300 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Sept. 14, 1888. 



To meet the general demand the Canal Company introduced 

 various improvements, and in the year 1 8S4 commenced experiments 

 to determine the practicability of navigation during the night by 

 means of ihe electric light. 



Owing to difficulties incident to the case, these experiments occu- 

 pied two years, resulting in an authorisation issuing from the Canal 

 Company in December, 1885, permitting vessels of war and mail 

 boats to navigate some portion of the Canal if provided with suit- 

 able electric lights. 



In April, 18S6, the s.s. Carthage, of the Peninsular and Oriental 

 Steam Navigation Company, for the first time made the prescribed 

 passage by night successfully, followed shortly by others. 



The success of these results encouraged the Canal Company to 

 extend the authorisation to vessels of all classes, and to throw open 

 the whole length of the canal to them ; and in February, 1887, this 

 authorisation was made public, subject to certain regulations laid 

 down by the Canal Company. 



Mr. Frank Brain, M.E., dealt with the subject of Electricity as 

 Applied to Mining. This paper was written from the mining en- 

 gineer's standpoint, briefly sketching the known applications of elec- 

 tricity to mine working up to the present date. 



The writer regretted there was very little known to add to what had 

 already been made public. He could not but express surprise that 

 a power which it is apparent had now passed the range of experi- 

 ment, and is developing itself economically and efficiently, should 

 not have been made greater use of than appeared to have been the 

 •case hitherto. 



Mr. Nicholas Watts read a paper on Miners' Electric Safily 

 Lamps, in which he described the following lamps : the Swan, the 

 Schanschieff, the Pitkin, the V\ alktr, the Portable Electric Syndi- 

 cate's Lamp, and the Vaughton. 



A paper by Mr. J. W. Swan, on An Automatic Fiie-damp 

 Indicator, was taken as read, that gentleman not being present ; and 

 Mr. S. Walker and Mr. Carpenter joined in a very brief discus- 

 sion on the three papers. 



Tuesday, September iith. 



The business of the section did not commence until twelve o'clock, 

 owing to a joint discussion with Section A on. Lightning- conductors. 



Mr. W. Anderson, M.Inst.C.E., presiding. 



Mr. E. A. Cowper opened the proceedings by reading a paper on 

 An Improved Seismograph, remarking at the outset that in order to 

 register the motions of the earth, N., S , E., and W., it was, of 

 course, necessary to have a heavy weight as little as possible 

 affected by the motion of the earth. Parallel motions, or " com- 

 pound pendulums," had been used with good effect, but a simpler 

 ar.d more effective plan would be to place a heavy flat weight on a 

 piece of glass with three small "steel bicycle balls " below, resting 

 on another flat or slightly hollowed plate, so that when the vibrations 

 of the earth ceased the weight would slowly return to its normal 

 position. In place of glass plates, ground porcelain or metal 

 plates might be used. The weight might be brought back to its 

 normal position by a light pendulum, and then all the plates must 

 be flat and of common plate-glass. Then two levers acted on from 

 the centre of gravity of the weight, and multiplying the motions, 

 would register, on long strips of paper, the vibrations, N. and S.' 

 E. and W., the paper, of course, being driven by clockwork, and 

 allowed to start as soon as the vibrations of the earth commenced. 

 Then the vertical vibrations (which had always been the most diffi- 

 cult to obtain a record of) could be very thoroughly ascertained and 

 recorded by the following simple arrangement : A light steel 

 iron or steel tube, closed at the top, like a small gas-holder, was 

 inserted in a tank of quicksilver, the centre space inside the gas- 

 holder being occupied by an empty tube, so as to reduce the weight 

 of quicksilver very materially. On exhausting the gas-holder with 

 a " Sprengel pump " the tank would rise, owing to the pressure of 

 the atmosphere below it, until the column of mercury balanced the 

 atmosphere ; thus the weight of the tank and mercury in it being, 

 infact, supported by the atmosphen, and the gas-holder being attached 

 to the earth, might rise or fall, and yet scarcely affect the tank in any 

 way, and a rod from the tank to a multiplying lever attached to 

 the earth and recording apparatus would record the vertical vibra- 

 tion on a strip of paper moved by the clockwork. 



Professor H. S. Hele Shaw read a paper, prepared by himself 

 and Mr. E. Shaw, upon the Friction of Metal Coils. 



A discussion upon details followed, in which Professor Unwin, 

 Mr. W. W. Beaumont, and the Chairman took part. 



Mr. Percy K. Stothert thought it might be of interest if he 

 described the form of rope brake which had been applied to cranes 

 of very large size — i.e., fifty-ton concrete block setting-machines. 

 .Four lengths of three-inch circumference ropes were placed side by 



side and sewn together, and afterwards lapped round by spun yarn ; 

 one end of the band was attached to a fixed point on the crane, and 

 the remainder passed four or five times round a cast-iron barrel on 

 the second and third motton shaft ; the other end being held in 

 the crane-driver's hand, a very slight pull was sufficient to hold the 

 full load, and an equally slight pressure in the other direction was 

 sufficient to lower the fifty tons, the driver thus being able to lower 

 at any required speed. The only objection to this method was that 

 owing to the heat generated, the rope very soon burnt, and had to be 

 frequently renewed, so he thought Prof. Hele Shaw's system of 

 spiral springs could be applied to the lowering and suspension of 

 these heavy bodies. 



Professor M. F. FitzGerald explained a number of Steam- 

 engine Diagrams, and in the discussion several members expressed 

 their opinion that he was pursuing his studies in a direction with 

 most useful results. 



Mr. W. W. Beaumont read a paper on Efficiency of Steam at 

 High Pressures. 



Professor Unwin, Professor FitzGerald, Mr. H. Davey, and 

 others discussed the paper briefly. 



Mr. H. C. Vogt dealt with the subject of Revolving Sails, or Air- 

 propeller. 



Several speakers characterised the scheme as a novelty, but 

 agreed in the idea that it was thoroughly worthy of investigation. 



The Chairman said he had determined to fit out a steamer in 

 the manner described, in order to see the results which might 

 be obtained. 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL SECTION. 



(Continued from p. 272,) 



Monday, September ioth. 



Lieut-Gen. Pitt-Rivers, D.C.L., F.R.S., presiding, 



A paper was read by Miss A. W. Buckland on Necklaces in re- 

 lation to Prehistoric Commerce. The object of this paper was to 

 trace the geographical distribution of various forms of necklaces and 

 beads, as indicating some sort of commercial intercourse between 

 the races among whom they are found either in present use, or 

 among the relics of the past. 



Among the ancient cave-dwellers of Europe, teeth of men and 

 animals, bored for suspension and intermixed with shells and pieces 

 of bone, were used as necklaces, and similar necklaces are still 

 worn by savages in almost all parts of the world ; but in the Anda- 

 man Islands necklaces are made of pieces of human bone, and of 

 bones of animals, not bored, but bound to cords, and wood is some- 

 times made to imitate bone. The same singular substitution exists 

 in the Admiralty Islands, where also human bones are used as neck 

 ornaments. Necklaces formed of discs of white, purple, and red 

 shell, cut with much care and labour from large sea-shells, are used 

 by natives all over America and across the various groups of the 

 Pacific to Japan, China, and India, where they are worn by the 

 Nagas. These shell discs, known in America as Wampum, form 

 the money of the Red Indians, and are also used as money by the 

 Solomon Islanders. Similar shell discs are found in ancient graves, 

 not only in America, but in Europe ; whilst in Africa, ostrich egg- 

 shell discs of the same size and threaded in the same manner, with 

 pieces of skin substituted for the dark shell, are made and worn by 

 BushmeD, Niam-Niams, and other wild tribes in the interior. 

 Similar ostrich egg-shell discs are found in ancient Egyptian and 

 Etruscan tombs, showing prehistoric intercourse between Etruria 

 and Egypt, or the interior of Africa. 



The pendants accompanying these necklaces are almost always 

 teeth or shells cut in the form of teeth. The beads used for neck- 

 laces and found among ancient relics are of various substances, such 

 as bone, serpentine, gold, silver, bronze, tin and glass, and are 

 often made so as to represent several discs or beads joined to- 

 gether. Beads of this kind are found in the Swiss lake dwellings, 

 in Spain, in Britain, in Hissarlik and Mycenre, and of a later date 

 in Livonia and Abyssinia. 



Beads of amber, which formed such an important article of com- 

 merce in prehistoric times, are found among relics of the Stone Age, 

 and have also been discovered in tombs belonging to the Bronze 

 Age, in all parts of Europe, in Egypt and India, several trade routes 

 being known, whereby amber found its way from the Baltic to the 

 Mediterranean. Of glass beads the most remarkable are those 

 known as adder-stones, still used as a charm to cure cattle diseases. 

 Beads of this kind of one particular pattern known as chevron beads 

 have been found in various parts of Europe, in Great Britain, in 

 Egypt, in the Pelew Islands, and also in ancient graves in Canada 

 and Peru. Similar glass beads are dug up in Ashantee and highly 

 valued, forming part of the royal jewels. Beads of the same shape, 

 and from the markings upon them, probably of the same kind, 



