VI NOTES BY THE EDITOR. 



the dosoiiption of an electro-heating apparatus. The introtlnction 

 of steel rails promises to make accidents from defective rails rarer. 



The English have lately turned their attention to the American 

 system of constructing railroads. They have found, to their sur- 

 prise, that in India they must adopt American ideas. Notwith- 

 standing its defects, it has been found that our system is like!}'' to 

 prove the best for their colonies. A commission of English engi- 

 neers are now investigating our system with a view to the rail- 

 ways of India. 



The brake power on several of the French and Spanish railways 

 has been greatly increased by an ingenious arrangement con- 

 ceived by ISIonsieur Chatelier, of applying what has been terriied 

 " contre vapeur" to the engine, converting it, for the time being, 

 into a pump forcing steam and water into the boiler. 



At a meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 

 held in Boston, U. S., the Rumford medals were prcsented to Ah*. 

 George II. Corliss, of Providence, R. I., for his improvements in 

 the steam-engine. The presentation was made by Dr. Asa Gray, 

 the President of the Academy. We make the following extract 

 from his remarks : — 



" It ai)pears that within the twenty years since this machinery 

 was perfected, more than 1,000 engines of the kind have been 

 built in the United States, and several hundred in other countries, 

 giving an aggregate of not less than 250,000 liorsc-power ; that 

 as to economy of fuel, evidence has been afforded to the Rumford 

 Committee, showing a saving over older forms of enrrines of about 

 one-third. As to its other crowning excellence, 'uniformity of ve- 

 locity, the purchasers of one of the engines, now in its eighteenth 

 year of service, certify that, with the power varying from GO to 

 3G0 horse-power within a minute, the speed of the engine is not 

 perceptibly affected." 



While we chronicle the gi'cat works in engineering, the improve- 

 ments of the past year in making steel promise still greater 

 achievements. The Bessemer process has already done much ; 

 the later discovery of Bessemer, the high-pressure furnace, by 

 which the melting of ores is accomplished much more speedily and 

 economically than by the old processes, is destined, it is thought, to 

 further cheapen steel. It is stated that Bessemer was led to this 

 discovery by meditation on the cause of the heat of the sun, and 

 the influence that the force of ^rravitv, 27 times ":reater than that 

 upon our earth, must have upon the intensity of that heat. 



