the fact that the thing could be done. The works are now to be supplied with apparatus for treatment of the fume on a large scale, and the results will be looked forward to with great interest. It will be evident that the principle is applicable to other industries besides lead-smelting, and its adoption will be hailed with satisfaction both by manufacturers and sanitary reformers. On a broad river near the city of Baltimore, some experiments have lately been carried out by Professor Graham Bell with reference to the prevention of collisions at sea in times of fog. These experiments are based on the well-known property of bodies placed in the path of soundwaves reflecting back those waves as an echo. As a source of sound, a musket with a speakingtrumpet at its muzzle and loaded with blank cartridge was employed. This trumpet not only gave direction to the sound-impulse, but also intensified the audible effect. It was found that ordinary steamboats and vessels with large sails threw back an echo that was most readily observable. Even a boat approaching with its bow towards the source of sound threw back a feeble echo at a distance of a quarter of a mile. A curious effect was noticed when the surface of the river was rippled, each ripple sending back a reflected wave of sound, the whole resembling a distant roll of musketry. It is believed that this new method will be of great value in indicating the position of icebergs. It need hardly be pointed out that the distance of the obstructing body can be readily calculated by observing the lapse of time between the report and the reception of its echo. Pintsch's principle of compressing oil-gas for lamps on railways is now familiar to all travellers. It has for some time been applied to buoys at outlying places, where a light can be kept burning for many weeks or months according to the capacity of the apparatus. Eight such buoys have been in use for many months on the Suez Canal, and now four more have been sent out to the same place. A gas beacon made on this principle is to be erected in August next on the Gantoch rocks in the Clyde. The chief advantage of the system is, that a light can be kept burning without supervision for a very long period. An outbreak of natural gas in the river Clyde, a few hundred yards below Bothwell Bridge, has lately excited much interest. It seems that the river in that place has for some time bubbled up in a curious manner; but it attracted no attention until an angler, happening to throw a cigar-light into the water, was astonished to see the bubble burst into flame. This flame rises to a height of several feet. Such outbreaks of gas are not unprecedented in Lanarkshire, more than one instance having been recorded in past years. But such displays sink altogether into insignificance when compared with the vast outpourings of natural gas in more distant parts of the world. The town of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, for instance, is extensively lighted from subterranean sources. The supply at present is about twenty-five million cubic feet each day, and this will, it is anticipated, be increased to forty million feet when a ten-inch main now being laid is completed. The houses supplied number fifty mills and factories, besides numerous private residences. The attention now being paid to the revival of Irish industries has no doubt stimulated the promoters of the Irish Artisans' Exhibition, recently opened in Dublin. The object of this Exhibition is to show what can be done by workmen themselves in their spare time. The scheme has in every way proved to be a success. There is much interest attached to the many schemes which are being introduced to supersede horse-traction by some mechanical mode of propulsion. Steam tramcars are now common in many of our Northern and Midland towns, although the metropolis has for the present had nothing to do with them. Electrical tramcars have been tried, and apparently found wanting, for they have not come into anything more than experimental use. Two years ago, an air-driven car was tried in North London, and for some months did its daily journeys in competition with the horses. We now learn that these trial trips were so satisfactory in every way that the Company intend to displace the whole of their horse-worked cars on this line by ten compressed air-cars on the Mékarski system. The method has for some months been shown in operation on a short line in the grounds of the Inventions Exhibition. Its introduction will be hailed with delight by all who know what killing work the tramways are to the poor horses. A swarm of bees settling on a man's head in Regent Street, London-a locality from which one must travel a considerable distance in any direction before green fields are reached-is an occurrence of too startling a nature to pass unnoticed. If the most daring novelist had described such an event, he would have been unmercifully ridiculed. But the truth, ever stranger than fiction, still remains, that a gentleman in Regent Street was lately seen covered from crown to waist with a large swarm of bees. After walking up and down for some time in the hope that his strange tenants would leave him, he was assisted to remove his coat and hat. The swarm then took flight, leaving behind them luckily only one or two stings. Jordan's improved Sunshine Recorder is an instrument of great value to the meteorologist, and of interest to all, when it is considered what an important aid to human welfare in various ways is the presence of actual sunshine. The means of recording the exact amount of this lifelight which is received in various districts month after month and week by week, for the sake of comparison with other phenomena, is naturally a thing of great moment. The improved instru ment is very simple in construction, and cannot get out of order. It consists of a hollow cylinder, lined with a chart made of paper sensitive to light. The solar rays reach this surface through two small openings, one aperture serving for the sun's entrance during the morning hours, and the other for the afternoon. When once adjusted according to the latitude of the place of observation, the recorder requires no attention beyond a visit to replace the chart by a blank one every evening. The chemical record is rendered per manent by merely soaking the paper in water for a short time. It is remarkable that the chief precious metals, gold, platinum, and silver, are characterised by a high degree of ductility. Professor S. P. Langley has recently obtained platinum wire Aug. 29, 1885.] little experimental work with a toy tank. Perhaps the best suggestion for dealing with this bugbear, which becomes more difficult to deal with every year, is that of Mr Page, a Thames ship-owner-namely, that a small fleet of large tank steamers should be built to carry the daily sewage of London far out to sea, and there discharge it in deep water. Such a fleet could be built for the price of one ironclad, and its object would be to save life and not to destroy it. This proposal has, we learn, been already submitted to the Metropolitan Board of Works. one-fifteen thousandth of an inch in diameter. us that nothing whatever is being done beyond a This, however, is by no means the limit of attainable tenuity, as the metal may be drawn much finer if care be taken to secure perfect freedom from dust particles, which scratch the wire and lead to its rupture. Mr Read of Brooklyn, indeed, has produced a platinum thread which is so fine as to be scarcely visible to the ordinary unassisted eye. The following is his ingenious method of preparing these filaments. He covers ordinary platinum wire with an outer coat or tubing of silver; this bimetallic combination is then drawn like ordinary wire, the process being repeated until an incredible degree of tenuity is attained. When the proper stage has been reached, the silver-covered platinum wire is plunged into a bath of nitric acid, which dissolves off the envelope of silver and leaves bare the fine core-thread of platinum. Mr Read proposes to employ this fine platinum filament, instead of the spider-thread at present in use, for dividing the fields of certain optical instruments. OCCASIONAL NOTES. SIMPLE PISCICULTURE. pounds. To carry out the system, experience is not absolutely necessary, provided there is sufficient intelligence to take its place. To stock small lakes and rivers with trout is now, owing to recent advances in the knowledge of pisciculture, an easy and by no means expensive matter. By a system of which we are about to give some useful particulars, thirty thousand As it is not everybody who has the good trout-fry can be turned into a stream at a cost fortune to have sun-blinds affixed to every win--irrespective of carriage of less than twenty dow in his house, it may be worth while to note that a very effectual and very cheap protection from the sun's rays is within the reach of most people. It consists in simply lowering slightly the upper division of the window-frame, and turning the ordinary linen blind outside instead of inside the window. Thus the windowpanes are not only shaded, but a space, through which there is necessarily a draught, is between them and the linen. The effect in cooling a room when the blaze is strong is quickly perceptible; for, as is well known, the oppressive warmth from an unshaded window is due chiefly to the accumulated heat in the glass. While the bright sun is on the blind, there will be plenty of light in the room. Should a wind shake the blind inconveniently, it can be kept still by drawing the cord and tassel into the room and securing it by shutting down the lower division of the window-sash. At a meeting of the Scottish Meteorological Society, there has just been exhibited an anemometer (wind-measurer) devised by Professor Crum Brown of Edinburgh. Mr Dickson has for some time been making observations with it at the Marine Station, Granton. The instrument has eight cups, instead of the four used in the ordinary Robinson anemometer; and the gusts of wind, turning the shaft in a degree proportioned to their strength, record themselves by pencil on a sheet of paper wrapped round a cylinder which is driven by clockwork-thus giving the time of occurrence of the various gusts. What has yet to be done, it was stated, was to give an arithmetical value to the strength of the gusts as recorded; and it was mentioned that with that view it was intended to obtain permission to affix such an instrument to a train travelling at a known rate of speed. The hot weather has once more brought to the front the very difficult question of sewage disposal in our large towns and cities, the metropolis and its dirty Thames naturally figuring as the moral to adorn the tale. The metropolitan authorities seem to be quite powerless to mend matters. A recent visitor to the works on the Thames tells The A most difficult part of pisciculture is spawning the fish, and taking care of the ova until they become eyed, that is, until two little dots can be seen in the egg, which indicate that the embryo fish is safely inside, and will soon be ready to emerge. Constant attention, pure water, and other essentials, are necessary to bring the ova up to the eyed stage; but after that, the rest is simple. As has been previously noted in these pages, pisciculturists, and notably Sir James Maitland of Howietoun (Stirlingshire), now sell the eggs when they are about a week off hatching, for they then travel well on swan's-down, in boxes, packed between layers of moss. one essential is to keep them cool by means of ice, otherwise they are apt to hatch out, or die on the journey. The great advantage of purchasing the ova in their eyed state is, that then the chief dangers have been got over; the ova are hardy and not easily injured, and can be hatched out almost without appliances and without difficulty. They have simply to be laid down in the bed of a stream in about six or eight inches of water, covered with fine wire-netting, to keep off water-birds, rats, and fishy foes; and, provided no heavy flood comes and sweeps them away, they hatch out in a few days, after which the fry-or alevins, as they are called for the first few weeks of their existence-shift for themselves. The foregoing is the most simple method of dealing with the ova, and owing to its simplicity, it often succeeds when more elaborate plans fail. In some streams, the water, where only six inches deep, runs a little too rapidly to allow the ova to remain on the bottom. The best plan, then, is to go to some shallow on which there is only one or two inches of water; scoop out a trough half-a-dozen inches deep; strew the bottom with small gravel stones about the size of cobnuts, and on them lay the ova, of course covering with wire-netting, as before. Some judgment is required as to the choice of a shallow, as, if the stream is too strong, it will cover the eggs with sand and small stones; whereas if no water flows through the trough, few if any of the eggs will hatch. It is a good plan to make the trough rather larger than is wanted, and not to put any eggs within a foot of its head. The eggs should be laid down without being touched with the hand. When the lid of the box in which they arrive from the fishery is unscrewed, they will be found in layers on swan's-down, and covered with pressed moss. The latter should be rolled (not lifted) off them; the swan's-down, held by each side, should be put in the water, and the eggs floated off it into the trough, or 'redd,' to use the proper term. The eggs should not lie in a heap; but it will not matter much if they touch one another. If they lie too thickly, a slight disturbance of the water over them with a feather will cause them to separate. Where the stream is naturally rather muddy, and gives considerable deposit, the eggs should only be laid down about three days before they are due to hatch, otherwise they get covered with sediment, and are thus suffocated. Late autumn, winter, and early spring are the times during which eyed ova can be obtained. It is well to take advantage of a spell of fine dry weather for the hatching-out, floods being very troublesome and occasionally ruinous to the pisciculturist. great advantage be used for lakes, and possibly for very large rivers. Ova of the common brown trout are best for smaller streams. It has quite recently been found out that American brooktrout do well in lakes through which no river runs; but they have not been a success in the rivers of this country. HALF-BRED SALMON. An interesting experiment, conducted by Dr Francis Day, at the Howietoun Fishery, in Stirlingshire, has come to an untimely end. Not very long ago, learned theorists leaned strongly to the opinion that a hybrid between salmon and trout was an impossibility; but practical men, on the other hand, were inclined to take the contrary view. Among these latter was Sir James Maitland, the owner of the Howietoun Fishery, who quickly proved his views on the subject to be correct by fertilising eggs of twenty thousand Loch Leven trout with the milt of a salmon (Salmo salar). These hatched on March 9, 1882, just seventy-five days after they were laid down on the grilles,' and for probably the first time in the history of pisciculture, a race of half-bred salmon came into existence. From these hybrids it was hoped that a valuable kind of fish might be bred, possessing many of the excellent qualities of the salmon without its migratory habits; but whether these partiOne thing must always be borne in mind-cular hybrids were capable or not of continuing namely, that still water is fatal to trout-eggs. Therefore, it would be futile to sow ova in the bed of a mill-tail, for when the mill stopped work on Sunday, they would all be suffocated, by reason of the non-aeration of the water. Deep water, also, is likely to suffocate them. After the ova hatch, the little fry or alevins will be noticed to have a yellow bag about the size of a pea attached to them. This is called the yolk, or umbilical, sac, and contains the food which nourishes them for the first three or four weeks; when it has nearly disappeared, the little fish come from under the stones where they have been for some time hidden, and begin to seek food for themselves. Not the least advantage of this system of stocking is that the young fry spread over the stream and find their own food; for the greatest losses occur in piscicultural establishments during the fry period, owing to the difficulty of feeding such tiny things. In brooks which are very subject to floods, and therefore unfit for artificial trout-breeding, the following plan can be followed: parallel to the brook, dig a long narrow trench, and make the bottom six inches below the level of the water. Run water into it at one end and out at the other by means of three-inch drain-pipes. The bottom of the trench must be covered with gravel, and in it the ova can be hatched, going, when they feel inclined, into the brook through the outlet pipe. If built properly, floods will not affect this redd, as not more than a certain amount of water can possibly enter through the inlet pipe. A redd of this kind, fourteen inches wide and fifteen feet long, will easily contain a box of fifteen thousand ova. In stocking a lake or large river, the eyed ova should be sown in some stream connected with it. The ova of Loch Leven trout may with their species, was a doubtful question, only to be solved by time. In the fry-stage, always the most trying period, there seems to have been a considerable mortality among the little fish, for on November 15, 1882, there were only about a thousand remaining, the finest specimen being four and a half inches long. In March, 1854, the hybrids were reduced to two hundred and twelve in number, but all were apparently in excellent health. They were about this time placed in an octagon pond, having a diameter of twenty feet, and a depth of five and a half feet. The largest specimen then was a little over ten inches in length; but some were not above two and a quarter inches-a remarkable difference in size, when it is remembered that the ages and parents were the same. During the autumn of 1884 and the early spring of this year, several fish were taken out of the pond; but all were sterile. In May, however, a fish was taken out dead, which proved to be a female with eggs developing, and which, in Dr Day's opinion, would, had it lived, have bred this winter. In July, owing to the great drought, the stream which fed the pond became very low, and the pond was a good deal discoloured. One morning, the keeper, on going to feed the hybrids, saw one dead fish floating, and none rose to the surface to take the food. The water was at once drawn off, and it was discovered that, with on exception, all the fish were dead. The large t was found to be thirteen and a half inches long and weighed over a pound. The termination-for we cannot call it failur of this interesting and important experi ment is much to be regretted. This winter, the hybrids would probably have been crossed with themselves, and also with trout and salmon, and a valuable kind of fish might have been the Aug. 29, 1885.] result. In a detailed account of the experiment, written by Dr Day, it is stated that there are fortunately some more of similar but younger hybrids at Howietoun, which will in due course solve the inquiry. PROPOSED EARTHQUAKE OBSERVATIONS ON BEN NEVIS. tributary. Certainly, so far as yet known, it offers a much longer waterway than any affluent that has been explored. Mr Grenfell navigated the Mobangi in the little steamer Peace, on a mean course of north by east, from the equator to four degrees thirty minutes north latitude, and left it still in an open waterway. At four degrees twenty-three minutes north, just below At a recent meeting of the Scottish Meteoro- the second rapids, he found it six hundred and logical Society, Professor Ewing, Dundee, de-seventy-three yards wide; at no point lower was it less in width. Its mean depth is twenty-five scribed the manner in which he proposes to feet, and although there the current runs not conduct a series of earthquake observations on Ben Nevis. He was, he said, instigated to take it means an immense volume of water to find more than eighty to one hundred feet per minute, up the work by three of the directors of the Society; and in setting himself to it, he had running south at a point, as Mr Grenfell puts adopted a wider view of the sense of the word the great affluent of the Niger. Where does it it, so near the supposed sources of the Binué, earthquake' than was colloquially attached to it. all come from? he asks. The 'trumbashes' of If he accepted the restricted meaning of the word, the Chad basin (Schweinfurth) are common, while there would, he supposed, be very little observa- they are not known on the Congo. The opinion tion possible on Ben Nevis; but recent observa- of Mr Grenfell and of his Congo colleagues is, tions made in various parts of the world had that the Mobangi is probably the lower part of shown that for the earth to be really at rest was the Welle, a river whose course is one of the an event of the most extreme rarity, if it ever unsolved problems of African geography. A large occurred at all. In the wider meaning which he map, in ten sheets, of the explored part of the proposed to give to the word 'earthquake,' they river has just been received at the Royal Geomust understand at least three tolerably distinct graphical Society. This map will appear in an classes of earth-movements. There were, first of early number of the Society's proceedings; and all, earthquakes proper; and here he might say a long narrative of Mr Grenfell's recent work will that he had served a pretty good apprenticeship probably be published in the next number of in the observation of these, having experienced the Baptist Missionary Journal. It is hoped, about three hundred of them during a five years moreover, that a full narrative of Mr Grenfell's residence in Japan. Next there came a class of explorations will reach England in time to be earth-movements of so very delicate a kind as read at the Aberdeen meeting of the British to be totally undistinguishable without some form Association. of instrumental assistance-earth-tremors, he called them; and last of all, there were what might be named changes of the vertical, or those tiltings which the earth's surface seemed to be constantly undergoing. Professor Ewing then described in detail the three instruments which he was having constructed for the purpose of recording earthmovements. What was wanted in the observation of earthquakes proper and of earth-tremors was an approach to neutral equilibrium; and this he had endeavoured to secure by an apparatus which was so adjusted as to combine a pendulum proper with what was in effect an inverted pendulumthe inverted pendulum being below the other, and the bobs of both being connected by what is virtually a ball-and-socket arrangement. the case of the instrument intended to record the changes from the vertical, a mirror firmly fixed in the rock is so placed in relation to a plate of mercury that when there is no tilting the images of both coincide, and are taken in by a microscope placed in a certain position. When, however, there has been any tilting, the images diverge, and the microscope at once detects the divergence, as well as the extent of it. ANOTHER GREAT AFRICAN WATERWAY. In Since the discovery of the course of the Congo itself, no more important addition to our knowledge of the hydrography of the region has been made than that from which the Rev. G. Grenfell has recently returned. He has proved that the Mobangi, which enters the right bank of the Congo, forming a great delta, between twenty-six and forty-two minutes south latitude, nearly opposite Equator Station, is probably its greatest HOW TO PRESERVE CUT FLOWERS. An important rule, though seldom regarded, says Popular Science News (United States, America), is never to cram the vases with flowers. Many will last if only they have a large mass of water in the vase, and not too many stalks to feed on the water and pollute it. Vases that can hold a large quantity of water are to be preferred to the spindle-shaped trumpets that are also useful for short-stalked or heavy-headed often used. Flat dishes filled with wet sand are flowers; even partially withered blooms will revive when placed on this cool moist substance. Moss, though far prettier than sand, is to be avoided, as it so soon smells disagreeably, and always interferes with the scent of the flowers placed in it for preservation. In the case of lowers that grow only in a cool temperature, and suffer when they get into warm and dry air, all that we can do is to lessen evaporation as much as possible, and when such flowers have hairy stems and leaves, to submerge them for a minute, so that by capillary attraction they may continue to keep themselves moist and cool; but this is dangerous to table-cloths or polished surfaces, unless care be taken that the points of the leaves do not hang down, to prevent dripping. Another means of preventing delicate and sweetscented flowers from flagging is to cut them with several leaves on the stem, and when the flower-head is placed in water, to allow only this head to remain above the water, while the leaves are entirely submerged. By this means the leaves seem to help to support the flower, which will then last for three days in a fairly cool room. Frequent cutting of the stem is of great use; but with all flowers, by far the best plan is to put them outside, exposed to dew or rain, during the night, when they will regain strength enough to last for days. All New Holland plants, particularly flowering acacias, are benefited wonderfully by this apparent cruelty, and will even stand a slight frost far better than a hot room at night indoors. A SAFE BENZOLINE LAMP. A lamp has been invented on a principle which precludes the possibility of the oil escaping; and thus an explosion is made impossible. Our readers will be acquainted with the 'unspillable' ink-bottle, in which an an inside channel of glass of about two-thirds the height of the vessel descends from its top, having an open and somewhat-narrowed bottom, the arrangement making it impossible, or nearly impossible, for the liquid to escape. The same principle is adopted in Smith's Patent Benzoline Lamp, from which the chances of the oil spilling are even fewer than the chances of the ink spilling. The burner screws immediately over a nietal channel which descends into the body of the lamp. At the bottom of this channel there is a good-sized hole, and a little way from the bottom there are a couple of small holes. Through the larger hole a sponge is fixed, the portion in the body of the vessel underneath being greater than the portion which protrudes above. The oil is then poured into the descending channel, and finds its way beneath through the smaller holes. Two fillings of the channel represent an adequate feeding of the lamp. All that now remains to be done is to screw on the burner, the wick descending from which will rest upon the head of the sponge, and will be fed with the oil by the process of absorption. The lamp may now be dropped or otherwise upset without the possibility of the imprisoned oil coming in contact with the flame; and thus perfect immunity from explosion is secured. An interesting fact in connection with this newly patented lamp is that it is remarkably economical. The manufacturers-Messrs John Fell & Co., of Wolverhampton-assert that it will burn for fourteen hours at full flame without recharging, at the trifling cost of one halfpenny. A NEW KETTLE. A kettle has been invented which is entirely different in construction from the ordinary utensil in which water is boiled; and it is claimed for the novelty that it will perform its function in a considerably shorter space of time than its predecessors. The Victoria Steel Kettle, as the recent invention is called, has several points of difference from other kettles, but it possesses one prominent feature, upon which it mainly lays its claim to distinction. While the kettle is practically similar in shape to the article we are so familiar with, and is surrounded by a circular wall of an unvarying height, it needs but to be inverted for a novelty of construction immediately to manifest itself. One finds that it is seemingly hollowed out, and that the metal plate is shaped so as to form a diagonal flue, which, starting with the same circumference as the kettle itself, tapers to a small opening at the back of the utensil immediately below the handle. Thus the capacity of the vessel for carrying water is reduced by about one-third, the advantage gained being that the fire, passing through the body of the kettle, causes a quick draught, and the water is raised to the boiling-point in from four to six minutes. The heat, being to a certain extent confined, of course attains considerably more intensity than if, as is usually the case, it merely played upon the bottom of the kettle and passed off on all sides without any restraint. The price of the kettle runs from two shillings and threefrom one pint to a hundred gallons. The sole propence, and it is made in sizes capable of holding prietors of the invention are the Patent Victoria toria Street, S.W. Kettle Company, 7 Westminster Chambers, Vic AT THE GATE. We stand beside the little gate, Hand clasping hand, my love and I; The winds are hushed, the hour is late, And we have met to say good-bye! Never a solitary bird His wing above the river dips, As we repeat the saddest word That ever fell from human lips. 'Mid tender sighs, 'tis breathed at last; I seek to draw my hand away; But oh, my darling holds it fast, And love's fond pressure bids me stay. Dear loving hand! so strong, so brave, On locks of mine no more to lie, Or deck my tresses for the grave, As I have hoped in days gone by. Ah, gentle hand, that never more Shall lead me o'er each rugged rock! At evening, on our cottage door, How welcome was your well-known knock. We cannot smile, my dearest, now, Our future seems so full of care; There is no brightness on my brow, There is no sunlight in my hair. Go, dearest, go, before the weak, We part, because we love so well. to the The Conductor of CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL b.to direct the attention of CONTRIBUTORS to the followiotice: 1st. All communications should be address 2d. For its return in case of ineligibility, posta 'Editor, 339 High Street, Edinburgh.' should accompany every manuscript. 3d. To secure their safe return if ineligible, A SCRIPTS, whether accompanied by a letter of otherwise, should have the writer's Name and written upon them IN FULL 4th. Offerings of Verse should invariably be acc by a stamped and directed envelope. If the above rules are complied with, the E do his best to insure the safe return of ineligible Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS noster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, Er All Rights Reserved. snied Pater |