Feb. 9, 1883.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



85 



in reducing the resistance. Ribbons under other systems 

 are impracticable, owing to technical difficulties attending 

 the proper insulation of that peculiar section." Shades of 

 Ohm I Tiij' laws no longer reign, but, doomed to ignominy, 

 find rest only in the minds of scientists and fanatics. 

 " liesistance varies inversely as tlie cross-section," was one 

 of Ohm's simple deductions, and one which we imagined 

 no one in these days would dare to deny ; but Jlr. ileyer 

 holds tliat if a wire is flattened out (the cross-section 

 remaining unaltered) its resistance is reduced. 



Turning our steps southward, we observe a considerable 

 increase in the amount of gas illumination both in the nave 

 and in the various adjoining courts, while down the centre 

 and along the western side are to be seen many highly- 

 interesting displays of gas apparatus for lighting, heating, 

 \entilating, and cooking. 



In the Pompeian House there is a very good light, sup- 

 plied by the Albo-Carbon Light Company. Each burner is 

 accompanied with a means for purifying and improving the 

 gas prior to its arriving at the burner. The result is a much 

 larger proportion of consumed gas, compared to that which 

 passes away unconsumed, and a relatively higher degree of 

 luminosity. Sir. George Bower illuminates the Birmingham 

 Oourt with the Lewis incandescent gas-burner and the 

 Orimston regenerative burner. These two recently-in- 

 troduced principles of gas-lighting are, however, of such 

 paramount interest and importance, that we could scarcely 

 do justice to them at the tail end of a general review. We 

 must, therefore, defer for a week or two our descriptive 

 remarks on these lights, as well as on the Diamond incan- 

 descent burner, which is exhiliited Ity Edouard Servier, of 

 Paris, in the Chinese Court. The light given by the Lewis 

 burner is certainly all that could be desired, each burner 

 consuming 8 ft. per hour of ordinary sixteen-candle gas, 

 and emitting a light said to be equal to forty candles. 

 Upstairs the suite of apartments so elegantly fitted out last 

 year Viy various West-end upholsterers, and illuminated by 

 Edison lamps, is now occupied by the Gas Committee. It 

 will be remembered that last winter the rooms called 

 forth the admiration of every visitor, the furniture 

 being adorned by a light which readily lends 

 itself to the artist's hands, yields a soft and steady 

 light, and, while it in no way vitiates the air, exerts no 

 injurious influence upon the decorations. Messrs. Atkinson 

 & Co., of Westminster Bridge-road, are the present fur- 

 nishers, and have apparently embellished the rooms to the 

 fullest extent of their power, the light Ijeing supplied by 

 gas consumed in the Grimsten and Sugg burners. The 

 effect is pretty and everything tastily arranged, but with 

 the greatest desire for impartiality it is impossible to deny 

 the palm to last year's adornment, thanks to Mr. Edison. 



Beyond the Gas Committee's Exhibit there is nothing to 

 be seen in the gallery, which, remembering the disappoint- 

 ment experienced and expressed by many exhibitors located 

 there last year, is scarcely to be regretted. 



The electric street firo alarnms placed thronghont Glasgow were 

 used liJ2 times to intimate the outbreak of fires during last year, 

 and in 45 instances were the means of cilling oat the brigade 

 unnecessarily — 15 of which alarms were given with good intent, 

 nine through contact with other wires, and 21 thoughtlessly or 

 miscliievonsly. 



Tm; foreign settlement at Shanghai has for some time been 

 lighted on the Bmsh system, but the Chinese governor of the dis- 

 trict has addressed a letter to the senior Foreign Consul, ror|ue.<ting 

 » removal of all the electric lamps. He has read, he says, in trans- 

 lations from European papers, that terrible accidents have arisen 

 from electricity. He h.as, therefore, strictly forbidden bis own 

 countrymen to use it, and has percnii)torily ordered those who have 

 already adopted it to discontinue it forthwith. 



"CLERK" OR "CLARK." 



Bv E. A. Fm:E.M.\K, LL.D., D.C.K 



rpHERE is one word on which I wish to speak a little 

 X more at large, as a clear instance in which the school- 

 master or the printed text or some other artificial influence 

 has brought about a distinct change in pronunciation. The 

 word " clerk " is in England usually sounded " dark," 

 while in America it is usually sounded " clurk." I say 

 " usually," because I did once hear " clurk " in England — 

 from a London shopman^and because I was told at 

 Philadelphia that some old people there still said " dark," 

 and —a. most iiiii>ortant fact — that those who said " dark " 

 also said "nirtrcliant." Kow it is quite certain that "dark" 

 is the older pronunciation, the pronunciation which the 

 first settlers must have taken with them. This is proved 

 by the fact that the word as a surname — and it is one of 

 the commonest of surnames — is always souaded, and most 

 commonly written, " Clark " or " Clarke." 1 suspect that 

 " Clerk " as a surname, so spelled, is di.stinetivdy '• Scotch," 

 in the modern sense of that word. Also in writers of the 

 sixteenth and early seventeenth century, the word itself is 

 very oftsn written " dark " or " clarke." But of course 

 "clerk" was at all times the more clerkly spelling, as 

 showing the French and Latin origin of the word. It is 

 plain therefore that the pronunciation "clurk" is not 

 traditional, but has been brought in artificially, out of a 

 notion of making the sound conform to the spelling. But 

 " clurk " is no more the true sound than " dark "; the true 

 sound is " clairk," like French " clerc," and a Scotsman 

 would surely sound it so. " Clark " and " clurk " are both 

 mere approximations to the French sound, and " dark " is 

 the older, and surely the more natural approximation. 

 The truth is that we cannot sound " clerk " as it is spelled j 

 that is, we cannot give the e before r the same sound which 

 w^e give it when it is followed by any other consonant. 

 Wo cannot sound e in " clerk " exactly as we sound e in 

 "tent." This applies to a crowd of words, some of Latin 

 origin, in which the spelling is e, Init in which the sound 

 has, just as in " clerk," fluctuated between a and m. The 

 old people at Philadelphia who said " d"rk " also said 

 " marchant." And quite rightly, for they had on their 

 side both older English usage and, in this case, the French 

 spelling itself. The sound "m?frchant " has come in, both 

 in England and in America, by exactly the same process as 

 that by which the sound " clwrk " has come in in America, 

 but not in England. In these cases the words arc of Latin 

 origin : so is " German," which people used to sound 

 "Jarman" — as in the memorable story of the Oxford 

 University preacher who wished the "Jarman theology "at 

 the bottom of the "Jarman Ocean." But the same thing 

 happens to a crowd of Teutonic proper names, as Derby, 

 Berkeley, Berkshire, Bernard, Bertram, and others. In 

 these names the original Old-English vowel is "'-o"; the 

 modem spelling and the different modern pronunciations 

 are mere approximations, just as when the vowel is the 

 French or Latin e. One has heard "Darby" and " Dwrby," 

 " B«7rkeley " and " Bwrkeley " ; and though the a sound is 

 now deemed the more polite, yet 1 believe that fashion has 

 fluctuated in this matter, as in most others. And fashion, 

 whether fluctuating or not, is at least inconsistent ; if it is 

 polite to talk of " Br/rkshire " and " Darby," it is no 

 longer polite to talk about " Jarman " and "Jersey." But 

 in all these cases there can be no doubt that the a sound 

 is the older. The names of which I have spoken are 

 often spelled with an a in old writers ; and the a sound 

 has for it the witness of the most familiar spelling of 

 several of the names when used as surnames. " Darby,' 



