Scientific American Vol 22 No. 1 (page 2)

surprising. But upon the opening of a work, to which all the minor canals in the world are like the rods of the magicians to Aaron’s rod which swallowed them up, it is expected that everything shall move without difficulty, and that no oversight will have been committed. Truly this would be to attribute a power of prevision to M. Lesseps beyond what is human. The world can afford to wait a little till this huge machine gets oiled. Great enterprises move slow at the outset. We have yet unshaken faith in the ultimate success of the Suez Canal.

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TUBULAR BOILERS AND BOILER EXPLOSIONS.

In our description of the novel steam boiler, published on page 209, last volume, we made a quotation from several eminent writers and experimenters on the subjects of heat and steam, to the effect that the tubular system in steam boilers was wrong in theory and unsafe in practice, and although this system has hitherto been extensively used on account of some advantages which it secures, it has long been a serious question with thinking men whether these advantages were not obtained at too dear a rate.

While not prepared to admit all the force of the objections made to the tubular system, there are arguments against it that it will not do to treat lightly and which seem to us more and more forcible the more we candidly reflect upon the subject. One of the most forcible of these which occurs to us is, that in the tubular system the disruptive force of unequal expansion is far more likely to become a cause of danger than in the plain cylinder boiler. In such boilers the tension of expanded tubes is transmitted to the shell, which are greatly strained without doubt, often nearly to the verge of rupture. When this occurs it is evident an unusual strain, caused by sudden generation of steam, would act in concert with the expansion of the tubes, and we have no doubt these causes combined have given rise to many an explosion when the steam, acting singly, could never have produced rupture.

But while we give due weight to this argument, there is one often referred to by our correspondents, and which we often see stated in newspapers, as ridiculous as the one we have noticed is forcible. It is that when, in such boilers, water, by carelessness or otherwise, is allowed to fall below any of the tubes, the steam which surrounds them is decomposed, and becomes an explosive mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gases, ready to explode with terrible violence whenever the temperature of the tubes shall have reached the proper point.

This argument is ridiculous, because it rests on no experimental basis. It is a flimsy theory, entirely unsupported by any facts. Never has it been proved that hot iron, at any temperature likely to be obtained in steam boiler tubes, decomposes steam except by itself appropriating the oxygen of the steam, and leaving the hydrogen, by itself no more explosive than any other heated gas.

The sole object of the tubular boiler is to increase the heating surface, without corresponding increase in other particulars. That it is not the only means whereby this object can be secured has already been demonstrated and we believe will hereafter be shown in divers ways. We have no more doubt that the next fifty years will witness the total abandonment of the tubular system, than we have that the world will last that length of time.

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AMERICAN RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

There seems a growing opinion among railway managers that the sole end and purpose of a railroad is to line the 6 pockets of, if not its stockholders, at least its directors. In fact we not long since saw a statement in a widely-circulated journal, that, as the sole purpose of railroads is that the companies who own them should make money, it is absurd to suppose they would be content to manage them in any way whereby such a result would not be most likely to accrue.

The journal referred to, in making this statement a basis for an argument in favor of railway consolidation, entirely ignored the rights of the public from which railway corporations have obtained their charters. In these charters certain privileges were granted, not out of pure generosity, but with the understanding that certain benefits were to accrue to the public. Its safety and convenience were to be considered as well as the profits to the owners.

Every charter granted to these roads involves a contract on their part to do the public a certain service, and in a large majority of cases these contracts are to-day unfulfilled. Day after day sees the power to control more and more centered in a few unscrupulous wily managers, and the comfort and safety of passengers more and more disregarded; yet still the people submit.

But they do not submit without complaint. Now and then a newspaper correspondent grumbles, and the news of smashes that may be almost daily seen in the papers gives a text for an occasional editorial blast, as little heeded by the delinquent companies, as a zephyr is felt by an oak.

Thus the New York _Times_, on the occasion of a recent railway disaster, gives vent to a little mild denunciation. It says:

“The general rule in this country (to which there are indeed exceptions) in regard to the purchase of railway materials is simply this: buy the cheapest. First cost is the controlling and often the only question entertained. The nature of the materials and processes to be used in the manufacture of rails, for instance, are not mentioned. The buyers for some of our roads, especially new roads, never make the slightest allusion to quality, and never specify tests and inspections, but simply go about among the mills, comparing and beating down prices, and accepting the very lowest. More than one of our rail makers are to-day rolling, under protest, rails upon which they decline to put their trade-mark–rails made from the very cheapest materials, in the very meanest manner–for all that is required is that they shall stick together till they are laid. And if American makers will not roll them, Welsh makers will. The late report of the State Engineer of New York says: ‘American railway managers, instead of offering anything like a reasonable price for good iron rails, have made themselves notorious by establishing as standard, a brand of rails known all over the world as “American rails,” which are confessedly bought and sold as the weakest, most impure, least worked, least durable, and cheapest rails that can be produced.’ The State Engineer refers, in confirmation of this opinion, to the statement of Mr. A.S. Hewitt, United States Commissioner to the Paris Exposition, a statement not yet controverted; and to a statement of Mr. Sandberg, an English engineer of note, in the London _Times_. A leading American railway president and reformer has publicly said: ‘There is a fear on my part that railway companies will themselves tempt steel makers to send a poor article by buying the cheapest–first cost only considered–_as they did with the ironmasters_.'”

This certainly is a blessed state of affairs. We have given privileges to giant corporations, which they have improved so profitably, that they now can defeat, in our Legislatures, any attempt to revoke them, and can laugh at any demand for better management.

Disguise it how we may, the railroads have got the upper hand of the people, and they seem likely to keep it, unless, indeed, their rapacity shall react against themselves.

At the moment of this writing accounts reach us of the officers of a prominent railway line intrenching themselves against the officers of the law, and employing force to resist the service of precepts calling them to account for alleged frauds upon the stockholders.

That the Legislature of this State has the power to put a stop to these disgraceful proceedings, is certain; what it will do remains to be demonstrated.

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THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE PRIZES AWARDED TO STEAM ENGINES.

If there is anybody satisfied with the action of the managers of the American Institute, in the matter of awarding prizes to the competing engines exhibited at the recent fair, we have yet to meet that complacent individual. Neither the exhibitors nor the general public could be expected to accept with equanimity such a report as the managers have made, because it is inadequate to give any real idea of the relative merits of the engines tested. The exhibitors, at a large expense, took their engines to the hall of exhibition, placed them in position, and with them drove the machinery exhibited there; and now, when in return they had a right to expect a decided, manly course on the part of the managers, the oyster is swallowed and the contestants are each politely handed a shell.

The conditions on which the general test was to be made contained, among other specifications, these: that “the water supplied to and evaporated in the boiler will be measured by means of a meter, and the coal burned may also be weighed.”

Only one of the conditions quoted was properly complied with. The coal was weighed, but though a meter was used to measure the water, tests made, we are informed, _after the trial of the engines_, showed that the meter was so inaccurate as to completely invalidate any calculation based upon its record of the water supplied. Nevertheless this has, we are credibly informed, been made the basis of calculation; and the amount of coal consumed during each trial has been rejected either as a basis of calculation or a check on the inaccuracy of the meter.

Other prescribed regulations were observed with great care. The engines were indicated in a masterly manner by a gentleman of great experience, as the cards–tracings of which we have seen–bear ample testimony. The temperature of the feedwater was 47 degrees; it should, in our opinion, have been heated, but we waive this point. The state of the barometer and temperatures of engine room and fire-room were observed; but we respectfully submit, that with coal consumption left out of the calculation, and the water consumption an unascertained quantity, the question of relative economy, the vital point to be settled, is as uncertain today as it was before the test.

In the _Tribune_ of December 20, appeared a statement of the test to ascertain the accuracy of the meter used, which showed that in an aggregate of twelve tests it varied nearly three per cent in its record from the actual quantity delivered, while at times it was so erratic that it varied in one instance over _ten per cent_.

Truly, considered in connection with this fundamental error, temperatures of engine and boiler rooms, and states of barometer, will not count for much with engineers.

An oversight like this would, however, never have been laid at the door of the managers, however it might invalidate the test; but when the utterly absurd decision announced in the papers, after a tedious delay had led the public to expect an exhaustive statement, gave rise to general disappointment and excited the utmost dissatisfaction, it became manifest that a manly, straightforward course on their part was not to be hoped for, and that any protest against the consummation of the farce would be vain.

It is not for us to decide on the merits of the engines submitted to test. It was for the judges to do this. We maintain that nothing that the public will accept as a decision has been reached, and on behalf of the public we protest that the managers have not only placed themselves in a very unenviable position by their action in the premises, but have done a lasting injury to the American Institute, the results of which will be disastrously felt in future exhibitions.

The studied ambiguity of the report which awards two first prizes to the competing engines, is no less apparent than the desire to shun responsibility.

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A PROTEST AGAINST THE CANADIAN PATENT LAW.

In July, 1869, the New Dominion Patent Law went into operation, but it has not yet been approved by the Queen, and if rejected the Canadian Parliament will perhaps try its hand again. Although Canadians may freely go to all parts of the world and take out patents for their inventions, they have always manifested a mean spirit and adopted a narrow policy, in reference to inventors of other nations. Their present patent laws are so framed as practically to debar all persons except Canadians from taking patents; and the result is that American and English inventions are pirated and patented in the Dominion, without so much as a “thank you, sir,” to the _bona fide_ originators.

A protest has been presented to her Majesty’s Secretary of State for the Colonies, asking that the new law may be rejected, on the ground that it deprives the subjects of the Crown of their equal rights throughout the empire. There is force in this objection, and Lord Granville has promised that it shall be duly considered before the Queen is advised to sign the law.

The probable result will be a revision of the Dominion patent code so as to let in Englishmen but exclude the Yankees, from whom the Canadians derive whatever of improvement, progress, and energy they possess.

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THE BRIGHTER SIDE.

Ingratitude seldom enters into the composition of a true inventor, and nothing in our business career has afforded us more pleasure than the frequent letters addressed to us by those who have, during more than twenty years, employed the Scientific American Patent Agency. We cannot find room for all the pleasant missives that come to us from our extensive list of clients, but we may give a few as samples of the many.

Mr. Daniel J. Gale, of Sheboygan, Wis., has recently secured through our Agency Letters Patent for a “Perpetual and Lunar Calendar Clock.” In the fullness of his satisfaction he thus writes: “The fact is, I shall never be able to thank you sufficiently for what you have done for me. I sent you a copy of the paper printed here, which favorably notices my improvement and your great Agency. The fees charged me for my patent have been low enough. Already, by one of my own townsmen, I have been offered $4,000 for my interest in the patent. But I must not take up too much of your I time. Please allow me to add that I regularly receive your valuable paper, the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, and that you may number me as one of its stanch friends.”

Mr. Edwin Norton, of Brooklyn, N.Y., in a recent note, says: “Allow me to express my thanks for the promptness and efficiency with which the business of obtaining a patent for my ‘Cinder and Dust Arrester’ has been conducted through your Agency–and not only in this case but in several previous ones. This is the _fourth_ patent obtained by me through four Agency within nine months. It gives me pleasure to add my testimony to that of many others, with respect to the very satisfactory manner in which your Patent Agency is conducted.”

Mr. E. J. Marstens says, in reference to his improved “Field Press”–“I find everything correct. You certainly accomplished more than I expected after the first examination by the Primary Examiner. I hope soon to be able to give you another case.”

Mr. S. P. Williams, an old client, writes as follows: “I received the patent on my ‘Trace Lock for Whiffletrees,’ and I am truly pleased with the prompt manner in which you have done the business. It is only a few weeks since I made the application, and I expected that it would be as many months before the patent could be granted.”

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PROFESSOR FISKE’S LECTURES AT HARVARD.

It certainly argues well for the intellectual character of the readers of the New York _World_ that during the prevalent taste for sensational journalism, it has found the publication of a series of philosophical lectures acceptable. We thank our neighbor for thus making these lectures available to the general public. Their ability is unquestionable; and the calmness and candor which Professor Fiske brings to the treatment of the subject is such as to add greatly to the force of his logic.

The “positive philosophy” has been shown by Professor Fiske to be much misunderstood, misapprehension not being confined solely to the ranks of its opponents.

His exposition of some of the misconceptions on which Professor Huxley has based some criticisms upon the writings of Comte, strikes us as especially forcible; and the whole course of lectures proves Professor Fiske to be one of the clearest and most able of American thinkers.

These lectures are followed as they appear, with great interest, and their publication in the World we regard as a real and permanent benefit to the public.

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SCIENTIFIC LECTURES BEFORE THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE.

The announcement of these lectures came to hand too late for our last issue, and the first has already been delivered. The course is as follows: Friday, Dec. 17, The Battle Fields of Science, by Andrew D. White, President of the Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Friday, Dec. 24, How Animals Move, by Professor E. S. Morse, of the Peabody Academy of Science, Salem, Mass. Friday, Dec. 31, The Correlation of Vital and Physical Forces, by Professor G. F. Barker, of Yale College, New Haven. Friday, Jan. 7, The Air and Respiration, by Professor J. C. Draper, of the College of the City of New York. Friday, Jan. 14, The Connection of Natural Science and Mental Philosophy, by Professor J. Bascom, of Williams College, Williamstown, Mass. Friday, Jan. 21, The Constitution of the Sun, by Dr. B. A. Gould, of Cambridge, Mass. Friday, Jan. 28, The Colorado Plateau, its Canons and Ruined Cities, by Professor J. S. Newberry, of Columbia College, New York.

The course is a good one, and ought to be, and doubtless will be, well attended. Abstracts of the lectures will appear as delivered, in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.

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THE BATTLE FIELDS OF SCIENCE.

LECTURE BY PROFESSOR WHITE, BEFORE THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE.

This lecture did not disappoint the expectations of those familiar with the subject of the discourse, which, considering the difficulty of restating familiar historical facts in such a manner as to clothe them in a garb of originality, is high praise. Many, however, found great difficulty in hearing the speaker at the back part of the hall, and some left the room on that account. This was unfortunate, as the lecture will scarcely be exceeded in interest by any subsequent one of the course. The speaker said that “In all modern history, interference with science in the supposed interest of religion–no matter how conscientious such interference may have been–has resulted in the direst evils both to religion and science, and _invariably_. And on the other hand all untrammeled scientific investigation, no matter how dangerous to religion some of its stages may have seemed, temporarily, to be, has invariably resulted in the highest good of religion and science. I say _invariably_–I mean exactly that. It is a rule to which history shows not one exception. It would seem, logically, that this statement could not be gainsaid. God’s truth must agree, whether discovered by looking within upon the soul or without upon the world. A truth written upon the human heart to-day in its full play of emotions or passions, cannot be at any real variance even with a truth written upon a fossil whose poor life was gone millions of years ago. And this being so, it would also seem a truth irrefragable; that the search for each of these kind of truths must be followed out in its own lines, by its own methods, to its own results, without any interference from investigators along other lines by other methods. And it would also seem logically that we might work on in absolute confidence that whatever, at any moment, might seem to be the relative positions of the two different bands of workers, they must at last come together, for truth is one. But logic is not history. History is full of interferences which have cost the earth dear. Strangest of all, some of the most direful of them have been made by the best of men, actuated by the purest motives, seeking the noblest results. These interferences and the struggle against them make up the warfare of science. One statement more to clear the ground. You will not understand me at all to say that religion has done nothing for science. It has done much for it. The work of Christianity has been mighty indeed. Through these 2,000 years it has undermined servitude, mitigated tyranny, given hope to the hopeless, comfort to the afflicted, light to the blind, bread to the starving, life to the dying, and all this work continues. And its work for science, too, has been great. It has fostered science often and developed it. It has given great minds to it, and but for the fears of the timid its record in this respect would have been as great as in the other. Unfortunately, religious men started centuries ago with the idea that purely scientific investigation is unsafe–that theology must intervene. So began this great modern war.”

Professor White next reviewed the battle between science and theology on the subjects of the “earth’s shape, surface, and relations,” “the position of the earth among the heavenly bodies,” in which Copernicus and Galileo struggled so bravely and successfully for truth.

The lecturer said:

“The principal weapons in the combat are worth examining. They are very easily examined; you may pick them up on any of the battle-fields of science; but on that field they were used with more effect than on almost any other. These weapons were two epithets–the epithets ‘Infidel’ and ‘Atheist.’ These can hardly be classed with civilized weapons; they are burning arrows; they set fire to great masses of popular prejudices. Smoke rises to obscure the real questions. Fire bursts out at times to destroy the attacked party. They are poisoned weapons. They go to the heart of loving women; they alienate dear children; they injure the man after life is ended, for they leave poisoned wounds in the hearts of those who loved him best–fears for his eternal happiness, dread of the Divine displeasure. The battle-fields of science are thickly strewn with these. They have been used against almost every man who has ever done anything for his fellow-men. The list of those who have been denounced as Infidel and Atheist includes almost all great men of science–general scholars, inventors, philanthropists. The deepest Christian life, the most noble Christian character has not availed to shield combatants. Christians like Isaac Newton and Pascal, and John Locke and John Howard, have had these weapons hurled against them. Nay, in these very times we have seen a noted champion hurl these weapons against John Milton, and with it another missile which often appears on these battle-fields–the epithets of ‘blasphemer’ and ‘hater of the Lord.’ Of course, in these days these weapons though often effective in disturbing the ease of good men and though often powerful in scaring women, are somewhat blunted. Indeed, they do not infrequently injure assailants more than assailed. So it was not in the days of Galileo. These weapons were then in all their sharpness and venom. The first champion who appears against him is Bellarmine, one of the greatest of theologians and one of the poorest of scientists. He was earnest, sincere, learned, but made the fearful mistake for the world of applying direct literal interpretation of Scripture to science. The consequences were sad, indeed. Could he with his vast powers have taken a different course, humanity would have been spared the long and fearful war which ensued, and religion would have saved to herself thousands on thousands of the best and brightest men in after ages. The weapons, which men of Bellarmine’s stamp used, were theological. They held up before the world the dreadful consequences which must result to Christian theology were the doctrine to prevail that the heavenly bodies revolve about the sun, and not about the earth.

“The next great series of battles were fought on those great fields occupied by such sciences as _Chemistry and Natural Philosophy_. Even before these sciences were out of their childhood–while yet they were tottering mainly towards, childish objects and by childish steps–the champions of that same old mistaken conception of rigid Scriptural interpretation began the war. The catalogue of chemists and physicists persecuted or thwarted would fill volumes.”

After alluding to many other battle-fields of science which might not for want of time be dwelt upon at length the lecturer reviewed the battle grounds of medicine and anatomy on which some of the severest warfare has been waged.

The speaker here remarked that “perhaps the most unfortunate thing that has ever been done for Christianity is the tying it to forms of science and systems of education, which are doomed and gradually sinking. Just as in the time of Roger Bacon excellent but mistaken men devoted all their energies to binding Christianity to Aristotle. Just as in the time of Reuchlin and Erasmus they insisted on binding Christianity to Thomas Aquinas, so in the time of Vesalius such men gave all efforts to linking Christianity to Galen. The cry has been the same in all ages. It is the same which we hear in this age against scientific studies–the cry for what is called ‘_sound learning_.’ Whether standing for Aristotle against Bacon, or Aquinas against Erasmus, or Galen against Vesalius, or making mechanical Greek verses at Eton, instead of studying the handiwork of the Almighty, or reading Euripides with translations instead of Leasing and Goethe in the original, the cry always is for ‘sound learning.’ The idea always is that these studies are _safe_.”

The speaker next proceeded to show that not alone in Catholic countries, has such warfare been waged, and that even now in Protestant America the fight is going on.

One of the fields on which the severest warfare had raged in Protestant countries was that of Geology. “From the first lispings of investigators in this science there was war. The early sound doctrine was that fossil remains were _lusus naturae_–freaks of nature–and in 1517 Fracastor was violently attacked because he thought them something more. No less a man than Bernard Palissy followed up the contest, on the right side, in France, but it required 150 years to carry the day fairly against this single preposterous theory. The champion who dealt it the deadly blow was Scilla, and his weapons were facts obtained by examination of the fossils of Calabria, (1670). But the advocates of tampering with scientific reasoning soon retired to a now position. It was strong, for it was apparently based upon Scripture–though, as the whole world now knows, an utterly exploded interpretation of Scripture. The new position was that the fossils were produced by the deluge of Noah. In vain had it been shown by such devoted Christians as Bernard Palissy that this theory was utterly untenable; in vain did good men protest against the injury sure to result to religion by tying it to a scientific theory sure to be exploded–the doctrine that the fossils were remains of animals drowned at the flood continued to be upheld by the great majority as ‘_sound_’ doctrine. It took 120 year for the searchers of God’s truth, as revealed in nature–such men as Buffon, Linnaeus, Woodward, and Whitehurst–to run under these mighty fabrics of error, and by statements which could not be resisted, to explode them.

“Strange as it may at first seem, the war on geology was waged more fiercely in Protestant countries than Catholic, and of all countries England furnished the most bitter opponents. You have noted already that there are generally two sorts of attacks on a new science. First, there is the attack by pitting against science some great doctrine in theology. You saw this in astronomy, when Bellarmine and others insisted that the doctrine of the earth’s revolving about the sun is contrary to the doctrine of the Incarnation. So now against geology it was urged that the scientific doctrine that the fossils represented animals which died before Adam was contrary to the doctrine of Adam’s fall, and that death entered the world by sin. Then there is the attack by the literal interpretation of texts, which serves a better purpose generally in arousing prejudice. It is difficult to realize it now, but within the memory of the majority of those before me, the battle was raging most fiercely in England, and both these kinds of artillery were in full play and filling the civilized world with their roar. Less than thirty years ago, the Rev. J. Mellor Brown was hurling at all geologists alike, and especially at such Christian divines as Dr. Burkland, Dean Conybeare, and Pye Smith, and such religious scholars as Professor Sedgwick, the epithets of ‘Infidel,’ ‘Impugner of the Sacred Record,’ and ‘Assailant of the Volume of God.’ His favorite weapon was the charge that these men were ‘attacking the Truth of God,’ forgetting that they were simply opposing the mistaken interpretations of J. Mellor Brown. He declared geology ‘not a subject of lawful inquiry;’ he speaks of it as ‘a dark art,’ as ‘dangerous and disreputable,’ as a ‘forbidden province.’ This attempt to scare men from science having failed, various other means were taken.

“To say nothing about England, it is humiliating to human nature to remember the trials to which the pettiest and narrowest of men subjected such Christian scholars in our country as Benjamin Silliman and Edward Hitchcock. But it is a duty and a pleasure to state here that one great Christian scholar did honor to religion and to himself by standing up for the claims of science despite all these clamors. That man was Nicholas Wiseman, better known afterward as Cardinal Wiseman. The conduct of this pillar of the Roman Catholic Church contrasts nobly with that of timid Protestants who were filling England with shrieks and denunciations. Perhaps the most singular attempt against geology was that made by a fine specimen of the English Don, Dean Cockburn of York, to _abuse_ its champions out of the field. Without apparently the simplest elementary knowledge of geology, he opened a battery of abuse. He gives it to the world at large by pulpit and press; he even inflicts it upon leading statesmen by private letters. But these weapons did not succeed. They were like Chinese gongs and dragon lanterns against rifled cannon. Buckland, Pye Smith, Lyell, Silliman, Hitchcock, Murchison, Agassiz, Dana, and a host of of noble champions besides, pressed on the battle for truth was won. And was it won merely for men of science? The whole civilized world declares that it was won for religion; that thereby has infinitely increased the knowledge of the power and goodness of God.”

The lecturer classed the present opposition of the Catholics to the Free School system in this country among the long list of battles between science and theology and concluded his lecture as follows:

“But, my friends, I will not weary you with so recent a chapter in the history of the great warfare extending through the centuries. There are cheering omens. The greatest and best men in the churches–the men standing at centers of thought–are insisting with power, more and more, that religion shall no longer be tied to so injurious a policy–that searchers for truth, whether in Theology or Natural Science, shall work on as friends, sure that, no matter how much at variance they may at times seem to be, the truths they reach shall finally be fused into each other. No one need fear the result. No matter whether science shall complete her demonstration that man has been on the earth six thousand years or six hundred thousand. No matter whether she reveal new ideas of the Creator or startling relations between his creatures–the result, when fully thought out, will serve and strengthen religion not less than science. The very finger of the Almighty has written on history that science must be studied by means proper to itself, and in no other way. That history is before us all. No one can gainsay it. It is decisive, for it is this: There has never been a scientific theory framed for the use of Scriptural texts, which has been made to stand. This fact alone shows that our wonderful volume of sacred literature was not given for any such purpose as that to which so many earnest men have endeavored to wrest it. The power of that volume has been mighty indeed. It has inspired the best deeds our world has known. Despite the crusts which men have formed about it–despite the fetters which they have placed upon it–Christianity has blessed age after age of the past, and will go on as a blessing through age after age of the future. Let the Warfare of Science, then, be changed. Let it be a warfare in which religion and science shall stand together as allies, not against each other as enemies. Let the fight be for truth of every kind against falsehood of every kind–for justice against injustice–for right against wrong–for beauty against deformity–for goodness against vice–and the great warfare which has brought so many sufferings, shall bring to the earth God’s richest blessings.”

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HOW FRENCH BANK NOTES ARE MADE.

When a new batch of French notes is to be printed, an equivalent number of the choicely prepared and preserved sheets of paper is handed over to the superintendent of the printing office. This office is among the inner buildings of the Bank of France, and is governed by very rigorous rules in all things. The operatives are all picked men, skillful, active, and silent. The sheets, the ink, and the matrixes of the plates are kept securely under lock and key until actually wanted. The printing is effected by steam-worked presses. The ink is blue, and its composition known only to a few of the authorities. An inspector goes his rounds during the continuance of the operations, watching every press, every workman, every process. A beautiful machine, distinct from the press, is employed to print the variable numbers on the note; fed with sheets of paper, it will number a thousand of them in succession, changing the digits each time, and scarcely requiring to be touched meanwhile; even the removal of one note and the placing of another are effected by automatic agency. At every successive stage the note is examined. So complete is the registration of everything that a record is always at hand of the number of sheets rejected ever since the Bank of France was established, be its defects in the paper, the printing, or the numbering. When the master-printer has delivered up his packets of printed and numbered sheets, each note is stamped with the signature of the Secretary-General and the Comptroller. This completes the _creation_ of notes. The notes so created are kept in a strong box, of which the Secretary-General and the Comptroller have keys, and are retained until the day of _issue_. The chief cashier tells the Governor that he wants a new supply of a particular denomination of notes, the Governor tells the council, the council tell the secretary-general and the comptroller, and these two functionaries open their strong box, and hand over the notes demanded. The notes at this time are not really money; they do not become so until the chief cashier has put his signature to each, and registered its number in a book.

The life of a French bank note is said to average two or three years, and does not terminate until the condition is very shaky indeed–crimpled, pierced with pinholes, corner creases torn, soft, tarnished, decrepit while yet young. Some have been half-burned; one has been found half-digested in the stomach of a goat, and one boiled in a waistcoat-pocket by a laundress. No matter; the cashier at the bank will do his best to decipher it; he will indeed take an infinity of trouble to put together the ashes of a burned note, and will give the owner a new note or the value in coin, if satisfied of the integrity of the old one. The bank authorities preserve specimens of this kind as curiosities, minute fragments gummed in their proper position on a sheet of paper. Very few of the notes are actually and irrevocably lost. During the last sixty-seven years 24,000 bank notes of 1,000 francs each have been issued, and of this number 23,958 had been returned to the bank by the month of January 1869, leaving only 42 unaccounted for. Whether these 42 are still in existence, or have seen burned into uncollected ashes, or are at the bottom of the sea, or elsewhere, is not known. Of 500-franc notes, 24,935 have been returned out of 25,000. The bank holds itself morally and financially responsible for the small number of notes unreturned, ready to cash them if at any time presented.

The bank sends the old notes again and again into circulation, if verified and usable; but they are examined first, and any that are found too defective are canceled by stamping a hole in them. These canceled notes pass from one official to another, and are grouped in classified bundles; the book that records the birth of each note now receives a notification of its civil death, and after three years incarceration in a great oak chest, a grand conflagration takes place. A huge fire is kindled in an open court; the defunct notes are thrown into a sort of revolving wire-cage over the fire; the cage is kept rotating; and the minute fragments of ash, whirled out of the cage through the meshes, take their flight into infinite space–no one knows whither. The Bank of France prints a certain number of notes per day, and destroys a smaller number, so as to have always in reserve a sufficient supply of new notes to meet any emergency; but the actual burning, the grand flare-up takes place only about once a month, when perhaps 150,000 will be burned at once. The French go down to lower denominations than the Rank of England, having notes of 100 francs and 50 francs, equivalent to L4 and L2. There must be a great deal of printing always going on in the Bank of France, seeing that in 1868 they issued 2,711 000 notes, of an aggregate value of 904,750,000 francs (averaging about L13 each), and burned 1,927,192, value 768,854,900 francs.

It _sounds_ a very dreadful thing for 30,000,000 sterling in bank notes to be willfully burned in one year. But there is always a phoenix to rise from its ashes; the bank can regenerate as fast as it kills. The Bank of France, in 1846, put in circulation a beautiful crimson printed note for 5,000 francs; but the French people did not like notes of so high a denomination, and all but a very few of this kind have been returned and canceled. On one occasion, a superb individual, wishing to pay a dowry in handsome style, obtained twelve notes of 5,000 francs each for the purpose; but they were returned the very next day by the banker, who much preferred smaller notes for his general purposes. The notes now regularly kept in circulation in France are those of 1,000, 500, 100, and 50 francs.

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WHAT THE NEWSPAPERS SAY.

A VALUABLE PAPER.–Of all the journals published in the United States, for the mechanic and scientific man, there is nothing that will in any way compare with the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, published by Munn & Co., of 37 Park Row, New York. Whether as a work of reference, a record of current scientific development, or as an organ and exponent of our inventors, it stands alone for the general ability of its conduct, the voluminousness and variety of its contents, the exactitude and extent of its knowledge, and the correctness of its information. The SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN is a credit at once to the press and our country, and the small price of a yearly subscription ($3), purchases, it is quite safe to say, the largest amount of solid value to be procured for a like expenditure in the world. With our more intelligent mechanics it has long been a great favorite, while to the inventor it is absolutely indispensable. It has had many imitators and competitors in its day, but they have nearly all died the natural death of a feeble inferiority.–_Argus_ (Brooklyn, N. Y.)

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THE GREAT JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCE.–There is a place in the periodical literature of America which is occupied by only one journal; namely, the well-known SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.

It is almost indispensable to a well-balanced intelligence, that a certain proportion of its reading should be devoted to the industrial arts and sciences, those natural manifestations of the high mental development of the age. Every number of the journal has sixteen imperial pages, embellished with engravings, as illustrations, which are gems of art in themselves. It is most ably edited, and its usefulness is not impaired by technical terms nor dry details.–_Milwaukee Sentinel._

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THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.–This paper is the oldest in its peculiar province in the United States, and was, for many years, the only one. More recently others have arisen, and are following in its footsteps; but the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN still maintains its position as the best American journal of the inventive arts. Its Patent Office department alone is invaluable to inventors, while its editorial articles, illustrations, etc., give not only information, but a constant stimulus to the productive faculty.–_Mobile Register_.

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Among the papers which we could not very well do without is the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, issued from the well-known office of Munn & Co., 37 Park Row, New York. Carefully edited, nicely printed, well illustrated, it is not only a complete record of the progress of useful inventions, but a trustworthy guide to many of the scientific topics that enlist attention at the present day. No one can be a reader of this most valuable journal, without being kept well informed as to current matters of scientific discovery.–_Congregationalist_ (Boston).

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THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.–In another column we publish the prospectus of this great paper, and would direct our readers to it. It should be on the work bench of every mechanic, and particularly the young men of our country, upon whose intelligence and mechanical skill depends the future dignity of labor and prosperity of American arts and sciences.–_Monitor_ (Huntington, Pa.)

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We could fill our pages with similar notices, but will close with the following from our cotemporary _De Hope_, published at Holland, Mich., which we doubt not will be read with interest:

Wij plaatsen in dit Nummer het prospectus van den SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. Het is een zeer schoon blad, dat vooral behoort gelezen te worden door Handwerkslieden. Nieuwe uitvindingen, verbeteringen op het terrein van werktuigkunde, enz, worden daar steeds in vermeld en beschreven. De prijs is zeer matig voor zulk cen blad; drie dollars per jaar. Dat belangstellenden de advertentie lezen.

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CHINESE METHODS OF PRESERVING EGGS.

As much has been said of late about the mode of preserving eggs, it may not be uninteresting to say a few words about the Chinese methods, as related by a French chemist, M. Paul Champion, who has lately visited that country, and published a very interesting book on the ancient and modern industries of that curious people. A very common method is to place the eggs in a mixture of clay and water; the clay hardens around the eggs, and is said to preserve them good for a considerable time. But another and much more elaborate method is also commonly practiced. An infusion of three pounds of tea is made in boiling water, and to this are added three pounds of quicklime (or seven pounds when the operation is performed in winter), nine pounds of sea-salt, and seven pounds of ashes of burnt oak finely powdered. This is all well mixed together into a smooth paste by means of a wooden spatula, and then each egg is covered with it by hand, gloves being worn to prevent the corrosive action of the lime on the hands. When the eggs are all covered with the mixture, they are rolled in a mass of straw ashes, and then placed in baskets with balls of rice–boiled, we presume–to keep the eggs from touching each other. About 100 to 150 eggs are placed in one basket. In about three months the whole becomes hardened into a crust, and then the eggs are sent to market; the retail price of such eggs is generally less than a penny each. These eggs are highly esteemed in China, and always served in good houses; but they have undergone a strange transformation, which certainly would not recommend them to English palates; the yolk has assumed a decidedly green tinge, and the white is set. When broken, they emit that unpleasant sulphurous smell which would certainly cause their instant banishment from our breakfast-tables. However, the Chinese are admitted, even by Frenchmen, to be great _gourmets_; and we can only say, therefore, that in questions of eating there is certainly no disputing about tastes.

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STEAM BOILER INSPECTION.

Mr. Alfred Guthrie, U.S. Inspector, informs us that the following resolution was recently adopted by the Board of Supervising Inspectors:

Resolved, That a special committee be appointed, to whom shall be referred the subject-matter of steam boiler explosions, who shall be requested to take up the subject in all its varied complications, and present the result of their inquiries, with their opinions of the real causes of such explosions, accompanied by such information as may be of practical benefit and general interest, to be reported at the next annual meeting of the board for its consideration.

Mr. Guthrie, whose address will be at Washington, D.C. until January 10, desires to receive suggestions from practical engineers upon the subject of boiler explosions.

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EDITORIAL SUMMARY.

Darkness of complexion has been attributed to the sun’s power from the age of Solomon to this day. “Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me.” And there cannot be a doubt that, to a certain degree, the opinion is well founded–the invisible rays in the solar beams, which change vegetable color, and have been employed with such remarkable effect on the daguerreotype, act upon every substance on which they fall, producing mysterious and wonderful changes in their molecular state, man not excepted.

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The three companies under whose protection Chinese are brought into California, keep an accurate account of the condition and employment of the persons they import. From these books it appears that 138,000 Chinese have been brought into California. Of these, 10,426 have died, 57,323 have returned to China, and about 91,000 still remain on the Pacific coast. But only 41,000 live in California. Of these 41,000, 9,300 are women, children, old and decrepit, or criminals confined in the jails. The California authorities have at length decided to admit Chinese testimony in the courts.

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One of our subscribers residing in Maine has read our article “How to Spend the Winter Evenings,” and writes to us that up in his section they have no trouble on that score. As soon as the day’s work is over the inhabitants commence the job of trying to get their rooms warm, and as soon as a comfortable temperature is reached it is time to go to bed.

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DESIGN PATENT DECISION.–We publish elsewhere a recent elaborate decision of Commissioner Fisher, in which he reviews the laws and former practice of the office in regard to applications for patents for designs, with the view to the establishment of a uniformity of practice in regard to design patents. The decision is one of much interest to inventors and agents, and fully warrants its publication.

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OIL PAPER HANGINGS.–A kind of oil paper hangings called “Oleo Charta” is now made in England, which, it is asserted, is impervious to wet, may be placed on new or damp walls without risk of damage or discoloration, may be washed with soap and water as often as required, and will last twenty years. The process of manufacture is not explained.

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THE STEVENS BREECH-LOADING RIFLE.

This new arm, a patent on which, was obtained through the Scientific American Patent Agency, June 11, 1867, is destined, in our opinion, to become a formidable rival to the breech-loading rifles which have already attained popularity. It is one of the most simple and effective guns we have yet seen. Only three motions are required to load, discharge the piece, and throw out the shell of the cartridge. The breech-block is side-hinged, and it is opened and the shell is thrown out by simply bringing the gun to half cock. The gun may, however, be cocked without opening the breech by pressing the trigger while cocking.

The gun, when held in position, may be fired at the rate of forty shots per minute. All the movements of the parts are directly backward and forward; in our opinion the best that can be employed for this purpose, and the least liable to get out of order. In short, the gun possesses all the essentials of a first class rifle, and has advantages which we think are not ordinarily met with in arms of this character.

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A NOVEL FRENCH HAND VISE.

In using ordinary hand vises several inconveniences are met with. For instance, if it is desired to work a piece of metal of a certain length, it must necessarily be presented obliquely on the side of the jaw of the vise, because of its screw, which is horizontal and forms a knob in the axis of the vise. The consequences are, first, that on tightening the nut of the horizontal screw vise the pressure is only exerted on the side, and greatly tries the vise itself while obtaining an irregular pressure; secondly, that as the piece to be worked is held obliquely, however skilled the workman may be, he always finds himself cramped in the execution of his work, particularly if of a delicate nature.

To avoid these inconveniences a Parisian mechanic has designed and lately patented in England the neat form of hand vise of which we annex illustrations, Fig. 1 being an elevation and Fig. 2 a longitudinal section. In these views, A, is a wooden or metal handle pierced throughout its length; this handle of metal may be made in one piece, with the nut, and the conical ferrule. B is the ring or ferrule of the handle; and C are the jaws of the vise worked by the adjusting screw, D, and the springs, r r. E is a conical ferrule or shoulder, fixed or movable, and serving to open or close the jaws of the vise accordingly as the handle is turned right or left; this conical shoulder is protected from wear by a tempered steel washer, v. G is a nut with collar carrying the conical ferrule or shoulder, E, and the steel washer, v, while H H are the joints of the jaws of the vise held by a screw, I, which serves as a support to the adjusting screw.

[Illustration: FIG. 1. FIG. 2.]

This hand vise may be applied to a number of uses, and among others it may be readily converted into a haft or handle for any kind of tailed or shanked tool, such as files, wrenches, olive bits, chisels, or screwdrivers, and may also serve as pincers or nippers. It is of very simple construction.

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THE MOUND-BUILDERS IN COLORADO.

New evidence of the existence of the Mound-Builders in the mountain ranges of Colorado, similar to those in Montana, Utah, and Nevada, have recently been discovered by Mr. C.A. Deane, of Denver. He found upon the extreme summit of the snow-range structures of stone, evidently of ancient origin, and hitherto unknown or unmolested. Opposite to and almost north of the South Boulder Creek, and the summit of the range, Dr. Deane observed large numbers of granite rocks, and many of them as large as two men could lift, in a position that could not have been the result of chance. They had evidently been placed upright in a line conforming to a general contour of the dividing ridge, and frequently extending in an unbroken line for one or two hundred yards. The walls and the mounds are situated three thousand feet above the timber line. It is, therefore, hardly supposable that they were built for altars of sacrifice. They were not large enough for shelter or defense. The more probable supposition is that, like the large mounds in Montana and elsewhere, they were places of sepulture.

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THE WOVEN-WIRE MATTRESS.

Most of our readers who attended the last Fair of the American Institute, will recall an article in the furniture department, which attracted much attention on account of its novelty and utility. We refer to the wire mattress, or bed, manufactured by the Woven Wire Mattress Company, of Hartford, Conn. To the ordinary mind a new invention is interesting or not, in proportion to the probability of its coming into every-day use, and many a good housewife lingers in admiration over an improved sewing machine or cooking stove, to whom a new steam engine has no attraction. For this reason it was that the wire mattress was sat on and lain on by the numerous visitors at the Fair.

[Illustration]

The engraving presented herewith will give the reader, who has not seen the article, a good idea of its appearance. It consists of a fabric represented below, half an inch thick, composed of fine wire springs, each one the length of the bed; all the three hundred spirals, being so woven and braided together, in a double “weave,” by machinery, that a sort of wire cloth is produced. It differs from any other material hitherto made, in that it has great strength and elasticity. There is, in fact, no other device, except the air or water bed, which can compare with it in its elastic properties.

[Illustration]

We are informed that nine hundred pounds of dead weight of wire were placed on it for nearly five days, without injurious effects. This fabric is stretched on a frame, as seen in the first engraving, the proper tension is secured to suit the fancy, and the mattress is ready for use. It is then set into the bedstead, like the ordinary spring bed, except that only two slats are used to support it. Thus, with a slight covering in summer, and a thin hair mattress for warmth in winter, a most perfect sleeping arrangement is secured.

The first adaptation of the wire mattresses was for private houses, but they have been found to have special advantages for hospital use. They have been largely introduced into the Hartford Hospital, the Bellevue Hospital, New York, and the Marine Hospital, Brooklyn, and have proved to be, after months of the severest use, with all classes of patients, a very great success for such purposes. The elastic flexible mattresses yield to every motion and part of the body, much to the relief of the suffering patient.

Another very great advantage is, that when carefully painted they are always clean.

Pillows of the same materials are made soft and pliable by using a fine wire and small coil. They are always cool, and afford the opportunity of placing bags of ice under the head in case of sickness.

One of these mattresses and a bedstead and pillows complete–all of which the Company make–furnish, with the addition of a folded blanket or comfortable, a perfect outfit for hospital use.

They are particularly useful for ships’ berths, as they dispense with the ordinary bottom, and the sacking and thick mattress. Shippers know this.

We are assured that a coating of paint, carefully applied to the well-tinned wires will protect them from rust.

There can be no question but that these beds, with a light covering–scarcely more than a sheet–are especially adapted for hot climates. The Company have already orders for them for the Brazilian market, and they have been introduced into many of the Southern States.

This wire fabric is adapted to other articles of furniture, and is used in place of the ordinary springs in chairs, sofas, etc. For out-door settees, lounges, car seats, and other like purposes, it is well adapted.

Three patents have been issued to the Company on the wire mattress, through the Scientific American Patent Agency. [See advertisement of the Woven Wire Mattress Company on another page.]

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Flouring Mill Hazards.

A correspondent, in discussing the causes of fires in flour mills, gives the following facts and queries:

“F. Bertchey’s mill, at Milwaukee, burned in September last. The fire originated from a candle held near a bran or feed spout, reaching from the upper to a lower floor. The ignition was instant, and attained different points of the building at about the same moment.

“On November 20, 1868, Schmidt & Co’s mill, at St. Louis, burned in a similar manner, the light in this case being in a globe lamp, but the conflagration was, nevertheless, quite as sudden and general as in the first case cited. Other instances of like character have occurred quite recently. And now the query is, What caused the disaster? Whence the combustion?

“It has been conjectured that the bran-dust, or fine and dry powder, passing down or up these conductors, may be the kindling cause of the fire in these cases; but bran is not over combustible in itself, nor do we know why it should become so when thus reduced to an impalpable powder.

“Another theory is that a gas arises from the transmuting grain, which, excluded from surrounding atmosphere in these close conduits, becomes inflammable, and hence the results, as recited above, whenever a lighted flame is brought in contact therewith.

“Be the cause gas or dust, the disaster is the same: and is it not a phenomenon worth studying and remedying, so far as within the province and control of those most interested?”

Some similar instances came under our personal observation while adjuster for the Aetna at its western branch. The Star Mills at Mascoutah, Ill., burned about the year 1864. They were grinding middlings. About three o’clock in the morning the miller in charge went up to the chamber (a large box extending through several stories), as he had often done before, to jar the middlings down, they having clogged. He carried a small, open oil lamp, which he placed on a beam, just behind and above his head. He then opened a slide and thrust in a shovel, which started the middlings down with a thump, raising a great dust. As this dust issued in a thin cloud from the slide, it approached and touched the lamp, when instantly, as if it had been coal gas, it flashed, burning the miller’s hair and beard, and filling the middlings box with a sheet of flame, which spread with great rapidity and destroyed the mill.

A mill at Dover, Ky., had accumulated a large quantity of middlings in an upper story, when the weight caused some sagging, and a man was sent up with a shovel to “even” the bin. His pressure was the “last straw,” and the floor under the man broke through, pouring out a cascade of middlings, which flowed down from story to story, filling the mill with its dust. In a very few minutes it reached the boiler room, and the instant it touched the fire it ignited with a flash, and the mills was in flames instantly. It was totally destroyed.

In this last named case the gas theory will not apply. The dust was not confined in a spout, but was floating free in the air throughout the mill. The phenomenon was like the others mentioned, and seems to indicate that the fine dust itself, when floating in the air, is the fatal incendiary.

The subject is worthy of a scientific analysis, such as we have never seen bestowed upon it. The facts are well authenticated, but the philosophy of such ignition is not generally understood.–_Insurance Monitor_.

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Fire-Proof Buildings.

“It has long been a vexed problem with architects and builders, how to make a building completely fire-proof without the enormous expense of iron beams and girders, and even this has sometimes failed to prove a complete protection. In the building of the National State Bank, the architect estimated that it could not be made fire-proof in the ordinary style for less than $6,000, and while hesitating as to the expense and seeking to provide some remedy against the dampness incident to iron beams, Mr. Fowler learned from the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN that Edwin May, of Indianapolis, the well-known architect of our county jail, had taken letters patent on a fire-proof lath for ceilings and inside partition walls, together with a concrete floor for the protection of the upper edge of the joist which by actual test had been demonstrated to be fire-proof. After a critical examination of the invention upon its merits, it was adopted, and the workmen are now engaged in putting it in. Our citizens engaged in, or contemplating building, will be interested in an examination of the work while in progress.”

[We copy the above from the _Lafayette_ (Indiana) _Courier_, and in this connection we make the following extract from a letter just received by us from Mr. May, the inventor:

“You will see by the above notice one result of my advertisement in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. This is only a _mite_. I have more than I can do, and I would say to inventors who are not realizing what they expected from their patents, that one _illustrated advertisement_ in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN will effect more than a notice in all the newspapers in the United States. This is saying a good deal but such is my belief.”]

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The Decline of American Shipping.

At a meeting of the New York Chamber of Commerce, held December 16, to consider means for reviving American commerce, the following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, That this Chamber recommend to the Congress of the United States, about to assemble, the modification of existing laws, so that

I. Foreign-built steamers may be imported free of duty, and privileged to carry the American flag, provided they are American owned and not to be employed in our coastwise trade.

II. That iron plates and such other material for the construction of steamers as may be deemed advisable, be admitted free of duty.

III. That on all ship stores procurable in bond, drawback be returned, as upon goods shipped for sale to foreign lands; and

Finally, That ample subsidies be granted to lines of steamers built in American yards, to the end that competition with powerful foreign organizations may be successfully inaugurated and sustained.

The Chamber ordered the resolutions engrossed, accompanied by a memorial forwarded to Congress.

These resolutions, in our opinion, embody the solution of the question under consideration, and we trust they may be speedily and favorably acted upon by Congress.

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Young men out of employment can easily obtain enough subscribers for the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN to receive a cash prize of sufficient magnitude to insure them a good salary for six weeks’ work. Send for prospectus and circulars.

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CORRESPONDENCE.

_The Editors are not responsible for the Opinions expressed by their Correspondents_.

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Aerial Navigation–A Suggestion.

Messrs. Editors:–As a constant reader of your invaluable paper, many subjects of deep interest come under my observation, and doubtless no journal throughout the land contains more instructive reading–that which tends to accelerate the progress of scientific investigation, and promote the general interest of the people–than the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. The series of articles under the head of “Aerial Navigation,” commenced on page 309, volume XXI., has, perhaps, been read with as much pleasure and interest as anything published in your valuable journal. I say with pleasure–because it is really gratifying to mark the advancing steps which inventors are making in this branch of science; and with interest–because every new idea set forth, calculated to further the success of aerial navigation, should be, and no doubt will be, regarded as of great importance by every one. And, as the more suggestions placed before the minds of those working for the improvement of any invention, the greater number will they have from which to choose or experiment upon, I would like to make one suggestion here, which may be of some importance in the construction and operation of the “Aeroport,” under the supervision of Mr. Porter, of your city, a description of which is given on pages 346-7, volume XXI., of your paper.

I suggest that the propelling wheels be placed in some other position than that given in the said description. From what little knowledge I possess of aerial navigation, I am persuaded that it would take less power to propel the “Aeroport” at a given speed, if the wheels were placed at the rear or front portion of the flying ship. My reason for being thus persuaded is, that as the forward and aft halves of the float are cone-shaped–the center being the base, and the front and rear ends being the vertexes–there must be an increased velocity of the atmosphere from front to aft as the aeroport advances. Consequently the driving wheels being placed under the center or largest diameter of the float, they must evidently revolve with greater rapidity in the current of air passing between the float and the saloon, going in opposite direction to that in which the aeroport is flying at a given speed, than they would were they placed in front or behind where the atmosphere is comparatively at rest. I take this view from the fact that steamboats and other vessels proceed with greater speed, with a given power, _down_ stream than they do _up_ stream, mostly on account of the paddles striking against the current flowing in the same direction in which the vessel is rowing. The propelling wheels placed either at the front or rear may have the axle extended through the end of the float to the center, and the cog-wheel, for the chain, placed on the inner end of the axle, and the chain descending through the bottom of the float, and connected to the engine in the same manner as given in your paper. The chain should be inclosed from the float to the saloon below, with a pipe of the same material as the float, and sufficiently large to insure the free action of the chain, and the axle of the propellers should be made tight with suitable packing to prevent the escape of gas. However there may be different arrangements employed for connecting the engine to the wheels. A shaft extending directly under the float, and reaching from the center to the axle supporting the propellers, and connected therewith by means of side cog-wheels, might be used; and as the shaft would necessarily diverge from a straight line with the said axle, the shaft having the chain-wheel on the end directly over the engine and connected therewith in the manner proposed by Mr. Porter, I would suggest further that it would, perhaps, be preferable to place the wheels at the front end, that the rudder might remain in its original position, and the aeroport could swing behind the propellers on encountering side currents of air, and could thus be more easily guided. I firmly believe that Mr. Porter has taken “the right step in the right direction” to accomplish that which has been so long sought, and which evidently will be accomplished at some future time. The air will yet be navigated by numerous flying ships, going from one city to another like those that now cover the broad bosom of our oceans.

HIRAM VAN METER.

Macomb, Ill.

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Puttying Floors of Jewelers Shops and Otherwise.

Messrs. Editors:–I am a reader of your valuable paper and find in it much to interest, and many practical hints that are useful in my vocation; I would not be without it for any consideration and I think every mechanic in the land should take it, read it, and profit by the reading.

I notice, in Vol. XXI, page 371, a communication headed, “Watch Repairers’ Shop,” in which directions are given to fill the chinks in the floor around the work-bench with soft pine and putty, etc., etc.; this is all well enough, but will not prevent the breaking of pivots should a balance wheel be dropped, neither will it prevent the wheel being stepped upon and so rendered useless, as often happens.

I am a watch-maker and jeweler, and I never drop a wheel or part of a watch on the floor. I have an apron about one yard wide, and in the corners of it are eyelet-holes, so that I can pin it to the bench when I am working; I have strings to it, but do not generally tie them around me, but let it be loose in my lap as I have to jump up, to attend to customers in the shop. In the shop where I learned my trade (in London, England), every workman was _compelled_ to wear an apron, and so much waste of property and valuable time was saved; the saving of _time_ in _one week_ will more than pay the cost of the aprons.

Sidney Plains, N. Y,

GEO. C.L. KENT.

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Western Demand for Agricultural Implements.

Messrs. Editors:–I often think, on perusing your very valuable journal of science, and the numerous mechanical and scientific problems it unfolds, that the tendency of the age is to supersede all manual labor by machinery. Whether such a thing is possible is not the question for me to consider; I only know that the tendency of universal human genius seems directed to that end.

I make the above observation casually, in order to introduce a few ideas on the subject of improvement in agricultural implements–the great _desideratum_ of the West at this moment. Here nature has opened her stores so munificently, that all the husbandman has to do is to plow, sow, and garner the fruits of his labor. But two great improvements are needed to enable the western farmer to keep pace with improvements in the mechanic arts and other kindred employment. Indeed, we at the West, particularly, need a good, cheap, steam plow that can be made practicable for at least the better grade of farmers. The English plan of moldboards, that overcome all possible traction and necessitate the duplex stationary engines, with the cumbrous “artillery of attachments,” may do for sluggish people but will never meet the wants of the Yankee nation.

The steam plow suited to the genius of our people, must, to use a vulgarism, “get up and go.” It must possess sufficient power of propulsion and traction to pulverize the ground better, deeper, and more rapidly than the “old way.” Such is the want of the great West in reference to preparing the soil for crops. I do not know of such a machine in use, nor do I believe in the theory of Dr. Brainard, that the moldboard is the only plan for properly pulverizing the soil; for I am satisfied that such plan is wholly inadmissible in steam plowing in this country, for want of sufficient traction for self-propulsion, and observation has taught me that a self-propelling plow is the only steam plow our people will tolerate.

I have lately examined the drawings of a steam plow invented by a gentleman of this city (which I am not at liberty to explain in detail) that seems to meet the great want I have spoken of. The invention consists in a very simple device, by which the whole force of pulverizing the ground is applied to propel the machine, and if this be not sufficient, an independent force may be applied, so arranged as to govern the speed of the machine at the will of the operator. You will, no doubt, in due time hear more of this machine, which seems to me to meet the great want so long experienced in Western cultivation.

The next great want of the West is a practical grain binder, that shall securely bind the grain as cut. The scarcity and high price of labor renders such a machine an absolute necessity. The efforts to supply this great want have been numerous, but with no flattering success so far as I am able to learn, except the machine invented by a citizen of this place, which has already made its mark by demonstrating that automatic machinery can and does bind the grain as fast as cut. The machine I speak of is yet in a chrysalis state, so to speak, but it has been worked two years in the field, the last season without missing a bundle, though not without the usual difficulties of all new machines in respect to the workings of some parts–too weak, etc. It is believed that the coming harvest will witness its triumphant success. If so, the production of our staple cereal will be greatly cheapened. I shall be glad to renew “old acquaintance,” by a more detailed statement hereafter.

I send enclosed the pay for another year of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, which I can no more do without than my accustomed dinner.

C.

Madison, Wis.

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Economical Steam Engine.

Messrs. Editors:–Permit me now to make a few remarks in regard to an article on page 844, last volume of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, entitled “Which is the Most Economical Steam Engine?” The principles laid down in that article, I think are correct.

I run a saw-mill with an engine which fills those conditions nearer than I ever saw, and I would like to give your readers a brief description of it. The cylinder is 10-inch bore, and 14-inch stroke; steam chest extends enough beyond the ends of the cylinder so that the steam travels only 21/2 inches, the shortest distance possible, after leaving the valve before it reaches the piston-head, and the space between the piston-head and cylinder-head is only one-fourth of an inch, the bolt heads being counter-sunk until even. Other things about this engine are in proportion. With this engine attached to a direct acting circular mill, I can saw 2,000 feet of hard-wood inch boards in one hour.

If any of your readers can beat this, I would like to hear from them.

JOHN CARNES.

* * * * *

Friction and Percussion.

Messrs. Editors:–In reply to “Spectrum,” page 358, of last volume, I will be brief. In his third paragraph he claims that he has merely _suggested_ that friction and percussion may often be one and the same thing; and immediately claims that in the case of the polished button rubbing a planed pine board, the force which overcomes and levels the undulations of the wood, is percussion, and that percussion is also the cause of the heat; the microscopic hills and hollows on the shining brass button skipping and jumping along the pine, produces little infinitesimal bumpings, and so pound out the heat. This _little_ theory should be known to the homeopaths–they could illustrate infinitesimal quantities by it!

“Spectrum” treats my hammered horsenail illustration shabbily. After indirectly acknowledging that there is a point where hammering will no longer produce heat, he puts it on the grindstone, subjects it to friction, and when it burns his fingers, throws his hat in the air and shouts “Hurrah for _percussion!_” We agree perfectly, except that he calls hammering, _condensation_; calls friction, _percussion_; and drops friction from the mechanical dictionary altogether.

A railway car axle often heats and sets fire to the packing, when the journal is smooth as polished glass; but I never heard of those parts of the car which are constantly undergoing percussion, even getting uncomfortably warm. The natives of the South Pacific produce fire by rubbing pieces of dry wood together, but I never heard of their rapping sticks for the same purpose. I have seen a new, sharp knife made hot enough to raise a blister, whittling a clean dry stick of pine, and I would like to have “Spectrum” tell us, if in all the above cases percussion is the cause of the evolution of of heat, and what is friction doing in the mean time.

New Albany, Ind.

C.C.H.

* * * * *

Oiling a Preservative of Brown Stone.

Messrs. Editors:–I have read the article entitled, “What is to Become of our Brown Stone Fronts,” and have waited to see what others have to say. But with so much at stake, no body seems to know what to do or say. Being a practical painter, it has been my lot to oil some of the best fronts in New York, namely corner of 23d Street and 5th Avenue, No. 2, West 23rd Street, also No. 1, West 30th Street; also the residence of E.S. Higgins, the carpet manufacturer, done by other journeymen.

They were very dark in color for a few weeks, but now after two years, they are bleached almost as light as they were at first.

These fronts were cleaned whenever necessary, and then oiled with fresh raw linseed oil from the press, put on pretty much as carefully as in ordinary varnish work. No second coat or lapping over of the oil. All was put on at once that it would take without running down in streams.

The result: the oil penetrates into good dry stone probably 11/2 inches, making the stone hard and flinty, as any stone cutter will soon find out if he tries to trim it.

It keeps the damp and therefore the frost out of the stone, as will be seen any foggy day, the damp running down in streams on the oiled stone, and the unoiled stone absorbing the dampness. It is therefore necessary to oil during dry weather.

The oil is especially beneficial to balustrades and carvings, as they are generally got out of soft stone. It is also beneficial underneath balconies and porches, as the sun never has a chance to dry the stone in such situations before the frost flakes it.

This I send in part payment for the great deal I have learned from your paper.

T.H. Rilley

New York City.

* * * * *

Interesting Correspondence from China.

Messrs. Editors:–Your paper seems to increase in interest. I brought the back volumes from Madras to Pekin, and am glad to refer to them here where I must depend upon myself.

I have been building and repairing premises since I came here last year. I find the carpenters and masons are very much delighted with our tools, especially our saws, planes, borers, vise, and hammers. Our lathe is a wonder. They use only the ancient spindle turned backwards and forwards by a treadle or by the left hand while the right guides the chisel or turning-tool, which cuts only half the time. They use only the turning saw, which often fails them because it cannot be used in splitting wide boards in the middle, and in many other places. They are great sawyers, however. They stand heavy pine spars on end, if rather short, say 8 feet, the common length of many intended for making coffins, and cut them up into three-eighths or half-inch stuff with great patience. A longer one they will lean over and prop up, raising it towards the perpendicular as they advance. They must have some hard jobs. I have just measured a poplar plank in front of a coffin manufactory, which I found to be 5 ft. 3 in. at the butt, 3 ft. 10 in. at the top, 8 feet long, and about 8 inches thick. For a crosscut saw they rig one like our wood-saw. I am sure it would deeply interest you to make a visit to Pekin and see how this ancient, patient, and industrious people do their work. It is truly painful to see how much time they spend in making the simplest tool for want of at least a few labor-saving appliances. Doubtless you have their tools on show in New York. They are to me an interesting study, though I have been long familiar with the rude tools of the Hindoos. It is constantly suggested to me that we must have got many hints from the Chinese, or else indeed they have taken hints from the West; or again, which is perhaps the true solution, implements like words have a common origin. I should think from what I have observed in a short time, that the Chinese resemble the Europeans in their tools more than the Hindoos–a thing I did not at all anticipate. A clever man could write you an interesting chapter on the ways of the Pekinese, the Chinese Manchus, Mongols, and the rest mixed together, though the Chinese are confessedly the workers in wood, iron, and everything else. The Manchus are mostly hangers on of the government, living mainly upon a miserable monthly stipend.

The reading of your unequaled journal makes me interested in you as if you were personal friends, and so I have run away with these pointless remarks. I am sure you will excuse me, and not wonder that one wishes to breathe now and then.

I was an old subscriber in Madras, and hope to be till I can read no longer. My son, who perished at Andersonville, was a subscriber to the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN till the day of his capture by Mosby.

Pekin, China.

P.R. Hunt.

* * * * *

Communication Between Deaf and Blind Mutes.

Messrs. Editors:–In a recent number of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN I notice an ingenious method of teaching deaf and dumb persons to converse in the dark, which is also applicable to blind mutes, and it brings to my recollection a method which was in use among the “telegraph boys” some years ago when I was one of them. Sometimes when we were visiting and asked to communicate to a “brother chip,” anything that it was not advisable for the persons around us to know, a slight tap-tapping on the table or chair would draw the attention of the party we asked to talk to, and then by his watching the forefinger of the writer, if across the room, or if near enough, by placing the hand of the writer carelessly on the shoulder of the party we desired to communicate with, the communication was written out in the telegraph alphabet or by taking hold of his hand and writing upon the finger.

I think this method will be found much less complicated, if not quite as rapid, as the method with both hands, and much more convenient, as it is only necessary to have hold of one hand of the person communicated with, and is more rapid than writing with a pen.

For the benefit of those not acquainted with the telegraph alphabet, I give it:

A B C D E F G H I
.- -… … -.. . .-. –. …. ..

J K L M N O P Q
-.-. -.- — — -. . . ….. ..-.

R S T U V W X Y
. .. … – ..- …- .– ..-. .. ..

Z
… .

The uninitiated will observe that O differs from I in the distance between the dots, made thus: I by two quick strokes of the forefinger; O by one quick stroke, slight pause, and another quick stroke; the dashes are made by holding the finger down for a short space: thus SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN would be written:

S C I E N T I F I C
… .. . .. . -. – .. .-. .. .. .

A M E R I C A N
.- — . . .. .. .. . .- -.

In a very short time any one can learn to read by the sight or by the touch. Anything which can add to the pleasure or comfort of these unfortunates is of importance.

MAGNET

[Nothing can compensate for want of rapidity in a language designed for colloquy. Although our correspondent found the Morse telegraph alphabet a resource on occasion, he would scarcely be content to use it, and it only for life, even if emancipation from it involved months of labor. The motions required to spell SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN by the telegraph alphabet are thirty-nine, but as the short dashes occupy the time of two dots for each dash, and there are eight of these, eight more ought to be counted in a comparison of it with an alphabet composed wholly of dots, this would make forty-seven. To spell the same words in full by the mute alphabet referred to would require only twenty-three motions. A still greater disparity in rate would, we think, be found in an entire colloquial sentence. Thus the sentence “Hand me an apple” would require, by the mute alphabet, the time of fourteen dots, while with the telegraph alphabet it would require the time of thirty-nine.–Eds.]

* * * * *

Cheap Cotton Press Wanted.

Messrs. Munn & Co.:–Please give us any information of cheap cotton-presses, such as small neighborhoods, or single planters, in the South could own. In particular, a press that will put 40 pounds cotton into each cubic foot. We want cotton better handled, and to that end may want small bales, say 150 pounds each. But these must be put into three or four cubic feet, or they will cost too much for covering, ties, etc. Perhaps you can furnish us with a wood-cut of some, or several, presses worked by hand, or by horse-power, that will do good service, not cost too much, be simple in operation, not require too much power, and be effective as above. It may be for the interest of some of your clients or correspondents to give us the facts, as we shall put them into a report for circulation amongst the entire cotton interest of the country.

Yours very truly,

WALTER WELLS, _Sec’y_.

National Association of Cotton Manufacturers and Planters, No. 11, Pemberton Square, Boston, Mass.

* * * * *

A Singular Freak of a Magnet.

Messrs. Editors:–In my library hangs a powerful horseshoe magnet which has a keeper and a weight attached of about three ounces. This weight is sustained firmly by the attracting power of the magnet, and is not easily shaken off by any oscillating motion, yet through some (to me) unknown cause during each of the last ten nights the magnet has lost its power, and the keeper and weight lie in the morning on the bottom of the case where the magnet has hung for many years without a like occurrence, except once on the occasion of a severe shock of an earthquake which took place December 17, 1867.

There is no possible way for this magnet to be disturbed except by the electric current; then why should its power thus return without the aid of a battery or keeper? Will some one explain?

FLOYD HAMBLIN.

Madrid Springs, N.Y.

* * * * *

Speaking makes the ready man, writing the correct man, and reading the full man.

* * * * *

PRESERVATION OF IRON.

BY PROF. HENRY E. COLTON.

“What is wanted is something equally applicable to large or small pieces of iron, and which will answer to ward off the attacks not only of the common atmospheric oxygen, but also remain unaffected by acids or salt waters.”

The above from a late number of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN states not only the writer’s ideas but also one of the greatest wants of the age. Iron is daily being put to more and more varied uses. On land the great question is what will prevent rust; on water, what will prevent rust and fouling of bottoms of iron vessels. We will briefly summarize the many patents granted for this purpose.

Eight are for sheathing of various kinds put on in varied modes. The most practicable of these is a system prepared by Daft. Most iron vessels are now constructed by every other plate lapping the edges of the one between. He proposes, instead of having the plates all the same width, to have one wide and one very narrow plate. This would leave a trough between the two wide plates of the depth of the thickness of the plates. He proposes to force into this trough very tightly pieces of teak, and to the teak, thus embedded, he nails a sheathing of zinc. The zinc is kept clean by slowly wearing away of its surface from action by contact with the iron and salt water.

There are four patents, in which various, so-called, non-conducting coats are put on the iron, and copper pigment in some form put on over them. These have been specially condemned in England, as no matter how good the non-conducting substance–and many are so only in name–it will become rubbed off at some points, and there the bottom will be eaten both by salt water and action of copper.

Coal tar and asphaltum are the subjects of patents in various forms.

One patent claims rubber or gutta-percha dissolved in linseed oil as a vehicle in which to grind the pigment; another the same dissolved in naphtha or bisulphide of carbon as a pigment; another hard rubber, ground.

Enameling with different materials is proposed by some, while one proposes to glaze the bottoms so that barnacles and grass would find a slippery foothold.

Combinations of tallow, resin, and tar–mineral and pine–are patented mostly to use over other paints.

Coal tar, sulphur, lime, and tallow, are the subject of one patent; guano, red lead, and oil of another; while sulphur and silica are claimed by a third.

Paints containing mercury, arsenic, and even strychnine, are the subjects of several patents. A mixture of coal tar and mercurial ointment of one.

Galvanism is proposed to be used in various ways–strips of copper and zinc, or by galvanizing the plates before use. Black lead finds a place in many compositions.

One patent, by a complicated process, effects a union of metallic zinc and iron; this, granulated and ground fine, then mixed with red lead and oil, makes the paint. It is said to be the best of all the patented stuffs.

It is astonishing how many use oils derived from coal, peat, or resin, and tars of the same.

There are about fifty patents for this object and with all of them before their eyes, the British Society for the Advancement of Art still hold the $5,000 reward for a pigment or covering which will perfectly protect from rust and fouling. However they may puff their products for selling, no one has the temerity to claim that they deserve the reward.

We think it would be difficult to find so many expedients ever before adopted for the accomplishment of any one object. These are all English patents, England having necessarily been obliged to use iron for vessels from its cheapness as well as its consequent first introduction there. In the United States no patents worth mentioning have been granted.

The first requisites for a pigment or coating for iron are, that it should not contain any copper–the corrosive action of that metal on iron being intense. Then if for work exposed to air it should form such a coating as to be impervious to that gaseous fluid, and be so constituted chemically as not to be oxidizable by it; if under water–especially sea water–to be impermeable to moisture, so elastic as not to crack, so insoluble as not to chloridize; to form a perfect, apparently hard, coating: and yet wear just enough to keep off incrustation, barnacles, or growth of grass. In fact, this slow wearing away is the only preventive of fouling in iron vessels. Wooden bottoms may be poisoned by solutions of copper–and that metal has no superior for such uses, especially when it is combined in mixture with mineral or resinous tars and spirits–these compounds, however, are not only useless on iron bottoms, but also injurious. What then is _the_ substance: 1st. One of the oxides of lead (red lead). 2d. The purest oxide of iron to be found. If properly made these articles can be carried to no higher state of oxidation, and respectively, as to order named, they have no superiors for body and durability. By preference, 1st, red lead, either out of or under water; 2d, Prince’s oxide of iron only, out of water. The color of these paints–the first red, the latter brown, may be hidden by a coat of white or tinted color. If there were to be had in combination as a white paint, an oxide of lead and an oxide of zinc, it would be immensely superior to either, but that such has not been produced is rather the fault of carelessness than of possibility. Zinc protects iron with great effect, but it is too rapidly worn in the effort to be of lasting value. Hence the great desideratum, the yet to be, the coming pigment is a white oxide of lead or a combined white oxide of lead and white oxide of zinc, without sulphates or chlorides.

Those materials answer very well for work exposed to atmospheric air, and perhaps nothing will ever be found better; but a different need is that for salt water. No mere protector of the iron from rust can be found superior to pure red lead and linseed oil. We have seen a natural combination of zinc, lead, and iron, which, in our experience, ranks next; but the zinc is acted on by the chloride of sodium, and wears away too much of the material. Red lead, however, while covering the iron perfectly and effectually preventing rust, and also having but little disposition to chloridize, when it does, will foul both with grass and barnacles. Hence, the first desideratum being obtained, how shall we accomplish the other. The prevention of fouling may be accomplished in two ways: First, cover the vessel’s bottom with two or even three coats of red lead, and give each time to dry hard. Then melt in an iron pot a mixture of two parts beeswax, two parts tallow, and one part pine resin; mix thoroughly, and apply hot one or two coats. This mixture may be tinted with vermilion or chrome green. It is not necessary to use any poisonous substance, as it is only by its softness and gradual wear that it is kept clean. Second, mix red lead and granular metallic zinc, ground fine, or such a mineral as we have mentioned–crystalline and granular in its character. Put on two or three coats, and allow each to set–they will never dry hard. The zinc will slowly wear off, keeping the whole surface clean, while there will be left enough coating of the lead to preserve the iron from rust. The oil I would urge for these pigments is linseed–as little boiled as possible, to be thinned with spirits of turpentine. There seems to have been a mania for mixtures of tar and resins, their spirits and oils; my experience fails to show me any advantage for them on an iron bottom. They have neither elasticity nor durability, while linseed oil has both in a pre-eminent degree, and is no more likely to foul than they, when in a combination that does not dry hard. Besides they are difficult to grind, inconvenient to transport, and offensive to use.

Perhaps we have not, in the opinion of some, answered the want expressed in the first paragraph. No pigment with the requisites of durability and cheapness will resist the attacks of strong acids on iron. The first we have mentioned will–all such as may float in our air from factories or chemical works. Chemically it is converted by nitric acid and chlorine into an insoluble substance–plumbic acid or the cyanide of lead. An experience of more than three years, with almost unlimited means at our command for experiment, demonstrates to us that we have indicated the means of filling the other requisites asked for. It may be that something new will be discovered, but we doubt it. Let any one tread the road we have trod, investigate and experiment where and as much as we have, and, if that place is, where we have not, and their experience will be the same as ours.

* * * * *

THE BANANAS AND PLANTAINS OF THE TROPICS.

[For the Scientific American.]

Poets have celebrated the banana plant for its beauty, its luxuriance, the majesty of its leaves, and the delicacy of its fruit; but never have they sufficiently praised the utility of this tropical product. Those who have never lived in southern countries are unable to fully appreciate its value. Some look even with indifference upon the gigantic clusters of this fruit, as they are unloaded from the steamers and sailing vessels; and yet they deserve special attention and admiration, for they are to the inhabitants of the torrid zone, what bread and potatoes are to those of the north temperate zone.

The banana tree is one of the most striking illustrations of tropical fertility and exuberance. A plant, which in a northern climate, would require many years to gain strength and size, is there the production of ten or twelve months. The native of the South plants a few grains, taken from an old tree, in a moist and sandy soil, along some river or lake; they develop with the greatest rapidity, and at the end of ten months the first crop may be gathered, though the cluster and bananas are yet small; but the following year one cluster alone will weigh some sixty or more pounds. Even in the South they are always cut down when green, as they lose much of their flavor when left to ripen or soften on the tree.

The trunk of the tree, if it may be so called, and which grows to a hight of some fifteen feet, is formed only by the fleshy part of the large leaves, some of which attain a length of eighteen feet, and are two and a half feet in width. While from an upper sprout you perceive the large yellow flowers, or already formed fruits, you see underneath a cluster, which is bending the tree by its weight.

The plantain tree is much the same as the banana, with the difference, however, that its fruit cannot be eaten raw, like the banana’s, and that it is much larger in size. Almost every portion of the banana tree is useful. First of all, the nutritious fruit. The plantains when green and hard, are boiled in water or with meat like our potatoes, or they are cut in slices and fried in fat, when they are soft and ripe. There is a singularity about the boiled plaintain, worthy of being mentioned. Pork especially, and other meats are so exceedingly fat in the tropics that they would be most disgusting or even impossible to eat with either bread or potatoes, but the plaintain seems to neutralize or absorb all the greasy substance, and the fattest meat is thus eaten by natives and foreigners without the least inconvenience.

Ripe bananas are mashed into a paste, of which the natives bake a sort of bread, which is very nourishing, though somewhat heavy. This paste, which contains much starch, can be dried, and thus kept for a length of time, which is often of great service to mariners. The young sprouts are used and prepared like vegetables, and the fibrous parts of the stalks of the majestic leaves are used like manilla for ropes and coarse cloth.

The utility of the leaves is a theme rich enough to fill a volume; they are used to cover the huts, for table-cloths and napkins, or wrapping paper. The dough of bread, instead of being put in a pan, into the oven, is spread on a piece of plantain leaf; it will neither crisp nor adhere to the bread when taken out. The Indians of America carry all their products, such as maize, sugar, coffee, etc., in bags made of this leaf, which they know how to arrange so well, that they transport an “arroba,” or twenty-five pounds any distance without a single grain escaping, and without any appliance other than a liana or creeper to tie it up with. As to the medicinal qualities of the leaves, they are numerous. Indeed, a book has been written upon them. I speak, however, from my own experience. The young, yet unrolled leaves are superior to any salve or ointment. If applied to an inflamed part of the body, the effect is soothing and cooling, or if applied to a wound or ulcer, they excite a proper healthy action, and afterwards completely heal the wound. Decoctions made of the leaves are used among the natives for various diseases.

Since the beginning of the world this plant has ranked among the first in the Flora of Asia. The Christians of the orient look upon it as the tree of Paradise which bore the forbidden fruit, and they think its leaves furnished the first covering to our original parents. According to other historians, the Adam’s fig was the plant, which the messengers brought from the promised land to Moses, who had sent them out to reconnoitre. “It is under the shade of the _musa sapientium_, that,” as recorded by Pliny, “the learned Indians seated themselves to meditate over the vicissitudes of life, and to talk over different philosophic subjects, and the fruit of this tree was their only food.” The Oriental Christians, up to the present date, regard the banana almost with reverence; their active fancy beholds in its center, if a cut is made transverse, the image of the cross, and they consider it a crime to use a knife in cutting the fruit.

In the holy language of the Hindoo, the Sanscrit, the Adam’s fig is called “modsha,” whence doubtless, the word “musa” is derived. It is generally believed that the plant came from India to Egypt in the seventh century; it still forms a most important article of commerce in the markets of Cairo and Alexandria. In the year 1516, the banana was brought to the West Indian Islands by a monk, since which time it has rapidly spread over the tropics of America, and is found to the twenty-fifth degree north and south of the equator. It is equally indispensable and is appreciated by the immigrant and by the native as a beautifier of the landscape; affording shelter from the sun and rain, and giving bread to the children; for if every other crop should fail, the hungry native looks up to the banana tree, like a merchant to his well-filled storehouse.