3V 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Sept. 



1888. 



there remains the question of how to apply it advantage- 

 ously to whatever has to be heated, and here I regret to 

 say difficulties often present themselves. It is one thing 

 to have a combustible gas, but quite another to find 

 suitable apparatus to be heated with it. Take for 

 instance the case of a circulating boiler for heating a build- 

 ing — there is not one suitable for gas. There are a few 

 very ingenious little boilers for heating a small quantity 

 of water, but as it would be too costly to heat a large 

 one with town gas there has hitherto been no induce- 

 ment for boiler- makers to trouble about a large size. In 

 fact, the pioneer of gaseous fuel not only has to provide 

 the gas, but in most cases he has also to devise the 

 means of using it for the different purposes required. I 

 have often been asked if generator or water gas can be 

 used economically for heating ordinary steam boilers, 

 and I have always felt obliged to answer in the negative. 

 I have seen examples of nearly all the water gas plants 

 used in the United States and elsewhere, and I am 

 aware that several attempts have been made to heat 

 boilers with gas of this kind, but so far as my knowledge 

 goes none of them have been successful from an econo- 

 mical point of view. In the first place, if the flames 

 come in contact with the comparatively cool surface of the 

 boiler, there is such a rapid withdrawal of heat that 

 some of the gas does not attain the temperature neces- 

 sary for its combustion. In the next place there is no 

 overlooking the fact that there must be a considerable 

 loss of heat when the incandescent mass of fuel is en- 

 closed in a gas generator, away from the boiler, instead 

 of being on a grate within, or immediately under the 

 boiler. I venture to think that the true solution of this 

 important question is to be found in the production of 

 gas within the boiler itself, and not in a separate appara- 

 tus. The mass of incandescent fuel would then assist 

 by conduction and radiation in heating the boiler. 



Reviewing the subject generally, I think it will be ad- 

 mitted that if the progress made has not been rapid, it 

 has at least been sure, and, judging by experience gained 

 in several countries, I find that more attention is given 

 to gaseous fuel every year. It is a subject, too, that is 

 now much better understood technically than it was only 

 a few years ago, and my belief is that every year will 

 see gas more largely used. Speaking more particularly 

 of my own contribution to the subject, it is only right 

 that I should acknowledge my indebtedness for the en- 

 couragement I met with when I read my first paper on 

 the subject in 1881. It has often occurred to me since 

 that my own experience in this respect may be taken as 

 a fair illustration of one of the practical advantages of 

 the British Association meetings to a beginner, whose 

 success must depend to a great extent on the help he 

 derives from useful criticism and advice. 



-«-^t5x^«?-< 



THE VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN JAPAN. 



'"THROUGH the courtesy of the editor of the Pall 

 Mall Gazette we are enabled to give our readers an 

 account of this catastrophe, together with some illustra- 

 tions of its effects. The correspondent of that paper 

 w rites : — 



On the morning of the t6th instant the appalling news 

 reached Tokyo that an enormous volcano had exploded 

 somewhere in the north of Japan, killing and wounding 

 a thousand people. Japan is the earthquake country of 

 the world, but familiarity with cataclysms, as experience 



has shown, breeds anything but contempt, the moral 

 effect of them being cumulative rather than diminishing; 1 

 and this news was received with something like conster- ( 

 nation, as possibly foreshadowing a general renascence 

 of volcanic activity. The outbreak had occurred in a 

 group of three mountains, in a remote part of the interior, 

 forming part of the great volcanic ridge running north 

 and south through the country, the chief of them being 

 Bandai-san, situated on the shore of Lake Inawashiro, 

 in the province of Iwashiro, in the perfecture of Ken of 

 Fukushima, about two hundred miles north of Tokyo 

 and midway between sea and sea. ' Besides the difficulty 

 of obtaining accurate information, such an event is among 

 the very rarest experiences of life, and a party was 

 hastily formed to visit the scenes of the catastrophe. 

 We left at daylight the next morning, and before we 

 came back we h^d seen things to dwarf the most extra- 

 vagant visions of a disordered imagination, and the 

 mere memory of which is enough to render the solid 

 earth unreal beneath one's feet. To attempt to describe 

 them is to try to draw upon the heavens with one's pen. 

 One of the excellent lines of railway in Japan runs 

 from Ueno, on the outskirts of Tokyo, nearly due north 

 for 2 24 miles, passing through the province of Fukushima. 

 Nine hours in the narrow-gauge cars, which are midway 

 between the English and American models in their con- 

 struction, brought us to the little town of Motomiya, 

 which was the limit of the itinerary we had been able 

 to determine upon before leaving Tokyo. From here we 

 set out next morning for a ride of about thirty miles in 

 jinrikishas to the village of Inawashiro, from which 

 Bandai-san could be reached on foot or on horseback. 

 From the village of Iwanimura, which we reached at 

 eight o'clock, every mile took us uphill and the landscape 

 rapidly became more broken and rugged, until in two 

 hours' time, when we ran into the village of Takatama, 

 the country resembled the rolling foothills of the Rocky 

 Mountains, except that instead of being bare and brown 

 it was covered to the hill-tops with brilliant verdure. 

 Here we received our first information of the eruption. 

 A terrible noise, the people said, had reached them, last- 

 ing nearly an hour, and they had all deserted the village 

 and fled, expecting to be overwhelmed. But the noise 

 was all, and by and by they returned. At Takatama 

 we were nearly half way to Inawashiro. Here the 

 peasants were engaged in the culture of silk; hundreds 

 of flat mat-baskets filled with bushels of cocoons lay 

 about the houses, and through every door we caught a 

 glimpse of men and women reeling the silk thread upon 

 primitive wooden spinning wheels. 



The road had now become very bad and hilly. Soon 

 our men stopped at the foot of a broken ascent and 

 pointing upwards told us that there was a short cut for 

 us, while they must go round by the road. The climb 

 was several hundred yards at an angle of forty-five 

 degrees, by the side of a cascade which poured out of a 

 round hole a few yards from the top. When we reached 

 the top we found that this was fed from an irrigating 

 canal four or five miles long from Lake Inawashiro, 

 excellently built arid bridged with stone and provided 

 with admirable modern sluice-gates. That the remote 

 parts of the country should thus contain public works of 

 first-class engineering reflects great credit on the 

 Japanese authorities. At our next halting-place, the 

 village of Yamagatta, on the shore of Lake Inawashiro, 

 the dark group around Bandai-san lowered more dis- 

 tinctly in sight to our right ; and an obliging Japanese 



