February 1 1, 1892] 



NATURE 



355 



a small lake, about three-quarters of a mile ia width, out of 

 which flowed the stream which joins the Panja branch of the 

 Oxus at Bozai-Gumbaz. " 



After this Captain Younghusband made his way down to 

 Kashmir. 



THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL 

 ENGINEERS. 



o 



|N Thursday and Friday evenings of last week, the 4th and 



5th inst., the Institution of Mechanical Engineers held 



ir forty-fifth annual general meeting in the theatre of the 



Institution of Civil Engineers, lent for the purpose by the 



Council of the latter Society, according to custom. 



The first business was the reading of the annual report of the 

 Council, from which it appears that the Institution continues to 

 prosper, both in regard to finances and membership. The 

 accumulated surplus now amounts to about ^^36,000, and is 

 increasing at the rate of over ;^20oo per annum. At the end 

 of last year the number of names of all classes on the roll of 

 membership amounted to 2077, a net gain of 134 on the 

 previous year. 



The following two papers were read and discussed : — 



(1) Notes on mechanical features of the Liverpool Water- 

 works, and on the supply of power by pressure from the public 

 mains, and by other means, by Joseph Parry, water engineer, 

 Liverpool. 



(2) On the disposal and utilization of blast-furnace slag, by 

 William Hawdon, of Middlesborough. 



The first paper was chiefly valuable as recording an attempt 

 of the Liverpool Corporation, who control the water supply of 

 the city, to establish a system of power distribution by means of 

 the ordinary mains. The Liverpool water supply is chiefly 

 interesting at the present time from the fact that the Vyrnwy 

 works and connections are all but complete. When this system 

 is in operation the Liverpool mains will carry a pressure of 

 -water obtained by a natural head, due to the source of supply 

 being in the higher land of North Wales. At present there are 

 in active duty, in connection with the Liverpool Water-works, 

 some fine examples of veteran pumping-engines. There is a 

 Cornish engine and boiler erected at the Windsor station in 

 1840 ; a crank engine made in 1837 ; and a fine old Cornish 

 pumping-engine and boiler made by the celebrated firm of 

 Harvey and Co., of Hayle, in Cornwall. The cylinder of the 

 latter is 50 inches in diameter, with a 9-foot stroke, and is steam- 

 jacketed. The pump i? 17^ inches in diameter by 8 feet 9 

 inches stroke. The average boiler pressure is 35 pounds per 

 square inch. Since this engine began its career it has lifted 

 18,854 million foot-tons of water. By a recent trial its duty 

 ■was found to be 55 7 millions of foot-pounds per cwt. of coal. The 

 indicated horse-power is about 86. The figures serve to show 

 that, in spite of higher pressures and quicker piston-speeds, now 

 so much talked of, not so much advance has been made in the 

 ■economy of big engines as one might be led to suppose from the 

 efforts that are made to introduce three and four stage com- 

 pounding, and the virtues that are attributed to it. The 

 averse rate of water supply of Liverpool per head per day is 

 about 24i gallons, and the water is distributed on the constant 

 service system. Mr. P. Howden's figures as to cost of various 

 systems of power supply are valuable, but they would have been 

 rendered still more so had he taken the further trouble of intro- 

 ducing a more orderly system of classification, and had he 

 given, in one or two instances, fuller information as to the 

 elements upon which he had based his calculations. However, 

 we must not look our gift horse too curiously in the mouth, and 

 any information on one of the great problems of the hour — 

 common power supply from central stations— is to be made the 

 most of at present. No doubt civilization has lagged behind 

 somewhat in this respect. Power "laid on" in our houses 

 might be as much a matter of course as the bringing of gas and 

 water to us by automatic means ; and doubtless this would do 

 something towards solving that other great problem of the hour 

 — and most other hours — tbe domestic servant problem. At 

 present nearly all large buildings in London, and still more so 

 in America, have a fairly large power installation in their base- 

 ments. The number of steam boilers that are hidden away 

 among the foundations of large hotels, clubs, and stacks of 

 oflSces would surprise many people not familiar with these 

 matters. All this involves some waste of room and some waste 



NO. II 63, VOL. 45] 



of energy. In New York a few months ago an effort was made 

 to solve the problem of power distribution by generating steam 

 in a gigantic battery of boilers in one central station, and 

 running the steam pipes all over the city ; so that one had only 

 to open a valve and the steam engine could be started forth- 

 \vith. The scheme was not altogether a success. After a very 

 short time New Yorkers were disagreeably surprised by 

 artificial geysers and mud fountams springing up in the middle 

 of some of the most frequented thoroughfares. A great outcry 

 vyas raised, and for some time it seemed as if popular indigna- 

 tion would compel the company to stop their work. We 

 believe, however, that there have been improvements lately, but 

 it does not seem probable that steam, conveyed in pipes, will be 

 the means by which power distribution will find its solu- 

 tion in England. Compressed air possesses strong advo- 

 cates, and in Paris the Popp system, originally devised 

 simply for working clocks from a common centre, has 

 proved a success. In England, however, we have the 

 recent failure at Birmingham, where much money has 

 been spent and many disappointments caused by an en- 

 deavour to supply compressed air for power purposes in 

 the city, which, perhaps, of all others in the world, offers the 

 most promising field for such an enterprise. The Hydraulic 

 Power Company has proved a success in London, and its rami- 

 fications extend over a wider area than most people imagine ; 

 but here, we think, the enterprise finds by far its greatest outlet 

 simply in working elevators and lifts. The gas companies are 

 the largest distributors of power. Perhaps the keenest struggle 

 for lighting and supplying domestic power will be between gas 

 and electricity. The latter has the advantage, from a power 

 point of view, that the motor is clean, compact, odourless, and 

 comparatively noiseless. There is no denying that the gas-engine 

 is not a pleasant neighbour. It is also difficult to start, and re- 

 quires a large water supply ; it smells badly, and makes a noise. 

 On the other hand, it is far cheaper than electricity. Mr. Parry, 

 in his paper, gives an instance of a gas-engine working a hoist 

 in Liverpool at the cost of one-third of a penny per indicated 

 horse-power per hour, and this we should not class as a low 

 figure by any means ; whilst Sir James Douglass stated that the 

 charge made for the same unit of power by the Liverpool Electric 

 Supply Company was 5^/. per hour. There is one other source 

 of power which is yet in its extreme infancy, but of which, we 

 think, much will be heard before long. That is the oil-engine. 

 It cannot be brought into the category of power distribution, 

 however, as each motor of this kind must work on its own 

 bottom. For country districts and isolated positions, at any rate, 

 it offers great promise, and will assuredly take a prominent posi- 

 tion when the mechanical details have been brought to a higher 

 state of perfection. The chief interest in Mr. Parry's paper 

 centres in the tables giving figures as to cost. These may be 

 briefly summed up in the statement that when water at high 

 pressure (700 pounds) can be bought for z^s. per thousand gal- 

 lons, water power at average domestic pressure (50 to 70 pounds) 

 cannot compete with it. Whether high pressure water will be 

 able to beat electricity and gas is a problem the solution of 

 which is hidden in the future ; and doubtless all the systems 

 mentioned have advantages peculiar to them which would give 

 each in turn the preference under given conditions. Hydraulic 

 distribution has a great point in its favour when the exhaust- 

 water can be used for other purposes. 



The disposal of blast-furnace slag would not appear a very in- 

 teresting question to the uninitiated, but it is really a very 

 important matter. In Great Britain the iron-masters of the 

 country produce annually 12,000,000 tons of this all but 

 unused material. It is the refuse of iron-smelting, and it may 

 be added that this annual supply of waste matter absorbs, and 

 radiates uselessly into space, heat units which require for their 

 production 653,000 tons of coal. A very small part of this slag 

 is applied to any useful end ; by far the greater quantity of it 

 simply cumbers the ground, or necessitates the spending of large 

 sums in carrying it out to sea. Of course, iron cannot be made 

 without producing slag. To smelt the ore limestone has to be 

 used in order to separate the various impurities with which it is 

 blended. In this way the slag is produced, and the purer metal 

 is obtained. Mr. Hawdon has devised a machine by which he 

 claims to have facilitated the removal and utilization of the slag. 

 In general principle it is not altogether novel, but it possesses 

 some features which, its inventor claims, renaer its working a 

 success, whereas failure has hitherto accompanied such efforts. 

 In the blast furnace the molten slag separates from molten 



