of Mrs. Richards and Mr. Jordan, who conducted this part of the investigation, in separating and examining the nitrifying organism. The process of isolation and separate cultivation is too long to describe. It is sufficient to say that the ordinary processes of cultivating bacteria proved perfectly useless, and that it was only by devising a different one that colonies of living objects were obtained which, when put into sterilized flasks, containing solutions of chloride of ammonium and carbonate of soda, with a little phosphate of soda and sulphate of potash, would completely convert the ammonia into nitric acid. These creatures were examined with the microscope, and proved to be short, slightly oval bacilli, grouped in irregular clumps, and held together by a jelly-like material. These jelly-like masses of bacteria were found to resemble closely similar masses, or zooglcea, found in the effluent from the filtertanks ; and, on microscopic examination of the sand from a filter-tank in full activity, the particles were found to be dotted, or in some cases, completely covered, with the same zoogloea.
THE English Government, like our own, has resolved to have new designs for its coinage, and it is to be hoped
that it will have better success than we have had. Eight sculptors, Messrs. Armstead, Birch, Brock, Ford, Gilbert, Poynter, Thornycroft and Woolner, have been invited to make competitive designs, but Messrs. Gilbert and Woolner have declined. The jury consists of Sir John Lubbock, who appears to be a man of universal accomplishment, Sir Frederick Leighton, the President of the Royal Academy, Mr. John Evans, the President of the Numismatical Society, the Deputy Master of the Mint, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, and Mr. R. B. Wade, who represents the joint-stock bankers. The English coinage is already far superior to ours in design, but it is capable of still further improvement, and it will be interesting to see what the most noted sculptors in England will make of the subject. The competition closes at the end of September.
THE foreign journals announce the death of Giovan-Batista Filippo Basile, of Palermo, one of the most distinguished Italian architects. It will be remembered that Signor Basile made one of the most notable designs for the fatjade of the Cathedral of Milan. He was the architect of the Theatre of Victor Emmanuel, at Palermo, Director of the Royal School of Engineering, and a member of a great number of artistic and literary societies.
AN extraordinary elevated railroad is to be built in Naples. The city, like Cincinnati, possesses suburbs at a much higher elevation than the old town, and the problem to be solved is the conveyance of passengers quickly from the business quarter to the suburbs. The solution now adopted consists, practically, in bringing the suburbans, by a level road, passing along the top of an enormous viaduct, to the central portions of the town, and then lowering them, by means of elevators, to the solid ground. With returning passengers the process is reversed. As now laid out, some of the piers of the viaduct will be considerably more than three hundred feet high. The elevators, for lifting the passengers through the hollow piers, are to be driven by electricity, which will be generated by a waterfall in the River Sereno, and transmitted in the usual way to the place where it is wanted.
LE GENIE CIVIL, in speaking of the two-days’ strike of
the Parisian omnibus-drivers, which took place last May, gives some interesting statistics of the movement of omnibuses and street-cars in Paris. Nearly all the omnibus and streetcar lines in the city belong to the Compagnie Generale des Omnibus. The longest line is the tramway from the Louvre to Versailles, which is about twelve miles long, but this is quite exceptional, few of the routes extending over more than five miles, while one, that from the Porte Ornano to the Cemetery of St. Ouen, is considerably less than a mile long. The tramways, although the starting-point of several is the Louvre, extend mostly to suburban points, only omnibuses being tolerated in the most crowded streets. On the most frequented lines, however, large omnibuses are employed, having seats for forty persons, instead of the twenty-six to thirty seats for which the ordinary omnibuses are fitted. The number of seats, in either case, includes those on top, where nearly as many persons are accommodated as in the interior. On the most popular line of all, that extending through the “ Great Boulevards,” from the Madeleine to the Place de la Bastille, forty
seat omnibuses are exclusively used, and carry, on an average, fifty passengers on each trip. This, of course, includes the persons who ride for a short distance, and then get out, and are replaced by others, as no omnibus in Paris is allowed to take in more passengers than it has places for. The Madeleine- Bastille omnibuses make 814 trips per day, carrying thus more than forty thousand passengers, and earning thirty-two dollars a day for each vehicle, or more than half a million dollars for the whole line. None of the other omnibus-lines are so profitable as this, although some carry more passengers to each trip. The least profitable line appears to be that from St. Charles to Grenelle, which carries an average of two passengers per trip, and earns one dollar and seventy-five cents per day for each vehicle. The total number of passengers in 1889, over the seventy lines operated by the Compagnie Generale, was 214,296,940, or a little less than twice as many as are transported by the West End Railway Company, of Boston, which holds a monopoly closely resembling that of the Compagnie Generale des Omnibus. To propel its 911 vehicles of all kinds, the latter company employs 13,485 horses. It will be interesting to stockholders in our omnibus and street-railway companies to know that, notwithstanding its complete monopoly, the transportation business of the Compagnie Generale is done at about cost; the total sum received from passengers in 1889, which, being the year of the Exposition, was an unusually profitable one, having been 7,945,000 dollars, while the expenses were 7,756,000 dollars; and surplus sufficient for a dividend was obtained by the sale of manure from the stables, rental of advertising space and miscellaneous rents, apparently of special omnibuses, and possibly of stable and office-room, which brought in 838,000 dollars. Of the expenses, by far the largest item was for horses and fodder, which cost over four million dollars during the year; the taxes and government charges were 792,700 dollars; the rolling-stock and repairs cost about the same sum, and the wages of conductors, drivers and inspectors, who are paid a dollar a day each, amount to 1,531,000 dollars. The rest of the money goes for administration and general expenses, which take 726,000 dollars per year.
W
E are afraid that the lovers of Alpine scenery, who have hardly yet got over their indignation at the idea ol a railway up the Jungfrau, will be still more distressed at the intelligence that a concession has been granted for a double line from Zermatt, one branch of which leads to the top of the Matterhorn, while the other finds its terminus at the top of the Gornergrat. The author of this somewhat startling project is Xaver Imfeld, an engineer of considerable reputation, not only as a topographer, but as a bold mountain climber. Until recently, he has modestly declined to allow his name Ip be publicly mentioned in connection with the matter, preferring to have his coadjutor, M. Ileer-Betrix, of Bienne, manage the business part; but M. Ileer-Betrix died not long ago, and Herr Imfeld has been obliged to appear as the head of the enterprise. Like the Jungfrau railway, those of the Gornergrat and the Matterhorn will run partly in tunnels, but the extreme steepness of the Matterhorn peak makes even the tunnels unique of their kind. In a horizontal distance of 1,780 metres, or a little more than a mile, the Matterhorn road ascends through a vertical distance of 1,345 metres. This gradient is tolerably startling to the ordinary engineering mind, educated to the belief that a rise of thirty metres to the mile is serious steepness, but nothing less will climb the Matterhorn. At the top, of course, the road comes to the open air, and in the tunnel are observation galleries, with refreshment rooms, bedrooms for tourists, and other conveniences. At the foot of the peak, also, just above the Theodule glacier, the road comes out of the tunnel, and continues on the surface thence to Zermatt. The ascent of the Gornergrat is made entirely in open air. It is hardly necessary to say that the ascent of the last mile and a half of seventy-five per cent gradient is made by means of ropes, which are propelled by electric motors, and drag the cars up the steep incline. The more moderate ascents are made by means of a toothed middle rail and toothed wheels, driven by motors in the cars, and it is intended to connect the lines with the new railway from Yisp to Zermatt; so that, apparently, the tourist will be able to go without change of cars from Geneva to the top of the Matterhorn, if lie will only think to adapt himself to the proper angle in time to avoid being rolled heels over head over the back of his seat, when the car begins the final ascent.
THE English Government, like our own, has resolved to have new designs for its coinage, and it is to be hoped
that it will have better success than we have had. Eight sculptors, Messrs. Armstead, Birch, Brock, Ford, Gilbert, Poynter, Thornycroft and Woolner, have been invited to make competitive designs, but Messrs. Gilbert and Woolner have declined. The jury consists of Sir John Lubbock, who appears to be a man of universal accomplishment, Sir Frederick Leighton, the President of the Royal Academy, Mr. John Evans, the President of the Numismatical Society, the Deputy Master of the Mint, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, and Mr. R. B. Wade, who represents the joint-stock bankers. The English coinage is already far superior to ours in design, but it is capable of still further improvement, and it will be interesting to see what the most noted sculptors in England will make of the subject. The competition closes at the end of September.
THE foreign journals announce the death of Giovan-Batista Filippo Basile, of Palermo, one of the most distinguished Italian architects. It will be remembered that Signor Basile made one of the most notable designs for the fatjade of the Cathedral of Milan. He was the architect of the Theatre of Victor Emmanuel, at Palermo, Director of the Royal School of Engineering, and a member of a great number of artistic and literary societies.
AN extraordinary elevated railroad is to be built in Naples. The city, like Cincinnati, possesses suburbs at a much higher elevation than the old town, and the problem to be solved is the conveyance of passengers quickly from the business quarter to the suburbs. The solution now adopted consists, practically, in bringing the suburbans, by a level road, passing along the top of an enormous viaduct, to the central portions of the town, and then lowering them, by means of elevators, to the solid ground. With returning passengers the process is reversed. As now laid out, some of the piers of the viaduct will be considerably more than three hundred feet high. The elevators, for lifting the passengers through the hollow piers, are to be driven by electricity, which will be generated by a waterfall in the River Sereno, and transmitted in the usual way to the place where it is wanted.
LE GENIE CIVIL, in speaking of the two-days’ strike of
the Parisian omnibus-drivers, which took place last May, gives some interesting statistics of the movement of omnibuses and street-cars in Paris. Nearly all the omnibus and streetcar lines in the city belong to the Compagnie Generale des Omnibus. The longest line is the tramway from the Louvre to Versailles, which is about twelve miles long, but this is quite exceptional, few of the routes extending over more than five miles, while one, that from the Porte Ornano to the Cemetery of St. Ouen, is considerably less than a mile long. The tramways, although the starting-point of several is the Louvre, extend mostly to suburban points, only omnibuses being tolerated in the most crowded streets. On the most frequented lines, however, large omnibuses are employed, having seats for forty persons, instead of the twenty-six to thirty seats for which the ordinary omnibuses are fitted. The number of seats, in either case, includes those on top, where nearly as many persons are accommodated as in the interior. On the most popular line of all, that extending through the “ Great Boulevards,” from the Madeleine to the Place de la Bastille, forty
seat omnibuses are exclusively used, and carry, on an average, fifty passengers on each trip. This, of course, includes the persons who ride for a short distance, and then get out, and are replaced by others, as no omnibus in Paris is allowed to take in more passengers than it has places for. The Madeleine- Bastille omnibuses make 814 trips per day, carrying thus more than forty thousand passengers, and earning thirty-two dollars a day for each vehicle, or more than half a million dollars for the whole line. None of the other omnibus-lines are so profitable as this, although some carry more passengers to each trip. The least profitable line appears to be that from St. Charles to Grenelle, which carries an average of two passengers per trip, and earns one dollar and seventy-five cents per day for each vehicle. The total number of passengers in 1889, over the seventy lines operated by the Compagnie Generale, was 214,296,940, or a little less than twice as many as are transported by the West End Railway Company, of Boston, which holds a monopoly closely resembling that of the Compagnie Generale des Omnibus. To propel its 911 vehicles of all kinds, the latter company employs 13,485 horses. It will be interesting to stockholders in our omnibus and street-railway companies to know that, notwithstanding its complete monopoly, the transportation business of the Compagnie Generale is done at about cost; the total sum received from passengers in 1889, which, being the year of the Exposition, was an unusually profitable one, having been 7,945,000 dollars, while the expenses were 7,756,000 dollars; and surplus sufficient for a dividend was obtained by the sale of manure from the stables, rental of advertising space and miscellaneous rents, apparently of special omnibuses, and possibly of stable and office-room, which brought in 838,000 dollars. Of the expenses, by far the largest item was for horses and fodder, which cost over four million dollars during the year; the taxes and government charges were 792,700 dollars; the rolling-stock and repairs cost about the same sum, and the wages of conductors, drivers and inspectors, who are paid a dollar a day each, amount to 1,531,000 dollars. The rest of the money goes for administration and general expenses, which take 726,000 dollars per year.
W
E are afraid that the lovers of Alpine scenery, who have hardly yet got over their indignation at the idea ol a railway up the Jungfrau, will be still more distressed at the intelligence that a concession has been granted for a double line from Zermatt, one branch of which leads to the top of the Matterhorn, while the other finds its terminus at the top of the Gornergrat. The author of this somewhat startling project is Xaver Imfeld, an engineer of considerable reputation, not only as a topographer, but as a bold mountain climber. Until recently, he has modestly declined to allow his name Ip be publicly mentioned in connection with the matter, preferring to have his coadjutor, M. Ileer-Betrix, of Bienne, manage the business part; but M. Ileer-Betrix died not long ago, and Herr Imfeld has been obliged to appear as the head of the enterprise. Like the Jungfrau railway, those of the Gornergrat and the Matterhorn will run partly in tunnels, but the extreme steepness of the Matterhorn peak makes even the tunnels unique of their kind. In a horizontal distance of 1,780 metres, or a little more than a mile, the Matterhorn road ascends through a vertical distance of 1,345 metres. This gradient is tolerably startling to the ordinary engineering mind, educated to the belief that a rise of thirty metres to the mile is serious steepness, but nothing less will climb the Matterhorn. At the top, of course, the road comes to the open air, and in the tunnel are observation galleries, with refreshment rooms, bedrooms for tourists, and other conveniences. At the foot of the peak, also, just above the Theodule glacier, the road comes out of the tunnel, and continues on the surface thence to Zermatt. The ascent of the Gornergrat is made entirely in open air. It is hardly necessary to say that the ascent of the last mile and a half of seventy-five per cent gradient is made by means of ropes, which are propelled by electric motors, and drag the cars up the steep incline. The more moderate ascents are made by means of a toothed middle rail and toothed wheels, driven by motors in the cars, and it is intended to connect the lines with the new railway from Yisp to Zermatt; so that, apparently, the tourist will be able to go without change of cars from Geneva to the top of the Matterhorn, if lie will only think to adapt himself to the proper angle in time to avoid being rolled heels over head over the back of his seat, when the car begins the final ascent.