ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. IX 



to farmers, at reasonable rates, every kind of steam agricultural imple- 

 ment. The prospectus suggests that many farmers would gladly use 

 steam in ploughing and otherwise working their soil, but cannot afford 

 to invest several thousand dollars in the needful machinery. To these 

 this company proposes to be helpful. It is asserted that applications 

 are already received for renting machinery to the value of quarter of 

 a million of dollars. A Mr. Smith, of Woolston, England, who has es- 

 pecially exerted himself during the last few years to promote " steam 

 culture," has recently published a resume of his personal experience in 

 this matter. He states, that the cost of preparing land for roots was, 

 with steam, $2.88 ; with horses, $10.03 ; for barley two years, $2.16 

 with steam against $5.05 by horse power ; four years for wheat, $50.20 

 by steam against the same for horse power, and foots up a total for a 

 number of other articles, which shows a gain of 200 per cent, in favor 

 of steam. The writer says also that besides the economy of the plan, 

 he had much better crops. 



Novelty in Architectural Construction. A novelty in architectural 

 construction has been brought out during the past year in the construc- 

 tion of a building designed for a school of art at Nottingham, England. 

 The dome of the tower is to be covered, and some panels in the front 

 filled in with Minton's encaustic tiles, patterned in bright colors. The 

 London Athenceum commenting on this peculiarity says, " We cannot, 

 understand why, considering the exigencies of our town life and atmos- 

 phere, the whole exterior of a building could not be covered with ceram- 

 ics, comprising bands in bold relief richly moulded and colored, dec- 

 orated heads for windows, and friezes of figures, either relieved, or, 

 preferably, drawn on the flat, in an architectonic character and soberly 

 toned in color, either on a white or a bright-hued ground. Glazed sur- 

 faces are obviously the only ones fit for exterior decoration in modern 

 towns. Let any one look at the waste of labor on the carvings of St. 

 Paul's, what a stained and smeared great structure it is, or at the 

 Houses of Parliament, and see how the sooty streams trail over the 

 costly waste of mouldings and figures, and not only hide but eat them 

 away ; then let him consider what the latter building will be a century 

 hence, judging by what he sees of the piebald state of the former. Do 

 we not make glazed earthenware for half the planet, and can we not 

 cover our own houses with it ? " 



Recent Progress of Chemical Science. During the past year, 

 through the aid of the process of spectral analysis, another new body, 

 Indium, has been added to the list of the elements. Bessemer's process 

 of manufacturing iron and steel may now be considered as having 



