At a flower-show at Frome the other day, prizes were offered by Miss Ormerod, the consulting entomologist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, for the best collection of food-plants injured by insects, accompanied by samples of the injurious creatures themselves, and a short written account of the nature of their depredations and the preventive measures to be adopted in dealing with them. There was only one competitor, Mr Herbert Haley of Frome; but the collection which he showed was a very complete one, and was most highly commended by Miss Ormerod. As this was the first injurious-insect competition in this country, and was probably known to comparatively few persons, we need not be surprised at the want of competitors. Ten years ago in Paris, a similar Exhibition took place, in which nearly four hundred competitors took part. The exhibits included useful as well as injurious insects, which were divided into separate classes. Such competitions ought to be productive of a great amount of good.
Recent experiments have led to the adoption of many alterations in the torpedo system, which is likely to play such an important part in naval operations of the future. Hitherto, the torpedo—a huge fish-like case to hold explosives, and containing within itself an air-engine for propelling it through the water—was thrust from a ship’s side below the water-line. But it was found in practice that it was impossible to fire the agent of destruction in a straight line, especially if its mother-ship were under way. In the new method, the torpedo, which is sixteen feet long and fourteen inches in diameter, is fitted into a steel tube just large enough to contain the projectile. The pressure of a key admits highly compressed air to this tube, and the torpedo is shot out of an open port on exactly the same principle that a pea is projected from a pea-shooter. But in the case of the torpedo, its little but powerful engine is set to work the moment it reaches the water, and away speeds the torpedo on its terrible errand.
Professor Tuck of New York has constructed an electric torpedo boat, which will render submarine warfare very terrible, if the hopes raised by its recent trial are fulfilled. It is made of iron, in the shape of a cigar, or rather pointed at each end, and is thirty feet in length. It can travel on the surface of the water, or several feet below, at the will of its commander. The torpedoes are carried outside the vessel, and can be detached by the action of an electro-magnet, when it is desired to let one rise to the surface against any ship that may be lying overhead. By means of attached wires, the torpedo can be exploded when the submarine boat has retired to a position of safety. Jules Verne’s clever romance Thirty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, seems here to come into play.
Under the supervision of Mr Preece, the well-known electrician to the Post-office, an experiment of great interest has been recently conducted at Wimbledon, near London. The object of the experiment was to ascertain the best method of lighting streets by electricity, the lamps employed being the incandescent pattern advocated by Edison, Swan, and others. Some of the lamps were placed singly, others on poles twenty feet high, while at the same time the efficiency of different kinds of reflectors was tested. The cost is calculated to amount to one farthing per lamp per hour for each unit of light, valued at ten candles. Now, the cost of gas for a similar amount of light is one-fifth of a penny, so that the difference in expense between the two systems is not very great. On the other hand, the advantages of the electric light in the open air, where no question of impure products of combustion need come in, almost disappear; gas, therefore, still fulfils the required conditions.
It is to be hoped that the new regulations for the prevention of collisions at sea, which have just been published, will have the effect of reducing those calamities, which have of late become fearfully familiar. The twenty-seven articles contained in these regulations refer to lights, sound-signals for fog, steering and sailing rules, precautions to be adopted, and special rules for squadrons and convoys. We may call particular attention to article nineteen, which indicates how one vessel can signal to another by a steam-whistle. Thus—one short blast to mean, ‘I am directing my course to starboard;’ two short blasts, ‘I am going to port;’ three to mean, ‘I am going full speed astern.’ Any one will readily remark how such signals could be added to almost indefinitely. Indeed, it is simply the method adopted in the army for flash-signalling with the heliograph, adapted to sound-signalling with the steam-whistle. In such a system, unfortunately, there are few, in moments of danger, who can keep their heads cool enough to avoid making perilous mistakes. It is somewhat like talking quietly when the house is on fire.
About four years ago, the startling scheme of carrying ships upon a specially constructed railway track bodily across that little neck of land which ties together the two Americas was conceived by Mr Eades. This scheme was communicated to the British Association at York in 1881, and although the idea seems a novel one, like most engineering enterprises it can be doubtless accomplished if investors can be made to believe in its power of paying a good dividend. The suggested route would require a track one hundred and thirty-four miles in length, which must be laid with a compound railway of extremely solid construction. The worked-out details of the method of raising a ship on a pontoon, transferring it to a travelling cradle, and finally committing it to the deep once more, after its journey on dry land, are most ingenious. Mr Eades, who hails from the United States, is now in England, endeavouring to interest capitalists in his proposals.
The demolition of the old law-courts which adjoined Westminster Hall, has brought into view one of the most interesting pieces of stonework belonging to Norman times that can be found in London. The state of preservation of the wall of the old hall, upon which the marks of the mason’s tools are still visible, is due to the circumstance, that from a very early time it was under cover, for a cloister extended along the whole length of the building on this side. Mr Pearson, the architect, was lately requested to report upon the subject, and to suggest the best method of restoration compatible with the preservation of this unique relic of the reign of William Rufus; and it has been determined to restore the cloister as it originally stood. According to the opinion of Mr Shaw-Lefevre, the First Commissioner of Works, the edifice when completed will, with the Houses of Parliament and the old abbey adjacent, form one of the grandest groups of buildings in Europe.
The attractions of South Kensington Museum have lately been added to by the opening of a room containing a collection of antique casts, which have been collected and arranged by Mr W. C. Perry. This collection numbers about three hundred specimens, which illustrate the whole historical range of ancient art. Such a record of the plastic art of ancient times is of deep interest to the archæologist, as well as of immense value to the art student. The arrangement of the specimens is mainly chronological, and where one or two casts are, on account of inconvenient size, not shown in their right place, it is in consequence of want of space. We may venture to hope that at some not distant date, better accommodation will be found for this valuable and interesting collection.
The Great Western Railway has always been famed for the wonderful engineering difficulties which were grappled with by the daring Brunel, and many evidences of his skill are apparent to the traveller on that line. But even Brunel did not conceive the bold idea of piercing a tunnel twenty-six feet in diameter, and four and a half miles in length, beneath the bed of the Severn. But this great work has now been in progress for some years, and the operations latterly have been pushed forward with such rapidity by three thousand busy men, that its completion may soon be looked forward to. The tunnel will shorten considerably the distance between London and South Wales. It is constructed so as to dip considerably towards the centre, to which point any water will naturally gravitate. Here it will enter a drainage subway, which will carry it to the Welsh side, to be pumped up into the river. The great difficulty which the workers have had to contend with is the irruption of vast bodies of water from local springs. The crown of the tunnel lies at a depth of from eighty to a hundred feet beneath the bed of the river.
In these days of quick communication by telegraph and telephone, it is strange to see how it becomes occasionally convenient to employ ‘the bird of the air’ to ‘carry the voice.’ In Haddingtonshire, at the Penston Colliery, messages are carried from the pits to the offices, a distance of more than six miles, by pigeons, and they accomplish the work in about as many minutes. Telegrams are found to take about an hour in executing the same business, and telephones are inadmissible, because as yet no plan has been found by which the sounds can be permanently recorded.