Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/731

Rh or jar of any kind, prevents even the least damage to coal or roof, in striking contrast to the action of explosives. The time occupied is an important matter. It has so far been about twelve minutes. This time includes placing the cartridge in the hole, connecting to the pump, getting down the coal, withdrawing the cartridge from the hole, and getting to the next place. The advantages claimed for this process over the ordinary blasting are (1) larger and stronger coal, which means a better average price; (2) non-interference with the working of the pit, the coal being got down whenever required; (3) no damage to roof; (4) no dust; (5) and absolute safety from the dangers attending shot firing. In previous machines of this sort trouble has been had with the joints, but it is stated that this one is free from that fault.

Timbuctoo and Jene.—Mysterious and romantic visions of wealth and gayety have been associated for centuries with the name of Timbuctoo. Of numerous travelers who have ventured much to reach the city only a few have succeeded. Thus, according to a summary in the London Academy, Mungo Park visited it in 1805, but was drowned in the Niger shortly afterward. Major Laing reached it in 1825, after a three years' expedition across the desert, but was murdered on leaving it. Rene Caillie found it about the same time, and wrote a book about it. Davidson was murdered, and Richardson died in the desert on the way thither. Dr. Bart found his way into the city, but never stirred out of doors while there. Lenz visited it and wrote a description of his adventure. The late Joseph Thomson was planning a visit to Timbuctoo when he died. Now the Frenchman, Félix Dubois, has published one of the best descriptions we have of the mysterious city. Its position on the edge of the Desert of Sahara, and at the top of the great bend of one of the largest and most constantly navigable rivers of the earth, the Niger, defines its importance. Yet M. Dubois found it not the greatest or most interesting town in the region. It is surpassed by Jene, whose name is echoed in the Anglicised form Guinea. That city dates from the seventh century; was built, not by negroes or negroids, but by the Songhis, who migrated from Egypt across the Soudan more than twelve hundred years ago; and has wonderfully solid architecture of the Egyptian order. The present inhabitants of Jene, M. Dubois says, "resemble a palimpsest on which the first manuscript is dimly decipherable. Their oral traditions, their chronicles, and their dwellings all betray their Nilotic fatherland."

Three Masters in Science.—We merely mentioned, last month, the deaths of Prof. Julius Sachs, the botanist, and Prof. Carl R. Fresenius, the chemist. Prof. Sachs was best known by his Text-book of Botany, which is one of the standard works of the science, of first authority. He was also author of the Experimental Physiologie, a work of corresponding importance in its field, a history of botany, and a collection of lectures. He was born at Breslau, Germany, in 1832, and died at Wurzburg, May 29th. His first teacher was Purkinje. He taught at Prague, Marandt, Chemnitz, and Poppelsdorf, near Bonn, and was Professor of Botany at Freiburg and Wurzburg. The fame of Fresenius dates from so early a period in the century that one would be almost inclined to reckon him as of a past generation. He was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1818, began the study of natural science very early, entered the University of Bonn in 1840 and that of Giessen a year later, and became Professor of Chemistry, Physics, and Technology at the Agricultural Institute in Wiesbaden in 1845. He was identified with that institution for the rest of his life. His best-known works are the Qualitative Analysis and the Quantitative Analysis, published in 1841 and 1846 respectively, which have passed through very numerous editions and have been translated into nearly every European language. M. Paul Schutzenberger, an eminent French chemist, died June 26th, at Mézy, France. He was born at Strasburg, the son of a lawyer, in 1829; studied medicine and then chemistry; was made professor of chemistry in the high scientific school at Mulhouse; then became adjunct director of the chemical laboratory of the Sorbonne and chief of chemical work in the Collége de France. In 1876 he was named titular professor of chemistry in this institution. For many years he directed the physical and