ii6 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 315 



the drier by means of a fan, so that a partial vacuum is constantly 

 maintained in the drier ; and this steam is carried into the lower 

 part of a chamber, where, as it rises, it meets with a series of 

 sprays or sheets of water which fall from overlapping shelves. In 

 this way the steam which comes from the drier is condensed, and 

 flows away as an inoffensive rill, having no more odor than the 

 condensed water of an ordinary steam^radiator. In this process 

 of drying, sixty per cent of the weight of the garbage is removed. 



"The second stage of the operation consists in putting the dried 

 garbage into an apparatus called an extractor, where the grease and 

 oil which it contains is thoroughly removed by benzine used in an 

 automatic way, so that it is used over and over again without loss. 

 The present plant in Buffalo disposes of about 30,000 pounds of 

 garbage daily. From this, about 1,800 pounds of grease is recov- 

 ered ; and the remainder of the dried and pulverized garbage, 

 amounting to a daily average of about 12,000 pounds, is quite rich 



SPRAGUE ELECTRIC ROADS AT READING AND 

 WILMINGTON. 



In this issue of our paper we present views of two recent electric 

 roads, taken from photographs, — one in Pennsylvania, and the 

 other in Delaware. 



One of these represents one of the cars upon the Wilmington, 

 Del., City Railway. This railway, which was installed by the 

 Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company of New York, has 

 been in operation for about eight or nine months ; and the presi- 

 dent and the directors of this road have felt so very well pleased 

 with its operation, that they have ordered an additional number of 

 cars. The railroad is two miles long, using the regular Sprague 

 overhead system of wiring, with small working conductor three- 

 sixteenths of an inch in diameter, which, according to the Sprague 

 system of electric railways, is the only wire suspended over the 

 street. 



in ammonia, phosphates, and the other constituents which are valua- 

 ble in fertilizers, and it is readily sold to the manufacturers of fer- 

 tilizers. This dried product is screened, and what is removed is 

 sorted out, and nearly all of it finds a market. The old rubber 

 brings a good price ; the rags are sold ; the bones are valuable as 

 a source of bone-meal ; the waste tin, brass, and other fragments 

 of metal, all readily sell ; and only a small residuum, such as corn- 

 cobs, pieces of crockery ware, etc., are used as filling. According 

 to the showing of those who are pecuniarily interested, and of the 

 health authorities at Buffalo, a business of this kind pays a good 

 percentage on investment, and an examination of the works must 

 convince any person that a sanitary triumph has been achieved. 

 Upon the first introduction of the garbage to this treatment, it is 

 subjected to a temperature which of course immediately disinfects 

 it, if any of it should be infectious ; and from none of the processes 

 through which the garbage is put is there the least odor which is 

 suggestive of danger; and, though much benzine is used in the 

 second stage of the treatment, no smell of it whatever is detected 

 anywhere in the establishment during its use." 



Our other view gives a representation of two electric cars on the 

 East Reading and Black Bear Railway, passing each other upon a 

 turnout. This road has recently been installed by the Sprague 

 Electric Railway and Motor Company, and has been in operation 

 only about two months. The road has been operating very suc- 

 cessfully ever since its installation, and has been carrying a large 

 number of passengers. 



FOGS. 

 At the anniversary meeting of the Royal Meteorological Soci- 

 ety, held on the i6th of January, Dr. W. Marcet, president of the 

 society, delivered an address on " Fogs," which he illustrated by a 

 number of interesting lantern-slides. Fogs and clouds are one and 

 the same thing. A cloud is a fog when entered into ; and a fog seen 

 from a distance, suspended in the air, becomes a cloud. After de- 

 scribing the various kinds of fog, — e.g., river, sea, Newfoundland, 

 radiation, town, etc., fogs, — Dr. Marcet referred to London fogs. 

 Dr. Tyndall has accounted for them by assuming each particle of 



