Science, Art, And The Drama.

Science , Art , and the Drama .

REMARKABLE APPLICATIONS OF ELECTRICITY .

( Continued ) . The use ot electric motors , in lieu oi steam or gas engines , is steadily increasing , and the more these new agents are employed , the more they are liked , for the advantages which they offer are great . Not very long ago , a large London paper announced on its contents bills that it was now printed by electricity , so it is evident that it is not only small machines which can b 2

served by these motors . The working expenses will depend upon the price at which the current is supplied from the public mains , and this varies in different localities . In St . Pancras parish , London , where the vestry supply the current at 3 d . per unit , the saving is considerable over either gas or steam . But setting the actual cost of the current aside , the cleanliness , absence of vibration , saving of space , constitute only a few of the

advantages covered by the new method of supplying motive power . An ingenious method of lig hting street gas lamps has been in use for sometime . In connection with each lamp there is an electric battery , which can be put into action by the rising of a little gas-holder . This holder is normally held down by weights , and requires a momentary increased pressure from the gasworks to cause it to rise . This pressure is easily brought about by opening

for half a minute a valve from the large gas-holders at the-works direct into the street mains . The battery thus put into action , turns on the gas and lights it at the same moment . With equal ease it can be exti nguished . The plan is full of ingenuity ; but the mechanism for each lamp must bs necessarily somewhat costly , and it must not be forgotten that gas for street lighting is being fast superseded by electricity . Among other industrial

purposes to which electricity has been applied is that of tanning , in which it much shortens the time required in the ordinary way . Some measure of success has also attended experiments in purifying sewage by its use . The well-known attraction which light has for fish has induced ingenious fishermen to utilise the electric light as a bait , and it is said that this never fails to bring together large shoals of fish , which swim round the illuminated

globe , and are easily caught . The ingenious Yankee is never behindhand in odd adaptations , and a patent has been taken out in the States for a mechanical pickpocket and coat-thief detector—an electrical apparatus , which automatically rings an alarm bell when the bearer ' s personal properly is tampered with . Another inventive genius so combined electricity and photography as to secure a flash light photograph of thieves at work in his

office . When they opened a glass case they completed an electric circuit , which exposed the camera and simultaneously kindled the flash light , to the great alarm of the depredators . There was exhibited some time back at the Royal Society an automatic harbour watchman , named the " hydrophore , " which is so contructed that when a torpedo boat approaches within half a mile , or a man of war within a mile , the vibrations of the screw

propeller are detected and transmitted to the signalling station . Electricity has further been used in the industrial processes of engraving , bleaching , dyeing , the reduction of ores , and the purification of metals . Mainly by its aid aluminium can now be produced at a price which is no longer prohibitive . Prior to 1855 it sold at 360 shillings per pound ; by 1862 it had fallen to 20 shillings per pound ; while now it costs only a

shilling or two . The cheapest chemical methods of producing it cannot compare with the electrical . By the use of electricity ' in welding what is in effect a new power has been put into the hands of mechanicians and constructors . It was formerly considered that only iron , steel , and platinum could be firmly welded , while now nearly every known metal and alloy has been successfully welded by the help of electricity . An electric ventilator

has been devised for supplying buildings with fresh air , cold or warm , as may be desired . An electric motor sets the ventilator revolving , and the revolution sucks cooljair in . When warm air is desired , a current of electricity is sent into a network of line wire , through which the air must pass , heating the wires , and these impart their heat to the air . For the detection of underground ores , an " electrical finder" has been devised . The mechanism of this instrument includes a telephone , which is silent in the

absence of metal or magnetic ore ; but if such be present , induced currents arise , which produce sounds in the telephone which are recognisable by experts . What should prove a most useful industrial development is the application of electricity to the cleansing and preservation of boilers . The method employed is the sending of currents periodically through the shell of the boiler . By this means , the scale formed on shell and tubes , is disintegrated and easily removed .

Our Early English Architecture.

OUR EARLY ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE .

( Continued ) . Great pains have been taken to ascertain the revival of architecture , after the destruction of the true taste , by the inundation of the northern nations ; but the discoveiies have by no means been answerable to the labour undertaken . Of French builders , there are found a few names , and , here and therean Italian or Germanbut of English we do not meet

, , with the least tiace ; while , at the same time , the founders of ancient buildings were everywhere recorded ; so careful have the monks ( thc only historians of those times ) been , to celebrate bigotry and pass over the arts . It may be taken for granted that these seeming omissions are lo be attributed to their want of perspicuity rather than to neglect . It is , however , worth y of note that among the Cotton MSS . in the British Museum , is one

of Gervasius a Benedictine , monk of Canterbury , relative to the building of that magnificent cathedral , after the fire in 1174 . It includes a very minute account of Bishop Lanfranc ' s original structure , as well as of the restoration made under the superintendence of William of Sens and of William the Englishman , who completed the work , and who is the first architect , or , at least , master mason , a native of this country ,

concerning whom anything satisfactory is known ; and that he was the first who boldl y attempted to work the ribbed and vaulted ceiling in stone . As all the other arts were confined to cloisters , so undoubtedly was architecture , too ; and when we read that such a bishop or such an abbot built such and such an edifice , we feel sure that they often gave the plans , as well as furnished the necessary funds ; but as these chroniclers ixarcc ever specify when

Our Early English Architecture.

this was , or was not , the case , we must not , at this distance of time , pretend to conjecture what prelates were , or were not , capable of directing their own foundations . England may be considered as nationally unfortunate . ^ that , whilst the Great Italian , French , and German churches are indubitably ascertained as the work of architects whose names have been recorded and have reached us , we are left to strengthen our plausible conjectures as to the

builders of almost all in our country by defective evidence . However , we have notices sufficiently authenticated of several eminent master masons—a term in those , days equivalent to architects —( 1 ) Henry Latomus ( Lithotomus , stone-cutter ) , who rebuilt the church of Evesham , 1319 ; ( 2 ) Walter de Weston , St . Stephen ' s Chapel , Westminster , Edward III . ; ( 3 ) Alan de Walsingham , the octagon and louvre of Ely Cathedral ; ( 4 ) William

Wynford , mentioned in the will of W . Wykeham as the architect of the nave of Winton Cathedral , 1403 ; ( 5 ) Nicholas Walton , temp ., Richard II ., master carpenter and engineer . In that reign the grand halls of Westminster and Eltham were completed , the stupendous timber-framed roofs of which were probably designed by and executed under the superintendence of the architect . ( To be continued . )

Criterion Theatre.

CRITERION THEATRE .

In " Lady Huntworth's Experiment , now playing at the above theatre , Mr . R . C . Carton gives a play as entertaining as it is clever , and all the more so for the ingenuity evinced in combining the common places of melodrama and farce and disguising them as comedy behind clearly defined and well constructed character sketches , made amusing by their varied personalities , as well as by the keen sprightliness of their talk . The persecuted

wife , tracked down to her secret refuge by her drunken husband , who suborned the false witnesses through whose perjury he divorced her in her poverty , now returns in the worst stage of squalor to claim and remarry his victim , suddenly and secretly restored to wealth—these are among our oldest acquaintances of the footlights . So is the sleek parson , of pedantic speech , meek under the thumb of his piously proper and severely prudish

sister . How well we know that old maid ; as familiar , though less welcome than the breezy , hearty , sporting captain , who , in his brusque way , helps with such a frank hand suffering virtue . The bashful hesitating curate , wooed by the arch damsel of a coming-on disposition , are another pair , as old , in their constantly renewed youth , as Modus and Helen . Nor would the comedy be completely peopled without the grumpy butler or the

vulgar impish slavey , set in strong contrast with the smart aristocratic cook , in which domestic service the divorced Lady Huntworth hides her identity , but not her social rank . Such are the characters of the play , rendered conventionally consistent with its main incident in the captain , the vicar , the butler , the drunkard , and the cook , by secret and simultaneous assignations in the kitchen , resulting in the primeval device of the

rabbit warren popping in and out of cupboards . Yet with such skill are these ancient elements compounded as lends not only to diversion but almost to dramatic surprises . The blot upon the otherwise well compiled story is too obvious to be overlooked , seen in the too glaring improbability of the innocent Lady Huntworth conniving , as she must have done , at a divorce , which , robbing her of name and fame , needs must wreck her

reputation , without restoring her happiness . Ihe last thing a woman of any social status gives up is her good name and standing , even if she be guilty ; how much more would she cling to both , being innocent . The openhearted loose-tongued Capt . Dorvaston fits Mr . Bourchier to a nicety , subtly indicating as he does through the stable slang , the man used to good society . Mr . Eric Lewis , as the phrase-making Rev . Audley Pillenger ,

also marked a type frequently depicted in stage fiction . The stolidity of Mr . Hendrie's humour lent a ludicrous aspect to the butler Gandy . Miss Gertrude Elliott endowed with her personal charm the lively ingenue Lucy Pillenger , whose humorous curate lover , the Rev . Thoresby , was well enacted by Sir . A . E . Matthews . Miss Pollie Emery quaintly personated the merry little kitchen drudge , Keziah . Miss Hannah Pillenger , the

crabbed old maid , found an apt representative in Miss Coleman . It is strange that the only characters which fell short of simulative perfection , were the two principal ones . Miss Compton , in the invariable monotone affected by her , with little change of expression either in face , voice , or gesture , so that the spectator was not moved to feel for a woman , who

evinced no feeling for herself . ' And , however , true to fact , as a study of dipsomania , the Caryll of Mr . D . Boucicault may be , it ; is artistically false , in that it is out of all proportion to the picture . In spite , however , of these blemishes , the reception of this really good piece , as well as its exponents , indicated an assured success .

General Notes.

GENERAL NOTES .

A good many of us would have liked to spend the last few days in Stratford-on-Avon , had the thing been possible . It is not often that the Shakspear Festival has been so interesting . Mr . F . R . Benson being busily engaged at the Lyceum , was obliged to make up a special programme

for his Warwickshire clients , and very well he did it , so well , indeed , that they may be inclined , in succeeding years , to cry out for more such entertainments . Mr . Benson ' s own company has many merits , but it does not include Hermann Vezin , John Coleman , Marion Terry , and Eleanor Calhoun .

Successes at Stratford have also been made by a young actress of much promise—Miss Lily Brayton—who plays the Queen so well in Richard II ., and who is ,-by a long way , the best lady elocutionist in the Benson company . It is a pleasure to listen to her clear , sweet , well-modulated voice . In the future Mr . Benson would do well to employ her more frequently and in more important parts .

Talking of women and the stage , one is reminded of the promised visit to London of Signora Duse . This has been hailed with general delight , even by those who are not prepared to admit that she is all that her more fanatical admirers say that she is . The appearance in our midst of such foreign artists

as Duse are a liberal education alike for our players , our audiences , and our critics . Did not the Saxe-Meiningen people help to reform our management of stage crowds ? Was not Salvini ' s Othello a revelation ? And has not Duse herself been the inspiration of many a young English actress , just as Bernhardt was before her ?