236 



NA TURE 



I JULA- 4, 1901 



dynamite is placed and exploded, the rock shattered by 

 blasting has to be removed, and the borer is then pushed 

 forward and the operation continued. On the northern 

 side this cycle of boring, blasting and removal is efifected 

 in about seven hours, on the southern side in about an 

 hour less, more time being required to remove the debris 

 on the north than on the south. The transport of the 

 masses of rock detached by the blasting is necessarily a 

 work of enormous labour, and compels the boring machine 

 to be idle while it is effected. Herr Brandt designed a 

 machine to accelerate the removal of the rubbish by 

 making it slide along smooth iron plates arranged to 

 receive it. But the application has not proved so useful 

 as was anticipated, and its employment is at present 

 abandoned. 



In the e.xplosion of the blasting charge, liquid air or 

 oxygen has been used with good effect. The charcoal 

 covering of the charge is, shortly before use, steeped in 

 liquid oxygen, and the recovery of the gaseous form has 

 the advantage of mitigating some of the evils the pre- 

 sence of carbonic oxide tends to produce. But improve- 

 ments in this process are still demanded, and experiments 

 are being carried on by Prof. Linde, of Munich, with a 

 view to making the combustion more perfect and 

 removing some of the noxious vapours due to blasting. 



We gather that the attempts made to lower the tem- 

 perature in the cutting have not proved quite as successful 

 as was anticipated. As mentioned in our former article, 

 it was proposed to effect the necessary cooling by the 

 distribution throughout the workings of a water dust 

 under considerable pressure. In pursuance of this plan 

 some 70 litres of water per second, and under a pressure 

 of 100 atmospheres, are scattered throughout the gallery 

 by means of machines placed in the crossway alleys that 

 lead from the main boring to the parallel gallery. Such 

 a liberal expenditure of water has been found sufficient to 

 enable miners to continue working at depths where the 

 ordinary temperature is greater than has been encountered 

 in the Simplon. But Herr Ernst is not yet satisfied ; 

 he says that the temperature question is still unsolved, 

 and gives the following figures for comparison with the 

 Gotthard workings. 



Temp, at 7*3 km. Temp, at 7"o5 km. 



April and May, 1880 .. 

 June, 1882 (after \ 

 perforation) .../ 

 July, 1883 



But in the .Simplon, at only 1400 metres from the 

 southern entrance, a temperature of 30' C. has been 

 experienced, while the water of a spring near that point 

 showed a temperature of 33 C. Fortunately, the water 

 supply is adequate and easily accessible whether on the 

 north or south side. On the north the Rhone feeds a 

 reservoir formed 44 m. above the tunnel entrance at the 

 rate of 6000-Sooo litres per hour. At the southern end, 

 near Isella, the Diveria is equally available, and from both 

 sources it is estimated that the undertaking has at hand 

 the equivalent of 2000 h.p., sufficient for the driving of 

 the pressure-pumps and boring machinery, the ventilation 

 of the shaft, the mechanical workshops, the electric 

 illumination and numerous experimental works. 



Recalling the carelessness of life and enervating sick- 

 ness that decimated the workpeople in the case of the 

 Gotthard tunnel, it is refreshing to notice the care and 

 attention that are bestowed on the comforts of the opera- 

 tors in this instance. Provision is made for frequent 

 baths, and changes of clothes are insisted upon, the main- 

 tenance of a simple system ensuring regularity and 

 obedience. A school and hospital, not to mention a 

 theatre, are provided for the use of the workpeople, and 

 hostelries are erected wherein the meals are arranged at 

 fixed and certainly very low prices, A regular meal of 



NO. 1653, VOL. 64] 



soup, meat and vegetables costs but 50 cents, the full 

 ration for the day being i-io francs. The daily wage 

 does not seem large at 3 or 4 francs, but apparently is 

 sufficiently attractive, and we are assured that the careful 

 wage earner can send a modest contribution to his rela- 

 tives every month. A whole colony has settled down 

 under the shadow of the Simplon, but the man whose 

 genius has called into being this hive of workers, whose 

 activity has encouraged and animated the whole under- 

 taking, whose resourceful energy has overborne so many- 

 difficulties, is no longer at the fore to guard against 

 future dangers and to guide the whole to a successful 

 issue. Herr Brandt died in November 1899, when pro- 

 gress was slow but assured. He has, however, left four 

 able lieutenants, who, trained in his school and possessed 

 of not less devotion and energy, will carry through the 

 arduous work and permit us to see yet another and the 

 longest tunnel under the Alps pushed to a successful 

 termination. 



NOTES. 



Prof. E. v.^nBeneden, professor of zoology and comparative 

 anatomy in the University of Liege, has been elected a corre- 

 pondant of the Paris Academy of Sciences in succession to the 

 late Sir William Flower. 



The next meeting of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science will be held in Denver, Colorado, 

 on August 24-31. The membership of the Association is now 

 larger than it ever was before, more than eight hundred new 

 members having been elected within the past year. As already 

 mentioned, it is proposed to hold a winter meeting each year in 

 the week in which New Year's day falls, and the summer meet- 

 ing may eventually be omitted altogether. Of the fourteen 

 universities forming the Association of American LTniversities, 

 twelve already do not open their terms until after the week in 

 which New Year's day occurs, or have amanged not to do so, 

 and it is expected that the remaining two will come to the same 

 decision. A convocation week will thus be set aside for the 

 annual meetings of scientific and learned societies, and the 

 difficulty of getting men of science together during the summer 

 holidays will be avoided. 



A NEW magnetic observatory is being established just now in 

 France. It is situated at a distance of only thirty miles from 

 Pare St. Maur, where records have been r endered impossible, 

 electrical railways using the earth for return currents having 

 been laid in almost every direction. The new observatory is 

 situated in the small parish of Villepreux, in] a district occu- 

 pied by farms, cornfields and woods. The authorisation was 

 granted by the Government only when the railway companies 

 had paid to the National Treasury a sum of 1200/., sufficient for 

 paying all the expenses of the new building. These have been 

 greatly diminished because the land covers about ten acres 

 belonging to the Government, and some old buildings without 

 any artistic value can be demolished for procuring the stones 

 required in order to construct the magnetic pavilions and a 

 house for the observer. M. Moureau will continue to reside 

 at Pare St. Maur, and the new observatory will be considered 

 as an accessory to the old one. 



The importance of the scientific study of Africa and its 

 native inhabitants has often been urged in these columns. We 

 notice, therefore, with much satisfaction that the African Society 

 has been formed with the object of enlarging and extending the 

 w-ork done by the late Miss Mary Kingsley, so s to include 

 the whole of Africa in the field of operations. The Society 

 will thus not only commemorate the name and continue the 

 investigations of Miss Kingsley, but should lead to the organised 



