102 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



the manufacture qualities of strength and consistence, in which the 

 pure Cashmere is deficient. Although the quantity of the wool 

 yielded by the Mauchamp variety is less than in the ordinary merinos, 

 the higher price which it obtains in the French market 25 per cent, 

 above the best merino wools --and the present value of the breed, 

 have fully compensated M. Graux for the pains and care manifested 

 by him in the establishment of the variety, and a council medal was 

 awarded to him. 



PROTECTOR GAS METERS. 



IT is well known that the meter in general use is open to many 

 objections, among which may be enumerated that it is not infallible, 

 and that it can be tampered with to defeat the purpose for which it is 

 intended. Mr. J. Laidlaw, of New York, has recently devised a 

 meter for the purpose of obviating these defects, his object being to 

 guard the gas companies against fraud on the part of a dishonest 

 consumer, and also to make the public certain that they receive the 

 amount of gas for which they pay. The most common manner by 

 which the gas companies were defrauded was by tilting the meter to 

 one side, so that more gas was consumed than was actually registered. 

 On the part of the consumer it was complained that it was in the power 

 of the company, by altering the level of the water in the meter to 

 make him pay for more gas than he had used. These proceedings 

 are prevented by such an arrangement, chiefly in the disposition of 

 the pipes, that all unfair attempts are useless or defeat their own 

 object. The proper quantity of water is maintained by using a pipe, 

 down which the water flows when too much is poured into the meter ; 

 this pipe leads the water into a lower chamber, where it is draAvn off 

 by a syphon to the outside of the meter, provision being made that 

 the gas cannot force the water out. If the meter is tilted to one side 

 it is still quite efficient, and if tilted forward, the gas is cut off and 

 cannot act on the drum, consequently the lights are extinguished. 

 There is also a very handsome apparatus intended to test each meter 

 before it leaves the hands of the maker or the gas company ; this 

 apparatus is on the principle of the gasometer, in fact it is a small one. 

 There is a clock-faced index attached to it, which serves to check the 

 accuracy of the meter. Scientific American. 



AMERICAN CHRONOMETERS. 



UNTIL within a recent period the chronometers of the best character 

 used in the American marine, were exclusively of English manufac- 

 ture. Chronometers are now, however, manufactured in this country 

 equal, if not superior to any produced elsewhere. The Grinnell 

 Arctic Expedition was supplied with the best English chronometers, 

 and also with American ones, manufactured by Bliss & Creighton, of 

 New York. On the return of the expedition it was found that the 

 error of the English instruments was five times greater than that of 



