(548 ) [O¢tober, 
PROGRESS IN SCIENCE. 
MINING. 
From the Annual Reports of the Inspe@ors of Mines, issued during the past 
quarter, it appears that in the year 1874 there were 4332 mines working under 
the Coal Mines Regulation A@. The numberof persons employed was 537,178 
in Great Britain and 1651 in Ireland. The total number of lives lost in our 
coal and iron mines was 1056, as against 106g in the previous year. In our 
metalliferous mines there were only 103 deaths from accidents. 
A valuable paper by Mr. Handel Cossham, Mr. Wethered, and Mr. Saise, 
descriptive of a part of the Bristol coal-field, was read before the Geological 
Section of the British Association, and has since been published, with illustra- 
tions, in the ‘‘ Colliery Guardian.” 
It is proposed by Mr. A. B. Boullenot, of Paris, that safety lamps in fery 
pits should be furnished with air introduced entirely from outside the mine. 
To this end compressed air is forced from an air-pump at the surface down a 
system of pipes leadingto the lamp. The lamp itself is of improved construc- 
tion, and specially adapted for receiving compressed air. 
An interesting paper on the history of the methods of draining mines by 
non-rotating steam appliances, by Mr. Stephan Holman, has been published 
in the ‘¢ Transactions of the Chesterfield and Derbyshire Institute of Mining 
Engineers.” 
The gold distri&ts of the Province of Otago in New Zealand have been re- 
ported on by Mr. G. F. Ulrich. The observations were made during a tour of 
inspection in the early part of this year, and refer not only to the auriferous 
quartz-reefs and crushing machinery, but also to the occurrence of copper ore, 
cinnabar, antimonite, and brown coal. Appended to the Report is a descrip- 
tion of the German Treppenrost or step-furnace for the combination of brown 
coal. 
Gold-mining in Japan has been the subject of a Report by Mr. H.S. Munroe, 
of the Imperial College of Tokai. The richest of these gold deposits are those 
at Toshibetsu, which are worked in a primitive manner by the Japanese; but 
even these are extremely poor, and would probably not repay the cost of in- 
troducing improved methods of working. 
Mr. Mark Fryar his issued a Report from Moulmein, dated last May, in 
which he describes several mineral localities in Burma. Gold-mining is car- 
ried on at Shwe-gyeen, and iron ores appear to be generally distributed, but are 
worked only on a small scale and in primitive fashion. 
It may be worth noting that the celebrated Adalbert shaft of the silver-lead 
mines of Pribram in Bohemia, has just reached the extraordinary depth of 1000 
metres. The events was celebrated by festivities on the 13th, 14th, and 15th 
of September. 
METALLURGY. 
At the Annual Provincial Meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, held this 
year at Manchester under the presidentship of Mr. Menelaus, a paper ‘‘ On the 
Use of Caustic Lime in the Blast-Furnace’’ was read by Mr. I. Lowthian Bell, 
M.P. The author described in detail some researches carried out at the 
Clarence Works with the view of determining what advantage, if any, results 
from calcining the limestone before using it as a flux. In a furnace 48 feet 
high, of a capacity of 6000 cubic feet, and with a make of about 200 tons per 
week, the saving of fuel effected was only insignificant, but the yield of iron 
from Cleveland ores was increased, and the quality of the metal was improved. 
In a furnace of better construdtion, 80 feet high, holding 20,000 cubic feet, and 
