426 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Dec. 1, 



that moch more energy was developed in propelling 

 a l.ioycle than in any other way of applying human 

 muscle. Taking into account the circumstances that the 

 )«h1v of the rider was supported ; that he could ail just with 

 nic-'ty every stroke : that the chest was in the best possible 

 position for havin;; full and free play ; and also the e.\U>nt 

 to which fatijue »iisabate«l by exhilaration and scenery, it 

 feenieil to him (Dr. Stoney) that the ultimate comparison 

 was not between the energ\- exi>ended and the feats accom- 

 pliihed. but Wtwet-n the fatigue incurred, which was small, 

 and the feats accomplished. Dr. Stoney, in reply to 

 questions, said the riding of a tricycle was just above, and 

 that of a bicycle just K-low, the perspiring point. It had 

 IxH-n found that the energy expended in lal«our on a tread- 

 mill whert? the hours of lalwur were eight hours a day, was 

 3,000 foot-pound per minute, while the average energy 

 expended on riding a bicycle was about 5,000 foot-pound 

 per minute. 



Tub town-clerk of Stranraer has been in correspondence 

 with the town-clerk of Chesterfield in reference to the ad- 

 vantages of electric lighting, so far as experience has been 

 obtained in that town, and the letter sent to him by Mr. 

 Dotls (town-clerk, Chestcrtield) says :—'' The majority of 

 the Corporation of Chestcrtield are satisfied with the 

 lighting of the town by electricity on the ground of 

 efficiency and economy. We have twenty-two Brush arc 

 lights and ninety-six Lane- Fox incandescent lamps at a 

 cost, for the present year, of £SS!."», in place of liOO ga.s- 

 lamps costing X9.'>0 per annum. The contractors are 

 Hammond ic Ca" It is well to have on record such 

 positive statements as to cost, efficiency, ic, whether they 

 J*e borne out in general electric lighting practice or not. 

 Such a statement in reference to the Chesterfield electric 

 lighting experiment has not been previously published. 



At the last meeting of the Central Board of the Miners' 

 National Union, held at Durham, Mr. Thomas Burt, M.P., 

 the chairman, called the attention of those present to a 

 scheme put forward by Mr. Ellis Lever, of Manchester, to 

 give a premium of X.'iOO to any person who could invent 

 the licrt portable electric lamp for use in mines. A letter 

 wa.s read from Mr. L<ver, jun., stating that in his opinion a 

 portnble electric lampto Ite usid in mines was quite a probable 

 thing. The meeting, looking upon the offer as important, 

 pi>£.s<-d the following rf«olution: — "That this meeting 

 desires to tender to Mr. Ellis Lever its best thanks forliis kind 

 and generous offer to pay a premium of £500 to the person 

 who can invent the most usfful portable electric lamp to 

 •« used in mines. That should Mr. L«;ver still kindly 

 consent to give the premium of £500 for this purpose, the 

 pn-jrident and secretary be empowered to correspond with 

 him, and, if ne<.'e*sarj% see him on the BuVjject" It was 

 farther agreed that the president (Mr. Burt), the vice- 

 prr«ident (Mr. Pultard), and the secretary (Mr. Crawford), 

 »hould form a 8ul>-coirimittee to assist the praiseworthy 

 object which Mr. I>;ver wi»)ieii to bring alwut. The ques- 

 tion of the amount of contidence which miners may place 

 in ikafety-lanipH has long )>een debat<.-d, so that the offer 

 will doubtlt-M create a great interf«t in mining circles. 



The preaent proprietor (except for twenty hours per 

 w'k) of the Kew Botanic Oardenv, is more zealous in 

 Iri liin^'up than in unbricking. His lordly will yielded 

 V) far an to dlHcontinue the work of closing up the 

 r< ri.p<-n»t<; HooiK; dati: : but there the woodwork is which 

 • had %»-t op -gladdening the souls of those who wish him 

 . have an aderjoaVe supply of the proverbial rope. 



CiviLis.\TiON IN THE TiME OF Adraham. — Among the 

 Chaldean cylinders recently discovered by Mr. Rassam in 

 the course of his excavations in Babylonia, and u]ion which 

 Mr. Theophilus G. Pinches read a most interesting paper 

 at the last meeting of the Society of Biblical Archieology, 

 is one of the most remarkable yet found, by reason of the 

 light it throws upon tlie ancient chronology of the Chaldean 

 Empire. It dates from the time of Nalionides, and records, 

 among other things, that this sovereign, digging under the 

 foundations of the Sun-l!od Tenijile at Siparn, forty-five- 

 years afU'r the death of King Neb\ichadncz/ar, came upon 

 a cylinder of Nanimsin, the son of Sargon, which no one 

 had seen for ";i,"200 years." This gives as the date of the 

 ancient sovereign named I?,750 n.c. This, and the fact 

 pointed out by Professor Oppert, who was present, that 

 there was in those early days already "lively intercourse 

 between Chaldea and Egypt," will have to be taken into 

 account by future Bible critics. It is certaiji (says 

 the JewUh Wor/il) somewhat to modify the vulgar concep- 

 tion — due in the first place to Dean Stanley — of Abraham, 

 the founder of the Jews, as a wandering Arab Sheikh, a 

 kind of nomad Bedouin as he exists in our day. The 

 existence more than 5,500 years ago of two highly-civilised 

 and highly-cultured Empires in Egypt and Chaldea ; the 

 fact that constant intercourse was going on between the 

 two ; again, that the high road between them led direct 

 through Southern Palestine, and that Aljraham was a 

 native of the one great Empire and an honoured visitor 

 in the other, cannot but serve to modify in no slight degree 

 our notions of the wandering sheikh to whom we owe our 

 origin. That he would have been unaffected by the culture 

 in which ho was born, and the rival civilisations between 

 which he lived, is hardly likely. Altogether, the discovery 

 to which Mr. Pinchi^s has called attention may open up a 

 new field for investigation in the matter of Akkad and 

 Akkadian civilisation. 



A.MERICAN common-sense, as we anticipated, is rising 

 superior to the Langtry delusion, which crowded theatres 

 here, to see a passable amateur in parts utterly beyond her 



strength, for no other reason than than ir/iat ? Does 



any one know? Or, rather, is any one ignorant? 



PnoKESSOH Wilson has promised a series of papers on 

 " Our Bodies ; " to begin next week with " Our Bones," and 

 to be continued systematically 0)i alt<;rnat(! weeks. 



Mn. W. Mattieu Williams, leaving for awhile (in these 

 columns) the fuel of the great centre of the universe, is 

 going to discuss on alternate weeks the " Chemistry of 

 Cooking," a subject about which too many are lamentably 

 ignorant. 



The author of the series " How to Get Strong " has left 

 the chest and begun on the waist. We keep back his first 

 paper for a week, as it would clash with this week's discus- 

 sion of the corset-wearing question. He writes somewhat 

 emphatically that his papers are nnf meant for any who 

 would seek tf) obtain or restore waist strength by wearing 

 corsets ; he shows, rather, he says, how a natural corset 

 may Vje formed — that is, a good waist-enclosure of muscle 

 instead of whale-bone or steel. 



Our Mathematical Column was displaced last w(!ek 

 owing to an accession of advertisement matter. We wore 

 not at the office to decide what must give way, and this 

 column was selected, we Bupi>ose, as considered likely to 

 interest fewest readers. We should have made another 

 choice : hereafter the Mathematical Column shall not bo 

 omitted two weeks running. 



