One of the most important applications of photography is the production
of printing-blocks, which, under various names, are in great request
for book and newspaper illustration. It is not generally known that
some of the finest illustrations which adorn high-class magazines are
produced without the intervention of the engraver at any stage of the
process. They are photographed direct from drawings, in some cases
even from nature; and from the photograph a printing-block ready for
the press is produced automatically. Oil-paintings and water-colour
drawings can also be thus reproduced with the greatest fidelity. A few
years back, this was impossible, for the photograph did not translate
the colours in their true tone-relation to one another. Thus, yellow
and red would be reproduced as black, while blue would photograph
white. All this has been changed by the introduction of what is known
as the isochromatic process, by which colours are rendered as a skilful
artist working in Indian ink or blacklead pencil would render them.
As an outcome of this capacity of the photographic chemicals, the Royal
Academy of Arts has made a new departure in the issue of an Illustrated
Catalogue of the principal works exhibited at Burlington House. This is
a handsome folio volume, containing one hundred and fifty fac-similes
of pictures by Royal Academicians and outsiders. It is not only
precious as a work of art, for every touch of the painter’s brush is
recognised and reproduced, but it forms a valuable record for future
reference. The particular system adopted is that known as the Goupil
_photogravure_ process, which is worked by Messrs Boussod Valadon &
Company of Paris and London. This firm have published in a similar
manner selected pictures from the Paris Salons of the last two years;
and we are glad that our Academy authorities have followed such a good
example.
Four crematory furnaces are in course of erection at the far-famed
Parisian cemetery, Père Lachaise, and will be ready for operation in
a short time. These furnaces, which have the outward appearance of
ornamental ovens, are built on the model of those in use at Rome and
Milan. The cost of cremation will be fifteen francs only—to rich and
poor alike. It is said that already sculptors and metal-workers are
busy in designing and producing cinerary urns for the preservation of
the ashes from these furnaces. These vessels will, at the option of
the relatives of the dead, be removed to family vaults, or will be
deposited in a building which is to be erected by the city of Paris for
their reception.
The late discussion in the _Times_ as to the permanence of water-colour
drawings has led the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education
to appoint a Commission to inquire into the whole subject, under the
efficient chairmanship of Sir F. Leighton, the President of the Royal
Academy. With him will work several well-known artists. Captain Abney
and Dr Russell, who for some time have been engaged in testing the
action of light upon pigments, will act as scientific advisers to the
Commission.
It is reported that the recent revival of archæological research in
Italy is continually being hampered by the extortionate demands of
proprietors on whose lands excavations are desirable. It is also
alleged that a large trade has been organised in the manufacture of
sham antiquities. Senator Fiorelli, the head of the Archæological
Department, seeks to put a stop to these abuses by the passage of a law
which will place excavations under state supervision and by official
permission only. It is also suggested that the smaller antiquities
should only be admitted to be genuine after due examination and the
attachment of some form of official stamp or seal.
The London Chamber of Commerce have under their consideration the
establishment in the metropolis of Commercial Museums, or, as they
might be termed, permanent exhibitions, such as are found in Holland,
Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland, and other countries. With this
view, they have deputed their secretary, Mr Kenrick Murray, to visit
the Museums of the chief commercial centres on the Continent. They have
instructed him to report to them upon the area of the buildings used
for the purpose, their financial organisation and annual expenditure,
the number of visitors they receive, and their presumed effect upon
the trades of the country in which they are situated. Mr Murray will
bear Foreign Office introductions to the Queen’s representatives in
the different countries which he will visit, and will, therefore, have
every facility for carrying out a most important commission.
The most fearful outbreak of volcanic force which the world has
experienced since the eruption of Krakatoa in the Straits of Sunda,
has recently laid waste many miles of the fairest part of New Zealand.
It is not yet known how many human lives have been sacrificed in this
terrible visitation, but it is certain that several Maori settlements
have been completely destroyed, and that the country for many miles
round the centre of disturbance has been literally devastated.
The outbreak commenced at midnight on the 9th of last June with a
succession of fearful earthquake shocks. Then, for the first time
within living memory, Mount Tarawera suddenly became an active volcano,
and belched forth torrents of stones and boiling mud mingled with fire
and smoke. The once fertile district is covered with a layer of mud
and ashes, so that those who have survived the terrible ordeal have
starvation and ruin before them. One minor effect of the disaster will
be regretted all the world over by those who have visited or have read
of the wondrous scenery of New Zealand. The far-famed pink and white
terraces have ceased to exist. These terraces were unique, and had they
been known in ancient times, must have been counted with the wonders of
the world. Boiling water heavily charged with silica issued from the
ground, and as it tumbled over the hillside and gradually cooled in
its descent, it deposited its silica as a glittering crystallisation.
Mr Froude, one of the last visitors who has written upon the subject,
says: ‘Stretched before us we saw the white terrace in all its
strangeness: a crystal staircase, glittering and stainless as if it
were ice, spreading out like an open fan from a point above us on
the hillside, and projecting at the bottom into a lake, where it was
perhaps two hundred yards wide.’
This hot-lake district was becoming a great sanatorium, and tourists
flocked to it from all countries, for the warm water was credited with
wonderful healing powers. From this circumstance alone, it was believed
that the district had a great future before it. The Maoris thought
not a little of the natural wonders of which they were the stewards,
and took care to levy blackmail on all their visitors. All this is
now at an end, for the wonders have gone, until possibly new ones are
gradually developed in their stead.
Much has been written on the subject of mysterious noises, which in
most cases, if intelligently inquired into, would be found to have
no mystery at all about them. A Professor at Philadelphia recently
recorded that at a certain hour each day one of the windows in his
house rattled in the most violent manner. On consulting the local
railway time-table, he could find no train running at the hour
specified. But on examining another table, which included a separate
line, he found that a heavy train passed at the time at a distance
of several miles from his house. He then referred to the geological
formation of the ground between the two points, and at once saw
that there was an outcropping ledge of rock which formed a link of
connection between the distant railway line and his home. It was the
vibration carried by this rock from the passing train that rattled the
window.
Dr Marter of Rome has discovered in many of the skulls in the different
Roman and Etruscan tombs, as well as in those deposited in the various
museums, interesting specimens of ancient dentistry and artificial
teeth. These latter are in most cases carved out of the teeth of some
large animal. In many instances, these teeth are fastened to the
natural ones by bands of gold. No cases of stopped teeth have been
discovered, although many cases of decay present themselves where
stopping would have been advantageous. The skulls examined date as far
back as the sixth century B.C., and prove that the art of dentistry and
the pains of toothache are by no means modern institutions.
The city of Hernosand, in Sweden, can boast of being the first place
in Europe where the streets are lighted entirely by electricity to the
exclusion of gas. It has the advantage of plenty of natural water-power
for driving the electric engines, so that the new lights can actually
be produced at a cheaper rate than the old ones.
Although many investors have burnt their fingers—metaphorically, we
mean—over the electric-lighting question in this country, it seems
to be becoming a profitable form of investment in America. A circular
addressed by the editor of one of the American papers to the general
managers of the lighting Companies has elicited the information that
many of them are earning good dividends—in one case as much as eighteen
per cent. for the year. As we have before had occasion to remind our
readers, the price of gas in this country averages about half what
it does in New York, and this fact alone would account for the more
flourishing state of transatlantic electric lighting Companies.
At a half-demolished Jesuit College at Vienna, a dog lately fell
through a fissure in the pavement. The efforts to rescue the poor
animal led to a curious archæological discovery. The dog had, it
was found, fallen into a large vault containing ninety coffins. The
existence of this underground burial-place had hitherto been quite
unsuspected. The inscriptions on the coffins date back to the reign of
Maria Theresa, and the bodies are of the monks of that period, and of
the nobles who helped to support the monastery.
In an interesting lecture lately delivered before the Royal Institution
on ‘Photography as an Aid to Astronomy,’ Mr A. A. Common, who is the
principal British labourer in this comparatively new field of research,
described his methods of working, and held out sanguine hopes of
future things possible by astronomical photography. Speaking of modern
dry-plate photography, he said: ‘At a bound, it has gone far beyond
anything that was expected of it, and bids fair to overturn a good
deal of the practice that has hitherto existed among astronomers. I
hope soon to see it recognised as the most potent agent of research
and record that has ever been within the reach of the astronomer; so
that the records which the future astronomer will use will not be
the written impression of dead men’s views, but veritable images of
the different objects of the heavens recorded by themselves as they
existed.’
Two remarkable and wonderful cases of recovery from bullet-wounds have
lately taken place in the metropolis. In one case, that of a girl who
was shot by her lover, the bullet is deeply imbedded in the head, too
deep to admit of any operation; yet the patient has been discharged
from the hospital convalescent. The other case was one of attempted
suicide, the sufferer having shot himself in the head with a revolver.
In this case, too, the bullet is still in the brain, and in such a
position as to prevent the operation of extraction. In spite of this,
the patient has been discharged from hospital care, and it is said that
he suffers no inconvenience from the consequences of his rash act. A
curious coincidence in connection with these cases is that both shots
were fired on the same day, the 19th of June, and that both cases were
treated at the London Hospital. ‘The times have been,’ says Shakspeare,
‘that, when the brains were out, the man would die.’ The poet puts
these words into the mouth of Macbeth, when that wicked king sees the
ghost of the murdered Banquo rise before him. In the cases just cited,
we have a reality which no poet could equal in romance. People walking
about in the flesh with bullets in their brains are certainly far more
wonderful things than spectres. These marvellous recoveries from what,
a few years ago, would have meant certain death, must be credited to
surgical skill and the modern antiseptic method of treating wounds.
Magistrates are continually deploring the use of the revolver among the
civil community, and hardly a week passes but some terrible accident
or crime is credited to the employment of that weapon. That it is a
most valuable arm when used in legitimate warfare, the paper lately
read before the Royal United Service Institution by Major Kitchener
amply proved. According to this paper, every nation but our own seems
to consider that the revolver is the most important weapon that
cavalry can be armed with. In Russia, for instance, all officers,
sergeant-majors, drummers, buglers, and even clerks, carry revolvers.
In Germany, again, there is a regular annual course of instruction in
the use of the weapon. In our army, however, the revolver seems to be
in a great measure ignored, excepting by officers on active foreign
service.
A new method of detecting the source of an offensive odour in a room is
given by _The Sanitarian_ newspaper. In the room in question, the smell
had become so unbearable that the carpet was taken up, and a carpenter
was about to rip up the flooring to discover, if possible, the cause.
By a happy inspiration, the services of some sanitary inspectors in
the shape of a couple of bluebottle flies were first called into
requisition. The flies buzzed about in their usual aggravating manner
for some minutes, but eventually they settled upon the crack between
two boards in the floor. The boards were thereupon taken up, and just
underneath them was found the decomposing body of a rat.
The extent to which the trade in frozen meat from distant countries
has grown since the introduction, only a few years back, of the system
of freezing by the compression and subsequent expansion of air, is
indicated by the constant arrival in this country of vast shiploads
of carcases from the antipodes. The largest cargo of dead-meat ever
received lately arrived in the Thames from the Falkland Islands on
board the steamship _Selembria_. This consisted of thirty thousand
frozen carcases of sheep. This ship possesses four engines for
preserving and freezing the meat, and the holds are lined with a
non-conducting packing of timber and charcoal.
A new system of coating iron or steel with a covering of lead, somewhat
similar in practice to the so-called galvanising process with zinc, has
been introduced by Messrs Justice & Co. of Chancery Lane, London, the
agents for the Ajax Metal Company of Philadelphia. Briefly described,
the process consists in charging molten lead with a flux composed of
sal ammoniac, arsenic, phosphorus, and borax; after which, properly
cleansed iron or steel plates will when dipped therein receive a
coating of the lead. The metal so protected will be valuable for
roofs, in place of sheet-lead or zinc, for gutters, and for numberless
purposes where far less durable materials are at present used with very
false economy.
It would seem, from the results of some experiments lately conducted
on the Dutch state railroads in order to discover the best method of
protecting iron from the action of the atmosphere, that red-lead paints
are far more durable than those which owe their body to iron oxide.
The test-plates showed also that the paint adhered to the metal with
far greater tenacity if the usual scraping and brushing were replaced
by pickling—that is, treatment with acid. The best results were
obtained when the metal plate was first pickled in spirits of salts
(hydrochloric acid) and water, then washed, and finally rubbed with oil
before applying the paint.
The latest advance in electric lighting is represented by the
introduction of Mr Upward’s primary battery, the novelty in which
consists in its being excited by a gas instead of a liquid. The gas
employed is chlorine, and the battery cells have to be hermetically
sealed, for chlorine is, as every dabbler in chemical experiments
knows, a most suffocating and corrosive gas. In practice, this primary
battery is connected with an accumulator or secondary battery, so
that the electricity generated by it is stored for subsequent use.
The invention represents a convenient means of producing the electric
light on a small scale for domestic use, where gas-engines and
dynamo-machines are not considered desirable additions to the household
arrangements. The battery is made by Messrs Woodhouse and Rawson, West
Kensington.
Mr Fryer’s Refuse Destructor has now been adopted in several of our
large towns. Newcastle is the latest which has taken up the system,
and in that town thirty tons of refuse are consumed in the furnaces
daily. The residue consists of between seven and eight tons of burnt
clinker and dry ashes, which are used for concrete and as a bedding
for pavement. There is no actual profit attached to the system, but it
affords a convenient method of dealing with some of that unmanageable
material which is a necessary product of large communities, and which
might otherwise form an accumulation most dangerous to health.
After three years of constant work, the signal station on Ailsa
Craig, in the Firth of Clyde, is announced, by the Northern Light
Commissioners, to be ready for action. In foggy or snowy weather,
the fog-horns which have been placed there will utter their warning
blasts to mariners, and will doubtless lead to the prevention of many
a shipwreck. The trumpets are of such a powerful description, that in
calm weather they will be audible at a distance of nearly twenty miles
from the station; and as the blasts are of a distinctive character, the
captain of a ship will be easily able to recognise them, and from them
to learn his whereabouts.
Mr Sinclair, the British consul at Foochow, reports that the
manufacture of brick tea of varieties of tea-dust by Russian merchants,
for export to Siberia, is acquiring considerable importance at Foochow.
The cheapness of the tea-dust, the cheapness of manufacture, the low
export duties upon it, together with the low import duties in Russia,
help to make this trade successful and profitable. The brick is said to
be beautifully made, and very portable. Mr Sinclair wonders that the
British government does not get its supplies from the port of Foochow,
as they would find it less expensive and more wholesome than what is
now given the army and the navy. He suggests that a government agent
should be employed on the spot to manufacture the brick tea in the same
way as adopted by the Russians there and at Hankow.