606 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



Device for Raising and Lowering Electric Lamps. — A recent inven- 

 tion designed for raising and lowering electric lamps, consists of supporting- 

 cables secured at their ends to the walls of the building. A carriage is provided 

 having pulleys adapted to travel upon the supporting cables, and insulated brack- 

 ets secured thereto have also pulleys for the reception of the cables. A cross- 

 beam, having at each end thereof a grooved pulley, is pivoted to the insulated 

 bracket to adapt it to travel upon the carriage supporting cables. The cables are 

 rigidly secured to the cross-beam and pass over the insulated pulleys upon the 

 carriage to the lamp suspended below. Conducting wires connect the positive 

 and negative wires of the circuit with the supporting cables and the insulated 

 pulleys of the cross-beam, are also connected with the supporting cables. 



AFRICAN EXPLORATION. 



Foreign dispatches have lately contained frequent allusions to the controversy 

 between the explorers, Stanley and DeBrazza, regarding the French claims on the 

 valley of the Upper Congo. The New York Herald gives a sketch of the whole 

 matter. DeBrazza went into the service of the French branch of the African In- 

 ternational Society in 1875 ^^ ^tt\. a trade route from the coast up to Stanley 

 Pool, the point where navigable water extending 900 miles into thewinterior be- 

 gins. His first journey was along the Ogowe, following that river to the mount- 

 ain, and then striking the Congo at Stanley Pool. Subsequently he advocated 

 another route, starting from the west coast at Banga, and reaching the Congo at 

 the same point. Mr. Stanley's route was by way of the Congo all through, pass- 

 ing the series of falls that obstruct navigation between the Lower and Upper 

 Congo by means of roads, or eventually of canals, if ever commerce should justi- 

 fy such extensive works. 



M. DeBrazza's original route was some 500 or 600 miles longer than Stan- 

 ley's. His second route, from Banga, is also of much greater length than along 

 the banks of the Congo. On the loth day of September, i85o, DeBrazza, hav- 

 ing reached Stanley Pool and established himself with Kirg Makoko, obtained 

 from the latter an agreement to the celebrated treaty ceding the territory on the 

 north side of the Pool to France. Stanley had explored the Congo in his trip to 

 finish Livingstone's work, and in 1879 ^^^ went back there in the service of the 

 Belgian branch of the same society which had started DeBrazza out. When Stan- 

 ley, proceeding up the river, had passed the last cataract and reached the navi- 

 gable waters extending from the Pool inland, he found DeBrazza's lieutenant, 

 Malamine, whh two seamen in possession of a station on the north bank, and the 

 natives refused to give him the right to establish a station there, because they had 

 given it to the French. He, however, was well received by the chief on the 

 south bank, and there built a station of 113 houses. He then, having launched 

 his steamers, proceeded to explore the Coango, a main tributary of the Congo. 

 After ascending it 150 miles he found a lake 70 miles long and 6 to 30 miles- 



