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SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Mar. 30, 18 



certainly several objects of interest. Some of the 

 photographs of lightning, for instance, were very good, 

 especially those shown by Mr. Abercromby. The taking 

 of photographs of such a difficult subject is a noteworthy 

 achievement, and one that was not possible a few years 

 ago. The collection lent by the Kew Committee con- 

 sisted chiefly of apparatus historically interesting, but it 

 included also some of Sir William Thomson's recent 

 electrometers. The section devoted to lightning conduc- 

 tors included specimens of conductors sent to the Light- 

 ning Rod Conference, and the model of a church, show- 

 ing Messrs. Gray and Son's system of continuous copper- 

 band conductors, which are carried round all impor- 

 tant projections, then along the ridge, and finally 

 to a main conductor taken down to the ground, 

 with a copper plate at the base. This firm also exhibited 

 models of a house and of a chimney shaft protected by 

 copper bands on the same principle. Messrs. Anderson 

 and Co. also showed models of a church and of a chim- 

 ney shaft with lightning conductors, and the Postal Tele- 

 graph Department sent several examples of lightning 

 protectors for telegraph purposes. 



Among the objects damaged by lightning were the 

 tattered remains of the clothing actually torn off a man's 

 body while he was sheltering under a tree during a 

 storm. The clothes were more damaged than the man, 

 doubtless because he was not so good a conductor, 

 especially if his clothes were wet. At the same time 

 the clothes cannot have been good conductors, or they 

 would not have been so torn, and in other instances 

 human beings have been killed while their clothes have 

 not been injured. It would, therefore, be extremely 

 interesting and useful to have a correct explanation of 

 what at present appears to be a somewhat arbitrary 

 selection. Several specimens of damaged conductors 

 were shown, and among them one which terminated in 

 a stable yard, and which had been eaten away by acid. 



A section was devoted to " alleged thunderbolts," and 

 it included several useful object lessons for persons given 

 to making hasty conclusions. One well-authenticated 

 " thunderbolt " was really a nodule of sandstone, found 

 at the bottom of a hole made by the lightning. Another 

 was a cannon ball, which from analysis is believed to 

 consist of old Sussex iron ; it was found at the bottom of 

 a hole in a manure heap after a flash of lightning; had 

 struck near it. In another case the thunderbolt was an 

 unpretending piece of clinker from a boiler furnace. The 

 photographs we have already referred to, but we may 

 add that eight of these were photographic enlargements 

 of drawings of hail-stones, which were extremely 

 interesting, and which we hope to reproduce on a future 

 occasion. There were also photographic views of the 

 new thermograph of the Royal Observatory. If there 

 has been no startling novelty to record, we can at least 

 say that the Society deserves praise for giving the public 



an opportunity of learning something more than they 

 knew before about some of the great natural phenomena, 

 and the means adopted for their scientific investigation. 



THE SUDELEY SYSTEM FOR CHANGE 

 OF GAUGE. 



/^NE need not be deeply versed in the battle of the 

 ^-^^ gauges to appreciate the fact that when a broad 

 gauge railway waggon reaches a narrow gauge line, or 

 vice versa, there must be a break in the journey, and the 

 goods in the waggon must be transferred. Many sug- 

 gestions have been made from time to time to get over 

 the difficulty, but so far none have really met the case 

 satisfactorily. We are therefore glad to bring to the 

 notice of our readers a system recently introduced by 

 Lord Sudeley and General Webber, as it appears to us to 

 be at least a step in the right direction. In their 

 patent they hmit the application of their invention to the 

 conveyance of broad gauge trucks over narrow gauge rail- 

 ways, but we do not quite understand why the same prin- 

 ciple should not be applied to narrow gauge trucks over 

 broad gauge lines. The plan they adopt is simply to have 

 a "transfer waggon" (fig i), consisting of a frame on 

 bogies, made to suit the narrow gauge line, there being 

 a rail on each side of the transfer waggon at a low level, 

 to receive the broad gauge truck. This will be readily 

 understood by referring to the accompanying illustra- 

 tions, and it will be seen that when the broad gauge 

 truck is run on to the transfer waggon, as in 

 fig. 2, it can be taken to its destination along 

 the narrow gauge line. The general arrangement 

 is, in fact, not unlike the familiar furniture van 

 when conveyed on a railway truck. At sidings, 

 where the trucks have to be transferred, the end of the 

 narrow gauge line is laid the depth of the transfer 

 waggon lower than the end of the broad gauge line, so 

 that the broad gauge truck may be run on or off the 

 transfer waggon with ease. In special cases where a 

 siding so arranged cannot be provided, an inclined plane 

 is used, as shown in fig. 3, the rails on the transfer waggon 

 being inclined so that the truck to be transferred can be 

 run up or down on to the transfer waggon. It is, of course, 

 essential that the transferred truck should be quickly and 

 securely fastened, and this is effected by chains hooked 

 to the axles of the truck, and attached to a revolving 

 shaft on the transfer waggon. When the chains are 

 hooked the shaft is turned until they are tight, and the 

 position of the shaft is maintained by a ratchet and pawl. 

 The system is being worked out practically by the Lan- 

 caster Wagon Company, who have shown us their work- 

 ing model, and we learn from them that approximately the 

 cost of a special transfer waggon is about the same as 

 that of an ordinary goods waggon. 



If a trial on a practical scale shows that the system is a 



