machine and the Gramme will be understood. The Dutch physicist did not
contemplate the production of a current; he utilized two distinct
sources of electricity to set the inner ring in motion, and did not
imagine that it was possible, by suppressing one of the inducing
currents and putting the ring in rapid rotation, to obtain a
continuous current. Moreover, if ever this apparent resemblance had
been real, the merit of the Gramme invention would not have been
affected by it. It has happened very many times that inventors living
in different countries, and strangers to one another, have been
inspired with the same idea, and have followed it by similar methods,
either simultaneously or at different periods, without the application
having led to the same results. It does not suffice even for the seed
to be the same; it must have fallen in good ground, and be cultivated
with care; here it scarcely germinates, there it produces a vigorous
plant and abundant fruit.--_Engineering._

* * * * *




BJERKNES'S EXPERIMENTS.


As a general thing, too much trust should not be placed in words. In
the first place, it frequently happens that their sense is not well
defined, or that they are not understood exactly in the same way by
everybody, and this leads to sad misunderstandings. But even in case
they are precise, and are received everywhere under a single
acceptation, there still remains one danger, and that is that of