A NEW VIEW OF THE NATUItE OF THE RESIST-ANCE OF MATERIALS TO REPEATED LOADS.

By W. C. Unwin, F.R.S.

In 1870 there was published a treatise by Wohler, “Ueber die Festigkeitsversuche mit Eisen und Stahl,” which without question has profoundly modified the views taken of the resistance of materials, and which slowly but certainly is influencing practice in every department of engineering in which careful attention is given to the strength of the structure. Bound as engineers are in important constructions by official rules, the effect of Wohler’s researches has probably been less than might have been expected. But in spite of such rules eugineers are being driven by force of conviction to modify the working stresses adopted in a direction in accordance with those researches. Mr. Baker’s address to the Mechanical Section of the British Association at Aberdeen was a very striking testimony to the fact that common experience was forcing the most skilful and thoughtful engineers to assent to conclusions very nearly identical with those arrived at by pure experiment fifteen years ago.

As to structures subjected to a purely statical load, there is not much practical doubt; and such secular experiments as Sir W. Thomson is making at Glasgow will probably show that a structure may be loaded with a considerable fraction of its breaking weight, and will carry it a practically unlimited time without sensible increase of deformation. “ The time curve is asymptotic.” What is exactly the limit of stress which is safe is still unknown. But no doubt there is a limit of stress such that smaller loads are safe and greater loads are unsafe.

Now what Wohler’s results appeared to show was this, that for a varying load there is not a definite limit of stress which is safe. The limit of stress which would be safe in any given case depended, according to Wohler, on the amount of variation and kind of variation of the load. A steel axle, for instance, would not carry for an indefinite period more than 12 tons if the stress ranged from 12 tons tension to 12 tons compression. But it would carry 22 tons if the stress ranged from 22 tons tension to no load merely, and 40 tons if the stress never decreased below 20 tons.

VISITS IN THE PROVINCES.

THE MERSEY FORGE, LIVERPOOL.

Now, there is a very old view of the condition which fixes the limit of safe stress which has never been quite abandoned, but which it has always been impossible to completely reconcile with fact. Up to a certain limit of stress many materials are perfectly elastic. If a load is put on them and taken off they return absolutely—so far as is known—to their original condition. But if the stress exceeds that limit, they do not return completely to their original condition. The material has been altered by the load. If we could imagine that Wohler’s ranges of stress were ranges within which the material was perfectly elastic, and that when those ranges were exceeded a small alteration occurred, then the explanation of Wohler’s results would be easy. For deformations, however small, accumulating with unlimited repetition of the load, would ultimately cause fracture. But here arose two very obvious and considerable difficulties:—

(1). When Wohler subjected a bar to equal alternate compressions and extensions it broke down at a stress lower than that recognised as

its elastic limit in its primitive state. On the principle just stated the bar ought to have withstood at least all stresses, however variable, which did not exceed its elastic limit.

(2) It was very well known that the application of a stress above the elastic limit of a bar raised that limit. In certain cases it was found that the elastic limit could be raised nearly to the breaking point, and this seemed extremely inconsistent with the view that the limit of safe stress could in any way depend on the limit of elasticity. Now in the course of the present year there has appeared a memoir, by Professor Bauschinger, on the change of the elastic limit by. stretching, heating, cooling, and repetition of loading, which seems to the author to throw a great deal of light on these difficulties. Conclusions like those put forward in this memoir are not likely to be accepted without a great deal of discussion and further and independent experiment. But this much may be said at once, that the series of memoirs issued by Professor Bauschinger from the laboratory at Munich represent an amount of scientific work in testing materials to which there is no parallel in this country, either as to the extent of the work or the extraordinary completeness of the experiments or the accuracy of the measurements. In this memoir alone there are probably—to take a single point— the results of 3000 or 4000 measurements of extension and compression of the bars tested, the measurement being carried to    of an inch.

It is on these refined measurements that Professor Lauschingers conclusions rest. It is well known that there is a stress at which ductile materials like steel take a comparatively enormous deformation. This yielding point, or breaking-down point, is sometimes roughly spoken of as the elastic limit. Bauschinger believes that his measurements permit him to discriminate a real elastic limit which has no relation to the breaking-down point—a limit at which the. proportionality of stress and strain distinctly ceases, a limit agreeing in its character with the oldest ideas of what the elastic limit should be.

Now let it be assumed for the moment—although this is the point on which further investigation is required—that Professor .Bauschinger’s measurements are delicate enough to determine a.real elastic limit. Then let us take first a ^ eJT simple point. It is known that applying a tension to a bar, greater than its elastic limit in tension, raises its elastic limit in tension. No one has cared to inquire v lether such raising of the elastic limit in tension affected toe limit in compression. Suppose that initially the elastic limits in tension and compression were 10 tons per square inch, and that by a load of 15 tons the elastic limit in tension has been raised to 15 tons, it has been universally assumed that .he bar would then be perfectly elastic from

These works, situated near the new Herculaneum Dock, on the Lancashire side of the Mersey, employ 500 when in full swing, and are capable of turning out monthly eighty tons of finished work, such as marine crank shafts, or a hundred tons of forgings with their usual proportion of finished work. The works now consist only of a forge and a heavy machine shop; a department for making steel by the Bessemer process having been given up three years ago. Besides the ordinary heating furnaces—two to each steam hammer—there are seven Siemens’ gas furnaces. There are also seven large steam hammers, by Massey, Rigby, and Davis and Primrose, with cast iron standards, those for the larger sizes being of flatly arched form, to give plenty of room all round the work in hand. The largest hammer, one of fifteen tons, with 9ft. 6in. stroke, is served by two fifty-ton wrought iron steam jib Steam of 70 lb. pressure from vertical boilers, one to each hammer, can be brought on the top of the piston when required. There are also two 5-cwt. smithy hammers.

On account of the great difficulty of securing uniformity in scrap, and the large admixture of steel in the usual run of shipyard scrap, together with the danger of getting seams in the billet hammered from a pile of heterogeneous metal, the best forgings are now made from virgin iron. Carefully selected cold-blast pig is puddled to order; the balls are hammered into square billets; and the reheated billets are rolled into bars 4^in. by fin. The latter sheared to suitable lengths, cross piled, and shingled into flat slabs, which thus possess great density and toughness, and are perfectly free from sand marks. The high quality of this metal has been proved by pieces being crank shafts, drawn into bars 2ft. long and 2|in. square, turned down to lfin. diameter, and put into a powerful lathe, firmly secured by dog chucks. One end being held fast; on the lathe being turned slowly round, four and a-half revolutions were accomplished before the sample was twisted into two parts, the surface showing a remarkably fine and uniform spiral twist over the whole cylindrical surface.

The manager, Mr. Charles O’Connor, M.I.M.E., has adopted a special system for forging marine crank shafts. The flat slabs above mentioned are piled and welded together in the usual way to form a base for the crank. One end is brought approximately to the shape of the journal and welded on to the stave for holding it; the rectangular portion is then “ scarfed ” or hollowed out on side, forming a rough block wedge-shaped in section. On this inclined surface are piled three slabs— thin, to permit of their being heated uniformly, slightly tapered in cross section to facilitate a running off of the cinder, and having small pieces of iron intercalated between each surface to allow the flame of the furnace free access, on one

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When these are welded side the piece is turned upside down, and “scarfed”' on the other to receive three more slabs similarly disposed. This piling is continued on alternate sides, until a sufficient obtained, the length of the slabs being about 6in. short of the finished width of the crank web, to allow for the elongation caused by hammering. The other “body,” forming the journal, is then drawn down, and also a small stave for working, when the first end is cut off and rough-finished. With this method of forging, the iron in the future crank pin is drawn up, equally on either side, from the very middle of the original body of the shaft; and there can be no scarf end in the crank pin, nor any edge weldings the webs, while the crank must be all the sounder through being always hammered on the flat. This was the method adopted for forging the solid three-throw crank shaft, weighing 41J tons, for the Normandie, and also those of several Atlantic liners belonging to the Inman and Cunard companies.

For welding up stern frames an independent fire is placed on the ground, in any position found convenient round the steam hammer. All stern frames are welded under the hammer as required by Lloyd’s; and all such welds are scarfed, an excess of thickness being left to allow for drawing down and wasting in the fire. The surfaces of the scarf joint are also planed, so as to fit exactly. In this way were forged the stern frame, weighing 35 tons, for the City of Rome, and that for the Transatlantique Company’s Champagne. A new rudder, weighing twelve tons, has lately been finished forging, for the City of Chicago. Some armour plates 35ft. long by 3ft. wide and 3in. thick, are being made out of hammered iron, and also hatch plates,” for protecting the hatchways of H.M.S. Renown, for Sir William Armstrong, Mitchell, and Co. I he hatch plates are planed to the dimensions of a “ mould ” the exact size, supplied by the Newcastle firm. As a rule, however, all work is

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10 tons compression to 15 tons tension.¹ But this is exactly Out of this arises a very important practical suggestion, what Bauschinger’s experiments appear to conclusively dis- To determine the safe range of stress by Wohler’s method prove. The elastic limit in tension cannot be raised without requires experiments extending over a period counted by lowering the limit in compression, and vice versd. Even a years. If Bauschinger is right, a bar can be subjected to moderate raising of the tension limit may lower the com- alternating stresses in an ordinary testing machine perhaps pression limit to zero.    a dozen times, and the elastic limits determined. Those

This furnishes a complete solution of one of the diffi- elastic limits will define the safe range of alternating culties in accepting Wohler’s laws. When a bar is stresses. Such experiments are not easy, and measure-subjected to alternating compression and extension the ments must be made as accurately as Bauschinger makes elastic limit cannot be raised. Any attempt to raise it in them. But they are far easier than experiments by one direction lowers it in the other. The law that the Wohler’s method. Yet further. If the ultimate statical elastic limit can be raised by stress does not apply to a bar strength is known, and the range of stress for repeated subjected to alternate stresses of opposite sign. Why the tensions and compressions, the Gerber parabola can be elastic limit in this case is even lower than the primitive drawn, and the safe range of stress for any other limits of elastic limit, in most cases, will be discussed presently. At loading determined.

present it is enough that under alternating stresses we It is impossible in a very short sketch to give an idea of cannot expect that the elastic limit will rise, and therefore the mass of experimental detail in this remarkable paper, cannot expect a bar to be safe under a range of stress or even to touch on all the theoretical points on which the greater than that between its primitive elastic limits.    experiments throw light. But if a modification of working

Next consider the effect of stress of a single kind, stresses in the direction of accepting Wohler’s laws is to be Wohler showed that, under a stress ranging from 0 to an adopted, it is very desirable that the reason why those laws upper limit, a bar would carry nearly double the stress are true should be understood. Bauschinger’s paper is the that would be permissible if the bar were subjected to first attempt to establish a rational basis for Wohler’s alternate tension and compression. If a bar would bear empirical laws, an indefinite number of repetitions of load ranging from 7 tons compression to 7 tons tension, it would also bear an unlimited number of strainings from 0 to nearly 14 tons tension. Further, Wohler’s limit of safe stress for repetitions of stress of one kind is above the ordinary primitive elastic limit of the bar. Now Bauschinger’s experiments on this point are very complete, because he constructed Wohler’s machine for varying tensions, and has experimented on forty-five bars. For these bars he determined the strength and elastic limit initially, and the elastic limit during the progress of the repetition of load, and the statical strength after fracture in the Wohler machine.

These experiments seem conclusive as to the relation of the limit of elasticity to the stress the bar is capable of sustaining under repetitions of load. It should be mentioned that any defect in a bar always causes fracture in a Wohler’s machine with an exceptionally small number of repetitions of load, and the few discrepancies in Bauschinger’s results seem due to this cause.

For instance, in Table XIX. are given the results of experiments on six test bars cut from a wrought iron plate.

One of these bars was subjected to tensions ranging from 0 to 7T tons per square inch. Its primitive elastic limit was 6'8 tons, but this limit rose gradually during the repetition of loading to 12'3 tons. It broke after five million repetitions. The next bar was subjected to tensions from 0 to 9 "9 tons. Its elastic limit rose gradually to 13'4 tons, and it broke after five million repetitions. A third bar was subjected to tensions from 0 to 13T tons. Its elastic limit rose to 14 5 tons, and it broke with just five million repetitions. The fourth bar was loaded with Its elastic limit rose to 16*4 tons, and it broke with two and a-quarter million repetitions.

Table XX. gives, similar results for a mild steel plate.

Its primitive elastic limit was 15'5 tons per square inch.

Loaded with tensions ranging from 0 to 16 tons, its elastic limit rose to 19 ‘4 tons. It broke with nearly seven million repetitions. A second bar loaded with tensions from 0 to 16 tons had an elastic limit of 18 tons, and broke after three and a-half million repetitions. A third bar loaded from 0 to 16 tons had an elastic limit rising gradually to 20 tons, and stood eleven million repetitions. But all bars loaded from 0 to 197 tons broke with less than million repetitions, the elastic limit being about 20 tons.

Hence it seems obvious that if the elastic limit under the action of the loading can keep above the load, the bar is safe with a very large number of repetitions of load. But if the elastic limit does not rise above the load, the bar breaks with few repetitions. All the forty-five experiments give the same result, except in one or two cases where there were flaws in the bar. The limit of elasticity determines the limit of safety, and that limit is a limit which is greater than the primitive limit, but not indefinitely greater. The elastic limit is raised by the loading, but only up to a point beyond which it does not rise, and which can be determined after a comparatively small number of repetitions of load.

It is curious that pieces of the bars broken in Wohler’s machine, tested statically, showed no reduction of strength, contraction, or elongation in consequence of the work to which they had been subjected. But if the bar breaks while in the Wohler machine it breaks with a much less contraction of area. This seems to show that under the action of repeated loads some very short portion of the bar, of slightly less elastic limit, is picked out, and all the accumulated permanent set concentrated in that short portion, the rest of the bar being uninjured. The small contraction would be due in that case to the support of the surrounding uninjured material.

Now to return to the case of a bar subjected to alternate compressions and tensions. It was seen that one of the difficulties of Wohler’s laws was, that the limit of safe stress for alternate tensions and compressions is a stress less than the primitive tensile elastic limit. Bauschinger explains this by advancing the view that the primitive elastic limit of many materials is an artificially raised elastic limit. . The material has been subjected to mechanical operations in manufacture which are equivalent to straining actions. Now, Bauschinger found that alternate compression and extension had the effect of raising an artificially lowered, or lowering an artificially raised elastic limit.

By subjecting a bar to a few alternations of equal stresses, which are equal to or somewhat exceed the elastic limits, they tend towards a fixed position which Bauschinger calls the natural elastic limit. The range of stress for which a bar is perfectly elastic after a few repetitions of such alternating stresses appears to agree very closely with Wohler’s of stress for unlimited repetitions of alternating st

U^ne single exception should be noted. Professor James Thompson in 18<T stated that the common assumption that the elastic limit could be extended both for compression and tension was unproved, and that the determination of the point was a matter of importance in the theory of elasticity.—Encyclopaedia Eritannica, “Elasticity.”

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struck out full size on the floor, as in a shipyard; and skeleton templates, in light bar iron rivetted up, are made to the various parts, such as stern frames. All forgings are marked out before any machining is done, to make sure that they will work to the finished dimensions; and in this way much delay and wasted labour are saved.

The machine shop, 300ft. long by 50ft. wide, and about 100ft. high, has three travellers, two 30-ton and one 20-ton, worked by the shafting. The line shaft runs' along two sides and one end of the shop, being connected at the angles by mitre pinions, and driven direct by a 45-horse power two-cylinder wall engine. The manager’s office, mounted on a staging in the middle of one side, has windows on all sides commanding both the smithy and the machine shop. A powerful slotting machine is kept at work, when not otherwise engaged, in cutting up old crank shafts for being worked up again. The frame is a box casting with stiff back rib, and a counterweight moves up and down in the hollow to balance the tool box, the chain connecting them passing over a pulley. The tool box has a quick return motion like that of a planing machine, and the stroke may be altered from 8in. to 4ft., to suit the work in hand, almost instantaneously, and without stopping the machine. Solid crank shaft forgings are first put under this machine to have the crank slotted out. Two grooves are slotted simultaneously, and then the piece between them is bent backwards and forwards by wedges to break it off and give access to the tool for finishing the recess. The body is then rough-turned to a quarter of an inch above the finished size, and placed on the table of a planing machine which has three tool boxes, one for planing the flat, in addition to two working on uprights at the sides for planing the crown simultaneously, the sweep being given by a radius bar. The crank pin is then turned in a hollow lathe, made specially for the company by Messrs. Craven Brothers, of Manchester, which does away with the necessity for making a heavy shaft revolve excentrically, with a counterweight for balancing the body and causing such vibration as greatly to interfere with an accurate turning of the pin.

With this machine, shown by the preceding illustration, the shaft is clamped down in two V-shaped blocks supported on cross girders, two on each side of the revolving ring carrying the tool rests or boxes. The outside V blocks, adjustable by screws, are kept in line, and parallel with the centre line of the machine and of the crank. Setting the crank parallel with the centre line, and a distance horizontally of half the throw on one side of it, brings the pin into the centre of the ring. For facing up the inside of the webs the tool is fed inwards by an endless screw, worm, and worm - wheel, star-wheel, and fixed kicker; while, for turning the pin, the ring is made to traverse longitudinally by hand or by an endless screw. With two tools cutting at once the roughly forged pin may be reduced as much as six inches in one traverse, each tool making a lijfin. cut. The internal diameter of the ring, which revolves in bearings, adjustable to compensate wear, is 9ft.; and the rests or boxes, which are made deep but as narrow as possible so as to clear, may be changed to suit any crank. The machine, which is very substantial, is capable of finishing cranks up to 27in. diameter and 3ft. throw.

As the size of engines, and therefore of crank shafts, is continually increasing, it becomes more and more necessary to build them up, instead of making them in one piece. This is not so much on account of difficulty in forging a solid crank of the requisite size, but owing to the greater delay which must occur, in the event of breakdown, in making a new solid crank shaft. For a given strength, the built crank, which consists of two journals, two webs, and a crank pin, weighs about 25 per cent, more than the solid shaft; but the cost of both is about the same. The webs of the built crank are first planed to the required thickness, and then bored together, the body end being

finished to size, and the pin end rough bored to jin. less than the finished size. They are then slotted to size on the outside, and shrunk on to the pieces for the journals, rough turned to finished size. The two webs with their journals are then set and truly clamped together in the bed of a boring machine to have the holes for the crank pin bored out together. The bed is removed from the machine, and a wood fire is made round the webs to expand them. The finished crank pin, with the ends turned gjin. in diameter larger than the holes when cold, is then inserted, and the webs left to cool gradually, thus ensuring even contraction and absolute accuracy. The crank, weighing nineteen tons, for the City of Berlin was built up in this manner.

All work is finished ready to be put in place. The brass liners of propeller shafts are shrunk on and turned to fit their lignum vitae bearings in the stern tube. This is facilitated by the excellent machines made by Craven Brothers, including two lathes of 6ft. 6in. centres, one 60ft. and the other 70ft. long, and a planing machine by Collier, of Manchester, with divided table, the halves of which can work separately or together, being capable of planing 10ft. square and up to 25ft. long.

WHITFIELD’S FURNACE BARS.

The fire-bars illustrated by the accompanying engravings are made under Whitfield’s patent by Messrs. James Beveridge and

concrete and of mortar made with Portland cement, as compared with the same cement prepared with common water. My neighbour, Mr. Rowland, a director of a public undertaking, employed a bricklayer to prepare some concrete of Portland cement, sand, and roughly powdered bricks, with that sugared water, and some also with unsugared water. He also had bricks joined with Portland cement and sand, and with this sugared, and with unsugared water. I was present, and afterwards watched day by day the appearance of the joints of the mortar, and of the surface of the concrete. The joints of the unsugared cement became quite white on the second day, and remained so for some time ; but the sugared remained brown, and did not, till a week or ten days after, show any traces of whiteness, and when it appeared it was very slight. The two boxes of concrete looked very different. I asked for a board, and the bricklayer put in the centre of it some of the concrete, which set in a short time, and became as hard as a rock. At one end of the board was put a patch of the cement and sand made with sugared water, and at the other end a corresponding piece made with the unsugared water. The latter patch, as it set, cracked in many places, and was very friable ; but the sugared one set, and did not crack at all. This latter piece, I ought to mention, was rather thinner than the other. The strength of these various specimens has not yet been tested.

Mr. William F. Roe has obligingly sent me a notice of an unfinished building on Lord Lyvedon’s property, between Thrap-stone and Oundle, which he was taken to see some years ago. The person who was building it was implicated in the Gunpowder Plot, and did not live to finish it. The tradition is that the mortar was made of sweetwort (infusion of malt). Mr. Roe

WHITFIELD’S FURNACE BARS.

Brothers, Barrow-in-Furness. It will be seen that they are made hollow, so as to admit air at the end nearest C D, and after heating the air to allow it to escape at A B through the fire, to complete the combustion of the semi-burnt gases. High opinions of the bars are expressed by the users. We need scarcely add that there is nothing novel in using bars to heat air. The novelty lies in the way in which the air is delivered at the back end.

ON THE REMARKABLE EFFECTS OF ADDING SACCHARINE MATTER TO MORTAR.

By Samuel Crompton.

There is a misprint in my paper, The Engineer, 3rd December, which it is important to correct. In the passage in which an extract is given from the Rhoorka “ Treatise on Civil Engineering,” Captain Smith is stated to have tested the two sets of bricks at the end of thirteen hours ; but it was at the end of thirteen years that he experimented upon them, and found that those joined with sugared lime bore a strain before separating of 6<| lb. to the square inch, whilst mortar made with the same lime, but unsugared, yielded with 4£ lb. to the square inch.

I take the opportunity of adding the following facts illustrative of the remarkable influence of sugar on Portland cement. A friend gave me some which he believes was made at Shoreham. I put some of it into an egg-cup, and added, perhaps, one-tenth in bulk of brown Demerara sugar. After adding sufficient water, I stirred for a few seconds. At the end of five minutes, the cement had set so that, on pouring off the supernatant fluid, I held the egg-cup upside down. An hour after, the cement had set very firmly.

Half a pound only of brown Demerara sugar, of the retail price of 2d. a pound, and dissolved in upwards of two gallons of water, produced a wond .rful difference in the appearance of

was asked to try to pull out one of the ragged stones in a rough place in the wall ; but he could not do so.

Cranleigh, Guildford, 6th December, 1886.

PROGRESS OF THE BASIC OR THOMAS-GILCHRIST PROCESS FOR THE TWELVE MONTHS ENDING 31st OCTOBER, 1886.

The total make of steel and ingot iron from phosphoric pig during this period amounts to 1,313,631 tons, being an increase over the make for the previous twelve months of about 368,314 tons.

It is noticeable that of this make no fewer than 927,284 tons were ingot iron containing under 17 per cent, of carbon.

The makes of the various countries for the twelve months ending 30fch September, 1885, and 31st October, 1886, respectively, are as follows :—

England..............

Germany, Luxemburg, and Austria.

France ..............

Belgium and other countries .. Totals

1885.

1886.

Total

tons.

145,707

617,514

130,582

51,514

tons 945,317

With under •18 per cent, carbon.

70,813

424,862

62,390

42,118

600,183

Total

tons.

258,466

883,859

122,711

48,595

1,313,631

With under •17 per cent, carbon.

161,908

651,523

77,141

36,712

927,284

It is noticeable that these 1,313,631 tons of steel represent about 394,000 tons of slag, containing from 30 per cent, to 35 per cent, of phosphate of lime. Nearly all the basic slag made in Germany is very finely ground, and used in place ol superphosphates.

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Everything is admitted on the pleadings, and some portion of money was paid into court. Now, my lords, it was claimed in this action that special damage had been sustained by the plaintiffs in respect of five firms—Ray, of Sunderland; Casper, of West Hartlepool; the Stockton Malleable Iron Company; the Steel Company of Scotland; and the Consett Iron Company. Your lordships will see in the last column of page 1, ‘ What variation did they make in their terms which you applied to buy goods from them after the appearance of this paragraph m the paper ?” Before that I should have read this—“ After the appearance of that paragraph were you able to buy goods just as previously on the same terms?—A. No, the terms of payment altered. I was not able to buy on the same terms.” This is Mr. George Edward Casebourne, the plaintiff. “ Q. Tell us the firms with whom you had been dealing in getting goods on credit, give us some of their names?—A. Ray of Sunderland. Q. Jest give us the names of some others?—A. Casper and Co., of

West Hartlepool, the Stockton Malleable Iron Company, the Steel Company of Scotland, and the Consett Ironworks.” Then my learned friend seems to endeavour to obtain from the witness that which the learned judge ruled two or three times he could not get from the witness, namely, what it was that had actuated the conduct of these five firms. If there had been any refusal on the part of the firms, the firms would prove it, and they would also prove the reasons which actuated them. When my learned friend came to his evidence to prove what damage he had suffered, instead of calling persons in respect of those five firms he calls persons representing Ray, of Sunderland, and he calls a person representing Messrs. Casper, of West Hartlepool, and the evidence of those persons appears on page 4. Now this is the special damage, the commercial damage, which these gentlemen claim in this action. Your lordships will find the evidence on page 4 in the centre column. Mr. Ray states that he is a forge master and that he has had business dealings with Casebourne and Co. He saw the paragraph. He had not heard of the rumours before. “Q. 'Had you before you saw that paragraph been accustomed to give them credit in your transactions with them?—A. Yes I trusted them to the 10th of the month after delivery. Q. Did you, after seeing that paragraph, continue to give them the same credit ?—A. I demanded cash on delivery after that as regards contracts to be made. Q. Did you do that in consequence of seeing that paragraph ?—A. Yes. Q. The Engineer, I believe, is a leading paper in the business.—A. Yes. Q. That is your letter demanding cash, I believe ?—A. Yes.” Then the letter was put in. The letter was read afterwards, and I will call your lordships’ attention to it. It is in the next column.

Mr. Justice Manisty : Cash on delivery, instead of credit to the 10th of the month after delivery.

Mr. Lockwood : If your lordship will look at the top of the next column you will see it set out. “Dear Sirs,—My quotations for the eighty-five sets of forgings are as follows:—Screw frame, 24s. per cwt.; rudder ditto, 24s. per cwt.; stem car, 16s. per cwt. Terms cash.—-Yours truly, Thomas Ray.” Now this is the “ Dear Sir,—We are in receipt of yours of the 8th, and

count

ence

a com-

LEGAL INTELLIGENCE.

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE—QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION.

Royal Courts of Justice, Thursday, December 2nd, 1886. Before Mr. Baron Huddleston and Mr. Justice Manisty.) Casebourne and Another v. The Engineer.

[Transcript from the shorthand notes of Messrs. Corfield and Herscc, 22, Chancery-lane.]

Mr. Lockwood :—May it please your lordships, I appear in this case with my friend, Mr. Cyril Dodd, for the defendants. The Engineer newspaper, on a notice of motion by them, the plaintiffs being represented, I believe, by Mr. Waddy and Mr. Robson. My lords, the notice of motion is for a rule for a new trial on the ground that the damages were excessive which were recovered in this action, the action being an action for libel and the damages being £1500.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : You are for the defendants ?

Mr. Lockwood : I am for the defendants, with my friend, Mr. Cyril Dodd. Although the notice of motion deals with other matters, I think I am right in saying that, in the main, the question of excessive damages is the question which my friends are here to discuss before your lordships. Now, my lords, the action was an action for libel published in the newspaper of the defendants on the 8 th January, 1886. The action was tried at Leeds in May, 1886 before Mr. Justice Cave and a Special Jury. Messrs. Casebourne, who are the plaintiffs in the action, are iron merchants who carry on their business at West Hartlepool, and their business consists in the purchase and sale of large quantities of iron material. In January, 1886, or rather before that time, in the month of December, 1885, it appears they entered into a contract to supply ed Samango at Buenos Ayres with a large quantity of iron—I think 1500 tons; that Samango failed, and that came to the plaintiffs’ notice. A bill which they held in respect of a former contract was dishonoured, and they stopped the 1500 tons cargo going out to Samango. On the 22nd December, 1885, the plaintiffs wrote the following letter to, at any rate, one of their customers. I am not sure whether it was not to more. My learned friend, Mr. Waddy, in opening this case, first of all stated that it was sent to three of the creditors, and then afterwards he made a correction. I do not think that is material; but this is the letter my learned friend read from the plaintiffs to their creditors:—“We very much regret to inform you that owing to a heavy loss we are unable to meet our engagements.” My lords, I have got here a print of the shorthand writer’s notes of the trial, which may enable your lordships to follow me.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : Let us have it, if you please.

Mr. Lockwood : I think your lordships will find this is in a very convenient form. It is the shorthand writer’s notes printed, and the whole of my learned friend’s speech is set out.

Mr. WADDYr: This was the shorthand note which was taken for the paper of which my friend’s clients are the proprietors. I have seen it, and I should be very sorry indeed to be responsible for the way in which Mr. Lockwood or I are represented.

Mr. Lockwood : I think I know my friend’s style. I have had some experience of it. I was going to read the letter which is in my learned friend’s opening, in the first column of page 1: “ We very much regret to inform you that, owing to a heavy loss, we are unable to meet our engagements. Our creditors are only three, viz., Messrs. Dorman, Long, and Co., Middlesbrough; the owners of the West Hartlepool Ironworks; and Messrs. Fry, I’Anson, and Co., Darlington. As we wish to lay a statement of our affairs before you, we shall feel greatly obliged if you will meet at the offices of Messrs. Dorman, Long, and Co.” I will ask your lordships to go on from that, because it comes in the order of the history of this case that ,1 should tell your lord-ships how it came about that the libel was published in The Engineer newspaper, merely prefacing what I am about to say by saying that your lordships will find the libel is a letter imputing failure to this firm. I want to show your lordships how thisinforma-tion came to the newspaper, which resulted in the letter, which, no doubt, was libellous, in respect of which the damages were awarded. It is at page 5 in the last column. Mr. Jeremiah Head was called. He said that he was a partner in the firm of Fox, Head, and Co., and that he was the reporter of The Engineer newspaper ; that he sent up the communication about the failure, and he believed the truth of it. My learned friend rightly interposes there. He is then asked when he first heard it, and where he heard it. He says, “ On the 5th of January, on the Middlesbrough Exchange.” Q. From whom ?—A. From Mr. Robert Jameson. Q. Who is Jameson ?—A. The secretary of the West Stockton Ironworks. Q. They also are manufacturers, are they ?—A. They are. Q. Did you, ’Change, hear it from anybody else at that time ?—A. I heard it confirmed. Q. Who by ?—A. Mr. Joseph C. I’Anson. Q. What is he ?—A. He is a partner in the firm of Fry, I’Anson, and Co.” —that is, one of the members of the firm to whom this letter had been written. Q. What was it that Jameson told you ?—A. He asked me if I had heard about Casebourne and Co. I said, “ What about them ?” He said that they had come to grief. I asked for further particulars. He said that they had made a large bad debt with a foreign merchant named Samango, which had produced the effect. He said there were other firms in with Casebourne and Co., namely, the West Hartlepool Ironworks, Fry, I’Anson, and Co., and Dorman, Long, and Co. That he had himself seen Mr. I’Anson on ’Change, and he had practically confirmed it.—Q. Did Jameson at that time say anything else about this. That is material, do you recollect ? Just think for a moment.—A. He said that Mr. Gladstone, of the West Hartlepool Ironworks, and Mr. Robinson, a partner of Casebourne, were then on their way to Genoa to what they could save from the wreck.” I do not think I need read more of that. Probably my learned friend may think proper to call attention to some part of the cross-examination. The witness is asked, “What other information had you beyond what you have told us when you sent to the newspaper the information you sent ? You have told us of Mr. I’Anson, Mr. Jameson, and the talk at the lunch.—A. Yes, Mr. Fife Scott.”

Mr. Justice Manisty: You have not yet told us what the libel is.

Mr. Lockwood : As this was anterior to it, I thought I would state it first. I will read it. It is in the publication of January 8th, and practically it is set out. I will read it from the paper.

Mr. Justice Manisty : Is it in this document ?

Mr. Lockwood : Yes. It is in the beginning of my learned friend’s speech. It is not italicised in the way the other extracts are, but in the same type as my learned friend’s speech. “ The North of England.—(From Our Own Correspondent.)—The failure has been announced of Messrs. G. E. Casebourne and Co., iron merchants, West Hartlepool. A heavy bad debt which they had made with a large customer at Genoa is said to be the cause. Two or three Cleveland firms will suffer, but not to any great extent. A vessel laden with over 1000 tons of section iron was just about to leave Middlesbrough on account of Messrs. G. E. Casebourne and Co., when she was stopped by the manufacturers. It is thought that there will be sufficient assets to pay a good dividend to all those who have unfortunately become involved.” My lords, that is the libel complained of, which is published in the news from the North of England on the 8th January, 1886. Now, my lords, may I refer to what I was reading when I turned for a moment to the libel? Mr. Ralph Jameson was called, and his evidence is in the last column of page 6. He says he is the secretary of the West Stockton Iron Company, and that he had a communication made to him on the 2nd January, 1886, by Mr. John Hill, the managing partner of the firm, and that the statement related to the affairs of Messrs. Casebourne and Co. Up to the time of the publication of the libel the case stands thus, I proposed to call other persons tracing back this information. So far as the defendants

necessary to go further. It seems the plaintiffs’ firm had unfortunately had transactions with Samango in Buenos Ayres, which had resulted in their putting an end to one contract, and in suffering a heavy pecuniary loss on another; and in consequence of that they addressed the letter to the creditors. From this very letter which they wrote this rumour appears to have arisen, and the rumour was spread until it reached Mr. Head, the correspondent of The Engineer newspaper, who unfortunately sent this very erroneous information to the paper. I put forward these facts to press upon your lordships, as I endeavoured to do before the jury, that so far as the defendant’s newspaper is concerned, there was no malicious intention, and that my learned friend, who opened this case with his usual ability, had put the case rather too hardly against the proprietors of this newspaper in reference to their unfortunate share in this transaction. Now, my lords, I want to call your lordships’ attention to what took place afterwards. A letter was written—I think it is the first communication which is set out at the bottom of the first column of my friend’s speech—addressed to “The proprietors of The Engineer, 163, Strand, London.—Gentlemen,—I have been consulted by Messrs. G. E. Casebourne and Co., iron merchants, West Hartlepool, with reference to the statements contained relative to them in your issue of last week, and which I am instructed to say are untrue. Messrs. Casebourne and Co. have not failed. They made a bad debt, and the vessel you mentioned was stopped by them by an injunction obtained at their instance from the High Court. My clients having large business connections, both in England and on the Continent, I need hardly say that such statements as these, disseminated as they will be through the English and continental press, are calculated to do them immense harm by entirely destroying their credit. It is difficult at present to estimate the damages which will ensue, but my clients think that £10,000 will hardly be sufficient to cover what they will ultimately lose ” —I think when your lordships come to see what the transactions of these gentlemen were, you will think that is a ridiculous and extravagant observation made at this early stage for the purpose of doing that which it succeeded in doing, namely, inflaming the damages—“ and have instructed me to institute an action against you for that amount. I shall be glad to know the names of your solicitors.” That is on the 11th of January. That would be immediately after the publication of the libel in the newspaper which was brought to their notice. Then comes the answer of the 13th January, 1886:—“The editor of The Engineer presents his compliments to Mr. Parrington, and acknowledges receipt of his letter of the 11th inst. The editor regrets exceedingly the statement referred to, which upon inquiry he finds from his local correspondent to have been written under a misapprehension of the facts. It seems that Messrs. Casebourne’s affairs were a matter of common conversation on ’Change in consequence of the firm having taken some of their more considerable creditors into their confidence. The editor repeats that he very much regrets the occurrence, and will, of course, be glad to give equal publicity to a contradiction of the report. He proposes to insert in a prominent place in this week’s issue a statement in the form enclosed,” I ask attention to this portion of the letter—“if approved by Mr. Parrington’s client, and doubtless, with this reparation Messrs. Casebourne and Co. will be satisfied. The editor would ask for a reply by telegraph, as The Engineer goes to press on Thursday night.” The defendants being naturally anxious to repair their mistake so far as they could, had put before the plaintiffs’ adviser what they proposed to publish, in order that if any fault was to be found with it such fault might be found, and the tion made. This is the answer which comes by telegraph.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : What was actually put in ?

Mr. Lockwood: This is afterwards putin.—“Correction.—We regret very much ”—my learned friend had so much fault to find with it when he read it that it is a good deal broken up by original observations of my friend; nothing could equal my friend’s indignation at the additional insult that had been heaped upon his clients by this; but my friend omitted to state to the jury that it had been submitted to them, and that their opinion had been asked before its insertion in the paper. “ Correction.—We regret very much the statement made in the letter of our North of England correspondent, which appeared in our last impression, to the effect that Messrs. G. E. Casebourne and Co., of West Hartlepool, had failed. It appears that a large foreign customer of that firm had stopped payment, but we are informed that Messrs. Casebourne and Co. beyond being sufferers by the loss, are not affected in their business, and that the steamship to which reference was made was not stopped by a creditor but by Messrs. Casebourne themselves. We repeat our expression of regret that the passage in question should have appeared in our columns.” I hope I am not troubling your lordships too much by handing to you the papers, and showing you the relative positions in the paper of the libel and the apology. The libel appears in the column with blue around it, and the apology is put really in as prominent a position as the editor could select in his next issue, and is in a form of type which is much more likely to give publicity to the apology than had been given to the original libel.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : I see Mr. Waddy told the jury this was not an apology. What is the advantage of an apology ?

Mr. Lockwood: He says, “Why on earth, when they were about it, they could not just simply put in a simple apology, and have done with it, I do not know.”

Mr. Baron Huddleston : Mr. Waddy would have said, if they had done that, Why on earth, when they libel us, do they not put in a correction ?

Mr. Lockwood: Yes. My learned friend would then have said, Why do you not tell the real facts?

Mr. Justice Mam.sty : Of course, it was Mr. Waddy’s object to increase the damages.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : If it was a question of law we should pay the greatest attention to what Mr. Waddy or Mr. Lockwood said; but as it is a question of fact we shall not pay the least attention to what either of them said.

Mr. Lockwood : Well, my lord, I believe you have touched upon strong point. My lords, I was going to say on the proposed apology being sent to Mr. Parrington, who represented the plaintiffs, the following telegram was sent:—“We must leave it to your discretion what you publish by way of retractation; cannot accept it as reparation for so serious an injury.” Then this further letter was written :—“ I am in receipt of yours of yesterday’s date enclosing proposed contradiction, and after taking my client’s instructions, have wired you this morning as follows:—‘Must leave it to your discretion what you publish by way of retractation; cannot accept it as reparation for so serious an injury.—Parrington.’ My clients think the damage done to their credit is irreparable by any retractation, and, whilst regretting the position in which you have been placed by your local correspondent, they feel very strongly that they ought to have adequate pecuniary compensation for the injury done. If you are prepared to make a

substantial offer -I do not think I need trouble your

lordships with more till we come to the evidence in the action.

answer

accept your price for the forgings, provided you will go on with them at once, and give us delivery this month. We agree to your terms, namely cash, but, of course, the usual discount of 2g per cent., and 2^ per cent, commission.” So instead of having credit till the 10th of the month, they substitute a commission and a disand that is the whole alteration that is proved in the transactions between the plaintiffs and Mr. Ray. There is not a word in that letter in answer to Mr. Ray’s in regard to the altered terms, but they merely make a proviso, which is acted upon, that if they are not to have the credit they are to have the discount. That is absolutely the whole evidence that is given by Mr. Ray except this, that he admits he saw the correction. Now, my lords, the next witness is on the last column of page 4: Mr. William James Hardy. He was the manager of the firm of Messrs. Casper and Co. Previously to this appearing in The Engineer he had been in the habit of doing business with Messrs. Casebourne and Co. Your lordships will see how he goes on. “Was Mr. Casebourne’s credit good with your firm?—A. Yes. I saw The Engineer. I reported it to the principal of our firm. We determined not to sell to them except we got cash on delivery. Q. To stop their credit ?—A. In fact, it meant to cut the connection.” Then : “ Did you write them in consequence that letter ?—

A. Yes.” Then comes the letter of the 13th January. I think I am right in saying that the correction appears in the issue of the 15th January. Now, my lords, this letter, therefore, is written fifteen days after the apology had appeared in that very central position in the newspaper. “We are in receipt of your yesterday’s favour, and will be glad to supply you with the coals required, as follows :—Haswell Pens, 6s. 3d. net; best Eldon steam, 7s. 3d.— 2h f.o.b. steamer in Middlesbrough-on-Tees; payment, cash against invoice. It is with great regret that we are compelled to alter our usual terms with such an old connection as yours; but in the face of the reports circulating this last week or two, we consider we would be acting unfairly to ourselves did we stipulate for any other than prompt cash payments in all future transactions. If you agree to these terms, we shall be glad to receive the steamer’s name as early as possible.” He did not see the correction in the newspaper. He says, “ We got some information from the witness with regard to the nature of the transaction between this firm and Casper and Co. The books were produced, and more trivial transactions were never exhibited in a Court of justice than occurred between these two firms. They had ceased to make cash advances. It turned out that on some occasions, when the bank had closed, and so on, Messrs. Casper had been in the habit of advancing small sums of cash, such as £7 and £3, and other apparently small matters, and mere matters of conveni which were granted by Messrs. Casper and Co. ; but the books did not show that Casebournes had been deprived of this advantage of having these small sums of money advanced to them as necessity arose. My lord, this was proved by the books, that the total turnover of the firm in 1885 was £46,000—not the question of profit, but the total turnover with the five firms amounted out of that sum only to £1648.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : With the five firms ?

Mr. Lockwood : Yes, my lord, with the whole of the five firms, £1648 out of £46,000. I think that gives us very good means of forming an opinion as to what was the extent of the business which was being done with those five firms. Of these five firms—although they were opened by my learned friend in his explanation in chief— only two were called, namely, Mr. Ray and Mr. Hardy, representing themselves and Caspers, and I submit there was absolutely no substantial real commercial damage proved by either of those witnesses who were called by my learned friend. The facts were known to Mr. Hardy when he wrote his letter of the 13th January. He says : “Yes, I knew that the Casebournes had not failed, but then the report coming on the top of it, I did not know what might happen, and I thought it best to use caution in the transactions.” That is the account he gave of the state of mind under which he wrote that letter.

As to the other evidence, an accountant was called, who proposed to initiate us into the condition of things disclosed by the books of Messrs. Casebourne. I think we shall agree that the accountant threw absolutely no light whatever on the books or upon the other transactions. Then there was called a clerk of the name of Foster, from Messrs. Casebournes’, who endeavoured to show by parison of the books that there had been a very great falling off— £3000, I think—as against £10,000 in the sales. I call your lordship’s attention to that. Foster’s evidence comes on page 4 in the first column. “ Q. Did you go through the accounts for the first four months of 1885 with Mr. Mclnlay ?—A. Yes. Q. Do you know, looking at that invoice-book, which of those items were ordered as well as delivered, in those four months ?” He gives us the result of the first four months of 1885, and the amounts of the goods sales.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : I think my brother Cave was of opinion that he did not give us very much information.

Mr. Lockwood : He is asked, “You make up the £10,000 the first four months of 1885 ? A. Yes. ” My lords, I contended, which I think my friend probably agreed with, that it was absolutely and positively unfair to compare them. First of all, sales would not be affected in any sense by the publication of this report. One can understand its interfering with purchases. The only evidence that is given ir support of any special damage is in respect of their being prevented from purchasing on the terms which they purchased on before— namely, credit. The evidence of the sales—that is, the evidence of Foster and Mclnlay—I submit is quite immaterial, because no one would be prevented by this from purchasing from these gentlemen. Their business appears to be this—they made contracts of purchase and contracts of sale. I do not say they were agents in the strictest sense of the term; but they made purchases and made sales. That was their business. That the first four months of 1886 show a large falling off in the sales could not possibly form the basis of any good argument that that had been brought about

were

Mr. Robson : My lord, they have to make contracts extending over a considerable time. No man will buy from an iron merchant or have any transactions with an iron merchant if he thinks that in the course of the contract he has entered into that iron merchant is likely to come to grief. It does not matter to a grocer or a cheesemonger, when he sells an article over the counter, whether he is solvent or insolvent; but insolvency to such a firm as this is fatal, because they know that their contracts cannot possibly be carried on, and that is the real reason why this libel is so serious. The question of special damage refers really to the serious injury which the plaintiff sustained in his purchases, but that was not the substantial element of damage; the substantial element of damage was that the connection he had was entirely ruined.

Mr, Justice Manisty : I must say the ground on which the jury went is a very strong ground indeed. You must recollect that at this time, 1886, it was a time of depression, and a time when all business men were in a very sad state; and they traced all this to that one cause.

Mr. Robson : I do not say to that one cause alone; but no one better knows than a special jury of a commercial town how to assess damages of such a character as this.

Mr. Justice Manisty : You must take it also with this observation—that the jury are a special jury of merchants, who take a very strong view on a question of anything which affects a man’s credit.

Mr. Robson : My lords, I will only make one more observation on the question of special damage. Their purchasing power was impaired by that report; they were not able to get credit from the old firms. That appears by both these letters. Mr. Lockwood says that all that was done was to substitute discount for ten days’ credit, and that it was never intended they should have both. On the contrary, they have had both. The terms were, payment on the 10th of the succeeding month, or discount and commission. They were not allowed the credit to the 10th of the succeeding month, and they had to take discount and commission. They had to give credit; they had to sell their goods before they bought them. Their power of purchasing was very much impaired; because, having to give credit, they were nevertheless unable to get credit.

Mr. Waddy : My lords, I will only add one or two words to that which I understand my learned friend to have said, unless your lordships tbink I am not entitled to do that.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : You are not, in strictness ; but looking to the fact that there are so many courts under the same roof, and the hardness of any fixed rule, you can go on.

Mr. Waddy: I thank your lordships for your courtesy and kindness, and I will try to show I deserve it by being very brief. I will only point out this:—The mischief that is done in a case of this sort is not a mischief by which you can exactly estimate the importance of the case. Each of the witnesses called gave this important testimony, “ We saw the mischief; we never saw the correction.” Neither of them had seen the correction, and that which happened to them might very well have happened to other people.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : That is always the oase. Many people who see the poison do not see the antidote at all. Some people who see the antidote immediately imagine the poison is worse from what they see.

Mr. Waddy : My lord, those observations are very much on the line of the observations made at the trial by the learned judge himself. There was clear evidence upon the general amount of trade done; they had given us notice to produce our books, and the figures had been taken out. Questions were raised with regard to the amount that had been sold and the amount that had been bought at certain elmos. 3£y lords, the lact is this. The mischief took place in November, Taking the year from January to November—

Mr. Baron Hui DL33TOI?: Wo have no? got that in evidence.

Mr. Waddy : X am t-A-i by my junior that that is so, and that your lordship is accuiate in regard to that. We did this. They complained about our taking a shorter period, and this embraces a larger period; ana I am about to show that taking a shorter period answers the same purpose. Now, my lords, I take these figures from their own ncte; tiieir own figures are these—that from June to December there had been £1260 profit in 1883. Now, my lords, of course this is a business on which there may be a temporary profit or a temporary loss—that the consequence of a bad transaction or the consequence of a good one might seriously advance or diminish the amount, and that therefore this must be taken subject to that. Now, in the next half-year there was a loss of £100. That was because there was the failure of a man of the name of Baxter to the extent of £1992. Otherwise, but for that misfortune, there would have been there again a profit. In the next half-year there was a profit of £1486. In the next half-year there was again a profit of £1648. In the next half-year—the one affected by the letter—there was a loss of £4690.

Mr. Cyril Dodd : In one year there is a very large loss. There is the Samango loss—I do not want to say more about it, but the evidence is this—

Mr. Waddy : Am I mistaken in what I have said¹?

Mr. Cyril Dodd : Yes.

Mr. Waddy : Then correct me, if you please, of course.

Mr. Justice Manisty: Where are you about to read from?

Mr. Cyril Dodd : Page 3, the first column towards the end— “Am I right in saying that the profit and loss account for the half year ending December 31st was about £1200?” Then he says, “ about £1200 last year.”

Mr. Justice Manisty : Is this the plaintiff being examined ?

Mr. Cyril Dodd : No, this is the accountant; at page 3, on the left-hand side.

Mr. Waddy : I take my learned friend’s correction, because it is the shorter way, and it answers my purpose just as well. Then, in December, 1885—I do not want to give the figure—there is a very large loss. This is Mr. Lockwood’s cross-examination: “That is all previous to the publication of this. I might hand your lord-ship a little table showing the figures, but it is on the profit and loss account taken half-yearly. Is your business like everybody else’s, worse every day? We are all objects of sympathy. Business is getting worse, is it not, Mr. Mclnlay ?—A. I am sorry to say it is.—Q. And we all hope for better times.—A. Yes.”

Mr. Waddy : All I have to say is, that there was an undoubted loss at that time, and what follows ? With great respect, this is what appears to me when you have got the facts. I am quite alive to the force of what Mr. Baron Huddleston said a moment or two ago as to discounting things because the jury is composed of merchants. On the other hand, it can hardly be laid down as “ The statement that a principle when you have got a jury of merchants, that you are to take for granted you are to discount what they may say because they are merchants. They know, far better than we can do, what is the ultimate result that is likely to happen to a man’s trad and on what ground therefore this verdict is to be interfered with it is for your lordships alone to say.

Mr. Justice Manisty : This goes back to 1883—December, 1883, the profits of the half-year. In 1884 there was a loss apparently . of about £100. Nobody supposes that that was owing to this. Then in December, 1884, there was a profit of £1486. In 1884 there was a very large loss by a very bad debt, reducing his profit. The profit in June, 1885, comes down to £648, and then in December, 1885, there is a large loss. Is there any human being who supposes that that was owing to this?

Mr. Waddy : No, my lord. The way that was put was this— Mr. Justice Manisty : There was a very large loss before that. Unfortunately, we all know what state the iron trade was in in 1885 and 1886.

Mr. Waddy: I am dealing with my learned friends cross-examination. The particular loss was Samango’s loss. I do not think that has been pointed out to your lordships. It is not a general loss upon his trade.

Mr. Justice Manisty : The general loss is owing to the bad state of trade, the customers having failed to meet important engagements,

by the publication of this libel, because no person would be prevented from buying from them if they offered goods at the market value. They would then deal on equal terms, because it would not be a transaction which would in any way affect their credit. There is no evidence in this case that the sales to other persons were sales in respect of which the purchaser paid money, so that on a sale of that description the seller would be getting the advantage of his credit by having the purchase-money in his hands before he delivered the goods. There is no suggestion of anything of that kind. In fact, there was no evidence whatever to show that the position, as sellers, of Messrs. Casebourne, could in any way have been affected by the publication of this libel. Then, my lords, the further observation made on this contract is this:—It is pointed out by the learned judge in the summing-up that the contracts which represented the sums in question are extremely few. I think four or five contracts make up the total sum which is given as the sales in the first four months of 1885. Now the learned judge pointed out to the jury that it makes it difficult or unreliable to apply this as a test as to the damage caused by the libel, because, as in the month of May, if one of these large contracts had been entered into, the whole aspect of affairs would have been rendered entirely different. There is nothing therefore in the comparison, beyond that there is an observation I am about to make, and I think your lordship will think it is one of some strength in this connection, namely, that the sales and the contracts for selling by the plaintiff company could in no way be affected by the publication of the 8 th J anuary in The Engineer. Now, my lords, Ihave calledyour lordships’attention toall the evidence upon which this extremely excessive verdict, as I consider it was, is founded. £1.500 was the amount of the damages which were awarded by the jury in respect of it. There has been an attempt, as my learned friend reminds me, to compare the last three months with the first three months, and so on. Comparisons were afterwards made with respect to a corresponding period so far as the actions of the paper are concerned; although my learned friend, Mr. Waddy, represented the paper in a very unenviable light to the jury, I venture to think if ever an excuse could be found for the publication of a libel that excuse existed in this case. The information is conveyed through the usual channel, and the information before it was conveyed was apparently to some extent verified by the investigation and inquiry which was made by the gentleman whose duty it was to forward such information. It was published; and the statement made of an immediate expression of regret was at once published, which, I venture to think, was a full and ample apology for the mistake that had been made. At any rate, it does seem rather hard that the plaintiffs’ counsel should be instructed to endeavour to keep up the damages, as before they published the apology they communicated it to the plaintiff for his approval or for his rejection. They could not afford, of course, to let another issue of the paper go by without publishing the apology. It is evident their best course was to publish, at all hazirds, a full and fair and ample apology, even although the plaintiffs could not be induced to express their approval of it before the first issue had appeared. My lords, one cannot help thinking that such representation had the effect which such representations very frequently have, namely, of leading the jury to take a very unfavourable view of the conduct of the defendants in this matter. Then my learned friend falls back on what I may call the commercial basis on which he has endeavoured to get the damages assessed. I submit, if that is entered into, it will be found not to be a substantial consideration at all, because, in any case, the customer is only substituting discount for credit. In the other case it is not suggested there has been any large amount of trade between the parties, and so far as we can inquire into the circumstances of the trading, it is evident that the transactions between them were of an extremely trivial nature. My lords, I do not think I need detain your lordships further on this matter. The defendants ask your lordships upon this rule to reduce the damages on the ground that they are excessive. I see the rule does also relate to the summing up of the learned judge, but 1 think I may say, with submission, the learned judge’s summing up appeared to us to be very fair.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : Yes, I have read the summing up— nothing could be fairer. My brother Cave puts it on two grounds. He says first of all the evidence of substantial loss is so-and-so, and he puts it as favourably as could be done. He puts it as fairly as it can be put. Then, with regard to the circumstances, he comments upon the correspondence.

Mr. Lockwood : That is a view which my learned friend agrees with, and therefore your lordships may take it I am now only moving for this rule on the ground of excessive damages.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : Very well.

Mr. Cyril Dodd : My lords, I am with my learned friend in this case, and I have only one or two observations to add to what he has said. I would point out to your lordships that in the original statement of claim the five firms which were actually stated by him were persons with whom he had large business in connection with the libel, and after he had put his case in that way your lordships see they dwindle down before the trial takes place to the last four. The jury were invited by my learned friend rather to assume that a great deal more could be proved or might be proved than does appear upon the evidence of Mr. Ray and Mr. Mclnlay. We say the jury had no right to assume there was any other damage. If there were any other damages, those damages were not caused by The Engineer. It is perfectly plain that the witnesses were making no secret of what they knew as to the circular they had read. The jury being informed that there was no wrong without a remedy, and they having got somebody before them in the shape of The Engineer, they therefore inflicted this amount of damages upon The Engineer. I submit that damages have to be proved, and in this case they certainly are not. I confess I have no authority for saying so, but my strong impression is that if the learned judge who tried the case asked what his own view of the matter was, he would say that he thought there was no ground whatever for damages of this kind. What influenced the jury, I think, probably was the letter of the solicitor written at first, because your lordships know what is the damage claimed at the end of the plaint, and it is evident the damages are more than can possibly be recovered.

Mr. Baron Huddleston: Yes, that is very often the case; and sometimes if somebody says Oh ! this is a question between a thousand pounds and a farthing, we will give them five hundred.

Mr. Cyril Dodd : We began with £10,000 as the basis, and thing of that sort sometimes leads the jury in a wrong direction.

Mr. Robson : My lords, I appear with my learned friend, Mr. Waddy, in this case. I would rather this case had been put to your lordships by my learned leader, but in his absence, as the facts are so simple, I do not think I shall have much difficulty in referring to the arguments put forward by my learned friends. Neither of them has referred to the comparison of figures upon which these damages were assessed. My learned friends, Mr. Lockwood and Mr. Dodd, have referred to the cases of special damages which were merely illustrative cases that would follow a libel of this kind. The real damage was shown without question upon the books of the firm. The books of the firm were produced, and it was shown by them that the sales they had made in the last four months, which were computed in comparison with similar months in 1886, amounted to £10,000. The sales they made in the first four months of 1886 amounted only to £3000. Those are the round figures, the actual figures were £3600 and £3020.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : That cannot be the guide at all. Nothing can be more fallacious than picking out three or four months. No doubt, if there is a retail trade, and each month would be about the same all the year round, there might be some criterion of damage in taking four months of the first part of the year, and comparing them with four months of another part of the year; but where, as in this case, the firm is a firm dealing only in large contracts, and not in small ones, the four months of one year might be a very fallacious test. As my brother Cave pointed out, during the four months to May there were one or two good contracts in 1885, and there were none in 1S86, but if there were only one good contract in May, 1836, it shows how fallacious the average would be. Besides, it is a most remarkable thing—they are not purchases, but sales. Another test might be to refer to the date when the contracts were made. It may be that the firm were under large contracts in the first four months of 1884 to deliver in the first four months of 1885.

Mr. Hobson : It would be very fallacious, no doubt, were it not that the books had been before the defendants, and they themselves asked for them. Their accountant stated that the books had been before him for some time, and that he had made a report upon them. The first thing done by the plaintiff in the course of the trial was to select the last four months of 1885 and compare them with the first four months of 1886. Then Mr. Lockwood says that it is not a fair comparison, and he selected the first four months, having sitting near him the accountant who had made the examination; so that the period is the period selected by them, and it must be taken as being most advantageous for them.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : To suggest for a moment that you are to take that sort of evidence as the datum of damages is absurd. It may give some vague notion, that is the only thing, but the observation Mr. Lockwood made I suppose was this : Assume for the moment that this diminution, large as it was, arose from a report of the plaintiffs’ insolvency, how much can you say was attributable to this letter which they themselves wrote, and how much was attributable to The Engineer ? You cannot get it. They wrote a letter to three individuals. Do you suppose, or can anyone suppose that the moment that letter was written it was not commented on immediately ? It is proved that it was, in consequence of comments made upon that letter of the plaintiffs themselves that The Engineer got hold of the report. The observation on the point you are pressing on us is that the loss of the sales must be consequent upon the acts of the defendants.

Mr. Hobson : I do not say it follows necessarily and exactly, but I do say it affords a very fair criterion.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : I think not.

Mr. Robson : If the loss was a loss which would necessarily and naturally follow from the publication of a libel of this kind. I do not put it stronger than that.

Mr. Justice Manisty: I daresay you do put it, although you do not confess it in this way, namely, that the first publication of the thing and the first discussion of it on ’Change was in consequence of the firm having taken this step.

Mr. Robson : I meet that observation by this—that there was no publication whatever on ’Change.

Mr. Justice Manisty: No publication on ’Change? It was a topic of common conversation on ’Change.

Mr. Robson : We called witnesses who said they had not heard it. Of course, there is not very much in evidence of that sort.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : The learned judge says, in his summing-up, “ It seems that Messrs. Casebourne’s affairs were a matter of common conversation on ’Change, in consequence of the firm having taken some of their more considerable creditors into their confidence.”

Mr. Robson : It might be that the fact that they had made a large bad debt would be known on ’Change. No doubt it was.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : That is not so. It is traced out. It is obvious Messrs. Casebourne, having met with considerable losses, did what gentlemen in their position were perfectly justified in doing, namely, wrote frankly to three of their principal creditors and invited them to come forward and consider it; but it is most notable that they did not head that letter, “ private and confidential.”

Mr. Robson : Yes, my lord, they did, if my recollection is accurate.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : I do not see it suggested.

Mr. Robson : I should like your lordship to see the envelope of the letter. I have a copy of the correspondence.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : No, no. Where is it in the evidence?

Mr. Robson : It may not be in evidence, but my own recollection of it is that it was never contested, that the letter was marked “ private,” although it does not appear so in the report, as given by my learned friend.

Mr. Justice MANISTY: Mr. Robson, see what a very strong observation they made themselves, “We much regret to inform you that owing to heavy losses, we are unable to meet our engagements.” What does that mean ? What would that be considered to be on ’Change ?

Mr. Robson : That letter was'marked “private,” and was dated the 2nd December.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : No, no; we have no evidence that it is marked “private.” I do not think it makes much difference, so far as the defence goes, because if even the persons to whom it was sent did not repeat the news to others, still that would be told about on ’Change, and the news might come to the knowledge of the defendants.

Mr. Robson : I can state to your lordship in a few words the circumstances as they appear about the letter, and I think the circumstances take away from the letter the character which has been ascribed to it. It is a letter written to two of their principal creditors on the 29th December. The 10th of the succeeding month is the date on which the payment in this particular trade fell due. There is no doubt that after large losses they were unable to meet their engagements with their creditors in the succeeding ten days. They therefore write to their creditors telling them they cannot meet their engagements—not permanently—not as being an insolvent firm—but that they cannot meet their engagements on the 10th of the succeeding month. They called the two firms together for an expansion of time.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : You are addressing us now as if you were justifying the conduct of the plaintiff, which requires no justification. The thing that strikes me is this—that the very fact communicated to these three creditors would be beyond doubt taked about on ’Change.

Mr. Robson: This letter is sent to the creditors, and they know perfectly well that a large loss has been made; that is a fact which would be communicated to others on ’Change, but that falls very far short oE insolvency.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : Of course it does. “ You heard that Casebournes had written to some of their creditors, and had said that they were not able to meet their engagements V

Mr. Robson : This letter was not known to any one until the defendants produced it in Court. There is not a single suggestion that upon ’Change it had been said that Casebournes had stopped payment.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : Oh, yes.

Messrs. Casebournes’ affairs were matters of common conversation on ’Change was in consequence of the firm having taken some of their more considerable creditors into their confidence.” In these sort of things you do not want inquiry into it. Their commercial fame is blown upon; that is quite sufficient, and the breath, it is said, comes from you.

Mr. Robson : I will take it that this letter had all the injurious results which might be abscribed to it; I will take it it represented a certain amount of gossip on ’Change, which would have died away very easily after the meeting of the three creditors, because it would be seen by those in the trade that Casebournes were continuing to carry on their business, and it would not affect the number and importance of their customers, because their connection was a foreign connection, and this rumour on ’Change would not extend to Sweden or to Denmark, where they had their principal customers. The rumour on ’Change would have died away and would have done little or no harm to the plaintiffs, but here it is put into a trade journal, which is copied into other trade journals which are sent abroad, and it then reaches every one of their principal customers. If my learned friend Mr. Lockwood says, how can it do any harm to them ? I would ask this question : Are people likely to go on buying from a firm which is supposed to be insolvent ?

Mr, Justice Manisty : Why not ?

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We think that ample reparation would be done to the plaintiffs, their character vindicated, and proper compensation given, if the verdict had been one amounting to the sum of five hundred pounds. Therefore what we propose to do is this. If the plaintiffs choose to accept the sum of £500, the judgment shall be entered for that amount, and the present judgment shall be set aside. If they decline to accept that, then we grant the rule absolute for a new trial.

A Pacific cable company has been formed in New Zealand to connect Australasia with the Dominion of Canada. The intention is to connect the Pacific coast of Canada by submarine cable with Australia by way of Vancouver’s Island, the Sandwich and Fiji Islands, and New Zealand.

Naval Engineer Appointments.—The following appointments have been made at the Admiralty:—William A. Ellis, engineer, to the Victor Emanuel, additional; Joseph T. Purkis, engineer, to the Hibernia, additional; Henry Wallis, engineer, to the Mohawk; Frederick J. Flood, engineer, to the Northampton; Thomas Scott, , „    ,,    .    ,    | engineer, to the Indus; William John Waugh and George Pascoe,

shall add very little to what has been assistant engineers, to the Alexandra; and W. T. Wiggins, assistant a case of malice; it is not a case of engineer, to the Nankin, for the Forth,

Mr. Waddy : That is hardly a fair deduction from this loss. If it had been shown there was a general loss on this business all the way round, in this quarter of the globe and that quarter of the globe, it would have been another thing.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : Just look at this answer:—“ It would seem with regard to 1885 that the sum of £10,000 is principally made up by three contracts, one of the 5th of February, one of the 4th March, and another of the 4th March. Those are three large contracts. In that book you had no such large contracts as these. A.: No; not in 1886 ? Just show me where you get the remainder.” It is near the middle of page 3 at the end.

Mr. Waddy : Of those large contracts, one of the contracts was actually this Samango contract.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : I do not know that.

Mr. Waddy: All that I point out is, the fact that there had been a special loss at that particular time is immediately accounted for without supposing there had been a general loss on the whole of their trade beside. Of course, a man may have a bad debt from one particular matter which is thoroughly exceptional. That is all I was reading the cross-examination for. When we put to him the amount of the sales made and the amount of the transactions, then I think, my lords, without arguing it at length before you, your lordships will find from Mr. Foster’s evidence. Mr. Foster was the man who had the management of the books chiefly—and reading Mr. Foster’s evidence with Mr. Mclnlay’s you will find we show that there was an undoubted loss during that year. It is sufficient for me to point out this, that Mr. Ray who was called, Mr. Hardy who was called, and I think we called another, if my memory serves me rightly, say, we did make a difference in our business transactions with that firm. Once having got to that, and that is not denied on the other side, I demand to know on what principle it can be said—

Mr. Baron Huddleston : In your statement of claim you allege that your loss arose with reference to five firms. You set them out. The whole dealing with the five firms for the year previously were only about £1600.

Mr. Waddy : I believe that is so. I have not got it in my own memory, but no doubt your lordship is accurate. I apprehend that when we come to circumstances of this sort, that those are all the specific damages, the amount of damages under those circumstances is not to be interfered with unless the verdict is in some way or other perverse.

Mr. Justice Manisty : “ Perverse ” is too strong a word. It is not perverse.

Mr. Waddy : Well, if the verdict is excessive, I should suggest to the extent of being almost perverse.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : If the judge had said, Gentlemen, this is a case in which a farthing damages will be quite sufficient, and the jury had turned round and given a thousand pounds, that would have been a “perverse” verdict; butwhere the jury give much more than they ought to give, that is “excessive.” Under such circumstances, whether we should grant a new trial or not is another question.

Mr. Waddy : That is the only test I am going to put, and then I will not trouble your lordships further on this matter.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : If you have finished, I am going to make a suggestion. Do you not think Mr. Lockwood and yourself might put your heads together and agree upon a sum which would fairly represent the thing, vindicate your character, and prevent the expense of a new trial ?

Mr. Cyril Dodd : I wish to say this, my lord—

Mr. Baron Huddleston : No, do not say anything. The moment you say anything somebody else contradicts it. As Mr. Justice Willes used to say, “Don’t you think if you two were to imparl ?” The two sides have been pretty well threshed out. Mr. Waddy has said all he can say, except a parting shot. Just see if you cannot agree upon it.

Mr. W".addY: Will your lordships forgive me for saying one thing ? What I am about to say will be my apology, after what your lordship has indicated, if you will bear with me for a moment. The grave difficulty I feel in this case is, that we have no means whatever of arriving at a figure, and have no suggestion whatever of a figure except the one that has been given to us by the jury. I have no power whatever from my client to “imparl ” at present, but if I might be allowed to make a suggestion that this matter should be allowed to stand over by your lordship’s consent—I think that is not an unreasonable suggestion on my part—I will see what can be done.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : No, no. What happens then ? Things get into the hands of counsel. If you can agree, well and good ; if not, we are prepared to say what we think about the matter. My learned brother, Mr. Justice Manisty, will see Mr. Justice Cave, and will ascertain from him what his view of the matter is, and that will give you time during which to consult your clients.

Mr. Waddy : That is very good of your lordship. I am much obliged to your lordship personally for the short time for consideration.

Mr. Justice Manisty then left the court in order to consult Mr. Justice Cave.

On his lordship’s return he inquired whether the parties had agreed, and on being informed by Mr. Waddy that there was no likelihood of their coming to an agreement, the following judgment was delivered:—

Mr. Baron Huddleston : This was an action for libel, in which the plaintiff succeeded in obtaining a verdict for £1500, and application is made to us for a new trial on the ground that the damages were excessive. In all these cases it is very difficult for the Court to whom the appeal is made to alter or set aside the verdiot of the jury. Generally speaking, the Court is loth to disturb the verdict of a jury even when the damages appear to be large, because there are very often matters that strike individual jurymen—matters which are discussed among themselves—matters on which they have a greater knowledge and a greater hold than the Court itself can have, and therefore, ordinarily speaking, verdicts of juries are not usually set aside. There are cases, however, in which it becomes absolutely necessary to look into the questions before the j ury, and to say whether the circumstances were such as warranted the amount which the jury have given. In this case it is suggested that there were two heads of damage; first, that there was an actual loss proved, and next, that there were circumstances of aggravation which would justify a large amount of damages being given. With reference to the actual loss proved, nothing could be more vague than the evidence that was given at the trial. It seemed to be suggested that the jury were to form their datum upon the question that during the first four months of 1886 there was a loss as compared with the first four months of 1885, of something like £7000. Now, first of all, that comparison is scarcely a fair criterion. The learned judge pointed out to the jury, and, indeed, there was evidence upon the point, that the amount of business of the firm in the first four months of 1885 consisted principally of three large contracts, one in February, and two in March of that year. Those three contracts of themselves amounted to very nearly the whole sum alleged to have been profit during those four months, whereas undoubtedly during the four months of the subsequent year there was not one single large contract. That shows that the criterion was not a proper one. It is not like the case one may make use of the expression, a “ uniform trade,” that is to say somewhere about the same thing from week to week, or from month to month. There it might afford some criterion — or where there are a number of small contracts in those periods, it might form some criterion ; but it is clearly not a fair one, because we all know, and it was brought continually under our notice, that in the iron trade especially there was at the commencement of this year—during the first months of this year—almost, I was going to say, a perfect dearth of business. Therefore that would be no fair criterion. The learned judge, in summing up to the jury, points out that there really was no fair datum or fair amount upon which the jury could at all assess the damages as to actual positive loss, based, as it were, upon this libel. Now just take another case. It was said in the statement of claim that there are five distinct firms, from whom we declined business, which would fairly represent the loss we had sustained, and when we come to look into the accounts as proved at the trial the whole amount done with those five firms in 1885 was the sum of £1600, and when we come to 1886 we have no evidence at all of what was done with those firms except two, and then it turned out that the alteration of the terms was cash instead of credit. No doubt it evinces that a certain definite pecuniary loss was actually traced to the consequences of the libel. Well, it is obvious that the persons who started the libel were the plaintiffs themselves, for they had written to two or three of their customers that in consequence of heavy losses, they were unable—to use their own words—to meet their engagments, and whether that was intended to be private or not there is no evidence of, save as Mr. Waddy said it was a private letter. There is no evidence that the letter was headed “ private and confidential,” and even if it was, it was clear that that confidence was broken by somebody, because the learned judge, in his summing up, points out that Messrs. Casebournes’ affairs were matters of common conversation on ’Change in consequence of the firm having taken some of their considerable creditors into their confidence.

Therefore, one might very well understand that the

PARIS.—Madame Boyveau, Rue de la Banque.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

WALES AND ADJOINING COUNTIES.

15.924. Railway Fastenings, J. Ireland, Glasgow.

Therefore, one might very well understand that these gentlemen— Messrs. Casebourne—were doing what they were perfectly justified really in doing—there is not the slightest complaint of them for what they did—namely, saying that this Samango contract embarrassed them, for they wrote to three of their confidential creditors—their only creditors, indeed—asking them, as they were unable to meet their engagements, to allow them to be taken into their confidence. That gets about on ’Change, and is talked about. It is clear that must to a certain extent, if the statement was of such a character as to injure their credit, have injured their credit also when it got into the form of a report. I say, therefore, when we come to look to see whether it is proved that there was actual monetary or pecuniary loss traceable to the libel uttered by the defendants, I fail to see it to any such extent as will justify us in saying that that, and that only, formed the basis of the verdict of the jury. Well, now, upon the other part of the case, I quite feel that if a libel is accompanied by circumstances of aggravation and insult, the Courts will very properly not restrain the expression in the shape of damages which a jury indignantly may find it necessary to award. I have before my mind a case in which serious and grave imputations of a very general character were made against a gentleman. Those were not withdrawn ; they were repeated; they were insisted upon; the libel was justified until the very last moment of the trial; it was averred that the offence imputed to him had been committed by the plaintiff; and I for one would never restrain, as I told the jury, from expressing themselves strongly, in a case of that description, upon the question of damages. And where there are circumstances of aggravation, where there are circumstances of insult and contumely, and persistence in the libel, the Court will be very loth indeed to take upon itself to say that the jury are not justified in giving large and exemplary damages. That does not arise here at all. Of course, a libel cannot be justified. A statement made imputing insolvency to any person is, of course, a statement of a very serious character, and one which cannot be justified; but then one wants to know whether there are circumstances surrounding it of an aggravating character. First of all, it is in a paper of great respectability, a paper not given generally to questions of political or social discussion or observation, a paper published, as one sees by the name of it, for a particular purpose, and to discuss questions of science connected with a particular branch of knowledge, with civil engineering or something of that sort, I suppose. How do they get hold of it ? It seems really that their correspondent was misinformed ; but that becomes clearly traceable to the very letter which the plaintiffs themselves felt justified in sending to their principal customers. Then, when the matter is called to the attention of the paper, an expression of regret as ample as possible is made, and there is a proposal to put into the paper, not apology—for what is the use of an apology — an apology amounts to an abject submission to gratify any resentful feelings or revengeful feelings of the plaintiffs—but an ample retractation, an assertion that there was a mistake, and everything that could be done for the purpose of nullifying that which, no doubt, was a serious libel. And when we come to look at the position in which the retractation was put as compared with the place where the libel occurred, it is obvious that the defendants could not have selected prominent position than that part of their paper which they have selected. I do not complain, and no complaint can be made, against the gentlemen who are the solicitors of the plaintiffs, who felt themselves justified in saying, “ We cannot interfere; putin what you like. We do not accept it, but at the same time we do not make any suggestion; because, if we did, we should be turned round upon, and you will say we agreed to it.” There is nothing to complain of on the part of the attorneys whatever. At the same time we must look at all the circumstances. There are no circumstances of aggravation, there are no circumstances of contumely, which would bring the damages under the consideration of the head I have suggested. Under these circumstances we think that this verdict cannot stand. There was a libel, and a serious libel, doubtedly; because any imputation on the conduct of a merchant is very serious. But it is a very strong circumstance that, looking at all the circumstances of the case, my brother Manisty, Mr. Justice Cave, and myself—we having conferred with Mr. Justice Cave without any consultation as to amount—have fixed upon the very same amount. It is a coincidence; I say nothing further than that.

Mr. J ustice Manisty : already said. This is not

wanton mischief. It is a case in which the correspondent of the newspaper got information from some of the parties who were creditors, on ’Change, to the effect that the plaintiff’s firm had “ come to grief ”—that was the expression—not a mere rumour. As to the evidence given by the reporter, there does not appear to be any suggestion that he was not telling the truth. He was on ’Change—this was on the 5th January. He met there Mr. Jameson —not one of the three firms mentioned in the letter. Then he sees Mr. I’Anson, of the firm of I’Anson and Co.—that is one of the three firms mentioned in this letter—and both of them stated that it was a fact, it was not a rumour; they knew it, and stated it. And that occurred, no doubt, when the fact mentioned in the letter of the plaintiffs themselves was first discussed, and became the subject of general observation. That letter was on the 29 th December, in which the plaintiffs say they regret to inform the firm, of whom Mr. I’Anson and Mr. Fry were members, that owing to a heavy loss they are unable to meet their engagements. It uses rather different language, but it says that the firm have come to grief. Then there are inquiries whether or not the plaintiffs were on ’Change that day. It was suggested that they might as well have gone to see them. The plaintiff lives at Hartlepool, eight miles away, and the correspondent says that he was so confidently informed by those who knew the fact that he did not think it necessary to make any further inquiries. Consequently, a great deal of the damage, no doubt, if damage there was, resulted from the plaintiff’s own letter to his own customers, and two of those customers being on the Exchange and stating the facts. Then, it resulted in this statement. On the 15th (a correspondence having taken place in the meantime) there is the unconditional retractation and apology. I think this is not a case that can bear the character of having any appearanoo of malicious libel, or of a wanton libel, or a libel recklessly published, or a statement recklessly published. Therefore it appears to me I can well agree in the terms which my learned brother has proposed. There have been three minds brought to bear upon it, by us, without consultation with one another; and being accustomed to this sort of thing, we have come to the conclusion that £500 is an ample sum. There will be a new trial unless the plaintiffs are willing to let the damages be lessened to the sum of £500.

Mr. Cyril Dodd : Might I ask, my lords, that some time—say, a month or a fortnight—may bo given, in which time the plaintiffs will let us know.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : Why should you be in a hurry ? You have your £1500 in your pocket, have you not ?

Mr. Cyril Dodd : No, we have not. We brought it into Court,

Mr. Baron Huddleston : That makes a difference; then within a week.

Mr. Waddy : That is perfectly reasonable. I at once accede to that. No suggestion has been made to us of any reduction in ■amount until this moment by your lordships. Then, I apprehend, supposing within the week, we agree to your lordships’ view—

Mr. Baron Huddleston : You want the costs of the rule ?

Mr. Waddy : I do, my lord.

Mr. Baron Huddleston : I think, if you accept the £500, you ought to have the costs of this rule.

Sir. WADDYr: If your lordship pleases.

[The plaintiffs have accepted the reduced damages, and the liti« gation is ended.—Ed. E.]

SOCIETY OE ENGINEERS.

RIVER POLLUTION CAUSED BY SEWAGE DISPOSAL.

At a meeting of the Society of Engineers, held on Monday evening, December 6th, at the Westminster Town Hall, Mr. Perry

F. Nursey, President, in the chair, a paper was read on “ Rivet .Pollution caused by Sewage Disposal,” by Mr. G. B. Jerram. The author premised that it was well known that the Act for prevention of pollution of rivers and streams was ineffectual, and hoped that in the ensuing session, either by the extension of local govern^ ment in c unties or otherwise, greater powers may be obtained to restore the purity of the rivers, &c. The chief pollution arose, no doubt, from the influx into the rivers and streams of the so-called purified sewage from the many sewage disposal works, especially where chemical treatment is used. Proofs were adduced of the state of the rivers below the various sewage works at Leicester, Leeds, Bradford, and other towns, special reference being made to the state of the river Lea below Hertford, Tottenham, and West Ham, also as to the condition of the river Thames ; from all which it was inferred that, although the extent of pollution varied according to the different methods used for deodorising sewage, yet the same result was observable in all rivers, viz. :—a deposit of black mud, which in the dry, hot weather fermented and gave off deleterious gases.

Want of careful supervision on the part of those having the management of the various works had much to do with this result, but the chief reason assigned was that, owing to the daily varying quantity and quality of the sewage, it was not possible so exactly to proportion the supply of the deodorising agents as to ensure an evenly pure effluent passing into the streams. The fact that the effluent was at times charged with too much chemicals was in itself a presumed means of pollution of the rivers, as, owing to the presence of this excess of the precipitating agent, not only was the organic matter, which is present in all streams and rivers, precipitated, but also the excess of sewage that may have been present in the effluent that had been passed into the river some short time previously. To minimise this effect it was necessary to employ automatic machinery, whereby the variable flow of the sewage may itself regulate the quantity of chemicals to be used, and in order to meet the irregularity in the quality of the effluent, the treated sewage should in all cases be filtered through land, or, where this cannot be obtained, through artificial filtering media.

A description was then given of the new sewage disposal works at Walthamstow, where the principles held by the author had been put into practice. The arrangements for automatic action were described, and the results given of a series of tests, showing that a great improvement was possible, and that the pollution of streams from sewage disposal works could be prevented, especially if the chemist and engineer worked together. A new mode of dealing with the sludge was described, viz. :—Astrop’s patent drying machine, in which it is possible to dry the sludge in three-quarters of an hour ready to be packed and sold for manure; this rapid method of treating it being the means of retaining more of the manurial properties of the sludge than was possible by other methods.

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Weight of metals charged .

Yield of ingots .....

Weight of skulls and scrap Weight of fuel .....

Being equal to 6'04 cwt. per ton of ingot.

Then again for the week ending July 3rd—holiday on the Monday for Coronation Day, and the furnace had to be kept going without a charge in it from Saturday noon until Tuesday morning, when it was charged.

t. c. Q. 78 10 0 75    6    3

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THE RADCLIFEE STEEL FUENACE.

WE furnish above an engraving of the Radcliffe steel furnace, three of which are at present working at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. We also give a tabulated list of the actual quantities of steel produced in a given time, the amount of coals required per ton of steel, and the amount of loss or waste also. The operations extend in all over a period of eighteen months, and as every pound of steel produced and coal consumed has been weighed in the ordinary manner, these results may be taken as absolutely correct. Referring to the illustration, it will be seen that this furnace is built entirely above the level of the floor, the bath and regenerator being supported upon wrought iron girders, resting upon cast iron columns carried down to the ground level. The furnace is composed of a gas producer, bath or reverberating chamber, regenerating chamber, and air-heating apparatus.

The accompanying Figs. 1, 2, 3, represent a furnace constructed upon this principle for the manufacture of open hearth steel. Fig. 1 is a vertical section through the combustion chamber, regenerator, and gas producers ; Fig. 2 is a horizontal section through the line A B of Fig. 1 looking down on the combustion chamber; Fig. 3 is a cross section through regenerator and bath. The leading advantages of this furnace are:— First, simplicity of construction, there being no portion underground, and every part bemg easily got at for repairs. Secondly, economy of space, the gas producer being a portion of the furnace, no independent and expensive gas plant is required. Thirdly, the current being continuous in one direction only, complicated and troublesome arrangements for reversing have been avoided, Fourthly, greater economy in the consumption of coals, as will be seen when we refer to the tabulated results later od.

The mode of working is as follows. The fuel is fed from the coal platform into the hopper I, and when the lever J is raised the fuel passes through the valve H into the gas producer G. The air for causing the combustion of the fuel in the gas producer is delivered from a blower under pressure and enters the air-heating chamber at the inlet A, which is a junction box carrying the end of the heating tubes B, through which the air is passed into a second junction box, to which the heating tubes are connected by expansion joints. The pipe D is fixed at one end to the second junction box, and conducts the heated air from the heating apparatus to the ashpit E of the gas producer. The heated air is then forced into the gas producer from below, and having caused the combustion of the fuel, the gases pass on to meet the air for its combustion from the regenerator.

The air used in conjunction with the gas enters the regenerator at the point K, and is under pressure. It then passes through regenerator tubes L in the direction shown by the arrows, and passes through the flue M to meet the gas from the gas producer, as before mentioned. The waste gas after having done duty in the bath passes through the flue N into the regenerating chamber, and in its passage gives out a portion of its heat for the purpose of heating the air that passes through the regenerator tubes. It then passes through the flues O O, partly behind the gas producer, and shown by dotted lines, to the air-heating chamber, where it gives out a remaining portion of heat for the purpose of heating the air passing through the wrought iron tubes to the gas producer by the pipe D. The whole furnace, including the gas producer, regenerator, and combustion chamber, is combined in one structure, and encased in plates bolted together at the flanges, and is strengthened further by strong tie bolts passing through from one side to the other, and fixed with cotters and nuts.

When a new furnace is ready for lighting it is treated in the usual way by careful and gradual firing to avoid the evils of sudden expansion of the brickwork and straining of the supporting ironwork. It is found preferable to use a forced air supply for the pressure in the gas producers, 6in. of water being sufficient, and for the regenerator a pressure of 3in. being ample. Before the air supply is allowed to pass into the gas producers, it is heated to a temperature of between 700 deg. and 900 deg. Fah., and according as the air is expanded by heat, a less weight of it will effect the work of releasing the gas from the fuel, then it must necessarily follow that the gas produced will be richer in heating qualities in consequence of such a minimum volume of nitrogen being allowed to enter the producers.

Again, gas produced under such conditions is of such a high temperature that it needs no regeneration, and is passed immediately into the combustion or melting chamber. The temperature in the gas producers is too high for the heavy hydrocarbons to be produced in the form of tar, pitch, &c., the latter being functions of low-temperature gas producers accompanied with slow distillation. Hence it follows that in producers where the heat is too great to allow the tarry products to form and be deposited, that the resulting gas must be richer in heating qualities accordingly.

From the producers now in general use the gas is generated at a low temperature, because of the air supply being sent cold into the midst of the fuel, and the gas produced from the excessive supply of air contains a great volume of nitrogen. An old furnace was altered in the Royal Gun Factories about eighteen months ago, with a view to practically proving this

principle. This furnace is of sis tons capacity, and in due time was set to work with the following results, the average consumption of fuel being 8'5 cwt. per ton of ingot produced. On January 9 th last, after a repair, the furnace was lit up, and from results taken until the 31st March, making 124 charges, the

T. C. Q.

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339    6    0

The fuel includes eleven tons used in heating the furnace preparatory to the first charge. A 10-ton furnace—built to replace an old furnace to economise space, so as to give room for an additional re-heating furnace to one of the hammers—commenced work on the 18 th June, for the week ending June 26 bh:

t. c. Q.

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Weight of metals charged..............

Yrield of ingots ..................

Weight of skulls and scrap ............

Weight of fuel consumed..............

Being equal to 6'37 cwt. per ton of ingrt.

For the week ending July 10 th :—

Weight of metals charged..............

Yield of ingots ............ ......

Weight of skulls and scrap ............

Weight of fuel consumed..............

Being equal to 5'87 cwt. per ton of ingot.

We wish it to be distinctly understood that the fuel herein given includes what is burnt between Saturdays and Mondays, to keep the furnace going, and the fuel and other materials of the charges is all weighed by the store department, the latter being quite independent of the forge branch. It is found also that in the 10-ton furnace, constructed to carry out the idea in a more complete way than was done in the experimental 6-tou furnace, no more coal is consumed in the larger than was consumed in the smaller furnace. Further experience in the working and design of these furnaces has confirmed the results already given above, and lead to expectations of further economy in working when the larger furnace of 20 tons, which is being erected, is completed.

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promised. At any rate this is an ingenious invention for turning to good account any surface water that may be running to waste; and actual performance seems fully to bear out the theoretical duty.

Encouraged by the success he has achieved in pumping, Mr. Johnston is now turning his attention to an application of the same principle to a hydraulic engine for winding. He is also making a pump with regulator for preventing it from running away and damaging itself by drawing air, or the setting fast of the suction valves.

A NEW STOVE.

With the object of combining the economic advantages of the stove with the cheerful appearance of the open fire, Signor Abate, of 25, Bloomsbury-street, W.C., has made the stove which we illustrate by the accompanying engravings. Fig. 1 is

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an exterior view, and Fig. 2 a section. From these it will be seen that the fire is placed within a bask it, which surmounts a cone, and above which is a cone leading the products of combustion away by a chimney, which may take any direction, so that the stove may stand in front of any ordinary fireplace, or may stand anywhere in a room. Air enters the lower cone for sup-

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Mr. David Johnston, of Glasgow, claims to be able to pump water from mine workings “ for nothing,” provided that sufficient. water can be caught at from twenty to thirty fathoms above the surface of water to be pumped. This he accomplishes by his hydraulic pump, of which Fig. 1 shows a vertical longitudinal section, and Fig. 2 a plan. A is the hydraulic cylinder, B the pump barrel, and C C C casings, tied together by bolts, and thus completing the cylinder and pump barrel. These latter consist simply of flaDged tubes, easily bored and readily renewed when worn. D is the working piston and Dxthe pump plunger. 1 1 are the main valves of the hydraulic cylinder, being a combination of the piston with the clack, and giving the free action of the former with the tightness of the latter. The two levers L L, and rods R R, work the small piston valves which actuate the main valves of the hydraulic cylinder. These levers are worked by their heels being pushed by the short rods passing through stuffing-boxes in the outside casings of the pump barrel and hydraulic cylinder, one of them terminating in a handle for hand working on starting. S is the suction, and O the discharge passage of the pump, the latter also taking the exhaust water from the hydraulic cylinder. In another form of this pump Mr. Johnston replaces the rods and levers by small pipes, one of them connecting the pump barrel with one side of the small supplementary valves, and the other the hydraulic cylinder with the other side of the valves. On one side the water under pressure in the pump barrel moves the small valve, and on the other a continuation of the piston-rod acts as a piston for forcing water up to the outside of the small valve.

Fig. 3 shows an arrangement for pumping out shafts or workings while in progress—that is to say, with the resistance increasing. A is the hydraulic cylinder of 6in. diameter, with pump barrels B and B¹, of 7in. diameter, one on either side. C, C¹, C“, C!, and C⁴ are the casings connecting the bored tubes, and D is the working piston. Such an arrangement, with a head of 100 fathoms, is capable of pumping water from a vertical depth of 100ft. Suppose, however, this depth to be exceeded, and the resistance to equal the power, all that has to be done is to change the place of the 6in. with that of one of the 7in. tubes, the flanges of both being made similar, thus increasing the power by one-half. At S is shown a new stuffing-box, the gland of which has a long tube, projecting into the chamber of the pump barrel B¹, through the stuffing-box S; but there is no friction on the stuffing-box, as it is outside the tube, so that no motion takes place through the packing. The tube may be pushed into the pump chamber for re-packing the stuffing-box or the piston D.

Both forms of pump—one in which the valves are worked by levers, and the other in which they are worked by water under pressure are put down at the Bredisholm Colliery, owned by the Provanhall Company, with a head of 145 fathoms. The former has a hydraulic cylinder of 5^in., giving an effective area of 21 square inches. The piston-rod comes through both ends of the cylinder, and is coupled directly to a 9|in. double-acting pump at one end and a i in. ditto at the other, the stroke being 20in. The combined area of the two pumps is 105in.; but, as the exhaust water of the hydraulic cylinder is discharged into the delivery pipe, the total pumping area is 126 square inches. The discharge is carried by a 6in. pipe and several 4in. bends for a distance of 80ft. with

rise of 10ft. and is put in

communication with an 8in. column 72ft. high. The suction pipe, 5in. in diameter, extends about 100ft. from the pump with a fall of about 14ft.; and the water for supplying the hydraulic cylinder is led, in 3in. and Urn. pipes 1650ft. long, from the face to a filter, for removing particles in suspension which would cut the tube and valves. At a speed of 26 strokes a minute, which cannot well be exceeded, owing to the throttling of the supply and the pressure on the delivery pipe, the consumption of water is 39 gallons, and the delivery 195 + 39 = 234 gallons per minute. To test the efficiency, a 10001b. pressure gauge was put in communication with the hydraulic cylinder, a 200 lb. pressure gauge with the delivery passage of the pumps, and a vacuum gauge with the suction pipe, when it was found that, at 26 strokes per minute, the pressure on the cylinder was a maximum of 350 lb. per square inch while the piston was travelling, but 414 lb. when there was no motion; that on the discharge there was a minimum of 42 lb. per square inch, but jumping up to about 60 ; while the vacuum gauge vibrated from 12 to 18in. The area of the two pumps, 105 square inches, added to that of the piston, which dischaiges the water of the hydraulic cylinder into the delivery pipe, gives a total area of 126 square inches, which, multiplied by 42, due to the head and resistance of the discharge pipes, as shown by the gauge, gives a total back pressure of 5292 lb.; and this, added to the 6 lb. per square inch shown by the vacuum gauge, into the area of the pumps—105 square inches—gives a total resistance of 5927 lb. The area of the cylinder—21 square inches—multiplied by the effective pressure —350 lb.—as shown by the gauge, gives a total effective pressure on the piston of 7350 lb., or 80 per cent, of useful effect. By breaking only one joint, the valve chamber, with the two pairs of valves, may be lemoved and sent up to the surface for examination or repair, leaving all the heavy parts at the bottom of the mine; nor is it necessary that the” valves be attached to the engine. Where the pump is required to work in an inaccessible position, or where there is danger of waiter rising, the valves may be placed in a convenient place, and connected by a couple of pipes with the hydraulic cylinder.

One of the double pumping engines, of the arrangement shown by Fig. 3, but with two 8in. pumps, and a 5in. hydraulic cylinder, has also been working in the Bredisholm Colliery for the last eighteen months, to the satisfaction of all concerned. On one occasion the steel cotter for keying on the piston worked loose and slotted in the cylinder a groove fully ^in. deep. All that was wanted was a new tube, which was bored to gauge, and, as the manager said, came out in the wagon like a piece of hatch mounting. The tube was inserted in about an hour’s time without the help of a fitter. While pumping dirty water it is often necessary to examine the valves ; and this is accomplished by simply slackening two bolts. The joint is made with leather fin. wide; and the original joints are still good in one of the pumps, which has been raising water to a vertical height of 280ft. over eighteen months.

A pumping engine of the type shown by Figs. 1 and 2 was a prominent feature in the Glasgow Mining Exhibition of last year, where it worked constantly during the time the exhibition remained open. _ The tempting offer quoted at the commencement of this notice, prominently displayed amidst ornamental ndings,_ induced many a mine manager troubled with water to go into the matter, and see if the conditions of his working were such

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porting combustion, and also enters the case surrounding the lower cone. The latter air helps to support combustion, but is chiefly heated, and may be allowed to pass into the room by opening the glass doors which surround the fire. The stove is a good heater; the fire, though seen generally through glass, has the usual cheerful appearance, and it is quite clean in use. --

South Kensington Museum.—Visitors during the week ending Dec. 4th, 1886:—On Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday, free, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Museum, 6571 ; mercantile marine, Indian section, and other collections, 2404. On Wednesday Thursday, and Friday, admission 6d., from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Museum, 765; mercantile marine, Indian section, and other collections, 122. Total, 9862. Average of corresponding week in former years, 13,760. Total from the opening of the Museum, 25,296,643.

The Manchester Ship Canal—The committee, in their report issued yesterday, arrived at the following conclusion Ship Canal and works are practicable from an engineering point of view, and would permit vessels of the largest class to be safely navigated to and from Manchester. That the Canal and works can be constructed for £5,750,000, and that the sum of £802,936 set down for the purchase of the necessary land is a safe estimate. That the Canal and works should be constructed under an estimate, fixing a maximum sum. That graving dock accommodation should be provided, and ready for use on the opening of the Canal. That the estimate of £104,200 per annum for working expenses is ample. That the acquisition of the Bridgwater undertakings for the £1,710,000 fixed by the Act of Parliament would be an advantageous purchase for the Canal Company. That the capital powers of the company amounting to £9,812,000 are sufficient for all purposes contemplated by these Acts. That the project is a thoroughly sound commercial undertaking, and would speedily become remunerative on the completion of the works. That a large amount of traffic would be at once secured, and thereafter the increase in traffic and revenue would be continuous. Having referred to the responsible character of their report the committee further feel it their duty to state that in their judgment it is necessary before the issue of any further prospectus to reconstitute and greatly to strengthen the Board of Directors. The committee estimate that for the second year of working there would be a net revenue to the Canal of £479,430, which would be sufficient to pay a 5 per cent, dividend upon the whole share capital of the company and leave surplus of £79,130, whilst their estimate of traffic and revenue for subsequent years is much larger, and point to the undertaking becoming increasingly remunerative under capable administration. Report was very enthusiastically received, and was formally handed by the Mayor to Mr. D. Adamson, the chairman of the mittee, who, in acknowledging the report, addressed the meeting at some length on the successful prospects of the projected Canal.

That the

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ON STRUTS.¹

By Professors W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S., and John Perry, F.R.S.

A strut is a nearly prismatic body, acted on by compressive force applied to its ends. The shape assumed by such a prismatic body, originally straight, is one or other of Bernoulli’s elastic curves. If W, Fig. 1, represents the resultant of all the forces applied to the end C, it must be equal and opposite to W¹, the resultant of all the forces applied to the end D. If D A S B C

FIG I

s[

-----Q

D¹

be the axis of the strut originally straight — a line passing through the centres of area of all the cross sections—and if it meets the line of action of W and W¹ in A and B, we choose 0, which is midway between A and B, as the origin, and calling such a distance as 0 Q, x, and the ordinate P Q, y. W y is what is usually called the bending moment at P, and if E is Young’s modulus and I the moment of inertia of the cross section at P

about a line through its centre of area at right angles to the plane of bending, then

■(1)

is the curvature of the strut—or rather of the axial line of the strut—at P if the strut was originally straight ; or this is the change of curvature at P if the strut was originally curved. If we suppose the strut originally straight, then

d~ y

i-( n

(2)

The general solution of this equation leads to an elliptic integral. If we assume that

unity, the solution is, letting 0 S be called yx,

/ W V EI

How it will be found that this equation doe3 not enable to determine y₁ in terms of W ; in fact, if W is sufficiently great to give to the strut the shape shown in Fig. 1 with any given deflection yx at its middle, the strut is really in equilibrium with any greater or smaller value of yv This result may very readily be illustrated by means of a model.² There is then one value of W which will satisfy the conditions. To obtain it, a3 y ~ o when x — l the distance 0 B.

/ W

V EI ~ 2’ °r

EItt2 4 1-

It may be objected to this investigation that it is based

is negligible in comparison with

unity, but this is an allowable assumption in all struts used for engineering purposes, where the deflection yx is exceedingly small in comparison with the length. For larger values of yx the following result will be found to be a better approximation to the truth.

^ ^ J is small in comparison with

y = yx cos. x

(3)

us

(4)

on

the assumption that (C~\

\cl x)

16 E I 3 W

We have tried to make (5) useful in its application to actual struts, but in vain, as it turns out that this equation relates to greater deflections than those dealt with by engineer’s.

Vx =

A 2 l / W \

i¹- vVsri) ■ '

• (5)

But if / is the ultimate resistance of the material to crushing per square inch, it is obvious that Q can only be used when it is less than/. When 0 is greater than/ the strut will not break by bending but by direct crushing.

This then is the practical rule ; the lesser of the two answers, /3 (from 6) or /, is to be taken as the load per square inch which will be carried by a strut. We know of no experiments which confirm this general rule, nor have any been made which contradict it. In fact, no experiments have yet been made on what may be regarded as struts with ends fixed or free, in accordance with the above definitions. Our present paper has been written because it is usually assumed that such experiments have been made, and that the results do not confirm the theory.

In the experiments conducted by Mr. Hodgkinson and others, the loads per square inch with which the struts broke agreed neither with / nor IS, unless the struts were very short, or very long. Indeed it is very probable that even in the very short and very long struts there was disagreement with theory ; but of this we have no certain knowledge, as / and E for the material are unknown.

With short struts of a certain length, it is usually found that the breaking load is with some accuracy proportional to the cross-sectional area, so that for short struts / is taken as the breaking load per square inch of section. The results of experiments differ greatly, but it may be roughly assumed that for struts with fixed ends, whose lengths are from two to four times the least breadth of the cross section, the crushing load per square inch of cross section is independent of the shape of the section. It is this value which is usually taken for /. At the same time it is to be remembered that the experimental evidence on short struts is very conflicting. Some experimenters haVe found considerable differences in the load per square inch between such lengths of struts as are mentioned above, whereas others find only small differences. It is well known that for shorter struts the proof load, or the breaking load, per square inch of section increases very much, so that for very short struts like plates of metal, the breaking load is enormously increased.

We know of no published theory of the action in exceedingly short struts, but the problem may be put before mathematicians in the following form :—

A B C D, Fig. 3, is a prism. Uniformly distributed compressive force acts over the ends A, B, and C, D, and such tangential forces act over these ends as prevent them altering in shape or size. To find the nature of the stress and strain at every part of the strut. What engineers want particularly to know is, the least length of the strut which will allow the stress

we prefer to say that (7) or (8) is a formula which is obviously true for short struts and for long struts, and which is presumably true for struts of intermediate lengths. We see that as the

Table I.

10

9,753 17,263 25,327 34,551 48,682 815’7 3,379

4.280 10,165

2,410

9,912

19,987

9.280 5,604 5,653

12,969 IS,067 17,698 16,853 27 767 29,655

/A

B'

,C

FIG.3

at E F the middle section, to become very nearly the same as if the ends A B and C D were free to get larger ; because this is the length which ought to be used in testing the compressive stress of materials.

It naturally suggests itself that if short struts break with a load / lb. per square inch, and long struts break with a load /3, then,

iv ~ —

or

4 Pf

E /U ir²

• • (7)

Ratio of length to least breadth of rectangular strut.

83

58-6

29-3

5,808

2,575

14-6

7'3

238-56

156-6

120

80

179

90

59

90

118

119-28

73

60

60

39

SO

64 I

160

40

42,675

18,392

10,800

4,800

24,030

6,075

2,611

0,075

10,443

10,674

4,563

2.700

2.701 2,700 1,141

675

I*

or v

— 56*630,000 44,460,000 16,310,000 5,527,000 1,957,280 ¹    34,810,000

62,140.000 46,220,000 48,792,000 57,910,000 60,215.000

52.186.100 56,376,000

58.522.600

60.340.100

59.177.600 48,780,900

47.784.600 45,503,ICO 31,682,150 20,017,100

plotted points of Fig. 4 do not lie in a straight line, the formula (8) cannot be strictly true. Mr. Stoney gives numbers for

soooJT

40000

50000

3000

F!C 4

gr

VALLES    | V I IM MILL !QNs|

0    4-    8 IS 15    20    24 SB 32 SB 40 44- 6-8    52    56 60 64

■i

the constants, which are equivalent to f — 36,000 lb., and n = This is the same as assuming that the straight line A B

9000'

drawn in Fig. 4, passes most evenly among the plotted points; but it is obvious that very different values of / and n would be equally good. We have used these values of / and n to calculate

me a

Is

_p

is a possibly correct formula for the strength of struts. For when l i3 very small, the denominator becomes nearly 1, so that (7) is correct for short struts, and when l is very large the 1 in the denominator becomes unimportant, and hence (7) is the same as (4) ; that is, (7) is correct for long struts. It is found that (7) is not a satisfactory formula, but when, from a given set of experiments, we deduce the values of / and E, or rather, putting (7) in the shape

a\

1?

. . (8)

Struts are either fixed at the ends or free at the ends. A strut is said to be fixed at the ends when the forces acting upon it are such as prevent its altering in direction at the ends. Thus in Fig. 2 an originally straight strut with ends C and D is under the action of forces whose resultants are W and W¹; these forces are such as keep the ends in their original directions, and C B, S B, S A, and D A are now of the same shape, the shape given by equation (3), a curve of sines.

A strut is said to be free at the end when the resultant of the forces applied at the end passes through the centre of area of the end,. In fact, a strut is free at an end when the load is applied, in such a way that there is no bending moment there. According to these definitions, D C, Fig. 2, is a strut fixed at the ends ; the part A B corresponds with the whole length of a strut whose ends are free under the action of the same resultant forces W, and A B is half C D ; the part D B corresponds with the whole length of a strut one of whose ends is free and the other fixed. Fig. 1 resembles a strut whose ends are imperfectly

It follows from (4) that the load which an originally straight strut will carry is

we determine the values of / and n, which enable (8) to satisfy

50000

|C

■!

FIG.5

40000

50SC0

EOODO

1DQDD

R 54 INCH

1l

E I 7T²

'VALUES

4 l³ ’

where l is one quarter of its length, if its ends are fixed and one half its length if its ends are free. It is convenient to consider the load w per square inch of cross section, being W divided by A, the. cross sectional area. And putting A it² for I, h being the radius of gyration of the section about a line through its centre of area at right angles to the plane of the paper or the plane in which bending most readily occurs,

„„ E IP 7T2 4 l-

T\ e shall denote this value of the load per square inch of section by the letter B.

f-°r ,¹l!,e 1?ctures delivered by one of the authors to

laiini the Htrnf    °iad? fo.r idifferent amounts cf inaccuracy in

1 a ing the stiut are particularly interesting, and when great care is laken to load the strut m a perfect manner the instability when deflec-fctudentf,¹¹” t0 °CCUr makes Eulei’d theory quite cl.ar even'to junior

= P, say ....    (6)

cross

of\the r

ATIO

of l :nct

0 B JB 24-    33    40 4Q

w for various values of and the curve A B B C, Fig. 5, which

k

represents the results of such calculations, may be compared with the experimental numbers of Table I., which are shown by the crosses.²

We have now put forward our views as to what is known at the present time about struts. The struts experimented on have been regarded as being either fixed or free at the ends, according to the definitions above given ; and seeing that \v is neither equal to / nor IS for struts of medium length, and that Gordon’s formula or some other empirical formula, such as Hodgkinson’s, must be used by practical men, we think we are right in saying that no subject connected with the strength of structures is at present regarded as being in a more vague and unscientific state than the subject of which we have undertaken the study.

Two important facts have led us to the theory which we shall put forward :—1. In Hodgkinson’s experiments, and in experiments carefully conducted by ourselves, there is always a deflection of the strut, which increases as the load is increased. How, this is quite unexplainable on the assumption that (3) is true l being \ of the length of a strut fixed at the ends, or ^ of the length of a strut free at the ends, according to definition. For according to (3), the deflection yx is independent of the load. Hor will (5), used as a better approximation, help us.

2. Taking a set of results of experiments for breaking load, they not only not agree with either / or j3, but they disagree with each other in a way which is quite unexplainable by any theory yet put forward which we are aware of. Thus, for example, in Fig. 5 the crosses show the numbers of the first two columns of Table I. plotted as co-ordinates of points. By

theory these points ought to lie on the broken line G J C,⁴ whose ordinate is / in the part G J and /3 in the part J C. Hence, it is clear that the observations are inconsistent with theory and with each other.

The theory which leads to the rule (4) or (6) is incomplete, as it is quite opposed to observed phenomena. For a complete theory it is necessary to assume that no strut used by engineers is perfectly prismatic and homogeneous, and that the load isnever applied in such a way as to lead to the equations (3) and (4). Want of accuracy in the application of the load is represented -p_i in Fig. 1, if the strut there shown be regarded as fixed at the In any such case it is obvious that the l used in (4) is greater than one-quarter of the whole length of the strut. If we regarded all discrepancies from theory as due to this bad application of load, it would only be necessary to investigate in (Fig. 5) the law of discrepancy between one-quarter the length of the strut and the l as it ought to be if (4) were true. We have already obtained some interesting results in this direction, but we prefer to proceed rather in a different manner, in which we assume that the discrepancies are due not merely to bad fixing of the ends and bad loading, but also to an initial curvature of the specimen, and also to a want of homogeneity in the material. If a strut has its ends badly fixed, we may imagine one-half of it as being represented in Fig. 6, where, instead of

H TO LEAST |BREA[DTH

55    64 7i ~To ”e3 Su icT ~~i12    120    128 lac m 152 IG0 ends.

best the experimental results, we have the formula which is most relied upon by engineers at the present time.

Thus, for example, we take from Mr. Berkeley’s well-known table of the results obtained by Mr. Edwin Clark, under Mr. Hodgkinson’s supervision, the numbers in the first and second columns of Table I. The numbers of the third column are obtained by squaring those of the second column, and multiplying by f. The numbers in the fourth column are obtained by multiplying those of the first and third. How (8) being supposed true, if we plot w and v as the co-ordinates of points on squared paper, these points will lie in a straight line. Fig. 4 shows points so plotted, and it is evident that they do not by any means lie in a straight line. Formula (8) is usually called Gordon’s, or Tredgold’s, formula, and it is sometimes said to be a rational formula, because it follows from the hypothesis that the proof deflection of a strut is proportional to the square of its length, divided by the thickness. As, however, there is no other foundation for such a notion than that, since it is true for beams loaded and supported in a definite manner, it may possibly be true for struts, although the conditions are quite different/

3    In the figure the numbers along the horizontal scale are not for — but - (called afterwards \), where L is the whole length of the strut and s

is the least lateral dimension ; in rectangular sections Jc \J 12 = s.

4    This particular curve is obtained by taking E as 29 x 10s and f as 50,000, but it is easy to see the shape it would have if other values of E and / were chosen.

the strut being free at the ends, it has the loads applied at these ends at a distance h from the centres of area.

Let O Q = x, P Q = y, 0 L — l. Let us also suppose that the strut has an initial curvature when unloaded. This curvature may be specified in any of the ways suggested by experience without altering the nature of the results arrived at; but we will assume, for ease of calculation, that

y¹ h + c cos. sx .    .    .    .    (9)

gives the initial shape of the strut; y1 being P Q when the strut is unloaded.

Now as y¹ = It when x = l. s =    , so

that (9) the shape of the unloaded strut is really

F L = G H = h.

FIG 6 v

F,

P/—/-IQ

—S—

—©------

yx — h + C COS. X

The greatest initial deflection of the strut, not including h, is evidently c. In the loaded strut, as the curvature is always very small,

Wy _ _ cPy

E r

We find the solution of this equation to be

• • (10)

d x~

dr yl

lU²

• • (ID

sion by the current. The slightest variation of the current alters the position of cores, which, by means of the lever A and connecting rod B, adjusts the height of the trippers of the Proell gear. The amount of power required is infinitesimal, the total lifting power required not exceeding 2 oz., while the delicacy of adjustment is all that can be required.

When the full load was on there were thirty-two Gulcher arc lamps each of nominal 2500-candle power on an 8 amperes current, and seventy-two incandescent lamps of 20-candle power, taking

L\r~-_

cos.

s² c a2 1 - a² s²

cos. sx (12)

1 ampere each, the electro-motive force being 81 volts at the terminals of the machine. This load could be taken on and off to any extent, the variation of speed of engine never exceeding 2 per cent. There is another convenient adjustment to this engine in the shape of a resistance box shown at Fig. 4a, which is placed in the circuit w⁷ith the governor, and may be fixed anywhere ; it

same

cos. -

where a

y₁ or O S = h sec. I

, so that 1/W'

/V

41'² W ' '

■ • (13)

tr² E I

If c = o, so that the strut has no initial curvature, the second 7T² E I

4 P '

If h — o, so that the load is properly applied, the first term 7T ² E I

term vanishes unless W =

vanishes unless W =

4 l² '

In fact, both terms show that if li or c has any value, W must be less than v ^ I

; and here we have an explanation of the

fact that w is always less than j3; that is, that the crosses in Fig. 5 always lie below the curve J C, and it is evident that the amounts by which they lie below J C will simply depend lessness in preparing the specimen and fixing its ends.

As it is advisable to make the expression (13) for the deflection of a loaded strut as simple as possible, we have compared the two functions

is used merely to adjust the intensity of the light. As more resistance is thrown in, a lesser current goes through the solenoids of the governor; the engine runs at a greater speed, and generates therefore a greater electro-motive force. A reverse action takes place when the resistances are thrown out. A convenience of this arrangement is that all the lamps may be run if

on care-

n P W

El 7T²

and sec. I

El!

and for different values of

4 P W

El it² ^ie va^ues °f these func-

tions will be found in the following table

23

Table II.

4 ln- w E I *2

Sec. I V W

El

•l

•2

l-ll

•8

1-25

1-14

required at a low intensity, and raised to their full powrer instantaneously. For the lighting of large halls, theatres, and other buildings, as wrell as for domestic installations, this is often a convenience. One case, where it has been applied for lighting a private mansion, the resistance box was made ornamental and let into a suitable recess in the wall of a private room, from

grown wheat on the gradual reduction system of roller milling. Mr. Deakin, after inspecting a large number of modern mills, both in the United States of America and Great Britain, selected what he considered the most satisfactory plant with the most substantial machinery which he had been able to find. After his two years’ inquiry he gave an order for all the machinery as supplied by Mr. Frederic Nell, including two 40in. “Victor” turbines for driving the mill. The mill consists as follows On the basement is the main driving shaft of 3jin. diameter, propelled by the two 40in. “Victor” turbines in question. On the first floor there are nine double roller mills, containing eighteen pairs of chilled iron rolls, seven pairs being devoted to the manipulation of the wheat, whilst the remainder are used for the reduction of middlings, semolina, &c. On the second floor are two middlings purifiers, two semolina purifiers, bran duster, and two dust collectors. The latter we refer to further on. On the floor above are six centrifugal dressing machines, one long silk reel, and an automatic weigher. On the floor above are two more long silk reels, one small centrifugal and seven scalping reels. These latter receive the reduced wheat between each reduction. Above these are seventeen sets of elevators, running from the bottom to the top of the mill, conveying the various products to their respective locations, which makes the mill thoroughly automatic. The wheat leaving the clean wheat bin falls into the automatic scale, which is set to receive whatever quantity per minute is required in the mill. From the scale it empties itself into the grader, which sizes the wheat. The small grain falls into one mill, and the large grain into another, which has the effect of splitting the grain open longitudinally. From this the split grain is elevated into another machine, which takes out half per cent, of crease flour—this crease flour is that which lodges in the crease of the berry—and no other means has the same effect.

Referring to the dust collectors, these are placed on the second floor, one receiving the exhaust from the roller mills, by means of a fan, which discharges itself from the roller mills into the dust collector, having the effect of drawing away from the rolls all fibrous and dusty matter, whilst the other dust collector receives the exhaust from the purifier.

This mill has been erected without primary reference to first cost, and throughout may be said to be a representative mill, more especially for the agricultural districts using home-grown wheat.

The illustrations of the two 40in. turbines, as fixed in the mills, will be found on page 472. These turbines are placed just below the surface of the ground floor of the mill in a pit, which is always fully charged with water from the river Tern, which gives a fall of about eight feet and produces 109-horse power with a velocity of 86 revolutions per minute. As will be seen from the illustration, the turbines have a draught tube of 3ft. 6in. long by 4ft. 4in. diameter. The end of this draught tube is submerged in the tail water to the depth of three inches, completing the discharge by creating a suction. The dimensions of the turbine pit are 20ft. long and 5ft. 6in. deep, the other side of the pit being a continuation of the river. These same illustrations will show⁷ the method adopted for taking off the power; the turbines are connected to a horizontal shaft by a bevel gear wheel, which is again connected to the main driving shaft by a pair of iron and mortise wheels, which brings it up to the necessary speed, viz., 160 revolutions. On the ground floor, and at the right-hand corner of the cross elevation through section 0 D, will be seen a governor, which is connected to both turbines by a small shaft and worm wheels which opens or closes the turbine gates according to the rise and fall of the tail water, which in this and most other rivers in hilly districts rises and falls rapidly. By the means of this governor the mill is driven regularly at an even speed. These turbines are so arranged that, should there be floods as high as three feet, tbe turbine would still give out sufficient power to operate the mill. On the floor above this—the roller floor—is a handle by which the gates of the turbines may be controlled with the greatest facility.

•4

1-43

•5

1-67

1-53

•6

2-00

1-83

•7

2-50

2-25

•8

•9

3-33 5'CO

2-88

3-04

1-0

10-C0

6’06

12-42

A NEW SYSTEM OF SEWING OR CONNECTING LEATHER BELTS AND BOOT SOLES.

co

oo

The functions are so like one another then that if there is inaccuracy h in the application of the load, and if there initial deflection c¹ in the strut, we may assume that together they produce the same effect as an initial deflection in the strut of about

an

was an

~ h + c' = c. u

It will be found that any probable want of homogeneity in specimens -and this may be studied in hollow cylindric struts, for example, by assuming a small amount of eccentricity in the hollow part—may be accounted for by a term of the same kind. We do not care to enter into the question of heterogeneity exactly, because no assumption is possible which can be treated mathematically without further experiments. If, for example, assume that E—Young’s modulus for the material—alters regularly from one side of the section to the other, we are at once confronted with the difficulty that no experiments have yet been made giving a hint as to whether or not the cross-section remains plane. Many other kinds of assumption can also be made, but we think that no likely assumption can be made from which a more rigorously correct result is derivable than that which is above stated—namely, that a possible want of homogeneity enters into the calculation in much the same way as a waut of axiality in the hollow part of a hollow cylindric strut.

(To be continued.)

which point the speed of the engine and dynamo can be regulated, though about a quarter of a mile distant.

For producing effects in stage illumination such an arrangement is infinitely preferable to the present one, where engines and dynamos are'maintained running at full speed, an enormous resistance having to be thrown in to regulate the lights on the

more

we

ROBEY COUPLED HORIZONTAL FIXED ENGINE.

"We illustrate on page 466 a very fine pair of engines employed in doing electric light'work'at the Edinburgh Exhibition :— Each cylinder is 14^in. diameter by 33in. stroke, steam jacketted and fitted with Proell expansion gear and Corliss exhaust valves. The engine makes 73 revolutions per minute, and is of 50-horse power nominal. It worked at the Exhibition with a load of 130-horse power. The action of the cut-off gear is well shown by the series of diagrams which we give, from which it will be seen that the admission is constant, and the admission line is fully maintained to the point of cut-off, which latter is instantaneous. When used for driving ordinary machinery the engine is fitted with a Proell governor, Figs. 1 and 2, placed midway between the two engines when used for electric lighting purposes it is controlled y the current, a fine wire from the terminals of the machine being taken to a pair of solenoids, Figs. 3, 4, and 5, the cores of which are held in suspen-

stage, resulting in great waste of energy. The lever and weight C, shown in the detail of the governor, Fig. 4, are for the purpose of stopping the engine automatically should the governing circuit be broken either by accident or design. The weight C being held up by the small electro-magnets D, the moment the circuit is broken these lose their power, the weight C falls, and the rod E, rising, catches against the tripper levers, throwing them out of gear, and the admission of steam to the engine immediately stops. This is not only an absolute safeguard in cases of accidental breakage of the current, but is a great convenience in the case of large engines working extensive installations, where the governing circuit is taken throughout the entire premises, and in case of accident to any part the circuit can be broken by a switch, and the machinery stopped without occasion for going to the engine-house.

A NEW system of connecting several thicknesses of leather, either in making double or triple thickness leather belting, or in affixing the soles of boots to tbe uppers, is being introduced into this country by Messrs. John H. Ladd and Co., of 116, Queen Victoria-street, where machines are being exhibited as used for attaching the soles of boots. The new system partakes more of the character of rivetting than of any other known method, the new rivets being made of metal-covered wax thread. Each fastener is thus a tubular rivet filled with firmly-enclosed wax thread. One of the chief objects of this tubular rivet or piece of metal-covered thread is a firm fastening, with greater flexibility than has hitherto been obtained with machine work. It would be impossible to explain the construction of the machines used without drawings, but we may say that the covering process is performed on a machine in which a strip of brass is pulled through dies which enclose the wax thread fed to it. The tube-covered thread from this machine passes to another in which the tube is roughened or corrugated circumferentially by small rotating discs with fine teeth. The corrugation helps to give the fastener a firm hold, and also to make it more easily flexible than it would be if the metal tube were plain, The edges of the strip are not soldered or brazed so as to make it into an actual tube. The next machine shown in operation is one in which boot soles are affixed in a few seconds ; the machine pierces the leather, cuts off a length of the metal-covered thread, automatically adjusting it according to the thickness of the leather being fastened.

The covered wax thread is then driven vertically into the sole of the boot. It thus presents an end-wearing surface ; the brass covering, as the leather wears, burrs over, forming a head on the outside of the sole, and prevents its working into the foot, an objection which attaches to other metallic fastenings.

CT-.

TURBINES IN THE WALCOT MILLS, SALOP.

Royal Institution Lectures.—The following lecture arrarge ments are announced :—Professor Dewar, M.A., F.R.S., M R.I. six lectures—adapted to a juvenile auditory—“ On the Chemistiy of Light and Photography ;’ on December 28th—Tuesday—and 30th, 1886, January 1st, 4th, 6th, and 8th, 1887. Professor Arthur Gamgee, M.D., F.R.S., eleven lectures, “ On the Function of Respiration;” on Tuesdays, January 18th to March 29th. Professor A. W. Rucker, M.A., F.R.S., M.R.I., five lectures, “On Molecular Forces;” on Thursdays, January 20th and 27th, Feb-3rd, 10th, and 17th. Professor F. Max Muller, M.A.,

The illustrations on page 472 represent the motive power used in driving the new flour mills of Mr. Benjamin Deakin, "VValcot Mills, near Wellington, Salop, erected by Mr. Frederic Nell, of 16, Mark-lane, London, the agricultural district of Shropshire, to manipulate home-

The mill has been erected in

ruary

LL.D., three lectures, “On the Science of Thought;” on Thursdays, March 17th, 24th, and 31st. Carl Armbruster, Esq., five lectures, “ On Modern Composers of Classical Song;” on Saturdays, January 22nd and 29th, February 5th, 12th, and 19th. The Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, M.A., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., M R.I , six lectures, “On Sound;” on Saturdays, February 26th, March 5th, 12th, 19th, and 26th.

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were applied the coaches were many levers of triangular form, the base of the triangle being the wheel base of the individual coach, and the vertical length of the lever the height of the centre of gravity from the surface or table of the rail; hence the load on all the wheels forward of the perpendicular of the triangle exceeded the statical weight of the carriage, by.an amount due to the stored momentum of the weight of the coach acting at the centre of gravity, minus the statical weight of the trailing part, tending to restore the coach to equilibrium. Then as regards the trailing wheels, an opposite action was set up, these beino-1 elieved of some part or all of the weight ordinarily ho by them. The increase . of load on the rail through the leading wheels, and diminution thereof on the trailers, con-sequently varies from the instant the brake is applied till the coach comes to rest. Of course, it will be understood that we are assuming the wheels to be skidded and the matter of investigation to be the friction of the wheel on the rail. Even then, putting aside other disturbing influences, these alone vary so much that it is difficult to MEETINGS NEXT WEEK.    deduce any absolute law from them.

miif₈terrTwU-TLsLyIVDec^mTri4th i⁵t 8Gn°^e'street’T-est'    fortunately happens, however, in approaching    the new south wales railways.

Cebwh-°L ffiCt/°L lubricants>that although Since the publication of the article in our issue of Iremelv Jrn Sint 7,'T ,j?    a ,f “?ral    November 26th, on the “New Railway Management Bill

8oacieKTYUPoFly AR?₈UraT Bistricts;” byf-, E- Seaport, stud. Inst. c.E.    application ?hP Soft* ^    Z'th m an7 Part.lcular    for New South Wales,” the following letter, dated October

December isthat’s n    Adrelpdi’ London' W.c.-Monday, aPPllcation,_ the matter may be considerably simpli- 19th, addressed to the editor of the Sydney Morning

Practice of Ornamental Deffign.^bTLSoreman Day    WD SSfrTtonuZiTl f ® T ⁷    °f inVeSti-    ^ “ TaxPay^,” under the heading of^‘ Why OU^

°rnamenjal Forrn; the adaptation ° ornamental form to    ?atlon to pursue. It has been    too much the custom to    Railways do not Pay,” has appeared. It so completely

out Of the    characteristic handhng 0^“^ tool^ &c ^toftTrtS?    reS^w^be foSS? to    °“'< f ly *ru-th    c?nbrn?f a11 we said as to the mismanagement from which

g    tools, &c„ where to stop,    really will be found, to quote Captain Cuttle, “ to lie in its    the Railway Department suffers under the existing regime,

are

with all

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Wednesday, December 15th, at 8 p.m.: Fifth ordinary meeting. Adjourned discussion on Dr. C. Meymott Tidy’s paper, ‘‘Sewage Disposal.” Sir Frederick Abel, C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S., will preside.

Royal Meteorological Society.—On Wednesday, the 15th instant, at 7 p.m., the following papers will be read :—“On the Proceedings of the International Congress of Hydrology and Climatology at Biarritz,” by G. J. Symons, F.R.S., F.R. Met. Soc.; “ Report on the Phenological Observations for 1886,” by the Rev. T. A. Preston, M.A., F.R. Met. Soc.; “A Criticism of certain Points of Prof. Langley’s Researches on Solar Heat,” by Professor S. A. Hill, B.Sc., F.R. Met. Soc.; “Account of the Hurricane of March 3rd and 4th, 1886, over the Fiji Islands,” by R. L. Holmes, F.R. Met. Soc.; “Results of Meteorological Observations made at the Military Cemetery, Scutari, Constantinople 1866-85, ’ by W. H. Lyne.

Aeronautical Society or Great Britain.—General meeting for the reading and discussion of papers, at the Society of Arts, John-street, Adelplii, on Saturday, the 11th of December, 1886, at 3.30 p.m.

To Coulomb is generally accredited the first definite statement, or perhaps we ought to say tolerably definite statement, of the laws of sliding and rolling friction. Subsequently, General Morin, by his experiments, did a good deal to prove the truth of Coulomb’s deductions, and for a very considerable period since the date of Morin’s experiments, 1830-34, engineers and scientific men have been in the habit of basing their own calculations on Morin’s coefficients. As education advances so also does the number of explorers in the field of science increase, and statements and dogmas received as perfectly trustworthy a quarter of a century ago, or even at more recent periods, are now regarded—to put it mildly—as questionable, and received with hesitation. Morin’s experiments chiefly dealt with axle resistances, and were consequently limited in their range of application; and the adage, “ that circumstances alter cases,” applies strongly to all that concerns the text of this article. Indeed, so exactly true is it, that he would be a courageous man who would now venture to give formulae dogmatically. Formulae there certainly are, but unless applied with extreme care, and with such a perfect knowledge of all the conditions present in each individual case as is usually very difficult of attainment, they cannot be expected to give results other than approximate. The subject is of great importance; of greater importance than is even yet fully realised by chinery users. The further extension of the economical of heat in power machines, especially through the medium of steam, is to a considerable extent dependent upon perfect understanding of the various phenomena observable about friction and the effect of different lubricants upon them. Mr. Towers has by his experiments taught himself and his readers much, and we hope he will continue his researches. Others, we believe, including Professor Hele-Shaw, in this country, and Professor Thurston, in America, are also doing good work in this field of research. In proof of how important the lubrication question is as applied to steam, we may merely direct attention to the necessity of high piston speeds for the economical use of steam, and great obstacle to the successful use of what is known as high-speed engines is the difficulty of keeping their rubbing surfaces lubricated. The railway brake experiments during recent years have done much to supplement General Morin’s investigations, but too much care cannot be taken to bear in mind that the circumstances surrounding the action of friction and lubricants in this connection are not present, for example, in the case of a high-speed engine. Even in brake trials many perplexing conditions are present, for ever varying in their character. For example, let us cite one not very commonly treated, though of course taken into account by experts. Some sort of relation certainly exists between a load and the sliding friction produced by it, the proportion borne by one to, and dependent upon the magnitude of the other, and known as its coefficient will, however, be found, and has been found to vary considerably without any apparent cause. Well, then, suppose a train of coaches, loaded as was the case at the Trent brake trials, with pigs of iron to make the moving load equal to what it would be if the same coaches

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FOREIGN AGENTS FOR THE SALE OF THE ENGINEER.

PARIS.—Madame Boyveau, Rue de la Banque.

BERLIN.—Asher and Co., 5, Unter den Linden.

VIENNA.—Messrs. Gerold and Co., Booksellert.

LEIPSIC.—A. Twietmeyer, Bookseller.

NEW YORK.—The Willmer and Rogers News Company, 31, Beekman-street.

CONTENTS.

The Engineer, December 10th, 1886.

A New View of the Nature of the Resistance of Materials to

Repeated Loads ........................

Visits in the Provinces......................

Hollow Lathe, Mersey Forge, Liverpool. (Illustrated.) ..    .. 458

Whitfield’s Furnace Bars. (Illustrated.) ............458

On the Remarkable Effects of Adding Saccharine Matter to

Mortars ............................

Progress of the Basic or Thomas-Gilchrist Process ......

Legal Intelligence........................

Society of Engineers ......................

Steel Melting Furnace, Royal Arsenal. (Illustrated.) ..    .. 462

Johnson’s Hydraulic Pump. (Illustrated.) ............

A New Stove. (Illustrated.)....................

On Struts

A New System of Sewing or Connecting Leather Belts and Boot

Soles..............................

Double-cylinder Electric Light Engine. (Illustrated.)......

Leading Articles—Friction and Lubricants—The New South Wales

Railways ..........................

Colonel Shaw on Coast Defences—Value of Iron and Steel—An

Extraordinary Engine Trial..................

Literature.......................

Books Received.....................

A New Torpedo Boat ................ \

Horizontal Engine with Single Proell Cut-off Gear. (Ulus.) 470

The Smithfield Club Show....................

Letters to the Editor—The Efficiency of Single-acting Engines — Piston Valves for High-speed Engines—The Tay Bridge Storm

—Sugar in Mortar......................471

Railway Bridge over the Riachuelo—Mr. Lancaster’s Aero Planes —The Problem of Flight—Submarine Vessels—The Foundering

of the S.S. Indus—Directories................

Turbines in the Walcot Flour Mills, Salop, (illustrated.)"’ Railway Matters—Notes and Memoranda—Miscellanea

Tenders............................ ” 474

The Iron, Coal, and General Trades of Birmingham, Wolverhampton, AND OTHER DISTRICTS......

Notes from Lancashire..........

Notes from Sheffield ..........

Notes from the North of England ..

Notes from Scotland ..........

Notes from Wales and Adjoining Counties

Notes from Germany ..........

Selected American Patents....................

Paragraphs -Manchester Ship Canal, 463—Royal institution "Lectures" 465—The Society of Agricultural Engineers, 468.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Registered Telegraphic Address—“ ENGINEER NEW LONDON.”

*** All letters intended for insertion in The Engineer, or containing questions, must be accompanied by the name and address of the writer, not necessarily for publication, but as a proof of good faith. No notice whatever will be taken of anonymous communications.

*** dn order to avoid trouble and confusion, we find it necessary to inform correspondents that letters of inquiry addressed to the public, and intended for insertion in this column, must, in all cases, be accompanied by a large envelope legibly directed by the writer to himself, and bearing a Id. postage stamp, in order that answers received by us may be forwarded to their destination. N0 notice will be taken of communications which do not comply with these instructions.

J. G. M. and Co. (Liverpool).—Messrs. James Archdale and Co., Birming-ham ; Messrs. J. and W. IVeems, Johnstone, Glasgow.

Ignorantia.— lVe strongly advise you to have nothing to do with engineering. It cannot be learned in a year, and you would have no chance in competition with men far younger than yourself.

Inquirer.—Your statement is not correct as to the equality of the stresses in alt the triangulation. Consult Adams’ little book on “Stresses in Iran-work, published by Messrs. E. and F. N. Spon.

There is no gas set free in a boiler when it becomes short of water. 1 he plates become red-hot, and being weaker when hot than when cold they give way under the pressure. So simple a fact ought to be obvious.

i* en. Assuming your calculations to be correct, the stress will be 44 tons only, for the same reason that two horses pulling at opposite ends of a rope in opposite directions, put no more stress on it than one horse would if the rope were secured to a tree. Each horse plays the part of a tree to the

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THE ENGINEER.

DECEMBER 10, 1886.

FRICTION AND LUBRICANTS.

ma-

use

a more

were filled with passengers. How it is obvious that the conditions affecting the trial where the iron loading was employed were different from those operating if the same coaches were loaded with passengers, because it is tolerably certain that the vertical position of the centre of gravity was not the same in the former case which it would have been in the latter. At the time the brakes verted into so

rne

application,” and the applications are manifold. Professor Hele-Shaw, in a paper read by him before the Liverpool Engineering Society, enumerates four points affecting the action of frictional resistances as follows:—(1) The effect of the nature of the substances in contact. (2) The variation of effect with variation of pressure. (3) The effect of change of the relative velocity of the surfaces. (4) The effect of change of temperature. He does not distinctively state as a fifth item the influence of the nature of lubricant used, though in his subsequent remarks he introduces this item, in connection with that of surfaces in contact. Indeed, we are of opinion that in investigating the problem of friction it is simply waste of time to consider its action in the case of what we may call pure surface contact, for unless in the laboratory the condition is never existent, and the ground to be gone over as regards the action of intervening substances or fluids is quite extensive enough without importing a condition never present in practice. In fact, it is not the nature of, or substance composing the two bodies moving over each other, that engineers have to do with at all; they have only to do with the effect of a third body introduced between them. It is on this, and this alone, according to our theory, that frictional resistances depend, and it is gratifying to be able to narrow the problem by so much. The various substances daily brought into frictional contact are not numerous, and the resistance set up between them depends—conditions of load, speed, and temperature being given—altogether on the nature of the lubricant used, and not only on its nature, but also on its efficient application. It may seem to some of our readers that it is superfluous to speak of efficient application. It is very necessary, however, to accentuate this point. Here again we may aptly quote Captain Cuttle by observing that the value of the very best lubricant lies in its application. The mere pouring of oil into a hole over a journal neck is not applying it; much more than The proper application of a lubi means an easy matter, and the means suitable in one case not necessarily so in another. For very light running spindles lubrication is an easier thing than with heavy shafting, because the rubbing surfaces are not compressed so forcibly together, and the unguent is thinner in the former than in the latter case. In fact, lubrication may be considered most perfect on the spindles of wood-working high-speed machines, working of these depends almost, if not altogether, on such perfection that metal never comes in contact with metal. The axle really rotates in a bearing or bushing of oil; in fact, an oil sleeve surrounds the axle. Much has been done of late years to improve lubricators, but much still remains to be done. One of the most valuable lessons taught by Mr. Tower’s experiments is that cerning the relative effects of applying a given lubricant to different points of a journal.

Professor Thurston, in an excellent paper read by him before the Society of American Engineers, at its meeting in Atlantic City last year, deals with the financial aspect of lubrication, and does so very thoroughly. He draws attention to the advisability of users of power and machinery looking to the annual cost of the lubricants they buy, and shows that they will find it to their interest to do so. He gives tables of the prices of different lubricants and of their relative values as such, and much valuable data besides. He has reduced his analysis to regular formula, and in proof of the financial importance of the question he quotes other authorities, as follows:—“ The amount of lubricating materials used in cotton mills has been investigated by Mr. Edward Atkinson, who finds that, in fifty-five mills working on similar fabrics, and among which a variation of 20 per cent, should not have been expected, the actual range was 350 per cent. Subsequently careful management reduced the average from 10’03 dols. to 6’67 dols. per 10,000 lb. of cloth made.

important effect of this investigation and the publication of its results was the expulsion from that market of inferior and dangerous oils. The oils found in use and tested varied in quality to the extent of 300 per cent. The best oils for these mills were reported by Mr. Woodbury as being mineral oils mixed with some sperm or lard, and having a gravity of about 28 deg. to 32 deg. Beaume (sp. gr. 0‘886 to 0‘864). The total power used in these mills is found by Mr. Heathorn to average about 0‘75-horse power per loom, or 15‘75-horse power per 1000 spindles, and to vary from 0'5 to nearly 1-horse power per loom, or from 11 to 22-horse power per 1000 spindles. The authority finds the power demanded by engine and shafting alone to form from 17 to 34 per cent of the whole. The smaller of these figures represents the best practice, the higher figures show what may be expected with faulty arrangement and bad lubrication.” We agree with Professor Thurston that the expense of lubricants is one of very considerable importance to large consumers, not as regards the mere cost paid per annum for them, but as regards their value as reducers of friction, of power waste, of losses by wear and tear, by extra consumption of fuel, and by sundry other causes indirectly affected by them. We repeat that if friction and the power waste caused by it are ever to be practically dealt with or its ill effects reduced to a minimum, the remedies must be sought in treating each case as subject to its own special conditions; by ascertaining the most suitable lubricant; and, above all, by securing that that lubricaut really is interposed between the rubbing faces. In fact, the remedy for friction waste must be sought for by sideration of the matter in detail, not as an abstraction.

on

ness

The price of manufactured iron is a matter we have fuller information about than we have of many allied articles. In the North of England authentic returns are collected which may be classified, and a good. deal of valuable information obtained. Thus there is now evidence that the value of the manufactured iron trade to the North of England has been greatly impaired by the advance of the steel industry. For the present year the value of the trade, on the basis of the figures to which we have referred, is not likely to be much above £1,340,000. This is an amount which is far below that of recent years—not to refer to those of high value and enormous production twelve or thirteen In 1885 the value of the trade—that is to say, the

an ore

that we give it in full. “ Taxpayer ” says :—“ Now that the question of our railways not paying is engaging so much attention, I wish, with your permission, to say a few words on this subject, which is of so much importance to the whole community. We have, undoubtedly, a few lines of railway which cannot be made to pay under the best management, as they run through poor country, and consequently the receipts are small; but, on the other hand, by far the greater number of our lines are through good districts, and they earn a large amount of money. This being the case, the question naturally arises : Why do they not pay ? The answer to this is, that far too much money is wasted on the so-called maintenance of the lines. It is not generally known to the public that our railways are constructed by one department and maintained, or rather, pulled to pieces, by another. When a line of railway and the station and other necessary buildings in connection therewith are completed by the Engineer-in-Chief for Railways, they are at once taken out of his control and placed under that of the Engineer for Existing Lines, the officers of whose department seem to have but one object—that is, to find fault with and undo the work done by the other department. Let any observant person travel along our railway lines, and he will cease to wonder why they do not pay. He will probably be more surprised to find them doing so well under such a system of sinful waste and extravagance, for such it is. I could give many instances of works along the lines that have been pulled to pieces simply to make work for a lot of officials and highly-paid mechanics and others, and to throw discredit on the Engineer-in-Chief’s Department, under which they were constructed; but as I do not wish to encroach too much on your space, I will content myself with one. When the stock-trucking yards at Hay were built by contract under the Engineer-in-Chief for Railways, at a cost of £1200, a large gang of men and overseers were sent up to Hay by the Existing Lines Department to pull them to pieces. This they did, and rebuilt them to suit themselves. This is only a small matter compared with some, but it will serve as an instance to show how the money is wasted. This kind of work is going on continually, and the public never hear what it costs; in fact, they know nothing about it. Our railways and tramways can be made to pay well, but never whilst, as in the case of the railways, one department is working against the other; and in the case of the tramways, nearly the whole of the earnings are swallowed np in the Government workshops by the same Existing Lines Department.”

No stronger evidence, we think, could be given of the need for at once placing the management of the New South Wales Railways on some better footing than it stands at present. While every care and thought is exercised in the construction of the railways to keep down the cost compatibly with good workmanship—it having even been decided some time ago to adopt 60 lb. rails on many of the new extensions, in place of the 70 lb. and 75 lb. rails hitherto used, with the object of still further reducing the first cost where possible—any serious effort to minimise the cost of management and working seems to be the last thing thought of or attempted. We regret to learn that the new Railway Management Bill, although it reached the stage of a second reading, was not further proceeded with when the Colonial Parliament was prorogued. We trust that the delay in dealing with a measure so important for the well-being of the Colony does not indicate a desire on the part of those in power to shelve the subject altogether.

AN EXTRAORDINARY ENGINE TRIAL.

In our two last impressions we have dealt with steam-engine trials of considerable interest. We have now to call attention to one yet more remarkable, which took place in Melbourne. The circumstances are so curious as set forth in a number of Melbourne papers that we think it advisable not to give the names of the competitors. We shall call one A. and the other B. It appears that A. is the agent in Melbourne for a leading firm of English portable engine makers. A show took place there last August, and A. offered a prize of £20 for the best portable engine. Confident of success, he entered a compound engine by the firm which he represents, and applied to the firm for an engine for the purpose. The firm in question have always and consistently refused to take part in any portable engine competition, holding that such trials produce racers, not commercial engines; and find that the reputation possessed by their engines acquired in daily work is sufficient to secure them plenty of orders. They flatly refuse to permit any of their engines to be entered for trial, and A. then bought an engine from the firm and entered it himself, the firm having no longer any control over what had ceased to be their property. B. was the agent for another eminent English firm, which has often competed at the Royal and other agricultural societies’ shows, and he entered two of their engines for trial. The conditions of trial were that the engines should be run on the brake and indicated. The judges were Messrs. W. Anderson, of Melbourne, and E. Jacks, assistant locomotive superintendent, Victorian railways. The points for competition were:—1st, the actual or indicated horse-power of the engines, their weight being taken into account; and2nd, the actual amount of fuel and water consumed per horse per hour. The Melbourne papers before us contain no particulars of the method of trial adopted, but one of them contains the report of the judges, which has, at all events, the merit of brevity. Itsays:—“ We have tested the exhibits as requested with the following result:—Exhibit No. 1458, actual or indicated horse-power 34'21 ; fuel in pounds, 0’329 ; water in cubic inches, D66. Exhibit, No. 1459, actual or indicated horse-power, 32‘57 ; fuel in pounds, 0T72 ; water in cubic inches, L31. Exhibit, No. 1460, actual or indicated horse-power, 17'17; fuel in pounds, 0 637 ; water in cubic inches, 1'5. According to tests and indicator, 1459 compound engine is lowest in consumption of fuel and water, and we recommend that the prize be awarded to engine 1459, as per catalogue.” This was one

of the two engines entered by B., so A. not only lost his £20, but saw it awarded to a rival.

Thereupon a lively correspondence began in the Melbourne papers, and the character of the trial was naturally enough assailed. We have not the least idea what the figures in the report quoted above mean, as an engine which gives 32'57 horse-power per 0T72 lb. of coal, and 1‘31 cubic inches of water per hour is as yet unknown. The letters in question give a curious picture of the way in which the trial was made. The first difficulty seems to have been to find an indicator. No one had one. After some trouble, Professor Kernot, of Melbourne, lent his to the judges, sending one of his pupils to use it. It turned out, however, that the indicator was not in good order, and fitted with a spring too strong for the pressures carried. The brake seems, as far as we can make out, to have been a makeshift Prony ; but apparently it did not deceive the judges much, for they paid, we are told, no attention to the weight on it. Furthermore it seems that the gentleman who used the indicator is connected with the firm represented by B. Defending himself, he says that this connection was no secret, that it did not affect the accuracy of the diagrams, and that it was not likely he would let the valuable instrument entrusted to him by Professor Kernot out of his hands. To which it is retorted that while the low-pressure cylinder of B.’s engine was being indicated, the brake load was increased until the speed of the engine was reduced from 180 revolutions to 120, while the calculations were all made for the former speed. It seems, further, that at a meeting of the National Agricultural Society it was decided by the Parade Committee that exhibitors should find their own brake and indicator. At a subsequent council meeting of the same body a report was brought up by a sub-committee appointed to investigate A.’s complaints as to the way in which the trial had been carried out. They reported that they did not consider the complaint justifiable, and recommended that the Society should take no further action in the matter. A discussion followed, in the course of which one gentleman made the peculiarly appropriate statement that he “ understood that the indicator was like a photographic apparatus, and could not go wrong.” If his experience refers to Melbourne photographic apparatus, he will confer a boon on a multitude of Englishmen if he will put them in the way of obtaining apparatus that “cannot go wrong.” Such things are unknown in this country. A. has paid his £20 to the successful (?) competitor, and publishes as an advertisement a challenge “ to a fresh trial of the same engines upon the same terms and conditions, except that in this case each party shall appoint their own judges, and a referee to be approved of by both judges. Each competitor to deposit £20, to be given to some charitable institution by the winner. We have not yet heard whether the challenge has been accepted.

We have in all this a very curious picture of colonial life. All the parties concerned, from the judges down, appear to have been in blissful ignorance of the very rudiments of that knowledge essential to the conduct of an engine trial worth the name. The judges, indeed, do not seem to have clearly understood what it was they had to find out. No contradiction has appeared, so far as we are aware, of the ridiculous decimals contained in their report, and no explanation of what they refer to. The only ghost of an explanation is that the judges have worked by minutes instead of hours. Yet this theory will not bear the test of examination. For instance, '172 x 60 = 10'321b., and the engine must have burned more than this per hour as total consumption, while it is a great deal too much per horse per hour. It is possible, however, that the fuel was wood, and, taking this to be only one-tliird as efficient as coal, then 10 lb. would probably be nearly right. But fancy a report worked out to minutes! Again, what a picture does the whole transaction about the indicator represent! With less than two indicators to be worked simultaneously, it was not easy to get any minutely accurate result. The judges apparently knew nothing about the instrument; at all events, Mr. Lewis, who had borrowed it from Professor Kernot, would not trust them with it. We think we may say that so funny an engine trial was never before made. It may or may not be desirable that competitive trials of portable engines should be carried out in Australia. Whether it is or not is a subject open to discussion ; but there can be no doubt that, if the trials are made at all, they should be made in such a way as to be beyond reproach. Reports on trials may be either very useful, or very much the reverse, to home firms —who are, we may add, comparatively helpless in the hands of their agents. It may not be very easy, for example, for the firm represented by A. to convince colonial buyers that they have taken no part whatever in the trial under consideration; that it has been carried out against their express wish; and that they do not recognise it as anything more than a huge joke. We trust that the National Agricultural Society of Australia will be more careful in future. The Society will not add to its reputation by permitting trials such as this was, to be fathered it; and the reputation of colonial engineers as a body will not be enhanced by the voluminous—shall we add scandalous?—correspondence which has appeared in the Melbourne papers.

COLONEL SCHAW ON COAST DEFENCE.

Colonel Schaw, who has for some years past held the appointment at the War-office of Deputy-Director of Works for Fortifications, read a paper under the title of “ Coast Defence,” in the United Service Institution on Wednesday, December 9th. The position of the writer would be certain to call attention to his paper apart from the interest that the subject has attracted latterly. Colonel Schaw reviewed the changes and new features that have been developed during the last few years. He pointed out the need of efficient coast defence, both in the shape of works and armaments, and also of a system of handling them. The operations at Milford Haven brought out with great distinct-the paramount importance of having all the branches of defence organised under one head, so as to work with efficiency and not in a disjointed way. Many of the operations of defence are naval, such as the torpedo boat attacks ; but these and

the guns require to be brought into play in concert with the application of electric lights, and also the fixed mines. Various new features were touched on, such as the laying of guns in front of moving ships by means of the position-finder of Major Watkin, and also the more problematical designs, such as the Brennan torpedo and Nordenfelt submarine boat. The relative advantages of batteries of various kinds were discussed, and the introduction of casemate shields, and the present proposals to strengthen shields were spoken of. Colonel Schaw dived a little into the region of conjecture as to the future. He recognised the value of high-angle firing, and also of plunging fire at ships, and also of the system of scattering the guns, and in many cases moving them on to high ground some distance from the coast. The effect of machine guns on mantlets, he said, has caused great efforts to be made to decrease the ports, and this again has tended to develope position-laying, and has increased the value of breech-loading guns, which close the port much, more completely than can be done in the case of muzzle-loaders Apparently there is a serious idea of utilising Griison’s system of shields in certain places. Colonel Schaw described with a diagram a combination of means such as he thought sufficient for the defence of Plymouth Harbour. The overpowering of such a defence as he proposed was, he thought, so difficult that an attack need hardly be expected. Coaling stations and small ports, he thought, might be defended in a more slender way. He concluded in these words: “ The moral of my lecture is briefly as follows. Our national life depends on our commerce, and our commerce on our command of the sea by our Navy—Navy and commercial shipping depend on secure harbours at home and abroad. Coaling stations abroad are to a certain extent being defended ; commercial ports at home are either not defended at all, or defended only by mines, which though a valuable step in advance, are sadly incomplete without guns and flotillas. Our military ports, defended at considerable cost some twenty years ago, need revision of their defences to bring them up to date. Above all we need organisation for the proper and effective use of the means of defence we possess. As regards resisting invasion in force, or the bombardment or seizure and putting to ransom of our sea-coast towns, we must trust in a great measure to our Navy, and to our volunteers, military and naval; and a well-defined system of general coast defence, by which the existing forces may be used to advantage, and expanded where necessary, is much needed, and should be considered and reported on by a suitable Commission and then acted on. All this means expenditure, and expenditure counted by millions. But it also means national existence in case of a great war, and who can say when this may be upon us ? When it comes my hope for England is that we may be found ready ; if we are not, it will be far too late to hope for any useful result from any efforts or sacrifices we may then attempt to make, and national disaster will be the inevitable result of national supineness and parsimony in time of peace,”

VALUE OF IRON AND STEEL.

years ago.

actual sums received for the manufactured iron made by the associated makers—was certainly above £1,725,000, so that there was a fall of some £380,000. In the year 1884 the value of the output was at least £2,500,000 ; and in 1883, when there the largest production of shipbuilding iron on record, the value of the output of the great district might be not unfairly stated as at least about £3,500,000. Thus, in the limited number of years under comparison, the decline in the amount of the sales of manufactured iron has been to the extent of £2,000,000 and over. The figures might be given for previous years, but enough has been said to show the serious nature of the fall, which has, of course, taken place in the volume as well as in the average value of the work. The angles produced, for instance, not half the quantity that they were three years ago, and the quantity of plates sold has similarly fallen off. But the fact that ship plates sold over the first quarter of 1883 at £6 8d. lOd. per ton on the average, and that they have now been sold at an average over the months last reported on of £4 9s. 4d., explains, as well as the lessened volume of the sales, the cause of the value of the output of the northern manufactured iron trade being so much less. Against that decline, as far as the district is concerned, is to be Eet the upgrowth of the Bessemer and Siemens steel trade; and it is certain that the value of the two branches of the trade to the district, even with the low prices that have been prevailing, will have been about £1,500,000. Thus in the manufactured iron trade, and that which is its successor in one branch and partially in a second, there is not so great a falling off as had been at first believed, for the decay of the rail trade in iron has been almost entirely met by the growth of the steel trade, and thus there is a counterbalance as there is in the plate manufacture, as far as the substitution has already taken place. There is less paid in wages in the newer form of the metal; and there is the further disadvantage that a large part of the ores that are used in the production are ore3 which are imported; whilst in the older form there was not only more labour used in the production of the finished article, but there also was used almost exclusively produced in our own country, and the labour in raising which was necessarily British. But there is this to be said—that the demand of the world is increasing for steel instead of iron, and if we have not ores of our own enough to satisfy our needs of the suitable kind, it is well that we are able cheaply to obtain others, and thus to retain here the smelting and the conversion of the ore into whatever kind of metal may be needed by a changeable demand; and the value which has been spoken of is that of the finished iron or steel, but that is used again in construction, and is greatly enlarged in cost before it reaches its final state.

The Society of Agricultural Engineers. — The annual dinner of the members of this Society took place on Wednesday evening, Mr. H. D. Marshall, of Gainsborough, president, in the chair. Lord Morton, Mr. W. Anderson, Mr. J. E. Ransome, Mr. W. N. Nicholson, Mr. David Greig, and large numbers of representative men, were present. In the speeches after dinner, Mr. Marshall and others dwelt upon the state of trade, on some desirable alterations in railway rates, on tariffs, on federation, and on the extension of the functions of the Society.

LITERATURE.

The Naval Annual. By Lord Brassey, KC.B. Portsmouth:

Griffin and Co., 1886.

Whatever opinions are formed of the value of this work—and they will be doubtless of a varied nature—few will be inclined to withhold their praise from the author for his meritorious exertious in collecting and placing before the public information respecting our own and other navies which hitherto has only been obtainable by consulting a great mass of literature. This country is fortunate in possessing men like Lord Brassey, who have both the inclination and the means for an undertaking of this kind, involving, as it does, considerable labour and no little cost, for which, at the price this book is sold, there can be little return. Having said this much, we are bound to confess that a careful perusal of the Annual is attended with disappointment at the omission of much we should expect to find, and the insertion of matter which might well have been omitted. The first volume of the “ British Navy,” by the same author, gave an admirable account of naval construction in this and other countries up to the year 1882, including detailed lists of the armoured and unarmoured vessels possessed by all nations. What was wanted therefore in 1886 was a review of the alterations and additions during the interval, showing modifications in construction and disposition of armour, progress in manufacture of ordnance and guns afloat, improvements in gun mountings, description of the locomotive torpedoes now employed, advance made in the application of electricity for powerful single lights and the illumination of ships’ interiors, the defence of ships against torpedoes given by the double bottom and cellular system, as well as the external protection by nets, the development of machine guns and the extension of the principle to larger calibres, increase in dimensions of torpedo boats, with description of the latest types, and other subjects interesting to professional men, if not to the general public. Several of these subjects are not alluded to in this work, while others are dismissed with a few lines.

The Naval Annual is divided into three sections and an appendix. Section I. deals with recent naval administration, and is chiefly concerned with a defence of Lord Northbrook’s Board, of which the author was for some time a member. It would serve no useful purpose to criticise at length Lord Brassey’s remarks on this subject. The voice of the country was almost unanimous in a demand for a more powerful navy, and he says himself, “ The truth is that at the bidding of the nation we entered upon a new policy.” But this is hardly an accurate view of the situation at that time. Whatever exertions had been made in previous years, we had failed to retain that indisputable superiority at sea which even the most rigid advocates for economy have from time immemorial considered essential for this country. To regain that superiority cannot therefore be termed a new policy, and it is difficult to concede success to an Administration which requires external pressure to render efficient such important Department. In a speech delivered at Bristol in 1881 Lord Brassey pointed out that in the four previous years the French had spent considerably more on armoured construction than ourselves, and added, “ From an English point of view it seems impossible to justify the lavish expenditure of the French; and I would venture to hope that the friendly representations of our Foreign-office would not be without effect in relieving us from the necessity of imposing additional burdens on the British taxpayers.” He must be sanguine indeed to imagine that our neighbours would alter a deliberate policy in deference to any suggestions on our part, however keen their sympathy with contributors to the revenue in this country. We have some recollection of similar representations made by one of our eminent statesmen to Napoleon III., when the latter justly observed, though with some natural irritation, “ Let each of us build what ships we consider the interests of our countries demand.” We cannot follow a better policy, not losing sight of the fact that our interests at infinitely greater than those of any other nation, and that any notable increase in European navies must be met by corresponding efforts on our part.

AVe have had comparison after comparison between the English and French fleets, based on varied data, few of which have approached to accuracy. Lord Brassey attempts to do the same thing in Chapter II. AYe are given the number of the armoured ships of both nations in 1885, and what their relative strength will be in 1890. It is stated that last year the numbers stood at fifty-five English to forty French ironclads, but that in 1890 it will be seventy-two to fifty-one. We presume this means if none of the older vessels are converted into transports, sold, or otherwise disposed of—a measure extremely probable in several instances. In a comparative statement of the armoured battle-ships of France and England at the end of March, 1890, in which the less important ships eliminated, the numbers are given as forty-six English to twenty-eight French. Lord Brassey has divided them into two classes. The first class consists of ships 8500 tons displacement, with hulls of iron, and protected with    not less than    9in. of armour.    He includes twenty-

two    English and    ten French vessels    in this    class.

The    second class consists of ships    with    less than    8500

tons    displacement,    and hulls of    iron    or wood,    pro

tected by not less than 8in. of armour. In this class he includes twenty-four English and eighteen French ships. These tables give the displacement, speed, maximum armour, heavy armament, and date of launch. We are unable to concur in this system of classification, and believe it cannot afford an accurate view of the relative strength of the two navies. For instance, the Hercules is placed in Class I., while the Conqueror is relegated to the second class. But the former is inferior in every respect except size, and would have no chance against the other in an action, if both were equally well handled. The 18-ton muzzle-loading guns of the Hercules would have little effect upon the 12in. .steel-faced armour with which the tunet and water-line of the Conqueror' are protected,

an

sea are

are

over

while the 43-ton breech-loading guns of the latter would easily penetrate the 9 in. armoured water-line of the Hercules and the six iron plates which protect her guns. The torpedo equipment of the Conqueror also is much more powerful, and her speed at least two knots in excess of the other. The Hero, a sister vessel to the Conqueror, is likewise placed in Class II.

At the date of her launch in 1868, the Hercules was the most powerful ship afloat, but she certainly now cannot be considered equal to many ships of less dimensions constructed in the last ten years. In the French list we find the Indomptable and Terrible, with their 20in. of armour, and two 75-ton guns, placed in the second class because their displacement is less than 8500 tons. The fact is that to classify ironclads requires an intimate knowledge of their equipment and capabilities, and it cannot be based on the three conditions laid down by the compiler of this annual.

In the chapter on foreign squadrons will be found some excellent suggestions and remarks with which all will agree. The author states that “ the mistaken application of the shipbuilding vote in past years, in the construction of a large number of vessels of slow speed, absolutely inefficient in time of war, is much to be regretted.”

Our unarmoured cruisers are referred to, and it has long been a subject of complaint with naval officers when in command of corvettes, sloops, or gun vessels, that the French ships they met were superior in speed under steam. The authorities seemed quite unable to grasp the importance of the fact that steam had replaced sail as the principal motive power. French corvettes of the Sane and Seignelay type, launched in 1870 and 1874 respectively, with a displacement of 1900 tons, were given a speed of fifteen knots, while our corvettes of the Comus class, launched in 1878, with a displacement of 2300 tons, have only a speed of thirteen knots. This disparity extends also to the smaller classes. Fortunately we have at last seen the error of our ways, and in later vessels speed has been more considered. The author advocates a reduction in the lengths of ships’ commissions, on the ground that it would in many cases conduce to economy, and render the service more popular with seamen than it is at present. Service abroad should certainly not exceed three years ; though it is not uncommon, especially with small ships, for their absence to extend to four years. The vexed question of belts and central citadels receives impartial treatment in Chapter VIII. We are inclined to agree with the statement that “in the latest French designs produced by naval architects of the highest ability we find, on comparing their ships with our own, that with ships of equal dimensions every advantage they obtain over ourselves in one element of fighting efficiency involves the sacrifice of some other element to which our naval advisers attach a higher importance;” and further on subject is considered the more strongly must the conviction be established, that it is impossible to produce a perfect ship, with which a competent critic would have no fault to find. The most successful design is at best promise.”. Whether a given weight of armour is best disposed in a thick continuous belt at the water line, or horizontally in the shape of a deck, can only be a matter of opinion till decided by the stern test of

An endeavour is made in Chapter X. to extenuate the tardiness of the Admiralty in augmenting our torpedo flotilla. Coast service torpedo boats are stated to be the of the feeble, and efficient chiefly for defensive purposes. It is unnecessary to controvert such reasoning, and the author dce3 not appear to disapprove of the large increase which has lately been made in our number of these boats. Approval is expressed of the Scout, and a favourable comparison made between her and a new French vessel, the Condor. As the latter is 150 tons smaller than the Scout, and has an equal speed, her inferiority is not apparent, taking into consideration the qualifications necessary for a seagoing torpedo vessel. The description given of the Bombe class—a smaller type—is limited to their general features; but they constitute an important addition to the French Navy, which we are now emulating with four of slightly larger dimensions. Lord Brassey considers, “ It should be our policy to develope vigorously the strength of the Navy in seagoing torpedo vessels;” but our efforts at present do not indicate any such intention. A more definite statement of the views of the author in this respect is found in his approval of proposals made by Lord Charles Beresford in the House of Commons, that next year’s estimates should include five vessels cf the Australia class, twenty cruisers of 2000 tons and twenty knots, four new Heclas, sixteen of the Grasshopper type, and forty large torpedo boats. Now that Lord Charles is a member of the Board of Admiralty, he will be able to bring his views with increased effect before his colleagues, and we hope with some success.

In reference to future armoured construction, Lord Brassey recommends that on completion of the ironclads in hand we should pause and turn our attention to the reconstruction of existing ships. He suggests beginning with the Audacious class, improving the armour, armament, and engines. We believe the result would not be satisfac-tory, and that money so spent could be more advantageously laid out on new vessels.. Thousands of pounds have been expended already in tinkering up the earlier ironclads. As an example, £50,000 was spent eleven years ago iii changing the armament of the Minotaur from /in. to 9in. muzzle - loading guns, giving her new boilers,. and adding certain appliances to improve her efficiency. The change of armament involved almost entire reconstruction of the hull, and the new guns were practically as obsolete as the ship when placed board. We are constrained to think that had the temptation to continually repair our earliest ironclads been resisted, we should have possessed to-day a greater number of first-class vessels. It is melancholy to note that the two flaghips of the Channel Squadron are such ancient constructions as the Minotaur and Agincourt. In the chapter on the manning of the Navy high tribute is paid to the efficiency of the officers and men, and some good suggestions are made in reference to the Reserves. After giving an interesting account of the operations of the evolutionarv

“ The more this

a com

arm

war.

an

on

squadron under Admiral Hornby last year, and the passage of some French torpedo-boats from Brest to Toulon, Section I. concludes with a few remarks urging less self-depreciation and less party spirit in dealing with the Navy. We are informed that it was the aim of the Admiralty with which the author served to try and discourage the extravagant expenditure of continental Powers by an example of moderation, and he deeply regrets our good example was not followed. This principle, so excellent in theory, is hardly capable of realisation in the present condition of European politics, and few will wish to see the experiment repeated. Section II gives detailed lists of British and foreign armoured and unarmoured ships. They are arranged alphabetically, which is not a convenient method where such great variety of types exists. This is especially the case with unarmoured ships, which are more easily classified than ironclads. Displacement, speed, and armament give a fair indication of the relative power of these vessels, and if so arranged we should see at once how deficient in speed are the majority of our corvettes, sloops, and gun-vessels. Attached to these lists are some useful notes on the newer ships of the different navies. This section also contains some excellent diagrams of numerous vessels, many of which are, however, contained in Yol. I. of “The British Navy,” and might have been omitted here with advantage. Section III. contains an exhaustive treatise on armour and ordnance, mainly compiled by Captain Orde Browne, R.A., which is full of interesting matter. In the appendix will be found a quantity of valuable information and statistics. In the extracts from the report of the Commission appointed to consider the French Navy Estimates for 1886, we note that the French at any rate do not consider their Navy will bear favourable comparison with our own, and further exertions are recommended.

The tonnage of the merchant navies of the principal maritime countries of Europe and the United States are given for each decade since 1830. We should like to have seen this supplemented, if possible, by a return of all the merchant steamers of 14 knots and upwards possessed by these nations. All the illustrations are well executed, and Messrs. Griffin and Co. deserve hearty commendation for the way in which the book has been brought out. Finally, we may state that, though compelled to disagree in many instances with the author, and to criticise freely the compilation of the Naval Annual, we are enabled to assert that no previous work has placed before the public so much useful and varied information as is contained in Lord Brassey’s publication.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Emploi des Mitrailleuses et Canons <1 tir rapide dans les Armies de terre et dans la Marine. Par Gustaf Roos. Sfc. Petersburg, November, 1886, price 2f. 50c.

Elements of Geodesy. By Professor J. Howard Gore, B Sc. New York: Wiley and Son. London: Triibner and Co. 1886, The Theory and Practice of Surveying, designed for the use of Surveyors and Engineers generally, hut specially for Students ' Engineering. By Professor J. B. Johnson, C.E. New York Wiley and Son. London : Trubner and Co.

A NEW TORPEDO BOAT.

in

On Friday last an official trial was made of No. 79 torpedo boat, built by Messrs. Yarrow and Company, Poplar, for the Government, when the speed realised was such as to surpass all previous records of similar craft in the service. The boat loaded in accordance with the Admiralty conditions, and the trial took place below Gravesend. The test consisted of tinuous run of two hours’ duration, during which time six were made on the measured mile at Lower Hope (three with and three against the tide), giving a speed during the entire run of 22'392 knots per hour, the highest recorded pair of miles being over 23 knots. After the above results had been obtained a series of trials were undertaken for manoeuvring power. When going ahead the boat turned in a circle the mean diameter of which was 85 yards in 58 seconds ; when going astern the circle, of which the diameter was 65 yards, was completed in 65 seconds. One important feature of the boat was that when turning it had practically no heel whatever, a matter of great importance with respect to the efficient discharge of torped from the side. It was also exceptionally free from vibration at all speeds, a glass of water full to the brim remaining unspilt the table. The Admiralty authorities express themselves highly pleased with the working of the machinery, and with the performances of the boat, which possesses exceptional speed with remarkable turning powers. Instead of these first-class torpedo-boats being all completed for sea at Portsmouth, the Admiralty have ordered them to be distributed between Chatham, Portsmouth, ana Devonport. Two will be sent to the western port on Saturday, and ten more are to be sent round on receipt at Portsmouth from the contractors. The complete particulars of the boat are as follows :—

Length ..    ..

Beam ..

Mean draught

Load carried

a con-runs

on

125ft. 13ft.

3ft. 4in. 10 tons.

Turning circles—Going ahead: To port, 80 yards diameter, in

59    secs.

To starboard, 90 yards diameter, in 57 secs.

Going astern : Starboard, 70 yards diameter, in 70 secs.

To port, 60 yards d'ameter, in

60    secs.

Vibration -Practically none.

Steam.

Receiver.

Vacuum.

Revs, per minute.

Time.

Speed.

1st

means.

2nd

lbs.

139

139

140

140

140

140

140

140

59

60

60

60

60

62

62

62

ins.

26

20

26

20

26

20

26

26

411

410

400

£98

404

403

401

401

h. m. [ knots. 2 42 ! 22-22

2 31 J 23-84

2 32 ! 23-68

2 54

2 30

2 52

2 SO

2 53

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SMITHFIELD CLUB SHOW —HORIZONTAL ENGINE, WITH SINGLE PROELL CUT-OFF GEAR.

MESSRS. ROBEY AND CO., LINCOLN, ENGINEERS.

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THE SMITHFIELD CLUB SHOW.

Visitors to the Smithfield Club Show in 1886 will find little as regards steam machinery to stimulate their attention. In the old places they will find the old firms, all showing engines so like those they have shown before that only an almost microscopic examination can detect any change. The most noteworthy feature of the whole exhibition is, we think, the manifest progress of improvement in finish. Possibly this is a result of the higher education of engineers, most probably it is not anything of the kind, but rather the result of a growing perception that, given the proper appliances and the knowledge how to use them to the best advantage, it is just as easy and as cheap to make a highly-finished engine as not. But it must not be forgotten that the use of the buffing wheel does not necessarily mean finish; and that a rod is not necessarily round and parallel when it leaves the lathe because it has been burnished. Among certain makers no doubt there is apparently a total lack of intelligence concerning what finish does and does not mean. To these gentlemen, plenty of bright work got up dead smooth, pretty paint subdued in tone and aesthetic in effect, plenty of brass, and probably of nickel plating, imply perfect finish. Need we say that however good these things may be in their way, their presence in no way implies the concomitant existence of true finish, which cannot perhaps be better defined than as form, surface, and material perfectly adapted to the ends which each part of the machine has to fulfil. Now without using a micrometer it would be impossible to say offhand on simple inspection how far a portable or stationary engine is finished in this sense, or in the sense of mere glitter and show | but it is not impossible for any engineer to distinguish broadly between the two; and using this power of discrimination, we have no difficulty in repeating that the engines shown this year in the Agricultural Hall at Islington are on the whole, and, as a class, better finished than usual.

There are no engines in the place which call for any special mention or differ materially from those exhibited at any of the recent shows, nor can we learn that there is much prospect of development in the immediate future. Messrs. Richard Garrett and Sons, of Leiston, show one of their large compound portable engines. Large as it is, however, it is not the largest made by the firm. This is intended for electric light work, and it is fitted with a wrought iron ash-pan, competent to carry the fire-box end when the road wheels are removed. Thus it proves a very handy machine for temporary electric light installations, such as at exhibitions, &c. We understand that the firm are now carrying out experiments of an important character with a view to fitting all their compound engines with balanced slide valves, the use of which has been rendered desirable by the adoption of high-pressure steam. The firm shows two engines, one of which is fitted with Pickering’s patent governor, the other with a modification of the same idea, but really constituting a distinct type of governor, to be regretted that no mathematical investigation of this very peculiar governor has yet been made. It depends for efficiency on two multibladed springs, and the action is complex. When the balls are at the lowest point, their power of compressing the springs is not the greatest, because the springs act to advantage. As the balls rise, the efficiency of position of the springs diminishes, but the efficiency of elasticity augments. The governor is not astatic, but it has much in common with an astatic governor. We have tested an engine fitted with it, which, with the common throttle valve, kept time within less than 2 per cent., while the brake load was reduced 5-horse

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power at a time, from 27-horse power down to 7-horse power. When the load was all taken off, the engine ran 4 per cent, faster than when it was all on. A governor of such simple construction which will do this deserves mathematical investigation.

History, it is said, repeats itself. Messrs. Ilobey and Co. show a little undertype engine, which, small as it is, has indicated 14-horse power. Its nominal power is 4-horse ; it has a boiler closely resembling that used forty years ago by Bury for locomotives—that is to say, there is a vertical cylindrical fire-box shell with a dome top and a horizontal cylindrical barrel. The fire-box is of peculiar shape ; it is a cylinder with a portion of one side flattened to form the tube-plate. The beauty of this boiler is, that there are no stays of any kind in it, and that by taking off the manhole cover on top of the dome the first 15in. in length of the tubes can be sliced down and cleaned in a way not possible in any other form of locomotive boiler with which we are acquainted. The whole boiler is made of steel; there are three plates in the outer fire-box and three in the inner, and some very heavy stamping is necessary to produce the requisite form. Such a boiler would have been impossible ten years ago, because the plant and the material for stamping of this kind hardly existed, except on paper.

Another example of what can be done by stamping is supplied by the very excellent vertical boiler shown by Messrs. Davey, Paxman, and Co., of Colchester. We have recently illustrated this boiler. That shown at the Smith-field Club Show is a large boiler capable of doing a good deal of work.

It would serve no good purpose whatever to give a list of all the engines exhibited, and our notice of them could be nothing more. The only real novelties at the Show the two boilers we have just described. All the well-known firms are exhibitors, and when we say that their engines will fully maintain their respective reputations, or enhance them, we have said all that is necessary or likely to interest our readers.

Of traction engines a considerable number is shown, Messrs. Edington, of Chelmsford, have made a considerable advance on their past efforts. The fly-wheel of their engine is a wrought iron disc with a cast iron angle rim. In spring wheels only two types seem to survive of the multitudes that have appeared at various times—those, namely, of MacLaren and Aveling and Porter. The former are those fitted to a traction engine by Messrs. MacLaren, of Hunslet, the latter to engines by Messrs. Aveling and Porter, Fowler of Leeds, and Burrell of Thetford. The last-named firm show an engine new in certain details, or rather proportions, the brasses being made very long, and the wearing surfaces augmented all over the engine. It is a noteworthy proof of excellence, and the confidence which exellence inspires in the maker’s own breast, that Messrs. Burrell are now giving guarantees of as much as seven years with their traction engines, barring the fire boxes, as a matter of course, which no one in his senses would think of guaranteeing.

The whole number of engines shown, stationary, portable, fixed, &c., is probably quite equal to anything seen at the Smithfield Club before, all the makers being very fully represented.

Messrs. Robey and Co. exhibit a 10-horse fixed engine, fitted with Proell expansion of the single form, which acts upon one equilibrium throttle valve only, as shown by the accompanying engraving. In this the gear is shown as applicable to any existing engine, the gear acting as a dead beat throttle valve, cutting off the steam as it enters the steam chest. Some idea of satisfactory working of the

arrangement may be gathered from the two diagrams annexed, taken with the engine running heavy and light. The Proell gear, as applied to double-ported valves and

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a circular equilibrium valve was given in The Engineer of December 11th, 1885.

Messrs. John Fowler and Co. exhibit a balance plough, in which the supporting axle is carried in a slot, as shown in the accompanying engraving; so that although the axle

may be set in the centre of the slot, as indicated by dotted lines, the plough being then balanced and in trim for travelling, it is put out of balance by the pull upon the hauling rope, which causes the axle to take one end of the slot. In the diagram the plough is being hauled in the direction of the arrow c, and the axle has taken the position shown, and the plough is consequently considerably out of balance, the part B being the heavier. By this very simple means the plough is more easily kept in the ground than when the part which is making the furrows is balanced by the part A which is up in the air.

Messrs. Garrett and Sons exhibit one of their well-known thrashing machines, to which they have fitted road wheels which are combination wood and iron, the spokes being fitted with nuts which screw against large collars bearing the inside of the felloe. They may thus be set out tight and any shrinkage easily taken up, thus securing the advantages of the iron centre and spokes with that of the wood felloe, and overcoming the objections to wood wheels in hot climates.

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Messrs. J. and F. Howard exhibit their sheaf binding apparatus as attached to thrashing machines for trussing straw, and they show a very simple form of cradle attached at the rear of one of their sheaf binding reapers, so as to receive and drop the sheaves with a very slight fall and at intervals, which may be determined by the driver, or held whilst passing round corners or over thin patches. Messrs. Howard also show specimens of their excellent light railway for farm, plantation, and contractors’ purposes. This is the simplest light metallic railway made, and ought to find extensive application, and could no doubt be used for permanent way of considerable weight.

Among the new exhibitors are Messrs. Philip Pierce and Co., of Wexford. This firm exhibits a remarkably well finished mowing machine, apart from the aesthetic ornamentation. It has enclosed gearing well made, and a good arrangement for putting in and out of gear. The same firm exhibit a section of an American tumbler horse rake, as made by them, with the teeth so fastened that half of them may be readily removed when the rake is required only for gathering, or they may be replaced in a few minutes if required for raking. Messrs. Pierce and Co.

probably the only makers of these inplements in Ireland, but these show what may be done on the other side of the St. George’s Channel.

Mr. W.. Bone exhibits an ingenious corn and seed separator, in which an inclined jog tray A is made of pieces jointed like a roller shutter, and travelling over rollers B and B'. These pieces are covered with perforated zinc,

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rises, because the spaces in connection with it decrease until the end of the downstroke. As the piston moves upward again the pressure remains approximately constant—there is a slight difference, due to the piston-rod, but we need not consider this. The result is the triangular-shaped diagram shown, and the point at issue is whether it is to be added to or subtracted from the power. Let us turn for a moment to the low-pressure cylinder; the atmospheric pressure on the under side of the low-pressure piston acts for the engine on the upstroke and against the engine on the downstroke, and as it is equal in each case it is not usually indicated. But if on the down stroke only the atmospheric pressure could be wholly or partially removed, there would be a gain in power, because there would be less pressure on the under side of

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power of the engine, because it could only operate against the descent of the piston. It now appears that the small diagram is not a receiver horse-power diagram at all, the indicator on the receiver really being employed solely for the purpose of obtaining the true bottom line of the high-pressure card. Instead of showing positive pressure against the high-pressure piston, it really shows negative pressure in favour of the high-pressure piston. There is, of course, no analogy whatever between this diagram and one taken from the receiver of an ordinary compound engine. Engineers never speak of the horse-power of a condenser. If they did, we should take the words to mean the power due to the difference between the condenser pressure and absolute vacuum, and that is the sense in which we understood the words “receiver horsepower.” We can, we think, make what takes place still clearer than Mr. Willans has done by the aid of the accompanying diagram.

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and the holes in the zinc are carried a'slight distance into the wood. The rollers and tray together receive a reciprocating movement of short range. Barley fed on the upper part of the separator tray gradually finds its way off at the bottom, but any seeds and broken grain it may tain are carried to the top by the holes and then dropped off.

Mr. T. Corbett shows a winnowing and dressing machine, in which the sieves receive a rectilinear reciprocation instead of: an angular motion as is usual, mounted in this way will perform more work in a given time, as the movement is the same in every part, instead of varying from a very small movement at the receiving end to a maximum at the outer end, as in the usual swing and pivot mounting.

the piston against the engine than there was for it. In the case of the high-pressure cylinder, in Fig. 1, these are the precise conditions : During the downstroke the pressure acting against the engine, and indicated by the lower line of the receiver diagram E P G, is less than that acting for the engine on the upstroke, and shown by the upper line EG. I do not add the actual pressure in the receiver to the power of the engine, but I take into account the power which is developed by the variati in pressure under the high-pressure piston, in the same manner as I take into account the power developed in a similar way above it. You deduct the power resulting from the difference in pressure, believing, apparently, that you are deducting the receiver back pressure on the downstroke, and you draw certain conclusions from the resulting figures, pressure on the piston, you indicated in

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which is virtually the true diagram for the high pressure cylinder, with the ordinates for calculation properly extended. The dotted line represents the up or idle stroke when steam is passing from above the high-pressure piston below it. It answers to the atmospheric line in a condensing engine. No one would think of calculating the two separately in an ordinary engine, and calling all above the line cylinder horse-power, and all below it condenser horse-power. In Mr. Willans’ engine what has been called receiver horse-power is really high-pressure cylinder horse-power and nothing else. We regret that we have been led into error, and so unintentionally did Mr. Willans’ engine an injustice.—Ed. E.]

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Had you really deducted the back would have deducted a power almost the high-pressure cylinder, instead of 9-horse power merely. However, you good-naturedly compromise the matter, and let me off finally without any deduction at all. This, however, is very illogical; for referring to the receiver pressure, you say“ At one time it is neutral, at the other it gives back pressureand such a state of things cannot be ignored. Your sentence, taken by itself, correctly describes the facts ; but you forget that one of the opposing pressures which, so to speak, causes the neutrality on the upstroke—viz., the pressure against the piston, has already been taken into account in the high-pressure diagram.

Treating the matter as a ledger account, we have

PISTON VALVES FOR HIGH-SPEED ENGINES.

equal to that

In space.

For the engine.

Against the engine.

Pressure indicated by line A B D.

(Pressure indicated by ) line A C D. Balance

shown on H.P. diagram.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions of Correspondents.]

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Pressure indicated by line MIL.

/Pressure indicated by I line MIL, Balance

shown on L.P. diagram.

THE EFFICIENCY OF SINGLE-ACTING ENGINES.

Sir,—Referring to your leader last week on the “ The Efficiency of Single-acting Engines,” after following the course of the steam from the high-pressure cylinder to the receiver, and from the receiver to the low-pressure cylinder, you go on to say:—“ If this is the cycle of the engine, then the receiver power is to be deducted from the total power.” . . “If it is not the cycle, then we entirely fail to understand what is.” . . “ If it is, then there was no more reason for taking a diagram from the receiver than there is for taking one from any compound engine receiver. Indeed, there is less, &c. &c.”

These three alternative methods of treating the matter are rather confusing. The first and third begin, “ If it is the cycle,” and lead apparently to very different conclusions; the first being that the receiver diagram ought to be deducted, and the third that there is no reason for taking such a diagram. Surely, if it is to be deducted, that is a reason for taking it. The conclusion to which the second alternative leads hardly helps matters. The fact is “ it is the cycle ”—that is to say, you correctly trace the course of the steam, but at the same time you “ entirely fail to understand ” its effect upon the power of the engine. The receiver diagram ought neither to be ignored nor deducted, but it must be added.

You ask me to favour your readers with an explanation, and I will endeavour to do so. The enclosed diagrams will explain the action of the engine. In Fig. 1, H is the high-pressure cylinder, R is the receiver, and L is the low-pressure cylinder. Fig. 2 shows the diagrams from these three spaces, the arrows show the direction in which the piston is travelling as each line is traced. The steam enters—and is expanded in—H during the downstoke; in the course of the upstroke it is transferred to R; and during the early part of the following downstroke it enters L, W///////////WA and during the latter part of the stroke it expands there. During the next succeeding upstroke it passes away—in the case of the Chelmsford engine—into 1J the atmosphere. Each of the three g| variable spaces H, L, and R, must be indicated, because the varying pressures in each affect the power of the engine. If H there is variation in pressure on the lower side of the high-pressure piston, it must tell either for or against the engine. It cannot be ignored. Either therefore—to FIC->    take your rough figures—the engine

using 27 lb. of water per indicated horsepower per hour, or it was using 23’2.

Engineers do not usually indicate the variations in pressure in the receiver of an ordinary double-acting compound engine, for the cylinder diagrams already show them so far as they affect each side of each piston. In this case, however, unless we take a diagram from the lower side of the high-pressure piston, we have no means of ascertaining the varying pressures which affect it during its upward and downward movement. There is therefore every reason for taking such a diagram. V ou say that there is less reason than in other cases, because “ the high-pressure cylinder only plays the part of a valve chest to the low-pressure cylinder.” I shall be obliged if you will explain what you mean by this, and what bearing it has on the point at issue.

Until, on the downward stroke, the steam is cut off from L, the capacity of R is increasing and the pressure there is falling in con-sequence. As soon as steam is cut off from L the pressure in R

Pressure indicated by line E G.

(Pressure indicated by j ' line E F G. Balance I shown on R. dia-I gram.

The three diagrams thus show the balance of power after deducting back pressure. You take no exceptions to items 1 and 2, viz., the H.P. and L.P. card, but for 3 you substitute :—

Sir,—In a leader in your issue of the 9 th of July last, you deal very exhaustively with the difficulties encountered in the running of marine engines at high speed. In dealing with the problems in connection with the working of piston valves now so extensively used, you allude to the law of momentum which comes into play, and does not admit of being combated by compression or lead, as in the case of the main pistons. Now, Sir, I propose to get over that difficulty by providing an air cushion for the valve at the end of each stroke. If you think this worth a place in the pages of The Engineer, you might insert it for the benefit of your readers. It may perhaps lead others more able than I pretend to be into a similar line of thought, for much may yet be done to render a marine engine more effective.

This plan of mine consists in an air cylinder with openings or ports in the centre, bolted firmly on top of the valve casing; the valve spindle to run up through a stuffing-box in the top of casing and into air cylinder. Now in place of the usual balance piston there is a piston fitted on the end of valve spindle to work in air cylinder. We will suppose the valve on the upstroke, when the piston passes the opening in the cylinder, the imprisoned air will

act as an elastic buffer and send the valve down again. The same thing occurs at the bottom ; so no matter what the speed at which the engines run, the valve returns smoothly and easily without any extra strain whatever on the gearing.

ML

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For the engine.

Against the engine.

Pressures indicated by line E G, being the upward pressure on upstroke. Leaving a balance of pressure against the engine, shown by line E F G.

I Neutralised by pressures | indi cated by line A C D, )• being the downward pressures on the upstroke.

It is this balance which puzzles you, and no wonder, for if four be substituted for three in my ledger account, it will be seen that A C D is charged twice over, although it only occurs once in the revolution. The high-pressure cylinder diagram shows the mean pressure in that cylinder, but in explaining the action of the steam from the point of view of its positive and negative action on the piston at any one time, you must also consider what is beneath it. If you take the pressures above and below the piston on the down-stroke in the same way as you take them on the upstroke, you will find that they show a power considerably in excess of that shown by the high-pressure diagram. Fig. 3 shows this graphically. The outline of the whole diagram gives the true net pressures for the engine on the downstroke. The outline of the sectioned central part shows the true net pressures against the engine on the up-

I send a sketch along with this which will show my meaning at a glance. A A, opening in centre of cylinder for admission of air; B B, valve spindle going down through packing box on top of steam chest, and through piston valve to quadrant below cylinder; C C, feet by which air cylinder is attached to top of steam chest. The rest explains itself.

I will at an early date, with your permission, refer to the effect produced on the main pistons by this same air cushioning.

240, Gallow-gate, Glasgow, December 6th. Michael Smith.

[Air cushions have already been used by Mr. Willans for much the same purpose.—Ed. E.]

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stroke. Of course, the result is the same whether you look at Fig. 1 or Fig. 3; but you, in your article, introduce a little bit of both, and of course they overlap and bother you. No doubt recent editorial struggles with engines which produce unusual diagrams from unexpected places cannot fail to have made both you and your readers suspicious ; but what I have said will probably be sufficient to show that it is right to count the receiver diagrams as power, instead of either ignoring or deducting them. I may add that the matter was very thoroughly discussed before the report was prepared. As to further and more exhaustive trials, we are now, as we said last week, making preparations for such trials, and we shall be glad to afford you any facilities you like for witnessing them.

London, December 8th.    p. W. Willans.

[We and Mr. Willans have been at cross purposes, due to the use of the words “ receiver horse-power ” in the report of Mr. Macfar-lane Gray and Mr. Liveing. As we understood the report, the small diagram was held to represent power developed beneath the high-pressure cylinder, and this must be deducted from the total

THE TAY BRIDGE STORM.

Sir,—The violent storm of the 28th December, 1879, which resulted in the dreadful Tay Bridge disaster, is, I doubt not, still fresh in the memory of many of your readers, few of whom would imagine even that this storm—in common with many others—was predicted, as the press at the time will show, eleven days in advance, by the late Mr. George Jinman, F.R.G.S., F.M.S., &c., who had made the science of meteorology an especial study. Mr. George Jinman discovered the fact that the law of the circulation of atmosphere is as perfect as the law which governs the solar system —the basis of the law being this—the earth is girded parallel to, and at right angles with the magnetic equator by certain magnetic and electric cloud bands and earth bands, and it is by their revolutions, crossings, reversings, and changes, that all atmospheric changes are produced; a knowledge of which law enabled him to calculate with mathematical precision the return of all our principal storms, weeks, months, and even years, in advance.    My principal object in now addressing you is

to inform you that, by a reference to certain documents, it would appear that the due period for the return of this particular storm, which Mr. Jinman named the Eurydice, from the fact that the loss of that ship occurred at the same periodical return, is the 20th of this month, and therefore may be expected to revisit the North of Scotland and North Sea between the 19th and 21st inst., accompanied by the usual barometrical depression of about 29'5.

A. Wilson.

72, Bethune-road, Stamford Hill, London, N., Dec. 6th.

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SUGAR IN MORTAR.

SlR,—I have read with interest your extract from the Times newspaper regarding the action of sugar on mortar. I first heard of its use about a year ago, when I had occasion to lay some tile hearths in my house. The workman who was doing this asked for and obtained sugar to mix with the cement; but his reason for using it was, he said, to delay the setting of the cement, which, being spread thinly over the hearth, would otherwise set too fast. Your extract appears to show that the exact opposite is the case; still, it is interesting to lay both views before you. It is also curious that a workman should so far fall into an error of this kind, when one would suppose the result to be so readily seen. I can only add that the hearths are perfectly and successfully laid.

December 7th.

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EAILWAY MATTEKS.

NOTES AND MEMOKANDA.

MISCELLANEA.

Improvement in trade is shown by the order by the London and North-Western Bailway Company that the men in several of the largest shops are to work on Saturdays.

The Girvan and Portpatrick Bailway has been acquired by an anonymous purchaser for £155,000. By the articles of sale, the directors are bound not to disclose the name of the buyer.

In Western Australia the ceremony of cutting the first sod of the Albany and Beverley land grant railway, promoted by the late Mr. Hordern, was recently performed by the Governor. Three hundred navvies from England, engaged for railway construction purposes, have arrived at Hobart by the Gulf of St. Vincent.

The extension of the Nizam’s State Bail way into British territory is to be proceeded with as rapidly as possible. To avoid any delay in the transfer of the land a separate revenue officer will be deputed for the special work. The Mandalay Bailway is, the Colonies and India says, said to have been sold to a private company, who are to take it over when the country is settled.

After experimenting with iron and steel sleepersfor several years, the directors of the North-Eastern Bail way Company seem to have made up their minds to test them on a more extensive scale. They have, it is said, given out an order for 20,000, or enough to lay a length of somewhat more than eleven miles; and have intimated their intention of increasing the order four-fold if satisfied with the result of the trial of the lot first supplied.

The following cases were reported among the accidents on our railways during the first three quarters of this year, but they involved no personal injury :—1 case of a train coming in contact with a projection from a wagon; 640 failures of tires; 1 failure of a wheel; 164 broken rails; 16 floodings of the permanent way; 13 slips in cuttings or embankments; 5 fires in trains; 4 fires at stations or involving injury to bridges or viaducts; and 3 other accidents.

Mr. Siemens has stated that a sample of his glass sleepers, tested at the Anderston Foundry Company, Glasgow, “resisted a falling weight of 3f cwt. falling upon a rail placed upon the sleeper set in sand ballast, commencing at 6in. and rising by succeeding increments of 6in. up to Oft. 6in.—the maximum elevation to which the test ram could be elevated—without effect until the blow had been repeated for the sixth time. Cast iron sleepers are expected to withstand a similar test up to 7ft. only. The cost of glass sleepers will be considerably less than those of either cast iron or steel, while the material is practically imperishable.”

Last February, in consequence of the breaking of a tire, the wheels of the third car from the rear of a passenger train running between Berlin and Breslau, on one of the Prussian State lines, got off the track. The conductor finding the bell cord fast with ice, passed along the footboard at the side of the car to the next to the last car, which, like the others except the one off the track, was provided with the Carpenter brake, and set the brake, stopping the train. The management of this railroad, with the approval of the Minister of Public Works, has given him 200 marks—48 dols.— “ in recognition of his courageous behaviour and the devotion to duty manifested, by which he saved the passengers from injury and the railroad from loss.”

Of the 640 tires which failed during the nine months ending September 30th, on our railways, 13 were engine-tires, 4 were tender-tires, 18 were carriage-tires, 8 were van-tires, and 597 wagon-tires; of the wagons, 437 belonged to owners other than the railway companies; 546 tires were made of iron, 92 of steel, and in two cases the material was not stated; 21 of the tires were fastened to their wheels by Gibson’s patent method, one of which left its wheel when it failed; 27 by Mansell’s, one of which left its wheel when it failed; 3 by Beattie’s patent method, 1 of which left its wheel when it failed ; 584 by bolts or rivets, 4 of which left their wheels when they failed; and 5 by other methods, 1 of which left its wheel when it failed; 34 tires broke at rivet holes, 7 at the weld, 100 in the solid, and 499 split longitudinally or bulged.

Bailway companies occasionally take the place of town improvement commissioners, and make places more attractive, whether they like it or not. It is said that the North British Bailway Company has decided to enhance the attractions of Silloth by various developments and improvements. A great stretch of greensward between the parade and the sea is to be broken up and' planted, and the whole appearance of the town will be completely metamorphosed. The local authorities will support the movement of the railway company by planting the streets of the town with avenue trees. It may be mentioned also that the Belfast Steam-ship Company has decided to put on a line of steamers between Belfast and Silloth, in connection with the North British Railway, to meet the requirements of traffic for and from the North of England.

- *i1L'ZAY enterprise }n the colony of West Australia was initiated

5 ®y the completion of a local line thirty-four miles in length, of 3ft. 6in. gauge, connecting the town and mining district of Northampton with the port of Geraldton, Champion Bay, at a cost on an average of £4364 per mile. Owing in great part to the fall in price of copper and lead, and consequent prostration of the mining industries, the traffic has proved unremunerative, and as yet very little progress has been made towards opening up the interior of this large colony, for the only other public line which has been opened for traffic is the main line termed the “Eastern Bailway, commencing at Fremantle, a seaport town at the mouth of the Swan Biver, twelve miles below Perth, the capital, and terminating at the town of York, the entire length being sixty-eight miles. The cost of the first twenty miles averaged £6223 per

were

The introduction of railways into the Colony of Queensland dates from the year 1864, when a commencement was made with the line which connects Brisbane with the western cities of the plains, and with those on the southern border of the Colony of New South TV ales. At the outset the 3ft. 6in. was adopted as the standard gauge. The greatest obstacle to railway communication with the interior was the precipitous main coast mountain range; but this has been, at considerable cost, surmounted by gradients not steeper than 1 in 50 carried around the spurs of the through tunnels and

mountains,

,    , ,or.    deep gorges; 1339 miles are opened

lor traffic, 139 miles are under construction, and 279 miles have legislative sanction. The cost of the lines now at work has averaged £6654 per mile. The cost per mile of lines has ranged from £2034 on the Clermont branch to £21,019 on the Brisbane and Ipswich line. The working expenses have averaged 52 per cent, on gross receipts.

The American Sanitary Engineer says:—“ The uniform history of every line running north and south in New York City has been a moderate traffic at first, which has rapidly developed until new lines have had to be built. TVhen a committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers had the matter of rapid transit under discussion, they after a very full survey of the whole field reached the conclusion that the only chance of getting a road built at all was to make it for the lightest locomotives and the lightest cars that could be safely run and do the business then anticipated, thus requiring the least practicable weight of metal in the structure itself. So rapidly did the business increase, however, after the road- was in operation, that very soon heavier locomotives were obtained, and a process of strengthening begun, which has been continued to the present time. Of course, this cannot go on indefinitely since it will be difficult to strengthen the joints of pin connections, &c., without a virtual renewal of the structures. The “s comewhen one or more underground railroads maybe undertaken with every prospect of their being financially success-

can    18 eV67 reason ,t0 suPP°se that by the time they

for the traffic¹’’6 Pr6Sent meanS °f transit wiU be entirely inadequate

across

The deaths registered last week in twenty-eight great towns of England and Wales corresponded to an annual rate of 21'0 per 1000 of their aggregate population, which is estimated at 9,093,817 persons in the middle of this year.

The production of borax in America in 1885, limited to California and Nevada, was 8,000,0001b.; value, at 6 cents per lb. for concentrated, 480,000 dols. While the product increased by 1,000,000, the fall in price lowered the total value by 10,000 dols.

In a recent lecture Professor Austen Boberts said bar of tin 2ft. long and lin. thick, which it would be most difficult to break, though it would readily bend double. If only I rub a little quicksilver on its surface a remarkable effect will be produced, the fluid metal will penetrate the solid one, and in a few seconds the bar will, as you see, break readily, the fractured surface being white, like silver.”

In London 2414 births—one every 4'3 minutes—and 1618 deaths—one every 6 minutes—were registered last week. The annual death-rate per 1000 from all causes, which had been 17'4 and 19‘4 in the two preceding weeks, rose last week to 20 3. During the first nine weeks of the current quarter the death-rate averaged 17'8 per 1GC0, and was 2’8 below the mean rate in the corresponding periods of the ten years 1876-85.

The number of miles of streets at present containing mains constantly charged, from which constant supply could be given, and upon which hydrants for fire purposes could be fixed, in each district of London, is as follows:—Kent, about 85 miles; New Biver, about 255; East London, 180; Southwark and Vauxhall, 160; West Middlesex, 107^; Grand Junction, 82; Lambeth, 2171; Chelsea, 74; making a total length of about 1160^ miles. The companies are ready to give constant supply and to affix hydrants whenever legally required to do so.

A useful alloy of aluminum and tin has been obtained by M. Bourbouze, by melting together 100 parts of the former metal with ten parts of the latter. This alloy is whiter than aluminum, and has a density of 2⁻85, a little greater than that of the pure metal, so t lat it is not too heavy to replace aluminum in instruments requiring great lightness of their parts. It is less affected by reagents, &c., than is aluminum, and also is more easily worked. Another of its merits is that it can be soldered as easily as brass without any special preparation.

To increase the flashing temperature of petroleum lamp oils has long been a problem unsolved; but the Boston Advertiser says it “ appears now to have been solved by Charles Tappan, of Salem. Laboratory experiments give full assurance that the new oil can be produced on a large scale at a cost not materially, if at all, greater than attends the manufacture of the corresponding oils now in use, and with a facility not less. The new oil, as used for illumination, ranks with sperm oil. Like that, it requires no chimney, and burns best with the same sort of wick, that is, a loose wick moving easily in the tube or socket.” It is not stated how this is done, so no notion of its truth can be gathered.

According to a paper on “ Absorption-spectra of Oxygen,” by J. Janssen—Compt. Rendus—oxygen not only gives the spect of fine lines described by Egoroff, but also a series of shaded bands very difficult to resolve. This second spectrum appears much later than the first at moderate pressures, but developes rapidly the density increases, and soon predominates over the line spectrum. Each spectrum can be obtained independently of the other. When the density of the gas and the thickness of the absorbing layer both vary, the intensity of the absorption bands does not vary in proportion to the product of the density into the thickness of the layer, but in proportion to the product of the thickness into the square of the density.

One of the largest safes which have, it is said, been made in this district, has just been manufactured for the Duchy of Lancaster by George Price’s Safe, Lock, and Engineering Company, Wolverhampton. Its dimensions are 16ft. by 9ft. 6in. by 7ft., and its weight is about 20 tons. The walls are 4in. thick, of inner and outer plates, strengthened and secured together by a special section of steel and iron angled framing chambered throughout with patent fire-resisting composition chambers; the interior is divided into 200 compartments, and is finally secured by a ventilating gate.

From a solution of bismuth sulphate containing free sulphuric acid, the metal can be completely and rapidly deposited by the current, in the cold state. The presence of ferrous, ferric, nickel, cobalt, and manganese salts do not interfere; neither do alumina, chromium, cadmium, uranium, or zinc compounds. The current gave 1 to 3'5c.c. of electrolytic gas per minute, the time required varied from a-half to three hours. Mercury may be completely separated from solutions of the nitrate, in presence of a small amount of free nitric acid, in a-half to three-quarters of an hour with a current giving 4 c.c. of electrolytic gas per minute. When separating zinc and cadmium in acetic acid solution, the current should not give more than 0'1 c.c. of gas per minute. In tartaric acid solution, the deposition of metal is very rapid at first; the last traces are, however, difficult to remove.

The way in which an alloy of gold and copper is affected by a small quantity of impurity presents one of the most serious difficulties in working gold. It has been known since the seventh century that minute quantities of certain metals render gold brittle, and in a lecture at Birmingham Professor Austen Boberts said “ it may be well te.demonstrate the fact. Here are 200 sovereigns. I will melt them and will add in the form of a tiny shot a minute portion of lead amounting to only the 2000th part of the mass, first, however, pouring a little of the gold into a small ingot, which we can bend and flatten, thus proving to you that it is perfectly soft, ductile, and workable. The rest of the mass we will pour into a ber, and now that it is sufficiently cold to handle, you see that I am able to break it with my fingers, or at least with a light tap of a hammer. The colour of the gold is quite altered, and has become orange-brown, and experiments have shown that the tenacity of the metal—that is, the resistance of the gold to being pulled asunder, has been reduced from 18 tons per square inch to only 5 tons. These essential changes in the property of the metal have been produced by the addition of a minute quantity of lead.”

At a recent meeting of the Physical Society a paper was read on the critical mean curvature of liquid surfaces of revolution, by Professor A. W. Flicker, M.A., F.B.S. The paper is chiefly mathematical, and deals with liquid surfaces of revolution attached to two circular rings, the planes of which are at right angles to the line joining their centres. By “ mean curvature,” the author designates half the sum of the reciprocals of the two principal radii of curvature of the surfaces. Maxwell has shown in his article on ‘ Capillary Action”—Enc. Brit— that if the film be a cylinder, a slight bulge will cause an increase or decrease in the mean curvature according as the length is < or > ? times the diameter. If

- d, then a small change in the volume of the surface will

modify its form, but will not alter the mean curvature. Thus the mean curvature of such a cylinder is evidently a maximum or minimum with respect to that of other surfaces of constant mean curvatures which pass through the same two rings at the same distance apart, and which differ but little from the cylindrical forms; hence the cylinder may be said to have a criticalmean curvature when

the distances between the rings is ^ times their diameter. If the

distance between the rings is altered, a similar property is possessed by some other surface. The author’s paper investigates the general relation between the magnitude and distance apart of the nngs, and the form of the surfaces of critical curvature,

“ Here is a

rum

The use of gas in New York is extending rapidly, although lighting by electricity is increasing.

We are asked to state that the stone breaker which we illustrated in our last impression is not a rotary, but a gyratory continuous action machine,

The Works Committee of the Harbour Trusts of Victoria have, it is stated, rejected some of Sir John Coode’s plans for proposed dock construction in the West Melbourne Swamp.

During November the new vessels launched on the Clyde numbered twelve, with an aggregate of 16,960 tons, as compared with nine vessels of 13,485 tons in the corresponding month of last year. The output of the eleven months has been 162,482, against 171,084 tons in 1885.

On the 25th of June, 1887, an agricultural exhibition is to be opened at Brussels, under the patronage of the Belgian Government. The exhibition will consist of cattle and sheep, and of farming and dairy instruments. Animals and machines will be admitted from all countries.

One man was killed and several were injured by an explosion that occurred last week at Kydal Tunnel, a portion of the works in connection with the Thirlmere water scheme of the Manchester Corporation. A man named Kichardson was driving a charge of blasting powder home when it exploded.

The executive of the Newcastle Jubilee Exhibition have agreed that steps should be taken to increase the guarantee fund, which now stands at £34,000. Sir Lowthian Bell reported that the North-Eastern Bail way Company would lend the rails required for conveying heavy machinery, &c., to the exhibition.

Old coasters in the Bristol Channel are taking exception to structing a harbour of refuge at Lundy Island, or on the Welsh coast, and strongly advocate St. Ives, on the Cornish, be a good deal of discussion before this point is settled, but apparently the authorities in Wales are bent upon doing something.

Prospectuses are being published by Mr. Samson Barnett, of 4, Westminster-chambers, of a naval and colonial engineering exhibition to be held in London from the 7th to the 24th April next year, and to include marine, mining, agricultural, railway, contractors’ and other branches of engineering and manufactures.

The following, from the American Mechanical Engineer, illustrates the necessity for legible writing:—“In the article ‘Before the Inspector,’ the concluding line says‘ The heat which they impart has first to be received from and constantly renewed by the furnace itself to be coated.’ The last three words were a puzzle to us, until we recalled that we wrote ‘ to be continued ’ at the end of the article.”

What is said to be th# largest cargo of wheat ever carried by one vessel was received in Liverpool last week. It consisted of 200,000 bushels, weighing about 5100 tons, and was brought from Bombay by Messrs. E. Bates and Son’s new steamer Iran. This enormous quantity of East India wheat, together with 260 tons of cotton, also included in the cargo, was landed in the Waterloo grain warehouses in twenty-three hours.

In the production of coal Victoria expects to be a large competitor in a few years. Last year six bores in search of coal

put down at Cape Patterson, and in four of these were found seams varying in thickness from a few inches to 2ft. lOin. Coal deposits are known to exist in many other places. At Mirbooa seam 5ft. thick has been discovered, and of this seam a block 5ft. long, 2ft. 6in. wide, and 3ft. 2in. deep, figured at the recent Colonial Exhibition.

were

con-

There will

seams

At a meeting of the Waterworks Committee of the Leeds Corporation, which took place on the 3rd inst., it was reported that a result of the boring operations at the Eccup reservoir the leakage had been reduced to 542,000 gallons per day. The Leeds Mercury says the last time the reservoir was at its present height was on the 31st of December, 1885, when the leakage was 1,646,000 gallons per day, showing a saving, as a result of the boring operations, of 1,104,000 gallons per day.

A very serious explosion and fire occurred at Gateshead on the 3rd inst., resulting in a sad loss of life as well as of property. It was at the works of the Bedheugh Tar Products Company, a considerable part of which was burnt to the ground. When the roofs fell in two workmen were buried among the debris, and the manager, Mr. Chinnery, and a workman named Clark, received such injuries that both died shortly after. Besides these fatal accidents, there were a great many more of a less severe character.

Metal is now being substituted for cardboard in bookbinding. This novelty is known as the “ British Pellisfort ” binding, and it consists in the use of thin sheet metal for covers. The metal is specially prepared, and the cover may be bent and straightened again without perceptible damage. It may, in fact, be safely subjected to such treatment as would destroy ordinary covers. The metal is covered with the leather usually employed in bookbinding, and the finished book presents no difference in appearance except in the greater thinness of the cover.

Sir Andrew Barclay Walker, Bart., has communicated to Lord Derby, President of the University College, Liverpool, his wish to make the College a very handsome gift. From his letter we extract the following:—“It has come to my knowledge that there is urgent need for a building with efficient equipment for the engineering school of your College. I shall esteem it a privilege to be permitted to defray the cost of such a building, with the sary machinery and appliances, to the extent of £15,000. This sum, Professor Hele Shaw informs me, is ample to make the institution one of the most efficient in the kingdom.”

neces-

Ironmasters and others doing business with the Australias receive with satisfaction the announcement that Mr. Stanhope has sent a circular letter to the governors of the colonies under responsible Government, proposing that early next year there shall be held in London, under the presidency of the Secretary of State, a conference of representatives of the principal colonies. The Conference is to be convened to discuss (1) the defence of the colonies, and (2) the means of improved communication between the colonies and the mother-country. It is held that frequent intercourse between England and her colonies would certainly promote trade, while as to the defences, more cannot well be done in that direction without its subserving the interests of the iron and steel industry. The 170,000,000 sterling which now represents the import and export trade between this country and the colonies is capable, it is maintained, of vast extension— an extension from which the metal industries would be the first to benefit.

Electric lighting has been adopted in the corn mill of the Leeds Industrial Co-operative Society. The installation consists of of Crompton’s No. 15 compound self-regulating dynamo machines, capable of driving 450 lights—16 candle-power each—and is fitted with belt driving gear capable of transmitting 45 horse-power. The lamps are Swan and Edison’s, but only 220 are at present in use. The lights are divided into four circuits. The installation has been carried out by Mr. Wilson Hartnell, of Leeds, who has made the lighting of corn mills a speciality. The main switch board, which is for six switches, is of slate, and is Hartnell’s patent. The dynamo countershaft is connected with both of the mill engines, so that the light is independent of either. The wires are heavily insulated, and the branches to each lamp are furnished with fusible cut-outs, and the whole arranged so as to be absolutely safe. Mr. Hartnell has also completed the lighting of Messrs. Belben’s mill at Poole. This latter consists of over 100 lights, distributed over the whole mill,

a more

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would escape around the edge,

P.: Yes, and downwards. S.: With two motions in the direction of the two components, resulting in its actual path on the downward slant. If we suppose the parallel component to be cut out of the activity by being neutralised, motion would continue on the normal line c d under the action of the normal component, and a b would be the horizon of the body. Nothing is more easily done. A bird’s wing performs the task beautifully. In the first place, it is very long, so that when the air rushes along the under surface from the centre to escape, it must issue either in front or rear, but little escaping over the ends. The ledge in front, and the general construction of the feathers, retards the compressed air as much as possible, while to the rear it escape easily. The

I. Lancaster.

J. F. Waddington and Co.

Hydraulicus.

WATERWORKS EXTENSIONS—LONGWATER.

Contract No. 3.

.. 3648 0

©OC^OI-'I-'OO©^

WATERWORKS EXTENSIONS—LONGWATER.

Contract No. 2.

Goddard and Massey, Nottingham Gimson and Co., Leicester ..    ..

Glenfield Iron Company, Kilmarnock Lilleshall Iron Company, Thefnall ..

G.    Waller and Co., Southwark

Wood Bros., Sowerby Bridge ..    ..

H.    Ainsworth, Dewsbury......

Tannet, Walker, and Co., Leeds

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

(Continued from page 471.)

RAILWAY BRIDGE OVER THE RIACHUELO.

Sir,—I willingly comply with the request contained in Mr. Gribble’s last letter, and beg to give the following explanation in proof of the statement contained in my letter of the 17th November, which statement was to the effect that the member of the main truss of the above bridge marked A I is a tie, and cannot under any condition of loading be subjected to compressive stresses.

I would first point out that there is no uncertainty as to the stress upon H A, as will at once be seen if the single external force acting on the truss at the abutment, namely, the vertical reaction, is resolved in the direction H A, H I; the compression upon H A is thus determined. Next, let us consider the effect of

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a uniform load upon the various members of the truss. This is perhaps best shown by diagram, adopting Professor Clerk Maxwell’s well-known method of the polygon of forces, with which Mr. Cribble is no doubt conversant. *

The stress diagram for a uniform load assumes the form shown in Fig. 1, from which it will be seen that the stress upon A I is tensile in nature, and is in amount, as stated in my previous letter, equal to the unit of load applied at I. Now let us construct a diagram, taking all the points as loaded excepting I, which is the condition shown by Mr. Gribble’s sketch. The polygon then assumes the form shown by Fig. 2, and the stress upon A I is nil, whereas on the right-hand side of the truss the corresponding member A¹1¹ is again subjected to a tensile stress equal to the load applied at I¹. The same result will be found for all conditions of loading. It will, I think, be found impossible to close the

IS w„ n ,*w

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Ti polygon if an element is introduced representing compressive stress upon A I, and I am completely at a loss to conceive how shearing stresses can be conveyed to the abutment through A I, if this is taken as acting as a strut.

It is hardly worth proving, as would be easy, that if compression could exist in A I, it would be of little consequence. I hope the foregoing remarks will have removed all doubts on the point in question from Mr. Gribble’s mind. Should I not have succeeded in doing so, and this gentleman will do me the favour of calling upon me when he is in Westminster, I shall be very pleased to give him any further information I can. It only remains, Sir, for me to apologise to you for the length of this letter.

Gb, Victoria-street, Westminster, W. Hugh Woodcock.

December 1st. _

mr. Lancaster’s aero planes.

Sir,—I read some time ago with much interest Mr. Lancaster’s account of the vagaries of plane surfaces let go off a stage in a wind, which seem to have perplexed him and some other people as well; and though I belong to the body—viz.,professors—atwhose hands he considers himself to be evilly treated, I should like to offer an explanation ; the more so as no recondite mathematics are required to see how the thing takes place. Most people have observed the motions of such a thing as a flat stone, an oyster shell, or the like, when allowed to sink in still water. Such a flat object, while sinking, swings from side to side in a succession of curved paths, like those of Fig. 1. It does not always do so, but it can do so if properly started and balanced.

A flat plane let go at a height, say from a balloon in still air, would evidently be capable of performing a very similar set of motions—a sheet of paper let go at the head of the stair landing can often be got to perform one or two swings. Now if we consider the appearance these motions would present to a person on the earth if the plane were let go out of a balloon travelling with a high wind, we shall see that the apparent path of the plane will be one something like Fig. 2. When first let go, if let go so as to start against the wind at A, the plane will appear to be carried back with the wind; but as its forward speed through the air increases, it will—or may—after a while go as fast forward as the wind carries it back; it will then appear to stand still, falling slowly. Suppose that this state of things corresponds to its position P—Fig. 1—on the still air path. Its forward velocity continues to increase, and being now greater than that of the wind, it will appear to move forward, then to rise, losing forward velocity till it reaches the height 0, corresponding to the point B of the still air path, when it will, being actually just standing still in the air, appear to the spectator to be returning towards him with the velocity of the wind, and will make a dive back, or with the wind, in which it may, or may not, pass above or below him.

Now, if he had stood on a stage alongside the point B, where the plane just stood still, with a second similar plane in his hand, which he held in a similar position to that of the first plane— dropped from the balloon—and let the second plane go just as the first was passing him, it would evidently accompany, or very nearly accompany, the first one in the rest of its flight, making first a downward and then a long rising flight, in which, for aught the laws of mechanics have to say, it might rise to a point higher than B and pass back over his head.

If B happened to be only a small height above the ground, then the only part of the excursion from B performed by the plane

F1C.I

STILL AIR

FIG. 2

WIND

-e-

LEVEL OF C ROUND__^_______

would be to some point on the return path C to D, where it struck the earth, and this is the observed path of some of Mr. Lancaster’s planes.

Another rather remarkable effect might take place if in the still-air path we suppose the plane to receive at some point, P, Fig. 3, a slight tip over, so that instead of performing the return path from C, as before, it proceeded on the dotted line. If the velocity of the wind were just equal to its velocity at P, its apparent path, and consequently the visible path of a similar plane let go at the same place and time, would be the full part of the line in the lower figure, the dotted part showing the previous path of the plane dropped from the balloon. In this case the plane would be first

F I G.3

STILL

WIND

LIN E

carried back a little, rising at the same time, and then fly forward again.

The ’number of possible paths is practically infinite, and of a great variety of shapes, all produced by compounding the velocity of the wind with that in still air, and picking out the right part of the path for observation. Sir W. Thompson, I think, has pointed out that a surface moving thus in winds of different velocity at different levels can act as a carrier of energy from one wind to another—consuming some of the energy itself, by the way; and that it could therefore, where there were such winds, be sustained at a constant average height, rising and falling alternately above and below the mean; and consequently the soaring of birds may take place by their utilising varying air-currents to support them.

Queen’s College, Belfast,    Maurice F. Fitzgerald.

November 26th.    _

THE PROBLEM OF FLIGHT.

Sir,—Allow me to give you another short dialogue with a professor at the Buffalo meeting. They were all “ professors,” and seemed determined to make me one; but that may pass if I can manage to sluice them over the wheels of the soaring problem.

Professor: Where do you get authority to split up gravity in the way you do? Student: From every text-book which treats of the resolution of weight by inclined planes.—P.: Where do you find the bird’s plane? S.: In the compressed air under its wings. —P.: And you slide the bird up the incline by means of power derived from its weight? S.: Yes.—P.: To my mind that is a total absurdity. S.: When the tire of your mind was shrunk on the hub of authority, some of the spokes were left out. See if we chip them in. There is more in that resolution matter than you are aware of, aEd your phrase “ up the incline” may, strictly speaking, mean horizontally. The plane separates the weight of the body into two parts both in quantity and direction. One part is acting on c d, the other on a b. Now did it ever to you that while the body is in that condition no force draws it to the centre of the earth? — P.: How do you make that out? S.: Simply because the sum of the two components equals the total gravity of the body, and neither of them act towards the earth’s centre.—P.: I suppose there is authority for that. Gravity is resolved by the plane ? S.: Do you that the body has now two horizons, c d and ah? I mean that there is an imaginary plane at right angles to both components of gravity, and neither of them is on thesea level.—P.: Yes. S.: Gan

you suppose the surface of the plane to be yielding, say resembling soft rubber ? — P.: I can. S.: The body would then push it down until the pressure equalled the weight, when motion would cease, and the resolution would be as before. But suppose the plane to be calm and free air, and the body flat, like a sheet of tin, then the air would yield until motion on c d became uniform, when the pressure would equal the normal component, and the resolution be the same as on the rigid plane. But as the pressures motion would be continuous ?—

inevitable consequence is that the bird is rapidly carried forward. The weak parallel component is neutralised, and edgeways friction overcome by the strong normal component, and soaring flight accomplished.—P.: But you are sliding the bird up the incline. S.: No. a b is a level line in this system.—P.: You cannot establish horizons at random. Besides it is. the pressures under the plane which drive it off sideways. S.: No. The pressures act on c d, and the sideways motion is on a b. The pressures do not drive the plane at all. They are the result of the plane being driven. The horizon of the world is not tampered with. I merely state an obvious fact found in nature, that the sea level is not the horizon of a bird in the act of translation on fixed wings.—P.: There is no authority for setting up any level differing from the sea level.

And I did not get the missing spoke chipped in.

Chicago, November 10th.

SUBMARINE VESSELS.

Sir,—Having read your article on “ Submarine Boats ” in last week’s Engineer, we are surprised you make no allusion to Mr. J. H. Waddington’s patent “Electrical Submarine Vessel,” which was tried in Liverpool last March and April. It is, we believe, the first submarine vessel practically propelled by electrical power. The hull is cylindrical in shape, 37ft. long and Gft. diameter amidships, tapering to a point at both ends, with a conning tower and watertight scuttle on the top. Water ballast is used to submerge the vessel, so that only the conning tower is visible; then to totally submerge the vessel, inclinable side planes are used, and are found be very effective, taking the vessel under water with about 4 cwt. of bouyancy when only going at a slow speed of four knots, and still more rapidly bringing her to the surface. Self-acting horizontal rudders are placed right aft for keeping the vessel horizontal.

At present, this vessel named the Porpoise, is at our works being fitted with one of our new electro-motors, also arrangements for carrying two locomotive torpedoes, one at either side in grips which can be opened from the interior, releasing the torpedo from the vessel and starting it at the same time. Provision also for carrying compressed air is made in two large compartments at either end, but so far it has not been used, as four persons have been closed in her for three hours without feeling any bad effects.

The trials were witnessed by the representatives of the British and several foreign Governments, the representative of the Italian Government going with us under water. We shall shortly be constructing a larger vessel upon the same principle, but several improvements, having fans enclosed in two vertical tubes through the vessel, open top and bottom, so that she can be submerged when not under weight without destroying the buoyancy. We shall early next year be having further trials with the Porpoise, and the arrangements for discharging torpedoes, of which we will give you notice.

Seacombe, near Liverpool, December 6th.

PNEUMATIC R1VETTERS.

Sir,—Although the Widnes Foundry Company may have used the pneumatic nvetter for three years, as they say, ‘ * on such work as it is adapted for,” I am under the impression that similar machines were imported into this country, and unsuccessfully tried long before they took them up. That the pneumatic machines have not succeeded is not to be wondered at, since they require fifty tons pressure to close a rivet lin. diameter in girder work. With a good hydraulic machine, direct-acting, and worked from an accumulator, some of the heaviest girder work is now being perfectly executed with from seventeen to twenty tons on the head of steel rivets lin. in diameter.

I say “ direct-acting ” hydraulic machines, for I recently came across a case where a machine of this class closed ljin. to lgin. rivets in boiler work, with only forty tons pressure, equally as well as a hydraulic machine acting through toggle joints, and rated at 90 or 100 tons.

London, December Gth.

THE FOUNDERING OF THE SS. INDUS.

Sir,—Allow me to suggest a cause for the foundering of this steamer, and it is not altogether one of imagination, as, in my limited experience as a surveyor, more than one instance of an escape from a similar catastrophe has come under my observation. It arises from the practice of cutting the three or four after frames, to admit of the stern tube being placed in situ, and from the tube downwards these frames are omitted, leaving a large space of shell plating unsupported. The steamer is loaded, and pitching in a seaway, when vibration is set up over this space by the alterations in pressure, and it becomes a question of time for some part of the structure to give way, and unless the after compartment is a watertight chamber with manhole doors screwed down, the foundering of the steamer follows.    CL F. Seymour.

Lloyd’s, Royal Exchange, London, E.O.

December 7th

DIRECTORIES.

Sir,—I can fully endorse your corespondent “B. T’s.” remarks re directories—in fact I find that the advertising sheets of our current engineering journals are much better, as they are current, issued oftener, and are accompanied by the engineer’sfriend, a good illustration—vide your own paper, to which I commend your engineering friends. I cannot see that any firm requires eighty headings or trades, and should be glad if any one would point out such a one.

Birmingham, November 27th.    Buyer.

TENDERS.

Tenders for the construction of engine-house, engine foundations, boiler-house, chimney shaft, flues, setting boilers, water tower, and works in connection therewith. Mr. W. A. H. De Pape is the engineer.

Cave and Son, New Barnet .........

W. Downes, Walworth ...........

P. Hart, Tottenham.............

Cook and Co., Battersea...........

G. Bell, Tottenham .............

Howell and Son, Lambeth .........

W. Bell, Saffron Waldon...........

Wall, Chelsea.................

Boyed McKinally, Walbrook.........

Wilkinson Bros., Finsbury Park—accepted

Tenders for compound pumping engines, boilers, pumps, &c., in duplicate.

£ s. d.

.. informal

THE IEON, COAL, AND GENERAL TRADES OF BIRMINGHAM, WOLVERHAMPTON, AND OTHER DISTRICTS.

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Yet there are exceptional firms who have found it

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(From our own Correspondent.)

At to-day’s market in Birmingham, and yesterday in Wolverhampton, business was fully as satisfactory as last week. No profession was made that orders are quite so numerous as a few weeks ago, but the curtailment of buyers’ operations is due to the approach of the end of the year. Buyers are desirous of limiting fresh purchases in anticipation of early stocktaking. Inquiries were upon the market in good numbers for delivery next year, and much confidence is expressed that the new quarter will mark a further improvement. Traders are therefore in every way hopeful, and the works will pretty generally be active up to the holidays.

The sheet makers keep busier than any other concerns, and numbers of them are still pressed for deliveries by the galvani and by merchants alike. One reason of the present active dition of this branch is doubtless to be found in the circumstance that numbers of mills are standing on account of the recent unprofitable prices, and this condition of affairs makes more business for those works that are on. Prices for sheets, both in the black and galvanised state, are very firm, and if next quarter further advances take place, as seems likely, certain of the sheet works which have long been idle will doubtless be set going again. Black sheets of 24 gauge are this week again quoted £6 10s., and 27 gauge £7 5s. to £7 10s.

Galvanised sheets keep at £10 5s. upwards f.o.b. Liverpool. Orders for galvanised iron are now as plentiful as they were formerly scarce, and some few of the best makers quote 2s. 6d. advance each week as their order-books become fuller. One large galvanising firm last month might have booked three times the number of orders that they accepted, but they preferred not to sell too far forward. The orders arriving are on account of the Colonies, South America, and India.

The demand for bars is, considering the lateness of the season, very fair, but there are many firms who would be glad to welcome further orders. Especially is this correct of the marked bar houses, who continue only very partially engaged. Medium and common bar makers are doing much more than the best bar people, and there is not much indication that their competition with the marked bar houses is^ likely to become less ; £7, to £7 12s. 6d. is still the quotation for best qualities; £6 for second qualities; and £4 15s. to £5 for common. The probability is being discussed of the likelihood of marked bars being officially advanced 10s. per ton at the quarterly meetings. The oldest members of the trade do not, however, encourage the suggestion, considering that it would only tend to strangle the improvement.

Hoops and strips are without much alteration on the week, and the mills cannot at present be said to be at all busy in other than exceptional cases. Strips are proportionately in better call than hoops, since the wrought iron tube makers mostly keep very active. Common hoops are £5 5s.; good medium quality, £5 15s. Gas strip is quoted £4 17s. 6d., and bedstead strip about £5 2s. 6d. for narrow size.

The increasing manufacture of steel causes a less demand for puddled bars, and as a consequence the forges are producing less. Some of the heavy iron plate makers are prejudiced by the increasing use of steel plates from other districts. Iron tank plates are £6 10s., and boiler plates £7 10s. to £8 10s. and on to £9.

The pig iron branch was fully as firm to-day as last Thursday, and the further upward movement in Scotland and Cleveland, together with the excellent condition of the hematite centres, had again a good effect. Sellers expressed much confidence in the prospects of the early part of 1877, and were not generally prepared to accept buyers’ offers to place contracts over the first half of next year. They mostly declined to book beyond the first four months. Particularly was this the case with vendors of Midland pigs. The position of these sellers has been further strengthened by the blowing out of the furnaces of the Wingerworth Company, which has determined to make no more iron until prices advance sensibly beyond their present point.

Northampton pigs were quoted 36s. to 36s. 6d. delivered to sumers’ furnaces; Derby shires, 37s. to 38s.; and Lincolnshires, 40s. to 40s. 6d. Deliveries are being made with more freedom than is general in December, and some sellers were this afternoon able to report that last month’s deliveries were larger than in any previous month in their experience. Hematites—forge sorts—are quoted 53s. for the Tredegar make, and 56s. delivered for the make of the Barrow Iron and Steel Company.

Staffordshire pig makers keep busy, and further furnaces have been blown in. Messrs. Roberts and Co., of Tipton Green, have just put in one additional furnace, making four in all, and so, too, have Messrs. John Jones and Sons, of Birchills. Both firms state that the increased production will only be a temporary matter. All-mine pigs are 52s. 6d. to 55s.; part-mines, 35s, to 42s. 6d.; and common cinder about 28s. 6d. to 30s.

Scrap iron is advancing in price by reason of the increased demand. Sellers of sheet shearings from the Welsh mills, who last week asked 42s. 6d., were this afternoon asking 45s. Good heavy piling scrap from local mills was quoted 50s., while inferior scrap was 42s. 6d.

Cokes are in somewhat better' request at 11s. 6d. to 12s. for ordinary furnace qualities from Derbyshire and Yorkshire, 15s. for Welsh furnace cokes, and 20s. for foundry. Durham foundry cokes are 20s. to 22s. 6d. Purple ore for fettling purposes is about 12s. 6d. to 13s., delivered into this district from the Runcorn centre; and North Staffordshire pottery mine is firmer at about 14s.

The more favourable Government returns touching the business in iron with export customers last month, as compared with November a year ago, had a hardening influence upon iron quotations. That the increase for the month should have been 493,991 tons and £105,082 in value, or an increase of 6 per cent., was deemed cause for considerable satisfaction; the more so as for the eleven months the increase was shown to have been 212,017 tons in quantity and £29,406 in value.

The hope was to-day expressed that the iron and steel which will be needed in the construction of the Jubilee commemoration tower in London, for which the Horseley Engineering Company have taken the £10,000 contract, may be made in this district; and several firms are mentioned who are hoping to receive the lion’s share of the orders.

The water at several of the pumping stations belonging to the South Staffordshire Mines Drainage Commissioners was reported at a meeting of that body at Wolverhampton on Wednesday to be considerably rising. At the Bilston mines this is partly due to the Bradley pump being only in partial operation, two boilers only of the four being available, the others having been injured by the burning of the foundation. These, however, are being repaired, and will, together with a new boiler which has been ordered, shortly be ready for use.

The engineers have on order an increased quantity of mining engines and machinery required for the Colonies and India, while steam pumps are in steady request for home wants. The heavy ironfounders are doing better on mill and forge castings, and for chilled rolls for other requirements there is a satisfactory demand.

Machinery for the galvanisers is in brisk call, and some of the orders are for export. Engineers engaged in this branch of trade are quite hopeful of the 1887 prospects.

Business is, as a rule, more favourably reported of in the branches dependent upon the shipping industries. Anchors and chains of great weight are being demanded in the Tipton district by foreign and home shipyards, and lighter anchors of special pattern are in augmented demand. Famous crane chains made in the same district have likewise gone off better lately than for some time, but as the year closes the output is somewhat decreasing; and upon all hands the makers of cables, and anchors, and so forth, have to struggle hard against buyers’ price stipulations.

Heating appliances of the higher description will provide work for most of the operatives well on into the next year. Special constructive work promises even more prolonged employment.

The extraordinary prosperity in the national finances of the United States of America, and the favourable tariff changes to which the address of President Cleveland would seem to intimate that it is likely to lead up, was discussed on ’Change in Birmingham to-day—Thursday—and in Wolverhampton yesterday with much satisfaction. Iron and steel and certain metal manipulating firms encourage the expectation that among the changes which may be brought about will be those by which their interests will be promoted. Many commodities could be easily shipped to the States from this district under the denomination of raw materials which the President would seem to indicate will be those upon which the House of Representatives may be likely to favour in any reductions of tariff that may hereafter occur.

Mr. P. James, President of the Walsall and District Chamber of Commerce, speaking at the fifth annual meeting of that corporation on Monday last, gave a list of the principal articles of which there had been either an increased or a decreased export, and pointed out that coal and machinery showed the greatest increase. He found that they were exporting raw material, coals, machinery, and goods partly manufactured instead of goods wholly manufactured, as they did in olden times; and the lesson he deduced was, that whilst they may have had depression in former times from over-production and over-stocked markets, still they were now face to face with as fierce a competition as ever they had to encounter; and that it behoved them not to sit down and grumble, but to look to their position, and to see whether other countries were not taking steps whereby they were enabled to manufacture more cheaply than they in England could do themselves.

The chain trade in nearly all its branches is being prejudiced by the action which the men are taking with the view of securing higher remuneration. The rates of pay to the small chainmakers are very low. In the heavy chain branch the scale of pay is quite high, and there ought not to be any interference with the course of busi

desirable to somewhat advance the scale which had previously ruled.

The Walsall and District, like the Wolverhampton and similar Chambers, have approached the Government seeking information of the requirements in specific manufactured goods of distant nations. In this case China and Japan were especially instanced, and it was asked that the Consuls might send home samples and prices, and so forth. The Government has replied that instructions would be given to the Consuls in question if the Chamber would defray the costs to which the Consuls would be put.

The South Staffordshire Institute of Mining Engineers held their bi-monthly meeting at Dudley on Monday, when several interesting matters were discussed. The improvements which had been made in the portable electric lamp were alluded to by Mr. W. B. Scott, Government Inspector of Mines, who remarked that it was the safety lamp of the future. Mr. Tregloun read a paper on Messrs. Tangye’s centrifugal pump which was to be put down at Wallsend Docks. The pump had been designed to throw out 196 tons of water per minute, by which means a great deal of expense would be saved in the docking and repairing of ships.

The North Staffordshire Tramways Company propose to apply the cable system to its Dresden and Meir lines, near Longton, it having been found impossible to work them by means of an ordinary locomotive.

The operatives in the Birmingham building trades have met the masters’ notice for a general reduction of one penny per hour, to come into operation on the 1st April, by a counter notice asking for a general advance. Some branches have given notice for abolishing arbitration, and the men state that they are fully determined to resist any reduction whatever.

NOTES FROM LANCASHIRE.

(From our own Correspondent.)

Manchester.—The approaching close of the year is making itself more and more felt in the gradual contraction of business, and during the past week there has been extremely little doing in the iron trade of this district. In pig iron especially there has been comparatively little or no buying going on, and where inquiries of any moment are put forward, they are more with the object of testing prices for next year than with the view of actual present business. Makers, however, are not at all anxious sellers, and for forward delivery they are indifferent about booking at all to any extent, as there is a pretty general belief in an improvement in American and foreign trade generally, which tends towards a hopeful tone as to the prospects for next year. In the finished iron trade a steady tone is maintained, with the leading makers well sold for the present, and at current prices not caring to commit themselves at all heavily for the future.

At the Manchester iron market on Tuesday there was only a very slow market, with practically little or nothing doing to really test prices, which nominally remained without change from last week. Here and there an occasional inquiry was reported, which, however, very rarely resulted in business, as sellers who quote on the basis of makers’ prices find themselves in most cases considerably above what buyers are prepared to give. For local brands of pig iron, makers’ prices generally remain at about 37s. to 38s., less 2|, for forge and foundry delivered equal to Manchester, and these are the minimum figures at which orders could be placed. For district brands quotations remain at 36s. and 36s. 6d. to 37s. 6d., less 2J, for forge and foundry Lincolnshire, and 39s. 6d. to 40s., less 24, for foundry Derbyshire, with very little iron to be got at much under these figures. For outside brands offering here makers’ prices are very firm; but, notwithstanding this, when sellers base their quotations for inquiries on makers’ rates, they find themselves undersold, and both in Sootch and Middlesbrough iron there are second-hand lots still to be got at under current rates. The quantity of iron actually offering at under makers’ prices is, however comparatively small, and generally a very healthy tone prevails.

Hematites remain without material change; the average prices quoted by makers for good No. 3 foundry qualities delivered into the Manchester district are about 53s. 6d. to 54s., less 2^, but there is very little business doing, and buyers could place orders at about Is. per ton under these figures.

In manufactured iron about a steady trade is still being done, and prices are maintained at late rates, the current quotations for delivery into the Manchester district remaining at £5 per ton for bars, £5 5s. to £5 7s. 6d. for hoops, and £6 10s. per ton for sheets.

There is, perhaps, a rather more hopeful tone in the engineering branches of industry, but with the exception that machinists rather busier, and the leading tool makers are kept tolerably well employed, slackness still prevails throughout the trade generally.

In response to a circular sent out by Mr. Daniel Adamson, the President of the Iron and Steel Institute, to the Manchester local members, a meeting was held in one of the committee rooms of the Manchester Town Hall on Thursday last, to consider the question of inviting the Institute to hold its next autumn meeting in Manchester. Mr. S. R. Platt—Platt Brothers, Oldham—was called to the chair, and amongst others present were Mr. Daniel Adamson, the president; Mr. J. S. Jeans, the secretary; and Messrs. Charles Sacre, Edward Ross—Manchester, Sheffield, Lincolnshire Railway—Jas. Johnstone, W. W. Hulse, Eli Spencer, Thos. Ashbury, C. J. Schofield, H. Simon, W. Crossley, W. H. Bailey, J. Leigh, R. Ogle, Thos. Burningham, and others. Mr. Adamson briefly alluded to the fact that Newcastle-on-Tyne had suggested that as the president was a North-countryman, the next meeting of the Institute should be held in that city; but as it would be twelve years since the Iron and Steel Institute last paid a visit to Manchester, and we should be holding a Jubilee Exhibition in this city during the ing year, it was strongly urged by many of his friends that Manchester should be the place of the next meeting. The chairman heartily and most forcibly urged the propriety of adopting the suggestion that the Iron and Steel Institute should be invited to hold its next meeting in Manchester. Mr. Wm. Crossley—Crossley Brothers—proposed, Alderman W. H. Bailey seconded, and it was unanimously agreed, that the Iron and Steel Institute be invited to visit Manchester in the autumn of 1887. A numerous local committee was then appointed, and on the motion of Mr. Adamson, seconded by Mr. Ashbury, Mr. James Johnstone was elected the local secretary.

Engine packing is so universal a requisite, and there are so many different specialities offered by manufacturers, that users of packing are often at a loss which to try, and it is frequently only after numerous experiments that they arrive at satisfactory results. It will, therefore, be of some interest if I give the results of my own observations of the working of an engine packing manufactured by the Frictionless Packing Company, of Manchester. This packing differs from other lubricating packings in the fact that the makers impregnate the fibre, which forms the groundwork of the packing, with a lubricant which will neither burn nor melt, and this they do before spinning, thus insuring that every thread in the packing is thoroughly lubricative, whilst from the nature of the composition it retains its lubricative properties at the highest temperatures. Recently I have had several opportunities of seeing this packing at work under varying circumstances. At one place it was working on hydraulic rams at a pressure of two tons to the square inch, and at another on an engine working at 1101b. pressure, in both instances giving entire satisfaction to the attendants. I was informed that the packing would last for about six months, in some instances much longer than this, and that it neither required tallow nor any other lubricant to be used with it.

At the meeting of the Manchester Geological Society, held on Tuesday, a discussion took place on outbursts of gas in coal mi In some quarters there is a disbelief in serious sudden outbursts, but Mr. A. H. W oodward, of the Clifton andKersley Coal Company, read a short paper in which he gave details of a series of sudden and serious outbursts of gas which occurred in the mines under his charge, the gas in some instances bursting suddenly through the roof, and in others through the floor, sufficient quantity to fire in the men’s lamps 400 yards distant. Mr. Herbert Fletcher, who has recently come into some notoriety by his opposition to the use of safety lamps in his.mines, contended that the outbursts of gas took place in straight work, but that by wide work they could be prevented. Mr. G. S. Burrows, of the Atherton Collieries, said he had come to the conclusion that the gas was not made in the coal, but came.from the floor or roof, and he could not see how wide work could prevent outbursts, as however^ well they might pack there must be some sinking of the roof, with the consequent formation of cavities in which the gas could accumulate, and it all depended where the gas broke out, whether it got away safely or not.

In the coal trade there is still no appreciable improvement to report. The business doing is only moderate for the time of the year, and the advance in price announced last week in the Manchester district has still been only partially followed in other districts—in fact, so far as inferior qualities of coal are concerned, it is scarcely being maintained by the Manchester firms. Prices continue very irregular; in some instances, following the upward movement in the Manchester district, there has been an advance of 6d. to Is. per ton on house fire coals, whilst some of the collieries have not made any advance at all. Best coal in instances is quoted at 9s. 6d. to 10s. per ton at the pit, in others it can be got at 8s. 6d. to 9s.; seconds average 7s. 6d. to 8s.; and common house coal 6s. to 6s. 6d. per ton. In other classes of fuel the actual advance which is being got on November rates is very small; steam and forge coals are still being sold at 5s. 3d. to 5s. 6d., burgy, 4s. 6d. to 5s.; best slack, 3s. 6d. to 4s.; and common, 2s. 9d. to 3s. per ton.

In shipping there is a fairly good trade doing, with a slight tendency to harden in price, 7s. being now about the minimum for steam coal delivered at Garston or Liverpool.

A meeting summoned by the Mayor of Manchester was held at the Town Hall yesterday—Thursday—to receive the report of the Consultative Committee, which for several months past has been making a most exhaustive inquiry with reference to the proposed scheme for the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal, and the prospects of its being successfully carried out.

Barrow— The business doing in hematite qualities of pig iron is steady, and the orders booked during the past week have been such as will maintain a continuance of the present comparatively active state of the market. So far as makers of pig iron are concerned there is a good outlook, for they are not only well sold forward, but they are in receipt of inquiries which represent so much business as justifies the belief that the market will maintain its present steadiness, and ultimately lead to an even more active state of things next year. The value of pig iron is steady at 45s. 6d. per ton net at makers’ works for prompt deliveries of mixed parcels of Bessemer iron, and 44s. 9d. for No. 3 forge and foundry ' These prices have been unchanged for a month or six weeks past, and it is noticeable that while merchants and speculators who hold iron have in some cases sold at lower values than these, makers generally are maintaining a firmness in rates which is a good indication for the future of the market. Steel makers are busy, especially on rails, and they are at present engaged on large orders which will keep them employed well into next year. The trade in the hands of makers is likely to increase in the minor departments ; indeed, merchant qualities of steel are in fuller and in growing consumption, and the heavier trades, outside rails, are also showing new life. Rails are still quoted at £3 17s. 6d. per ton net at makers’ works for heavy sections. Some quotations go up to £4 and £4 2s. 6d., but the former figure represents practically the selling price for ordinary sections. The business doing in shipbuilding is extremely quiet, and the outlook is anything but cheerful; only very few orders are offering, and these are competed for very keenly, leaving next to no profit to those who are successful in getting them. It is believed, however, that the new year will bring about improvement in this trade. It is already assumed that there will be a revival in marine engineering next year, but there does not seem much chance of a change for the better in general engineering, boiler-making, or ironfounding, while forge works share in an anticipated quiet trade. Iron ore is firm in tone, and it is probable that sales will be large in the early future. Stocks are largely held. Prices vary from 9s. to 11s. per ton. Coal and coke steady, but firmer. Shipping well employed, considering the season of the year.

THE SHEFFIELD DISTRICT.

(From our own Correspondent.)

Aemoub plates have been the subject of the week. A controversy mentioned last week as having been initiated by an anonymous correspondent, signing himself “ Steel,” seems about to close without adding anything substantial to the stock of knowledge. Sir John Brown, the inventor of thick rolled armour plates, has written to express his regret that Mr. J. W. EUis, the chairman of John Brown and Co.—with which Sir John is not now connected—“ should go out of his way to reply to any man—if such —who does not sign his own name.” Sir John complained that the writer stabs in the dark, and expresses that “ if busybodies who do not understand so vital a question would not intermeddle with those who do, Sheffield will produce in the shape of armour plates, either in quality or dimensions, anything that may be asked for.” Sir John adds:—“ I have recently made several visits to the Atlas Works, and accompanied by my old friend, Mr. J. D. Ellis, gone through all the departments of these gigantic and magnificent works. I am amazed at the wonderfully prodigious machinery being laid down for masses of material to be operated upon to the

extent of several tons in one ingot, at a large expenditure of capital by the company, and also capable of making plates up to 120 tons, 30in. in thickness, either compound or solid steel, and steel for forgings up to 100 tons. Sheffield is well cared for, and if left alone, will maintain her reputation against all comers.”

Sir John Brown was entertained at a public banquet and presented with his portrait on Monday night, the 6th inst., being the seventieth anniversary of his birthday. The worthy knight the inventor of the conical spring steel buffer, and was familiarly known as “ Buffer Brown.” This was a big “ hit,” and made him much money. It was first adopted on a Welsh railway, afterwards in Scotland, and then in Ireland, the London and North-Western Company being the first English line to use it. Sir John subsequently introduced the iron trade into Sheffield, making the town practically independent of Sweden or any other country from which large quantities of iron were in the habit of being brought for local consumption. He was the first to develope Sir Henry Bessemer’s great discovery; but his great exploit was in 1860, when, returning from a tour on the Continent, he saw in Toulon harbour the French ship La Gloire. This vessel, formerly a wooden ship, had been cut down into “ an exaggerated corvette,” and coated with 4|in. hammered iron plates. La Gloire caused our Admiralty great uneasiness, and they stopped the alteration of a large number of craft in

on

em-

tons went abroad, taken altogether 7677 tons.

Great interest was taken in the North of England in the trials of goods wagon couplings recently made at Nine Elms, on the London and South-Western Railway, at the instance of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. It will be remembered that six prizes were there given, three for automatic and three for non-automatic couplings. The first prize in the latter case was won by Messrs. Younghusband and Hudson, of Darlington, and a very good device, though not rewarded with a prize, was exhibited by Mr. Fenwick, of Gateshead. But at the trials made of these prize systems, by the Midland Railway Company at Derby on the 2nd inst., in competition with their ordinary system of coupling and uncoupling, the latter was almost unanimously voted the best of all. The only implement used, in addition to the couplings proper, was a pole furnished at one end with a steel point, twisted spirally like half a turn of a corkscrew. This, carried in the shunter’s hand, was quite sufficient to enable him to couple up any number of trucks at the rate of four seconds each, or uncouple at the rate of three seconds each. None of the prize systems could be operated in anything like so short a time ; and when the wagons were placed

are wagons,

The improved tone of the iron markets in each of the several districts is maintained, and if the prices have not risen as much as could be wished in all branches, there is still cause for satisfaction at the healthy prospects, especially as compared to the situation only a very short time ago. Still, here and there a pessimist’s voice is heard contending that, as the improvement has only been brought about by restriction of production, and fresh works will soon be brought into operation, the rise in prices will not continue long. At present, at any rate, there is a general confidence in the future observable, and buyers are beginning to realise that sellers are now going to have their innings, and that ruinous offers, underbidding, and concessions have come to an end. The firmness of all the foreign markets has no doubt had its effect in bringing about this better state of things. The small rise in native ores is kept up, and Spanish are also getting a little dearer. The pig iron market is firm, and has, if anything, improved since last report. The production of the blast furnaces in Westphalia for October was nearly the same as in September, but the stocks have decreased by 5000 t. This fact, accompanied by the firm tendency of the foreign markets and the full employment of the rolling mills, leads to the hope that the worst period of the raw iron industry has been surmounted. Forge pig is continually on the rise, and good qualities of it in the Siegerland fetch M. 39£ to 40 p.t.; still these prices scarcely yet cover the costs of production. But as the stocks here, too, are gradually reducing, better prices must follow. Spiegel is in very great demand for export, is firm and rising, so that it has got up to M. 47 p.t. for that containing 10 to 12 p.c. of Mn. Foundry pig is also much firmer in price, and has risen within the month M. 1 to 2 p.t. In Bessemer and basic pig, however, no great improvement is visible, but they are firmer, basic being noted at M. 37 to 39 p.t. In wrought iron there is at last an improvement, which extends to prices as well as orders. Bars are in as great demand as last noted, and almost all the works are quite full of orders, so that in some cases higher prices could be asked, which were accorded, for orders which were pressing. Some of the Rhenish works raised their list prices for hoops and all small sections M. 3 p.t. Another works, from press of orders, was also induced to raise its prices, which were also accepted, all of which, coupled with the general good demand, certainly must be considered a hopeful sign that prices will soon bear to be raised all round, to which end the newly resolved-upon combination, if put on a sound footing, would materially assist. Again, the large works in the south-west and on the Lower Rhine have agreed to raise the list prices on bars, girders, and all sections; and as they were all busy with orders and a rise of M. 5 on girders was easily obtained, they have stipulated a rise of M 9 p.t.; but it is very questionable if so large a rise all at once can be maintained for long. On the whole the plate mills are better occupied than they were latterly, the prices being, for heavy sorts of ordinary quality, M. 145 to 150 p. t. More boilers, too, are being ordered, but the prices of both the finished article and the raw material are not yet such as to make the manufacture of either remunerative. A combination of Westphalian and Saar and Moselle plate-rolling mills is to be formed, when, of course, better prices are anticipated. The thin sheet mills have had the best of it lately, and they are still exceedingly busy, with prices continually rising, until they are now noted at M. 125 to 128 p.t. Wire rods are again better in price, and now M. 100 is the lowest quotation for prompt, with a few marks additional for forward delivery; still, these prices do not cover the higher prices which must be paid for the raw materials. From such facts, and after two rises in thin sheets, it may be judged in what a depressed state the iron trade must have been in for some time before the recent spurt came. Steel rails seem doomed to dulness in this country, and the few small season orders, seldom exceeding 6000 to 8000 tons at a time, given out by the Railway Administration, now seem to have come to an end for a time. The quotation for them is nominally M. 110 to 120 p.t. At the last tendering at Breslau the native price As regards quantity, the coal trade is getting into a more satis- offered was M. 114 at works, whilst the foreign offer was M. 115 at factory state, and at Cardiff, Swansea, and Newport, Mon., foreign Stettin. From an article in a Belgian industrial journal it would exports have been fairly sustained. Last week, in the early part appear that the repeated low tenders of the Cockerill Company have there was somewhat of a pressure applied for supply; but as this not been so much with a desire of receiving the orders, which at the was not continued throughout the week, Saturday showed a great prices they could well do without, but to keep down the German prices, accumulation at sidings. I saw five trains of coal ready at several and so prevent them from getting so much at home for their rails collieries, and from Plymouth to Taff Yale terminus the plethora as would enable them to compete abroad at a very low price, and mistakeable. The weather during the last few days has still be no losers; and it must be confessed, looking at the condi-also somewhat hampered matters, a west wind blowing dead against tion of the rail trade in this country, that these tactics have suc-the ports, and interfering with despatch. I am afraid that Tues- ceeded admirably from a rival’s point of view. From Berlin, day’s and Wednesday’s storms will add to the long list of coal-ship Frankfurt, and Brussels it has been announced that a new. interdisasters of this year.    national rail convention is imminent. The Brussels news is that

Simultaneously with an improvement in trade I am glad to already some English firms have declared for one, in which the announce the ending of several important strikes. That at the chief Belgian works are ready to join. From Frankfurt it is said North Blaina Colliery, formerly one of Crawshay Bailey’s, now the that a meeting has been arranged for the 10th of December property of Mr. Stone, has been ended satisfactorily. The men —to-day—to discuss the subject either in London or at Dussel-accept the terms offered, and the proprietors consent to their having dorf. The information gleaned from the best and most checkweigher of their own choosing. The men at Ynysybwl interested sources only shows that up to this no positive steps Colliery have also returned to work, and the dispute at Werndda have been taken in this direction, much as it is desired, although Colliery, Caerphilly, appears to be in a fair way to be arranged, here and there the matter has been on the tapis, and it is thought though Caerphilly men, as a rule, are obstinate.    that a fresh convention is distant, and would be difficult, if not

Barry dock and railway are progressing, and quite a township impossible, of accomplishment just yet. Hoops are quoted at 100 has sprung up where, until the starting of the dock, there was only to 105; good merchant bars at 95* to 98 occasionally; Bessemer half-a-dozen houses. It is expected that Cardiff shipowners and bars, 107 to 115; wire rods, 101 to 103; in Bessemer metal, 100 to commission agents will have branch offices there, and Swansea and 102; rivet iron, 115 to 120; sleepers, 110 to 115; light rails, 92 to Newport are expected to be represented. Still with the new Roath 97 M. p.t.; tires, 210 to 225; and wheels and axles, M. 300 the set. siding of the Taff Yale completed, and the successful carrying out The machine factories still complain of want of orders and low of the Monmouthshire and Cardiff Railway Bill, Cardiff will have prices. The wagon works have received a small influx of orders at nothing to fear. There was an adverse rumour in reference to this profitless prices, which will probably be the last for this season, bill a few days ago, but it was promptly and officially corrected. There has been considerable exultation in the newspapers on Great care has been taken in seeing that everything is in order. account of the German Lloyd Company having secured the carriage The steel works are going along at about the same pace, but of the Thursday’s mails from Southampton to New York. A short there is no “boom” and no great hurry on the part of buyers, time since a new line of small sea-going cargo vessels was started Prices are slightly better, though open to improvement. Stocks of to carry direct from Cologne to London, now more vessels have Bessemer pig have sensibly diminished at various establishments; just been ordered to complete the regularity of the service. For trade has been rather affected by the agitation in tin plates, and the last eight or ten years English coasting vessels have come up should apprehended stoppages take place it would tell seriously on to Remagen, thirty miles above Cologne, to load the Apollonaris such works as now supply tin bar,    mineral water for London,

was

consequence. Sir John was not allowed on board, but after examining it thoroughly from shore he came to the conclusion that the iron plates could be rolled even thicker. He came home and set to work, with the result that Lord Palmerston —then the Premier—and the Lords of the Admiralty, headed by the Duke of Somerset, visited Sheffield and saw rolled plates from 5^in. to 12in. thick. In a short time he had re-clothed three-fourths of the British Navy. The discovery revolutionised the fleets of the world. Now iron has given place to compound—i.e., steel-faced—armour, and this, in its turn, is pitted against all-steel armour, as steel projectiles find their way through the composite mass. Sir John, who has been twice Mayor and Master Cutler, now resides in well-earned retirement at Endcliffe Hall, near Sheffield.

A local representative of a steel rail firm went to London some time ago with a tender in his pocket for some work which was in the market. One of the principals, having obtained some idea of bis figure, quietly advised him not to waste his time waiting for the competition, as they had already offers 10s. to 20s. per ton less; and yet the firm had based their estimate on exact cost, leaving not a farthing of profit. This incident shows how keen the rivalry is for rail orders, and how difficult it is for firms having their works inland to compete with those at the coast. Messrs. Charles Cam-mell and Co., I understand, have no lack of orders at Workington, and they are keeping their Penistone rail mills well employed contracts for home companies and for delivery at Hull. Messrs. Cammell’s rails have recently given much satiafaction in Japan.

The lighter industries remain as mentioned last week, the leading firms being full of work for Christmas and the new year. A very good business is being done both on metropolitan and provincial account, and the call from the colonies having also been important, the different firms are well off for work, and the artisans fully ployed. It is noticeable that the demand for plated goods is in excess of the call for cutlery.

The Board of Trade returns for November show the total value of cutlery exported to have been £239,260, against £238,441 for the corresponding month of 1885. In steel, unwrought, there is again a great increase, the value exported last month being £155,811, compared with £96,487 for November, 1885. The United Stat demand has advanced from £27,781 in November, 1885, to £76,227 last month.

THE NORTH OF ENGLAND.

(From our own Correspondent.)

The substantial reduction in pig iron stocks, shown by the official statistics for November, together with further accounts of improving trade from America and elsewhere, are having a favourable effect on the Cleveland pig iron trade. The market held at Middlesbrough on Tuesday last was well attended ; inquiries for delivery over the first quarter of next year were freely made, and consumers seemed generally more disposed to operate than they have been for some time past. For No. 3 g.m.b. delivered over the first quarter of 1887, 33s. to 33s. 3d. per ton was offered, and for delivery to the end of June 33s. 9d. would have been given, but sellers were cautious, and declined to accept these figures. For prompt delivery makers continue to quote 33s. per ton for No. 3; but merchants usually undersell them by naming a somewhat lower figure. During the earlier part of the market some transactions took place at 32s. 7|d.; but before the close the price advanced to 32s. 9d., or 3d. more than merchants would accept last week.

The price of warrants is nominally 32s. 9d. per ton. Holders are, however, not eager to sell at present, as they consider their prospects to be improving.

The stock of pig iron in Messrs. Connal and Co.’s Middlesbrough store continues to decrease, but only at a very slow rate. The quantity held on Monday last was 298,875 tons, which represents diminution of 519 tons during the week. The total decrease last month was 982 tons. Their Glasgow stock increased 300 tons last week, the total quantity held there on Monday evening being 840,080 tons.

There is still no improvement to report as regards the finished iron trade. Orders are scarce and prices remain as last quoted, namely:—Ship plates, £4 10s. per ton; common bars, £4 12s. 6d.; and angles, £4 7s. 6d.; all free on trucks at makers’works, and less per cent.

The Cleveland ironmasters’ returns for November were issued on the 3rd inst. According to them it appears that eighty-five furnaces were in blast during the month. Of these fifty-three were making Cleveland iron, and the remainder hematite, spiegel, basic, &c. The total make of pig iron, of all kinds, was 186,693 tons, or decrease of 5706 tons, compared with October. The total stock of Cleveland pig iron on the 30th ult. was 667,772 tons, being a decrease of 22,963 tons for the month.

Shipments of pig iron from Middlesbrough during November amounted to 71,363 tons, as against 84,322 tons shipped during October. Of this quantity 37,890 tons went to Scotland. The consignments to foreign countries were as follows, viz.:—to Germany, 5119 tons; to Norway and Sweden, 4304 tons ; to Holland, 4105 tons; to Russia, 3110 tons; to Belgium, 2820 tons; to France, 2065 tons; and to America, 2000 tons. The shipments of manufactured iron and steel amounted to 30,639 tons, of which 20,168 India was as usual the best customer, having on a curve most of them failed altogether for want of more side play in the apparatus.

But though the Midland Company have adopted the pointed pole system, they did not originate it. It was first devised by an ordinary goods’ yard shunter employed at the North Stockton station, and was adopted by the North-Eastern Railway Company before any other. Honour must be given where honour is due. That man has, it is believed, no patent, and will probably get little profit out of his invention. Nevertheless, it has unquestionably beaten all the others, and by preventing the necessity of getting within the buffers to couple or uncouple, will certainly be the means of saving the lives and limbs of railway servants in the future to a large extent. What is the “Amalgamated Society” after, that it does not search out this man and give him a prize ? There is little doubt but that the directors of the great railway companies who use the invention would contribute also, so as to make it of substantial character.

NOTES FROM SCOTLAND.

(From our own Correspondent.)

The Glasgow iron market, which had sunk into a comparatively lethargic state, has this week displayed considerable activity in the speculative department. It transpired early in the week that orders had been received for more than the usual quantities of shipping iron for the United States, and as it was assumed that these might soon be followed by others, the speculative prices got a start, and a fair amount of business was done. The keeping out of furnaces through strikes of furnacemen has also tended to strengthen prices, as the output is reduced to a greater extent than it otherwise would have been. But the amount of the shipment is very small, and until they show a material increase, it is not to be expected that the movements in the market will be other than spasmodic. In the past week the shipments were only 4289 tons, as compared with 4870 in the preceding week, and 5896 in the corresponding week of 1885. We are importing more iron from Cleveland for use in Scotland at present than we are sending to all foreign countries. Deducting the quantity sent coastwise, we exported only 2958 tons in the past week, whereas we imported 7905 tons from Middlesbrough. While the export trade is in this backward state, it is not to be expected that there can be any marked improvement in the general features of the trade. The addition to stocks in Messrs. Connal and Co.’s Glasgow stores are comparatively small.

Business was done in the warrant market on Friday at 42s. 2d. cash. There was an improved inquiry, and a good business on Tuesday at 42s. 2Jd. to 42s. 6|d. cash. The quotations further advanced on Tuesday to 42s. lOd. On Wednesday prices fluctuated between 42s. lljd. and 42s. 8d. cash. To-day—Thursday—transactions took place from 42s. 8d. to 43s., closing with buyers at 42s. lid. cash.

The values of makers’ iron are about 6d. a ton higher than they were a week ago, as follows :—Gartsherrie, f.o.b. at Glasgow, per ton, No. 1, 47s.; No. 3, 43s.; Coltness, 50s. 6d. and 44s. 6d.; Langloan, 47s. 6d. and 44s. 6d.; Summerlee, 49s. 6d. and 44s.; Calder, 47s. 6d. and 43s.; Carnbroe, 44s. 6d. and 41s.; Clyde, 45s. 6d. and 41s.; Monkland, 43s. 6d. and 39s. 6d.; Govan, at Broomielaw, 43s. 6d. and 39s. 6d.; Shotts, at Leith, 46s. 6d. and 44s. 6d.; Carron, at Grangemouth, 46s. 6d. and 43s. 6d.; Glengar-nock, at Ardrossan, 44s. 6d. and 41s.; Eglinton, 43s. and 39s. 3d.; Dalmellington, 43s. 6d. and 40s.

Hematite warrants have been steady without much change in prices. There were no arrivals of Cumberland hematite at Glasgow during November for transhipment to the United States.

Several fresh shipbuilding contracts have been placed with large builders, and these have added to the work of the steel makers, who are now very busy. Marine engineering and several other branches of industry have also received considerable advantage from these orders. Should the Thames, Medway, and Orwell Steam Navigation Company turn out a success with the investing public, its fleet of river steamers, forty in number, will be built on the Clyde. The contract has provisionally been given to Messrs. William Hamilton and Co., of Port Glasgow; but if it goes on, it is expected that that firm will divide the work with a number of other builders.

The past week’s shipments of iron and steel goods from the Clyde embrace three locomotives, valued at £6750, for Calcutta; machinery, £7500; steel goods, £8427; of which £4750 tires, &c., for Calcutta; sewing machines in parts, £2660; and general iron manufactures, £25,000, of which £4176 is wagon work for Calcutta; £3970 pipes, &c., for Sydney; and £3190 various articles for Italy.

There is more activity in the coal trade than was expected. Main coals and dross for furnace use are in special request, and there is a ready market for all that is raised by the colliers. During the past week there was shipped at Glasgow, 20,725 tons; Greenock, 175; Ayr, 7036; Irvine, 1748; Troon, 4699; Burntisland, 21,656; Leith, 2311; Grangemouth, 16,389; Bo’ness, 4831; and Port-Glas-gow, 120. Total, 79,290 tons, or 19,692 tons more than in the corresponding week of 1885.

As the leaders of the miners have failed to induce them to restrict their work to four days of eight hours a week, they have now made a proposal that the men should work only seven hours a day. The subject is not likely to be seriously entertained, at least on this side of the Christmas holidays.

WALES AND ADJOINING COUNTIES.

(From our own Correspondent.)

was un

What will be the upshot of the turmoil now prevailing in the tin-plate districts it would be difficult to forecast. Along the Glamorgan coast from Port Talbot and up in the West Monmouthshire district, notices to stop are pretty general, and the end of December will see a lot closed unless reductions are accepted. In many parts the employers and workmen have arranged their differences the men conceding; in others there is a strong resistance.

What is wanted is the introduction of Sir W. T. Lewis’s principle of the sliding scale. As tin-plate works are at present they, remind one of the old colliery days when each colliery worked upon its own plan, and strikes were numerous and common. Under present arrangements one master arranges with his men in one district, the other fails in the next, and so on, and in every case where the men resist stoppage becomes imperative.

The Llanelly and Swansea districts are going along with the utmost steadiness, and as it is tolerably certain a number of works will close, prices are going up. Swansea exported 41,768 boxes of tin-plates last week, and about 39,000 were received into stock. So make and sale are getting equalised. For ordinary cokes 12s. 9d. has been the leading figure, but sellers refuse to book at this rate, and a good deal of business has been effected at higher figures. For forward delivery few will accept present prices. Quotations are at 13s. 6d.; as I despatch my letter 14s. has been asked for best qualities. Inquiries for ternes are increasing now that the terne season is coming on, but no definite price is quoted.

The next examination of candidates for certificated managers is fixed for the first week in January.

NOTES FROM GERMANY.

(From our own Correspondent.)

(From our own Correspondent.)

New York, Nov. 27th.    |

IRON and steel brokers are about closing contracts for some thirty or forty thousand tons

of English steel blooms, slabs Bessemer pig and TMg    was registered on the 1st inst.,

spiegeleisen. If the prices suit, these transactions with ^ 'f £i₀0,0(X), in £1 shares, to manu-will extend far beyond the figures given. Large facfcure a* aratus for ^aU^ay signalling and with consumers of material in Pennsylvania are willing guch    to purchase and work the letters

to stock up for next spring provided the prices    £    * dated November 1886

suit; but while there is a strong upward tendency f .. an impro’ved method of automatic electric in the market, there is a manifest unwillingness    f(£ u and    tus therefor.”

to follow the market up without better reason T* subsscribers are /_ than is apparent on the surface of trade at the

present time. The entire iron market is very    Levi, 3, George-yard, Lombard-street, mer-

strong. Consumers of pig iron are waiting to see chant ....................

what the Thomas Iron Company will decide to ask F. J. Vinall, 4, Portobello-terrace, W., wine

for iron to be delivered during 1887. Upwards _ and spirit nitrchant..    ..    ..........

according to brand; No. 2 is selling at 18 dols.; grey forge 16 dols. to 17 dols.; Eglinton iron is selling at 19 dols.; Glengarnock at 20.50; Coltness

21.50    dols. Two or three large lots of Bessemer iron sold at 20 dols., and large lots of domestic Bessemer sold at 18.25 dols. to 18.50 dols. One lot of English 20 per cent, spiegeleisen sold at

28.50    dols. and another lot of German at 27.25 dols. Several five and ten thousand blocks of steel rails were contracted for for delivery in the West at 38 dols. Mill price is 34.50 dols., with an

occasional transaction rumoured at fifty cents less.    C- simpsoni c.E., Broadway-chamber^

All kinds of metals are in good demand, lead Westminster ................

rolling mill interests throughout the interior as E. P. williams, 48, Osnaburgh-street, gas engi-far West as Chicago and St. Louis are urgently calling for old rails, and have contracts for all the W. W. Strode, 48, Osnaburgh-street, gas engineer 1 material they can furnish for months to come. The number of directors is not to be less than Electrical light appliances are also in great three nor more than five; qualification, £200 in demand, and all well-equipped establishments are shares or stock ; the first are the subscribers full of business. A good many new concerns are denoted by an asterisk; remuneration, £2 each being built in order to meet the heavy demand for for every meeting attended, but is not to exceed material. Bar iron is 2 c. in small lots for prompt in the aggregate £400 per annum, delivery. Tank iron, The wrought pipe mills are full of orders. Forge iron is 16 dols. to 17 dols.

Production is maintained at the outside limit in Carpet Patent Automatic Cleansing Company, all branches of the iron trade.

E. Crickmay, 155, Carlton-road, N.W., financial

Anglo-Norwegian Ice Company, Limited. ¹ agent .. .. ..    .. .. ........

TT y ,    if    , C r, i. U    L- Luders, 63, Cornhill, merchant ......

Upon terms of an agreement of October 26th *w. R. Crozier, 1, Leadenhail-street, merchant..    1

between Christian Marentius Borresen, Thor *D. W. Forbes, Smithfield Works, Blackwall,

Olsen, Jans Andreas Larsen, and Peder Strand of engineer ..................

the one part, and Robert Jerrold—for the com- J- H. Byrne, 81, Gracechurch street, chartered pany—of the other part; this company proposes accountant    •• . •*.    ••

to acquire certain lakes and other property in    ²’ Metal Exchange-buildings,

Norway—held under leases in perpetuity at j. a. Miller, 30, Great Tower-street, gum mer-

rents not exceeding £130 per annum—some of chant ....................

which are duly equipped with stores and imple- The number of directors is not to be'less than ments for carrying on the business of ice pro- three nor more than five ; qualification, fifty ducers, collectors, importers, and dealers. It was sbares; the first are the subscribers denoted by registered on the 25th ult. with a capital of an asterisk and Major-General W. R. Alexander, f.¹⁰⁰?⁰⁰o°^o£1 lhareS,-uoTohoenPT^e considera- of Dartmouth; remuneration, £50 per annum tion is £9000 cash, and £3000 in fully paid shares. an(j also 10 per cent, of the profits after 10 The subscribers are    cent. dividend has been paid.

Shares.

Rear-Admiral J. Bythesea, 22, Ashburn-place,

S.W...................

G.    E. Keith, 14, Hans-place, S.W.......

H.    J. Towell, 180, Camden-road, N.W.....

J. Saunders, 101, Manor-road, St. John’s ..    ..    200

J. E. Spencer, 4, Brick-court, Temple, barrister 200 J. W. Langlois, 11, Leadenhall-street, solicitor ..    100

L. M. Biden, 11, Leadenhall-street, solicitor

.. 200 Thames, Medway, and Orwell Steam Navigation Company, Limited.

This company was registered on the 26th ult. with a capital of £300,000, in £5 shares—whereof .. 100 30,000 are £5 per cent, cumulative preference shares—to carry on the business of steamboat owners and carriers upon the rivers Thames, Medway, and Orwell, or elsewhere. An agreement of the 24th ult. between William Hamilton and John Hamilton of the firm of William Hamilton and Co., of the Newark Shipbuilding Yard, Port Glasgow, and Edgar Shand, of 30, St. Mary’s-road, Peckham, will be adopted. The subscribers are :—

Shares.

five nor more than

The

asso-

on.

AMERICAN NOTES.

NEW COMPANIES.

The following companies have just been registered

.. 200

The number of directors is not to be less than three nor more than seven; qualification, 200 shares; remuneration, £50 per annum for each director, with an additional £20 each for every 1 per cent, dividend above 5 per cent, per annum. Most of the regulations of Table A of the Companies Act, 1862, are adopted.

Lay Torpedo Company, Limited.

This company proposes to purchase a certain secret process or processes for the manufacture of a torpedo to be called “The Lay Torpedo,” and to acquire any other machines, implements, or instruments used in connection with torpedo warfare. It was registered on the 26th ult., with a capital of £300,000, in £10 shares. The subscribers are *

Shares.

Archibald Campbell, Great Winchester-street,

electrical engineer..............

C. S. Hill, Oak Grange, Reckenham ......

A. L. Hutchison, 4, Guildhall-chambers, merchant ....................

W. B. Campbell, Sutton, Surrey, secretary to a

company ..................

W. Hollick, 28, Barnsbury Park ........

W. H. Helin, 7, Hillfield-road, West Hampstead,

journalist .................

A. Watling, 78, Trafalgar-road, S.E., clerk ..    ..

Registered without special articles.

Anti-Attrition Metal Company, Limited.

This company was registered on the 1st inst. with a capital of £50,000, in £10 shares, to purchase the business and property referred to in an unregistered agreement of the 30th ult., between Wm. Levett and Co. and Andrew Wardrop—for the company—and to carry on the business of a metal smelting, foundry, manufacturing and machinists company. The subscribers are :—

Shares.

M. C. Grabham, 5, Suffolk-place, Pall Mall,

physician .................

S. W. Bacon, C.E., 4, Great Winchester-street .

W. Levett, IS, York Villas, Brighton .....

A. Wardrop, Emerson-place, Southwark ..    .

M. Grabham, Portugal-place, Cambridge C. C. Baker, 4, Austin Friars, sharedealer ..

W. H. Foy, Pinner’s Hall, Old Broad-street accountant............

The number of directors is not to be less than three nor more than five; qualification, one share;

the subscribers are to appoint the first; the company in general meeting will determine remuneration.

Automatic Electric Railway Signal Company, Limited.

Shares.

Registered without special articles.

“ Bower ” Gas Lamp Company, Limited.

This company proposes to acquire the patent rights of George Sylvester Grimston, Anthony Spencer Bower, and Thomas Thorp, relating to gas lamps. It was registered on the 1st inst., with a capital of £30,000, in £5 shares, with the following as first subscribers :—

Shares.

neer

Limited.

This company was registered on the 30th ult., with a capital of £10,000, in £1 shares, to acquire and work certain letters patent, &c., relating to carpet beating and the cleaning of all fabrics, and also to carry on business as wood cutters. The subscribers are:—

Shares.

per

D. Cowen, 49, Lime-street, iron merchant ..    ..

Blair Black, 49, Lime-street, naval architect H. G. Raikes, 55, Gloucester-place, Portman-

square, accountant..............

J. W. Jefferies, 97, Elderfield-road, Clapton,

accountant..................

B. F. Cramer, 13, Elsham-road, Kensington,

secretary to a company............

G. E, Mount, 15, Nicholas-lane, journalist ..

Edgar Shand, SO, St. Mary’s-road, Peckham, steamboat manager..............

The number of directors is not to be less than seven; the subscribers are to appoint the first; qualification, fifty shares. The remuneration of the board will be £1750 per annum, and such further sum as may be voted by the company in general meeting in any year in which 10 per cent, dividend is paid.

Society of Engineers.—On and after the 24th December next, the offices of the Society will be removed to No. 9, Yictoria-chambers, in the same block of buildings as the present offices. The Council has taken advantage of the expiration of the fourteen years’ term of the lease to effect this change, in the hope that the new reading room and library, being easily accessible by a lift, will be more largely used, and become more a centre of union for the members than has hitherto been the case. The ordinary meetings for the reading and discussion of papers will continue to be held at the Westminster Town Hall, as for the .last three years, commencing at half-past seven o’clock on each occasion. Victorian Engineers’ Association, of Melbourne, Australia, has passed a resolution admitting members of this Society, when visiting Melbourne, and upon presenting letters of introduction from the secretary, to the privilege of honorary membership of the association for six months, and a resolution will be proposed at the annual meeting of the Society, on December 13fch next, reciprocating this action of the ciation.

THE PATENT JOURNAL.

Condensed from the Journal of the Commissioners of Patents.

Applications for Letters Patent.

*** When patents have been “communicated” the name and address of the communicating party are printed in italics.

20th November, 1886.

15.571.    Regenerative Gas Lamps, A. M. Clark.—(/. Danischevski, France.)

15.572.    Screw Propellers, A. T. Zeise, London.

15.573.    Artificial Dentures, G. Walker, London.

15.574.    Stoppering Bottles, H. Brooks, London.

15.575.    Cutting Hair, F. Grant, London.

SOth November, 1886.

15.576.    Black Liquid from Aniline, <fec., for Dyeing,

C.    Collin and L. Errani, London.

15.577.    Autographic Telegraphs, H. J. Allison.— (The Writing Telegraph Company, United Stales.)

15.578.    Cutting Forms from a Layer of Fibrous Material, &c., H. J. Allison.—(G. J. W. Galster, New York.)

15.579.    Porous Earthenware, H. J. Allison.—(C. C.

Gilman, United States )

15.580.    Checking Tolls, &c., of Weighing Machines, H. Knight, Isle of Wight.

15.581.    Fire Extinguisher or Sprinkler, J. Tonge, Rochdale.

15.582.    Jacquards, W. J. and A. P. Riley, Manchester.

15.583.    Book, Reference, &c., Markers, E. A. Prior, London.

15.584.    Ventilators, P. M. Walker, Halifax.

15.585.    Circulating, &c., Apparatus for Marine Boilers, J. B. Archer, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

15.586.    Taps for Casks, J. French, Plains, near Airdrie.

15.587.    Boots, &c., W. J. Goring and W. Beasley, London.

15.588.    Coupling for Railway Wagons, A. Ash and

G.    Guppy, London.

15.589.    Safety Oil Lamp, W. H. Pasley, Manchester.

15.590.    Metallic Packings, H. G. Small, Manchester.

15.591.    Removing Slag of Blast Furnaces, W. Haw-don, Middlesbrough-on-Tees.

15.592.    Automatic Self-reversing Wagons, W. Brierley.—(E. Lucks, Germany.)

15.593.    Anchoring the Cables in Telpher Lines, H. Darwin, London.

15.594.    Preserving Fruit, W. H. Rhodes, Manchester.

15.595.    Ladles for Running Lead Joints into Cast Iron Pipes, H. Nicholson, Manchester.

15.596.    Valves and Valve Gearing of Steam and Air Engines, J. W. Hartley, Stoke-upon-Trent.

15.597.    Transporting Self-binding Harvesters, J. Hornsby and J. Innocent, Grantham.

15.598.    Portable Felt for Veluring Felt Hats, J. Hague, Manchester.

15.599.    Drying Wool, &c., J. B. and W. Whiteley, Halifax.

15.600.    Washing and Scouring Wool, &c., J. B. and W. Whiteley, Halifax.

15.601.    Frictional Brakes for Raising and Lowering Machinery, J. Hastie, Glasgow,

15.602.    Automatic Fire-extinguishers or Sprinklers, J. B. Hannay, Glasgow.

15.603.    Fasteners for Securing Doors, &c., F. R. Baker, Birmingham.

15.604.    Self-centreing Turn-table for Mounting Microscopical and other Objects, F. C. Moore, Leeds.

15.605.    Artificial Air Supply to Boiler Furnaces,

D.    B. Morison, Hartlepool.

15.606.    Bearings exposed to Friction, W. Atkinson and E. Tattersall, Bradford.

15.607.    Secure Bolt, G. and M. J. Stowe, Great Grimsby.

15.608.    Spinning and Twisting Machinery, W. Atkinson and E. Tattersall, Bradford.

15.609.    Drain Traps, G. W. Courtier, London.

15.610.    Obstetric Belt, M. C. and J. McKeon, Liverpool.

15.611.    Lawn Tennis Shoes with Rubber Soles, J. Cluff, Walthamstow.

16.612.    Cannon and other Arms, W. Tranter, Birmingham.

15.613.    Poultry House, T. E. Lane, Birmingham.

15.614.    Egg Beaters, J. G. Wilson.—(G. H. Paine, United States.)

15.615.    Wire Staples, S. Taylor, Leeds.

15.616.    Anchors, D. G. Lewis and J. Davies, Birmingham.

15.617.    Roundabouts, G. Orton, London.

15.618.    Hermetically Closing Jars, &c., M. O. Rehfuss, London.

15.619.    Knitted Fabrics, W. and R. N. Wrightson, London.

15.620.    Closing Springs for Doors, &c., S. Timings, Birmingham.

15.621.    Generating Gaseous Fuel, B. H. Thwaite, Liverpool.

15.622.    Cooking Ranges, J. Mcl. Shaw, Glasgow.

15.623.    Fire-bar, W. Wilkie, Glasgow.

15.624.    Lettering Machine, F. French, London.

15.625.    Travelling Wheels, W. N. Nicholson and W. Mather, London.

15.626.    Head for Bicycles, &c., T. S. James, London.

15.627.    Lock, &c., Nut, B. Malcolm, London.

15.628.    Hydraulic Lifts, H. C. Walker and R. Carey, London.

15.629.    Magazine Fire-arms, W. A. F. Blakeney, Glasgow.

15.630.    Date Indicator and Ball Programme Holder Combined, C. J. Klapka, London.

15.631.    Reception of Coin, J. S. Wallace, London.

15.632.    Breech-loading Fire-arms, H. H. Leigh. —(A. Sachs, United States.)

15.633.    Illuminator, T. Gill, London.

15.634.    Permanent Way for Railway Chairs, E. Ware. —(it. A. Wilkinson, South America.)

15.635.    Combing Wool, &c., J. H. Whitehead, London.

15.636.    Steam Boiler Furnaces, W. H. Mirfin, London.

15.637.    Steam, &c., Pressure Reducing Regulating Valves, J. Auld, Glasgow.

15.638.    Fountain Pens, P. Jensen.—(M. Brown, New York.)

15.639.    Safety Watch Guard, J. T. Wright, London.

15.640.    Grinding Wheels, E. D. Barker, London.

15.641.    Printing Colours on Hanks, <fec., C. Gaydet, London.

15.642.    Safes, &c., G. Allan, London.

15.643.    Bicycles, &c., T., F., and E. Warwick, London.

15.644.    Tying Straw, T. T. Mayos, London.

15.645.    Securing Sacks, &c., E. W. Killick, London. 15,616. Cash Registers, &c., H. J. Haddan.—(F. J.

Patterson, I. P. Davis, and A. Herman, United States.)

15.647.    Telegraph Transmitters, A. M. Clark.—(M. Beshoar, United States.)

15.648.    Bottles for Aerated, &c., Liquids, L. Dove and J. 8. Bush, London.

15.649.    Gun Carriages, W. Anderson, London.

15.650.    Rope Traction on Railways, W. Shapton.

15.651.    Obtaining Chloride and Bromide of Amido-dimethyl Aniline and PRODUCING Dyes, R. Hirsch and J. Dawson, London.

15.652.    Tawing Lether, &c., T. and L. Palmer, Lond

15.653.    Blocks of Carbon for Electrical Purposes,

H.    H. Lake.—(E. Shaw, United States.)

15.654.    Locomotives, H. H. Lake.— (H. W. Ladd, United States.)

15.655.    Picture Frames, &c., J. A. Shaw-Mackenzie, London.

15.656.    Pricking Floating Signal Lights, &c., B. F. Matthews, London.

15.657.    Cable Grips, W. P. Thompson.—(T. Kerr, United States.)

15.658.    Letters for Signs, &c., A. Blondell, Liverpool.

15.659.    Filling of Bags, <fcc., J. B. Williams, I. Brad-burn, and R. Stubbs, Liverpool.

15.660.    Artificial Horizons for Ship use, R. Wagner, Liverpool.

15.661.    Photography, A. J. Boult.—(£?. Eastman,

United States.)

15.662.    Shovels, Spades, and Scoops, H. M. Myers, London.

15.663.    Lighting and Heating Railway Cars, &c., R. H. Plass, London.

15.664.    Indicating Water Level in Boilers, <fcc., A. J. Boult.—(/. L. W. Olsen, Denmark.)

15.665.    Cocoa-nut Cakes, J. G. Webb, London.

15.666.    Corks, J. Lowman and F. Howard and Sons, London.

15.667.    Starting the Cages in Mines, H. Birkbeck.— (R N. Boyd, West Indies.)

15.668.    Mattresses, J. B. Maple, London.

15.669.    Washing Textile Materials, G. Jagenburg, London.

1st December, 1886.

15.670.    Handles of Cricket Bats, &c., P. II. Newill, London.

15.671.    Electricity for Vehicles on Tram and Railways, F. Wynne, London.

15.672.    Extinguishing Oil Lamps, E. J. Shaw, Walsall.

15.673.    Fixing Knobs on Bedsteads, &c., H. H. Chilton, Wolverhampton.

15.674.    Manufacture of Cheese, T. B. Brodbelt, Liverpool.

15.675.    Baskets, &c., of Carriages, T. Humphreys, Sale.

15.676.    Guide Pulleys, W. T. Garnett, Bradford.

15.677.    Producing Patterns on Pile Fabrics, E. Field and G. Tunnicliff, Huddersfield.

15.678.    Glazed Pavement Lights, H. Sulley, Nottingham.

15.679.    Automatic Delivery of Prepaid Goods, F. C. Lynde, Manchester.

15.680.    Box-wheels for Calico Printing Machines, J. M. Hampson, Manchester.

15.681.    Bins for Bottles, F. A. Bird and J. B. Fenby, Birmingham.

15.682.    Rails, <fcc., for Platelayers, A. Wolstenholme, Heywood.

15.683.    Outdoor Game, C. E. Johnstone, Oxford.

15.684.    Vices, C. J. Hermann, Manchester.

15.685.    Substitute for Printers’ Varnish, H. Cunliffe and M. Condon, Barrow-in-Furness.

15.686.    Device for Cooking, J. Turner, Skipton-in-Craven.

15.687.    Frame Plates for Rolling Stock, S. Fox, London.

15 688. Frame Plates for Rolling Stock, S. Fox, London.

15.689.    Microphones, T. Wallace and O. A. En Holm, London.

15.690.    Attaching Steering Handle Bars to Bicycles, &c., the Coventry Cycle Company and S. Gorton, Birmingham.

15.691.    Drying Grain, P. Van Gelder, Liverpool.

15.692.    Insurance Device, G. Neale, Liverpool.

15.693.    Combined Cradle and Perambulator, E. Chatham, Birmingham.

15.694.    Bottle Cork, G. C. Thorne-George, London.

15.695.    Shirt Tag for Fixing Ties, G. C. Thorne-George, London.

15.696.    Fire-dogs, C. Meason, Birmingham.

15.697.    Portable Easels, <fcc., J. Parker and D. T. Lee, London.

15.698.    Shafts for Steamship Propellers, &c., R. K. Boyle, London.

15.699.    Delivering and Indicating Value of Tickets, <&c., P. Everitt, London.

15.700.    Boots and Shoes, C. Litchfield, London.

15 701. Bending, <fec., Rims of Wrought Iron Pulleys, H. Moore, London.

15.702.    Sectional Water-tube Boilers, H. Moore, London.

15.703.    Sealing-up Articles, F. Bosshardt.—(IF. F. Schlitt and J. Hainbuclier, France.)

15.704.    Flyers for Slubbing and other similar Machines, J. W. Scott, W. Kirkham, J. Parkinson, and J. Carr, London.

15.705.    Locomotive Boilers, G. Booth and G. Pickers-gill, Halifax.

15.706.    Cleaning the Barrels of Fire-arms, W. J. Payne, London.

15.707.    Fire-escapes, E. R. Wethered, Woolwich.

15.708.    A Parlour Game, H. Agar, London.

15.709.    Rivet for Boots and Shoes, C. Wilton, London.

15.710.    Armour for Ships, &c., L. R. Forbes, London.

15.711.    Fastener for Cravats, &c., G. R. Minshull, London.

15.712.    Carrying of Fire-arms, R. Clay, London.

15.713.    Stays, H. J. Haddan.—(H. Bohle, Germany.)

15.714.    Treatment of Wood, &c., Fibres, W. Pfirsch and B. Kirchner, London.

15.715.    Granulating Coke, &c., J. Jolly and J. Bochon, London.

15.716.    Distributing Liquids in Gas Scrubbers, S. Cutler, London.

15.717.    Coupling Bars of Railway Rolling Stock, H.

E. Newton.—(La Compagnie des Appareils Auto-matiques pour Acer ocher et Deer ocher les Wagons de Chemins de Fer, France.)

15.718.    Closing Jars, &c., P. Ockenden, London.

15.719.    Administering Electric Currents, J. Roots, Crofton.

15.720.    Oil Lamps, J. Roots, Crofton.

15.721.    Smoothing Irons, &c., G. Pickup, London.

15.722.    Electric Telegraphs, J.-Y. Johnson.—(A. M. Rosebrugh, Canada.)

15.723.    Buoyant Devices for Life-saving, F. W. Brewster, London.

15.724.    Lighting Rooms, &c., M. Heale, London.

15.725.    India-rubber Tubing, I B. Harris, London.

15.726.    Football Bladders, F. Bryan, London.

15.727.    Tbeatment of Photographic Dry Plates, E. W. Foxlee, London.

15.728.    Producing Gas for Illuminating, &c., F. J. Jones, London.

15.729.    Portable Coal or Dust Bin, A. H. Williams, London.

15.730.    Steam Boilers with Corrugated Flame-tubes, A. Knaudt, London.

15.731.    Buttons, P. Ardeliano, London.

15.732.    Governor for Steam, &c., Engines, T. Heather, London.

15.733.    Producing Electricity, R. A. Parrish, London.

15.734.    Machine and other Guns, H. S.’ Maxim, London.

2kd December, 1886.

15.735.    Railway Chairs to Metallic Sleepers, H. J. Harman, London.

15.736.    Stoves, T. Wrigley, T. Pickup, andG. Proctor, London.

15.737.    Finished Cord, &c., J. B. Wrigley, Bury.

15.738.    Engine actuated by the Explosion of a Mixture of Air and Gas, W. J. Munden, London.

15.739.    Drying Paper, &c., H. Harford and C. F. Sutcliffe, South Shields.

15.740.    Nuts, I. Platt, Birmingham.

15.741.    Supplementary Tester for Metallic Bedsteads, F. Hoskins, Birmingham.

15.742.    Burners for Lamps, D. Ballardie, Glasgow.

15.743.    Barrows, H. E. Turner, Dorking.

15.744.    Lighting Fires by Gas, &c., G. T. Budd, Plymouth.

15.745.    Feed Mechanism for Perforating Machines, H. W. Tonks, Birmingham.

15.746.    Cigar Cutter, M. A. Wier, Upper Norwood.

15.747.    Fastenings for Joining Driving Belts, T. Pearce, Birmingham.

15.748.    Grinding Cards, &c., W. Houldsworth, Manchester.

15.749.    Jacquard Machines, J. McMurdo, Manchester.

Instantaneous Stop

15.964.

Mechanism for Organs, F. Drexler and W. and E. Brauner, London.

15.965.    Paving, C. J. Dobbs, London.

15.966.    Magazine Fire-arms, R. Morris, London.

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use

15.750.    Non-conducting Foot Protector, G. Ainsworth, Manchester.

15.751.    Valves for Controlling the Flow of Liquids, J. B. Penby, Sutton Coldfield.

15.752.    Safety Apparatus for Velocipedes, J. Drayton, Taunton.

15.753.    Tradesman’s Paper Suspender, E. H. Ledger, Shrewsbury.

15.754.    Metallic Bedsteads, S. I. Whitfield, Birmingham.

15.755.    Feeders for Roller Mills, E. Lethbridge, Blackburn.

15.756.    Covering for the Feet, A. Shaw, London.

15.757.    Forced Draught Apparatus for Furnaces, R. Fraser and J. B. Edmiston, Liverpool.

15.758.    Braking Apparatus, G. Quarrie, Liverpool.

15.759.    Heating Public Buildings, R. P. de Rider and W. Bennett, Liverpool.

15.760.    Adjusting Neckties, J. Dunkley, London.

15.761.    Magazine Fire-arm, R. Morris, London.

15.762.    Electro-magnetic Accessories to Maritime Warfare, M. Immisch, London.

15.763.    Fire-arms, &c., H. Parsons and W. Bown, London.

15.764.    Shutting Off the Gas Supply of Motor Engines, S. Griffin, London.

15.765.    Packing for Glands of Engines, W. Lockwood, London.

15.766.    Badminton Tennis, R. Slazenger, London.

15.767.    Ferries, J. Y. Johnson.—(A. N. Lebrument, France.)

15.768.    Air Refrigerating Machines, O. J. Ellis, London.

15.769.    Attaching Sash Lines to Windows, M. P. Crofton, London.

15.770.    Fencing, C. Beadle, London.

15.771.    Parasol, J. E. Nelson, Glasgow.

15.772.    Destructive Distillation of Shale, R. B. Tennent, Glasgow.

15.773.    Fastenings in Lieu of Padlocks, F. G. Underhay, London.

15.774.    Electrical Switches, I. Probert, London.

15.775.    Carriage Doors for Hansoms, &c., J. F. Spong, London.

15.776.    Covering Insulated Electric and other Wires, F. Walton, London.

15.777.    Waterproof Joint Armour Diving Suit, W. H. Hyatt, Gunnersbury.

15.778.    Heating Feed-water supplied to Steam Boilers, C. A. Knight, London.

15.779.    Bakers’ Ovens, W. A. F. Wieghorst, London.

15.780.    Travelling Trunks, W. S. Llewellyn, London.

15.781.    Railway Chairs and Sleepers, J. Howard d E. T. and W. R. Bousfield, London.

15.782.    Shaping Spokes for Iron or Steel Wheels, G.

D. Owen, London.

15.783.    Embroidering Machine, A. G. Prince, London

15.784.    Measuring Water, &c., E. Edwards, London.

3rd December, 1886.

15.785.    Pegged and Sewn Boot, J. Williamson, Northampton.

15.786.    Opsiometer, E. Barnard, Cirencester.

15.787.    Creating Forced Draught, H. Wilson, Stockton-on-Tees.

15.788.    Enamelling Dairy Utensils, T. Cossar and J. Bryce, Glasgow.

15.789.    Fare Collecting Tubes for Trams, J. S. Rhodes, Birmingham.

15.790.    Steel, &c., W. G. Copestake and C. Jones, Derby.

15.791.    Vermin Traps, &c., W. Sidebotham, Wolverhampton.

15.792.    Plate for Butter, C. Toft, Newcastle-under-Lyme.

15.793.    Lime-mud, J. S. Rigby, Holywell.

15.794.    Circular Knitting Machines, G. F. Sturgess, Leicester.

15.795.    Regenerative Overhead Lamps, J. H. Ross, Dublin, and W. A. Evans, Dulkey.

15.796.    Pigeon Shooting Trap, J. Burman, Castletown.

15.797.    Steel Armour-plates, G. Quick, Gloucestershire.

15.798.    Steel Armour-plates, G. Quick, Gloucestershire.

15.799.    Pistons for Steam Engines, E. J. Horsley, Sandbach.

15.800.    Gas Engines for Cranes, &c., C. Blagbum, London.

15.801.    Speculum Uteri, G. A. Bddart, Paris.

15.802.    Driving Machines for Preparing Cattle Food, A. Yates, Halifax.

15.803.    Driving Sawing Machinery, A. Yates, Halifax.

15.804.    Appliance for Boring Rock, G. W. Elliott, Sheffield.

15.805.    Take-up Motion for Weaving Looms, W. Begg, Glasgow.

15.806.    Loom Shuttles, &c., H. H. Illingworth, London.

15.807.    Hydro-carbon Lamps, &c., F. R. Baker, Birmingham.

15.808.    Screw-propellers for Ships, &c., M. Prior, London.

15.809.    Gas Engine, L. Cooper, Ardwick.

15.810.    Photographic Plates, W. J. Wilson, London.

15.811.    Weaving the End Borders of Towels, &c., F. Morrison and E. Beveridge, Glasgow.

15.812.    Centrifugal Fans, &c., A. Blechynden, London.

15.813.    Machines for Testing Muscular Power, P. Everitt, London.

15.814.    Drawing Device, J. Kellett, Bradford.

15.815.    Pointed Holdfasts for Pipes, G. Martin, Glasgow.

15.816.    Anvils, G. Allan and T. Turner, London.

15.817.    Boiler Furnace Tubes, J. Stephens and A. Smith, London.

15.818.    Syringes, A. J. Boult.—(/. Barnes, United States.)

15.819.    Globes for Lamps, A. P. Ker and F. S. Green, London.

15.820.    Blind, H. J. Haddan.—(M. G. Milter, Germany.)

15.821.    Type-writer, H. J. Haddan.—(B. F. Christiansen, Denmark.)

15.822.    Telegraph Wire Insulators, J. D. Bishop, London.

15.823.    Paper, S. H. Hodges, London.

15.824.    Fixing Colour upon Printed Yarns, &c., J. B. Alliott and J. Wade, London.

15.825.    Barrel Bolt, H. Hill, London.

15.826.    Stoppering Bottles, T. Terrel, London.

15.827.    Metallic Packings, R. Marshall and G. H. A. Thunder, London.

15.828.    Signalling Apparatus, F. D. Bowles and J. Price, London.

15.829.    Miners’ Pick, J. M. Matthews, London.

15.830.    Delivery of Prepaid Goods, A. M. Clark.—(A. Brunei, France.)

15.831.    Deposition of Metals by Electrolysis, F. E. Elmore, London.

15.832.    Rods and Spindles having Sliding Motion, J. Donnelly, London.

15.833.    Casks, &c., A. Dunbar, London.

15.834.    Lubricators, J. R. Fothergill, London.

15.835.    Dividing the Stream of Clay Emitted from Brick Machines, R. Parry, Liverpool.

15.836.    Ordnance, J. W. Hall.—(F. II. Durell, United States.)

15.837.    Dynamo-electric Machinery, J. A. Kingdon, London.

4th December, 1886.

15.838.    Puzzle, H. Whitfield, Birmingham.

15.839.    Applying Friction to Warp Beams, C. Fox and P. Crossley, London.

15.840.    Screw Presses, J. W. Hartley, Stoke-upon-Trent.

15.841.    Ejector Extractors for Fire-arms, A. Mackie, London.

15.842.    Thermometrical Readings, J. Potts, Birmingham.

15.843.    Call and other Bells, P. Gallimore and T. Taylor, Birmingham.

15.844.    Swimming or Bathing Glove, A. Day, Birmingham.

15.845.    Lamp Reservoirs, F. R. Baker, Birmingham.

15.846.    Metallic Trunks, &c., H. H. Chilton, Wolverhampton.

15.847.    Jubilee Sauce, P. W. Sayers, Worthing.

15.848.    Internally Stoppered Bottles, D. Rylands and B. Stoner, Barnsley.

15.849.    Lubricators for Slide Valves, H. N. Lipscomb, London.

15.850.    Washing Machines, D, T. Neill, Glasgow.

15.851.    Tents, &c., J. Sutherland, Glasgow.

15.852.    Sewing Machines, W. Clough, Bury.

15.853.    Ball Taps, J. Mawliood, Sheffield.

15.854.    Miners’ Safety Lamps, R. Scott, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

15,S55. Checking Money Taking, J. Whittaker and T. Littlehales, Birmingham.

15.856.    Disintegrating Fibrous Substances, &c., H. Blackman, London.

15.857.    Looms for Weaving, C. Catlow and J. Clayton, Halifax.

15.858.    Steam and other Engines, A. F. Scott, Bradford.

15.859.    Gas Fires and Stoves, T. Fletcher and A. Clare, Manchester.

15.860.    Electro and Electro-magnetic Clothing, G. Green, Bristol.

15.861.    Boilers, H. C. Simpson and E. W. Astle, Derby.

15.862.    Check Label for Liquids, C. J. P. S. Mare, East Worthing.

15.863.    Tubulous, <fec., Steam Generators, T. W. Baker, London.

15.864.    Reeds for Looms, F. Baynes and J. P. Dixon, Manchester.

15.865.    Roadway Blocks for Mines, H. J. Warrington and A. Mayer, Hanley.

15.866.    Gates for Closing up the Entrance to Shafts in Mines, Hoists, &c., H. J. Warrington and A. Mayer, Hanley.

15.867.    Smoking Pipes, W. G Parkin, Sheffield.

15.868.    Foundations of Card Clothing, C. Roberts, London.

15.869.    Ball Float Valves and Stop Valves, C. Darrah and J. Kay, London.

15.870.    Regenerative Gas Lamps, J. E. Lewis, London.

15.871.    Valve Gear, H. Lindley and T. Browett, London.

15.872.    Condensers, W. W. L. and J. T. Lishman, and W. R. Bootland, Liverpool.

15.873.    Photographic Apparatus, &c., Z. H. Kingdon, London.

15.874.    Stocking Knitting Machines, W. Harrison, Manchester.

15.875.    Preventing the Rattling of Doors, J. Coppard, London.

15.876.    Rule, D. McGregor. Glasgow.

15.877.    Crinolettes, &c., E. V. Goad, London.

15.878.    Extinguisher Mechanism, W. Snelgrove, London.

15.879.    Decorating Gold, &c., H. F. Elkington and H. T. Fellows, London.

15.880.    Leather Shoes, W. and J. W. Noake, London.

15.881.    Wheels, H. Parkin, London.

15.882.    Sawing Metals, W. W. Hulse, London.

15.883.    Stopper, J. Richardson, London.

15.884.    Tanning Skins, C. R. Bonne.—(P. F. Reinsch, Bavaria.)

15.885.    Shoemakers’ Lasts, E. Edwards.—(/. M. Spenle, sen., France.)

15.886.    Metallic Note-book Binder, T. Sloan, London.

15.887.    Treatment of Manure, &c., W. F. Nast, London.

15.888.    Repairing the Filaments of Electric Glow, <fec., Lamps, A. M. Clark.—(C. Pauthonier, France.)

15.889.    Engines for Carding Cotton, &c., W. Tatham, London.

15.890.    Hydraulic Machinery for Actuating Baling Machinery, &c., J. Leeming and J. Leem-ing, jun., London.

15.891.    Lawn Mowers, C. Warren, London.

15.892.    Boots and Shoes, J. B. Rootham, London.

15.893.    Fastening for Cravats, A. P. Tronchon, London.

15.894.    Cutting the Mitre Corners of Gilt and other Frames, J. Davies, Liverpool.

15.895.    Breaking, &c., Hemp, &c., W. S. Johnston, Liverpool.

15.896.    Alcohol from Manioc, W. P. Thompson.— (S. Bensaude, France.)

15.897.    Shampooing and Washing the Head, A. J. Boult.—(P. Nowotnick, Germany.)

15.898.    Solution for Treating Paper, A. E. Symonds and T. Humphrey, London.

15.899.    Receptacles to be Fastened to Wearing Apparel, A. J. Boult.—(M. L. Mueller, Germany.)

15;900. Harmoniums, &c., A. J. Boult.—(I. van Zee-broeck, Belgium.)

15.901.    Electric Firing Gear for Guns, A. Noble, N ewcastle-on -Tyne.

15.902.    Gas, H. H. Lake.—(J. J. Johnston, United States.)

15.903.    Weighing Machines, M. Justin, London.

15.904.    Wood Block Flooring, R. Davison and W. T. Creed, London.

15.905.    Separating Grain, W. Towl, jun., London.

6th December, 1886.

15.906.    Protection of Swivel Tram-car Brakes, T. W. Thornton, Sunderland.

15.907.    Forming, &c., Meat and other Pies, C. Batty, Attercliffe.

15.908.    Parallel Vices, W. Smith, D. Marks, and R. Watson, Skipton-in-Craven.

15.909.    Exhibition and Safe Keeping of Articles, T. Bradford, London.

15 910. Affixing Names to Bottle Stoppers, F. Foster, London.

15.911.    Easing the Shuttles in Shuttle-boxes of Looms for Weaving, E. Knowles and H. Walker, Halifax.

15.912.    Stoppers and Bottles, A. Johns, Manchester.

15.913.    Coffin Plates, E. Wilson, Bradford.

15.914.    Refrigerating, &c., F. B. Hill and W. A. Gorman, London.

15.915.    Preventing Snarls from Forming when Reeling Cotton, &c., Yarns, H. Warrenner, Oldham.

15.916.    Crystallisation of Metals, C. Payen, London.

15.917.    Indicator for Road Vehicles, L. E. White-stone, London.

15.918.    Cleaning Hackle Pins, J. M. Greeves and T. Lucas, Belfast.

15.919.    Teapot Cover, &c., M. and T. Dean and A. Capper, Burslem.

15.920.    Alarums or Alarms, W. and J. Holmes, Bradford.

15.921.    Spoons, J. Jowett, Bradford.

15.922.    Friction Motions of Yarn-sizing Machines, P. Brimelow, Halifax.

15.923.    Veneering or Coating Pills, &c., T. Thompson, Edinburgh.

15.924.    Railway Fastenings, J. Ireland, Glasgow.

15.925.    Fittings to Check the Rattling of Window Sashes, S. A. Rogers, Manchester.

15.926.    Extracting Water from Steam Pipes, M. Dickenson, Manchester.

15.927.    Steam Engines with Injectors, W. Schmidt, Germany.

15.928.    Moving Facing Points and Safety Bars, J. A. Payne and F. Jakeway, Dublin.

15.929.    Liquid Fuel Caloric Engines, E. H. and E. Crowe, Middlesbrough-on-Tees.

15.930.    Letter-press Printers’ Chases, W. De Little. —(A. D. De Little, Victoria.)

15.931.    Velocipedes, H. J. Lawson, Coventry.

15.932.    Taking Samples of Grain, &c., J. Murphy, London.

15.933.    Governors for Motive-power Engines, T. Barnard, London.

15.934.    Finishing Textile Fabrics, A. Glaister, London.

15.935.    Valves for Steam Engines, E. Wigzell and J. Pollit, London.

15.936.    New Pipe Block, H. and T. W. Rudland, Sunderland.

15.937.    Faucets, A. Florio, London.

15.938.    Alarm or Call Whistle, A. C. Farrington, Shelf anger.

15.939.    Teaching the Alphabet, &c., E. L. Colin, London.

15.940.    Pipes for Smoking, T. Sennett, London.

15.941.    Firing Apparatus for Ordnance, G. Quick, Chipping Campden.

15.942.    Cellulose, C. Kellner, London.

15.943.    Buttons, W. E. Sparling, London.

15.944.    Circular Knitting Machines, E. Attenborough, London.

15.945.    Fire-lighters, J. H. Keeble, London.

15.946.    Alloys of Aluminium, J. Clark, London.

15.947.    Traction Engines, S. Eddington and J. E. Steevenson, London.

15.948.    Alarms for Doors, H. J. Haddan.—(W. J. Busby, United States.)

15.949.    Metallic Trellis Work, J. A. Berly.—(A. Bbre, France.)

15.950.    Driving Wheels, &c., T. Bower, London.

15.951.    Mineral Oil Lamps, W. B. Wicken, London.

15.952.    Root Cutters, F. W. Bentall, London.

15.953.    Operating Extinguishers in Lamps, W. Defries, London.

15.954.    Oil Lamps, &c., J. Parry and J. Wilesmith, jun., London.

15.955.    Utilising the Vapour of Volatile Liquid Hydrocarbons, C. E. Hearson, London.

15.956.    Indicator Weighing Machine, E. Morgen-roth, R. and O. Holzmiiller, London.

15.957.    Measuring Liquids, H. A. Pickering, London.

15.958.    Buttons, A. Bullows, London.

15.959.    Gas Meter Indices, W. Mann, London.

15.960.    Races for Sheep, H. Hay, London.

15.961.    Electric Batteries, H. H. Lake.—(C. R. de Montgelas, United States.)

15.962.    Locks, S. and S. R. Chatwood, London.

15.963.    Removing Hair from Skins, W. H. Beck. —(P. Puech, France.)

Electro-pneumatic

SELECTED AMERICAN PATENTS.

(From the United States' Patent Office official Gazette.)

349,130. Dynamometer, George Westinghouse, jun., and Frank Moore, Pittsburgh, Pa.—Filed May 3rd, 1886.

Claim.—(1) The combination, in a dynamometer, of a shaft, a loose pulley mounted thereon, and a pressure transmitting device journalled on and rotating with the shaft, and bearing in opposite directions, respectively, circumferentially on the loose pulley, and in the direction of the axial line of the shaft thereof movable abutment subject to fluid pressure, substantially as set forth. (2) The combination, in a dynamometer, of a main shaft, a driving pulley fixed thereon for the reception of power to be measured, a measuring pulley mounted freely thereon, a fluid pressure cylinder located in line axially with the shaft, a fluid supply pipe communicating with said cylinder and with a pressure gauge, a piston fitting said cylinder and provided with a valve controlling the discharge of fluid therefrom, and a bell crank shaft journalled transversely to the main shaft in bearings fixed thereto, and having an arm adapted to abut against the piston and an arm adapted to transmit pressure to a bearing on the rim of the measuring pulley. (3) The combination, in a dynamometer, of a fluid pressure cylinder, a supply pipe controlled by a regulating valve and communicating with said cylinder, a pressure gauge communicating with the supply pipe and cylinder, a piston fitting the cylinder and carrying a valve controlling a discharge passage leading therefrom, and an arm journalled on a shaft and transmitting the pressure exerted by power applied in the rotation thereof to the piston in opposite direction to the fluid pressure in the cylinder, substantially as set forth. (4) The combination, in a

l34ai3ol (iH

dynamometer, of a main shaft, a fast and a loose pulley mounted thereon, a pressure transmitting device journalled on and rotating with the main shaft, and bearing in opposite directions on the loose pulley and on a movable abutment subject to fluid pressure, and a speed indicating mechanism actuated by gearing driven from the main shaft, substantially as set forth. (5) The combination of a main shaft mounted in bearings on a supporting base or bed plate, a driving pulley fixed thereon for the reception of power to be measured, a sleeve or cylindrical extension fixed upon one end of the main shaft and provided with lateral bearings exterior to the axial line thereof and at right angles thereto, a measuring pulley fitting freely on said sleeve, a bell crank shaft journalled in the bearings of the sleeve, and having an arm on one or both of its ends in position to transmit pressure to a bearing connected to the rim of the measuring pulley, and a central arm provided with a bearing in or about in line axially with the main shaft, a fluid pressure cylinder concentric with and adjoining the outer end of the sleeve fixed on the main shaft, a supply pipe communicating with said cylinder and with a pressure gauge, a piston fitting said cylinder and having a stem projecting into the sleeve in position to abut against the central arm of the bell-crank shaft, and a valve connected to the piston and controlling a discharge port or passage leading out of the cylinder, substantially as set forth. (6) The combination with the main shaft, of a sleeve fitting thereon and having lateral bearings exterior and at right angles to its axis, and a fluid pressure cylinder secured to the outer end of the sleeve concentrically therewith, substantially set forth. (7) The comhm&tioii, of & in&iush&ftj sfluid pressure cylinder connected concentrically to a sleeve on one end thereof, a piston fitting in said cylinder and having its stem abutting against a transmitting

device, through which the pressure of power applied in rotating the shaft is exerted against the piston, a head closing the outer end of the cylinder and provided with supply and discharge passages, a trunnion pipe communicating with a fluid supply pipe and pressure gauge and with the supply passage of the cylinder head, a socket fixed to the head and fitting freely around the trunnion pipe and against an end collar thereon between the socket and head, and a discharge valve connected to the piston and trolling the discharge passage in the cylinder head, substantially as set forth.

349,170. Snap Hook, Thos. T. Morrow, Caro, Mich.

— Filed July 9th, 1886.

Claim.—(1) The combination, with the tongue h and lip c, connected together and provided with a strap connection, of the hook B, pivotted between the tongue and lip so as to swing laterally, and having its

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apex normally adjacent to the tongue, substantially as described. (2) A strap connection having a tongue b, in connection with a hook pivotted to said tongue to to swing laterally, aud having its apex arranged to pass on to or off the tongue as described.

349,321. Valve Coupling, Roswell R. Rouse, Indianapolis, Ind.—Filed May '22nd, 1886.

Claim.—(1) In a valve coupling, the combination of the valve chamber having opening d, the cap for closing said opening, a valve set in said chamber, the

1349.321.1

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clack valve having pivots i i, and bearings for said pivots formed in the walls of said opening, said bearings being elongated vertically so as to permit a vertical movement of the pivots therein, substantially as specified.

349,337. Spark Arrester, Jeremiah M. Buckley Sioux City, Iowa.—Filed June 9th, 1886.

Claim.—(1) The combination, with the globular casing formed near its upper end with the interior annular shoulder, of the wire screen having the strengthening rim, the deflector formed of the inner cone having the top flange and the outer shell connected thereto by the flange pieces, and the brace rods having the screw threaded upper and lower ends, the collar formed thereon, and the binding nuts, all constructed and arranged as and for the purpose set forth. (2) The combination of the globular casing formed near its upper end with the interior annular

13493371

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shoulder, the wire screen having the strengthening rim, and the cross piece provided with the eye or ring, the deflector formed of the inner cone having the top flange and the eye or ring, and the outer shell connected thereto by the flange pieces, the brace rods having the screw threaded upper and lower ends, the collars formed thereon, and the binding nuts, and the small casings secured, as described, to the lower side of the annular shoulder immediately below the wire screen, all constructed and arranged to operate in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth.

349,038. Button, Selden S. Gorden, Brooklyn, N.Y.— Filed January lith, 1886.

Claim.—{1) In a changeable button, an under button, A, provided with excentric frictional or locking surfaces b’, and slots b", combined with a shell B, having posts d, adapted to lock with the said excentric frictional or locking surfaces, substantially as set forth. (2) In a changeable button, a shell, B, having a lining,

1349.038.1

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'A c, and posts d, as described, combined with an under button, A, provided with excentric frictional or locking surfaces b' and slots b", substantially as set forth. (3) In a changeable button, the combination of a shell, B, having a lining, c, posts d. and lips d¹', combined with an under botton, A, having excentric frictional or locking surfaces b’ and slots b", substantially as set forth.

Epps’s Cocoa.—Grateful and Comforting.—“ By a thorough knowledge of the natural laws which govern operations of digestion and nutrition, and by a careful application of the fine properties of well-selected Cocoa, Mr. Epps has provided our breakfast tables with a delicately flavoured beverage which may save us many heavy doctors’ bills. It is by the j udicious of such articles of diet that a constitution may be gradually built up until strong enough to resist every tendency to disease. Hundreds of subtle maladies are floating around us ready to attack wherever there is a weak point. We may escape many a fatal shaft by keeping ourselves well fortified with pure blood and a properly nourished frame.” — Civil Service Gazette. Made simply with boiling water or milk. Sold only in packets, by grocers, labelled—“ James Epps & Co., Homoeopathic Chemists, London.”—Also makers of Epps’s Afternoon Chocolate Essence.—[Advt.J