September 24, 1891] 



NA TURE 



509 



inconvenient form ; they are far too expensive ; -they are 

 difficult to obtain outside of London. The Committee of this 

 Section sent a strongly-worded resolution to the Council of the 

 Association, recommending, among other things, that the 

 Directorship of the Suivey, instead of being merely a staff ap- 

 pointment, should be made a permanent office. Unfortunately, 

 the resolution submitted to the General Committee omitted this 

 and other important points, so that in its final form it does not 

 amount to much. 



Mr. James Thomson's paper on photography applied to 

 exploration contained suggestions of great practical value. He 

 showed the value of the camera, not only in recordinggeographical 

 features and types of people, but even as an adjunct to regular 

 surveys. 



The subject of geographical education was introduced in a short 

 paper by Mr. J. Scott Keltic, who spoke of the results which 

 had followed the action initiated by the Royal Geographical 

 Society a few years ago. Advances have been made in many 

 directions ; Chairs have been established in Oxford and 

 Cambridge ; and a higher conception of geography and of its 

 practical utility has begun to prevail. Happily, the attempt 

 to obtain the Section's approval for the foundation of a local 

 Geographical Society in Cardifl' failed. 



Among other papers worthy of mention were two by Colonel 

 H. Tanner, of the Indian Survey — one on a new method of 

 Bar-Subtense surveying, and a second on some of the principal 

 tribes of the Himalayas. 



MECHANICS A T THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 

 T N Section G, Mr. T. Forster Brown, an engineer well known 

 in the locality in connection with mining industry, was the 

 President. There was an average list of papers, but the dis- 

 cussions were not so full as is sometimes the case in this Section. 

 As a consequence, the sittings were got through with more than 

 ordinary speed ; there being no meeting on the Saturday, and the 

 whole business of the Section was completed by two o'clock on the 

 Tuesday of the meeting. The President's address was given as 

 usual on the Thursday, and referred to mechanical details 

 in connection with mining. In character with the meeting it 

 was brief. The usual vote of thanks having been moved and 

 seconded, Prof. Osborne Reynolds proceeded to read the third 

 Report of the Committee appointed to investigate the action of 

 waves and currents on the beds and foreshores of estuaries by 

 means of working models. It will be remembered that this 

 Committee arose out of a paper read by Prof Osborne Reynolds 

 at the last Manchester meeting of the Association ; and this, in 

 turn, arose out of the investigations made upon a working model 

 of the Mersey estuary in connection with the then proposed ! 

 Manchester Ship Canal operations. The further investigations 

 referred to in the last report have been conducted on the same 

 system as previously described. The chief object of this series 

 has been to obtain further information as to the final condition 

 of equilibrium with long tidal rivers entering the head of a V- 

 shaped estuary ; to obtain more complete verification of the j 

 value of the criterion of similarity ; to investigate the effect of 

 tides in the generator diverging from simple harmonic tides ; | 

 and to determine the comparative effect of tides varying from | 

 spring to neap. It would be impossible in this brief report of 

 the proceedings of the Section to give an idea of the results at 

 which the Committee arrived, or rather the results shown by the 

 experiments, more especially without the aid of the diagrams by 

 which the Report was illustrated. 



The next business was the reading of a paper by Mr. G. 



Chatterton, in which a sewer was described that has lately been 



i constructed to carry off the sewerage of a neighbouring district, 



and thus relieve the River Taff of some of its present foul 



burden. The sewer, no doubt, is a meritorious engineering 



work, but not one of magnitude or especial novelty. The most 



notable point is that the Taff has to be crossed seven times, and 



this is effected by means of inverted syphons which go below the 



1 river bed. The principle, of course, is not new. The chief 



I interest was in the speech made by Mr. Baldwin Latham during 



\ the discussion, in the course of which the speaker exclaimed 



I against the " faddists " who maintain that what is taken from 



K the earth should be returned to the earth. Mr. Latham is of 



[ opinion that what is taken from the earth should be given to 



; the sea. The ocean, he says, was given to the engineer as a 



NO. II43, VOL. 44] 



receptacle of sewage— presumably among other functions. 

 Moreover, Mr, Latham tells us that it is more profitable to 

 put sewage in the sea than to keep it on the land. It en- 

 courages the growth of marine fauna ; and it is, so Mr. Latham 

 says, a well-known fact that where there is most sewage there 

 are most fish. As there were no "faddists" present, Mr, 

 Latham had it all his own way. 



Mr. L. F. Vernon Harcourt's paper described the engineering 

 operations carried on in the neighbouring River Usk and the 

 harbour of Newport. This paper, again, did not bring forward 

 any points of particular novelty. Mr. Vernon Harcourt is pro- 

 ceeding on the now fairly well recognized lines of increasing the 

 tidal flow. Mr. Abernethy spoke in the discussion, and told the 

 Section how he had once resigned his position in connection 

 with the Swansea Harbour Board because it was proposed to 

 canalize the river. The question might, we think, have been 

 discussed with advantage — although, perhaps, not in connection 

 with the rivers referred to — how far volume of ebb and flow, as 

 compared with velocity, is the ruling factor. 



Mr. W. Key, of Glasgow, described the system of ventilation 

 and heating which he had introduced in the Victoria Infirmary, 

 Glasgow. Here, again, we have no new theories enunciated, 

 but the paper was none the less valuable on that account — per- 

 haps more valuable. Mr. Key has taken recognized principles, 

 selecting and arranging in a common-sense manner, and put 

 them into practical shape. The consequence is, we hear, that 

 the atmosphere in the Infirmary is as sweet as that outside — in fact,^ 

 more so ; for, whilst there may be fog in the street and mist on 

 the hill-side, the wards are dry and clear. The circulation of 

 air is by rotary fans driven from a gas-engine. A point upon 

 which Mr. Key strongly insists is a screen down which water 

 is constantly trickling, and which is automatically flushed at 

 intervals. This has the effect of converting dust and other float- 

 ing particles into mud. The air is heated over steam-pipes in 

 the winter. Admission is 5 feet above ground, and eduction is 

 from the floor-level, so that dust passes off, the air current 

 assisting gravitation. 



On the second day's sitting, Friday, August 21, the chief 

 interest was absorbed by Sir Edward Reed's paper, in which he 

 gave certain particulars of the Channel tubular railway, which 

 he proposes some day to construct, supposing the Fates are pro- 

 pitious. If one may believe the eminent engineers who took 

 part in the discussion, the Fates never will be propitious, for 

 Sir Edward violates the first and cardinal rule of engineering 

 enterprise in propounding a scheme that cannot pay. Sir 

 Edward says his double tube, which is to be laid on the bottom 

 of the sea — it is not a tunnel — will cost 12 to 14 millions. Sir 

 Benjamin Baker says that Sir Edward must double his figures, 

 and even then he will not have money enough. It has been 

 stated on the highest authority that the Channel traffic would 

 not pay interest on a million and a quarter spent on harbours ; 

 and, if this be the case, there would be a poor prospect for those 

 who would subscribe money for even a Channel Tunnel, far more 

 a tubular railway, and most of all a Channel Bridge, such as 

 Messrs. Schneider and Hersent propose. Sir Edward's scheme 

 is sufficiently heroic. He would construct two mammoth tubes, 

 of steel plate and concrete, 20 feet in diameter. The tubes would 

 be made in lengths, and when two lengths were completed they 

 would be joined together in parallel, 50 feet apart, and floated 

 out into the Channel to be attached to the completed length. 

 The first part of the construction, near the shore, would not be 

 difficult, but if ever Sir Edward gets out into deep water, say 

 200 feet, he will find troubles enough. All work is to be done 

 above water. Thus the end of the completed part of the double 

 tube will be kept afloat until a fresh length is joined on. Then 

 that will be allowed to sink, and the last attached part will form 

 the end of the completed part. In this way, so long as the work 

 of construction is in progress, the part of the tubes last completed 

 will slope up from the sea bottom to the surface, so that 

 the next length may be attached. The scheme is splendid in its 

 disregard of difficulties. It is worthy of the fervid genius of 

 Jules Verne. 



Prof. W. Robinson next read a paper on petroleum engines. 

 It would appear that this description of motor is likely to come 

 to the frorit, if one may judge from the fact that their manu- 

 facture is being taken up by some important engineering firms. 

 Priestman Bros., of Hull, have been at work on the problem for 

 the last year or two, and it is chiefly of the Priestman engine 

 that Prof. Robinson speaks. Crossley Bros,, of Manchester, 

 who have made such a brilliant success with the Otto gas engine, 



