further in detail. As population grew, and conditions of life changed, the Press grew in proportion. The one Australian journal of 1803 stood alone for ten years, then a companion was started in Tasmania, after that the growth was more rapid. If every paper started were to be counted, the number would be considerable, but, as has been seen, they were for the most part of short duration. In 1838, there were 23, in 1845, speaking roughly, 56; little over one for each year since the institution of the Press. In 1888 there were about 514, and five years later there were (omitting Western Australia) 533. The decade from 1893 to 1903 has seen this materially increased, the present number being 856 for the six States of the Commonwealth. A glance at some of the figures may be of interest, as showing the direction in which the newspaper press has developed in the various portions of the Commonwealth.

In 1898, the number of papers in the various colonies was approximately : - New South Wales, 231 (Sydney 52, country 179); Victoria 150 (Melbourne 43, country 107); Queensland 75 (Brisbane 29, country 46); South Australia 52 (Adelaide 23, country 29); Tasmania 25 (Hobart 13, country 12); the number for Western Australia is difficult to ascertain. The number of newspapers shown in State directories for 1903 are: New South Wales, 297 (Sydney, 76, country, 221); Victoria, 298 (Melbourne, 80, country, 218); Queensland, 128 (Brisbane, 36, country, 92); South Australia, 61 (Adelaide, 34, country, 27); Tasmania, 23 (Hobart, 14, country, 9); Western Australia, 49 (Perth, 14, country, 35). The increase in the number of papers is greatest in Victoria, where they have almost doubled-more than doubled in the country. The same thing has happened with regard to country papers in Queensland, the increase in Brisbane being about one-fourth of the original number. In New South Wales the expansion has been less-about one-fourth in the country and one-half in town, a little less than a third in the whole State. South Australia has an increase of about one-fifth of the total, with a decrease in the country. In Tasmania there has been a slight falling off, three less in the country and only one more in Hobart. The increase in Western Australia would naturally be in country districts, as each new mining town promptly starts its own journal, and before long rivalry provides another.

But it is not in numbers only that an advance is to be seen. Many and startling as have been the changes that have come to the conditions of life and work generally, nothing, perhaps, has been so thoroughly revolutionised as the processes by which a newspaper is evolved. Inventions touch other trades here and there, but it may almost be said that the Press has absorbed them all, adding on its own part innovations that would make an old-time printer stare. And though this may be apparent in the old country, the contrast is still more striking where the pioneers had added difficulties to contend with.

In order to appreciate the enterprise of the old

pressmen it is necessary to glance back at the conditions under which they worked. The first few years of the 19th century found New South Wales an isolated little settlement on the coast of an unexplored continent, from the interior of which it was shut in by mountains over which a pass had not yet been found, cut off by thousands of miles from the world's news and all sources of supply, and with little local news and a small public. In Tasmania, or, to give it its older name, Van Diemen's Land, an even smaller settlement struggled with most primitive conditions: : a little community housed for the most part in bark huts, the poorer settlers clothed at times in skins when stores of clothing ran short, and new supplies were long in coming, living in constant dread of a descent of hostile blacks, or, later, of bushrangers, such circumstances offered few hopes of success to a paper. The earlier "Gazettes," "published by authority," had one source of support as the vehicle of Government proclamations and announcements at a time when "the words, the habits, the conduct, and almost the looks of the people were regulated by general orders," a newspaper thus becoming a necessity. But this did not last long, and a general unwillingness to pay subscriptions even in kind, must have seriously discounted any advantage. Then in the conduct of the paper itself, not only were facilities for collecting news entirely absent, but the mere distribution presented difficulties hard to realise in a settled country. A notice in Howe's "Sydney Gazette" for February 1st, 1812, shows in a sentence the primitive conditions of life. "To subscribers. The last week's paper did not leave town till Wednesday, owing to the pacquets which we sent by a messenger on horse-back on Sunday, being run away with by the horse, who left his rider on the Paramatta road, and distributed the paper about the woods of Gommorramorara, from whence they were recovered and, of necessity, reprinted."

Then appliances were apt to be primitive even for the time. A small hand press, probably not new, a miscellaneous assortment of second-hand type-these were the tools with which the early pressmen worked. The printer had need of courage and determination. The type for the "Port Philip Gazette," in 1839, was dumped in an unassorted heap on the floor. It needed cleaning-experiments had to be made with the ashes of different woods in order to discover a ley. A roller was wanted-and had to be made. The idea of a rubber roller occurred to the experimenter, but there was not enough of the material at hand to carry out the idea that anticipated a patent of some years later. At a loss for some large letters, the printer, Mr. Strode, had to cut all over four line letters, finding after many trials that New Zealand pine stood the sun and the water best for his cutting. In the following year he had to face an even greater difficulty, when, owing to the drunkenness and insubordination of his two workmen, "for six weeks he continued single-handed to bring out his bi-weekly issue without dummies and without delay. The first finger was so

inflamed with the picking up of the type that he had to employ the next finger. He allowed himself but two hours sleep each night." We learn that the "Colonist" boasted a "Columbian press, the largest probably that has ever crossed the line." In 1865 there is a notice of the marvels of the new printing press of the London "Times," a Koenig, "turning out 1,000 sheets an hour." Many another press has crossed the line since then and the printer's craft has been revolutionised and the principal Australian journals have not been slow in adopting the latest developments, what Americans are pleased to call "Back numbers," being removed as scrap-iron to make place for newer models. From the small handpress of Howe's time and the restricted and variegated paper supply that so often vexed his soul, to a present day newspaper-office with two or three of Hoe and Co.'s huge printing and insetting machines capable of turning out a 10 to 24-page paper at a rate of from 24.000 to 72,000 an hour, using rolls of paper from 3 to 5 miles long, is a far cry. In most of the larger offices linotypes have entirely superseded hand-setting, and electricity displaced steam as a motive power. As time has passed the names of newspapers have grown shorter, and their prices have decreased, while on the other hand circulations have increased from the old "Gazette" 350, and the boasted unprecedented edition of the old "Australian" in 1825-682, and the 1,000 on which the "Monitor" paid stamp duty, to figures in some cases equalling all but a few of the most widely distributed English journals.

The capital of each State has as a rule its two great dailies, most offices publishing also weekly and some evening papers, the latter freely and well illustrated. In Sydney the "Sydney Morning Herald " and the Sydney Mail," the latter an illustrated weekly with its own staff of artists, photographers and photo-engravers, uphold the traditions of the firm, the Bulletin," that "journalistic sledge hammer," blends aggressive democracy with the encouragement of local literary talent of the swag, hilly and back-blocks type. The "Town and Country Journal," devoted to pastoral, agricultural and mining boasts a large number of readers; the "Pastoralists' Review" is a monthly journal devoted to matters affecting the pastoral and agricultural interests; the "Stock and Station Journal," devoted to producers, is a bi-weekly, while the "Worker" is the official organ of trades unions. Of provincial prints, the 66 Forbes Times" (1861) claims to be the oldest paper in the western districts of New South Wales, the "Glen Innis Guardian" (1871), the oldest of northern New South Wales, while the "Tenterfield Standard" (1870) claims seniority of twenty years in the agricultural and mining districts towards the Queensland border. In Victoria, the "Argus" and the "Australasian," the "Age" and the "Leader" hold their own, while dozens of others represent every shade of opinion and every interest, and not a few

nationalities, including German, Jewish, and Chinese. The same may be said of the other States and capitals. In Adelaide, besides the "Register," with its weekly "Observer” and daily "Evening Journal,” and the " Advertiser," with its "Chronicle" and "Express," there is "The Critic," an up-to-date weekly, which has contrived to combine the functions of a society and mining journal in a way to win success; and other papers-religious and otherwise. A powerful and widespread country press is a feature of Australian journalism, but this is too wide a subject to be treated in a small space.

There are many problems of the highest importance in physics, engineering, chemistry, geology, and the arts, of which the investigation might probably prove of great benefit to the human race, and of which the probable monetary cost of the attack would be considerable, and of some very great indeed. Let us, then, inquire how the necessary funds could be raised. It is possible in the case of some of the more attractive problems that a group of rich philanthropists might be found, but in most cases it would be impossible to form a company on business lines, under the existing laws of this and other countries, as I shall endeavour to show.

In the case of many of the problems, no patents will give adequate protection; in some cases there is no subject-matter of novelty and importance involved. In other cases the probable duration of the investigation is so long that any initial patents would have expired before a commercial result was reached, and under either of these circumstances there would be no inducement to business men or financiers to undertake the risk.

As an illustration of my meaning, I will take two investigations that have doubtless occurred to the minds of most of those present, though many others of greater or less importance might be cited. One is the thorough investigation of the problem of aerial navigation, with or witnout the assistance of flotation by gas. This problem could undoubtedly be successfully solved by an organised attack of skilled and properly trained engineers, and the expenditure of a large sum of money. Assuming the problem solved, and commercially successful, it appears to be impossible under the existing patent laws to secure any adequate monopoly so as to justify the expectation of a reasonable return on the capital expended on the invention. For in view of the multitude of suggestions that have been carried out, the practical solution of the problem would appear to rest on a judicious selection of old ideas by means of exhaustive experiments.

Another and perhaps more important investigation which has not, as yet, been attacked to any material

Extracted from the Address to the Engineering Sectiou of the British Association at Cambridge, by the Hon. Charles A. Parsons, M.A., F.R.S., M. Inst.C.E, President of the Section.

extent is the exploration of the lower depths of the earth. At present the deepest shaft is, I believe, at the Cape, of a little over one mile in depth, and the deepest bore-hole is one made in Silesia, by the Austrian Government, of about the same depth. What would be found at greater depths is at present a matter for conjecture, founded on the dip and thickness of strata observed on or near the surface. Much money and many valuable lives have been devoted to exploration of the polar regions, but there can be no comparison between the scientific interest and the possible material results of such exploration and the one I have chosen for illustration of the inadequate protection afforded by law-namely, a great engineering attack on a problem of geology.

I would ask you to consider the commercial aspect of this engineering geological enterprise, as compared with exploration into new or unknown areas on the surface of the earth.

An exploring expedition into a new country has before it generally the probability of the acquisition of territorial and mineral rights or possessions bringing material gain to the undertakers. The rights of such enterprises are well known, and capital can be obtained with or without national support, as the case may be. On the other hand, the explorer into the depths of the earth has no rights or monopolies beyond the mineral rights of the land he has purchased over his boring; further, it is improbable that he can obtain any patent of substantial value for his methods of boring to great depths. To succeed in the undertaking a great expenditure of money must be incurred, an expenditure far greater than that of an exploring expedition, and analogous to that of a military expedition or a small invading army, and to raise this sum the pioneers have practically no security to offer. For if they succeed in finding rich deposits of precious minerals in greater abundance, or succeed in making some geological discovery associated with deep borings, they gain no exclusive title to these under existing laws. Any other person or syndicate acting upon the experience gained, could sink other shafts in other places or countries, and, benefiting by the experience gained by the pioneers, could probably carry out the work more advantageously, and thus depreciate the first undertaking or render it valueless, as has often occurred before.

Let us consider more closely some of the essential features of sinking a shaft to a great depth, for I think it will be seen that it presents no unsurmountable difficulties beyond those incidental to an enterprise of considerable magnitude involving the ordinary methods adopted by mining engineers. That there would be some departures from ordinary practice on account of the great depth it is true, but these are more of the character of detail. On the design of this boring I have consulted Mr. John Bell Simpson, the eminent authority on mining in the North of England. The shaft would be sunk in a locality to avoid as far as possible water-bearing strata and the necessity of pumping. It would be of a size usual in

ordinary mines or coal-pits. The exact position of such shaft would require some consideration as to whether it should commence in the primary or secondary strata. It would be sunk in stages, each of about half a mile in depth, and at each stage there would be placed the hauling and other machinery, to be worked electrically, for dealing with each stage. The depth of each stage would be restricted to half a mile in order to avoid a disproportionate cost in the hauling machinery and the weight of rope, as well as increased cost in the cooling arrangements arising from excessive hydraulic pressures. At each second or third mile in depth there would be air-locks to prevent the air-pressure from becoming excessive owing to the weight of the superincumbent air, which at from two to three miles would reach about double the atmospheric pressure at the surface. A greater rise of pressure than this would be objectionable for two reasons-firstly, from the inconvenience to the workmen; secondly, from the rise of temperature due to the adiabatic compression of the circulating air for ventilating purposes. The air-pressure immediately above each air-lock would thus reach to about two atmospheres, and beneath to one atmosphere. In order to carry on the transfer of air through the air-locks for ventilating purposes pumps coupled to air-engines would be provided, the energy to work the pumps being obtained from electromotors. To maintain the shaft at a reasonable temperature at the greater depth powerful means of carrying the heat to the surface would be provided.

The most suitable arrangement for cooling would probably consist of large steel pipes, an upcast and a downcast pipe, connected at the top and bottom of each half-mile section in a closed ring. This ring would be filled with brine, which by natural circulation would form a powerful carrier of heat; but the circulation, assisted by electrically driven centrifugal pumps, would be capable of carrying an enormous quantity of heat upwards to the surface. At each half-mile stage there would be a transfer of the heat from the ring below to the ring above by means of an apparatus similar in construction to a feed-water heater, or to a regenerator constructed of small steel tubes, through which the brine above would circulate, and around the outside the brine in the ring below could also circulate, the heat being transmitted through the metal of the tubes from brine ring to brine ring.

We have now presented to us two alternative arrangements for cooling. One arrangement would be to cool the brine to a very low temperature in the top ring at the mouth of the shaft by refrigerating machinery, so as to provide a sufficient gradation of temperature in the whole brine system, to ensure the necessary flow of heat upwards from brine ring to brine ring, and overcome all the resistances of heattransfer, and so maintain the lowest ring at the temperature necessary for effectual cooling of the lowest section of the shaft. But a better arrangement would be to place powerful refrigerating

machinery at certain of the lower stages, the function of this machinery being to extract heat from the ring below and deliver it to the ring above. This latter method would increase to a very great extent the heat-carrying power of the system, which in the first arrangement is limited by the freezing temperature of brine in the descending column and the highest temperature admissible in the ascending brine column. The amount of heat conducted inwards through the rock-wall and requiring to be absorbed and transferred to the surface depends on the temperature and conductibility of the strata. But there is no doubt that the methods I have indicated would be capable of maintaining a moderate temperature in the shaft to depths of twelve miles.

During the process of sinking at the greater depths the shaft bottom would require the application of a special cooling process in advance of the sinkers, similar to the Belgian freezing system of M. Poesche used for sinking through water-bearing strata and quicksands, and now in general use. It consists in driving a number of bore-holes in a circle outside the perimeter of the shaft to be sunk; through these bore-holes very cold brine is circulated, thus freezing the rocks and quicksands and the water therein, and when this process is completed the sinking of the shaft is easily accomplished.

In our case this process would be maintained not only on the shaft bottom, but also for some time on the newly-pierced shaft sides, until the surrounding rock had been cooled for some distance from the face.

As to the cost, rate of boring, and normal temperature of the rock, an approximate estimate has been made, based on the experienced gained on the Rand, but including the extra costs for air-locks and cooling:

I hope I have succeeded in showing in the short time at our disposal that an exploration to great depths is not an impossible undertaking. But my object in discussing the enterprise at some length has been to show that a pioneer company would not acquire any subsequent monopoly of similar works under the existing patent laws or the laws of any country.

In the scheme as I have described it, there appears to be nothing that could be patented; but let us suppose that some good patent could have been found that was absolutely essential to the success of the undertaking, it would certainly have expired before the pioneer company could have reaped any substantial return, and probably before the first enterprise had been completed. It follows, therefore, that

at the present time there is no adequate protection, or indeed any protection at all, for the promoters of many great and important pioneer enterprises, some of which might prove of immense benefit to mankind.

ALCOHOL FOR INDUSTRIAL PURPOSES.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has appointed the following to serve as members of a Committee to inquire into the use of duty-free alcohol for industrial purposes:-Sir Henry Primrose, K.C.B., C.S.I. (Chairman), Professor Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., Sir W. H. Holland, M.P., the Hon. J. ScottMontague, M.P., Mr. Lothian D. Nicholson, Dr. W. Somerville, Dr. T. E. Thorpe, C.B., F.R S., Mr. Thomas Tyrer.

The terms of reference are:-"To inquire into the existing facilities for the use without payment of duty of spirits in arts and manufactures, and in particular into the operation of Section 8 of the Finance Act, 1902; and to report whether the powers conferred upon the Commissioners of Inland Revenue by this section permit of adequate facilities being given for the use of spirits in manufactures and in the production of motive power, or whether further facilities are required; and if it should appear to the Committee that the present facilities are inadequate, to advise that further measures could be adopted without prejudice to the safety of the revenue derived from spirits, and with due regard to the interests of the producers of spirits in the United Kingdom."

The need of duty-free spirit for industrial purposes was strongly urged by Mr. Tyrer in the paper which he read before the Society of Arts, April 27th last (see ante, p. 503).

General Notes.

VENICE ART EXHIBITION, 1905.—The Municipal Council of the City of Venice announce for the year 1905 their Sixth International Art Exhibition, which will be opened on the 22nd April and closed on the 31st October. It will contain pictures, sculpture, drawings, engravings, and objects of decorative art. The Exhibition is divided into Italian, Foreign, and International Rooms. Works already shown in Italy will not be accepted at the Exhibition of Venice. Except in the case of individual shows and in certain other cases to be left entirely to the judg ment of the respective committee, no artist is allowed to exhibit more than two works of the same kind. Articles intended for exhibition must be notified not later than January 1st, 1905. The notification must be sent in duplicate, using the schedule issued for that purpose by the secretary. Goods must be consigned at the buildings of the Exhibition (Giardini Pubblici) not before the 10th of March and not later than the 25th of March. All communications should be addressed to the Office of the Secretary of the Exhibition (Municipio di Venezia).

the industry. From the figures which will be found in the tables on the following pages it will be gathered that the industries with which I am dealing here belong to a branch of chemical industry which has found some of its highest developments in this country, and can favourably compare both in extent and scientific importance with that of any other country.

In order to give an approximate idea of the enormous sums that change hands in these industries in this country alone, I have compiled from the Board of Trade returns the figures contained in the following four tables (pp. 796, 797).

SOURCES OF SUPPLY.

Fatty oils and fats occur in every part of the vegetable and animal organisms. They accumulate, however, in certain parts of the plant or animal in greater quantities than in others. In plants, they are generally contained in some considerable quantities in the fruits or seeds, so that their extraction becomes commercially feasible.

We are able to produce fatty oils and fats synthetically from fatty acids and glycerin, and it may become possible in the distant future to manufacture the fatty acids themselves from petroleum hydrocarbons. Nature,

CANTOR LECTURE.

OILS AND FATS-THEIR USES AND APPLICATIONS.

BY DR. J. LEWKOWITSCH, M.A., F.I.C. Lecture 1.-Delivered January 25th, 1904. In its widest sense, our subject embraces not only those familiar products, oils and fats, or the products derived therefrom, with which everyone is acquainted, such as candles, soap, and glycerin, but it also includes some branches of the agricultural industries. For not only the cultivation of oleaginous seeds and the growing of oil-yielding fruits, but also the raising of fat stock fall within the purview of the industries which will occupy our attention in this lecture and the following ones.

Thus the oil and fat industries play a very important part in the domestic economy of our daily life, especially if we include amongst them, as indeed we must, the industry of edible oils and fats.

I do not intend to treat the subject from a historical point of view, and I will therefore plunge straightway into the present state of

the raw material, that the production of oils and fats by synthetical methods will for a long time to come lie outside the domain of practical considerations.

As the supply of home grown oleaginous seeds is altogether a negligible one, and furthermore, as the quantities of home produced fats such as lard, tallow, butter, play an insignificant part as compared with the total quantities that are brought into the market, foreign sources of supply forced themselves at an early stage of our industries on the attention of the manufacturer.

Owing to the geographical position of this country, it is no wonder that the earliest works which were erected inland, rapidly migrated to the seaports of London, Liverpool, Hull, Bristol, Glasgow, and Leith. These towns thus became the great emporia of the fat and oil trade in this country. Here we receive the enormous quantities of oleaginous seeds the linseed from India, from the Argentine, from Russia, and from Canada, to be converted into linseed oil for the soap and paint and allied industries, and into linseed cake for our cattle-raising counties. Here is landed the cotton seed that flows into this country