April 24, 1865.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE • 



353 



and escapes through the upcast shaft into the open air. 

 Can we not imitate this arrangement in our hospitals ? 

 DrawiDg for our intake upon the pure atmos]ihore, cairyinL; 

 it through the wards, and mu/chit; if pass throuylt a venti- 

 lating Jire before tinally ejecting it, no contamination 

 of the surrounding neighbourhood would be possible 1 



In the practical endorsement of the words we have 

 italicised above is to be found one of the most important 

 of modern improvements in the construction of drains, so 

 as to cope adequately with sewer-gas and bacteria. Me-ssrs. 

 WDliam Hill i Sous, of Manchester, have recently intro- 

 duced a patent " Extractor " ventilator of great merit, 

 which we shall have occasion to describe carefully when we 

 come to the subject of house ventilation ; it deserves 

 special mention here, because it can be applied most advan- 

 tageously to soil-pipes, for the removal and destruction of 

 poisonous gases. It consists of a jet of gas, regulated by 

 a governor, and fixed in any convenient position ; the 

 apparatus has been so designed as to economise, and with 

 a minimum supply of gas to produce a constant upward 

 current of strongly-heated air, under any condition of 

 "weather. The flame, moreover, is protected from down- 

 blows, and, as it is well enclosed, is perfectly safe. It thus 

 follows that, not only are all germs destroyed, but the con- 

 sumed gases are rapidly driven away into the general 

 atmosphere, where they cannot possibly do any injury. 

 It has been estimated that a small extractor for ordinary 

 rooms will, with a gas consumption of 2 or 3 ft. per hour, 

 create a velocity of from 200 to 400 ft. per minute, in 

 tubes or shafts varying from Gin. in diameter to 15 in. 

 in diameter, and will continuously extract from 3,000 to 

 17,000 cubic feet per hour, independently of the aid of 

 wind or air-pump cowls, which increase the velocity while 

 the wind prevails. 



Another very valuable innovatiom in sewer-reform is 

 Messrs. H. T. Johnson k Co.'s "Patent Hygienic Furnace," 

 also being introduced by Messrs. Hill i Sons, of Man- 

 chester. These furnaces are specially recommended frr 

 constant use in very crowded districts, where sewer-gases 

 and disease-germs rise continuously from the manholes and 

 other ventilators into the streets, or are wafted downwards 

 in dangerous proportions from relieving-shafts. In tolerably 

 healthy, uncrowded parts they need not be perpetually in 

 action. In all places they create a circulation of gas in 

 the sewers, and draw it through an intense heat — 600" to 

 700" Fahr. — thereby acting as " ventilating fires," relieving 

 pressure from the sewer side of the house-drain, and com- 

 pletely destroying all disease-germs. The moderate price 

 of the appliance which embodies so many qualities of the 

 most vital importance to the healthy condition and easy 

 management of our public sewers must, we rest assured, 

 bring it into deservedly universal employment ere long. 



Mb. Thomas Kay, of Stockport, lately read a paper before the 

 Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in which he sug- 

 gested a method of making sea-water potable by precipitation. Ho 

 snggests that every ship's boat should be supplied with a quantity 

 of citrate of silver, which should be used for precipitating the 

 chlorides, leaving the sodium, potassium, magnesium, and other 

 constituents in solution as citrates. The solution would be similar 

 to ordinary effervescing draughts after the gas has escaped : it 

 would be slightly aperient or slightly diuretic if taken in too large 

 quantities, but still suitable for moistening the parched mouth. 

 The expense of the silver wonld be but a small addition to the 

 capital sunk in a ship, and the interest on it wonld be a small 

 insnrance premium against thirst in case of disaster. The value of 

 the silver would not decrease, and could always be realised if 

 disaster did not occur. The scheme seems practicable if the solu- 

 tion of citrates is sufficiently weak to be potable ; only experience 

 can prove this. The silver, being very portable, not easily identified, 

 and easily reduced to metallic silver, would offer great temptations 

 to petty larceny. — Engineer. 



eiJitorial (gOEisiip. 



In the first volume of the " Journal of the Meteorological 

 Society" will be found a paper by Mr. Glaisher "On the 

 direction of the wind at the Hoyal Observatory, Greenwich, 

 for the ten years ending December, 1870." From an 

 average of these ten years, as there given, I gather that 

 during the first four months the wind blew from the N.E., 

 E., or S.E. 7S3-5 hours ; while during the same months it 

 was in either the N.W., W., or S.W. no less than 1,11G-1 

 hours ; almost exactly double the time. If meteorologists 

 in London, and, in fact, in the south east of Knglaud gene- 

 rally, will consult their registers for January, February, 

 March, and April of the current year, they cannot fail to 

 note how strangely this proportion has changed. Can the 

 office in Victoria- street furnish us with any feasible 

 hypothesis of the very greatly increased percentage of 

 easterly wind in England which has lately been so striking ? 



I HAVE heard it said that the British tradesman can and 

 will adulterate anything whatever except an egg, and I am 

 really not sure that, with the march of applied science, 

 even the sophistication of that will long remain unaccom 

 plished. The latest device of which I have heard or read 

 takes the form of a compound to deceive that ordinarily 

 astute class of people the pawnbrokers, and Ls not inappro- 

 priately termed " mystery." It would seem to be composed 

 of copper, platinum, and tin, got up to represent nine carat 

 gold, and as it stands the test of nitric acid perfectly, it 

 appears really admirably calculated to deceive a much wider 

 puiilic than that which it has seemingly been first used to 

 experiment upon, and to afford even a more efiectual trap 

 for our sisters and our cousins and our aunts than for our 

 " uncles " themselves. When henceforth I see a barmaid 

 with a massive necklet and locket, or 'Arry with a gold 

 " albert" chain that would hold a mastifT, the thought will 

 inevitably cross my mind : This is a great mystery ! 



Since the above paragraph was in print, I note an 

 authoritative statement that a very considerable number 

 of sovereigns made of this compound are in circulation, 

 and that in ring, weight, and general appearance they are 

 wholly undistinguishable from the genuine coin. Two of 

 these spurious sovereigns tested by an analyst had the date 

 1873 upon them. If the Government can devote any time to 

 such a comparatively trivial matter as the sterling character 

 of the currency, this would seem to require very immediate 

 action indeed. • - 



Apropos of fraudulent substitution, here is a pretty 

 paragraph which has gone the round of all the papers : — 



The new pattern swords lately issued to the cavalry regiments 

 at Aldershot have been tested within the last few days, with the 

 result that the larger portion of them have been found defective 

 and returned to the makers. 



So, for the sake of a few pounds to be gained out of 

 their contracts, these highly-respectable sword-cutlers have 

 sent in weapons which must infallibly have failed in the 

 hands of the gallant fellows who would have been trusting 

 their lives to them. This is akin to the behaviour of a 

 chemist who makes up a prescription (on which the life or 

 death of the patient may hang) with adulterated drugs. It 

 is devoutly to be hoped that the Attorney-General will find 

 some means of making such high-principled and con- 

 scientious people suffer most severely for their conduct. 

 The utter ruin of a few of the gentry who supply the 



