1867.] Engineering — Civil and Mechanical. 249 



Port Cawl, in Glamorganshire, which will he of immense value to 

 the ironmasters and coal lessees of South Wales. The new works 

 recently constructed here consist of an inner floating dock of 7^ 

 acres, with quay walls of massive masonry. The depth of water in 

 the entrance basin and on the sill of the dock is 29 feet, at spring 

 tides. In addition to the docks there is also an extensive wharf 

 frontage, high level shipping stages, and other conveniences. Active 

 operations are in progress for constructing docks and a pier at the 

 Cape of Good Hope ; the principal basin has to be mined in rock, 

 and the debris has been carried away by locomotives to the extre- 

 mity of a breakwater, which has now a length of nearly 1,700 feet. 

 The Pasha of Egypt has ordered, in France, a great iron floating-dock 

 for service in the Port of Alexandria. Harbour works are also in 

 contemplation at St. Helier's, Jersey. It is proposed to construct 

 docks and warehouses, and to form a spacious harbour on the Danube, 

 and to establish a port to the north of Elsinore, in Denmark. 



Several proposals have recently been put forward, for the pur- 

 pose of facilitating the means of communication across the British 

 Channel. Amongst others, Mr. James Chalmers has introduced a 

 modification of his well-known scheme for a railway beneath the 

 Channel, to be conducted through a double row of iron pipes, lined 

 with brick, and submerged. Other more probable schemes have 

 been suggested by Mr. Fowler and Mr. Daft, for the establishment 

 of ferry-boats which shall convey a railway train entire— passengers 

 and all — without necessitating any change of carriages. 



From the report of the Manchester Boiler Association it appears 

 that boiler explosions are steadily increasing in number and fatality. 

 During the year 1866 there were 73 explosions in various parts of 

 the United Kingdom, attended with a loss of 87 lives, and with 

 injuries to 110 others. Amongst other recent inventions for the 

 removal of boiler scale, the most remarkable is that known as the 

 magnetic anti-incrustator. It consists of seven small magnets made 

 of steel wire, tapering to a point at one end, and inserted radially 

 at the other into a brass centre ; this is supported horizontally in 

 the steam space, a few inches below the roof of the boiler near one 

 end, by a brass stud, from which it is insulated. A copper wire 

 connects the system of magnets with the opposite end of the boiler ; 

 a current of induced electricity is thus effected, which results in the 

 complete ^ detachment of scale from the boiler. A new kind of 

 boiler, called the water-tube boiler, has lately been invented both 

 in this country and in France ; its peculiarity consists in the water 

 being contained in tubes, amongst which the flames from the fire 

 circulate, being very nearly the opposite to the plan formerly more 

 generally adopted. Experiments are still being carried out, with a 

 view to the use of petroleum as fuel ; but more must yet be accom- 

 plished before it can be said to have proved successful. 



