26 



• KNOW^LEDGE ♦ 



[July 13, 1883. 



of the best, and that a pennywise policy should never be 

 resorted to. From what has been recently going the 

 rounds, it is to be feared that too little attention is being 

 given to these latter requirements, and that the value of 

 employes is estimated more by their servility and energy in 

 " touching their hats to their superiors " than by their 

 capacity for useful and remunerative work. 



Overhead Wires ix the United States. — Great 

 opposition is being made, especially in Chicago, to the prac- 

 tice of the telephone and telegraph companies of carrying 

 wires close to or over the roofs of houses, without the con- 

 sent of the owners, or any compensation paid to them. In 

 consequence of several adverse decisions, the companies in 

 some places propose to stop communications. 



Consul Berthold, of Breslau, had a free pass given 

 him as a director of the Breslau, Schweidnitz, and Freiburg 

 Eailroad. He used it to secure free transportation for a 

 part of the baggage of his wife and daughter when going 

 to Marienbad. For this lie was arrested and tried by a 

 criminal court, charged with illegally obtaining a service 

 worth 1 -38 dols. He was found guilty, and sentenced to 

 imprisonment for one week. He appealed, but in the 

 higher court, his sentence was confirmed. What, says the 

 Railroad Gazette, if this were thus in America ? 



In Switzerland in 1881 the average distance run per 

 lo^comotive was 16,039 : on the German railroads it was 

 17,185 ; and on the Austro-Hungarian roads 16,010 miles. 

 In this country by the last census it was 22,355 miles. 

 Here, therefore, 100 locomotives do as much work as 131 

 in Germany, 139 in Switzerland, and 140 in Austro- 

 Hungary. — Eaginner. 



How A Locomotive was Raised from a River. — The 

 Ehn-ated Railroad Journal relates how the feat of raisin^ 

 a huge freight engine from the mud in Bush River, on the 

 Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad, below 

 Havre de Grace, was successfully accom[)lished a few days 

 ago. The engine fell through the drawbridge some time 

 ago. The difficulties of the feat may be imagined when it 

 is understood that the engine was several feet below the 

 water's surface, and completely buried in the mud. The 

 wreckers have been at work a week, the first thing accom- 

 plished being the placing of heavy chains beneath the great 

 mass of iron. Two divers, sent down for the purpose, 

 were compelled to dig several feet under the soft mud at 

 the bottom of the river. The chains were made taut to 

 four heavy scows, which were filled with water at low tide. 

 Everything being satisfactory, the water was pumped out 

 of the scows, thus tightening the chains about the engine. 

 When the tide began to rise, the engine was pulled a few 

 feet from the mud. Then other scows were brought, and 

 when the tide was again low, water was pumped in and 

 the chains fastened to them. The tide went up again, and 

 so did the engine, which came to the surface. After this 

 had been repeated a number of times, the engine was 

 swinging clear of the water, and was then placed on a 

 large float, only slightly damaged, and wanting but few 

 repairs to make it as good as before its tumble into the 

 river. The railroad will now take charge of its fished-up 

 property, and tow it to the river bank near the railroad 

 track. To th?.t point, when the tide is high, a temporary 

 track will be built connecting with the railroad, and when 

 the tide has fallen sufficiently to place the wheels of the 

 engine on a level with the temporary structure, the engine 

 -will then bo run on the wharf and to the main track. It 

 will be taken to Wilmington and repaired ; it cost 1,000 

 dols. to fish the engine out. 



FIGURE CONJURING. 



By Richard A Proctou. 



THE figure conjurings given by several correspondents 

 seem to me imperfect, because before the conjuror has 

 abstracted the numbers really added during his mystifying 

 processes, the number attained shows three out of the four 

 digits in their original order. For instance, in the process 

 on p. 395, the numbers 5, 4, 3, 2 were written do\\'n, and 

 the number finally attained by the conjuror's victim is 

 543,520. [ would propose some such arrangement as the 

 following : — Take the four digits in their order, multiply 

 by 2, add 2,460, multiply by 5, add 45, multiply by 10 ; 

 then subtract (privately) 123,450. Thus, let the numbers 

 be 5, 4, 3, and 2. The process, then, is as follows : — 

 5,432 

 multiply by 2 



giving the number 5432 00 

 Where the trick has to be performed several times the 

 arrangement can easily be varied, especially as regards the 

 sum added at the second step and subtracted at the last. 

 It is convenient to let all the digits of this number be even. 

 Note also that the second digit of the second number added 

 is of no account; it is only added to help the mystification, 

 by avoiding two cyphers at the close of the operations 

 followed by the performer openly. If these rules be fol- 

 lowed, the number to be secretly subtracted is always 

 given by halving the three first digits of first addend and 

 appending the first digit of the second. Thus, let the first 

 be 4,280 and the second 37 ; then the number to be sub- 

 tracted (or the only part of that number worth consider- 

 ing), will be 2,143 (half of 428 with 3 appended). Take, 

 for instance, the digits 7,1,9,3; then the process will be : — 

 7,193 



7,193 as required. 

 The multiplication by 10, by the way, is quite unnecessary. 



