GAS AT SEA. (From the Architect.)

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 119, 8 February 1873, Page 2

GAS AT SEA. (From the Architect.)

In somo of our practical papers we have described somo recent [improvements in gaslighting. The subject would, however, hardly bo complete if we did not notice a valuable nncntion which evtends the usefulness of gas by applying it to tlio lighting of ships nt sea. A safe and auulnblo method of applying gas in this way has long been a desideratum, and, ha.9 occupied the attention of many leading engineers. After numerous and costly experiments, an apparatus has been invented which is simple m design, ingenious in construction, and,hns been proved thoroughly efficient m working. It was first eniplojed onboard the Adriatic, one of the- new steamers of the AVhito Star line pljing between Liverpool and New York, and after having been thoroughly tobtcd on several voyages, during some of which severe weather was encountered, was found to'be an entire success. Indeed, it is said that the motion of the vessel, so far fiom interfering with the prppcr working of tho apparatus, seems rather to increase its efliciencj . This wus the difficulty whiohall previous inventions had Jailed to overcome. In consequence of the uscccss of tins first experiment, a similar apparatus is being elected on board the Celtic, another bteamship of the same hue, now being completed at tho works of Messrs Ilarland and Woolf, Belfast. Tho gas produced ib pure and brilliant ; a jet burning 1£ to 2 cubic feet por hour giving a light equal to H or 12 wax candles ; the quality deiincd by tho London standard would bo about 10candle gas. Theio aie between 30 and 40 of these burners m tho largo saloon of the steamer, winch will be thus n{£ brilliantly lighted as any London ball-room. The imcntor»> and manufacturers are ' Messrs J. T. J5. Porter and Co , of G-owts-bridge, Woiks. Lincoln, and!, Westniiubter Chain* bers, London.

A country nowsyanor, recording the i mining clown of a cow on the rail\\aj, said it was " cut into oalvts." An abtombhuil naturalist waited oil the editor for wh.it the auctioneers call " fuither information, " and lecehed it in the following foim • — " Enatuni — for tahca ie.ul halves." Baih-y goee up ab btei goes dowu, ami iV UidU >vho (ileft ib titlkd uj.ilt-tic.itcd.

>Seboeant Bates anp the American Flag. — Sergeant Bates, an American, has pet formed the foolish feat of w diking thiough England with an Amoiican banner on his Bhuuldoia riio cause assigned for tU s absurd proceeding Mas a desire on the part of Mr Bates to satisfy himself v bother anyone would insult the flag he bore. Accoidingly from (iretna-gieen to London 'Change he marched bv easy ■tages, and has to-day completed the task he Lnj osed upon himself, we hope to* his satisfaction. Nobody i it> r'eied with the flag. At some places the strange figuie of a nun who wa» his own rank and rile strutting through the Highstreet natui.dly attracted attention, and some of the npectatois pitied, while others laughed. But nobidy interfered with tl 0 man. His pro^r-as, now comp'otid, was utiutermptt'd, and any bet that may have been laid on the event has been fairly won by the sergeant or Ins friends. We have no objection to any number of fiee and independent citizens carrying flags from Gretna to (Jornhill, ami they need not fear molestation during the march. "We must, however, protest against the vagary of a weak brain as possessing thf> slightest political significance — Qlobe. Increase of Desertion — " Who shall desert our senicc shall suffer df.it h, or such other punishment as a court martial slin.ll award," is one of the Articles of War which are periodically read to the troops with the view of checking crane by nn exposition of the 'pains and penalties" thereto attnehing, and, undoubtedly, if courts martial in the remotest degreo followed the spirit of the " article" in dealing with this particular offence, there woul 1 be a|,liflerent tale to tell respecting it Unfortunately, the Broad Arrwo states, desertion, it is difficult to imagine how, has come to be regarded as one of the most venial of military offences, for which a punishment of two, or at most three months' iniprisuiment is considered ample, and the immediate con jequenco of this mistakeu leniency is, an increase in the number of desertions to an alarming nnd almost incredible extent. The Police Gazette contains a list of 383 deserters, of whom 120 belonged to the Rojal Arhl'ery, wherein men are with difficulty replaced ; and this list is for a part af October only. The " secession number" m the Qizette, which was 217,000 in January last, has reached 221,000, from which it followa that the total number of desertions from the army (exclubiic of marine^) for the last ten months, is seven thousand, or at the rate of a whole battalion per month, and exceeding the (entire casualties throughout the army at home and abroad. The anticipation of those who looked for the abolition of bounties to almost extinguish this serious offence is humiliahngly defeat ad by this state of affair?, whicli urgently calls for other remedies, the first of whi;h ought obviously to be a return to severe punishmont for »11 recaptured offenders, Remains of Old Westminster — In miking the fou- dations for St Stephen's club, at the corner of the Victoria Embankment, the workmen, after cutting through the road to the old bridge, and clearing away the accumulated i übbish and made soil of ages, reached in the maiden earth, at a depth of 20 feet, a thick wall built of stones of great size, and standing upon piles about 8 feet long, topped with thick planks. The wall, which enclosed a considerable space, was probably the remains of the houses built for the accommodation of the canons of the collegiate church of St Stephen in the time of Richard 11 , which are described by Maitiand to have stood adjacent to the old woolstaple (wool and genet al market in which the octrois of the day were collected), demolished in 1738 to form the approaches to the first Westminster Bridge Several barrow-loads of bones, chiefly animal, have been founl, among which were the unlerjaw of a boar, with tusks 3 inches long, and a single bone stated bj the workmen to have been 4 feet long and 8 or 9 inches in diameter, but which appears to ha\ c been lost before a proper examination could be made of it. The other day a key with a bovf shaped like a flattened Gothic arch, ml some rude specimens of pottery, apparently worked up without a wheel, were discovered. Embalming Bodies by Injection — A statement is made in Lea Mondea that the system of M. Gannal of embalming bodies by injection, which was effected by opening the jugular vein or the carrotid artery, is probably to be superccded by M Andigier's plan, in which the preserving fluid is introduced through the mouth and larynx. About six ounces of the fluid is sufficient for the purpose, and the body should be covered with some vegetable powder soaked in the same liquid. The body is by these mean? completely preserved, and is entirely "mummified;" it acquires a durability equal to that of wood or stone, and the facal colour remains as it was the moment of decease. The most eminent physicians, Burgeons, and anatomists in France have testified to the efficac of this system, which hns, in addition to tho advantages already mentioned, that of perfect innoci ousness and complete disinfection The liquid here referred to is presumed to be carbolic acid, some time ago employed for the same pin pose by Professor Secley. Tub Food of Lions— the healthy condition of the four lion cubs, born two months ago in the Gardens of the Zoological Society , seems strongly to verify the suaeestions recently made by Professor Haughton, of I>ublin. The Professor considers that it is necessary for the mother to be supplied with bone-forming food in a palatable form. The ribs or thigl^-boncs of an ox are too strong to bo eaten by most animal*, and the lions generally reject them, even when hungry ; consequently they do not assimilate a sufficient supply of earthy salts into their organisms to make up for that lost in the natural physiological processes. Professor Haughton feeds the lions under his charge with rabbits or goats, giving them the bodies undressed. Nothing being left uneaten, the salts are absorbed, and tha cubs do not suffer from cleft palate, which is the most frequent cause of death, because during development their bones have had the opportunity of forming and extending under normal circumistanccs. How siie did it — I will tell you a rather bnre-facr tt »tor> of how a chamber-maid is said to ha\c pot twelve commercial travellers into eleven bedrooms, and yet to have given each a separate room. Hero we \ aye the eleven rooms : — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, G, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. " Now," says she, "if you two gentlemen will step into No. 1 bedroom, 'and wait there for a few minutes, I'll find a spare room for one of you as I lia\e shown the others to their rooms " Well, now, having thus [bestowed two entlemen in No. 1, she puts the thud in No 2, the fourth in No. 3, the fifth i» No. 4, the sixth to 5, the seventh to No 6, the eighth to No 7, the ninth to No. 8, the tenth to No. 9, the eleventh to No 10. She then came back to No. 1, where you remember she left the twelfth gentleman along with the first, and said : ' l I have now accommodated all tho rest and have still a room to npare, so that if you ctep into No. 11 you will find it empty." Of course tliore is a hole in the saucepan somewhere, but I leave the roalerto determine exactly where the falhcy is. Arab Horses inlndi\ — Nothing is more disappointing to tho European, on first arriving in India, than the Arab horses. In vain he looks for the large eve, tho pointed ear, the perfect shape. What he docs -cc arc long rows of horses ranged in the various dealers' yards in half-open sheds ; small, shaggy animals, foui teen hands and a littlo over in height ; misshappen, rough-coated Arabs, Persian horses, or Gulf Arabs ; many of these probably covered with soros, but destined, nevertheless, notwithstanding their misshapen appearance and small stature, to carry a weight impossible to the English horse, and to heir th^ hot suns of India in a way equalled by no otler liorse of their statuie. For such you give not Ip«s than £50. — " Other Countries," by Major W Morison Bell. Mark Twain's Lectubes. — Mr S. Clemens (Ma»k Twain) writes as follows :— " I do«ire to «ay to those societies in London and other cities of Grjat Britain under whoso auspices I have partly pi mined to lecture, that I am called homo by a cable telegram. I shall spend with my family the greatest part of next year, and may be able to lecture a month during the autumn upon such scientific topics as I know least about, and may consequently feel Icait trammelled in dilating upon." It is pleasant to become a parent; twice as plensant, perhaps, to be blessed with twins ; but when it oomes|ti triolets, we aro a little dubious. Now there duel's in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, a worthy German, who a few years afro was presented by his wife with a son. Hans said to her, " Katrine, dat ish goot." A year liter the pood woman placed before his astonished gaze a bouncing pair of twins. " Vel," said Ham, " dat vash petter ash der oder dime ; I tri iks moie ash ten glass peer on dat " But the pood woman next time gave birth to triplet*, and that made him " spoke mit his niout shust a liddlc." " Mcm Gott, Katrine ! vat ish the matter on you p Potter you shtop dis pizness 'foro dor comes more ash a village full. I gots nuff mit mcli foolishness! " No later returns have been received. A recent oalculat ion relative to the principal European languages shows tbnt Enelish is spoken by 90 millions of pcrsonsinhabiting Groat Britain and Ireland, North Am* rion, the Bermudas, Jamaica, Cape of Good Hope, Australia, Van Dloman's Land, Newfoundland, aud the East Indies ; German by 55 millions, in thrir own country, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Russia. North and South America, La Plata, Arstralia. and tho East Indies ; Spanish 55 millions, in Spain, Cuba, Mexico, the republics of South America, Manilla, &c. ; and French by 45 millions, in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Cayenne, and North America. The Marquis, of Queensberry was charged at Bow street ' police court with assaulting Tom Toby, a dectective em- j ployed at the Charing-cross Hotel. His lordship went to the hotel to aeek some friends, whom he failed to discover Having displayed some irratation at the apparent indifference of the porters, the complainant put liis Land upon the marquis, as if about to eject him ; and this led to tho assault. The magistrate, who pointed out faults on both sides, fined defendant 20s. Attontion has been called by a writer in the J?cvur> rfr? iJeux Moiulci toa«peoial advantage which the Gorman derive in international telegraphy from tho fact of their language loading itfolf most indefinitely to the use of compound words Thus, what in English we should call the "Rhino and Neckar Steam Navigation Company" could only be described in Fi eneb by " Coinpasnie de la Navigation par bateaux a vnpeur pur lo Rhino et lo Neckar," while the Germans, summing up j tho title in one siifrle word would say, " ItheinnekardampfnchiffartgMsellschnft." Rnther unprofitable telegraphing »uch words as that. "Send uh wives" js the piteous plea thntcomrs from Washington territory, nnd naturally the quc^tiou arisej, " Whoso ViiCJ*»bj»ll we bend?" |

The most amusing reading of the day is not to bo found in the columns of " our facetious contemporaries," but rather in those of the provincial newspapers For oiample, m the B Tnn-ei> of last week wo read the speech of the Miyor ofß ,on tho occasion of giving prizes to the local volunteers company. The last sentenc is in follows —"Ho was sure the gallant bund before him would defend their country nobly, and would act like that noble company of heroes of whom tho poet Tennjaon had written — ' Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them.' " Then followed the whole six stanzas, one after the other, to the Ten- end, The effect, if a little histrionic, mint have been most encouraging to the volunteers. _ A soincw hat similar taste for quotatiou, but liflrdly cultivated to tho height reached in the Mayor's speech, is to be discovered m tlii following letter to a Leicestershire paper — "Sir— Not to speak what a man knows is sometimes discretion, but to speak and not to know is very dishonest How is it possible for a man to say these things when he has never been into the cow-shed he speaks of in his life without lying 9 I should thmk he has uc\er read qf Ananias and Sovhii But gossip always begins at homo, and originates wit' i n so-called confident or congener We know not how great a matter a little fire kindleth, so let us beware of the snake in the grass'" &c, «fee. The editor > cry prudently adds — » This correspondence must end here." — Guardian. Shortly before the sitting of the Resident Magistrate's Couit, Christchurch, yesterday, a farmer named Elija Smith, residing at the river Styx, brought a man na.in.ed Edward Sales m a cart within the precincts of the Court, under the following ciscumstances:— Xt appears that Smith, while out m a swamp at the river Styx, observed a man's head above the flax. Ho caUed out for the purdose of ascertaining who the person w.as, and receiving a very faint response ho proceeded to the spot, and found Sales in a. perfect state of nudity. Astonished at. this strange discovery, Smith put a few interrogatories to Sales, and ascertained from him that I he had been there for sc\en dujs and nights in the same condition, under the delusion that he was an inmate of the hospital. Sales was so weak, from exposure and want of food, that he could not rise from the ground. Assistance was immediately procured, and Sales was attired in his own clothes, w hicli were lying about the place, and was brought to town as described. On arrival at the Resident Magistrate's Court, Mr Bowen made an inquiry into the circumstances, and ordered Sales to be taken to the hospital, where he is now undergoing treatment. His answers to tho Resident Magistrate were intelligible enough, but he was so weak that he could not sit up in the cart, — Press. A oorresponent of the Pall Mall Gazelle write*; "The interest in the fate of the late Sir John Franklin and the expedition which accompanied him lias been again revived by the reception in England of an almost entire skeleton, discovered in the Arcticregions by Hall, the American explorer. It appears that the bones, m question were taken to the United States, and presented by the discoverer to a Geographical Society, the members of which gave them m return to Rear- Admiral Inglefield, CB., our late naval attache at Washington, who despatched them to. our Admiralty. The bones are those apparently of a fine grow n man of about five feet eight inches in height, and one ot Hie teeth was stopped with gold, which would indicate that the remains were those of an officer, especially as a piece of fine "jersey" was also discovered close to them." A short-tailed bear bitting on an iceberg— a one-eyed owl reflectively blinking at the sun— a nng-tailed baboon pensively munching bis peanuts and sciatching hunsolff are respectively imperfect personations of dignity, wisdom, and decency. Vet compared with the human creatures who reflect the same virtues in tho San Fraucifco Police Court, the above named-animals are as archangels of hgbt gleaming iv the glory of the, tin one, to a hump-backed negro in «i coal-cellar. Illiteracy, insolence, and brutality do not disqualify fiom the prosecution and sentencing of drunkards and vagrants. Then why do we find fault with the police court ? We do not. —San Fi ancisco Xi ws Letter. Two good-natured liishmen on a certain occasion occupied the same bed. In the morning, one of them inquiied of the other : " Dennis, did you heai the thunder last night ? " <■' No, Pat ; did it rally thunder ? " " Ye?, it thundered as if hiven and eaith would come together." " Why the devil, then, didn't you wake me, for ye know I can't sleep when it thuudeis." A country newspaper, recoi cling the running down of a cow on the railroad, said it was " cut into calves-" An astonished naturalist waited on the editor for what the auctioneers call " further information," and received it m the following form : " Erratum— for eahes read halves." The Court of Exchequer has decided tlyvt to call a sporting man a " wrlsher" is not a slander in a legal sense. In the course of the lrgument in the case, the judges indirectly signified their willingness to accept the authority of the " Slang Dictionary " for a definition of the obnoxious word for the use of which an action had been brought. The Agricultural Labourers' Union have started a penny journal to advocate their cause. The literature is not of a ! high class, but what it may want m the soundness of its principle, the elegance of its diction, or the correctnes of its grammar, it abundantly compensates by the extravagance of its proposal-, and the vehemence of its tone