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The English Mechanic

AND

WORLD OF SCIENCE AND ART. best be described, perhaps, as a combination, ex

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1871.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES.

ARTIFICIAL JEWELLERY.

HIS is a very extensive and important trade.

mere red glass and the other pitiful ideas of toy
arcades are out of the question. Properly speak-
ing, there is only one ruby, known to lapidaries
as the spinel, of a tender red; the Oriental, Bar-
bary, Brazilian are generally sapphires, amethysts,
or topazes. The colour of the true stone may
quisitely delicate, of rose and cherry; but some
are wine-tinted, or of a violet hue, or tinged
with yellow. It is astonishing how far a mixture
of white lead and pulverized and calcined
flints will go in competition with the jewel beds
of India. So with emeralds: the same paste as
is used for artificial diamonds, blended with a
precipitate of oxide of copper, and the green
gem sparkles brilliantly. The garnet requires
paste dyed with "the purple of Cassius; "it is,
however, exceedingly difficult to imitate its star-

of heat, the consideration of chemical action exercised by one oxide upon another, and the due admixture of materials. Then, the engraving of enamels is a task requiring all possible exactness and tenderness of touch. We hardly reckon among these gaieties-so to call them-of picturesque industry, mock mosaics, damascening, or gilding, although the last is a very important affair in the sight of France, which pretends to be the great gilder of the world-gilding even its young men, as Juvenal dares to assert the Romans gilded their goddesses-of flesh and blood. The Parisians style this "gold colouring "-and their methods are extremely various-the oil, the hot, the cold, the bronze, the copper, the steel, and the ether; but the magic of silvering is scarcely less intricate, especially when the surfacing is to be totally false, or what is termed "argenterie which is quite different from gilding, this belongs altogether to a higher artisanship, applicable also to lead, and even iron. Next in order are the much-esteemed steel trinkets manufactured by the French. Their invention is of old date, and the finish and polish of the fancies produced for the Palais Royal by the artificers of the riotous Faubourg S. Antoine have never been excelled, even by the ambitious mechanics of Austria, who are Dutch in their perseverance, and Italian in their taste. But, after all, these artists aim mostly at the imitation of jewels or gold.

THIS is very extensive interest to a superior like ever, baft and the cassion purple des charlatans." As for coating copper with gold,

will produce a beautiful semblance of the
amethyst, though a better is obtained by a
mingling of white sand, treated with hydro-
chloric acid, red lead, calcined potash, calcined
borax, and the purple. Thousands of these mock
gems are annually sold, at considerable prices, and
thousands of them are worn by those who would
have the world believe in heirloom jewels.

class of English artisans just now, because the
factories which used to furnish the promenades,
the shops, and the pavilions of the Palais Royal,
in Paris, are idle and silent for awhile, and the
manufacture is coming over to England. So
much has been made known by commercial cir-
culars, intended, in a somewhat ambiguous way,
to announce that Birmingham, with other towns,
intends to compete in the general market of the Do you admire Mademoiselle's coral neck-
world with the producers of artificial, and prac- lace? It is made of resin and painter's vermillion
tically valueless, yet glittering and much sought-about as much of the latter as dazzles
for trinkets. The lesson must be learned, however,
before these competitions can be fair, that our
appreciation of continental tact and comprehen-
sion is curiously incomplete. Take your Parisian
master; he is a critic of precious stones; he
knows how to cut them, he then knows how to
mount, and, immediately afterwards, how to
imitate them; he is an artist in enamel, mosaic,
and gilding; he can amalgamate gold with silver,
producing every kind of splendid illusion. Now,
amongst the objects of human desire, vanity con-
sidered, may be reckoned jewels, true or false;
they are prized for particular variations of weight,
light, and colour. There are worshippers of the
diamond, and devotees of the opal; the ruby
has its adorers, and the emerald its slaves. But
we cannot all afford to wear these gems of the
earth, with their far-darting rays and gleams of
twinkling brilliance. A philosopher's stone of
some sort must be found, which shall convert
cheap substances into glories; and to begin with-
what is the false French diamond, for which so
enormous a desire has for years been exhibited
at Paris, which was, until lately, the very centre
of this sparkling commerce? It is a bit of paste,
colourless, super-imposed upon another, with a
darting central radiance, both perfectly white,
except for the prismatic aurora incessantly playing
through them. But you may grind, for this most
fanciful among the fancies of mankind, an oriental
sapphire, a topaz, an amethyst, a crystal, and out
of the gleaming powder shall arise a beautiful
imposture, which none, except a professional
lapidary would pronounce to be other than a
diamond. But the process is exceedingly delicate,
excessively difficult. The cutting is a most sin-
gular art; the tools must be selected with not
less scrupulousness than are medicines for delicate
children.

And as for the ordinary materials! Fancy a Parisian mechanic engaged upon these manipulations employed to make a false diamond out of white sand, first washed with hydrochloric acid, and then with simple water, minium, calcined soda and borax, and oxide of arsenic. Here we have a combination entirely lucid, but when the Parisian artisans come to the sapphire-the second in their estimation, of all precious stonesthey have to deal with its wonderful and varying colours-as of those, especially, from Pegu and Cambay, of Ceylon, of Bohemia. The obstacle lies in the production of that lovely dark light, burning in, and bursting from, its heart, for which this stone is famed, in all its hues-white the rarest, pale blue, ruby-tinted, vermilion, milkcoloured, violet, and green. Well, go to the Jews of Amsterdam, and they will charge you a hundred guineas for a sapphire, but buy a little strass and oxide of cobalt and you can make one for yourself. We lay no great stress on the celebrated Parisian fabrication of crysoberyls, crysopals, and "floating lights," which are really not jewels in the strict sense of the term. The last, known in the slang of the French market as aquiphonanes, are of an asparagus green, rather shellshaped, with two refractions, and pretty enough flashing under a galaxy of chandeliers. Both the French, and, in a still greater degree, the English mechanics have encountered a far deeper embarass ment in treating the ruby-always providing that

on her cheek. Or her pearls? False pearls were absolutely invented in the capital of Francefalse in so many of its fashions. Thence the art spread throughout Italy. The manufacture is exceedingly curious. As its foundation, are used the scales of the blay, a small flat fish, with a green back and a white belly, the latter being of a very silvery appearance, and easily detached. The scales are scraped into bowls of water continually changing, dried in a horse-hair sieve, melted, and converted into "essence of the East," to which is added a little gelatine, and this mixture is spread, with the utmost care, over delicate globes of glass. When cool, these are pierced and filled with white wax, to give them the necessary solidity and weight. Occasionally, real opals, powdered, are used for the more costly kinds. The Turks carry on a great traffic in "pearls of roses," coloured from rose leaves crushed in a mortar. The black, red, and blue varieties are mimicked with equal ease, and there is an affectation of adding to their charm by perfuming them during the process with attar and musk. Among the ingredients also employed may be mentioned Japanese cement and rice-paste. The modern Romans have a simpler method. They use little alabaster marbles, the scales from oyster and other shells triturated in spirits of wine, and coated with white wax, heated to a high degree. The trinkets imported as "Venetian pearls" are glass, and their production presents no difficulty. Now, as to the mounting. Infinite care is bestowed upon this by your French artificer. He has to consider how his sham settings-they must be sham since he must sell them cheap-are likely to suffer from the action of heat, of electricity in the atmosphere, of oxygen, of air and water, and of acids; and he resorts to copper, lead, platinum, iron, steel, gold, silver, and their amalgams accordingly. The history of their manipulation by his, or several sets of hands, is worth nothing; the softening, the purification, the moulding, the washing, the hammering, the melting, the colouring or bleaching, the chiselling, and so forth, through an entire technical dictionary. There are instruments for stamping, instruments for welding, instruments for soldering. One workman chamfers; another flutes; another stands at the laminating machine; a fourth bends over the delicate enameller's knife, sharp as a diamond's edge, and nearly as hard; a fifth subjects the completed work to a microscopical examination. Not fewer than ten differentlyshaped hammers are used. This industrial economy is peculiarly interesting. The diversity of aptitude, of course, encourages the division of labour, as will presently be seen more minutely. For the moment let us revert to the French meretricious jeweller's other arts-those of coating common with precious materials, and enamelling. Few persons have any idea of the extent to which these tricks in manufacture are carried. The ingenious and cheap French enamel, white or coloured, made up into rings, collarets, and bracelets, brings a great profit to the workmen, and is really attractive. But it requires time and study to obtain a mastery over this art. There is the fixing of the translucent glass upon the metallic surface, the painting of the vitreous plane, the choice of tints, the subtle application

Shall we reveal another of their secrets after the manner of a cookery book? Take a little powdered sulphur, sprinkle it with boiling water, mix well; boil the concoction, strain through fine muslin; put the liquid into a vessel containing the substance with which you desire to play the Rosicrucian trick, resort to another boiling, and your Cornish tin is-presto!-Babylonian gold! A dash of spring aloe juice, of saltpetre, or sulphate of zinc improves the imposture. How far this deceptive art has been carried may be judged from its catalogue of styles:

The Lamb, the Arch, the Turkish, the Myrtlebranch, the Maltese cross, the Dead, the Star, the Lance-iron, the Violin, the Hatchet, the Rose, and the Turtle. Into a similar category come agraffes, opera-glasses, decorative shoe-buckles, ornamental buttons, fancy watch-keys, cream-spoons, writing pencils, punch-ladles, jewel-caskets, scissors, pipes, egg-cups, and tobacco boxes-all imitated, my friends, all gewgaw, and yet not a little pretty.

But in no branch is this fraud-for it is a fraud when the prices charged are those due for genuine materials-pushed farther than in that of honorary decorations, without one of which no Frenchman appears able to live. There is the Order of S. Ampoule, or the oil which was brought from heaven by a dove. It is a bit of gilt copper, with an attachment of black ribbon. The Palais Royal charges you fifty shillings for it. So with the order of the Weasel, of the Star, of S. Louis, of Mount Carmel, and S. Lazares, of the Dog and Cock of S. Michael and the Holy Spirit, and even of the Legion of Honour. They were all prostituted to the purposes of a jeweller's profit. Nor is it generally known what a manufacture of foreign decorations was, until lately, carried on at Paris. The English Order of the Garter itself has been forged in the French capital, and worn at Continental courts. That of the Golden Fleece, the pride of Imperial Austria, has been successfully imitated, though its collar is at once exceedingly rich and of exceedingly delicate workmanship. We have seen Napoleon's Iron Crown-not to be compared with the old and proud signum of Lombardy-so perfectly counterfeited as to escape detection more easily than a mock Waterloo bullet. The Danish Government is so jealous of anybody assuming the blue ribbon of the Danish elephant that it ordains a perpetual exclusion from court of all individuals buying these spurious sparkles.

Now, not to prolong a series of examples already sufficient, we may again remark that a number of workmen in Paris have, for many years, been dependent upon this industry, and thrived by it. It is not by any means a degrading business. The deception is, in fact, no deception. It is avowed in the market-place; the objects are sold as shams; no one of common sense or knowledge could take them to be anything else; but they bring, or have usually brought, to the artisans of Paris, an enormous annual income. Their success has been less due to the application of material than to the management of colour; and it is to this point that we would refer the more artistic of the artisans in our own country. paste which made Sèvres famous; it was paste painted. And that which is true of china and

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glass is true also of imitated jewellery. Metallic oxides form the basis of all vitrifiable coloursfor example, the puce-coloured and red oxides of lead, and the yellow oxide of gold. These enamels, brought into such favour by fashion, what are they? They are glass made opaque by the oxide of tin, and made fusible by the oxide of lead. Exactly the same process, varied only in its order, will give us a gem, and similar magicsince this is the true magic of the only alchemy credible gives us apparent gold and silver, good enough, in all truth, for any other than the tests of the Royal Mint. What, for instance, is a sham ruby except a bit of "lustre ware concentrated and intensified? Still, the ordinary diamond paste of trade is composed of a different amalgam, the object being to obtain at once an equality of brilliance and weight. The Murano beads-a most profitable knack in workmanship, easily acquired-are made of common glass, simply tinted, though the manipulation requires to be tender. And, reverting for a moment to false pearls, in order to conclude with a moral and suggest how costly all falsehood is, we must remember a fact. The fish whose scales are put to this use are about 4in. in length. They are found in great abundance in some rivers, and, being exceedingly voracious, suffer themselves to be taken without much difficulty. The scales furnished by 250 of them will not weigh more than an ounce, and this will not yield more than a fourth of that quantity of the pearly powder applicable to the preparation of beads; so that 16,000 fish are necessary in order to obtain only one pound of the essence of pearl. After this, it may be understood why the manufacture of artificial jewellery is an art which it took the French so long to learn, but which, once acquired, has been to them, and to the Parisians especially, a source of so much wealth, affording employment to thousands of their best artisans.

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Test its solubility in water, and in dilute hydrogen chloride. As it will not completely dissolve in the above, try concentrated hydrogen chloride, in which it nearly all dissolves; the residue is soluble in hydrogen chloride with the addition of a few drops of hydrogen nitrate.

Now the actual analysis may be performed in several ways, but as we have found in which menstruum it is totally soluble, we will prepare the solution by dissolving 4 grms. in concentrated hydrogen chloride, pouring off the clear fluid, and adding a few drops of hydrogen nitrate to dissolve the residue. In this manner it is totally dissolved; dilute to 100 cbc. with distilled water; but before dilution the mixture should be kept boiling for a few minutes to expel the nitrogen compounds. The solution being thus prepared, a current of hydrogen sulphide is passed through, and the precipitate pi", collected on a filter and dried, the filtrate f is reserved for further examination.

PRECIPITATE OF GROUP II.

P". Test the solubility of the mixed sulphides in ammonium sulphide (colourless or only slightly yellow is the best).

Boil p" in concentrated hydrogen nitrate and Blter", a precipitate p2" remains. Dissolve pa" in concentrated hydrogen chloride with the addition of a crystal of potassium chlorate, dilute and

add tin protochloride, a white or grey precipitate indicates mercury.

To fa" add hydrogen sulphate and evaporate to near dryness (test for lead), add water and ammonium hydrate, collect the precipitate and dissolve in the least possible hydrogen chloride, freely dilute with water, which will precipitate bismuth oxychloride. To the ammoniacal solution from the bismuth hydrate add hydrogen sulphide (to see if copper or cadmium is present) which will give no precipitate.

PRECIPITATE OF GROUP III.

fi" neutralize with ammonium hydrate, and add ammonium sulphide (a white precipitate, pi", will fall) filter fa"". By the precipitate having a pure white colour the absence of cobalt, nickel, and iron is here demonstrated.

Dissolve p1"" in hydrogen chloride and add hydrogen sulphate to a small portion to test for barium and strontium, no precipitate falling, mix with three volumes of methylated alcohol to test for calcium. Boil the rest with a few drops of hydrogen nitrate (no need to test for iron), add iron perchloride till a drop gives a yellow precipitate with ammonia, nearly neutralize with potassium hydrate, and add finely levigated (precipitated is better) barium carbonate; stand aside in the cold for some time and filter fa". Divide the precipitate pa" into two parts; boil 1 with soda chloride and filter (test for chromium), boil 2 with potassium hydrate and filter; add ammonium chloride to the filtrate and boil again; the aluminium will be precipitated as hydrate, test it for silica in the microcosmic bead. To fs" add a few drops of hydrogen chloride, boil, and add ammonium hydrate and sulphide; filter off the precipitate ps", and digest with hydrogen acetate, filter and test the filtrate for manganese. Dissolve pa"" in hydrogen chloride and test for zinc. To the filtrate from p"" add hydrogen sulphate to separate barium, filter and test for magnesium by sodium phosphate.

To the filtrate fa" add ammonium carbonate, no precipitate, therefore no member of Group IV. present.

TESTS FOR ALKALIES. Evaporate f" to dryness and ignite (to eliminate ammonium salts), test the residue on platinum wire in Bunsen flame; coloured yellow, sodium present. Dissolve the residue in small quantity of water, acidify with hydrogen chloride and add platinum tetrachloride to test for potassium, which will be found absent.

EXAMINATION FOR ACID RADICLES. The presence of a carbonate was indicated when the salt was dissolved in acid.

Dissolve in concentrated hydrogen chloride and divide into four portions. 1. Test for the sulphuric radicle by barium chloride. 2. Test for the phosphoric radicle with ammonium molybdate dissolved in hydrogen nitrate, having previously added hydrogen nitrate to the solution. 3. Evaporate to dryness to test for silica. 4. Pass hydrogen sulphide, filter, boil the filtrate, allow to cool, mix with iron protosulphate, and pour concentrated hydrogen sulphate carefully to the bottom of the tube. A black ring indicates the presence of the nitric acid radicle.

The student should take great care in these complex analyses, making a note of everything as he proceeds, and it would be advisable to use a test tube stand with slate tablets so that the tobe containing a solution may be marked, and made to correspond with any other mark in the note. book. It might seem that there is a deal of unnecessary work in the above analysis, so there is, if we knew beforehand the constituents, but the student is not supposed to know, although in reality he does; therefore as this is a specimen of a complex analysis he must proceed in other cases in a similar manner and strictly go over the ground just illustrated.

(To be continued.)

THE POST-OFFICE AND THE POSTCARDS.

THE

HE question has often been asked, "If the Postoffice can convey a card for a halfpenny, why not a letter and envelope of the same weight" No satisfactory answer has yet been given; and the conclusion at which we have arrived is that the authorities hope to compel the use of the penny stamp by the enforced publicity of the Postcard. Sympathetic inks are of little use, and 1 secret code, troublesome at all times, is out of the question when the person to whom we wish to write is unacquainted with the key. It has been suggested that an envelope weighing no more than the Post-card might be so constructed as to conceal the message written in it. The Society of Arts has done a very good thing by issuing a specimen envelope which will so fold as to conceal the writing, which weighs two grains less than the card, and which, moreover, affords more spac: for writing than two and a half cards, making use of only one side. The Society proposes that this envelope shall be supplied by the public, and sent to the Post-office to be impressed with a stamp, or a halfpenny stamp may be affixed when wanted. In the interior of the specimen envelope the fal lowing very pertinent question is put: "If the Post-office is able to supply a card, stamp i carry it, and deliver it to any part of the United Kingdom, why cannot the Post-office stamp an envelope weighing less than the card and supplied by the public, thus saving the cost of the card and discouraging impertinent curiosity, and deliver it like a letter?" "Every member of Parliament who understands administrative economy is advised to ask the Postmaster-General this question in Parliament until it is satisfactorily answered."

There can be only one answer to this question. The reason "why" the authorities cannot im press a halfpenny stamp on an envelope is an unjustifiable fear that the sale of penny stamps would fall off if they did so; but we have yet to learn why the Post-office should be a source of revenue; or why, when its scale of charges is reduced, it should throw every possible obstacle in the way of intercommunication, as we have only too good reason to know it does.

In the matter of the pattern and sample post, as well as the newspaper and book-post, the officials have made regulations which are directly antagonistic to the wishes of Parliament and the

Test a portion of the dry salt upon a watch-nation. glass floating on water, with concentrated hydrogen sulphate for the chloric acid radicle.

Boil some of the dry salt very finely powdered
with a strong solution of sodium carbonate, filter,
neutralize with hydrogen nitrate and take sepa-

rate portions for each determination. 1. Acidify
with hydrogen chloride, dip turmeric paper in
and dry to test for the boracic radicle; then add
copper sulphate to test for sulphur as a sulphide.
2. As the solution is colourless, chromates cannot
be present. 3. Acidify with hydrogen acetate
and divide in two parts, to one add calcium chlo-
ride, when a white precipitate indicates the oxalic
radicle or fluorine. (If the solution is coloured,
lead acetate must be added here to test for
chromic radicle.) 4. Acidify with hydrogen nitrate
and add silver nitrate, a white precipitate indi-
cates chlorine, iodine, or bromine; add a drop
of carbon bisulphide, then soda chloride, and an
excess of hydrogen chloride, shake well, the
carbon bisulphide is not coloured, therefore
chlorine only is present.
Basyls found.

Bismuth. Mercury. Aluminium. Zinc. Sodium.

Acid radicles.
Nitric.
Chlorine.

Sulphuric.
Carbonic.
Phosphoric.

ELEMENTS OF ENGINEERING.-No. VIL DOCKS.-No. 4.

N

addition to the example given in our last article, cast-iron sheet piling has been a employed extensively in dock and harbour work, although it will never supersede timber as the material to be generally used. The description of cast-iron pile, represented in Fig. 7, was usi

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with much advantage at the Liverpool docks, when the difficulty of keeping them perfectly vertical during the operation of driving was once? mastered. This was accomplished by driving them between two heavy timber guide piles, to which were connected strong longitudinal bals! which maintained them in a perpendicular posi tion, and also caused the ram to strike fairly upon the centre of the head of the pile. In using cas iron piling for the purposes of constructing a culferdam there is no necessity for being particular

about getting all the piles down to the same level, as it is a matter of no importance in a temporary work whether the heads of the piles are in a line or not. This is a considerable advantage which cofferdams enjoy with respect to this special description of piling over permanent works built upon the same principle, as there is no slight difficulty encountered in getting cast-iron piles down so that their heads may range truly level. As will be readily perceived the same inconvenience attends the sinking of every description of fron cylinders and piles, since they cannot be cut to the exact length like a piece of timber. When iron foundations are used for bridges over rivers, it is usual in practice to have some short lengths made so as to avoid the necessity of the labour and expense that would be required to sink some of the piles down to the proper depth to make their heads range.

Although the excavation for a dock is a simple affair when the dam is made, and everything rendered snug and tight, yet there are a few condi. tions sufficiently important to be insisted upon in all specifications, and the non-observance of which would at the best be attended with considerably additional trouble, labour, and delay in the progress of the works. The first point to be determined is the depth, which depends chiefly upon the class of vessels intended to be accommodated, and the rise and fall of the tide at the site of the dock. It is very rare that the depth of water inside a dock is equal to that on the outside, that of the latter being usually the greater. At low water the depth of water on the outer

sill of gates at spring tides is as follows for the principal London docks:-St. Katherine's, 10ft.; Commercial Docks, 9in.; East India, 6ft. 6in.

The West India Docks have three entrances, giving a mean depth of 5ft. 4in., and the London, which possess the same number, have a mean depth of 5ft. It may be remarked here that were the Tower pulled down, the site could be adapted at a comparatively small expense for the erection of a splendid wet dock, offering every advantage with respect to size and facility of access. So far as the absolute depth of water available for the berthing of vessels is concerned, the East India Docks surpass the rest of their

neighbours, as there is never less than 23ft of water in them. Knowing the rise of the spring and neap tides, the depth of water that a dock will have may be calculated by the following formula :-Let R = the rise of an ordinary spring tide, and R1 that of the corresponding neap tide, and make D the depth that the dock is excavated below low-water springs: then putting H to represent the maximum depth of water the dock can have, we find H= (R+D). Similarly, making H1 to represent the height at neap tides, we obtain H1= {(R + D) — (R — R1)}. This will be more clearly seen by an inspection of Fig. 8,

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H.W.S.

H.W.N.

L.W.S.

S

where S S is the bottom of the dock, and the rest of the diagram is self-explanatory. It must be borne in mind that the line H W S represents the height of the usual spring tide, and not the highest that might occur. An equinoctial tide would be between 3ft. and 4ft. higher than that in question, but it would obviously not do to calculate the depth of water available from so ex

ceptional a datum.

dock may be used for making the puddle dam; and also, if the material be good clay, bricks may be manufactured on the site suitable for the building of the work. The importance-in fact the imperative necessity-for the engineer to carefully consider all these points, and not leave them to be discovered by the contractor after the contract is let, becomes manifest when we reflect upon the difference of price that would be attached in a schedule of prices, to bricks made from stuff excavated upon the site, and to those which had to be procured perhaps from a distance of fifty miles or more. In many instances a seawall has to be built between the dock and the sea, and in order to utilize the excavation this may be replaced by a strong embankment whereever the stuff is proper for the purpose, care being taken to pitch the sea slope well with heavy flat stones to prevent the action of the waves wearing away the face of the bank. It may be protected on the inside from vermin by the same precautions mentioned when treating on the formation of dams in our last article.

The occurrence of springs while excavating for a dock is a very frequent source of trouble and annoyance, and they must either be led away or stopped at once by overlaying the ground near them with a thick coating of watertight concrete or bêton. Occasionally basins or outer docks, as they may be called, are not required to be sunk below low water, and then the excavation is carried on by tidal work. The great secret in undertaking this kind of work is to put on as many hands as possible, in order to make the most of the limited time at

may

disposal. Should it be impossible to dispose of the stuff or a large surplus of it upon land, be run into lighters, carried away, and tipped out! at sea. It may also sometimes be beneficially employed in this manner for filling up holes and hollows, and reducing a certain area of sea or river bottom to a uniform bed. The backing-up of the dock walls will always absorb a proportion of it, as will be perceived when we come to that part of our subject. Docks, moreover, always being in close contiguity to the sea or a navigable river, the vessels trading in the neighbourhood will generally be glad to take some of the stuff as ballast; and in this manner a very large quantity can be got rid of. At a short distance from the sides, towards the centre, the stuff may be taken out altogether at random in any manner which best suits the contractor, but the sides themselves must be treated a little more carefully. They cannot be taken out plumb, but should batter backwards, as shown in Fig. 9. The exact angle

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laid off so that A E

=

FIG.9

E

or the ratio of the slope depends upon the nature of the soil, the shape intended to be given to the walls, and many other circumstances which render it impossible to fix any one particular angle of slope. It should not, however, be less than one perpendicular to one horizontal, as represented in the Fig. by the line AD, which is ED. The two other slopes are 11 to 1, and 2 to 1, represented by the lines BD and CD, where BE 15 x ED and CD soil intended to stand only for a short time at 2 D; the last being flat enough for almost any that inclination. To prevent the backing between the sloped off sides of the dock and the back of the wall sliding down the slope, and acting like wedge at its lowest extremity, the sides are cut in steps (see Fig. 10), and the backing well punned

FIG.10

a

In excavating for a dock, railway, or any other engineering work, the first thing to be considered in the estimates is what is to be done with the stuff excavated. It must be put somewhere. In railway work the line is so laid out as generally to enable the stuff taken out in the cuttings to be run into the embankments. Sometimes, however, the length of lead or distance the material would have to be run before being deposited is so great that it is cheaper to adopt what appears rather an expensive mode of proceeding-that is, to purchase land for side cutting, as it is called, wherewith to make up the embankment, and also to as it is carried up. In the Fig. A B is supposed buy land for running to spoil the material exca- to represent the back of the wall, and we thus see vated from the cutting, thus incurring a double that the backing does not press upon it in the inoutlay. We have already mentioned that fre- jurious manner it would do were it placed upon quently a portion of the stuff excavated for the the slope in Fig. 9, in which none of the pressure

B

is resisted vertically, as in the last diagram. When preparing the entrance to all docks and harbours, all shoals should be reduced to a regular inclined plane, so as to leave no sudden jump in the river bed. There is one bad practice worth calling attention to in connection with excavation in general, and that is the system so prevalent of skimping the room for the men to work in. It is false economy to save in the comparatively insignificant item of excavation, and then afterwards crowd more men together than there is room for. Numbers are not always beneficial; and although there is much truth in the proverb, " Many hands make light work," yet there is no worse sign of bad management than that of putting too many men to one job. All soft stuff at the bottom of the dock must be taken out, which can be done without excavating the rest of the area below the necessary depth, as it will be much cheaper and safer to refill these holes with good solid material-concrete if necessarythan to take out any part of what will form a good bottom. The remaining considerations with respect to excavating the dock may be safely left to the contractor, as his own interest will be the best guarantee for getting it done properly. We shall pass on in our next article to describe the erection of the walls, and mention the best forms most suited to the particular duty they have to perform.

ORGAN BUILDING.

ALTHOUGH the original organ in All Souls', Halifax, had been judiciously enlarged by Messrs. Forster & Andrews, of Hull, it was considered unequal to the beauty and grandeur of the building in which it stood, and Mr. Akroyd therefore presented it to the church of 8. Stephen, Copley, in the erection of which he had taken some inanother instrument for All Souls, the chef d'ouvre terest. Hopes were entertained that in providing of the great architect, G. G. Scott, Esq., R.A., Schultze & Co., who erected the organ at S. the services of the eminent German builders, George's, Doncaster, and who are acknowledged to be the foremost men in the profession, might be secured. They, however, declined to accept the offered commission,

in consequence of the necessity of so shaping their design as to avoid blocking up three stained glass windows. Under these circumstances Mr. Akroyd requested Messrs. Forster & Andrews to draw up the scheme of result appears to have justified his choice. Whilst an instrument suitable for the position, and the Mr. Edmund Schultze was in this country, superintending the erection of the Doncaster organ, Messrs. Forster & Andrews were fortunate in making his acquaintance, and he very generously instructed them in the peculiarities which have made his firm so famous. Although Mr. Schultze declined to undertake the construction of the instrument, he did not hesitate to advise Messrs. Forster & Andrews as to its general arrangement, and he has supplied and personally voiced six of the stops in the production of which he is most famous. M. Cavaillé-Coll, the eminent Paris builder, also furnished his celebrated voix humaine stop, which he has carried through the whole range down to C C. The difficulties of the limited upper space in the organ chapel have been overcome by ingenuity and simplicity of mechanical arrangements; whilst every new discovery, both in the mechanical portion of an organ and the development of improved tone, has been studied and employed.

The organ contains five claviers (four manual, one pedal) and has five separate wind reservoirs of different pressure, not only for the organ of which it is composed, but with an arrangement in the case of the great swell and pedal organ by which the reed pipes stand on distinct soundboards, and are blown at a higher pressure than the ordinary stops. The great organ has an improved form of the pneumatic touch applied to it, so that it is as easy to finger as a small instrument; and this apparatus is so applied that the touch is no heavier when the other two organs are coupled with it. Various kinds of wood are used in the construction of the wood pipes, which are also of the peculiar forms devised by German builders to give richer variety of tone. With the exception of the dulciana in the choir organ (which is purposely made of good ordinary pipe metal in order to have light silveriness of tone) all the metal pipes throughout the organ, the flue stops, down to the 16ft. violon on the pedal, and all the reed stops (except the lower petave of the trombone, which is of zinc) are made of the

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harder mixture best known as spotted metal," which, though adding materially to the cost, adds still more strikingly to the purity and brilliance of the tone. The organ is blown by one of Joy's patent hydraulic engines, which (with the requisite double feeders and first wind reservoir) is placed in a crypt under the vestry; the wind trunk being conveyed through a thick wall, which prevents the noise being heard in the church. In case of accident or lack of water there is a provision for hand-blowing by two men, with an arrangement whereby part of the organ could be cut off so as to allow only such small portion to be played as two men could supply with wind. The list of stops is as follows:

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The lack of a 32ft. open pipe in the pedals of so large an organ will strike the initiated; but there was not space for it, and the builders have succeeded in providing a worthy substitute. In a few German organs double-stopped pipes of 16ft. were at one time tried; and a London builder some years ago copied this experiment. But although analogy seemed to promise success, the actual result obtained was feeble; and the eminent German authority we have already quoted struck out from his specification in 1864 a doublestopped 16ft., in consequence of that stop not being worth the cost and space. In no organ in the world," said he emphatically, "is a stopped 32ft. known to be worthy of its maker." Happily acoustical science suggested a still simpler means of realizing the 32ft. tone where the 32ft. length could not be gained.

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idolatry, surely the cultus on any form of centre and ruler of our own system, the mast commend itself to every thinking mind the most reasonable of all the forms of hom superstition of which any record has descended to What more natural than that the childh us. heathen should bow down reverently before that glorious orb upon which even his limited percep tion would teach him he was dependent for bes and cold, light and darkness, summer and winte seedtime and harvest? And yet marvellone the power and might of the sun must have see to the dawning intellect of semi-civilized nat. surely all the wonders of their imagination an into insignificance in the presence of our existe knowledge-imperfect though it may yet be the physical constitution and functions of o great fountain of life. The sun's rays," wr Sir John Herschel eight-and-thirty years a (" Treatise on Astronomy," 1st edition, 335 211), "The sun's rays are the ultimate source almost every motion which takes place on the surface of the earth. By its heat are produe all winds, and those disturbances in the elect equilibrium of the atmosphere which give rise a the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism. E their vivifying action vegetables are elaborat from inorganic matter, and become, in their t the support of animals and of man; and v sources of those great deposits of dynamin. efficiency which are laid up for human use in coal strata. By them the waters of the sea made to circulate in vapour through the air, sai irrigate the land, producing springs and rivers By them are produced all disturbances of the chemical equilibrium of the elements of nat which, by a series of compositions and decomp tions, give rise to new products, and orignale transfer of materials. Even the slow demá tion of the solid constituents of the surise which its chief geological changes consist, their diffusion among the waters of the cet are entirely due to the abrasion of the wind, na and tides, which latter, however, are only in the effect of solar influence and the alter

This is by the gross quint, from which, in conjunction with the 16ft. stops, Messrs. Forster & Andrews have in the All Souls' organ realized to the full Herr Schultze's declaration that more 32ft. tone is obtained than could be produced by a stopped 16ft. pipe. It is not always, however, that this result is realized, and probably the Feet tone. Pipes. success of the All Souls' gross quint arises from the plan pursued in the erection of the whole organ, that of leaving the final regulation of the voicing of each pipe to be completed in the church itself. To this provision also (as well as to the mathematical principle on which the scales of all the pipes were cut) the organ owes the quiet efficiency of each stop and the grand unity of the whole. Each organ it will be seen is full and complete in itself. The twelfth and fifteenth (which give penetrating quality) are on three of the manuals. Reeds (which impart richness of colour) are on all the organs except the Echo, where, however, the quaint vox angelica (the diminutive of the unda maris of Germany and the voix celeste of French builders) forms a good Feet tone. Pipes. imitation of reed vibration. Double diapasons (which are the soul of an organ) are on every manual, and have been voiced with great care. Instead of the "boom" which destroys all other tone and distresses the ears of the listeners in too many organs, each "double" in the new All Souls' organ has a hollow softness, with drum-action of the seasons; and when we consider be like quickness of tone, which develops the body of the rest of the stops without making itself conspicuous, and which, though so delicate that it can be used to the softest stop on its own manual, has yet power to bind and solemnise the whole organ. In the reeds, from the 16ft. trombone to the voix humaine, there is almost as great a range and quite as distinct a gradation as in the flute stops. The trombone and trumpet in the pedal are sonorous, yet without rattle. They are echoed in the great by the trumpet and clarion, and these by the horn (a fuller trumpet, but without its blare) and clarion in the swell. Then comes the krummhorn in the choir (the bass of which, though called bassoon in the synopsis, is Feet tone. Pipes. of pipes exactly similar in shape to the treble), with the quaint imitation of the Alpine crooked horn, from whence it has its name. The contra fagotto affords a double reed to the swell chorus, whilst being a very fine solo stop itself. The oboe is more silvery in tone; and last comes the voix humaine, whose thin, quivering tones seem to carry us to the utmost verge of the capabilities of manipulated metal.

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immense transfer of matter so produced, the crease of pressure over large spaces in the bed the ocean, and diminution over corresp portions of the land, we are not at a loss to p ceive how the elastic power of subterranean fr thus repressed on the one hand and relieved the other, may break forth in points where the sistance is barely adequate to their retention thus bring the phenomena of even vol activity under the general law of solar influence Since these words were penned, too, their p writer himself, Pouillet, Mayer, Joule, Thos Kirchhoff, and Bünsen, Carrington, Se Howlett, Huggins, and a host of other labor in science, have revealed to us, as it were put meal, many more strange and stupendous fa solar economy. Nay, even the very distato the earth from the sun has been practical determined within the last few years, and he found to be less by three millions of than that accepted previously by all living at nomers.

It is, then, on a subject of the very highest terest and importance that Mr. Proctor appeals to the scientific world, in this lates his masterly astronomical monographsgraph which we might fairly say (did the ex sion not involve somewhat of a solecism stitutes practically an exhaustive résumé of existing knowledge of solar physics.

Between the reeds and the old orthodox flue pipes come the reedy-toned metal stops, and in these the organ is rich. The violon diapason in the great commences the series, which culminates in the delicious salicional in the swell. But, though adopting these and other of the new German stops, Messrs. Forster & Andrews have The work, which is comprised in nine chapte not neglected the old source of excellence in (with a couple of appendices) commences, 8 good English organ building. The diapasons natural, with a dissertation on the sun's dist (which pervade the whole organ, and are the and dimensions; and in his first chapter. foundation on which its majesty depends) are author traces the history of the various full and round, with that character which Mr. which have been from time to time devis Hopkins has aptly denominated "velvetty." measure in miles-at all events approximate The chorus stops (which give brightness and the width of the impassable gulf which sepan point) are sparkling without keenness, and are us from our majestic centre of life and t brilliant without that "ferocity" which has been How very rough and inadequate the early te attributed to German organs. The reeds (antive efforts to solve this problem were is en important element in an organ wherein English builders have led the van) are clear, quick of speech, and yet full of power. The organ was opened by W. T. Best, Esq., of Liverpool.

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wards, and Ptolemy, in the second century of the Christian era, each tried as unsuccessfully to solve the mystery; in fact, up to the time of Tycho Brahé-the end of the sixteenth century the sun was believed to be within five millions of miles of our little globe of earth and water. Tracing shortly the history of these various attempts, Mr. Proctor proceeds to show how with the discovery of Kepler's laws more feasible methods of attacking the problem were devised; how by observations of the parallax of Mars, Kepler himself, Cassini, and Lacaille gradually approximated to the truth; and how, quite recently, analogous observations have furnished us with very trustworthy results indeed. The main interest of the chapter under review, however, consists in its discussion of the transits of Venus

-a subject treated by one of our correspondents in a popular form in these columns some fourteen or fifteen months since ("Venus on the Sun's Face," Vol. X., p. 316); and Mr. Proctor's exposition, if studied carefully, will enable any moderately intelligent reader thoroughly to grasp the idea involved, and even the details of its execution. While on this subject, too, we may add that in an elaborate appendix (A) the author goes into an immense amount of minute detail with regard to the approaching transits of 1874 and 1882, and shows beyond doubt or cavil upon what important points in connection with them even so very eminent an authority as the Astronomer Royal was in error.

Chapter II., though containing much that is curious, is of less general interest, treating, as it does, of the laws of gravitation.

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the spectroscope-a method 80 successfully the amount and cost of labour and materials are
carried out afterwards by our countryman, Mr. J. calculated. Tables are given of the strength and
Norman Lockyer, as also by Zöllner in Germany. weight of the various building materials, with
The corona and zodiacal light "form the their various dimensions and peculiarities. The
subjects, or subject, of Chapter VI., and this is volume contains some excellent plates, illustrating
one which the author has made peculiarly his the principal work of the bricklayer, the car-
own. His crushing demolition of the atmo-penter, and the mason, while explanatory wood-
spheric theory must be read in extenso to be cuts are given of such detail as, e.g., the various
appreciated; as must the sequence of the argu- kinds of roofs, and the operations of dovetailing,
ment by which the connection between the co-mortising, and tongueing. To architects and
rona and zodiacal light is traced, and shown to surveyors the book will be of great use, while to
be probable.
the student it must be invaluable.

Chapter VII. sums up the evidence so far in our possession, as to the physical condition of the sun; and from this any mere extract would almost certainly be misleading.

Chapter VIII., "The Sun, our Fire, Light, and Life," is an expansion and development of the views enunciated in that striking language of Sir John Herschel, with the quotation of which we commenced this notice. To those who have hitherto failed to realize the most wonderful way in which sun-force is stored up on the earth, the perusal of this chapter will open an almost limitless train of thought, and furnish abundant matter for reflection.

"The Sun among his Peers," is the title of the ninth and concluding chapter of the work, and treats of the great centre of our system in his capacity of a fixed star. Under this heading is discussed the vexata quæstio of the sun's motion in space, and here Mr. Proctor introduces some of his original speculations on the structure of our visible sidereal universe. Without entering into any discussion as to these latter, we may, we think, venture to say that, whether Mr. Proctor has succeeded or not in showing that his views are true, there can be no doubt that he has demonstrated beyond contradiction that those commonly received are false.

The Elements of Algebra and Trigonometry. By
WILLIAM N. GRIFFIN, B.D., London: Long-
mans and Co.
THIS is another of Messrs. Longmans' useful
Textbooks of Science, and its especial design is to
explain the rudiments of algebra and trigono-
metry to artisans and others who may wish to
computations which arise in practice, and to
be acquainted with them, so far as to make the
read books in which science is treated mathema-
tically. So far as we have been able to examine
the work it seems admirably calculated to achieve
this object. The student is supposed to be ac-
quainted with the principles and processes of
rules of algebra to trigonometry, logarithms being
arithmetic, and is taken through the principal
explained on the way, and examples for practice
given at the end of each rule.

Metallography as a separate Science, or the
Student's Handbook of Metals. By THOMAS
ALLEN BLYTH, M.A., Ph. D. London: Long-
mans & Co.

Strange Dwellings, being a Description of the Habitations of Animals. By the Rev. J. G. WOOD, M.A., F.L.S. London: Longmans & Co. THIS is an entertaining book, and forms a suitable and handsome present for a boy or girl fond of natural history. It is an abridgement of the larger work "Homes without Hands," and is abundantly illustrated. Mr. Wood is well known as a writer on natural history; and this short account of the various "birds, beasts, fishes," and insects, who live in houses built without hands, is written in his usual entertaining and instructive style.

If, however, the average amateur astronomer will read the second chapter with moderate attention, we predict that he will devour the third, FROM the preface to this book we find that it conwhich gives, without any exception whatever, the sists of a reprint of the author's contributions to very best description of the theory and practical various magazines, and is issued merely as an use of the spectroscope as applied to the analysis We have spoken of one appendix having refer- elementary work on the science. The author has of sunlight that we have ever seen in print. We ence to the approaching transits of Venus. There carefully revised the matter, but believes that would commend the perusal of this to that nume- is another, treating the subject of eclipses in a inaccuracies are still to be found." He unrous class who from time to time ask questions novel manner. This is, we are bound in can-doubtedly forms a correct estimate of his work; about the spectroscope in our Correspondence dour to say, the driest part of the book, and we can only express astonishment that he Column." As regards the why and wherefore of although the 24 pages of which it consists should think it necessary to rush into print while the appearances observed, it is a very mine of in- deserve to be most carefully studied by so many works containing similar information formation. We are glad to see that Mr. Proctor, any one who wishes to have a clear and intelli- are already in existence. The book is designed in apportioning the credit due to the various dis-gible conception of the cause of the sequence of especially as an elementary work for the use of coverers in this branch of physics, gives "honour eclipses, and the principles on which their oc- schools and science classes, and consists of notes to whom honour is due," and does not, as is un-currence is predicted. on fifty-five metals. It is badly printed, and is happily too much the fashion just now, glorify The illustrations, which are especially numerous, enlivened by poetical extracts. those who have only used up other men's original are of a very high class indeed, and notably does ideas. this encomium apply to the chromo-lithographs Chapter IV., on "The Study of the Sun's Sur- with which the book is adorned. Two views of face," is also one of the highest interest to the the sun (Plates 1 and 2), the drawings of the practical observer, and will doubtless be read and prominences, and the author's own beautiful pre-read by all such who may be fortunate enough maps of the coming transits of Venus, deserve to possess the book. It gives a very full and especial commendation. The view of the eclipsed most complete account of the successive points sun, by Mr. Gilman, at p. 343, has apparently of solar detail which have been made out or dis- been coloured by some one of a lively imaginacovered since Fabricius discerned a spot at sunrise tion; but, as far as our memory serves us, this, one morning in 1611. Passing onwards, we come the least satisfactory plate in the book, is acto the observations and theories of Dr. Wilson curately copied from the original lithograph. A and Sir William Herschel; to the sunspot period few-but a very few-typographical errors have and its strange association with terrestrial mag- caught our eye in going through the book. In netic phenomena; and so down to the discovery one place, Colonel Tennant is stated to have emof the so-called "willow-leaves" of Nasmyth, ployed a "Browning with reflector." A capital which (at all events, as viewed in the Great Equa- W and a hyphen seemed to be needed here to oreal at Greenwich) are, as we can testify from complete the sense. Elsewhere the same estimour own examination, no " willow-leaves" at all. able field officer is set down as a subaltern; while While referring to this, we would caution the in a footnote on p. 206, a gentleman, not young observer against a somewhat ambiguous wholly unknown in the scientific world, as having ootnote of our author's on p. 223, in which he fiercely attacked the author, figures as the "Caviwould seem, in some sort, to imply that he had lian Professor of Astronomy." seen the "willow-leaves," or rather the granulations which pass for them, with a 24in. achronatic and a power of 26. Mr. Proctor, in all robability, does not mean to say so; but most persons reading the note referred to would, we imagine, conceive that he did. The mottling seen with a low power and small aperture is proJuced by considerable aggregations of the entiies, whatever they may be, with which the sun's lise is covered. For ourselves, we have never fairly seen the individual granules with less than 7in. achromatic, better still with 84in., and best of all with the excellent 12 in. to which we have referred above.

Chapter V. deals with "The Prominences and he Chromosphere," and gives an account of that wonderful sierra and those gigantic uprushes of lame which until two years and a half ago were only seen during the totality of a solar eclipse. Describing these marvellous appearances as viewed by the naked eye and the telescope, Mr. Proctor goes on to show how their nature was deided in 1868 by the aid of the spectroscope, and 10w ingeniously M. Janssen hit upon the method of rendering these prominences always visible in

As this work will soon be in the hands of every astronomer who understands the English language, our bare notice of its contents must suffice; but, in the case of those to whom such notice may serve as an introduction to an admirable book, we would condense the result of our criticism into two words-READ IT.

The Student's Guide to the Practice of Measuring
and Valuing Artificers' Works. New edition.
By E. WYNDHAM TARN, Architect, London:

Lockwood & Co.

THIS work, which was originally edited by Mr.
E. Dobson, and which has for a long time been
the only standard guide to the methods employed
by surveyors in measuring builders' work, is now
considerably enlarged, having been also entirely
revised by its present editor, a large amount of
information being added with respect to the techni-
calities and modes of construction employed in
the several trades. Every trade connected with
the arts of construction has a chapter or chapters
devoted to it, the method of doing the work being
clearly explained, as well as the system on which

The Schools for the People. By GEORGE C. T.
BARTLEY. London: Bell & Daldy.
THIS is a large demy 8vo. volume, containing
nearly 600 pages, and illustrated with full-page
woodcuts. It is ornamented with full-gilt edges,
is well printed, and is dedicated to the Right
Hon. W. E. Forster, M.P. The work itself con-
sists of the history, development, and present
working of each description of English school for
the industrial and poorer classes, and includes
accounts of the schools for the blind, the deaf and
dumb, and the imbecile. The descriptive matter is
unfortunately broken up into paragraphs; and
although the author has not advanced any
opinions of his own, merely claiming accuracy
in what he terms a history of education in Eng-
land, there can be no question of the great value
of the book at the present time. Mr. Bartley
has evidently gone to the various fountain-heads
for the information he has here compiled, and we
cordially agree with him when he says,
out doubt, the Education Bill of 1870 has a vast
field for labour, unfortunately not on a virgin
soil, but on one rank with the growth of many
The book

"With

years of ignorance and neglect.'
supplies a want, and as a record of what has
hitherto been done for education will doubtless
find an appreciative public.

The Year Book of Facts in Science and Art. By
JOHN TIMBS. London: Lockwood & Co.

WE fail to perceive the raison d'être of this

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