272 



• KNOWLEDGE • 



[Si-.i>T. 2-2, 1882. 



employed for submarine work. A successful trial was 

 made recently at the entrance to the South Dock, Sunder- 

 land. The signalling between tlie diving-bell at the bottom 

 of the river and the machinery in the craft at the 

 surface was all that could be desired. In fact, everything 

 that proceetis within the bell can be heard above, every 

 .stroke of the hammer or whisper of the men. It is woi-tliy 

 of remark that in this application of the telephone, which 

 will W exhil>ited at the forthcoming North-East Coast 

 Marine Exhibition, to be held at the Tj-nemouth Aquarium, 

 thf workmen in the bell have no necessity whatever to 

 sp.'ak into the telephone. So long as the telephone is within 

 the l>ell it records all that is passing. This is not the first 

 occasion on which the telephone has been applied to the 

 diving-belL In ilarch, 18S0, an experiment similar to the 

 above was made at the Earl Grey Dock, Dundee. 



TnE FocR Gre.\t Ponrs. — Liverpool ranks as the most 

 important port in the world, ■n-ith an annual tonnage of 

 ■2.G47,372 ; London stands second, with a tonnage of 

 2,.!30,68S ; Glasgow third, with 1,432,364 ; New York 

 fourth, with a tonnage of 1,153,676. As a manufacturing 

 city. New York leads the world. 



A Coloured Re.\ctiox of Atropine and Daturine. 

 — If a specimen of either of these alkaloids or of their salts 

 is covered with a little fuming nitric aciil, let dry upon the 

 water-bath, and when cold moistened with a drop of potassa 

 diisolved in absolute alcohol, a violet colour is instantly 

 produced, and soon passes into a fine red. Only the violet 

 colour is characteristic, as strychnine also gives a beautiful 

 red colour if similarly treated. According to the author, 

 0-000001 grm. of atropine sulphate can thus be detected. 

 None of the other important alkaloids give a similar 

 reaction. — D. Vitali. 



Mr. Joseph M. Coi.i.iM.irAM writes as follows in the 

 Tim^s alx)ut dogs Vmrking at horses : — Allow me, as an old 

 dog fancier and one who has had most kinds of sporting 

 dogs, and who htm broken and trained various kinds, to say 

 that not one in a hundred dogs ever shows the annoying 

 fault of barking at horse.s, but that when one does contract 

 this fault it is all but an impossibility ever to break him of 

 it ? The offender will disregard all rating or scolding, and 

 soon lieeomes crafty enough to keep out of the way of the 

 whip. He l>ecomes a dangerous brute from this habit of 

 barking in front of, or at the heels of, any passing horse, 

 and is deservedly looked upon by any equestrian or driver 

 as an ill-conditioned cur, which only a dose of poison or a 

 charge of shot will cure. My obserNktion leads me to say 

 that collies or shepherd dogs and retrievers are the most 

 frequent oflTenders, and the former are sometimes dangerously 

 savage. 



A Bertiion Bo.\t in a Gale. — We made reference to 

 this Vioat a few months ago, when referring to the Naval 

 and Submarine Exhibition at the Agricultural Hall. 

 What we then said is fully Ijome out by the following 

 oxtract from T/f En/iin/-^r ■ — "It has been believed by 

 many that the remarkable collapsible boats invented by 

 Rev. R L Berthon, and now coming into general use, 

 though good for some purposes, could never stand the t(;st 

 of a gale of wind or compete with other boata in sailing 

 powers. To prove the fallacy of this opinion, Captain 



Frederick Harvey, R.N., and Captain Whalley Nicholson, 

 ventured to take an ocean trip in a 2Sft. boat of this kind, 

 built at Romsey for the Union Company. With four 

 seamen they embarked in the s.s. Fsqniho, by the per- 

 mission of the Royal Mail Company, on Friday, the 11th 

 inst. On Monday the 1 1th, the boat and its crew were put 

 overboard about 100 miles west of the Scilly Isles. There 

 was a very strong wind and high sea. Owing to the thick 

 weather and constant rain, the lioat's crew got no observa- 

 tions, and when they ascertained their whereabouts by 

 hailing a ship, they found themselves about sixty miles 

 west of Cape Finisterre ; they then bore away more to the 

 north, and reached the Scilly Isles on Saturday at 3 a.m. 

 Here they stayed till Sunday, the 20th, at 4 p.m., when in 

 more than half a gale of wind they started again for South- 

 ampton, and made the wonderful run of 240 miles to the 

 Needles in thirty-five hours. Wo believe this is quite un- 

 precedented for a ship's boat. Sometimes they logged more 

 than ten knots an hour. That an open canvas boat should 

 live in such a stormy sea as would ha\o swamped any other 

 is remarkable enough ; but that she should have been able 

 to carry sail through it all, and at such tremendous speed, 

 is quite astonishing. The courage and skill of Captain 

 Ilarvey and his able coadjutor. Captain Nicholson, an 

 ollicer in the army, were admirably displayed in starting 

 again from Truro after encountering such a gale of wind 

 as they had in skirting 'the Bay of Biscay from south to 

 north. One member of the crew — who were all volunteers 

 — was the Ijoatswain of the unfortunate T>'v.tov, wrecked 

 at the Cape last year. This man expressed his wish to 

 join the party in order to prove that it was no fault of the 

 P.erthon boat on Itoard the Teuton that it did not save the 

 passengers. His testimony on this point concurs with that 

 of all the other survivors, that the said boat was never 

 lowered nor opened at all, but, like others of the boats, went 

 down with the ship. The total distance run on this occasion 

 could not have been much less than SCO miles, and when it 

 is consid(^red that the whole time she bore the brunt of the 

 gale which raged hero in the beginning of last week, we 

 have abundant proof that Berthon boats arc not exceeded 

 in seaworthiness and speed l)y any otliei's in the world. 

 The boat is now afloat in the inner dock at Southampton, 

 and has not suffered in the smallest degree. She has been 

 visited Ijy a great many members of the British Association. 

 The dimensions of the boat are as follows : — Length, 

 2.S ft. 4 in. ; breadth, 8 ft. in. ; depth, 3 ft. 9 in. When 

 .shut against the bulwarks of a ship her width is 22 in. 

 with all her gear stowed in her, such as masts, sails, oars, 

 water-beakers, and anchors. Tlie time required to open, 

 set up, and lower such a boat is less than one minute. It 

 was done before IGO members of the Jiritish Association 

 on Saturday last in forty-five seconds. It is an interesting 

 question whether the great ela.sticity of these boats has not 

 something to do with their unusual speed." 



The woodcut intended to ilJustr.ate the " Improved 

 Ruler," recently patented by Jlr. G. L. K'nox, of NcwJ 



York, was accidentally printed upside down in a portio 

 of our last issue. We now append it in its correct form. 



