SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 



775 



perform a duty of twelve horse-power with a 

 consumption of twenty to thirty pounds of 

 coal per hour. Two special uses to which 

 such a small and rapid engine is adapted are 

 the driving of a circular saw and of a dynamico- 

 electric machine. One used in a Russian naval 



vessel for producing electric illumination was 

 run at the speed of 700 and even 900 revolu- 

 tions per minute, without any cups on the pil- 

 low-blocks. The fact that the strain on the 

 bearings is obliterated in the double-piston en- 

 gine can be proved by removing the bed-plate, 



leaving the cylinder loose, or by removing the 

 pillow-blocks, when the shaft will remain sta- 

 tionary while the engine moves. It is claimed 

 that the work is doubled in the two-piston bal- 

 ance engine with the same velocity of piston ; 

 and that, by increasing the velocity one half, 

 the capacity is threefold that of an ordinary 

 engine of the same size of cylinder. There 

 seems to be a promising future for such an en- 

 gine, in which strains and shocks are minimized 

 and their destructive effects removed, when 

 employed in vessels and railroad locomotives. 

 SWEDEN AND NORWAY, two kingdoms 

 of northern Europe, united under the same 



dynasty. The King, Oscar II., born January 

 21, 1829, succeeded to the throne at the death 

 of his brother, Charles XV., September 18, 

 1872. He married, June 6, 1857, Sophia, 

 daughter of the Duke of Nassau, born July 9, 

 1836. Their oldest son is Gustavus, heir ap- 

 parent, Duke of Wermland, born June 16, 

 1858. 



SWEDEN. The executive authority is in the 

 hands of the King, who acts under the advice 

 of a ministry, formerly called the Council of 

 State. The composition of the ministry at the 

 close of 1878 was as follows: Baron L. de 

 Geer, Minister of State and Justice; O. M. 



