A STARTLING PROPOSAL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1054, 30 June 1882, Page 4

A STARTLING PROPOSAL.

Regarding the remarkable project initiated by Sir Henry Bessemer f r production and transmission of motive power, Iron observes:

The proposal of Sir Henry Bessemer to bring up coal by wire, inslead of by rail, may be startling, hut it is very simple. Although coal is still our great agent in the production of motive power, it must, n the forgotten that, Sir William Thompson has clearly shown that by the me of dynamo-elec-tric machines, worked by the Falls of Niagara, motive power could be generated to an almost unlimited extent, and that no less than 26,250-horse power so obtained could be conveyed lo a distance ot 300 miles by means of a single copper wire of half an inch in diameter, with a loss in transmission of non more than 20 per cent., and hence delivering at the other end of the wire 21,000-horsc power. Sir Henry exclaims, 1 What a magnificent vista of legitimate mercantile ei.terprise this simple fact opens up for our own country! Why should we not at once connect, London with one of our nearest coalfields by means ot a copper rod of one inch in diameter, and capable of transmitting 84,000 horse power to London, and thus practically bring up the coal by wire instead of by rail!’ He supplies the equivalent, in coal of this amount of motive power. Assuming that each horse-power can be generated by the consumption of 31b of coal per hour, and that the engines work six days and a-half per week, we should require an annual consumption of coal equal to 1,012,600 tons to produce such a result. Now, all this coal would, in theeaxe assumed, b>* burned at the pit’s month at a cost of 6s per ton for large, and 2s per ton for small coal —that is, at less than one-fourth the cost of coal in London. This would immense.y reduce the cost of the electric light, and of the motive power now used in London for such a vast variety of purposes, and at the same time save us from the enormous of xnnke a d foul gases which this million ( f tons of coal would make if biu-nod in our irndst. A one-inch diameter copner rodijwnuld cost about i‘533 per mile, and if laid to aco'liery 120 miles away, the interest at, 5 per cent, ou its first cost would be less than Id per ton op the coal practically conveyed by it direef into the house of the consumer. From what we have quoted, it will be seen that the proposal of Sir Henry Bessemer is deservingjof the?most serious consideration.”

“I’ll Burke You.” —This, writes an English journal, was a saving familiar enough forty years ago, and the incidents of the ghastly tragedy from which the phrase arose is revived hy the publication of the following sketch in Sergeant Ballantine’s new book :—“ltis now some fifteen years ago that a man of middle height and proportionately stour, clad in one of tho ordinary white smocks worn bv laborers, guided by a dog. and holding in one of Ins hands a metal saucer, might he seen slowly perambulating the streets of T.ondon. His sightless eyes, turned upwards, appealed to the compas ion of the passer-by. This man was Hare, the accomplice of Burke, who had been admitted as a witness against him. Subsequently to the t ial ho obtained employment in another name upon some timeworks His lellow-labouiers found out who he was, and threw him into one of the pits, the contents of which caused him the loss of his sight. There was a woman who was accustomed to j' in him at the end of the day, and apparently accompany him to wherever he lived. I have often seen these two meet, but never noticed a smile on the face of either of them.”

A Veteran Toperess.—The case of Jane Johnson, reported from Leeds is not an apt one for the purpose of temperance advocates. Jane lias been over 200 times in custody for being drunk and disorderly, and was charged once again with her old offence. She has liv d to the aye of eighty three, however, in si ite of her bed Imbi's. She admits becoming conscious now of some of the infirmities of age, and consents to go into the workhouse; whereas, had her sixty years of topiny been marked by sobriety, she would at'east not have been a pauper. Tin n she has lived in spite of her bad habits, and it is just possible that even Jane Johnson has only lived part of her days. A later pap-r says: —“ A t Leeds, Jane Johnson, aged overeighty - three years, and who has been convicted over 200 timesfor drunkenness, has joined the Salvation Armv, and when the last English mail left she was addressing large meetings on her prison and workhouse experiences.”

Narrow Escape - " Stole any chickens this week, BrmKler Jones !” said a searchmg class leader to a m- nibenf suipiciouslytbieving proclivities. “No sab—tank do Lor’ ” “ You’se done ’■•ell," said the lea ’e r and passed on, while Brudder Jones turns to Brudder Biown and whispers—“ Lucky he said chicke s ; if he’d said ducks he’d a' ha<l me, shush!’