Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/589

Rh them more widely among the operatives. The remedy should be applied to light dusts by means of chimneys or draught-flues; and to the heavier ones by means of blasts to drive them away. In cases where the dust itself is the object of the manufacture, or is to be applied in the manufacture, the remedy is to conduct the processes in closed apparatus. When either method is practicable, the dust may be kept down or removed by water, or the articles may be worked in a moist condition. Some workmen employ masks or respirators as means of individual protection, and they may in some processes be the only efficient means available. They are liable to the objection that they are always cumbrous and inconvenient; and frequently the workmen will become careless about them, or refuse to be bothered with them, and will leave them off. They should not be depended upon when any practicable means of keeping down or removing the dust can be employed.

Gambling at Monte Carlo.—Dr. J. H. Bennett gives in the "Pall Mall Gazette" some impressive illustrations of the enormous influence for evil of the gambling establishment at Monte Carlo, Monaco. The extent of it may be best understood by a simple calculation which the author owes to a professional gambler. The chances of the table are one in thirty-six in favor of the bank, and its annual gains, after all its expenses are paid, are $3,500,000. Hence $126,000,000—and thirty-six times its expenses in addition—have to be staked in it, won and lost, every year. "It is this fact of the gambler dealing with large masses of money that partly accounts for the strange fascination exercised by gambling. A careful player, who begins with, say, a thousand pounds capital, may have fingered, according to the doctrine of chances, thirty-six thousand pounds before he loses his capital. If he play long enough, the bank royalty of one in thirty-six is sure to swallow up his capital; and then he has had all the emotion of having been alternately successful or the reverse, rich or poor. He regrets when he has at last lost his initial capital that he did not stop when successful, which he never does, vows that he will be more prudent next time, and, in order to have the chance, sells, borrows, raises money anyhow." These facts destroy the argument brought forward by the patrons of the public tables, that playing at them is more straightforward and fairer than private club gambling, and that, as long as the latter is allowed, the former should not be interfered with. "At a public gaming table the bank royalty must inevitably ruin all who play constantly long enough to have risked their capital thirty-six times, even if the playing is carried on honestly, if such a term can be used. . . . Regular gamblers find this out in the long run, and learn to avoid the public establishment," resorting to the gaming clubs or forming them; and this is the explanation of the brood of gambling clubs, casinos, etc., which rise up, as at Nice, in proximity with the public gambling establishment. "They proceed from it, are created by it, would not exist without it. . . . When I first inhabited the Riviera" (in 1859), continues Dr. Bennett, "the Monaco gambling house was a mere gambling club or casino, which excited but little notice. Now it has become the great attraction, the great fact. Half the people one meets are going or have been to Monte Carlo."

"Anti-fouling" Paint for Ships.—Because iron and steel are peculiarly liable to corrosion when immersed in salt-water, vessels made of them require special protection. This can be given by covering the metal with some alkaline or basic substance, or the oxide of some metal electro-positive to it. Caustic lime and soda are very efficient for this purpose, and act equally well when made into a paint with oil. But their efficiency is destroyed when they cease to be caustic, or when they are saturated with carbonic acid, which they absorb freely from the air. Magnesia is equally efficient, and does not absorb carbonic acid. It therefore makes as good a material for a paint as could be desired, and, moreover, forms an excellent basis on which to lay an anti-fouling paint, which it protects from the galvanic action of the iron by isolating it, while it does not affect its anti-fouling qualities. Without the protection thus afforded, the iron not only effects the decomposition of the anti-fouling paint, but it also by contact takes away the anti-fouling qualities of that