SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[April 1st, 1 8 



GENERAL NOTES. 



A Deep Bore-Hole. — It is reported that a depth of over 

 5,200 feet has been reached by some Prussian mining en- 

 gineers in boring at Schladerbach, near Halle. 



Another Telephone. — The Times gives particulars of a 

 new telephone invented by Dr. Hertz, which has been tried 

 between Paris and Brussels. It is called the "Micro- 

 telephone Push Button." 



Telephonic Communication is now complete between 

 Croydon and London. The wire is ten miles in length, and 

 runs along the Brighton Railway hne, a substantial rental 

 being paid to the Post-office for the privilege. 



The Electric Light at Gothenburg. — It is announced 

 that a part of Gothenburg is to be lighted by electricity, the 

 corporation having made a contract with a local firm to 

 supply arc lights for the principal streets and squares. 



Amateur Photography. — TheiLondon Stereoscopic Company 

 have issued, in a revised and enlarged form, their handbook, 

 "The ABC of Photography." In this, practical information 

 is given not only to beginners but also to "proficient amateurs." 



The Trans-Caspian Railway. — In a recent number of 

 the Fortnightly Review, Professor Arminius Vambery gives 

 an interesting account of the Transcaspian Railway, in 

 which he describes the use of naphtha as a fuel for working 

 the line. 



Diamond Drilling in Australia. — A diamond drill 

 boring, fifteen miles from Sydney, has struck a seam of coal 

 at 2,227 fcfi'- This, in connection with other bores, is said 

 to prove the continuity of the main coal seam from Wol- 

 longong to Newcastle. 



A Tunnel between Italy and Sicily is in contempla- 

 tion. Our contemporary, Nature, gives some particulars, 

 from which we gather that the estimated cost is seventy-one 

 miUion francs, and the time required to complete the work 

 would be from four to six years. 



The Steel Works of the country have recently received 

 an important addition by the erection at the Britannia Iron 

 Works, Middlesborough, of three Siemens-Martin 18-ton 

 furnaces of a capacity of about 200 tons of steel per week. 

 Three more furnaces are rapidly approaching completion, 

 and when these are finished about 1200 tons of steel will be 

 made, if required, per week. 



Subsidence in the Salt Districts. — At Northwich, in 

 Cheshire, a startling subsidence has lately occurred in Castle 

 Stone, one of the main thoroughfares. The foundation of 

 a shop, together with about ten yards of the adjoining foot- 

 path, sank into a deep pit, which soon became filled with 

 water. Shortly after a pit four yards in diameter and five 

 yards deep was suddenly formed in the Hartford volunteer 

 drill-shed. 



A New Optical Glass. — The invention of a new optical 

 glass is said to be creating a sensation in the German scien- 

 tific world. The glass, owing to its great refractory power, 

 promises to be of marked influence in practical optics, inas- 

 much as it will admit of the production of lenses of short 

 focal width, such as it has hitherto been impossible to obtain. 

 For microscopic photography it will be of the greatest im- 

 portance. 



The Stevens Institute.— The Stevens Indicator, which 

 is the name of the journal published by the Stevens Institute 

 of Technology, has appeared in a new form as a quarterly, 

 and the first number gives an article on the general pros- 

 perity and work of the Institute, followed by articles on the 

 Institute's electrical steam-engine testing facilities, and on 

 several subjects of engineering interest relating to matters 

 outside the Institute, 



The British Association Meeting. — In our last issue 

 we stated that the Autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel' 

 Institute at Manchester would be followed by that of the 

 British Association, to be held in the same city. We 

 should have stated that the former society will follow the 

 latter. The British Association meeting is to commence 

 on the 31st of August and terminate on 7 th of September. 



Two New Borings for Salt are in progress on the 

 south side of the Tees, below Middlesborough. The first is 

 being made by Messrs. Pease and Partners, commonly 

 known as the Middlesborough Owners. The contract for 

 boring has been let to the Cumberland Diamond Rock-Boring 

 Company, and the depth at which it is expected salt will be 

 found is about 1,000 feet. The second hole will probably 

 be carried about the same depth. The thickness of the 

 seam of salt is 80 feet. 



A New Form of Battery. — Dr. Lugo, of New York, has 

 devised a form of battery which is described as giving a 

 current of great constancy. The result is obtained by the 

 device of employing three distinct liquids. The zinc is 

 placed in the outer cell in an alkaline solution ; next comes 

 a porous cell containing chloride of copper, and in this stands 

 a hollow cylinder of carbon containing hydr. chloric acid. 

 The acid dissolves the copper which is liberated at the sur- 

 face of the carbon, and maintains the strength of the chloride 

 of copper solution perfectly constant. 



Niagara Falls. — Examinations recently made show the 

 average recession along the contour of the Niagara Horse- 

 shoe Fall since 1842 to have been 2-4 feet per year. At 

 the point where the acute angle is formed the recession 

 from 1843 to 1875 w^s over 100 feet, and from 1875 ^° 

 1886 more than 200 feet. The wearing away of the 

 American Fall since 1842 has been but slight. The heights 

 of the falls above the level of the water were determined 

 by the engineers of the United States Geological Survey on 

 August 17th, 1886, as follows: American Fall, 167 feet; 

 Horseshoe Fall, 159 feet. 



The Bicycle, as a means of locomotion to soldiers, 

 especially those employed as messengers or orderlies, has, 

 according to the Broad Arrow, been for some months upon 

 trial at the Joinville Training School in France, and the 

 result, it is said, has been satisfactory beyond expectation. 

 An inspection of a couple of dozen selected pupils, who 

 have been under bicycle and tricycle tuition, was held last 

 week by the French War Minister, and great proficiency 

 was exhibited by the riders of this novel cavalry. Some ot 

 the evolutions were of an intricate nature, and excited much 

 admiration on the part of the general and his staff. 



The Photographic Convention of the United King- 

 dom. — The following information is extracted from a circular 

 of thf Edinburgh Photographic Society : — " It has been 

 decided by the executive committee that the Convention 

 this year shall take place at Glasgow, on Monday, July 4th, 

 and extend over one week. The arrangements will take 

 the following form : — Excursions with the camera daily, to 

 places of interest in the neighbourhood, either by coach, 

 rail, or other conveyance, under the direction of specially 

 appointed leaders. The evenings will be principally set 

 apart for the reading of papers, demonstrations, exhibition 

 of apparatus, etc. 



Liquid Fuel. — From what is currently reported of the 

 use of liquid fuel on the Pacific coast, the results there do 

 not seem to have proved highly satisfactory. A San Fran- 

 cisco paper, for example, has just published a paragraph to 

 the effect that the ferryboats plying between that city and 



