[1] Science and Progress Subjects: | Electricity, Light, Technology, Military Technology, Agriculture, Bacteriology, Vaccination, Exploration |
Reports that the French postal and telegraph department has begun using 'electric lights [...] supplied by the Faure accumulators, and the steady even light obtained by this means has decided the authorities to give the system a trial of eighteen months'. In Berlin, meanwhile, the 'Edison Company has purchased for the whole of Germany the right of using the Faure-Sellon Volckmar accumulators', and in London 'interesting experiments have been made upon the Underground Railway with the Gualard-Gibbs' method of electric lighting' which 'enables the user of the energy supplied to turn it on with a switch, as he might gas or water'. In this system, 'all the work is done by secondary currents, which are generated in much the same way as in the well-known induction coils', and 'at stations along the route where light or power is wanted the current is passed through a secondary generator, in which the potential is raised to the degree that may be needed for lamps, or for driving machinery'. (326) Also records that the 'well-known physiologists' Chambrelent and Macssous have 'at length succeeded in recognising in the milk of cows affected with inflammation of the spleen, the bacillus of that disease', and they have 'further succeeded in their experiments in the reproduction of this micro-organism and in inoculating animals with it'. In addition, notes that 'Baron Nordenskjold is contemplating a voyage to the South Pole in 1885', while 'M. de Brazza, the French explorer is generally believed to be alive, though news of his death has been several times circulated and contradicted'. (327)
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[2] Obituary Subjects: | Electrochemistry, Invention, Patents, Chemistry, Botany, Acclimatization, Pharmaceuticals |
Records the death of 'Sir William Siemens, one of the greatest inventors and scientists of this century', who 'first came to England in 1842, to introduce an improvement in the newly-discovered art of electro-plating' and 'subsequently determined to make his permanent residence here, being led to do so by the protection afforded by the English patent law to his inventions'. Also notes the passing of John E Howard, a 'scientific chemist and quinine manufacturer' who 'contributed largely to the introduction into India of the cultivation of cinchona plant'. (328)
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