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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
whatever may he its commercial fortune. In regard to various points about 
which doubt has been expressed, he gives opinions founded on a careful ex- 
amination of the data accumulated during the progress of the works. The 
Nile alluvium, which is already perceptibly altering the coast line at Port 
Said, penetrates the western breakwater in such quantities that he believes 
it wiU be better to render the breakwater solid than to keep the harbour 
clear by dredging. As to the filling up of the canal by desert sand, he 
states that, fortunately, only about 17 miles lying on either side of Lake 
Timsah are affected by drift sand to an extent requiring consideration. Into 
that portion of the canal 310,000 cubic yards drifted in twelve months, and 
in addition to the precautions taken by the company of planting trees and 
shrubs for some distance on either side of the canal, he is of opinion that 
powerful dredges will have to be maintained at this part of the canal, to 
keep the passage clear. To protect the banks from the wave of passing 
vessels he recommends protecting them throughout by stone pitching. From 
the Bitter lakes, exposing an area of 100,000 acres, the daily evaporation in 
summer will amount to the enormous quantity of 250,000,000 cubic feet, 
and this waste will have to be made up almost entirely from the Red Sea. 
Currents will thus be created in the Chalouf excavation, probably reaching, 
if not exceeding, in velocity two miles an hour. These currents will not be 
sufficient to inj ure the canal if properly protected, but may retard or assist 
navigation. Screw steamers are to be allowed to navigate the canal with 
their own power, and other vessels are to be taken through by steam tugs. 
Mr. Fowler thinks the commercial success of the enterprise will largely 
depend on the willingness of traders to construct sailing vessels with suffi- 
cient auxiliary steam-power to take them through the canal and down the 
Red Sea, and by their means to divert the large traffic now carried round the 
Cape. 
Stca?n Carriage. — Mr. Fairlie and Mr. Samuels are working together in 
the production of a steam -carriage, or combined carriage and engine, for 
working the traffic on light railways laid on ordinary roads and branch 
lines. The carriage and engine are combined on a single frame, carried by 
two four-wheel bogies, and the wheels of the front bogie are coupled and 
driven by a pair of 8-inch steam cylinders supplied with steam by a “Field” 
boiler. Tlie entire structure with 80 passengers weighs 20 tons, half of 
which is utilised as adhesion weight. The ratio of unpaying to paying load 
is only 2^ to 1, and the adhesion is sufficient to enable the carnage to ascend 
a gradient of 1 in 10 if sufficient steam-power were provided. With the 
cylinders proposed it would surmount gradients of 1 in 35 or 1 in 40. 
Armour Plate . — An immense armour plate, 12 feet 8 inches long by 8 feet 
C inches wide and 5 inches tliick, was recently rolled at the works of Sir 
.Fohn Brown & Co. on a new plan. In the manufacture of large plates it 
has liitherto been a great difficulty to heat piles of the necessary width. 
The plan adopted for the above plate was to heat a comparatively narrow 
pile ; to roll it first in the direction of the width until sufficient breadth was 
attained ; la.stly to turn it and roll it lengthways. It is expected that by 
this plan plates 8 feet wide and 20 to 30 feet long will be obtained. 
Injector Condemer . — Very great interest lias been excited by an invention 
claimed by Mr. Morton and by Mr. Barclay, which, if it prove as successful 
