A curious fact was mentioned at a meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Newhall Street, Birmingham). The boiler of a locomotive engine that had been working on a branch of the London and North-western Railway near London had become very foul through the constant use of hard water. Recourse was then had to a supply of water which had been softened, 'and at the end of a month the boiler was perfectly clean. The soft water had taken out the whole of the deposit, and not a handful of scale could be got when the boiler was washed out.' Another fact: the water of a well at Camden Town (London) was so unfit for locomotive purposes that it could not be kept in the boilers on account of priming. 'To get over the difficulty, the railway company arranged with the canal alongside, by putting down a double acting-pump with separate outlets and inlets, so that in one stroke the pump would have a measure of water from the canal and put it into the tank for the locomotives, and the return stroke would take the water from the well and put it into the canal.' Many attempts have been made to turn kite-flying to practical uses, but with scarcely any other result than to shew that in the art of kite-flying we are far behind China and Japan. Success depends on the shape of the kite; and if a kite presents a flat surface to the wind, it will be unsteady, and cannot be employed in a successful experiment. The proper form for a kite is that of a hemisphere with the convex side to the wind: no wings and a light tail. The string should be fastened a little above the centre. A kite thus constructed will, as is stated by Dr Joule of Manchester, 'stand in the air with almost absolute steadiness. He found that by pulling strings fastened to the right and left sides of the horizontal bow, the kite could be made to fly thirty degrees or more from the direction of the wind, and hence that it would be possible to use it in bringing a vessel to windward. One great advantage of such a mode of propulsion over ordinary sails would be that the force, however great, could be applied low down, so as to produce no more careening than that desired by the seaman.'