EDITORIAL NOTES. 



259 



and with stations. Two wires are used in 

 transmitting the electric current, instead of 

 one. Wheels or brushes attached to the 

 moving train touch these wires carrying the 

 current from one wire to an instrument in the 

 car and returning it to the other wire, along 

 which it passes until its destination is reached, 

 when it is connected with a ground wire and 

 completes the circuit through the earth. 

 Its advantages are obvious, but if none were 

 assured except that of lessening the danger of 

 accidents, its adoption by railroad companies 

 should be only a question of how soon it 

 could be done. 



We have examined an invention by H. C. 

 Train, of Kansas City, for separating gold 

 from dirt in placer mines, and also to work 

 at the tail of a quartz mill. It consists of an 

 improvement in dry placer amalgamators, 

 and its claims are set forth in the following 

 specification : " My invention relates to im- 

 provements in machines for washing and ex- 

 tracting gold from auriferous deposits and 

 crushed quartz, and separating the dirt from 

 water after the gold has been extracted ; and 

 the objects of my invention are, first, to pro- 

 vide a means by which all the fine as well as 

 the coarse gold can be brought in contact 

 with amalgam-plates and saved ; second, to 

 separate the dirt from the water in which it 

 has been washed, so that the same water may 

 be used over and over again, with little or no 

 waste, in places where sufficient water for 

 sluice-washing cannot be had ; third, to 

 operate the whole mechanism by one shaft 

 and the same motive power." The inven- 

 tion has been examined carefully by practical 

 miners, and has been pronounced successful 

 in its operations. 



The manufacture of water pipes was com- 

 menced on the loth ult., at the Kansas City 

 Pipe Works, about two miles below the city. 

 These pipes are made on mandrels of different 

 sizes, from three to twenty inches in diameter, 

 by rolling around them sheets of iron heavily 

 coated within and without with melted 

 asphalt. When cool these pipes, now about 

 half an inch thick, will bear a pressure of 



350 pounds to the square inch, and the 

 material of which they are composed being 

 practically indestructible, they seem to pre- 

 sent a cheap and effective substitute for the 

 ordinary iron pipes. 



The Pharmacists of Kansas, at their late 

 meeting in Topeka, elected the following 

 officers for the ensuing year: President, F. 

 E. Halliday ; First Vice President, W. C. 

 Johnson; Second Vice President, Geo. Slos- 

 son ; Secretary, A. E. Barnes; Assistant 

 Secretary, Frank Frisby ; Treasurer, W. A. 

 Stamford. Papers were read by Dr. R. J. 

 Brown, F. Frisby, H. W. Spangler and 

 Prof. G. E. Patrick. 



The Archffiological Institute of America 

 has, in imitation of France and Germany, 

 established an American school of Classical 

 Literature, Art and Antiquities at Athens, 

 Greece. This enterprise has received the 

 support of all the principal eastern universi- 

 ties and colleges, and Prof. W, W. Goodwin, 

 of Harvard University, has been appointed 

 Director for the first year, which commences 

 October 2, 1882. It is hoped that through 

 the co-operation of these colleges with the 

 Institute, much practical benefit will be 

 rendered to students in the above named 

 subjects. 



ITEMS FROM THE PERIODICALS. 



It is gratifying to learn that the Saturday 

 Herald^ the best society paper in the State, is 

 gaining strength steadily, as it deserves to do, 

 from the earnest devotion of its faithful 

 editress to the objects of its publication. 



The Milwaukee Sunday Telegraph, of June 

 nth, contains an extended account of the 

 principal instruments of the Washburn 

 Observatory at Madison, Wis. 



At most of the mining camps in Colorado 

 extensive preparations are being made for a 

 full representation of their respective ores 

 and minerals at the Denver Exposition this 

 month. 



