NA TURE 



[November 3, 1898 



work done. Energy i^ expemleil upon the electrolyte to break 

 it up, and the quantity thus chemically decomposed is an exact 

 measure of the work done. Every electrolyte requires a certain 

 voltage to overcome the aflinity between its atoms, and then the 

 mass decomposed per minute or per hour depends solely upon 

 the current passing. The process is a cheap one and has become 

 general. Three electrical HP. continuously applied deposit 

 10 lbs. of pure copper every hour from copper sulphates at the 

 cost of one penny. All the copper used for telegraphy is thus 

 obtained. Zinc in a very pure form is extracted electrolylically 

 from chloride of zinc, produced from zinc blende, in large 

 quantities. Caustic soda and chlorine are produced by similar 

 means from common salt. The electroplating of gold, silver 

 and nickel is a lucrative and extensive business, especially in 

 Birmingham and Sheffield. Gold and silver are refined by this 

 electrolysis in Russia, and nickel in the United States. Sea- 

 water is decomposed in this way for disinfecting purposes by 

 the Hermite process. 



The passage of electricity through certain gases is accompanied 

 by their dissociation and by the generation of intense heat. 

 Hence the arc furnace. Aluminium is thus obtained from cryolite 

 and bauxite at Foyers by utilising the energy of the Falls. 

 I'hosphorus is also separated from apatite, and other mineral 

 phosphates. Calcium carbide, obtained in the same way, is 

 becoming an important industry. 



It is remarkable that our coalfields have not been utilised in 

 this direction. Electrical energy can be generated on a coal- 

 field, where coal of good calorific value is raised at a cost of y. 

 per ton, cheaper than by a waterfall, even at Niagara. 



Electro-metallurgy is now a very large business, but it is 

 destined to increase still more, for the generation of electrical 

 energy is becoming better understood and more cheaply 

 effected. 



The Transmission of Power. 



The energy wasted in waterfalls is enough to maintain in 

 operation the industries of the whole world. Great cities as a 

 rule are not located near great falls ; nor has a beneficent 

 Providence provided great cities with waterfalls as, according to 

 the American humourist, He has with broad rivers. There is 

 but one Niagara, and we are seeing how industries are rather 

 going to the falls than the energy of the falls is being transmitted 

 to the industrial centres. The arbitrament of money is limiting 

 the distance to which energy can be profitably transmitted. 

 The Cataracts of the Nile can be utilised in irrigating the waste 

 lands of the upper regions of the river, but their energj' cannot 

 compete, at Alexandria, with that of coal transported in mass 

 from England. 



At Tivoli, fifteen miles across the Campagna, the energy of 

 the falls are economically utilised to light Rome and to drive 

 the tramways of that city. The electric railways at Portrush 

 and Bessbrook, in Ireland, are worked by water-power, and 

 Worcester, Keswick and Lynton use it in this country, but on a 

 very small scale. It is not used more, for the simple reason 

 that there are no more falls to use. Water-power is used very 

 extensively in Switzerland, because it is so abundant there, and 

 in our Colonies, especially in South Africa ; but it is in the 

 United States, especially in Utah and California, where the 

 greatest works have been installed especially for the transmission 

 of energy to mines. 



In mines electricity is invaluable. It is used for inoving 

 trams and for working hoists. It lights up and ventilates the 

 galleries, and by pumping keeps them free of water. It operates 

 the drills, picks, stamps, crushers, compressors, and all kinds of 

 machinery. The modern type of induction motor, having 

 neither brushes nor sliding cont.icts, is free from sparks and safe 

 from dust. Electrical energy is clean, safe, convenient, cheap, 

 and it produces neither refuse nor side products. It is trans- 

 mitted to considerable distances. In mountainous countries the 

 economical distance is limited by the voltage which insulation 

 can resist ; 40,000 volts are being practically used between 

 Provo Canyon and Mercur, in Utah, in transmitting 2000 horse- 

 power thirty-two miles. 



CONCI.L'SIOS. 



I have touched lightly — I fear too lightly — upon some of the 

 applications of electricity. I have confined myself, in a very 

 general sense, to those with which I have been personally 

 associated. I have shown how electricity began its beneficent 

 career by protecting our lives and property from the disastrous 

 cflecls of nature's dread artillery, how it facilitates intercom- 



munication between mind and mind by economising time and 

 annihilating space. It 



" Speeds the ^oft intercourse from soul to soul, 

 And wafts a sigh from Indus to the Pole." 



By its metallic nerves it brings into one fold not only the scat- 

 tered families of one nation, but all countries and all languages, 

 to the manifest promotion o' peace and general good will. Not 

 only does it show us how to utilise the waste energies of nature, 

 but it enables us to direct them to the place where they are most 

 wanted and to use them with the greatest economy. It opens to 

 our view nature's secret storehouses, presenting us with new 

 elements, new facts and new treasures. It economises labour 

 and purifies material. It lightens our darkness in more senses 

 than one, and by enabling us to see the unseen, it tends to aid 

 the gentle healing art and to alleviate both suffering and pain. 

 It aids us in the pursuit of truth, and it has exploded the 

 doctrine that the pursuit of truth means the destruction of 

 faith. 



NO. I 5 14, VOL. 59] 



RECENT CORAL BORING OPERATIONS AT 



FUNAFUTI. 

 'T'HE subjoined extr.ict from the Syihicy Daily Telegraph ot 

 ■^ September 9, containing particulars as to the coral-boring 

 operations at Funafuti, has been sent to us by a correspondent : — 



News has just been received via New Zealand, through the 

 U.S.S. Co. 's steamer Poherua, which coaled H.M.S. Porpoise 

 at Funafuti, as to the progress of the two bores, one on land, 

 and the other in the lagoon of that coral atoll. With regard to 

 the lagoon bore, operations were commenced on .A.ugust 15, 

 Commander Sturdee having succeeded in mooring the war-ship 

 so taut that it was possible to work the boring pipes without 

 risk of their bending or breaking from the bows of the war-ship. 

 Mr. G. H. Ilalligan, who is in immediate charge of the boring 

 plant, reports that for the first twenty-four hours of boring 

 a depth of 109 feet was attained, the total depth of the bore 

 being 212 feet below the water level of the lagoon, the depth of 

 water to the bottom of the lagoon being 103 feet. The Pohcnia 

 left at the end of the first day's boring. As regards the nature 

 of the material bored, Mr. Halligan states that the first 80 feet 

 below the bottom of the lagoon were formed of sand, composed 

 of joints of Halimeda (a seaweed which secretes a jointed stem 

 of lime) and of fragments of shells. The remaining 29 feet 

 were in similar material, but containing small fragments of 

 coral getting larger at the deeper levels. 



This is a record rate of boring, and considering the difficulty 

 of holding the war-ship at her moorings absolutely steady, in 

 spite of wind and tide, is a wonderful performance. The whole 

 undertaking may be looked upon as a success from a scientific 

 standpoint, even if no greater depth than 109 feet lie ultimately 

 reached. As, however, there was still nearly a week available 

 for further boring, |it is hoped that before the warship has to 

 leave Funafuti, the bore may have been considerably deepened. 

 This is probably the first bore that has ever been made in the 

 bottom of the lagoon of a coral atoll. 



The deepening of the old bore, discontinued last year at a 

 depth of 698 feet, on the main island of Funafuti, has been 

 proceeding slowly but steadily. The party were landed there 

 by the London Missionary Society's Aa&met John Williams, on 

 June 20 last. .\s was anticipated, little ditticuliy was ex- 

 perienced in re-driving the lining pipes into the old bore, and 

 washing out the sand and rubble which had choked the bore- 

 hole. Pipes were laid from the site of the old bore to some 

 small water-holes from which a supply of fresh water was ob- 

 tained for the boiler. By July 25, the re-lining and cleaning of 

 the old bore having been successfully accomplished, boring was 

 resumed, and up to the time when the steamer Poherua left, a 

 depth of S40 feet had been reached. The bore last year 

 terminated in soft dolomite limestone at 69S feet, but it has 

 now been ascertained that below this is a hard rock, so hard 

 that the portion of the bore-hole which penetrates it no longer 

 needs to be lined with iron pipes, a condition which must 

 facilitate the work of boring. 



Mr. A. E. Finckh reports that this hard rock is largely 

 composed of corals and shells. This depth of 840 feet is exactly 

 the crucial depth which it was hoped the bore might reach, and 

 if possible exceed, as at a corresponding depth on the ocean 

 face of the reef there is a strongly marked shelf, as shown by 

 the soundings by Captain A. Mostyn Field, of II. .M.S. Penguin, 



