356 



NATURE 



{Feb. 9, 1888 



drive pumping and ice-making machinery and an air-propeller 

 fixed in the roof for ventilating ; on the farm the motors are used 

 for elevating hay and corn sheaves to the top of the stacks, for 

 thrashing, for cutting rough grass with a chaff-cutting machine 

 for ensilage, in fields extending to a distance of two miles, for 

 grinding corn, &c., to make fodder, and for other purposes. The 

 motors have also been used for pile-driving, for making coffer- 

 dams where necessary in the river, and also for dredging the 

 river and clearing it of weeds, and for pumping the town sewage 

 into a tank at the height of thirty feet for irrigation. The con- 

 ductors are carried overhead on poles about the farm and under- 

 ground in wooden troughs to the house. The practical methods 

 employed for electric locomotion — being those of a third insulated 

 rail, an overhead conductor, an underground insulated conductor, 

 and storage batteries — are described, and examples of the applica- 

 tion of all are given. To the first belong the Portrush Railway, 

 and Besbrook and Newry Tramway ; to the next the electric 

 railway at Moedling, near Vienna, and the Frankfort-Offenbach 

 railway. This plan has been most largely adopted in America, 

 where there are probably not far short of one hundred electric 

 railways at work and projected. Of the underground conductor, 

 the most important example is the electric tramway at Blackpool, 

 while storage batteries are being employed on the North Metro- 

 politan Tramway in London. The ordinary rails have been used 

 as conductors in the short electric railway at Brighton, where 

 the expenses amount to twopence per car-mile. 



The plan of transporting material in skips on overhead wire- 

 ropes by means of electricity, introduced under the name of 

 telpherage by Prof. Fleeming Jenkin, has been employed with 

 success for two years past at Glynde, near Lewes, for trans- 

 porting clay to the railway over a distance of 1600 yards, and is 

 applicable for use in places where material has to be conveyed 

 across hilly districts. In the author's opinion a modification of 

 this plan might be advantageously applied to alleviate the heavy 

 street traffic in our larger cities. 



The author considers the question of electric lighting under 

 the three aspects of comfort, convenience, and economy. As 

 regards the first two, electric lighting has the advantage over 

 other systems ; whilst as regards cost, although electric lighting, 

 and especially incandescent electric lighting, is still heavy, yet 

 for lighting main streets and railway stations, or other places 

 where concentrated light is required, the arc light is cheaper 

 than gas. As its use extends, the cost of working becomes re- 

 duced. Thus in the Waverley Station, Edinburgh, on the North 

 British Railway, thirty-three arc lamps, with 41,884 lamp hours, 

 cost 277 pence per lamp hour from July to December 1884; 

 whilst in 1886, thirty-nine arc lamps, having 55,068 lamp hours, 

 cost I "79 penny per lamp hour. 



The cost of incandescent lighting is especially variable, and 

 affected by the local conditions of the installation. The chief of 

 these are the average number of hours of lighting each lamp, and 

 the average distance of the lamps from the generating station. 

 Where conditions are favourable, incandescent lighting can 

 already compete with gas. Messrs. George Jager and Sons' 

 yearly cost of lighting their sugar refinery at Leith is given as 

 an example, it having been ^347 with gas and ^204 with in- 

 candescent lamps. The author draws special attention to the 

 circumstance of the much larger application of electricity to 

 lighting in the United States as compared with this country. Tn 

 the United States there is hardly a city or town of 20,000 in- 

 habitants which has not a central station for arc or incandescent 

 lamps ; and many towns of 3000 to 4000 inhabitants are also 

 supporting them. 



The efficiency of dynamo machines being as high as 95 

 per cent., and there not being much likelihood of material 

 improvement in steam engines, the author draws attention to 

 the importance of improving the lamps by making them with a 

 higher resistance and greater efficiency, the voltage having a great 

 effect on the cost of working distant lamps. Transformers, by 

 means of which high tension currents of electricity, sent from a 

 distant generating station along a small conductor with com- 

 paratively small percentage of loss, can then be converted into 

 low tension currents for the supply of ordinary incandescent 

 lamps, are receiving a large amount of attention, the loss by 

 conversion being as low sometimes as 5 per cent. Efforts are 

 also being made to introduce the system of secondary batteries, 

 charged in series by a high tension current, and discharged in 

 parallel circuit, and if it can once be demonstrated to be 

 economical, there would be a large field of application. At 

 Leamington an extensive central station is now at work, the 



cost of the undertaking being ;iC30,ooo ; while the Bradford 

 Corporation have recently voted a sum of ;^i5,ooo for erecting a 

 central station in their town. Both these are instances of direct 

 supply without transformers or secondary batteries. Electric 

 metallurgy is a branch of electric engineering to which attention 

 was first drawn by the late Sir William Siemens, whose death 

 occurred before he had perfected his invention. The electro- 

 chemical separation of ores on a commercial scale by the electric 

 furnace has been recently put to the test, chiefly in obtaining 

 aluminium from conundrum. The furnace designed by Prof. 

 Mabery is built of fire-brick and lined with powdered charcoal ; 

 electricity is conducted to the ore by carbon rods, meeting near 

 the centre. The ore mixed with charcoal and granulated copper 

 surrounds and covers the carbons ; the furnace is closed with a 

 layer of charcoal and a lid lined with fire-brick. A current of 

 50 volts electromotive force is supplied and melts the metal 

 around the electrodes, which are moved apart gradually until the 

 whole is melted. The conundrum becomes gradually deoxi- 

 dized, the aluminium combining with the copper, while the 

 oxygen with the carbon escapes as carbonic oxide, about five 

 hours sufficing to complete the reduction. Aluminium, being 

 only one-third the weight of iron, and possessing great strength, 

 its production at a cheap rate would probably cause a revolution 

 in engineering construction. 



The meeting was presided over by Mr. E. H. Carbutt, the 

 President, who was re-elected to the chair, whilst Sir Douglas 

 Galton, K.C.B., was the new member elected on the Council. 

 The meeting was as usual of a very successful character. 



THE NATIONAL SMOKE ABATEMENT 

 INSTITUTION} 



IN presenting the Report to the members for the year 1887, 

 the Council consider it desirable to reprint from the Memo- 

 randum of Association the objects for which the Institution was 

 established. These are the following : — 



To promote the abatement of coal smoke and other noxious 

 products of combustion in cities and other places, in order to 

 render the atmosphere as pure and as pervious to sunlight as 

 practicable. To check the present serious waste of coal, and 

 the direct and indirect loss and damage accompanying the over- 

 production of smoke and noxious products of combustion. To 

 continue, organize, and extend the public movement inaugurated 

 and hitherto carried on by the Smoke Abatement Committees 

 (otherwise known as the Joint Committees for Abatement of 

 Smoke, apjsointed by the National Health Society and Kyrle 

 Society of London, and the Smoke Abatement Committee of 

 MancDester), and to take up and proceed with any work under- 

 taken or commenced by such Committees. To advance the 

 aforesaid objects by promoting and enc .uraging the better and 

 more economical use of coal and coal pro-iucts, and the selection 

 of suitable fuel, as well as general improvement in the various 

 modes of obtaining, applying, and using heat and light for 

 domestic and industrial purposes. And in connection with such 

 objects to obtain and provide such buildings, appliances, and 

 assistance as may be deemed expedient. And without prejudice 

 to the advancement of the objects aforesaid by other means to 

 advance the same by the following means more particularly : — 



(a) By calling public attention to the serious pecuniary loss 

 and injury, to the health and comfort, which arise from coal 

 smoke, and from defective heating, ventilating, and lighting 

 arrangements. 



(h) By stimulating, assisting, and encouraging inventors, 

 manufacturers, traders, and others to bring forward, develop, 

 and perfect new or improved fuels, substances, methods, and 

 appliances for the generation or application of heat or light, 

 and for consuming or lessening the production of smoke and 

 noxious products of combustion. 



(f) By conducting practical trials of fuels, apparatus, and 

 systems connected with the genei-ation or application of heat or 

 light, and causing reports to be made thereon for the guidance, 

 assistance, or information of inventors, traders, intending users, 

 and the public generally. 



{d) By granting awards, certificates, medals, or prizes in 

 connection with approved fuels, methods, or apparatus. 



{e) By establishing, or assisting in establishing, public ex- 

 hibitions, either periodical or otherwise, of appliances pertaining 

 to heating, ventilating, or lighting. 



* Report of the Council for the year 1SS7. 



