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not being touched at all by the water, became overheated and softened. The pressure of the steam then caused one of the plates to exhibit an outward bulge, which was luckily detected

before an accident occurred.

Some special apparatus has been constructed at the Paris Observatory for obtaining celestial charts by means of photography. The results of preliminary trials of this apparatus have been reported to the Academy of Sciences; and it is said that the problem of making celestial charts of undoubted accuracy, which will include all stars down to the fifteenth magnitude, has been most satisfactorily solved. It will interest many to know the different times of exposure of the gelatine plate necessary for stars of different magnitude. Thus stars visible to the naked eye will impress their image on the sensitive plate in less than one second of time. This period is gradually increased for the fainter orbs, until we reach those of the fifteenth and sixteenth magnitude, which require the photographic lens to remain uncovered for about an hour and a half.

In Mr Sophus Tromholt's new and interesting work on Lapland, Under the Rays of the Aurora Borealis, may be found the best and most exhaustive account of auroral phenomena which has yet been published. He tells us that Southerners have the most exaggerated idea of the light emitted by the aurora, and that it is quite a mistake to suppose that it greatly assists the dwellers in northern climes either on their journeys or in their work. The greatest amount of light emitted by the aurora may be compared to that of the moon two days and a half ́after full when twenty-five degrees above the horizon and the sky clear. Bearing this in mind, it will excite no surprise to learn that every attempt made by Mr Tromholt to photograph the aurora utterly failed. Although he used the most sensitive dry plates and exposed them for long periods of time, he did not succeed in obtaining the very faintest trace of a negative. The author of this well-written book is a skilful photographer, and his work is abundantly illustrated with pictures taken direct from his photographs by a process that does not need the intervention of the engraver.

has now had his house so arranged that at each contact with the earth it rests upon a handful of cast-iron shot, the size of buck-shot. The result gained is that during an earthquake shock the motion to which the house is subjected is only one-tenth of what is experienced by its surroundings.

We have already alluded to the praiseworthy attempts which have been made during the past year to stimulate the invention of original designs for the different fabrics which come under the head of Irish lace. We are now glad to report that prizes to the value of seventy guineas are offered for a competition at South Kensington Museum. The prizes are to be given for seven different classes of Irish lace or linen-work, and the whole scheme is under such distinguished patronage that the worthy object for which it was devised is likely to be fully realised.

Mr W. Powell's account of New Britain and the Adjacent Islands, recently read before the Society of Arts, London, was full of information about a part of the world of which few people knew even the existence, until annexation by Germany made it famous. According to the lecturer, we need not envy a friendly power her acquisition, for the climate of the islands is such as to forbid Europeans making a residence there without contracting malarious fevers. The chief interest of the paper centred in the details given concerning the manners and customs of the inhabitants. A husband has there absolute command over the wife he has purchased; and a case was related in which the wife of a chief who would not work was killed, cooked, and eaten by her affectionate spouse! The native doctors bleed for every ailment, and it is not an uncommon sight to see a native covered all over with memorials of their work. When sufficient blood has been drawn, the gashes in the flesh are stopped up with burnt lime!

Another paper of a very different kind was brought before the Royal United Service Institution by Mr Gower, who is well known in connection with the form of telephone which bears his name. The object of Mr Gower's paper was to show that the torpedoes which form such an Professor Milne, of the Imperial College of important part of naval warfare can be used by Engineering at Tokio, Japan, has once more armies in the field. For this use they must published the results of some of his valuable be transferred from the water to the air; and observations concerning the effects of earthquakes balloons are the means suggested for carrying upon buildings, together with some suggestive them over and dropping them into an enemy's remarks upon the type of building which should lines. In the discussion which followed the be adopted in earthquake countries to withstand reading of the paper, the lecturer's ideas did not earthquake shocks. In a recent number of this meet with much encouragement. Sir F. A. Journal (page 224) we gave some results of his Abel, whose duty it was as chairman to sum observations for the past year. He has now up the pros and cons of the system advocated, published the results of some additional obser- showed that the area of destruction of the vations, in which he noted the effects pro- explosives recommended was exceedingly limited; duced upon an experimental earthquake-proof and as a proof of the truth of this, he pointed house, the chief feature in which was the to the recent dynamite outrages in London. peculiarity of its foundations. In the American Chemical Journal, Messrs

At each corner

of the house was a plate of iron with a depres- Chittenden and Cummins describe some experision in it like an inverted saucer. Under- ments which they have been making with a neath these four depressions were four large view to determine the relative digestibility of cannon-balls, which formed feet for the house to various foods. They employed as a digester an stand upon. For many reasons, one of which artificial gastric juice composed of hydrochloric was the movement produced by a high wind, acid and pepsine. Expressing the digestibility Professor Milne has abandoned this model, and of beef by one hundred, the other meats

experimented upon have the following figures attached to them: mutton, ninety-two; veal, ninety-five; chicken, eighty-seven; salmon, ninety-two; mackerel, eighty-six ; haddock, eighty-two; trout, seventy-eight; lobster, eightyeight; cod, seventy-two. The experiments showed that raw meat was more digestible than cooked, and that, with few exceptions, light meat was more so than dark meat.

shows most conclusively that there is a screw loose somewhere which requires adjusting. At a recent meeting of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, Mr William Sturrock, jeweller and watchmaker, St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, exhibited an automatic twenty-four hour dial for clocks and watches, invented by himself and Mr John Meek, his assistant. It showed the disc of an ordinary dial, having slots and a We have to record the establishment of a movable disc behind, on which were the hours new association which has been formed under from 0 to 24 alternately. It was explained that the title of The Society of Medallists,' to during the first part of the day 0 to 12 were encourage and cultivate the art of making shown on the dial, which then changed automedals. The Committee include several well-matically, and the hours from 12 to 24 were known gentlemen whose names are familiar at shown. When the end of this second period of the Mint, the Royal Academy, and the British Museum. The Society will shortly contribute an exhibit of Modern Machinery and Appliances for making Medals to the Inventions Exhibition, where space has been placed at their disposal.

Last February, the steamer Alphonse XII. struck on a reef of rocks at Las Palmas (Canary Islands) and became a total wreck. The ship, which carried the large sum of one hundred thousand pounds in specie, now lies in thirty fathoms of water. An attempt will presently be made by divers to recover the precious freight. A number of English divers have left Liverpool for the scene of the wreck, and every hope is entertained that they will be successful in their work. Their great difficulty will be the enormous pressure to which their bodies will be subjected at the depth of one hundred and eighty feet, a distance from the surface of the water considerably greater than that to which divers usually descend.

The extension of business likely to accrue to the Post-office from the introduction of sixpenny telegrams is estimated to be thirty per cent. for the first year. The change of tariff has called for additional lines, which have already been laid at a cost of half a million of money; but this sum includes the erection of sundry buildings and plant of various kinds. The increase of the staff throughout the kingdom will amount to more than two thousand, half being messengers, and the other half telegraphists.

The Report of the Committee appointed to consider the law relating to telegraph and telephone lines has been received. The Committee consider that the alleged danger of overhead wires has been greatly exaggerated, but admit that such wires should be placed under better supervision. They fear hampering the extension of telephonic communication, which is of such great public importance, by recommending any course which would interfere too greatly with the present system of fixing wires. Here they are undoubtedly right; for it is clear to every impartial mind that telephonic communication is already so hampered with restrictions, that the numbers of persons availing themselves of it are few in comparison to what they might be. "There are more subscribers to the telephone system in New York and its neighbourhood than in the whole United Kingdom, notwithstanding that the charge in New York is about double what it is here.' This is an extract from the evidence of Mr Preece given to the abovenamed Committee. It needs no comment, for it

time was reached, the dial went back to its original position; and it was claimed that this simple arrangement prevented confusion in reading the time. A new escapement for electric time-indicators was also shown by Mr Sturrock.

The Museum of Northern Antiquities in Copenhagen has just been enriched by a remarkable discovery, made at a small place near Thisted, on the west coast of Jutland, Denmark. Two men digging in a gravel pit in the neighbourhood of an old burial-mound, called Thor's Mound, struck an earthen vessel with their picks, disclosing a number of gold pieces. On examination, it was found that an earthen vessel, of about seven inches diameter at the rim, and covered with a flat stone, had been buried about a foot and a half below the surface, and this had contained about a hundred little golden boats, curiously worked, varying in size from three to four and a half inches. A gunwale and frames of thin strips of bronze had first been formed, and these had been covered with thin gold plates, some of which were further ornamented with impressions of concentric rings. The boats, of which only a few are in a fair state of preservation, are tapered at both ends, and resemble the Danish fishing-craft of the present day.

This discovery, which may be regarded as a deposited treasure of votive offerings, and belongs doubtless to the close of the Bronze Age, proves that frame-built vessels were already known at that time, and that man was not satisfied with the hollowed-out trunks of trees. The gold of which these little fishing-models are composed was valued at twenty-seven pounds sterling, which amount, together with a gratuity, has been forwarded to the finders, who are both poor men.

An ingenious invention is reported from the Cleveland Machine Company, United States, and that is an auger which will bore two-inch square holes. This machine works on the same principle as the auger used for round holes. Instead of having a screw or bit at the end, it has a cam-motion which oscillates a cutter mounted on a steel rocking-knife which cuts on both sides. The ends of the cutter are provided with small semicircular-shaped saws, which help the cutting out the square corners, and prevent the splinter ing or splitting of the wood. Much time and labour will be saved by this clever process, for a square mortise can be cut by this plan in no more time than was required to cut a round one.

The Standard correspondent at Madrid says:

e

'The defence of Dr Ferran and his inoculation as a preventive of cholera has been very warmly taken up by a majority of the newspapers and by some medical men, who consider the conduct of the government arbitrary. Dr Ferran began inoculation in March, and operated upon six thousand five hundred persons; other surgeons inoculated a large number. He believes that a single inoculation is often a sufficient preservative, but he recommends a second, and even a third experiment, as not a single person who has been inoculated has died of cholera. The greatest care must be taken to examine the virus used, with a microscope, to ascertain if it is sound, and if no other element or microbe has got mixed with the cholera vaccine. Dr Ferran expressed the belief that the incorrect local reports, and his well-known opposition to antiquated sanitary rules and quarantines, had led the Home Office and the Supreme Board of Health for the present to suspend inoculation; but he will accompany the Royal Commission when it is sent to Valencia. Should further experiments be stopped, Dr Ferran will visit Paris and London. His earnest desire is to be allowed to go to the East, and especially to British India and the Ganges Valley, to try his experiments in the cholera-stricken districts in those lands.'

MY VEILED CLIENT.

Ar the time of the incident I am about to relate, I was a young solicitor, with no very consider able practice, and therefore not always so discreet as I might have been, had I been able to pick and choose my clients. My business hours were ostensibly from ten to five; but the fact of my house adjoining the office made me subservient to the wishes of the public beyond the time stated on the brass plate at my office-door. In fact, it was generally after business hours that my most profitable clients came; and though I can say I refused many a time the agency of some shady business, still, I must confess with regret that once or twice I found myself unwittingly involved in transactions which I would have much rather left alone. One of these I have occasion to remember too well, and I can never think of it but I thank Providence for saving me from becoming an accomplice unwittingly in a most audacious piece of imposture.

I was interrupted one night at tea by the servant entering and saying that a lady wished to see me. Hastily finishing the meal, I hurried into my business room. As I entered and bowed, a lady rose, made a slight courtesy, and remained standing. I begged her to be seated, and asked of what service I could be to her. It was a little time before she answered, and then it was in a nervous, frightened way, glancing round the room as if she were afraid somebody else was present. I saw that, although she was dressed in good style, she had not the air of a lady; but as she wore a thick veil, I could not distinguish her features, though I made out a gray hair here and there.

'I suppose I had better explain who I am

and what I want,' she began. 'I am Miss Howard of Graham Square, and I want you to make out my will.'

I started involuntarily, for this elderly person, though I had never seen her before, had been the subject of many a surmise and many a gossip with the neighbours. She was reported to be very wealthy; but had apparently abandoned the world, for, during the last five years, she had shut herself up in her house, seeing no one but her servants. My curiosity was therefore piqued at the idea of making out this old eccentric's will. Taking up a pen, I asked her to give me the particulars of how she wished the property disposed of.

That is very simple,' she said. 'I wish my whole property to go to Mr David Simpson of Stafford Street here. I have never been married; and I want the will framed so as to cut off any heir who might claim relationship to me. I also wish you to act as my executor in seeing my will carried into effect.'

I made a note of the instructions, and asked when it would be convenient for her to call and sign the deed.

"If you could have it written out by to-morrow night, I could call then and sign it. I would like if you could arrange to have a doctor present to be a witness to my signing-a young doctor, if possible.'

Certainly, madam. To-morrow night at this time will suit, and I will arrange about a doctor being present. Is there nothing else you wish mentioned in the will?'

'No; nothing,' she said, rising. 'But be sure you make it so as to cut off all relations." I assured her everything would be as she desired; and after assisting her into the cab which was waiting, noticing the while that she had a slight limp in her walk, I retired to my study to frame the will in accordance with my instructions. Next night, punctual to a minute, she called; and as I had a doctor present, the ceremony of signing was soon over, the and appending a certificate of sanity, as desired doctor signing as a witness along with my clerk, by my client; and the deed was consigned to my safe.

The affair had almost completely passed from my mind, when I was startled one morning by receiving a note from Mr Simpson the legatee in the will, informing me that Miss Howard was dead. I immediately proceeded to the house, performed the usual duties devolving upon a solicitor in such circumstances, and made what arrangements were necessary. After the funeral, I had a meeting with Mr Simpson, and explained to him the position of affairs-that he was sole legatee, and that I was executor. He seemed to take the matter very coolly, I thought, but was anxious that everything should be realised as soon as possible. Our interview was very short; and I came away with a strong feeling of dislike for the man, who, I found, had acted as a sort of factor for the deceased lady.

Acting within the duties of my executorship, and also with a desire to find out if possible the relations the old lady had been so anxious to cut off, I inserted a notice of her death in most of the leading newspapers in the kingdom. This had the desired effect; for in the course of a few

days I was waited upon by a young gentleman, Edward Howard, who informed me he was a nephew of the late Miss Howard, and had called upon me, having got my name and address from the office of one of the newspapers to which I had sent the advertisement. During my interview with Mr Howard, I was much impressed with his bearing on my telling him the position of affairs, as he was much more concerned at his aunt's death than at the purpose of her will. He told me that five years ago he had married against his aunt's wishes; she had refused to recognise his wife; and though he had written her several letters, he had never heard from her in reply. He thanked me for my information, and said he would likely see me again, as he was coming into town to a situation he had just been offered.

Some weeks after this, as I was returning home in the evening from a consultation, my attention was arrested by the figure of a woman in front of me. She was hurrying along as if trying to escape observation; but there was something in her style and the limp which she had, that struck me as familiar, though I could not remember where I had seen her. Just as she was passing a lighted part of the street, she happened to look round, and the face I saw at once explained to me the familiarity of her figure -both face and figure being an exact counterpart of my late client's, Miss Howard! Somehow or other, a suspicion flashed across my mind; my instinct told me something was wrong, and I

determined to follow her and see where she went to. Pushing my hat well over my brow and pulling the collar of my coat well up, I followed through two or three streets, and was almost at her heels when she suddenly turned into a public-house, when, so close had I followed her, I heard the attendant say in answer to an inquiry by her, 'Number thirteen, ma'am;' and I saw her disappear into the back premises. I immediately followed, heard the door of number thirteen shut, and glancing at the numbers, quietly opened number twelve, and after giving an order for some slight refreshment to the attendant who had followed me, I took a hasty look around the room.

I found it was divided from the next one only by a wooden partition, which did not reach the ceiling, and that, by remaining perfectly quiet, I could hear that a whispered conversation was being carried on in the next room. The entrance of the attendant with my order disturbed my investigations; but on his departure, and regardless of the old saying that listeners seldom hear anything to their own advantage, I did my best to make out the conversation. I distinguished the voices to be those of two men and one woman. The latter I at once recognised, or at least my imagination led me to believe to be the voice of the person who had called on me a year ago to make her will. The voice of one of the men was strange to me; but after the discovery I had already made, I was not greatly astonished at recognising the voice of the other man to be that of Simpson, the legatee in the will. The whole thing flashed upon me at once, and I saw I had been made the innocent machinery for carrying through a clever and daring piece of imposture. I, how

ever, listened attentively to the conversation, in order to fathom the whole affair.

The first sentence I made out came from the stranger: 'I told you young Sinclair was the very man to do the work for you. These young lawyers never ask any questions as long as they get the business.'

'Well, well,' said Simpson, 'that is all right now. But the present question is, what is to be done in the way of hurrying him up with the realisation of the estate without exciting suspicion? The sooner we all get away from this, the better. I am glad that young fellow Howard didn't ask any questions. But one thing's cer tain, we must get the old woman away from this immediately, or she's sure to get recognised. She's been keeping pretty close lately; but I daresay she's getting tired of it.-Aren't you, old lady?"

'Indeed,' was the reply, 'I would be glad to get away from this place to-morrow, if I could. I'm sure I only wish you could have been content with half of the estate with Mr Edward, instead of burning the will, when you found it was to be divided between you and him, and getting me to do what I did. I'm sure it's a wonder my mistress doesn't rise from her grave to denounce us all.'

'Keep that cant for another occasion, old woman; it's no use getting religious now.-But I'll tell you what-I've got an idea.'

Here the conversation got so low, that I could not catch more than an occasional word,

and what that idea was I never found out, as he never got the chance to try it on me, for I had heard enough to know that next door to me were three of the most daring conspirators I had ever come across, who had duped me, and made me, though unwittingly, the chief actor in the conspiracy. My first idea was to lock the door of the room they were in, and go for help; but as that was likely to cause a disturb ance, I determined to slip out and trust to being back in time for their arrest. As luck would have it, nearly the first man I met outside was a detective, whom I had known very well in connection with some criminal trials in which I had been engaged. A few words explained my purpose; and signalling to the nearest policeman, he placed him at the door of the shop, and both of us walked in. He nodded familiarly to the bar-tender, and leaning over the counter, whispered in his ear. The shopman started, and gave vent to a long low whistle.

"You'll do it as quietly as you can, for the credit of the house,' said he.

in.'

'Of course,' said the detective. 'Show us

In another minute we were inside the room. with our backs to the door, the detective dangling a pair of steel bracelets and nodding smilingly round the room. The woman fainted. We had no difficulty in securing the men; and in half an hour we had them safely housed in jail.

Before their trial came on, we had worked out the whole story. The woman who had called on me and signed the will was Mrs Simpson, Miss Howard's housekeeper, the mother of Simpson in whose favour the will was made; and the other man was a lawyer's clerk who

had suggested to them the feasibility of such a scheme. The fact of Miss Howard's self-confinement and my own imprudence had nearly made the plot a success, but for my accidental recognition of the housekeeper. Each of the prisoners offered to turn Queen's evidence; but as we had no difficulty in proving the case, this was refused, and they were sentenced to various periods of penal servitude. I had then the pleasure of handing over the estate to the rightful heir, young Edward Howard, who, notwithstanding that I had nearly been the means of depriving him of his inheritance, made me his agent.

The estate turned out to be much larger than I had at first thought, as I succeeded in proving that a large number of investments in Simpson's name really belonged to Miss Howard, and the management of so large a property fairly put me on my feet as regards business. I have had many good clients since then, but I have often thought that my Veiled Client was my best one, as she was the means of giving me my first lesson in prudence, and my first start in life.

OCCASIONAL NOTES.

LIQUID FUEL FOR MARINE PURPOSES.

which was neglected by this country, taken up by other nations, especially Russia. He stated that by the use of liquid fuel a vessel could carry twice as much power of propulsion as a vessel with coal; and he commented on the disadvantages which would arise to British vessels in having to meet opponents which could use double powers in escaping without the aid of resorting to a fuel station. He related the results of experiments, and proceeded to state that his object was to enforce a greater economy of fuel, which could be effected without any of that large expenditure often a necessary concomitant of radical changes. To burn liquid fuel instead of coal required no change in engines or boilers, and only such adaptation of the furnaces as could be readily carried out in each ship by her own artificers and engineers. At the same time, it removed the necessity for a whole army of stokers and coal-trimmers. It enabled a ship to receive her fuel with the greatest facility at sea or in harbour, while proceeding under steam or even sail; was without nuisance of dust or ashes; and was not liable either to spontaneous combustion or deterioration by time, heat, or moisture. If the ship got on shore, it could be run out to lighten her, or pumped out into lighters with a speed and facility unapproachable with coal; and lastly, if, as he LIQUID fuel, in the shape of petroleum waste, believed, forty-six pounds of water could be is extensively used instead of coal on Russian evaporated with one pound of fuel, full steaming railways, and the steamships in the Caspian use for twenty-four days could be carried on where Thus each ship nothing else. Crude petroleum, after a few days' now it was limited to four. In conexposure to the air, can be used with safety for would be six times as effective as now. the same purpose. At Baku, on the Caspian, the navy amounted to about eighteen millions, clusion, he pointed out that the annual vote for there are about four hundred petroleum wells; of which six millions would be devoted to the and this waste fuel can be delivered at Batoum ships and their crews. If each ship was made at twenty-six shillings a ton. Weight for weight, twice as efficient that was to say, could remain petroleum goes nearly three times as far as coal; on her station twice as long as before, by reason the latter being dear and the former cheap, is of a change in her fuel which gave her that good reason for its extended use in the neigh-power-this might be considered as affecting the bourhood of the Caspian. Petroleum and its value of the whole fleet to the extent of twelve products have been successfully used in the millions per annum. United States as fuel in the manufacture of iron; and in the valley of the Euphrates near Mosul, petroleum is used in burning lime. Illuminating oil and naphtha stoves are in common use; owing to their dangerous character, however, some are of opinion that naphtha stoves should be prohibited. Mr Marvin, in his account of the petroleum region of the Caspian (The Region of the Eternal Fire, 1884), says 'so simple is the fuel to use, and so reliable is the action of the pulveriser (a jet of superheated steam), that the English and Russian engineers running the steamers from Baku to the mouth of the Volga, having turned on and adjusted the flame at starting, concern themselves no more about the fires until they reach their destination in a couple of days' time.'

Recently, at the Royal United Service Institution, Whitehall, a paper was read by Admiral J. H. Selwyn on the subject of the substitution of liquid fuel for coal on ships at sea. Admiral Selwyn reminded the older members of the Institution that twenty years ago he drew attention to the enormous value of liquid fuel for the royal and mercantile marine, and said that he had the mortification of seeing the subject,

ASTRONOMICAL PHOTOGRAPHY.

The use of photography (says a correspondent of the Times) by the astronomer may be said to have begun in 1850, when G. P. Bond took pictures, by the daguerreotype process, of the moon and some of the brighter stars with the large refractor of the Harvard College Observatory in America. Within the last eight years, the great improvement in photographic processes, resulting in the gelatine dry plate, and the perfection to which this dry plate has been brought, have so changed and increased the power of photography, that the astronomer has now within his reach a new method of observation and record of such marvellous power, that had it been suddenly brought forward, instead of being the growth of years, it would have been hailed with almost as much delight and enthusiasm as the invention of the telescope itself.

There are many ways in which this new method could be most advantageously used. All the existing nebulæ might be photographed ; direct enlargements of the planets and many double stars and of the whole surface of the

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