688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



attended with danger of fire, was likewise till only a short time 

 ago performed by hand ; but machines have now been devised 

 which take the matches from the opened frames and drop them 

 all in order into large cases, from which they are then repacked 

 in small boxes. One of these machines of the latest construction 

 is capable of extracting from the frames from two to three mil- 

 lions of the sticks a day, with far less danger of fire than when 

 the work is done by men. 



Still more recently the Swedish Lundgren, who is famous for 

 his box-making machines, has devised another machine, which 

 fills the boxes and delivers them closed. Nothing more needs to 

 be done than to fill the receiver of the machine with matches and 

 boxes, and to draw from it 25,000 well-filled boxes in a work- 

 ing day. 



Thus we see that the little match, which passes away so quick- 

 ly, has a famous history, and is really one of the most wonderful 

 achievements of the human race. An immense amount of most 

 sagacious ingenuity is concealed in it. The negro is right when, 

 seeing light and fire spurt out as he looks at the curious thing, he 

 cries out that " it is an enchantment," for the little piece of wood 

 certainly surpasses the most marvelous art of the old magicians. 

 Translated for The Popular Science Monthly from Die Garten- 

 laube. 



The Challenger Report, recording the work of the greatest scientific 

 voyage ever undertaken, is now completed, in fifty large volumes contain- 

 ing 29,500 pages of letterpress, with 3,000 plates and maps, and innumer- 

 able blocks in the text. The Challenger Expedition left England in Decem- 

 ber, 1872, charged with the scientific exploration of the physical, chemical, 

 geological, and biological conditions of the great ocean basins, with Cap- 

 tain George S. Nares as naval commander, and Prof. Wyville Thomson 

 and five other gentlemen as the scientific corps. A very complete study 

 was made of the Atlantic Ocean, which was crossed and recrossed in many 

 different directions. From Cape Town the Challenger proceeded to Aus- 

 tralia by a southerly course, and was the first steam vessel to cross the 

 Antarctic Circle. She then passed through the western Pacific and its 

 island groups to Hong Kong and Japan, crossed to the middle of the 

 Pacific in 40 north and sailed south to 40 south ; then visited Juan Fer- 

 nandez and Valparaiso; passed through the Strait of Magellan; and re- 

 turned along the central line of the Atlantic to England in May, 1876. 

 More than five hundred deep-sea soundings were made, with deep-sea 

 dredge and trawl. Besides the vast collection of marine animals, speci- 

 mens of water from different depths, and of the deposit in the sea-bed 

 were obtained. Tow-nettings for the collection of surface-living organ- 

 isms were taken continually, magnetic observations whenever it was pos 

 sible, and meteorological and surface temperatures every two hours. The 

 results of the exploration have furnished food for several years' study by 

 many naturalists besides those concerned in the preparation of the report. 



