52 



NA TURE 



[May 1 8, 1893 



reputed weight of trains hauled without quoting the 

 average speed ? Surely the one can be of little service 

 without the other. Continental locomotive practice is 

 well represented in the types in use on the St. Gothard 

 railway. Of peculiar types of locomotives perhaps the 

 six-coupled double bogie Fairlie engine is a good example. 

 This engine, designed by Sir Alexander M. Rendel for 

 the Mexican Railway Company, is stated to be able to 

 haul a train weight of 3600 tons on the level. The 

 engine when fully charged carries 2850 gallons of water, 

 and has 300 cubic feet of room for coal, and weighs 92^ 

 tons. On regular duty the engines run on a section of 

 road which, for a length of fourteen miles, has many 

 gradients of i in 25, with curves of 350 feet radius. 

 More recent Fairlie engines supplied to this company 

 weigh 93 tons 16 cwt. in running order, and are reported 

 to do their work admirably. 



We now come to the description of the different types 

 of compound locomotives in use. These are practically 

 all included in the Webb and Worsdell types in use in 

 this country. Of the Webb type we find the Dread- 

 nought class, and, in the appendix, the Greater Britain, 

 thoroughly described and well illustrated. 



At the present time the London and North-Western 

 Railway Company have eighty-three compound loco- 

 motives of Mr. Webb's design at work, the total mileage 

 of which since 1882 up to the end of December, 1892, 

 -was 22,854,037 miles, with an average consumption of 

 35-I lbs. of coal per mile. This includes not only the 

 fuel consumed in actually working the train, but also 

 VI lbs. used in raising steam and all fuel consumed 

 whilst the engine is standing or shunting. The descrip- 

 tion of the Worsdell type of compound is equally clear, 

 and is well illustrated by the Great Eastern and North 

 Eastern locomotives. Why, however, are the Worsdell 

 intercepting and starting valves alone described and 

 illustrated .' when this type of valve is seldom if ever used 

 ■outside the North-Eastern Railway, the Worsdell Von 

 Borries, Lapage, disc automatic valve being generally 

 adopted in its place. Sixty Worsdell compound goods 

 •engines of the Mogul type have recently been sent to 

 India, the cylinders being respectively 20 inches and 28 

 inches in diameter, stroke 26 inches, and the coupled 

 wheels 5 feet \\ inches in diameter. These engines and 

 tenders weigh about 95 tons in running conditions. 



In the addenda to the second volume there is some 

 interesting information in reference to the construction 

 of American locomotives and boilers, and details are 

 freely illustrated. Following this is a description of the 

 Vauclain compound locomotive as made by the Baldwin 

 locomotive works. Then comes a short description of 

 the Westinghouse brake — a very good break no doubt ; 

 but why should not the Vacuum brake find a place in the 

 volume ? 



These volumes cannot of course be appreciated with- 

 out careful study. They are a perfect mine of infor- 

 mation, partly original, partly derived from contributions 

 to the proceedings of various technical institutions and 

 societies. The illustrations are excellent, and the 

 typography remarkably clear. The work should be 

 welcomed, both by the student and the engineer, as the 

 best text-book on the steam engine and boiler yet 

 published. N. J. Lockyer. 



NO. 1229. VOL. 48] 



A LIFE OF LOUIS AGASSIZ. 

 Louis Agassiz : his Life and Work. By Charles 

 Frederick Holder, LL.D., &c. (Leaders in Science.) 

 (G. Putnam's Sons, New York and London.) 

 "\ 1 riTHOUT a Life of Louis Agassiz a series of his- 

 * * tories of leaders in science would be incomplete. 

 Fortunately materials are not lacking, for in addition 

 to the " Life and Correspondence '' edited by his 

 widow, there are numerous sketches and accounts 

 of particular aspects of the man. The present volume 

 tells the main incidents of his life and work, plea- 

 santly and succinctly, and presents us with a clear 

 outline of a remarkable personality. The book is 

 well printed and the illustrations are not few. Some 

 are good, others are not specially connected with the 

 text, two are failures. Both relate to Switzerland. One 

 is a sensational picture of Agassiz' " descent into the 

 heart of a glacier," where he is being lowered down into a 

 crevasse, while the text clearly shows that he descended a 

 tnouliii. The other represents " Agassiz on the pinnacle 

 of the Jungfrau." We think that this must be a studio 

 composition, for the " pinnacle " is not very like what 

 we have seen, and the topography of the view is in- 

 comprehensible. 



Agassiz was a sturdy Swiss lad, uniting, as became 

 a Neuchatelois, something of French versatility with 

 German tenacity of purpose ; a close and keen observer 

 delighting in every aspect of nature, happily neither 

 " crammed " nor forced as a boy. When only twelve 

 years old he was an omnivorous collector, and 

 was more than this, a close student of his treasures. 



Intended for commerce, he prevailed upon his 

 parents to let him attend a course of classes at the 

 University of Lausanne, then to proceed to Heidellaerg 

 and Munich as a student of medicine. At the age 

 of twenty-three he had obtained the degree of doctor 

 in that faculty as well as in philosophy. By this 

 time, however, he had determined to devote himself to 

 science, having already made his mark by his work on 

 fresh-water fishes. After some stay in Paris a professor- 

 ship was ultimately created for him at Neuchatel, which 

 he held until a visit to America ended in his accepting 

 a post at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and settling down 

 in the United States. But before leaving his native land 

 he had become famous also by his studies of glaciers ; 

 still it was in the New World that the most important 

 part of his life's work was done. Apart from the immense 

 impulse which he gave to the progress of science in the 

 United States, his explorations along the coast of Florida, 

 in Brazil, on both coasts of South America, all sup- 

 plied abundant material for study, which was worked up 

 with unflagging industry. 



The book, in short, is a marvellous record of work ac- 

 complished. We read in it of incessant labours in the 

 lecture-room, the laboratory, and the field, yet the list of 

 his books and scientific papers appended to this volume 

 is perfectly appalling. Of the former there are thirty-nine, 

 large and small ; the list of the latter occupies twenty-two 

 and a-half pages, each containing about ten entries, on 

 the average. But this incessant activity, mental and 

 physical, wore out even the sturdy Switzer, careful as he 

 had always been in exercising the body. Cuvier's last words 



