BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTICES.

ANNALEN DER HYDROGRAPHIE UND MARITIMEN METEOROLOGIE.

PART IX., 1883. Researches in meteorology and ocean physics in the American-Arctic archipelago by various English Arctic expeditions, from 1819 to 1854. Researches in meteorology and ocean physics during the expedition of the Vega, 1878-79, and in the winter-quarters at Serdze Kamen. Log-notes of various German vessels. Additions to the description of the eastern part of Tsugar Straits, Japanese Islands, from the report of the British surveying ship Flying Fish. Hurricane at Apia, Samoan Islands, March 24th and 25th, 1883. Comparison of the weather in North America and Central Europe for June, 1883. PART X., 1883. The three Norwegian North Sea expeditions, 1876-1878. Log-notes of German vessels. Comparison of the weather in North America and Central Europe for July, 1883. Photographic coast-views in the Straits of Magellan, by S. M. S. Bismarck and Vineta.

PART XI., 1883. The daily changes in the force of the wind over the land and over the sea. Meteorological and hydrographic results of the Austrian North Polar Observation Station at Jan Mayen. New deep-sea investigations; contains accounts of the deep-sea soundings of the U. S. C. S. S. Blake and the U. S. S. Enterprise in the Atlantic ocean. Comparison of the weather in North America and Central Europe for August, 1883. Hydrographic notices treating of encounter with ice in the eastern part of the South Atlantic. Plate of surveys, Chili, West Channel, by the Italian corvette Caracciolo.

BULLETIN DE LA RÉUNION DES OFFICIERS.

DECEMBER 8, 1883. Description of the Chinese ironclad Ting Huen, built at Bredof, near Stettin. The military organization of South Australia.

ENGINEER.

OCTOBER 5, 1883. The Design, Specifications, and Inspections of Ironwork: a paper read before the Society of Engineers, by Mr. H. W. Pendred.

OCTOBER 19. A New Form of Flexible Band Dynamometer, by Prof. W. C. Unwin.

OCTOBER 26. A description of the new cruisers for the U. S. Navy.

An editorial in the same number contains a wholesale condemnation of the hull, armament, machinery, and boilers of the "Chicago," concluding with the following remarkable passage: "We see in the boilers and machinery of the ship, to say nothing of the hull, a manifestation of that desire to be original at any cost which has done so much harm already in the U. S. Navy. The experience of the gentlemen who have prepared these designs can be as nothing compared with British engineers. If no such engines are to be found in a British ship, the U. S. Naval Advisory Board may rest assured that there is good reason for the fact; if no boilers of the type were ever made and sent to sea at this side of the Atlantic, the circumstance bears its lesson. Those entrusted with the design of the 'Chicago' have not availed themselves of the experience acquired in this country at a great expense, and they will regret the fact."

Notwithstanding the original argument given above, together with the assumed superior brilliancy of the English engineers, it is thought that the work of building the Chicago will still go on.

NOVEMBER 2. Peck's revolving piston pump.

A novel design of pump combining the principles of the ordinary plunger type and the rotary pump.

NOVEMBER 9. Sand-blast file-sharpener.

A description accompanied with illustrations of the operation of sharpening files by means of Tilghman's sand-blast process.

NOVEMBER 16. Giffard's Injector.

A short paper giving an easy and practical demonstration of the formulæ connected with Giffard's injector, by Prof. James Lyon.

Higgs' suspension for incandescent lamps.

A neat suspension for incandescent electric lamps, designed by Mr. Paget Higgs. This arrangement permits a considerable amount of motion to take place in the lamp, and is free from the objection to the ordinary Swan suspension, as the lamp cannot become unhooked.

Uniformity of rotation in electric lighting engines.

In considering the complaints made by electricians as to the want of uniformity in the rotation of the engine, and to the consequent want of uniformity in the rotation of the armature of the dynamo-machine, we are much inclined to think that both time and money are likely to be wasted if either is further expended in scheming elaborate cut-off and governor-gear. Some engines without anything of the kind have given a great deal of satisfaction, while others with every refinement have failed. This is the case simply from the fact that the engine in common use has been one of ample power and has been selected for contingencies, while in the refined engine, the power required has been carefully calculated and compared with the indicated horse-power of the engine. Things are, in short, in such cases cut fine, and the power of the engine at normal speed and pressure is so near the work it has to do that it must be nursed and the firing performed by a skilful fireman. For electric lighting, as well as for other dead-pull work, strong, well-made engines are required; the admission and cut-off of the steam should be tolerably quick and precise, and a powerful governor should be employed.

On the Stability of Ships at Launching.

A valuable paper on the above subject was read before the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders, by Mr. J. H. Biles.

NOVEMBER 23. Riveted joints.

In an editorial, discussing the relative advantages and disadvantages of hand and machine riveting, attention is called to the fact that opinions on this subject

have held sway long enough, and that it is time that some definite statement of results obtained in practice, as to the cost and efficiency of the different methods, should be made public.

NOVEMBER 30. Tweddell's hydraulic ship-riveting machine.

A description of a powerful machine for closing up rivets in comparatively inaccessible places, about the covering boards and waterways of iron vessels. DECEMBER 7. On the Destructive Distillation of Coal and Transformation of its Nitrogen into Ammonia.

An abstract from a paper by M. Scheurer- Kestner, read before the Paris Academy of Sciences.

Armer's vertical boiler.

The object of this design is to obtain in a vertical boiler the greatest possible efficiency in the tube-heating surfaces. For this purpose the tubes have a helical twist given them, which does not influence the facility for cleaning, while it causes greater impingement of the gases against the tube-walls, and gives more freedom for expansion and contraction than straight tubes.

DECEMBER 14. Lang's wire rope.

In this method of laying wire rope, the strands and the rope are laid in the same direction, while in the ordinary manner they are laid in opposite directions. By the former arrangement a much larger wearing surface is secured, and a correspondingly increased duration; for, while in the common rope the area of bearing surface is so restricted that the outer wires break after a comparatively small wear, and before the inner part of the rope is much strained, the strands of the Lang rope continue in a serviceable condition until they are worn down too thin to resist the strain.

The First Law of Electrostatics.

A paper on this subject by Prof. Thompson, in which he shows that if electricity be considered as a self-repulsive medium, a surplus in one place and a deficit in another would give rise to motion between them, i. e., attraction. This inference, as well as many other electrical phenomena, were illustrated on the same hypothesis by means of self-repelling magnet poles buoyed with cork and floated on oil. The repelling poles tend to a uniform distribution of themselves throughout the surface of the oil, which would correspond to space in nature. A surplus of poles at one place led to movement until the distribution was uniform. Prof. Thompson pursued the hypothesis to the inference that electricity is either ether or ether electrified; the former supposition being the more probable.

ENGINEERING.

OCTOBER 12, 1883. Deep-sea sounding and dredging.

Illustrations and descriptions of the following American machines at the Fisheries Exhibition, viz., Sigsbee's deep-sea sounding machine; hand sounding machine, designed by Lieut. Z. L. Tanner, U. S. N., for sounding by wire in moderate depths; and an arrangement by which a number of Negretti and Zambra's deep-sea thermometers may be attached to one line and tripped by means of a messenger. By this device a series of temperatures at different depths can be taken simultaneously on one wire by a single operation. This arrangement is the combined work of Lieut. Tanner and Passed Asst. Eng'r Bayley, U. S. N.

OCTOBER 19.

Manganese bronze screw propellers.

The advantages claimed for this metal are that thinner blades may be used, and that although the first cost is greater, they are cheaper in the long run, owing to their greater life and the value of the old material.

NOVEMBER 2. Siemens' dynamo with friction driving gear.

Both belt and rope transmission are unsuitable for marine installations on account of the extent to which the electric light is used on board ship and the limited space at the disposal of the electrician. To remedy this, Mr. Raworth had invented a new method of driving electric generators by means of frictional or rolling contact. The pulley on the armature spindle is composed of disks of paper powerfully compressed between two wrought-iron cheeks and turned to a smooth cylindrical surface. It runs in contact with a large cast-iron pulley, which is also the fly-wheel of the engine, and the two are maintained in intimate connection by a pair of tightening bars. The first machines driven in this manner fed 60 lamps, and were placed on board the S. S. Aurania, where they have answered admirably.

The new system of American ordnance.

A notice of the new 6-in. gun states that the work of designing it was very systematically gone about; the quality of metal procurable, strain that such metal would endure, and the weight allowable to the gun, being all carefully studied. The most noticeable departure from European construction consists in the fact that neither the breech-block nor trunnions touch the tube. By keeping the breech-block clear of the tube, the latter is relieved of the recoil strain.

NOVEMBER 16. Prevention of incrustation in steam boilers.

The report of the Chief Engineer of the Manchester Steam Users' Association enters largely into the subject of the prevention of incrustation in land boilers. The report stated that the numerous patent anti-incrustation compounds should be used only with the greatest caution, many of them proving actually injurious to the boiler on actual trial.

NOVEMBER 30. The electric lighting of the S. S. Adelaide.
DECEMBER 7. Joicey's boiler.

A description of a locomotive type of boiler adapted for marine purposes, or for situations where great evaporative power is required in small limits. The boiler is of the vertical type, with a fire-box formed by two truncated cones united by their smaller ends. By this arrangement a space is left between the furnace and the shell, into which a man can get for the purpose of inspection and cleaning. A short barrel is riveted to one side of the shell, and a part of the upper cone of the fire-box is flattened to act as a tube-plate; the products of combustion pass through a number of small tubes in this barrel and go back through the boiler by a flue to the uptake. In a practical trial of a boiler of this kind, 5 ft. in diameter by 11 ft. 6 in. high, steam was raised in 45 minutes, and 937 pounds of water were evaporated in 40 minutes, or at the rate of 9.87 pounds of water per pound of coal. The boiler was fifteen months old, and, though it has been at work both with fresh and with salt water, it was perfectly clean and free from scale.

DECEMBER 14. The Generation of Steam and the Thermo-dynamic Problems Involved.

An abstract of a lecture delivered before the Institution of Civil Engineers, by W. Anderson, C. E.

GIORNALE DI ARTIGLIERIA É GENIO.

NOVEMBER, 1883. Artillery from its introduction to the present day. Historical exposition of development, especially in Italy.

JOURNAL DE LA FLOTTE.

JULY, 1883. The frigate Le Talisman anchored at Teneriffe, May 31. Her explorations on the coast of Morocco, between Mogador and the Canaries, have been more successful than the preceding ones. The depths of 1000 and 1500 meters have furnished us with sponges and fish in great numbers. Those of 1500 and 2000 meters have given us extremely rare fish, and living coral of the greatest value. The work has been greatly aided by the sounding-machine perfected by M. Thibaudier, the naval constructing engineer, as well as by the cable furnished by the Chatillon and Commentry Company.

Le Talisman has since returned to Palmas, where there is a valuable zoölogical museum, and thence has proceeded to the Cape Verde Islands.

SEPTEMBER 2, 1883. Le Talisman, charged with the scientific exploration of the Sargasso sea, arrived at Punta Delgada (Azores) August 17. Although the vessel has traversed the Sargasso sea in the parts said to contain the most wrack, the members of the scientific commission have not had their theories verified. It is not only in scattered bunches that the Sargasso appears for nearly 300 leagues, but in the canal that separates Pico from San Jorge there has been found at the depth of 1400 meters a fauna as abundant and as varied as that of the coast of Africa.

OCTOBER 14, 1883. The Belleville boiler. [See translation by Professor J. Leroux, of article on the Belleville boiler, in Vol. IX., No. 1, Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute.]

In view of the excellent results obtained with the Belleville boilers on the Voltigeur (despatch-boat with engines of 1000 H. P.), which, after an active cruise along the Tunisian coast and in the Levant, has been sent to the Senegal coast and the Gaboon river, the French Ministry of Marine has just ordered a set of boilers of the same system, of 2100 H. P., for the frigate l'Hirondelle, and a second set of 450 H. P. for a gunboat of the Lionne type. Besides these, MM. Belleville et Cie. are building in their shops two other sets of an aggregate H. P. of 3800, destined for the frigate Le Milan, whose engines are to work at a pressure of 10 kilogs. the square centimeter.

OCTOBER 28, 1883. Regulations governing competitive examinations for admission to the French Naval School.

DECEMBER 16, 1883. The interior sea in Tunis.

At the meeting of the Société des Ingénieurs Civils, on the 16th of November, Commandant Roudaire explained his project for an interior sea in Africa.

The projected sea will lie to the south of the provinces of Constantine and Tunis. It will occupy what is now known as the basin of chotts, which consists of three great depressions near the Gulf of Gabes, and which is manifestly the floor of an ancient sea; this is abundantly proved by the thick bed of salt that is found there. Commandant Roudaire scientifically demonstrates that the banks of the Melrir Chott are about 30 metres below the sea level.

Once flooded, the chotts will have a depth of water of from 22 to 27 metres, while near Sfax there is only from 1 to 16 metres.

The completion of this sea will permit the draining and purifying of a vast tract of land which is now worthless on account of the bogs and salt-deposits. Algeria will at the same time be benefited; for, the moisture-laden air will be condensed against the cold range of the Aurès, whose summits are here and there covered with snow even in midsummer. Herein will exist an advantage over the district of Provence, where the mountain ranges lie north and south, and where, as in the chott region of Tunis, the prevailing wind is from the south.

From a political point of view the advantage of the projected sea is that it will constitute a magnificent frontier, 400 kilometres long. It will thus serve