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FOR GENERAL READERS. 





Vol. I.] 



March, 1887. 



[No. I. 



PAGE 



Notes of the Month i 



Deep-sea Sounding {illits.) 3 



Influence of Electric Light on Vege- 

 table Growth 6 



Conservation of Energy 7 



The Living Torpedo ( illiis. ) S 



Electric Light for Navigation {il/i/s.). . 9 



Boiler Explosions 9 



Cold Air for Tunnelling 10 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



The Gas Engine (iHns.') 10 



Notes on Colour 12 



Science in Brewing 14 



The Lick Telescope 15 



Orthochromatic Photography (///«j.) . . 16 



Steam-propelled Torpedo 17 



Science of War-ship Design 18 



Welsbach Incandescent Gas Burner. . 19 



Conversion of Heat into Work 19 



PAGE 



Canal through the Isthmus of Corinth 20 



Polarisation of Resistance Coils .... 20 



Higher Explosives for Artillery 21 



The Royal Institution 21 



The Royal Microscopical Society .... 22 



The London Institution 22 



Record of Scientific and Technical 



Societies 22 



Abstract of Patents {illiis.) 23 



NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



Provinci.\l Meetings of the Societies. — Edinburgh, Man- 

 chester, and Newcastle-on-Tyne will be the centres round 

 which the chief Scientific Societies of England will this year 

 hold their summer or autumn meetings. The Institution 

 of Mechanical Engineers will visit the Scottish capital in the 

 first week in August, when the chief attractions will be the 

 excursions to the Forth and Tay Bridges. A passing visit 

 will also be paid to Newcastle on the return south, so as to 

 afford an opportunity of examining the exhibition to be held 

 there. The British Association will make Manchester their 

 head-quarters in September, when the usual extensive pro- 

 gramme of meetings and excursions will doubtless occupj' 

 the attention of members. The Institution of Naval Archi- 

 tects, encouraged by the great success of last year's visit to 

 Liverpool, will hold a summer meeting towards the end of 

 July or early in August near the home of their president, 

 Lord Ravensworth, on the banks of the Tyne; where a very 

 full programme is being planned. The arrangements are not 

 yet complete, but we believe the matter is as good as settled, 

 with the exception of some minor details. The Members 

 of the Iron and Steel Institute, who, like their neighbours 

 the Mechanical Engineers, did not go out of Town at all 

 last summer (although the latter made a trip to Leeds in the 

 autumn), will also visit the city of their president, Mr. 

 Daniel Adamson, whose works at Manchester will doubtless 

 afford one of the most interesting of the excursions. The 

 meeting will be held on the 14th, 15th, and i6th of Sep- 

 tember, and will be immediately followed by the British 

 Association meetings in the same city. Amongst the proposed 

 excursions for the Iron and Steel Institute meeting are 

 Messrs. Piatt Bros.' vast engineering establishment at Old- 

 ham, Byer Peacock and Co.'s Locomotive Engine Works, 

 and the Broughton Copper Works ; but these are only the 

 first ideas, and there are boundless possibilities in the 



neighbourhood. There is also a proposal to make a trip 

 to Lincoln. Those scientific enthusiasts who like to temper 

 their instruction with amusement will therefore be able to 

 enjoy a very long picnic in the country this year, beginning 

 with the Naval Architects at Newcastle and ending with the 

 Iron and Steel Institution at Manchester. 



War AND Inventio.ni is the title under which our contem- 

 porary, the Scientific Aiiiericau, in view of the possibility of 

 war between two or more of the great European powers, 

 calls attention to the immediate effect of such a war upon 

 American interests. Leaving others to deal with its 

 influence upon grain, petroleum, cotton, and general 

 manufactures, the Scientific American gives the first place 

 in war-invention to " engines of war, their equipment, 

 and their auxiliary attachments," followed by inventions 

 relating to " forts, armour, floating batteries, and guns, 

 carriages, and shields for harbour protection." Reference is 

 made to the probable change ot small arms in nearly all 

 countries, and then follows this paragraph : — "The improve- 

 ment of heavy ordnance, armour, shells and other projectiles, 

 fuses, ammunition, and fortifications, offers a wide field. 

 Similarly the construction of ships, armour-clads, fast 

 cruisers, rams, torpedo craft, and floating batteries, presents 

 opportunities for novel designs and valuable invention, such 

 as could make the fortunes of scores of inventors. All the 

 varieties ot mechanical contrivance needed for driving and 

 working ships, pumping, steering, lighting, handling shot, 

 shell, and torpedoes, and loading and pointing the heavy 

 guns — all these openings for inventive talent are made 

 more accessible to inventors by the outbreak of war." 



Explosive substances are specially referred to, and it is 

 remarked that a great deal is still uncertain as to the proper 

 charge of gunpowder for both ordnance and small arms, it 



