to pay, and he can therefore very well afford us say that one of our great Cleveland furto contribute to the prosperity of large towns naces, with its appurtenances, cost £20,000, by submitting to the infliction of the tariff. which is not far from the truth. It turns out, At this moment the United States are the most say, 450 tons of pig iron per week, or 23,400 prosperous nation on the face of the earth; tons a year. The interest on £20,000 at 5 per they are practically self-sufficing, and it is per cent. is £1,000, or 20,000 shillings; consevery difficult to see what they could gain yet quently each ton of pig iron must be charged awhile more than they have by adopting free with, say, 10d. for interest alone. If, however, trade principles. There is in truth no analogy the make of the furnace had been doubled, or at all between such a country as America and 900 tons a week, then 5d. a ton would have such a country as Great Britain. The facts been saved, and this sum, and less, represents being as they are, ironmasters in this country in the present day. a profit which is by no ought to see that no effort should be spared means to be despised. It comes to nearly £20 to put themselves on a footing of equality a week per furnace, and even this amount of with their competitors. It is quite certain that clear profit, small as it is, many an ironmaster at present we are not holding our own in this would be glad to get from each of his blast respect. The United States ironmasters are furnaces. It may be said that, after all, the beating us by 100 per cent. in the output from rate at which a furnace is driven has very little their plant. With one pair of converters they to do with mechanical engineering. But this can do as much and more than we can do with is not true; double production means double two pairs; and while our blast furnaces turn out blowing, double feeding, double hoisting of 480 tons of pig per week, theirs, much smaller, materials, and increase in the power of varigive as much as 1,100 tons a week. In the ous appliances, all of which demand renewed rail mills, and bar and sheet mills, matters are exertion on the part of the mechanical engiin much the same condition. If we are asked, neer. And here we may refer to a somewhat To what is this superiority due? we reply that novel pair of blowing engines, recently put it is to be traced, to some extent, to better down at Staveley, where they were constructed organization, and in others to better plant. In from the designs and under the superintendthe Bessemer works, for example, the drill of ence of Mr. Charles Markham. We shall the men employed is perfect, and a converter illustrate these engines in an early impression, is never stopped for days while being lined up and it will be enough now to say that they and re-bottomed. The converter alone repre- combine in an unusual degree great power sents but a small part of the plant; but when with considerable economy of fuel and very a converter is standing, so, to a certain extent, small first cost. A great deal of the blast do the blowing engines, the hydraulic appli- furnace plant of Great Britain is antiquated, ances, ingot molds, and very probably the and the sooner it is replaced with more modern hammer, the cogging mill, and the rail train. plant the better. We may cite as an example What would be thought of a foundry which hot blast stoves. It is a suggestive fact that was closed while a 5-ton ladle was being re- much of the success which attends the labor lined? In the United States, for a long time of the American ironmaster is due to the effiback, the moment a converter is burned out it ciency of Mr. Cowper's stoves, and yet Engis taken away, and a new one put in its place. lish ironmasters have been very slow to accept The operation requires, we understand, about an invention which American ironmasters half-an-hour at the most. In how many Eng- jumped at. lish steel works is the same plan pursued It has, we may say, been forced on Messrs. The manufacturing capacity both of Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., by the necessities of the basic process, and we hope to see it gen- Europe and America has alone prevented that erally adopted before many months are out. return to high prices which the present deThere is still room for invention in this direc- mand would have caused; and as, on both tion. Bessemer plant was regarded as perfect sides of the Atlantic, factories are being still until the other day among ourselves. Then further extended, the same counteracting Mr. Holley showed the good people of the cause will have effect for some time to come. States that, excellent as it was, it could be A year ago, the total output capacity of steel made better. Is it to be supposed that Mr. rails in England was rather more, and in Holley has left our own Bessemer steel men America rather less, than 750,000 tons per nothing to do? We think not. Mr. Windsor annum, while now, with the works already in Richards, in his recent address to the Cleve-operation or ready to commence at short noland Institution of Engineers, spoke in tice, the total in each country is about a milsomewhat depreciatory terms of the work lion tons. In America the present demand done by the Edgar Thomson Steel Company, for steel rails is so considerable as to tax suggesting that by hard driving, the furnaces severely the supplying power available, and were soon burned out and wanted re-lining. Even if we admit this to be quite true, it seems to be perfectly clear that the cost of relining must be charged as so much per ton of iron made, and that unless it can be proved that the Edgar Thomson furnaces cost more for repairs and renewals per ton of pig than do furnaces less hard pressed, the advantage is altogether with them. To make this plain, let

HE STEEL TRADE.-The great increase in

the product for at least six months forward is
already sold. A deficiency does not at first
result in the importation of rails from Europe,
but in the supplementing of that department
of manufacture which falls behind.
while the demand for raw material is general-
ly sufficiently met by Italian or Spanish ores,
Bessemer pig iron has to be imported when
the local blast-furnaces prove insufficient, and,

Thus,

in other cases, when the blooming mills cannot keep pace with the converters or with the rail mills, a considerable import of blooms from Europe takes place. This is the case at present, not only for rail making, but also for supplying those smaller steel works which make plates, wire, and other miscellaneous goods, with the blooms and billets the large converting works are at present too busy to supply. If the rail mills in America cannot meet the demands of purchasers during the coming year, it is yet an open question whether the deficiency will be made up by imported steel rails, or by home-made iron rails, or by iron rails from Europe. Both in Europe and America the different modes of making steel are finding their proper place. The Siemens process, with all its acknowledged merits, cannot compete with the quicker Bessemer converters for so cheap a commodity as steel rails. In England, steel works constructed with the Siemens open-hearth plant are not working on rails, but are making ship plates, railway tires, axles, and other similar articles, or are stopped altogether; while in America the Siemens process has hardly been applied at all to rail making, and the Siemens furnaces, with or without the Pernot modifica tion, are confined entirely to the smaller industries, and are found extremely convenient for using up the Bessemer scrap. Both in England and America the circumstances of locality and transport are acquiring enhanced importance in the competition of trade; but while in England even a short land carriage is a disadvantage, in America works unfavorably situated for material are compensated by their contiguity to local consumers.- Matheson and Grant's Engineering Trades' Report.

N

RAILWAY NOTES.

trains on the road at the rate of 50 miles per hour. On the Bound Brook Route there are 43 curves; one on the bridge crossing the Delaware River, which has a radius of 2,865 feet, is 1,837 feet long, and ascends 19 feet to the mile. The greatest stretch of straight track is from Skillman's east-14 miles. To compensate for the centrifugal force tending to throw the cars from the track when running at high speed on curves the outer rail has to be raised. On a curve of three degrees radius, the super-elevation required on a guage of 564 inches, while less than five inches at 50 miles an hour, would have to be 16 inches at 90 miles per hour. On the Pennsylvania road the super-elevation is one inch for each degree of curvature up to five inches, which is the limit. The speed must be reduced beyond that to correspond with the curve. This is one of the limitations put upon high speed on existing roadways. Mr. Le Van considered others at great length, and summed up by saying that, after a careful study of the subject, he was satisfied that a paying road could be built to be run in a straight line between New York and Philadelphia, reducing the distance about 10 miles and enabling trains to be run through in 60 minutes. One of the means of effecting this purpose would be a reduction of the deadweight in the trains. The fast trains now running between Philadelphia and New York have generally four cars with engine and tender, weighing 232,000 pounds, or 116 ton dead load, and are 264 feet long. For fron. four to eight tons of passengers carried, trains are made up weighing from 110 to 150 tons. Mr. Le Van thought it would pay to build a line so perfect in all its details as to exclude rival lines, and attract to itself all the through business. The line he pictured crossed no roads at grade, and had only two curves of 10,000 feet radius each.

T. GOTHARD RAILWAY,-An account of the the most remarkable works in connection with the St. Gothard Railway, has been communicated to the Daily News by the Geneva correspondent of that paper.

INETY MILES AN HOUR BETWEEN PHIL S Leggestein spiral tunnel, which is one of

ADELPHIA AND NEW YORK.-At a recent regular meeting of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, W. Barnet Le Van read a paper on "Ninety miles in sixty minutes; or, how to accomplish the distance between New The leading feature of the scheme adopted York and Philadelphia in one hour." It was by the engineers in constructing the line has a continuation of one read by him some time been to keep to the bottom of the valleys-on ago on high railroad speeds, and undertook to the north side of the Alps, the valley of the show the difficulties in the way of running Reuss; on the south side, that of Ticino-and, trains at this high speed at present, and how so long as they did not deviate too widely they could be overcome. In the paper the from the required direction, to follow their distance in an air line between New York and windings until the point fixed for the entrance Philadelphia was stated to be 80.09 miles, over of the great tunnel should be reached. When a comparatively level country. The existing this could not be done, and it became necessaroads are far from being straight. On the ry to carry the railroad higher spiral, or to Pennsylvania line, in the 88.4 miles between use the German term, turn tunnels,' were to Philadelphia and Jersey City, there are 84 curves (15 in the 15 miles between Germantown Junction and Schenck's). The greatest length of straight track-between Philadelphia and Trenton, does not exceed three miles, and the greatest in the entire road does not exceed 10 miles. The Pennsylvania Railroad is not responsible for this condition of the road, but has in fact done much to straighten the line, and, notwithstanding these drawbacks, runs

be pierced through the mountains. These tunnels made at once a steep gradient and a sharp curve. The gradient of the Leggestein tunnel is 23 in the 1,000, and it describes a curve of 300 meters. After leaving it, the line winds spirally outside the mountain, and passing through a shorter passage higher up, reaches the required altitude. The construction of this tunnel was difficult, less on account of its length, which is nothing extraor

8.4-in. square. At the points of intersection of these with the transverse baulks, the bolts served to connect them as well as the plating together. These beams rested upon sleepers of the same section which were supported upon 50 piles 15.7-in. in diameter, driven 5 ft. into the ground. The total height of the mass from the ground to the upper surface of the plates was 5 ft. 11 in.

It was mounted on a provisional iron carriage, on the Semenoff principle. The elevation was effected by means of toothed wheels. The distance of the mortar from the platform was 2,432 yards.

Three kinds of projectiles were fired-ordinary cast iron, hardened cast iron, and hammered steel.

dinary, than owing to the necessity of boring entirely by hand through a mass of almost impenetrable granite. The progress made at the outset did not exceed three decimeters (twelve inches) in twenty-four hours, even with the aid of blasting. The necessity of handwork arose from the absence of water, and the impossibility, in the circumstances, of using steam for the perforators. Two other turn tunnels-in the valley of the Reuss-that of The 9-in. rifled mortar of steel, loading at Wellington, 1,000 meters long, and that of the breech, was placed behind a parapet in Pfaffensburg, 1,000 meters long-will be com- such a manner that an artificial alignment was pleted during the coming spring. The former, needed to lay it by. The weight of the morlike the Leggestein, is being bored by hand, tar including the breech fastening is 114 cwt. the latter by water power. On the south side, The maximum charge is 18 lbs., giving a range in the valley of the Ticino, there are four tun-of 5,400 yards at an elevation of 45°. nels (which are to alpine railways what locks are to canals), of from 1,500 to 1,600 meters long, now in course of construction. All these are being bored by water power, and like those on the north side are expected to be finished early in 1881. It is intended to light the great tunnel by electricity. To this end two systems have been proposed. One is to place in the passage 40 electric lamps, each The weight of the first was 271 lbs. The possessing a capacity of 1,200 candles. The shells of hardened iron were loaded with sand interval between each lamp would be about to a weight of 278 lbs., or with powder to 280 400 yards, and the necessary motive power lbs. In the latter case the bursting charge did would be supplied by the turbines at Airolo not exceed two lbs., and the weight was made and Goeschenen, which have been used for up with lead. moving the perforators and ventilating the workings. The second proposal, whether it be practicable or not, has certainly the merit of greater originality. According to this scheme, a locomotive impelled by compressed air would be stationed at either portal of the tunnel. These locomotives, being smokeless, would be used for drawing the trains through the tunnel. Each locomotive would carry two electric lamps, and two would be placed at the end of the train, together with reflectors, so arranged that their united light would be equal to that of 12,000 candles. By this means, wherever there was a train, and for a considerable distance before and behind it,! the tunnel would be brilliantly lighted at a comparatively trifling expense, the electricity being produced and the engines provided with their motive power by the turbines at Goeschenen and Airolo."

R

ORDNANCE AND NAVAL.

ESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS AT CRONSTADT WITH A 9-INCH MORTAR AGAINST AN ARMOR-PLATED PLATFORM, OR HORIZONTAL TARGET.-The shape of the platform was rectangular, 70 ft. in length by 35 ft. in breadth, and it was composed of two layers, each consisting of 50 plates, the thickness of the upper layer being 2 inches, and that of the lower 1 inch. The two layers were united by rivets 1.13-in. in diameter.

Under the plating, and in the direction of its breadth, were placed baulks 8.4-in. square at a distance of 3 ft. 5 in. from center to center, to which the plates were bolted by means of conical-headed holts 1.13-in. in diameter. Under the baulks were three longitudinal beams

The steel shells were fired either quite empty, and weighing on an average 265 lbs.; or loaded with from five to six lbs. of powder, to bring them up to a total weight of 271 lbs.

A trial of five shells of ordinary metal proved the laying of the mortar, and determined that for an elevation of 45° the proper charge was 8.36 lbs.

Of the following 36 shells of ordinary metal, none hit the mark. Increasing the charge to 8,59 lbs., out of six shots at an angle of 44° there were two hits, but their effects were very small, and the two projectiles were broken to pieces.

Next were fired 28 shells of hardened metal, at an angle of 51°, with a charge of 9.94 lbs. There were five hits out of these in spite of very unfavorable atmospheric conditions.

The effects were considerable; the two layers of plates were penetrated, even when the projectile encountered a baulk. The bolts were broken and the timber work damaged, but in most instances the shells broke up.

Steel shells empty were then fired with a charge of 9.94 lbs., at an elevation of 57°. Three shells out of eight hit. The effects were much superior to those obtained with the hardened metal shells, although the weight of the latter was greater. The projectiles after penetrating the plates, retained a greater velocity, and remained entire.

Nine shells of hardened metal were then fired with the same charge and at the same elevation as the weighted shells, loaded with 2.25 lbs. of powder. Three struck the platform. The effects were similar to those of the weighted shells, the projectiles broke up before the bursting charge could explode.

Four steel shells out of nine, with bursting charges of from 3.6 lbs. to 5.4 lbs., fired with charges of 9.94 lbs., at an elevation of 57°,

better chance of inflaming the charge by the R'

EPORT OF THE BOARD TO RECOMMEND A STANDARD GAUGE FOR BOLTS, NUTS shock. Others believed the explosion to be AND SCREW THREADS FOR THE UNITED STATES due to the shock and the friction of the grains NAVY. of powder against the sides of the projectile Office. only, and that if the charge did not burst, it

was owing to deficient velocity of the pro- PAPERS BAD BRELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTI

Vol. 2, No. 1. Troy: Lisk & Barnum. a very slight depth in the thickness of the pro-TRAN RANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE jectile, and to make it penetrate as far as the OF MINING ENGINEERS. Vol. VIII. powder it would be necessary to reduce the May, 1879 to February, 1880. Easton: Pubthickness of metal to a degree incompatible lished by the Institute. with strength, especially when a cheap description of steel is made use of in the manufacture.

by sea; and for every situation on ship-board requiring instantaneous brave action in which life is risked, the locomotive furnishes an incident to surpass it.

It is a new record of human experience, and is worth reading.

LEMENTS OF ASTRONOMY. By ROBT.
E
STAWELL BALL, LL. D., F. R. S. Text
Book of Science. For sale by D. Van Nos-
trand. Price $2.25.

This is a popular treatise in so far as that the reader is expected to understand only the elements of Algebra and Geometry for a complete mastery of it. It is intended for beginners, but it is believed by the author that even advanced students may read it, particularly the latter portions, with profit.

The contents include in separate chapters the following topics:

Chap. I.-Astronomical Instruments.
II.-The Earth.

III.-The Diurnal Motion of the
Heavens.

"IV.-The Sun..

All plans and devices are treated with that careful regard for clearness of exposition which is characteristic of the French scientific writers.

RANKINE MEMORIAL VOLUME: with Bio

graphical Sketch. By Professor P. G. London: Tait. Editor, W. J. Millar, C.E. C. Griffin & Co. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Price $10.00.

The volume containing selections from the writings of the late Professor Rankine now before the public, was originally proposed not long after the death of the lamented author of the papers, but from various causes was delayed. We are glad, however, to congratulate the publishers on the appearance of the volume, more especially at a time when the higher and more exact education in scientific principles is being recognized as the foundation of all true knowledge of our physical surroundings.

The loss to scientific and engineering culture through the death of Professor Rankine can only be fully appreciated by those who are

"V.-Motion of the Earth around the Sun most intimately acquainted with him, and

"VI.-The Moon.

"VII.-The Planets.

"VIII.-Comets and Meteors.

"IX.-Universal Gravitation.

66 X.-Stars and Nebulæ.

"XI.-Structure of the Sun.

66

DONTORNITHES:

XII.-Astronomical Constants. The illustrations are good and abundant. A Monograph of the Extinct Toothed Birds of North America. By O. C. Marsh. For sale by D. Van Nostrand. Price $12.00.

O

This fine quarto is designed for scientific readers only, and will be read with care by paleontologists alone.

The popular mind will experience some pleasure in learning of the exclusive possession by this country of the remains of toothed birds, but lovers of science will regard with admiration the evidence of a high order of attainment in a confrere, and will see nothing to regret in the mechanical execution of this new

addition to American scientific literature.

RAITE DE CHIMIE: By Paul Schützenberger. Paris: Librarie Hachette et Cie. For sale by D. Van Nostrand. Vols. 1 & 2, price $11.20. Only two volumes of this fine work are as yet published. The complete work will fill six royal octavo volumes. It presents general Chemistry, Chemical Physics and Chemical Technology as inseparable parts of one branch

of science.

The illustrations are numerous and of unsurpassed excellence.

The order of arrangement is the one founded on atomicity of the elements.

HAUFFAGE ET VENTILATION DES LIEUX

who had the privilege of hearing his lectures, or were associated with him in his various pursuits as an engineer and a man of science. Some of these characteristics the editor and biographer have given us in the introduction to the volume, and not the least notable of these was the extreme clearness and precision with which Professor Rankine stated his opinions and the breadth of view which he adopted.

Professor Rankine's Manuals have now been published for a number of years, and have gone through many editions, and are recog nized as most valuable compendiums of engineering science quite unique of their kind. They are confessedly hard reading for a great number, especially to those who have not had the privilege of hearing the master himself expound in the lecture room, and were possibly to some extent before their time, as the exact habits of thought required to follow with advantage the teaching of these books could hardly be looked for amongst those the engineering profession. The development actively employed in the every-day routine of

chairs of engineering in our universities, and of classes for the study of mechanics and engineering subjects in our various instituine himself began to lecture, has, however, tions, during the period since Professor Rank

caused an increased demand for books of a

higher class, whilst the growing influential status of the engineer in all the branches of the profession, combined with the various movements at present on foot for the proper organization of technical instruction in the arts, point conclusively forward to the demand for high-class works treating of the

CHAUFFAGS. Par P. Planat. Paris: Ducher et principles upon which all such practice must

Cie. For sale by D. Van Nostrand. Price $10.50. To know how vast a subject is that of Heating and Ventilation, it is necessary to turn over the leaves of this ponderous volume. Nothing bearing, in any way, upon this subject can have been omitted, and yet nothing seems to have been treated with unnecessary fullness.

depend.

The present memorial volume contains selections from the various papers which the late professor so profusely supplied to our various scientific and engineering societies, and to journals, and these papers have been selected, as stated by the editor in his preface,