486 
NATURE 
[March 10, 1870 
contain the various articles that are in general use in the 
laboratory, such as corks, cork-borers, elastic tubing, 
holders of different kinds, glass tubes and rods, &c. 
Every drawer is labelled on a simple plan that I find very 
convenient. 
A bit of zinc is bent at an angle of 45°. The two 
edges of the one half are then just turned over, and the 
whole is screwed to the front 
of the drawer. A card slipped 
under the turned-down edges 
is held perfectly tight, and 
can be removed at any time. 
Labels so arranged are much 
more easily seen than if they 
were simply fastened to the face of the drawers. (One is 
shown in the figure.) 
The lower shelves above the drawers contain all the 
dry chemicals required in Harcourt and Madan’s “ Prac- 
tical Chemistry ” (the book we chiefly use in the labora- 
tory), together with the more costly re-agents, and others 
that are in less frequent use. Each boy has a complete 
set of all the ordinary acids and test solutions on the 
shelves of his compartment. 
The contents of the drawers and shelves on either side 
of the fire-place are arranged in duplicate—a complete 
set on each side. In this way all chance of confusion 
and crowding is avoided, as no boy can have occasion to 
cross over from the side of the room on which he is work- 
ing to the opposite side, everything being ready to his 
hand. 
A common balance with sets of gramme weights is 
placed on the table above each nest of drawers. Here 
also are kept the various measuring flasks and cylinders. 
At the other end of the room is an ordinary six-feet 
kitchen range, which has been slightly modified so as to 
serve for a furnace. It has sand-bath, boiler, and drying- 
oven. On one side of the furnace is a cupboard to con- 
tain a stock of glass and porcelain apparatus. On the other 
side are two spacious evaporating closets with sliding 
glass doors. These are supplied with hoods and jets for 
creating a powerful draught. The draught can be still 
further increased, when necessary, by lighting a large 
ring of jets in the flue communicating with the closets. 
A small cupboard for tools and a glass-blower’s table 
complete the furniture of the laboratory. 
The room marked B, in the ground plan, was formerly 
the only laboratory for the use of the school. It was built 
some years ago, at the same time as the Natural Science 
lecture-room, and, though small, was exceedingly well 
arranged. It is now converted into a private laboratory 
for the use of the chemical lecturer. It contains a large 
evaporating closet, also a sand-bath and distilling ap- 
paratus, both of which are worked by the fire in the 
school laboratory by means of appropriate dampers. 
Here also is the flue for obtaining a down-draught at 
the lecture-table in the adjoining chemical lecture theatre. 
As several pipes open into this flue it was found neces- 
sary to place the large ring of gas-jets for creating the 
draught at a considerable elevation above the floor, To 
light this ring an artifice was employed that it may 
be worth while to mention. A supplementary gas-pipe 
was carried alongside of the supply-pipe from a few 
feet above the floor to the ring of jets. This was 
pierced with small jets at short intervals all the way to 
the top. A separate tap turns on the gas in this pipe, 
and upon applying a light to the lowest jet the flame runs 
rapidly up the pipe and lights the ring at the top. The 
gas is then turned off from the supplementary pipe and 
the ring alone left burning. 
From the private laboratory a door opens into the 
chemical lecture-room. This is provided with seats for 
fifty boys, the forms and desks rising tier above tier so 
that experiments at the lecture table are well seen by all. 
The down draught at the lecture table, already alluded to, 
is most useful. Experiments with chlorine 
performed with hardly any smell escaping. 
The theatre is well supplied with shelves, cupboards, 
apparatus cases, diagram-screens, and _ black-board. 
There is also a capital cellar for stock chemicals, batteries 
and empty cases. 
The Physical Science lecture theatre, D, is of still 
larger dimensions, and will hold sixty boys. A space 
at one end is fitted up with work-tables, &c., where 
experiments may be prepared, and also where boys may 
themselves learn how to use physical apparatus under the 
eye of a master, 
The walls of the room, E, are entirely lined with glass 
cases for the reception of the school apparatus. Here, 
also, is a lathe with table-vice and bench, where an 
assistant, accustomed to mechanical work, can make 
various lecture illustrations, and repair instruments that 
are out of order. 
I ought to add that the Natural Science Schools are 
only part of an extensive block of new buildings con- 
taining several classical and other schools, and that the 
whole has been erected from the designs of Mr. W. 
Butterfield. T. N. HUTCHINSON 
may be 
NOTES 
M. DELAUNAY is the new director of the Paris Observatory. 
We must congratulate the French Government upon their ap- 
pointment. M. Delaunay, who has just received the Medal of 
our Royal Astronomical Society for his researches on the moon’s 
motion, is an astronomer second to none, and is in every way 
admirably qualified for such an important post. 
AT the Royal Society’s Soirée on Saturday last, a number of 
interesting objects were exhibited, among which we may mention 
Mr. Roberts’s specimens of electro-deposited iron ; Mr. Siemens 
specimens of cast steel from the Landore-Siemens Works; a 
chronoscope of elaborate construction, exhibited by Capt. 
Noble, for recording at one observation the velocity with which 
a projectile passes different parts of the bore of a gun. The 
principle of this instrument is that of registering, by means of 
electric currents, upon a recording surface, travelling ata uniform 
and very high speed, the precise instant at which a shot passes 
certain defined points in the bore. It is capable of indicating 
intervals of time as minute as one-millionth part of a second. 
We shall again refer to some of the objects exhibited. 
AT the meeting of the Royal Society last week, the names ot 
the candidates for election, fifty-three in number, were read. 
From these, in accordance with the usual practice, fifteen will be 
chosen to be elected by the Fellows of the Society in June next. 
Last year the number of candidates was forty-five. 
AT the same meeting two short papers were read from Mr. 
Le Sueur, who has charge of the great telescope at Melbourne, 
giving an account of his observations of some of the nebule 
included in Sir John Herschel’s Cape Catalogue. The details 
are interesting, and full of promise for the future ; as are also the 
particulars of spectroscopic observations of Jupiter which accom- 
pany the observations of nebulz. 
THE Atheneum, in reporting that Mr. Hind has issued a cir- 
cular showing the path of the moon’s shadow in the eclipse of 
the sun which will take place on the, 22nd December, re- 
marks that it is to be hoped that our Government will send out an 
expedition thoroughly equipped with spectroscopes to settle the 
nature of the corona; one of the last remaining questions of solar 
physics. 
Ir is satisfactory to know that the Municipal authorities ot 
Glasgow are alive to the prospective benefits which their city 
is likely to gain, in a sanitary point of view, from the inves- 
tigations which are to be instituted by the Sewage Committee 
