our present purpose to name one, and this, the details of the scheme, his pamphlet being
not for the purpose of holding it up to ridi-illustrated by plans, elevations, and sections of
cule-for we have faith in it but with the the work, as well as by a chart of soundings.
view of showing that it is no new project, al-The operations of practical construction are
though proposed in new quarters. Mr. Hawk- also carefully discussed, and the perfect feasi-
shaw wants to immortalise his name in ability of the project most clearly demon-
tunnel under the English Channel, as Brunel strated. We have already said that there were
did his in one under the Thames. Mr. Hawk- several propositions for the purpose of effecting
shaw's well-known engineering skill and direct and unbroken communication between
scientific knowledge are well equal to the England and the continent. Each of these of
task, and he is already feeling his way by a course possesses some distinctive feature of its
geological investigation of the soil on either own, although they may be divided into three
shore of the Channel. Of course every credit general classes, viz., tunnels beneath the bed of
is due to Mr. Hawkshaw for the conception the Channel, subways through the Channel along
of so vast a project as the placing of the two the bottom, and bridges over the Channel.
countries in direct communication by a sub- Now of these three the second appears most
marine road, but at the same time it is as well reasonable, and this, with a properly arranged
for the public to know that it is no new system of submerged tubes, certainly possesses
scheme. On the contrary, it is one upon many advantages over the other. The Waterloo
which much time, labour, and patent thought and Whitehall Railway affords a practical ex-
have been expended by several individuals, ample of the system, and will doubtless be re-
and among others by Mr. James Chalmers, peated elsewhere. Its success-of which we
with whose name and admirable improve- cannot doubt-will afford a strong reason for
ments in armour-
r-plating our readers are all adopting a similar means of tubular commu-
familiar, although that gentleman's scheme nication through the Channel, and we trust
differs considerably from Mr. Hawkshaw's in that it may aid in promoting Mr. Chalmers's
its details. The "Channel Railway" is the interests in the Channel Railway, in which
title of a small work embodying Mr. Chal- cause he has laboured so long and so well.
mers's views upon and propositions for such
an undertaking, and which appeared some
few years since. A second edition* has just
reached us, and we gladly take the opportu-
nity of placing Mr. Chalmers's plan before our
readers, especially at a time like the present,
when projects for similar purposes are afloat.
Mr. Chalmers provides in his plan for an un-
broken double line connecting the railways of
England and France by easy gradients,
capable of carrying all ordinary trains at the
usual speed on the best roads, and of ensuring
perfect safety and comfort. By its means the
railway companies of England and France
would be able to run through trains,
thus obviating any change of either carriage
or locomotive. It offers no obstruction to the
navigation of the Channel, and Mr. Chalmers
computes the work might be completed in
three years at a cost of twelve millions of

money.

We last year recorded the unprecedented feat of a 1,000 miles voyage, performed in a light canoe-the "Rob Roy," manned by Mr. J. Macgreggor. Later on, we described and engraved the new "Rob Roy," which was to take her gallant captain over new fields-or rather waters-of delight. The cruise has been accomplished, and we once more welcome the hardy adventurer home to tell his tales of perils by land and sea in the interesting narrative now before us. The present cruise was taken through Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Schleswig Holstein, the North Sea and the Baltic. Those who have read the history of the previous voyage need not fear to find anything approaching to repetition in this one. New scenes, new peoples, new manners and customs, and of course, new adventures, meet us at every step, and render the book equally as interesting as its predecessor. Instead of shooting rapids, wading shallows, discussing Since the project was first placed before the Swiss glaciers, German castles, and French public the inventor has made some judicious omelettes, the author now deals with salt alterations, modifying here and there in ac-water, voyages over inland seas, gropes amid cordance with the most recent engineering practice. The principal feature of the work is now two strong iron tubes, cased with timber and lined with brick, each containing a single line of railway and reaching from shore to shore on the bottom of the Channel. We know that the displacement and weight of these tubes can be so nearly balanced that both in submerging and when in position they will not be subjected to any injurious lateral strains. The tubes will be banked over, and when the rise and fall of the tide have silted up the embankment it will have the appear ance of a ridge extending from shore to shore, about 150ft. wide at the base, 40ft. high, and from 40ft. to 120ft. below the level of low tide. The tubes would be circular in form, and made of iron plates, double riveted and Vcaulked as in high-pressure steam boilers, and and since t varies as of the same thickness as the skin-plates of the "Warrior." The tubes would be strengthened by outer iron girder frames, to the outer flanges of which the timber casing would be attached by bolts, the spaces between the timber casing and the tube proper being filled in with concrete. Three ventilators would be built up, one mid-channel, and one about a mile from either shore. The ventilator in mid-channel will be a circular mass of iron and stone 100ft. in diameter, and NOTICES OF BOOKS. 210ft. in height, 168ft. of which will be below the water-line. The other ventilators would Ta time like the present, when there is be ordinary air-shafts near the ends of the nothing stirring but stagnation in en-shore embankments, which would be run out, gineering circles, there are sure to be proposi- breakwater fashion, about a mile from either tions cropping up on every side for effecting shore, to a depth sufficient for navigation over all sorts of objects possible and impossible. It would be idle to stay now to catalogue all the projects, reasonable or fanciful, which have

1

w vt the formula will be

S

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by which it appears that the penetrating power of projectiles varies according to the fourth power of their velocities and not according to the squares of those velocities as heretofore supposed. A. C. R. E.

A

France." By JAMES CHALMERS.
"The Channel Railway connecting England and

Second Edition. L.n

don: E. and F. N. Spon, 16, Bucklersbury. 1867.

foggy islands, and fishes and cooks under lonely rocks. The scenes and circumstances are all changed, new ideas are developed, and new pleasures awakened. The author has had a delightful trip and imparts much of his pleasure to the reader, for one cannot follow him through his adventures without catching the enthusiasm of the narrator and heartily wishing to paddle one's own canoe under such exclusively jolly circumstances. Practically the value of the voyage to most of our readers will probably lie in the fact that after long study, added to the experience of the previous voyage, Mr. Macgreggor has succeeded in designing a canoe which has survived num erous accidents both by flood and field, and is now as sound as before the cruise was commenced-fair wear and tear alone excepted, and notwithstanding some strange incidents by no means conducive to the safety of either vessel or crew. We congratulate Mr. Macgreggor as well on his practical skill as a shipbuilder as on his success as a navigator. May the "Rob Roy' and her adventurous captain make many a cruise together yet!

The setting-out of wheel gearing on paper has puzzled many a young head which has had to solve the problem of the transmission of motive power by this means. The want of a simple treatise upon this important subject has often been felt by those preparing for the workshop. This want is now supplied in a little work by Mr. J. E. Phillips, of Spittlegate, Grantham, on "The Art of Wheel Gearing.', It will be found to be a complete guide for the

"The Rob Roy' on the Baltic. A Canoe Cruise." By J. MACGREGGOR, M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston, Ludgate-hill. 1867.

66

that they cannot be distinguished, except with gave on authority the composition of the Ber
a well-constructed instrument and high powers lin ware so celebrated among chemists,
(a țin. objective will do for most), and this has apothecaries, and cooks for its power of
led to the employment of some of these as test- withstanding the action of heat, acids, and
objects-that is to say, that if one glass will alkalies. The paste, it seems, is composed of
define the markings better than another it is 45 parts kaolin, 37.5 parts alumína, and
considered more fit for scientific purposes; 16.5 parts feldspar. The glaze is composed
and so great is the difference between the size of 42 parts sand, 33 parts kaolin, 13 parts
and distance apart of the markings, that some unburnt gypsum, and 12 parts of broken
may be used as tests for the low powers, while unglazed fired paste as above.
others can only be used for the highest.
Many of these beautiful forms can be found
living in the Thames and other rivers on our
own coasts. In the months of April, May,
September, October, and November, they
will be found in the greatest abundance and
variety; the salt marshes on the banks of
most of the rivers will also well repay the
trouble of searching for them."

construction of wheels and the correct forma-
tion of their teeth. It cannot fail to prove of
considerable use to the millwright and ma-
chinist as well as to the student, as, besides the
clear and intelligible directions given in the
letter press, there is added a lithographed sheet
of drawings, showing the manner of construct-
ing toothed wheels and of finding the pitch
line of a wheel of any number of teeth. The
Engineer's, Architect's, and Contractor's Poc-
ket Book for 1867" (Lockwood and Co.)-for-
merly well known as Weales'-comes out
with additional strength this year. Besides
the usual amount of useful information we
have articles on the successful laying of the
Atlantic cable, and on the detection of faults
in submarine cables, the general information
being brought down to the present date. The
high and useful character of this book recom-
mends it to the pocket of everyone in any Almanacs representing various class in-
way engaged in engineering pursuits. "The terests have been finding their way to us of
Builder's and Contractor's Price-book for late. The "Post Magazine Almanac and
1867" (Lockwood) contains the latest prices Insurance Directory," which is in the twenty-
for work in all branches of the building trade, seventh year of its publication, is one of these,
the items being numbered for easy reference. and which, besides the ordinary run of
In addition to this there is an appendix con- almanac information, has a great deal of
taining tables, notes, and memoranda, ar- matter of interest to those connected with
ranged to afford detailed information commonly insurance companies. The "Inventor's
required in preparing estimates. The recent Almanac " is one of special interest to most of
changes which have taken place in the rate of our readers, being replete with information,
wages and in the value of materials are noted, collected and compressed within the smallest
and the lists of prices have been revised and possible compass. It gives us particulars of
brought into concordance with the circum-the Patent Office, and of the principal institu-
stances of the present time. The revision of tions connected with science and invention.
the work has been most efficiently performed From the statistics of invention there given,
by Mr. G. R. Burnell, who has omitted no- it appears that during the past year no less
thing from the work that could tend to render than 223 patents have been taken out for
it valuable to the builder or the contractor. matters relating to steam engines and boilers,
Dr. Colenso has a name for mathematics as &c.; 202 relating to metals and mining; and
well as for theology, but, however much the 105 relating to pumps and similar contriv-
right reverend prelate may be taken to task ances; 447 relating to fibrous materials,
upon doctrinal points, there can be no doubt besides of course an immense number relating
of his soundness in matters mathematical. to general matters. The "Railway, Banking,
We therefore gladly welcome the addition to Mining, Insurance, and Commercial Alma-
our school literature of Colenso's Arithmetic nac," edited by Mr. W. Page Smith, and pub-
(Longmans), which the Bishop has designed lished at the Railway Record office, touches
and arranged for the use of elementary schools. upon the subjects named in its title. It con-
The late master of Trinity observed that, "as tains reviews of the material interests of the
the basis of all real progress in mathematics, United Kingdom, and includes some capital
boys ought to acquire a good knowledge of notices of coal, iron, and other metals, cotton,
arithmetic, and a habit of performing the com- &c. It is of wide public interest, touching
mon operations of arithmetic, and of applying various classes of the community and should
the rules in a correct and intelligent manner.' be in the hands of all who seek for authentic
Dr. Colenso's Arithmetic offers the greatest information upon a variety of important sub-
facilities for the attainment of this desirable jects affecting the welfare of our country. We
end; it begins from the very simplest steps of reserve for an extended notice the record of
the science, and progresses in the order of the Dublin International Exhibition of 1865.
difficulty, the familiar style of examples being
well calculated to impress the rules upon the
learner's mind.

Mr. Watts's "Dictionary of Chemistry" (Longmans) progresses steadily towards completion.

NOTES ON RECENT SCIENTIFIC DIS-
COVERIES AND THEIR PRACTICAL
APPLICATIONS.

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Volatility of some Substances at High Tem-
peratures Berlin Porcelain - Results of
Freezing Beer Manufacture of Acetic
Acid- Relative Bleaching Power of the
Chlorides of Lime and Magnesia-Methods
of Whitening Linen.

DR.

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We have now before us Part 37, which includes articles from "Silica" to "Sodium." The silicates form the subject of a series of articles possessing much interest, whilst the metal silver is exhaustively treated. The article on the assay of silver is full of information, engravings being given of the various apparatus required or used both in the wet and in the dry processes. Soap forms the subject of another article, which will be found stances at an intense white heat. The author's interesting not only to the chemist but to many experiments were made in the enamelling furothers engaged in our manufactures. "The nace at some porcelain works, and at a temPopular Science Review" (Hardwicke) for this perature obtainable in such a furnace he found month contains a particularly interesting that carbon was sensibly volatilised. Test article on the "Geology of Sinai," by the Rev. specimens of pure silver and gold were comE. W. Holland, besides a description of the pletely volatilised. Platinum appears to have process of photomicrography, and of the ap-resisted the temperature, but platinum black paratus used in photographing microscopic objects. This article is by Mr. E. T. Wilson, who is so clear and explicit that with attention to his directions, anyone might succeed in the art of photomicrography. Hardwicke's Science Gossip" gives naturalists many a good hint, and affords information to the general public upon abstruse points of science, in a light and taking way. In an article upon Diatoms the author says: "A diatom is characterised by having a flinty case or shell, beautifully marked with lines or rows of dots; but these are often so fine and close together

The very cold weather recently experienced may have indced some readers to speculate what would happen to beer if it became frozen. The experiments of C. Lermer show that freezing it so far as to obtain a crust of ice on the surface is a ready way of converting small beer into strong ale. Lermer exposed beer so as to get a thick crust of ice, through which he bored holes and withdrew the fluid remaining beneath. The following shows the composition of the unfrozen beer, and the fluid under the crust of ice :—

Specific gravity

Extractive matter per. cent.
Alcohol per cent.

Before After Freezing. Freezing. 1.0243 1.0489

5.68 15.21

3.5 9.43

These results are just what would be expected. It may be worth mentioning that the extractive matter when burnt gave 3.27 per cent. of ash, which was almost entirely composed of phosphoric acid and potash.

For the manufacture of pure acetic acid and acetates from pyroligneous acid, Fichter, of Berlin, recommends the combination of the crude acid with baryta instead of lime or soda. Readers acquainted with the manufacfure know that the cheapest and simplest way of getting rid of the empyreumatic matters formed in the distillation of wood is the carbonisation of them; and the great object is to effect this without destroying acetic acid. When the crude acid is combined with lime or soda a considerable loss of acetic acid is experienced in the roasting; but this, our author states, is not the case when baryta is employed. He accordingly adds finely ground native carbonate of baryta (Witherite) to the acid until but little effervescence is produced, and the liquid is but slightly acid, and then completely saturates with sulphide of barium or caustic baryta. He now allows the solution to deposit, then runs off the clear liquor and evaporates. The drained crystals are roasted in cast-iron dishes 4in. deep, and 3ft. or 4ft. square. In the roasting the crystals fall to a fine powder, which is removed to another dish, where it is well stirred until cold. To prevent any loss of this fine dust, about 2 per cent. of acetate of soda may be added to the mass before roasting. Lastly, the roasted mass is which pure acetic acid and acetates may be tion yields pure white acetate of baryta, from easily obtained. This process we have no doubt would be a very useful one if native carbonate of baryta could be had sufficiently cheap.

Bolley, one of the best technological chemists R. ELSNER has published an interesting of the day, has made an examination of the of lime and magnesia. The latter he finds to paper on the volatility of some sub-relative bleaching powers of the hypochlorites bleach much quicker than the former. Hypochlorite of magnesia has another special advantage in the case of straw. Chloride (hypochlorite) of lime, the author states, first colours the straw brown, and then bleaches it, but slowly. The magnesia compound, on the contrary, does not give the brown colour, and bleaches straw very quickly. He explains the difference in the action by showing that mag nesia is a much weaker base than lime, and consequently parts with the chlorine much quicker. He proved this by exposing solutions of the two to the air, by which he found that in a given time the magnesia lost much more chlorine than the lime.

was melted into small buttons. Some metallic
oxides, which have been supposed to resist the
highest temperatures, such as the black oxides
of cobalt and copper, green oxide of chro-
mium, red oxide of iron, and the oxide of
iridium-Elsner found to volatilise. The
author experimented in the same furnace on
many of the difficultly fusible earthy minerals,
and succeeded in running most of them into a
slag or glass. We may return to these re-
sults on a future occasion.

Writing of porcelain reminds us that a
recent number of Dingler's Polytechnic Journal

From bleaching, we may naturally pass to washing. We read in "Cosmos" that the Dutch laundresses, so celebrated for the whiteness of their linen, soften the water they use with borax instead of soda. They employ, it is said

a good-sized pinch, perhaps a tea-spoonful, to six gallons of boiling water, and by this quantity save half their soap. The writer goes on to say that borax and water makes a very good drink for hot weather, and that it may be employed to soften the water used in making tea; but we emphatically recommend our readers not to try the experiment.

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tended to fill these with blinds of a decorative character, and we hear that a window has been offered to each of the most important corpora. tions of Great Britain, Chambers of Commerce, civic companies, and railway companies, to enable blinds illustrating the manufactures, &c., peculiar to the town, or decorated with designs, heraldic or otherwise, to be erected. The British Executive will fill several windows with A stranger way of whitening linen is given blinds illustrating the early history of inventions, us by the Hamburg Gewerbeblatt. Ozone is a which will form an interesting series. Stephen. powerful bleaching agent, and is rapidly formed son's "Rocket," Braithwaite's "Novelty," when turpentine is exposed to the air. The Hackworth's Sanspareil," Symington's steam writer accordingly, and apparently as the re- paddle engine, Watt's Sun and Planet engine, sult of experiment, recommends that a little and Arkwright's loom furnish subjects. turpentine should be added to the last rinsing Among the many samples of ingenuity turned water which, when the clothes are dried, effects out by the War Department for the Exhibition a tolerably energetic bleaching. To get the is a device in iron cnt by the circular or riband saw. The letters, although carved from a slab turpentine to mix with the water, he mixes one of iron one inch thick, are all correctly formed, part of the oil of turpentine with three parts of and are of perfect uniformity throughout. The strong spirit, and adds a tablespoonful of this saw, it appears, is the invention of M. Perrin, mixture to a pail of water. No trace of smell and was exposed at the Paris Exhibition of 1855, of the turpentine is left, it is said, when the where it was purchased by Colonel Tulloh, then clothes are dried in the open air, if recently Superintendent of the Royal Carriage Departrectified oil is employed. Turpentine, how-ment at Woolwich. Until very recently it has ever, will not dissolve in spirit on simple ad- been used solely for the purposes for which it mixture: the two require to be distilled to- was designed-cutting and carving diffioult and gether, when perhaps they may be used as irregular curves in wood, &c. The tedious and stated above. laborious hand process, by means of the punch If this method of bleaching and chisel, being the only method hitherto used linen is really successful, the many disadvan- in carving the angle-plates necessary in the contages which result from the frequent appli-struction of the wrought-iron gun carriages, led cation of the chlorides of lime and soda to linen to the attempt by Colonel Clerk to test the application of the circular saw for that purpose, and the result has proved highly successful. The device above-named consists of the words, "Royal Carriage Department, 1867," which are surmounted with a crown and the letters "W. D." We may add that the whole of the models of vessels of war belonging to the British navy, prepared by the artisans of Deptfort Dock. yard for the Exhibition, have been completed and forwarded to their destination.

would be avoided.

BRITISH MACHINERY AT THE PARIS
EXHIBITION.

AT

THE MIDDLE LEVEL SIPHONS.

ON

ANCHORS AND PIGS.

Thursday week last Mr. Seely, M.P., addressed his constituents at Lincoln, and

mentioned some matters of interest to the iron trade. He said, "I pointed out that for some cause or other I cannot tell what a particular firm, Brown, Lennox, and Co., had since the year 1842 supplied the Government with anchors, and that the cost of those anchors during that period had been about £170,000 more than the market price. I charged this upon the Govern⚫ ment in the session before last, and, as a matter of course, one of the officials-I think it was Lord Clarence Paget, now gone to the Mediterranean as admiral of the fleet with his usual audacity, said, 'Yes, but we must take care of the lives of our seamen; we cannot have bad anchors.'

We want them to have the very best anchors possible. But it so happened that the anchors which were supplied to the navy by Brown, Lennox, and Co., are anchors of a particular pattern, which was condemned by a committee appointed by the Admiralty, I think in the year 1852, as being the worst of seven anchors which were submitted to the committee. That committee, as far as I remember, was com posed of three admirals, Mr. Lindsay, the great shipowner, M.P. for Sunderland, and the chairman of some large shipowning company, and of three members of Lloyd's committee. I further pointed out that there was some iron ballast, familiarly called pigs I think it is probable that those pigs will give a squeak when Parlia ment meets again. I ventured to say that I believed those pigs were worth £150,000 or £160,000, and that they were employed for purposes in many cases useless. I am speaking to men who have some practical knowledge of the matter, and who will know whether I was right. I instanced the case of the smithiesand there are men here who work in smithies— and I said I was told that it was a blunder to put down iron for the floors of smithies; that it was too hot in summer and too cold in winterand that if the Admiralty offered to put down their pigs in the Stamford smithies for nothing we would not have them. At a most moderate

T the present moment there is an enormous amount of metal on its way, or about to be sent on its way, to the Paris Exhibition. This metal has assumed the fair proportions and finished condition of machinery. Amongst that portion about to take its way across the Channel, are some excellent examples of machines for working in wood, which we inspected yesterCo., King's-road, Chelsea. The firm have already doy, Ringe works of Messrs. S. Worssam and THE great question as to whether or not these estimate, there is £150,000 or £180,000 wasted siphons would answer their intended pur. in this atrocious manner. If they knew its a high name for this class of machines, and pose was on Thursday fully solved. Since their value really it is criminal; if they did not know those we then saw must add still further to first being used in 1862, says the Times, there it why, they are fools. I am told that besides their renown, for more perfect specimens of has existed no doubt in the minds of those in. the 35,000 tons stated in the return they gave work of their kind could not be met with. The terested in the engineering profession, and also me, there is a great quantity of these pigs to "General Joiner" is a most useful machine in those in the drainage of the greater part of East be found in the Bermudas, and other parts of a joiner's shop, doing almost all the different Anglia, that the scheme had been most success- the world, in ships' bottoms in ordinary, and kinds of work usually done there by hand. It ful, with one exception, and this was that since the United Service Gazette, some three or four does sawing, planing, and thicknessing, mortis-the above date they had never before been tested weeks ago, stated that they believed the quaning, single or double tenoning, cross-cutting, after the effects of a severe long frost, followed tity would be nearly double. If so, there would and squaring up, grooving, tongueing, rab- by a rapid thaw, such as happened on Taursday. be about 60,000 or 70,000 tons, the value of betting, moulding and beading, chamfering, It was exactly 2 o'clock p.m. before the tide on which would be something like £300,000, enwedge-catting, boring, and sundry other opera- the sea-side had fallen sufficiently to allow of tailing a loss of £9,000 a year, at only 3 per tions. By it a man and a boy are said to do their being worked, and consequently before that cent. interest, the rate at which the Govern the work of fifteen men. It is self-contained, time a most rapid thaw had taken place, which, ment can borrow money. If you add to that and the most compact and finished machine of with the rain that fell in the neighbourhood on the £6,000 a year they have given to Brown, its kind we have seen. Another machine in- the previous evening, had loosened large masses Lennox, and Co., you have £15,000 a year tended for the Exhibition is Messrs. Worssam's of ice. At the time mentioned the height of the absolutely wasted in two items; and worse universal moulding, shaping, and recessing ma. water on the sea-side was 3ft. 3in., that on the than wasted, because it is a premium to negli chine, which is capable of application to a variety Fen-side being 3ft. 2in. This small difference in gence and extravagance. Well, towards the of purposes. It is certainly one of the most the two levels did not at first give the 16 siphons close of the session, I brought these matters valuable labour-saving machines ever invented much room for play, but after a short time the under the consideration of the House, and, of for joiner's work. Amongst the many purposes difference was increased to about a foot, when course, some of my statements have been disfor which it is adapted we may mention, cutting they soon showed their power. Mr. George Car-puted. The matter cannot rest here. circular or twisted mouldings of any form; michael, the resident superintendent of the sisticking circular and straight sash bars; mould. phons, had taken extra precautions in case of ing, rebating and grooving straight or circular any accident from the ice, as might be seen sash frames, sinking recesses of any form to a by lighters being placed at St. Mary's Bridge pattern, &c., &c. The advantage of this tool and other places, and about half a dozen men over any other upright cutter machine is, that were employed in breaking the ice into small the work can pass under the tool, and thus it pieces as it approached the iron grating procan work in the centre of a board, whilst other tecting the entrance to the siphons, but these machines can only work on the edges. In ad- were only similar to those adopted near other dition to the foregoing we also observed a capi- ordinary sluices in the neighbourhood, and were tal planing and trying-up machine. In this, how hardly necessary when it is considered that ever warped or twisted, a piece of wood may whatever passes through the iron grating, or be when it enters, it leaves the machine per- rather railing, could go through the siphons fectly true, and with a good planed face, ready themselves. The ice in passing through befor glueing up. There is an arrangement by came as it were minced into smaller pieces, means of which the rate of advance of the being carried through at the rate of about 50ft. travelling bed can be varied at pleasure, whilst per second, the diameter of the siphons being the machine is actually cutting. We further had 2ft. 6in., and the working gauge showing 15 in. the opportunity of examining samples of work of mercury. It should be stated that the wind from each of these machines, which afforded a at the time was southerly, thus blowing and true index whereby to judge of their merits, which are of a high standard, and which, we hope will be recognised as they deserve in the forthcoming Paris Exhibition.

The portion of the machinery gallery which has been assigned to Great Britain contains eighty large clerestory windows. It is in

forcing the masses of ice upon the works. But
notwithstanding this everything passed over satis
factorily as usual, the ice causing not the slightest
derangement in the working of the siphons,
and there can be no longer any doubt that these
siphons will, for many ages to come, remain
monuments of John Hawkshaw's skill.

M.

ABSORPTION OF GAS BY COPPER.

CARON recently sent in a paper to the .. Academy of Sciences; on the absorption of gas during the operation of fining copper. His first experiments were effected on the reducing gases, amongst which hydrogen stands foremost. A bar of good copper, weighing from 150 grammes to 200 grammes, and put into a porcelain crucible introduced into a tube of the same material, was raised to a somewhat higher temperature than that of the fusion of copper, while a current of pure hydrogen was driven through. At the end of the tube by which the gas made its exit, a glass balloon with two wide tubulatures was placed, to enable the observer to judge of what was going on within the apparatus. So long as the metal remained in its solid state nothing occurred; but the moment it began to melt, numerous bubbles rose on its surface, and a considerable quantity of steam was condensed in the balloon. This M. Caron explains by supposing that even the best copper of the shops contains a little oxide, and that during its fusion oxygen is expelled, and, finding the hydrogen at

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keys. For this reason, the double-headed rail, copied from English precedent, has enjoyed little favour in Germany, and where adopted, is gra. dually superseded by the more general practice of flat-bottomed rails, with or without bed plates on the sleepers.

The failure of Barlow's permanent way (perhaps a great deal owing to the use of inferior material) unfortunately discouraged railway directors from pursuing or sanctionin? experiments in the right direction, and jeopardising dividends. While, therefore, different scientific papers published a number of schemes for the construction of iron permanent way, some patented, others given away pro bono publico, and all of them eagerly discussed at the meet. ings of practical engineers, the first step to realise a project was only made, at the end of the year 1863, by putting in hand the different systems herewith illustrated, some of which came into actual use in the beginning of 1864, others in 1865.

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hand, combines with it to form water. After the | tical fact, and has been made so by having been
operation, the apparatus having cooled down to
the common temperature, the ingot of copper
was examined and found to contain numerous
cavities in which hydrogen was imprisoned;
whence it may be concluded that copper in a
state of fusion absorbs hydrogen.

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are now ordinarily screened by causing

them to slide down an inclined shoot composed of straight, longitudinal, or diagonal bars or plates, placed side by side, with a space of

The theory which guided these constructions may be summed up as follows:-The nearest approach to perfection in a permanent way is to present to a moving load a sufficient, and unmovable, continuous, and even resistance, as the only means of obviating the oscillation and thumping of fast trains. Although the weight and height of the rails have been steadily in. creased in order to spread the rigidity of the line over a large number of cross sleepers, there remains in practice an unavoidable deflection of rail between the points of support. The bending down of the sleeper-end, taking place during the passage of the engine and the oscillation of the carriages or trucks, especially with old or soft wooden sleepers, sufficiently shows that the pressing load is not spread equally over the whole length of the sleeper, and is not evenly supported for the entire length of the wheel base, but that the chair, or point of support, receives a succession of blows, with the whole weight of the load resting on the axle. If, therefore, we could devise a longitudinal way, possessing sufficient rigidity to transmit the pressure of the load over a large bearing surface, we should avoid the wave-like motion occasioned by the cross sleepers. This resistance to pressure can be obtained in a simple ratio, by increasing the flat base resting on the ballast, or more econo mically, by increasing the height of the rail, since the power to support grows in the square ratio of the height.

well tested in various parts by ordinary work. ing. The success which has attended it justifies us in stating it to be the most perfect screen yet introduced. Although a fixed screen it fulfils all the requirements of a screen shaken by machinery. The bars being serpentine the coals must of necessity pass over a repetition of apertures, whereby the small or dust cannot possibly pass down with the coal, but is effectually screened therefrom. Although exceedingly simple, this screen is constructed on purely scientific principles, and we can well recommend it to the public.

The boldest and simplest plan of iron perma nent way under consideration was that advised by Mr. Hartwich, engineer of the Rhenish Railway, and laid down on the right bank of the Rhine, between Coblentz and Oberlahnstein, on a perfect level, and also between Mechernich and Enskirchen, the latter an incline of 1 in 70, and on a curve of 800 yards radius. The ballast, always an object of especial solicitude with Prussian engineers, is of broken flint, and laid in a channel three feet broad at the top, shelving

about 5-16in. between them. But it has THE IRON PERMANENT WAY IN USE ON down to 1ft., and 18in. deep. The rails shown

been found necessary to adopt supplementary appliances or means to cause the smaller coals and dust to pass through between the bars, as the coals otherwise reach the bottom of the

shoot insufficiently_screened. To meet this point Mr. William Poupard, of Blackfriars-road, has just taken out letters patent for an invention which consists in the employment, instead of the ordinary straight bars, of bars which, while being fitted lengthwise of the screen or shoot, and forming continuous openings in that section of the screen of which they constitute a part, are so formed or shaped that the whole of the coal, while sliding down the shoot, must necessarily pass alternately over a part of such bars and over the space or opening between them, whereby the coal is sufficiently screened without the aid of supplementary appliances or means. Mr. Poupard employs for the purpose of his invention bars of serpentine, or zig-zag, or similar form, which will produce the effect above described. The accompanying engraving represents a coal screen constructed with the serpentine bars. cc is one section or portion of the screen, composed of the bars a a, which rest at their ends (which are straight) upon the ordinary supports g. The invention also applies to screening o.her materials; for instance, wirework screens used for various substances may be constructed with the wires fitted in the manner before explained in reference to the bars. Mr. Poupard's serpentine coal screen is something more than a mere patented idea-it is a prac

GERMAN RAILWAYS. *

in section A (see fig. 1) 11in. high, weighing 115lb. per yard, with a flat bottom of 4in., are placed immediately in contact with the ballast, and sleepers or bed-plates are dispensed with. The space up to the of the head, and also the clear way up outside the rails, are filled with fine gravel, tightly rammed in.

BY T. A. ROCHUSSEN, ESQ., C.E. THE system of making railways by levelling structure of wooden sleepers, cast-iron chairs, topped with a wrought-iron rail, and held to gether by a wooden key, has, for a great num. ber of years appeared to German engineers to be unworthy of an age in which the manufacture of good iron, and its composition into an efficient bearing system, are far better understood than thirty years ago, when the importance of railways as the principal arteries of our social and commercial intercourse was only just foreshadowed. While locomotives and rolling stock had in their construction and performance progressively represented the advance of practical science, and embodied the genius of the designer, the care of the builder, and the aptitude of the worker in metal, to provide for all the requirements of traffic, it was felt in Germany, as well as elsewhere, that the time had arrived to apply the same intelligence to permanent way; and that it had become necessary, as much as possible, to reduce the variety of material, and to avoid that most liable to perish, like wooden sleepers, or cast-iron chairs, alike destructive to the wood below and the wrought iron above; and finally, to get rid of the crude contrivance of fixing rails by means of wooden

* Read before the Society of Arts, 23rd Jan., 1867.

The rails are fished vertically and horizontally, as the rail of section B, 9in. high, which has since been ordered to the extent of fifteen miles, on the line between Kempen and Kaltenkirchen, and its adoption is likely to extend with the growth of Rhenish railways, to the exclusion of the 11in. rails, which were found unnecessarily heavy and expensive. These rails are 9in. high, with

a flat bottom bin. wide, weighing 85lb. per yard; the head, down to lin. of the web, is formed of steel, the web of fine grain, and the bottom of fibrous iron. The vertical fish-plates, 18in. long, have two rows of fishbolts for each rail-end, and to increase their stiffness have a longitudinal rib, resting against the web of the rail. The horizontal fish-plates, also 18in. long, are Sin. wide, and their connection with the rail is established by means of a cramp-plate, held between the nuts of the fish-bolt, and bearing upon the base of the rail. The use of this cramp is principally to allow a greater width of fish-plate, and to protect it against buckling up by the pressure of the rail. The rails are held to gauge by lin. round bars placed 3ft. apart, the ends of which are pro

vided with a screw-thread, nut, and washer at
each side of the web, so as to allow an easy
adjustment of widening or narrowing the rail
distance to the proper gauge. Alternately, the
cross or gauge bars are put either 3in. from the top
of the head or 3in. from the bottom of the rail.
The whole weight of the system is 145 tons per
mile per single line of way; the contract price
all round being £13 15s. per ton; or, exclusive
of ballast and laying down, £1,985 per mile.
The engineer reports:-Since June, 1865, the
double line from Coblenz to Oberlahnstein and
the Mechernich line have been worked with
tender-engines weighing 37 tons; no alteration
has taken place in the level of the way, and the
rails have nowhere worked into the ballast.
The gauge has not in any instance been dis-
turbed, the repairs of packing have been very
trifling, and far less than on the line with cross
sleepers. The whole length forms a continuous,
unmovable railway; and although there is a
little bending at the fish-joints, this inconvenience
is imperceptible compared with the advantages
of the whole system. The filling of the rail
space with gravel provided a more efficient
security against sliding than the dogs and bolts
in the wooden sleepers. The motion on the rail
is perfectly free from oscillation and thumping;
the noise of the passing train has a deep rolling
sound, and, although some passengers, who are
acquainted with the peculiarity of the con-
struction, pretend that the line is hard, the
difference is not noticed by the majority of
travellers. Whether the rigidity of these high
rails will be more detrimental to themselves
than the constant bending on cross sleepers,
time will have to show. If this disadvantage
should manifest itself, it could be met by in-
creasing the elasticity of the springs; on the
other hand, the rigid surface offers a saving of
traction power and wear of wheels, considering
that with rails bending between sleepers every
wheel practically runs on an inclined plane. It
may be urged that, if once the rail-heads should
be worn out, the whole system will require re-
newal, but as an extensive experience with steel.
headed rails in Prussia, during fourteen years, has
shown that the life of a good rail, even under
very onerous circumstances of traffic, is about
twenty-one years this objection falls to the ground,
the more so since the rails of the present day, on
wooden sleepers, have already reached the
same weight per yard as our whole system
without sleepers.'

the maximum distance of the cross-bars, and also whether a large number and their submersion in the ballast offer (as we have hitherto found) a sufficient resistance to the supposed tendency of the railway to move sideways, or whether it is advisable, for additional security, The cost of the iron per

the head rail, head bolts, and their distance apart being the same as in system No. 2, but the cross-bars, here placed only 3ft: apart, were made of flat bat 3in., Xin., ending in a T section, which is riveted through the two arms of the rail-bearers. In order to prevent the squeezing together of the latter, a half-inch to adopt keel-fishes. fillet-plate is inserted between them. The fish-manent way, exclusive of ballast and laying ing of joints is effected as in system No. 2, and down, has been 36s. per yard, or, with laying the horizontal bearing surface is 274 square down, £3,200 per mile, as against 25s. per yard, inches per running foot of railway. or £2,250 per mile for the ordinary construction On the wear of the railway, the engineer, Mr. with wooden sleepers. The weight of the three Scheffler, reports as follows:-"The two systems systems is-No. 2, per yard, 354lb.; No. 3, lie side by side in a straight line, half the dis-2,295lb.; No. 4, 300lb. The Hoerder Works tance being on a well-drained large gravel, supplied the material for systems Nos. 2 and 3 the other half in fine gravel mixed with clay, at £13 5s. per ton, delivered at Brunswick; but very impermeable to the percolation of water. for system No. 4 stipulated an advance of 5s. per Both lengths have been worked for more than ton, on account of the wider dimensions of the two years, and are in excellent preservation, angle-bars, which necessitated the use of better continuing to bear a heavy express, passenger, iron. The building up and laying of the pergoods, and mineral traffic. The state of the rails manent way, after the labourers got used to the has been uninterruptedly satisfactory, and they work, progressed rapidly; the cost of laying have not required the same labour of keeping down was 10d. per yard, as against 7d. per yard up which was necessary for the other portion for the old system. The ballast under the iron of the railway. This contrast was especially way is of the same depth as that under the remarkable in winter during a prolonged low wooden sleepers, viz., 12in., and practice has temperature. After the thaw in the spring of shown this to be sufficient. 1865 only in the system No. 3, in those portions "The experience of two years has not yet of the line where the ballast is unusually bad furnished conclusive data exactly to fix the cost and clayey, a few instances of sinking occurred, of keeping up the line, but we have found-1. but not to the same extent as on the line with That packing has been much less needed than cross wooden sleepers; however, on the larger with the ordinary cross-sleepers, and the exportion of system No. 3, and on the whole of penses under this head are merely nominal. 2. system No. 2, no packing or adjusting of any The rails have not required any repairs; neither kind has been necessary. This favourable result head-rail nor rail-bearers have been renewed or is, perhaps, to be ascribed to the great height altered; and it is remarkable that the rail-ends of the rail-bearers, which permit the bearing have suffered much less (owing to their uniform surface to lie deep in the ballast, and reduce the support) than on the cross-sleepers. The prininfluence of frost on the base of the rail. The ciple of longitudinal construction is, in theory, the packing and lifting, when required, are an easy most correct, and is borne out by practice. The operatiou, and these constructions have shown even continuous bearing is of immense imno instability-a gratifying fact, since eminent portance to the permanent way, as well as to engineering authorities, looking at the flat base the rolling stock, and gives a much easier motion of the rail-bearers, predicted a shifting sideways to engines and carriages. The uniform rigidity of the whole line. After two years' heavy traffic of this rail system, and the perfect support of no displacement has been perceptible; all the the head-rails, show a marked improvement in component parts of the iron permanent way are the wear of the heads. The use of rivets-in in their original good condition; not a single places where frequent renewals are not likely to rivet has worn loose, but the nuts of the head-occur, as in parts covered with the ballast, and bolts require now and then to be tightened with therefore not much shaken—is not objectionable. a spanner, as in those of the fish-plates of the The number of component parts is not large, ordinary construction. The iron, including the their connection is easily established, and prac portion submerged in the ballast, has been tice has proved the construction to be strong. oxidised to a trifling extent, and hitherto ex. The rigidity of the iron permanent way, both In the beginning of the year 1864 the Hoer- perience has not justified the preference of one vertically and horizontally, is much greater than der Works, in Westphalia, supplied the Bruns- system over the other. The motion on both that of the cross-sleepers. This is proved, not wick Railway with the two systems of iron per- systems is a little harder, but, at the same time, only by the analysis of form and dimensions of manent way represented by figs. 2 and 3, each much more steady and smooth, than on the most the section, but also by the steady motion of the of about 1,100 yards in length, and some time carefully constructed permanent way with rolling stock, and this advantage is conspicuous afterwards with another variety of the same wooden sleepers. Hitherto it has been impos- in express and heavy mineral trains." system, represented by fig. 4. The two first sible to note any difference in the motion of the are lying side by side on the distance between carriages during the various influences of extreme Brunswick and Wolfenbuttel, that portion heat or cold-it is the same in winter as in sumof the main line from the west to Berlin on mer. In the manufacture of the rail-bearers for which the wear of oak sleepers and the general systems Nos. 2 and 3, the Hoerder Works found repairs of the permanent way had been the a difficulty in rolling the top of the vertical arm heaviest of the whole distance between Cologne to a sufficiently clear edge, and this inconveThe three systems embody the nience necessitated their being planed. In principle of supporting the head of the rail be- order to obviate this expensive operation, the tween the vertical arms of two angle bars Hoerder Works proposed to roll the top of riveted together, and held to gauge by cross-bars, the vertical arm with a bulb or rib, the dimensions and distance of which, as well which allows a true edge to be produced with as of the angle-bars themselves, being varied out any further mechanical finishing. The in order to ascertain the maximum limit of Brunswick Railway thereupon resolved to adopt saving material which may be approached this bulb angle in their last system, No. 4 (fig. 4), without jeopardising the efficiency of the con- embodying the weight of the smaller sections struction. In the system shown in fig. 2, the No. 3, which in practice had proved sufficiently longitudinal rectangular angle-bearers measure strong, at the same time giving a conical form 6in. x 6in. Xin., and are placed half an inch to the head-bolt, in order, when tightening the apart, to allow the web of the head rail to slip nut, to press the head rail down on the railin. The gauge or cross-bars of T iron, 4in. Xbearers. This head is made of cast steel. 3in. Xin. are placed 5ft. apart, and are riveted While keeping to the weight of the former below to both the horizontal arms of the angle section they increased the height of the vertical bars. The head-bolts, connecting the head-rail arm to 6in., the horizontal arm to 54in., the with the rail-bearers, are 16in. apart, and the bolt thickness of both being in. full. Another holes are elliptical, to allow contraction and ex- deviation from systems Nos. 2 and 3 is the form pansion. The ends of the angle-bars are joined of the cross-bars, which are of channel or C horizontally by fish-plates, 12in. x 12in. X in. iron, 4in. × 1in. × in., placed 5ft. apart, as Xin., fixed with eight screw bolts, say two in system No. 2, and are fastened with bolts and bolts to each end. The head-rail and rail-nuts through the two vertical rail-bearers. The bearers break joint-the ends of the former horizontal supporting surface of this system is being thus supported by a continuous bearing of 306 square inches per running foot of railway. This system of construction gives It does not appear advisable to place the cross334 square inches of horizontal bearing surface bars at a greater distance from each other, per running foot, that is to say, 300 square since they not only serve to keep the line to inches from the horizontal arms of the angle, gauge but also contribute in holding each pair and 34 square inches from the cross-bar. In of rail-bearers together to prevent their buckling system No. 3 (fig. 3) the rail-bearers are formed and, at all events, the greater rigidity of the by angle-bars of 93 deg., the dimensions of system compensates for the trifling, if perhaps which are reduced to Blin, X 51in. Xin., superfluous, outlay. Experience will teach us

and Berlin.

the latter.

Thus far Mr. Scheffler. After the favourable experience obtained on the Brunswick line, the Hanoverian, Cologne-Minden, the Saxon and Wurtemburg State railways, have resolved to lay down experimental lengths of iron permanent way, constructed on analogous principles. The Hanoverian system, illustrated by fig. 5, was made by the Hoerder Works, according to the specifications of the engineer of the line, but it does not appear to offer any advantage in theory, while its cost is much higher than that of the Brunswick system. The Hanoverian permanent way has the same cast-steel head as system No. 4; but the rail-bearers, in. thick, are formed of angle-bars of 115 degrees 54in. high, and 64in. base, giving a horizonta bearing of 12in. wide, equal to 288 square inches per running foot of railway. The rail-bearers are riveted together with a fillet plate, as in system No. 3, the head bolts conical, as in system No. 4, placed 18in. apart, have a collar under the nut, which, pressing the rib of the angle, counteract the supposed tendency of the head-rail to incline outwards. The bars, 3ft. apart, of 3in. X in. flat bar, are, as in system. No. 3, riveted with T angles to the angle-bearers The keel fish-plates are formed of iron, 5in. x 24in. in. About five miles of this iron permanent way were laid down in 1866, which gave a very satisfactory result; they will, however, only be thoroughly reported on after next spring. A variation of the iron permanent way of systems Nos. 3 and 4. is now being constructed at Hoerde for some German railways, on a plan patented in this country by the author, and the advantage of which was developed during the manufacture of the material for the Brunswick and Hanoverian way. [Models, full and half size, were on the table.] When the metal used for the head-rail was changed from the use of

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