THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT No. 169, For the Week ending March 29, 1879. Price 10 cents. For sale by all newsdealers. I. ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.—The Herreshoff Torpedo Boat, recently built at Bristol, R. I., for the British Government. The novelties in the placing of the screw, etc. The Peculiar Boiler. 4 figures.—Improved Hopper Steam Dredger. 2 figures.—The St. Gothard Tunnel.—The... more...

CHAPTER I "She sure is a fine boat, Dick." "And she can go some, too!" "Glad you like her, fellows," replied Dick Hamilton, to the remarks of his chums, Paul Drew and Innis Beeby, as he turned the wheel of a new motor-boat and sent the craft about in a graceful sweep toward a small dock which connected with a little excursion resort on the Kentfield river. "Like her! Who... more...

CAIUS JULIUS CAESAR. I. Julius Caesar, the Divine [3], lost his father [4] when he was in the sixteenth year of his age [5]; and the year following, being nominated to the office of high-priest of Jupiter [6], he repudiated Cossutia, who was very wealthy, although her family belonged only to the equestrian order, and to whom he had been contracted when he was a mere boy. He then married (2) Cornelia,... more...

REGINALD BLAKE, FINANCIER AND CAD The advantage of literature over life is that its characters are clearly defined, and act consistently.  Nature, always inartistic, takes pleasure in creating the impossible.  Reginald Blake was as typical a specimen of the well-bred cad as one could hope to find between Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park Corner.  Vicious without passion, and possessing brain without... more...

CHAPTER I. HOW THE LITTLE PRINCESS MADE SUNSHINE. t was raining fast, and it had rained for two days. This was the third. Flora had become tired of the leaden sky and the wet earth. She had watched the moving clouds and the swaying branches of the trees long enough, and now she was ready for fair weather. But it seemed as if fair weather would never come, and she looked in vain for a bit of blue sky.... more...

The Garden in October October is a fine time to plant every kind of "bulb, root and tuber," also all deciduous plants and shrubs, except those with thin bark or thick, fleshy roots (e.g., birch magnolia). Clean up and burn diseased plants, manure the garden, plow it and leave it all winter. Burn asparagus tops and manure the bed. Also make new asparagus and rhubarb beds and plant sets of extra... more...

INTRODUCTION. Till within a comparatively recent period but little study was given to exceptional formations. They were considered as monsters to be shunned, as lawless deviations from the ordinary rule, unworthy the attention of botanists, or at best as objects of mere curiosity. By those whose notions of structure and conformation did not extend beyond the details necessary to distinguish one species... more...

CHAPTER I. In the 1880 edition of Men of the Day, under the heading Astier-Réhu, may be read the following notice:— Astier, commonly called Astier-Réhu (Pierre Alexandre Léonard), Member of the Académie Française, was born in 1816 at Sauvagnat (Puy-de-Dôme). His parents belonged to the class of small farmers. He displayed from his earliest years a remarkable aptitude for the study of history.... more...

CHAPTER I. “A friend in need is a friend indeed.”—Old Proverb. I have often thought that the biggest bit of good luck (and I was lucky), which befell me on my outset into the world, was that the man I sat next to in the railway carriage was not a rogue. I travelled third class to Liverpool for more than one reason—it was the cheapest way, besides which I did not wish to meet any family... more...

                          DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS.                           NOVEMBER & DECEMBER                                  1663 November 1st (Lord's day). This morning my brother's man brought me a new black baize waistecoate, faced with silke, which I put on from this day, laying by half-shirts... more...