January ii, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



23 



stead Heath, for the purpose of testing the capacity of small elec- 

 tric hand-lamps in searching for the wounded men left after a bat- 

 tle, and thus more rapidly than hitherto bringing the sufferers 

 ■within the reach of surgical aid. The experiments were made by 

 the officers and men of the London Division of the Volunteer Med- 

 ical Staff Corps, — an organization which already consists of four 

 efficient companies, largely composed of medical students, and for 

 which a fifth company is now in process of formation. The corps, 

 under Surgeon-Commander Norton, accompanied by ambulance- 

 wagons, and provided with stretchers, halted upon one of the Heath 

 roads at a time when the thick mists still hung heavily upon the lower 

 grounds, and having established a field -hospital in a rather dreary- 

 looking spot, poorly sheltered by bare trees, sent out its searching 

 stretcher parties to pick up the bandsmen who had been distributed 

 over the open ground at some distance off, to simulate the wounded 

 'left from a fight during the daylight. By the aid of the lamps thus 

 brought into use for the first time, the men sought were found with 

 comparative rapidity, the lights being sufficient also to enable the 

 trained ambulance-men to apply preliminary bandaging upon the 

 spot, and before loading the stretchers, which by other lights at the 

 wagons were guided back to the road. There the men were care- 

 fully placed in the vehicles, and conveyed to the field-hospital, 

 where the examining surgeons found very little to correct in the 

 treatment adopted under such disadvantageous circumstances. 

 The results achieved indicate sufficiently well, says the Daily 

 News, that the electric light thus used would be of immense value, 

 and tend greatly to reduce the suffering of men left upon the field 

 at the close of a fight. 



An Electric Road for Chattanooga. — There has been 

 a very rapid extension of electric street-railroads during the year in 

 all but the Southern States. Here only one very important road 

 has been completed, although several are under contract. The street- 

 car system of Richmond has been equipped with electric motors, 

 and recently the Thomsom-Houston Company has opened a short 

 road in Danville. The most important contract in the Southern 

 States since the Richmond road was finished is that recently given 

 by the Chattanooga Street Railway Company to the Sprague Mo- 

 tor Company. The line will be five miles long, and there are on it 

 a number of sharp curves and heavy grades, the maximum being 

 about eight per cent. The road will be newly constructed through- 

 out. Eventually the entire railroad system of Chattanooga will be 

 ■equipped with electric cars. The present road will have overhead 

 conductors, a small wire fed from a larger wire, — the former over 

 the track, the latter anywhere that is most convenient. The motor- 

 cars will be of the new Sprague type, lately descriaed in this jour- 

 nal. 



The Edison Lamp Patents in England. — There will soon 

 be given a very important decision on Edison's patents for incan- 

 descent electric lamps. In this country there has been no direct 

 ■decision as to the validity of Edison's patents, all of the suits here- 

 tofore having been of a preliminary character ; but in England and 

 Germany several suits for infringement have been brought by the 

 ■companies controlling Edison's patents in those countries, and the 

 decisions, with one exception, have been in their favor. It is an ap- 

 peal from this adverse decision that has just been argued. In the 

 •case, Edison's patent was declared invalid mainly because of in- 

 complete specification, Justice Kay holding that a lamp as made by 

 Edison's description was not commercially successful, nor could it 

 be made so. Witnesses on the two sides attempted to make lamps 

 according to the specifications ; and those called by the Edison 

 Company succeeded in doing so, while those on the other side uni- 

 formly failed. Finally Professor Stokes was appointed as referee, 

 and a number of lamps were made and were tested. Some of these 

 gave out in a few hours, others burned longer. The results ob- 

 tained would not be in any way satisfactory as compared with our 

 present lamps, nor could a station using these first lamps be run at 

 a cost to make such an enterprise practicable. Professor Stokes 

 reported impartially the result of the experiments, which at the time 

 were generally considered as favoring the Edison patents. Justice 

 Kay decided, however, that the lamps described in the specification 

 never became, nor could ever become, a commercial success. The 

 case on appeal is now before the same court that formerly affirmed 



the validity of the patents, and there seem to be strong hopes 

 among those interested that the present decision will be hke the 

 former one. The decision of Justice Kay had a beneficial effect on 

 the lamp-trade in England : prices have been reduced, and several 

 firms have put new and improved lamps on the market. At the 

 same time, if Edison is the original inventor of incandescent-lamp 

 filaments, he should be entitled to the benefits of his invention. 

 While the sustaining of a fundamental patent in any industry has a 

 tendency to create a monopoly for a number of years, and restrict 

 competition and decrease the rapidity of progress, yet the ill effect 

 of a failure to sustain a just patent would have the still worse effect 

 of discouraging invention. In the case of Justice Kay's decision on 

 the Edison patents, the fact that the lamps made would not pay 

 to manufacture commercially should have no weight, provided they 

 first embodied the principle on which the present lamps are made ; 

 the only changes being in the improved methods and materials 

 taught by experience, these improvements being merely in matters 

 of detail. 



The Daft Motor on the Elevated Roads.— The Daft 

 Electric Company continue their experiments with the large motor 

 and trains of cars on the Ninth Avenue Elevated Railway in this 

 city. Some weeks ago a train of eight cars was taken up a grade 

 of nearly two per cent at a speed of seven miles and a half an hour. 

 On several occasions a speed of thirty miles an hour, with three cars, 

 has been reached. The regular train speed on the Ninth Avenue 

 road is thirteen miles an hour, but with the electric motor no diffi- 

 culty is found in maintaining a speed of fifteen miles an hour. A 

 Science representative was one of a party, a few evenings ago, 

 who were carried over the road from Fourteenth to Fiftieth Street 

 at a speed approaching twenty miles an hour. The motion was 

 smooth and easy, and there was nothing but the entire absence of 

 smoke, smell, and cinders to indicate that the train was not drawn 

 by an ordinary locomotive. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



We wish again to call attention to the monument for Audubon 

 which it is proposed to erect over the place where he is buried. 

 The authorities of Trinity Cemetery have changed the plot, and 

 placed the remains in a well-con- 

 structed vault in one of the most 

 conspicuous parts of the cemetery, 

 and the committee in charge of 

 the matter are anxious to have the 

 monument erected as soon as 

 the funds will justify it. Subscrip- 

 tions are coming in very slowly. 

 The committee have decided to 

 distribute to each subscriber to the 

 funds a copy of a portrait of Au- 

 dubon which was painted by Cruik- 

 shank and engraved by Turnure. 

 As this engraving is a copy of a 

 very valuable and rare one, the 

 committee hope that this will be 

 an inducement to persons to sub- 

 scribe. 



,::>^?£=«^.7,;S^ 



— The American Society of Naturalists held in Baltimore, Dec. 

 27 and 28, one of its largest and most successful meetings. Meth- 

 ods of instructing large classes in botany were presented by Pro- 

 fessors Goodale and Wilson, and in geology by Professors Niles and 

 Williams. The society fully approved the excellent work of its 

 committee on education, in paving the way for better instruc- 

 tion in the natural sciences in all grades of schools, especially the 

 lower ones. Mr. J. E. Wolff showed a photographic method of 

 class illustration, and Professor W. M. Davis explained a most 

 interesting series of paper models, illustrating the development of 

 certain topographic forms and their relation to base-levels of 

 erosion. The society is composed largely of teachers, and desires 

 to so arrange its meeting next year that the members may be able 

 to attend the meetings of speciaUsts held about the same time. 



