332 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. TV., No. 



is so arranged as always to exert a gentle pressure 

 on the coal and the body of the fire, tending to push 

 the coal forward toward the bars. A slight stirring 

 of the fire causes it to be loosened, and the fuel to 

 be pressed forward to the front to replenish the fire. 

 When the coal has been consumed, the vertical plate 

 is pushed back, and a fresh charge of coal inserted. 

 It will thus be seen that the coal at the back is un- 

 dergoing a process of coking before being pushed 

 forward. The gases evolved from it, instead of pass- 

 ing up the chimney and into the air in the form of 

 solid carbon, are carried downwards by the draught 

 produced by an ingenious but simple arrangement at 

 the back of the stove, and are delivered beneath the 

 grate. At this point they are drawn upwards through 

 the incandescent fire, in which every particle of smoke 

 is consumed. The waste products of combustion 

 pass up the chimney in the usual way, but without 

 the usual attendant results of smoke and soot. 



— A lady, who requests that her name may not be 

 divulged, has offered the University of Heidelberg 

 the sum of 100,000 marks if women are admitted to 

 the lectures ; but the senate refused. 



— Sibiriakoff's steamers, the Obi and Nordenskiold, 

 were to leave Arckangel on the 20th of June for the 

 Petshora and Yenisei respectively. 



— The Padas, Lawas, and Limbang Rivers of 

 north-west Borneo have been visited by Consul-gen- 

 eral Leijs. They lie between the Brunei district and 

 the territory of the North Borneo company. They 

 have been visited by but very few Europeans, and 

 only in recent years. The Limbang appears to be 

 navigable for river-steamers about one hundred and 

 thirty miles, the Padas for one hundred, and the 

 Lawas for only thirty miles. In the interior, on the 

 banks of the two former, is a relatively dense popu- 

 lation, occupying a flat country with many sago palms. 

 The country on the banks of the Lawas is attractive, 

 well wooded, hilly, but sparsely populated. 



— Sir Erasmus Wilson, the great authority on skin- 

 diseases, was buried in the village churchyard of 

 Swanscombe in Kent, on Aug. 13. He was no less 

 celebrated for his many deeds of philanthropy than 

 for his knowledge of his profession, though his re- 

 moval of the Egyptian obelisk Cleopatra's Needle to 

 the Thames embankment was the latest thing that 

 brought his name into public notice. It has been 

 stated that the College of surgeons will receive a 

 hundred and eighty thousand pounds as his residuary 

 legatees; the Royal medical benevolent college, the 

 Medical benevolent fund, and the Royal sea-bathing 

 infirmary, Margate, will receive five thousand pounds 

 each. 



— The aerolus water-spray ventilator, which was 

 fixed eighteen months ago in the physicians' consult- 

 ing-room of the London hospital, has given such satis- 

 faction to the medical staff, that another installation 

 of the aerolus system in the throat consulting-room 

 has been resolved on. The new University of North 

 Wales, at Bangor, has also adopted the system. 



— The English mechanic states, that many of the 

 provisional orders granted by the board of trade for 

 electric lighting in London will be revoked at once, 

 and unless renewed before the 15th of October, or by 

 that time utilized, nearly all of the remainder will be 

 revoked; so that for the present there is little likeli- 

 hood of London's being illuminated by the electric 

 light. 



— A cable message to Harvard college observatory, 

 from Dr. A. Krueger, at Kiel, anounces the discovery 

 of a bright comet, on September 17, by Wolf (prob- 

 ably Dr. Wolf, of the Zurich observatory). An obser- 

 vation was secured at Strasburg, on the 20th, as fol- 

 lows: September 20.4467, Greenwich mean time. 

 R. A. 21h., 15m., 22.3s. Decl. +22° 22' 54". Daily 

 motion in R. A., +20s., in declination +26'. 



— The difficulty of soldering aluminium has been 

 one of the principal bars to its usefulness. Mr. Bour- 

 bouze has recently communicated to the French 

 Academie des sciences a process which obviates this 

 difficulty. He uses alloys of zinc and tin, or prefer- 

 ably of tin, bismuth, and aluminium, which, he 

 says, take upon the surface of aluminium as ordinary 

 solder does upon other metals. He, therefore, coats 

 the aluminium with these, and any other metal with 

 tin; and then the surfaces may be soldered as usual. 

 For objects which are to be worked after joining, he 

 uses a solder of forty-five parts tin, and ten alumin- 

 ium, which will stand hammering and turning. For 

 ordinary joints, less aluminium is required. The pro- 

 cess is effected with the common soldering-iron, but 

 nothing is said as to the use of any flux. 



— A light earthquake shock, lasting ten or fifteen 

 seconds, was felt about 2.14 standard time through 

 Ohio and the adjoining parts of Pennsylvania, Onta- 

 rio, Michigan, and Indiana. There was no serious 

 damage caused by it; but buildings were shaken, 

 glassware was broken, furniture moved, dishes fell 

 from shelves, and the people in some places ran out 

 of their houses. The strength of the shock would 

 thus seem to be about the same as that of Aug. 10 

 about New Jersey. Although the Mississippi and 

 Ohio valleys are generally accounted free from earth- 

 quakes, the following list from Professor Rock wood's 

 notes in the American journal of science includes a 

 number from that region : In 1881 there were shocks 

 in Indiana on April 20 and May 27, and in Ohio on 

 Aug. 29. In 1882, in Illinois on July 20; a general 

 shock through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Ken- 

 tucky, on Sept. 27; and again, feebler, at midnight of 

 Oct. 14 and 15, over a similar area; and in Illinois on 

 Oct. 22 and Nov. 14. In 1883, about Cairo, 111., on 

 Jan. 11; through Indiana, Illinois, and lower Michi- 

 gan, on Feb. 4; and about Cairo on April 12 and 

 July 6. 



In the newspaper reports of the earthquake of 

 Aug. 10, it was often incorrectly stated that the shock 

 was felt in Wilmington, N.C. This was a mistake 

 for Wilmington, Del. The few reports of buildings 

 overthrown, and many of the accounts of overturned 

 chimneys, were also incorrect. Special inquiry shows 

 the first reports to have been exaggerated as usual. 



