1869.] Mechanical Science. 623 



area, number of houses, and rateable value of the places applied to ; 

 the nature, source, and extent of the water-supply ; the disposal of 

 the excretal refuse; and to the total quantity and amount of the 

 liquid sewage and its treatment. The committee is re-appointed, 

 and therefore we may expect that next year's report will jDrove a 

 valuable supplement to the one read at Exeter. 



Some interesting facts were mentioned by Mr. Thomas Login, 

 C.E., in his paper " On Roads and Railways in Northern India, 

 as affected by the abrading and transporting power of Water." 

 This paper was followed by one of great value from Mr. Joseph 

 Whitworth, C.E., F.R.S. It was " On the Penetration of Armour- 

 Plates with Long Shells having Large Bursting Charges, and fired 

 obliquely," and was a sort of supplement to the paper read by Mr. 

 Whitworth at the Norwich meeting last year. The author claimed 

 that the experiments detailed in his paper showed that the Palhser 

 projectiles failed to penetrate when striking at an angle, solely on 

 account of the form of the head, — the Whitworth projectile, which 

 resisted the shock, and did not break up, being deflected in pre- 

 cisely the same manner as the Palliser projectile which was shivered 

 into fragments. Almost all the speakers who joined in the discus- 

 sion excited by the paper, spoke very favourably of the flat-headed 

 projectile, and urged that trials should be instituted with it by the 

 Government. 



Of the papers read at the last sitting of the Section, that by Mr. 

 Thomas D. Barry " On the Utilization of Town Sewage " produced 

 the greatest amount of discussion. It was not much else than a 

 glorification of the xiBC process as practised at Leamington. 

 Neither the paper nor the resulting discussion did much. good in 

 the way of throwing light on this vexed question. 



A rather abstruse paper by Mr. Latimer Clark " On the Bir- 

 mingham Wire Gauge" was lead in the absence of the author. 

 One by Mr. S. A. Varley was of much more general interest : it 

 was " On a New System of Communication between Guards and 

 Passengers on Railways." Mr. Varley 's system is one of great 

 ingenuity and is thoroughly efficient. At the request of the Board of 

 Trade it was fitted up in a train running daily from London to 

 Wolverhampton— a distance of 250 miles. The train was started 

 from all stations at which it stopped by means of the apparatus, and 

 its working reported by the guards in their daily reports. The 

 apparatus was tested twenty-two times, and its performance, as 

 shown by those reports, was marked by the most unvarying regu- 

 larity. It is desirable to mention that Mr. Varley 's system is an 

 electrical one, but it does not require any electrical knowledge in the 

 person working it. In closing the discussion upon the paper, the 



