574 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 513. 



realized these aims was the work of Mr. Wicks, 

 who, curiously enough, is not an engineer by 

 profession, but a journalist, and was formerly 

 a member of the gallery staff of The Times. 

 His original invention has been vastly iin- 

 proved in the course of years, and the members 

 of the Civil and Mechanical Engineers' So- 

 ciety, who, headed by the honorable secretary, 

 Mr. A. S. E. Ackermann, paid a visit on 

 August 4 to the works at Willesden where the 

 type-casting wheels are made, spent a couple 

 of very interesting hours among machines and 

 contrivances which strike laymen as little 

 short of magical, but can only be properly 

 appreciated by engineers. Under the guidance 

 of the firm's engineer, Mr. E. G. Tottle, they 

 inspected every process of the manufacture of 

 the punches, the matrices, and the type-casting 

 wheel itself; and, though the actual casting is 

 done at the works in Blackfriars, arrangements 

 had been made by which the operation of one 

 of the finished wheels could be exhibited. Be- 

 fore the invention and perfection of this wheel 

 a type-making machine which could turn out 

 6,000 types an hour was considered rapid; the 

 Wicks rotary wheel casts 60,000 with ease, 

 and 40 per cent, more cheaply than the old 

 machines. The firm's engineer explained that, 

 after buying the best and most expensive ma- 

 chine in the market, they invariably set to 

 work to alter it until it reached their own 

 standard accuracy. All the calculations (and 

 they are peculiarly complicated, since, to com- 

 ply with the traditions of printing, the unit 

 is 1-72 part of an inch) are carried out to 

 six places of decimals, and the men who grind 

 the punches or make the wheels work to 

 1-10,000 part of an inch. The care taken and 

 the' quality of the machinery employed may be 

 gauged by the fact that the little punch-cut- 

 ting machines, which each cost nearly £1,000, 

 are bedded, to avoid vibration, on a depth of 

 16 feet of concrete, which in its turn is laid 

 on oak piles 5 feet long. 



According to foreign papers several parts of 

 Paris are so infested with mosquitoes that 

 the matter of their suppression has been con- 

 sidered by the Conseil d'Hygiene et de Salu- 

 brite de la Seine, which recently adopted cer- 

 tain conclusions of which the following is a 



summary: In the first place stagnant water 

 where their eggs are hatched and localities 

 where the insects collect, such as cellars, sewers 

 and dark places, ought to be kept under ob- 

 servation. Drains and sewers of all kinds, 

 and the openings of the pipes which supply 

 water in the streets, should be regularly in- 

 spected to avoid collections of stagnant water, 

 and insects assembling in numbers should be 

 destroyed either by a burning torch or by 

 lime-washing. Eoofs and rain-water gutters 

 ought to be examined, and water ought not to 

 be allowed to lodge in the gutters. Nothing 

 capable of holding water should be placed in 

 front of windows, and places which are the 

 haunts of mosquitoes should be well ventilated. 

 Stagnant water should not be allowed to re- 

 main in gardens and courtyards. Fountains 

 and basins in public places should be emptied 

 and cleansed at least once a week, and plenty 

 of fish should be kept in large sheets of water. 

 In basins and casks standing on private 

 ground there should be a layer of petroleiim 

 oil on the surface of the water (about a gram 

 per square meter), or if the water contains 

 fish a layer of salad oil. The public should 

 be advised to use mosquito curtains. Mos- 

 quito bites should be treated with a drop of 

 tincture of iodine or with a drop of a solution 

 of guaiacol of one per cent, strength. 



Reports received by the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey for 1903 show that many 

 springs that were formerly used as sources of 

 table waters were commercially abandoned 

 during the previous year. The reports also 

 show a decided loss in the number of gallons 

 of water sold and also in the value of the 

 product — losses ascribed mainly to the fact 

 that raany important springs failed to report 

 for the year 1903, although they sent in re- 

 turns for the previous year. These losses 

 occur in all sections except one. The list of 

 mineral springs reported for 1903 is slightly 

 increased over that of 1902, including now 

 725 springs instead of 721 as in 1902. The 

 list has been lengthened by the addition of 

 42 new names. The number of springs 

 dropped from the list, because commercially 

 abandoned, is 38. The springs actually re- 

 porting sales for 1903 number 522, which is 



