September 12, 1884.] 



SCIENCE, 



225 



out a response from one of the ' electrical 

 schools ' of England, which shows the result of 

 the trial of such a method of aiding inventors, 

 although a free use of the laboratories could not 

 be offered. In this reply it is stated that the 

 school has for several years openly offered the 

 facilities of its laboratories to any inventor who 

 may come forward, and wish such facilities to 

 aid him in perfecting his work ; and that as yet 

 they have received two applications, both of 

 which were withdrawn on account of the re- 

 muneration which the school felt called upon 

 to ask. One of the applicants was a cable 

 company, and considered five shillings a day 

 too much for the use of the very extensive 

 apparatus required ; and the other looked upon 

 five pounds as excessive for the use of power 

 and a dynamo, with skilled superintendence 

 and advice. 



As the most feasible solution, for the pres- 

 ent, of the question, how to advance the uses 

 of electricity, man}' of our large telegraph, 

 telephone, and electric-light companies have 

 established testing-laboratories for the use of 

 their employees, and give regular employment 

 to professional inventors whose researches are 

 directed by the officers of the company ; but 

 little is done in these laboratories to promote 

 research by persons not connected with the 

 companies themselves. Our universities and 

 technological schools, in man}' cases, possess 

 well-equipped physical laboratories, containing 

 electrical testing-apparatus for the use of the 

 students. These laboratories exist for the pur- 

 pose of promoting research, and might, under 

 suitable restrictions, be thrown open to invent- 

 ors as well as to students. 



However the difficulty is to be met, it is un- 

 doubtedly the case, that research looking to 

 the utilization of electricity as a motive power 

 and as a source of light is fettered and hin- 

 dered by the expense of the apparatus required. 

 If a special laboratory, to be under the direc- 

 tion of suitable persons, could be established 

 in this country for the promotion of electri- 

 cal research, especially for research in those 

 branches that necessitate the employment 

 of expensive apparatus, invention in these 



branches would be stimulated, and the whole 

 community would be the gainer. In France 

 the profits of the late International electrical 

 exhibition have been devoted to the establish- 

 ment of an electrical laboratory. Perhaps the 

 managers of the forthcoming electricaKexhi- 

 bition in Philadelphia may take the hint. 



AMERICAN APPLIANCES FOR DEEP- 

 SEA INVESTIGATION.— TRA WLS AND 

 TANGLES. 



Beam-trawls. 



The beam-trawls designed for zoological 

 collecting have usually been patterned closely 

 after those employed by the English fishermen, 

 and in this form are well adapted for moderate 

 depths of water. In fact, the only objection 

 to their use in great depths is their liability 

 to capsize while being lowered, often causing 

 them to land upon the bottom wrong side up. 

 They were first employed on this coast by 

 the fish-commission in 1871 ; and the earliest 

 records of their use by the English, in deep 

 water at least, are given in the Challenger nar- 

 rative (beginning in 1873), no reference being 

 made to the subject of beam-trawls in the 

 account of the voyages of the Lightning and 

 Porcupine. In all the exploring-work of the 

 fish-commission, the beam-trawls have been 

 used quite as frequently as the dredges ; the 

 trawling-results being far richer as to the larger 

 forms of life, and including immense numbers 

 of fishes which could never be obtained by the 

 dredge, and would otherwise have remained 

 undiscovered. 



Fig. 1. — The beam-trawl. 



As is known to most naturalists, the beam- 

 trawl (fig. 1) consists of a large, tapering, 

 bag-like net, which is dragged over the bottom, 

 mouth forwards, to entrap such fish as live 

 close to the ground. The mouth is held open 



