The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

'^8 THE LOCOMOTIVE. [Ma\%
coat-tail pocket, so that if auytbing happens he would have something to leave behind
him. There may be, however, just such companies in existence, but I fail to see any
record of them in the advertising columns of the Mail and Express, and hence am justi-
fied in believing that the better class of the reading public, who are probably provided
with boilers of their own, can have no knowledge of the active existence, or at all
events of the financial standing of any such companies, if they exist at all.'"
The tone of this item is as guileless as the smile of the celestial who played "the
game he did uot understand." For twenty-five years the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection
and Insurance Company has been insi^ecting and insuring steam boilers ; it has, up
to the first of tlie present year, made a grand total of 1,416,732 inspections, and at the
present writing has in its care between forty and fifty thousand steam boilers; and it
flatters itself that the "better class of the reading public" does know of its active ex-
istence, and of its financial standing. Yet this man signs himself " Insurance Monitor" \
In the vernacular tongue, Where has he been at ?
Mr. G. K. Gilbert has kindly favored us wath a copy of an address on The Moon^s
Face, delivered by him last December before the Philosophical Society of Washington.
Mr. Gilbert considers the origin of the features of the moon's surface, and gives an inter-
esting and very complete resume of previous theories, and then propounds a theory of
his own, which is a modification of the meteoric hypothesis. He considers it highly
probable that a plastic or semi-plastic mass of matter, -n-hich was possibly once a satellite
of the earth, struck the moon at the place now known as the Mare Imbrium, and spread
outward in all directions over the lunar surface. In this way he explains the conspicu-
ous radial arrangement of many of the lunar furrows and other markings. The theory
is certainly an inviting one, and Mr. Gilbert sustains it well.
TJte Measurement of Electric Currents is the title of No. 109 of Van Nostrand's Science
Series, a copy of which the publishers have sent us. It contains two papers, one
by Mr. James Swinburne on Electrical Meas%iring Instruments, and one by Mr. C. H.
AVordingham on Meters for Electrical Energrj. It is an excellent little volume, and we
cannot express our appreciation of it better than by endorsing the prefatory remarks of
]\Ir. T. Commerford ]Martin, who has edited the whole. "The paper by ]Mr. Swinburne,"
he says, "is laudably comprehensive, there being in it a description in some detail, or a
broad generalization that covers its principle, of well-nigh every instrument that the
electrical engineer cares to know anything about. The paper by Mr. Wordingham
looks at the question of measurement more specifically from the standpoint of the con-
sumer's installation, but even in this respect it is an admirable and useful supplement to
Mr. Swinburne's treatise "
Problems for Idle Moments.
Some persons derive considerable pleasure from the contemplation and solution of
problems. The problems may have no relation to actual life, and the time spent upon
them may perhaps be wasted ; but so long as they furnish amusement and serve to while
away an occasional hour that might otherwise be tiresome, we must recognize them as
sources of legitimate recreation. Following are a few of the better ones that have been
propounded to us lately. Some of them are old friends, that have been on their rounds
for many years. Others, we believe, are comparatively new.