June 7, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



439 



19th, although it was very difficult to destroy her, being lumber- 

 laden. Unfortunately the " Yantic " encountered a hurricane of 

 great violence the afternoon of the 21st, by which she was dis- 

 masted and compelled to give up her cruise and return to New 

 York. 



— Erastus Wiman, in a letter to the editor of the Railroad Ga- 

 zette, states that the use of mica, ground by the cyclone pulverizer, 

 as a lubricant, is assuming very great importance in connection 

 with railways. The managers of a cyclone plant, which has been 

 erected at Denver for the New Mexico Mica Mining Company, 

 have ground mica to such an excessive fineness that the tests of 

 the material as a lubricant have been very successful. A letter 

 just received from Denver states that on the Rock Island Road 

 the mica experiment was very satisfactory. They cooled off 

 journals that came in heated, by applying mica, and the agent re- 

 ports that one which came in very hot was sent forward as soon as 

 the mica lubricant had been applied. The train despatcher re- 

 ceived reports from different stations on the road, that it had cooled 

 off, and was running all right. The experiments that have been 

 made with mica lubricant and mica dope have been successful. 

 The one was made with crude oil and mica, and the other with 

 mica and the residuum from the wells, being a very much cheaper 

 grade of oil. The officials of the Union Pacific and of the Denver 

 and Fort Worth Roads have applied for the privilege of a test. It 

 will be curious if this singular mineral should be found to be a 

 lubricant, to serve so useful a purpose as that of a substitute for 

 that crudest of devices, a huge clot of waste saturated with oil. 



— The American steamship " Santiago," Captain Allen, passed 

 through the centre of a water-spout on April 29, latitude 25° 38' 

 north, longitude 76° 47' west. The detailed report forwarded by 

 Chief Officer Calloway is one of the best ever received by the United 

 States Hydrographic Office. 



— Professor J. Burkitt Webb of Stevens Institute, Hoboken, N.J., 

 is conducting a series of experiments with graphic reproduction 

 processes, there being quite a need of some method whereby he 

 can distribute diagrams and plates on graphical statics of a nature 

 that cannot be set up in type, and yet would not repay the cost of 

 engraving. Notwithstanding all the efforts of inventors, this prob- 

 lem does not seem to be solved, as the processes in vogue either 

 yield poor results or involve much labor or cost. 



— Recent analyses of commercial fertilizers and manurial sub- 

 stances sent to the Massachusetts State Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion for examination show that both cottonseed-meal and linseed-meal 

 must be counted among our cheapest concentrated fodder ingre- 

 dients, on account of the high commercial value of the fertilizing 

 constituents they contain, varying from §22.70 to $25 per ton in 

 the former, and from $21.76 to $24.04 in the latter. The samples 

 of linseed-meal differed somewhat in their mechanical condition, 

 which may be merely incidental. Their variation in composition, 

 if obtained from the same lot of seed, is mainly due to the particu- 

 lar mode used to secure the oil of the seed. The old process con- 

 sists in the use of a powerful press ; the new process, in the ab- 

 straction of the oil by means of benzine or bisulphide of carbon. 

 The latter mode of treatment aims, for enonomical reasons, at a 

 more complete abstraction of the oil than the press can accomplish. 

 To this circumstance it is mainly due that, as a rule, the meal ob- 

 tained by the use of the old process contains in the same quantity 

 more oil and less nitrogen containing organic constituents than 

 that obtained by the new process. 



— William Wallace, the chimney-repairer, is never out of work. 

 He sets up his own peculiar device for staging, which enables him 

 to complete a job in about the time that it takes to erect an ordi- 

 nary staging. " Steeple Jack," as he is called, first places a long 

 light ladder against the chimney that is to be operated on. Then, 

 mounting it, he drives a peculiarly shaped iron pin into the brick- 

 work, and binds the top of the ladder fast to this pin. Standing 

 on the top round of this ladder, he drives another pin into the 

 chimney as high above his head as he can reach. A rope is then 

 passed over this pin, and made fast to a round in a second ladder 

 about three feet from its bottom round. This ladder is then 

 hoisted up until it rests on top of the first ladder. It is then made 



fast to the lower pin ; and then " Steeple Jack " mounts to the top of 

 it, and, driving in another pin, secures the top round to that. 

 From this ladder a third is hoisted as before ; and Jack and the 

 ladders, as many of them as may be necessary, continue to rise as 

 far as may be desired. It is estimated that he has climbed about 

 fifteen miles up into the air in this way. The only accident he ever 

 met with was at Mansfield, Mass., when he fell from a chimney 

 with a ladder. He landed in a tree, however, and escaped injury. 

 His set of ladders is his only staging, and he can mount a 180-foot 

 chimney in three hours. He raises his own brick and mortar by 

 standing on top of the chimney and pulling them up. He learned 

 his trade with the original " Steeple Jack Davis," in England, and 

 has travelled extensively through Europe with his ladders, besides 

 working in most of the large cities in this country. 



— The Astley-Cooper prize, of a value of $1,500, will be awarded 

 in 1892. The question proposed is " The Influence of Micro-organ- 

 isms upon Inflammation." The papers of those contesting for the 

 prize should be written in English or accompanied by an English 

 translation, and should be addressed before the ist of January, 

 1892, to the Guy Hospital, London. The prize will not be awarded 

 to two or three working together. 



— The ship "Hvidjornen" arrived at Copenhagen on May ^\ 

 from Greenland, having on board Dr. Fridtjof Nansen and his 

 companions, who succeeded in crossing Greenland from east to 

 west on snow-shoes. The members of the expedition received an 

 enthusiastic welcome from a large crowd. Dr. Nansen has made 

 further report of the experiences of his party in their journey across 

 the Greenland ice. Before they got a landing on the east coast, 

 they drifted for twelve days in the ice in the boats in which they 

 had' been left by a Norwegian sealer. They strove hard to reach 

 the shore, but thrice, when on the point of succeeding, were 

 carried out again to sea. For a whole day and night they expected 

 to perish in the tremendous breakers of the sea against the ice rim. 

 Dr. Nansen's account of his adventures, as it appears in the Lon- 

 don Daily News, contains the following : " After two days, near 

 the dreaded glacier of Puisortok, we met a native camp of about 

 seventy men, part of whom were bound for the north. We were 

 glad of the meeting, and counted on valuable help from their 

 knowledge of the currents on the coast. We were, however, dis- 

 appointed, for, instead of taking the lead, they let us break the ice, 

 and contented themselves with following in our wake. Some days 

 after, having reached latitude 63^°, some other natives who saw us 

 took to flight, thinking us supernatural beings, though we made 

 signs that we wished to be good friends. We took no brandy. 

 At first it was warm in the daytime, and we walked at night ; later 

 we reversed the proceeding. At first there were plenty of wide 

 crevices, and we had to be constantly on the alert to prevent an 

 accident. On the third day a downpour of rain commenced, which 

 kept us in our tent for three days. When we proceeded, no drink- 

 ing-water was to be had : we were forced to melt the snow for 

 cooking purposes and for our tin bottles. When we had altered 

 our course, we got a side wind, and rigged masts and sails on the 

 sledges, made of the tent flooring and tarpaulins. The wind abat- 

 ing, we had to give up sailing, and used our snow-shoes and skates. 

 The drifting snow hampered our progress, but the surface was still 

 even like a floor, and the ground still rose, till, at the beginning of 

 September, we had climbed to a height of 9,000 feet. We were 

 now on an extensive plateau like a frozen sea. We were more 

 than two weeks passing over it. The cold was most severe, the 

 thermometer falling below the scale, and, as I calculate, no less 

 than 50° below zero Centigrade. One morning I found that in the 

 thermometer under my pillow the spirit had receded below 40° into 

 the ball. On Sept. 7 a severe snow-storm nearly overturned our 

 tent, and on the next day we were overtaken by an awful drift. 

 The tent was completely buried, and we had to dig it out. On the 

 19th there was again a favorable wind, and we lashed the sledges 

 together, and, as we used the sails, it was unnecessary to pull. We 

 held on to the sledges, standing on our snow-shoes as we rattled 

 down the slope at a splendid rate. It was the pleasantest skating 

 I ever had in my life. The same afternoon we sighted the first 

 hilltop on the western coast. It was already dusk when we noticed 

 a dark object ahead, and, rushing on, we discovered a fearful 



