290 



NA TURE 



[July 27, 1905 



composed." The bearing of these facts on the ques- 

 tion of vegetal covering's in the earlier periods is 

 briefly discussed. Observations on organic rocks, and 

 on the distribution and development of the fauna and 

 flora, lead up to the subject of historical geology, 

 which the authors propose to deal with in another 

 volume. H. B. W. 



MACHINERY FOR HANDLING RAW 



MATERIAL. 



The Mechanical Handling of Material. Bv G. F. 



Zimmer. Pp. xii + 521; illustrated. (London: 



Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1905.) Price 255. net. 

 T N the preface Mr. Zimmer says that he has been 

 *- for twenty years professionally engaged in this 

 branch of engineering, and he was recently induced 

 to put together in the form of a treatise — the first in 

 English on the subject — the mass of notes he had 

 gradually accumulated. The importance of the sub- 

 ject is emphasised in the introduction by a few 

 sue-gestive figures as to the amount of raw materials 

 which has to be dealt with annually, and it may be 

 noted that the wages of an ordinary labourer are 

 equivalent to the interest on iooo7. of capital. 



The question of the continuous handling of material 

 is treated in the first section of the book ; special 

 prominence is given to elevators for the conveyance 

 of corn and flour, and to the important problem of the 

 supply of coke, ore, &-c., to the top of blast furnaces; 

 illustrations are given of the latest American furnace 

 hoists. The system of band conveying, due to the 

 inventive skill of Mr. Lyster, engineer to the Liver- 

 pool Docks, and the automatic throw-off carnage for 

 such conveyors, also due to Mr. Lyster, are described 

 in detail. Vibrating trough conveyors — the latest type 

 of such machinery, and especially useful with any 

 material which would deteriorate in rough treatment 

 — are then dealt with. Tightening gears, power re- 

 quired, and speed of travel in the different types of 

 convevors are discussed in a special chapter, thus 

 facilitating reference and comparison. The various 

 types of pneumatic elevators, including the successful 

 Duckham system for loading grain which has been 

 extensively used, are next treated. This section of 

 the book is concluded by a series of descriptions, in 

 every rase with illustrations, of conveyors which have 

 been designed for special purposes, such as timber 

 conveyors, hot coke conveyors for gas works, and 

 casting machines for use with large blast furnaces. 



The intermittent handling of material, mainly by 

 endless chains and ropes, including the many systems 

 of aerial cable-ways, forms the second section of Mr. 

 Zimmer's book. One of the examples selected to 

 illustrate the use of aerial ropeways is that used 

 during the building of the new Beachy Head Light- 

 house, and full credit is given to Messrs. Bullivant 

 for the ingenious way in which the many practical 

 difficulties were overcome. We may mention that it 

 is to this system of aerial ropeway that the rapid 

 completion of that remarkable bridge which will 

 convev the Rhodesian railways over the great gorge 

 of the Zambesi, almost within a stone's throw of the 

 NO. 1865, VOL. 72] 



famous falls, is due ; it not only facilitated the erection 

 of the bridge, but it also enabled the permanent way 

 and rolling stock for the northern continuation of the 

 railway line to be transported to the north bank of 

 the gorge long before the bridge itself was completed. 

 The interesting question of the coaling of ships at 

 sea, a subject of special interest in view of the recent 

 voyage of the famous Baltic Fleet to the East, forms 

 the conclusion to this section. 



The third section of the book is devoted to unload- 

 ing and loading appliances. The discharging of 

 vessels in docks, and the discharging of railway 

 trucks — work requiring so much labour — have been 

 fertile subjects of invention, and a large number of 

 systems of grab-elevators and self-emptying trucks 

 are described. In view of the enormous weight of 

 coal annually shipped at the various coal shipping 

 centres, no branch of the mechanical handling of 

 material has received more attention than that of 

 coal tips for loading colliers, and the chapter which 

 treats of coal tips is a most complete and valuable 

 one. In the last section of the book a number of 

 miscellaneous devices, which the author has found it 

 impossible to group under any of the previous 

 divisions, are described, such as the automatic weigh- 

 ing of material, the coaling of railway engines, &c. 

 Large flour and silo warehouses form an essential 

 feature in the mechanical handling of raw materials 

 such as grain and seed, and a couple of chapters, 

 illustrated with the help of a number of plates, are 

 given up to a detailed account of the main features' 

 of their design. 



The book will be indispensable to all engineering 

 firms, consulting engineers, and architects who have 

 to deal with this important question either in the way 

 of designing machinery or of erecting warehouses, 

 and it is, though highly technical, a book which will 

 appeal to the general reader anxious to obtain some 

 slight knowledge of the latest advance in the 

 mechanical handling and transport of the immense 

 quantities of raw materials used dailv in our industrial 

 'ife. ■ T. H. B. 



THE BUTTERFLIES OF INDIA. 

 The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and 

 Burma. Published under the authority of^ the 

 Secretary of State for India in Council. Edited by 

 W. T. Blanford. Butterflies. Vol. i. By Lieut.- 

 Colonel C. T. Bingham. Pp. xxii + 511; Figs. 94; 

 Plates 10. (London ; Taylor and Francis, 1905.) 

 Price 20s. 

 ■XT INETY years ago, when Kirby and Spence pub- 

 lished the first volume of their " Introduction to 

 Entomology," they considered it necessary to devote 

 a whole letter, filling many pages, to refuting popular 

 prejudices against the frivolity and uselessness of the 

 study of entomology ; and, no doubt, at that period 

 butterfly-collecting was looked upon as a very silly, 

 childish pursuit; while less than 200 years before, in 

 the time of Charles II., a serious attempt was made to 

 set aside the will of a certain Lady Glanvil, on the 

 ground of insanity, as shown by her fondness for col- 

 lecting butterflies. 



