Scientific and Useful.

Patea Mail, 18 March 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

Scientific and Useful.

The Cunard Company are fitting up their steamship Servia with 98 electric lamps. The lamps are to be disposed of in the following manner Engine-room, 10; propeller shaft tunnels, 10; grand saloon, 50 ; music-room, 8 ; ladies’ boudoir, 6 * smoking-room, 4. The requisite current will be driven by a special engine. Mr. Hall, who edited the Art Journal for nearly forty years, has accepted a pension of £3OO a year from the paper in in question. The Art Journal, the Morning Advertiser, and the Times are the only newspapers which make a point of providing for those who have served them well and faithfully.— Court Journal. Experiments have been made in Paris in using electricity to propel a street waggon or omnibus. This has been made possible by Faure’s invention, stored electricity. The omnibus was tested, went along rapidly over a bad road and up a declivity. It is thought the system of electro-traction will effect a saving of twenty per cent., while there will be no danger even in a crowded street. We have it on good authority that Mr. Edison’s agents are offering to fit up shops in the West End of London with his incandescent lamps for six months, free of all charge, and unconditionally. One or two well-known West End firms have already consented to try the experiment. Yankee enterprise has given us a lesson here which should not be lost.—Electrician.

Among the borrowing powers conferred by Parliament last year are some which have reference to the electric light. For this purpose Burton-upon-Trent took power to borrow £5000; Lancaster, the same; Preston, £10,000; and Wigan, £20,000 ; the loan in each instance to be repaid in ten years. Huddersfield, is taking power to borrow £50,000 for the purchase of gasworks, obtaining the option to expend £20,000 on the electric light, the sum so applied to be paid in the usual period.— Electrician. Sir John Lubbock, in opening the Jubilee Meeting of the British Association at York, recently, surveyed the progress which science has made during the past fifty years. Beginning with the subject with which he is most familiar, that of biology, he said it was estimated that whereas in 1831 not more than 70,000 animals had been described, now the number was at least 820,000. The theory of spontaneous generation resulting in the discovery of germs, had had its influence upon surgery, and further researches would probably discover methods of stoping the sources of disease. In the period under review —to indicate illustrations from various sciences most of the gigantic animals revealed by geology had been described; spectrum analysis had portrayed the composition of the heavenly bodies ; the mechanical equivalent of heat had been determined; electricity had made astonishing development; photography had been discovered; mechanical science had made wonderful strides, owing to the new processes in the manufacture of iron ; and it was within the last fifty years that our railway system and our steamboats bed been constructed.— Nature.

It has been pretty generally assumed that the torpedo has effected a complete revolution in naval warfare and that in a contest between the large ships which have always in some form or another been included in powerful fighting fleets and the swift torpedo boats of modern times the latter would have the advantage. More than one person has suggested that a flotilla of such boats should be built instead of each heavy fighting battle-ship ; for the cost of the whole flotilla would not exceed that of the latter. There is no doubt that the introduction of the torpedo as an offensive weapon has rendered it unwise to concentrate naval strength in a very small number of enormous ships; but it seems that the torpedo-boat is not likely to have it all its own way now that machine-guns have been brought to their present state o£ efficiency. In tlie last number of the United Service Institution Journal there are some remarks by Commander Hammill, an officer of great authority on the subject, which deserve attention. He says that experimental firing with a one-inch machine gun at a target representing a fast torpedo-boat was carried on from Her Majesty’s ship Iris when steaming with the tide at the speed of twenty knots. Though owing to an accident, three or four volleys were lost, the target approaching at this rate was struck thirty-eight times in twenty-two seconds. It should be remembered that the gun was effective at a range beyond that at which the boat could have used her torpedoes. A boat attack by daylight at events will be a very difficult undertaking. —Fall Mall Gazette .