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Apprenticeship System on tile Pennsylvania Railroad. To the Editor of the Scientific American: I am in receipt of a letter signed W. S. Vanover, written from Lexington, Va., inclosing a letter from you to him under date of September 6, 1907, in which you advise him to enter the railroad university conducted by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Al-toona. There seems to be a pretty general misunderstanding as to what the Pennsylvania Railroad Company is doing in this respect at Altoona; and I thought it adYisable, therefore, to let you lmow exactly what we are doing. Your letter referred to is certainly mislead ing. 'Ve do not conduct a railroad university at Al-toona, in the ordinary, acceptation of that term. What we do is as follows: Young men, graduates of technical schools, either in the mechanical or engineering departments, are taken into our service in the mechanical departments as special apprentices, serving a period of four years in the different shops, offices, and laboratories of the company, thus fitting them for positions of responsibility with the railroad company. In the engineering department these young men are employed as rodmen, from which position they are promoted according to seniority and ability to transit-men, assistant supervisor, and so on up into positions of importance and responsibility with the com'pany. The maintenaDce-of-way. men do not serve any fixed time in any of the positions referred to, but they are advanced accordingly as the vacancies occur and their abilities fit them for. It will be observed from the above that we do not maintain a university or a school, in the ordinary acceptation of the term. At Altoona, however, in connection with the ]lIIblic school system there is a manual training school, the higher branches of which are conducted in connection with the. Altoona High School; and it is proposed to have this manual. training course include a post-graduate course of approximately two years, thus giving special training to graduates of the high school in mechanical work, so as to make them better fitted for mechanical positions. not only with our company, but with any company with which they desire to become connected. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company is interested in this manual training .school only to the extent that it increases the available material for them to draw upon for a higher class of mechanics; and for this reason the Pennsylvania Railroad Company donated a sufficient sum of money to properly equip the manual training school in the high school building. G. W. Ckeightox. General Superintendent. Te.t of 'Vellml ln'. Airship In the Arctic Region The following account, by Mr. Walter Wellman, of the first flight of his airship "America" in the Arctic regions may be of interest to our readers, in view of the fact that this test was the culmination of two winters spent in preparing the airship and two summers s])ent at Dane's Island with it in an effort to get it ready to start for the pole. The start was finally made on the 2d instant, and the following is a dispatch to the Lolml Anzeiger of Berlin, sent hy Mr. Wellman from Tromsoe, Norway: "After the steamer 'Express' cast off the cahle. the balloon 'Ameriea' did excellently. but an increasing wind soon gave us a hard struggle, and the storm drove us toward some high, jagged mountains near the coast, where the airship would have been destroyed if she struck. "There then ensued a hard fight between the storm and the motor. The latter triumphed, and we slowly rounded the north end of Foul Island in the teeth of the wind. Our confidence in the 'America' had so increased in the meanwhile that I gave the order to start for the north pole. "The wind, however, increased to twelve miles an hour, and the snow fell so thickly that we could not see a quarter of a mile. .Just then the compass failed to act owing to defective construction. We were completely lost in a snowstorm above the Polar Sea and threatened with destruction. After a brief deliberation we decided to try and get back to the 'Express' to rectify our compass and start again. "It was impOSSible, however, to keep in one direction, and we were again carried into dangerous proximity to the mountains. Vaniman, the engineer, then started the motor at top speed, and the 'America' moved a second time against the wind, which probably was blowing fifteen miles an hour. "She circled three times in the teeth of the wind. 'Ve saw the 'Express' for a moment, but immediately lost her again. We would have returned to the 'Express' if we could have seen where to steer, but under the circumstances the only thing possible was to try to land. With this idea we stopped the motor and let the 'America' drift over the glacier. "At the end of Foul Bay we used a trailer filled with provisions and a brake rope. Both acted well and dragged over an ice wall 100 feet high without damaging the provisions. "After crossing the glacier we opened the valve, and landed on the upper glacier, half a mile inshore, The landing was effected so successfully that material weighing nine tons descended three hundred feet and touched the ice with no shock or damage whatever excepting several bent tubes and broken wires. The numerous delicate instruments were not injured. The self-registering barographs, meteorographs, and manometers continued running after the landing. The mantle of the balloon can easily be repaired. "The 'America' was in the air for three hours and fifteen minutes, and covered about fifteen miles with her own machinery. She made three loops against the wind, proving her power and capability of being steered. The ascent was successful in every respect. The 'America' is from every standpOint the strongest airship and the most durable for a long journey that ever was built. She held the gas splendidly. "Later in the same day the 'Express' found us, and fetched the steamer 'Frithjoff,' with men and sledges from the camp. The crew of the 'America' lived for three days comfortably in the gondola while the work of rescuing the balloon was in progress. They could have lived there for nine months had it been necessary. The entire airship, including even a part of the gasoline, was returned to the camp in three days. "The balloon and the entire outfit have been made ready for the winter, and three men have been left on guard. "After this successful attempt we were all convinced that the 'America,' in normal summer weather, can make her way to the pole. We all regard this plan as rational, practicable, and feasible. The thing can be done, and what can be done shall be done." . Tile Current SUPl.)elnellt. Advances in the construction of telescopes and other astronomical instruments have enabled scientists to make new discoveries far surpassing those made even a few years ago. "Recent Progress in Astronomy" is interestingly written about and fully illustrated in a lengthy article in the current Supplement, No. 1656. The efforts made to obtain turpentine and other products from waste wood are described by J. E. Teeple, Ph.D., and J. S. Miller writes on asbestos, a useful mineral, of which the supply is insufficient. Few toolmal{ers know how to test with any precision the grade of a bar of steel. In an article on "The Spark Method of Grading Steel," Albert F. Shore, M.E., describes a method of testing steel with an air blast. The first of a series of practical articles on the "Elements of Electrical Engineering" is written by Prof. A. E. Watson, and an illustrated note on "AutQmatic Speed Control for Magnets" will also be of interest to electricians. The Cape to Cairo railway, dreamed of for years by Cecil Rhodes, is gradually becoming fact; from its southern end it now Etretches through northwestern Rhodesia toward the Congo Free State frontier. Our English correspondent describes and illustrates one of the features of this length of linethe building of the longest bridge in Africa. The fifth of J. H. Morrison's articles on "The Development of Armored War Vessels" brings us to the verge of modern construction. Dr. A. Gradenwitz contributes a valuahle note on the "Cause of Vitiation of Confined Air." We have several times lately referred to arch aeological research in northern Africa; much of this work has been done by European investigators. In the current S{TpplemeXt the Egyptian work undertaken by the New York Metropolitan Museum is described.
