July 5, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



17- 



tion Victims ; " " The Gospel of Rest ; " " The Legal Liability of 

 Doctors ; " " The Danger of Ignorant and Indiscreet Bathing ; " 

 "Bleaching the Hair;" "The Filtering of Drinl<ing-Water ; " 

 " Liver-Spots ; " " Typhoid-Fever on Long Island ; " " Lotions for 

 Freckles, for Red Hands, for keeping the Hands Soft and Smooth ;" 

 etc. There is also a very interesting article on " The Policeman as 

 an Autocrat, and Clubbing and its Effects," by Capt. Gunner of 

 the New York police. 



— Mr. Gladstone has an article in the Nineteenth Century for 

 July, entitled "Plain Speaking on the Irish Union." In it he says, 

 "Sir Richard Webster, in examining William O'Brien before the 

 Parnell Commission, implied that a grave charge would be proved 

 against certain Iiishmen if it could be shown that they regarded 

 English power as alien. I should like to have asked Mr. O'Brien 

 whether the Irish, so far as he knew, regarded the Act of Union as 

 possessed of the same moral authority as the laws against theft 

 and murder, or as possessed of moral authority at all. I do not 

 doubt that Mr. O'Brien would have answered that they regarded it 

 as an act of force to which Ireland was under, not a moral, but only 



a prudential obligation to conform. There may be immorality in 

 miscalculated resistance even to immoral laws, but such resistance 

 is not in itself immoral. The question is, whether worship of the 

 Act of Union is piety or superstition." 



— Mr. George John Romanes, the distinguished author of " Men- 

 tal Evolution in Man : Origin of Human Faculty," will contribute 

 to The Open Court of July 1 1 (Chicago) an article entitled " The 

 Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms." The public will recall M. 

 Binet's able series of essays in Vol. II. of TJie Open Court, in which 

 the soul-life of these tiny and interesting beings was so carefully 

 discussed. The essays were afterwards published in book form by 

 The Open Court Publishing Company. In a preface written espe- 

 cially for the American edition, M. Binet took issue with Mr. Ro- 

 manes relative to the stage in animal development at which psy- 

 chological powers first appear. The criticism has attracted much 

 attention. The eminent English scientist, in turn, now replies to 

 the strictures of the French savant. The controversy will be of 

 interest to all. To those who have read M. Binet's monograph 

 the reply of Mr. Romanes will be an appropriate supplement. 



INDUSTRIAL NOTES. 

 A Combined Water-Motor and Dynamo. 

 A COMPACT combination of a water-motor with an electric gen- 

 erator, now being placed on the market by the Belknap Water 

 Motor Company of Portland, Me., is shown in the accompanying 

 illustration. It is intended for small plants of from ten to fifty or 

 more i6-candle-povver lamps. In the engraving the dynamo and 



COMBINED WATER-MOTOR AND DYNAMO. 



water-wheel are shown detached from the wheel-case and stand or 

 base. The gear-wheel and pinion seen in the wheel-case operate 

 the devices which control the flow of water to the wheel, thus gov- 

 erning the speed of the motor and dynamo. Water under the req- 

 uisite pressure is admitted at the centre of the case, in the rear, 

 passes through the curved arms shown in the case, whence it im- 

 pinges upon the curved buckets of the wheel, at the inside, and 

 escapes at the exterior of the wheel, passing away through the 

 base of the motor casing. The wheel is an outward-flow turbine 

 or vortex wheel, mounted on the same shaft as the armature, and 

 may be run at a speed ranging from one thousand to three thou- 

 sand revolutions a minute, according to the head of water avail- 

 able. Several of these novel electric-light plants are now in opera- 

 tion, and are said to give great satisfaction. 



Aside from its use in connection with a dynamo, this motor, the 

 " Little Giant," as it is called, is used for a variety of purposes, 

 having been on the market some eight or ten years. In many 

 towns and cities of the United States and Canada, where water at 



a pressure of twenty-five or thirty pounds may be had at a reason- 

 able price, these motors, ranging in size from seven to twelve inches 

 in diameter, are successfully running printing-presses, lathes, saws, 

 jewellers' and dental tools, organs, sewing-machines, and coffee, 

 spice, and drug mills. 



Graduated Glassware and Bohemian Beakers. 



James W. Queen & Co., Philadelphia, have recently made ar- 

 rangements for the manufacture of chemical glassware of fine- 

 quality, and call particular attention to the accuracy of their gradu- 

 ated ware, such as burettes, pipettes, volumetric flasks, cylinders, 

 etc. These goods are made abroad, by experienced workmen, of 

 the best German glass. 



In order to satisfy themselves still further, as well as their cus- 

 tomers, as to the quality of the apparatus, they selected at random 

 a number of each of the articles mentioned above, and sent them 

 to William H. Greene, professor of chemistry in the Philadelphia 

 Central High School, asking him to submit them to a compari- 

 son with his " standard instruments," made by Geissler of Bonn. 

 The results of these tests, as shown in a letter from Professor 

 Greene, are highly satisfactory. 



A Rubber Mat for Type-Writers. 



A useful device, manufactured by the United Rubber Company 

 of Trenton, N.J., is shown in the accompanying illustration. It is 

 a rubber mat, to be placed under a type-writing machine for dead- 



ening the clicking noise of the type, which, even in the best of 

 type-writers, sometimes becomes annoying. The mat reduces the 

 noise to a minimum, and is made in various sizes and styles to fit 

 machines of different makes. 



Notes on Electric Railways using Thomson-Houston System. 



The popularity of electric railways is evidenced by the recent 

 purchase of the Des Moines Broad Gauge Railway, equipped with 

 the Thomson-Houston system, by a wealthy Chicago syndicate ; 

 the purchasing price being $350,000, some three times the original 

 cost of the road. When equipped with horses, this road did not 

 pay operating expenses ; but, since its equipment and operation 

 under the Thomson-Houston system, its net earnings will pay 3 

 per cent dividends upon an investment of nearly $400,000. The 

 road has never had a repair-shop for its electrical apparatus ; and 

 in a recent conversation its president said that they did not know 

 what electrical repairs meant, as they had had none to make. In 

 some respects the Des Moines road has been the most wonderful 



