The death is announced of Mr. John Yule, of the Hutchestown Engine Works, Rutherglen, N. B., at the age of 66. During early life, Mr. Yule went the round of the best engineers' shops in Scotland and England, and became one of the recognized leaders in engineering progress. His inventiveness took various directions, amongst other fruits being an improved rotary engine, a compensating governor for the steam engine, and a screw tap, drill, and mandrel. For the latter he was awarded the silver medal of the Scottish Society of Arts. For some years Mr. Yule acted as the manager of the boiler department of Messrs. Robert Napier & Son's establishment, but eventually resumed business at the Hutchestown Works, and devoted attention amongst other matters to the improvement of swing bridges and steam cranes and hammers. In the former line two of his most important works are the plate girder bridge over the entrance to one of the docks at Port Glasgow, for the Caledonian Railway, erected from plans by Messrs. Bell and Miller, C.E., Glasgow; and a lattice girder bridge over the entrance to Kingston Dock, Glasgow Harbor. Owing to the angle at which this last bridge crosses the dock, great difficulties were experienced in working out the mechanical details so as to admit of easy motion. These were skillfully overcome, and the bridge was, as finally erected, a monument of his design as well as workmanship. The Blackhill incline on the Monkland Canal, constructed nearly a quarter of a century ago, is a sample of Mr. Yule's mechanical powers. Of late years he was largely engaged as a professional valuator.
Business Prospects.
We have recently taken the pains to make inquiries from the more eminent bankers and merchants in the chief cities of the interior, and the results of our inquiries have tended to confirm the belief we have more than once expressed in this journal, that although, from various causes, there is overhanging a portion of our American industries a cloud of gloom and depression, still throughout the nation at large there is going on a process of growth and recovery from which the best results are anticipated. How long we shall have to wait before the life which is at work silently and secretly beneath the surface will put forth its full power, in the full harvest of productive activity, is, of course, impossible to foretell. What is chiefly important for us to know, however, is that the progress we are making tends upwards and not downwards, and that it promises to lead our industry and commerce to a brighter and not to a darker future.—Financial Chronicle.
To Disinfect Rooms.
The disinfection of a room is not complete unless the walls have been thoroughly cleansed. If they are papered, the paper must be removed and the surface beneath carefully scraped and washed. If the walls are painted, they should be washed with caustic soda. The ceiling should also be subjected to a similar treatment.