From the Report issued by the Committee appointed to consider the
best way of rebuilding the houses at Casamicciola destroyed in the
recent earthquake, we learn that that terrible catastrophe occasioned
the deaths of no fewer than two thousand three hundred and thirteen
persons, and injury to seven hundred and sixty-two more. Although these
unfortunates did not all actually belong to the island, there were
among them only fifty-four who could be called foreigners. It will
probably be found advisable to rebuild the ruined habitations on the
pattern adopted in certain places of Central America, where earthquakes
are common. The houses there are built of such light materials, that
when a shock comes, they rattle down like a veritable house of cards,
and can almost be rattled together again as easily when the danger
has for the time passed. In London and some other of our cities and
towns, the houses are so shamefully run up that a very mild shock of
earthquake would suffice to shake them to pieces.
We are apt to look upon these jerry-built houses as the result of
competition and the continual cry for cheap houses. On the other hand,
we regard our cathedrals as solid monuments to the more honest work
of former times. But this notion must be dispelled. The Peterborough
Cathedral architect has been examining the foundations and piers of
the tower of that fabric, which it will be remembered he some time
ago reported to be in a dangerous condition, and they turn out to be
as perfect an example of jerry-building as could be found in our own
enlightened times. The piers were found to consist of a thin facing of
stone, the interior being filled in with small rubble-stone and sandy
earth. He tells us that ‘it is impossible to conceive a worse piece of
construction, and it is equally impossible to understand how it is that
these piers have stood so long.’ The piers have simply been enabled to
hold together by the strength of their exterior clothing. It is some
small satisfaction to the modern householder that dishonest building
has not been invented for his especial torment, but was practised as
long ago as the fourteenth century.
Another far more valuable relic of the past is, as we recently
indicated, exciting attention on account of its decaying condition.
Westminster Abbey, which may justly be regarded as the most important
ecclesiastical building in the kingdom, is wasting away piecemeal under
the effects of London smoke and atmospheric agencies generally. The sum
required for its restoration is estimated at eighty thousand pounds,
and this is probably short of the real amount which will be required to
do the work effectually. For such a national purpose, the purse of the
nation ought undoubtedly to be responsible.
The complete Report of Professor Hull’s labours, as chief of the
little band of scientific explorers who have just returned from a
geological survey of Palestine, will be looked forward to with unusual
interest, for he brings back with him materials for constructing a
far more complete map than has ever before been possible. The ancient
sea-margins of the Gulfs of Suez and Akabah have been traced at a
height of two hundred feet above their present surfaces—indicating
that the Mediterranean and Red Seas have been at one time in natural
connection with one another. Professor Hull believes that this was
the case at the time of the Exodus. The terraces of the Jordan have
also been examined, the most important of these ancient margins being
six hundred feet above the present level of the Dead Sea. Besides his
scientific Report, the learned Professor is preparing a popular account
of his pilgrimage, which will duly appear in the Transactions of the
Geological Society. His journeyings will cover much of the same ground
traversed nearly fifty years ago by David Roberts, whose drawings of
the places visited aroused so much interest at the time, and which have
never since been surpassed.
Not very many years ago, a map of Africa presented in its centre a
blank space, which was explained to inquiring children as indicating
a country so hot that nobody had been there or could live there. This
benighted region has now an atlas all to itself. Under the auspices of
the Geographical Society, Mr Ravenstein has just completed their map of
Eastern Equatorial Africa; it is of large size, and contains altogether
twenty-five sheets. He will now commence a similar work for Western
Africa, and has proceeded to Portugal in order to take advantage of
the materials in the possession of that government bearing upon the
subject. This work is also undertaken for and at the expense of the
Geographical Society.
The official Report of the late census in British Burmah is not without
interest to dwellers in Britain. Only two languages had to be used in
the process of enumeration—namely, Burmese and English. The people at
first thought that the strange proceedings heralded the advent of a new
tax, and one tribe fled across the frontier so as to be out of the way.
Another idea that occurred to the people was that the English made use
of human heads for inquiring into the future. But these difficulties
having been smoothed over, the census was taken satisfactorily. British
Burmah is, roughly speaking, of the same area as Great Britain and
Ireland, with a population less than that of London. This population,
under British rule, has doubled in twenty years, and there is every
sign of its continued increase. The males are far in excess of
the females, and what seems a very important key to the wonderful
prosperity of the country is the fact that there are ten acres of
cultivated land for every eight persons living in it.
It is reported that Baron Nordenskïold, whose recent explorations in
and around Greenland aroused so much interest in scientific circles, is
contemplating a voyage next year to the south polar regions. The cost
of the projected expedition is nearly two hundred thousand pounds, but
this seemingly large sum will include the expense of building a ship of
special construction, to meet the requirements of the explorers.
International courtesies are so very few and far between, that when
one occurs it is worthy of the most honourable mention. Many years
ago, a band of English Arctic explorers abandoned their ship, the
_Resolute_, for it was hopelessly frozen into the ice-pack. The ship,
however, at last floated free, and was taken by an American whaler to
New York. The gallant Americans thereupon put the vessel into splendid
order, and presented her to Queen Victoria. It was but the other day
that the old ship was broken up, when a desk was made from her timbers
and presented to the American President. The British government have
now presented the _Alert_, which has also seen Arctic service, to the
United States government for the use of the Greeley relief expedition.
The ship has long ago been strengthened with teak for protection
against the ice, and is thus well fitted for the purpose in view.
The recent experiments at Folkestone once more proved the value of
throwing oil on troubled waters, the efficacy of which operation in
stormy weather we described last month. In addition to the oil-shell
there mentioned, another invention falls to be noticed, by which the
same gun from which the oil-shell is discharged may be also employed
for projecting a heavy solid cylindrical shot, to which is attached
a flexible tubing. Upon firing the gun, the shot is carried a long
distance out to sea, pulling the tube after it. The shot sinks to the
bottom, and the tube thus anchored can be used with a pump for forcing
the oil to any spot in the neighbourhood. This contrivance, like that
of the oil-shell, is the invention of Mr Gordon.
The preparations for the International Health Exhibition to be opened
in London in May next, proceed very rapidly. The eight water-companies
which supply London, and which just now are being so roundly abused on
the score of overcharges, will exhibit the various apparatus employed
by them for the supply, filtration, &c., of water. They will also
combine in erecting an immense fountain in the grounds, the jets of
which will be brilliantly illuminated at night by electricity.
An American paper gives an interesting account of the manufacture of
‘Yankee sardines,’ which may be explained to the uninitiated to mean
small herrings preserved in oil and flavoured with spices, to imitate
the sardines of French preparation. To begin with, the fish are laid in
heaps on long tables, where they are rapidly cleaned and decapitated
by children. The herrings are then pickled for one hour, to remove a
certain tell-tale flavour which they possess, after which they are
dried. The next operation is to thoroughly cook them in boiling oil;
and finally, they are packed in the familiar square tins, and duly
furnished with a French label, such as, ‘Sardines à la Francaise,’ or,
‘A l’huile d’olive.’ The free, or rather the true translation of this
latter inscription would be, ‘cotton-seed oil,’ and, sad to say, not
always of the first quality.
A paper dealing with an outbreak in a German town of that terrible
disease known as trichinosis was recently read before the French
Academy of Medicine. It is worthy of attention as going far to prove
that this disease, usually contracted by the consumption of unwholesome
pork, is avoidable, if the ordinary precaution of thoroughly cooking
the food be resorted to. In the case in question, more than three
hundred persons were attacked with the disease, and of these nearly
one-sixth died. It was proved beyond question that all the victims
ate the meat absolutely raw, it being the custom to chop it fine
and to spread it like butter on slices of bread. One single family,
which consumed some of the same meat in the form of cooked sausages,
exhibited no trace of the disease. It may be mentioned that a certain
dose of alcohol exercised a most favourable effect in diminishing the
virulence of the complaint.
A new system of railway signals which is worked by electricity,
instead of by mechanical leverage, has lately been experimented upon
with great success, but like most other things of an electrical kind,
its ready adoption must depend upon its expense as compared with that
of the older-fashioned plant. Hitherto, the ordinary electric magnet
has been found unequal to this class of work, principally because its
power of attraction is only great when very near the object to be
attracted, and also because its impact on its armature is so violent
as to lead to risk of deranging the apparatus employed. By use of
what is known as the long-pull electro-magnet, recently invented by
Mr Stanley Currie, these difficulties have been obviated, and signals
of every kind can be worked most perfectly through the medium of
conducting wires. The system has been at work for the past two months
at Gloucester, and is being adopted experimentally in other directions.
The volcano at Krakatoa will long be remembered, if only on account
of the wide area over which its products have been distributed. To
say nothing of the dust particles which are supposed to have found
their origin there, and which are credited with having been the active
cause of our late gorgeous sunsets, undoubted volcanic particles have
lately been found at Philadelphia. By melting and evaporating the
snow upon which these tiny fragments were found, a residue of solid
particles was apparent, which the microscope at once pronounced to be
of a volcanic nature. It seems difficult to believe that solid matter
could thus be carried in the air for four months, during which it must,
if it came from Krakatoa, have covered the enormous distance of ten
thousand miles. Another supposition is that the volcanic particles
found at Philadelphia may have been wafted thither from Alaska, in
the north-west corner of North America, where a great eruption has
occurred. According to our authority, a submarine volcano shot up there
last summer, and has already formed an island in the Behring Sea, from
eight hundred to twelve hundred feet high. It is therefore possible
that volcanic dust may have found its way, from this source, to the
southern states of America, and even to Great Britain. The enormous
distances traversed by these glassy particles may be thus accounted
for: when steam is forced through a mass of glassy lava, the molten
material is shot up with it in the form of thin filaments, just like
spun glass. These, like so many pieces of spider web, would be borne
aloft by the air for a very long period.
It seems only yesterday that iron furnace slag was looked upon as a
waste product, for which no possible use could be found. It is now made
into bricks, into cement, into wool-packing for steam-boilers, and
more recently it has been found a most effective material for making
all kinds of vases and other things of an ornamental nature. For this
purpose, the slag is freed of its coarser particles, mixed with a
certain quantity of glass and colouring matter, and when in a molten
condition, is stirred about so as to present a veined appearance. It is
then moulded into various forms, and is ready for sale.
We lately had an opportunity of visiting the Fine Art Loan Exhibition
at Cardiff, which has been opened for three months, for the purpose
of collecting funds in aid of the projected Cambrian Academy. The
Exhibition includes works by some of our most eminent artists, both
living and deceased, as well as a collection of such articles as can be
grouped under the head of Art. But a novel feature of the Exhibition
is its complete array of telephonic and telegraphic apparatus. By the
co-operation of the telegraphic authorities, communication has been
opened up by telephone between the Exhibition and Swansea, a distance
of fifty-two miles. Not only is speech quite easy over this distance,
but the voices of those acquainted with one another are readily
recognised. At the time of our visit, the apparatus was connected with
the theatre at Swansea, and we had the curious experience of listening
to chorus, band, and solo voices, which were rendering a popular opera
more than half a hundred miles away.
Mr J. C. Robinson, in the course of an interesting article contributed
to the _Times_ on the conservation of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s pictures,
concludes with a recommendation which all owners of valuable
oil-paintings should take note of. He strongly advocates the use of
glass as a covering for such pictures, and is glad to see that the
practice of thus framing them is on the increase. ‘This plan,’ he says,
‘almost entirely obviates the necessity for the periodical rubbing up
and cleaning the surface of pictures with the silk handkerchief or
cotton-wool, inasmuch as the protecting glass, and not the painted
surface of the picture, receives the rapidly accumulating deposit of
dust and dirt.’ But even this he considers to be only a half-measure.
The back of the picture should be stretched over with a damp-resisting
sheet of india-rubber or American cloth, for it requires protection
only second to the painted face of the canvas.
In presenting the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society to Mr
A. Common for his wonderful photographs of celestial objects, the
President of that honourable body gave a most interesting history of
the medallist’s gradual progress in the difficult work in which he
so much excels. Mr Common commenced work with a modest reflecting
telescope of five and a half inches; but he was not satisfied until he
had obtained one measuring no less than three feet across its mirror.
He has also turned his earnest attention to the clockwork for driving
the instrument, so that as the busy world turns on its axis, the
objects focused remain stationary. This is highly necessary, when it is
remembered that sometimes a star photograph occupies as much as an hour
and a half in the taking, even with the most sensitive plates. This
long duration of the action of the feeble light from stars so remote
that they cannot be seen by the naked eye, has the effect of impressing
the chemical surface so that the invisible is pictured! It is evident
that a new field of research is thus opened out; and the President did
well in pointing out what great services can be rendered to knowledge
by the amateur worker who, like Mr Common, has the means and the
ability to employ his time so well.
In these days of oleomargarine, bosch butter, and other mixtures which
are supposed to furnish excellent substitutes for the genuine article,
it becomes highly necessary to have some means of distinguishing the
true from the false. A contribution to microscopical science towards
this end is a test discovered by Dr Belfield of Chicago, which will
at once identify a fat if it consist either of lard or tallow. Pure
lard crystals exhibit thin rhomboidal plates, while those of tallow
are quite different, and are of a curved form somewhat resembling the
italic letter _f_.
A paper on the Ventilation of Theatres was lately read by Mr Seddon at
the Parkes Museum of Hygiene, London. In some crowded theatres, the air
has been said by a competent authority to be more foul than that of the
street sewers. The intensely heated air would seem to act as a kind
of pump, and to extract the vitiated atmosphere from the drains below
the building. The successful introduction of the electric incandescent
system of lighting to more than one metropolitan theatre has done
much to mitigate the evil complained of; but it is quite certain that
the ventilation of public buildings generally does not receive the
attention which it so imperatively demands.
Another important consideration that is too often neglected is the
acoustic properties of public buildings. Even in the last great work
which has, after years of labour, been finished in London—we refer to
the new law-courts—complaints are constant from those who have to work
in them, of the great difficulty both in making their voices heard
and in appreciating what is said by others. Public speakers whose
duties carry them to various towns and cities throughout the kingdom,
know very well that it is the exception, and not the rule, to find a
room which is comfortable to speak in. Either the voice falls dead
and flat, as if absorbed by a screen of wool; or it reverberates from
every wall with such confusing echoes, that the syllables must be
uttered with painful deliberation. A Committee appointed by one of our
learned Societies to inquire into the reason why some rooms should be
acoustically perfect, while others are quite the reverse, would do a
vast amount of good. Until such an inquiry is set on foot, architects
will continue to design buildings in which this necessary property is
quite neglected.