The annexation of Upper Burmah to the British Empire represents the
most important addition to our possessions which has been made for
very many years. Lying between India and China, the two most populous
countries in the world, Burmah is favourably situated as a highway,
along which a vast trade can be conducted. As to the country itself, it
presents many valuable features. It has a plentiful rainfall, a healthy
climate, and a luxuriant vegetation. The principal crops are rice,
oil-seed, cotton, and tobacco. Sixty-one varieties of rice are known
to cultivators, and half of these are of the hard kind familiar to us.
The remainder have a soft glutinous grain, which is preferred by the
natives of Burmah. The revenue and population of the country have both
increased enormously during the past ten years.
In Mr Hallett’s interesting paper addressed to the members of the
Scottish Geographical Society, entitled ‘A Survey for Railway
Connections between India, Siam, and China,’ he showed that there is
now no political hindrance to prevent our driving the locomotive up to
the gates of China and opening up a vast trade with that prosperous
empire. Mr Hallett has personally explored and surveyed Burmah, Siam,
and the Shan States, and he points out how a railway can be made to
join the Brahmapootra valley with the valley of the Irrawadi, and that
such a railway could join the line which already finds a terminus at
the seaport of Rangoon. This short line of railway, only one hundred
and sixty-two miles in length, pays a good dividend, although it finds
a formidable rival in the admirable flotilla of steamers which ply on
the Irrawadi River hard by.
At a recent meeting of the Russian Geographical Society, M. Grjimaïlo
gave an interesting description of the Pamir region, which we may
remind our readers is a high tableland of Asia on the western limit
of Little Tibet. His tour through this little-known region covered
a period of eighteen months, during which time he was able to make
extensive observations of its flora and fauna, as well as of the
condition of its inhabitants. During the long winter, the people have
to seek the shelter of their tents, and seem in the spring to wake up
from a kind of lethargy with the joy and light-heartedness of children.
The women do most of the work, which is of a pastoral kind. The country
is intersected with enormous glaciers, and is situated at such a great
elevation that the natives call it by a name which signifies ‘Roof of
the World.’
The Cleopatra’s Needle which adorns Central Park, New York, has
suffered much from transatlantic cold, and a mass of scales and chips
has been removed from it by atmospheric influences, as thoroughly as
if a number of masons had been set to work to achieve the same result.
This gradual disintegration of the noble Egyptian obelisk has, however,
been stopped by coating the monument with paraffin, which coating has
given a slightly darker colour to the stone. Those who have charge
of public buildings in Britain which have been built of perishable
stone—and there are unfortunately many such—would do well to make a
note of this employment of paraffin as a successful preservative.
A new artificial fireproof stone or plaster has recently been invented.
Its principal constituent is asbestine, a mineral which is plentiful
in certain localities in the State of New York, U.S.A. This asbestine,
which is a silicate of magnesium, is mixed with powdered flint and
caustic potash, and is then mingled with sufficient water-glass
(silicate of soda) to make it into an adhesive plaster. In this
condition it is prepared for transport, and is mixed with sand before
use. This plaster is not only fireproof, but it adheres with wonderful
tenacity to perfectly smooth surfaces. It does not, therefore, require
a roughened surface before attachment, such as a wall composed of
nailed laths, as is the usual case. A common mode of applying it is
to line a room with sheet-iron, protected from rust by a coating of
asphaltum, and to spread upon this metal basis a thickness of the new
plaster. Besides being unaffected by heat, it will not crack if water
is thrown upon it when in a heated state.
Mr Hannay, of Glasgow, has invented a new form of lamp which will prove
very useful for various industrial purposes, where the more intense
rays of the electric arc are not readily available. The lamp consists
of a cylindrical vessel containing about thirty gallons of any heavy
hydrocarbon oil, such as creosote. At one side of this vessel is an
entry-pipe for air, which must be under pressure of about fifteen
pounds on the square inch. The air thus admitted forces the oil up a
vertical pipe which springs from the bottom of the vessel, and ends
in a burner which extends for some feet outside the oil receptacle.
Another pipe surrounds the oil-tube, and through this, part of the air
is carried, so that at the point where both tubes terminate, there
rushes forth a blast of mingled air and creosote in fine particles.
This is turned into a flame of great brightness when a match is applied
to it, a flame, too, which is unaffected by wind or rain. The quantity
of oil given above will supply a light for about twenty hours, which
will be effective at two hundred yards from the lamp. This contrivance
has already been used with success at the Forth Bridge works. It is now
being introduced for various purposes by Mr James Sinclair, 64 Queen
Victoria Street, London.
A plan for rendering paper so tough that it can be used for various
purposes for which formerly it was considered there was ‘nothing like
leather,’ has recently been published. The process is of continental
origin. The paper pulp during manufacture is mixed with chloride of
zinc in solution, and the more concentrated this solution is, the
tougher is the finished paper. It is said that the new material has
been successfully used in boxmaking, combmaking, and has actually
taken the place of leather in bootmaking. This last application of
the material is perhaps not quite so much of a novelty as it seems to
be; for in the cheaper kinds of boots and shoes, the soles, instead
of being of solid leather, are often made of a compound of which
brown-paper pulp seems to be the chief constituent. The adulteration
is not apparent to the wearer until wet weather makes it very evident
indeed.
In the building operations of man he uses hair to bind the particles of
lime together in forming a plaster wall. In the work of nature, much
the same end is achieved by binding loose particles of soil together
with the rootlets of various plants. The continually slipping particles
of a newly made embankment have to be rendered secure by this means;
but such grasses as have hitherto been used for the purpose need
several months for their development. M. Cambier, of the French railway
service, has recently pointed out that the double poppy is a valuable
plant for this purpose. Its germination is rapid, and in a week or two
its rootlets are sufficiently strong to give some support to the soil.
But at the end of three or four months, the roots attain a length of
twelve inches, and form a far stronger network to hold the soil in
place than any grass known. The plant is an annual, but it sows itself
after the first year.
We are glad to notice that a ‘Plumage League’ is being established for
the purpose of discountenancing the inhuman fashion now in vogue of
introducing the dead bodies of birds as ornaments on ladies’ bonnets,
hats, and dresses. Lady Mount-Temple, in advocating the establishment
of this League, the members of which will bind themselves to discourage
in every way the use of plumage in dress, writes thus: ‘A milliner
told me she had put twelve birds on one (dress). Another told us of
a ball-dress covered with canaries.’ We should rejoice to see the
Princess of Wales or some other member of the Royal Family setting her
veto upon the cruel practice of adorning female dress with the bodies
of our feathered songsters.
The Crematorium at Woking Cemetery has just been used for the third
time under the auspices of the Cremation Society. In France, the
Prefecture of the Seine is about to spend three thousand pounds
on the erection of a similar building in the well-known cemetery,
Père-la-Chaise. Sanitary reformers will rejoice that cremation is
making some progress in both countries, although that progress is slow.
The fastest time ever made by a steam-vessel has recently been
made by the Falke torpedo boat, built by Messrs Yarrow for the
Austrian government. The mean speed of her six runs over the
measured mile—during which time she was fully fitted and in fighting
trim—reached the wonderful figure of 22.263 knots per hour. She then
ran, according to contract with the Austrian government, for an hour
at full speed, when she covered just twenty-two and a quarter miles.
It is said that the vessel answered her helm well throughout these
trials, and that there was very little vibration from the engines even
when going at the highest speed. Messrs Yarrow are building twenty-four
torpedo boats for the British government, besides several others for
foreign customers.
Every poison is supposed to have its antidote, and the establishment of
the torpedo system has necessitated the introduction of an antidote in
the shape of torpedo catchers. The first vessel of this type which has
been constructed has lately been tried at Portsmouth with satisfactory
results, not only with regard to speed, but also with regard to
manœuvring power. The vessel was fitted with an inner and an outer
rudder on the system of Mr J. S. White, and known as the ‘turn-about’
method. This vessel is built of thin steel; it possesses a conning
tower on deck, from which it is steered, and it is one hundred and
fifty feet in length.
Some interesting gunnery experiments have just been concluded at
Portland Bill. Their object was to test the value of the Moncrieff or
‘disappearing’ principle of mounting guns for coast-defence, a system
which, like most others, has its detractors as well as its advocates.
At Portland, a dummy gun only was used, so that the ship firing upon
it from the sea had not the disadvantage of attacking a foe who could
hit back. The gun was placed in a pit, and was so arranged that it
remained hidden for two and a half minutes; then it appeared for half
a minute, delivered its imaginary fire—which was represented by a puff
of gunpowder to aid the foe in sighting it—and again disappeared. The
ship _Hercules_ failed to make any impression upon the gun at all,
although it was only made of wood and canvas. We may therefore conclude
that the Moncrieff or ‘disappearing’ system of mounting guns is the
most effectual which has ever been brought forward, and we may look for
its great extension in our coast-defences.
Professor Germain Sée, of Paris, during a course of lectures on
dietetics, has recently pointed out the importance of water in
connection with food, that fluid being the only one which can dissolve
the salts taken with the food into the body, and eliminate them from
the system. He also remarked that it was quite impossible for man,
an omnivorous being, to exist entirely on vegetable foods. So-called
vegetarians are forced to make up for the want of solid meat by
consuming eggs, milk, and butter. A healthy man must for his food draw
upon the elements furnished by the three kingdoms of nature.
A new kind of turning-lathe, which seems really to possess the merit
of novelty, is described by the _Scientific American_. It is intended
for turning such articles as balusters for staircases, when such
articles are required in quantities, and when they are wanted to be
square or octagonal, instead of round. The lathe consists of a kind of
skeleton cylinder, upon the surface of which the square rods which are
ultimately to form balusters are readily clamped by levers working at
each end. An ordinary T-rest supports the tool in cutting the required
ornamentation on the rods as the lathe revolves. When one side of the
rods has thus been treated, they are unclamped, turned over, and once
more fixed in place. In this way the four sides of the square rods are
operated upon one after the other. This lathe, which has been patented,
will finish with clean, sharp edges about fifty balusters or other
pieces of wood an hour.
The _Lancet_ alludes to an alleged discovery which has been made in
Columbia, which, if it should be confirmed, will be a valuable aid in
surgery. It is reported that a certain shrub which is called ‘aliza’
exudes a juice which has the property of stopping hemorrhage, so that
if a surgeon’s operating knife were only smeared with this juice, his
work could be done with little or no loss of blood.
A meteorological station twenty thousand feet above the sea-level
is being established by the Mexican government among their highest
mountains. Those who remember the hardships which were encountered by
Mr Wragge in his constant visits to the instruments on Ben Nevis before
the observatory building was established there, will be prepared to
understand the difficulties of dealing with a station at so much higher
an altitude. For this reason, the instruments are being constructed to
work automatically, to be self-recording, and, as far as possible, to
require no attention for twelve months, if need be.
The Chinese alphabet consists in its integrity of about forty
thousand pictorial symbols, and it is this alphabet which with some
modifications has been used from time immemorial by their clever and
more advanced neighbours in Japan. But the adoption of Western ways
which has since 1868 been so rapid among the Japanese, has made them
discontented with a system so elaborate and bewildering. They have
therefore formed a Society called the Roman Alphabet Association,
by which they seek to replace the cumbrous Chinese alphabet by the
twenty-two letters of the Roman alphabet which are found sufficient
to express all the sounds found in the Japanese language. The change
is a necessary one, and marks a new and important phase of Japanese
progress. It is somewhat akin to the movement which has for some time
been in progress in Germany, by which Roman characters are being
substituted for the old Gothic ones.
At a late meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, it was announced
that M. M. Henry had photographed part of the Milky-way. The exposure
required was an hour, but the star discs were perfectly round and
sharp. This wonderful result shows that the driving clock for keeping
the telescope in motion, so as to counteract the motion of the earth,
must have been of the most perfect kind.
From Germany, we learn that in that country during the last ten years
the leather manufacture has shown a most extraordinary development.
Large factories have been established, which produce goods of the
highest quality, and compare favourably with those of foreign make. No
expenses have been spared to import the best machines; the sons of the
most prominent manufacturers are sent to America, England, and France,
to learn the manufacture of the leather trade in all its details. The
largest firms study principally the American methods of manufacturing,
and the consequence is that many German factories are managed after the
American system. German manufacturers are anxious to raise their goods
to the highest perfection, and look forward to the time when German
machine-made ladies’ boots will be found in the West End of London.
We learn from a South African newspaper that Natal is at last going
to cultivate tea in earnest. The aroma of the samples produced is
described as excellent; it has a taste by no means unpleasant, which is
not characteristic of China teas, but it is one which would be readily
acquired and appreciated. It is anticipated that fifty thousand pounds
will be grown this season.
A large German lithographic firm doing a considerable trade in England,
it is said has entirely left off printing from stone, and uses zinc
plates only. The saving is said to be very considerable, and may
partly explain how they are able to print more cheaply than our own
lithographers. A Chicago trade journal estimates that if a work is
to be printed in ten colours, requiring five double-sized stones of
twenty-eight by forty-two inches, the cost of each stone would be about
twelve pounds, while a first-class zinc plate costs eight shillings.
Mr H. T. Crewe, 17 Sunning Hill Road, Lewisham, London, S.E., has
recently patented a system by which conservatories, the various
structures of the horticulturist, and other buildings, can be fitted
with glass roofs and walls without the use of putty. The system is an
extremely simple one. Panes of glass are laid upon parallel rafters or
beams. They are not placed flatly one beside the other, but the upper
panes are made to slightly overlap the lower panes. They are fixed
together by means of little metal clips, which receive screws, that
afterwards pass through holes in the panes and into the rafters or
beams. Among the advantages claimed for the new system of glazing are,
that it causes the roof to remain perfectly rain-proof, and that the
greatest facility and despatch are attained in detaching and replacing
panes. Condensation is carried away from the inside of the glass by the
grooves which are cut in the rafters or beams.