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• KNOWLEDGE • 



35 



" And it shall come to pass, -when Pharaoh shall call 

 }0u, and shall say, What is your occupation t 



" That ye shall say. Thy servants' trade hath been about 

 cattle from our youth even till now, both \vc, and also 

 our fathers : that ye may dwell in tlie land of Goshen ; 

 /or every shepherd is an abominntion unlo the E'jyptians." 

 (Genesis, Chap, xlvi., verses 31, 32, 33, 34.) 



In accordance with these instructions, we presently find 

 them saying to Pharaoh : — " Thy servants are shepherds, 

 both we, and also our fathers ; " to which statement 

 Pharaoh replies by making them welcome, and assigning 

 " the best of the land " for their place of dwelling.'' 



Now it is hereby evident that if to be a shepherd 

 (" Shasu ") was an abomination to the Egyptians, it was 

 a recommendation to Pharaoh. That the name should 

 be hateful to the conquered race was inevitable ; 

 and although the invaders had become so thoroughly 

 naturalised that they now ruled in all respects after the 

 manner of the native Pharaohs, it was impossible that 

 the Egyptians should forget the horrors of the past 

 But to one of Sha^-u origin that name would be dear and 

 h )noured. And it would convey a sense corresponding to 

 "son of the desert," rather than to " shepherd," or " plun- 

 derer." Also it would imply a Semitic, and therefore, in 

 this case, a common ancestry. Granted that Joseph was 

 the favourite minister of a Ilykshos ruler, he could have 

 given his brethren no better advice than when he bade 

 them tell Pharaoh that they came from the land of Canaan, 

 and had been shepherds from their youth. Just so might 

 a poor laird from Roxburgh or Dumfries, who had risen 

 to office under James I., counsel his raw kinsfolk from the 

 northern side of the Cheviots. If King Jamie questioned 

 them, they must surely tell him they were Lowland Scots, 

 and as such had played their part in many a border fray ; 

 and this notwithstanding that a Lowland Scot was an 

 abomination to the English. The Percys and the Stanleys 

 would, it is true, despise them for cattle-stealing barbarians; 

 but to be a Lowland Scot was a sure passport to the favour 

 of the king. Tlie internal evidence of the text confirms, in 

 short, the evidence of tradition, and shows that the Pharaoh 

 of Joseph can have been none other than a Hykshos. 

 (To le conlin\ud.) 



THE AMATEUR ELECTRICIAN. 



ELECTKIC GENEUATORS {continued). 

 rrillE simplest device for collecting the current from the 

 X revolving armature is to have two upright springs, S S' 

 (fig. 10), metallically connected to the terminals or binding- 

 screws, T T. With the commutator in the position illus- 

 trated, the current piusses from the brass sections, A P>, the 

 circuit being completed tlirougli whatever apparatus may 

 be connected to T T". When the armature has performed 

 a quarter of a revolution— that is to say, when the sections 

 D are in contact with S S' the circuit is disconnected, 

 and accordingly no current is passing. This lasts, however, 

 for a very brief space of time, and is not noticeable. 

 Where this plan is adopted, A B must be fixed to the 

 ebonite in such a way that wlien in contact with 

 the springs the armature shall be in the position illus- 

 trated in fig. Ct (KNowLEDfJK, May I'l)). A more satis 

 factory plan, however, and one tliat will lend itself to 

 modifications in the general details of the machine, 

 is to employ what may be called a "rocker." Fig. 11 

 will illustrate it R R is a part of a brass ring, not less 

 than an eighth of an inch tliick, and about lialf an inch wide. 

 A slot is cut in the ring at E, about half an inch long, a 



screw holding it firmly to the ba.?e plate Caps of ebonit* 

 or such like insulating material (F F) are fixed to the ends 

 of the rocker, and thin strips of brass (K K) on to the 

 surfaces of the caps. Similar strips of brass (L L) are 



i 



T 



F.-g. 10. 



attached by the thumb-screws to K K. Between these 

 pairs of brass strips or plates, the copper brushes (M II) 

 are clamped. They are simply strips of sheet copper, cut 

 for about half their length, so as to present the appear- 

 ance of combs, with verj- close, but rather broad, teeth. The 

 ebonite should, for various reasons, be of larger section than 

 the rocker (say one inch by three-eighths to a half) while the 

 surfaces should be inclined at such an angle as to make 

 the distance between the brushes a little less than 1{ in., 



both inclinations being at tlic same angle, one inwards, the 

 other outwards. Care must l>o taken that the clHinitr 

 efl. ctually insulates the brushes from tlio rocker; spiral 

 springs (made by winding ratlier stout copper wire round a 

 pencil) being u.sed to connect the brushes to the terminals 

 TT. In tlie diagram, the brass plates arc drawn slightly awny 



