216 



• KNOWLEDGE • 



[Apbil 13, 1883. 



the engine-rooin. A cable of 150 ft. in length runs from 

 the engine-room to the lilirary and dining-room, where 

 branch wires go to the clusters of lamps. Each chandelier 

 is kept under perfect control by n)eans of an automatic 

 regulator. The contract for the lighting extends to the 

 end of the present session of Parliament. 



At the forthcoming electrical exhibition in Vienna 

 there is to be a pavilion specially constructed according to 

 the wishes of the Emperor of Austria, and designed to 

 show the effect of the electric light on cloths and broideries. 

 Diflerent systems will be exhibited. The Academy of 

 Painting and Sculpture at Berlin has been lighted by 200 

 Edison lamps, and the dynamo is driven by a Ruston- 

 Proctor engine of sixteen horse-power. At Buda-Pesth, 

 the capital of Hungary, the National Theatre is to be 

 lighted by 1,000 Swan lamps. The theatre of Brunn, in 

 Moravia, has been lighted for several months by Edison 

 lamps. The municipality of IMoscow has voted a sum of 

 80,000 roubles for the illuminations on the occasion of the 

 Czar's coronation, in May. The Citadel of the Kremlin 

 will be lighted by forty 400-candle power lamps. 



The Edison System in 'PKUis.—L'Eleclricite says : — 

 " On the 20th March M. Louis llau, manager of the Society 

 Edison, gave a brilliant reception in his salons. Edison 

 lamps replaced candles and gas-burners throughout. On 

 the commencement of the cotillon, towards 2 a.m., each of 

 the lady dancers was presented with a bouquet, in the 

 middle of which shone an incandescent lamp. After a 

 mazy val.se, the bouquets were deposited on a dais, where 

 they formed a grand constellation of flowers and light. 

 The lamps were fed by means of batteries devised by M. 

 Trouve." 



Purifying Air for BREATniNC. — An apparatus — 

 Stanley's patent — is now being brought out for the pur- 

 poses of cooling, purifying, and disinfecting the air of 

 saloons, cabins, hospitals, kc, by Mr. W. L. Thompson, of 

 York-buildings, Adelphi. The system consists in pumping 

 cold water through pipes which are fi.xed in the ceilings, 

 running the length and across the saloon or ward in an 

 hospital. In these pipes are fixed rods, outside which it 

 is intended that a thin film of water shall trickle down, 

 ■which will be regulated by a cap fitted to the upper end of 

 the rod. The water, in thus running down the rod will, it 

 is claimed, absorb all the particles of dust, kc, that 

 may be floating in the air, also cool and purify the 

 vitiated atmosphere ; and any of the known purifying 

 chemical agents can be mixed with the water for the pur- 

 pose of disinfecting, such as Condy's fluid. The water, 

 after running down the rods, will bo carried away by an 

 arrangement of pipes under the flooring. To prevent any 

 contact w ith the water, a guard of brass wire gauze can be 

 fixed. 



Respiratohs Foil Mines. — Mr. Dickinson, IT.M. Chief 

 Inspector of Mines, made an important communication to 

 the memljers of the Manchester Geological Society at their 

 meeting on Tuesday. His attention, he said, had been re- 

 quested to the suliject of a respirator and a lamp for pene- 

 trating noxious gases in mines ; and, after detailing the 

 various eflbrts which had been made in this direction, he 

 gave a description of the Fleuss exploring respirator, to 

 which, he said, the attention of the Secretary of State had 

 been drawn ; and the Government were anxious that the 

 inspectors of mines should make it well known, and that 

 the various colliery districts should participate in its 



benefits. It was suggested that stations should be orga- 

 nised in mining districts, where the apparatus should be 

 stored in suflicient numbers, and maintained in readiness 

 for immediate use, and where the instruction of the men 

 from the surrounding coal-mines in its use should be sys- 

 tematically carried out, in order that a rescuing party could 

 thus be speedily on the spot after the occurrence of an 

 accident. Satisfactory results had been secured with the 

 apparatus, but with it organisation was required ; oxygen 

 gas had to be provided, and men instructed in the use of 

 the apparatus. The diving-dress in connection with the 

 apparatus was acknowledged, and practised now and then 

 in pumping pits ; and it was put on when upwards of 200 

 men were shut up in the Hartley Colliery, and had been 

 proposed for other occasions without, however, much useful 

 efiect. The question of safety-lamps was also before the 

 meeting, and it was urged by Mr. Purdy, of Nottingham, 

 that, as it was well known many explosions had been caused 

 by the faulty construction of lamps, every lamp-maker 

 ought to be made reponsible for each lamp he sent out 



The Rational Dress Association will hold their Exhi- 

 bition of Rational Dress in the New Princes' Hall, Picca- 

 dilly, W. (shortly to be opened by T.R.H. the Prince and 

 Princess of Wales, on or about May 1.5. Prizes from £5 

 to £50, with Silver and Bronze Medals, will be given to 

 successful competitors who invent garments for either sex 

 which comply with the following conditions, viz. : — 1. 

 Freedom of movement ; 2. Absence of pressure over any 

 part of the body ; 3. Not more weight than is necessary 

 for warmth, and both weight and warmth evenly dis- 

 tributed ; 4. Grace and beauty combined with comfort and 

 convenience ; 5. Not departing too conspicuously from the 

 ordinary dress of the time. 



The loss by worn silver, withdrawn from circulation 

 because of deficiency in weight caused by wear, last year 

 amounted to not less than £35,000. 



There are 25-t miles of tramways built abroad with 

 English capital, for which £3,584,700 has been required. 



The constructed and authorised tramway mileage of the 

 United Kingdom is nearly 400 miles, the authorised 

 capital being about £11,000,000. 



M. SiLVESTRi has recorded — " Bull, de la Soc. Chim.," 

 Dec. 20, 1882 — that some years ago he found in a basaltic 

 rock, cavities filled with a liquid which partly solidified on 

 cooling. This liquid consisted of a mixture of hydro- 

 carbons containing 42 8 per cent, of parafline. Its density 

 was 0-9475 at 20°. On carefully studying this rock he 

 came across other cavities, of about 1 centimetre in 

 diameter, filled with a solid crystallised parafline. This 

 substance is yellowish-white, resembling wax. It melts at 

 56^, and boils at 300°. It is insoluble in water, almost 

 insoluble in cold alcohol, very soluble in ether. It is 

 almost identical with the solid parafline contained in the 

 liquid mentioned above. Its composition is represented by 

 the following mean numbers : — Carbon, 84003 ; hydrogen, 

 15 84G; total, 09-840. The " Journal" of the Society of 

 Chemical Industry remarks : — " With reference to Pro- 

 fessor Silvestri's interesting observation of the occurrence 

 of a parafline in the lava from Etna, the fact may be re- 

 called that twenty years ago Professor Roscoe extracted 

 a waxy siibstance containing parafline from the Alais 

 meteorite." 



