, 1880-11-19
Scientific and Useful.

riding the other day when his horse sud
denly SHE'D at heap of ashes and threw
the rider over his head. Gathering
himself up with the assistance of his
groom, he remounted the beast. An
eve. witness of the accident assures the
British public that but for the protection
afforded by the cooked hat the Prince
was wearing at the time the conso-
quences would have been Every serious
indeed"
Bolton House, Hampstead, England,
long the home OF the two famous sisters
Agnes and Joanna Baillie, will soon be
sold at auction. There they entertained
their literary friends, including Sir Wal.
ter Scott, Rogers, Lucy Aiken, Mrs.
Barbauld, Charles Lamb and Keats, and
there they died, Joanna in 1851, in her
ninetieth year, and Agnes in 1861, in
her one hundredth year, The house
and the adjoining houses were formerly
called "Ostend," for what reason is no
longer known, and the rising g, found on
which they stand is called "the Wind
mill Hilll.' The house itself appears to
have been built about the date of the
death Of George ii, or the accession OF
George III.
The needle gun is the invention of
John Nicholas Dreyse, Prussian
locksmith He was nineteen years old
when the battle of Jena was fought,
and picked up q musket upon the field,
an examination of which convinced
him that his countrymen were the
worst-armed soldiers in Europe. Dreyse
made his way to Paris and entered the
employ of Swiss gunmaker, whom
Napoleon commissioned to make
breeeh-loading musket. The young
apprentice took up the idea and worked
at it for many years, until, in 1885, he
succeeded in making a breech-lcading
needle gun The Prussian Govern
ment tried and adopted the weapon,
and supplied the inventor with means
for CARRYING on the manufacture of the
gun now used in Kaiser Wilhelm's
army.
One Of the most noticeable features
observable at the present time in large
machine shops is the increased atten.
tion given to the employment of milling
tools. Years ago, rose bits, toothed
disks and circular cutters of various
forms were adopted for occasional work,
such as cutting wheel teeth, cutting
keyways, shaping brass work, cutting
helical grooves in tools, and for such
and similar occasional purposes; but the
expense which attended sharpening the
cutters, most often by softening, filing
and rehardening, sometimes to crack in
the final process, was too great to
warrant their general use. The modern
emery wheel has, however, changed all
this so that small circular cutter,
which by hand could only be sharpened
in two hours, can now be sharpened in
about ten minutes, and all risk Of crack
ing in hardening is avoided-this being
but one among uany similar instances
that mig be cited.
The Electrician tells this story: A
number of gentlemen were the other
day about to dine, and one Of the covered
dishes was especially cared for, contain
ing, as it was seriously averred, a
"gymnotus," fresh from the rivers of
South America, which was to form part
of the repast, Usually, electricians
scrupulously observe decorum, but the
Chairman, instead of pronouncing the
benediction, turned to the dish contain.
ing the eel and solemnly requested grace,
when, with sweet cadence, as if from
mermaid in cavenous regions, was
heard all over the place "Be present
at our table, Lord" etc The cover
was then raised, and the anticipated
electric eel turned out to be a tele-
phone, which had been ingeniolsly con
nected to distant room, and which,
being a religiously good telephone, not
only produced a sensation to all present,
but afterward returned thanks in pow
erful bat well.known voice to the adj.
miring listeners.
An improved construction of boilers
with view to perfect and natural
circulation of water-consists of an
arrangement by which all of the tubes,
together with the tube sheets, may be
easily removed from the boiler shell for
cleaningor repairs. To this end the
tues or tubes are placed vertically in o
reCtannlllar nanra which is hOlted tO n