Growth in Size of Ships

The arrival in New York a few days ago of the Cedric, of the White Star line, the largest steamship built, did not excite as much public interest as was aroused sixty years ago when the first diminutive steamers of the Cunard line were launched, so accustomed have we become to remarkable developments in the science of navigation and marine engineering.

The Liverpool Post recently published the contract for the first Cunard steamers. The first steamer of the line launched under this contract was the Britannia, in 1840. This vessel was a wooden paddle steamer, 201 feet in length, 34 feet in breadth, 16 feet 10 inches in depth, of 1,066 tons, with engines of 740 horse power, a speed of 8 1/3 knots an hour, and accommodations for 90 passengers. The contract price of these Atlantic liners was only $100,000. The Cedric is 700 feet long, 75 feet in breadth and 49 ½ feet deep. The vessel has nine decks. Her tonnage is 21,000. The vessel has accommodations for 3,000 passengers.

The First Iron Steamer

A British publication, reviewing the traffic by sea during the past century, recalls that the first iron steamer, the Great Britain, was 300 feet long. The screw propeller was fitted to the Great Britain, but it was not generally adopted for ocean steamers until after 1860, "principally for the reason that the Government would not permit the mails to be carried in screw steamers." The rule held good until 1862, after which the screw was adopted for all seagoing merchant steamers, though not until several years later for warships.

Excepting the Great Eastern, the length of the longest vessel in 1861 did not exceed 360 feet. The reduction of coal consumption on steamers is one of the noteworthy features of the progress of navigation. In the sixty years from 1840 to 1900 the consumption of coal was reduced from nine pounds to one and a half pounds per horsepower.

Contrasting the Celtic, the companion vessel of the Cedric, with the Oceanic, launched in 1871, the reviewer observes that in one year the Celtic will do the work of about fifteen old Oceanics, while the working cost will be increased about four times.

Rotary Fan Lights Train

A novel idea in lighting trains by electricity is the "Gullot" system, which has been experimented with successfully on a small scale on an important road and is now to be applied to an express train. As in the case of the "axle light," the motion of the train is used to generate the electricity. Instead, however, of taking this power from the car axle, it is furnished by a rotary fan attached to the front end of the locomotive.

No gale of wind is required to cause the fan to operate; the ordinary pressure to the train moves it sufficiently to generate the electrical energy required to light any train and leaves a large surplus for ventilating fans and other purposes.

The dynamo is located either on or under the pilot and is directly connected to the fan by a special device. A storage battery is located on the tender or underneath each car, and so equipped automatically with cutouts as to properly govern the flow of current from dynamo to battery. It is evident that the cost of illumination will be only the expense of installing and maintaining this apparatus.

Origin of the Military Salute

Of military salutes, raising the right hand to the head is generally believed to have originated from the days of the tournament, when the knights filed past the throne of the queen of beauty, and, by way of compliment, raised their hands to their brows to imply that her beauty was too dazzling for unshaded eyes to gaze on. The officer's salute with the sword has a double meaning. The first position, with the hilt opposite the lips, is a repetition of the crusaders action of kissing the cross hilt of his sword in token of faith and fealty, while lowering the point afterward implies either submission or friendship, meaning in either case that it is no longer necessary to stand on guard.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

(The editor of this column invites readers of The Herald to contribute questions of a literary, scientific or miscellaneous nature, which will be answered as space may permit. The contributor's name and address should be given, but only initials or a nom de plum will be used for publication.)

Bible Hours: Church Hours

Lucy, Westmount-1. Give the equivalent in modern time of day of the Bible hours, third hour, sixth hour, etc. also the time of the watches spoken of in the Bible. 2. State the hours of service for the different kinds of church worship, Matins, Vespers etc., Ans-1. The Jewish day was two-fold (1) the natural day, which began at sunrise and lasted from ten to fourteen hours, according to the time of the year; (2) the civil, beginning at sunset the first day and ending at sunset the second day. In the time of Christ the night was divided into tour watches of three hours each, viz.: 1, at sunset, or 4 p.m.; 2, at 9 p.m.; 3, at 12 p.m.; 4, at 3 a.m. The natural day was divided into four equal parts: First watch at 6 a.m., or sunrise; 2nd, at 9a.m.; 3rd, at 12 p.m.; 4th, at 3 p.m. These watches were divided into hours. Thus, 3p.m was termed the ninth hour and 12 p.m. the sixth. St. Luke 23-44, "And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour," that is from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. And so with the preceding and succeeding hours. Ans 2. The church hours of the Anglican and Roman Catholic communions are eight in number, with appropriate services for each: Matins, very early in the morning; Prime Lauds, Terce, at 9 a.m.; Sexts, 12 a.m.; Nones, 3p.m. Then follow Vespers and Complin. In the Anglican Church the hours are fixed for Terce, Sexts and Nones as above; the time for the other services is less definite. Matins, though really a very early service, is the term applied to the ordinary morning service at 10.30 or 11. Complin is generally said at 10 p.m.

Arnold on Self-Denial

Rita, Sherbrooke - Give a brief account of Matthew Arnold's lately published notebook.

This book (published by Smith Elder) contains selections from various authors, which Matthew Arnold copied into his notebooks. They extend over thirty-seven years. He made it a practice to add to this store of knowledge not only from time to time, but every day. He says, "One must be struck more and more, the longer one lives, to find how much in our present society a man's life of each day depends for its solidity, and value, on whether he reads during THAT day, and far more still, on what he reads during it." The quotations in the notebooks include English, French, German, Italian, Latin and Greek authors. All speak of the desire that filled his life to understand the mystery of things, and the relation of man to the eternal happiness and enjoyment were secondary considerations. He wished to know - to banish superstition - to teach others to climb the barriers against which he may have stumbled. What he held too is that a man must exercise self-discipline and concentrate his energies if he wishes to impress his personality upon the world. Concerning self-denial, he says: "They that deny themselves will be sure to find their strength increased, their affections raised, and their inward peace continually augmented."--"He that will not command his thoughts and will, will soon lose command of his actions." 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee." - Isaiah 26-3

Names And Pictures of Birds

A.P.C., Longueuil - Can you tell me of any book published specially for sportsmen, and descriptive of the birds prized by those who go shooting?

Ans--The best book available is probably "Names and Portraits of Birds Which Interest Gunners," by Gordon Trumbull, who states that its descriptions are "In language understanded of the people." This book, published by Harper Brothers, New York, in 1888, at a cost of $2.50 a copy, not only gives names, pictures and full descriptions of all birds useful to sportsmen but states in what localities they are to be found, and also gives the local name, which is important, as each district of North America has its own name for some particular bird.

First Canadian Novelist

L.J.H., Sherbrooke.-1. Who was the first Canadian novelist? State the titles and character of the first works of fiction written in Canada.

Ans.-1. Major John Richardson, born 1797, died 1860, was the first man I know of who wrote a work of fiction on Canadian soil and relating to life in North America. He wrote "The Canadian Brothers," and also "Wacousta," the latter work appearing in 1832. major Richardson also wrote some poems, of which the best known is "Tecumseh," written 1832, published 1828. Major Richardson was with Techumesh at the battle of the Thames, 1813, during the invasion of Canada by the United States forces. Tecumseh was killed in this battle. In 1832 Major Richardson published his best known work, conspiracy of Pontiac.

Finest Book in Canada

A Quebec firm has lately published an extensive work on "The Battles and Sieges of Quebec," by Mr. A. Doughty in collaboration with Mr. G.W Parmalee. The work is in seven large volumes. Only twenty-five sets have been printed and seventeen of these have been sold. The price of a set of the work is $150. One set, bound specially for the author, in heavy morocco, by Messrs. Williams and Norgate, England, cost 25 pounds 7s 6d for the binding alone. The letterpress is clear and the plates, maps and diagrams are magnificent specimens of workmanship.

Oldest Protestant Church

L.F.T., Three Rivers - Which is the oldest Protestant Church in Canada?

Ans-The oldest Protestant church in the Dominion of Canada is St.Paul's, Halifax, of which Rev. W.J. Armitage is rector, having succeeded the Rev. Dyson Hague in 1897. The original building is still in use, and St.Paul's is still the principal church of Halifax, N.S. The material, consisting of wood exclusively, were prepared in Boston, Mass., and put up in Halifax during the summer of 1730. The church presents the same appearance now as in pictures made more than a century ago. St.Paul's was instituted, and remains to this day a "Free Chapel," which signifies that is exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of the Diocese, and is free to elect its own ministers, subject only to the approval of the King. The building presents a wonderful appearance for a Canadian church, the walls being covered with hatchments, or coats of arms on shields, of persons, many of whom are buried in the vaults in its basement. Within the twenty vaults are interred the bodies of generals, barons, provincial governors, judges, and other persons of distinction. An interesting vault is that in which repose the remains of the Baron de Seltz, a Hessian officer, who died December 1780, and was buried in full uniform with a diamond hilted sword by his side and an orange in his hand, according to the custom then in vogue. During the course of an exploration which I made in April, 1899, in company with Mr. Harry Plers, and Mr. Davidson, we found this grave, which had been rifled many years before. Lying besides the skeleton we found the battered remains of an old cocked hat, upon which the gold lace still glittered, and the uppers of the old fashioned boots. The Sunday school of St. Paul's, one of the oldest in the world, was founded by Dr. Breynton, the first rectory, in 1733. It is the larges Sunday school in the Maritime Provinces. One of its teachers has been teaching for fifty-four years. The old churchyard of St. Paul's is the most noteworthy place of its kind in North America. It is about two hundred yards south of the church.

Lincoln at Gettysburg

M.C., Westmount - Can you give the words of Lincoln's great address at Gettysburg?

Ans- This address, remarkable as being couched in a finer style of languages than Lincoln generally used, for he could not have been considered as a great orator, is as follows:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

At Minas Basin, a Poem M.C.T., St. Lambert-1. Who wrote "At Minas' Basin?" 2. Where was this poem published?

Ans-1 and 2. "At Minas' Basin" and other poems, was published by William Briggs Toronto, in 1897. The writer is Mr. Theodore H. Rand. The book abounds in the nature poetry so popular with Canadian writers. The sonnets on natural objects are rich in poetic phrases, and on the whole well worded for conveying the feeling sought to be expressed.