W.H. Preece, F.R.S.,
and by Messrs. Cross & Bevan, consulting chemists. Dr. Gore states
that the chemical and electrical principles upon which this process is
based are thoroughly sound, and that the process is of a
scientifically practical character. Should, however, the economy of
production even fall somewhat below the anticipations of those who
have examined into the process very carefully, it can hardly fail to
prove as successful commercially as it has scientifically.

* * * * *

COMPLETION OF THE MERSEY TUNNEL RAILWAY.

On the 11th of January (says the _Liverpool Daily Post_) will be
opened for traffic the new station of the Mersey Tunnel Railway at the
bottom of Bold Street. With the completion of the station at Bold
Street the scheme may be said to have been brought successfully to a
conclusion. It was not until 1879, after the expenditure of
125,000_l._ upon trial borings, that the promoters ventured to appeal
to the public for support, and that a company, of which the Right Hon.
H. Cecil Raikes, M.P., was chairman, was formed for carrying the
project of the Mersey Railway into effect. The experience of the
engineers in the construction of the tunnel is not a little curious.
It was proved by the borings that the position in which the tunnel was
proposed to be bored was not only the most important from the point of
view of public convenience, and therefore of commercial advantage, but
was from the point of view of engineering difficulty decidedly the
most preferable. In this position the cuttings passed through the
sandstone rock, although on the Liverpool side the shafts were sunk
through a considerable depth through "made" ground, the whole of Mann
Island and the Goree being composed of earth and gravel tipped on the
old bank of the river. Indeed the miners passed through the cellars of
old houses and unearthed old water pipes; excavated through a depth of
tipped rubbish on which these houses had evidently been built; and
then came upon the former strand of the river, beneath which was the
blue silt usually found; then a stratum of bowlder clay; and finally
the red sandstone rock. Once begun, the works were pushed forward
night and day, Sundays excepted, until January, 1884, when the last
few feet of rock were cleared away by the boring machine, and the
mayors of Liverpool and Birkenhead met in fraternal greeting beneath
the river. The operations gave employment to 3