FARCOT'S IMPROVED WOOLF COMPOUND ENGINE. In a preceding article, we have described a ventilator which is in use at the Decazeville coal mines, and which is capable of furnishing, per second, 20 cubic meters of air whose pressure must be able to vary between 30 and 80 millimeters. In order to actuate such an apparatus, it was necessary to have a motor that was possessed of great elasticity, and... more...

THE FRENCH SCIENTIFIC STATION AT CAPE HORN. In 1875 Lieutenant Weyprecht of the Austrian navy called the attention of scientific men to the desirability of having an organized and continual system of hourly meteorological and magnetic observations around the poles. In 1879 the first conference of what was termed the International Polar Congress was held at Hamburg. Delegates from eight nations were... more...

The inauguration of the statue of Philip Lebon, the inventor of lighting by gas, occurred on the 26th of June, at Chaumont, under the auspices of the Technical Gas Society of France. The statue, which we illustrate herewith, is due to the practiced chisel of the young sculptor Antide Pechine, who has perfectly understood his work, and has represented the inventor at the moment at which he observes a... more...

ELECTRICAL LABORATORY FOR BEGINNERS. By GEO. M. HOPKINS. It is only when theory and practice, study and experiment, go hand in hand that any true progress is made in the sciences. A head full of theory is of little value without practice, and although the student may apply himself with all his energies for years, his time will, to a great extent, have been spent in vain, unless he by experiment rivets... more...

SIR WILLIAM FOLLETT. The disappearance from the legal hemisphere of so bright a star as the late Sir William Follett, cast a gloom, not yet dissipated, over the legal profession, and all classes of society capable of appreciating great intellectual eminence. He died in his forty-seventh year; filling the great office of her Majesty's Attorney-general; the head and pride of the British Bar; a... more...

LORD MANSFIELD AND HIS COACHMAN. The following is an anecdote of the late Lord Mansfield, which his lordship himself told from the bench:—He had turned off his coachman for certain acts of peculation, not uncommon in this class of persons. The fellow begged his lordship to give him a character. "What kind of character can I give you?" says his lordship. "Oh, my lord, any character your... more...

BAYARD TAYLOR. SELECTIONS FROM THE EXPERIENCES OF THE A.C. "Bridgeport! Change cars for the Naugatuck Railroad!" shouted the conductor of the New York and Boston Express Train, on the evening of May 27, 1858.... Mr. Johnson, carpet-bag in hand, jumped upon the platform, entered the office, purchased a ticket for Waterbury, and was soon whirling in the Naugatuck train towards his destination. On... more...

M. LOUIS BLANC M. Louis Blanc, a democratic journalist, with all, and perhaps more than the usual talents of the Parisian journalist—with all, and more than the usual faults of one—has undertaken to write the history of his country, during and since the revolution of 1830. What can we expect to be the result of such an undertaking? What can we expect from a man who sits down to a task of this... more...

IMPROVED FILTER PRESSES. Hitherto it has been found that of all the appliances and methods for separating the liquid from the solid matters, whether it is in the case of effluents from tanneries and other manufactories, or the ocherous and muddy sludges taken from the settling tanks in mines, some of which contain from 90 to 95 per cent. of water, the filter press is the best and the most economical,... more...

ohn Calvin was born in the village of Noyon, in northeastern France, on the 10th of July, 1509. He was intended by his parents for the priesthood, for which he seemed to be peculiarly fitted by his naturally austere disposition, averse to every form of sport or frivolity, and he was given an excellent education with that calling in view; but finally at the command of his father—whose plans for his... more...