Fi:i:\cii Kxinmriov. 



. he least inteiv-tiii"- |.:irt of the 



tion, in connection with tin- daily life of 



tli-' indication otlen (1 by 



.r tin- largest colliers ooinpaniei of the 



. 'inprove the moral :uil material 



f tlu-ir work-people. It has I . 



prime object In att:ich tli,- nu-ii to their local- 



ving them comfortable cottages at a 



nominal ivnt. infant schools and primar, -schools 



tor their children, and a pension when incapaei- 



r or work. 

 Witliin the last few years careful experi- 



, conducted by the administration, have 



1, fiat Franco possesses coals excellently 

 adapted tor sea service; and for some time past 

 'lei-than French coal has hecn used in the 

 imperial navy. I'.nt lor these purposes the 

 to i! fuels from different localities liave to bo 

 judiciously --elected and mingled in certain 



tions. Taking tho coal as a whole, it is 



notieea''!.- thai it makes much small and dust, 



and is frequently apt to be mixed with *hale 



and clay. It hence results that the French 



eoalniast'Ts have, been driven to pay a special 



attention to methods of cleaning their produce 



and utilizing tho "slack," menu, or small coal. 



"{'ingenious apparatus has been 



brought into use for making "patent fuel," 



/. ., for pressing the small coal into 



of various form by the aid of a small 

 amount of some binding material. These l>ri- 

 quettcs are highly reported upon for naval use ; 

 in their carriage to the ports there is a loss 

 of only I per cent., against 6 to 10 per cent, on 

 lump coal and when stored abroad they are 

 found after two years' exposure scarcely at all 

 injured, whilst ordinary coal would have suf- 



;o the extent of 50 per cent. Moreover, 



tre very free from ash, and may be made 

 of a mixture of flaming and of dry coal, or of 

 those varieties which have a more free-burning 

 and a more calorific property respectively, in 

 such a ratio as to give the best effect in getting 

 up and maintaining steam. The present Ex- 

 position abound* with examples of the machin- 

 ery and products of this manufacture. 



The St. Ktienne Company exhibits a model of 



their apparatus as employed at Givors, where, 



by introducing an enormous hydraulic pressure, 



1 only to add 5 per cent, of pitch 



*ec) to solidify the mass. 



autifully finished model is exhibited by 

 the company of La Chazotte, having 16 cylinders 

 ~ed as the radii of a circle, in which the 

 slack, after being heated by a current of steam 

 and mingled by very ingenious apparatus with 

 the pitch, is pressed by pi-tons and formed 

 either into cylindrical or hexagonal blocks of 



iiient length. The rate of production ap- 

 pears to be in practice 10 tons per hour with 

 one machine, requiring an engine of 50-horse 

 power to work it, and the extreme limit of 



ro being lun atmospheres, 

 the prices of the St. Etienne compressed fuel 

 are hi^'h ; the fir.-t quality, which contains only 

 2.10 per cent, of ash, is marked at 28 francs per 



ton; the second, witli " ., at2flf.; 



wliiNt. the lic-t. block eoal rules at Iron. 

 to >_>::$ f., and the small at 9$ f. to 15$ f. 



ll'iriii'i. l!>ii-L--il filling, mid Coal-cutting Ma- 

 r/iinm. Two undertakings of tin: same kind, 

 on the grandest scale, are in course of execution 

 one in the extreme north of I'aris, ],y Messrs. 

 nd Laurent; the other south of tin: 

 city, by Messrs Dm. Thce two firms, both 

 noted fora great number of successful borings, 

 exhibit an interesting assortment of the appa- 

 ratus which they employ for holes of diameters 

 varying from 1 inches up to more than 5 ; 



Height of surface above the level of the sea 

 at Grenelle, 121.3 feet English : at Passy, 805.2 

 feet ; depth of bore-hole at Crenelle, 1,800.7 

 feet; at Passy, 1,923.7 feet; internal diameter 

 of tube, or lining of hole, at Grenelle, approx- 

 imately, 9 inches to 6 inches at bottom ; at Passy, 

 2.4 feet. The full diameter of the I'assy bore- 

 hole was 1 metre, or 3.28 feet English ; the new- 

 ones are to be, in one case above 6 feet, in the 

 other about 4 feet, whilst it is proposed to 

 pierce, not only to the water-bearing stratum, 

 or nappe, already proved to exist, but to a con- 

 siderably greater depth, in order to cut other 

 feeders which probably abound in the subjacent 

 measures. 



The methods applied are alike in general re- 

 spects, such as the use of rigid rods only, in 

 preference to rope ; the employment of steam 

 to work the rods ; and the erection of a lofty 

 pulley-frame, or derrick (chevre), in one case 52 

 feet, in the other 68 feet, high from the ground 

 to the axis of the main pulley. But in the de- 

 tails considerable variations are noticeable. 



The magnitude of these operations for ar- 

 tesian wells is greatly exceeded as regards di- 

 ameter, and therefore weight of apparatus, by 

 the remarkable boring of actual shafts which 

 ha* in several cases been successfully completed 

 by lien- Kind. The system is not altogether 

 new some years ago both Kind and Mulot had 

 undertaken to bore shafts of diameters of from 

 10 feet to 16 feet, through ground whose " run- 

 ning nature, like quicksand, prevented the ap- 

 plication of the usual modes of pumping out 

 the water and establishing the casing, techni- 

 cally called a tubbing, ba-ed on linn and water- 

 tight strata. The excavation was therefore 

 carried on by the borer >'< n/rum plein, or with 

 the shaft full of water; and the chief dithvulty 

 lay in the jointing, at last, of the iron or wooden 

 lining with the linn ground at the bottom. 

 M. Chaudron, a Uelgian engineer, devi>ed for 

 this purpose a sliding piece at the bottom of 

 the tubbing (the whole of which is gradually 

 lowered as the excavation proceeds), on the 

 bottom flange of which, turned outward. Is a 

 packing of moss. l,,',t< ,/ m*tM4j and when thi< 

 latter cornes to rest on the seat cut for it by 

 the boring-tool, tho tower of tubbing, hitherto 

 suspended from above. re-t< by a corresponding 

 flange on the moss, and" so squeezes it together 

 and against the side of tho pit as to make a 

 tight joint, after the completion of which the 





