SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Oct. 1st, If 



of white salt. It was only about 1770 or shortly afterwards 

 that the first sinking was noticed ; since that date subsidence 

 has gone on very rapidly, and much destruction of property has 

 resulted. Large lakes or " flashes," one of more than 100 acres 

 in area, and ol all depths up to 45 ft., have been and are being 

 formed. The brine pumps set up a circulation of the salt water 

 or brine lying on the rock-salt, which flows to the pumping 

 centre. The brine thus removed is replaced by fresh water, 

 which on its passage to the pump saturates itself, taking up 

 sufficient salt to make a solution containing about 26 per cent, 

 of salt. This continual removal of salt from the surface of the 

 rock-salt lowers it, and the overlying earths either follow the 

 diminishing surface continuously or else after remaining sus- 

 pended for a time suddenly fall into the cavity from which the 

 water has extracted the salt. The brine currents on their way 

 to the pumping centres form deep valleys or troughs, and the 

 surface of the ground overlying forms a fac-simile of these 

 hollows. The property on the sloping sides of the valley is 

 pulled to pieces and destroyed ; the windows and doors all get 

 out of form, owing to the unequal sinking of the various portions 

 of the house. When, owing to the different nature of the marls 

 and the abundance of sand overlying them, a sudden sinking 

 takes place, the hole extends to the surface and swallows up 

 anything upon the surface — as a horse in a stable, barrels of 

 teer in a cellar, or water-butts and other utensils in a yard. 

 The damage done to property is enormous, but thus far no 

 human life has been lost. 



UNDERGROUND WATERS IN ENGLAND. 



Mr. E. E. de Ranee read a "Report on the Underground 

 Waters in the Permeable Formations of England." He said the 

 remarkable drought the country had experienced this year had 

 brought in strong relief the advantage of 'public water supplies 

 being derived from underground sources, the rainfall of wet 

 periods being not only stored in the sandstone rocks, but 

 delivered filtered from organic impurity and at a constant equable 

 temperature. Notwithstanding the unprecedented period of dry 

 weather, public wells of Liverpool, Birkenhead, Birmingham, 

 Southport, Nottingham, South Staffordshire, and the Stafford- 

 shire Potteries Waterworks gave their daily supply undiminished, 

 while the gravitation works of the Manchester Corporation and 

 the whole of the East Lancashire towns had been on short 

 supply, and in some instances had failed altogether. The new 

 and successful borings of the Potteries waterworks and that of 

 the Gainsborough Local Board were described, and the results 

 given of a large number of borings in the Midland counties. 

 The levels taken at a well at Bocking, in Essex, for several years 

 showed that the water level was uplifted by the Essex earth- 

 quake of April 22, 1884. This acquired level was gradually 

 diminishing at a rate which would bring back the original level 

 by August next year. The unfortunate failing of the Enson 

 Moor boring of the Stafford Corporation was due to an influx of 

 weak brine derived from the new red sandstone. The water 

 committee of that town, at the very moment of apparent success, 

 h::d now to sink a new source of supply for their borough. 



NORTH OF ENGLAND INSTITUTE OF MINING AND 



MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. 



Abridgment of the Presidential Address of Sir Lowthian 



Bell, F.R.S. 



IN the year 1839, ^^'^ therefore just short of half a century ago, 

 it fell within my duty to undertake a journey of upwards of 

 10,000 miles on the mainland of Europe. To its performance 

 nine months were devoted, and the Continent, from North to 

 South and from sea to sea, was crossed four times by as many 

 different routes. Before starting on this expedition from 

 England, and during it, practically every mile of public railway 

 then in existence was travelled over, and this did not greatly, if 

 indeed it did, exceed 300 miles in length. Contrast this with 

 the 280,000 miles built since that date, and fancy, if you can, the 

 perpetual movement rushing along them. As a factor in the 

 calculation, we had, in one year, conveyed along the 17,000 

 miles of line in the United Kingdom 700 millions of passengers, 

 almost equal to half the population of the globe ; and 270 

 million tons of goods and minerals. The germ out of which the 

 modern railway sprung was sown nearly 200 years before the 

 opening of the Stockton and Darlington line, the first under- 

 taking of its kind in the world. It originated with a colliery 



owner of the name of Beaumont, in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of Newcastle. The rails he employed were of wood, the 

 partial use of which was continued, within my own recollection, 

 for conveying coals to the Tyne for shipment. Cast, as well as 

 wrought iron, had been employed for rails, but only sparingly 

 previous to their more general introduction in the adjoining coal- 

 field. It was not, however, until 1 821 that anything was heard 

 of a malleable iron rail, rolled expressly for this purpose. In 

 that year the Directors of the Stockton and Darlington Railway 

 decided to lay a portion of their intended line with cast iron and 

 the remainder with an iron rail invented by Mr. Birkinshaw ot 

 Bedlington, in Northumberland. They were rolled in lengths of 

 12 or 15 feet and weighed 28 lbs. per yard. This was as heavy 

 a mass as the machinery of those days could deal with ; and it 

 offers a striking contrast with the practice of the present time, 

 when we have a united force of 7,000 horse power, turning out 

 above 400 tons of 82 lb. rails in 12 hours in lengths of more than 

 1 20 feet. 



The mechanical appliances called into existence by railways 

 are almost infinite in their number, and some of them are most 

 ingenious in their design ; but it was the locomotive engine 

 which proved the key to the success which was ultimately 

 achieved. The idea of propelling a machine by steam, which in 

 its turn should be capable of drawing loaded carriages along a 

 railroad, was not a new one. On the contrary, it had engaged 

 the attention of several mechanicians; but it was not until 1S13, 

 when Hedley placed a locomotive on the Wylam Colliery wagon- 

 way, which continued successfully for several years to draw the 

 produce of Mr. Blackett's pits to the shipping place at Lemington, 

 that any practical result was obtained. At this point of its his- 

 tory the question engaged the attention of George Stephenson, 

 who had removed from Wylam to Killingworth Colliery, where 

 ultimately he enjoyed the advantage of the advice and assistance 

 of Nicholas Wood, one of the founders and first President of our 

 Institute. The first locomotive Stephenson built at Killingworth 

 ran for years on the colliery railway, and is now to be seen, 

 thanks to the owners of that concern, on the High Level Bridge, 

 a highly interesting record in the history of this truly national 

 invention. Some few years after Stephenson had taken up his 

 residence at Killingworth he entered into an engagement with 

 Losh, Wilson, and Bell, formerly of Newcastle, to superintend 

 the construction of locomotives. This modest beginning was, I 

 believe, the first attempt to organise their manufacture on a 

 commercial scale. It was, however, some years before this new 

 form of engine could be trusted to overcome the impediment 

 presented by even a moderate gradient. In consequence of this 

 want of power the Directors of the Stockton and Darlington 

 Railway, under the advice of Stephenson, who had been 

 appointed their engineer, adhered to the old colliery plan of 

 using stationary engines and ropes, except in cases where the 

 country permitted the construction of the line level enough to be 

 capable of being worked by locomotive power. Some seven 

 years after the opening oi the railway just named, Stephenson 

 obtained the prize of ^500, offered by the Liverpool and 

 Manchester Company, for his famous Rocket engine, a model of 

 which, as well as those of other early designs, may be seen in 

 the Exhibition now open in this city. Not even the measure of 

 success which attended the performance of this last attempt of 

 our great local engineer sufficed to inspire the promoters of the 

 Newcastle and Carlisle Ra'lway with sufficient confidence to 

 adopt it as the moving power on their line. By the recommen- 

 dation of a committee, appointed to inquire into the subject, it 

 was determined to Vvrork the entire line with fixed engines, and, 

 in consequence, no parliamentary authority was sought for to 

 use locomotives. Before, however, the first section of this rail- 

 way was ready for public traffic, which happened in 1835, the 

 Directors wisely abandoned the idea of ropes, and opened the 

 line with two engines built in Newcastle, at the works of R. 

 Stephenson and Co., and R. and W. Hawthorn. 



From the time when Hedley placed his engine, running about 

 five miles an hour, on the Wylam Railway, to the day when 

 Stephenson built the Rocket, capable of running nearly thirty 

 miles an hour, seventeen 3'ears had elapsed. To understand, 

 what now would be considered this slow rate of progress, we 

 must recollect the means possessed by mechanical engineers 

 fifty or sixty years ago. The iron foundries on the Tyne were 

 incapable of making castings exceeding a few hundredweights, 

 and for want of the tools found now in every engineering shop, 

 almost every kind of fitting work was done by hand. The success 



