When the motor is used on the upper stories of buildings, the changes of speed incidental to drawing the water from the lower stories from the same pipe can be compensated by the use of an accumulator.  This accessory apparatus is composed of a reservoir of a capacity of 10 liters or more, intercalated in the pipe which supplies the motor, so that the water coming from the principal pipe enters the bottom of this reservoir, passing through an India rubber valve opening inward, the supply for the motor coming through a tube always open and placed above this valve.  The air trapped in the accumulator is compressed by the water, and when the pressure in the pipe decreases, the valve closes and the compressed air drives the water through the motor with decreasing pressure until normal pressure is re-established in the pipes.—­Publication Industrielle.

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TRIAL TRIP OF THE OHIO.

Some important trials of the new machinery of the screw steamer Ohio, belonging to the International Navigation Company, have recently taken place on the Clyde.  The Ohio is an American built steamer measuring 343 ft. by 43 ft. by 34 ft. 6 in., and of 3,325 tons gross.  She has been entirely refitted with new engines and boilers by Messrs. James Howden & Co., Glasgow, who also rearranged the bunker, machinery, and hold spaces, so as to give the important advantage of increased cargo accommodation obtainable from the use of their improved machinery, which occupies considerably less space than the engines and boilers of the same power which have been replaced.  The new engines are of the triple expansion type, and the boilers, which are designed for supplying steam of 150 lb. pressure, are worked on Howden’s system of forced draught, which combines increased power with high economy in fuel.  The object of the owners in refitting the Ohio was to test the capability and economy of this system of forced draught on a sufficient scale to guide them in dealing with steamships of the largest class and great power.

In the refit of the Ohio the boilers were designed to work with a very moderate air pressure, this being sufficient for the power required by the contract.  The combined power and economy, however, guaranteed by Messrs. Howden & Co. for the use of their system of forced draught was higher than has hitherto been attempted in any steamship, and sufficient, if attained, to prove the large reduction that could safely be made in the number and size of boilers for the use of the system, and the quantity of coal required to produce a given power.  The contract for the refit of the steamer required that 2,100 indicated horse power (which was the maximum power of the engines removed) should be maintained during the trial on a consumption of 1.25 lb. of coal per indicated horse power per hour.  Originally the boilers of the Ohio, from which this power was produced, were three