Ꮻ COOLING WITH EXHAUST-STEAM. The Horticultural Building: Paris Exposition. M. Gautier, Architect. PEN air presents everywhere a level of temperature which can be raised or lowered only by the expenditure of energy. Since both personal comfort and the preservation of food require temperatures materially below those prevailing during a large part of each year, systems of artificial cooling have come into general use. Natural ice, cut and stored during winter months, has long been the most common means for the production of low temperatures on a small, and in many cases, on a large scale. It has been found, however, that where a very large cooling effect is desired at a single point, during long periods, it is much cheaper to maintain the low temperature by the expenditure of energy than to pay the common rates for natural ice. More than this, in places where natural ice can only be obtained from great distances and even in some Northern cities, it has proved economical to manufacture ice on the spot at the time it is wanted for distribution. To change water, at ordinary summer temperatures, into ice requires comparatively large amounts of energy, and the only large and generally available supply of energy is derived from coal. There is thus the seeming paradox that coal burned to generate heat can eventually be made to produce cold. Heat, however, is simply one form of energy, and energy must be employed when any substance is to be changed from the common temperature, no matter in which direction the temperature varies. Most systems for the production of low temperatures, whether for making artificial ice or the direct cooling of apartments, depend on the evaporation or expansion of some vapor, ammonia being the one very generally employed. Instead of ammonia, water, carbonic-acid and methylic-ether are among the substances that may be used in cooling operations. The ammonia or other cooling agent does not furnish energy, but simply acts as a vehicle to convey heat from the substance to be cooled. Το extract the absorbed heat energy from the cooling agent requires the expenditure of other energy, either in the form of heat or of motion, and this consumption of energy constitutes a large part of the cost of artificial cooling. The intent here is not to treat of cooling systems in general, but simply to point out how exhaust-steam may be applied to the purpose. Cooling by those means that require the principal supply of energy to be in the form of mechanical power may therefore be passed as unsuited to the use of exhaust-steam. Where methods are employed that consume mainly heat to accomplish the cooling effect, exhaust-steam is valuable in proportion to the amount of heat it can yield for the purpose. The application of exhaust-steam to cooling operations is particularly desirable because it raises by a very material amount the present low yearly efficiency of steam-power plants. One of the most notable tendencies in the modern development of the industrial arts is that toward economy of motion and energy. Other ages have carried constructive arts to very high degrees of excellence, but seldom or never in the past have the present relations between expended energy and the results attained been reached. Much yet remains to be done, however, before the energy developed in industrial operations will be mostly consumed in useful work. As is well known, the steam-power plant is one of the most wasteful, as well as most common, applications of energy on a large scale to the production of wealth. Boilers of the best grade are fairly efficient, transferring 75 to 80 per cent of the total energy of fuel into steam. The most improved steam-engines drop far below the ratio established by boilers in the transformation of energy to useful effect, and are able to yield in mechanical work but 10 to 20 per cent of the heat in steam. A result of this condition is that exhaust-steam leaves the engine with more than 80 per cent of the energy it contained on leaving the boiler. Steam-engines seem to be near their point of maximum efficiency and some use must be found for the exhaust if the proportion of wasted energy is to be greatly reduced. The use of condensers has been presumed in the higher figures above given for steam-engine performance, so the actual gain of energy with them is comparatively slight. More over, the additional expense and complication of a condensing engine are not acceptable to many users. Another factor that operates against the use of condensers is the ability to employ exhaust-steam for heating during five or six months of the year. Compared with the small part of the heat in exhaust-steam that can be transformed into mechanical energy by the use of a condenser, heating with the exhaust is a very efficient process. The total heat in one pound of exhaust at open-air pressure is 1,146 units more than the heat in one pound of water at 32 degrees Fahr., and 966 units more than the heat in one pound of water at 212 degrees Fahr. If the exhauststeam in the heating system is simply reduced to water at 212 degrees, more than 84 per cent of its heat above 32 degrees is utilized. Where the general and desirable practice of heating feed-water with exhaust-steam is followed, much the greater part of the exhaust still remains for general warming purposes. The latent heat in one pound of exhaust-steam, 966 units, is sufficient to raise the temperature of 5.3 pounds of water from 32 to 212 degrees Fahr. So if the weight of exhaust from engines equals the weight of feed-water entering the boilers, only 16 per cent of the exhaust-steam can be condensed to raise the temperature of water entering the boiler from 32 to 212 degrees. As shown above, 84 per cent of the heat in exhaust-steam above 32 degrees Fahr. is extracted by its condensation, and 84 per cent of the exhaust remains for other purposes after feed-water has been heated. The portion of the heat in engine-exhaust available for purposes outside of power-production is therefore 69 per cent. Assuming that as much as 15 per cent of the heat of boiler-steam is absorbed by the engine, there remains for general use, after the feedwater has been heated, 58 per cent of the heat in steam coming from the boiler. An exhaust-steam heating system is thus able to utilize from three to four times as much of the energy of the coal consumed under boilers as are high-grade steam-engines. The combined power and exhaust-steam heating plant may thus have an efficiency of 70 per cent instead of the 10 to 15 per cent possible for the steampower plant alone. Could this high rate of efficiency for a steamplant be maintained during the entire year, there would be little room for further improvement. In most latitudes exhaust-steam cannot be used for general heating during more than one-half of the year, while in many places the time during which it is wanted is cut down to two or three months. It is therefore very desirable to find some useful purpose to which the exhaust-steam of large and small power-plants can be put during hot weather. Such a purpose exists in the production of artificial cold, either for the manufacture of ice or the cooling of apartments near the steam-plants. That method of temperature reduction, for which exhaust-steam is well suited, is known as the absorption process. On this plan, water is charged with some vapor of a low boilingpoint, ammonia being much used. This ammonia-charged water is heated in a boiler, called a generator, and the ammonia evaporated. The ammonia vapor passes from the generator to a condenser, where it is reduced to a liquid in pipes that are subject to a flow of cold water over their outsides. A pipe conveys the ammonia-liquid to a refrigerator, a closed vessel where compartments containing the substance to be cooled are surrounded by other compartments that receive the ammonia. Sensible heat is absorbed from the substances to be cooled in the refrigerator, and becomes latent heat in vapor from the liquid ammonia. Connected with the ammonia compartments of the refrigerator is a space filled with water and known as an absorber. This water rapidly absorbs the ammonia vapor. Two pipes connect the absorber with the generator, and a pump joining one of these pipes maintains a constant circulation between the absorber and generator. The two pipes are so arranged that one conveys a strong solution of ammonia from the bottom of the absorber to the top of the generator, and the other a weak solution from the bottom of the generator to the top of the absorber. The pump moves the ammonia solution from the bottom of the absorber to the top of the generator. Application of heat to the generator supplies energy to vaporise the ammonia held in solution. This energy and more is absorbed by the cooling water of the condenser, where the ammonia becomes a liquid. In the refrigerator the liquid ammonia absorbs less heat when it becomes a vapor than it gives up in the condenser. To this absorbed heat from the refrigerator an addition is made in the generator and the total sum then rejected at the condenser. As the process goes on, the ammonia vapor and water that are separated at the generator are united at the absorber, since the weak solution goes from the generator to the absorber, and the strong solution is returned to the generator. The amount of heat required to melt one pound of ice at 32 degrees to water of that temperature is commonly taken to be 142 units. A convenient measure for the cooling effect of refrigerating-machines is found in this absorption of heat per pound or ton of melting ice. Large variations in the cooling effects of refrigerating machinery result from the conditions and adjustments of operation, and depend to a large extent on the skill of the engineer. Under first-class working conditions in absorptionmachines an ice-melting effect of about forty pounds per pound of coal burned may be obtained, but in ordinary circumstances results as low as a cooling effect of 20 pounds of ice per pound of coal are not uncommon. The ice-melting effect, being the total heat absorbed, does not represent the amount of ice that may be made by the apparatus. Owing to losses, the ice actually frozen by refrigerating-machines is usually only 6 to 10 pounds per pound of coal burned. The steam to operate pumps that force the ammonia solution from the absorber to the generator is included in the figures just given. A pump consumes one-fourth to one-fifth as much steam as the generator with which it works. As 58 per cent of the total heat of boiler-steam is available in the engine-exhaust after the feedwater has been heated, more than one-half of the cooling and icemaking results that can be obtained from a given weight of coal are available from the exhaust-steam of a power-plant in which the same weight of coal is burned. In other words, the exhaust-steam for each pound of coal burned in a power-plant can be made to yield a cooling effect equal to that obtained by 20 to 40 pounds of melting ice, or to freeze 3 to 5 pounds of artificial ice. Boiler-steam should be used in the pumps and their exhaust added to that from exhaust-steam at central electric-stations and many isolated plants. ALTON D. ADAMS. THE CONSTRUCTION OF EARTHQUAKE-PROOF WOODEN BUILDINGS.1 HE construction of earthquake-proof buildings differs in method according to the kind of materials used. But the earthquakeproof buildings which will be built at Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture, where great havoc was wrought by earthquake last October, the power-plant, the amount of this steam will increase the figures will probably, in view of the conditions of the locality, be con just given for cooling effect. The increasing demand for comforta ble temperatures in public buildings during the summer months, and for artificial ice, evidently opens a wide field for the profitable use of structed of wood. As these structures will comprise public buildings, 1 Report of Earthquake Investigation Committee, Japan. shops, and city and country houses, the arrangement of rooms will be necessarily diverse, some being simple and others complicated; the outward appearance of the buildings will also differ, for some of them may be one-storied and others two-storied. The principle of construction, however, cannot but be one and the same, and therefore we give herewith a condensed statement as regards the method of constructing earthquake-proof wooden buildings. Construction of the Foundation-works. - Materials for the foundation-work may be one of three kinds, viz, (1) Concrete; (2) wariguri (broken stone); (3) rosoku (stone blocks). The concrete may be made either of cement or of lime, or of both cement and lime mixed; any one of which is better than either the second or the third kinds. Cement concrete is best of all. In constructing the foundation-work, if the soil should be found too soft or damp, piles must first be driven to afford a firm foundation; but the driving of piles should be dispensed with in places where the soil is dry. For the foundation or footings to be placed upon the groundwork, flat, broad stones should be selected, and they should be buried in the earth for half of their height. Construction of the Framework. In constructing an earthquakeproof building, it is deemed advantageous to use either foundationsills (dodai) or foot-bracers (ashigatame), and the method of using them may be seen, (1) In an ordinary foundation sill (as in Fig. 1); (2) in a foot-bracer applied to one side of a pillar (as in Fig. 2); (3) in a foot-bracer stuck between the two pieces of timber forming a double pillar (as in Fig. 3), and (4) in two foot-bracers so fixed as to embrace both sides of a pillar (as in Fig. 4). Should more stability be required in the case of Figure 1, the connection of the pillar and the foundation-sill should be firmly joined by means of iron clamps or straps. In adopting the methods shown in Figures 2 and 4, foot-bracers having a thickness of over one-third of the respective pillars should be used. In case of adopting the method shown in Figure 3, one solid pillar should be used at each corner of a building, notwithstanding the pillar may be weakened by foot-bracer. another method is to use pieces of timber as a pillar, as shown in both Figures 5 and 6. In that case, blocks of wood just fitting the space between the pieces of timber should be inserted at every two or three feet, and should be fastened with a metal bond, wire, or bolt, in order to prevent the pillar from bending or twisting. Still It is desirable that foundation-sills and foot-bracers should be crossed with a brace at the four corners and fastened with bolts, as in Figures 7 and 8. One or two through-bracers (toshinuki) should be used as in the case of foot-bracers and fastened with bolts, as in Figures 9 to 14; but in the cases of Figures 11 and 14 the blocks of wood should be inserted at both surfaces of the through-bracers. In the intermediate space between the pillars where no window or door is to be made, or where outward appearance is of no particular consequence, struts should be placed and fastened to the throughbracers and pillars with bolts. Shikii and kamoi (the lower and upper grooved beams, respectively, in which doors or shutters slide) should be fixed to the pillars simply with screws, if possible, in order to avoid cutting into the pillars and weakening them. Nageshi (a horizontal piece of timber used in the framework of a building) should be attached to the surface of the pillars and fastened with bolts. Moreover, the weak point of the construction at the four outer corners should be strengthened by jointing the nageshi with shaped metal straps. In places, however, where outward appearance is of no consequence, the nageshi should be overlapped at the ends and bolted to the pillars. In regard to the method of combining with the pillars such lateral timbers as dosashi, floor-beams and so forth, if possible, only one or two of the timbers should be used in a similar way as in the case of foot-bracers and dosashi. The connection of keta (top ties) and pillars should always be made in the same way as that recommended for pillars and their footbracers. The combination of the roof and walling of a building should be effected as in Figures 15, 16 and 17, e.g., either by holding the upper part of a pillar between double tie-beams placed on wall-plates, or by using double rafters and letting the tie-beam fall upon the tenon of a pillar. In both cases, bolts or iron straps should be used in fastening. Construction of the Roof-framing. - Materials of too great a dimension should be avoided in the construction of the roof, and the construction should be as in Figures 15 to 20, using such scantlings as will be just large enough to bear the weight of the roof itself together with the pressure of the wind and the weight of the snow; and all connections should be effected with thick wire, iron straps or bolts. Between the principal rafters, struts, or braces, or both, should be used, and the whole frame of the roof should be bound, as in Figure 20, with iron clamps or bolts. For resisting earthquake-shocks, a light roof is preferable and therefore all roofs should be made as light as is consistent with their In case of using tiles, it function of keeping out the wind and cold. is better to fasten them with nails or wire. as in Figures 21, 22, and 23, wood or iron fish-plates being fastened with bolts. In making a tenon also, the simpler its form the better. In case a jointed pillar is to be substituted for an ordinary one in building a two or three storied house, the joint of such post should be made at a point about two or three feet either above or below the upper floor-line of the house. Foundation-sills (dodai) foot-bracers (ashigatame), toshinuki, dosashi, keta, floor-beams and tie-beams should all be fixed so as to project somewhat at their outer extremities. Åttachment of a Porch or a Shed with the Main Building. As regards attaching a porch or a shed to the main building, the old method of tenoning or nailing should be entirely abandoned, as it is dangerously faulty, and the two structures should be joined in the same manner as keta and pillars are connected. Materials. As the quality as well as the size of iron materials has an important bearing upon the construction of a building, serious attention must, of course, be called to the selection of materials and also to the number and distribution of bolts. Besides, the size of washers should be considered, large ones being preferable to small. Wooden materials are subject to shrinkage, owing to which the bolts lose their tightness, and therefore well-seasoned timbers should be selected. Conclusion. The most essential points in regard to the construction of an earthquake-proof wooden building lie in the method of building the foundation; in the preservation of the entire power and function peculiar to each timber intact as far as possible, and in case some weakening be unavoidable, re-enforcing it by the application of iron that is much stronger than wood; in the use, wherever possible, of triangle frames, in accordance with the principle that a triangle affords an unchanging form of structure; and, finally, in the additional strengthening of the whole framework by the further use of iron materials, thus combining all the parts into a stable and united construction. Indian Engineering. SECOND PREMIATED DESIGN FOR THE LIVERPOOL DOCK OFFICES. MESSRS. WOOLFALL & ECCLES, ARCHITECTS. A REFORM IN FRENCH GRAMMAR. - There should be rejoicing in every school-room not only in France and Navarre, but also wherever French is taught. A beneficent decree emanating from the Council of Public Instruction, the sovereign pedagogic body of the country, ordains that henceforth French syntax and orthography are to be simplified. The grammar is to be purged of certain obnoxious difficulties that have never served any other purpose than to try the memory and patience of successive generations of scholars. This important reform will deprive some of the most distressing chapters in the French grammar of their worst terrors. First and foremost, be it noted, the unsurpassably terrible chapter which deals with the past-participle of verbs conjugated with avoir is suppressed altogether. As every student knows to his misery, the agreement of these participles with the object was governed by rules of such hair-splitting nicety that the grammarians themselves were at loggerheads with regard to them. For the future these participles are always to be invariable, and this welcome immutability is to be extended to the past-participle of reflective verbs. Thus, it is now permissible to write: "Les livres que j'ai lu” and “Elles se sont tu." Another simplification affects those perplexing nouns that have hitherto been of two genders. Henceforth they may be of either gender, according to taste. You may say, "Les grandes orgues or un des plus grands orgues," the adjective coupled with gens may be masculine or feminine, as you prefer, and to make orgues, pâques or période feminine is to cease to be a heinous grammatical offence. But in the case of substantives the most gratifying innovation is in connection with the plural of composite nouns. These plurals in the past were a crux of the first magnitude For instance, you had to write timbres-poste and paquebots-poste, but for some inscrutable reason the plural of train-poste was trains postes. For the future, the essential rule is to be that the plural is to be formed in the simplest manner possible by adding an "s" to the end of the last word. Pedantic people are still to be at liberty to stick to the old orthography, but it will be as legitimate to write coffreforts as coffres forts, or bassecours as basses cours. Again, chédœuvres is to be tolerated as the plural of chef d'œuvre, and tétatêtes as that of tête à tête. Besides ordering these changes, and many others there is no room to mention, the Council speaks out boldly in favor of the reign in a general way of simplicity and common-sense in matters grammatical. It indulges, in particular, in a shrewd thrust at examiners, who, in France, as elsewhere, delight in stumping" their victims by setting them questions dealing with trumpery peculiarities it would be better to neglect. Altogether the Council has deserved well of mankind. It has done something to deliver the French schoolboy from the dreaded colle, and it has lightened for humanity at large the task of learning French grammar. - Paris correspondence of the Pall Mall Gazette. FELLING OLD CHIMNEYS. Of the method of felling old chimneystacks by burning out inserted props devised by James Smith, of Rochdale, Eng., the Scientific American says: "In felling a chimney, the stack is first thoroughly examined and careful notes made as to its height, weight and condition. A survey of the surroundings is then made to ascertain which is the best direction in which to overthrow the structure, and so long as the available area which is to receive the mass is a little more than the length and breadth of the stack, it is sufficient. Having determined upon the direction of the fall and the available area to receive the stack, an incision is made in the centre of the chimney at a height of 5 or 6 feet from the ground, facing the direction in which it is to fall, and corresponding cuts are made on each of the sides. As the bricks are removed, an underpinning of 6" x 6" timbers is inserted, the work being carried on until about two-thirds of the base of the stack has been so treated. By this time the stack usually is listing over slightly in the direction in which it is to fall, the list being an indication that the chimney is resting almost entirely upon the underpinning. At the same time on the reverse side of the chimney there will appear a slight crack in the masonry. The underpinning is carried on until this fracture appears, for unless the greater part of the structure rests upon the supporting-posts, the direction of the fall can by no means be predicted with certainty. The gap made in the base of this stack must be of sufficient width to cause the structure to drop and telescope when falling. If only a narrow gap were made, the stack would simply pivot on its base and come down intact, measuring its length on the ground; but as it is desired to concentrate the debris, a sufficient gap is made at the base to ensure that as the stack leans to its fall it will drop a few feet vertically en masse, the jar thus given to it causing the mass to crumble upon itself. As soon as the underpinning is complete, a fire of highly inflammable combustibles is built and the props are thoroughly saturated with oil and covered with pitch and tar. On the occasion of the felling of a stack at Preston, which was 250 feet in height and weighed over 3,500 tons, there was consumed in burning out the underpinning 6 tons of coal, 4 tons of pitch, 40 sacks of shavings, 108 gallons of tar and 126 gallons of paraffine. The burning of the props has to be most carefully watched, since it is necessary that they all collapse at the same time to ensure that the chimney will fall in the desired direction. CATALPA TREES AT WESTMINSTER. All who have visited Westminster in this fine weather must have been struck by the magnificence of the row of broad-leaved flowering trees which flank one side of Bridge Street under the Clock Tower. The trees, which were planted about twenty-five years ago, present in most summers no more than an agreeable splash of green in the midst of the glare of the surrounding buildings and the great court-yard leading to the House of Commons. But this year they have burst forth into an unwonted exuberance of large white blossoms, which hang in graceful clusters and contrast charmingly with the dark-green leaves below and around. The tree is a variety of the catalpa, two species of which are found in the United States and two in Japan. The common catalpa (Catalpa Bignoides), known also as the bean tree, catawba, Indian-bean, and cigar-tree, was discovered and named in 1726. It is found chiefly in the Gulf States, but has been acclimatized in Europe, and is used largely for ornament in the South. One or two good specimens are to be found in St. James's Park, and there is a remarkably fine young catalpa in full flower in the Inner Temple Gardens, where it seems to flourish with a vigor and beauty denied to the traditional white and red roses of the Houses of York and Lancaster.- Westminster Gazette. A NEW WATER-POWER ON THE ST. LAWRENCE. A good instance of the enormous growth and importance of the electro-chemical industry in the United States is afforded by the huge power-plant of the St Lawrence Power Company at Massena Springs, Ñ. Y. This installation will take advantage of an extremely curious configuration of the country, whereby the St. Lawrence River is nearly 50 feet higher than one of its tributaries, the Grass River, which is only three miles distant. A canal cut across this short stretch of country gives one of the best waterpowers in the world and no less than 150,000 horse-power, or three times that generated in the great plant at Niagara, will be produced. All of this gigantic power will be used on the spot in electrolytic processes for the manufacture of calcium-carbide, bleaching-powder, alkali, etc. — Exchange. REPORTERS' COPYRIGHT.-The recent decision of the House of Lords, which was given in favor of the London Times and against Mr. John Lane, who had republished a volume of Lord Rosebery's speeches, taken from the stenographic reports in the Times, has evidently opened a new field for reporters. Mr. Lane has received the following note:Dear Sir, Since the reporter has been adjudged the owner of copyright in a speech, may I draw your attention to the fact that there are many speeches made annually by various speakers which would have considerable value as literary productions. As a verbatim author I beg to offer you the next half dozen speeches to be made by the Lord Chief Justice, Mr. Balfour, Lord Rosebery, Mr. Birrell, Mr. Asquith and Mr. John Morley. They could be brought out as a volume of copyright literary essays, and as there appears to be no necessity for stating by whom the speeches were made, I, as the author, would of course stipulate that my name should appear on the title-page. N. Y. Times. THE TELEPHONE FORESHADOWED IN "PUNCH."-The old saw that many a true word is spoken in jest finds an admirable illustration in a quotation from Punch, of December 30, 1848, which is published in the London Electrical Engineer. The quotation, which foreshadows the telephone in a remarkable manner, is as follows: "Our attention has been directed to an article made of guttapercha called the telakouphanon, or speaking trumpet, a contrivance by which it is stated that a clergyman having three livings might preach the same sermon in three different churches at the same time. Thus, also, it would be in the power of Mr. Lumley, during the approaching of the holiday time, to bring home the opera to every lady's drawing-room in London. Let him cause to be constructed at the back of Her Majesty's Theatre an apparatus on the principle of the ear of Dionysius, care having been taken to render it a good ear for music. Next, having obtained an Act of Parliament for the purpose, let him lay down, after the manner of pipes, a number of telakouphanon, connected (the reader will excuse the apparent vulgarism) with this ear, and extended to the dwellings of all such as may be willing to pay for the accommodation. In this way our domestic establishments might be served with the liquid notes of Jenny Lind as easily as they are with soft water, and could be supplied with music as readily as they can with gas." CANAL LOCKS AND LIFTS. The means of overcoming the difference of level of the country through which canals pass is in most cases the employment locks placed either singly or in flights, depending on the height to be overcome. About twenty-five years ago, the locks between the Trent and Mersey Canal and the River Weaver, where there is a difference of 50 feet, were superseded by the hydraulic lift at Anderton. The boats here are floated into iron troughs, which are raised or lowered by hydraulic power, one boat ascending and another descending at the same time. This system was subsequently adopted on other canals in France and Belgium, and, with some modifications, in Germany. What is claimed as an improvement on this system is now being carried out on the Erie Canal in America, at Lockport, by what is termed a “Pneumatic Balance Canal Lock." A description of this lift was given in a paper contributed to the Franklin Institute by Mr. Chauncey N. Dutton. The existing stone locks were erected in 1836, and overcame a lift of 62 feet by means of five flights. The lock which is being erected to supersede these consists of two steel chambers, one for ascending and the other for descending boats. These chambers are divided into two parts, the upper one containing water to receive the boats, and provided with gates, as in the case of the Anderton lift; and beneath this a second chamber containing compressed air on which the lock-chamber floats. The air-chambers are so proportioned that they automatically differentiate the air pressure. The water in the lock-chamber which contains the boat at the upper level is so adjusted that its weight, with the boat it contains, is 200 tons greater than that of the lower one. Each of these locks weighs 1,500 tons and contains 4,500 tons of water, the weight in motion, when the boats are ascending and descending, exceeding 12,000 tons. The advantages claimed by the use of compressed air are a saving in cost and in working. - Indian Engineering. WHAT A YEAR'S WORK MEANS.-A well-known economist has figured out that out of ninety-eight chief national industries in a given year only twenty-nine gave men work 300 days in the year. — N. Y. Evening Post. S J. PARKHILL & Co., Printers, Boston, U. S. A No. 220. BON VOYAGE. 31 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1900. ON Saturday, August 4, Mr. Louis Allen Osborne, Principal of the School of Design, Scranton, Pa., started for Europe, where he will make a study of the systems of instruction in the principal art-schools of England and France. Mr. Osborne has already visited many of the principal schools and colleges teaching ornamental design in the Eastern part of the United States, in order that our Course in that branch of study might. embody the best material and be conducted upon the latest and most approved system. In addition to this, his experience gained by a thorough study of the Kensington Art School in London, and the School of Fine Arts in Paris, will enable him to conduct the School of Design upon a system far in advance of what was originally intended for it. By visiting in person the monuments and objects of art that are used to photographically illustrate the Instruction Papers, he will be able to lay before our students a concise and logical explanation of the theory of ornament that can be exceeded in value only by a personal visit to these monuments by the students themselves. He will also visit the leading manufacturing districts of England and France, studying the theory of applied design as put into practical demonstration by the designers employed in large plants, such as those of Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Birmingham, etc., in England, as well as those of Lille, Valenciennes and Rheims in France, and Brussels in Belgium. INTL. CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOLS, PENCIL VS. PEN AND INK-POT. ONE day just after the editor of a great daily paper had mislaid his Dixon "American Graphite," and been obliged to use a pen again, he sat down and wrote as follows: "The form of the stylus or steel-pen changes, and the pigment and its vehicle vary, but this otherwise enlightened and lucky generation is as much the slave and the victim of the ink-pot with its nasty contents as was the mediæval monk, the Roman, or the Greek, or the Egyptian under the first dynasty, or the Chinamen of the time of Lien-Hwang, the Celestial. MODELLING THE DESIGNS. PERHAPS you have wondered why Berger's Classic Metal Ceilings are so different in appearance from the ordinary stamped-metal plates of other makers. The general run of metal-ceiling plates are stamped from die-sunk models; hence, produce more or less of a stiff mechanical effect. Berger's Designs, on the contrary, are first modelled in clay, by the deft fingers of an expert, who gives them the artistic finish possible in this plastic material. The model is faithfully reproduced in the die, and our correct method of stamping brings out the detail in bold relief. Thus we retain the characteristic plastic effect of the original model, and secure an artistic elegance that would otherwise be unat tainable. TWO IMPORTANT CONTRACTS. MORSE, WILLIAMS & Co., Philadelphia, Pa., one of our largest manufacturers of Elevators report two particularly large contracts for the month of August -one from the Union Passenger Station at Pittsburgh, consisting of five Hydraulic Passenger Elevators; two Hydraulic Passenger and Freight Elevators; six Hydraulic Freight Elevators of the Plunger type, all made with the latest improvements and best approved designs. Another large contract from the Terminal Station, Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, for two Hydraulic Passenger and two Hydraulic Freight Elevators. VOLUME LXIX. VERMONT MARBLE WINS. A CABLEGRAM just received from Paris announces that the Columbian Marble Quarrythe gold medal for the finest exhibit of marbles ing Company, of Rutland, has been awarded at the Paris Exposition. This news is a great honor to the Company and the State. Vercoming this trophy, and the citizens of Rutmonters will join with the Company in welland will be especially proud to learn that marble taken out of the local quarries has been given first place in competition with the varieties produced by Italy and other marbleproducing countries of the world. Columbian Company's quarries produce white, blue and fancy marbles, numbering sixteen varieties, which places the Company well up to the head in the matter of the grades of marble put on the market. The The exhibit of the Company was placed in the floor and wainscoting of the United States Exhibit Building at Paris. The floor was laid in large blocks of white marble, with smaller pieces of colored marble forming a border. The wainscoting displayed to advantage the more richly-colored varieties. IN one after another of the Besse Syndicate of New England stores the Frink System of show-window and store lighting has been installed. As this work has extended over a period of two years, the proprietors have had ample time to test the efficiency and economy of the system, and it is a noteworthy fact when once a mercantile concern has used this system it never goes back to another, either when building new stores or remodelling old ones. Among other recent important con. The Morse, Williams Company are among tracts reported by I. P. Frink are thirty of "How many million lifetime units of mus- our most progressive manufacturers, and are the Woolworth Five and Ten Cent Stores in cular and nervous energy have been ex- well equipped for furnishing Elevators suited different parts of the country, in which the pended unnecessarily in the mere act of to every purpose. They are thoroughly in window-reflectors are being installed. Rogers, stretching the hand over to the ink-stand to formed as to every improvement in their spe- Peet & Company, whose old store at the dip the pen in this black liquid, relic of pri- cial line of manufacture, and give perfect corner of Warren Street and Broadway was meval barbarism? How many precious souls satisfaction to their many patrons. (Continued on page 3.) |