New Contrivances Ancillary To Engineering.*

enable him to take a patent in England . So far back - as 1851 , experiments were tried at Woolwich with 4 square inches of section , Avhen they broke , the 21- testing chain at 110 tons , and since then they have been tested up to 120 tons . From that time to this Madame Sinibaldi has tolled on , hopjng against hope ; and now she sits at her table in the Exhibition with her chains and links and samples befooe her , explaining them to all ,

like a brave woman as she is ; and she insists on the applicability of the system , not merely to chains , bnt to armour plates . But she also , in the usual process of hwentive improvement , has had to find a capitalist , and he has turned up in the person of the Duke of Buccleuch , who has become the proprietor of all the patents taken and to be taken for " coldrolled iron brassed . " AVe trust he may succeed in getting a perfect manufacture set up at \ A oolwicb . In involves little expense on the trial , and tlitr samples shown are susceptible of Great improvement .

The toughest iron known in former days to sustain a strain without breaking was called scrap iron . There was no brittleness in it , though it would stretch . Toughness is virtually , from experiment , the quality needed in armour plates ; and military cuirasses of hammered iron ivere better and tougher than if made of steel . To make a hoop iron cable of cast-iron would be a simple matter : to make an iron plate , drawn together in thin sheets , would be a more difficult thing , but not

necessarily would it bo more costly than the present method of building together bricks of iron like a brick Avail . It is one of the processes that is worth trying , and the AVoolwich authorities could try it . AVhether boiler plate brased together in thicknesses Avould answer , we ( lo not yet know , and we ought to exhaust the subject lest some one else should do it for us . In making a chain , it is evident that if a closed link be first made the next one should be an open link to enter itand so

, on . With solid round iron the open link is closed by the Avoiding process , and the efficacy of this must depend on the skill and honesty of the workman . If during , the process of beating atmospheric air gets access to the surfaces intended to be united , they will scale ; that is , a thin scale of oxide of iron will be interposed between the surfaces , and the result will be contact without incorporation . On the Sisco plan a very ingenious link mould revolving by

steam or other power is made to wind up the hoop into link within link ; when completed the mould opens , is again applied , and so on in succession . There can be no error in this , no defects , for every portion of the iron is seen as it winds up , and the strain put on each layer may be regulated . The workman sits in an ordinary atmosphere , and his eyes are not strained or burned with heat . When a sufficient number of links are in position they are plunged in a bath of melted metal , and the

whole of the lamina ; are bound together . The whole is galvanised , and the cable is free from rust ; central studs , and end Avearing pieces are then brased in so that each link assumes the same geometrical form as ordinary chain links , giving the strain in straight lines . There is no other mode of getting the trongest metal of iron and steel than that of making it in small sections , that we at present know of , and probably steel hooping wouldbe better than iron .

, Lifts . —Amongst the useful things that have been strangely neglected in general application , is that of self-acting lifts for ascent to buildings and descent , oncl especially of human keings , aud this is more remarkable as the types of the principle are to be found in every Avindow with a balance weight , and every spring blind . In cottage houses all ground floors , or in houses with a single story or two stories , the staircase may suffice , although it is a contrivance occupying great space ; but with the

tendency to economise space by the erection of lofty buildings with many floors now so prevalent , and of the great wants of the age age is a simple process for lifting persons ancl goods . When steam poAver exists there is no difficulty Avhatever , and a domestic power by steam or other process has yet to be brought to bear . Possibly heated air machinery without risk of explosion may eventually suffice , as small power only is needed . AVlioever can accomplish the task of enabling the inmates of dwellings

to lift themselves from one floor to another by simply pulling a cord as they wouid a bell-rope , and thus dispensing witn the staircase and the expenditure of muscular labour , will be a verylarge benefactor to society . And it must be remembered that a very important conditian of health is to live at a considerable elevation above the surface of the earth , so as to obtain a pure and dry air away from miasmatic exhalation . There is a , record of the days of the London plagues , recounting how a citizen closed his doors and retired to the upper floors of his house Avith

New Contrivances Ancillary To Engineering.*

his family , lifting all provisions by a rope , aud , while his neighbours died around him in shoals , was saved from all harm , Messrs . Lawrence exhibit a lift for Loudon warehouses . A platform is made to move vertically between four guide posts . The weight of the platform is balanced by a counterweight . For the purpose of hoisting goods a rope is connected with a crab tackle below . This is a very usrful approach to what will

be Avanted for future times . Mallet ' s BucJcled Plates . —Amongst tiie important contrivances exhibited are the buckled plates of Mr . Mallet . Everybody knows what corrugated iron is , that it gives greatly increased stiffnass to any thin metal , but it gives this stiffness only ' lengthwise with the corrugations . The buckled plates give stiffness in . ill directions ; they practically form flat domes of enornons strength with a very slight depth of buckle . Tbe

process of manufacture is to strike tbe flat plate between two iron dias , which , while leaving the edges in their normal flat form , raises the centre from a tenth to a twelfth of the breadth in height , in a curved elevation . The flat edge or base being screwed down to timber or iron joists , the elevation makes the plate enormously strong vertically , while the weight is comparatively trifling . This contrivance is the happy thoughts that embody great utility , as it were , in a flash , and rornafn complete from the outset . It is used for many purposes in floors and bridges , and there are many more uses to which it will yet bo applied .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

AMERICAN EXTRACTSThe following American extracts from my note book , maybe interesting to some ofthe brethren here , showing hoAv they manage things abroad . —Ex . Ex . "POA ' EEIT NO GRIJTE . —There is not only a distinction between exclusion for non-payment of dues and expulsion , but , as Ave think , there should be a distinction also between

the brother that cannot and another that will not pay his dues . The lodge generally has the means of knowing the condition of its members . In almost every instance it can be known whether a . brother is able to pay his dues or not , and we have always contended that if he is not able to pay he ought not to be excluded . There is au inconsistency here that our brethren ought to consider . It arises out of the administration of Masonic charity . Travelling brethren appear

in our lodges , of whom Ave know nothing but their claims , which are admitted after trial , to Masonic consideration . They apply for aid in what they declare is their emergency , and in its benevolence the lodge votes the donation . This deed may be done in the evening , and the next morning it maybe ascertained that the applicant , although a brother , was not entitled to any Masonic favour . The misapplication of Masonic charity has been made in this way in a thousand instances , when on the same occasion the name of a poor brother has been dropped from the list of membership in the lodge because be was not able to

pay his dues . How much better would it have been , for the lodge to hai'e appropriated the money , that was rather worse than wasted in its application in an unknown and unworthy case , to the payment of the dues of the brother that was known ancl appreciated as a Master Mason in good standing , and perhaps a valuable member of the lodge . We have always esteemed it a violation of the Masonic compact , a wrong to a brother and a sin against humanity to exclude him from tbe privileges of

Masonry merely because he ivas poor . AVe talk about the internal qualifications of the good Mason , and show bow he is to be esteemed on account of them rather than for any external appearances that he may present , and frequently retain the unworthy-in membership , or deplete the treasury of the lodge on his account , while Ave visit punishment upon the bead and heart of an innocent , unoffending brother , who may be suffering in his poverty , and too modest to reveal his situation . To say the

least of it , this is not Masonry . The act is utterly inadmissible in any Masonic body , and ought not be considered a single moment . Poverty , when unconnected with improper character , is no crime , and it should not be dealt with such . A poor intelligent Mason is of more service to the Craft than a rich one that is ignorant of the character and usages ofthe institution . We hope for the sake of humanity and of Masonic charity , that our brethren of the lodges generally , and in every jurisdiction , will give clue consideration to this subject , and refrain from tbe dis-