FOR GENERAL READERS. 



Vol. II. 



OCTOBER 26, li 



No. 17. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE ! 



Scientific Table Talk 425 | 



Ancient Inhabitants of the Canary 



Islands (Mils.) 426 



Some Photo-microgfaphic Apparatus 



(Illus.) 430 J 



General Notes 431 



Mars and its Canals (Illus.) 433 



Luminous or Silvery Clouds 431 



Natural History— 



Penguins and Mollyhawks (Zllus.)... 435 

 Race between Carrier Pigeons and 



Bees 437 



Evolution of the Song of Birds ... 437 



Dipterous Larvte Parasitic in Man... 437 



Miscellaneous Notes 437 



PAG*- 



The Senses of Insects— II. : Sight... 438 

 Reviews — 



On the Distribution of Rain over the 



British Isles 



Proceedings of the Royal Dublin 



Society 

 Report of the Sheffield Literary and 



Philosophical Society 

 Report of the City of London College 



Science Society 



The Foundation Stones of the Earth's 



Crust 

 Abstracts of Papers, Lectures, etc. — 

 Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian 



Society _ 



439 

 439 



440 



440 



440 



443 



PAGB 



Natural History Society of Glasgow 444 



Manchester Geological Society ... 444 



Manchester Conchological Society... 445 

 South London Entomological and 



Natural History Society 44$ 



Miscellaneous Societies 446 



Recent Inventions 446 



Announcements ... ... 447 



Sales and Exchanges 448 



Diary for Next Week 448 



Notices ... 448 



Selected Books 448 



Meteorological Returns 448 



SCIENTIFIC TABLE TALK. 



By W. Mattieu Williams, F.R.A.S., F.C.S. 



Good work is being done in the direction of so-called 

 " Technical Education," which should rather be called 

 technological education, to distinguish it from the true 

 technical education which is given in the workshop. But 

 my object now is not to discuss mere words, but to make 

 a suggestion that I know from experience to be important. 



During some eight or nine years I was the teacher of 

 experimental physics and chemistry in the Industrial 

 Department of the then infant Birmingham and Midland 

 Institute, and pioneer of penny lectures to workmen. 

 These were delivered regularly every week during about 

 nine months of each year. 



This, of course, brought me in contact with the most 

 intelligent artizans of a town in which is included a 

 greater variety of industrial avocations in proportion to 

 its population than any other in the world. The friendly 

 relations that I succeeded in establishing with my pupils 

 enabled me to trace the effect of my teaching. 



One of the directly useful results was that it enabled 

 them to shift their occupations with far greater facility 

 than was possible to the mere mechanical mechanic. 



To those who are not practically acquainted with the 

 condition of the modern artizan, such shifting of occupa- 

 tion may appear very undesirable. "The rolling stone 

 gathers no moss," "Jack of all trades, and master of 

 none," etc., may be quoted, but a further knowledge of 

 what is daily occurring in our workshops would refute 

 these proverbs and show that a large proportion of our 

 most skilful artizans must be crushed by the progress of 

 applied science, if only able to follow the particular 

 trade or branch of trade to which they were originally 

 apprenticed. 



The trades of such men are being continually super- 

 seded or modified by such progress. The French platers 

 and water gilders have been extinguished by electro- 

 plating and gilding ; puddlers nearly so by Bessemer 

 and other mild steels ; bell-hangers by pneumatic and 

 electric bells ; engravers by photo-etching ; and so on 

 with a multitude of others. In Birmingham the gun 



trade is curiously variable, according to the prevalence 

 of peace or war. Many others fluctuate with fashion. 

 Thus the Coventry ribbon trade was ruined, but Coventry 

 rose again to the surface by grasping at the bicycle. 



But it is only the intelligent artizan or capitalist that 

 can thus adapt himself to the rapid changes effected 

 by modern invention and caprice. 



Besides these who are thus liable to be improved out 

 of existence, there is another class who should all start 

 in their industrial career with at least two well-defined 

 trades at their command. I allude to out-of-doors 

 workers, who are dependent on the weather, or can only 

 work at certain seasons. Masons, bricklayers, slaters, 

 house painters, paper-hangers, gardeners, and many 

 others are regularly out of work during a considerable 

 part of every year. Some have a second occupation. A 

 few understand the winter demand at gas works, for 

 example. Some do a little snow sweeping, coal hauling, 

 attendance on skaters, road making, etc , during winter ; 

 but a large proportion — a majority, I fear, are idle and 

 worse. A very few understand the arithmetic of aver- 

 age income, live accordingly during the prosperous 

 seasons, and keep a reserve for winter ; but the usual 

 bank is the pawnshop, with its ruinous usury, and the 

 squalor of departed clothing and household goods just 

 when they are most needed. 



The demoralising effect of this enforced idleness and 

 spasmodic prosperity is incalculable. 



The possibility and advantage of varied occupation is 

 strikingly demonstrated by the Norwegian peasant. His 

 primary business is agriculture, the tillage of his own 

 estate. But his summer has only a duration of three, four, 

 or five months, according to the widely varying latitudes 

 of that narrow strip of mountainous country. During 

 the winter his fields are deeply covered with snow, and 

 his only farm-work consists in the feeding of his cattle 

 and horses, and working the snow plough over the share 

 of national highway which the government compels him 

 to maintain. 



But he spends a merry, hard-working winter neverthe- 

 less. Though poorer as regards money income than the 

 English bricklayer, he is prosperous and proud. He 



