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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 351 



ties). The various manipulations were formerly performed by 

 hand, but all are now done by machinery. The vegetables thus 

 prepared are then dried in kilns and on lattice work trays by cur- 

 rents of moderately hot, dry air, thereby retaining their natural 

 color, flavor, and aroma. This stage of the process requires the 

 greatest care and attention, so as to keep the temperature con- 

 stantly at the level ascertained by experience to be necessary for 

 each kind of vegetable. The vegetables and herbs are then care- 

 fully mixed in the proportions given above, and then compressed 

 to one-eighth of their original bulk (when fresh) by powerful hy- 

 draulic pressure into moulds, thus forming square slabs about 

 three-quarters of an inch thick, grooved so as to be divided into 

 cakes of five rations each, at the rate of one ounce per ration, easily 

 separated for convenience of issue. These slabs are then wrapped 

 in paper, and packed by machinery into square tins, which are 

 hermetically soldered. Before the lid is soldered down, a punch 

 stamps it automatically from the inside with the season of manu- 

 facture. When two years appear ori this stamp, as " 1888-89," the 

 first is the year of the crop, and the second the year of compression. 

 The tins are now made of bright " coke " tin-plate of the best 

 quality, it having been found by experience that the vegetables keep 

 much better in this material than in the dull terne-plate formerly 

 used. 



THE BOYNTON BICYCLE RAILROAD. 



In last week's issue we briefly described the Boynton Bicycle 

 Railroad at Gravesend, between Bay Ridge and Coney Island, a 

 few miles from this city. The novelty of the Boynton system, and 

 its vast possibilities in the line of high speed combined with safety, 

 which rest on the fact of its running, like the bicycle, on one rail, 

 justify us in giving our readers some further particulars concerning 

 it. Among the advantages inherent in this system (in which 

 the train is like a wide plank on edge), the development of 

 which is only a question of the proper adaptation of means to 

 ends, are the following, as given by a competent and disinter- 

 ested authority on engineering : i. A great increase in smoothness 

 of mo. ion at high speeds, permitting an almost indefinite increase 

 of speed without danger in this respect ; 2. A diminished air re- 

 sistance, due to the narrower vehicles and running-gear ; 3. A 

 narrower road-bed, less costly to construct and to maintain. To 

 these may be added the much greater ease, smoothness, and safety 

 in rounding curves at high speed, as well as the excellent facilities 

 for electrical propulsion afforded by the guard-rail overhead. An- 

 other advantage, the great flexibility of the system, must not be 

 neglected. It is as well adapted to the slower and heavier freight 

 traffic as to the light and rapid passenger service ; to the high speed 



FREIGHT LOCOMOTIVE FOR THE BOYNTON BICYCLE RAILWAY. 



The vegetables and herbs are also prepared separately, as there 

 is a greater demand in some quarters for some kinds than for others : 

 as, for instance, in South Africa, for compressed celery as a cure, 

 when stewed, for rheumatism caused by sleeping on the open veldt ; 

 in India, for compressed onions, to make a soup considered a 

 sovereign remedy for the effects of over-indulgence in spirituous 

 liquors ; in the Hudson Bay territory, for the same article as a 

 generator of warmth in the stomach ; and in Burmah, for com- 

 pressed apples and pears, which are prepared in a similar manner 

 to the vegetables and herbs. All these vegetables, herbs, and 

 fruits are also obtainable in their dried and desiccated condition, 

 without being compressed into cakes. In either state they are 

 extremely convenient, portable, and useful, as are also the prepared 

 and condensed soups and flours made from potato, pea, lentil, 

 haricot bean, carrot, chestnut, etc. They are, moreover, whole- 

 some ; and the use of these vegetables, fruits, etc., will probably be- 

 come more widely extended. 



The Engineering and Building Record appeared in a colored 

 cover last week, and is enlarged by the four pages which the cover 

 made. The improvement has been under consideration for a con- 

 siderable time,' and, as the current volume closes with the last issue 

 for November, it seemed best to make it now. The getting of a 

 cover which should at once be distinctive in color and meet all the 

 other requirements was no easy task, and the reader is left to judge 

 of the result finally reached. 



and frequent stoppages of city and suburban rapid-transit trains as 

 to the long runs of the limited express on trunk-lines ; to electrical 

 as to steam propulsion ; and to elevated or underground as to sur- 

 face roads. Its development in all these directions must follow as 

 a necessary consequence to its successful introduction in any one 

 of them. For this reason the progress made in perfecting the de- 

 tails of the system, at the Gravesend road and elsewhere, will be 

 watched with unusual interest by the intelligent people of every 

 country in which railroads have been introduced. 



The section of road at Gravesend upon which the Boynton sys- 

 tem is used had long been abandoned by the company formerly 

 operating it, as they had secured a more direct route with fewer 

 heavy grades. It was in poor condition, owing to the decay con- 

 sequent on long disuse ; but as in some respects at least (such, 

 for instance, as high grades and several sharp curves) it was 

 well adapted for showing the merits of this system, it was secured 

 by the Boynton Company. They equipped it with an overhead 

 guard-rail, and are getting the road-bed and track into good repair 

 as speedily as possible, so that they will soon be able to double the 

 speed of the trains without danger of accident from defective ties, 

 etc. Even in its present state, with the train-speed limited by un- 

 favorable conditions to a fraction of that possible under more fav- 

 orable circumstances, this short railroad is attracting a great deal 

 of attention, not only from railroad men, but also from men emi- 

 nent in engineering, electrical, and scientific circles generally. 



On Saturday of last week a representative of this paper was 



