Mr Petrie’s excavations in Upper Egypt, to which we briefly alluded
last month, have already made considerable progress, and no fewer than
one hundred and forty labourers are busily at work upon them. To some
extent, the discoveries made possess that peculiar interest which
attaches to the excavations at Pompeii, for they bear witness to the
home-life of a people that lived many centuries ago. Thus, the walls
of the now exhumed temple have had built upon them at a remote period
various private dwellings. In one of these, apparently lived an artist,
who possibly was engaged upon the decoration of the temple itself;
his sketch-book and eraser—represented by a slab of fine limestone
and a piece of black emery—have been found. The limestone is ruled
in squares, just in the same way that a modern artist will rule his
paper preparatory to making a drawing ‘to scale.’ Other houses seem to
have been used as workshops for a Company of jewellers, for chips of
carnelian, lapis-lazuli, and other valued stones have been found there,
together with waste metal from copper working. A box filled with rolls
of burned papyri, upon which, however, the writing is still legible,
is considered one of the most important finds. Mr Petrie is careful to
examine every block of stone and every brick in search of inscriptions.
Every inscription so found is carefully copied, and every other object
of interest is photographed. The work is evidently being carried on
with both energy and skill.
Another important archæological discovery has been made also in Upper
Egypt by Professor Maspero, who has found between Assiout and Thebes
the hitherto unsuspected site of a vast necropolis. Five catacombs have
been already opened, and have yielded one hundred and twenty mummies;
and Professor Maspero in a cursory manner has fixed the positions of
more than one hundred of such sepulchres. We may therefore conclude
that some thousands of embalmed bodies lie in this old cemetery, many
of them probably of historical interest. In addition to the mummies,
there will also be many treasures, in the shape of papyri, &c., which
experience has taught us to look for. It seems to be something more
than a fortunate accident that so many ancient peoples were moved to
bury with their dead, relics connected with the arts or pursuits of the
deceased.
A Canadian correspondent of _Nature_ gives a curious and interesting
account of a phenomenon often to be seen on Lake Ontario during the
prevalence of cold and stormy weather, such as the past season has
afforded. ‘Ice volcanoes,’ as they are aptly named, are formed by an
uneven strip of ice accumulating along the shore, on which appear
mounds twenty or thirty feet in height. Many of these mounds are
conical in form, and often have a crater-like opening, communicating
with the water beneath. In stormy weather, every wave dashes spray and
fragments of ice through this opening, which congeal upon the sides of
the cone and add to its height; just in the same way that the fragments
of pumice and other material ejected from a fiery volcano gradually
build it up into a mountain. But the ice volcano soon becomes extinct,
for the crater is gradually clogged up with ice, and the irruption can
no longer find a vent.
M. Trouvelet, who for the last nine years has been engaged in studying
and mapping the configuration of the planet Mars, which, although not
our nearest neighbour in the solar system, is that most conveniently
situated for telescopic observation, has just presented a Report of
his labours to the French Academy of Sciences. Sir W. Herschel long
ago discovered that the polar patches of white on Mars increased and
decreased in size in the winter and summer seasons of the planet, in
the same manner as is experienced in the like regions of our own earth.
Other observers have also mapped out the distant orb into regions of
supposed land and sea, sometimes obscured by belts of cloud; moreover,
the spectroscope has revealed to us, in its own wonderful way, the
undoubted presence of water upon the planet. What are believed to
be the continents of Mars are covered with faint grayish spots; and
as these spots change their form and volume with the changes of the
Martial seasons, M. Trouvelet supposes them to represent masses of
vegetation which grow and die under the same solar influences which
affect our own globe. Every contribution towards our knowledge of
distant worlds—many of them proved to be so much greater than our own
globe—must always have a fascinating interest for us.
The ingenious individual who lately accounted for the possession of
a suspicious amount of dynamite by the statement that he used it as
a remedy for chapped hands, may be congratulated upon pointing out a
legitimate use for that commodity, although we trust that the majority
of sufferers from injured cuticle will be content with glycerine in an
uncombined form. Hitherto, almost the only legally recognised use for
the explosive has been for mining operations, and without doubt it has
in this connection been of immense service. Attempts to use dynamite
for firearms or artillery have hitherto failed because the explosive
action is so rapid that the strongest barrel is shattered. Indeed,
dynamite was employed by our naval brigade at the late bombardment
of Alexandria for destroying the guns of a deserted fort. For such
purposes, and for torpedo warfare, dynamite is invaluable; but hitherto
it has been found impossible to use it in gunnery. An entirely new form
of weapon has, however, recently been tried with success in the United
States, in which dynamite, although not representing the propelling
force, plays an important part. The new form of gun consists of a tube
forty feet in length, made rigid by being fixed to a steel girder. By
means of compressed air, a dart-like projectile charged with dynamite
is propelled with great force from the tube. The weapon already tried
has only a two-inch bore; but with an air-pressure of four hundred
and twenty pounds on the square inch, a range of a mile and a quarter
is attained. With the four and six inch weapons now in course of
construction, it is believed that, with increased pressure, a range of
three miles will be possible. The guns can be cheaply made, and are
free from smoke or noise; while their destructive power must be far
greater than those heavy guns whose shells can only be charged with
gunpowder.
In our own navy, a new form of machine-gun will be probably supplied
to the various ships, more especially for boat-service. For some time
the Nordenfelt gun has been a service-fitting; but it is now proposed
to introduce a Nordenfelt of larger calibre, which will fire explosive
shells instead of solid bullets. From recent experiments at Portsmouth,
the new weapon seems to be wonderfully efficient. For instance, a
gun firing a shell weighing only two pounds was able to send its
projectile through a solid steel plate two inches thick at a range of
three hundred yards. It was shown, too, that a far larger Nordenfelt,
a six-pounder, could be fired from a boat without straining it. These
destructive weapons can be fired so rapidly as to deliver from eighteen
to twenty-five shots per minute.
The _Telegraphist_ newspaper publishes an account of what must be
regarded as a truly marvellous triumph of electrical communication,
before which Puck’s proposal to ‘put a girdle round the earth in forty
minutes’ seems to be quite a second-rate achievement. A correspondent
of the paper in question visited the office of the Indo-European
Telegraph Company by invitation, in order to note how good signalling
could be maintained over thousands of miles of wire. First, a few words
of conversation were exchanged with the telegraphist of a German town.
The wire was next connected with Odessa, and next with the Persian
capital (Teheran). In a few more minutes the experimenters in London
were talking with the clerk in charge at Kurrachee; next they had a
chat with a gentleman at Agra; and as a final triumph of science, the
line was made direct between London and Calcutta, a distance of seven
thousand miles. It is said that the signals were excellent, and the
speed attained about thirteen words per minute.
In a recent lecture upon gas-lighting, Mr Thomas Fletcher pointed out
that blackened ceilings and darkened picture-frames are not due to
smoke from the gas-burners, but are caused by floating particles of
dust being caught in the flame and thrown against the ceiling. It is
easily proved, by holding a glass tumbler for a few seconds over a
flame, that water is one of the products of combustion of gas. This
water condenses upon a cold ceiling when the gas in a room is first
lighted, so that the burnt particles of dust readily adhere to the flat
surface. The servant who lights the gas on a dark morning before she
proceeds to sweep and dust the room does practically all the smoking of
the ceiling that takes place.
That unfortunate commercial experiment, but marvellous triumph of
engineering skill, the _Great Eastern_ steamship, will shortly proceed
to Gibraltar to take up her position in the harbour as a coal-hulk.
The gigantic paddles with their engines will be removed, leaving the
screw propeller only to carry the ship to her last berth. The Admiralty
authorities look with much favour upon the scheme, for the immense ship
will supersede a number of small coal-hulks which now encumber the
harbour, and are a source of much inconvenience to other vessels. We
are glad that a use has been found for the unwieldy vessel, whose only
serviceable work has been as the layer of the first Atlantic cables.
She was far too big to be profitably worked, and has for many years
been lying idle. Her new vocation, although of a lowly kind, is at
anyrate better than pauperism.
A new motor, called a ‘Triple Thermic Motor,’ has, it is said,
been in use in New York for the past seven months driving a sixty
horse-power engine. Heat is generated by a fifteen horse-power boiler,
and the steam thus raised is carried to a receptacle containing
carbon disulphide, which passes into vapour at one hundred and
eighteen degrees Fahrenheit. An engineer, in reporting upon this
new contrivance, says that the fifteen horse-power boiler with very
little fire under it generates steam, which operates the motor, which
in turn runs the sixty horse-power engine. These seem to be all the
particulars published; and it would be interesting to have details of
the motor, if it be really as successful as reported. There are one or
two difficulties to surmount in the employment of carbon disulphide.
It has a most disagreeable and penetrating odour; its vapour is highly
inflammable; and lastly, it is by no means cheap.
Some interesting particulars of the American lead-pencil trade have
recently been published. With the improved machinery now in use, it
is possible for ten men to turn out four thousand pencils a day. The
cedar comes from Florida in slabs cut to pencil-length. Four parallel
grooves are sawn in each little slab, each groove being destined to
hold the lead, or rather graphite. The so-called leads are kept in hot
glue, and after being inserted in the grooves, are covered over with
a thin slab of cedar, also glued; then the whole is passed through a
moulding-machine, and comes out at the other side in the form of four
finished pencils. The graphite is mixed with a variable amount of white
clay—the greater the proportion of clay the harder the pencil—and is
ground with moisture into a paste. The paste is pressed into dies, and
is baked at a high temperature.
The recent outbreak of smallpox in London reminds us that we have
not yet succeeded in stamping out this loathsome disease, although
the practice of vaccination has checked it to a wonderful extent.
Anti-vaccination agitators are very fond of pointing to the
circumstance that many persons who have been apparently successfully
vaccinated in childhood are in after-years attacked with smallpox.
This is perfectly true; and statistics are available which show that
in the years between 1871 and 1881 nearly eighteen thousand such
cases were treated in the London hospitals. But the popular agitator
abstains from pointing out that in ninety per cent. of these cases the
sufferers were above ten years of age. These figures prove, in fact,
what has been long ago acknowledged, that vaccination does not afford
permanent protection. When a child reaches adult age, revaccination
should take place. In our smallpox hospitals, the nurses and attendants
enjoy complete immunity from infection by taking care to adopt this
precaution; and all persons, for the general good of the community at
large, would do well to submit to the trifling inconvenience which the
operation entails.
The Isthmus of Corinth Canal, a scheme which was promoted originally so
far back as the time of the emperor Nero, is now almost an accomplished
fact. The dredging operations at the approaches to the canal proceed
very rapidly, for about five thousand cubic metres of soil and sand are
removed every twenty-four hours. There are large numbers of workmen
employed also on the central portions of the channel, and they have the
help of railway and plant for the conveyance of material. A new town,
called Isthmia, has sprung into being, and it contains some two hundred
houses and stores.
‘The Rivers Congo and Niger viewed as Entrances for the Introduction
of Civilisation into Mid-Africa,’ was the title of a paper lately read
before the Society of Arts by Mr R. Capper, Lloyd’s agent for the
district of the Congo. The lecturer stated that within the past five
years, the western African trade has quadrupled in value. Twelve years
ago there were but four English houses, one French, and one Dutch,
trading up the Congo. There are now upon the river’s banks forty-nine
European factories, and the imports and exports are valued at two
millions sterling. Mr Capper pointed out that the great value of these
rivers lies in the possibility of connecting them with future railways.
Such railways could be easily laid, for the interior of Africa is one
vast tableland. A railway across the Desert of Sahara would turn a
perilous journey of four months into one of twenty-four hours. By such
means the interior slave-trade would be annihilated.
Boring in the earth for water is an operation often attended by great
uncertainty. Some few years ago in the heart of London a firm of
brewers bored to a depth of several hundred yards without tapping the
precious fluid, and the expensive well had to be abandoned. Quite
recently, at Burton-on-Trent a similar failure occurred upon a far
smaller scale. When the operators had pierced to a depth of one hundred
and seventy-six feet without finding water, they called in the advice
of some experienced artesian-well engineers, who recommended the
abandonment of the works, and the commencement of a fresh bore upon a
site which they selected two hundred yards away. At a depth of only
one hundred and fourteen feet, a copious supply of water was found,
yielding, in fact, between five and six thousand gallons per hour. It
is remarkable that the sites of both bores were at the same level.