experimental installations have followed, and in Russia its general employment may be said to have commenced about 1870, when the development of the enormous oil supplies of the Apcheron Peninsula became an accomplished fact, and the first oil-fuel steamer appeared on the Caspian Sea. In the United States, where the crude oil of the Pennsylvanian field contains a larger percentage of light oil, the use of liquid fuel until recently has been on a less extended scale; now, however, the discoveries in California and Texas have provided enormous supplies of crude oil, practically only suitable for this service and great advances have consequently been made in its use. In this country many attempts have been made, but owing to the absence of regular supplies progress has not been so rapid as in the cases mentioned above. The manufacture of oil gas and carburetted water gas has, however, thrown on the market products of a character only suitable for fuel, and rendered its adoption possible on a limited scale. The different methods of burning oil fuel may be summarised as follows: (1) those wherein it is burned in bulk form; (2) in a sprayed or atomised condition; and (3) consumed as vapour or gas. The first mentioned procedure has received most application in Russia, whereas the last has enlisted most attention in the United States owing to the lighter character of the oils available. Generally, however, the second or spraying system may be looked upon as the favourite, most generally adopted, and probably the most successful; hence the chief attempts at improvement appear to have been devoted to it. The most effective device is doubtless that requiring the least quantity of the atomising agent (steam or compressed air) for operation, and until recently the attention of workers in this direction has been centred on the burner employed, the construction of the furnace, which is of as much importance for a good result, being somewhat neglected. Further, a due consideration of the admittance, distribution, and temperature of the air for combustion is absolutely essential to success. The latest developments of spraying apparatus point to the employment of oil fuel under pressure, heated to a high temperature, sprayed with dry steam, and the fire fed with heated air for combustion. For steamers the use of oil fuel possesses advantages over coal in excess of those which can be urged in its favour when employed on land: reduced storage space, less number of men required, an increased steaming capacity from a given supply of fuel, are points of the greatest value from the marine aspect of the question. For locomotives the assistance of oil fuel is valuable on the long runs without stopping, now becoming common, the difficulties of firing and the trouble from dirty fires being no longer present. The application in this direction has been much improved and simplified during the past few years with a view of securing the reliability of the apparatus under all conditions of service, and the method devised by Mr. Holden, of the Great Eastern Railway, of arranging the apparatus has been extensively adopted owing to the opportunities it affords for the use of solid or liquid fuel, or both, at will or as circumstances may make most desirable. In Russia and the United States some hundreds of locomotives are regularly running, using oil as fuel; and numerous examples are to be found in this and other countries where coal has become an expensive commodity. For furnace work oil fuel offers unique advantages, and many interesting applications have been made to meet the special requirements of annealing tempering, metal melting, brazing, &c. In glass making and enamelling oil fuel has met with considerable adoption, and portable furnaces of all kinds are successfully operated with it; in bridge-work, shipbuilding, &c., oil-fired rivet furnaces are to be preferred to any form of solid fuel-heating device. In storage oil fuel has many favourable features. It occupies a minimum of space, does not deteriorate by exposure, and is easier of transportation and distribution. In the Far East and many Oriental countries the importation of oil fuel has now become a regular undertaking, and supplies are guaranteed in many cases where wood has become scarce and imported coal an almost prohibitive article. 4. Further Experiences with the Infantry Range-finder. By Professor GEORGE FORBES, F.R.S. This paper deals with the facility of learning to use the range-finder, its employment with artillery, and its accuracy in the hands of men selected with good eyesight. In 1901 the author exhibited to the British Association his portable stentscopic infantry range-finder, and gave the results of trials to test its accuracy. To test its durability in the field, the author used it in the South African war, with Colonel Crabbe's column, under General Sir John French, and the reports upon its accuracy and durability in the field were certainly satisfactory. Te results obtained in actual war and under fire were given to the Association at the last meeting. The only point remaining to be established, in order to prove its entire suitsbility for infantry, is the facility of learning its use, some people having a suspicion that the steneoscopic effect would not be obtained by a large proportion of ordinary men. The following results show that out of over fifty men who gave the range-finder a trial of five minutes, not one failed to take ranges with cosiderable accuracy, and only one was not sufficiently interested to give the fre minutes' necessary attention to it. These trials took place at Aldershot under a War Office Committee, and at Bisley under the auspices of the National Rifle Association. In the former cas three sergeants and five privates were chosen haphazard for instruction; and, although the weather was most unsuitable, not one of them failed, and the progress made by all of them was most satisfactory. At the Bisley trials fortyone men took instruction, and all-with the single exception already mentioned -were able within half an hour to take easy ranges with accuracy; while fifte of them presented themselves for a prize competition in its use. The results obtained by the winners of the first two prizes at five distances chosen, up to 1,670 yards, were: Sergeant F. E. Pollard had an average error of 10-8 yards, or 1.1 per cent. of the average distance; and his average time for an observation was 12 seconds. Colonel Milner's average error was 114 yards, or 12 per cent. of the average distance; and his average time for an observation was 14.5 seconds. It is worthy of note that not one of the competitors had previously received more than one hour's instruction or practice, while Sergeant Pollard, the winner of the first prize, had never seen the instrument until about half an hour before he actually competed. Experiments were made with the infantry range-finder in July 1903 o Salisbury Plain with artillery. The object sought was to correct for the error of the day, including variations in ammunition and weather, more quickly than i possible by the existing system of bracketing by firing the first shot with shraptel which bursts in the air, taking the range of this burst-which is seen as a white cloud-and making the necessary correction for the second shot, which work then be on the target. The results obtained at two ranges are as follows, the distance short or over, as found by the range-finder, being first given, and the the same distance as estimated by the range-party near the target, for each shot: I. Range, 2,840 yards—(1) 200 short, 150 short; (2) 100 short, 200 short: (3) 120 short, 170 short; (4) 200 short, 210 short; (5) 150 short, 160 short; (6) 100 short, 110 short; (7) 60 short, 50 short. II. Range, 3,535 yards (1) 250 short, 150 short; (2) 350 short, 280 short: (3) 100 over, 40 over; (4) 120 short, 130 short; (5) 200 short, 60 short; (6) 220 short, 140 short; (7) 80 over, 30 over. The above records include every shot observed both by the range-finder and the range-party during the period referred to, and prove the importance of making further use of this method. The great accuracy of this range-finder in the hands of men with ordinary eyesight made it desirable to find out what could be done by selected men with good eyesight-those, for example, who had established a reputation for good rifle-shooting. The following are a few examples of Mr. F. E. Pollard's work with different specimens of range-finder at long distances: I. Ben Vrackie at Pitlochry, range-finder No. 11: the consecutive readings were 5,000, 5,200, 5,100, 5,200, 5,200; mean, 5,140. Distance, from Ordnance Survey, 5,210 yards. II. The same object and distance, range-finder No. 10: 5,150, 5,100, 5,000, 5,000, 5,200; mean, 5,090. III. Same object and distance, Base No. 2, Binocular No. 10: 5,200, 4,950, 5,150, 5,200; mean of four observations, 5,125. IV. Same object from a different point, range-finder No. 12: 6,050, 6,100, 6,200, 6,200, 6,150; mean, 6,140; distance, from Ordnance Survey, 6,200 yards. V. An example of a test of No. 10 range-finder made by Mr. Pollard when ignorant of the true distance, the range-finder having been adjusted two months previously, and having travelled hundreds of miles and been used frequently in the interval. Observing station: Pouton, Sunbury, Middlesex. Object observed: Tower of Holloway College; indistinctly visible. Successive readings: 10,750, 10,900, 10,550, 10,000, 9,800, 9,800, 9,850; mean, 10,236; distance on Ordnance Survey, 10,200 yards. It will be obvious that even with the maximum error of all these readings at a distance of almost six miles, this instrument, designed only for use with infantry up to 3,000 yards, is capable, in the hands of a skilled observer, of giving results of the utmost value not only to artillerists but also to surveyors and travellers. 5. Water-supply in South-west Lancashire. 6. Rainfall on the River Bann, County Down, Ireland, at Banbridge, and at Lough Island Reavy Reservoir. By JOHN SMYTH, M.A., M.Inst.Č.E.I. The author read a paper at the Belfast meeting in 1876 on the rainfall of Banbridge for ten years 1864-1873; also on the rainfall of Ulster. He now gives a summary of the rainfall at Banbridge for forty years, 1862-1901. The average for the whole period was 311; the wettest year, 1872, with 46.6 inch fall; the driest, 1887, with 23.1 inches fall. The greatest fall in twenty-four hours, 2.3 inches, on October 12, 1865. On July 4, 1883, at 7.30 P.M., 16 inch fell in one hour. The greatest ten years' average was 33-3 from 1872-1881; the least, 29-1, from 1862-1871. The average rainfall at the reservoir, twenty miles farther the stream than Banbridge, for the same forty years, was 44 inches. up 7. On the Rate of Fall of Rain at Seathwaite. A recording rain-gauge on Negretti and Zambra's pattern was established at Seathwaite, in Cumberland, in the wettest part of the Lake District, in July 1899, by the late Mr. Symons, and records were obtained up to the end of December 1900. Ordinary observations of rainfall are available for many years at the same place, and as the average of thirty-eight years (1865-1902) the rate of fall is 614 inch per rainy day, a rainy day being one on which more than 005 inch falls; and on the average there are 216 such days in the year, the total mean annual rainfall being 132-53 inches. The total number of rainfall days for the eighteen months (July 1899-December 1900) was 350, the total rainfall by the recording-gauge 182.91 inches, or at the rate of 523 inch per rainy day. The average duration of rainfall was four and three-quarter hours per rainy day, or nearly double the duration in London. During the period in question rain fell during 1,695 hours, or at an average rate, when raining, of 108 inch per hour. Taking account of continuous falls of six hours' duration or longer, there were ninety-one occasions with a total duration of 822 hours, a total fall of 99-99 inches, and an average rate of 122 inch per hour. Taking account of falls exceeding 50 inch in amount, there were eightyoccasions with a total duration of 7034 hours, a total fall of 109-47 inches, and u average rate of 156 inch per hour. The maximum rate at which inch or more of rain fell during the eighteet months in question was 560 inch per hour, a total of 1:40 inch falling in two a half hours from 8 to 10.30 P.M. on September 21, 1899. This is a triti rate compared with the fall of from 2 to 3 inches in an hour, which may ocz in a thunderstorm in any of the drier parts of the country; and even if attenti: is confined to falls of one hour only, no instance occurred of a rate equa 75 inch per hour. The peculiarity of the Seathwaite rainfall seems to be its l duration and comparatively small rate of fall. The longest and heaviest showe in the period considered was nineteen and a quarter hours, during which 3:59 ince of rain fell, at an average rate of 186 inch per hour. The duration of rainfall during daylight (sunrise to sunset) and during dariness (sunset to sunrise) was calculated for the year 1900, with the result: This shows that the duration of rainfall in daylight and darkness was pract cally identical, but that there was a very slightly greater intensity in the n than during the day. It is very desirable to extend the use of recording rain-gauges, and to be much value the scale should be open enough to give exact readings, prefera giving a separate record strip for each day. 8. On the Tidal Régime of the River Mersey. By JAMES N. SHOOLBRED, B.A., M.Inst.C.E. Since the last meeting of the British Association at Southport in 1883, twe years ago, many circumstances have occurred to change the tidal régime of the River Mersey. Of these the principal are:-(1) the removal by dredging of the !! of the bar (to a depth of seventeen feet) which closes the seaward extremities the river in the estuary; (2) the rectification of the sides of the channel with the river, due to the construction of the dock and other walls, on both sides of t river, but principally on the Bootle shore of the Lancashire side. In the upper portion of the tidal river the Manchester Ship Canal has s probably, contributed somewhat to changes in the tidal régime; though to wa extent is a matter of dispute. The two first-named causes have undoubtedly produced very consider effects by the freer passage for the ingress and the outlet of the tidal wa due to the partial removal of the impeding wall formed by the bar, and by the readier flow and ebb of the tidal stream, afforded by the smooth faces of th walls at the more recently constructed Northern Docks and elsewhere. The result of the dredging operations, alone, has been to provide throughout the entire distance, from the bar throughout the Queen's Channel, and right up to th landing stage, a central waterway having a depth of twenty-seven feet at r water of the lowest spring tides; while at high water of the same tides there is a depth of fifty-eight feet. This has entailed, during the period 1890-1902, the dredging of 29 million tons of sand at the bar, of 46 millions in the estuary channels, and of 10 millions in the river itself, making a total of 85 million tons. 1 I 1 Further details of the improved condition, for the purposes of navigation, are also added in the paper. But another object of the paper is to endeavour to provide data for the recalculation of the data of the tidal régime, as amended by the above results, by what is known as the method of harmonic analysis.' This method of harmonic analysis' of the tides was first brought before the British Association in 1872 in a long report by Sir William Thomson (now Lord Kelvin), Professor J. C. Adams, Professor Rankine, and others. A further report, however, on the subject, and illustrative of the method, as used in the reduction of the Indian tidal observations, was presented at the 1883 meeting in Southport by Professor G. H. Darwin and Professor J. C. Adams. Since then, in 1885, Professor G. H. Darwin has communicated to the Royal Society the data, resulting from the harmonic analysis of the tides at Liverpool. It is urged, however and apparently on good authority-that the actual data now afforded by the tidal régime of the Mersey, resulting from the changes referred to at the commencement of the paper, are such as to render it advisable to again submit the Mersey tides to a further examination by 'harmonic analysis.' The writer would suggest that a Committee might be formed, with the object of obtaining the necessary Tidal data, and in a form suitable for Harmonic Analysis thereof. 9. History of the Discovery of Natural Gas in Sussex, Heathfield District. By RICHARD PEARSON. The first find of gas which has come to my knowledge was made in 1836 at Hawkhurst in West Sussex. Natural gas next appeared during the famous sub-Wealden boring of 1873-75, at a place called Netherfield. The sub- Wealden was started to commemorate the visit of the British Association to Brighton, 1872. Mr. Topley records at 602 feet a bed 1 foot thick, very rich in petroleum. This was in the Kimmeridge clay, 290 feet from the surface. Willet records on this bore: 'Indications of petroleum became more distinct at about 160 feet from top of the Kimmeridge clay; all below that depth is more or less impregnated with petroleum.' Natural gas was not used to any great extent in America before 1885. It was about that date that Mr. Andrew Carnegie used natural gas in his steelworks. At Heathfield, some time ago, a firm of well-drillers were boring a well for water on the site of what is now the Heathfield Hotel. At 300 feet the borers met an inflammable gas; but as they were seeking for water, and none was reached, the borehole was cemented up and left. In August 1896 men employed by the same firm were at work boring a well for the L. B. & S. C. Railway Company for water; at a depth of 300 feet they also found an inflammable gas. But no water was reached even when another 100 feet had been sunk. Three years afterwards the railway company decided to put the gas to some useful purpose, and ever since the railway station has been lit with natural gas. The consumption is about 1,000 cubic feet per day. Hearing of this very practical outcome of the second discovery, I expected to hear also that explorations would be made to discover the extent of the gasbearing area. But finding that no further steps were taken, I communicated with some American friends, who asked me to take steps. I located positions for six exploratory boreholes to be made; we commenced boring, and in all of the boreholes we have struck gas, at levels varying from 300 to 400 feet from the surface, the farthest borehole of the six being distant some 1,200 yards from the railway station. These six boreholes are started in the geological formation known as the Hastings bed, which-in the Heathfield district-lies some 400 feet geologically 1903. 3 E |