Higher Technical and Science School.-Sir Edmund Hay Currie has established at Folkestone a school for he training of pupils for such professions as require special scientific and technical knowledge, and there is o be a special course for those entering upon business ife in the colonies and abroad. The matron of the school is Mrs. Beaufoy Merlin, who nine years ago started and organised the staff of ladies in the service of the United Telephone Company. Owing to changes, consequent upon the amalgamation, Mrs. Merlin resigned her appointment, and was recently presented with a very handsome gold bracelet and an address from the staff of ladies formerly under her superintendence.

Technical Instruction.-The Bill for providing a limited amount of technical instruction succeeded in passing the House of Commons on the 28th August, after encountering continued opposition from the objectors to aiding voluntary schools. The measure then went to the House of Lords and was passed through all its stages on the 29th ultimo.

Commercial Education.-The London Chamber of Commerce having ascertained, by careful inquiry, that a very large number of clerks trained in the excellent schools which exist on the continent are not only employed in the City of London, but obtain, on that account, a preference over our own countrymen, set to work to organise a scheme of studies and a system of examinations upon the results of which certificates could be granted by the Chamber. These certificates, it is believed, will come to be looked upon by employers as a valuable testimony to the knowledge and capabilities of the persons receiving them, and that the managers of commercial concerns will be the first to perceive that such steps are likely to result in real benefit to British commerce. The Chamber have now issued the scheme, with amendments in accordance with suggestions received, and make an urgent appeal for the co-operation of all interested.

The Edinburgh Exhibition.—We have received from the secretary of the International Exhibition of Electrical Engineering, General Inventions and Industries, to be held in Edinburgh in 1890, a plan of the building and grounds, and a map of the city, showing the situation of the buildings and the approaches. There will be both a North British and a Caledonian station at the exhibition, and it can also be conveniently reached by the suburban railway and by tramcars. To all appearance the site is a well chosen one, and the publication of this lithograph is a proof that the promoters are losing no time in perfecting their arrangements. The secretary's address is No. 40, Frederick Street, Edinburgh.

The Executive Council of the Edinburgh Electrical Exhibition have now prepared their catalogue. It is classed in three divisions, two of which again are divided into 22 sections, the third division being devoted to fine arts. These sections are divided into 120 classes. The divisions and sections are as follows:-Division I. Electrical engineering and inventions, in which are six sections, namely: Section 1. Productions of electricity. 2. Electrical conductors. 3. Measurements. 4. Application of electricity. 5. Bibliographic collection of works relating to electricity, plans, drawings, &c. 6. Historical collection. Division II. General Inventions and Industries, including 16 sections, viz. :-7. Mining and metallurgy. 8. Gold mining and production. 9. Rural industries. 10. Architecture. 11. Hygiene. 12. Decorative art, furniture and accessories. 13. Music. 14. Clothing and accessories. 15. Foods and drinks. 16. Education and liberal arts. 17. Engineering and machinery. 18. Navigation. 19. Chemical and allied industries. 20. Other manufactures and raw material. 21. Women's industries. 22. Artisans' industries. Arrangements are almost completed for the transfer of the entire Edison exhibit from the Paris Exhibition.

Electrical Plant.-We understand that the proprietors of Electrical Plant are arranging for more extensive premises for the exhibition and sale of all kinds of new and secondhand material, and that the business is developing into one of a most important character.

Electric Motive Power.-At the extensive new premises of Messrs. Rashleigh Phipps and Dawson in Berners Street, a feature of some interest will be the large use made of electro-motors and the entire absence of shafting.

Electric Railway Traffic.-The directors of the Vevey-Montreux Electrical Tramway Company give the number of passengers conveyed by it during the vinedressers' fête which took place recently :—

High-Falutin. It is not the Pall Mall Gazette young man who has put his foot in it this time, but the one who is engaged on the South Wales Echo. This young gentleman, who goes into ecstasy over the electric lighting of the metropolis, states that "London nightby-night is to be no more; it is to be one continual round of daylight. All this is expected from electricity, which is even now being introduced into the streets, and will shortly break out in every district, putting the sickly, yellow light of the gas lamps to shame. Electricity has been tried at railway stations and at large places of business, but never on a great scale." We should advise this young man to read up a little before he again tries to enlighten his readers on matters electrical. When he has done so, he will doubtless have learned that electricity is not being introduced to the streets like a French roll in a baker's shop, always ready to have a piece cut off, as he seems to imagine. As to the large scale business, perhaps the Echo will send their young man to America to convince him of the fact.

Increasing Tractive Force.-A series of trials, with satisfactory results, has just been made on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, with an electric traction increaser for augmenting the tractive power of locomotives. The patentee of this invention is Mr. Elias E. Ries, of Baltimore, whose previous work in this direction has been brought before our readers. The invention consists of a small low-tension dynamo and engine, which are mounted upon the locomotive. The current from the dynamo is passed from the front to the rear driving wheels through that portion of the track lying between them, and this causes the friction between the wheels and the rails to increase. It is claimed that the friction is much greater than is the case where sand has been employed for increasing the "bite." The trials were made on the Frackville grade, 185 feet per inile. When the dynamo was run, and a train of 45 cars attached to the locomotive, the ascent was made in 28 minutes; but when the dynamo was not run, the same train required 55 minutes to go over the identical ground.

Railway Train Jolting.-It is stated that Professor Thomson, of electric welding fame, has perfected an invention by which the rails of street or steam railways may be welded together by electricity after being placed in position. A dynamo propels over the tracks an electric welding machine, which welds the rails into one continuous line after it passes over them. It is proposed to have at every 100 feet a break, to allow for expansion, &c.

298

The Electro-Harmonic Society.-We are requested by the honorary secretary to inform members that, should their communications to him not receive the usual prompt reply, it will be in consequence of his absence from home during the meeting of the British Association.

Important Notice. We are informed that a wellknown electrician is shortly about to deliver a series of lectures on dynamo construction. The announcements have not yet been made public, but we understand that a novel and important feature in the course will be the admission of professors at half-price in order that they may avail themselves of the much needed practical information of which so many of them now stand sadly in need.

The Paris Conference.-On page 265, at the end of last week's article on the Parisian Electrical Conference, for "dynamoter," read dynamometer.

Electricity in the Austrian Navy.-The Austrian man-of-war Saida is splendidly equipped with electrical appliances, including two powerful search lights, together with electrical devices which enable each individual gunner to fire his gun by pressing a button, or a whole broadside can be fired simultaneously from the captain's bridge by a similar arrangement.

Electric Cell-Calls Required.-The Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District is prepared to receive tenders for supplying, fixing, and maintaining electric cell-calls at police stations for three years from 1st October. Printed forms of tender, with full explanatory directions, may be obtained on personal application, or by letter, at the office of the Receiver, 4, Whitehall Place, S.W. No tender will be received after 12 noon on 21st inst.

Electric Bell Contract Going. For making perfect ard maintaining in thorough repair for a year the whole of the electric bells and wires. and the apparatus connected therewith fixed in the 59 land and river stations of the London Fire Brigade, and in houses used as lodgings for firemen, for the London County Council. Particulars may be obtained on application in the architect's department of the Council. Tenders to be sent in before 10 a.m. on the 26th inst.

The Training of the Electrical Engineer.-At University College, Bristol, a special course of study is arranged for pupils studying for the profession of electrical engineering, and for those who wish to include in their professional training some knowledge of electricity and its technical applications, especially with regard to electric lighting and transmission of power, telephones and telephonic systems, telegraphy, electroplating, &c. Many of the subjects of the general engineering course are included, together with electricity and magnetism, and practical instruction in the electrical laboratory. The student is reminded that an electrical engineer must, in addition to his knowledge of electricity, have a thorough acquaintance with practical engineering. A mere knowledge of testing and laboratory work is not sufficient to enable a student to become an electrical engineer. All who enter for this branch are therefore recommended to arrange with some firm, either of electrical or mechanical engineers, for a course of training in engineering works. Arrangements have lately been made whereby students will be enabled to spend one or two terms of six months in works during their college career.

Industries.-The chief office of our esteemed contemporary, Industries, is removed from Manchester to 358, Strand, London.

[SEPTEMBER 13, 1889.

The Use of the Electro-Motor in Washington.-The motor, says the New York Electrical Review, is appre ciated in Washington. Numbers of stores, restaurants, &c., have fans run by various kinds of electric motor One or two printing offices use them to run their presses.

Charterhouse Science and Art Schools and Literary Institute. The winter session of this, one of the largest Science and Art Schools in the United Kingdom, wil commence on Saturday, September 28th, 1889, under the Presidency of the Rev. H. Swann, M.A. Daring the late session upwards of 1,200 students, mostly elementary teachers, availed themselves of the priv leges afforded by this institution, and of this number about 750 presented themselves for examination, and were successful in obtaining a large number of firstclass certificates, and also an unusually large number of honours certificates (in practical chemistry 13 took the honours paper, 5 obtained first-class honours, and 3 second-an unusually brilliant achievement), awarded by the Science and Art Department of South Kensington. Several students prepared for the Lond. B.S: (Int.) Exam.; most of whom highly distinguished themselves. Instruction of a practical character is given in most of the sciences at a very moderate fee, and in art at an equally low rate. Students, under the direction of five competent instructors, can be advanced in their studies. Those who have leisure can at a very moderate charge attend the day classes in art. Day classes will also be held to prepare candidates for matriculation (Lond.), the clerical, medical (including dental), legal, and other exams. Students who aim at becoming proficient in chemistry (organic and inorganic), have the opportunity of working in a wellfitted laboratory, capable of accommodating 60 students. Aspirants for university honours can, at a small exbe assisted in their studies. Classes for matricupense, lation, microscopy, Latin, Greek, French, German, shorthand, and music are taught by well-qualified teachers. Opportunities for the study of photography, &c., are to be continued this session. Full particulars of the classes may be obtained from Mr. C. Smith, organising secretary. Those interested in education will rejoice to learn that the work commenced by the Rev. William Rogers, M.A., now of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, and ably continued by the late Rev. John Rodgers, M.A. (formerly a Vice-President of the London School Board, is so vigorously carried on by the present president.

Personal.—It is with much regret that we have to announce that Mr. J. R. Williamson, M.I.E.E., who has for a long time past occupied the position of managing director of the Manchester Edison-Swan Company, Limited, has been compelled by ill-health to relinquish his duties for the present. We understand that he is at once taking his departure for Australia, where he will be occupied in a similar capacity to that which he vacates, with a new company now being formed. Mr. Williamson takes away with him the best wishes of his fellow directors and his many friends, and we trust that the same amount of success which has attended him during his long connection with the Manchester Company may accompany him in his new career, and that the change may be thoroughly beneficial to his health. We may safely assert that the present position of the Manchester Edison-Swan Company, as a dividendpaying concern, is entirely due to the unremitting and successful exertions of Mr. Williamson, whose business capacity, first as manager and latterly as managing director, has been much valued and appreciated.

The Birmingham Exhibition.-The attendance at the Electrical Exhibition still continues to increase, and visitors are now beginning to understand the method adopted to work the various kinds of moving machinery by the electric current.

SEPTEMBER 13, 1889.]

Marcel Deprez and the Electrical Transmission of Power. At the last sitting of the Académie des Sciences the perpetual secretary mentioned, in the correspondence, a letter from M. Marcel Deprez relating to the recent lighting of the town of Bourganeuf. This electrical academician, says a French exchange, has taken the trouble to announce that the problem of the transmission of power by electricity might be considered as solved, on the fallacious pretext that the distance between the electrical works and the town of Bourganeuf is 14 kilometres. His modesty, perhaps, has made him forget the celebrated experiments at Creil; but he might have remembered the first practical demonstration of the transport of power by electricity furnished by Gaulard seven years ago. It is true that transformers have not enjoyed the privilege of being appreciated at their true value by M. Marcel Deprez, and that Gaulard died mad while M. Marcel Deprez became a member of the institute. Without wishing to disparage the installation of Bourganeuf we may be permitted to think that the experiment at Turin has had more fruitful consequences than the succession of abortive attempts of Miesbach-Munich, and lastly, of Creil, thanks to which the author: Tomba de chute en chute au trône academique.

The Engineering Chair in Glasgow University.— Among the candidates for the Chair of Civil Engineering and Mechanics in the University of Glasgow is Mr. J. A. Ewing, B.Sc., F.R.S., Professor of Engineering and Drawing in University College, Dundee. Mr. Ewing's previous work is well known to many of our readers.

-

A Find. A correspondent of the Manchester Guardian writes:-"I hear that an electric lighting company, taking advantage of the present state of the Strand to lay its iron pipes, has made a very curious discovery. These pipes have to be carried to a considerable depth below both the gas and water pipes, and thus the workmen have come upon portions of the ancient wooden water-pipes of London, which have a bore of about 6 inches in diameter, apparently hollowed out of the trunk of a tree."

Underground Wiring.-Says the Western Morning News, Piccadilly is following in the way of the Strand. The wires for the electric light are being pushed ahead beneath the wood paving, but things have been arranged in a sufficiently sensible a manner that the traffic is not greatly hindered. The great electric invasion is spreading in all directions. Streets are being torn up, and a stranger to town might well wonder what was the cause for the general chaos which prevails. The Strand will yet be the first of the London thoroughfares to have the electric light laid on at its houses from end to end, but the arrangements in Piccadilly will not take much longer in completing.

299

OFFICIAL RETURNS OF ELECTRICAL

COMPANIES.

West African Telegraph Company, Limited.-The annual return of this company, made up to the 16th July, was filed on the 7th inst. The nominal capital is £400,000, in £10 shares. 23,109 shares have been taken up and are fully paid. 20 share warrants, representing £1,200, are outstanding. The total amount of stock, for which share warrants comprising £5 stock each, are outstanding is, £3,650.

Electric Light Leads. We have received from the Telegraph Manufacturing Company, of Helsby, a sample case of electric light leads of various gauges. The arrangement of the case, and its handiness for reference, are to be commended.

Electric Tramcar Syndicate, Limited.-The statutory return of this company, made up to the 5th inst., was filed on the same day. The nominal capital is £20,000, in £10 shares. 1,543 shares have been taken up, £13,000 being considered as paid up upon 1,300 shares. Upon the remaining 243 shares the full amount has been called; the calls paid amount to £2,400, and unpaid to £30. Registered office, 31, Lombard Street.

Brush Electrical Engineering Company, Limited.— An agreement of 12th July, filed on 5th inst., provides for the purchase by this company of the business of the Falcon Engine and Car Works, Limited. The new company will pay, satisfy, and discharge, all the debts and liabilities of the Falcon Company, and will fulfil all its contracts and engagements. The further consideration is £1,000, payable £500 in cash, and £500 by the issue of 100 fully paid £2 preference shares and 100 fully paid £3 ordinary shares. The residue of the consideration is the allotment to the liquidators of the Falcon Company or their nominees, of 11,000 fully paid up preference shares of £2 each, and 11,000 fully paid ordinary shares of £3 each.

An agreement of 16th August, filed on the 5th inst., is supplemental to the preceding, and stipulates that the principal agreement shall be binding upon the new company in the same manner as if the new company had been in existence at the date thereof, and as if the new company had been a party thereto in its own name in the place of Mr. Bertram Broadhurst its trustee, and Mr. Broadhurst is henceforth discharged from all liability under the principal agreement.

An agreement of 4th inst., filed on the 5th inst., between the Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation and its liquidators of the one part and this company of the other part, relates to the transfer of the business and assets of the former company to the new company, the latter to discharge all debts and liabilities and to perform all contracts, &c. The purchase consideration is as follows: The issue of first mortgage debentures in the new company to a similar amount held in the old company, the issue to the shareholders of the old company of 52,314 fully paid-np £2 preference shares and 52,314 fully paid-up £3 ordinary shares. The agreement states that shortly after the confirmation of the resolution authorising reconstruction, Mr. Joseph Bevan Braithwaite met with an accident which has incapacitated him from acting as liquidator, and in consequence thereof, Mr. Edward Woods was appointed an additional liquidator by order of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice made on the 3rd inst.

Universal Automatic Advertiser Company, Limited (Mechanical, Electrical and General Engineers).-By a resolution of this company dated 21st ult., the capital has been increased by the addition thereto of £10,000 in £5 shares, beyond the registered capital of £10,000. The notice of increase was filed on the 22nd ult.

Column Printing Telegraph Company, Limited.An agreement of 1st ult. provides for the purchase by this company from John Moore and J. E. Wright, of 5, New Bridge Street, of the following patents and provisional protection relating to printing telegraphs, viz. :(1) Letters patent, dated 22nd December, 1887; (2) letters patent, dated 18th July, 1888; (3) provisional protection obtained for No. 2,413, date 11th February, 1889. The purchase consideration is 100 fully paid shares of £50 each.

Johannesburg Electricity Supply Company, Limited. -The registered office of this company is at 14, George Street, Mansion House.

300

CONTINENTAL NOTES.

[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.]

AT last the Electric Light has overstepped the Polar Circle! For the town of Hammerfest-the northernmost habitation and town in Europe, in lat. 700 N., and almost at the foot of the North Cape-has decided upon establishing a central station for electric lighting. The subject is indeed one which might give a flight of fancy to a Jules Verne, when we think of that little northern town in the full glare of the sun for three months in the summer, and plunged in darkness for a corresponding period in winter, which now, we are happy to say, the great invention of the age will alleviate.

The Norwegian Government has decided upon dispatching Mr. H. Falsen, of Christiania, to Paris to study the latest progress in electrotechnical science.

At the end of June last the number of subscribers to the Christiania Telephone Company was 2,019, the number of apparatus in charge of the company being 2,275. The number of messages now average about 10,000 a-day.

A telephone net is to be laid from the town of Skien, on the Christiania fjord, to the province of Thelemarken, a somewhat extensive undertaking.

In consequence of the severe competition with the electric light the Christiania gas works have lowered the price of gas for lighting purposes from 175 to 15 öre per cubic meter, and from 15 to 10 öre for technical purposes, cooking, &c.

A large municipal central electric station is to be established in Copenhagen, plans for the same having been prepared by the city electrical engineer, M. Windfeld Hansen. The station will be modelled upon those at Deptford and in Hamburg, where M. Hansen has been studying.

The report of the Danish Telegraph Service for the financial year, 1888-89, shows that 553,281 inland mesFages were conveyed, 530,000 foreign ones, and 430,500 in transit to Scandinavia and Russia. In the previous year the figures were respectively 531,459, 456,000, and 363.330. The gross receipts of the two years were respectively £40,800 and £36,000.

Some interesting statistics have appeared in Germany respecting the use of gas motors in the principal towns, the proportion per 1,000 inhabitants being as follows: Hamburg 1.2, Cologne 24, Dresden 18, Leipzic 23, Breslau 09, Munich 20, Magdeburg 17, Barmen 22, Chemintz 16, Crefeld 19, and Augsburg 2-2. This shows a great increase of gas motors as compared with electrical ones in Germany of late.

A company has been formed in Berlin, styling itself the Berliner Accumulatoren Werk, the object of which is to manufacture Carren's accumulators. A considerable amount of capital has been sunk in the venture, and the promoters are sanguine of large profits. The plates in these accumulators are formed by two networks, the space between them being filled by the active material. The networks-web-like in construction are laid upon each other, and soldered together in such a manner that the empty cavity in one corresponds with the filled one in the other. The composition of the paste, and the manufacture of the plates, is a secret, and a German technical journal asserts that the accumulators are not at all made by the method of the inventor whose name they bear.

At a recent meeting of the Société Internationale des Electriciens, M. Sénet communicated a paper explaining a simple and practical mode of coating porcelain with platinum (platinising), which will no doubt prove of great service in laboratories. Upon the porcelain being ready for the furnace it is covered with a layer of chloride of platinum-with the addition of a little spirits of salts in order to make it dissolve easily—or a combination of chloride of ammonia and platinum, but preferably the former, the porcelain is then exposed for 15 to 20 minutes in the furnace to a heat of from 1,000 to 1,200°. The heat reduces the chloride, and the metallic platinum becomes united with the porcelain. Upon repeating the process once or twice the coating

[SEPTEMBER 13, 1889.

is still better. The process will cause porcelain ware thus coated largely to replace the expensive platinum vessels now in use. In the same manner porcelain electrodes have been most successfully coated with platinum, the current acting well, and these electrodes should find a ready sale on account of their cheapness. An interesting electrical installation has been com pleted, and is working exceedingly well at Messrs. Marrel's works at Rives-de-Gier, in the shape of a 120 ton crane worked by electricity. The dynamo supply. ing the current is of the Gramme type, and delivers 375 ampères at 120 volts. It is not only calculated to produce the force required for the motor, but also the current required for 18 Gramme arc lamps of 12 ampères each, arranged in nine parallel systems of two lamps each. The motor is a Gramme shunt machine of 230 ampères and 70 volts. The current is led through two copper wires of 100 millimetres diameter, being received from these conductors by the aid of two inde pendent contact chariots, each fitted with five-three smaller and two larger-wheels with hollowed rolling surfaces. By the aid of a rheostat and an ingenious arrangement three different velocities may be imparted to the motor. The actual working of the crane is effected with leather belting and two cog wheels. The whole apparatus is working remarkably well, and is a very powerful one.

The new first-class carriages of the Paris-Lyons rail. way are lighted by electricity.

A new telegraph cable is to be laid from Ostend to the United States.

Between Vienna and Prague, a distance of 250 kilometres, a telephone service has been established.

The frequent accidents in mines through the use of fuses for firing dynamite cartridges have cansed several electrical engineers to attempt to determine the firing of the same by electricity, and an Austro-Italian firm, Messrs. Schlesinger-Ruggieri, have patented some excellent apparatus to this end. The matériel consists of cartridges, cables, and hand machines. (coup de poing). The cartridge may either contain dynamite alone or a compound of explosives enclosed in a metal tube open in front. Two copper wires connect the tube and the coup de poing, the latter being simply a small magnet dynamo, about 20 centimetres in height. similar to those constructed by M. de Meritens for the same purpose. To fire the mine a button is touched whereby a lever sets a system of cogwheels in motion. The armature rotates and a spark is emitted between the points of the copper wires leading into the cartridge, which is thus fired, and the mine explodes. The magneto dynamo is said to be very safe.

There has just been published in Paris an exceedingly interesting work by M. P. Clémenceau, engineer of arts and manufactures, forming part of the "Bibliotheque des Actualités Industrielle" (Bernard Tignal, éditeur, 5 francs) upon dynamo electrical machines from their earliest to their present types, with 116 illustrations. M. Clémenceau, who is an authority of great standing on the Continent on electrical matters, describes the most primitive as well as the most modern machines in existence, their history being, by the way, well illustrated in natura in the electrical section of the Paris Exhibition. The work is almost wholly descriptive, the theoretical part occupying but some few pages. The first part is devoted to Faraday and Pacinotti's attempts, describing the models that have now given place to the more perfect ones, whilst the second part deals with the most important types of machines now in use, viz., machines for single or alternating, current, magnets, disc, coil, and drum inductors, &c. Finally, there is an excellent chapter upon the erection and working of electrical machinery, plainly worded, so as to appeal to non-electricians.

For a year and a half, according to the Annales de la Electricidad, there have been observed on the subterranean section of the Marseilles cable leakages of current which increased daily. Fearing the total breakdown of the circuit, Mr. Brown, of the Direct Spanish Company, asked and obtained permission to replace the cables of this section. The company had laid down four, in case

SEPTEMBER 13, 1889.]

one of the two should be damaged, and in the present case the leakages or defects of insulation showed themselves in each. On May 21st, at 7 o'clock, Mr. Brown discovered four branch wires which, leaving the four cables, were directed towards the same house, following a wooden trench nearly high enough to allow of a man going through it on his knees. The four cables, some protected by a leaden sheath, and some by an iron one, had been attacked, and the branch wires attached to and leading from them had allowed of financial news sent from Paris being intercepted; but as there was no loss of continuity in the cables, it can only be asserted that a telephone served as a receiver. All search hitherto carried on has been unsuccessful in discovering the author of this fraudulent attempt.

We learn from Rome that, by order of the Ministry of War, all the forts of Vinadio, Tende, and Colle di Nava will soon be united by a special telegraph wire. The small detached forts will be connected by a telephonic line.

The directors of the Paris Exhibition have just taken a step which has been well received. The days having now become shorter, the hours for the playing of the fountains have been altered. They now play at 8, 8.40, and 9 on Sundays; the lighting of the Tower will also take place at 9.30, instead of 10.30. In connection with these alterations, the directors have decided to close the Exhibition half-an-hour earlier.

The most notable members of the Congress of Electricians last week visited the Forest and Château of Fontainebleau. M. Carnot invited them to a déjeuner, and the band of the School of Artillery gave them a serenade. Among those present we may mention: M. Mascart, member of the Institute; Sir William Thomson, Glasgow University; Mr. Preece, General Post Office; M. Rousseau, Professor at Brussels University; Ferraris, Professor at Turin; M. Kareis, Engineer-inChief to the Ministry of Trade, Vienna; M. Stoletow, Professor at the University of Moscow; M. Potier, Professor at the Polytechnique School; M. Joubert, General Secretary of the French Society of Physics; M. Lippmann, Member of the Institute; and M. Fribourg, directing engineer to the Telegraph Administration.

At the last meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences, the Perpetual Secretary read a letter from M. Marcel Desprèz, stating that the transport of motive power had been in operation for three months at Bourganeuf, where it fed the public lighting with a machine of 100 horse-power, to which the power is transported from a distance of 14 kilomètres.

The

For some time past the telegraphists at the central office of the Northern Station, Brussels, have had their day's work increased from eight to ten hours. As may be imagined, the increase of work has caused considerable discontent among the telegraphists. decision of M. Vandenpeereboom is, it appears, led up to by the fact that at this period of the year-the public having recourse to the telegraph service more than at any other-it is necessary to take extraordinary steps to expedite the business. And as, when the season is over, business resumes its habitual course, it has been preferred not to increase the staff, but to carry on the work with those ordinarily employed. "The measure of the Minister," says a Belgian contemporary, "is certainly open to discussion. It does not even appear to us practicable. The Minister would have acted more wisely in increasing the staff, the more so as the motive claimed appears to us as not all serious. Whence comes this increase of work in the dead season of politics and business? Probably from the holidays. But is it not compensated for by the reduction of political, commercial, and financial dispatches? When the winter comes, will they not find themselves face to face with an inverse compensation: many more business dispatches, many less pleasure telegrams? It will be objected that, if our observation be correct, the conclusion is equally unfavourable to the increase of the staff and the increase of the working hours. It is for the Administration to foresee, and we are not sufficiently au fait with its interior details to give an opinion on the subject."

301

The Congress expressed the wish that in industrial practice powers should be expressed in kilowatts instead of in horse-powers.

Second Section.-Industrial Applications.

M. R. Arnoux presented some considerations on the experimental study of dynamos.

He showed that if we designate by F the effort at given point of the moveable part of a dynamo, by v the speed of displacement of this effort, E and I the electromotive force and the total current, the electrodynamic working of a machine may be represented by any one of four equations of three variables.

In other terms, the electro-dynamic properties of a machine may be represented by a certain surface as it is done in thermo-dynamics for the thermic properties of a body.

Among the four equations the only one which can be directly determined by experiment is ; the three others, which contain the electromotive force, E, can be determined only by admitting that the law of Ohm is applicable to the internal circuit of the dynamo, which constitutes a petitio principii.

The surface, 1, will be very simply determined by experiment on allowing only two elements to vary at

once.

This being established, if we admit that everything takes place in the circuits foreseen, the principle of the conservation of energy gives the relation

F V = ΕΙ

which, combined with one of the four preceding equations, supposed as known, enables us to determine the three others by a simple graphic construction. Hitherto the determination of no one of these surfaces has been effected in a sufficient manner. Experiment seems to have shown that the surface

F = (I, V)

is not a cylindrical surface. On the other hand, Frölich finds that for one and the same current and one and the same speed the mechanical effect developed by a machine employed as a generator is superior to that developed when the same machine works as a recipient. M. Arnoux considers that the difference observed may be due to the method employed for measuring the effort.

M. J. Laffargue spoke on electric canalisations. The study of such a canalisation may be divided into two heads the study of the conductors in themselves, and that of their placing. For a distribution of 80 kilowatts (100 volts, 800 ampères) at a maximum distance of 300 metres from the works there are for two wires with five centres 1,525 kilos, or for three wires 556 kilos. The economy of the 3-wire system as compared with two wires varies from 60 to 68 per cent,