522 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



small as compared with those of the United States, but they indicate a 

 sense of the need of technical education. 



The starting of the National Physical Laboratory for the purpose of 

 testing and standardizing and for research on physical constants prom- 

 ises to be of great value. The simple standardizing of screws and nuts 

 will be a great assistance to manufacturers. It is important that these 

 should be made to an exact size, so that in replacing them there may be 

 no misfits. For this it is necessary that the manufacturers' standards 

 should be kept exact. 



Trade and technical papers in Britain are awake and are sounding 

 the alarm, which, though it falls on many deaf ears, especially in the 

 case of those who had grown old while Britain was supreme in nearly 

 all departments of manufacture and trade, is yet arousing some response 

 from the younger and more active men who are beginning to learn that 

 the world does move. 



American methods are being introduced, and in some cases Amer- 

 ican energy is being imitated. The Westinghouse Company is building 

 a five million dollar electric plant in Manchester. English bricklayers 

 are accustomed to lay not more than four hundred bricks a day, and 

 they started at this rate, but, under American contractors, were induced 

 to work up to eight hundred a day. A few American bricklayers were 

 imported and set the example of laying nearly two thousand bricks a 

 day, whereupon the English bricklayers in their desire to show that they 

 could equal the Yankees, followed the example set; and buildings that 

 the English master builders said would require five years have been 

 erected in twelve months. It is said that when the plant is installed 

 seven thousand hands will be employed, and that it is the design of the 

 Westinghouse Company to give a lesson to the English engineers as 

 they have to English builders. 



Though the United States is so rich in inventions, the United King- 

 dom is responsible for many of the pioneer inventions, and it seems that 

 she can still make a good showing. The Bessemer process and the 

 Thomas Gilchrist basic steel process are English inventions, and lately 

 the Parson's Steam Turbine has gained prominence and bids fair to 

 start a new era for steam engines. It is thought that in a few years 

 it will be in use on all stationary engines and on steamboats. 



In shipbuilding Britain still leads, the cost of building being con- 

 siderably less there than in the United States. The cost of a ship of 

 about ten thousand tons is approximately $160,000 in the United States 

 and $130,000 in Britain. 



Sir Christopher Furness, who has lately been in America, thinks 

 that in the iron and steel trade Britain need not despair. Mr. Schwab 

 says that the United States will be able to compete with the world in 



