repeated trials, which the passengers watch with the characteristic meekness of Americans. All this dangerous and annoying ineffectiveness might be done away with by an automatic contrivance. The French once used a device by which an elevator could be stopped at any given story at will by pressing a knob, which caught a corresponding piece in the elevator, and acted through it on the shipper-rope. A contrivance of this sort would not answer for our swift-running elevators; but there would be no difficulty in arranging a contact-piece on the elevator, which, as it passed by a spring, held out by pressing a button at the landing, would transmit a current capable of closing the valve and stopping the elevator precisely at the required point. In the same way, pushing out the contactpiece from inside the car would also close the circuit and stop the movement exactly at the proper place. The starting might be effected by the ordinary shipper-rope, but it seems likely that even here an electrical device, with, perhaps, a small alarmbell to warn passengers, would act more quickly and surely, and with far less effort on the part of the operator, and less distraction of his attention from what should be his chief care, the safety of his passengers, than the apparatus at present in use.
THERE must be some brave men and women in the service the United States in Chicago, to judge by the accounts
which reach us of the condition of the Federal building, in which are accommodated the Post-office, the Sub-Treasury, the Custom-house, the United States Courts, and other departments of the Government service for that city. The New York Herald informs us that “ hardly a day passes ” without the discovery of some new fracture, and daily inspections are made by the Government Superintendent of Construction, Mr. M. E. Bell, lately Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department. The Herald goes on to say that “ the cracking of the ironwork under an unnatural strain is a familiar sound.” The iron “cross-pieces” over the doors in three of the rooms “ have fallen out in the last three weeks, and it was only a matter of luck that no employe was injured by the falling iron.” One would say that a building in which the iron lintels over the doors flew out about once a week, narrowly escaping hitting the occupants on the head, had at least the premonitory symptoms of a dangerous condition, and it is not surprising to learn that “ the employes are getting to be alarmed, and the timid ones are looking for other positions.” The Chicago Post is quite sure that, although, as it says, the tile flooring, laid new last spring, now looks “ like the billows of Lake Michigan when there is a strong breeze from the northwest,” there is “no immediate danger”; but the life and accident insurance companies have refused to take any more risks at regular rates on the occupants of the building, and an important iron column broke the other day, while the water-supply pipes in the basement were torn apart months ago, flooding the mail matter stored there. Mr. Bell is convinced that the collapsa of the whole affair is simply a question of time, and the newspapers amuse themselves by discussing whether it will fall all at once, or piecemeal. Meanwhile, it does not seem to occur to any one that it is an outrageous piece of cruelty to keep the poor clerks in constant terror of their lives, to say nothing of the real danger, which we believe to be very great. The catastrophe, in such cases, always comes before it is expected. People get used to seeing the cracks in the walls, and the “ billows ” in the floors, and do not notice the stealthy increase which finally overcomes the last effort of resistance of which the materials are capable ; but the resistance is sure to be overcome in the end, and the momentum of the first serious rupture carries everything before it. There will be money enough to be spent in erecting the new building which is obviously needed, without increasing the appropriation to pay indemnity for the lives and limbs of ten or twelve hundred young men and women, crushed and maimed through the negligence of those who were bound to look out for their safety.
THE project for obtaining designs from sculptors for our new coinage appears to have come to nothing. All the
designs submitted in competition were rejected, apparently with good reason, inasmuch as no artist of repute was tempted by the terms of the contest to take part in it, and the regular engraver of the Mint is to make the designs. Curiously, but perhaps naturally, the Director of the Mint seems to lay the poor success of his competition, not to the uninviting character of the terms proposed, hut to the lack of artists in the country capable of doing such work ; and he is said to have informed a
reporter that the engraver of the Mint was “ the only competent person to prepare these designs.” If, as we suppose, the engraver is the same person who designed the present silver coinage, the Director will find that a good many people will disagree with him. However, it appears to be too late to do anything about the matter now, and we must content ourselves with observing what sort of work of the kind the English sculptors will turn out, and, perhaps, with trying to imagine the coins which St. Gaudens or Warner would have designed for us if they had had the opportunity. If any one wishes to assist his fancy on the latter point, let him turn to our heliotype illustration of the pedestal of the Farragut statue, in New York, to see what St. Gaudens can do in low relief; or find a photograph of one of Mr. Warner’s sweet little portraitsculptures, and compare it with the head on a five-cent piece.
THE Scientific American says that the great ship-builders, Messrs. James and George Thomson, of Glasgow, have
modelled a steamer guaranteed to steam fast enough to cross the Atlantic, we suppose from New York to Queenstown, within five days. Like the “ Aurania,” and one or two others of the very fast Atlantic ships, the new one is to be comparatively short and stout in model, having a width of seventy feet, and length of six hundred and thirty, or nine times the width, while nearly all the present fast steamers have the length ten times the width. The engines are designed for thirty-three thousand indicated horse-power, which does not seem disproportionate for so large a ship, and will drive twin screws, twenty-two or twenty-three feet in diameter. A novelty, which may not commend itself to the passengers, consists in the provision of twelve machine-guns, to be mounted on the promenade deck. What these are for we cannot conceive. Against the guns of a man-of-war they would be about as useful as so many squirts ; and, while they might be fired at boarding parties, the prospect that a party of men in rowboats would be able to overtake such a vessel, even if they were to undertake an attack upon it without the support of an iron-clad, which could sink it from a distance, long before they had rowed within range of the machine-guns, is very faint; while, from the point of view of the first-class passenger, there would he much more ground for apprehension in the possibility that the steerage passengers might some day take a fancy to seize the machine guns, and use them as an argument for persuading their more prosperous shipmates to share their valuables with them.
AN interesting competition is announced by the French Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs. A prize of four hundred dollars is offered for the best design for a set of dining-room furniture, in wood, to be adapted to a room of not more than three hundred and thirty square feet of floor-space, and to cost complete not more than five hundred dollars. The room is supposed to have three or four openings, including doors and windows, and the number and character of the pieces composing the set are left to the competitors, except that there must not be less than twelve chairs, and there will naturally be a table. An estimate of cost must accompany the drawings, which must be at a scale of one-fifth the actual size. No copying of existing examples or designs is permitted, and even the servile imitation of a style already known is forbidden. With the geometrical drawings must be sent a sketch of the room, showing the arrangement of the pieces. Besides the furniture, a prize of two hundred dollars is offered for the best design for decorative fixtures for incandescent electric-lamps. A set of fixtures, suitable for a parlor covering about four hundred and forty square feet of floor-space, and about eleven feet high, must he designed, and shown by a sketch at one-tenth the actual size, and by geometrical drawings and details at the full size. In both cases, second and third, and possibly fourth prizes will be given, as may be determined by the jury. The drawings must be numbered, and a cipher, for each set, made on the face of each drawing, besides its number; and a letter, specifying the number of drawings in the set, must accompany them. The real name and address of the author must be written on the back of each sheet. The drawings to which prizes are awarded will remain the property of the Union Centrale, but will not be reproduced except by consent of their authors. All the designs must be in the hands of the Secretary of the Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs, at Door No. 7, in the Palais de 1’Jndustrie, Paris, on October 31, 1891.
THERE must be some brave men and women in the service the United States in Chicago, to judge by the accounts
which reach us of the condition of the Federal building, in which are accommodated the Post-office, the Sub-Treasury, the Custom-house, the United States Courts, and other departments of the Government service for that city. The New York Herald informs us that “ hardly a day passes ” without the discovery of some new fracture, and daily inspections are made by the Government Superintendent of Construction, Mr. M. E. Bell, lately Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department. The Herald goes on to say that “ the cracking of the ironwork under an unnatural strain is a familiar sound.” The iron “cross-pieces” over the doors in three of the rooms “ have fallen out in the last three weeks, and it was only a matter of luck that no employe was injured by the falling iron.” One would say that a building in which the iron lintels over the doors flew out about once a week, narrowly escaping hitting the occupants on the head, had at least the premonitory symptoms of a dangerous condition, and it is not surprising to learn that “ the employes are getting to be alarmed, and the timid ones are looking for other positions.” The Chicago Post is quite sure that, although, as it says, the tile flooring, laid new last spring, now looks “ like the billows of Lake Michigan when there is a strong breeze from the northwest,” there is “no immediate danger”; but the life and accident insurance companies have refused to take any more risks at regular rates on the occupants of the building, and an important iron column broke the other day, while the water-supply pipes in the basement were torn apart months ago, flooding the mail matter stored there. Mr. Bell is convinced that the collapsa of the whole affair is simply a question of time, and the newspapers amuse themselves by discussing whether it will fall all at once, or piecemeal. Meanwhile, it does not seem to occur to any one that it is an outrageous piece of cruelty to keep the poor clerks in constant terror of their lives, to say nothing of the real danger, which we believe to be very great. The catastrophe, in such cases, always comes before it is expected. People get used to seeing the cracks in the walls, and the “ billows ” in the floors, and do not notice the stealthy increase which finally overcomes the last effort of resistance of which the materials are capable ; but the resistance is sure to be overcome in the end, and the momentum of the first serious rupture carries everything before it. There will be money enough to be spent in erecting the new building which is obviously needed, without increasing the appropriation to pay indemnity for the lives and limbs of ten or twelve hundred young men and women, crushed and maimed through the negligence of those who were bound to look out for their safety.
THE project for obtaining designs from sculptors for our new coinage appears to have come to nothing. All the
designs submitted in competition were rejected, apparently with good reason, inasmuch as no artist of repute was tempted by the terms of the contest to take part in it, and the regular engraver of the Mint is to make the designs. Curiously, but perhaps naturally, the Director of the Mint seems to lay the poor success of his competition, not to the uninviting character of the terms proposed, hut to the lack of artists in the country capable of doing such work ; and he is said to have informed a
reporter that the engraver of the Mint was “ the only competent person to prepare these designs.” If, as we suppose, the engraver is the same person who designed the present silver coinage, the Director will find that a good many people will disagree with him. However, it appears to be too late to do anything about the matter now, and we must content ourselves with observing what sort of work of the kind the English sculptors will turn out, and, perhaps, with trying to imagine the coins which St. Gaudens or Warner would have designed for us if they had had the opportunity. If any one wishes to assist his fancy on the latter point, let him turn to our heliotype illustration of the pedestal of the Farragut statue, in New York, to see what St. Gaudens can do in low relief; or find a photograph of one of Mr. Warner’s sweet little portraitsculptures, and compare it with the head on a five-cent piece.
THE Scientific American says that the great ship-builders, Messrs. James and George Thomson, of Glasgow, have
modelled a steamer guaranteed to steam fast enough to cross the Atlantic, we suppose from New York to Queenstown, within five days. Like the “ Aurania,” and one or two others of the very fast Atlantic ships, the new one is to be comparatively short and stout in model, having a width of seventy feet, and length of six hundred and thirty, or nine times the width, while nearly all the present fast steamers have the length ten times the width. The engines are designed for thirty-three thousand indicated horse-power, which does not seem disproportionate for so large a ship, and will drive twin screws, twenty-two or twenty-three feet in diameter. A novelty, which may not commend itself to the passengers, consists in the provision of twelve machine-guns, to be mounted on the promenade deck. What these are for we cannot conceive. Against the guns of a man-of-war they would be about as useful as so many squirts ; and, while they might be fired at boarding parties, the prospect that a party of men in rowboats would be able to overtake such a vessel, even if they were to undertake an attack upon it without the support of an iron-clad, which could sink it from a distance, long before they had rowed within range of the machine-guns, is very faint; while, from the point of view of the first-class passenger, there would he much more ground for apprehension in the possibility that the steerage passengers might some day take a fancy to seize the machine guns, and use them as an argument for persuading their more prosperous shipmates to share their valuables with them.
AN interesting competition is announced by the French Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs. A prize of four hundred dollars is offered for the best design for a set of dining-room furniture, in wood, to be adapted to a room of not more than three hundred and thirty square feet of floor-space, and to cost complete not more than five hundred dollars. The room is supposed to have three or four openings, including doors and windows, and the number and character of the pieces composing the set are left to the competitors, except that there must not be less than twelve chairs, and there will naturally be a table. An estimate of cost must accompany the drawings, which must be at a scale of one-fifth the actual size. No copying of existing examples or designs is permitted, and even the servile imitation of a style already known is forbidden. With the geometrical drawings must be sent a sketch of the room, showing the arrangement of the pieces. Besides the furniture, a prize of two hundred dollars is offered for the best design for decorative fixtures for incandescent electric-lamps. A set of fixtures, suitable for a parlor covering about four hundred and forty square feet of floor-space, and about eleven feet high, must he designed, and shown by a sketch at one-tenth the actual size, and by geometrical drawings and details at the full size. In both cases, second and third, and possibly fourth prizes will be given, as may be determined by the jury. The drawings must be numbered, and a cipher, for each set, made on the face of each drawing, besides its number; and a letter, specifying the number of drawings in the set, must accompany them. The real name and address of the author must be written on the back of each sheet. The drawings to which prizes are awarded will remain the property of the Union Centrale, but will not be reproduced except by consent of their authors. All the designs must be in the hands of the Secretary of the Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs, at Door No. 7, in the Palais de 1’Jndustrie, Paris, on October 31, 1891.