March i, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



155 



derground cables, and the attendant puncturing thereof, will also 

 be the theme of a paper. Electric-light stations as fire risks will 

 be treated by an expert in fire underwriting, who has given especial 

 time and attention to that branch of the subject. Municipal light- 

 ing will be the subject of one or two papers, and no doubt of a 

 profitable discussion. The committee on underground conduits 

 and conductors has carried on a correspondence with the electric- 

 lighting fraternity, and it seems proper that the information gath- 

 ered should be presented in Chicago, where the undergrounding of 

 electric-lighting wires has been more practically carried out than 

 perhaps in any other city in the world. This question, which is at 

 present one in which diverse opinions are held by men of equal 

 professional standing, is one which this association cannot afford 

 at the present time to ignore or overlook." 



After some routine business, came the report of the committee 

 on patent legislation, which shows that much progress has been 

 made in the direction of securing the establishment of a court of 

 patent appeals. This court is to consist of three justices, ap- 

 pointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, 

 to have appellate jurisdiction in cases touching patents, copyrights, 

 trademarks, and labels. " The expediency and propriety of, if not 

 the necessity for, the establishment of such a court as contemplated 

 by this measure," to use the language of the committee's report, 

 " will not be questioned if proper consideration be given to the ob- 

 jects that will be attained by the passage of this bill.'' 



It is claimed that such a court would enable the public and pat- 

 entees to determine the value and validity of patents without seri- 

 ous and vexatious delays ; that it would relieve the Supreme Court 

 of much of the burden imposed upon it by this class of litigation ; 

 that practice in the patent office would become thoroughly fixed 

 and understood, and the issue of worthless patents would be greatly 

 diminished, if not entirely suppressed ; and that it would tend to 

 simplify the patent laws by construction, and settle questions of 

 doubt which are often used by litigants for the purpose of injustice 

 and oppression. Under the present .condition of the business of 

 the courts, it requires ordinarily from two to three years to obtain 

 a decision in the circuit courts of the United States, and, if appealed 

 to the Supreme Court, from three to four years are required to ob- 

 tain a decision. The same difficulty and delay attend the deter- 

 mination of all other questions involving the determination of 

 property rights. While this is true, it should be borne in mind that 

 this species or character of property differs from all other kinds of 

 property. ' The duration of the owner's title is arbitrarily fixed by 

 law. The period is short, for the most part seventeen years. The 

 Constitution imposes upon Congress the duty of securing to au- 

 thors and inventors, for a limited time, the exclusive right to their 

 respective writings and inventions. This duty is very imperfectly 

 discharged, when, by the omission of Congress to provide proper 

 means to determine questions arising out of patents, the life of a 

 patent may be frittered away by the delays of the law. 



The committee on insulation of wires and installation of plants 

 being called upon for a report, it was shown that the duties of that 

 committee were of such a character that no one engaged in the 

 electric-lighting business would care to attempt to fulfil them : con- 

 sequently there was no report to make, and the committee was ac- 

 cordingly discharged ; as was also the committee on electrical edu- 

 cation, which reported that Coluinbia College of New York had so 

 effectively taken up the work of the committee as to render its fur- 

 ther services unnecessary. 



At the opening of the session of Wednesday, after the usual 

 preliminary business was disposed of, the report of the under- 

 ground committee was read. It contained a large number of 

 answers to a circular issued by the committee relative to the opera- 

 tion of underground wires. The report was discussed by Professor 

 Barrett, who said the underground problem was solved success- 

 fully in Chicago. Mr. W. H. Johnstone discussed the paper at 

 length, and gave the results of experience with his own conduit, 

 which has been laid in Philadelphia and New York. Mr. T. Car- 

 penter Smith said that overhead wires, when well constructed, 

 were the safest method of distribution. Mr. De Camp spoke of the 

 non-success of running arc-light wires under ground in Phila- 

 delphia, and was joined therein by Mr. Charles Cooper and others. 

 Mr. B. E. Sunny said that technically his underground arc wires 



were successful, but their cost was very high, the expense of main- 

 tenance amounting to one cent per lamp per hour during an ex- 

 perience of ninety days. 



The discussion induced by this report was exceedingly interest- 

 ing, and made prominent the fact that many difficult problems re- 

 lating to the transmission under ground of high-tension electric 

 currents yet remain to be solved. 



On Thursday, the last day of the convention, a resolution was 

 adopted to the effect that the report of the committee on under- 

 ground wires be recommitted, and three new members were added 

 to the committee. This committee, the result of whose labors 

 during the next half-year will be awaited with great interest, now 

 consists of Messrs. Lynch, Barney, Kerr, Davis, Crocker, Sperry, 

 Barrett, and Sunny. 



A resolution was unanimously adopted by the association to the 

 effect that the members of that body would decline to allow any 

 electric current under their control to be used for the purpose of 

 inflicting the death-penalty upon condemned criminals. 



In the afternoon session the committee on insurance exchange 

 made a report, describing the work accomplished by the New Eng- 

 land Electric Exchange in the licensing of persons installing and 

 operating electric-light plants, and recommending the organization 

 of similar- exchanges in every State. 



Niagara Falls was selected as the next meeting-place of the 

 association, the date to be determined by the executive committee ; 

 and the following officers were elected for the ensuing year : presi- 

 dent, E. R. Weeks of Kansas City; first vice-president, A. J. De 

 Camp of Philadelphia ; second vice-president, E. A. Maher of 

 Albany, N.Y. ; executive committee, B. Rhodes of Niagara Falls, 

 B. E. Sunny of Chicago, C. R. Huntley of Buffalo, Dr. O. A. Moses 

 of New York, E. T. Lynch, jun., of Brooklyn, P. H. Alexander of 

 New York, J. F. Morrison of Baltimore, and T. Carpenter Smith 

 of Philadelphia. 



Among the papers read at the convention were one by Mr. S. E. 

 Barton, on " Electric Light Stations as Fire Risks," which was dis- 

 cussed by Messrs. Morrison, Alexander, and others ; one by Mr. C. 

 H. Rudd, entitled " Disruptive Discharges in Lead Cables," dis- 

 cussed by Messrs. Barrett, Lockwood, and Acheson ; one by Mr. 

 S. S. Leonard, on " Petroleum Fuel ; " one by M. J. Francisco, on 

 " Liquid Fuel ; " and one treating of the " Advantages of Oil for 

 Fuel," by Col. C. M. Ransom. The discussion of these latter 

 papers was participated in by Messrs. Leonard, Lockwood, Ransom, 

 and Francisco. Papers were also read by Mr. F. H. Whipple, on 

 " Municipal Lighting," and by Mr. A. R. Foote, on " Public Owner- 

 ship of Commercial Monopolies." 



The interesting report of the committee on underground conduits 

 and conductors excited a somewhat lively discussion, which was 

 ably carried on by many of the members present. The further 

 report of this committee at the next convention will be awaited 

 with much interest, as the subject of putting electric-light wires 

 under ground in our large cities has assumed great importance. 



A party of sixty gentlemen, mostly electricians, visited the con- 

 vention by special train from this city. The train consisted of three 

 Pullman vestibule cars, a dining-car, and a combination car with 

 bath-room and barber-shop. It was lighted throughout by elec- 

 tricity furnished by an Eickemeyer dynamo driven by a Brother- 

 hood engine. 



On the afternoon of Wednesday, after adjournment, a party of 

 delegates and visitors to the convention paid a visit, by invitation, 

 to inspect an installation of accumulators recently placed in the 

 residence of Potter Palmer by the Electric Accumulator Company. 

 The current is generated by one of the United States Company's 

 dynamos driven by an Otto gas-engine. The plant works admir- 

 ably, giving great satisfaction to Mr. Palmer as well as to the com- 

 pany which supplied it. 



HARWOOD'S NITROUS-OXIDE BLOW-PIPE. 



A SIMPLE and convenient form of compound blow-pipe, invented 

 by Dr. G. F. Harwood of Worcester, Mass., is shown in the ac- 

 companying engraving. It is intended for use in scientific lab- 

 oratories, technical schools, dental offices, and other places where 

 a powerful and concentrated flame under perfect control is required. 



