Aug. 22, 1884.] 



♦ KNOV/LEDGE 



1G5 



tication of the familiar punkah would not be without its 

 pleasurable use oa such a clay as that on which these lines 

 are penned. Will no one render us aid before we get into 

 the condition so feelingly described by the negro, when he 

 said that " it couldn't be no hotter in our house, for de 

 termometer 'as got bang up to de top, dat's one comfut ! " 1 



i¥li<jrrllanfa. 



Some idea of tlio difficulties in the way of making large telescopes 

 may be had from the fact that t)iere have been nineteen failures to 

 cast the thirty-six inch glass for the large telescope to be mounted 

 in California. 



The fire insurance companies of Sweden have offered a reward 

 of 2,000 crowns for the most practical device to arrest sparks and 

 cinders from locomotive and steamboat smoke-stacks. A trial of 

 different devices that may be sent in will take place in Stockholm, 

 Sweden, during the month of August, this year. — Entjineer. 



The effective armoured fleets of the leading naval Powers of 

 Europe might be summarised as follows : — England, 329,520 tons ; 

 Prance, 201,789 tons ; Germany, 74,007 tons ; Austria, 63,110 tons ; 

 Russia, 83,621 tons ; Italy, 59,905 tons. This is food for deep re- 

 flection. Had the energy expended in producing these munitions 

 of war been devoted to labouring for the mutual welfare, instead 

 of destruction of mankind, how much good might have been 

 ivrought ? 



,\.s a passenger train on the Painseville and Youngstown Railroad 

 was at Youngstown, Ohio, July 1st, and just as it was pulling away 

 from a water tank, a valve in the latter broke, sending an 8-in. 

 stream of water against the train, breaking all the windows and 

 deluging the coaches. Many of the passengers, with their clothing 

 thoroughly water-soaked, leaped from the train, rolling down an 

 embankment, and some were bruised. Several ladies in the train 

 had their dresses ruined. 



Om the Liverpool and Manchester section of the London and 

 Xorth-AVestem Railway, some of the trains are now lit by Swan 

 20-candle-power lamps. A Brotherhood engine on the tender drives 

 the dynamo, and near the driver's hand is a regulator fitted with a 

 lamp showing the candle-power of those in the carriages. Each 

 compartment has duplicate lamps ; in the event of accident to one, 

 the other is instantly made incandescent. 



The success of creosote as a preventive of the attacks of the 

 teredo worm could not be better exemplified than by the tests 

 made by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. The company 

 caused timber treated vrith the creosote process, and perfectly 

 healthy cypress timber, sound in every respect, to be submerged at 

 East Pascagoula. Both kinds of timber were recently raised, and 

 that treated by creosote was found to be in a perfectly healthy 

 state, while the other was found to be honeycombed by the worms. 

 — Picayune. 



Telephony. — Servia boasts one telephone line one kilometre long, 

 connecting the Ministry of the Interior and the Prefectui-e at 

 Belgrade. Bulgaria and Luxembourg do not believe in the tele- 

 phone; at all events, they have not a yard of line at work at pre- 

 sent. Turkey has three lines, one used by the Administration of 

 Telegraphs, the second used at a life-saving station on the Black 

 Sea, and the third belonging to the Eastern Telegraph Company 

 and the Ottoman Bank. The above lines represent a total length 

 of wire of 41 kilometres. — Electrician. 



One of Barnum's secular elephants, "Allah," was attacked with 

 enteritis while in Cincinnati. Dr. George W. Bowler, V.S., was 

 called in, and relates his experience in The Journal of Comparative 

 Medicine. The diagnosis being made, he prescribed and adminis- 

 tered the following liberal dose : lard, eight pounds ; linseed oil, 

 cue gallon ; tincttire of opium, one pint ; spirits of nitrous ether, 

 one pint ; syrup, one quart. "The lard and oil were first mixed, 

 then the other ingredients added. The trunk was raised above the 

 head and the mixture poured down the throat through a large 

 metal tube. The animal recovered. — American DrU'jgist. 



Electric Lighting in Lacsanne. — The Swiss Electrical Com- 

 pany have, says the Electrician^ lighted the Cantonal Hospital at 

 Lausanne on the Edison system. The installation comprises 236 

 lamps and three dynamos, the latter being driven by three turbines. 

 The company also have a central station in the same town, where 

 there are two dynamos driven by two turbines of 35 horse-power 



each. These supply current to 280 lamps. Tliere are 72 subscribers 

 to the company's system. 



A Red Lunae Halo. — A magnificent lunar halo of a red hue 

 was, says Engineering, observed at Rome by M. Tacchini, on July 4, 

 at 9.30 p.m. The moon itself showed of a reddish hue, and was 

 surrounded by a reddish aureole, of a width rather more than the 

 diameter of the moon. The tint was nearly that of bright, piure 

 copper. The moon at the time was nearly 30 degs. high ; and the 

 phenomenon was seen till 10 o'clock. On July 5, the same phe- 

 nomenon was visible, but more feeble; on the 0th, the sky was 

 clouded. Afterwards the phenomenon was no longer seen. During 

 the nights of the 4th, 5th, and 6th the atmosphere was excessively 

 humid, from 9 p.m. to G a.m. of the following mornings. The satu- 

 ration during these intervals was almost complete ; whereas, during 

 the day, the humidity fell to 0-40. 



As a commercial port, the trade of Antwerp has increased to an 

 astonishing extent within the last few years, as shown by the fol- 

 lowing figures : — In 1869 the tonnage of the port of Havre was 

 1,042,236 ; of Hamburg, 946,154 ; of Rotterdam, 673,830 ; of Ant- 

 werp, 546,554 ; of Bremen, 426,237 ; of Amsterdam, 413,780 ; of 

 Dunkirk, 279,144. Of all the northern ports, therefore, Antwerp 

 ranked fourth. But in 1882 it had so rapidly increased, owing to 

 the improved harbour works and navigation of the Scheldt, as also 

 to the greatly extended railway communication, that Antwerp has 

 mounted to the top of the tree, and now stands first. The figures 

 of 1882 show that the tonnage of the port was 3,-101,534 ; while 

 that of Hamburg was 3,030,909 ; of Havre, 2,266,927 ; of Rotter- 

 dam, 2,085,338; of Bremen, 1,129,217; of Dunkirk, 939,343 ; of 

 Amsterdam, 784,379. 



M. Lazare Wellek has conducted a series of valuable experi- 

 ments with the object of ascertaining the relative electric conduc- 

 tivity of metals, submitting the results to the Societe Inter- 

 nationale des Electriciens. They are referred to a pure silver wire, 

 1 millimetre in diameter, and having a resistance of 19'37 ohms per 

 kilometre at deg. C, as a standard. The following are his 

 figures : — Pure silver, standard lOO'OO; pure copper, lOOOO ; silicon 

 bronze (telegraph), 98 00; alloy of equal parts silver and copper, 

 86'65 ; pure gold, 7800 ; pure aluminium, 54'20 ; silicon bronze 

 (telc])hone), 35'00 ; pure zinc, 29'90; phosphor bronze (telephone), 

 29'00; alloy of equal parts silver and gold, 16'10; Swedish iron, 

 16'00 ; pure Banca tin, 15*45 ; 10 per cent, aluminium bronze, 12'60; 

 Siemens steel, 1200; pure pUtinum, 10'60; pure lead, 8'88; pure 

 nickel, 7'89; antimony, 388. 



The report of the directors of the Panama Canal Company on 

 the present condition of the works states that the number of men 

 employed in May, 1884, was over 19,000. It is calculated that the 

 excavations amount to 110,000,000 cubic metres, in addition to 

 10,000,000 cubic metres of earthworks in altering the course of the 

 Chagres. Up to the end of April, 1884, the total amount of work 

 done is represented by 5,243,302 cubic metres of earth removed. 

 Until January 1, 1884, however, the real work of cutting the Canal 

 had scarcely fairly begun, and of the total of 5,243,302 cubic metres 

 of earth removed, nearly half, that is to say, 2,482,768 cubic m&tres, 

 have been removed in the first four months of the present year. In 

 the total of 120,000,000 cubic metres of ground to be excavated, 

 40,000,000 will be taken away by means of dredgers. The 

 projector says there can [be no doubt of the Canal being open for 

 navigation before the close of 1SS8. 



Tham'vays at Rio de Janeiro. — The Brazilian capital is par- 

 ticularly rich in tramways, there being no less than 133j miles 

 within the city and suburbs. The four largest of these tramways 

 are the Botanic Gardens, 22i miles; the St. Christo, 27i miles; 

 the Villa Isabel, 17 miles; and the Urbain, 28^ miles. Altogether 

 the 133J miles of tramway existing in Rio de Janeiro and the 

 neighbourhood are owned by nine companies. The rolling stock 

 placed by these companies upon the lines comprises 554 carriages, 

 of which 363 are used for the conveyance of passengers, and 191 

 for the carriage of goods. The traction service is carried on by 

 mules and horses, and there are no less than 4,921 of these animals 

 at work upon the lines. The working staif comprises 1,482 persons. 

 The number of passengers conveyed over the lines has averaged 

 35,532,926 per annum. The net profits realised upon the four 

 principal lines last year were as follows : Botanic Gardens, 

 £63,024; St. Cliristo, £62,165; Villa Isabel, £17,510 ; and Urbain, 

 £43,666. Two of the smaller tramways were worked at a slight 

 loss last year. — Engineering. 



Pasteur's Experiments on Rabies. — The commission deputed by 

 the French Government to verify the discoveries reported by M. 

 Pasteur in relation to canine madness have so far completed theii" 

 investigations as to send in an official report. The report, which 



