242 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



manage their mechanism on precisely opposite principles ; hence the economy 

 of the one and the expensive character of the other. The difference appears 

 to be that the factory is worked with a view to individual profit, the other 

 for that of a company. The ear of one is ever keenly open to the discoveries 

 of science, the other is ever closed, except it happens to flow through certain 

 favored channels. A new era appears, however, to be dawning upon railway 

 machinery, as several of the English leading railway companies have accepted 

 the offer of some of their engine-drivers to work by contract. If this plan 

 should be liberally carried out by the companies, it will be the first step to- 

 ward the development of locomotive steam-power. The personal interest and 

 responsibility will ultimately work as great changes on the rail as the manu- 

 facturer has accomplished in his mill, and will lead to the same principles 

 being carried out in both classes of meclianism. When that is accomplished 

 it is impossible to say at what speed it may not be perfectly safe to travel, 

 and how much the cost may be reduced. The same remarks are applicable 

 to marine machinery, and if the substances employed as lubricating materials 

 by the large steam-ship companies were tested, it would be found difficult to 

 meet with substances offering greater resistance, and, in other respects, more 

 chemically unfitted for the purposes to which they are applied. The purity 

 of the oil supplied to the marine engine is of very great importance. The 

 large bearing surfaces exposed to friction, and the nature of the metallic 

 alloys of which they are composed (copper, zinc and tin) render them suscep- 

 tible of electrical influence, and that influence once exerted, is always liable 

 to a repetition, producing heat, expansion, and all the consequences resulting 

 therefrom. If this subject were better understood by the companies, or some 

 personal interest brought to bear upon the development of marine power, ifc 

 would lead to much greater economy in its working, and add much to the speed 

 of the ship. A better knowledge of the science of lubrication might also lead 

 to the idea of lubricating the ships themselves, after the manner of marine 

 animals. If that could be accomplished, the velocity of ships might be much 

 increased. It is quite certain, from the great necessity of economizing steam 

 power, that companies and individuals employing it must, sooner or later, use 

 better lubricating materials ; their own interests will force it upon them. But 

 the great question is, where are they to be had. It does not appear possible 

 to obtain a greater supply of sperm oil, or oils or seeds of a better quality, 

 than at present. Foreigners, as a body, have an objection to adopt any thing 

 new, unless, indeed, when they run no risk by doing so ; therefore, so long 

 as a favorable market is found for their produce, we shall have no improve- 

 ment, and it must rest with the home cultivator. Journal of the Society of 

 Arts, 



IMPROVEMENTS IN SOAPS AND OILS. 



Use of Linseed Oil-cake in the Manufacture of Soap. Pelouze states that 

 old oil-cakes may be advantageously used in the manufacture of an economi- 

 cal soap. All that is necessary is to mix them with an alkaline solution ; 

 but tin.- quantity prepared must be small, a,s the abumonoid matter contained 



