384 



• KNOWi^EDGE • 



[Nov. 10, 1882. 



appear to bo having their portraits taken, but rather to be 

 thmking out some problem at their usual work, quite re- 

 gardless of criticism. Some of the heads give us the 

 impri'ssicn of power, rejHwe, and precision, especially those 

 of the President (Dr. Siemens), Air. Hawkcsley, Captain 

 Abney, Mr. Pro».-tor, Sir \Villi.im Thomson, and Sir Henry 

 Bessemer. There is the genial illustitition of thought 

 in Lonl Mount-Temple, Dr. Crosskey, iMr. Tate, C.E., 

 the 15ev. Adair Pickard, and others. Nervous, eager 

 thou.'ht and activity are depicted in Professor Cayley 

 (Pn^5iJent elect), and the Rev. Canon Wilberforce ; and 

 alertn>;is, sulliciency, in Colonel Sir Charles Pearson and 

 Captain Betlford Pirn, R.X. But we are getting near 

 home, ai»d must be cautious. The reader has ample study 

 left in the tifty heads. Others are not less exact and 

 powerful in various directions, as his E.\cellency Don 

 Arturo de Marcoartu, Mr. Hyde Clark, Professors Leone 

 Le\n, Acland, Tilden, Gamgee, Lawson Tait, Lodge, and 

 Pearce. The key is a tracing from the larger group in 

 outline, witli the names, itc, inserted, to avoid all labelling 

 or reference to numbers on the photo. 



Sw.o- Incaxdescext La.mps are being adopted very e.x- 

 tensively on the' large oceanic passenger steamers, the latest 

 »«ing tile Arl-o)i>i, of the Cuion Line. There will he 

 about .'{OO lamjis in the ship, every part of the passengers' 

 and ofEcers' iiuarters being lighted by them, to the exclusion 

 of oil and candles. Special attention is being paid to the 

 illumination of the engine-room. Lamp sockets are fitted 

 near various parts of the engines that rc(|uire occasional 

 att«>ntion, and the men are provided with loose lamps in 

 very strong globes, and of such a size that they can be 

 carried in a jacket pocket, and fitted into the sockets when 

 required. Lamps with flexible heads are also supplied, and 

 can be coupled to the same sockets. 



The speciBc volume of the dilFerent constituents of green 

 wooils has been estimated by il. Hartig to be as follows, 

 per 1,000 jjarts :— Hard green wood, fibre stuff, 441 ; 

 water, :.'47 ; air, .'ill'. Soft green wood, fibre stufi', 279 ; 

 water, .'tl 7; air, 404. Evergreen wood, fibre stuff', 270; 

 water, .1-!."> ; air, :J'J.'>. A certain amount of water — 7 or 

 >! per cent in all— is included with the fibre stuff", showing 

 that alout one-third only of the mass of the wood is solid 

 stuff; the remainder is cither water or air space. This is 

 quoted in some articles on painting in the Rdihuad Ca'^cUf, 

 to show how necessary it is that wood should be in a 

 normal state of dryness Ijefore painting. 



Ma CllAMliERl,Ai.v last Tuesday week, in replying to 

 deputations from Birmingham and Sheffield, whose object 

 waa t<j i^jint out the difficulty in which they were placed, 

 while desirous to prevent any company obtaining a mono- 

 poly, said that if the Iwal authorities could not undertake 

 the work themiKflves, they must, in their own interests, 

 endeavour to make some arrangements with an electric 

 lighting company. It was impossible for the Board of 

 Trade to fiontpone the issue of Provisional Orders. The 

 F.l«fctrio Lighting Act did not cont<inplat<Mnonopoly on the 

 I^rt of any one. and in thr- .vent of a public company ob- 

 taining a Provisional Order, and not satisfactorily carrying 

 out the lighting arrangements of a locality, the Board of 

 Trade would be prepared to consider any application from 

 the local authority, or other Ijody, for a second Provisional 

 Order. 



Dkcehiikk 21 has l,een appointed by the Board of Trade 

 for applications to be made for Provisional Orders under 



the Electric Ligliting Act, but licences may be applied for 

 and granted after that date. 



Ti!E Idaho SUdfsnum says : — " The activity of volcanic 

 action in the Snake River lava beds, near the line of the 

 Oregon Short Line Railroad, is driving many of the 

 graders from the woik. In an area of about twenty-two 

 square miles, at short distances apart, smoke and tlames of 

 peculiar odour, colour, and shape issue fiom the chasms and 

 seams in the lava. The irritating sulphurous vapours in 

 themselves cause many to quit work,while the unusual agita- 

 tion of the boiling springs and the general commotion all 

 over the fields of lava has caused a superstitious fear to 

 take hold of many of the railroad hands, and they are 

 leaving the section terror-stricken. The whole area has 

 the appearance from a distance of being on fire." 



"To talk of the athlete who sat for Phidias's Theseus," 

 says the Qutirtcrhj Rcvwa; "is radically to mistake the 

 character of that master. The figures of the Mgina. 

 pediment were not copied from figures of athletes, but all 

 from one ideal, representing in the mind of the sculptor 

 the warrior in the aljstract ; wliilo Phidias has a variety of 

 ideals " [this is well said ] " instead of one, varying them 

 according to the character of the being he has to represent. 

 But his procedure is not radically different; he works not 

 by sight, but by measurement and his idea of a perfect 



form Wc must remember that the (.'reeks wore 



extremely little clothes at any time, and that when they 

 went to exercise; in the gymnasia, they threw off' even these, 

 and remained quite naked. A sculptor, therefore, had only 

 to j)ass a few hours in a gymnasium, to see hundreds of 

 vigorous and active forms posed in all kinds of attitudes 

 and engaged in every form of exercise. The nude male 

 form would become as familiar to him as the clothed human 

 form is to us; he would judge the beauty of individuals 

 with rapid decision, and form from the comparison of many 

 a sort of canon or standard of beauty." 



The formation is announced of the " French Electrical 

 Power Storage Company," with a capital of XI, 075,000. 

 This is for the manufacture and so on of the Faure accu- 

 mulator, of which a great deal has been said in this 

 country, but of which exceedingly little has been seen. 

 Mr. Simon Phillipart, well known in connection with th& 

 Faure battery in this country, is tlie first-mentioned sub- 

 scriber in this big capital French company, a capital which 

 most people would say it is utterly impossible to employ in 

 Fauro battery making. 



The Postmaster-General has just contracted with Messrs. 

 D. J. Dunlop it Co., Port Glasgow, to build for the service 

 of the Post-office an iron screw steamer, specially con- 

 structed for the laying and repairing of telegraph cables. 

 This vessel has long been much wanted, and will be built 

 from designs by Mr. Joseph H. Ritchie, Fenchurch-street, 

 London. The principal particulars of the vessel are: — 

 Length, 240 ft ; breadth, 33 ft. ; depth, 20 ft ; to be pro- 

 pelled by a pair of engines, having cylinders 30 in. and 

 08 in. diameter, with a length of stroke of* 48 in. To 

 meet the requirements of the special work to be performed, 

 the steamer will \>i; fitted with three circular telegraph 

 eal)le tanks and a double; bottom for water ballast, with 

 fittings adjusted to trim the ship as the cable is paid out. 



KuKATiM.— Page 375, col. 2, lino 40, for ".Sey " read " Ley." 



