Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XIX, No. 492.
Scientific American established 1845
Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.
Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.

ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.\u2014The New Spanish Artillery.\ue0002 engravings.
Qualitative Tests for Steel Rails.\ue001By L. TETMAJER.
A New Form of Small Bessemer Plant.\ue002By A. TRAPPEN.
Triple Compound Engines.\ue003A paper read by A.E. SEATON before the Institution of Naval

Architects.
Early History of the Steam Jack.
Bridge over the River Adige, at Verona.\ue00413 figures.
Pumping Machinery.\ue005Mine pumps.\ue006Direct acting steam pumps. By E.D. LEAVITT.
Improved Gun Pressure Gauge.\ue0072 figures.
Measuring the Thickness of Boiler Plates.
On an Express Engine.

TECHNOLOGY.\ue008Improved Plaiting Machine.\ue009With engraving.
Self-acting Shuttle Guard.\ue00a1 figure.
Ruler and Triangle for Hatching.
The Distillation of Sea Water.\ue00b1 figure.
Aids to Correct Exposure on Photographic Plates.\ue00cAn interesting paper by W. GOODMAN.
Isochromatic Photography.\ue00dBy FRED. E. IVES.\ue00e2 figures.
Distortion from Expansion of the Paper in Photography.

American Association by C.E. FRITTS.
Electricity Applied to the Manufacture of Varnish.\ue0112 figures.
Naglo Brothers' Telephone System.\ue0123 figures.
The Gerard Electric Lamp.\ue0131 figure.
A New Reflecting Galvanometer.\ue0143 figures.

Silk Worm Eggs.—With engraving.
VII. HORTICULTURE.—The Melleco.—Ullucus tuberosa.—With engraving.
VIII. PHYSIOLOGY, MEDICINE, ETC.—Histological Methods.—Section cutting

for mounting tissues.—1 figure.
Life History of a New Septic Organism.
Erythroxylon Coca as a Therapeutic Agent.—By Dr. E.R. SQUIBB.

The Spanish Government is now engaged in supplying some of its principal fortifications with heavy guns of
the most improved construction. The defenses of Cadiz and Ceuta have been greatly strengthened in this
respect. The most recent additions are some very powerful Krupp guns for the fortress of Isabel II., at Mahon.

One of our engravings shows the great revolving crane by which the guns were lifted and placed on the truck
for conveyance over a track to their intended position. This crane is worked by eight men, and readily lifts
burdens of about 200,000 lb. The other engraving shows the jack frame and jacks employed to remove the gun
from the temporary truck. At a range of 7,000 yards these guns are able to penetrate iron plates of two feet
thickness.

This memoir is the first of a series upon the unification of nomenclature and classification of building
materials, undertaken by the author at the request of the Swiss Engineers' and Architects' Union. For its
preparation numerous mechanical tests have been made upon steel rails, both good and bad, taken from the
Swiss railways, while the corresponding chemical analyses have been made by Dr. Treadwell in the
Polytechnic Laboratory, at Zurich. The results are given for twenty-two examples, about one-half of which
have stood well, while the remainder have either broken, split, or suffered considerable abrasion in wear; but
in many instances the mechanical test of tensile strength, elongation, and contraction, and the figures of
quality (Wohler's sum and Tetmajer's coefficient) deduced from these have varied very considerably for the
results obtained in practice.