493 



NA TURE 



{March 26, 1885 



working full power with the smallest expansion. All the 

 passenger engines and many of the goods engines were fitted 

 with the Westinghouse automatic air-brake, as were also the 

 whole of the carriages. This brake gave entire satisfaction and 

 complete control of the trains. The author took considerable 

 pains with the fittings and details when it was first introduced, 

 and arranged the gear for the engines, so that the brake acted 

 upon each wheel independently, allowing the springs freedom to 

 act ; or it acted upon the front of all the wheels, as in the tank 

 engines, the brake of which was moved by hand as well as by 

 the air-pressure. The Westinghouse air-pump had been fitted 

 with a plunger at the bottom end of the rod, \\ inches in dia- 

 meter, and this pumped water into the boilers of the goods 

 engines when they were in sidings or were delayed by signals 

 For the express and large goods engines the greatest possible 

 amount of heating-surface had been provided; the fire-box was 

 capacious, with small tubes of considerable length in proportion 

 to their diameter, little or no flame being generated with the 

 coal used, and a very small amount of soot. The fuel which 

 was found cheapest to consume in this locality was smokeless 

 coal from South Wales, mixed with a small quantity of bi- 

 tuminous coal from Derbyshire. The boilers were made of the 

 best Yorkshire iron, with plates having planed edges ; holes 

 were drilled after the plates had been bent ; the joints were butt- 

 joints, and they were hand riveted. The construction of the 

 ash-pan and its dampers, perforated plates, water-supply, and 

 the arrangement of fire-bars, brick arch, fire-door, and deflector, 

 was shown. The indicator diagrams, taken by one of the Crosby 

 Steam-Gauge and Valve Company's indicators, at various 

 speeds, and under varying conditions of gradient, afforded a 

 fair idea of the working capabilities of these engines, the 

 economical value of which was best shown by quoting the 

 consumption of fuel for the half-year ending June 30, 1884, when 

 the average of the whole of the engines on this line was 29/74 irjs ' 

 per engine mile, including the coal used in raising steam. A great 

 number of careful tests had been made of the amount of coal 

 required to raise steam in the engines from cold-water, and also 

 from the partially heated water when the boiler had not been 

 emptied, and this amounted on an average to about 3 lbs. per 

 mile run. Some doubts had been expressed as to the value 

 of heating feed-water by the exhaust steam. The author, 

 therefore, had a number of tests made with the ordinary heating- 

 apparatus removed, and water fed to the boilers by the feed- 

 pumps, and in one series by a Borland's injector. The amount 

 of power required to work the pumps was inappreciable ; and the 

 headed feed-water brought about reduction in the consumption of 

 fuel to the extent of over 2^ lbs. per train-mile. It had also 

 been found that heating the feed-water by direct contact of the 

 steam did not, on this railway, injuriously affect the boiler- 

 plates. With a view to ascertain what was the amount of power 

 required to haul a train from Brighton to London, a complete set 

 of 49 diagrams was taken from the engine "Gladstone," 

 working an express train of twenty-three vehicles ; the total 

 weight of train and engine being 335 tons 14 cwt. A section of 

 the line was given, and clearly illustrated the result, giving the 

 H.P. at about every mile, the speed, and the gradient. The 

 temperature of the gases in the smoke-box was taken at frequent 

 intervals ; also the degree of vacuum in the fire-box and in the 

 smoke-box, and the quantity of water used out of the tender. To 

 the latter had to be added the water condensed from the exhaust, 

 which, from experiments, the author estimated at 20 per cent. 

 This gave an evaporation of 12*95 irjs - °f water per 1 lb. of coal, 

 and 1 lb. of coal would convey 1 ton weight of the train 

 13.J miles, at an average speed of 43 '38 miles per hour, over the 

 Brighton Railway, the rate of consumption being 2*03 lbs. of 

 coal per H.P. per hour. 



Chemical Society, March 5.— Dr. W. H. Perkin, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. — The following papers were read: — On 

 the conversion of Pelouze's nitrosulphates into hyponitrites and 

 sulphites, by Prof. E. Divers, M.D., and Tamemasa Haga. — 

 On the constitution of some non-saturated oxygenous salts and 

 the reaction of phosphorus oxychloride with sulphites and nitrites, 

 by Prof. E. Divers, M.D. — The illuminating power of hydro- 

 carbons. I. Ethane and propane, by Percy F. Frankland, 

 Ph.D., B.Sc. — On benzoylacetic acid andsonmi s derivatives, 

 Part III., by Dr. W. H. Perkin, jun. 



Anthropological Institute, March 24 — Francis Galton, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — Thee ection of the following 

 gentlemen was announced: — F. D. Mocatta, the Hon. Cecil 



Duncombe, J. G. Frazer, M.A. — A paper was read by Mr. 

 A. J. Duffield on the inhabitants of New Ireland and its archi- 

 pelago. The author first dealt with the assumption that the 

 inhabitants of these islands are the descendants of remote but 

 superior races, that they retain inherited powers which have 

 become weak by lack of use, and that these moral and intel- 

 lectual powers can be easily restored. The food of the natives 

 is chiefly vegetable, but they now and then eat the flesh of the 

 small native swine— the opossum — and poultry, which is abund- 

 ant. The climate is humid and unhealthy ; the people poor 

 in flesh, small in size, and light in weight. Their usual colour 

 is a dark brown, but they are a mixed race ; the hair is crisp 

 and glossy. The tattooing and cuttings on the flesh are con- 

 fined t'> the women and the headmen. The men go absolutely 

 nude, but the women wear "aprons" of grass before and 

 behind, suspended from cinctures made of beads strung on well- 

 made thread ; they bleach their hair and paint their bodies 

 with coloured earths. They speak a language whicli is at once 

 musical and familiar, in which is found a fair sprinkling of 

 Arabic and Spanish words. — Mr. R. Brudenell Carter read a 

 paper on vision-testing ; and Mr. C. Roberts read a paper on 

 the same subject. 



Dublin 

 Royal Society, January 19. — Section of Physical and 

 Experimental Science. — Prof. C. A. Cameron, M.D., in the 

 chair. — Prof. Emerson Reynolds, M.D., F.R.S., gave a short 

 account of the selenium analogue of the sulphur urea — -thiocar- 

 bamide — he discovered some years ago. The author, having 

 recently prepared a considerable quantity of cyanamide, and 

 being aware that other chemists had failed to produce seleno- 

 carbamide by the molecular change of ammonium selenocyanate, 

 decided to examine the action of hydrogen selenide on cyanamide, 

 as it is well known that thiocarbamide can be easily formed 



CN ) /XII 



according to. the equation H„S + H > N = CS ( wt-t 8 - ^n... 



grams of cyanamide were dissolved in 50 ccs. of anhydrous 

 ether and a slow current of hydrogen selenide was passed through 

 the solution under a pressure of about 60 mms. of mercury. Tho 

 gas was slowly absorbed, and at first some selenium separated 

 from the liquid, but on continuing the treatment beautiful colour- 

 less crystals separated on the sides of the vessel. The crystals 

 were drained from the etheral liquid, and when exposed to the air 

 were found to be easily reddened by the action of light ; they 

 were dissolved in a small quantity of hot water, the solution 

 filtered, and then cooled, when beautiful silky crystals separated 

 which very closely resembled thiocarbamide in appearance and 

 mode of crystallisation. The purified compound proved to be 

 CSe (NH,), The author learned, however, from the January 

 number of 'One Journal of the Chemical Society of London that 

 M. A. Verneuil had just published an account of the same body 

 in the Bulletin of the Paris Society. Dr. Emerson Reynolds, 

 therefore, did not continue his investigation, as he believed M. 

 Verneuil to be fully entitled to priority, but contented himself 

 with the exhibition to the society of the specimen of seleno- 

 carbamide produced in the Dublin University Laboratory. — On a 

 model illustrating some properties of the ether, by Prof. G. F. 

 FitzGerald, M.A., F.R.S. The model consisted of a series of 

 wheels arranged at equal distances along parallel rows on axes 

 fixed perpendicularly into a board. The wheels were connected 

 together by indiarubber bands, each wheel being so connected 

 with its four neighbours. Under these circumstances it was 

 shown that if any wheel were turned all the wheels turned 

 simultaneously, and that, except for friction on the axes, &c, they 

 would all turn equally. It was explained that the model only 

 exhibited properties of the ether itself and did not exhibit the 

 connections of matter with ether. A region within which the 

 bands did not slip represented a non-conducting region, and 

 differences of elasticity of the bands represented differences of 

 specific inductive capacity, slipping of the bands represented a 

 conducting region, and complete absence of bands represented 

 a perfectly conducting region. When bands were removed 

 from a certain region and all around it a line of bands left, 

 and all around outside this again a conducting region, then 

 if a conducting line connected these regions the wheels along 

 this line might be turned in opposite directions, and when 

 this is done all the non-conducting region is thrown into a state 

 of stress by all the wheels not rotating equal amounts, in which 

 the bands are tight on one side of a pair of wheels and loose on 

 the opposite side. It was explained that this exhibited the 



