478 



SCIENTIFIC NE^A^S. 



[May 1 8, 1888. 



Carbons. — Mr. P. L. Verchere has patented a carbon. 

 The invention relates to the produce of plates, cells, rods, 

 and other articles of carbon for use in electrical ap- 

 paratus. It consists in carbonising in a closed furnace 

 sheets of paper or suitable organic materials, which, 

 when reduced to carbon, are cut to any shape or size. 

 For plates of greater thickness, or for cells or other 

 articles of special form the materials employed are 

 reduced to pulp, which is moulded under pressure and 

 then carbonised. 



Gas. — An improvement in the manufacture of gas has 

 been patented by Mr. J, H. R. Dinsmore, Liverpool. 

 According to this invention two retorts or sets of retorts 

 are used, one under the other, and preferably placed at 

 an angle trom the horizontal. The charge (when coal is 

 used) is placed in the upper retort, and instead of the 

 gas escaping by an ascension pipe in the usual way, it is 

 passed down a pipe to the front of the lower retort, which 

 is the hotter of the two ; it then passes to the opposite 

 end ot the retort, and rises by an ascension pipe to the 

 hydraulic main or seal, the heavier tar escaping by a 

 down pipe to a well provided for it. By passing the 

 gas through a second retort, the heavier hydro-carbons 

 are more permanently suspended, and so become fixed 

 illuminants in the gas, and by arresting a great portion 

 of the tar before it reaches the hydraulic main, the 

 lighter hydrocarbons will not be absorbed to so great an 

 extent as ordinarily. 



Electrometer. — An electrical measuring instrument 

 has been patented by Messrs. Foster of London, and 

 Anderson of Catford Bridge. The invention has relation 

 to that class of measuring instruments in which a movable 

 needle is mounted on an axis perpendicular to the plane 

 of the needle, which, when the instrument is in use, 

 receives an electrical charge, in virtue of which it is acted 

 upon by electrical charges simultaneously communicated 

 to certain stationary parts. This needle thereby acquires 

 a tendency to take up a certain definite position relatively 

 to the stationary parts, which tendency is utilised in 

 various ways for electrical measurement. This invention 

 consists in constructing the movable needle bi-polar, so 

 that it receives simultaneously two charges, one positive 

 and the other negative, and also in arranging this bi-polar 

 needle between two pairs of inductive plates, which are 

 charged simultaneously with the needle by electrical 

 potentials of opposite polarities. 



Reflector. — Messrs. F. C. Phillips and H. E. Harrison, 

 of Westminster, have patented a reflector. The inven- 

 tion relates to the class of reflectors in which it is desirable 

 that the reflecting surfaces and the source of light should 

 not be too near each other. A parabolic reflector is com- 

 bined with a spherical reflector, so that the focus of the 

 parabohc reflector and the centre of the spherical reflector 

 are approximately coincident, the spherical reflector 

 taking the place of that part of the parabolic reflector 

 that lies between its vertex and a plane passing through 

 its focus and perpendicular to its axis, which is the part 

 that would be too near the source of light. The 

 object of the spherical reflector is to reverse the direc- 

 tion of the rays of light that fall upon it, so that they 

 may fall upon the other reflector as though they proceeded 

 direct from the light. A lens is placed in front of the 

 light to give the necessary direction to those rays that 

 would not otherwise be given the proper direction. 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION NOTES. 



Technical Education in India.— Mr. Alfred Chatterton, 

 B.Sc, has been appointed Professor of Engineering to the 

 college at Madras. The selection was entrusted to a com- 

 mittee, appointed by the Secretary of State for India, which 

 consisted at Sir Alexander Taylor, Principal of Cooper's Hill 

 College, Professor Unwin, of the City and Guilds of London 

 College, South Kensington, and Sir Philip Magnus, Secretary 

 and Director of the City and Guilds of London. The com- 

 mittee recommended two gentlemen, and of these Mr. 

 Chatterton was selected. Mr. Chatterton received his pre- 

 liminary education at St. Mary's College, Peckham ; he sub- 

 sequently studied at Finsbury Technical College, where, 

 amongst other distinctions, he gained the Cloth Workers' 

 exhibition and numerous medals. Mr. Chatterton's practical 

 knowledge has been obtained at the locomotive works of the 

 London and South-Western Railway at Nine Elms, where he 

 has also been engaged in teaching the apprentices' evening 

 science classes. — Industries. 



Manchester Association of Engineers. — At the last 

 meeting of this Association there was a discussion upon 

 technical education. There was a general agreement that 

 some movement in this direction was necessary, but it was 

 pointed out that there was a danger of exaggerating the 

 importance of the subject. It was practically confessed that 

 no system of technological instruction conducted in schools 

 would be satisfactory as a sole means of education, and could 

 only be recommended as an accessory to workshop practice. 

 Eventually a committee was formed to draw up a syllabus of 

 subjects which it was desirable should be studied by youths 

 employed in the workshops. 



Blackburn Technical School. — The foundation stone of 

 this was laid on the 9th inst. The designs by Messrs. Smith, 

 Woodhouse and Willoughby, of Manchester, have been 

 selected ; the estimated cost of the building is ^25,000. 



The Yorkshire Mechanics' Institutes. — A deputation 

 from the council of the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' 

 Institutes, waited upon Lord Cranbrook at the Education 

 Department, Whitehall, onMaySth, to urge upon the Education 

 Department a revision of the Education code with regard to 

 night schools, and the claim of educational institutions which 

 have for so many years undertaken the secondary education 

 of Yorkshire to be recognised by the Government and to have 

 such grants in aid as may appear to be just and expedient. 

 Sir Henry Roscoe, M.P., who introduced the deputation, 

 stated that the union represented 260 institutes in Yorkshire, 

 with 5 5,000 members, 1 4,000 of whom were receiving secondary 

 instruction ; and half a million of money had been raised by 

 voluntary subscriptions for the purpose. The Lord Presi- 

 dent, in reply, said that the department had not been wanting 

 in a desire to keep up evening classes ; but they ought only 

 to be used to supplement the day school and not to be put in 

 its place. The Government were appreciative of the advan- 

 tages of evening schools, and he hoped something might be 

 done to meet the wishes of the deputation. With regard to 

 the second question, he said that when they got power for 

 local authorities to raise rates for local purposes, he had no 

 doubt but tliat if local bodies established their technical 

 schools they could with good grace and good reason call upon 

 the State to assist them in what they were doing, and he had 

 no doubt the State would do it. The Government hoped soon 

 to lay the Technical Education Bill of last year before Parlia- 

 ment in an improved form. 



Technical Education Bill. — The Bill to provide for 

 technical education in England and Wales, prepared and 

 brought in by Sir H. Roscoe, Sir U. Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir 

 B. Samuelson, Mr. G. Dixon, and Mr. A. Acland, has been 

 printed. It provides (l) that any School Board may make 

 provision for giving technical education in any school under 

 their management, and either by day or evening classes, or 

 both, as may seem fit, having regard to the daily occupations 

 of the persons to be benefited thereby ; (2) that if no such 

 provision is made, or if it is insufficient, and if the local 

 authority by special resolution determine that provision or 

 further provision ought to be made, they may themselves make 



