EPT.

22 ,

1893.]

BRiflSH COLONIES AT CHICAGO.

III. - NEW SOUTH w .ALE.
THE most important contribution to the \Vorld's
Columbia.n Expo~ition made by the British Empire,
and n 0t exclud1ng the Mother Country, is undoubtedly that of t he colony of New South
\Vales. In every department of the Exhibition it
is prominent, and in some p re-eminent, amonv
foreign exhibitors. In mining, in forestry, i~
agriculture, in viticulture, in the liberal arts, and in
ethnology, the exhibits of New South \Vales eclipse
those of England, and will constitute a lasting
monument to the richness of the country and the
energy of the people. Even in other departments
where the colony might well have been expected
to have little worth showing, she has made a good
display ; in transportation and in fisheries, manufactures, machinery, transportation, and in woman's
work, the contributions of New South \Vales are
more than creditable. Over two thousand exhibitors have contributed to this result, and neither
time, money, nor skill have been spared to bring
New South \Vales into this conspicuous place
among the nations exhibiting . The colony has
been exceptionally fortunate in securing the
Hon. Arthur Renwick as Executive Commissioner,
this gentleman not only having displayed remarkable energy and ability in the performance of his
onerous duties, but he has known how to make
himself highly esteemed and popular in the Exhibition and in Chicago.
It will be quite impossible within the limits of
a single article to do justice to the exhibit of New
South Wales, but we h ope as t h e result of a careful
examination, and with the aid of the admirable
catalogues (by far the best and n1ost comple te in
the Exhibition), to give our readers some idea of
the importance and extent of the section, which, of
course, has been organised and administered independently of this country.
We will take first the magnificent display in the
Mines and Mining Building, from which a good idea
of the mineral wealth of the colony ma.y be obtained.
In the general classification of the Exhibition, the
exhibits of mines and mining are assigned to Department E, and occupy Groups 4.2 to 68, comprising
Classes 290 to 412. The New South Wales exhibits
are limited to Groups 42 to 48, although the objects
shown might, had it been considered desirable, have
been distributed amongst most of the others. The
Classes 290 and 291, collections of minerals systeInatically arranged, and collections of ores and the
associated minerals, and diamonds and gems r ough,
uncut, and unmounted, respectively, comprise about
200 exhibitors, most of whom send a large number
of objects. Naturally gold and gold ores take the
lead in this remarkable collection. Long befor e it
was known in later times that Australia was an
auriferous country, the Portuguese, those wond erful pioneers in the early days of geographical discovery, had learned the alluring fact, and on a
sixteenth-century map had marked the northwestern shores of the southern continent as the
" Gold Coast." In recent times the date when
gold was discovered was February 23, 1823, when
a Government engineer engaged on a survey of the
Fish River found particles of gold in the sand hills
near the stream. In 1839 auriferous pyrites were
found near Wellington, and in 1841 gold was discovered in the granite formation ; this discovery
was made by the Rev. vV. B. Clarke, and for him
Sir Archibald Geikie claims the credit of being t.he
first scientific explorer who announced the existence
of auriferous veins in Australia. B etween that
time and a few years later, when the search for
gold drew thousands of adventurers from all parts
of the world to Australia, the precious metal in one
form or another was frequently recognised in various
parts of the colony. Geological formations with wbich
gold is uRually associated are known to exist over an
area of 70,000 square miles, nearly one-fourth the
extent of the colony, so that, vast as has been the
amount of precious metals extracted- up to the
end of last year at least lOt millions of ounces
had been obtained- there is reason to suppose that
the average production of the past will be maintained for many years to come. Gold is found in
quartz x:eefs and a.lluvial deposits, t he former
intersecting the sedimentary rocks of the Upper
Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous periods, as
well as in granites, porphyry, diorite basalt, and
serpentine; the latter belong to the Permian,
Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quatenary ages. The
reefs vary in thickness from a few inches to 10 ft..

E N G I N E E R I N G.

3SI

Alluvial gold is usually found in flat flakes or scales, Hill is t he largest conttibutor. The Binghi silver
much waterworn. The older deposits, always the mine in theN ew England district sends eamples of
result of denudation and erosion, are in many cases ore bearing the following analy sio :
cover ed by more recent volcanic deposits, in some
Silver
...
...
.. ,
... 28 oz. 17 dwt. 2 gr.
instances 200 ft . thick , and t hese have to be
p er t on.
drilled t o reach the auriferous gravel. The most
Lead
.. .
.. .
.. .
...
14.93 per cent.
A ntimony
...
...
...
11.24
,
recen t deposits are found in the water-courses
running t hrough alluvial flats, and many of these
The Broken Hill Company Eends carbonate,
are very rich. \Vater is the agency generally sulphide, and silver lead ores, together with many
employed for separating this g0ld, but in interesting particulars of its operations. From
many places water in sufficient quantities does not these we learn that t he Australian shareholders have
exist, and methods of dry Eeparation by air blasts received 5l . 3s. 4d. in dividends on each Ss. share
have been tried with success. The r eef gold is since 1886. The smelting plant consists of fifteen
usually accompanied with sulphurets, such as 60in. by 112in. water-jacketed furnaces, the normal
pyrites, galena, copper, &c . The presence of arsenic, charge of each of wh1ch is 49! tons per twentyantimony, iron, and other metallic combinations, four hours. A large leaching plant has been comadds to the difficulty and cost of reducing t he gold pleted during the last eighteen months, and in this
ores. By the Department of Mines and Agncul- during 34 weeks' work 14,800 tons of concentratrd
ture, the aurifer ous regions of New South Wales tailings were treated, yielding 71,738 oz. of silver,
are divided into twelve districts and forty-two at a cost of 6s. 1d. per ton of tailings. During the
divisions. Of t hese, the districts of Peel and twelve months ending May, 1892, there were
U ralla (classified together), Bathurst, and Lachlan t reated :
Tons.
gave the largest yields in 1892, having been about
L ead ore . ..
.. .
...
...
...
126,692
32,000 oz., 15,000 oz., and 8000 oz. respectively.
Silicious iron ore and kaolin .. .
.. .
116,742
It is curious to note the great difference in the
Iron ore .. .
.. .
.. .
.. .
.. .
3, 473
yields from the same mining division in successive
The fuel and fiuxes used in dealing with these
years. Thus, in 1891, from the Bathurst division,
Bathurst dis trict, were produced 3370 oz. , and last amounts were :
Tons.
year only 805 oz.; from the Orange division of the
Coke...
...
...
...
...
...
44,452
same district, the yield was 1678 oz. in 1891, and
Coal ...
...
.. .
.. .
. ..
...
7,057
12,708 oz. in 1892. In the N undle division of the
Limestone . ..
.. .
.. .
..
.. .
79,241
Ironstone ...
.. .
.. .
.. .
.. .
7, 750
Peel and lfralla district 1023 oz. were found in
1891, and 22 oz. last year. The total result of last
As with the gold exhibit, the Minister for Mines
year's working- 144,999 oz.--showed a decrease on and Agriculture makes a very tine display of sil ver
t hat of 1891 of 18,Q96 oz. The exhibits relating ores and specimens, there being no fewer than 300
to t his class of natural wealth consist principally different examples. These include lead ores, the
of specimens of ore, though there is a large and two metals being so closely combined that
interesting collection of alluvial gold and of nuggets. they are classified together. The tin deposits of
Five of these latter are famous specimens ; they New South Wales were not worked till about 1870;
are the "~Iaitland Bar, " containing 313.093 oz. up to the end of 1892 this metal has added
of fine gold ; one containing 258.33 oz. ; another of 9,840,000l. to the wealth of the colony. Well41. 53 oz. ; a fourth of nearly 43 oz. ; and a fifth of defined lodes of tin are numerous, but the metal
14.85 oz. All these are shown by the Department is almost wholly obtained from alluvial deposits
of Mines and Agriculture, and in addition this either on the surface, in the beds of existing creeks,
deparbnent contributes no less than 217 specimens or in old river bottoms covered by subsequent deof gold-bearing quartz, granite, or other rock from posits ; the approximate area of the tinfields is
different mines in the colony, t he whole illustrating nearly 5! million acres. The Minister of Mines
admirably the varied conditions under which the and Agriculture shows nearly 200 specimens of
metal exists. In addition the department shows stream tin and lode tin ore, and there are besides
47 examples of alluvial gold from different fields, a few other exhibitors.
ranging in value from 8520 parts of fine gold in
Copper to the extent of 6,211,000l. had been
10,000 to 9825 parts per 10,000; in all cases silver mined in New South Wales to the end of 1892;
is associated in minute quantities. The remainder the cupriferous area is nearly 7000 square miles, and
of the gold exhibit is made up by the contribu- there are five principal lodes containing carbonates,
tions from fifteen compan ies, varying from picked metallic copper, and sulphides. The Minister for
samples of rich quartz to masses of the poorest rock Mines and Agriculture is again the chief exhibitor,
that can be treated with profit. Probably the most practically the only one except for 5 tons of yellow
attractive specimen is a block from the Chambigue sulphide ore from the Cobar mine, which, by the
Company's mine near Grafton, assaying 17 oz. to way, has lately been closed on account of the low
prevailing prices. Antimony is found over a
the ton.
Silver mining in New South Wales is of more wide area, commonly combined with gold,
recent date than that of gold, it having been com- but generally inseparable from it, on account of
menced in 1879. In a few years the industry metallurgical difficulties in treatment ; there is posassumed very large dimensions, and to the end of sibly a future for mining this metal in New South
1892, ore of the value of 13,779, OOOl. had been Wales, but up to the present time the output has been
extracted. Of all the silver mines in the colony only about 120,000l. The Mine Department shows
that of Broken Hill is the best known and most eighty-three specimens of auriferous antimony ore,
successful. It is situated on the summit of a ridge stibnite and cervantite, from almost as many difthat rises about 150 ft. above the surrounding feren t mines. A laboratory collection of metals
level : the crest is formed by the outcropping lode, very rare- so far as known- in the colony, such as
varying in width from 10 ft. to 120 ft. Mr. C. S. bismuth and molybdenum found in tin-bearing
Wilkinson, the late Government geologist, says of drifts, wolfram, zinc, and platinum, the latter
this formation : ''It is a true fissure lode, consisting occurring occasionally in gold-bearing gravels, is
chiefly of porous iron and manganese oxides, in shown by the Mines Department, but is without
places more or less silicious, containing carbonates commercial interest. It is otherwise with iron,
of lead and chlorides of silver, with occasionally chromium, and cobalt. So far as iron is concerned,
carbonates of copper and zinc. The lode continues the time has not yet come for it to be largely obnortherly with much the same character, narrowing tained from the ore in the colony, but in many
and widening in places, and beyond it seems to localities it exists abundantly, as magnetite, brown
continue in irregular smaller lodes of a more hematite, limonite, and bug ores ; in one district
silicious character, containing argentiferous galena the quantity in sight is estimated at nearly
and carbonates of lead and copper, with a little 3 million tons of about 48 per cent. metallic iron.
chloride of silver." No less than 3,896,000l. have There is a large number of exhibitors of iron
been paid in dividends from this mine, out of which chromium and cobalt ores.
Precious stones, though n either very numerous
803,497 tons of or e have been taken, containing
30,757,505 oz. of silver and 125,102 tons of lead. nor varied, must be ranked among the sources of
During last year prolonged strikes interfered with wealth to the colony. About 50,000 diamonds
the progress of the works, and it would seem as if the have been found up to the present time ; probably
depreciated value of silver would permanently and the specimens shown in the gem collection of the
injuriously affect its prosperity. Numerous other Minister of Mines represent some of the largest
silver mines exist in the colony, most of t hem con- stones yet discover ed; the heaviest is 7! carate.
taining ore largely associated with lead, ~nd in some Besides the diamond, the following gems are found,
cases with paying gold ; altogether, thuteen com- and are well represented in the Mines Building :
panies are represented in the Mining Building at the sapphire, emerald, ruby. opal, amethyst, garJ ackson Park by exhibits. Of these the Broken net, topaz. A large deposit of emeralds has recently

TOWER BRIDGE.

THE
MR.

WOLFE

BARRY,

c..n.

L 0 N D 0 N.

ENGINEER,

tV

(For Desc'ription, see opposite PCtge.)

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E N G I N E E R I N G.

1893]

SEPT. 22 ,

353

FOUNDATIONS OF THE TOWER BRIDGE.

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been discovered, and 25,000 carats were obtained

during 1892 ; the hardness of the matrix rendered
it difficult to obtain the gems without fracturing
them. Opals of high quality are not infrequent in
thin veins existing in the sandstones on the River
Darling ; stones to the value of 15, OOOl. were found
in 1890. \Ve have no room in the present article
to do j ustice to the noble display of coal made by
New South Wales in her allotment in the Mines
Building ; but before concluding for the present,
we must say a word about the splendid collection
of fossils from the principal sedimentary formations
of New South Wales, prepared by the State geologist, and sent by the Minister of Mines and Agriculture; they comprise 472 specimens. These,
with three or four private collections of minerals
obtained from all par ts of the colony, complete the
collection in Classes 290 and 291, in which, as we
have already said, nearly all the exhibits of New
South Wales (excepting fuel) are placed.
(To be continued. )

THE TOWER BRIDGE.

IN a former issue* we gave some illustrations of
the work being done on the Tower Bridge, showing
the state of completion at that date- viz., eptember
last. At that time we stated that we should on a
later occasion give fuller details of this important
struct ure ; that promise we now fulfil. As will be
seen by the general view- Fig. 1, on the opposite
page- the bridge consists of three spans- viz. , two
approaches on the suspension principle, and a central lifting bridge. Subsidiary to the latter, there
are two foot-bridges, at a sufficient height to allow
for the masts of vessels requi ring to proceed to the
wharves above to pass underneath. The middle
span is 200ft. in the clear, while~ thos~ on ~i ther
side are 270 ft. each. The operung br1dge 1s on
the bascule system, each leaf extending 100 ft.
The leaves will be actuated by hydraulic machinery,
placed in suitable chambers in the piers. The
See ENGlNII RINO, vol. liv., page 380.

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centre of the pivot is 13 ft . 3 in. inside the face of

the pier, so that the total length of each movable
part from the centre of the pivot to the end is
113 ft. 3 in. The short end of the lifting part is
49 ft. 3 in. This is loaded at the end with kent ledge to balance the longer arm, which projects
over the waterway when the bridge is closed.
Although the towers forming the principal
features in the bridge a pp ear to be of masonryand indeed are masonry so far as appearance goes- the main structure is steel ; that is to
say, there is a steel skeleton, clothed with stonework. This method of construction adds not only
to the expense, but to the weight to be borne by the
foundations ; it has, h owever, been adopted in
order that the bridge may harmonise with the Tower
of London. We think the designers may be congratulated on the general success they have
achieved in this respect, considering the task set
before them was one of such difficulty. A modern
bridge conveys such different impressions to a
medi~val structure like the Tower of London, that
the task must have appeared almost hopeless. It
was naturally impossible to cover the steelwork of
the spans themselves, but after all a lifting bridge
is of the essence of medirevalism, the drawbridges
of ancient castles being the prototype. Putting
aside these msthetic considerations, however, we
will proceed to our description of the engineering
details of the bridge.
The main piers will contain hydraulic machinery
for operating the bascule, and the footways above
will be approached by means of hydraulic lifts in
t he towers themselves. The length of each of the
fixed spans forming the footways is 237 ft., and
each consists of two cantilevers and a centre girder.
The height of the columns of the towers is
119ft. 3 in. There are three landings to each
tower, the floors being of steel. The approaches to
the piers, as already stated, are on the suspension
principle, but the chains are of novel design, being
formed of two segments of unequal lengths.
The Tower Bridge iR being constructed by the

Corporation of London. The original proposal for

a bascule opening bridge was made by the City
Architect , the late Sir Horace J ones, with whom
was associated Mr. J. W olfe Barry, who is now
engineer to the undertaking. The Bridge H ouse
E states Committee has the direction of the matter ;
Mr. A. Purssell being the chairman of that body
and Mr. A. M. Nortier the secretary. Mr. G. E.
W. Cruttwell is resident engineer. The contractors
for the steelwork are Messrs. Sir William Arrol
and Co. ; Mr. J. E. Tuit being engineer-in-charge.
The contractor for the foundations was Mr. J ohn
Jackson, who was represented on the works by
Messrs. W. Wilkinson and G. H. Scott. Messrs.
P erry and Co. are contractors for the masonry, and
Messrs. ~Hr William Armstrong, Mitchell, and Co.
are supplying the hydraulic machinery. Mr. J ohn
J ackson was also contractor for the Middlesex
abutment, and Mr. John W ebster for the Surrey
abutment.
In our description it will be appropriate that we
should deal with the foundations first, and we are
able to do this with more completeness, owing to
the fact that Mr. Cruttwell has recently contributed
a paper on the foundations of this bridge to the
Institution of Civil Engineers, from which paper
we take several of the following particulars. As
Mr. Cruttwell points out, the weight of the opening
roadway, added t o that of the high-level footway,
and the towers supporting them, renders the load
upon the foundations unusually heavy for a brid ge
of such moderate span. The foundations are carried
down to the London clay, which forms the bottom
of the bed of the river at this part, with a slight
layer of gravel or river mud above it . As it was
determined to limit the load to the very moderate
amount of 4 tons per superficial foot, the dimensions
of the foundations work out to 100ft. in width,
and 2041 ft. from end to end of the cutwaters. The
necessity for so large an area of foundation has
been questioned, but Mr. Barry had had previous
experience of a somewhat similar kind. One of
his earliest works, he stated in the discuesion on

E N G I N E E R I N G.

354

[SEPT.

2 2, I 8gJ.
~~~~~~==~====~~~~~~~~~~~~======~~~~~-

Mr. Cruttwell's paper, was connected with the pier is not shown built in, but this was finished, as superficial feet to the supporting area of th~
Charing Cross Bridge, where the total pressure on shown in Figs. 6, 8, and 9. The additional briok- pier.
the L ondon clay was about 7 tons per square foot. work shown in the latter illustrations had to bond
The excavation being performed, concrete was
At Cannon-street Bridge it was considerably re- with that in Fig. 3, and therefore the inner side of filled in in the usual way, the timber frames being
duced, being
to 5 tons per square foot; yet in each of the permanent caissons had to be cut away. removed as the work proceeded, and, where necesboth these bridges subsidence has occurred, and As stated, the permanent caissons are those below sary, raking struts being applied. The top 2ft.
though not serious it is perceptible. It may be water. The principal dimensions of the work are inside the caisson is of brickwork, but before cornstated, however, that before the size of the founda- marked on the drawings, so that it is not necessary mencing the building above the level of the per~ion~ was finally determined, a trial cylinder, 6 ft. to repeat them. The permanent caissons were manent caissons they had to be supported by struts
1n dtameter, was sunk on the site of the bridgo, supplied by Messrs. Head, "\Vrightson, and Co., (Fig. 10) at each timber frame. These were to
and experiments were carried out with it. The and the temporary caissons by Messrs. Bow and take t he place of diagonals which had afterwards
result was that after the weight of 6i tons per McLachlan.
. t o be withdrawn. This being done, piles were
s9.uare foot had been reached, the clay began to
In sinking, the caissons were kept level by a driven (as already mentioned) in the 2ft. 6 in.
yteld, and ihe settlement kept on increasing. It suspending gear from the staging, attachment being space between the caissons, so as to form a waterwas, therefore, considered that 6} tons was the made to each corner. A space of 2 ft. 6 in. was tight joint. These piles were only driven at the
tnaximum load that could be supported, and, as Mr. left between each of the different caissons, as shown ends of the spaces, i.e., near the corners of the
Cruttwell points out, considering that the slightest in the illustration. These spaces were filled up by caissons, and a spac~ was therefore left inclosed on
unequal settlement of the bridge with all its driving piles between. In this way a. complete t he two longer sides by the caisson, and at the ends
n1achinery, where the parts have to fit so accurately, cofferdam was mad~. The caissons above the bed by the piles. This space was next pumped out,
would have been disastrous, it was decided to limit of the river were removed when the masonry was and the sides of the temporary caissons, or t he
the load to 4 tons. Sir Benjamin Baker has said built up to the level of 116ft. 6 in., or 4ft. above part above the river bed, could be removed. The
that he does not know of any other bridge founda- high water. In Fjgs. 4 to 9 the details of the above applies to the caissons at the central parts of
tions with such dimensions as those of the Tower piers are shown . They are built of gault brick in the piers; the sides of the caissons next to the end
Bridge, except in the case of the Brooklyn Bridge, cement mortar of 2! to 1, and are faced with Cor- caissons had, however, to remain until later, and
which has nearly the same area. of foundation. nish granite. Each pier contains two stccumulator neithAr of the sides of the end caisson could be reThe two main foundations in the American bridge chambers, a bascule chamber, and two machinery moved until the walls had been built up, as shown
support a roadway of 1606 ft. span, or about the chambers. The bascule chamber, a cross-section in Fig. 10. In building the latter, the strutP,
same as that of the Tower Bridge. In r egard to of which is shown in Fig. 9, is a rece~s, into which shown by dotted lines on the drawings, had to be
obstruction to the waterway-a charge which has the short arm of the lifting bridge sinks. It goes inserted at each frame of timber as soon as the
occasionally been brought against the new bridge- to 9 ft. of the bed of the river. The chief parti- building had been brought up to the underside of
Mr. Walmisley has given some interesting figures: culars are again given on the drawings, but it may the frame. These struts had to take the place of
70 ft. for the pier he said was not excessive under be repeated here that the finished dimensions of the struts which were withdrawn after the building
the circumstances; old London Bridge, with nine- each pier are 70 ft. wide by 154 ft. 8 in. long from had set sufficiently to withstand the pressure from
teen arches, had two-thirds of waterway occupied point to point at a central line at t he water level. the struts shown by the dotted lines. It was then
by piers. Old Westminster Bridge had one-third, At foundations they are each 204ft. 6 in. from toe possible to carry the masonry and brickwork up to
and Vauxhall Bridge has one-sixth. As in the to toe by 100 ft. wide.
the underside of the frame next above, and the
Tower Bridge there are twice 140ft. out of 740 ft.
The piers were constructed in the following same process was repeated until the wall was built
available, between one-fifth and one-sixth of the manner : The permanent caissons were riveted up to a height of 4ft. above Trinity high water; as
river width is taken up by piers in the new together on platforms betwuen the stages above the work was brought up water was let into the
structure. Another advantage in the Tower low-water level, and beams were laid across. From lower parts of the temporary caisson, so as to relieve
Bridge is that the piers are few in number, these beams-indicated at Fig. 10 by dot-and-dash the pressure against the newly-built wall.
and it is not so much that a number of narrow lines- the caissons were suspended by four 2!-in.
The next operation was to excavate and build
waterways are required, as two or three of good lowering rods, the latter being tested to 22 tons. between the caissons, the work already described
width. In the Tower Bridge the 200ft. space is in By means of screws at the upper ends of the being that which was required within the caissons.
the centre, where it is most required, in deep water. lowering r Jds each caisson was lifted clear of the As soon as the sides of the temporary caissons had
It may also b e pointed out that in t he Pool vessels platform, which was then removed ; and by revers- been removed, as previously stated, the space
are ranged in tiers and occupy a large part of the ing the screws the caisson was lowered to the between the caissons was excavated down to 10ft.
waterway. As a mattar of fact, the two piers of the bottom of the river. In order to insert additional below the tops of the permanent caissons. The
'fower Bridge take up less space than the moored lengths of the lowering rods whilst lowering, the space was then filled with concrete up to within
vessels, so that therd is more room where the bridge weight of the caisson was taken by other rods 2ft. of the top of the permanent caisson, and 2ft.
occurs for the pas~age of craft, than immediately attached by hooks passing underneath the cutting of brickwork were put on the top of this. The
higher up or lower down.
edgas of the caisson . The last-mentioned r oda wall was then built continuously up to 4 ft. above
In sinking the foundations there was more than were removed when the bottom of the river was Trinity high water. Struts were inserted at each
ordinary difficulty in one respect, owing to the great reached. The caisson being in place, the excavation frame of timber before the struts crossing the
traffic of the P ool. The conditions imposed by the could be commenced by a grab working in the caissons were removed. This operation was carried
river authorities were that 160 ft. clear was to be middle of the caisson, and by divers shovelling out in a manner similar to that described for the
kept in the fairway for the passage of craft. As from around the cutting edge. The latter was struts in the end caissons. The wall having been
the finished waterway between the piers is 200 ft., composed of a special rolled steel of 25 lb. to built within the end caissons as described, the piles
there was but small room for the temporary works the foot run. The water jet was used, and the were driven and the sides of the temporary caissons
required for sinking the piers, and in consequence frames were loaded up with kentledge. When the were removed. The timber being withdrawn, the conof this it was found necessary t o sink first one pier cutting edge had penetrated through the ballast tinuous wall round the whole pier was built. Before,
and then the other. The method of procedure is and well into t he clay, the water was pumped however, the central portion of the pier was entirely
shown in Fig. 2, which is a general plan of the out, and the work proceeded in the dry. The inclosed, a 12-in. iron pipP, furnished with a sluice
work of the piers and abutments. Here the limit minimum depth which the caisson was required to valve, was laid so as to connect the central part of
of the firdt stage of the works is shown by cross- have been sunk into the clay before pumping was the pier with the river. As soon as the wall was
hatching. The arrangement is also shown in allowed was 4ft. In order to guide the descent of built completely r ound the pier, t he inside piles
Fig. 3, which is a longitudinal section. By refer- the caissons the lowering rods were kept in position were able to be taken out, and the backs of all the
ence to these illustrations it will be seen that the until the caisson had been sunk to its full depth. temporary caissons removed and transferred to the
piles were driven ~nd the te~porary ~ork go~ into For t he purpose of the undercutting which was re- second pier. The struts were then placed across
position for the M1ddlesex pier. This occupted a quired, shoes were provided to put under the the central portion of the pier at intervals of about
width of 135 ft. In the Surrey pier there would bottom. The advantages of this undercutting have 5 ft. vertically down to low-water level. It was
be 22 ft. 6 in. short of the required waterway been questioned, and Sir Benjamin Baker has then possible to pump out the central part, and
between if the works had been built out in like pointed out that though the scheme gives a larger the excavation proceeded in the dry. As previously
manner.' The Middlesex pier was finished up to area of clay for the foundations to rest upon, its stated, the backs of the permanent caissons were
the point necessary, an~ the piling removed .. The advantages are not so great as might appear at first removed by cutting the rivets connecting them to
full width was then avallable for the Surrey pter.
sight, as the projecting toe probably diminishes the the sides, but the sides and fronts of the permanent
In sinking the foundations for piers, eight r~ct- efficiency of the side friction. Mr. S helford has caissons remained. The struts were, of course,
angular iron c~issons . were u~ed for e~ch pier, pointed out that there would be a considerable removed as the building was brought up to them.
timber cofferdams being speCially forbidden by tensile strain in the base of the concrete at the heel In order to bond together the various parts of the
Act of Parliament. These caissons were 28ft. of the toe, and that the settlement of such a bridge concrete foundations, boxes were built in, and on
square, and were arranged in th~ position s~own in on the clay tended to take the form of a curved these being removed the spaces left formed the
the drawing; there were also !n each p 1er four line, and the pressure therefore must be very dovetail into which the concrete of the next portion
caissons of an approximately tr~an~ular .s~ape, as severe upon the toe, and this would tend to crack constructed would be filled. The steel and iron
shown. These caissons were bmlt m pos1t10n, and if not to sheer the concrete. Mr. Barry questioned skeleton, or fram ework, which practically constiare mainly permanent below the river bed, into this theory, and is unable to see that the toe would tutes the bridge itself (the encasing masonry being
which they extend 19ft., so as t o reach the London come into tension unless it was presumed that the almost entirely for ornamental purposes), will next
1
large mass of concrete and brickwork, which was, occupy our attention.
The illustrations on page 352 are a plan and elevac the clay was undercut below the cuttin_g edge of as it were, a beam extending ov~r the whole surface,
the caisson when the latter had reached Its lowest could be held to bend. The strength of the struc- tion of the general arrangement of the iron and steel
p osition f~r a vertical distance of 7 ft., and 5 ft. ture a.s a beam was so enormous that it was futile work. The central bridge,as before stated, consists of
outward' from the face of the caisson. This gave a to suppose there could be any such bending. The two fixed and one opening span; the two fixed spans
depth of foundation of 26 ft. below the bed of the substructure, therefore, rested upon the clay as one formingthehigh-levelfootway. Thedistancebetween
river. These foundations are of ceme~t concrete h omogeneous body, and what~ver added to the the two piers is a little over 230ft., and the height
pt the top 2 ft. which IS of gault area would add to the supportmg strength. The in the clear, above Trinity high water, is 140ft.
t 1
6
bri~kw~rk~ce In Fig. 3 t he ce~tral portion ot the I undercutting, it may be mentioned, adds 3800 This limits the height of vessels pasaing under at

4t

SEPT. 22,

1893]

high water; it is, however, sufficient for the purpose, for t he Tower Bridge is but a short distance
f~o~ L ondon Bridge, whic.h ~efines the navigable
hmtt of t he Thames for sh1pp1ng proper-that is
vessels with masts t hat will not lower. The water~
way between the piers is 200 ft. wide.

E N G I N E E R I N G.
to working men on "Spontaneous Combustion" on
the Saturday evening.
Having. so far dealt with th e general aspect of
the meetmg, we may pass to t he more detailed
notice of proceedings in the sections mor e especialJy within our sphere.

355

Mr. Gisbert Kapp pointed out that t he paper

had two aspects, namely, that in which the me
chanism was made to produce motion, and that
in which it was designed to prevent motion. Mr.
Beaumont had conveyed power to a riddle
by means of a flexible thin wire, but the
(To be continued.)
speaker would be glad to know if the wire
MECHANICA-L ScrENOE.
would be sufficiently flexible and, at the same
Section G is the one which more nearly concerns time, suflicient1y strong, if the sieve were
our readers,. and . we . will com~ ence our r eport loaded. He had listened to the paper with very
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.
of the meetmg w1th 1ts proceedmgs. The P r esi- grea-t interesb, for he had often been under the
THE sixty-third annual meeting of the British dent this year is Mr. J eremiah Head, who r ead
Association for the Advancement of Science has his inaugural address on the morning of Thursday necessity of scheming some means of getting rid of
th
e
vibration
to
which
dynamos
were
subject
when
just b een held at Nottingham under the presidency the 14th inst.
'
r unning at the high speed necessary for their
o~ Dr . .J: S. Burd~n Sa?derson, P rofessor of :PhyTHE P RESIDENT's ADDREss.
efficient working. It was useless to balance the
swlogy 1n the Un1vers1ty of Ox ford, having comIt is not often that a large audience assembles in armat ure on knife edges, because excess of weight
menced 01~ t he 13th inst., an~ c.oncluded yesterday,
the 21st ln9t. The AssoClatlon authorities un- Section G t o h ear th e presidential address, as on opposite sides would balance each other axially,
doubt.ed ly hav~ exercised their discr etion wisely in mechanical science has little attraction for t hose but not transversely. In order to properly balance
selectmg N ott1ngham for the 1893 meeting. A who are not engineers. Mr. H ead, however , any rotating body the want of balance must be found
member remarked at one of the meetings, that struck out a new line, and those who happened to out whilst the body is rotating. For t his purpose
'' nobody goes to Nottingham unless obliged, '' by be present were qui te able to follow the interest- the speaker had made a frame with suspended
bearings
into
which
the
armature
was
placed,
and
ing
facts
put
forward
.
On
another
page
we
deal
which the maladr oit member did n ot mean that
Nottingham was a place to be avoided, but that it with Mr. Head's address, a nd need not, t herefor e, the spindle connected by a flexible shaft to an
electro-motor. The bearings would then be free t o
is not a stopping place, or stepping-stone, for other make furt her r eference to it h ere.
move,
and
t
he
p
oint
to
be
balanced
at
either
end
important districts. However that may be, very
B ALANCI NG R ECIPROCATING MoTION.
of
the
armature
could
be
found
in
the
usual
way.
few of t he members now assembled-at the time of
The first paper down for reading in Section G In foundations for electrical machin ery there was
writing- appear to have been in Nottingham was a contribution by Mr. ,V. W. Beaumont, and no rule to guide the engineer. With the greatest
before, and now they are here they ~eem excel- dealt with an arrangement of "Automatic Balance care it was not always possible to avoid vibrations,
lently well pleased. It is not, h owever, the of Reciprocating M echanism " which the author had the problem being of too complex a nature to be
Association's first meeting in ''The Queen of t h e devised. F or the purpose of illustrating the inven- worked out. Under these circumstances, could not
Midlands " - as the Nottingham folk delight to tion, the author exhibited a number of working Mr. Beaumont's principle be applied to foundations
style their city- for twenty-seven years ago there models made to represent sieves, screens, &c . so that they might be made elastic ? That seemed
was a. gathering here under the presidency of Mr. We shall r eturn to this subj ect at a future date, to him the only way to get over the difficulty and
G rove ; who has since t urned his scientific know- as without the aid of illustrations it would be arrive at any certainty. Mr. L ewis said that he
ledge to good account on the bench. N otting- difficult to describe the method of working, but had introduced the author 's device to t he notice of
ha m has the great advantage of being pic- it may be said that Mr. Beaumont showed that his colliery managers, and the r esult was t hat it was to
turesque. I t stands on a hilly site, and in device quite fulfilled the promise he made for it, be applied to pit frames.
its ancient streets are many r elics of domestic and there is n o doubt but that the discovery is one
Sir B. Baker hoped Mr. Beaumont would follow
medireval architecture which yet survive the of considerable inter est. In his paper th e author up his i nvestigations upon this most important
ravages of modern improvement. Those, how- pointed out that in most cases of vibration of machi- s ubject. Almost wherever t here was an electric
ever, who remember t he meeting of 186G, will miss nery, whether of r otary or reciprocating forms, the installation there was vibration, and the law courts
many of the most treasured ' ' bits. " The old vibration is due to the rebtriction of the motion were constantly occupied with lit igation arising out
Bridlesmith's Gate has recently been '' improved '' which would naturally occur if the nominally sta- of the fact. It was a very difficult problem to
from a picturesque old-world corner to a modern tionary parts were fre e to act under the infi uence of attack on the old lines, the variations in running
highway, and other q uaintly pleasant spots have the disturbing force. Rotating parts can generally being quite unaccountable. On different days, and
been brought more in accordance with t he age of be balanced with success, but in many cases it cannot even different hours, ther e would be q uite different
cleanliness, convenience, and monotony. Still a be achieved with reciprocating parts. The mor e results in this most important respect. The
good deal remains, and t he historic market-place, ordinary method of balancing improves the working machinery would apparently be running under
the b oast of Nottingham through all the Midlands, of machinery, but involves framing of greatstrength, exactly similar conditions, the only variation that
is as cr o wded with booths as ever it could have and mechanism with large bearings and great accu- could be discovered being in the amount of vibrab een in the days when R obin H ood, Alan-a-Dale, and racy of fitting, and does not materially reduce the tion. It had been suggested that variations in the
Much, the miller'a son, came in from Sherwood to vibration set up in buildings containing machinery. conditions of subsoil water caused the change. It
chuck the delighted maidens of the market under The obj ect of the author 's invention is t o avoid was doubtless known to many that a good deal of
the chin, or spend the broad pieces of despoiled these undesirable results, whilst at the same time attention was being given to the matter on board
churchmen in the neighbouring taverns. In one the strerJgth, cost, and p ower may be all r educed the Teutonic, and there the results were very diffirespect, however, the most devoted lover of the by completely reversing the usual proceeding, and cult to unravel. Diagrams had been taken, and
past will find no fault with the march of improve- actually utilising t he source of vibration for work- sometimes the vibration was found to be longiment. When the Association last visited the city, ing the reciprocating machinery. The operating tudinal, and sometimes athwartships. The problem
Nottingham Castle was but a shell of bare walls ; parts are therefor e purposely put out of balance, was an extremely difficult one, and he hoped the
gaunt and stark as left by the reform rioters of 1831. and are attached to the moving parts, instead of author would follow up his research.
N ow it is a comfortable museum, owned by the being attached to fi xed parts. In this way the
Professor Rele-Shaw asked if the author could
corporat ion; the two great social functions of t he unbalanced motor parts are automatically balanced explain how the principle could be applied to an
meeting were appropriately held in its ample by setting up as much motion in the thing to be ordinary steam engine so as to lessen t he vibration.
galleries.
moved as is necessary to absorb the momentum of H e had shown very clearly how it could be used
F or excursions - without which the .Association the unbalanced part throughout its path. All with a sieve, but the conditions of running an
meetings would be as dry bones to so many of the vibration of the supporting part is thus avoided.
engine were very different.
members and associates-Nottingham is an espeMr. A. Rigg said the discussion had largely gone
The discussion on this paper was opened by
cially good centre. There is still a Sherwood Professor U nwin, who said the device introduced away from the author's paper to the balancing of
F orest ; the Dukeries are well within reach ; South- by Mr. Beaumont was q uite new, and an exceedingly dynamcs and steam engines. Mr. Kapp, in his
well, with i ta sylvan cathedral, is but a short run ; useful bit of mechanism, which would have many illustration of the dynamo, had shown a couple,
whilst D onnington, Haddon, Buxton, and .Burleigh practical applications. The author had spoken of which naturally produced vibration. Mr. Yarrow
were all visited on the Saturday. For the longer the difficulty of balancing reciprocating and ro- had gone very thoroughly into lhe vibration of the
whole-day excursions of Thursday a very attractive t,ating motions. The speaker pointed out that steam engine, and the meeting could hardly expect
programme was prepared, including a more ex- there was n o difficulty if both motions were the author to go into that matter at pr~sent,
tended visit to the Dukeries, Chatsworth and separately provided for, but the trouble arose when although his device contained what might be the
Haddon, Charnwood Forest, Dovedale, Castleton, an effort was made to balance a reciprocating germ of a solution.
Mr. Lupton asked if colliery owners were open
and Matlock. F or the more utilitarian, trips had motion by a rotating weight ; in Melbourne an
b een arranged to the Midland Rail way Works, to instance had been brought before him, where it t o use the device.
Mr. Beaumont, in r eply, said that several subthe N ottingham Gas 'N orks, and to W ollaton was intended to balance a locomotive by excepColliery, but the latter excursion was knocked on tionally heavy weights, with a result that the jects had been been broached, but there were so
the head by t he strikes.
engine tore up 3 mil~s of line. Mr. U~win ~ad many other papers on the agenda that he could not
Of the evening entertainments we may say a few seen a short t ime prevwusly a steam turbine wh1eh venture to occupy the time of the meeting by treatwords h ere. The President's address was given made 25,000 revolutions per minute. In tha~ case ing upon all of them. Mr. Kapp asked if the
on the first Wednesday evening as usual. Dr. everything possible had to be done to get rid of riddle when loaded could be driven Ly a wire suffiBurdon Sanderson is a biologist, and his inaugural the forces due to want of balance. With a turbine ciently flexible. That he would answer in the
discourse does not come at all within our province. they could get a balance one way by m eans of knife affirmative. The illustration of Mr. J{app showed
On Thursday, the 14th, t he Mayor of Nottingham edges, but that was not altogether satisfactory. In how there may be a want of complete balance in
gave a soiree in the castle. On Friday, the 15th, the case referred to, a long and thin spindle was used a machine that had been tested on knife edges.
Professor A. Smith ells lectured at the Al bert by means of which the axis of the weight and the His remarks t ended to support the necessity of
H all on ''Flame. " On Monday last Professor V. axis of rotation were made to coincide when the allowing the thing to be rotat~d to go. where .it
H or sley discoursed on '' The Discovery of the machine was running at high speed, so that the pleased, but this required w?rk1ng out 1n deta1l.
Physiology of the Nervous System ;" and on motion was vPry steady, n otwithstanding t~at The engine foundation queshon was a corollary of
Tuesday last there was another soiree at the castle. there was coneiderable vibration whilst the turb1ne t hat which he had treated upon; and he would
gladly follow up the suggestion of Sir Benjamin
Professor Vivian B . L ewes gave the usual lecture was getting up speed.

ELECTRIC LIGHTING PLANT AT THE IMPERIAL ~IEDICAL ACADEMY,

ST.

PETERSBURG.

w
Ul

(For Description, see Page 373.)

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Fig. 1.

Baker as to following up the experiments and mak- 1feature of local interest of the Nottingham meet- fashioned stocking machine had beEn in existence stocking machine led to the making of the warp
ing them known to the section at a subsequent I ing. The first was a contribution by Mr. E. about 200 years, the lace machine, in fact, growing machine, but a net was wanted like t hat made by
meeting.
Doughty on lace machinery, and was largely of out of t he stocking machine. The absence of hand on the Continent, and called Brussels net.
historical interest. The author commenced by machine t ools and labour-saving appliances checked 1After many trials by inventors, Heathcote sueLACE AND KNITTING M ACH I NERY.
saying that the beginning of lace- making by machi- l progress for many years, alth ough some improve- ceeded in making the exact net itself. Heathcote
In t he next two papers was comprised the chief \ nery dated from about the year 1764, when the old- menta were made, but further developments of the made a fort une, though the invention ruined bun-

ttj
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357

E N G I N E E R I N G.

SEPT. 2 2, I 893]

ELECTRIC LIGHTING ENGINE: IMPERIAL MEDICAL ACADEMY, ST. PETERSBURG.

CON~ TRUCTED BY

MR.

F.

SCHICHAU,

ELBING,

GERMANY.

(For Descnption, see Page 373.)

Fig. 2.
dreds of machine owners, but many efforts were
made to evade his patents. Leavers originated a
different machine 1 which, after many alterations,
has come down to our time as the most useful lace
machine we have. Another machine was developed
out of the plain net machine for making lace
curtains.
Mr. C. R . 'Vood ward next read a paper on
knitting machinery. After referring to early forms
of knitting machinery, the author showed by lantern illustrations-unfortunately imperfectly seen,
owing to the impossibility of excluding light from
the room- the vast strides recently made, the loopforming capacity having advanced from 500 to

500,000 loops per minute ; whilst the scope of the

trade embraces not only all forms of knitted underwear, but also stockingette cloth, astrachans,
Cardigan jackets, Tam-o' -Shanter caps, down to
bags- " shirts " we believe they are called by the
meat dealers-in which to import foreign mutton.
The new era in making stockings is a return to
domestic machinery, which must appear to those
unconnected with the trade as a retrograde step,
but it is accounted for by cheapness, the low
rate of wages for which country people will work,
the fact that the goods require so little finishing
that "manufacturers " (the quotation marks are
ours) have no factory expenses, and that much more

comfortable socks and stockings are produced on

these machines than on earlier types. American
machines have been largely introduced, on which
one girl will knit from fifty to eighty dozen pairs of
half-hose per week, but these are plain, not ribbed,
fabrics. The author indicated his views of probable
lines of future development as follows : Machinery
which will work either by foot pedals or steam
power, and in which the narrowing, widening,
changing of ribs, and furming of heels, toes, &c.,
will be manipulated by hand in a similar manner
to that in which a typewriter is worked.
At the conclusion of the reading of these two
papers the section adjourned to another room in

E N G I N E E R I N G.
the University College-Section G meeting in the
lecture-hall of the college--where a number of
machines were shown in work. These were explained by Professor W. R obinson, of Nottingham.
The proceedings then closed for the day.
Friday, the 15th inst., was a busy day in Section
G, there being no l ess than eight items on the programme.
DRYNESS OF STE..\.M.

The first business taken was the "Report of the

Committee on Dryness of Steam in Boiler Trials;"
but this was merely a formal proceeding. Professor
U n win stated that very little progress had been
made, and the committee was, in fact, not in a position to make a report. They could only ask to be
reappointed, and they hoped during the ensuing
year to make substantial progress. Some investigations had been made on this subject in America,
nnd it was thought that by working on the same
lines valuable results would be obtained.
GRAPlliC METHODS.

Professor H. S. Hele-Shaw, of Liverpool, next

r ead the ''Report of the Committee on Graphic
Methods." This committee has been formed for
some time, and in our account of a previous meeting of the Association we dealt with the second
report.
Although the subject is not likely to
attract popular attention, it. is one of very considerable impor tance, as going to the root of so much
science teaching and exposition. The committee
have expended an enormous amount of labour on
the preparation of the rep01 t, which, as a m onument of good and conscientious work, does credit
to all concerned, but, perhaps, especially to the
secretary, on whom the chief burden of the labour
has naturally devolved. It is a constant source
of regret to us that we have to treat good and
valuable work in so brief a manner, but the limitations of space are absolute, and we can often do
little more than indicate the scope of a mon ograph,
referring our readers to the original for fuller information. That will have to be our course in the
present instance, but we will quote some of the
committee's conclusions from this , the last report.
There appears to be no reason why an element.ary
course of a general nature, specially arranged so as
to include all that an ordinary engineering student
requires to know of graphical methods, should not
be introduced as a regular subject in engineering
schools, and the following arguments are brought
forward by the committee in support of this view :
"1. Although the time-tables of an engineering
department may be already full, yet it will be found
that a course, such as that suggested, really includes
much of what is taught at present in a desultory
way. Such a course would obviate some of the
teaching given under the heading of 'descriptive
geometry, ' so tha.t during one or two terms of a
year it might be taken during the houra already
devoted to descriptive geometry, with possibly one
lecture a week for one term, given in place of
the actual lectures in applied engineering ; into
which, at present, graphic methods are often
obliged to be introduced for the want of proper
preliminary training in the subject by a student.
M oreover, the time now devoted in the engineering
laboratory for the plotting of curves might be much
better occupied in the drawing hall itself, in con nection with the practice of the plotting and interpolation of curves as a part of the subject of graphic
methods, the data obtained from the engineering
laboratory affording useful information.
'' 2. The time spent in such graphical work
would be an excellent discipline for a student
in accurate drawing. A sketch, roughly representina an idea, is often regarded as s ufficient
for pr;"'ctical purpo~es. . A stud~nt shou~d learn for
himself that n othmg Is so eas1ly deceived as the
eye. Jt is quite true, as Professor Culmann says
in the preface of his work, that the ~ con~tructing
engineer will give preference to geometrical solutions wherever an accuracy of results up to three
decimals (on e-thousandth), which can perfectly well
be obtained is sufficient, for his drawing instrumen ts are 'always at hand, and drawing is his
habitual expression of thought.' But suc.h ac?~racy
in drawing is by n o means natur~lly or ~n~u1t1yely
acquired, and the student req Uires tra1ntng 1n a
co urse of g raph ical methods before he would ~ppr~
oia.te their value. Moreover, such practiCe 1n
actually performing the operations, and becoming
familiar with the solution, is absolutely necessary,
if it is to be expected that a student will really use

these problems afterwards in his pract ical work, as

suc_h modifications become extremely puzzling,
owing to the want of a thorough acquaintance with
the methods.
"3. It is n ot only necesssary that a student
should be familiar with accurate drawing, but also
that he should be familiar with graphical constructions as a means of solving problems. The plan
ordinarily adopted in the teaching of statics, in
conjunction with graphical methods themsel ves,
seems expecting too much for the capacity of an
ordinary student. In t he use of ordinary geometry
or analytical methods there are separate classes for
algebra, analytical geometry, trigonometry, &c.,
and yet the ideas involved in them are not more
difficult than those included in graphical constructions and methods. Graphical methods certainly,
therefore, have the same claim to be considered as
a separate branch of study. "
The following proposition, supported by these
arguments, was therefore brought forward in the
report : '' That in all engineering schools a separate course in graphical methods of construction
may, with advantage, be introduced, which shall
deal with such problems as have a practical bearing on mechanical science, and which do not involve applications of any concrete subjects. such
as statics and dynamics, but which may familiarise
t he student, by means of examples accurately
worked out by himself, with methods which he will
be afterwards able to apply."
I t is satisfactory to know that this proposition,
which was brought forward at the recent International Congress at Chicago by Professor HeleShaw, received the general approval of a very representative body of engineers and professor s.
The report concludes with a tabulated statement
of the present state of the t eaching of graphic
methods in Europe and America.
THERMAL STORAGE AND DISPOSAL OF REFU~E.

Two papers, partly of a sanitary nature, were next

read. The first was by Mr. C. C. K eep, in which
the author dealt with "Thermal StortJge by Utilisation of Towns' Refuse." The chief point in this
paper was the explanation of Mr. Druitt Halpin's
method of thermal storage by means of tanks containing water to be heated by steam generated in
separate boilers.
We have already described
Mr. Halpin's interesting scheme, which the author
looks on as indispensable to any system of burning
refuse with a view to utilising the heat so obtained
for electric light purposes. The author showed by
means of diagrams the advantages of a stored supply
of heat for power purposes, which is analogous to
the gasholders now used by the gas companies so
as to enable production to be constantly carried on
at a uniform rate in spite of the fluctuations in
demand for light.
'Ve propose returning to this paper at a future
date.
The next paper was a contribution by Mr. Wm.
Warn er, entitled " Disposal of Refuse. " The
subject is one of ever-present interest, but it is
especially of importance in view of the p ossibility - which may yet be greater than the
most sanguine will allow - of a visitation of
cholera t o our shores. H owever, without cholera,
there are annually thousands of lives sacrificed,
and 1nillions who s uffer from impaired health, by
reason of our still far from perfect sanitary arrangements.
We may remark at this juncture that i t is much
to be regretted that there should have been so
strong a flavour of commercialism introduced into
the section when dealing with some questions. F or
instance, in a paper contributed we find fig ures
given showing the rate at which various forms of a
certain apparatus have ''gone forward " of late ;
that is to say, the success that various firms have
had in pushing their own particular goods. The
fault lies with the section authorities, who appear
far too guileless in their dispositions. A ~cientific
society should be careful to exclude anything
bearing so close a semblance t o advertising
matter from its proceed ings. W e do not blame
manufacturers or inventors who are authors of
papers. They naturally think their own wares the
best and that they are doing notable service in
help'ing forward such unrivall~d productions.
N either are we among those punsts who hold up
their hands in holy horror because the r eader of a
paper has an axe of his own to grind in preparing a
contribution which represents, probably, a large
amount of valuable labour and no trifling pecuniary

[SEPT.

2 2, I 893-

outlay. 'Ve are q uite aware that if devotion to

science had to be d epended upon as the sole actuating cause, t he t echnical societies might just as
well-and, indeed, would of n ecessity- shut up
shop. The labourer is worthy of his hire ; but of
no more, and the selection committee of Section G
sometimes allow authors t o draw rather too freely
upon the wages fund.
There is much good matter in the two papers
unde r notice, and we commence publishing an
abstract of Mr. Warner's contribution this week.
If they could have been judiciously filed down, and
then welded into one, they would have formed
an unexceptionable addition t o the r ecords of the
Association. We commend it to the attention of
Sections B, D, and G whether they could not
arrange a j oint committee for inq uiring into this
most important question of 1efu se disposal. 'Ve
can think of no more beneficial action that the
Association could take ; and possessing, as it does,
these three sections, it is peculiarly suited to perform this g reat service to t he State.
The discussion which followed turned largely on
the thermal storage question, upon which Professor
Unwin brought forward some facts wor th putting on
record. He said that we must t ake it as a fact that
much refuse must b e burnt, and t her efore a q uantity of h eat would be generated, no matter whether
it were got cheaply or otherwise. I t was not, therefore, a q uestion whether steam could be generated
for municipal purposes at less cost by burning
r efuse than by b urning coal, but whether it would
pay to utilise the heat thus produced at all.
Assuming it would be desirable not to let it go t o
waste, it was evident that some system of heat
storage would be necessary. The heat used could
only be the difference in t emperature of the gases
going into t he boiler and the temperature of them
when they come out. F or t hat r eason the destructor which burnt refuse at a high temperature
would be desirable. L oss by radiation was the
obj ection to the storage scheme, but to meet this a
sys tem of insulation could be easily applied. It
seemed to be a common opinion that electric light
was the one great purpose for which heat from
refuse- burnjng was to be applied, but the speaker
questioned whether power distribution was n ot a
better application for the electric current that
could be generated.
Ther e was an increasing
demand for power, and a good system of distribution would be a ser viceable t hing.
Mr. G. Watson, of L eeds, made some useful
remarks on the subject, in the course of which he
commented on the various types of destructor
mentioned. H e said that the question of the
evaporati ve power of town r efuse was one of much
importance, yet he did not think that in the whole
range of engineering science, t here was a subj ect in
a mor e chaotic state. Endeavours had been made
t o ascertain t he power available by mixing up small
quantities of refuse and testing them in a calorimeter ; but such a method was evidently useless,
seeing that t own refuse actually contained large
tins, buckets, and sacks in considerable quantities.
Interesting figures had been given referring to the
manufacture of manure, and it had also been stated
that llb. of steam was raised by 1 lb. of refuse.
This figure was probably true for the r efuse in question, bu t would not always apply.
Mr. H alpin also gave particulars of his system
of heat storage by hot-water tanks, illustrating the
acr,ion by means of a diagram.
(To bP continued.)

GISHOLT'S T URRET LATHE.

THE Gisholt Machine Company 's 3-in. standard stud
machine shown in Fi g ~ . 1 t o 8, on page 364, is one
of a number exhibited by the above company at the
Columbian Exposit ion. They make a speciality of this
claes of tool, of which they turn out large numbers
from their works at Madison, \Vis.
The machine in question is designed for rapidly,
economically, and conveniently fin ishing large screws,
studs, collars, pinions, &c. , from the rough bar. It is
provided with handy devices for varying the cutting
speed, rate of feed , and the cutting power, as aleo
with arrangemE-nts for rapidly chucking the work and
bringing up the fresh pieces. The turret is made
hexagonal, and is bored accurately for six tools. The
turret tool post shown will carry four tools. Consequently ten t ools can be set up at once for use on a
piece of work without changing tools. Figs. 2and 3 show
a longitudinal section through the headstock, and also
a transverse section through the spindle. The hollow
spindle is journalled in bearings which are split and
tapered on the ou tside; and by means of lock nuts,

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SEPT. 22,

1893]

ENGINEERING.

359

concentric adj ustment is secured . The cone pulley is

Cylinders
... . . . 19 in. in diam. pitch 2U in. Flues to be set with copper ferrules at
mounted l oosely on the spindle, as is also the driving
by 24 in. stroke both ends expanded into flue sheets, r d both ends beaded
Drivers .. .
...
...
...
.. . 86 in. in diam. over. The sharp edges of the hole~:, n flue sheets to be
face gear. T~e operation of putting on the back g ear
Driving wheel base . ..
...
. ..
8 ft. 6 in.
can be d?ne mstantane?usly, and without stopping
chamfered off on botl:i sides.
Total wheel base
.. .
. ..
. .. 23 , 11 ,
R ivet holes to be accurately punched, so that when
the machmery.
To th1s end the back gear is con,
weight of engine in working
sheets are laid together the holes shall cQincide. Holes
struc ted so that it is always in gear with both the belt
order . . .
...
...
...
. .. 124,000 lb.
to be so punched that when the sheets are laid together
co~e and ~ith a spurwheel running loose on the
Weight in working order on drivers
84,000 "
the smallEr diameters of the holes shall be together wh ere
sptndle. E1ther the con e or this wheel can be made
,
on truck
...
.. .
. ..
the sheets touch each oth er. In case holes do not coin40, 000 ' '
solid wit h the spindle by means of the friction clutches
,
of tender.
.. .
...
. ..
80,000 ,,
cide, they are to be rea.med out so a.s to bring them fair.
shown in Fig. 2. These clutches are at opposite ends
T otal w.:ight of engine and tender ... 204,000 "
In no case is a drift pin to be used.
of a sliding colla.r which is keyed, by four key s , to a
Smokebox.- Smokebox to be of !-in. iron 56 in. long.
GENERAL SPECII<' ICATIONs ~on MArEmAL.
steel collar firmly fi xed to the lath e s pindle. The
To be air-tight, and to have a wrought-iron ring riveted
chuck is automatic in its a ction, and its details will
B oiler Stccl.- All plates for boiler t o be of mild steel. in at the front end . Cast-iron front frame for smokebox
b e understood by r eferring to Fig. 3. Its d istinguish- To be of a uniform thickness and free from pitting, scale, door to be secured to this ring by studs, to be fitted with
ing feature is that i t is opened and closed by power or other defects; all sheets to be true and level; any a perforated steel plate spark-arrester closely fitted
the hand lever being merely used t o actuate the chuck that are wavy or buckled will be rejected. Test piecea to around steam and exhaust pipes, arranged as hown on
jaws. This chuck is of the class where collets are be cut from each sheet, and correspond ing numbers to be Fig. 3. Size of perforations in plate, l~r in. by 1! in.
A deflector plate to be fitted in smokebox, with movmade for each size of stock to be held. Only a small stamped on each sheet and test piece. T est piece to show able
slide, operating from the cab.
n ultimate tensile strength of not less than 50,000 lb. nor
movement of the collet is required to close the chuck. amore
thl!-n 6~,000 ~b. per square inch of original section.
Furnace Door .- Furnace door to be of i -in. boiler
Firmly .fixed .t o the spindle are the spur gears a and b El<?ng.a~10n m 8 m. to be not less than 25 per cent. A plate, with damper in door and defleetor plate inside.
connectmg w1th wheels c and d, which run loose on str1p 6 m. long to be ben t over oold until the ends meet Latch arrang_ed with notches to hold door partially open.
the hollow shaft shown above. Between th ese wheels each other, and no fracture to appear in t he bend.
F1ames.- Frames to be of the best hammered iron ;
is a rotating clutch which may be engaged, by means hould any sheet develop defects in working it will be re- main frame in one section with brace welded in. Forward section securely bolted a.nd keyed to main frame ;
of the hand lever shown, to either of th e gears. Con - jected.
Stay B olts an d B races.-Iron used for sta.y bolts and frame to be finished all over. P edestals protected from
nected to the hollow shaft is also a third spurwheel e
which engages with the toothed nut of the clutch : braces to have an ultimate tensile strength of not less wear by cast-iron shoes and wedges, and looked together
This nut screws on the end of the spindle, and also than 50,000 lb. nor more than 65,000 lb. per square inch at bottom by If-i n. bol t through thimble. Wedges and
shoes
furnishea
with
bolts
to
hold
them
in
position
in
of
original
section.
Elongation
in
8
in.
to
be
not
less
than
screws on the collar against which t he collets abut,
per cent. Reduction of area. of fractured section to be pedestals ; wedges adjusted by .screw passing through
rig ht and left threads being employed. A key serves 30
not more than 35 per cent.
slot in thimble, with nut above and below thimble.
t o prevent rotation of the sliding member of the chu ck
Fra,me and B oiler Braces.-Frame braced at back end.
Stee l Spri ngs. -A ll spr ings to be made of the best
r el ative ly to the spindle. The wb eel a is providEd with crucible cast steel oil tempered. Springs to be guaranteed Expansion knee to be bolted to the back end of boiler and
a. brger number of tee th than b ,; and c has a. smaller for one year.
fitted und~r cap bolted to the foot-plate. A pad (Fig. 2)
number of t eeth than cl. Consequen tly, when gear c is
Boiler.-Boiler (see Figs. 6 to 14 on the two-page to be bolted to each side of the firebox, with a. pin forged on
clutched to the shaft, the forward motion of this shaft plate in our last issue) to be of the wagon top type, of the it which receives one end of a supporting link, the lower
is faster tha.n that of the spindle ; conseq ut ntly the best workmanship and material, and to be capable of end of which fits a pin passing through frame. An exchuck jaws will be opened. The rever se takes place carryi ng with safety a working pressure of HIO lb. per tension on lower end of link is drilled for the brake-hanger
pin. A brace to extend acr:>ss und erneath the front end
when the ch~1ck is closed.
As soon as the collet square inoh. All plates to be planed at the edges and of
firebox and to be bolted to each frame by two 1-in.
caulked
with
a
round-pointed
tool.
tightens on the stock, the clutch slips, and herein is
bolts. A brace to extend across front of firebox lipped
the chief advantage of the chuck, aside from t he fact
over, and bolted to frames and fitted to a shoe bolted to
Thickness of Shuts.
that it is very easily operated. The chuck is wholly
firebox.
In.
self-adjusting a s to size, an d holds stock of varying
On the two-page plate of our present issue we publish
Smokebox
.. . ... -A

some further details of engine 999. Figs. 21 to 24 a.re
size with equal firmness.
Barrel . . .
...

.. ltr

SE.ctions of the cylinders, valve seat, and cylinder heads ;
A rapid change of feed is provided, which is illusConnection
...

-ftr
Figs. 25 and 26 are details of the valve chest ; Fig. 27
trated in Fig. 4; 1f is the lead screw on which the
Dome
...
.. . .. .

!
shows the valve; Figs. 28 and 29, piston -rod packing;
wormwheel shown is key ed. A bronze worm engages
Front flue



'iulr

Fig. 30, the cylinder relief valve ; Fig. 31, the main steam
with the wormwheel. The shaft on which this worm
Back flue
,{if

admission valve; Fig. 32 is asep!l>rate view of piston-rod;
Wagon
top
is mounted is deeply splined and carries loose wheels.
... ... flf
Fig. 33 shows the crosshead ; Figs. 34, ~5, and 36, the
Back
...
... ... ... t lr
These wheels are provided with three internal keyguide bars a.nd guide-bar brackets ; F ;gs. 37, 38, and 39
Sida
... ... l'tr

seats, each adapted to r eceive the end of the feather
are the connecting and coupling rods ; Fig. 40, eccentrics;
Firebox side ...
.. .

lfi
s hown.
and Figs. 41 and 42 are details of the valve gear.
Crown
...

i
B etween each pair of wheels is a steel collar which
T op water arch ...
... ... ... ~~
(To be continued.)
serves to d epress the end of the feather, and prevents
Bottom water arch
...
...

fa
it from being connected with two wheels at once. The
Throat
...
..
.



i
loose wheels engage w ith others mounted on the shaft
R us siAN RAILWAYS.-The Russian Minister of Means
shown, which is driven by a train of gearing from th e
Crown bars to be 21 in number, equally spaced, not of. Comm.unicat~on has ~pened a. cr~dit of 2,800,000 roubles,
spindle, and is also provided w ith a. reversing motion by more than 4~ in. centre to centre ; to be made of two bars wtth a. vtew to mcrea.smg t he rolltng stock of the Vistula.
means of beYel gears. On t he front s ide of the lathe is 5 in. by ~ in. best quality iron welded togeth er at ends, Railway. The line is worked by the Russian GovHn
a splined rod, by means of which the adjustment of the secured to crown sheet by twelve ~-in. T -headed rivets ment.
feed can be varied by the operator without l eaving his passing through wrought-iron tapered washers between
crown bar and sheet. The sharp edges of the holes to be
FRENCH M ECHANICAL INDUSTRY.-Tbe profits realised
p osition at th e turret or carriage of the lath e.
Fig. 5 represents a top view of the turret.
A chamfered off on the under side of the crown sheet. Each by the Cail Company-an old-E'stablished Parisian mechablock slides in a groove planed in the top of the bed, crown bar to be connected to wagon top by four sling nical undertaking- last year admitted of the distribution
~tays . The endR of crown bars are to be chipped so as to of a. dividend of 16s. per share. The council of administraand ma y be set at any point for the purpose of auto- t the upper corners of the rebox and to rest on the sid e tion carried, at the same time, 10,000l. to the contingency
matically rotating the turret. A shaft geared to sheets with a good bearing. Where crown bars come fund, and applied 8000{. to the redem ption of the cost of
rotate with the t urret, ca rries six stop screws. These under dome, stays are to be run up in dome, as shown on sundry new works; an allocation of 869l. was also made
stop screws engage with the stop, which may be fixed drawing. Between each crown bar is t o be placed a. to the reserv~ fund. The company has received some
at any point on the bed, and serves as an independent 11-in. round stay, with ends enlarged to 1i in., screwed important orders from the French Admiralty; these
orders have rend ered it necessary to extend and improve
adjustment for each tool. This stop-bar automatically and riveted to shell at each end.
F ir ebox.-Firebox to be 108 ~ in. long by 40i in. wide the appliances at the St. Denis works.
disengages the feed motion, and also serves as an ininside, set on top of the frames. To be fitted with a.
--dependent dead stop.
THE Nxw ARMAMENT OF H.M.S. "DEVASTATION.''The carriage is shown in F ig. 6. The most im - water arch, as per drawing, 4! in. water space. ]firebox
ring to be double ri veted and finished on sides and Tbe D evastation has completed her gunnery trials. The
portant feature of this carriage is the turret tool p ost, corners
all around. Water space side and back of firebox mountings for the 10-in. 29-ton breechloaders in the
and the automatic independent stop motion. The 3 in., front 4 in. All stay-bolts to be Falls hollow stay- turrets differ from all others hitherto supplied to the Navy
turret tool post is arranged to carry four tools in the bolt iron, mandril rolled of the best quality, 1 in. outside in the arrangement of the recoil appointments. The new
grooves milled in i ts periphery, a n d is arranged to diam eter, with a -r\ in. hole through it. To be out with guns have a total length of 342.4 in., a length of bore (inh ave independent vertical adjustment for each tool, 12 threads per inch, screwed firmly into sheets and riveted cluding powder chamber ) of 320 in., and a. diameter of
which adjustment is made after the tool is clamped in over on both ends. Hole to be reamed out after riveting. 43 in. at the breech tapering to 16 in. at the muzzle, and
position. The turret is provide~ with indepen dent Stay bol ts to be spaced as shown on drawing, with two they fire a projectile w ei~hing 500 lb., with a full charge
adjus table cross ~top screws, wh1ch are. arranged . to extra rows at the top. Liner plates to be riveted inside of 252 lb. of prismatic brown powder. The muzzle
come in contact wtth the stop bar. It w11l be read1ly of throat sheet and back head at bottom, as shown for the velocity is 2040 ft. per second, and the muzzle energy
foot- tons. In the D evastation the turret armament
seen that a varying independent cross-slide adjust- firebox and frame braces. A liner plate to be riveted to 14,430
the back head at the top and 3 in. by 3 in. angle irons, to is worked entirely by band, and in consequence the guns
ment for each of the four tools is readily obtained by which are secured the longitudinal stays. Mud-plugs can be loaded at any time and in any position. The
m eans of these screwa.
and blow-off cock to be located as shown. All plates to turrets, however, are rotated by steam, and during her
The vertical a.dj ustment is obtained by means of the be thoroughly annealed after flanging and punchmg.
refi t a duplicate turning engine has been attached to each
screws which r est on the steel registering b lock.
Dome.-Dome to be 30 in. in. in diameter inside and turreb as a precaution against accident. Four rounds
The turre t tool post on the la rge machines is secured to boiler by fl anging wagon top sheet up into were fired from each of the eight 3-pounder Hotchkiss
elevated by means of a. handwheel. The carriage is dome and riveting with ~- in. rivets and a double riveted quick-firing guns. Three rounds were afterwards fired
provided with a. s top motion, as shown in Fig. 7 ' for seam on wagon top. Cast-iron dome cover to be ri veted from each of the guns in the fore and after turrets, two
automatically disengaging the feed a t any des1red to top of dome. Shell of boiler to be of -h in. steel plates independently with reduced and full charges, and the last
of dtmensions as shown on drawings, rolled to a true from each gun simultaneously with full charges. The
point for each tool. This stop motion is precisely the cylindrical
shape. Diameter a:t' . sma.lles~ ring, 58i ~n. elevation rose from horizontal to as much as 13 deg. exsame as that for the tu rret.
Horizontal seams to be all buttJotnted, w1th cover strtps treme elevation, while the bearings varied from abeam to
inside and out as per d etail drawings. L ongitudinal 10 deg. before to 20 deg. abaft the starboard snd port
beam respectively. A number of misfires occurred,
seams to be lap seams double ri veted.
LOCOMOTIVE AT THE COLUMBIAN
Front and baok flue sheets to be thoroughly stayed owing to the use of wire tubes, and in the fore turreb
EXPOSITION.
with 1l -in. round Rtays secured by lin. pins to crow feet there was a little scoring of the brake piston by the glande,
\VE continue on our t.wo-page plate this week the P';lb- at both ends. All pinA to be held in place by spring w hi eh caused some delay. The trials, h owever, passed
lication of details of the ex pre, s passenger locomot1 ve cotters. All stays to have a good bearing on pins, and to off wit h remarkable success. The recoils from all the guns
built for the eighteen hours' journey between New ~ork have no lost motion when put in place. The flat surface remained uniform at 36! in. with full, and at 36t in. with
and Chicago on the New York Central and Hu~ son ~1ver a.t the junction of barrel and wa~on top to be stayed with reduced charges, while the graphic lines and cur"es of
Railroad and we give the rst part of the spectficat1vn to one piece of 4 io. by 4 in . angle-tron and three crossstays recoil pressures showed that the action of the bar reguhting the influx of water in the brakes was particularly
which th'e engine was builb.
of 1t-in. round iron.
Flues to be 2 in. in outside diameter, 11 B. W . G., 145 in. steady. The under-water torpedo gear was subsequently
Fuel
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long, of the besb quality steeL Number of flues 268, tested by Captain Hall, of the V ernon.
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. 4 h. 8~ 10.

[SEPT.

E N G I N E E R I N G.

"'60

.)

1893.

22,

ROTARY DUMP CAR AT THE COL UMBIAN EXPOSITION.

CONSTRUCTED

BY

THE

BLOOMSBURG

CAR

COMPANY,

BLOOl\IISBURG,

PENNSYLVANIA.

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1817

RaTING MACBINERY.-The valuers to the Chesterfield

U nion (Messrs. Hedley and Co.) lately revalued the fa.ntory
SCREW ELEVATOR GEAR.
of Messrs. Hewitt, Bunting, and Co., increasing the rating
TIIE elevator gear which we illustrate on the opposite from 84Z. to 460l. Seeking the aid of the Machinery
page is made by the S tandard Screw Elevator Manufac- U sera' Association, the firm were advised to appeal. The

\;.

.
.

turing Company, of New York a.nd Baltimore, and is

intended as a substitute for the hydraulic elevator , the
first cost of which is great, especially in those towns
where no system of high-pressure water power d istribution exists. Essentially the apparatus consists
of t he series of multiplying pulleys shown in F igs. l
and 2, the two lower ones of which are carried on a
crosshead riding on a vertical screw, as shown in
F igs. 3 and 4. At its lower end this screw has a bevel
wheel keyed to it, which is tlriven by means of a rawh ide pulley from any convenient source of power,
usually a steam engine. The rope which passes over
these lower pulleys is fixed to the ends of a balance
lever carried by a third pulley higher up, as shown in
Fig. 1. After passing round the lower pulleys, its
middle length rests in a groove cast on the top of the
frame carrying the lifting screw, and it is clamped
here by a couple of U -bolts, as shown in Figs. 3 and
4. This arrangement gives the upper pulley double
the travel of the lower ones, and this upper pulley in a
similar manner gives double its own motion to its
follower above it, and the final multiplication is
obtained by an ordinary tackle, a single rope passing
twice round the upper pulleys before being led away
to the cage. The motion is claimed t o be smooth and
eaay, a nd the gear has the advantage that it can be
driven by a simple belt off any rotating shaft, as may be
convenient. Special safety devices are p rovided, as usual
with all elevators of the suspended t ype, w hich come
into play if the rope breaks.

i.i!

__._

u.

"--

THE car we illustrate on the present page is of interest,

in that it combines in itself the advantages of a side and
end tip dump car. ' Vith this object the body of the
car is attached by a. hinge to a cross beam as shown by
:Fig. l, which in turn is mounted on a swivel on the
under body of the wagon, and by means of a stout
wooden beam the whole upper body can be rotated
round the axis of the swivel, and thus brought into the
most convenient position for tipping. As will be seen
from Figs. 2 and 3, the hinge on which the body of the
car rests is not under t he centre of the car , but to one
side. The surplus weight t hus produced on one side
of the hinge is transferred by a co uple of cross beams
to that used in the operation of r otation, and the forward end of this is supported by a bar. iron st rap. To
insure against accidental tipping, the forward end of
t he car is locked down as shown in F ig. 2. The car,
we may add , is bu ilt under the patents of Mr. J. H.
Lockard, by the Bloomsburg Car Company, Bloomsburg, Pa., U.S.A. The same company also manufacture ordinary freight cars, the special feature of which,
the brake gear, is shown in Figs. 4, 5, and 6. From
these engravings it will be seen that every wheel of
the truck is braked, each separate brake shoe being
carried on a. separate lever, one end of which is attached
t o the truck body, whilst the brake rods are fixed to t he
other ends. The shoes are placed outside the wheels
instead of between them, as is more usual, and the
levers carrying them swing in a h orizontal direction.
The only other special feature of the car is the bolster
built up of steel !-beams, in place of the more usual
wooden one.

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result so far is that th9 Assessment Committee at the

hearing on Thursday of last week, when the a.pp~lla.nts
were represented by Mr. Humpbreys-Da.\ies, reduced
the new valuation of 460Z. to 1G8l. ; but as even this
amount is believed to be ex{'essive, a. further appeal is to
be made to the sassions. These appear to be some of the
results of attempting to rate machinery.
AMERICAN GuNDOATS.-The U nited Rtates Navy Department has issued advertisements for the construction
of three gunboats, which are to be of 1200 tons displacement, have triple-expansion engines, and be capable of
attaining a speed of 15 knots per hour. They will be
practically of the same type as the Bennington and the
Yorktown, although somewhat smaller, and they are
intended for ser vice in Chinese waters. The department
reserves the right to award a cont ract to any bidder,
regardleos whether or not the tender is the lowest submitted. This is done in order to make a more equitable
distribution of the construction of warships among the
shipyards of the United States.
CLYDE NAVIGATION.-The quarterly report by the
engineer to tbe Clyde Navigation, Mr. J ames D eas, C. E. ,
Atates that 498,180 cubic yards were dredged from the
ri ver, more than half of which was taken from the new
Cessnock Docks. The construction of the walls of t his
dock is progressing satisfactorily, and over GOOO lineal
feet were completed at the date of the report. Into these
walls therA have been worked41,845cubicyards of rubble
15,706 cubic feet of granite ashlar, 216,373 cubic feet of
concrete ashlar, a.nd 24,229 cubic feet of granite cope. The
sheds for the docks are to be of two storeys, and out of a.
total of 1156~ ft. sanctioned, 684t ft. are in progress. A
large graving dock is being constructed clo~e to the
entrance to the Cessnock Tidal Docks, and 101,397 cubic
yards have been excavated in preparation for the construction.

SEPT. 22,

E N G I N E EiR I N G.

1893]

SCREW ELEVATOR GEAR AT THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

CO N ' TRUCTED BY THE STANDARD SCRE\V ELEVATOR COMPANY, NE\V YORK AND BALTIMORE.

( For Description, see opposite Page.)

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fi.!J.A

THE TRIALS OF THE SPANISH CRUISER

"INFANTA MARIA TERESA."
THE new Spanish cruiser Infanta. Ma.ria. Teresa,
built at the Astilleros del Nervion, Bilbao, went out
from Ferrol on her official natural draught trials on
Monday. This \easel, which we fully described in
last week's issue (page 338 ante), is the first of three
constructed at this new establishment. The dra.ught
of thP, vessel in a. preceding trial was 21 ft. 6 in., the
displacement being 6890 tons. The vessel steamed
for eight hours at sea, with a heavy swell running in
from the Atlantic, and the results were extremely
satisfactory, fa.r exceeding expectations, while everything worked splendidly. The fa.ns were kept running merely for efficiently v&ntila.ting the stokehold,

and the pressure recorded by water gauge was 1~ in.

Of course there was no difficulty with tubes. A
plentiful supply of steam was maintained at
a. mean pressure of 145 lb. per square inch. The
meo.n power of the half - hourly r ecords of the
engines wa.s for the starboard set 4686 indicated horsepower at 105 revolutions, and for the port engine
4872 indicated horse-power at 106 r evolutions, a. total
of 9558 indicated horse-power. The vacuum was
27! in. The method taken to arrive at the speed of
the ship wa.s follows : The vessel ran over the measured mile four times before a nd four times after
the run at sea, during which runs the Naval Commissioner from Madrid ascertained the number
of revolutions corresponding to one nautical mile.
The a.vera.ge number of the eight runs on the
measured mile was adopted as the means of ascertaining the speed of the vessel in nautical miles during the
trial at sea. The speed worked out at 18.48 knots.
The highest speed record wa.s at the r ate of 18.8 knots.
The guarantee was 18 knots, so that the result is most
satisfactory. It may be added that if the mean speed
a ttained by the vessel at the trials had been less tha.n
18 knots, without falling below 17! knots, the vessel
would have been accepted only on payment by the
builders of 80,000 pesetas for each complete tenth
part of a. mile per hour that had not been attained.
The vessel is to proceed on her forced-draught trials
forthwith, when a speed of 20 knots is to be maintained for four hours a.t sea.

NOTES FROM SOUTH YORKSHIRE.

SHE~'FIELD,

W ednesda.y.
William J essop and Sons, Limited.-Tbe direotors of
this company have declared a.n interim dividend for the
past ha.lf-year of 15s. per sba.re, equal to 5 per cent. per
annum.
Iron and Steel Trades.- Th e history of the iron trade
during the pa.st quarter of a century does not show such
a. deadlock as at present exists. Inquiries with a view to
the :placing of the forthcoming qnarter's contracts a.re
commg into the district, hub cannob be dealb with, as
there are no permanent quotations on which to form a
basis for negotiations. Almost all the blast furnaces a.re

damped down or blown out, owing tlo the coke supply

being exhausted, and thousands of ironworkers a.re
idle. There are some fair supplies of forge and foundry
pig, but consumers are doing nothing. In manufactured irons there a.re larger inquiries for best and
medium qualities of bar for South Africa. and Australia, but prevailing high rates, known to be only temporary, check business, and. the. orders a.re either
held over or sent to compet1tors 1n the north or on
the Continent. It is felt tha.t severe permanent injury is
being done to the local iron and steel industries. Those
engaged in the heavy steel trades a.re experiencing reverses and losses. More than one ha.lf the mills are
idle for want of fuel. At the same time there are
evidences of a further improvement in the ca.ll for
marine ma.teria.l, hub nob a.b the enhanced values
quoted within the past month. Manufacturers ba.ve
to stand idly by a.nd be passed over. As to any
improved trade in railway material, that cannob be
looked for for a long time, a.s, after such heavy losses in
revenue, the home companies are sure to pursue a policy
of rigid economy. Orders for t~res, axles, and springs
may, however, be looked for on East Indian a.nd South
A fric:an accounb. Agents of Bessemer billets a.nd slabs
find very little demand at present rates, 5l. 17s. Gd. to
6l. lOa. per ton, and are mostly delivering on old contracts, without attempting to force new business. llouses
engaged on a.rmour-pla.tes and ordnance a.re slack. Engineering rms a.re suffering severely. Besb qualities of
crucible cast steel are selling well for the U nited States,
~outh Africa., India, and the Continent.
Tke Coal Cri&is.-Fortunately, durin~ the past few days
there ha.ve been no further scenes of dtsorder in the dLB
trict, though some very threatening language ha.s been
used with regard to the intrC'duction of Durham coal. As
a. result ma.ny rms a.nd agents have cea.sed to imporb it.
With engine slack fetching 17s. Gd. to 20s. per ton, ma.ny
manufacturers have ceasd to use it, and have "set
down " their establishments. House coal fetches 25s. to
30s. per ton. Around L eeds the d eu-th of fuel is greater
than in the neighbourhood of S heffield. Near the latter
town there are ma.ny large stacks of coal, but the colliers
will not allow them to be removed, a.nd to endeavour to
do so would only lead to renewed rioting. It was noted
last week tha.b a. large section of the miners here a.re in
favour of reanming work ab any of the collieries where
the old ra.te of wages is offered. As the distrflss in the

F.

ranks becomes daily greater, this opinion is more openly

expressed, and if a ballot were taken this week there would
be a maj ority in favour of it. The miners' leaders in this and
the neighbouring districte advise the men to work at the
pits where no reduction has to be submitted to, and unless
some settlement is effected very shortly, there is no doubt
this ad vice will be acted upon by a large section of the
men.

E N G I N E E R I N G.
modern smithing. The advantages claimed for this
underground furnace are that greater facilities are given
workmen for producins- superior work, while a considerable saving is effected m fuel.
A New Wel~h Company.-The New Albion Steel Works
Company, Briton Ferry, has b~en regist ered. The object
of the company is t o lay down a plant for the manufacture of steel tinplate bars by the Siemens-Martin process, and to meet the increased demand occasioned
through the erection and extension of tinpla te works in
Briton Ferry and the neighbourhood.
T he "Cambrian. "-On Tuesday, the Cambrian, cruiser,
launched from Pembroke Dockyard in January, made an
eight hours' trial of her engines with natural draught, the
speed attained being upwards of 20 knots per hour. The
ship was in charge of Staff-Commander Stevens, R .N.
The vessel steamed away near to the D evonshire coast,
her steaming qualities giving satisfaction to the Government officials, as W E'll as t o the contractors for the
machinery, Messrs. Hawthorne, Le~lie, and Co. The
engines developed 9000 horse-power under forced draught
and 7000 horse-power under natural draught. The ve~sel
is being rapidly pu.shed forward t o completion.

[SEPT.

2 2, I

893.

--

forenoon, 1000 t ons being dealt in at 35s. 4~ :1. per ton cash,
and 35s. 6d. one month. The settlement prices at the close
were-Scotch iron, 42s. 7!d. per ton; Cleveland, 35J. 3d. ;
Cumberland and Middlesbrough hematite iron, repecti vely, 453. and 43s. 4id. per ton. Business was again
somewhat inactive on Tuesday forenoon. Some 8500 ton s
of warrants were dealt in-7000 tons of Scotch and 1500
tons of Cleveland-a.nd each recovered ~d. per ton. The
H ull Export Trade Crippled.- The seven weeks' strike
market was steady in the afternoon, at 42s. 7~d . per ton
has bad a marked effect on the trade of the port of Hull.
for Scotch iron. About 5000 tons were deal t in. Business
Stocks in the various depots for manufacturing and
was also done at 42s. lO~d. one month open, and 43s. 1d.
d omestic purposes are exhausted, and no Yorkshire coal is
one month with a call. At the close the settleobtainable. Prices are of an extraordinary character,
ment prices were-Scotch iron, 42s. 7!d. per ton;
24s. per ton having been realised for best South YorkCleveland, 35s. ~d . ; Cumberland and ~1iddlesbrough
shire steam bards, as against l !ls. 6d. six weeks ago.
hem'l>tite iron, 453. and 43s. 4~d. p er ton. The
Usually this is the best time of the Hull shipping season ,
market was quiet this forenoon. About 6000 tons
a rush being made consequent on the early closing of the
changed hands-5000 tons of S cotch and l 000 tons of
Baltic. I t is coml?uted that the port has already lost
Cleveland. One lot of Scotch was sold at 42s. 7d. one
lOO,OOOl. by the strike.
month, with 1s. forfeit in seller's option. Scotch lost i d.
and Clevelan d 21. per ton. The afternoon market was
dull, and prices declined a li ttle. The closing settlement
NOTES FROM CLEVELAND AND THE
prices were-Scotch iron, 42s. 6d. per ton ; Cleveland,
NORTHERN COUNTIES.
35s. l ! d.; Cuwberland and Middlesbrough hematite iro~,
respectively, 45s. and 43s. 4~d. per t on. There are RtJll
MIDDLESBROUGH, W ednesday.
T he Cleveland I ron T rad.e.- Yesterday there was not
The "Forth. "-Th~ fractured stem of the Forth, only 39 blast furnaces in actual operation, as compared
a numerous attendance on 'Change, and the amount of cr uiser, is b~ing repaired at K ey ham smithery, under the with 78 at this time last year. The shipments of pig iron
business transacted was not large. What transactions supervision of Mr. W. C. Thomas.
from all Scotch ports last week amounted to 5568 tons,
against 7138 tons in the corresponding week last year.
occurred were mostly for immediate delivery, buyers preT he Glamorganshire Oanal. -A new steam barge made Tbey included 300 tons for the U nited States, 490
ferring to purchase only what they need for immediate
requirements, believi ng tbat quotations are likely to its first trip upon this canal on Tuesday, and reached tons for Canada, 180 tons for India, 2(i6 tons
decline a little. Makers were pretty firm in their figures, Pontypridd early. She was discharged and reloaded, and for Australia., 177 tons for France, 445 tons for
and asked as a rule 35s. 6d. for prompt f.o.b. delivery of left Pontypridd Wharf again at 2.40 p.m., arriving at Italy, 311 tons for Germany, 1028 tons for RusRia, 390
No. 3 g.m.b. Cleveland pig iron, but sales were recorded Llanda.ff at 7.30 p.m. This wa'3 considered eminently tons for Holland, lOO tons for Belgium, smaller ~uantities
at 35s. 4~d., and the latter price was generally asked by satisfactory, in view of the present condition of the na:vi- for other countri es, and 1499 tons coastwise. 1he stock
merchants. Th~ lower qualities were a trifle easier, and gation. When certain dredging improvements are carr1ed of pig iron in Messrs. Connal and Co.'s pu blic warranb
st ores stood at 333.673 tons yesterday afternoon, as com33s. 9d. was named for No. 4 foundry, while for grey out, still better results are expected to be attained.
pared with 331,347 t ons yeste~da.y week, thus showing a
forge 32s. 9d. was mentioned. Several sellers, however,
Glou,cester Bridge. - The Gloucester authorities ha ve decrease for the week amountmg to 674 tons.
h eld out for 3d. per ton above these quotations. Middlesbrough warrants were 35s. 4d. cash buyers. L ocal hema- expressed their willingness to raise t be bridge which has
Finished Iron and Steel.-The finished iron trade is
hitherto
been
a
discouraging
obstacle
in
the
way
of
dire<?t
tite pig iron was reported in fairly good request, and
gradually becoming active, and some firms are so well
commun
ication
between
Card
iff
and
the
Midlands.
It
1s
433. 6d. was about the price for Nos. 1, 2, and 3. Spanish
supplied with work that they have for the time ceased to
the
bridge
t
o
the
extent
of
3
h
.,
so
as
proposed
to
raise
ore was not altE:red. T o-day our market was quiet, with
compete for fresh orders. Prices are accordingly firm
to
secure
a
clear
bead
way
of
21
ft.
for
passing
vessels.
little business doing. Quotations did not change much,
at the late advances, but makers consider them to be
it
i3
believed,
will
meet
the
ncee:;sities
of
the
case.
This,
but one or two parcels were disposed of on rather easier
t oo low in view of the high prices of coal. T he demand
t erm s than on th e previous day. No. 3 was said to have
T he Se-t,ern.-On Saturday, Mr. J. M 'Gregor, of for shipbuilding steel is increasing, and pl'ices are fi rm on
b een bought at 35s. ~d., but most sellers asked 35s. 4!d. London , made a final inspection of the Severn, from a basis of 5l. 7s. 6d. to 5l. 10s. per ton for ship plates.
No. 1 Cleveland pig was obtainable at 37s. od. Middles- S harpness to Cardiff. Mr. M'Gregor and several other It is worthy of mention that the Siemens department at
brough warrants closed weak at 35s. l~d. cash buyer~.
gentlemen left Cardiff Pier-head in the steamtug Bantam the Glengarnock Steel Works has now begun manufacat 7 o'clock, and proceeded to Sharpne~~, where turing operations. At no other place in Scotland is steel
M a;nufacturcd Iron a;nd Stetl.-Little change has taken Cock
place in the manufactured iron and steel industries durio~ they arrived at 10. They left S harpness agam at 11, made both by the Siemens and the basic processes.
The L ocal Ooalmasters and their Worknten. -At a fullythe week. One or two firms are asking a trifle higher having in tow a vessel 1of 1500 tons, and they rea?hed
Cardiff at 2.30. Mr. M Gregor appea-red t o be entirely attended meeting of L anarkshire coalma.sters, held in
prices for certain classes of material, and works are well satisfied
with its suitability.
Glasgow this afternoon, the action of the miners in reemployed, but on the whole the tr~des may be said t o be
P ortsmouth Docks. -Conside~able P.ro~ress has been sorting to four days a week wa~ strongly condemned, and
practically unalter~d. Common tron bars are qu<;>ted
4l. 17d. 6d.; iron shtp-plates, 4l. 15s. t o 4l. 17s. 6d.; Iron made during the past month With prehmmary work con- it was unanimously agreed, if continued, steps should be
ship angles, 4l. 12s. od.; steel ship-plates, 5l. 5.s.; and nected with the construction of two new d ocks at Ports- taken t o put an end to it. The Airdrie, Slamannan, and
steel ship angles, 4l. 15a. -all less the usual discount. mouth. Messrs. Price, of Westminster, h~t.ve secured the Bathgate coalma.sters also met this afternoon and recontract and the firm is employing some hundreds of solved: " If the miners reduce their working days below
Heavy steel rails are 3l. 17s. 6d. net ab works.
local wo;kmen. Each of the new docks is to be 600 ft. in five weekly, wages be reduced at ~nee, but if. the men
B oard of A?bil1'ation.-At a meeting of the Board of length.
cont.inue to work five days the quest1on of reducmg wages
Conciliation and Arbitration for tbe manufactured
be p ostponed." A conference of the miners' representaThe
Bristol
Channel.
M
essrs.
Ed
wards,
Robertson,
iron and steel trades of the north of England, held
tives will be held in Glasgow tomorrow, when the number
and
Co.
have
purchased
~nother
steamer
for.
the
Bridtol
on M onday a letter was read from the Midland
of days t o be worked will be determined.
Channel
service.
She
I S named the Scot1a, and she
Iron and St~el Wages Board with respect to the proSteel Company of Scotland.- The annual meeting of the
posed amalgamation of the Midland and Northern sliding formerly belonged to the Caledonian Railway Company,
scales. The board considered that they were nob in a posi- which ran her between Ardrossan and Arran. She wa.s Steel Company of Scotland was held in Glasgow this
tion to discuss the question that day, but the operatives and built in 18 0, and she is sufficiently powerful to make .a. afternoon, the chairman, Sir Charles Tennant, Bart.,
employers were t o consider and report to a future. meet- trip in the Bristol Channel in any weather. Her speed I S presiding. In moving the adoption of the annual report1
ing of the board. The president (Mr. Wm. Whttwell) 15! knots per h our. Her length is 211ft. , and she will the chairman said that it was not such as they coula
have wished, as it showed a small loss as the resul t of
said the employers wer.e r%dy to agre~ to the !enewal c:arry nearly 700 persons.
the past year's business, instead of a profib. R eferring
of the sliding scale, With t hree excepttons, wh10h only
to the depressed state of tr~de and tc;> tbe keener .compeaffected 2 to 5 per cent of ;;he whole output. These
tition that bad been expenenced, Sir Charles said that
works were the Stockton Malleable, the Spennymo?r, and
NOTES FROM THE NORTH.
during the year abnormally low prices had been touched,
Jarrow. The machinery of the board was suffiCient. to
GLASGOW, Wednesday.
and that whereas in the previous year plates fell in
deal with the matter. On Mr. Trow (the operattve
Glasgow P ig-Iron M arket.-The mark et was a little price to 5l. 15s. and 5l. 17s. per ton for Clyde delivery,
secretary) stating- that it wo';lld b e necessary ~o have more active last Tbureday forenoon, wh~n there were in the past year they had touched 5l. 2s. 6d. per ton.
m eetings of the m~n at the v~r10us works to . consider the about 5000 tons of Scotch warrants disposed of at Angles had fallen from 5l. 15R. to 4l. 10s. per ton.
matter, ib was deCided to adJourn the meetmg fo~ three 42s. 8~d. cash, 42s. 11d. one month, and 42.'3. 8d. one The chairman also referred to the comRetition expeweek s, wages to continue on the old scale for that time.
month with a. "plant." Of Cleveland there were 2500 rienced at the hands of the north of E ngland, and
tons sold, and the cash price at 35s. 5d. rose ~d. per ~on.
Sir W. G. A.rmst1ong, Mitchell, a_nd Oo., Lilm.it~d.- In The market opened firm in the afternoon, Scotch Iron to the fact that the port charges levied by the Clyde
their eleventh annual r eport the duectors of this com- ohanging hands at 42s. 9d. cash and 42s. ll! d. one ~on th. Trust had the effect of shutting the Steel Company
pany propose the payment of a dividend of 10 per cent. About 7000 tons were dealt in, and the cash pnce was out of the Belfast market. The company have now
p er annum on the ordinary stock and 4 P.er cent. o~ the ~d up from the foren oon rate at 42s. 9d. sellers. Ex- a fair amount of contracts on their books and orderd in
preference shares of the company (less m come-tax), of official dealing took place at 43s,. and 42s. lld. one month. band and the chairman stated that there was an expecwhich 2~ .and .2 per .c~nt. respectiyely h ave already been with l s. forfeit in buyers' optiOn. About 1500 tons of tatio~ that some advance would be made on the low prices
paid as mterim dividends. This leaves a balance of Cleveland iron were d?ne at 35s. 4d. pe~ ton cash. The now prevailing.
2255l. 7s. lld. to be carried to next year's account.
Glasgow Tramu:ay Extensions: T enders for N e'w L ines.
closing settlement prtces were-Scotch uon, 42s. ~ d. per
- In view of their acquisition of the Glasgo~ T ramway
t
on
Cleveland
35:s.
4-!d.
;
CumbBrland
and
MtddlesPalme1's Shipbuildjlng and ,Iron Co:mpany. -The ~nnual
system in July next, the Tramway Committee of the
bro~gh
bematit~
iron,
respectively,
45s.
and
43s
..
4-!d.
per
rep ort of Palmer's direct ors IS unsatisfactory, bu.t 1t con Glasgow Corporation are about to make several extenton.
There
was
a
somewhat
~rm
market.
on
F
nday
forecludes with the remark that
prospe~ts as to pnces and
sions, and tenders have been before them for several

noon,
and
the
business
done
m
Scotch
u
on
sh.owed
ap
orders are more encouragmg.
advance of ld. to l~d . per ton on the precedmg day s new lines. These are as follow: (1) From Gorbals Cross,
rices. The cash price opened at. 42s. 10~d. ~or Sco~oh down Main-street, across Stockwell Bridge, along Clydehon. In the afternoon the quotatiOns fell agam_, lea:vmg side to St. Enoch-sqaure, with loop lines leading to the
NOTES FROM THE SOUTH-WEST.
off 1d. per ton l ow~r. Qlevela.nd and hematite 1rons temporary bridgA at J amaica-street. (2) From Queen's
Cardiff.-The demand for t~e be~t steam .c?al has been remained unaltered m pnce. . At the close the settle- Park to Mount Florida.. (3) From Bridgeton Cross to
in excess of the supply, but mferio~ q.uahttes have not ment prices were- Scotch uon, 42s. 9d. per t on; Rutherglen Bridge. (4) From Woodlands-road, across
sold so readily. The best descnpttons have made Cleveland, 35s. 4~d. ; Cumberland and l\1iddlesb~ough the new Woodlands Bridge, to Smith-street, Hillhead.
14s. 9d. to 15s. &I., and secondary ditto .133. 6d . to 14s. 6d: bematite uon, 45s. and 43s. 4 ~ d. per t on respectively. The tenders include the short lines required to lead into
H ousehold coal has been m good request, The market was quiet on Monday forenoon, when a~out the new stables at present in course of erection. It is
er ton
~o. 3 Rhondda larg~ has made 15s. t~ 15s. 6~. per ton. 4000 tons of Scotch and 3000. tons of Clevela~d l!On understood that the lowest offer was about 1G,OOOl. It
Coke h as been in fair demand at pr~viO?S pnces. Iron changed hands the former losmg id. per t on m prtce, was made by Messrs. A. J. Faill, and it has been
h ruled firm the demand havmg m creased. The and the latter ~aking ~d.. In the n:ttemoon the market accepted.
i::n :~d steel trad~s have presented a slightly b etter t one; was rather easier Scotch Iron opemmg at 42s. 8~d. per
T he P 1oposed N ew H arbou1 at ICirkcaldy.-The plan of
h eavy section steel rails have made 3l. 15s. to 3l. 17s. 6d., t on next day, while 42s. 7id. was subsequently don~. A the proposed new harbour at Ravenscraig, Kirkcaldy, has
and light section ditto 4l. 15s. t o 4l.. 17s. 6d. ~er ton.
thousand tons were likewise sold at 42s. lOd. Friday, been prepared by Mr. Ha~l Blyth, engine~r ~o the K orth
Devonport.-Improvementsare bemg made 1~ the dock with a call and a transaction t ook plac~ at 43s. O! d. on British Railway. Accordmg to the plan, It 1s proposed to
ya.rd smitheries at Devon:port in accordance w1th sug~es month, with 7~d. forfeit in bu:yer's ~pt10n. N?b mor.e inclose the whole space between the present East Pier ~nd
tions from the master smttb, Mr. W . C. Thomas.
ne than 5000 tons changed hands, mclu?mg exoffiCial busi- Craigendal for the new works, the present harbour bemg
of these improvements is Mr. Tho~as's new type ~ ~ot ness, the cash price at the last! s~owmg a. drop of ld. per filled up and traversed. by railway lines. Starting. from
and underg?ound furnaces, specially constructe
or ton from the morning. Cleveland tron also fell1d. from the Craigendal, the east pter of the proposed harbour, Rhghtly

ENGINEERING
curving westward, extends seawards ab?ut 2200 ft.. Of
the space thus inclosed, th e eastern half IS left as an outer
harbour, the western half being occu pied by the wet
dook, wharve~, &c. The space oovered by the proposed
dock is 9 acres depth of water, 27 ft. ; quayage accommodation 2550 ft. The dock will be titted up with
three coa.i hoists and laid with rails. D opth at en~ra.nce
channel 30 ft. ; being thus the deepest harbour m th e
Firth of F orth. The estimated ?~st is 3~, OOOl. ~one half
to be provided by the North ~nt~sh R !1.1lway Company
and the remainder by looal ca.pttallsts.

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL NOTES.

Belgian Coal Exports. - The exports of coal from Belgium
in the fi rst half of this year amount~d t o 2,200,861 t o.ns,
as compared with 1,!>33, 731 tons 1n the correspondmg
p eriod of 1892. Io these t r>t ali the exports t o F.ra.n ce
figured for 1,579,822 tons and 1,672.232 tons respectl vely.
B elgia;n Blast Fu~naces.-The number of blast furnaGes
going in Belgium a.t the commencement of Augus t, 1803,
was 24 while there were 18 furnaces ou t of blast at the
same d'ate. The total of 24 representing the furnaces in
blast in B elgium at the commencement of August waq
made up as follows: Cbarleroi district, 8; Li~ge dist.ri<:t,
12; Lu xembourg, 4; t otal, 2,.:1. The productiOn of p1g.1n
B elgium in July was 60,~ ol tons, as compared. w1th
64 945 tons in July, 1892. The aggregate output ID the
fir~t seven month8 of this ~ear was 439,866 ~ons, as. co~
pa.red with 429,975 tons ID the correspondmg penod of
1892.
B elgian R'!.il Expo1ts.-Th ~ exports of st~el rails fr om
Belgium in the first half of .th1s year were 1~, 117 to~s. as
compared with 33.041 t ons m the correspondmg p enod of
1~02. The exp~rts of iron rails from Belgium in the fi~st
ha.lf of this ye&r were 11.455 t ons, as compared w1th
8758 tons io the corresponding period of 1892.
Central .Amer ican T eteg?'llphy.-T elegraphic oommunication has been established between Pa.nama and Capira.,
and it is expected .that by the close <;>f. th~ year the service
will be in opera.t1on through to Ch1.r1.qU1: When a t t- legrapb line has been completed to Ch1nqU1, on the west ern
limtts of the State of P anama, only an unimportant connection will be required to secure a union with the telegraphic service already in operation in Costa Rica.
Metallurgy i n the Souther~ States.-The produc~ion of
pig in the Southern States m the first half of th1s year
was 1 064 463 tons, as compared with 1,091,871 tons in
the c~rre;ponding period of 1802 ; 782,020. tons in the
corresponding period of 18~1 ;, 053,630 ~on s m t he correspond ing perLOd of 1890; 7 t4,610 ton~ m the correspo~d
ing period of 1880, and 486, R52 tons ID the corresponding
period of 1888 It will be seen that great progress ha
been made during the last five years. Alabama figured
as follows in the production of each half-year: 1893,
501762 tons ; 1802, 536,627 t ons ; 1891, 376,389 ton s ;
1890, 463,451 t ons ; 1839, 36 !,346 t ons, and 1888, 169,606
tons.
French Bridpe Bu.ildi;ng.- Two important bridges are
about to be built in France, the Oissel and the Mira.beau.
The Oissel bridge will involve the use of about 800 tons
of iron. Th e Mirabeau bridge will be built almost entirely of steel.
Sandy Hook.-Soma modern ordnance for the protec
tion of New York is now in position at Sandy H ook . It
is a. 12in. gun, weighing 51; tons, and it is mounted on a.
Snyder disappearing carriage. It is the firs t 12-in. gun
built in the United States. It was constructed at the
\Vatervliet Arsenal.
New Orleans and Liverpool.-The Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry D ock Company will construct two
10,GOOton steamers for th e S outhern Pacific Railroad
Company, to run between New Orleans and Liverpool.
French Boilers for a B ritish Vessel.- The L ords of the
Admiralty have p laced an order with a. }"rench firm,
:1\-IM. D elaunay, Belle\ ille, and Co , for a battery of
boilera of the Belleville type for the torpedo destroyer
Sharpshooter of 4000 horse power, now in course of construction.
British Enterptise in Suuth Africa.-The South African
Public Work-. Corporation, L imited, whteh wasregis tered
in January, 18!>3, comprises the following firms: M essrs.
Charles Cammell and Co. , Limited, Sheffield ; M essrs.
Black, Hawthorne, and Co., Gateshead ; the Gloucester
Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, Limited;
M essrs. M cK eene, Avigdon, and Crawley, Victoria
street, Westruioster; and Messrs. Easton and Anderson,
Erith.
German RaU Exports.-The exports of rails and railway
m.attriel (such as tishplates, metallic sleepers, &c.) from
Germanv in the first half of this year amo unted to 62,216
tons. The <"'Orresponding exports in the corresponding
period of 1892 were 73,270 tons.
French Atlantic T elcgraphy.-The French Transatlantic
(PouyerQuertier ) Cable Company was worked at a loss
of 013l. last year. The accumulated losses stood a.t the
close of 1892 at 47,466l. The capital of the company is
1, 680, OOOl. in round figures, and the shares have received
no dividend since 1885. rrh ere has been a struggle for
the control of the undertaking between two groups, one
French and the other American. The struggle has
ended in a compromise, the Board now comprising
members of both groups.
[1'1l/Tll,ig1'ation into the United Statcs.-Tbe total number
of immigrants into the United States in the firs t four
months of this year was 145,299. The corresponding
number in the corresponding period of 1892 was 188,599.

It will be observed that the force of t.he immigration

wa,e has sensibly slackened this year.
Nta7a1a Fa lls.- Th e N iagara Falls Tu~ne:l and P ower
Company, whi ch is t o supply ~uffalo ~v1th powe~ from
Niagara Falltt will be runnmg tts machmery early m the
autumn. Th~ initial tunnel will provide about 100,000
horsapower.
Japanese Coal for San Francisco.-It is s tated that an
American house has concluded a contract foc 2,5,00,0~0
tons of Japanese coal, to be delivered. at San Franc1sc<? m
the course of the nex t ten years. H ttherto the coal .tmported at San Francisco has been principally Austrahan .
P opulcction of B clgiu.m . -At the close of last year B.elgium had a populati?n of 6, 1~8,355 . . The number of m habitants of the vanous Bel gtan provmces was as follows :
Bra.bant, 1,136,827; H ainaut, 1.165,881 ; E ast Flanders,
061,007; L iege, 778,724; ' Vest F J.aod ers, 74~,291;
Antwerp, 726.233; Namur, 330,321; Ltmbourg, 22o,OOO;
and Luxembourg, 212,171.
Sp"t-nish Raihtnys.- Th e Spanish q.overnmernt has
g ranted a conces ion of a narro w gauge hne from Z:1lla to
Solares. The concession extends over a t erm of 90 years;
it is not accompanied by any subvention or guarantee of
interest.

MISCELLANEA.

IN July there were on the rail ways of the U ni~ed ~tat~s

80 collisions 87 derailm ents, a nd 6 ve other ac01dentg, 10
wbich 58 pe; sons were killed and 176 injured.
Thirtyone milPs of the New York Division of t~ e
P enn sy lvania Railroad ~re now operated by au~omatJC
block signals of the W estmghouse electro pneumattc type.
\Ve arE> requested t o state that the visit.of t~e Birmi!l~
ham A ssociation of Studf-nts of the Ins tttutton of Cl v1l
~ngineers arranged for Oct? ber 4 to the Griff Collieries,
N uneaton, is postponed owmg to the coal str1ke.
The Stanley Show will take place in t he Agricultural
H a ll from November 17 to 25. Besid es cycles of all
kind~'~, and objects rela~ed t o th em, it will compri~e
engines, t ools, a nd apphances used by cycle makers m
their business.
The ave-rage rainfall for the whole year a~ Calcutta is
64 in., but up to June 20 as much a.s 48 m . had fa1len
(against 12in. up.tothesame d at e last ~ear), and.thereh~s
been much rain smce. At Bombay 8 m . of ra10 fell m
bwo hours on June 21, exceeding any fall previously known.
A R euter t elegram from V ict or ia. British Columbia,
dated ~eptem ber 19 Fays: "The Britis h c ruiser MelpomenP, which returned t o this p ort from the south on
M onday. st eamE>d dir~c t fr_om Callao t~ Victoria, ~ distance of o\er 5000 m1les, m 22 days, w1thout makmg a
stop for coal. Otficer(J of the Navy consider this a note
worthy achievement, which has seldom been paralleled
and never surpassed. "
The unemployed agitation in Chicago has resulted in
the city taking up a part of the work on the drainage
canal. Booths for the registrati on of applicants for
work were opened on the L ake Front on September 3,
and about 900 were regi stered on th e first day. The
work is to be done through the intermediary of a firm of
contractors, who will be paid for all dis bursements, with
15 per cent. in addition for supervision and plant.
The Hungarian Minister of Commerce ha.s announced
a competition for the designs of two bridges, of 312 and
331 metres span, over the Danube. A prize of 31,000 francs
( 1240l.) will be awarded to the design selected as bes t, and
800l. to th e second . Under certain conditions the design er will be offered the post of engineer to the works,
Drawings mus t be sent in before January 31, 1894, an<!
furth er particulars can be obtained from any AustroH ungarian consul.
A universal exhibition will be held in the Palace of
Arts and Manufacture1 at Madrid from April 1 to
October 31, 1894. It will not be divided into n ationalitie~,
all goods of the same class being shown side by side.
The charges for space will var y from 3l. per square metre
( 10~ square feet) to 2l. Special positions will be on a
higher scale. :Further information can be obtained from
the Secretary, Palacio de la. Industria y d e las Artes,
Madrid, and from the Tran lations Bureau, Newport
street, St. Martin's-lane, L ondon.
H. M. Battleship Revenge will leave Palmar's yard on
the Tyne at about 1 o'clock p.m. on October 7. It is
only 86 days since the sisGer ship R esolution was deli
vered. The Revenge has only been 2 years and 7 months
incors ~ruction ; she was launched in 1 year and 8 months
after her keel was laid. She has been com pleted in 11
months from the date of launching. The R evenge has
been built and engined entirely by Palmer's Company,
who not only built the ship and engines, but man ufactured all the material of which she is constructed.
It is proposed to distribute p ower from a fall on the
River Aar at Wynau, Switzerland. There is some 2000
horse-power available, and it is intend ed to use two
media in its di stribution, namely, compressed ai r for
di stances up to three miles, and electricity up to twelve
miles. T he bightenaion curren t will be transmitted by
naked copper conductors, carried on Rpecial insl:llators.
at a pressure of 8000 volts.
In the turbine-house at
Wynau will be five compressors capable of furnishing
2500 cubic met.res of air per hour at eight atmospheres
pressure.
The Prussian Government has approved Messrs.
Siemens and Halske's project! of a n electric railroad in
Berlin. It will compnse (1) an east and westJ line from
the metropolitan station, just west of the Spree, to C har-

lottenburg, entirdy on viaduct; (2) al1~e from the }' r.edrichs tra.sse s tation in the heart of the c1t~ southerly, a:nd
then westerly to the Grunwald suburb. 'i :he ~rst port1on
of this will be in tunnel, part of the rest on VJa.duc~, and
the strictly suburban portion at street I~ vel. (3) A v1aductJ
Hne from the Friedrichstrasse station n0rtherly to
Pa.nkow partly on viaduct, and partly ~>n the surface.
The gauge will be 4ft. 8~ in., and the he1ght of the card
3.15 metres (10ft. 4 in ).
At the Ny kroppa Iron Works,~~ Sweden, steel i.ngots
are consolidated by pr~ssure ar1s~ng f_r o~ centrlf~ga.l
action. In the centre of the castmg p~t 1~ ~n. uprtghll
shaft carrying four arms, t o each of wh1ch 1s JOinted an
ingl)t mould.
The moulds are fil.Jed, and then the
shaft is set in mot.ion. As th~ speed mcrease~ the mould.a
gTadually move fro~ th e vert1 cal. to the hor1 zontal po~I
tion, and a. pressure 1s developed 1n t~e fiutd me~al equal
to thirty times that due to the head m t~e first. m starJ<:e.
This driv es out the gases, and producessohd castmgs. T~o
circumference of U1e circle described by th~ mould~:~ l S
67ft., and the velocity ~early 10,000 ft . .Per mmutEJ. The
inventor of the p rocess 1s Mr. L . Sebemus.
From a paper read before ~he C~ng~ess of Architec:te
at Uhicago, it appears that ID des1gmng the woodwork
for the buildings a fibre stress <?f 1200 lb. was allowed
for white pine beams. A bearmg stress of 300 lb.
per square tnch was allowed in a direction p erpendicular
to the fibre and or 800 lb. per square inch parallel to the
fibre. The'shearing stress with the grain was fixe~ at
800 lb. In compression members 800 lb. per square mch
was allowed, where the length of the pillar did not exceen ten times its side, 600 lb. when the lengt h was from
10 to 35 times the side, and 400 lb. when the length exceeded ~5 times th e side. In desig-ning t.h e iron roofs the
limiting stre~s under the combined Eff~cts of wind load,
dead load, and snow, was fixed at the high figure of
30 000 lb. per square inch. The material used was steel
h~ving a tensile strength of from 66,000 lb. to 74,000 lb.
per square inch.
The first te~t of the Holtzer projectiles of Ame1ican
manufacture took place at th~ Sandy .hook provmg g-rounds
on September 5, with results even more fa vourable than
were expect ed by the makers. Several da.y::s ago the
Mid vale Steel Company, of Philadelphia, owner of the
right to manufacture Holtzer project1les for all Am erica.,
North and South, submitted 73 of its S-in. shell to the
Government for acceptance. Two out of the 73 were
~elected for testing.
rrhey were fired with a velocity
of 1625 ft. per stcond a.t a. 9-in. rolled, oil-tempered,
and annealed steel plate. Their v~:loci ty was calculated to be just sufficient to send th em through the
plate and its oak backing. Both shells wen t through
the plate without seriously cracki ng it, lea.vi g a hole as
clean as if made by a punch. The first bhell wt-nt on
through the Rand-heap back of the plate and was lost in
the scrub and &and. The second wa~ dug out of the sand,
and delicate measuremet~ts &bowed that it had been
" upset " slightly. '!'he projectiles weigh ed 300 lb. each,
and were 28.2 in. long and 7.99 in. in diameter. The
powder charge was 100 lb , and the pressure developed in
the gun amounted to 23,460 lb. per square inch.
According to a paper by Lieut.enant J acques, publit-hed
in the T tchnology Quarterly, the s unpleE>t and most ~fieo
tive method of rf'medymg the want of lovgitudinal
s trength in wire guns is to make use of long forged E>teel
hoops. He points out that the reduction of weight
effected by the adoption of the wire system will neces ita.te improved means for taking up the recoil, and that
the ex pression "heavy ordnance" should, in view of the
powers developed by the n ew ex plo ives, be replaced by
that of "high power ordnance." \V hen many of the
objections to wire wound guns were first raised, the same
facilities did not exist for their construction. Nowadays
all welding can be done by electricity ; weak 3pots can
thus be avoid~:d, and continuous winding easily bffectt-d.
The advantages claimed for the wire syst em of c"n struction are: 1. That s teel in small sect ions can be obtained
that posl'esses greater strength than it is poss1 ble to
get in any other form. 2. That each layer can be
brought truly to its correct t ension. 3. F laws of manufacture can be easily detected, and if not di scovered are
confined to that part in which they exist. 4. 1' he parts
of the gun are light, and ca.n be more certainly and ~as1l y
produced and assembled. 5. For their manufacture, expensive and complicated plants are not needed.
At the recent International Electric Congress a.t
Chicago a new form of ''incandescent " arc lamp was described by Mr. L . B . Marks, M.E. In this l~* mp t ho
arc is inclosed in a. small envelope of highly refractor y
glass. 'fhis envelope is closed at the top and bottom by
plugs through which the carbons pass, a safety val ve
being formed in one of the plugs to prevent any undue
pressure obtaining inside the glass. Upon closing the
circuit the oxygen. inside is consumed and the gases
br~mght to a very h1gh ~empera.ture, at which they maintam the carbon vapour 1ssumg from th e arc. This vapour
is d epositE-d in the form of a thin coating on the int~rnal
snrface of the glass. It is important that the glMs
envelope is a~ small as possible, \lnd er which conditions the beat usualJy diesipated in the ai r is conserved
and raises the temperature of the inclosed gases an d carbo~
vapour. Under these conditions the arc proper becomes
scarcely visible, but the entire contents of the chamber
seem luminous, giving the appearance of a solid cylinder
of light. V ery pure carbons must be used, or the results
are unsatisfactory. 'I' he rate of consumption of the
carbo~s is, h.owever, g~eatly reduced, th~ negative electrode m partteula r la.stmg a. ver y long ttme. With t h is
n ew lamp rather less of the total energy expended is
return ed as ligh t than with the ordinary arc Lut the
efficiency far exceeds that of the glow l amp.
'

E N G I N E E R I N G.
TURRET

LATHE

AT

TH E

[SEPT.

0 0 L U M B I AN

EX P 0 S I T I 0 N.

CONSTRUCTED BY THE GISHOLT :M ACHINE COMPANY, :MADISON, \VIS.

(F01 Description,, see Page 358.)

..
t -

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$2

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Fig. 1.

Fig.3.

Fig.2.

Fig.5. .
'.Fig.O.

(j)

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Fig. 4.

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---

- - -----L- - - - - . . . . L - . - - -

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2 2, I

893.

EPT. 2 2 , I 893.]

E N G I N E E R I N G.

AGENTS FOR " ENGINEERING."

NOTICE.

Al' TRI ,, Vienna.: Lehmnnn a nd Wcntzel, Ka rnLncrstrMse.

The New Cunarders "CAMPANIA'' and "LUCArE TowN : Gordon nn<l Gotch.
Eor:o;o no u : _J ohn Menzies and 'o., 12, Ha nover treet.
CANIA ;" and the WORLD'S COLUMBIAN
li" RA~CR, Pa n s: .Boy venu nnd Ghevillet , Libra.il'ic Etranger e 22
EXPOSITION OF 1893.
Rue de la Banq~e; :M. Em. Tcrq uem , 31bis Boule\'ard IIau "m~nn'
Al o for Ad,el' ttsemen ls, Agence llava.s, 8, Place de la .Bourse' The PubUsher begs to annoUDce that a Reprint 18
( ec below.)

OBR\IA~Y, Be! Hr:t : :\lcssrs. A. Ashcr a nd Co. , 5, t;n ter d en Linden. now ready of the Descriptive Matter and IllustraJ.etpzlg : F . A. Brockhn.u .
tions contained In the tasue of ENGINEERING of
Mulh ou ~e : ll . tuckelberger.
Aprll 21st, comprising over 130 pages, wtth ntne
OLA oow : Willia m Lo' e,
two -page and four single. page Plates, printed
l NDU, Calcu tt a: Thncker , ~p i nk , and Co.
Bombay : Thacker a n cl Co. , Limited .
throughout on apectal Plate paper, bound ID cloth,
ITALY : U. Hoepli , ~[il n.n, n.nd any po t ottice.
gUt lettered. Price 6s. Post free, 6s. 6d. The ordt
Ln ~ Rt'OOL: Mr . Tnylor, l..nncling- ' t.age.
nary edition of the Issue of AprU 21st is out of print.
M \NCII ESTE R.: .John Ilcywood , 1 ~ a. Dean gale.
Nsw Ol' T n WALE , .'ydncy: Turner nud H enderson, 16 and 18,
Hun ter -street. Oordon a nd Gotc h, Oeorge:-.treet.
NOTICES OF MEETI NGS.
Ql EENijL.\ND ( 'Ot"rll), Brisbnne : Oo rdo n a nd Ootc h
(NonTII), Town ~ ,i ll e : T. Willme tl nnd Co.
Til E !Ro~ A~"D .STEEL. JxSTIT\:TK.-Darlington Meeting (Sep
ltoTT&R o.ut : H. A. Krnmer nnd . 'on .
tember 26 to 2~ 1Dclustve). The following- pape1's have been
Sol Tll A n~TR ALI ' Adela ide: W . . Rig h\.
off~fed for r eadtng, though not n ecessarily in t he order given :
Uxrr.tm 'T\TE I ~C~\' York : w; H. Wile~: ;)3, Ea t10Lh - t teet.
1. On the ~lanufaoture of Basic S teel at Witkowitz," by Mr.
,
C hacn~o: II .. \ . IIolme, 41 , Ln.kcsid e Uuilcling.
Paul l{upelwaeeer. 2. "On the Waste of Fuel Past1 Present
\ ICTORI \ 1 ~I KLilO l' ft~ R : Mch allc, ~lull c n nud 'lad e 261/264 Colli ns- a nd Future, in Smelting Ores of Iron " by Sir' Lowt hian Bell'
t rcct. Oordon a nd Golch, Lim ited , Queen-str~cL.
'
Bar t. , l<'. R. S. (Past-P tesident). 3. " o'n lron and Steel at th~
t;hic ,go W~~ld's Fair," by Mr. H . ~auerman, Assoc. M. los t. C. E.,
NOTiCE TO A~IEH. IGA N UB. 'UR I BER ~.
F.O.S. 4. On Iron and Steet W1re, and the Development of its
W c be~ to a nnou nce tl~n.t Amel'ican u b-.criptions to E ~0 1 ~BRltl :\0 Manufa.ot~re,'' by Mr. J . P. Bedson, Assoc. M. Inst. C. E. 6. On
mn.,\ now he addre-.: ed eathcr direct t o the puhli her , ~l it. C li .\ HL8S the So.mp~mg of ~~on Ore," by Mr. T. Cla rkson, Wh . . 'c. , Assoo.
Ott.IIKRT, at th e Ottice'i of t hi J ourna l, No . :35 a nd :J6 B:!clford- :\!. l ost. U.E. 6. On the T udhoe Wor ks of the Weardale Iron
~:~trcct , Strand, London, W.C., o r to our accl'ed ited A~er{ts fo a the and <?oat Company,_Limited," oy Mr. H . W. B ollis. 7. On t he
\Jni tcd tales, ~l r. W. H . WrLY.\', 53, En t lOth -~ lrect New York L~\b rag Coal Washtog and Dry Separation Plant at the Nor th
and ~lr. 11. \ '. Holmc~. 44 , L1.ke-.:ide Builclinu ci1i<: \ "0. Th~ Bt t,~hburn Coal Company's R1ndolph Pit," by Mr. James I' Anson .
price-; of 'ub cripliou (payahlc in ach :m ce) for ~~e , car ~re : !'"'or 8. On Car bon m Iron," by Professor Ledebur (Freiberg).
thin (fo r~i~n ) paper edi ti on ~ ll. l ~i-;. Od. ; fo r thic k (ordi n ar~) 9. "On Suggested Improvements in Connection with t he llanupaper edat aon, 2l. 0.:1. 6J., or a tcmatt.cd to Agents 9 d ollars for h.cture of ~teel Plates," by Mr. William Muirhee.d. 10. " On the
thin a n!l 10 dollar fo t th ick.
'
I nfl uence of the It ating of t be Rupee on the Wo rld's Iron Trade"
by Professor Roberts-Austen, 0 .8 ., F.R.S. 11. " On th e La~t
AOVERT I g~l ENT '.
The c ha tJ,!e for ad vettisemcnts is three shilling for t he first four Twen ty Years in the Clevela nd Mining District," by .ltlr. A. L.
line Ot' under , a nd eig ht pcnce fo1 each addi tiona l line. The line Steavenson. 12. " On t he P roduotion of Wrought Iron ln Small
Cl\'Crng-c eveu words. Paym en t m u t accompa nr nil orders for Blast Fu rnaces io India," by Mr. T. T urner , Assoc. R. S. M.- Tuessingle acherti ement , other wi e their in erlio n cannot be day, September 26, 10 a . m. , reception of the P resident Council
~ u nrnn te~d . Terms for d isplayed ad ,erti ements on the wrapper a nd members of the I nstitute by the c ha.irman, Mr. D.~:"id Dale'
a nd on the in ide pa:tcs m a) he obta ined on application.
erial a_nd members of the Reception Committee. Rea.ding and discus~
:'Uh er ti ements will be in er tecl wi th nU pract icable r egula rity but stoo .of pape ~s: 1.30 p.m ., a spec ial train will leave the Bank Top
tatton t.o vtstt the T udhoe teel and lron Works of the Weardale
absolute regularity cannot be gua ranteed.
'
Iron a nd Coal Company, Limited, Spennymoor . Alternative
Advertisements tu tended for 1Dsertlon 1D the cur- e?'cu reio~ . 1.60 p.m., a special t rain will leave the Bank Top Starent week's Issue must be delivered not later than tton to va<Jat b'lessrs. Bell .Brothers' Lumpsey Ironstone l\line near
6 p.m. on Thursday. In consequence of the necessity Sal ~burn , wher e drilli!lg by h~drautic turbine and petroleum
tor go1Dg to press early with a portion of the edttton. engtnf'S may be seen 10 operatton. 8.45 p .m ., oooversazione in
alterations for standing Advertisements should be the Central Hall, Darlington, by in vitation of Mr. David Dale
received not later than 1 p.m. on Wednesday after chairman of the Reception Committee. - Wednesday , Sep~
noon ID each week.
tember 27, 10 a.m ., reading and discussion of papers. 1.30 p.m .,
The sole Agents for Advertisements trom the Con- special train from Bank Top tation, calling a t Nort h-road Statinent of Europe and the French Colontes are the tion, to Evenwood, to inspect the coal washing and soreE'ning
pla nt now being erected on t he LUhrig system at the Randolph
AGENCE BAV AS. 8. Place de la Bourse. Parla.
Pit of the North Bitchburn Coal Company. 3.45 p.m ., return to
SUBSCRIPTIONS, HOME AND FOREIGN.-======- ~a~ling ton by speci~ t rain, calling at North-road Station, tor
vtstt to works of Darhngton Forge Company and the Darlin ~ton
E ~G INEERINO can he su pp lied , direct from the puhli 'her, Steel and Iron Company. Alternati,e excursion, 2 p.m. , vistt to
po t free for Twelve .Months at the following rates, payable in the Darlington Porge Company's Works.- Thursday, September 28,
advo.nce:9. 30 a. m ., closing m eeting a t the Mechanics' Institute. 10.40 a. m.,
sp ecial tra in fro m Bank Top Station to Consett, to visit the Con
For t he Unit ed Kingdom ................ 1 9 2
sett Iron Works. 2 p .m. , luncheon by invitation of the Consett
, aU places abroad :Iron Company. 4.30 p.m ., r eturn by special t rain vict Durham,
Thin paper copies ......... . .... 1 16 0
fo r Yisit to t he Cathedral, Castle, &c. -Friday, September 29,
Thick
,
.............. -2 0 6
10.30 a . m. , drive to Rab.v Castle, t he historical seat of Lord
All accounts are payable to the publi her , MR. CuARL'BS GILBERT, Barnard, wher e lunch will be provid ed in t he Scar t b 1\lemorial
Cheque should be cro~ ed "Union Ba nk, Cha ring C ross Branch. " H all. Drive thence to Ba roo.rd Castle, returning vict Rokeby and
Oreta Brid~e.
Po t Office Orders payable a t Bedford-st r eet, trand, W.C.
When foreign ub c ript ions are sent by Post Office Orders
advice should be sent to the Publisher.

--

Foreign and Colontal Subscribers receiving

Incomplete Copies through News-Agents are requested to communicate the fact to the Publisher,
together with the Agent's Na.me and Addre88.
Ofllce for Publication and Advertisements. Nos.
86 and 36, Bedtord-atreet, Strand, London, W.C.

ENGINEERING.
FRIDAY,

SEPTEMBER~~'

1893.

sumptuous enough t o predict beforehand that the

Victoria could be sent t o the bottom so easily as
she was. The answer would have been r eady,
crushing, and complete, as based upon the official
data and ideas. Yet, after all, when an accident
happens, the ship immediately sinks.
Great reticence and patience have been shown
towards the Admiralty in this very serious mat ter.
It has been felt that sufficient time should be
allowed to enable them to ascertain all the particulars of the Victoria disaster, and decide what
course should be taken. There were exceptions t o
this course in the case of politicians who may have
had their own purposes to serve in keeping their
names before the public, and did not see why even
this tragic affair should not furnish a means of
doing it. Prominent among these were Lord
George H amilton, Lord Brassey, and Mr. Forwood,
M.P., the last named having sent to an evening
contemporary to illustrate his ideas of the cause of
the catastrophe, a sketch of t he construction of the
Victoria, which was entirely incorrect and misleading, and showed plainly that Mr. F orwood did
not kno w what the construction of the ship was.
I t is time now that others spoke out, and
that those capable of j udging should require
to know how these ships are constructed,
whether they can be made safer than t hey
are against such a likely form of accident as
ramming, or other under-water or water-line
damage, and whether the officers in command
know the best course to adopt in such an event.
The necessity for t his has been suggested forcibly
several times by paragraphs in various provincial
papers (and last week in a London society paper),
which hint that it is not the present Director of
Naval Construction who is to blame in the case of
the Victoria., but the late Director, because the
latter designed the ship. We do not like the look
of these paragraphs. They indicate a knowledge
of something wrong, and suggest a desir e to shift
responsibility. If there is to be any blame in the
matter, it would surely be awarded to those really
responsible for the catastrophe, and this responsibility should not be evaded in any way as is unfortunately too often the case with inquiries of the
highest public interest. The paragraphs in question
are an argument in favour of an impartial inquiry.
The Admiralty must know their duty in the
matter, and we trust there will be no delay in appointing a committee such as will satisfy the country
that a thor oughly impartial and capable examination of the state of our battleships, and of the
steps best calculated to preserve them from the sad
fate of the Victoria, will be made.

MECHANICAL SCIENCE AT THE

BRITISH ASSOCIATION.
recent Nottingham meeting of the British
Association, of which we commence our report on
another page, has on the whole been quite up to
the average in r egard to the success achieved. The
weather has been, like all 1893 weather so far,
unexceptionable from t he pleasure-seekers point of
view, and the number of persons attending the
meeting has been very fair, namely, 1661 of all
classes.
The hospitality of the warm-hearted
Nottingham people has largely accounted for
this success, and never have invitations been
more freely given. It is, therefore, with much
regret that we have to notice a partial failure in the
section which chiefly interests us, namely, Section
G, which is devoted to mechanical science. The
attendance in that section has been lamentably
small, and we think the r eason is fairly obvious ;
we will give one instance. As will be seen by our
report, two papers were read on refuse destruction.
It is a subject peculiarly suited to the meeting
of th e British Association, and a good discussion might have been anticipated. Doubtless
many interested in the matter might have attended
had they known it was coming forward, but
no one beyond the officials had knowledge of
the fact. A member largely interested in this
question, and who had. read a paper on it l.ast year
at the Edinburgh meetmg, only learnt that 1t would
be brought forward when the meeting commenced,
and the fact that he spoke at all was due to the
chance t hat h e happened to be present. I t is a
fact that no one outside the official circl e knows
from day to day what subjects are to be considered in the section. In the morning the
official journal ia published, Rnd in it is a list of
papers, but that is quite too late to call any persons
T HE

TEt.EORAPUJC AooR! s-ENGINEERING, LONDON.

TELEPHONE NCMBBR- 3663.
ENGINEE RING is regist er ed for trans mission abroad .

THE LOSS OF H.M.S. "VICTORIA. "

WE are still waiting to hear what steps the Ad-

miralty intend to take for the purpose of trying to

RBADINO 0 As &s.-Reading cases for conta ining twenty-six restore confidence in the fighting value of our firstnumbers of ENOIN~RRIXO may be had of the publishe1 or of a ny class battleships, and to show that t hey are n ot
news-agent. Price 6s . each.
all liable to the same sudden and unexpected fate
as the Victoria, if they happen to be rammed or
CONTENTS.
otherwise damaged in action. A committee has been
PAOS
rAGE
British Colonies at Chicago 361 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 promised- in qualified terms, it is true- for the
The Laundry Exhibition . 869 purpose of investigating the reasons why the
The Tower Bridge (l llmt rattd) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 353 Notes from the United
States ...... .. ........ .. 370 Victoria was sent to the bottom so speedily, whether
The British Association . . . . 365
TheNew Royal Mail Steamer
other ships of her clasR could be as easily disposed
Gieholt's Turret
Lathe
'' N 1' l e " ....... . . . .. ... . 370 of , and whether any steps could be taken to im(lUtutrattd.) .. ... . ...... 358
Contrac tors and the AdmiLocomotive at the Columratty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870 prove their safety. This is urgently called for, and
bian Exposition (nluat rated) .. .. .. . .. .. .. . 359 Bilbao Harbour Works (llwe trust that the appointment of a competent and
lustratt.d.) . . . . . . . . . 371
Rotary Dump Car at the
Portland Cement ......... 871 independent committee of inquiry will not longer
Columbi11n
Exposition
(I Umtrattd) . . . . . . .. .. . 360 Machine Constr uotion and
be delayed.
Drawing,
1893 (lllusScrew Elevator Gear (1U'U8
The matter is very serious, and there can be no
trau
d)
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
371
t ratcd) . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
question as to the necessity of thoroug~ly .investi.F:lec tric P ower Transmis
The Triale of the Spaoish
sion in Belgium.. . . . . .. 371 gating the points named, a~d of ~at1sfymg the
Cruiser " Infan ta Mari&
Teresa " . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 The Sanit..ry Condition of
Leicester .. . . . . .. .. . . . . .. 371 public at home and abroad, 1f possible, that our
Notes from South Yorkshire 361
The Navy ...... .. . . ...... 371 first- class battleships are not so frail and untrustNotes from Cleveland and
tbe Northern Counties . 362 Concr et e Beams . . . . 372 worthy as the Victoria catast~ophe i~s n? w ~ausing
Notes from the South-West 862 Surplus Value .. .. .. .... .. 372
The chief. obJectiOn 1s, we
Notes from t he Nor th .... 362 Launch~& and Trial Trips . 372 many t o think.
Forei~ n and Colonial Notes 863 Jlectric Lighting Installaimaaine that some of the officials have been so
tion at the Medical
Miscella nea . . .. ... .... ..... 363
Academy , St. Petersburg 373 long trying to prove by argument at;td theory! in
The LoPs of H .M.S. "Vietoriaa. '' . . . . . . . . . 3t35 Industrial Notea . . ........ 373 long papers and speeches, that Admiralty des1gns
The Manufacture and T estMechanical Science at the
are
above
criticism,
that
they
do
not
see
why
even
ing of Portland Cement .. 37'
British Association . . . . . . 365
London Water Supply .... 866 The Disposal of Refuse . . . S76 such a mat ter as the loss of a flagship, with more
Elect ric Forging . . . . . . . . . . 367 " Engineering" Patent Rethan one-half of her crew, should cause the outside
cord (Illustrated) . . .. .. .. 377
The Engineer ing Congress
public any uneasiness with r espect t o the ships that
at Chicago (IUu.atrated). . 367
are
left.
I
t
would
not
be
difficult
t
o
frame
the
With a Two-Page E ngraving of DETAILS OF EIGHTJYliEELED EXPRESS P.ASSElVGER LOCOJJOTIVE .AT sort of answer that would have been made by
official orators t o any one who might have been preTli 8 WORLD'S COLUM BI.AN EXPOSITION.

E N G I N E E R I N G.
from a distance.
It is for this reason that the
discussion, in Section G are often so barren
and perfunctory ; and unles~:; the prvcedure is
altered, it r eally seems as if the section might
as well be closed. S uch a course would be
much regretted, for Section G has leaitimately
a
0
fun~tion . which. is. filled by none of the purely
eng1neermg soe1ebes. We have the Mechanical
Engin eers, the N a.val Architects, and the Iron
and Steel Institute holding country meetings
every year, but these all lack the catholicity
which is the distinguishing feature of the
British Association meetings. The interdependence of the sciences is a point that requires no
impressing in the present day. This was a point
well brought out by Mr. Head in his presidential
address. Engineering merges into metallurgy,
metallurgy into chemistry ; geology touches it on
one hand, mathematics are its guide and cor rector, whilst physics are of its essence. E~en
biology h olds a place in the consideration of
the skilled engineer. It is evident, therefore,
if engineering is to be practised as a. science, and
n ot simply as an empirical following of trial and
error precedent, it is highly desirable that engineers should be able to meet the lights of the
other sciences we have named ; and no course
that could be suggested offers a better means of
doing this than the British Association meetings.
As a m~tter of fact, even in deserted Section G,
there are yet gathered together men of eminence
in the engineering world such as one sees at
no other meetingg, and their meeting must
be productive of good; for instance, one ca.n
imagine the wide results that might flow from a
chance con\'eraation b etween Sir Benjamin Baker
and Professor R oberts-Austen, and yet we do not
know any other gathering of a like nat ure where
such an interview would be likely to be brought
a.bou ~.

It is the great virtue of the British Association

that it throws men of science together once a year
t) exchanga ideas and widen knowledge. It will
be distinctly a loss to engineering science if it fails
to be represented in the Association. There is, however, more wanted than the presence of a certain
number of eminent men to make Section G prosper.
Engineering science stands on a different pl.atform
t) the other depJ.rtments of the A <:JS'Jciation, inasmuch a<3 it is s1 essentially practical-by which we
mean it haCJ so direct a connection with our industrial life- and its ramifications are so wide and
various. A designer of destructors, to take a
r ecent instance, will not sit out a week's meetings
to heat watchmaking machinery or germ separ ators
described, whilst tho3e interested in mechanism of
the latter kind cannot be expected to throw much
light on the former subject. At the meeting ju$t
closed a most instructive paper on watchmaking
machinery was r ead by Mr. Hewitt, of the
Lancashire Watch Factory. This undertaking
represents the beginning of what, it may be
hoped, will be the opening of a new era in
a once important British industry that has
almost left our shores. There are very many
persons who would have been glad to have attended
the meeting if only to h ear and speak on this
paper, and yet the discussion was of a most meagre
nature, a few words from the Re~order of the
section, who is an acknowledged authority on t he
subject, being practically the only result. .Had
n otice of this paper been sent out t o those hkely
to be interested in it, doubtless there would have
been an accession of membership to the Association, and a r e1lly valuable discussion before the
section.
It is difficult to sugaest
a remedy for the defects
0
we have r eferred to. Of course it is only the
permanent officials of the section who can do the
work required, and these all hold honorary
p osts. The three secretaries of the section do a
great deal more work than most people would
care to do gratuitously, and the thanks of the
Association are abundantly due to them for
their disinterested labours. Still, more is r equired. What is wanted is an eng~neer, we~l
acqua-inted with the c?urse of progress 1n the engtneering world who w1ll take care to spr ead abroad
the progrd.mm~ of t he section in 9uarter~ where the
information is likely to bear fru1t. I t 1s n ot sufficient to carry on the ordinary business correspondence of the meeting, to hang diagram~ on t?~ ~a~ls,
and to keep the minutes of the sect10n; ~1~1atlve
is also wanted; forethought, and appree1at10~ of
what goes to make a really successful gathermg.

Who should fill this post it is difficult to say. Men of

business are to~ much occupied in their own special
sph eres ; but probably amongst the younger of the
engineerh1g professors at our technical colleges-one
of those previously engaged in the industrial world
of engineering- there could be found the right
person. It would be his duty to look out for
subjects of interest as they arose, to make
suggestion<3 for papers, and to take care that
the reading of those papers should be previously
announced to all persons likely to take an interest
in them ; in brief, he would perform for Section G
the functions, in this r espect, that have been so admirably carried out by Mr. Forrest for the Institution of Civil Engineers; and upon which, it may be
said, the success of the meetings of the latter
society is mainly founded. We think it probable
that some one could be found who would be willing
to take up the work without pay, a condition
necessary to establishment of the post.
The President of the Section, Mr. Jeremiah
Head, in his inaugural address referred to the fact
that the founders of the British Association doubtless regarded the field of operations which they
awarded to Section G as n ot less purely scientific
than those allotted to other sections; but, as he
stated, the practice of the Section has recently been
to expend most of its time in the consideration
of applications of mechanical science rather than
of first principles. This is inevitable. Engineers
must be practical, mechanical science must be
applied science; but the proper function of the
bection is to show how science can be applied, and
to lift the engineer's practice from the region of
empiricism. Mr. Head sll.ys that mechanical science
as studied by Watt was as free from commercial bias
as chemical science studied by Faraday. It is a proposition perhaps open to doubt, but, in any case,
we cannot exclude the commercial influence from
any engineering question, and all that Section G can
do is to h old it in proper control. This is a point
we have r eferred to in our report of the meeting,
and we need not further enlarge upon it here; but
the subject is one which should receive attention.
No on e could accuse Mr. Head of introducing a
commercial bias into his address, and yet it was
full of matters interesting in themselves. His comparison of the natural physical powers of man with
those of other animals, and the way in which they
are supplemented by mechanical appliances, was extremely suggestive, although we t hink in some
details h e had not brought his matter quite up to
the present day. With a few corr ections, however, the 1893 address of Section G will afford a
most interesting source of information upon a subject not often dealt with.

LONDON WATER SUPPLY.

I N view of the fact that Asiatic cholera seems at
length to have gained a footing in this country, the
report of the water examiner on the metropolitan
water supply becomes of specialinterest. The average
amount supplied during the month of July amounted
to 199,563,488 gallons per day, or 37.10 gallons
per h ead. Of this total 55.52 per cent. was taken
from the Thames, 25.2 per cent. from the Lea, and
the remainder from springs and wells. Under all
ordinary circumstances the water supplied from
the latter SO'Jrces is above suspicion, as contamination of the water from a deep well is only likely
to occur during construction; and though it must
be admitted that instances of such contamination
are n ot by any means unknown, still the infection
will usually only exist for a few weeks at the outside.
In all such cases the pollut ion has, we believe,
arisen from the almost criminal action of the workmen engaged on the construction works. A bad
outbr eak of typhoid at Croydon some years ago
was, if we remember aright, traced to a workman
engaged in sinking a well, and it has been suggested
that the recent serious outbreak at Worthing was due
to the workmen engaged in constructing the ccnduit
tunnel, using the same as a privy. Apart from
such accidental causes, which, as already stated,
do not form perman ~nt sources of contamination,
deep-well water may be taken as practically pure.
In the case of river water there is much greater
likelihood of pollution, and many people are dis
posed to think that wherever possible, ri ver water
should not in any case be used for potable purposes. This is, however, an extreme view to take.
There is no doubt whatever that rivers are in t he
long run self-purifying. Even raw sewage, as it
comes from the main sewer, would probably prove

[SEPT.

2 2, I

893.

perfectly potable if given a long enough run in the

open air, though the length of time r equired for the
purification might be very great, and the intermediate stages very objectionable.
\Vhen turned
into running water of about fifty times its own
volume, however, the oxidation of ordinary sewage
to a harmless condition takes place without any
intermediate offensi\'e stage, and it has been
claimed that under such conditions the water is
sufficiently p ure for a town supply after a run of
ten miles. This is, however, as much t oo optim istic a view to take as the former is too unfavourable, and most people would prefer to have as
little sewage mixed with their drinking water aR
is practically possible, but there nevertheless is
every reason to believe that the admission of a
small quantity of sewage to the upper waters of a
river constitutes no serious danger to a town having
the intakes for its water supply lower down, though it
is certainly p referahle that no such contamination
should exist. That this is so is fortun ate for
London, as it must be absolutely impossible to
completely exclude organic contamination from a
river that flows through so thickly populated and
so generally cultivated a country as the valley of
th e Thames above the companies' intakes. There
is n o doubt, howevet, that the Con servancy does an
immense amount of good by the care it takes to reduce the pollution to a minimum. The less sewage
that passes into the river, the more quickly and
thoroughly it is destroyed. If any considerable percentage of unpurified sewage passes into a stream, a
very much greater time in proportion to the amount
present is required for the purification than when
only traces of contamination enter the river. The
experience of Hamburg last year was a striking instance of this fact, though probably if the water had
been filtered the consequences of the pollution would
have been much less serious. At the least, filters
must remove a large proportion of the bacteria,
and indeed experiment shows this to be the case ;
further, if the filtration is intermittent, or if the
filter is well supplied with oxygen by other means,
there is strong evidence of an actual destruction of
the bacteria. In London filtration has been the
rule, aud its efficiency is well shown by the low
death-rate from zymotic diseases which the statistics
show. As carried out by the companies, the report
of the water examiner shows a reduction of t he
bacte1ia, on the average, to considerably und er
1 1n;th of their number in the untreated water, and
the organic matter is also largely reduced. In
too many cases, howeYer, the pure water from
t he companies' main s is led into a cistern,
often placed in a very inaccessible position , with
the natural result that it is seldom properly
cleaned, and from this dirty tank the inhabitants
of the house draw their drinking supply. Considering the number of these cisterns in use, it is
surprising that more illhealth is not caused by
them. The remedy for this is, of course, the adoption of constant service and an entire clearing
away of the old cisterns. The area of constant
supply in London is gradually extending, and in a
few years' time will doubtless be universal, but its
full benefits will not be felt unless the old cisterns
are thrown out at the same time.
'Vith these reforms corn pletely finished there
need be no fear of disease being spread by the
water mains. The reports of the public examiner
are uniformly favouraLle, the organic impurities in
the water as supplied to the consumer ranging from
.034 to .122 per 100,000 parts, and th e bacteria
n umbering at the most 110 per cubic centimetre,
and on the average not onethird of this.
After the question of quality, and equally important with it, is that of quantity, and on this
head the report of the recent R oyal Commissiona r eport with whi ch we shall deal at )epgth on an
early ~ccasion-is very reassuring. The average
amount drawn from the Thames during July last was
110,401,357 gallons, and this quantity can, according to the report of t he Commission, be increased
to 300,000,000 gallons per day, if necessary, without reducing the fl ow over Teddington V\7 eir below
1000 million gallons per day, and without taking in
any obj ectionable part of the tlood water. 'fhe
mP-ans su~gested for securing this increase are the
construction of storage reservoirs in the valley of
the Thames, at no great distance aLove the present
intakes of the companies ; indeed, the minimum
dry weather flow at Teddington would, under these
cond itions, be, in all probability, actua1ly greater
after the works thus suggested have beel'l carried
out than it is at preEent.. A great advantage of

S EPT. 22,

f
the 1mprovement of the L ondon' transformer, or between the exciting machine and THE ENGINEERING CONGRESS AT
1
t lS P an
by 1 the dynamo, 1t

111 ower t h e voltage on account o f

18 th vrfact that it can be carried out b1t
Wl
CHICAGO.
1
~~fPk~e iog ~ace with the growth of the _popula- its ~dditional re.sistance, and will . thereby operate
(BY o u R NEw YoRK CoRRESPONDENT.)
. '
lp as any scheme for the constructiOn of a agamst the r eqUirements of the process to be pert 100' w
t a.nce goes
(Continued from page 324.)
. 1ere onast the 'Ve1sh or Cum berland moun- formed. B estd es t h'1s d raw b ac k , 1t s r ests
resen
o1r am
b

h
~-
THE next day marked the final session of

h been
suaaested by others must be on n stng
w1t
Its tempera t ure, so tha t 1"
1s e\1d en t
tams,
bb
'

1 d canno t b e use d t o con- both these sections. The firs t paper was . by
asd asd the works
carried out not
for the a r eststance
cot- 1 so pace
,
. 1
d. .
f h
It . 1 Mr. E ckley B. Coxe, President of the Mechanl?al
d estgne an
needs of the metropolis as it at present exists, but for trol the elec_tnca con 1t10~s o t e c~se.
1s a so
its anticipated future wants. About t he only part of ~ound to b~ 1ncapable of actmg ~sa ~ehable governor Engineers ; it was entit1ed . " A Furnace ~1th
the work which could be constructed for present 1f placed 1n the secondary _Cl~cUlt of the trans- Automatic Stoker and Travellmg Grate especially
The
needs and subsequently enlarged in such a case would f?rm~r. Its place, t~e:efore, 1s _1n the shunt-~ou~d Adapted to Burn the Small Anthracites. "
be the conduit from the reservoir to the t own. As c1rcu1~ of the exc1~10g machtne, where 1t w~ll grate defiligned by Mr. Coxe has transver~e bars
reO'ards the L ea valley, about 50,000,000 gallons per energ ts~ the field cotl s of the generator exactly 1n with cor.rugated faces, attached to a cha1n belt
dao are now taken from this river. Accordin ~ to proport10n t o the amount. of e1~ergy called _for by travellina across the furnace, one end of the return
th! Commission, this might be doubled by treatmg th~ bars t_o be heated. It 1s obvwus that th1s _regu- side of the arate beina depressed to dip into a water
it in the same way as they suggest for the Thames. latmg 1 eststance doe~ n ot act as an obstruc~10n to tank for th~ ashes. l'he author stated, speaking of
From springs and wells about 39,000,000 gallons the useful current ; 1t controls the magnetic field the possibility of burning anthracite dust, that he
are now taken, but, according to the r eport, of the _alternator, so that when a smal~ amount of had no doubt that dust could be successfully
40 000,000 gallons more might be obtained from h eat ts needed_, only ~ correspondmgly small burned but the difficulty Jay in obtaining anthraw~lls in the Lea valley, and 45,000,000 gallons ~mount of electric power 1s g~nerate~ ~ when the~~ cite du~t. Only a very small percentage is obtained
more from the south side of the Thames. Thus 1s no bar to be heated, only JUSt s_uffic1e~t power 1s from culm heaps, and he d oubted whether du3t
altogether there is in the immediate neighbourhood developed to overcome the pass1ve res1stances of could be prepared for anything like a reasonable cost.
of L ondon 425,000,000 gallons per day of first-class the apparatus. We are _ass ured. th_at the ~rrange It was further shown that the ordinary dust is unwater readily available, which would suffice for a ment adopted works sattsfactortl~ 1n practtee, and usually rich in ash ; indeed, a case was noted \'V here
opulation of upwards of 12,000,000 at the present thereb:r tends ~o r ende! econo~ucal all the pro- the dust was sufficiently argillaceous to yield good
firebrick.
~ate of supply. If a still larger supply_is wanted at ceases tnvolve~ 1n electncal forgmg. .
Mr. H. Le Chatelier presented " Tests of
To further msure economy of workmg, the conany future date, i t is suggested that 1t should be
souaht in the valley of the Medway.
ductors used t o c~nvey the cu:rent from the trans- Hydraulic Materials, " and n oted that while great
o
former to the vanous forges 1n a large factory are advantages have been derived from the. complet~
copper rods 3 in. in diameter. These are capable investigations and tests made, the growmg multiof carrying the dense current produced by a gene- plicity and complexity of the proposed tests render
ELEOTRIC FORGING.
THE method of using the electric curr ent for the rator of 100 h orse-power. The voltage and am- t h em impracticable outside of laboratories, and
purposes of forging devised by Mr. George D. pe rage delivered to the metal-holders by these con- lead to a restricted instead of a n increased use of
Burton of Boston, Massachusetts, is among the ductors will vary with the bars inserted from 4 to s uch test::a. The paper wa2 prepared for the purpose of enlarging the use of met h ods of testing by
greater' attractions of the Electricity Building at 30 volts, and from 6000 t o 10,000 amperes.
Eleclric forging is economical, not only because opposing their abuse. The follo wing tests were
the Columbian Exposition. Not only ordinary
the current is applied just as long as needed, but recommended : 1. Fineness of grinding, according
sightseers but en()'ineers
and
technical
people,
0
throng ro~nd these ~aily-given illus~rations of the also because its energy IS expended wholly on the t o the r esidue from a 8ieve of 5850 meshes per
adaptibility of electr1c power to weldmg and forg- piece of metal, or concentrated on the part of the square inch . 2. Resistance to crushing of cubes
ing operations ; and t~ey marvel as. they go away bar, which may at any moment be in process of 2. 8 in. or cylinders 1 in. in h eight and diameter,
after havina seen thtck bars of 1ron and steel operation. In a forge- fire there is evidently a composed of one cement and two sand. 3. Invariheated up t~ redness, and even to whi~eness, in a great waste of heat-energy. Be~ides the above, there ability of volume in boiling water. 4. Rapidity of
few minutes. The metal-holders w h1ch clamp are other economical considerations in favour of the setting of mortar, one cement to two sand. 5. For
these bars are movable in order to admit r ods of electric process. Among these we may mention- the detection of aluminates, t o foretell the stability
!. That n o gases are introduced into the metal of cement in air or sea water.
varying lengt.hs ; they are, moreover, so arranged
In regard to a paper of C. A . Stetefeldt, of
as to allow of two or more bars being heated at the while heating.
2. That the heat is abundant, and is supplied Oakland, Cal., entitled " Consumption of Fuel in
same time. No on e could fail to be impressed
T aylor Gas Producer Plant, " it may be said briefly
with the efficiency of the plant on seeing three bars uniformly throughout the mass.
3. That the temperature can be r egulated to any it was a compa rison of statistics between the
of iron 4 ft. long and 1 in. by i in. in cross section
raised up to forging h eat in the space of four desired degree from that of the room up to that of Marsac mill and a gas producer plant at Aspen,
minutes. Not lees indicative of the care with fusion, and also that it can be held at any desired Colorado.
In both mills a Stetefeldt furnace is used for
which all the electrical and mechanical details have point as long as needed .
4. That the bar is always in sight, and overheat- roasting; but the Marsac mill has the old-fashioned
been thought out was the raising up to a working
revolving dryers, while at Aspen shelf dryers are
heat in eight minutes of three bars of steel, each ing can easily be avoided.
5. That many processes may be carried out at at hand. At Aspen, separate Taylor producers are
3 ft. long and 1 in. square.
The experiments are not confined to iron and one h eating, which in ordinary forging would re- provided for the Stetefeldt furnace and the shelf
dryers; at the Marsac mill one 7-ft. producer supsteel, but are e xtended to brass and copper, and q uire three or four heats.
6. That more floor space can be utilised, on plies gas to both the furnace and the dryers.
are made t o include not only welding and forging,
account of the small size of plant necessary to Hence, in the latter case, the quantity of coal conbut also brazing, hardening, and tern pering.
sumed for each apparatus can only be estimated,
The metal is heated n ot only at the surface, but perform the same work.
7. That the temperatnre of the workshop is not based upon the relative consumption of wood before
uniformly and simultaneously throughout its mass.
gas was introduced. According to Mr. vVilson's
It has been ascertained that electrically heated bars affected by the electrical operations carried on.
8. That instead of having to carry fuel to many statement, the relative consumption of wood in the
retain their heat considerably longer than when the
customary forge is used. This is a valuable advan- fires and r emove ashes, there is but one fire to Stetefeldt furnace and the revolving dryers was as
tage, as it largely dispenses with reheating while maintain, viz., t hat under the boiler ; also that 3 to 2.
working the metal into the desired shape. Plates, as there is n o waste of heat by radiation, as in the
In the year 1892 the Marsac mill put through
well as bars, can also be heated and drop or press ordinary forge.
the dryers and the Stetefeldt furnace the following
The plant constructed by the Electric Forging quantities of ore and salt (approximate dry weights):
forged with one heat, while bars of any shape can
be heated their entire length, and the blank forged Company, B oston, varies with the extent of the Ore, 22,800 tons ; salt, 2262 tons. There were
Some machines are built which consumed in the Taylor producer 2714 tons of Rock
and cut off before being cooled. These instances installation.
show that the capacity for work of the machines develop 30 h orse-power, others 500 horse-power. Springs coal. vVe may thus make the comparative
used, and the processes which may be carried on, It may be useful to point out that a given machine estimate as follows :
will meet all the requirements within its capacity by
are as varied as they are extensive.
Marsa.c. A~pe n. Difference.
The electric plant consists of an exciting machine, simply changing the size of the metal-holders, so as
lb.
lb.
lb.
Drying ore and salt
S6.G3
72.22
14.41
an alternating-current dynamo, and a transformer. to suit the bars of different length s and shapes. It
142.40
Roasting ore
...
117.44
24 96
The dynamo generates a current of high voltage and will also be noticed that as the current employed is
small amperage. The functi on of the transformer of low pressure, all danger from shock is entirely
Totals
229.03
189.66
39. 37
is to deliver a current for heating purposes of low remo ved.
electromotive force and high amperage. It is obThe economical aspects of the question ha~e
The coals consumed at the Aspen and Marsac
vious that the condition changes somewhat with the been studied by Mr. George L. Harvey, a well- mills have nearly the same calorific value, as is
electrical conducting power of the bar. According known engineer of Chicago, and his r eport shows shown by the analysis.
as its temperature rises, the difficulty of forcin~ a that, when all conditions are equal, the electrical
The Aspen ore contains 6.15 per cent. moisture,
current through it also increases. T o meet this me thod of forging metals is considerably the cheaper. and the salt 1. 0 per cent.
Accurate statistics
gradually augmenting difficulty, the electromotive
Much credit is undoubtedly due to Mr. Burton r egarding moisture in the ore reduced at the
force must also rise by successive increments. In f-or having so successfully dealt wit h the many Marsac mill are entirely wanting, but the shipping
its turn, this implies a piece of mechanism or some difficulties of this intricate electrical problem. ore contained 8. 4 per cent. during 1892 ; and it is
regulating device which will be automatic in its The details of his work show him to be a sound probable that the milling ore runs about the same
action, and which will modify the current and the electrician and expart engineer, and the results as the Aspen.
electromotive force as required by the varying re- obtained aug ur w~ll for the future of t his new
A considerable difference exists regarding the
sistance of the bar.
industrial application of the energy of the electric conten ts of sulphur in the ores treated, Aspen ore
It was quite natural to think of a rheostat or wire currcJnt. It is interesting in this connect,ion to re- containing 8.1 per cent., and Marsac ore much less.
resistance to act as governor to such a complicated call the admirable exhibit of electric welding made An analysis of an average battery eample for 1891
piece of electric machinery ; but then came the by the Thomson-Houston Company, at the Paris gave only 0. 7 per cent. of sulphur for Marsac ore.
question as to where such a rheostat should be Exhibition of 1889, and to note the progress that For the output of 1892 no sulphur determination
placed. If inserted between the dynamo and the has been made in four years.
has been made, but since the ore of 1892 came from
h.

t893]

E N G I N E E R I N G.

[SEPT.

E N G I N E E R I N G.
The low consumption of fuel at Aspen for the
chloridising roasting of silver ores is phenomenal
in metallurgical history.
In conclooion, the writer would observe that Mr.
Morse, at Aspen, experienced the same difficulty
in running the Taylor gas producers with coal leaving light and infusible ashes (using Sunshine coal
alone) as was found in starting the producer at the

the lower levels of the Daly mine, it is fair to

assume that the percentage of sulphur was somewhat higher. The percentage of sulphur is slightly
increased by adding pulverised sulphur to the
battery pulp before roasting. This, however, is
n ot always done. During 1892, Mr. Lamb says,
the average consumption of sulphur in this way per
ton of ore was only 3. 72 1b.

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The number of tons of ore roasted in twenty-four

hours also plays an important part in the conaumption of fuel, an increased output requiring less
coal in proportion. The Marsac furnace roasted
from 60 to 70 tons of ore in twenty-four hours,
while at Aspen as much as 90 tons was put through.
That the shelf-dryers are more economical in
fuel than the revolving dryers is self-evident. The
ore remains longer in its passage through the
former, and the latter lose a large amount of heat
by radiation.
All these facts help to explain the difference in
the consumption of fuel in the two plants.

Marsac mill with coal mined at Coalville, Utah.

For this reason the Marsac producer is supplied
with the dearer R ock Springs coal.
The next paper was '' A Bessemer Blowing
Engine, " by J ulian Kennedy, of Pit~burg.
In respect to Mr. Kennedy's paper, which was
of great value owing to the author's experience,
together with his ability, the appended extract
may prove of interest, which follows his discussion
of other blowing engines :
'' Figs. 1 and 2 are the plan and elevation, and
Fig. 3 is the diagram of air valves and valve gear
of a compound horizontal blowing engine, now
being constructed by the well-known builders, the
E . P. Allis Company, for the Ohio Steel Company.
The engine is a Reynolds-Corliss cross-compound;
steam cylinders, 40 in. and 78 in.; air cylinders,
60 in.; stroke, 60 in., with reheater in intermediate
receiver, and is provided with an independent condenser. In general design this engine, as will be
seen at a glance, is very similar to the large quadruple-expansion engine by the same builders to be
seen at the Exposition. The air cylinders are so
arranged as to draw the air through pipes, which
project above the r oof of the building, and to discharge it below the cylinders. The inlet valve is a
plain rotary valve held to its seat by the blast pressure, which is admitted to the back of the valve by
a. port from the discharge chamber, and is driven
from a wrist plate. The outlet valve, as will be
noticed, is a triple-ported valve, which is closed at
the proper time by the wrist plate.

22,

1893.

'' The connection between wrist plate and valve

is made by a telescopic extensible rod, which pushes
the valve shut, but permits the wrist plate to
reverse its motion without pulling the valve open.
To the valve lever is attached a vacuum pot, which
tends to pull the valve open. When the valve has
been closed it is gripped by the r eceiver pressure
acting on the back, holding it against the seat, and
remains stationary during the return stroke of the
piston, and also while the piston advances toward it
again, until it has compressed the air in the cylinder
to nearly the !ame pressure as in the receiver, at
which time the pressure on the back of the valve
becomes so nearly balanced that the vacuum pot
can move the valve, which is then quickly thrown
open. The telescopic connecting-r od is so con structed that a small dash-pot is form ed at the
bottom of the tube, to avoid shock should the
plunger strike the bottom while the valve is open
or when the closing motion begins. It will be observed that no trip or releasing gear of any kind is
used with these valves, the holding and releasing
being done by friction, controlled in the simplest
possible manner by the air pressure in receiver and
cylinder. The outlet valves are also held against
their seats by long fiat springs bearing in the centre
on the back of the valve and at ends on blocks
set in pockets at end of the valve. It will be seen
from the drawings that these blocks have a clearance
of! in. at the bottom, so that if for any cause the
valve should be prevented from opening at the
proper time, it will be only forced back from the
seat, the opening of i in. being sufficient to allow
the engine to run at full speed with wrist plate and
vacuum pot disconnected from outlet valves. This
valve gear is extremely simple, and practical tests
have shown it to work admirably. 1'his engine is
intended to run at a speed of 60 turns per minute
if n ecessary.
'' In conclusion, the tendency in designing
blowing engines seems to be in the following directions:
'' 1. Compounding.
" 2. Obtaining valve gear which will give liber al
openings at both inlet and outlet, and which can
be operated at a fairly rapid speed.
"The latter advantage can probably be best
secured by the use of metal valves operated as far
as possible positively, which will also do away with
the vexation due to the use of leather, gum , and
other short-lived materials. "
This paper received considerable discussion, Mr.
F. W. Gordon, of Philadelphia, claiming that
while there was no objection to the use of crosscompound blowing engines, yet their use should be
confined to furnaces which can utilise the full heat
of the waste gases .
Where the gases are only for furnace use, simple
engines are preferable, being less expensive and
with fewer parts. He cited three engines designed
by him to furnish blast for two furnaces making
250 tons per day, and using 75 per cent. anthracite
and 85 per cent. magnetic ores; the engines are
expected to blow to 20 lb. pressure per square
inch.
He preferred for blast furnaces the single to the
coupled engine, and described one of his design as
follows:
'~Our inlet valve is double-ported and placed
inside the cylinder, whereby it works under less
constant pressure and has less motion, while the
increase of clearance is but one- half of 1 per cent.
These valves have each 452 square inches area,
which for the limited piston speed of 360 ft. is
ample. The outlet valve openings in head are 6 in.
in diameter, and there are 36 in all- 18 in each
end. The valves are very light, of phosphor
bronze, have flat seats and slide on fixed stems.
The valve's centre of gravity is in the line of the
seat to avoid a tendency to cant. The end of the
stem is a collar 2~ in. in diameter, forming a piston
fitted to a chamber in the valve. This acts as an
air cushion and saves the valve seat and the noise of
rapid closing. Loose leather collars, between which
the air always exists, form the cushion for the
opening movement. When compared to the usual
area o~ air-compressor engines, these will appear
excess1ve.
"Horizontal blowing engines have long since
been out of date. You will note lihat our engine
~as ~ tail-end b~aring.. T.he piston rod is 7! in.
1n d1ameter, wh1eh, w1th 1ts own weight and the
weight of the blast piston, has a deflection of
1
y a- in. The slipper referred to and the full-width
bull ring of the steam piston have to carry this.

SEPT. 22,

E N G I N E E R I N G.

I893]

The stuffing- boxes are made to ~ccom~odate the

spring of the rod. The blast plSton 1s turned !
smaller than the cylinder, _and the b;ass ~egmen~al
rings only touch the cyhnder. "e th1nk, w1th
these plans well carried out,. there can ~e n o further
objection to the blowing horlZont~l engine than ~o
the horiz::m tal engine so extens1 vely used, and 1t
ha1 the same advantages. ''
{To be continued.)

NO TE .
Tue

FLASH PoiNT oF PETROLEUrtr.

IN a pa.per recently read before the _Societ~ of

Chemical Industry, Mr . D . R. Steuart ra1ses obJeCtions to the low flashing point of lamp oils, as fixed
by the Government regulations. According to
these, the flash point must not be below 73 deg.
Fahr., as shown by the close test, but Mr. ~teuart
would r aise it to at least 100 deg. Fahr., whtch was
the maximum flash point p ermitted under the old
open test. Mr. Steuart points out that summer
temperatures frequently exceed 73 deg._, and argues
that under such circumstances there 1s an explosive mixture over the oil in the reservoir o f all
lamps burning low-flashing oils. Practically _all
the lamp accidents have, he fin~s, occurred w1th
low-flashing oils. Of twenty-e1ght lamp explosions examined into by Professor Abel and Mr.
Red wood the flashing point in all cases was above
the leaal' limit and in half the cases more than
10 deg~ above, but in ?nly ?ne case had the oil a
high flash point, a~d 1n thlS case the lamp. w~s
purposely designed m such a way t~at the 01l m
the reservoir was h eated by conduct10n from the
burner with a view to making the oil burn
better.' Arguing from this, Mr. Steuart holds that
the risk of explosion would be greatly reduced by
the adoption of a hio-her flash test, and this is d o uLtless true. It rema~s to be seen, however, if the
game is worth the candle. Considering the thou
sands of lamps used, often by very ignorant and
careless people, the percentage of explosions m.ust
certainly be exLremely small , and to our m1nd
this fact shows that the Go\ernment requirements
ar e in practice amply sufficient, and that no adequate ground has yet been shown for fur~her legislative interference with a great industry. N o case
for such interference can be made out by laboratory
experiments as conducted by Mr. Steuart. By
means of experiments on lamps he found that _under
certain conditions the temperature of the o1l may
exceed the flash point, though a ctually this was not
reached in any of his experiment~ , the outside
t3mperature being low. Und er these conditions an
explosive gas is given off from the sur~ace of t_he
oil ; but experience seems to show that 1n practtce
the explosion does not take place save under very
exceptional circumstances, and hence the laboratory
experiments go for n othing. If Mr. Steuart wants
the ftash point raised, the proper way of going to
work is by showing that these lamp accidents are
much more freq uent than is generally supposed,
and even then it would be a moot point as to whether
the change should not be made in the lamp rather
than in the oil, as there is no question but that
even naphtha can be burne i saf~ly in properly
constructed lamps.
In all such ca'les a middle
course should be steered.
Absolute safety may
be bought too dearly.

THE D.esiCN oF BRIDGE SuPER TRucruR.es.

In a paper to the Association of Civil Engineers,
C~Jrnell University, Mr. Geo. S. ~forrison, the
designer of the Memphis Bridge, has dealt with the
question of bridge superstructure. American practice in bridges, he said, became established abo ut
fifteen years ago. Cast iron then disappeared from
h b 'd
h
t e rl ges, and t e practica1 importance of stiffness, rather than the theoretical advantage of
determinateness of the stress, was recognised. The
top chords and the floor connections are accordingly
m1de now with riveted joints, and the noisy rattle,
common in American bridges twenty years ago, is
seldom heard at the present day. Plate girders are
used up to 100 f~. or more, and may, in the future,
be adopted fur stilllon,ger spans. For longer spans
pin-connected trusses, but very different in all other
details from the American pin-connected bridges
of twenty years ago, are the general practice. The
.
s uperstructure of such trusses sho Id b
u . e as corn
. 1 . .
1
P ete as poss tb e In Itself. In deck bndges the two
trusses m 1y ha br~ced togethe~ for th.e full depth
of the truss, but 1n t rough bndges th1s cannot be

done. Nearly the same results may, h owever, be

got by bracing, making the bracing between opposite verticals as deep as possible, and using a deep
rigid connection between the floo r beams and these
verticals. This is as necessary near the ends of
the span as elsewhere, and though with inclined
end trus~es this is difficult, still it can be done by
using a stiff portal overhead, and making a rigid connection between the inclined posts and the end floor
beam. The old practice of omitting this beam and
a llowing the end strin gers to rest direct on the
masonry was bad.
In ligh t bridges the bottom
chords might easily be put in compression by overstraining the laterals, and hence in such bridges
the bottom chords should be rigid for their whole
length, and in other cases the end panels at least
should be stiff. The practice of using a thin wallplate of wrought iron or steel was bad, and expansion rollers were often made too small in
diameter. His o wn practice was to use in the firct
place a heavy cast-iron wall-plate.
Above this
came a stout plate of wrought iron, to which were
riveted a series of steel rails. After riveting, the
tops of the rails were planed smooth and level to
form a bed for the rollers. By this construction
the rollers were not clogged with dust, as any that
collected fell between the rails, whence it could be
swept ou t periodically. The r oll ers were segmental,
12 in. in diamt::ter, and spaced at 6-in. centres.
Above them came a cast-steel bearing plate, and
then a. rocker plate, which was a steel forging,
having two cylindrical surfaces at right angles to one
another, one of which took the load of the truss
from the upper bearing plate fixed to the end of
the truss, whilst the other transferred it to the
bearing plate immediately over the rollers. This
construction insured a distribution o f load even if
the bottom bearing plate were not quite level. \Vith
respect t o the syt;tem of single triangulation, as
compared with double triangulation, Mr. Morrioon
hold~ that for moderate spans the former is best,
as there is then no doubt as to the dis tribution of
the stresses. In the case of la.rgt3 spans, however,
the connections become cl umsy, and the double
system of triangulation i3 to be preferred. In that
case the room hers of one system of triangulation
can be used to stitf~n the other system. The use
of curved or broken upper chords is objected to by
Mr. Morrison, although it saves weight. \Vith this,
only the single system of triangulation can be
adopted, or the web strains become indeterminate
at the points where th e lines of the chord change.
Tho web is very much lightened, but counters are
r equir ed through nearly the whole span, and the
distortion of the span is g r eater than when
straight chords are used.
As r egards cantilever
bridges, they had advantages where the fixing of
false work wa.s difficult or impracticable, but though
the main span was lighter than an ordinary main
span of th e same length, this saving of weight was
made up for by the additional metal required in
the anchorages a nd outside the limits of the main
span.
THE LAUNDRY E ../HIBITION.
N .\T CR.\LLY only a. small proportion of the objects
now ou \'iew at the Laundry Exhibition at the Agricultural Hall are of interest to engineers, but there are
nevertheless several exhibits of importance, and these
we propose to briefly describe. The principal no,elty
is without doubt the \Yillia.ms engine which is exhibited by ~Iessrs. Glover and Hobson, engineers, of
St. James's-road, Old Kent-roa.d, London,
.E.
This engine is remarkable in the entire absence of
valves, the steam distribution being effected by the
pistons themselves. There are two of these pistons
mounted on a siugle rod, and working in two singlea~ting cylinders placed opposite each other. Near
the middle of the piston-rocl is keyed a combined
crankpin and connecting-rod. The connecting rod is
solid with the piston, and carries the crankpin, which is
spherical, a.t its opposi te eud. Thispinfitsintoaspherica.l bearing in the crank, which revolves in a closed
chamber, arranged between the cylinders. It will be
obvious that if the crank rotates under these conditions the pistons must twist in their cylinders to allow
of the motion taking place, and this is what actually
occurs. This twisting motion brings ports formed in
the piston opposite the steam and exhaust ports of the
cylinder, and the steam distribution is thus effected.
Diagrams show that the steam line is remarkably well
maintained, the cut-off sharp, and the expansion cur ve
well formed. The ~xhaust a.!ld compressio~ lines are
equally good. Spec1al attent10n has been pa td to the
lubrication of the engines. The crank, with its pin,
rotates in a.n oil chamber formed between the cylinders, and equally efficient means are adopted for

the lubrication of the main bearings. The cylinders

are lubricated in part by the splash of the oil from the
oil chamber, but a. sight-feed lubricator is also _fitted
on the steam pipe. \Ve Ehould add that the ptstons
work without packing rings, being ground a dead t~ue
fit for the cyJinders, which are reamed parallel. Owmg
to the peculiar twisting motion of the pistons, the r';lbbing surfaces soon acquire a hard black glaze which
seems to entirely resist wear, and no leakage can, we are
informed, be detected past the piston of a.n engine
which has been a.t work four and a half years. The
engine is built both simple and compound, that shown
at the exhibition being of the simple type, with horizontal cylinders 6; in. in diameter by 4 in. stroke.
\IYith 80 lb. steam pressure it indicates 16 horsepower, and with 120 lb. steam pressure 25 horsepower, the speed being 420 revolutions per minute.
Though taking steam through a s team pipe 90 ft . long,
containing seven bends, no thumping could be detected in the engine, which ran with an entire
absence of noise and vibration. The space occupied
by it is 3 ft. 3 in. by 3 ft. 9 in. by 2 ft. 3 in. high, and
it weighs 11 cwt. \Yith a compound engine of J
indicated horse-power, constructed on the same principle, it is asserted that an indicated horse-power was
obtained for 30 lb. of steam, as deduced from feed
measurements. A comparison of the brake and indicated horse- power showed a mechanical efficiency of
o,er 93 per cent. These results are certainly remarkable when the size of the engine is taken into account.
The best of the engines of a. similar size tried at the
Plymouth how of the Royal Agricultural Society
took 42.03 lb. of water per brake horse-power, whilst
others took upwards of 80 lb.
The Campbell Gas Eugine Company, of Halifax,
in addition to a number of their wtll-known gas
engines, show a 3 horse-power nominal oil engine of
novel design. In this engine the oil (ordinary lighting
oil) is contained in a reservoir fix ed slightly
abo,1 e the vaporiser, to which it flows by gravity,
and is there gasified. This vaporiser is heated by
a lamp which also maintains the temperature
of the ignition tube. The admis&ion \ralve, of the
pot-lid type, is automatic in its action, opening
inwards towards the cylinder as the piston of the
latter makes its suction stroke. At the same time as
the gas is thus drawn into the cylinder, air is also
drawn in throu gh air passages formed above the valve.
On the compression stroke this valve closes, allowing
the compression to take place. The exhaust va.h~e is
worked by a. tappet, and the speed of the engine is
regulated by arrang ing the governor so that when
the speed exceeds its proper limit this valve is prevented from cloaiog. The consequence is the piston,
in its suction stroke, does not create a sufficiently high
vacuum to open the admission valve, and a charge
is thus missed. As will be seen, this engine has
neither air pump nor oil pump, and only one mechanically operated valve. Messrs. Crossley Brothers, of
J\la.n_chester, ~x hibit two of t~H:ir_hig~speed gas engines
spec1a.lly def>Jgned for electnc hght1ng. Tbe engines
run at 250 re\'olntions ptr minute, and are shown
driving a couple of dynamos by means of belts. They
appeared to run remarkably steadily, no s igns of flickering being observ able in the le.mps run from the
dynamos. A third engine of their ordinary low-speed
type is also exhibited.
Mei:srs. L. Hugh Bristowe and o., of Albany-buildings, 47, Victoria-street, exhibit the Riddell patent
mechanical filter. This consists essentially of a. metal
receiver containing the sand by which the filtration
is effected. The water to be filtered is introduced
above the sand, and distributed by a number of radial
arms. After passing through the sand, the filtered
water flows off at the bottom into the clean \Vater
pipe. The special feature about the filter is the
arrangement for cleaning the sand. To this end an
hydraulic cylinder is fitted above the filter, contah.in g
a. piston, the rod of which passes into the filter and
carries at its end a. number of radial arms. In the
operation of cleaning, the supply of dirty water is cut
off, an outlet from t~e filter to th e sewer opened, and
clean water forced 1n at the bottom of the filter
where it boils up through the sand, and out to th~
sewer through the escape pipe already mentioned. At
the same time the radial rods carried on the end of the
piston of the hydraulic cylinder are wor&ed up and
down through the sand, by admitting water pressure
alternately a?ove and below the pis ton.
This
thoroughly shrs up the sand and g reatly facilitates the
cleansing of the filter.
THE EtECTRTCLIGRTAT NEw YoRK.-The net earnings
of theEdison Electric Illuminating Company of New York
in the first h_a.lf of this year a:mounted to 282,302 dols., as
compared wtth 225,566 dol_s. m the corresponding period
of 1892. and 152,~01 d~l~. tn the correspon~iing period of
1891. The number of mcandescent lamps m operation at
the close of June, 1893, was 75,504, as compared with
56,704 at the close of June, 1892, and 50,615 a.t the close
of June, 1891. Tbe nu m her of arc lamps in operation a.t
the close of June, 1893. was 2008, as compared with 1153
a.t the close of June, 1892, and 313 at the close of June
1891.
,

370
NOTES FROM THE UNITED STATES.
N Ew YoRK, September 13.
THE diffi culty throughout the United States is
almost entirely in the scarcity of ~urrency. Slight
gains are noticeable in eastern financial centres, and
money is moving somewhat mora freely in business
circles. A slight incre.1.se in production is taking
place, but it is unimportant. .Manufll.cturing establishments are being run to fill orders only, and these
are for small quantities for immediate delivery. The
situation is disappointing on all sides. A vote on
the Repeal Bill will probably be taken in the Senate
next week. Until confidence is permanently restored,
a.n improvement in business need not be expected.
Scarcely any new railroad work will be undertaken
this au t umn. Shipbuilding along the lakes has been
generally suspended. Railroad traffic is at a low ebb.
Prices for all kinds of merchandise are at the lowest
point known for year3. Building operations will fall
30 per cent. below last year's throughout the
country. While all these discouraging statements
are correct to- day, there h a strong probability
of a reaction before midwinter, as sudden and general
a.s wa.s the depression in the early summer. 1'he
volume of currency has considerably increased. New
York banks have borrowej 42,000,000 dols. in gold
from L')ndon. The coming political issue in this
country is the es tablishment of a financial system
which will afford a larger available supply of curr ency.

THE NEW ROYAL MAIL STEAMER

"NlLE."
THE steamship Nile, which Messrs. James and
George Thomson, Limited, Clydebank, ha ve constructed for the R oyal Mail Steam Packet Company's
Southampton and South American mail and p~ssenger
service, went on her official speed trials o ver the measured mile in Stokes Ba.y on Tuesday of this week, and
on \V ednesda.y proceeded on an eight hour.s' trial at
sea, th e r esults on both occasions exceeding ex pectations. The vessel is the largest yet constructed for the
company in point of tonnage, and in d etermining he r
dimensions a departure has been made from present-day
pra.ctice, in respect of fast steamer3, as reguds relation
of breadth to length, more from the necessity for a
specified cargo capacity than from choice. The practice is to increase the length of ships in proportion to
their beam, with the view of obtaining higher speed
while maintaining the cargo capacity, but as the vessel
was intended to trade witb 'Vest India ports, as well as
to Brazil and the River Plate, length was somewhat a.
r estricted dimension, and it was determined to secure
the required cugo space by increasing beam. In the
vessels form erly built for the company-the Clyde and
the Thames- the length was nine times the beam, but
in the case of the Nile i t is only eight times, notwithstanding which the speed was s l.tisfactory. This gain
in earning power, however, bl.s brought about another
change, for the Nile is the first of the modern steamers
of the company without tha t clipper bow and little
bowaprit which added so much grace to our old ships
and t o the early steamers. But all along the line
utility is 110w the first consideration.
The overall length of th e N tle is about 435 ft , and
between perpendiculars 420 ft., so that she is 16ft.
shorter than the Thames and Clyde, but has 2ft. more
bea.m - 52 ft., and th e depth m oulded is 35 ft. 5 in.
The gross r egis ter tonnage _is 6050 t o 1s, and at 21 ft.
draug ht the displacement u about 8000 tons. I:n her
construction strength has been a first consHleration. The butts of all the shell plates, instead of
being fitted with butt strapJ according to the usug,l
method, have b een overlapp ~ d and qua.druple riveted.
This adds ma terhlly t o the rigidity of the structure.
There are ten 'tb wa.rtship bulkheads, di viding the ship
into eleven co:npartments, and these a re carried up
to the promenaie deck, being stifi'cmed by angles
connected to the fioorplates at the bottom of
the ship, and to the various steel d eck::~, by means
of bra.cket pla tes. It is not infrequently ~egarded
as sufficient to have one or tw.> comp tmon-ways
from the s tate-rooms b elow to the top -decks-one
forward and one aft-which is a ll right under ordinary
circums ta.nce3 , but in the event of the bulkhead d<Jors
.
in the passages having to be closed, tho3e occupy10g
rooms on th e decks below, in intermediate comp.l.rtments have no eg ress to the decks abo,e. In the Nile
this c~se is m et in an interesting way . Portaule galvanised iron ladders are bolted to the deck beams alongside of s ky l ights arranged _Primarily for ventilating, and
these ladders fold up agamst the deck when not required but may be quickly swung down, when an
easy w'a.y of escape to the deck a?ov~ is r equired_. The
skylights ins ure not only venttla t10n, but a b g ht to
the pl.ssa.ges. ~lost of the firs~-class _s tate-roon1s a~e
arran .,.ed riO'ht fore and aft on either s tde of the &hlp
on th: mai~ and upper deck, so that each has one or
two large portholes, while th e . cabin bulkheads !ire
fitted with ja.lousied panels . . .Right ~long t~e _botler
and engine coamings are skyhghts whtch admit air and
light down to the main as well as upper deck passages,

E N G I N E E R I N G.
and thence to the shte-rooms. These are sufficiently
wide to afford egress to passengers to the upper deck.
l'orwa.rd and aft of these, special sky lights and fanlights
are provided, so that even in the tropics a. sufficiency
of air should find its way naturally into every pa rt of
the ship. The stlte-rooms, which a re unusually large,
being 8ft. 3 in. by 10ft., include in their equipment
two folding lavatories, folding table, and two electric
lights, as well as oil lamps in specially inclosed cases
for emergency. The beds have all wire-wove spring
ma ttresses. There is little difference between first and
second class rooms, the latter being situated under the
poop. Of fir st-class passengers 215 may be accommodated, and of the second 36, while 350 emigrants can
be carried on the main and lower decks. The naviga ting officers' rooms are on the promenade deck in
the vicinity of the engine coarning, which is carried
right above the shade deck, and the engineers' rooms
and petty officers' are on the upper deck.
The first-class saloons are forward, with the exception of the smoking-room. On the promenade deck
forward is the drawing or music room, plnelled in
satinwood and cedar, with a chastely-designed stained
glass cupola. in the centre, a.nd sumptuously furnished
and upholstered. There is an upright Bechstein piano,
with satinwood frame, in the forward end, having on
either side beautifully ornamented music cabinets. In
the centre of the saloon there is a well admitting light
to the dining saloons on the upper and main decks
below. This dividing of the salle-lt-manrrr into t\vo
parts is common to all Royal Mu.il boli.ts; and al though
it precludes the pos iibility of elaborate effort a t effect,
has the advantage of economising room and insuring
a more homely feeling when a small complement of
passengers is concentrated in one place, for, although
not frequently, it d oes happen that vessels a re not
a.l ways crowded.
In d ecorating the saloon the
builders have very properly adopted bright wood
and colours. The roof is in white relieved with
gold, while the panels between the numerous portholes on the forward end and on either side are of relieved scrollwork in oak on a dull gold ground, t he
effect being to produce a ~ell-lighted saloon. The
main saloon accommodates 107 pa<Jsengers at a large
number of small tables, while in the saloon below 69
may s it, so that practically all the passengers may
dine at the one hour. On the promenade deck there
is, aft of the grand stairway, a ladies' prhate saloon.
The smoking-room is aft on the promenade deck, and
is quite a cosy corner, panelled in walnut. From the
room there is a companion -way to the state-rooms
below, so that a passenger need not come into the
open to get to any of the public rooms. The promenade
deck, however, is sure to be appreciated in all weathers.
The increase in the beam of the ship has increased its
width, which is greater than on some of the largest
Atlantic vessels ; it is 140ft. long, being divided from
poop and forecastle by wells which admit to two
hcvtches. The promenade is completely sheltered by
the shade deck above, and t.he view seaward is unobstructed. To the shade d eck has been fitted a series
of electric lamps for illuminating the promenade
in the evening3. The second-class passengers have the
poop deck for promenade, while on it is their smokingroom, with dining-saloon below. The promenade deck
being carried on T -irons above the upper deck, there
is also a large promenading space on either s ide of the
latter. The d eck and navigtLting machinery is most
complete . The cargo is all worked by hydraulic gear,
si x cranes and two derricks h1 ving been provided by
Brown, of Edinburgh, with an hydraulic wiach for
hoisting in the boats. " ' hile the davits are of
the ordinary swivel type, the usual wooden chocks
have been dispensed with for an effecti \'e arrangement by the builders, whereby the boat is
released from both simultaneously by the operation
of a. lever gidng a half-turn to a. fore-and-aft rod,
which throws down the support of the boat. The
boats all rest on the shade d eck. The wind lass forward and steering gear aft have been fitted by ~Iessrs,
N a pier Brothers, Limited. The latter hag two high pressure cylinders, which work the ba rrel, or can be
quickly connected to work the screw gear in the ev ent
of the chains breaking. The valves of the steering
engines are oper ated by an hydraulic telemotor placed
in a. wheelhouse immediately under, but operated from,
the bridga. Hand gear has also heen fitted aft. The
light ha.s been installed by the firm 's electrical sta ff.
The generating plant, situa ted on the floor of the
eng ine- room, is in duplicate, two high-pressure
eng ines being coupled direct t:> dynamos running a t
210 revolutions, and producing a current of lOO volts
at 165 amperes. Each dynamo is sufficient t o ru n 320
lights. There are in the ship 500. A large cold air
~hamber has been fitted in conjunction with Hall's
plant.
The engines are of the triple-expansion inverted
direct -acting type, and a feature of the engine-room is
the large area of floor space due to the great beam of
the ship, abundant passage room being also left at the
back of the engines. The machinery may be said to
be Thomsen's standard type, the arrangement and
details having been the result of the extensive experi-

ence of the management. The cylinders are 38 in.,

60 in., and 94 in. in d iameter respectiYely, with a
stroke of 5 ft. 6 in., while all the working parts are of
Vickers steel, including the crankshaft. The frames,
bed plate, &c., are of wrought iron. The tunnel
shaft is also of nu.llea.b e iron. The shafting throughout is of 19 in. diameter, and the thrust collars are of
the ordinary horseshoe type. Brown's starting and
reversing gear is fitted to the engines, and the air and
circulating pumps are worked from the high-pressure
and low-pressure crossheads. 'Veir's installation, includ ing feed pumps, feed heaters, and e'\raporator, is
fitted.
Steam at 160 lb. pressure is supplied by four doubleended boilers, 15ft. in diameter by 19 ft. long, with
four furnaces in each end, making a total of 32.
They have corrugated fines, and are 3 ft. 3 in. mean
diameter and 6 ft. 6 in. long. The total heating surface is 17,300 square feet, and the grate area 650
square feet. There are three st okeholds, all with open
hatchways, the boilers being arranged in pairs
athwartship, each two having an upta ke and funnel.
There is in the after s tokehold a donkey boiler for
supplying steam for the auxiliary machinery in the
ship.
The vessel is well finished , and presents a smart appearance, with her two funnels and three pole masts
having just enough rak e. The shade deck, l'fith the
boats above it, ma kes the vessel look high out of the
water. She has cer tainly a high freeboard, which will
tend to keep the broad promenade deck dry even in a
hea\y sea. At the trial on Tuesday, when representatives of the builders and owners, with a. goodly
company of guests, were on board, the sea-going
qualities of the vessel were well tested, for a stiff
breeze was blowing, reaching at times the \"elocity of
half a gale. The measured mile at Stokes Bay '\\'as
run six times, in alternate directions, and the wind
was such as to interfere with the general result.
Going t o the westward it was on the port bow, and in
the run in the other direction it was on the starboard quarter. The mean draught of the ship was
21 ft., the displacement being about 8000 tons. The
mean of the six runs inclica ted a speed of 17.099
knots, the horse-power dev eloped being 7200 indicated horse-power, the vacuum being 27 in. There
was plenty of s team throughout the run. On the
following day, vVednesday, with a moderate breeze,
the speed on an eight hours' run was 17! knots, with
the engines working und er normal conditions at 83
revolutions, and developing 7700 indicated horse-power.
The highest speed attained during the eight hoUl s'
run was 17.69 knots. The Nile will go on her first
voyage on October 19, and will be commanded by Captain ~pooner. The chief engineer is :M r. J. K. Ritchie,
who has seen thirty years' service with the company,
having started in the old paddle steamers working
with steam at 10 lb. pressure.

CONTRACTORS AND THE ADMIRALTY.

To T HE E orTon OF E~GINF.ERING.
Srn,- The excellent letter from "Sub-Contractor " in
your last week's issue will, I trust, be noted by all who
are engaged in carrying out Admiralty contracts. I do
not know to what kind of work he specially refers, bub
his remarks are certainly very applicable to ship work.
The questions of officialdom, supervision, and red tape
have grown to be very serious for a contractor; and,
enforcing what he says respecting supervision, there can be
no doubt whatever that the Admiralty practice, whereby
overseers are appointed who must personally be satisfied
with a.ll d etails of construction, quality of materials, &c.,
has been latterly the cause of very unnecessary harassment to a. contractor.
"Sub-Contractor " says very truly that all specifications
provide for everything being completed "to the satisfaction of the overseer. " I would, however, point out thab
it is also stated all work is to be "in accordance with the
usage of H er Majesty's s ervic~. " It is just here where
the annoyance to contractors has been so intolerable.
For instance, if in certain work the contractor points out
that the qua.li ty of materials and workmansh_ip are superior
to certain specific and similar cases in Her Majesty's
dockyards, be ic; told that the work named will most
likely form the subjeot of serious inquiry from beadquarters ; on the other ha.nd, if he points out that
certain details, which he is told must be carried
out, are not in certain dockyard ships, it is stated
the ships in question are not completed, and that
the fittings named will be in place before they proceed to sea. The contractor is thus paralysed; a.nd aa
it is obvious there can be no such thing as perfection in
any human handi w0rk either as regards design, quality,
or workmanship, he has just to muddle along helplessly
and blindly ab the caprices of, not one overseer even, but
frequently quite a procession of gentlemen who succes
si vely appear on the scene at various stages of work.
But, Sir, there is another and a. more serious side to this
question than that affecting the temper and pocket of a
contractor, and that is the one affecting the cost and
efficiency of our warships.
This is a. matter in which the general public are vitally
interested. In the first place, the numberless vagaries
and " fads " of overseers and other officials, although possibly squeezed out of contractors for less than prime cost,
will yet be not unlikely assessed and considered in future

SEPT. 22,

E N G I N E E R I N G.

1893]

es~imates they may make. In the second place, ~re th~se

vagaries and 'fads'' really necessary to the effiCiency of
ourships? .
.
. . .
.
This evermcrea.smg multtphcat10n o~ watertight do.ors,
valves, pipes, indicators, and mechamsm c;>f every kt.n d,
is, in the opinion of many expe.rts, of b.ut ht~le practical
value in time of peace; somettmes savmg a. httle manual
labour, or, at oth~r t~mes, dispensing ~ith some person~l
super vil:!ion; but m tu:x~e c;> f war only hkely to be .of use m
creating showers of mtsstles wherever a shot s tr1kes or a.
shell explodes.
Are we not really losing a grasp of broad principles in
the design of ~a~s~ips, in the ~xcessi ve refinement of
detail and multiphcty of mecbamsm?
I am, yours, &c.,
'
AN EYE-WITNESS.

To THE Eurron OI-' ENGINEERING.

StR -In your valuable journal of the 1st inst. I have
read ~ communication by Mr. Waiter Robert Kinipple,
M.I.C.E., in which, referring to the description of the
Biluao Harbour works which you published in your
number of August 25, be criticises the section adopted for
the basement of the breakwater, preferring a monolithic
sy~tem from the b~ttom of the sea up to the parapet.
I b~ve much re pect for the opinion of an engineer like
~Ir. Kinipple whose works on ''Concrete \Vorks under
\Vater " and ~thera published in your p1per ~ ~a.ve read
with great pleasure, but allow me to suggest 1t IS strange
that he should criticise so hardly the section hEire adopted
without having personally studied the renditions of this
harbour. In these questions it is impossible to give
absolute rules, for local circumstances influence very
strongly the adoption of the section and mode. of constru~
tion best suited to the case one has to deal w1th.
SEA SIO~ .

tiARBOUR

rr 10_s {' f?

.J' ~

'" .. .! , . e i

~~ ft

~~

.
Jo q 'P 1! ''' qo no If!
11 1:" l.' Jp .y

SIDE

.n f'T
P Meru

section, adding in his report : "The breakwater will

consist of a rubble base surmou nted by a supers tructure
of artificial concrete blocks, each block to contain 1000
cubic feet, or, say, 60 tons. The rubble would be deposited from the hopper barges .. .. The large artificial
blocks will be placP.d in the work by means of a powerful
steam derrick erected on a twin-screw barge, also worked
by steam."*
Please excuse your old subscriber for taking so much
of the valuable space of your journal, for fear of giving
an incompJete Sl nswer, and b elieve me to remain,
Yours truly,
EVAIUSTO DE CRURRUCA,
Chief Engineer of Bilbao Harbour \Vorks.
Bilbao, September 12, 1893.

Small Arms Factory is driven entirely by motors wor~ed

from large dynamos, you speak of the power as ben~g
furnished by a. Corliss engine of 450 horse- power. Will
you allow us to say that there are t'W? engines, ~he second
one which was set to work early th1s year, bemg a compou~d \Villans central valve condensing engine of . 300
horse-power. This engine, whi ch runs at 35~ revol?tJOns
per mmute, is coupled direct, like th~ Ccrhs~ engm~, .t<?
a. dynamo of the Compagnie In~ernat10n.ale d Electr1<:1te
of L !ege, by whom the whole 1nstalla.t10n was earned
out.
Your obedient servants,
WILLANS AND R omNSON, LrMITRD.
C. S. E s sEx, Secretary.
Picton House, Thames Ditton, Surrey,
September 19, 1893.

PORTLAND CEMENT.

BILBAO HARBOUR 'VORKS.

37 1

L9l.ving on one side Mr. \V. R. Kinipple's comparisons

of heterogeneous volumes, in which he d0es not take intv
account that in the Bilbao Harbour. works t.he greater
part of the volume ia formed by very mex penst ve rubble,
and that this volume and the one of the upper blocks
generally conta.ins more than 30 per cent. of open space,
I pass on t o say:
1. 'fhat, excepb for a short distance from the coast, the
bottom of Bilbao H arbour is formed by mud, so that the
monolithic structure that Mr. Kinipple proposes would
have no stability unless it rested on a rubble basement
of at least 6 metres thickness. This gentleman must have
fallen into this error on ae<'ount of the statement made in
ENGINF.ERlNG of August 25 that the Bilbao Harbour is
formed of sand, whereas it is formed of mud from tha
levelling curve of 6 metres under low sea water.
2. That apart from the strong gale3.that have.gi.ven ~o
the Bay of Biscay such a sad reputat10n, there IS 10 th1s
sea, ev~n during most of the ~uii_lmer days, a constant
a.~itation that renders monolithic work und er low
water very difficult. The concrete made ~i~h Portl.and
cement is completely washed away, unless 1t 1s put mto
baga, and even then it is washed on the upper part of
these to a depth of 20 to 30 centimetres, that m.ust be
taken off by tearing the bags. Concrete made w1th Zu
maya. cement, which is more quick setting, resists ~etter,
but still it washes away a good deal. If t o all these c1rcum
stances one adds that to properly set the blocks of Mr.
Kinipple's monolithic structure it is necessary to employ
divers, wh o, with the currents, movement, and generally
troubled state of the sea water, work here in very bad
conditions, one easily understands that very little confi
dance c1.n be put into work carried on in such conditions,
apart from the consideration that the time required to
carry on the work would be hard to fix, and its cost very
great and difficult to estimate.
3. I must also mention that Lhe stone quarries, uoth foe
rubble and concrete blocks, are on the river banks, and
gi\'e plenty of very cheap stone. All this stuff is easily put
in place with hopper barges during more than three
hundred days of the year, so that the work goes ahead
very quickly, dPspite of the great amount of material
invested in it. This would not be the case with Mr.
Kinipvle's system, for experience has taught us that we
could not have worked to it for more than fifty d ays in the
year, between April and September, so that it would be
impossible to calculate the cost and the time required to
do tho work.
4. The brealtwaters of Socoa and Artha, of the San
.Juan de Luz H arbour, that the French Government is
now building, and that have to resist the force of the sea
in about the same way as the one of Bilbao, have a section very similar to my plan, which was definitely
adopted for this port. The breakwater of L eixoes, near
the mouth of the River Douro, recently built by the Portuguese G Jvernment, has also a similar section.
5. Lastly, I shall say that the eminent engineer, Sir
John Coode, whose reputation cannot be slighted by any
engineer, proposed for the Bilbao Harbour in 1873 a
breakwater, section of which I send you, and which I
should be obliged to you for publishing together with
this answer, so that you may see how completely differt>nt
it is from the monolithic structure proposed by Mr.
Kinipple.
Sir John Coode was in Bilbao in December, 1872,
studied the conditions of the place, and adopted this

To THE EDITOR 01-' ENGINKERING.

SIR,-Will you p ermit me to emphasise one of the
remarks in that portion of Mr. Faija's ()hicago paper
printed in your last issue, as it has a. most important
bearing upon the subject of testing cement, and expresses
a.n opinion which I have long entertained. He says a
knowledge of the material "can be~t be obtained by
gauging a cement by itself, with the addition only of
water, and without the addition of sand or other materials, as these themselves, by variations in their composition, form, and nature, introduce an element of error
independ~ntly of any good or bad qualities in the
cemtsnt." The late :Mr. Grant, of the M. B. W., who
was mainJy respon sible for the adoption of the
sand test in this country, admitted to me in conversation
upon the subject that be had found a difference of 50 per
cent. in th e results obtained from two mixtures of the
same cement with what appeared the same sand. On
analyl)is he found the sand which gave the lowest test
had a percentage of carbonate of lime in it which could
only be dected by the chemist. It is now well know n
that the finer the cement is ground the hi gher will be
th e t ensile strength obtained from a. mixture with sand ;
it is, therefore, only necessary to specify a neat cement
t est. coupled with a. given deg ree of fineness, and I
strongly urge this method in preference to blindly following the lead of another nation which is certainly second
to us in prac~ical knowledge of the subject.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
V. DE ~IICHELE.
Higham, R ochester, September 20, 1893.

THE SANITARY CONDITION OF

LEICESTER.

T o THE EnrTOR or ENGINEEHING.

SIR,-Koowing that you h ave tal<en a.n interfst as to
the sanitary welfare of L eicester with regard to the smallpox epidemic. I beg to forward you the Leice3ter D aily
.Express for Weptem her 15. by w hi eh you will see the
manner in which the sanitary wmk is carried on in
Leicest er.
We as a town not only have been &uffering from smallpox, but also from typhoid fever, and the wh o1e of the
latter cases have arisen within the vicinity of the J arvisstreet Yard and the built-upon area adj oi ning the banks
of the river.
When the matter was discussed before the Sanitary
Committee ye t erday, the chairman wa~ not present, and
left the chair to be occupied by Mr. Alderma n Clifton,
the vice-chairman, althocgh a copy of the police report!
bad been forwarded to him.
The ~uperintendent in charg~ of the nightsoil department made the startling admission to the committee that
a. man had been specially engaged to do the work, which
usually commenct-d at midnight and ceased at ~. 30 a .m . ,
receiving the magnificent remuneration of 1s. 6d. per day
for his services.
The Highway Committee of the corporation keep a
dr6ciger almotit constantly at work to clean the lower
reaches of the river and canal, and si multaneously the
Sanitary Committee employ men to deposit fretid matter
into the river.
Can we wonder at smallpox, cholera., or typhoid fev er
epidemics whils t enlightened L eicester deals wiiih its
Yours truly,
MACHINE CONSTRUCTION AND DRAWING, sewage in this manner'?
w. H. SBIPSON.
1893.
Alliance ChamberP, Horsefair-street, Leicester,
To THE EorTon OI' EscrNEERING.
September 16, 1893.
Sm,-In endeavouring t o find some cause for the fact
that so large a number of really first-rate students failed
at the late examination in the above subject, while so
THE NAVY.
many second -rate students passed, I have carefully
T o THE EDITOR OF ENGINEEHfNG.
studied the elementary portion of th e paper, which to
Srn,-Under the beading of ''A Notable Voyage," a.
some extent accounts for the occurrence.
I find there, on one of the examples, a portion marked, paragraph appeared in most of th e London paper~ of
yestf'rday, in regard to the recent passage of H . M .S.
"Hexagonal, to fit 21-in. s panner. "
Some time ago a. correspondent of yours told us of the l\lel pomene, which has just a.rri ved at Victoria, B . C.,
practi cal draughtsman (who had been engaged all day from Callao, ha ving s teamed direct (5000 miles in 22
designing machinery of the high es t class and most days) without making a. stop for coaling. This is commodern type) crawling home to teach a science class, and mented on as a." noteworthy achievement, seldom paralleled and n ever surpassed." If this is really, what it
so doing our professional friend out of a job.
R eturning to the examination paper, the 21-in. spanner professes to be, the opinion of naval officers, the sooner
would und oubtedly be taken by all prac-tical men to they try doing something greater the better for themmean a. spanner that would fit a nut for a. 2i-in. bolt, selves and the service. It is 5000 miles continuous steamsay 3~ in. in the jaw. This is evidently not what was ing at something under 10 knots. Not very long ago a.
new Rteamer ran from Teneriffe to a New Zealand port
in one stretch, and that was considered a. record for longdistan<:'e steaming. But it was quickly s hown that on
'
''
more than one occasion a new cargo boat has gone from
A
'
'
the Clyde to New Zealand without slowing her engines .
'
'
..... -
When merchanb ships go half round the globe-and
'
.

~o?btless co.uld go further if ~ esired-without coaling,

It 1s surely t1me that naval <:'rlll sers, whose raison d'~tre

''
~

is to hold the sea for long periods, should not consider

~
.....
a trifle of 5000 miles to be worthy of prai~e o r even of
comment.

..

II

!'- . 11"
7f -

''
5~
.,....
'------/

.. I~ .....,:

~~--~--~ n~a~pv~~

meant by our examiner~, as you will see by referring to

Example 1, a copy of which I inclose.
The question Is, what are we to do in future ? Are we
to tell our students that a 2!-in. spanner is 2~ in. in the
jaw ? If so, the time has come when some one i3 re~uired
at Kensington to give our examiners a little instruct10n in
work shop terms.
The D epartment profess to be raising the standard of
the student. I suggest that there are other standards to
be raised.
September 18, 1883.
SPANNERS.

ELECTRIC PO'\VER TRANSMISSION IN

BELGIU.lVI.
To r aE EDITOR oh~ E~ G INRERING .
Srn,-In your note las t week respecting the interesting
installation at H erstal, where the machinery in the
*The plan of breakwa t er proposed in this proj ect was
different from the one I ha ve proposed, and which is bei ng
carried on, because then it was thought only of protecting
the mouth of the river by a breakwater, and now we are
making an outside harbour by means of the two breakwaters that are shown on the plan in ENGINEERING of
August 25.

S eptember 21, 1893.

B.

w. GIN

Bt!RG.

CONCRETE BEAMS.
To THE EDITOR oF Elt.GINEERING.
BIR,-In your iRsue of September 15 "Student" calls
my attention to the paragraph in the issue of September
1, in which you notice my experiments on the s trength of
concrete beams, the results of which I contributed to the
Institution of Civil Engineers in a. paper appearing in
vol. cxi. of the proceedings.
In my paper I explained that the discrepancy in the
results obtained with the one to six concrete was due to
the fact that there was insufficient fine material used in
~be ala~~ made in tbe~e. proportions to completely fill the
mterst1t1al spaces. Wtth r eference t o the other points
your correspondent raises, L ~.hould be as be st1guests
" span ,.m stea d o f"l ength , " and the dimensi0ns
,
t"
of
the,
third set of beams should be 39 in. by 18 in. by n in.
These mistakes are, of course, printer's errors.
There is also evidently an error in the formula. given
for which I am not rt>~pon sible. The fi ,st factor on tb~
right hand side of the t>quation is certainly not . 06, i b
should be more nflarly. 96.
I h~d purpose<l writing to c~rrect thes-e, but pressure
of busmess has prevented ruy d omg so earlier.
Yours faithfully,
SIDNEY R. LOWCOCK.
35, W a.terloo street, Birmingham,
~eptember 19, 1893.

372

E N G I N E E R I N G.
SURPLUS VALVE.

WE illustrate b elow a new form of ~urplus or re

du cing valve, made by Messrs. Geor ge Cockburn and
Co., of Kinniog Park, Glasgow, and intended for use
io cases in which s t eam is to b e maintained a t a high
uniform pressure in the boilers, whilst a part of it
is used t o ~upplement or prov ide a supply to an
a pparatus u ~1 ng steam at a lower pt e3sure. It will
be Eeen f~om Fig. 1 that the piston usual in this type
of valve 1~ r eplaced by a dia phragm, which C)nsist of
two sheets of thin copper, suitably corrugated to
obtain flexibility, a nd supported at the back by a
number of strips of g un-metal in the shape of sector3, as

LAUNCHES AND TRIAL TRIPS.

s.s. Bourbon, built by Messrs. Charles Connell and
Co.i Whiteinch, for M essrs. Hugh E vans and Co., Liverpoo , for the Li verpool and Maranham Steamship Company (L imited), went on h er trial trip on the 9Lh in~t.
Her dimensions are : 260ft. on the water line, by 35 ft. by
22 ft., measuring about 1600 tons. Her engines, of the
tri~le-compou~d type, with ~ylinders 20 in., 32 in.,
54 m, by 42 m. strok e, workmg pressure 175 lb., have
been made by Messrs. Dunsmuir and J a.C'kson, Go van,
On the Skelmorlie mile, after a series of progressive trials,
a maximum speed of about 13 knots was obtained, with an
indicated horse-power of 1570.
THE

Ther e was launched from the shipbuilding yard of

1-Iessrs. R. Williamson and Son at Workington on M onday, the 11th inst., a fine four-roasted barque, the largest
yet built on the Solway. This being the hundredth
vessel built by the firm she was named the Centesima.
Her dimensions are as follow: L ength over all, 321. ft;
Lloyd's dimensions, 296 ft. by 42 ft. by 28.5 ft. ; gross
tonnage, 2961 tons; net, 2798 tons ; displacement at load
line, about 6400 tons. She will carry a deadweight cargo
of about 4600-tons.
L ast Saturday morning the s.s. Coquet left the Cleveland dockyard of her builders, S ir Raylton Dixon and
Co , Middlesbrough, for the customary trial of machinery
and the general working of the ship. This steamer is of
the welldeck type-, the principal dimensions being :
L ength, 292ft. Gin. ; beam, 40ft. 6 in. ; d epth moulded,
22 ft. 1 in. ; a nd she has a large dead weight capacity,
with special arrangements for th e carrying of large
timber. The engines have been fitted by the N orth Eastern M a rine Engineering Company, Limited, of
\Vallsend-on-T yne, the cylinders being 22 in., 36 in.,
and 58 in. in diameter by 39 in. stroke, with two large
boilers working at 160 lb. pressure. During the trials
everything worked most satisfactorily, and the vesselafter wardd proceeded t o the Tyne to load.

FLj.l .

_:..:._H. ~p-

Pia .2.
'-

_L. P.

.
/0

shown in Fig. 2. These segments rest in a g roove form ed

in the valve cover, and at t h eir other en ds abut against
a ring screwed into the valve spindle. The movement
of th e valve is small, being limited by a stop on the
spindle, and as t he diaphragms are also thoroughly
supported, they are n ot liable to injury from fatigue.
The pressure at which the val ve works is r egul a t ed by
the spring shown, arrange ments being mad e by
which the r egulating gear can be l ocked, and t a mper ing with the val ve by unauthorised p ersons prevented.
A USTRIAN MINERALS.- The value of the mineral produc
tion of Austria last yeo.r, not includ ing Hunga ry. Bosnia,
and the Herzegovina, was computed at 7,04~.85 6l. In
the Prizbram State silver mines, which are 1600 ft. d eep,
a. ne w vein has j ust been met with. It is 2ft. thick.
CATALOG UES.-W e have receivE>d from Megsrs. Bement,
Miles, and Co , of Philadelphia, U. S. A. , one of the finest
engineers' catalogue~ we ever sa:w. The paper, the P;r inting and the engravmgs are ahke perfect, and const1tute
the'book a veritable edition de luxe. There are d escrip tions, m ostly illustrated , of thirtyone lathes, the largest
b eing 125 in., of five cutting-off and cantering machines,
of a shaft-straightening machine, of a link hanger lathe,
of th 1rty planing machines, of nine sh aJ?ing machines, of
twel \e slotting m ach ines. of five milhng machines, of
thirty-seven dri~li:og machi~es, of tw~nty tbree. boring,
drillin g, and !Inllmg ma.chmes, of th1rteen ~ormg and
turning m achmes, of . four b_olt and n?t machmes, of t~n
plate bending and s~ra.1ghtem.ng mac~mes, of twenty-stx
punchin g and sh earmg machmes, bestd es a large number
of hydrauliC? machin~s and st~am hammers. Only large
sized machmes are mcluded m the catalogue, and often
one st ands for th e representati v~ of a class comprising
several examJ?les.- We have also received from the Waterhouse E lectrical Manufacturing Company, .L i~ite~, of
G7, S'>uthwar k Bricige-road, L ondon, a. descr1pt1ve h 3t of
the 'Vater house arc lamr.

[S EPT.

2 2, I 893.

provided with modern tripl e-expansion engines by Messrs.

Ma.udslay, Sons, and Field, as described on page R30
ante, made a four hours' full-power trial under forced
draught on Thursday, tb/~ ~4th inst. The ship was io
charg~ of Commander M Kmstry, and the steaming was
snpermtended by M~. Sampson, Mr. Warriner, and Mr.
Charles D e Grave Sells on behalf of the contractors
The Admiralty was represented by Mr. R . J. Butler th~
Steam R sser ve by Fleet Engineer Colquhoun and the
Dockya.~d S team D epartment by Mr. W. Rabbidge.
The engmes were worked for the four hours linked up a.
couple of inohes, and with a greater head of steam than
they could use, as it was not deemed necessary to test
them beyond the power which they were contracted to
develop. ~hey wor~ed sati~factorily throughout, the
vacuum bemg except10nally htgh and the revolutions of
both sets of engines uniform. The cards were worked out
with the following result~, from which it will be noticed
that during only one half-hour did the power indicated
fall below t he contract :

Revolutions.
Boiler
Pressurt> .

Starboard. !
lb.
145
H5
1~0

141
140
135
143
14i

Air Pres
sure.

HorsePower.

P ort.

In.

99.5
99 s
100.4
103.3
103 ~
101.5
97 5
l C.O. 7

101'.0
100.9
100 0
9~. 7

10 I. 2
102.5
97.8
101.8

.8
.9
.7
l.l
1. 1
1 15
1.4
1.1

7166
? -405
7029
7261l

75H
7172
699J
7175

The above data. ga\'e the following means: Steam in

boilers, 141.6 lb.; revolutions, 100 2 and 100.7; vacuum,
28.4 in. and 28.5 in.; indicated horse-power, starboard
3727, and 3847 port ; collective indicated horse-power,
7214 (contract power 7000). The average air pressure
was 1.03 in., th e maximum allowed being 2 in.; and the
coal consumption, 2.11b. per indicated horse- power per
On the 12rh inst. M essrs. \VjJliam Gray and Co. hour. The speed realised, as measured by pa tent log,
launched at vVest Hartlepool the Bullmouth, the sixth was 14. 56 knots.
vessel they have built for Messrs. M . Samuel and Co.'s S hell
Line, of L ond on. She is 347 ft. long by 45 ft. 6 in. beam,
On Saturday, th e 16th inst., a first-class steel torpedo
28 ft. 6 in. moulded depth, and, like the other vessels, has
been built to the plans and specifications of M es3rs. boat for Her Majesty's Navy Wa9 launched from the
Flannery, Bagga11ay, and ,Johnson, of London and Liver works of Meesrs. Laird Brothers, at Birkenhead. The
pool, for carrying oil on the ou tward voyage and general m.ach~nery is of the inverted triple-expansion type, a~d
cargo on the homeward voyage. She is su bdi vided into w1ll g1 ve great speed.
numerous tanks, with a total capacity for 5000 tons of oil.
She will be fi tttd with a most complete ins tallation of
The Centurion, which was laid down at Portsmouth in
auxilia ry e ngi n e~ , consisting of carg0-pumping, ballast, March, 1891, and engined by the Greenock Foundry Compumping, ventilating, and electric lighting machinery, as pany, went out from Spithead on the Hlth inst. for her
well as steam windlass, steering gear, and six steam ?ontractors' eight ~ours' trial with natural dr$l.ught. S he
winches, and a complete arrangement of cargo-lifting ts of 10,500 tons d isplacement, and forms, with her sister
gear for quick discharge of gen er.,.,l cargo. The engines ship, the Barfieur, a. distinct type of first-dass battleship.
an d boilers will be ti tted by the Central 1vlarine Engine Of light draught compared with most armourclads of her
Works Company, and will be of large power, and capable size, she was designed to be able to pasa through the Suez
of driving the ship at fully 10 knot s at sea, special atten- Canal wi th a. large quantity of coal on Loard, being in all
t ion having been gi v~n to draught and ventilation in the other respects fully laden. H er mean load immersion is
hot climates in which she is designed to trade.
25 ft. 6 in., and her est imated speed in this condition,
- -under na tural draught is 17 knots. Her trim on trial was
The tri ple-screw protct ed cruiser M inneapolis has 25ft. forward and 26ft. aft, so that the average draught
been launchf d for the Governn1ent of the U nited States was exactly that of h er de.~ign edd raught. The trial proved
at M essrs. Cramp's Yard, Philadelphia. Intend ed t o eminen tly satisfactory. \ Vi th a boiler pressure of 14G~ Jb.
serve as a "commerce debtroyer, " ~ he is a st eP.l vAsseJ, and a mean of 96 revolutions the starboard engine dever~markable alike for siz , for speed, and for armamen t. loped 4785 and the port engine 4918 horse~, or a tGtal colThe chief dimensions and particulars of her are : L ength lective horse-power of 9703. The contract was for 900(1.
on load line, 412 ft. ; mould ed beam, 58 ft. 2 in. ; mea n The mean air-pressure amounted t o 0.18 in., and the coal
normal draught, 23 ft .; displacement, 7550 t ons; indi- consumption to 1. 9lb. J?er indicated horse power per hour.
cated horse-power, 21,000; extreme speed, 22 knots; coal The average speed reah sed during the eight hours' steamcapacity with normal draught, 750 tons ; maximum coal ing was 17! knots by Jog.
capacity, 2000 t ons; radius of action a u 10 knots, 26,240
miles ; guaranteed sea speed, 21 knots. The magazines,
TECHNICAL COLLEGES.-The sessions of t he various
engine-rooms, and vitals are protected by an over-all
steel deck, varying from 2! in. t o 4 in. thick. One screw technical schools and colleges !l.re about commencing. W e
is immediately before th e rudder, on the centre line of have received calendars from the Glasgow and West of
the ship, and is a four-bladed screw of 10 deg. more pitch Scotland T echnical College; th e Durham College of
than the two others, which are placed one on each quar- Science; U ni versity College, Li verpool; University
ter, 15 ft. forward of the middle screw and 4 ft. 6 in. College, Nottin~h am; the City of London College,
above it. These are tri.Ple-bladed. Each screw has Moorfields ; and U ni versi ty College, Bri:stol, All t hese
independent triple-ex paos10n vertical inverted engines. can be obtained from the respective registrars, the price
With the middle screw alone a speed of 15 knots can be in no case exceeding 1s. Many of them are small volumes
attained ; with the quarter screws alone a speed of nearly giving accounts of the objects of the colleges, besides
19 knots. The cylinders are 42 in., 59 in., and 92 in . in particulars of the curricula.
diamet er, for high, intermediate, and low pressure respecLENGTHRNING A L ARGE OcEAN STEAMER. - The North
tively, and 42-in. stroke. Steam is supplied by eight main
boilers, placed in four separate compartments, and carry- German Lloyd 's mail steamer Bayern, which has just
ing 160 lb. per square inch as their working pressure. gone out from Southampton for China has been lengt hened
They are double-ended, 21 ft. 3 in. long and 11 ft. 8 in. to the extent of 50 ft., and her tonnage increased to
in dtameter, with eight 42in. corrugated furnace flues, 5600 t ons. The vessel was found too small fOl' the
and 1128 st eel 21-in. tubes. The t otal beating surface is eastern trade, and it was decided t o lE>ngthen her, an d
43,269 square feet, and the t otal gra t e surface 1285 square the ship was banded over to Messrs. Blobm and Voss,
feet. The estimated number of revolutions for extreme in Hamburg. She was placed in dry dock, and was
speed is 129 a. minute. The armament, in addition to six severed amidships forward of the engine- room. The fore
t orpedo ejectors, is to be composed of one 8-in. 15-ton part was drawn forward 50 ft. by specially devised hy250-pounderrifled breechloader, two 6-in. 6-t on lOO-pounder draulic gear, and a complete wa.tertight compartm ent
rifled breechloaders, twelve 4-in. 1. 5-ton 33-pounder quick- 50 ft. long built to con nect the two parts, and the necessary
firing, sixteen 2 24-in. 8-cwt. 6-pounder quick -firing, strengthening effected. The Ba.yern is now 450 ft. long,
eight 1 46-in. 73-lb. 1-pounder quick-fi ring, and four and in the new part a main ealoon was reconstructed, the
Gatling machine guns. The 8-in. gun will be mounted other public rooms being rearranged and enlarged. The
as a. chaser; the 6-in. guns will be mounted one on addition to the cargo-carrying capacity is 8476 cubic feet,
each bow; the 4-in. guns will constitute the broadside while a larger num ber of passengers may be carried. A
armament. The 8-in. and 6-in. guns have heavy steel sister ship, the Sacbsen, is now being lengthened in the
shields attached t o their mountings, and in the wake of same way. Of course many such lengthening operations
the remaining guns the ship's sides carry 4-in. and 2-in. have been carri ed out, the P. and 0. Company having
nickel steel plates. The subdivisions of the vessel, which lengthened several of th eir boats in recent years, while
is furnished with a ram, are so arranged as t o form a com- the U nion Company are having the Moor lengthened
by Messrs. T homeon. Nevertheless this is another st(-)p
plete double hull below the water line.
forward of the German shipbuilders, for nothing of t his
--T he double turret ship Devastation, which has been nature on such a. scale has hitherto been tri ed.

S EPT. 22,

1893]

E N G I N E E R I N G.

373

ELECTRIC LIGHTING INSTALLATION : MEDICAL ACADEMY, ST. PETERSBURG.

s.

Fig.

Fig. 4.

. . __:3_________________________
vJ

-------.~2~------------~~

'

~
'

.___v_z_ ____,

2,5,5

Atm12 I, - ~I - - - - --"'T'- - ~- - I
I

"3

"I

:2

6 . 17

- - - - - .- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

----- --~

I
I

I
I
I

Fin
. 5.
-J

I
f
I

Tr/p/1 Expansion Engint

for th1

I
I
I

I
I

I
I

I
I

Strokt. 40 0 "Ym

lltvoluto ns ptr

Mmult

17S .

Cylndt ,. I 116 I fP .

I
I

o~

550 , 850 ~"'

b iam t" of Cyltnd Prs, 340,

tight station of tht lmpuiat

Mtd cal Acatltmy. St Ptttrsburg .

1/utri c

September 10, 1891, on the hundredth anniversary of .F araday's birthday, the foundation stone was
laid at St. P etersburg of the electric light station of
the Imperial Medical Academy, and exactly one year
later, on eptember 10, 1892, the first electric light
was supplied from this station.
The first suggestion for lighting electrically the
large gathering of buildings belonging to the Imperial
Medical Academy was made by Professor Egoroff. A
committee was appointed, and its plans approved by
the Minister of \Var. The necessary buildings were
erected by the committee, and the whole installation
was ordered from the firm of Pa.dolyedoff, of St.
Pet eraburg.
The whole area is about 1! by l~ versts (one square
mile), and the syatem chosen was high-tension, a lternate current, with transformers. The station is
situated on the Neva, to facilitate the supply of water
and coal. The greatest distance to the outer buildings
is about 2000 metres (2200 yards). 'l'he losses in cables
were allowed for as follows : In the primary cables, 2
per cent. ; in the secondary cables, 2 per cent. ; in
dynamo and transformers, 8 per cent. ; altogether, 12
per cent. The ins tallation comprises at the present
moment three water-tube boilers of theFitznerand Ga.mper system, each of 160 square metres heating surface
(1722 square feet), and 12 to 13 atmospheres working
pressure ; space is left for an additional boiler. The
wa.ter for condensation is taken from a well connected
with the river by a 12-iu. diameter tube. The

11

11

:&:

106

Ill .. 114

station are naked silicium bronze wires running over

the top of the buildings, and protected over streetcrossings with a light armature, and secured there to
strong steel wires. The insulators are provided with
oil filling. The main leads enter the transformers
installe.d i_n well-closed boxes on t he upper st oreys of
the bUildmgs, and from here the secondary leads go
as usual, to the lamps.
'
ome t ime ago a long and exhaustive trial was made
to prove the efficiency of the engines a.ncl the mean
results are given below:
'
Boiler pressure . ..
...
. ..
. .. 10 t o 11 a t mos,
Revolutions per minute
...
. ..
175
Indicated horse-power, about
.. .
350
Water per indicated horse-power per
hour ...
.. .. . 6.08 kilog.

Coals per indicated horse-power pel'

bour

"

.,

39 6 OP

steam from all boilers enters a large steam collector,

and goes then through a. separator to each engine. The
engines are vertical triple-expansion engines by Mr.
F. Schichau, of Elbing, each of about 350 horse-power
indicated. Two are in work at the present time, and
t he foundations have been laid out for a third. Each
engine is fitted with a very sensitive governor, and
is coupled up directly to a large dynamo constructed by
Messrs. Ganz and Co., Budapest, capable of an output of
200,000 watts with 2000 volts. The engines are of Mr.
chichau's well-known marine type, entirely with steel
framing, and work exceedingly smoothly and steadily.
In case of need, the exhaust may be taken to the atmosphere by simply shifting the exhaust valve on the
condenser. The normal number of revolutions is 175
per minute, but the governor can be adjusted t o give
between certain limits any number of revolutions
desired to suit circumstances. (See Figs. 1 and 2, page
357.)
On the same shaft with the main dynamo is coupled
also a small dynamo, to give the exciting current for
the larger, and this has a capacity of 180 volts and
40 amperes. All main cables are taken below the
engine-room floor into the cellars, where also are
rooms for the storage of oil, &c. From here they enter
behind two large wooden switchboards fitted with all
necessary apparatus and instruments for regulating
and controlling the current. These boards (Figs. 3 and
4) are fitted on the wall of the engine-room, and well in
sight of the engines and dynamos. The leads outside the

. ..

...

. ..

...

. ..

1 kg. coals evaporated. ..

(13.4lb.}

0. 7 kilog.
(1.54 lb.)
8.8 kg. water

. ..
. ..
One square metre heating surface
(10.7 sqnare feet) evaporated abcut
8 kilos. water (17 .6 lb.).
It may be interesting to note that similar engines
have been supplied by Mr. Schichau to many other
large electric light stations-for example:
Hanover
.. .
. . . 4 engines at 400 horse-power
,
. ..
. .. 1
,
600
,
Altona . ..
. ..
... 2
,
450
,
Bremen
. ..
. .. 3
,
400
,
Moscow
...
. .. 4
,
250
,
St. P etersburg (among
others), for the Academy of Electricity
of the l\1ini3try of
War . ..
...
. .. 2
,
180
K onigsberg .. .
. .. 4
,
120
Zarskoe Selo . . .
... 1
250
,
Hamburg, now in hand 3
,
800
Budapest
...
. .. 2
,
400
,
Columbian Exhibition
&c. .. .
. ..
. .. 1
,
1000

"

INDUSTRIAL NOTES.
report of t he Labour Department of the Board
of Trade enables us to take stock of the conditions of
the labour market, and to compare the returns of unemployed with the returns last year at the same date.
The comparison is not encouraging from a. labour
trading, or commercial point of view. Laijt year th~
percentage of unemployed in January was only a little
more than 4 per cent. It did not rise to more than 6
per ce.n~. till May, and f~ll to 5 per cent. in August,
then nsmg to 9 per cent. 1n December. This year the
proportion of unemployed in the societies reporting
began with 10 per cent. in January, falling to 6 per
cent. in June, and then beginning to rise to 7 per cent.
in August. Now the percentage is even higher and it
bids fc.ir to exceed the higher figures ere the' winter
THE

374

E N G I N E E R I N G.

[S EPT.

22, I

893.

sea9on is upon n.s. The l~rges~ p ercentage of unem mise of an advance at a sub3equent date of another 1s. f by the boot and shoe operat ives. At a joint committee
ployed ha s been 10 the ~ngmeermg and the iron and per day .
of all sections of both the great u nions the following
stee~ trades generally. 1n a.ll the branches, the proT he expectation that some modus ttilendi would be 1 prog r amme was decided upon as instructions to be
p or t ton out of work m which wag 10.7 per cent. found whereby the miners' dispute might be adjusted given to the whole of the members: I. That no man
of the total: In one year only, that of 1879, was has been rudely set aside by the conclusions of the shall work more than 54 hours p er week. 2. That no
t hat proport10n excee.ded. Of course, the t otal out: conference held at Nottingham during the latt er part man shall work other than on the employers' premises.
of work has. b een mcreased . by. the stoppage of I of last week. The ballot of the miners has been a 3. That no day-worki ng !aster or finisher shall work
th.e coal supphes, and the quest10~ 1s, To wh~t extent I remarkable one i.n some respects. The decision arrived for less than 30s. p er week. 4. That no day -worker
w1ll the settlement of the coal d1spute rev1ve those at wa.s "to remam firm " or in other words "starve in connection with welted work shall W<Jrk for less
1
branches of trade ? The shipbuild ing prospects have r ather than surrende/" The ballot was taken on than 35s. per week. 5. That no piece-work er shall
1
b ecome better, a:nd with increasing employment in three q ues tions, as follows: 1. ' Vould the men work for less than the minimum statement of wages.
those bran~hes w11l come a corresponding increase in I agree t o 25 p er cent. reduction in wages or any part 6. That no direct reduG tion of wages be submitted to
all .th~ sect10ns of ~ a~dicraft connect~d with iron ship- thereof ? Reply : For, 226; against, 145,195; under any circumstances. The far-reaching effects of
bU1ldmg. The bU1l~mg trades contmue to be busy, majority against, 144,969. 2. Would the men accept this important decision will operate all over th e United
o~lY. 2.6 p er cent. bet.n g out of work. But the fur- the employer s' offer of arbitration ? Reply: Yes, 406; Kingdom , wherever th e unions have branches. " 1 hether
n1~h1~g trades h ave nsen from 4.6 to ~ 9 per cent., the No, 141,566; m ajority in the negative, 141, 160. the objects can be attained without a great strike
pnntmg trades from 3.3 to 6.3, wlule the clothing 3. hall the men resume work where they can do so remains t o be seen.
trad es, _the boot and shoe tra~es, and some others are j at the old r~te. of wa:ges? Reply : Yes, 61,496 ; No,
vary qutet. The cotton trade ts rather busy, but t he 92,246; maJonty agam st, 30,750. The final resolution
The increased activity in the labour departments
woollen trades are slack, especially for this time of the adopted, in view of the ballot, as the fi nal decision on of the tat e is caus ing great pressure to be put upon
year, when, usually, the winter goods are being man u- the p oints raised, said: "At the same time we ar e pre- all members of Parhament, whether or not they
fe,ct ured.
pared t o return to work at the old rate of wages, and we represent t he constit uencies affected- that is t o say,
will meet the owners to dis cuss, in the interests of trade, the constituencies like ' Vool wich, Enfield, Chatham,
the necessity of their demand being withdrawn. " This and all the dockyard centres. In this connection some
The labour d isputes during the p~st month have not part of the resolution means that the men are willing searching inquiry by an independent tribunal will have
largely increased ; 59 were r eported, as against 5.3 in to resume work in a body at all collieries, but not in to tak e place, or we shall drift into chaos. The men
the month previous, and 71 in June. Of the t otal of isolated cases or in particular districts. " All or who have p ermauent and prospective advantages,
59 no less than 14 are s tated to b e in the mining none " is the phrase used by the leaders and the men. above and beyond the mere rates of wages, wi11 not be
trades, 12 in t he textile trades, nine in the building But a ppar ently the principle is not to be applied able to obtain, in ad dition, furth er advances in rates
trades, seven in t he metal trade~, four in th e clothing sever ely, for there was no r esolution passed condemn- of pay and red uctions Cif working hou rs, unless those
trades, and t hree in the shipbuilding trad es. The other ing the m en who have resumed work at the old rates, privileges are taken into account. In a private firm
ten were in miscellaneous industries. The aggregate and at Brierley Hill and some other collieries arrange- they have their weekly wages, for the time worked,
number of men involved in those disputes is stated to ments were made ere the close of last week to re-start and no more. The value of all pensions, holidays,
have been 116,898, of whom no less than 113,890 were on Monday, which was done in several instances. The gratuities in certain cases, sick attendance, and often
connected with mining, so that all the other disputes tw entieth r ule of the federation practically asserts sick allowance, must be taken into account. Otheraffected only just over iWOO. The t ables relating t o " all work or none, " and even in the districts where wise we are simply pampering the " servants of the
the state of trade in the chief industries show only there is most suffering the men are loyal to that prin - State" at the expense of t he t axpayer. The nation
5 p er cent. of the members of t he engineering and ciple. But there ought to be another rule t o make the is prepared to do what is just, but there will be a
cognate industries t o b e working under conditions former one just. All should share whatever funds reaction if more than is j ust is demanded.
' ' fair" to ''very good ; '' in the boot and shoe trades only there may be in the aggregate districts, so that the
9 p er cent., in the furnishing trad es 13 per cent., in the suffering and privation should be equalised.
T he annual conference of the Dockers' Union held in
printing trades only 11 per cent., but in the building
Bris tol during the past week evinces a slight reviva l
trades there were 48 per cent. On the other hand, t he
In all districts the coal dispute is in fluencing and in the activity of that union. For the most part the
p ercentage of member3 working under conditions of affecting the engineering, iron and steel, and all proceedings were in private, the reports given to the
"very cl ull" to" very bad, " leaving out the intermediate cognate industries. In Lancashire the general condi press being officia l. Of course they were guarded in
conditions of "moderate'' or '' quiet ," were 67 per cent. tion of the engineering trad es may be described as so far as the incidents of debate were concerned,
in the eng ineering trades, 69 per cent. in t he printing moderate. There is only a slight increase as yet in though the general conclusions were made pu blic, or
trades, 54 per cent. in the boot and shoe trades, 52 p er the number of unemployed in any of the branches. t hey leaked out from time t o ti me by interviews with
cent. in the furnishin g trades, and only 20 per cent. in To all appearance t he whole increase is due, not t o the delegates. The cash account 5howed t hat the
the building trades. The dim inution of t he unemployed any further depression in t rade, but to the scarcity of income for the past half-year was 41 54l. 6s. 9d. ; t he
in Durham and Northumberland has been from 2. 1 fuel, a.nd t o the uncertainty which bangs over all expenditure was 8015l. Ss. 8d. ; so t hat the expendi
p er cent. to 1.1 per cent. by reason of the miners having branches of industry. The Liverpool d is trict is ad- ture was nearly double the income. But the reresolved to continue working. The p auperism returns versely affected, large nu m hers of men being out of work ported balance in hand, including the val ue of assets,
of the selected districts affected hy the coal dispute on both sides of the :M ersey. In the chemical working was stated to be 3475l., besides 800l. value of goods,
and districts affected show an increase from 297,078 districts of t. Helens, R uncorn, and ' Vidnes the &c. The Recretary reported that over a million stert o 299,699, or from 203 per 10,000 to 205 p er 10,000. works generally are at a standstill. A t Barrow-in- ling had been added to the wages of t he dockers by the
As compared with the corresponding mont h of last Furness the engineering t rades are so slack t hat quite action of the union, and that a. standard of wages had
year, thP. increase was 17, 106, or 12 p er 10, (J00. This 20 per cent. are unemployed .
hipbuilding is in a been fixed, t ogether with rates for overtime. Of the
increase is not grea t considering the state of trad e, very bad state; no fresh orders are coming in. T he total E-xpenditure, over 2299l. were expended on labour
apart f rom t he coal strike.
iron and steel trades ar e in a depressed condition, disputes in the half-year. The conference unanimously
though as regards coal t hey are better off than in some passed a resolution in favour of arbitration boards
for the settlement of labour disputes. The chairman,
other districts.
'he Labou1 Ga:,t>tte continues its synopsis of the
however, intimated in his speech on the su bject that
history of the coal dispute, and its official fig ures im ply
In the ' Vol verhampton district the cond it ion of the only real way was by fightin g the matter out. It
that t h e aggregat e number of persons involved was not trade is fairly good and healthy. The mills and fur- is very curious that arbitration is nearly al ways
so great as previously stated in the numerous r eports naces are in full oper ation, as coal is obtainable affirmed as a principle, but very seldom ap plied in
p ublished in the newspaper s.
from the adjoining collieries, at an enhanced, al. practice. Resolutions were also passed in favour of
The actual condition of affairs up to the meeting of t hough not prohibit ive, price. Under ex isting circum- t he inspection of machinery, in condemnation of th e
the confer ence of Federat ed Miner s, held at Notting- stances there is no anxiety t o boo k new orders, as use of the military in labou r disputes, and some other
ham towards the close of last week, was as follows : prices are going up, and t he further stagnation in matt ers. No official s tatemen t was made public as to
The Durham miners, after conferences with the coal- other districts may give a fi llip to trade where the t he actual numerical strength of th e union . The
owners with respect t o the ad vance in wages proposed coal dispute is not causing so much inconvenience. In most imposing parts of the conference were th e two
by the men, contin ued at work pending w hatever nearly all branches t rade is b risk. .~ teel plates and full-dress parades, or d emonstrations. The Dockers
might be don e by subsequen t interviews or by confer- billets are in active request, and gal vanising sheets and and some other bodies are always well to the front in
ences wit h other miners' associations. The attitude tin sheets are in demand. the latter on account of the t hese demonstrations. But the real power of a. trade
of t he Durham men was the r esult of a n intimation to li mited supply from the W elsh districts. Prices in all union consists in organisation and financial resources,
the effect that a strike would probably be followed by cases are firm, in most, if not all, with an upward rather than in public performances where a few men
can be seen and heard. Singularly enough, we seldom
a reduction instead of an advance, as the selling price tendency.
hear of great demonstrations in the engineers, steam
of coal did not justify the latter at the present moment.
In the S heffield and Rotherham district trade is engine makers, boilermakers and iron shipbuilders,
~ ince the date of that interview, however , the prices
have advanced in consequence of the scarcity of coal nearly at a standstill in many cases, owing to the non- carpenters and joiners, masons, bricklayers, and a host
in other d istricts, and the higher prices r ealised for supply of fuel, though at Rotherham t he pinch has not of other well-organised trades. They are chiefly
fuel from other q uarters.
The attitude of the yet been felt very severely, on account of t he large resorted to by the less organised.
Northumberland men was even a little more deter- stock~ which had been secured. In t his district the
mined, for by t he votes of the association a levy was stove-grate, baths, a nd general joiners' and houseTHE MAN U F ACT URE AND TESTING OF
r efused to the federation men on strike. In both these fittin gs trades con t inue bu~y, by reason of the actidty
PORTLA ND CEMENT. *
districts the men continued at work at th e reduced in t he building trad es.
rates paid at the date of the dispute. In Cumberland
(Concluded from page 346.)
T he miners in France and Belgiu m seem d etermined
the men were at work at the 10 per cent. advance,
T HE causes which affect the setting of a. cement are.
their further demands not being assented to. In to try to bel p the British miner in his struggles and better primarily the proportions to ea.oh other of the materials
1
Staffordshire a portion of the men a.re under contract ; t heir own condition at the same t ime. At one t ime it of which 1t
is COIDJ?OSed, and, secondly, the degree of
these remained at work. In some other parts of the was t hought that the strike would be partial only , but their chemical a.ffimty, or in other words, the degree or
Midlands the men r esumed work at t he old rates matters have developed, and i t is probi:i.ble t hat the manner of calcination to which they have been subjected.
In former days a very slow setting cement was sup
p ending a settle~lent. In ' Vales .the strike has col- districts will declare for a general strike. It is not
lapsed the men m most cases havmg r esumed work expected t hat the Continental strike will gr eatly posed to be so, because it contained a. very large per
on t he' sliding scale rates as deter mined at the last ~s affect the struggle in this country, but some supplies centage of lime. This is true on]y so far that a cement
containing
a
large
percentage
of
lime
will
probably
for
shipping purposes have been secured already, be slow setting, but the slow setting nature of a cement
certainment. In the Forest of Dean a compromtse
was effected while the N ottingbam conference was especially for the Continental ser vioe from British may be due to many other causes, and the most
sittina the whole of the men to r esume work on the ports. Some of the British rail way compa.ni~s are also marked of these is the degree of calcination to which
follo v~'i'ng Monday, which they did accordingly. In getting consignments from Belgium, as the supplies are
the cotch coalfields the disputes generally had fa lling short on some of the great trunk lines.
* Abstract of E._aper read by Mr. Henry Faija.,
subsided by the date of the conference; in some districts
M.I.C.E., at the International Engineering Congress,
A most important forward movement has been made Chica~o.
an advance of l a. per day was granted, with the pro

SEPT. 22,

1893]

it has been subjected. Given any combination of lim~,

silica, and alumina., which falls within the limits of _a.n
ordinary Portland cement compound, the degree to whtcb
it is calcined will mo.ke it, within limits dep endent on its
composition, either a quick or a slow setting cement.
The percenta.ge of a.lumina. and iron again will affect the
setting of a cement to a great extent.
Independently, howe ver, of the chemical composition
a.nd calcination of a cement, there are other matters, of a
purely mechan ical nature, which affect the setting powers
of a. cement. The age of a cement is perha.ps the most
important, and there are one or two peculiarities in this;
a cement when first ground may generally be gauged very
eaCJily with a comparatively small quantity of water, but
wh~n that cement has been in the warehouse for twentyfour hours it may be almost impossible to gauge it, as it
sets or commences to set a lmost directly the water is
added ; after this p eriod, however, the cement gradually
becomes slower setting, and even a very quick setting
cement will in a few months become quite slow enough
for all ordinary purposes.
The tensile strength of a cement is the t est which is
generally considered t o most accurately define its value
for constructive purpo~ es.
A qui<:k setting cement
naturally attains greater strength in a shorter period
than a. slower setting one1 but a slow satting cement has
probably the greater ultimate strength.
The manner of carrying out this test is to gauge
briquettes in gun-metal moulds, having a. sectional area.
at the smallest part of one squa.re inch ; the briquettes,
a fter being left in the moulds for twenty-four hours in
order to become perfectly set, are removed and placed in
tanks of water, in which they are allowed to remain
until they are to ba tested. The usual and most convenient p eriods t o test the briquettes for tensile strength,
are at the expiration of three and seven days from the
time of gauging. It is usual to make five briquettes to
te t a.t each date, and the average strength of the five is
taken as representing the tensile strength of the cement
at \.hose per iods. It is also, perhaps, desirable to occa
sionally make briquettes to test at a. longer date, usually
twenty-eight days, as by that means a corroboration of
the opinion formed of the cement at the expiration of the
seven days' test may be obtained.
It is difficult to define any ha.rd and fast rule which
should govern the increase in the strength of a. cement
bstween the three and seven days' test. ~Ia.ny quick
setting cements will carry a. tensile strain of 400 lb. on
the inch section at the expiration of three days from
gauging, and will probably carry 500 lb. a.t the expiration
of seven days; this would show a n increase of 25 per
cent., and is perhaps as much as can be expected from a
cement which develops a very high tensile strength at the
early date. A slow setting cement will probably at the
three days' test not carry more than 300 lb. on the square
inch, and perha.p" 460 lb. ail the expiration of seven days
from gauging, which would represent an increa.3e in
tensile strength of about 50 per <'ent. It is a lso known
from experience that most slow setting cements will con tinue to increase in strength for a. much longer period
than the quicker setting ones, and consequen tly the
slower setting cements, under ordina ry circumstances,
will attain a. greater ulttmate strength.
It will, tb~re fore, be seen that if a slow setting cement
is required, it is not ad vi sable to demand, in a specification, too high a tensile strain at the early dates, and
possibly 350 lb. on the square inch at the se,en days' test
1s suffi cient, whereas if a quick setting cement is required,
400 lb. is nothing too much to demand.
L~tterly the author has had several specifications
before him, which, in addition to naming the mi nimum
strength at each da.te, have also defined the maximum.
T his, no doubt, has been devised with the object of
securing a certain good increase in strength between
the several dates at which the cement is te3ted, but
such a specification defeats its own object, for whereas
the best results of a cement can only be obtamed by care ful and proper manipulation in t he testing room, a lower
re3ult may be easily secured by indifferent or ca.r~less
gaugmg.
The sand test consists in gauging the cement with
three parts of sand, which should be of approved quality,
sifted to a certain si ze and properly washed and cleansed,
hub the difficulties of carrying out the test are many.
Variations in the form and hardness of the grain of sand
materiall y affect the result of the test, and the difficulties
of manipulation and of making solid briquettes render it
altogether an undesirable test to adopt, irrespective of
which the test is a long one, the briquettes not being
tested until28 days after gauging. In the author's opin ion
cement should be tested by itself, not only because tho
manipulation is considerably simpler, but because it is
unwise to introduce into a test extran eous matters and
complications which are in themselves open to consid erable
variatiQn. If it is desired to ascertain the strength of a.
mortar C)mpounded with any particular cement, then let
the cement be gauged with those aggregates and sand
wh ich are to be uaed on the work ; by this means some
definite information may be obtained as to the strength
and binding power of the mortar which is to b e used ; but
to test a cement with what it is pleased t o call a. n ormal
or standard sand, gives practically no information in this
direction, and Aimply tends to complicate and confuse an
otherwise simple test.
The fineness to which a cement is ground materially
affects its constructive value. Probably, if a. cement was
ground to an impalpable powder the beat results would
be obtained, but as it is impossible for the manufacturer to
produce this degree of fineness with the machinery at his
command, except at great cost, it is not desirable to d emand such extremely fi ne g rinding. A cement that will
all pass through & sieve having 625 holes (252) to the square
inch, and which will leave a. residue of from 5 to 8 per

375

E N G I N E E R I N G.
cent . when sifted through a. sieve having 2500 hole~ (502)
to the square inch, is for all practical constructional purposes ground fine enough.
It is now necessary to refer t o the property which it is
essential that all cements should possess, vi z., absolute
freedom from all indications of either expansion or contraction, a nd that when once set it shall in no way alter
its form, crack, or disintegrate.
The cracks, however, which are ~een in concrete work
are not always due to the use of a "blowy cement," but
may be due to constructional causes, or to the ex~ansion
and contraction of the structure due to variatiOn s in
temperature, or to the natural contraction of the mass;
and a simple cra ck in a. piece of concrete would h ardly be
indica.ti ve of a "blowy cement " unless accompanied
by o~her indications, such as friability or absolute disintegration.
Concrete or mortar, again, may disintegrate, crack, and
fall t o pieces from c tber causes than the use of a '' blowy
cement. " There are certain ma.tter3 often present in
aggregates which, by n ot allowing the cement to set properly, are antagonistic to the production of a sound concrete or mortar ; the principal of these are dirt and loam,
and there is no doubt in numerous instances the cement
has been blamed when the real fault has been either that
the aggregate with which it was used was dirtyorunsuitable, or that the concrete or mortar had been improperly
manipulated ; and a uper of cement ~hould be as careful
in his choice of aggregate, sand, and water as he is in his
choice of cement .
A cement may blow within a few hours of its being
gauged, or it may not blow until several months a fterwards. A cement may blow when it is very fresh and
newly ground, and will lose that tendency a fter it has
become aged. Some cements will blow whether they are
n ew or old.
The cause of ''blowing " in a cement is genera.lly due
to a n excess of lime in its composition, or to an imperfect
combination of the lime with th e silica and alumina. It
may, however, be due to other causes, as, for instance, to
the presence of other basic materia.ls unduly entering
into the composition of the camen t by the use of improper
raw materials. One of these, magnesia, created a considerable scare a few years ago. Sulphate of lime, or
gypsum, is another, which, although it has nob attracted
the attention of u ers like magnes ia, is more of ten found
in cements, and when in any considerably quantity, u ndoubtedly has a very great power of rendering a cement
blo wy.
Several means ha~e from time t o time been devised for
ascertaining, within the limits of time of an ordinary
teat, whether or no a cement is absolutely sound, and that
p rocess or test which was devi sed by the author some
four teen years ago is now in general use. The apparatus
in which the t eat is carried out, a nd the means of carrying out the test, are fully describPd in the Proceedings of
th e American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. xvii.,
November, 1887, in a paper which the author },ad the
honour of communicating_to that society, beaded "Portland Cement T esting." Briefl7, it is a vessel containing
water, the water being ma.intamed at an even t emperature of about 110 deg. to 115 deg. Fahr . ; there is a cover
to the vessel, so that above the water there is a moist
atmosphere which has a temperature of about 100 deg.
Fahr.
The manner of carrying out the test is by making a. pat,
in the manner already described, on a small piece of glass;
immediately the pat is gauged it is placed on a. rack in
the upper part of the vessel and is there acted upon by
the warm vapour rising from the hot water; when the pat
is set quite hard it is t aken off the rack and put bodily
into the water, which, as has already been stated, is maintained at a temperature of from llO deg. to 115 deg. Fahr.,
and in the course of twenty-four hours it is taken out a nd
examined, a nd if found then to be quite hard a nd firmly
attached to the glass, the cement may at once be pronounced sound and perfectly safe to use; if, however,
the pat has come off the gla ss a nd shows cracks or friability on the edges, or is much curved on the underside,
it may a.t once be decided that the cement in its present
condition is n ot tit for Ue ; the blowing, however, may
only be due to the extreme freshness of the sample, and
though a. cement in its fresh condition is unfit to u se, it
may be a. perfectly ~ood cement when aged, and in ord er
tha t a cement should not be condemned un justly it is
advisable in the event of a cement showing a tendency
to 'blow on the first experiment, to lay some of it out
in a. very thin layer on a. tray, so that it may be
thoroughly cooled, a nd in the course of a few days
another pat should be made and treated in a. similar
manner ; if this pat g-oes thro\tgh the ordeal successfully
and is perfectly sound, it may be fairly assumed that the
cement only requires ageing to be a. perfectly useful one ;
if, on the other hand, the second test proves unsatisfa.ctory, it would not be advisable to use the cement. A
cem ent may show indications of blowing while it is on
the rack in the mois t beat of the vessel ; if this happens
it is needless to say that n o corroborative test ia required,
the cement must be absolutely worthless.
It is hardl y possible to dismiss the subject of the soundness of cement without reverting to a test that was suggested some three years ago by M. Deval, and which was
reported upon by M. De Chatelaine, anci known as
the "hot test." It consisted in gauging briquettes
in the ordinary way, either naat or with sand,
and when they were set, placing them in water
whieh was kept at a temperature of 80 deg. Cent.
(i.e., about 177 deg. Fahr. ), and it was main~a.ined that
by so treating a briquette, the strength due to twentyeight days, as carried out in the ordinary way, was atta.ined by this method in considerably less time, and
thereby the constructive value of a. cement could be more
quickly a scertained. h was also maintained that this

treatment of a cement determined whether it was a sound

cement or not, for if the briquettes did not stand this
excessive ternperatur~, but cracked or became soft, then it
was a sserted that the cement was an unsound one.
' Vhen the author devised his apparatus for determining
the soundness of a cement, which has already been
described, he naturally had to make a great num ber of
experiments before deciding on a. t emperature which it
was ad vi sable to adopt, and he then found that although
some cements would bear being almost boiled, many
cements, that were in every respect good and sound
cements, would not stand the mvist a.tmos{>here and sub
s~quent warm bath if the temperature wash1gher than that
which he adopt~ vi z., 11Gdeg. Fahr. for t he bath ; he there
fore, wh en M. JJeval's test was made public, made a long
series of experiments to satisfy himself that he had made
no false deduction in his previous experiments. The
conclusions which he arrived at after these experiments
with the "hot teat " were the following:
1. That if a cement was really blowy his ow n appa
ratus showed it equally with the hot test.
2. That the induration of a good cement was ha st~n ed
as mucht and sometimes more, by immersing the briquettes 10 water maintained ab the comparatively low
t emperature of 11G deg. Fahr., as when immersed in a
bath at the enormous temperature of 177 deg. Fahr.
3. That no "fully " Hmed, as distinguished frvm "over,"
limed cements would withstand t he "hot test, " but that
all fully or over clayed cements would stand it, and that
consequently the test a cted prejudicially to what is
accepted as a good cement, and gave preference to the
over-clayed and quick setting ones.
4. That nearly a.ny cement that had been aged suffi.
ciently would stand the hot test.
As the result of tbe!e experiments, the author came to
the con clusion that the hot test could hardly be con
sidered a satisfactory test, and as the test has not made
any great headway with either users or manufacturers, it
seems that the conclusion he arrived at was fully
justified .
In conclusion, the author begs to submit the following
notes on samphng and cement test in~ for the considera
tion of cement users. The specificatiOn is one which he
has now adopted for Eeveral years, and finds that it in
every way satisfies the requirements, and insur es the delivery of a good cement.
Sampling.-When it is required to take a sampl e of
cement for testing, it is desirable, in order to secure a fair
average sample, to take a small quantity from several out
of every hundred barrels or sack$, or the ~qui valent in
bulk, and mix them all well together before taking the
quantity required for testing, the samples being taken
well from th e centre of the sacks, barrels or bulk, and
not from the surface, as that portion may have been accidentally damaged. When sampling from fresh or new
cement, it is always advisable to cool it by laying it out
iu a thin layer for a few days, before putting the test in
band.
Gauging and Manipulation.- T o obtai n the best results,
the minimum of water should in all cases be used when
gauging cement.
Small experimental pats should be
made with a weighed quantity of cement and a. measured quantity of water, in order to determine the
exact amount of water required to properly gauge the
particular sample under consideration. Having arrived
a.t this kno wledge, a. sufficient quantity of cement for
filli ng a nest of moulds should be weighed out and
the proper amount of wat&r added thereto. It should
then be gaugad with a trowel to the proper consistency,
and filled into the moulds, being lightly rammed and
gently shaken in order to remove a.ll a.ir bubbles. The
briquettes should then be smoothed off a nd placed on one
side. The whole operation from the time of adding the
water to the cement to placing the briquettes on one side
should not exceed five or six minutes. The briquettes
should be removed from the moulds at the expiration of
twenty -four hours from gauging, and placed in water
where they should remain until due for testing. It
customary to determine the tensile strength at the different dates by the average of five briquettes at each
date.
Three pats should be made on pieces of glass or other
non -porous substance, and their behaviour watched under
the following conditions : Pat No. 1 may be left in the
Air, a.nd No. 2 should be put in water as soon as it is set
hard. Pat No. 3 should be treated in the apparatus for
determinin g the Roundness of cement.

i;

SPECIFICATION.
No. 1. Finene~s.-To be such that the cement will pass
~brough a sieve having 625 holes (2~2) to the square
m ch, and lea,e only 8 per cent. reatdue when sifted
through a sieve having 2500 holes (502) to the square inch.
No. 2. Expansion or Contraction.-That a. pa.t made and
submit ted to moist heat and warm water at the temperature~ and in the a{>paratus alrea~y described, shall show
no s1gns of expansiOn or contra.ct10n {blowing) in twentyfour hours.
No. 3. T ensile Strenoth.-Briquettes which have been
gauged, treated, and tested in the prescribed manner to
carry an average tensile strain, without fracture, of at
least 250 lb. ~r square inch at the expiration of three
days from gaugmg ; and those tested a.t t he expira.tion of
seven days from gauging to show an increase of at least

~f a twenty-eight days' t est is required, the average

tensile strength should be at least 450 lb. per square inch

and it muab be n ot ed that the increase in strength deve~
loped between the different dates is a n indication of the
growing strength of the cement, acd admits of an approximation being formed of its ultimate strength but
1t is impossible to lay down any bard and fast rule ~s to
what the increase between the different dates should be ;

LSEPT.

ENGINEERING
per cent. over the strength of those at three days, but to
carry a.n average tensile strain of at least 350 lb. per
square inch.
The strain should be applied to the briquette ab the
rate of 400 lb. per minute.

THE DISPOSAL OF REFUSE.*

IT was with some reluctance that I accepted the invitation to read a paper upon the" Disposal of Refuse" before
the members of this important Asc:~ooiation. Although
anxious to add to the large store of very valuable papers
read before this learned body, I felt doubtful whether the
matter I should be able to produce would be sufficiently
new and useful to interest 1ts members, and therefore I
hope to be forgiv~n if portions of m~ remarks be considered old or umml>ortant. The subJect has so often
been before the pubhc in the form of papers S~nd reports
given by able men, that it appears difficult to. record new
and interesting matter. I also felt some dtfficulty, as
being the inventor of appliances for the treatment of
r~fuse, lest my r emarks upon the subj~ct might appear
biassed in one direction ; but as N ottmgbam can lay
claim to the first man who successfully coped with the
treatment of refuse, I came to the conclusion that ~ome
thing should be done to show that we bad not only mtroduced and helped to develop modern methods, but bad
kept level with the times, and, if possible, thrown further
light upon this important subject.
It is, I think, generally known and acknowledged
that when the late Mr. Alfred Fryer entered the field of
operations some eighteen years a~o, the crude methods
then in use were far from satlSfactory. Dry house
refuse mixed refuse, excrementitious matter, and sewage
refuse' treatment had been in the experimental stage f~r
some time, bub no one had shown t o the world that 1t
was possible to deal. with these objectic;mable matt~rs
without creating a nUlsance, and the apphances then mtraduced were only used at a very heavy cost to the ratepayers. At ~hat time the pa~l sy_stem was believed t? be
the right thing by most samtanans. The CorporatiOns
of Manchester, Oldbam, Rocbdale, Halifax, Nottingham,
and some smaller towns, were spending enormous sums in
its introduction, and there is no doubt in my mind that
the pail system was then a very important advance upon
the midden system. The old midden system was far
different to what is called the midden system now, as
formerly the authorities appeared to have no restrictions
upon the size of caverns made to receive ashes and other
refuse from houses, int.o which the excrementitious matter
from a large number of closets was discharged. Many of
these held refuse of this kind from over 100 people,
accumulatin~ for two or three months, and decomposing
and giving off germs ?f disease, not o~ly from deco~posi
tion1 but also from mfe)ted people, m the very mtdst of
the mbabitants. At times even these dreadful dens of
infection were so much overladen that the filth has been
piled against the walls of human dwellings, and required
repeated applications to the authorities in order to obtain
removal ; the stench of this dangerous filth was beyond
description, and the whole neighbourhood became surcharged wi~h fou! air, and t~us ?elpe~ the propagation
of disease, tf not 1tself producmg mfect10n.
Although most of Mr. Fryer's inventions dealt with
refuse in a more divided form, as resulting from the introduction of the pail system, he also provided for the
treatment of refuse from these foul middens. He devised appliances by which the. top portion of the cavern
midden refuse could be burnt m a destructor furnace, and
he devised a process to d~al with the slop portion, ~hich
consisted of a small port10n of ashes, a large quanttty of
urine with a proportionate amount of solid excrement.
His a,'pparatus for dealing with the latter was similar in
some respects to _apparatus be had invet;:tt~cJ for ~he
evaporation of mol8ture from sugar cane Jutce, which
apparatus had then been largely introduced into the
West Indies, and produced a portable sugar named
'' Fryer's concrete."
This machine consisted of a revolving cylinder having
a central shaft, supporting plate iron volutes with several
thousand feet of surface, and the liquid material was fed
into these cylinders at one end, and discharged at the
other by an ingenious ~rrangement of lifting po~ke_t s
acting in the form of a mrcular elevator. As the hqUld
containing a certain amount of solids was passing through
the cylinder, a current of ~ot air, or of. tb~ products of
combustion from the burmng of refuse m hts destructor,
were drawn from the cylinder by means of a fan, and the
moisture carried along with the current. Mr. Fryer's
object was to obtain heated gases co~taining sulphurous
fumes given off from the refuse1 whtch helped to fix the
ammonia contained in the liqutd excrementious matter.
These gases aD;d hea~ed air were very off~nsive after
leaving the drymg cylinder, and, to avotd nmsance, they
were led into a condenser, and afterwards to the furnane
fires. The residue came out in the form of a black powder
containing fine ashes and a large amount of salts of ammonium, phosphoric acid, insoluble phosphoric acid, and ohloa slow setting cement will probably increase 50 per cent.
between the three and seven days' test, and 25 per cent.
between the seven and 28 days, whereas a quick setting
cement may increase but very little. All cements should,
however show an appreciable increase in strength
between' the different dates, but as the increase in
strength is not so great with q~ick setting cements. as
with slow setting ones, the tensile strength of a qmok
setting cement should be greater at the shorter. dates t~an
a slow setting one. All cemen~s, more espe01all;r qmck
setting ones, become _slower settmg and generally 1mprove
in tensile strength With age.
* Abstract of paper read before the British Association
at Nottingham, by Mr. Wm. Warner, A.M.I.C.E.

rides of potassium and potash, which are valuable fertilisers.

The change so promptly brought_about by sanitary a?thorities from the midden to the patl system, and agam to
water carriage, together with the expense in this mode
of treatment, prevented these appliances from general
adoption.
Mr. Fryer, however, brought his skill t_o bear in perfecting his other invention for dealing w1th the matter
produced in systems then taking precedence, and he
turned his attention to the treatment of pure excrementitious matter collected from pail closets, and also to
the treatment of refuse collected from ash tubs, from the
new style of midden (which only contained about one
week's output).
The middens being built above the
groand level, and having only capacity t o allow of
small accumulation, minus urine and rain water, the
refuse may be termed "dry refuse." It has been
found by experiments, that excrementitious matter,
when' kept> entirely separate, will produce a very
valuable manure, the price being regulated by the nitrate
market. This concentrated manure is worth at the
present time 6t. per ton, and those towns keeping the pail
contents pure, and treating it in the best ap,Paratus, have
shown a fair revenue. The towns of Birmmgham, Stafford, R ochdale, and Warrington have benefited to a very
large extent by machinery producing concentrated manure
upon the lines invented by :lVIr. Fryer. and are now selling it at about Gl. per ton, against an average cost of 3l.
for labour and interest on capital expended on plant. It
is, however, only fair to state that the extra cost of collection is greater than the 3l. per ton saved in its manufacture. It is questionable whether the concentrated
manure produced at Manchester has been a source of
revenue m manufacture, entirely owing to the details of
pail closet arrangement, whereby certain portions of fine
ashes are deposited in the pails, and thus the contents
are adulterated. The principal features of Fryer's treatment of crude excrementitious matter, consisted mainly
of apparatus similar to that employed in large sugar factories, with the addition of drying machines and destructor furnaces to generate steam. The pail contents
were discharged into a tank on the ground level, and
there mixed with about 1 per cent. of sulphurous acid to
fix the ammonia. Before heating, the liquid is elevated
into a large store tank and conducted, by means of _pipes
and valves, in small quantities, into a vacuum pan. These
pans are constructed with taper bottoms, so that the
thick portion may settle and pass out first. The more
liquid portion in the body of the vessel is acted upon by
the hot surface of a wrought-iron drum, having a large
number of tubes passing throue-h it. This drum is heated
by exhaust steam from the engine driving the drying
machinery. The engine is also constructed with an air
pump connected with the top of the vacuum pan, so that
the evaporation is c0nducted by steam at low preesure,
and therefore less liable to set ammonia free.
I have made many experiments with this apparatus,
and have been able to evaporate over 50 per cent. of
water from the pail contents in this part of the apparatus.
After treatment in the vacuum pans the liquid is passed
into a dryer, consisting of a steam jacketed cylinder, fed
with high-pressure steam from the boilers, and here about
43 per cent. of water is evaporated, with the result that a
concentrated manure is produced in the form of powder,
containing nearly 8 per cent. of nitrogen. The vapour
given off from the dryer is also made to do duty in the
vacuum pan, together with the ex haust steam. The
power necessary to find steam for evaporation in the
dryer and to dr1 ve the engine is produced by burning dry
house refuse in destructor furnaces, and during a trial of
121 hours we were able to burn 55 tons of refuse, and
:Q_roduce a useful material in the form of hard clinker.
The heat produced steam to evaporate the water from
over 68 tons of excreta, leaving 96 cwt. of concentrated
manure. This performance is equal to about 1145 lb. per
hour evaporated for 1009 lb. of refuse. This refuse was
screened and of fair quality! the utmost being done to
produce economical results. t will be seen from these
figures that an enormous quantity of water must be
evaporated to produce a good marketable concentrated
manure.
Other methode are in use, as at R ochdale (where
screened refuse is burnt in boiler furnaces, and the products of combustion are passed over the liquid excreta),
and also at Birmingham and Manchester, where it is
treated entirely in drying machineR, but the results are
not satisfactory; but all installations are generally upon
the lines set out by Mr. Alfred Fryer. Although the
treatment of excrementitious matter has been proved
successful, the Rystem is gradually losing ground, and
water carriage taking its place, even in those Lancashire
and Yorkshire towns where very Jarge sums of money
have been expended upon the pail system. There are
still offensive matters produced from manufactories to be
found in the sewers, and as the inhabitants of the better
class of houses do not care to have pail closets, the sewage
is foul, and requires treatment; consequently the two
systems at one town are costly and objectionable. When
a town is entirely upon the water carriage system, refuse
is also produced in different form, and the best means of
dealing with it has not yet been solved.
If we take, for instance, a town with a population
equal to Nottingham, say with 220,000 inhabttants, and
~ssume that it ~as a perfect system of drainage, C'..onsistmg of sewers with a good fall, and the latest flushing
ar.rangements, with good ventilators ; the streets paved
~1th the best knGwn materials, such as ~ood in the prinCipal streets, and macadam on the mam roads. This
to~n would then produce a large quantity of refuse,
whtch may be taken at: (1) The refuse produced from
sewage. about 375 tons; (2) the road refuse, about 100
tons ; (3) the house refuse, about 400 tons. The sewage

2 2, I

893

sludge, at approxima~ely_ 375 to~s pe~ day, w~~~~ consist

of a nasty offensive hqUld~ ~avmg httle fertthsmg pr?
parties and being very dtfficult to handle. The sohd
matter' contained in this liquid is about 37 tons, which
may be ploughed into the land after the sewage water
has passed throug h, !J-S at Nottingham, or ib J?lay
be dealb with chemiCally, and then pressed mto
sewage sludge cakes, and aft_erwards applie? to land.
But in either case there 1s the quantity to be
dealt with and its disposal is a difficult problem. The
late Dr. Tidy and other eminent chemists have told us
that to put it upon land in its crude form caused the
pores of the land to be fi~ed by a ~ in~ of solid matter,
similar to paper pulp, whtch would m t1me make a ~ewage
farm useless ; and ther e is also great ?itficulty w~en the
sewage is supplemented by heavy rams, swampmg the
ground where sewage farms are adopted. But if the
sewage'be treated chemically, by lime, o~ the latest successful chemical known as ferrozone, supphed by the International Company, we still have the refuse sludge to deal
with. It may be pressed into sludge ~akes, and these
cakes may in some m stances be sold or gt ven to farmers,
but generally the difficulty is not solved. At some
modern works they propose to burn it along with house
refuse which will still leave the mineral matter to be
dealt .:Vith besides having its effect upon the efficiency of
destructor' furnaces, which were first designed and intended for house refuse only. Schemes of this latter kind
are being carried out at Hyde, Royton, and Huddersfield.
A simple method is in use at Ealing, Middlesex, devised by Mr. C..J ones, the. sur~eyor,_ and appears to _do
well in which the sludge 1a m1xed m crud e form w1th
hou~e refuse, and after draining for a time, it is led
direct into his destructor furnaces. Where land can be
had without prejudice to the surrounding inhabitants,
there is no doubt his system has advantages, but at
towns where land is limited, and objections are raised, a
system of presses should be introduced to help the filtratiOn of water from sludge. The London County Council
take their sludge out to sea in hopper steamers, and tip
it into the ocean, and I understand that Salford proposes
to adopt this method; whilst Glasgow, with its seaport
advantages, has come to the conclusion that .sludge
presses are the right things for dealing with it. The cost
of dealing with sewage sludge in filter presses depends
upon the chemical treatment of the sewage, and it varies
from 3d. to 6d. per ton treated; therefore, with this system,
a town of 220,000 inhabitants must spend over 1700l.
per annum to reduce the sludge into portable form.
Towns situated in agricultural districts are able to dispose of their sludge, after pressing, at a J>rice to cover the
cost of treatment, but many t owns find 1t difficult to dispose of. From experiments, I think sewage sludge might
be made to show successful r esults in the manufacture of
bricks, with specially designed machinery and kilns. Some
of the latest schemes include arrangements for burning
pressed sludge in destructor furnaces. A combination of
destructors and sludge-pressing ma~hinery appears to be
the most economical method of disposal up to a certain
point. The towns of Hyde, R oyton, and Huddersfield
have adopted these combined appliances, and at the two
former places the refuse will generate sufficient steam to
drive the sludge- pressing machinery. Those towns
situated at the mouth of a tidal river, and seaside places,
are not troubled with sewage sludge disposal, as they send
it to sea with the sewage by outfallsewers.
A modern sludge-pressing plant consists of air compressors, with sludge-charging rams, and filter presses.
'fhe sludge is conveyed from the bottom of precipitation
tanks to a large sludge well, and from there allowed to
gravitate into the sludge rams. In passing forward a
small amount of lime is added, in quantity according to
the quality of the sludge, and to its previous chemical
treatment. When a ram is charged, the compressed air
produeed by the air compressor is passed into the ram,
and the sludge forced vertically through pipes into the
filter presses. The sludge in this state contains from
90 to 95 per cent. of moisture, and after filtering under a
pressure of 100 lb. on the square inch for about 50 minutes,
hard cakes are produced holding about 40 per cent. of
moisture; but taking bulk for bulk, the sludge has been
reduced to about one-fifth, viz., five tons of wet sludge
producing one ton of sludge cakes. Considerable trouble
has been experienced with this class of machinery, both
in the wear and tear, and the breakag~ of press plates.
The wear and t 6ar is attributed to the foreign matter
contained in sewage sludge, such as sand, grave],
bits of string, rags, and poreions of leather and wood,
causing the valves to be rapidly worn, and the pipes
blocked. The breakages were also owing to the above
materials collecting between the iilter plates, and thus an
unequal pressure is brought upon the surfaces, sometimes
of about 50 tons, thus breaking the plates. In the new
appliances very few valves are used, and the wearing surfaces are protected. The Jatest kind of sludge press has
plate~ wit~ buckle~ ~ides (similar in form to buclde plates
used 1_n br_tdges), gtvmg great strength. Sludge machinery
of th1s kmd has recently been supplied to Wimbledon,
Huddersfield, Hyde, Ha.nley, and Glasgow Sewage
Work~:~.

(To be contimud. )
GA~ AT. P ARIS.-The ~even ne of the Parisian Company

for L1ghtmg and Heatmg by Gas in J uly amounted to

161,494l., ascompared with 164,249l. in July 1892 showi~g a. decrease of 2755l. this year. The aggr~gate' collectiOn m the firs~ seven month~ of this year was 1,698,898l. ,
as compared ~1th 1, 725,157l. m the corresponding period
of 1892, shotTmg a decrease of 26,259l. this year or 1.52
per cent. The company is suffering, to a small' extent,
from the competition of the electric light.

SEPT. 2 2,

1893]

E N G I N E E R I N G.

w~!d iog edges are left plain until after the welding operation

" ENGINEERING" ILLUSTRATED PATENT

RECORD.
CO;\ll,ILEO ny

w en they are corrugated by means such M

rolls. (..4 ccepted

.Attyust 9, 1893J.
16,992. B. Peace and E. Adams, Sheftleld. Steam

W. LLOYD WISE.

Gen.e rator,.&c., Furnaces. [3 F igs. ] September 23,1892.

SELRCTED ABSTRACTS OF RECENT PUBLISHED SPECIFICATIONS

UNDER THE ACTS 1883-1888.
T~e number of t'icws gittrt in the Specifi.cation Drawings is stated
t n ea.ch casr : whtre 110ne are 1nenttoned, the Specijication ;~
not tllustrated.
Jrhere l _;wentions ar~ couun unicatcd .from ab,.oad, tlte N am eH
J:c. , 0.1 tlte Commumcato,t~ are gil'l')~ in italics.
'
Copies of SpccijicatiQn .-: mau be obtained at the Patent Office
Sal.e .Branc~, 38, Cursitor-street, Chancery-lane, E. C. ai the
1m.{orur, prtce of 8d.
'
The d~~e o.{ tl~e a;dvcrtiJJement .n.f the acceptance n.f a complete
socc,.tica.tton ts, 1-n each ca.se, f}lven oft er the abstract, wuess the
Patc'tl has been sealed, .when .th~ date of scaling is !Jiven.
.Any pe)son ~nay at any ttme wttlnn two monthJJ jroul the date of
tl~e adte~tUtenu nt o.f the acceplattce o.f a complete specijicotion,
91 ce nottce at thr Patmt OJlice of opposition. to the grant of a
Patent on. atty (Jf lhc grou11ds m ent ion~d in. the .Act.

377

- Tbts m veotton relat~s to furnaces for steam generatore, &c.

At the baok of t~e bnd~e . a ctevice D, composed of a material
~ uc~ as fi reclay, ts placed 10 a hotizontal position, and arranged
1D t e form of a box, open at the end n ear the hollow br idge C

GUNS, &c.
C 12,280. A ..Chamberlain, Birmingham. Cartrid g e
ases. [6 ~1g~.] July 2, 1R02 - This in,ention relates to

Fi.g.l.

~~~n~a~~r.;;,~1~tmg o~ marking c~ lindrical cart r idge cases after

are fed into thel~~~n~c~re~ The cartridge case~ t o be printed

I'd
.
,
an pass at t he bottom m to the recess
f
~ha~t s ~ whbcb 1S op erated by levers from a main driven
.
n veo Y pu1ley fll. The picking up arrangement
~~~1 ~:c~~ t~~e~n~h~f a!dlev~r piokhs dt he cartrid~e case out of
.
. 1 e JS pus e out. Tbts arrangement
.
cons1sts ?f a. sprmg cl,tP so arranged t hat when t he ends touch
.Pig 2
t~e ca~tr1dge case wb1le it is ly ing in the recess of the slide
ELECTRICAL APPARATUS.
t e. cltp ends open, bein.~~r pressed down by the lever aud
~
1 ~,.643. B . Edmunds, ~o~don ~ Elect ric SWitches spnng O\'er the case, encircling it and lifting it out of the
c 0
[1 ,lqg. ) October l, 1892.-Tb1S lD\'entlon relates to an electric
swttcb. so .a r ran~e~ that when the press button is operated, the
.
it-m
soleno1d tS energtsed to effect the operation, the current which
energises t he solenoid being immediately after cut off from it
Fig
.
J.
and fitting t ight up to it. The underside is louned, and at
independently of the press button. Opposite the poles of the

the u_pper part of the end fart hest from the br idge is a \'er tical
solen oid~ A, A'1 is a bent double-armed le\'er E, which engages
opemn~ for conducting the heated air to the generated gases
H
tr~vel hng from t h e burning fuel lt. The device rests upon fire
bucks placed against the sides of the steam n-enerator flue and
so arranged ~bat a horizontal opening is left
eaob side to ~llow
the heated atr to ascend. (Accepted .Auuust 9, 1893).

..

at

17,336. R. d e Eicken , Paris. Governors for Motive

Po~er En~in~s.

September 28, 1892.- Tbe object

of th1s m vent10n 18 to pro\ ide means for stopping the eo~rine
whe~ t h e ~onnection between it and the gover nor breaks. The
vertt ca~ ax1s et. of the governor tur ns in a. frame b secured upon
~be cy hn~er c. The sleeve et. operates~ by a small rocking lever e and
~oter medta.te ro~s, ~ va~ve tncluded m t he ~team admission pipe e3
m front of the dtstnbut10g box. T he ver t1cal axis a is rotattd by
a belt j, which connects the pulley keyed upon tbe dri vin~
shaft o to t he pulley h fixed upon a shaft hl which turns in a long

Jilg .2.

[4Figs.)

Pig.Z.

'

~~..-...~

, 1itJ

rece~.

with one of the spring contact p ieces D, D~. according to which

button." on" or off," is depressed. The axis of t he doublearmed
lever is electrically conn ected to t he supply main, so that when
it is attracted by one of the magnets the circuit is completed
t hrough tt to th e lamps, and when the other magn et is excited
the lever will be rocked on its centre eo as to break t h e circuit
through the lamps. The cores of the solenoids are p rovided with
enlarged ends outside t he coils. (.Accepted ..dtJgust 9, 1893).

2!,127. F. Ktng, London. Secondary Batteries.

December 31, 1S92. -Tbis invention relates to means

by which the plates of opposite denomination in a secondary
battery are separated and insulated from each other otherwise
than t hrough the electroly te. T he p lates B are p rovided with
r ibs b projecting from t he surface a distance slightly less than
[5 F igs.)

Fig .7.

t~e

qn

next dow.nward movement of t he lever, the clip

ca.rr1es w1t~ tt the <'J.l.r tndge case. T he pick-up arrangement
after the w1tbdrawal of the slide, places the car tridge case in ~
gap betwee.n the end. Gl of t he sliding spindle G and the end
of. tb~ rota~1~g maodnl D, and then the slide G advances car rying
w1tb 1t a. shdmg sleeve Dl, so t hat tbe cart ridge ca.se is push ed on
the m~nd ril D. A. cylindrical typ e surface then com es round
and pr1nts. the re~Ul red "?atter on the surface of t he cartridge
case. Dur mg tbts operat10n tbe case is pr :ssed up against the
ty pe surface by the roller carried b y a lever operated from the
dr l\'eO.shaft by a oa~. T his p ressing up by th e roller prevents the
ma.ndrt l D from bemg sprung oft' the type surface. (.Accepted
.AtL!Jtt8t 9, 1893).

Fi1).3.

MACHINE TOOLS, SBAFTING, &c.

17,567. B. E~ Newstead, Nottingham. Friction sleeve b formed on the frame of the governor. The frame b carries
C~u~ches. [4 F tg8.] October 3, 1892. - Tbis invention relates to a fixed axis i upon which is loosely mounted a rocking lever
frt ctton clutch es. The abaft a. is fitted \\ itb a. d rum b attach ed to having a for ked arm which embraces the abaft a below the slee,e
a. boss on t he shaft br arms. On the other shaft c is a boss d d .a n? a abort arm m carrying a roller p made to move witb little
secur~ly a~tached ~o 1t,
nected a nog e th1~ke r

and made with an ar m to which is con- fr1ct~on upon t~e b.eltf. The rocking lever is also pro\'id ed with
at o.oe side than the other. Upon tbe ~ we1ght !!i, wh1oh 10 tbe normal operation does not tend to t urn
boss d and on the s1de oppostte to that carry iol{ the a rm dl is a 1t. A stop r, fixed to t he frame of the governor, limits t h e
upward movement of the roller, as it forms an abutment for t he
ar m l of the r ocking lever, this arm being sufficiently heavy for
balancing the lever m, to a g reat extent. (.Accepted .August 9
189~.
'

15,677. Hon. C. A. Parsons, N ewcastle-on-Tyne.

Governing of Steam Engines Turbines, &c. [2 ~igs.J

'

-,,.

.V
I I
~.....

,~

l{

f'

,~ ,

that at which the pl at~?s A, Bare to be maintained apart. At the

outermost edge of each rib a piece of insulatin~t and acid res isting substance is placed, and held in position against the opposing
plate by the ribs, and so shaped as to deflect from t he ribs any
material resulting from the exfoliation of the surface of the
plates or any part icles of material that may faJl C\Ut of them.
(Accepted .Att!JUBt 9, 1893).

eptember 1, 1893.-Th is invent ion relates to a l{over nor fo r cont rolling the supply of motive fluid to a steam engine, in which a
st eam control \'alve is operat ed by a steam relay arrangemen t the
relay valve being subject to two motions, one of which causes t he
const ant reciprocation of the relay valve, and consequently the
control ''a.lve, while the other varies the position of the former

c Fig . 3

if

'

....' .

bracket for ming a ja~\' for a le,er f and a bearing for a quickthread~d acre'! g, wb1cb may also have a. bear ing in the boss d .
T.he t~10oe st stde of .the ring e is divicted, and it is thickened up to
g tve ~mcreased bean ng surface for a wedge, which is tapped to
for m a nut for the screw g. F1tting within the jaws of the
bracket d2, 9:nd firml y attached to the screw g , is a lever f connected by a. hnk to a. colJar capable of slidin g upon the abaft c.
( Accepted .August 9, 1893).

STEAM ENGINES AND BOILERS.

GAS, &c., ENGINES.
19,S84. B. P. Parkes. Tipton, Stafts, and J .
17,823. W. Mather , Manchester. UtUisiD.g Am MAlpine,
London. Marine, &c., Boilers. (5 Figs.]
monta, &o., for Working Engines. [1 F i{J. J October 6, October 28, 1892.-T
his in vention relates to Patent No. 14,844 of

1892.-ln this in,ention the evaporation of the liqu id is effected

in a vessel separate from t hat containing t he stove. The \'easel
is composed of a number of horizontal tubes A connected

1--

--

fliLJ

at ea.oh end to beads B, B1, of which the former B itS joined

at the bottom by a. pipe C with a shutoff Yalve D with the
reser voir E containing the liquid anhydrous ammonia, while the
head Bl is pro\ided at t he top with a. branch pipe F communi
eating with the apparatus to be supplied. T he beads are coo-

Fig. I .
I

<
!

IS,fn

according to the position of the go,erning de\'ice, and det er

mines the proportion of each reciprocation dur ing wh ich
steam is admitted t o or cut off from the engine-. The supply
and out-off valve is operat ed by steam pressure on a. piston 8' ,
and its per iodic opening and closing are produced by t h e action
of a reciprocating lever 0 which is compounded with a governor
lever E controlled by an electrical or mechanical governor.
(.Accepted .August 2, 1893).

IIISCELLANEOUS.
SU76. 0. Schnelle, Berlin, Germany. Sieves.

[5
F igs. ] Febr uary 1, 1 93.- T bis invention relates to sieves and
means for agitating them. a is the a>.le of suspension of the
1891, and consists io giving additional rigidity and strength to shaking
b the sifting apparatus, c t he bearing d isc for
the boiler shell, &c. A corr ugated plate is bent into a. tubular the orankmachine,
which is tur ned by the d riving pulley d.
In t he
shell, t he corrugations being at right an~les to its ~xis. T he apparatus b the single sieves are arranged abo,e one an other ,
closing discs b or ends have also concentn c cor rugattons. The

E N G I N E E R I N G.
each ha"i "l( a funnP.l fo r r~ceiving those parts which do not plss
I h rou~h t he. me.shes. m 1s the bJ.~ for supplying the sifting
material, wblCb IS capable of followm rr the c ircular movements
of the ~achine. n is the ~ag for leadmg of the sorted material.
T he ta1h ngs are collected 1n t he chests e (Fig. 1) a rranged before
the sieves and .connected with t hem by channels. The lower end
of the. axle al IS su.rrou~~fd by a ball piece arrangt>d in a corrc
Epo 1d1rg ball beanng a. The block of lead o in the disc c acts

Ptgl

[SEPT.

n.othin.g h~rd pass~s between it and the one rotating in conncc

t10n w r~th 1t, but 1f any strain takes place the spiral spring H
will yield and allow the bard substance to pass. (Accepted A t,gubt
2, 1S93).

14,970. A. McDougall. Duluth, St. Louis, Minne

sota:. U.S.A. Ships for Transpol'ting RaUway Cars.
[S F'lfls. 1 August 19, 1S92.- This in ,eotion relatt>s to vessels
known as " whale backs." The hull is made of steel plates
secured to t rans,erse beams, and the sides are panllel l on~itu
dinally and ,er tioally, the top curved, the bottom roundfd, the
bow macte spoon sbapfd, and the stern skt>ged. Tbe stern is
lower than th~ bow, a?d the sides and top of the boat a re abruptly
ended some dtstance 10 advance, so t hat a fiat entrance is formed
ma.r the etern of the boat throuAh which the <ars pass in entH

Pi.g 4 .

Fig. J.

2 2, I

893-

and between t.hem the ft~nged roller F, cover ed with material

such as cloth, IS ~ou!lted 10 bearjngs formed at the bottom of the
sl?t~ J . Th.e cyhndnca l measunng roller 0 is mounted in the
shdlllg beanngs H fi~ted ia the parallel slots J, anci rests upon the
roller F. The yarn passes between the rollers F and G and on to
the mill so that it pa:-tly encircles the c lotb-co,t>red roller F and
thereby .prevents a~y p ossibility of yarn slippiof' betwee~ the
rolle! s w~tbout turmng theu~. The roller G measures uactly a
too~ 10 Circumference, and 1ts a r bour 1{ carrifs a pinion L en
~ragmg a. wheel .M three times its size mounted on t he primary
shaft of a" llartt ing " countn 0 carried by the bracket N secured
to the standard E ; the coun ~er thus recorda in yards 1he lengl h <f
the yarn passed on to t he m1ll B. The beaming motion is dr i\ <n
fr o~ tht> pinion shaft P , w~icb is operated by the pulley Q keytd
on 1t. A loose pulley R IS placed nex t to <~. and on a elee,e
lo -sely mounted upon the shaft P is secured the pullf'y S. A
second pulley fixed oo the sleeve is connect< d b y tbe belt U to
th~ beaming mechanism V mounted on the framework Al. To
~n v e the beaming motion the dri ving belt of the warping m<.t:on
IS transferred from the pulley Q over the loose pullf'S R on to the
pullt:y S. (Accepted ~ ugust 2, 1S93).

17,326. W. Mather, Manchester, and J. Christie

Alexandria, Dumbartonehire. Banging Webs 1~
Chamb~r~ for .steaming, &c. [4 lt i J8.] September 28,

----

1S92.-~hl i In \' eDti~D r elates to means. whereby continuous webs

Ffg.2 .

rtg.z.

to prevent jer ks. A susp ended beal'ing f is

prov.Ided conta.ming the socket of a ball bearing f ' ; this socket
rece1ves the ~all piece h with a. pivot z screwed in it, and fi r mly
connected w1th the ring r, the lower pivot of which is secured
~o the a?<le by means of a nut. Means a r e provided for prevent
mg turmng of the sifting apparatus a round its own longitudinal
axis. (~ ccepted August 9, 1S93).
&Sa. ~ounterw ei~bt

14,130. T. Singleton, Darwen, Lancs. Power

Looms. [3 Fi{Js.J August 5, IS92.-This invention relates to

of fabn c a r.e bung 10 folds or loops m cham bers ira order to lJe
steameti, dned, &c. A number of spars of wood with metal ends
A' forming rounded teeth and having roller s mounted in them
are a:rraoge~ to t ravel parallel to each other aloof,! bearers B sup~
port10g their ends. Each of the bpars c arries a fold of the web
a l.oop C of wb!ch bangs down freely between each pair, the pai;
be10g- kept a little apart by p rojectin.r cheeks at each end. All
the spars a re strung on a pair of ropes D passing through boles
in the. end fittings A1, a nd longe r by seYeral fee t tba.o tbe length
occ~pied . by .the spars wh~n they ~ ie all as closely togt>t her as
their proJectmg cheeks WJll perm1t. E :wb spar is in turn ad

ing the hull, and at the stern is a platform on which the cars
run befor e passing through the entrance. The deck bulges slightly
upwards at its rear, and the inner deck extends to the extr eme
stern end of t he boat and is firmly supported by fram es. I n load
ing the boat, it is backed into a slip so t hat the t racks at the
~tern coincide with those of the deck . The . cars a re then passed
1nto the boat, these t ra<:ks on the stern bem~ capable of being
broug~t up or .down to a levt>l with the tracks of the dock, by
pumpmg water m to or out of the tanks beneath the false bottom.
(Accepted Auuust 2, 1S93).

Jiig. J.

---o

17,233. A. C. Moore, Anerley, Surrey, and G.

msao.s for operating and contr olling the brake of looms for Bra~don, Deptford, Kent. Wire Netting Machines.
w~avm g,

the object being to facilitate the application to and [1 Fig. ] September 27, 1892. - In th is invention, in place of the
Wi thdrawal of the br ake from the brake wheel. An inclined t~bes ~onta10in g belically wound wir es, bobbins are provided
slotted lever S is mounted loosely on the bracket 1 fixed to the \~l~h wnes WO\~nd ex~ernally on t hem , these being- exposed and
und erside of the shuttle r eet 2 at the end of the loom lever 3, and ns1ble. The wae W 1s wound on t he bobbin B. On each side is
its end is conoeoted to near the end of the brake lever 5. On the moun ted a rolier R , O\er which the wire pa~ses on its way to meet
connecting-rod 4 is an open spiral spring 6, placed above which is
&
t he.adjustable fixed boss 7 fo r regulating the pressure of the
spnog 6. Below the spring and loose on the connecting. rod 4 is a
boss S, whi<.'h rests on the top side of the b rake le,er 5, and on the
rod 4, which passes loosely through a bole in the brake lever 5,
and below the br ake lever 5, is the fixed boss Sa. Fixed to the
-:~::t~>:.- ------r--,_,
stop handle 9 is a pin 10, which is r eceived in the slot in the
..:.-~1:!~.:~- -- ----.- slotted lever 3. Below the brake lever 5 and free to move on a
fulcrum stud 11 fixed to the end frame 12 of the loom is the drop

catch 13, which, when in position ( Fig. 2) , allows free play to the
b rake lever 5, but if it is d esired to r emove the brake from the
I

Fig.l

Pi-g. 2.

AI

I
.I
I

.4- '--- - - -

I
I

'A

----lk.,.
....
,.
......

-~ __ ..,: _____ -

---t.-

----'" "
.
-- --------,--.,---;--I

~>

the other wire, and entwines itself with it. The bobbins occupy
at the same time with it the positions A, and after several
revolutions to entwine they are a ll moved to intermediate posi
tions a, to form t he entwinements t , as the tubes now em
b rake wbeell4, the operative presses on the end 15 of t he d rop ployed in these looms. For facilitating the removal of an empty
c<\tcb 13, turn in~ the latter on its fulcrum stud 11, and so br ing bobbin, the spindleS can be pressed down in opposition to a
ing the part 16 of the drop catch to bear against the underside of spring C and can then be removed a long- with the bobbin from
the brake lever, the end of the brake lever 5 being thus slightly between the r ollers R. ( .Accepted ~ugu st 2, 1S93).
r aised, the spiral spring comprtssed, and the brake 17 held clear
16,764. G. W. Lightowler and
Kelghley, Bradof the b rake wheell4 until tbe drop catch 13 is moved by the
operative to the position (Fig. 2). Wben the loom is to be stopped ford. Yarn Warping, &c., Machines. [3 F igs.]
by the spr ing h andle 9 being "knocked" off, the handle carries September 20, 1S92. -This invention r elates to wa.rpingmil1s, &c.,
t he pin 10 to the higher end of the slot in the slotted lever 3, and its p rimary object is to provide means for indicating- the
which is forced downwards, and by the fixed boss 7 the spiral length of yarn wound upon the mill. A pair of measuring rollers
spring 6 is compressed, and bears on the boss S a.nd on the end of :n e mounted upon the tra,elling carriage, and between them the
the b rake lever 5, a nd by the latter turning on its fulcrum stud
-
the brake 17 is applied to the brake-wheel 14, and the motion
of the loom arrested without any rebound. When the stop or
Fig. J.
spring ha ndle 9 is moved to r estart the loom, the pin 10 t ravels to
Fig.3
if
I . '&
the lower end of t he slot in the lever 3 and raises the spiral spring
11
C!ll
and th e connecting-rod 4, and by the fixed boss Sa the end of the
C'
~
I'
D
brake lever 5 is also raised, and the brake removed from the brake

--
wh eel. (Accepted ~U{!tUJt 9, 1S93).

w.

4329. w. Ackroyd, Gomersal, T. B. Ackroyd and

s. Ralstrick, Blrkenshaw, Yorks. Supporting
Rollers of carding Engines. [4 Figs. 1 February 28,

1893.-Tbis invention r elates to mounting the .. stripping" and

working rolle rs by arr anging the supporting journals so that,
should any t hick substance enter the machine, it will be a llowed
to pass forward without danger of breaking the supporting
n

Fig.2.

8
H

brackets, &c. The bot tom part of t~e SUJ!p.or ting braoket A is warp is passed as it ie fed on to the mill. Tb e rollers are operated
supplied with a detachable cap B held .m pos1~1on by a set screw C. by the yarn passin,R" between them, and acquire the sa1ne peri
The roller spindle D r ests and r~tates 10 the JOUr~al E.' and above pheral speed as the speed of the ya rn, tbe arbour of one of them
it is a plate secured to a spmdle, r ou!ld .which IS placed a being arranged to operate a counting apparatus adapted to Indispiral spring H to allow . furth er co~press.JOn 1f necessary. Each cate in yards t he peripheral motion of the cylinder, and conse.
side of the carding engme. is pro.'1ded. w1th a bracket A for sup quently indioate the number of yards of warp passed on to the
portlng the roller K, which 1s r e tamed m the journals so long as mill. Ou the carriage D a pair of standards E and El are fixed,

vanced in to the chamber, b~ing. carried for ward several feet by

a worm E a rranged at each Side, 10 th e threads of which the ends
A' of eaob engage as it is d rawn within r each of the thread by the
&dvance of ~b e p r e~eding one. There is thus left between each
two a space 10to wb1cb a loop of t he web is delivered from rollers
F ab?ve,. so. that it hangs dow~ as a wid e loop 0 1 When the next
spar 1s Similarly ad,anced, th1s loop 0 1 is na rrowed and a succeeding wide loop .is formed like Cl and then narrowed, the advance
of each sp~r pushmg ~nwa.rds by the width of a narrowed loop C
all those 10 front of 1t, and, by the pull of the ropes d ra\\ing
onwards all those behind it. For removing the web 'trom the
chamber , the movements of the mechanism a re reversed the
web being drawn by the rollt:rs F as loop after loop is wid'ened
out by r etreat of the succefsive spars. The roll ers Fare drhen
by straps from a shaft G connected by bevel and speedreducing
gear H to the "orms E. ( ~ ccepted A u ow;t 2, US93).

17_,564. J. C. Stewart, Glasgow, Scotland. Valves.

[4 F'tgs.] October 3, 18g2.- This invention relates to ,aJ"es atd

~!lsi sts of. a spin dle bat one end of which is a pad a which 'rfsts
10 1ts seat m the ~ ahe ca.s ing, and is held in position by means
of a perforated d1sc c wh1<.'h compreeses a spiral epring f on the

spindle .. In tb~ ce.ntre of the spindle ''her e the pad is fixed is

a bole m to wbtcb lS scr ewed a pin secured in the inside of a
cap, .which, with a s ~re'~ locks the \'ale, aots as a dust protector,
a~d 1s a push for adJUBtmg the pressure exerted within the con
te.10er . (A ccepted .Att,gtt st 9, 1S93).

UNITED STATES PAT.ENTS AND PATENT PRAOTIOE.

J?escriptions with illu~trations of in ventions patented in the
U111ted States of Amenca. from 1847 to the present time and
reports of trials of patent law cas es in the United States m'a.y be
consulted, gratis, at the offices oi E NOINBERI NO, 36 and 36 Bed fordstreet, Strand.
'

I VORY JJ'RO~t rwc CoNc o.- The exports of ivory from the
Congo are largely increasing. In 1887 thase exports
amounted to 40,009 tons; in 1888, to 55,000 tons; in 1889,
to 114,000 tons; 1n 1890, to 181,000 tons; in 1891, to
142,000 tons; and last year, to 209 000 tons. Sheffield
imports large quantities of African i~ory for cutlery pur

poses.