Sept. 21, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



123 



proper development of suburban population, was not now performed 

 at all in any great city. The two exterior subways being devoted to 

 " way" or slow trains, operated rapidly between frequent stations, 

 for the convenience of every district on the line for shopping, and 

 also for supplementing the more rapid long journeys of the express 

 line. 



These railways to be operated by electric-motors and solid trains, 

 specially devised for the service and embodying provisions for safety 

 and comfort to a degree which apparently precludes the possibility 

 of serious accident. On either side of these centrally disposed rail- 

 way subways were placed continuous galleries calculated for the 

 housing, inspection, replacement, and repair of all pipes and wires of 

 communication, sewers for local service, water mains and supplies, 

 gas mains and service pipes, steam service pipes, pneumatic power, 

 post, parcel, refrigerating and time tubes, electric wires for arc and 

 incandescence lights for street and private use, for power, signals, 

 telegraphs, telephones, etc., and all other essentials or conveniences 

 which are more profitably generated or produced at some central 

 station, and can be distributed or served only through the public 

 domain, overhead or underfoot, and which from the want of such 

 common accommodation were now used— if at all — to a limited 

 extent, at great cost and inconvenience to the authorities, the cor- 

 poration, and the public. 



It was also imperative that the whole subway system should be 

 adequately supplied with fresh air in movement, so that ventilation 

 should be as perfect as in the best arranged dwellings. This was 

 effected by closing the railway subways from any communication 

 with the surface of the streets except through the station doorways, 

 and ventilating the stations by shafts supplied with electric-exhaust- 

 fans placed in the rear of the entrance buildings, the supply of fresh 

 air being derived from similar shafts placed in the rear of the 

 opposite building ; by this means the air of the stations will ba 

 absolutely renewed as frequently as required. The railways from 

 open cylinders from station to station, and the trains being of approxi- 

 mate cross-section constitute loose pistons always moving in the 

 same direction; the effect is the establishment of a ventilating 

 current within the subways dependent for its force upon (1) the 

 approximation of cross sections, (2) the speed of the trains, and (3) 

 the integrity of the tunnels or subways. 



As the products of artificial combustion will be excluded as far as 

 possible, the requirements of ventilation are reduced to a minimum 

 and perfectly performed. 



Reference was made to a new material, " ferflax," composed of 

 braided steel wire, and flax-fibre, chemically treated under hydraulic 

 pressure, devised for the wall panels of the subways, and for the 

 construction of the railway carriages, a compound building material 

 not unlike horn in character, having a strength and flexibility some- 

 what exceeding steel wire netting ; a toughness approximating horn, 

 non-fragile and unbreakable by bending, not liable to shatter under 

 shock. 



The adoption of this system for the streets of every great city 

 would effect an economic revolution. There would be rapid com- 

 munication between distant points within the metropolitan areas ; 

 there would be rapid communication between frequent stops for the 

 convenience of local traffic and shopping; the streets would be 

 brilliantly lighted by electricity, every house on the line would have 

 access to gas, steam, water, the telephone: telegraph, pneumatic 

 tube, electric light, and compressed air at will. Small industries 

 would flourish, because small and cheap power from remote stations 

 would be everywhere available, while the surface of the streets could 

 be maintained in a perfect state, with the minimum of cost, and with 

 complete immunity from disturbance, other than for the repair of 

 worn surfaces. 



Sir Fredk. Bramwell said this obviously was a question 

 which could only come into existence if it would pay. He desired 

 to know what the cost per yard or mile of such an undertaking 

 would be. No one could doubt the desirability of having this sys- 

 tem. Would there be such a reward to those who undertook the 

 work as to justify its structure? 



Col. Hazard said, in answer, it would be quite impossible to fix 

 any exact sum, as labour and material varied so much in different 

 parts. The cost would be very much less in London than in New 

 York. The estimated cost would be somewhere about ^400,000 

 per mile. After answering a question how the sewage would be 

 dealt with in this system, 



Sir Fredk. Bramwell said the paper dealt with two subjects. 

 One was the question to which he had paid attention for some time 

 past, for subways for pipes and for the means required to pass along 

 the telegraph wires, and so on. The other was the question of 

 underground railway communication. The gallant gentleman had 

 referred to the obstruction in carrying out underground railways in 

 England which was caused by legislative interference. He gave 

 as an illustration the strenuous efforts which he and others had to put 



forth in obtaining a subway in South wark- street. He did not think 

 with the author as to the interruption of traffic caused by these sub- 

 ways, and gave it as his opinion that there need be absolutely no 

 interruption to traffic during the working hours of the day. He 

 referred further to what he characterised as " the hideous rectangu- 

 larity " of the streets in America. He deprecated this on the score 

 of peace to the mind and on the score of more ready communica- 

 tion from one point to another under certain circumstances. 



After other gentlemen had spoken, the author enlarged upon Sir 

 Frederick Bramwell's remarks on the rectangularity of streets in 

 America, pointing out that owing to the way the streets were built 

 they acted as tunnels, and the wind swept through them with tre- 

 mendous violence. 



Mr. W. H. Douglas gave full particulars as to the construction 

 of an Annual Winding Clod;. 



A discussion ensued, in which the Chairman thought this clock 

 would prove a great booa to the public. It seemed to him to possess 

 all the attributes for making it, in due time, a true time-keeper for 

 the year. It seemed to be the general opinion that the temperature 

 affectei this clock, and that something would have to be done in 

 improving this point. 



Mr. H. Davey contributed a paper on A New Form of Air Com- 

 pressor for Variable Pressures, and 



Mr. A. Winter read a paper on Controlling the Direction of 

 Rotation of a Dynamo. 



■ — ♦-it^'sSS*?-* 



R. A. PROCTOR. 



SCIENCE, in its most beneficent field of operation, 

 that of morally elevating all mankind, has suddenly 

 lost one of its ablest and most effective workers. 



Richard Anthony Proctor was essentially and typically 

 a man of genius. He was nobody's disciple, nobody's 

 pupil, he belonged to no school, he followed no precedent, 

 was the product of no course of academic or other course 

 of education outside himself. 



It is true that he studied and graduated at Cambridge, 

 earning distinction there in mathematics, but he broke 

 away from the established routine of collegiate advance- 

 ment, and climbed the rugged mountain of physical 

 science by a pathway which he not only hewed and 

 paved for himself, but left open for the use of all who 

 may choose to follow him. 



In this latter consisted his highest and his peculiar 

 merit. 



He conducted original researches, and was exuberantly 

 fertile in original suggestive speculation, but his work in 

 these directions was not used as scientific capital to be 

 invested in office or professorship hunting, was not 

 merely buried in the " Transactions " of learned societies 

 which are read only by experts, but all was freely spread 

 abroad for the benefit of all, and in such wise that all 

 might easily reach and use it. 



Any man of average ordinary intellect and industry 

 may learn the contents of science text-books, and "get- 

 up " all that is required for passing examinations in 

 science ; and having done this may reproduce the matter 

 of the books he has read and the lectures he has heard, 

 and thus become an ordinary Professor of Science, or 

 writer of ordinary treatises and hand-books for the use 

 of ordinary academic students. This is so nearly me- 

 chanical, that it ranks only a few degrees above the ac- 

 quisition of dead languages — the translating of Homer 

 etc. 



But there is also another class of scientific students, 

 those who do not merely learn science, but who 

 assimilate it, who absorb it into their very souls as 

 psychic nutriment, and thus become scientific in their 

 essential nature. When these men teach they are not 

 quoting, not copying nor reproducing the works of any 

 master, however great, but are producing works of their 

 own, as the true artist paints an original picture, though 



