402

to excite a nerve or even a muscle in which it is derived (Matteucci's induced contraction). The laws of the current of action in the nerve are based upon those of the muscle, only the electromotive force of these currents is weaker than for the muscle ('02 to 03 Daniells in mammifers).

The currents of action cannot be supposed to be the result of preparation, for they may easily be observed in man and mammifers at each beat of the heart by employing the apparatus indicated by Dr. Augustus Waller (1888). These currents attain an extraordinary intensity in the discharge of the electrical organ of certain fish (the torpedo, gymnotus, silure, &c.). Electricity is not pre-existent in these organs; they cannot be likened either to a condenser or to a battery, since, when in a state of rest they manifest no external electrical tension betokening a charge comparable to the energy of the discharge. Therefore these organs produce electricity only at the moment when they enter upon their function under the influence of the will of the animal. They act, from the point of view of the production of electrical energy, exactly as the muscle acts with regard to mechanical energy, as shown by the fine analysis made by M. Marey. The nervous system no more makes the electricity in the electrical organ than it makes the mechanical force in the muscle, since discharges are obtained after the organ is separated from the nervous centres, as with the muscle.

If contractibility is the property of the muscle electricity (to use a corresponding expression) is by the same reasoning the property of the electrical organ.

What is the origin of these currents of action? No satisfactory theory has as yet been advanced. We find ourselves met by hypotheses more or less ingenious giving us molecular groupings, which are more or less fanciful, and the arrangement of which is changed according to the necessities of the case. M. d'Arsonval has attempted an explanation, resting upon a physical basis, into which enter the remarkable laws discovered by M. Lippmann, which establish a relation between capilliary phenomena and electrical phenomena in the inorganic world. M. d'Arsonval has shown that a relation of this kind exists between the animal electricity and the superficial tension. All the phenomena known at present bear out this explanation.

Effects of Discharges, Continuous Currents and Alternating Currents on Animals.-Electrolysis of the Tissues,-Precautions to be taken.

Direct experiments have been made upon different animals (rabbits, guinea pigs and dogs) by means of the following sources of electricity :—

1. A static machine (Holtz, with 4 plates) charging a battery of 9 large jars ;

2. A battery of 420 volts;

3. Continuous current Gramme machines of from 110 volts to 8,000 volts;

4. Alternating current Gramme machines (300 volts mean potential) ;

5. Induction coils and extra currents, worked by accumulators.

These experiments led the author to formulate the following conclusions (d'Arsonval, Académie des Sciences, April 4th, 1887) :—

According to what has already been said, living beings are especially sensitive to the variable condition of the current; this amounts to saying at once that with an equal mean potential alternating currents are much more dangerous than a continuous current.

The very varied effects of electricity upon living beings may be divided into two special categories, which comprise them all. Electricity causes death in the two following ways:

1. By direct action (the disruptive effects of the discharge, which act mechanically by destroying the tissues);

2. By reflex or indirect action (by acting upon the nervo centres, the irritation of which causes the inf ety of injurious actions known since the

[OCTOBER 4, 188.

researches of M. Brown Séquard under the m of inhibition and dynamogénie).

The static discharge is only fatal when it s directly the bulbe ractüdien, i.e., the respiratory cer with well localised discharges, the energy of wh corresponds to about 3 kilogrammetres.

A. Under these conditions the different tis (nerves, blood, muscles), when struck singly by discharge, lose their physiological properties with. possible recovery.

B. With a battery of 420 volts death is only ca by interruptions repeated for a long time. This d is due to the state of tetanus provoked by the curr and is accompanied by a considerable elevation: temperature, which is the true cause of death.

C. The continuous current Gramme machine is dangerous (at 110 volts) through its extra current breakage. The compound wound machines are deadly in their effects with an equal potential, the second winding serves as a derivation at 2 moment of rupture.

With a machine of 8,000 volts a momentary clos of the current caused the animal (a rabbit) to make prodigious leap, but did not cause death immediat a second application was necessary. (Unpublish experiment made in 1888 at the works of the Gram Company.)

D. An alternating Gramme machine only causes deat above 120 volts mean potential.

E. An extra current bobbin (thick wire) is dangerous than an induction coil, especially if associated with a condenser. The danger of a sing discharge is defined only by the electric curve of t discharge. The knowledge of the difference of poter and the mean intensity is not sufficient; it is gener necessary to take into account, all things else b equal, the duration of this discharge. With eq energy the danger is in inverse proportion to t duration. It is the same with alternating curre in which case we must also take into account the num of inversions per second.

The grouping into two classes of the effects produ by electricity at a high potential is of great pract value, in this sense, that in the first case death is certa and definite (destruction with laceration of the tissue whereas in the second (death by irritation with destruction of the nervous centres), the individual possibly be restored to life by performing artific respiration immediately after the accident. The e tinuous current of feeble intensity, applied to nerves, brings about in these latter a modification 4 their excitability, known by the name of electroter into the details of which we cannot enter here. Th modification seems traceable solely to the polarisati produced by the passage of the current between cylindrical axis of the nerve and the myéline, for it absent, or, at any rate, very feeble in the nerves t are destitute of myéline. The passage of the a tinuous current into all the tissues of the organism, fr practical intensities varying from 10 to 250 m ampéres, is accompanied by electrolytic phenome utilised surgically by Cunselli, of Cremona, for destr ing the tissues without loss of blood. This valus method, introduced into France by Tripier, see capable of giving excellent results in skilful bar: The passage of the current in this case acts as a lo caustic by depositing acids at the positive pole, bases at the negative pole, in a nascent condition. L a word, electricity serves to introduce an acid or alia line caustic, localising the caustic action at the le of the poles. The positive polar cauterisation g rise to hard, retractile scars; the contrary w be the case with the negative polar cauterisati disti according to Tripier. We have thus two very therapeutic indications.

It remains for us to determine experimentally are the intensities which it is useless or dangerous exceed, for the continuous current may entail, whit exciting, general disorder, when its intensity, it density at certain points attains to a value exceed 1 ampère.

EPORT OF THE POST AND TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT OF QUEENSLAND FOR 1888.

HE report for 1888, of the Superintendent of Electric elegraphs, Mr. A. F. Matveieff, concerning the Teleaph Branch, shows that in Queensland there are now 'er 9,2024 miles of line, and 16,684 miles of wire Den for public business. At the close of 1888 there ere 311 stations in daily operation, and 683 officers aployed, including those holding appointments in her departments, but exclusive of assistants at country ations (officers' wives) and construction parties.

In the Southern and South-Western districts all the nes have worked well, the insulation being unusually od, owing no doubt in some measure to the dry eather which has prevailed, but much of the imovement on some circuits is to be attributed to the moval by maintenance parties of old defects. While e absence of wet weather has been an advantage on le one hand, yet the drought on the other has allowed ery disastrous bush fires to range over large tracts of ountry, causing damage to the lines and numerous reaks which took a long time to repair. They were Lost frequent from August to December, but have been oublesome throughout the whole year. The interaptions caused by them have been most numerous, ongest in duration, and by far the most costly to epair, owing to the number of poles destroyed. On he 18th September 19 poles were burnt between Roma nd Mitchell; on the 10th October 26 were destroyed etween Tambo and Blackall, and on the 27th of the me month no less than 40 poles shared the same fate etween Eulo and Thargomindah. Bush fires also

aused extensive damage to the wires over nine miles f country on the 19th and 20th of October between Iawkwood and Camboon, and on the 28th October ver several miles of the line between Augathella and 'ambo. In some cases the wire on falling to the round was fused into short lengths by the intense eat, and where iron poles were in use they became ed hot and cracked the insulators.

The Northern lines have worked well, though the white ants are very troublesome, causing over 25 per ent. of the interruptions; poisoned pins have been upplied but with doubtful benefit, as the ants in many ases, even if they leave the pin alone, eat the pole all ound.

The total expenditure on maintenance and repairs or 1888 was £7,945 98. 5d.

A new cable, 12 miles in length, has been laid between Magazine Island (Townsville) and Cape Cleveand.

The different telephone exchanges are in good workng order. The numbers of subscribers are increasing n Brisbane; and some other towns, after falling off, have now much improved, being up to or above the standard number for provincial exchanges (32).

"Improvements in electric bells." H. GROVES and J. H. STEWART. Dated September 16.

14593. 66

Improvements in metallic circuits or conductors of electrical energy.” H. F. CAMPBELL. Dated September 17. (Complete.)

14601. "An improved connector for the elements of electric batteries." G. MACAULAY-CRUIKSHANK. (Communicated by S. H. Barrett, Massachusetts.) Dated September 17. (Complete.) 14636. "Improvements in apparatus for the automatic control and regulation of electrical currents for electric lighting and other purposes." G. FLETCHER. Dated September 17.

14649. "An improved covering for steam pipes, electric wires, and the like." W. R. LAKE. (Communicated by C. T. Lee, United States.) Dated September 17. (Complete.)

14656.

STEIN. 14664.

"Improvements in electric glow lamps." A. BERNDated September 17.

Improvements in and relating to door-bell mechanism for mechanically ringing door bells, so as to imitate electric bells, to be applied in houses and other buildings." A. F. ROCKWELL. Dated September 17. (Complete.)

14666. "Improvements in electric conduits for street railways." J. W. RENO. Dated September 17. (Complete.)

14860. 'Improvements in automatic telephone devices." C. G. HOFFMANN. Dated September 20.

10708. Improved automatic electric cut-out." S. C. C. CURRIE. Dated July 2. 8d. Consists of two wires or pieces of metal, or other good conducting material, interposed in an electric circuit, and suitably supported at one of their ends by a connecting device, and with portions of the wires or pieces imbedded in an insulating substance or material of poor electrical conductivity, but susceptible of being melted at a low temperature with portions of said wires or pieces immersed in a conducting fluid contained in a bulb, tube, or other suitable vessel. Further consists of two inversely disposed wires or pieces of metal, or material of good conductivity, supported at one of their ends by a connecting device composed of insulating material, and portions thereof attached to or otherwise held by an insulated yoke, and said wires or pieces imbedded in a substance or material of high resistance, but capable of being readily melted, and with portions thereof immersed in a conducting fluid contained in a vessel, bulb, or other container, with a loop or band of insulating material circumscribing the vessel, or bulb, to permit the same to fall sufficiently when the circuit is automatically broken through the device by the melting of the substance or material of poor electrical conductivitity that said wires are imbedded in and supported in the vessel. 5 claims.

10709. Improvements in insulators for electric batteries." S. C. C. CURRIE. Dated July 2. 6d. Claims:-1. A perforated corrugated insulating plate or diaphragm permitting of the free passage of the current as well as the free circulation of the liquid and gases in or through the perforations and around or along the grooves or recesses of the corrugations thereof, substantially as and for the purposes set forth. 2. A perforated corrugated insulating plate or diaphragm having the lines of corrugation lying in a vertical plane, substantially as and for the purposes set forth. 3. A perforated insulating plate or diaphragm formed with corrugations, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

404

11529.

66 'Improvement in indicators for electric light switches." W. TowLE and W. E. LANGDON. Dated August 10. 6d. Claim: -The application of luminous paint for the purpose of indicating the position of electric light switches, in the manner and for the purpose substantially as set forth.

11809. "Improvements in apparatus for measuring electric potential, applicable also for measuring heights and for meteorological purposes." A. H. MAURICE, L. CARR, and D. OWEN. Dated August 16. 11d. Refers principally to an arrangement or apparatus for measuring the effects of polarisation upon hermetically enclosed fluid dielectrics when submitted to the inductive influence of an electrified body. 4 claims.

-

12376. "Improvements in electric accumulators and in their manufacture." W. L. WISE. (Communicated from abroad by J. T. Van Gestel, of New York.) Dated August 28. 8d. Claims :1. An element of an electric accumulator as described, and comprising a plate of a metal of low electric resistance, covered or coated with a layer of lead or alloy of lead, this layer being provided with a number of channels upon one or upon both sides of the plate, and these channels containing a suitable lead salt which serves as the active material. 2. The described modification of an improved element of an electric accumulator, according to which a core or internal body of metal, other than lead or lead alloy, is dispensed with. 3. The described method of manufacturing elements of electric accumulators, by forming a plate of copper or other metal of low electric resistance, applying upon this plate by hydraulic pressure, or by casting, a layer of lead or alloy of lead in such a manner as to form ledges or shelves; filling the spaces between the said ledges or shelves with an active material (any suitable lead salt); and after such filling bending the edges of the ledges or shelves so as to enclose and securely retain the said active material.

12860. "An instrument or means for the combined purposes of transmitting and recording speech or other sounds." H. EDMUNDS. Dated September 5. 6d. Has for its object to provide an instrument which can be used for the combined purposes of transmitting and recording speech or other sounds-that is to say, that it is adapted for use as a telephone and at the same time to make a record for subsequent reproduction of the speech or other sounds, after the manner of what is known as a graphophone. 1 claim.

13473. "Improvements in and connected with launches and other vehicles driven by electric primary batteries and motors." J. SHERRIN and J. V. SHERRIN. Dated September 18. 8d. The batteries are arranged on each side in the launch or other vehicle, and under seats arranged there so as to take up no necessarily available space in the middle. The batteries are supplied with the exciting liquid or liquids from a tank or tanks placed at a higher level in the stern or fore part of the vessel, and provided with a cock or cocks and pipes running along the lower inner sides of the batteries. 5 claims.

14426. 66 Improvements in electric switches." C. S. SNELL. Dated October 8. 6d. The object of this invention is to ensure good electrical connection between a switch arm and the contact piece when the switch is in the "on" position, and this is effected by the use of a cast metal contact piece and a cast switch arm, the vertical faces of each of which are indented or recessed at intervals, the recesses in the contact piece being of the same vertical dimensions as the distance between the recesses in the switch arm, and vice-versa. 2 claims.

1889.

11067. "Improvements in insulation for electric conductors." C. T. SNEDEKOR. Dated July 9. 4d. The wire, cable, or other conductor to be insulated is first covered with a coating of liquid shellac, and, before this is dry, a coating or covering is applied to the conductor, consisting of some fibrous material, such as cotton, jute, silk, or other similar substance which has been saturated in a strong solution of alum. This coating is then allowed to become perfectly dry, after which a liquid glue of any preferred kind is applied, upon which, when hardened, is spread a thick coat of heavy varnish. While this varnish is yet damp a dust is applied, consisting preferably of about four parts of powdered or ground glass, one part powdered alum and one part powdered asbestos. The conductor is then again covered with a fibrous coating which has been first thoroughly saturated with a composition, or paste, consisting of linseed oil, litharge, white lead, ground asbestos and alum. This is again covered with fibrous materials which has first been saturated with a solution of alum and allowed to dry. To this dry fibrous coating is next applied a solution of any of the varnish gums dissolved in linseed oil, and before this coating hardens there is pressed into it a thin coat of asbestos fibre. When this is perfectly dry and hard the whole is thoroughly coated with varnish. 5 claims.

CORRESPONDENCE.

High v. Low Potential.

With Mr. Edison's recent flying visit to London the subject, the very important subject, of how best to con

[OCTOBER 4, 18x9

vey electric currents for lighting, as well as for oth practical purposes, has received another kick to th front, and it is to be hoped a final kick, before be practically and commercially settled, as separate fr the conflicting conclusions of the mathematicians.

One point always worth remembering when consider ing this subject in the light of the oft-quoted, then useful comparison of hydraulics, is that we are c dealing with the movement of matter, in its ordin sense, hence our conductors are smaller, and altogethmore easily manipulated. The subject of insulation! life protection is undoubtedly important, and, althoug it occupies a foremost position for our consideratio the economical point of being able to use a maxim voltage without sparking across the insulation, is "big job on hand." The danger to human life fr electric currents is analogous in some respects to use of gas at the present time. Upon what fine pairs the operation of hurriedly turning off an ordinary e jet rests; let it be left the least open, and we stand. chance of not losing one life only, but perhaps a house full. Let people understand that such-and-such this are dangerous, and they will attend to it; if they : not who is to blame? Are we to sacrifice our econom cal advantage because we think some person will be foolish as to try for themselves what we tell them to t dangerous? It is the old story. If we do not lear from others' experience we are fools; if we do learn from our own-well, I'll give it up.

Some people adopt the plan of building a brick hors and putting an iron door in to ensure protection.

I am told that the 2,000 volt transmission system working Splendidly; in one case the cable insulation improving every day, although several of the pipes har been under water some time, the insulation in th mains standing now at 15 megohms. That is a important point where iron socket pipes are employe to carry the cables, that the caulking should be w done. I wonder how a certain number of "coffins": the vicinity of Piccadilly will be getting on. I hop they are water-tight (?). I had a chat with one of the grave diggers," who was letting some parts of corpse" know the strength of his arm, to enable him to get the "lid" down; and as an excuse for his rotzi treatment remarked that he thought "decomposition was setting in, and that it was absolutely necessary get them covered up before the inspector came ron I do hope, though, that they will cause no trouble for a little while.

66

66

This high-potential subject reminds me of what was once advocated for London's gas supply, viz., to conver it from Newcastle in a pipe under pressure.

Finally, let us go ahead with the high potentia system, and find our limits-whether it be 2,000, 3,0* 5,000, or 10,000 volts or more.

Insulation. Following up a suggestion I made in 3 letter some time ago, of employing three pipes, on th: Ferranti principle, with the middle one a dummy, prevent direct air passages between the conductors. would not a good hydro-carbon oil of about 9 S.G. and free from acids or salts, run in between them, ar as a better insulator than the solids? I am aware that oil has been employed, but I think not in this way. James C. Richardson.

September 30th, 1889.

Electric Traction.

Is your correspondent, Mr. Jarman, prepared advise his Syndicate to apply for an injunction t restrain the Sprague Company, the Thomson-Houst Company, the Julien Company, or anyone else fro using two motors in the manner described in his spec fication, e.g., to work one armature in one direction ard the other in the opposite one. I take it that there is: difference in placing two motors side by side than i putting them at each end of the car?

William Houghton.

ON STRIKES.

HITHERTO We have refrained from touching upon a topic which scarcely comes within the province of a scientific journal, but the letter which appears in our correspondence columns from the Secretary of the India Rubber, Gutta Percha, and Telegraph Works Company, may be made the peg upon which to hang a few remarks. Apparently the horny-handed sons of toil go on with their daily labours for lengthy periods in a perfectly happy frame of mind and quite contented with their lot in life, until somebody, who has nothing in common with those he stirs up, interposes between employer and man, and tells the latter that he must henceforth consider himself the one factor in our industrial system, and that our well-being depends upon him alone. The great strike of the London dock labourers, now happily at an end, has been the means of spreading broadcast the wave of discontent throughout the land, and no sooner have terms been arranged between employers of labour and their workmen in one branch of industry, than another has to face the same difficulty. We scarcely expected that the electrical trades would have felt the evil effects of the teaching of Mr. Burns and his allies, but so it is, and the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company first, and now Silvertown, have each had a painful experience of what professional agitators can accomplish when dealing with a class of society unable to think for itself what is best for its own good. On behalf of the men employed in the Silvertown works it is held that they are simply underpaid slaves; Mr. Tyler, on the other hand, asserts that the company's labourers are remunerated on a scale which compares favourably with the rate of pay for similar work in any part of England. On this point we will leave our readers to judge for themselves, as also upon a personal matter connected with the electric lighting department, where Mr. W. Gray is publicly taxed with being too autocratic in his dealings. with those under him. The strike per se seems to have been carried out on similar lines to that in the docks.

In each case a few discontented individuals commenced the disturbance, but while the Docks proprietors refused to concede the demands of the men, Mr. Gray, on the contrary, made an offer which was accepted and the labourers resumed work. Thereupon five other petitions from other departments for an advance in wages came following in, and these were met in what was probably considered an eminently practical manner, Mr. Gray calling a meeting of all the hands and informing them that the advance he gave the yard labourers he would take back, and that the work must be done at the old prices, or else the yard labourers might all go out. A notice was issued the same evening to the effect that all men not satisfied might go out also.

The upshot of the affair is shown in the last paragraph of Mr. Tyler's communication, which means that at least £2,400 per week, if we take the average of wages at about 30s., is being lost to the little colony of Silvertown, and how long this deplorable deadlock will continue we are not in a position to say. The privations to which the wives and families of these misguided beings will be exposed would touch a sympathetic chord in a heart of adamant; but why sentimentalists, who do not generally show their appreciation of the British workman in the desperate straits to which he is so often reduced through his own stupidity by according him anything of a more substantial nature than sentiment, should look upon strikers as martyrs to a worthy cause is more than we can understand. If men were less selfish and would only turn over in their own minds the positions often occupied by their employers during the continuance of a large contract, we should come to a much better relationship between capital and labour. The obtaining of a contract has on various occasions been the pretext for a demand for higher wages, the thoughts of the easily led workman going no farther than the bare fact of an order coming in. The chances are that the master may make a dead loss of several thousand pounds by the time the work is out of hand, and this through no fault in estimating,

B

but from a combination of circumstances which were quite impossible to foresee. Nevertheless, the sons of toil get their weekly wage all the same, and brood over the belief that, while they are working for what they call just enough to keep body and soul together, the master is rolling in wealth. Then, again, let us consider the workman without reference to the employer at all. We assume that, in accordance with the law of supply and demand, a man is in receipt of £1 per week, and, as a technical contemporary aptly put it during the dock strike, he requests an advance in his wage of 5 per cent. Perhaps before this is complied with he has "been out" for three weeks and lost therefore just £3, assuming that no outside help comes to him. He then resumes his employment at one guinea per week, and at the enhanced rate of pay it takes more than twelve months before he can recoup himself for the loss incurred during his three weeks of idleness. More than this, he may have suffered not merely through the non-receipt of a weekly wage, but he has probably found it necessary to part with sundry household articles which have to be again replaced. When the strike of a numerous class such as the dockers is followed by that of bakers, tailors, coal carriers, and the like, it stands to reason that the necessaries of life, at least for a time, are correspondingly raised in price, so it is very questionable whether 20 per cent. advance in a workman's pay means anything like such an elevation of his worldly position.

The sentimentalists, again, deplore the degraded condition in which the labourer spends his life. They forget that he, to a great extent, is master of his own fortunes, or misfortunes if this term is preferable to the ultra tender-hearted. All classes of society have a certain standard of comfort, and the labourer, generally speaking, has little or no ambition to soar above the particular kind of existence which has been meted out to him by Dame Fortune. The poor City clerk with his 30s. per week, and who oftentimes has to devote longer hours to his manifold duties than falls to the lot of the luckless British workman, is in comparatively worse straits, for he has to dress like a gentleman, live in a genteel neighbourhood, and keep up an appearance without which he could not hope to secure a position in a merchant's office. From all these unwritten but necessary rules of deportment, the labourer, while keeping himself, if he chooses, eminently respectable, is free.

So long, however, as men are found ready to listen to the utterances of such professional agitators as Mr. John Burns and his disciples, whose superior education and gift of speech, such as it is, enables them to lead thousands of misguided individuals by the nose, and who take good care to place before their dupes only one side of the capital and labour question, so long will these disastrous ruptures between master and man occur, their frequency being determined by the sweet will of the fomenters of the mischief. And just here we think that the employers of labour are very much to blame, for while statements which are more often than not without a shadow of foundation, and sometimes absolutely false, are placed before the toilers as

[OCTOBER 11, 1889.

facts, no effort is made by the capitalists to controvert or place another explanation upon the wild utterances of the unscrupulous demagogues who pose as benefactors to poor humanity. These mischief makers have, as a rule, nothing to lose and everything to gain by instigating others to deeds they would not otherwise have dreamt of.

Why should such a statement as the following, which relates to the Silvertown Company, be allowed to inflame the minds of men who are not prone to reason: "Out of this slave-driving and miserable pay of 34d. to 4 d. per hour, on which men have to support wives and families, the firm makes a profit of £160,000 yearly."

Surely the very fact that such a profit is made must, to a reasonable being, be the most convincing sign that the company is in a prosperous and flourish. ing condition. If the profits were nil, how long do these poor demented creatures, who have thought fit to turn out, imagine the works would be carried on? And if the shareholders chose to put thousands of pounds into a concern which may or may not be suc cessful, have they not a right to receive a small percentage of profit for the great stake which is entailed, and does not the fact of there being found capitalists ready to risk their money in this manufacturing business constitute the raison d'être of the Silvertown employés very existence ? The Silvertown directors are not more hard-hearted than other employers of labour; in fact, in their private capacity, they are probably eminently charitable, but they have no right to administer the affairs of their clients and shareholders on any other than the ordinary economic principles. It is no part of their duty to pay 6d. per hour for unskilled labour when the market price is less; but it is certainly their right course to resist the demand until it has been clearly shown that the labour they sought was unattainable at the lower figure.

Could workmen only be prevailed upon to consider the difficulties with which a manager has to contend in the conduct of a gigantic hive of industry such as the famous India-Rubber and Gutta-Percha works, they would be less prone to throw up their means of livelihood in a moment of mental aberration, for it is nothing else. Competition, English and foreign, perhaps an obstinate board of directors to cope with, the buying of material in the cheapest market, the incessant watching of prices, the fine cutting of estimates in order to secure work, sometimes only to keep the machines going without a penny of profit; all these go to make a work's manager's life the reverse of a happy one. When men are once settled in permanent employment, their object should be to co-operate with the master, in order that work may be constantly coming in, and not to render all his efforts futile by thwarting him, perhaps at the very moment when the prosperity of everybody concerned is likely to be at its height. They should remember that they are paid for their labour in accordance with what they do; of responsibility, which is the hardest thing of all to bear, they have none.

If these men could have brought before them the