NOTES.

Progress, Volume VI, Issue 4, 1 February 1911, Page 548

NOTES.

Among the failures of the year are Radium and the Gyroscope. The first has done nothing in the direction predicted, but experts are sufficiently encouraged to persevere, thinking that the success obtained apparently with rodent ulcer may ultimately be extended to cancer. The Gyroscope has been much talked of, but the monorail still remains in the land of promise. So does the storage battery. * « # 11 The public scarcely realises, ’ ’ says Thp, Lancet (London), “the excessively trying nature of the work which the telephoneexchange operators, perform. . . Life at the telephone exchanges is neither a quiet nor a pleasant one. The work is trying and puts a constant strain on the attention,

while the rigid self-control is asked for in any one who, during long business hours, has to enter upon incessant dialogues with a public that is generally in a hurry. Recently, Mr. H. Samuel, in answer to a question in the House, stated that, in view of the large number of cases of hysteria and other nervous troubles reported among the operators, an investigation has been instituted.” * . * * , Many architects and builders will agree that while specifications relating to the construction and finish of buildings are generally comprehensive and clear, “that portion of them which relates to painters’ and decorators’ work is just as frequently incomplete, vague, and unsatisfactory.” The importance of minutely specifying the work to be done by the painter, and the materials he is to use, is as great as in any other part of the building trade, not only in the case of competitive work, so that those who compete can do so on an equal basis, but in order to ensure good results. Such phrases as “the materials and workmanship are to be the best,” or the “very best of their respective kinds,” which unfortunately are far from unusual, leave much to be desired, and often encourage the use of inferior goods to the detriment of the durability of the work. * ■ * * ' Three kinds of bench marks were used by the United States Geological Survey in the spirit levelling in Ohio from 1898 to 1908, inclusive, according to a bulletin by Messrs. S. S. Gannett and I). H. Baldwin. The first form was generally used in the vertical walls of public buildings, bridge abutments, or other substantial masonry structures, being a circular bronze or aluminium tablet, 3% inches in diameter and 14 inch thick, appropriately lettered, and having a 3-inch stem cemented into a drilled hole. The second form was employed where masonry or rock formation was not accessible, and consisted of a hollow wrought iron post 4 feet long and 3% inches in outer diameter, split at the bottom and expanded to 10 inches so as to resist pulling from the ground. These posts were sunk three feet in the ground—after having been coated with asphalt— a bronze tablet similar to the one already described was then riveted to the top. The third form was little used and is now altogether discontinued, being the ordinary split bolt of copper, 1 inch in diameter and 4 inches long. * * * Important new departures may, ere long, be looked for in the railway connection between Western Europe and the Far East, and the plans in question appear to be regarded with the same lively interest both in Russia and China. It is a question of bringing Pekin in nearer touch with Europe through the construction of a new railway in connection with the great Siberian railway. This new railway, about which the Governments of St. Petersburg and Pekin have , recently been exchanging views, is to proceed from the great Siberian railway in the vicinity of the Baikal Lake, straight through the Gobi Desert to Pekin, and a line of this description will materially shorten the distance between the two capitals. Both Governments are understood to favour the plan, so its realisation is looked upon as almost ensured. The first section of the new line, from Pekin to Kalgan, the last large town before entering the desert, has already been built for some time. The projected continuation, from Kalgan to Lake Baikal, will have to face considerable difficulties owing to the nature of the desert, but the journey by rail through the desert can be done in some 40 hours or less, whilst the caravan transports at present take 40 to 50 days. The projected new line should, according to the plan, be ready as early as the end of 1912, and the journey from Paris to Pekin should then only take 914 days, from St! Petersburg to Pekin 7% days. From Berlin to Pekin the distance would be reduced to 9085 kilometres, and the journey should be compassed in 211 hours, or barely nine days.