is taken of points; but this is of no importance,
since the error that might be made in misplacing one would be so great
that it would be immediately detected. A 2 franc tree would not be
confounded with a 20 or a 200 franc one. As an approximation, the
first two figures of the result are obtained accurately; and that
suffices, because, since the whole is based upon an approximate
measurement, which is the mean circumference of the tree, we cannot
exact absolute precision in the results. The essential thing is to
have a practically acceptable figure.--La Nature.

* * * * *

EGYPT'S POPULATION, according to the census taken last June, is
9,750,000, more than double the population in 1846. The foreign
residents are 112,000; of these, 38,000 are Greeks, 24,500 Italians,
19,500 Britishers, including the army of occupation, and 14,000 French
subjects, including Algerians and Tunisians. Twelve per cent. of the
native males can read and write; the other Egyptians are illiterate.
Cairo has 570,000 inhabitants, Alexandria 320,000, Port Said 42,000,
and Suez 17,000.

* * * * *

MACHINE MOULDING WITHOUT STRIPPING PLATES.[1]

[Footnote 1: Paper presented at the New York meeting (December,
1897) of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and
forming part of volume xix. of the Transactions.]

BY E. H. MUMFORD, PLAINFLELD, N. J.

(Member of the Society.)

Moulding machines may be classed under three heads. First, machines
which only ram the moulds, and, when the ramming is done by means of a
side lever, by hand, are generally called "squeezers." Second,
machines which only draw the patterns, the ramming being accomplished
by the usual hand methods. Third, machines which both ram the moulds
and draw the patterns, ramming either by a hand-pulled lever or by
fluid pressure on piston or plunger and drawing the patterns through a
plate called a "stripping plate" or "drop plate"--till recently the
usual method--or without the use of this plate fitting everywhere to
pattern outline at the parting surface, the patterns being effectively
machine guided in either case.

It is to the third class that the machine which is used to illustrate
the subject of this paper belongs, and which would seem to have enough
that is novel in the application of machinery to the foundry to merit
the attention of the society.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--ORDINARY METHOD