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The alternate rapid reversals of the magnetism in the magnetic field of an electromagnet, when excited by alternating electric currents, sets up eddy currents in every piece of undivided metal within range. All frames, bobbin tubes, bobbin ends, and the like, must be most carefully slit, otherwise they will overheat. If a domestic flat iron is placed on the top of the poles of a properly laminated electromagnet, supplied with alternating currents, the flat iron is speedily heated up by the eddy currents that are generated internally within it. The eddy currents set up by induction in neighboring masses of metal, especially in good conducting metals such as copper, give rise to many curious phenomena. For example, a copper disk or copper ring placed over the pole of a straight electromagnet so excited is violently repelled. These remarkable phenomena have been recently investigated by Professor Elihu Thomson, with whose beautiful and elaborate researches we have lately been made conversant in the pages of the technical journals. He rightly attributes many of the repulsion phenomena to the lag in phase of the alternating currents thus induced in the conducting metal. The electromagnetic inertia, or self-inductive property of the electric circuit, causes the currents to rise and fall later in time than the electromotive forces by which they are occasioned. In all such cases the impedance which the circuit offers is made up of two things—resistance and inductance. Both these causes tend to diminish the amount of current that flows, and the inductance also tends to delay the flow.
ELECTROMAGNETS FOR QUICKEST ACTION.
I have already mentioned Hughes' researches on the form of electromagnet best adapted for rapid signaling. I have also incidentally mentioned the fact that where rapidly varying currents are employed, the strength of the electric current that a given battery can yield is determined not so much by the resistance of the electric circuit as by its electric inertia. It is not a very easy task to explain precisely what happens to an electric circuit when the current is turned on suddenly. The current does not suddenly rise to its full value, being retarded by inertia. The ordinary law of Ohm in its simple form no longer applies; one needs to apply that other law which bears the name of the law of Helmholtz, the use of which is to give us an expression, not for the final value of the current, but for its value at any short time, t, after the current has been turned on. The strength of the current after a lapse of a short time, t, cannot be calculated by the simple process of taking the electromotive force and dividing it by the resistance, as you would calculate steady currents.
In symbols, Helmholtz's law is:
i_{t} = E/R ( 1 - e^{-(R/L)t} )
In this formula i{t} means the strength of the current after the lapse of a short time t; E is the electromotive force; R, the resistance of the whole circuit; L, its coefficient of self-induction; and e the number 2.7183, which is the base of the Napierian logarithms. Let us look at this formula; in its general form it resembles Ohm's law, but with a new factor, namely, the expression contained within the brackets. The factor is necessarily a fractional quantity, for it consists of unity less a certain negative exponential, which we will presently further consider. If the factor within brackets is a quantity less than unity, that signifies that i{t} will be less than E / R. Now the exponential of negative sign, and with negative fractional index, is rather a troublesome thing to deal with in a popular lecture. Our best way is to calculate some values, and then plot it out as a curve. When once you have got it into the form of a curve, you can begin to think about it, for the curve gives you a mental picture of the facts that the long formula expresses in the abstract. Accordingly we will take the following case. Let E = 2 volts; R = 1 ohm; and let us take a relatively large self-induction, so as to exaggerate the effect; say let L = 10 quads. This gives us the following:
_______ t_{(sec.)} e^{+(R/L)t} i_{t} + + - 0 1 0 1 1.105 0.950 2 1.221 1.810 5 1.649 3.936 10 2.718 6.343 20 7.389 8.646 30 20.08 9.501 60 403.4 9.975 120 16200.0 9.999
In this case the value of the steady current as calculated by Ohm's law is 10 amperes, but Helmholtz's law shows us that with the great self-induction which we have assumed to be present, the current, even at the end of 30 seconds, has only risen up to within 5 percent. of its final value; and only at the end of two minutes has practically attained full strength. These values are set out in the highest curve in Fig. 54, in which, however, the further supposition is made that the number of spirals, S, in the coils of the electromagnet is 100, so that when the current attains its full value of 10 amperes, the full magnetizing power will be Si = 1000. It will be noticed that the curve rises from zero at first steeply and nearly in a straight line, then bends over, and then becomes nearly straight again, as it gradually rises to its limiting value. The first part of the curve—that relating to the strength of the current after very small interval of time—is the period within which the strength of the current is governed by inertia (i.e., the self-induction) rather than by resistance. In reality the current is not governed either by the self-induction or by the resistance alone, but by the ratio of the two. This ratio is sometimes called the "time constant" of the circuit, for it represents the time which the current takes in that circuit to rise to a definite fraction of its final value.
E = 10 r = 1 R = 100 L = 10
Si 1000 + _.. - . _ _ - . . . .- 2 IN SERIES . .- - .: - : .: . : 500 . : _- -: - . : _.- - : 2 IN PARALLEL . :. - : . / : - : . / - : . / - : : ./. : : /__:___:_____ t 10 20 40 60 80 100 120
FIG. 54.—CURVES OF RISE OF CURRENTS.
This definite fraction is the fraction (e - 1)/e; or in decimals, 0.634. All curves of rise of current are alike in general shape, they differ only in scale, that is to say, they differ only in the height to which they will ultimately rise, and in the time they will take to attain this fraction of their final value.
Example (1).—Suppose E = 10; R = 200 ohms; L = 8. The final value of the current will be 0.025 amp. or 25 milliamperes. Then the time constant will be 8 / 400 = 1-50th sec.
Example (2).—The P.O. Standard "A" relay has R = 400 ohms; L = 3.25. It works with 0.5 milliampere current, and therefore will work with 5 Daniell cells through a line of 9,600 ohms. Under these circumstances the time constant of the instrument on short circuit is 0.0081 sec.
It will be noted that the time constant of a circuit can be reduced either by diminishing the self-induction or by increasing the resistance. In Fig. 54 the position of the time constant for the top curve is shown by the vertical dotted line at 10 seconds. The current will take 10 seconds to rise to 0.634 of its final value. This retardation of the rise of current is simply due to the presence of coils and electromagnets in the circuit; the current as it grows being retarded because it has to create magnetic fields in these coils, and so sets up opposing electromotive forces that prevent it from growing all at once to its full strength. Many electricians, unacquainted with Helmholtz's law, have been in the habit of accounting for this by saying that there is a lag in the iron of the electromagnet cores. They tell you that an iron core cannot be magnetized suddenly, that it takes time to acquire its magnetism. They think it is one of the properties of iron. But we know that the only true time lag in the magnetization of iron, that which is properly termed "viscous hysteresis," does not amount to any great percentage of the whole amount of magnetization, takes comparatively a long time to show itself, and cannot therefore be the cause of the retardation which we are considering. There are also electricians who will tell you that when magnetization is suddenly evoked in an iron bar, there are induction currents set up in the iron which oppose and delay its magnetization. That they oppose the magnetization is perfectly true, but if you carefully laminate the iron so as to eliminate eddy currents, you will find, strangely enough, that the magnetism rises still more slowly to its final value. For by laminating the iron you have virtually increased the self-inductive action, and increased the time constant of the circuit, so that the currents rise more slowly than before. The lag is not in the iron, but in the magnetizing current, and the current being retarded, the magnetization is of course retarded also.
CONNECTING COILS FOR QUICKEST ACTION.
Now let us apply these most important though rather intricate considerations to the practical problems of the quick working of the electromagnet. Take the case of an electromagnet forming some part of the receiving apparatus of a telegraph system in which it is desired to secure very rapid working. Suppose the two coils that are wound upon the horseshoe core are connected together in series. The coefficient of self-induction for these two is four times as great as that of either separately; coefficients of self-induction being proportional to the square of the number of turns of wire that surround a given core. Now if the two coils instead of being put in series are put in parallel, the coefficient of self-induction will be reduced to the same value as if there were only one coil, because half the line current (which is practically unaltered) will go through each coil. Hence the time constant of the circuit when the coils are in parallel will be a quarter of that which it is when the coils are in series; on the other hand, for a given line current, the final magnetizing power of the two coils in parallel is only half what it would be with the coil in series. The two lower curves in Fig. 54 illustrate this, from which it is at once plain that the magnetizing power for very brief currents is greater when the two coils are put in parallel with one another than when they are joined in series.
Now this circumstance has been known for some time to telegraph engineers. It has been patented several times over. It has formed the theme of scientific papers, which have been read both in France and in England. The explanation generally given of the advantage of uniting the coils in parallel is, I think, fallacious; namely that the "extra currents" (i.e., currents due to self-induction) set up in the two coils are induced in such directions as tend to help one another when the coils are in series, and to neutralize one another when they are in parallel. It is a fallacy, because in neither case do they neutralize one another. Whichever way the current flows to make the magnetism, it is opposed in the coils while the current is rising, and helped in the coils while the current is falling, by the so-called extra currents. If the current is rising in both coils at the same moment, then, whether the coils are in series or in parallel, the effect of self-induction is to retard the rise of the current. The advantage of parallel grouping is simply that it reduces the time constant.
BATTERY GROUPING FOR QUICKEST ACTION.
One may consider the question of grouping the battery cells from the same point of view. How does the need for rapid working, and the question of time constant, affect the best mode of grouping the battery cells? The amateur's rule, which tells you to so arrange your battery that its internal resistance should be equal to the external resistance, gives you a result wholly wrong for rapid working. The supposed best arrangement will not give you (at the expense even of economy) the best result that might be got out of the given number of cells. Let us take an example and calculate it out, and place the results graphically before our eyes in the form of curves. Suppose the line and electromagnet have together a resistance of 6 ohms, and that we have 24 small Daniell cells, each of electromotive force say 1 volt, and of internal resistance 4 ohms. Also let the coefficient of self-induction of the electromagnet and circuit be 6 quadrants. When all the cells are in series, the resistance of the battery will be 96 ohms, the total resistance of the circuit 102 ohms, and the full value of the current 0.235 ampere. When all the cells are in parallel, the resistance of the battery will be 0.133 ohm, the total resistance 6.133 ohms, and the full value of the current 0.162 ampere. According to the amateur rule of grouping cells so that internal resistance equals external, we must arrange the cells in 4 parallels, each having 6 cells in series, so that the internal resistance of the battery will be 6 ohms, total resistance of circuit 12 ohms, full value of current 0.5 ampere. Now the corresponding time constants of the circuit in the three cases (calculated by dividing the coefficient of self-induction by the total resistance) will be respectively—in series, 0.06 sec.; in parallel, 0.5 sec.; grouped for maximum steady current, 0.96 sec. From these data we may now draw the three curves, as in Fig. 55, wherein the abscissae are the values of time in seconds and the ordinates the current. The faint vertical dotted lines mark the time constants in the three cases. It will be seen that when rapid working is required the magnetizing current will rise, during short intervals of time, more rapidly if all the cells are put in series than it will do if the cells are grouped according to the amateur rule.
5 . . . 4 MAXIMUM . OUTPUT . . 3 . . : ALL IN SERIES -: 2 .- - : - - : -: - : 1 / : - : ALL IN PARALLEL . : . : - : : + -: - 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
FIG. 55.—CURVES OF RISE OF CURRENT WITH DIFFERENT GROUPINGS OF BATTERY.
When they are all put in series, so that the battery has a much greater resistance than the rest of the circuit, the current rises much more rapidly, because of the smallness of the time constant, although it never attains the same ultimate maximum as when grouped in the other way. That is to say, if there is self-induction as well as resistance in the circuit, the amateur rule does not tell you the best way of arranging the battery. There is another mode of regarding the matter which is helpful. Self-induction, while the current is growing, acts as if there were a sort of spurious addition to the resistance of the circuit; and while the current is dying away it acts of course in the other way, as if there were a subtraction from the resistance. Therefore you ought to arrange the battery so that the internal resistance is equal to the real resistance of the circuit, plus the spurious resistance during that time. But how much is the spurious resistance during that time? It is a resistance proportional to the time that has elapsed since the current was turned on. So then it comes to a question of the length of time for which you want to work it. What fraction of a second do you require your signal to be given in? What is the rate of the vibrator of your electric bell? Suppose you have settled that point, and that the short time during which the current is required to rise is called t; then the apparent resistance at time t after the current is turned on is given by the formula:
R_{t} = R x e^{(R/L)t} + ( e^{(R/L)t} - 1 )
TIME CONSTANTS OF ELECTROMAGNETS.
I may here refer to some determinations made by M. Vaschy,[1] respecting the coefficients of self-induction of the electromagnets of a number of pieces of telegraphic apparatus. Of these I must only quote one result, which is very significant. It relates to the electromagnet of a Morse receiver of the pattern habitually used on the French telegraph lines.
L, in quadrants. Bobbins, separately, without iron cores. 0.233 and 0.265 Bobbins, separately, with iron cores. 1.65 and 1.71 Bobbins, with cores joined by yoke, coils in series 6.37 Bobbins, with armature resting on poles. 10.68
[Footnote 1: "Bulletin de la Societe Internationale des Electriciens," 1886.]
It is interesting to note how the perfecting of the magnetic circuit increases the self-induction.
Thanks to the kindness of Mr. Preece, I have been furnished with some most valuable information about the coefficients of self-induction, and the resistance of the standard pattern of relays, and other instruments which are used in the British postal telegraph service, from which data one is able to say exactly what the time constants of those instruments will be on a given circuit, and how long in their case the current will take to rise to any given fraction of its final value. Here let me refer to a very capital paper by Mr. Preece in an old number of the "Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers," a paper "On Shunts," in which he treats this question, not as perfectly as it could now be treated with the fuller knowledge we have in 1890 about the coefficients of self-induction, but in a very useful and practical way. He showed most completely that the more perfect the magnetic circuit is—though of course you are getting more magnetism from your current—the more is that current retarded. Mr. Preece'e mode of experiment was extremely simple. He observed the throw of the galvanometer when the circuit which contained the battery and the electromagnet was opened by a key which at the same moment connected the electromagnet wires to the galvanometer. The throw of the galvanometer was assumed to represent the extra current which flowed out. Fig. 56 represents a few of the results of Mr. Preece's paper.
========== = ======= ======= =======/ ======= ======= ======= ======= ======= /======= ======= =
=========== ========== ===== ====== = = = = = = ======= =======/ B======= =======/A A======= =======/B ======= ======= A======= =======B =======B =======A = = = = = = ========== ======== ==== =====
FIG. 56.—ELECTROMAGNETS OF RELAY, AND THEIR EFFECTS.
Take from an ordinary relay a coil, with its iron core, half the electromagnet, so to speak, without any yoke or armature. Connect it up as described, and observe the throw given to the galvanometer. The amount of throw obtained from the single coil was taken as unity, and all others were compared with it. If you join up two such coils as they are usually joined, in series, but without any iron yoke across the cores, the throw was 17. Putting the iron yoke across the cores, to constitute a horseshoe form, 496 was the throw; that is to say, the tendency of this electromagnet to retard the current was 496 times as great as that of the simple coil. But when an armature was put over the top, the effect ran up to 2,238. By the mere device of putting the coils in parallel, instead of in series, the 2,238 came down to 502, a little less than the quarter value which would have been expected. Lastly, when the armature and yoke were both of them split in the middle, as is done in fact in all the standard patterns of the British postal telegraph relays, the throw of the galvanometer was brought down from 502 to 26. Relays so constructed will work excessively rapidly. Mr. Preece states that with the old pattern of relay having so much self-induction as to give a galvanometer throw of 1,688, the speed of signaling was only from 50 to 60 words per minute, whereas, with the standard relays constructed on the new plan, the speed of signaling is from 400 to 450 words per minute. It is a very interesting and beautiful result to arrive at from the experimental study of these magnetic circuits.
SHORT CORES versus LONG CORES.
In considering the forms that are best for rapid action, it ought to be mentioned that the effects of hysteresis in retarding changes in the magnetization of iron cores are much more noticeable in the case of nearly closed magnetic circuits than in short pieces. Electromagnets with iron armatures in contact across their poles will retain, after the current has been cut off, a very large part of their magnetism, even if the cores be of the softest of iron. But so soon as the armature is wrenched off, the magnetism disappears. An air gap in a magnetic circuit always tends to hasten demagnetizing. A magnetic circuit composed of a long air path and a short iron path demagnetizes itself much more rapidly than one composed of a short air path and a long iron path. In long pieces of iron the mutual action of the various parts tends to keep in them any magnetization that they may possess; hence they are less readily demagnetized. In short pieces, where these mutual actions are feeble or almost absent, the magnetization is less stable, and disappears almost instantly on the cessation of the magnetizing force. Short bits and small spheres of iron have no magnetic memory. Hence the cause of the commonly received opinion among telegraph engineers that for rapid work electromagnets must have short cores. As we have seen, the only reason for employing long cores is to afford the requisite length for winding the wire which is necessary for carrying the needful circulation of current to force the magnetism across the air gaps. If, for the sake of rapidity of action, length has to be sacrificed, then the coils must be heaped up more thickly on the short cores. The electromagnets in American patterns of telegraphic apparatus usually have shorter cores, and a relatively greater thickness of winding upon them, than those of European patterns.
* * * * *
ELECTRIC ERYGMASCOPE.
The erygmascope is the name of an electric lighting apparatus designed for the examination of the strata of earth traversed by boring apparatus.
It consists of a very powerful incandescent lamp inclosed in a metallic cylinder. One of the two semi-cylindrical sides constitutes the reflector, and the other, which is of thick glass, allows of the passage of the luminous rays, which thus illuminate with great brilliancy the strata of earth traversed by the instrument. The base, which is inclined at an angle of 45 deg., is an elliptical mirror, and the top, of straight section, is open in order to permit the observer standing at the mouth of the well, and provided with a powerful spyglass, to see in the mirror the image of the earth. The lamp is so mounted that its upwardly emitted rays are intercepted.
The whole apparatus is suspended from a long cable, formed of two conducting wires, which winds around a windlass with metallic journals which are electrically insulated. These journals communicate, through the intermedium of two friction springs, with the conductors on the one hand and, on the other, with the poles of an automatic and portable battery.
This permits of lowering and raising the apparatus at will, without derangement, and without its being necessary to interrupt the light and the observation.—Revue Industrielle.
* * * * *
A NEW ELECTRIC BALLISTIC TARGET.
The electrical target usually employed in determining velocities of projectiles consists of a wooden frame on which is strung a copper wire so as to make a continuous circuit arranged in parallel vertical lines about one inch or one and one half inches apart.
It frequently happens that a projectile will pass through this target without breaking the circuit, either by squeezing between the wires or because, when last repaired, the target was short-circuited unnoticed, so that the cutting of the wires did not break the circuit. The repair of this target takes considerable time.
__________ { + -_ _ } _ // // } { _ C_{0} A A { } P // // } { + - - } F { __________}
Plan. P C = = __ === ========= A A ======== S ========\__/================= spring S_ _ _ _ ___ ___ ____ Section. H / / ____ W ___
Besides these objections to this target, another and more serious one is the irregularity in the manner of breaking the circuit. It has been proved that times required for a flat headed and an ogival headed projectile to rupture the current are very different.
To remedy these defects a new and very ingenious target has been devised and used with great success at the United States Military Academy at West Point. The top of the target is a wooden strip, F, on the upper side of which are screwed strips of copper, A A, about 1/2 in. wide, and 1/8 in. thick. The connection between two adjoining strips is made by a copper cartridge, C, which is dropped in a hole in the frame bored to receive it. This cartridge is the one used in the Springfield rifle. Inside the cartridge is a spiral spring, S, which, acting on the bottom of the hole and the head of the cartridge, tends to make the latter spring up, and so break the circuit.
To the hook, H, which is attached to the cartridge, is suspended, by means of a string, the lead weight, W, thus drawing down the cartridge and making the circuit between A and A'. All the weights being suspended the current comes in through the post, P, passes along the copper strips and out of the corresponding post on the other end.
On firing the projectile cuts a string, and the spring at once causes the cartridge to spring up, thus breaking the circuit.
It is not possible for the projectile to squeeze between the strings and not break the current, for in so doing the cartridge is tipped slightly, which is sufficient, as it breaks the current on one side.
This target is used in connection with the Boulenge chronograph. Two targets are established at a known distance apart, say 50 ft., and the time required for the projectile to pass over this distance is determined by finding the difference in the time of cutting of the two targets, by finding the difference in the time of falling of the two rods, caused by the demagnetization of two electromagnets in the same circuit with the targets.
By means of a disjunctor both rods are dropped at the same time, the shorter one releasing a knife blade which makes a cut on the longer one. Now both rods are hung from the magnets again and the gun is fired.
The projectile passes through the first target, breaks the circuit, demagnetizes the magnet of the longer rod, and it begins to fall. On passing through the second target, the projectile causes the shorter rod to fall. This releases the knife blade, and a second cut is made. The time corresponding to the distance between these cuts is the time the longer rod was falling before the second rod began to fall or the time between the cutting of the two targets by the projectile.
The distance between the cuts is measured, and the time corresponding to it can easily be found. Then the velocity of the projectile is equal to 50/t.
To repair this target, strings are prepared in advance of suitable length and looped at both ends, so that by placing the hook of the cartridge in one loop and that of the weight in the other the repair is quickly made.
This target has been used on the West Point proving ground to determine velocities over distances of 100 ft. interval to distances of only 9 ft. interval, and has given most satisfactory results.
* * * * *
[Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 786, page 12566.]
THE OUTLOOK FOR APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY.
[Footnote: Address of Dr. C.V. Riley at the annual meeting of the Association of Economic Entomologists, Champaign, Ills., November 11 to 14, 1890.]
LEGISLATION.
The amount of legislation in different countries that has of late years been deemed necessary or sufficiently important, in view of injurious insects, is a striking evidence of the increased attention paid to applied entomology; and while modern legislation of this kind has been, on the whole, far more intelligent than similar efforts in years gone by, many of the laws passed have nevertheless been unwise, futile, and impracticable, and even unnecessarily oppressive to other interests. The chief danger here is the intervention of politics or political methods. Expert counsel should guide our legislators and the steps taken should be thorough in order to be effective. We have had of late years in Germany very good evidence of the excellent results flowing from thorough methods, and the recent legislation in Massachusetts against the gypsy moth (Ocneria dispar), which at one time threatened to become farcical, has, fortunately, proved more than usually successful; the commission appointed to deal with the subject having worked with energy and followed competent advice.
PUBLICATION.
On the question of publication of the results of our labors it is perhaps premature to dwell at length. Each of the experiment stations is publishing its own bulletins and reports quite independently of the others, but after a uniform plan recommended by the association with which we meet here; and with but one exception that has come to my notice, another important recommendation of the same association—that these publications shall be void of all personal matter—has been kept in mind. The National Bureau of Experiment Stations at Washington is doing what it can with the means at command to further the general work by issuing the Experiment Station Record, devoted chiefly to digests of the State station bulletins. There is a serious question in my mind as to the utility of State digests by the national department of results already published extensively by the different States and distributed under government frank to all similar institutions and to whomsoever is interested enough to ask for them.
Such digests may or may not be intelligently made, and, even under the most favorable circumstances, will hardly serve any other purpose than helping to the reference to the original articles, and this could undoubtedly be done more satisfactorily to the stations and to the people at large by general and classified indices to all the State documents, made as full as possible and issued at stated intervals. Only a small proportion of the bulletins have been so far noticed by digest in this record, with no particular rule, so far as I can see, in the selection. In point of fact, those will be most apt to be noticed whose authors can find time to themselves send or make for the purpose their own abstracts. This is, perhaps, inevitable under present arrangements. Complete and satisfactory digests of all, if intelligent and critical, imply a far greater force than is at present at Prof. Atwater's command.
Under these circumstances, it would seem wiser to devote all the energies of the bureau to digests of the similar literature of other countries, which would be of immense advantage to our people and to the different station workers. Judging from the recommendations and resolutions of the general association, this is the view very generally held, but except in chemistry and special industries like that of beet sugar, very little of that kind of work has yet been attempted.
What is true of the station publications in general is equally true of special publications. As entomologist of the department, I have been urged to bring together, at stated intervals, digests of the entomological publications of the different stations. Such digests to be of any value, however, should also be critical, and it were a thankless task for any one to be critic or censor even of that which needs correction or criticism. Moreover, to do this work intelligently would require increase of the divisional force, which at present is more advantageously employed, for, as already intimated, I should have great doubts of the utility of these digests.
I believe, however, that the division should strive for such increase of means as would justify the periodic publication, either independently or as a part of the department record, of general and classified indices to the entomological matter of the station bulletins, and should work more and more toward giving results from other parts of the world. This could, perhaps, best be done by titles of subject and of author so spaced and printed on stout paper that they could be cut and used in the ordinary card catalogue. The recipient could cut and systematically place the titles as fast as received.
As to the character of the matter of the entomological bulletins, it will inevitably be influenced by the needs and demands of the people of the respective States, and while originality should be kept in mind, there must needs be in the earlier years of the work much restatement of what is already well known. That some results have been published of work which reflects no particular credit upon our calling is a mere incident of the new positions created. Yet we may expect marked improvement from year to year in this direction, and without being invidious, I would cite those of Prof. Gillette's on his spraying experiments and on the plum curculio and plum gouger, as models of what such bulletins should be.
Although the resolution offered at our last meeting by Prof. Cook, to the effect that purely descriptive matter should be excluded from the station bulletins, met with no favor, but was laid on the table, by the general association, I am in full sympathy with this position and am strongly of the opinion that in the ordinary bulletins such purely technical and descriptive matter should be reduced to the necessary minimum consistent with clearness of statement and accuracy, and that if it is desired, on the part of the station entomologists, to issue technical and descriptive papers, a separate series of bulletins were better instituted for this class of matter.
Finally, for results which it is desired to promptly get before the people, the agricultural press is at our disposal, and so far as the entomological work of the department of agriculture is concerned, the periodical bulletin, Insect Life, was established for this purpose. Its columns are open to all station workers, and I would here appeal to the members of the association to help make it, as far as possible, national, by sending brief notes and digests of their work as it progresses. Hitherto we have been unable to make as much effort in this direction as we desired, but in future it is our hope to make the bulletin, as far as possible, a national medium through which the results of work done in all parts of the country may quickly be put on record and distributed, not only to all parts of our own country, but to all parts of the world.
The rapid growth and development of the national department and the multiplication of its divisions have necessitated special modes of publication and rendered the annual report almost an anachronism so far as it pretends to be what it at one time was—a pretty complete report of the scientific and other work of the department. The attempts which I have made through the proper authorities to get Congress to order more pretentious monographic works in quarto volume similar to those issued by other departments of the government have not met with encouragement, and in this direction many of the stations will, let us hope, be able to do better.
CO-OPERATION.
Every other subject that might be considered on this occasion must be subordinate to the one great question of co-operation. With the large increase of actual workers in our favorite field, distributed all over the country, the necessity for some co-operation and co-ordination must be apparent to every one. Just how this should be brought about or in what direction we may work toward it, will be for this association in its deliberations to decide. Nor will I venture to anticipate the deliberations and conclusions of the special committee appointed to take the matter into consideration, beyond the statement that there are many directions in which we can adopt plans for mutual benefit. Take, for instance, the introduction and dissemination of parasites. How much greater will be the chance of success in any particular case if we have all the different station entomologists interested in some specific plan to be carried out in co-operation with the national department, which ought to have better facilities of introducing specimens to foreign countries or to different sections of our own country than any of the State stations.
Let us suppose that the fruit growers of one section of the country, comprising several States in area, need the benefit in their warfare against any particularly injurious insect of such natural enemy or enemies as are known to help the fruit growers of some other section. There will certainly be much greater chances of success in the carrying out of any scheme of introduction if all the workers in the one section may be called upon through some central or national body to help in the introduction and disposition of the desired material into the other section. Or, take the case of the boll worm investigation already alluded to. The chances of success would be much greater if the entomologists in all the States interested were to give some attention to such lepidopterous larvae as are found to be affected with contagious diseases and to follow out some specific plan of cultivating and transmitting them to the party or parties with whom the actual trials are intrusted. The argument applies with still greater force to any international efforts. I need hardly multiply instances. There is, it is true, nothing to prevent any individual station entomologist from requesting co-operation of the other stations, nor is there anything to prevent the national department from doing likewise; but in all organization results are more apt to flow from the power to direct rather than from mere liberty to request or to plead. The station entomologist may be engrossed in some line of research which he deems of more importance to the people of his State, and may resent being called upon to divert his energies; and with no central or national power to decide upon plans of co-operation for the common weal, we are left to voluntary methods, mutually devised, and it is here that this association can, it seems to me, most fully justify its organization. And this brings me to the question of
THE DEPARTMENT AND THE STATIONS.
Immediately connected with the question of co-operation is the relation of the National Department of Agriculture and the State experiment stations. The relation, instead of being vital and authoritative, is, in reality, a subordinate one. Many persons interested in the advancement of agriculture foresaw the advantage of having experiment stations attached to the State agricultural colleges founded under the Morrill act of 1862; but I think that in the minds of most persons the establishment of these stations implied some such connection with the national department as that outlined in an address on Agricultural Advancement in the United States, which I had the honor to deliver in 1879 before the National Agricultural Congress, at Rochester, and in which the following language was used:
"In the light of the past history of the German experimental stations and their work, or of that in our own State of Connecticut, the expediency of purchasing an experimental farm of large dimensions in the vicinity of Washington is very questionable. There can be no doubt, however, of the value of a good experimental station there that shall have its branches in every State of the Union. The results to flow from such stations will not depend upon the number of acres at command, and it will be far wiser and more economical for the commissioner to make each agricultural college that accepted the government endowment auxiliary to the national bureau, so that the experimental farm that is now, or should be, connected with each of these institutions might be at its service and under the general management of the superintendent of the main station. There is reason to believe that the directors of these colleges would cheerfully have them constituted as experimental stations under the direction of the department, and thus help to make it really national—the head of a vast system that should ramify through all parts of the land....
"With the different State agricultural colleges, and the State agricultural societies, or boards, we have every advantage for building up a national bureau of agriculture worthy of the country and its vast productive interests, and on a thoroughly economical basis, such as that of Prussia, for instance."
In short, the view in mind was something in the nature of that which has since been adopted by our neighbors of the North, where there is a central or national station or farm at Ottawa and sub-stations or branch farms at Nappan, Nova Scotia, Brandon, Manitoba, Indian Head, N.W.T., and Agassiz, British Columbia, all under the able direction of Mr. William Saunders, one of our esteemed fellow workers. It was my privilege to be a good deal with Mr. Saunders when he was in Europe studying the experience of other countries in this matter, and the policy finally adopted in Canada as a result of his labors is an eminently wise one, preventing some of the difficulties and dangers which beset our plan, whether as between State and nation or college and station.
Under the present laws and with the vast influence which the Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations will wield, both in Congress and in the different States, there is great danger of transposition, in this agricultural body politic, of those parts which in the animal body are denominated head and tail, and the old saw to the effect that "the dog wags the tail because the tail cannot wag the dog," will find another application. So far as the law goes, the national department, which should hold a truly national position toward State agricultural institutions depending on federal support, can do little except by suggestion, whether in the line of directing plans or in any way co-ordinating or controlling the work of the different stations throughout the country. The men who influenced and shaped the legislation which resulted in the Hatch bill were careful that the department's function should be to indicate, not to dictate; to advise and assist, not to govern or regulate. We have, therefore, to depend on such relationships and such plans of co-operation as will appear advantageous to all concerned, and these can best be brought about through such associations as are now in convention here.
Without such plans there is great danger of such waste of energy and means and duplication of results as will bring the work into popular disfavor and invite disintegration, for already there is a growing feeling that agricultural experiment is and will be subordinated to the ordinary college work in the disposition of the federal appropriations.
What is true of the national department as a whole in its connection with the State stations is true in a greater or less degree of the different divisions of the department in connection with the different specialists of the stations. With the multiplicity of workers in any given direction in the different States, the necessity for national work lessens. A favorite scheme of mine in the past, for instance (and one I am glad to say fully indorsed by Prof. Willits), was to endeavor to have a permanent agent located in every section of the country that was sufficiently distinctive in its agricultural resources and climate, or, as a yet further elaboration of the same plan, one in each of the more important agricultural States. The necessity for such State agents has been lessened, if not obviated, by the Hatch bill, and the subsequent modifications looking to permanent appropriations to the State stations or colleges, which give no central power at Washington. The question then arises, What function shall the national department perform? Its influence and field for usefulness have been lessened rather than augmented in the lines of actual investigation in very many directions. Many a State is already far better equipped both as to valuable surrounding land, laboratory and library facilities, more liberal salaries, and greater freedom from red tape, administrative routine, and restrictions as to expenditures, than we are at Washington; and, except as a directing agent and a useful servant, I cannot see where the future growth of the department's influence is to be outside of those federal functions which are executive. Just what that directing influence is to be is the question of the hour, not only in the broader but in the special sense. The same question, in a narrower sense, had arisen in the case of the few States which employed State entomologists. In the event, for instance, of an outbreak of some injurious insect, or in the event of any particular economic entomological question within the limits of the State having such an officer, the United States entomologist would naturally feel that any effort on his part would be unnecessary, or might even be looked upon as an interference. He would feel that there was always danger of mere duplication of observation or experiment, except where appealed to for aid or co-operation. This is, perhaps, true only of insects which are local or sectional, and is rather a narrow view of the matter, but it is one brought home from experience, and is certainly to be considered in our future plans. The favor with which the museum work of the national division was viewed by you at the meeting last November and the amount of material sent on for determination would indicate that the building up of a grand national reference collection will be most useful to the station workers. But to do this satisfactorily we need your co-operation, and I appeal to all entomologists to aid in this effort by sending duplicates of their types to Washington, and thus more fully insuring against ultimate loss thereof.
STATUS OF OUR SOCIETY.
This train of thought brings up the question of the status of our society with the station entomologists as represented by the committee of the general association. Those of us who had desired a national association for the various purposes for which such associations are formed, felt, I believe, if I may speak for them, that the creation of the different experimental stations rendered such an organization feasible. Your organization at Toronto and the constitution adopted and amended at the meeting at Washington all indicate that the chief object was the advancement of our chosen work and that the strength of the association would come from the experiment station entomologists. There was then no other organization of the kind, nor any intimation that such a one would be founded. Some of us therefore were surprised to learn from the circular sent out by Prof. Forbes, its chairman, that the committee appointed by the association of agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and through which we had hoped to communicate and co-operate with that association, was not in the proper sense a committee, but a section which has prepared (and in fact was required by the executive committee and the rules of the superior body to prepare) a programme of papers and discussions for the meeting to be held at the same time and place with our own. I cannot but feel that this is in some respects a misfortune, and it will devolve upon you to decide upon several questions of importance that will materially affect our future existence. That there is not room for two national organizations having the same objects in view and meeting at the same time and place goes, I think, without saying; and if the committee of the general association is to be anything more than a committee in the proper sense of the word, or if it is to assume with or without formal constitution the functions of our own association, then our own must necessarily be crippled, and to do any good at all must meet at a different time and a different place. A committee or section, or whatever it may be called, of the general association with which we meet, would preclude active membership of any but those who come within the constitution of that body. Our Canadian friends and many others who have identified themselves with applied entomology, and do not belong to any of our State or government institutions, would be debarred from active representation, however liberal the association may have been in inviting such to participate, without power to vote in its deliberations. Our own association has, or should have, no such limitations. Some of us who are entitled to membership in both bodies may feel indifferent as to the course finally decided upon, and that it will not make any difference whether we have an outside and independent organization, as that of the association of official chemists, or whether we do, as did the botanists and horticulturists, waive independence in favor of more direct connection with the general association, provided there is some way whereby the committees of the general association are given sufficient latitude and time to properly present their papers and deliberate; but there are others who feel more sensitive as to their action and are more immediately influenced by the feelings of the main body. I hope that whatever action be taken at this meeting, the general good and the promotion of economic entomology will be kept in mind and that no sectional or personal feeling will be allowed to influence our deliberations.
SUGGESTION AND COMMENT.
You will, I know, pardon me if, before concluding these remarks, I venture to make a few comments which, though not altogether agreeable, are made in all sincerity and in the hope of doing good. The question as to how far purely technical and especially descriptive and monographic work should be done by the different stations or by the national department is one which I have already alluded to and upon which we shall probably hold differing opinions, and which will be settled according to the views of the authorities at the different stations. Individually, I have ever felt that one ostensibly engaged in applied entomology and paid by the State or national government to the end that he may benefit the agricultural community can be true to his trust only by largely overcoming the pleasure of entomological work having no practical bearing. I would, therefore, draw the line at descriptive work except where it is incidental to the economic work and for the purpose of giving accuracy to the popular and economic statements. This would make our work essentially biological, for all biologic investigation would be justified, not only because the life habits of any insect, once ascertained, throw light on those of species which are closely related to it, but because we can never know when a species at present harmless may subsequently prove harmful, and have to be classed among the species injurious to agriculture.
On the question of credit to their original sources of results already on record, it is hardly necessary for me to advise, because good sense and the consensus of opinion will in the end justify or condemn a writer according as he prove just and conscientious in this regard.
There is one principle that should guide every careful writer, viz., that in any publications whatever, where facts or opinions are put forth, it should always be made clear as to which are based upon the author's personal experience and which are compiled or stated upon the authority of others. We should have no patience with a very common tendency to set forth facts, even those relating to the most common and best known species, without the indications to which I have referred. The tendency belittles our calling and is generally misleading and confusing, especially for bibliographic work, and cannot be too strongly deprecated.
On this point there will hardly be any difference of opinion, but I will allude to another question of credit upon which there prevails a good deal of loose opinion and custom. It is the habit of using illustrations of other authors without any indication of their original source.
This is an equally vicious custom and one to be condemned, though I know that some have fallen into the habit, without appreciation of its evil effect. It is, in my judgment, almost as blameworthy as to use the language or the facts of another without citing the authority.
Every member of this association who has due appreciation of the time and labor and special knowledge required to produce a good and true illustration of the transformations and chief characteristics of an insect will appreciate this criticism. However pardonable in fugitive newspaper articles in respect of cuts which, from repeated use, have become common or which have no individuality, the habit inevitably gives a certain spurious character to more serious and official publications, for assumption of originality, whether intended or not, goes with uncredited matter whether of text or figure. Nor is mere acknowledgment of loan or purchase to the publisher, institution or individual who may own the block or stone what I refer to. But that acknowledgment to the author of the figure or the work in which it first appears which is part of conscientious writing, and often a valuable index as to the reliability of the figure.
It were supererogation to point out to a body of this kind the value of the most careful and thorough work in connection with life histories and habits, often involving as it does much microscopic study of structure. The officers of our institutions who control the funds, and more or less fully our conduct, are apt to be somewhat impatient and inappreciative of the time given to anatomic work, and where it is given for the purpose of describing species and of synopsizing or monographing higher groups, without reference to agriculture, I am firmly of the belief that it diverts one from economic work, but where pursued for a definite economic purpose it cannot be too careful or too thorough and I know of no instances better calculated to appeal to and modify the views of those inclined to belittle such structural study than Phylloxera and Icerya. On the careful comparison of the European and American specimens of Phylloxera vastatrix, involving the most minute structures and details, depended originally those important economic questions which have resulted in legislation by many different nations and the regeneration of the affected vineyards of Europe, of our own Pacific coast, and of other parts of the world by the use of American resistant stocks. In the case of Icerya purchasi the possibilities of success in checking it by its natural enemies hung at one time upon a question of specific difference between it and the Icerya sacchari of Signoret—a question of minute structure which the descriptions left unsettled and which could only be settled by the most careful structural study and the comparison of the types, involving a trip to Europe.
CONCLUSION.
I have thus touched, gentlemen, upon a few of the many subjects that crowd upon the mind for consideration on an occasion like this—a few gleanings from a field which is passing rich in promise and possibility. It is a field that some of us have cultivated for many years and yet have only scratched the surface, and if I have ventured to suggest or admonish, it is with the feeling that my own labors in this field are ere long about to end and that I may not have another occasion.
At no time in the history of the world has there, I trow, been gathered together such a body of devoted and capable workers in applied entomology. It marks an era in our calling and, looking back at the progress of the past fifteen years, we may well ponder the possibilities of the next fifteen. They will be fruitful of grand results in proportion as we persistently and combinedly pursue the yet unsolved problems and are not tempted to the immediate presentation of separate facts, which are so innumerable and so easily observed that their very wealth becomes an element of weakness. Epoch-making discoveries result only from this power of following up unswervingly any given problem, or any fixed ideal. The kerosene emulsion, the Cyclone nozzle, the history of Phylloxera vastatrix, of Phorodon humuli, of Vedalia cardinalis, are illustrations in point, and while we may not expect frequent results as striking or of as wide application as these, there is no end of important problems yet to be solved and from the solution of which we may look for similar beneficial results. Applied entomology is often considered a sordid pursuit, but it only becomes so when the object is sordid. When pursued with unselfish enthusiasm born of the love of investigation and the delight in benefiting our fellow men, it is inspiring, and there are few pursuits more deservedly so, considering the vast losses to our farmers from insect injury and the pressing need that the distressed husbandman has for every aid that can be given him. Our work is elevating in its sympathies for the struggles and suffering of others. Our standard should be high—the pursuit of knowledge for the advancement of agriculture. No official entomologist should lower it by sordid aims.
During the recent political campaign the farmer must have been sorely puzzled to know whether his interests needed protection or not. On the abstract question of tariff protection to his products we, as entomologists, may no more agree than do the politicians or than does the farmer himself. But ours is a case of protection from injurious insects, and upon that there can nowhere be division of opinion. It is our duty to see that he gets it with as little tax for the means as possible.
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POTASH SALTS.
[Footnote: By John B. Smith, entomologist. Potash as an insecticide is not entirely new, but has never been brought out with the prominence I think it deserves.—N.J. Ag. Col. Exp. St., Bulletin 75.]
My attention was attracted to potash salts as an insecticide, by the casual remark of an intelligent farmer, that washing his young pear trees with a muriate of potash solution cleared them of scales. The value of this substance for insecticide purposes, should its powers be sufficient, struck me at once, and I began investigation. It was unluckily too late in the season for field experiments of the nature desired; but it is the uniform testimony of farmers who have used either the muriate or the kainit in the cornfields, that they have there no trouble with grubs or cut worms. Mr. E.B. Voorhees, the senior chemist of the station, assures me that on his father's farm the fields were badly infested, and replanting cornhills killed by grubs or wire worms was a recognized part of the programme. Since using the potash salts, however, they have had absolutely no trouble, and even their previously worst-infested fields show no further trace of injury. The same testimony comes from others, and I feel safe in recommending these salts, preferably kainit, to those who are troubled with cut worms or wire worms in corn.
EXPERIMENTS.
A lot of wire worms (Iulus sp.) brought in from potato hills were put into a tin can with about three inches of soil and some potato cuttings, and the soil was thoroughly moistened with kainit, one ounce to one pint of water. Next morning all the specimens were dead. A check lot in another can, moistened with water only, were healthy and lived for some days afterward.
A number of cabbage maggots placed on the soil impregnated with the solution died within twelve hours.
To test its actual killing power, used the solution, one ounce kainit to one pint water, to spray a rose bush badly infested with plant lice. Effect, all the lice dead ten hours later; the younger forms were dropping within an hour.
Sprayed several heads of wheat with the solution, and within three hours all the aphides infesting them were dead.
Some experiments on hairy caterpillars resulted unsatisfactorily, the hair serving as a perfect protection against the spray, even from the atomizer.
To test its effect on the foliage, sprayed some tender shoots of rose and grape leaves, blossoms, and clusters of young fruit. No bad effect observable 24 hours later. There was on some of the leaves a fine glaze of salt crystals, and a decided salt taste was manifest on all.
Muriate of potash of the same strength was tested as follows: Sprayed on some greenhouse camellias badly infested by mealy bugs, it killed nearly all within three hours, and six hours later not a living insect was found. The plants were entirely uninjured by the application.
Thoroughly sprayed some rose bushes badly infested with aphides, and carried off some of the worst branches. On these the lice were dead next morning; but on the bushes the effect was not so satisfactory, most of the winged forms and many mature wingless specimens were unaffected, while the terminal shoots and very young leaves were drooping as though frosted. All, however, recovered later.
The same experiment repeated on other, hardier roses, resulted similarly so far as the effect on the aphides was concerned, but there was no injury to the plant.
Used this same mixture on the caterpillars of Orgyia leucostigma with unsatisfactory effect, and with the same results used it on a number of other larvae. Used on the rose leaf roller, Cacaecia rosaceana, it was promptly effective.
Tested for injury to plants, it injured the foliage and flowers of wisteria, the younger leaves of maple and grape, and the finer kinds of roses.
From these few experiments kainit seems preferable to the muriate, as acting more effectively on insects and not injuriously on plants. For general use on plants it is not to be recommended. It is otherwise on underground species, where the soil will be penetrated by the salts and where the moisture evaporates but slowly, and the salt has a longer and better chance to act. The best method of application would be a broadcasting in fertilizing quantity before or during a rain, so as to carry the material into the soil at once. In cornfields infested with grubs or wire worms, the application should be made before planting. Where it is to be used to reach root lice, it should be used when the injury is beginning. When strawberry beds are infested by the white grub, the application should be made when cultivating or before setting out.
The potash salts have a high value as fertilizers, and any application made will act as a stimulant as well as insecticide, thus enabling the plants to overcome the insect injury as well as destroying the insect.
In speaking on this subject in Salem county, I learned from farmers present that those using potash were not troubled with the corn root louse to any extent, and also that young peach trees have been successfully grown in old lice-infested orchards, where previously all died, by first treating the soil with kainit of potash.
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A meteorological station has been built on Mont Blanc, at an elevation of 13,300 feet, under the direction of M. Vallot. It required six weeks to deliver the materials. The instruments are self-registering and are to be visited in summer every fifteen days if possible, the instruments being left to register between the visits. In the winter the observatory will be entirely inaccessible. This is the highest scientific station in Europe, but is 847 feet lower than the Pike's Peak station in Colorado.
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THE EXPENSE MARGIN IN LIFE INSURANCE.
The principle of mutuality requires that the burden of expense in life insurance should be borne by all the members equally; but, even with the most careful adjustment, the allowance usually made is considerably in excess of what is needed in the regular companies doing business on the "level premium" plan.
It is customary in these companies to add to the net premium a percentage thereof to cover the expense account. This practice, though in harmony with the "commission system," is so clearly defective and so far removed from the spirit of life insurance mathematics, that it scarcely deserves even this passing notice.
It is generally understood that these corporations combine the functions of the savings bank and life insurance company, and it is only by separating the two in our minds as far as possible that we can obtain a clear conception of the laws that should govern the apportionment of the expenses among the great variety of policies.
While it is a comparatively simple matter to state the amount of either the insurance or savings bank element in a single policy, it is by no means easy, as things go, to classify the company's actual expenses on this basis.
Fortunately, we can pretty accurately determine what these amounts should be in any particular case.
In the first place, there are institutions in our midst devoted solely to receiving and conserving small sums of money; doing, in fact, exactly what our insurance companies are undertaking to do with the reserve and contributions thereto. These savings banks are required by law to make returns to the State commissioner, from whose official report we can get a very good idea of the expense attendant on doing this business.
Confining ourselves to the city banks, where the conditions more nearly resemble those of the insurance companies, we find in thirty-eight combined institutions for saving in the State of Massachusetts a deposit in 1888 of $192,174,566, taken care of at an aggregate cost of $455,387, or about 24-100 of one per cent.
The same ratio carried out for all the savings banks in Massachusetts gives a trifle over 25-100 of one per cent.; we may, therefore, consider 1/4 of one per cent. as expressing pretty nearly the cost of receiving, paying out, and investing the savings of the people.
We must remember in this connection that in the popular estimation, the savings bank is an important factor in the public welfare, and in the towns and smaller cities there are often found public spirited men willing to give their services to encourage this mode of saving; but public sentiment has not yet given to life insurance the place which it is destined, sooner or later, to occupy by the side of the savings bank. Hence the services of able managers can only be obtained by a liberal outlay of the corporate funds. A satisfactory adjustment of the matter of expenses will, perhaps, do more than anything else to bring about this recognition on the part of the public.
In the case of the savings bank it is safe to say that for double the present outlay a liberal salary could be paid to all the officers. Following the analogy, we are led to infer that if this be the case in savings banks, then 1/2 of one per cent. of the reserve should be an ample allowance for the special labor required in the purely banking portion of the business.
In this we have the concurrence of the late Elizur Wright. In an essay on this subject he says:
"The expenses of the five largest savings banks in Boston, in 1869, did not exceed 4-10 of one per cent. on $28,000,000 deposited in them. They certainly had twice as many transactions, in proportion to the deposits, as any life insurance company could have with the same amount of reserve, so that 1/2 of one per cent. on the reserve seems to be ample for all working expenses save those of maintaining the agencies and collecting the premiums."
This need hardly be looked upon as an admission that it costs twice as much to care for the funds of a life insurance company as for those of a savings bank. A liberal expense allowance must be made at the outset, seeing that an error in this particular cannot easily be rectified after the policy is issued. The dividend, or, to speak more correctly, the annual return of surplus, will correct any overpayment on this account.
There is another expense which seems inevitable. This is the government tax on insurance companies, amounting in the aggregate to nearly 1/3 of one per cent. on the reserve.
When we consider that these institutions are intended to encourage thrift and to relieve the community from the care of numberless widows and orphans, it seems a clear violation of the principles of political economy to levy a tax on this business; still, whatever our opinion may be as to the justice or injustice of the imposition, the tax is maintained and must be provided for. Consequently a further allowance of 1/2 of one per cent. must be added to the net premium to cover the same, making a total of 1 per cent. of the reserve for banking expenses and taxes. Considering this point as settled for the time being, let us proceed to investigate the insurance expenses.
Here, again, we are fortunate in being able to refer to the official reports of a class of corporations doing nearly, if not quite pure insurance.
The assessment societies, outside of the fraternal and benevolent, reporting in 1889 to the insurance commissioner of Massachusetts, show outstanding risks amounting to $733,515,366. Losses to the amount of $7,270,238 were paid during the year at a cost for transacting the business of $2,403,053, which includes among other items "agency expenses and commissions," which amount to about $1,203,000, or 17 per cent. of the cost value of the insurance actually done. It would seem as if an allowance of 20 per cent. would be a liberal one in the case of the regular companies, which surely have as good facilities for doing business as the assessment societies.
As far as insurance is concerned, there is less difference between regular and co-operative companies than is generally supposed. Regular companies assess each policy in advance for a year's insurance at a time, while co-operative societies furnish insurance only from one assessment to another. The difficulty in the way of collecting the assessment in the latter case would seem to be greater than in the former, owing to the more permanent nature of the regular insurance contract.
In compensating agents the assessment companies naturally pay in proportion to the insurance obtained, inasmuch as there is no other basis to go upon, but regular companies usually pay the agent a percentage of the premium which includes a considerable trust fund over and above the assessment for actual insurance. It is easily seen that by the last method the agent's compensation increases in proportion to the amount of savings bank business forced upon the company.
To realize how far we are from anything like a scientific, not to say common sense basis for insurance expenses, we have but to examine the following list, which gives the ratios between the expenditures for general expenses in 1889, and those for the extension of the business. For every $100 used in a general way, the different companies spend for commissions and agency expenses: $37, $66, $67, $78, $91, $106, $110, $113, $120, $140, $157, $161, $173, $175, $186, $189, $200, $202, $222, $264, $311, $346.
It will doubtless be said that I am taking a very advanced position when I say that in the ideal life insurance scheme there is no place for the commission system. Solicitors will be a necessity only so long as they are in the field, but fifty years of life insurance has taught our community its true value and, thanks to the modern press, the institution it is no more likely to fall into desuetude than is Christianity or the moral law.
For the convenience of bringing the company to the individual, the latter should be willing to pay a fee. The man who renders another a service or puts his superior knowledge at another's disposal should look to the party benefited for his remuneration. Any compensation given for such service to a go-between by a mutual company is paid by all, and the question arises, Is the advantage to the company of sufficient importance to warrant the imposition of this tax upon all its members promiscuously? The following, from the Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner's Report for 1885, leaves no doubt as to the convictions of the writer on this important matter:
"The expensiveness of the life insurance policy is not because the level net premium is too high, for the premium is absolutely just, and the policy holder gets full value; but the complaint justly applies to the excessive expense charge. A person who wants insurance, life or fire or other, should be able to buy it at first cost without paying tribute of profits to middlemen. To that complexion the matter will finally be brought by the force of intelligent opinion, whatever resistance may be opposed by persons whose thrift lies in the perpetuation of the expensive system now in fashion."
It requires but a slight degree of prophetic vision to predict that in a very few years the companies in self defense will be obliged to change their method of compensating agents.
Several companies have already begun the reform by grading commissions; granting a percentage proportional to the amount of insurance likely to be done on the policy. Other companies have simply reduced the amount of the commission rate, thus virtually withdrawing from active competition.
This will, in a certain degree, explain the wide variation in the figures given above, where it is noticed that, in five companies out of twenty-two, the total agency expenditures amount to less than the general expenses, while in six cases the companies spend more than double as much on the former as on the latter. In either class we find representatives of the five largest companies in the country.
On applying the foregoing ratios to the business of the existing companies we find that, calling the theoretical expenses $100, the actual expenditures for 1889 were as follows: $112.67, $118.34, $150.40, $194.48, $208.16, $208.53, $228.66, $235.89, $248.44, $250.79, $258.33, $258.57, $265.14, $267.19, $267.92, $274.47, $294.17, $314.96, $335.70, $377.94, $616.70.
In this discouraging exhibit there is one ray of comfort. The combined assets of the two companies heading the list amount to over $100,000,000. There is no question as to their financial standing, and both show a large increase in membership over the previous year. I may also say here that it is a difficult matter to get at the actual "cost of insurance" in the various companies. Many of them, on their own acknowledgment, do not compute the advance cost of carrying their "amount at risk," and others, for reasons of their own, do not care to state the figures. In cases where the correct figures were not obtainable, I have assumed the cost to have been 1-1/3 per cent. of the mean amount at risk.
If we should, in our comparison, omit the actual agency expenses and commissions, the ratios would stand as follows:
Where I would allow $100 the companies actually used: $43.17, $55.90, $65.21, $77.21, $82.39, $88.34, $91.99. $91.98. $92.19, $94.65, $97.15. $99.55. $99.11. $102.86, $109.35, $125.05, $133.03, $141.92, $195.90, $207.06, $287.72.
As might be supposed, the first two ratios are those companies before alluded to. These companies might have doubled their advertising account and expended $300,000 between them on agents' salaries, and still have kept within my allowance.
Admitting, for the present at least, the reasonableness of the proposed allowance for the expenses of the banking and insurance departments of the business, we have before us the problem how to equitably adjust the burden among the great variety of policies.
In the first place, there should be no policy in the company that does not contribute its proportionate share of the expense allowance during every year of its life. I make a special point of this, for at present the policies which have become paid up, either by the payment of a single premium at the outset or by the completion of a stipulated number of payments, contribute practically nothing to the expense account after the premium payments cease.
The following plan, I think, complies with all the requirements of the problem. By the proposed method every policy, at all stages of its existence, contributes its exact share to the expense fund, whatever its plan of payment may be.
Let us, as an illustration, examine the case of a ten year endowment policy, taken out at age 30, and consider it under three aspects, first, as paid for in advance by a single payment, second, as paid by five annual payments, and third, as paid for annually throughout the term. I have used this short term endowment policy simply for convenience, the rule applying equally to policies of longer term or to the ordinary life policy, which is, in fact, an endowment policy payable at death or age 100.[1]
[Footnote 1: The expense allowance on a plain life policy for $1,000, taken at age 33, would be about $5.29; net premium (com. ex. 4 per cent.), $18.04; total office premium, $23.33; present rate $24.10.]
Taking the case of the single premium endowment policy for $1,000, we find that the following sums are required, each year to provide for the care of the reserve and to pay the government fees (1 per cent. of reserve):
1st year $6.9982 6th year $8.4136 2d " 7.2560 7th " 8.7381 3d " 7.5258 8th " 9.0781 4th " 7.8082 9th " 9.4346 5th " 8.1039 10th " 9.8086
The insurance expenses should be covered by the 20 per cent. allowance given below:
1st year $ .4422 6th year $ .2566 2d " .4100 7th " .2076 3d " .3762 8th " .1556 4th " .3402 9th " .0988 5th " .2996 10th " .0344
Consequently the total contribution required from this policy each year is:
1st year $7.4404 6th year $8.6702 2d " 7.6660 7th " 8.9457 3d " 7.9020 8th " 9.2337 4th " 8.1484 9th " 9.5334 5th " 8.4034 10th " 9.8430
The present value of all these contributions is found to be, at 4 per cent. interest, $71.6394; in other words, this sum paid at the outset, provides a fund from which we may deduct the current expenses of each year in advance, and by accumulating the balance at the assumed rate of interest from year to year, we shall have enough to pay the anticipated expenses, leaving nothing over.
In the above case the sums in hand at the beginning of the year are as follows:
1st year $71.3694 6th year $42.6981 2d " 66.7669 7th " 35.3890 3d " 61.4650 8th " 27.5009 4th " 55.7055 9th " 18.9979 5th " 49.4594 10th " 9.8430
We find a somewhat different condition existing during the first years of a 5-year endowment policy. As there is more insurance and less banking, the requirements are as follows:
+ + -+ + -+ 1 P. Ct. 20 P. Ct. on on Total. Initial Reserve. Cost. Fund. + + -+ + -+ 1st year $1.5038 $1.2572 $2.7610 $12.9769 2d " 3.0406 1.0216 4.0622 23.6015 3d " 4.6503 .7852 5.4355 33.2979 4th " 6.3367 .5378 6.8745 41.9538 5th " 8.1039 .2996 8.4035 49.4594 6th " 8.4136 .2566 8.6702 42.6981 7th " 8.7381 .2076 8.9257 35.3890 8th " 9.0781 .1556 9.2337 27.5009 9th " 9.4346 .0988 9.5334 18.9979 10th " 9.8086 .0344 9.8430 9.8430 + + -+ + -+
As the premium payments extend over only five years, the expense contributions must all be paid during that time and are most conveniently made by a uniform addition to the net premium.
The present value of the amounts in column 3 is $60.0819, and the equivalent annuity for five years is $12.9769. This amount, received for five consecutive years, will put the company in funds to pay current expenses and leave a reserve of $42.6981 at the beginning of the sixth year, which, as we have seen in the analysis of the single-premium policy, is the sum required for future expenses on the paid up basis.
In like manner we find that the 10-year annuity equivalent to the present value of the annual contributions in the case of an annual-payment policy is $5.534, thus:
+ + -+ + -+ 1 P. Ct. 20 P. Ct. on on Total. Initial Reserve. Cost. Fund. + + -+ + -+ 1st year $.8234 $1.3514 $2.1748 $ 5.5340 2d " 1.6473 1.2478 2.8951 9.0275 3d " 2.5096 1.1388 3.6484 11.9116 4th " 3.4124 1.0210 4.4334 14.1277 5th " 4.3572 .8916 5.2488 15.6161 6th " 5.3479 .7534 6.1013 16.3160 7th " 6.3853 .5966 6.9819 16.1572 8th " 7.4726 .4270 7.8996 15.0763 9th " 8.6127 .2418 8.8545 12.9977 10th " 9.8086 .0344 9.8430 9.8430 + + -+ + -+
The present value of the ten yearly expense items given in the "total" column above is $46.6812, which is equal to a ten-year annuity of $5.534. The several premiums stand now as follows:
ENDOWMENT: $1,000, AGE 30, PAYABLE AT DEATH OR 40
Net Prem.[2] Margin. Total.
At single premium. $687.228 $71.6394 $758.8674 At five premiums. 150.615 12.9769 163.5939 At annual premiums. 84.172 5.5340 89.7060
[Footnote 2: Thirty American offices. Discount from middle of year, Vx-1/2 or (M x 1.01961) / Dx.]
By the actuaries' rate we have, with the customary loading for expense:
Single premium: $721.66 (loaded, $34.36). Five premiums, $188.70 (loaded $37.78). Annual premium, $105.65 (loaded $21.11).
Admitting the correctness of the new method, we must conclude that the present single premium is not sufficiently loaded to cover its own expenses, while the annual payment policy pays more than its just share. A prominent and thoroughly informed life insurance president says in this connection: "Many of the policies, particularly the short term endowments, are charged with too high a percentage of expenses to prove a good investment at maturity or profitable to the insured in case of surrender." This is not to be wondered at when the applicant for a 10-year endowment policy sees at a glance that he must pay, in the gross, more than is returned unless he should die in the interim, in which case a plain "life" or "term" policy would have answered the purpose. Under the new system of assessing expenses one form is as desirable as another, from the standpoint of the insured or the company.
The new premium for the 10-year endowment policy, $89.71, commends itself at once to the applicant, who can easily see that his total outlay must fall short of the amount ultimately to be realized, of course, disregarding interest and probable dividends in both cases.
In discounting the future expense contributions I have not taken the chances of dying into account. Hence the expense reserve in any instance applies only to that individual case, and, in the event of death or surrender before the maturity of the policy, the amount of the expense fund not used would naturally revert to the insured.
The scheme of expense assessment outlined above will doubtless be pronounced impracticable by the majority of insurance men.
Such a far reaching reform is too much to hope for, at least in the immediate future.
No well informed life insurance expert will deny that there are opportunities for improvement in the business, but to graft new methods on old companies is a hopeless undertaking.
It is well, however, to have new methods well matured in advance of the public demand, and I feel convinced that the ideas here set forth are in the line of the reform which, before long, must be instituted by the companies if they would retain the confidence and patronage of the community.
Doubtless many insurance presidents could tell of suggestions which have impressed them favorably and which they would gladly have adopted were it not for the injustice done thereby to older members and the changes necessary to bring existing contracts into conformity with the new system. Similar objections may be urged against the ideas here advanced, and I must confess I hardly see a way by which the present suggestions can be utilized by existing companies. We can only hope that sooner or later some of the new theories may be practically tested. Meanwhile the companies at present in the field are doing a great work for the good of humanity, even though their methods may be, in some particulars, more practical than scientific.
Winchester, Mass. FRANK J. WILLS.
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THE FLOOD AT KARLSBAD.
During the flood which occurred in Germany and Bohemia, the last week of November, Karlsbad was especially unfortunate; it suffered such an inundation as had never before been known in the "Sprudelstadt." On the evening of November 23, the Tepl was very much swollen by the rain, which had continued for several days, but it was supposed that there was no danger of a flood, as the bed of the river had been put in proper condition. During the forenoon of November 24, the water suddenly began to rise with such astonishing rapidity that within half an hour all the lower streets were like turbulent rivers and the Alte and Neue Wiese were transformed into a lake. The stores on the Alte Wiese were under water to the roofs, and the proprietors, who were trying to save their goods, were surprised by the water and had to take refuge in the trees. They were rescued by having ropes thrown to them, and during this work a catastrophe occurred which was a great misfortune to all classes of citizens. The beloved burgermeister of Karlsbad, Dr. Rudolf Knoll, who had just recovered from a severe illness, was, with others, directing the work from the balcony of one of the houses, when a rope by which a man was being drawn through the water broke, and the man was carried off by the waves. The fright and excitement of the scene gave the burgermeister a shock which caused his instant death, but the man who was in danger was brought safely out of the water.
The water was 9 ft. in Marienbaderstrasse, the Marktplatz, Muhlbadgasse, the Sprudelgasse, Kreuzgasse, Kaiserstrasse, and Egerstrasse, and flooded the quay, causing great destruction. All places of business were flooded, the doors and iron shutters were pushed in by the force of the water and the goods were carried away or ruined.
The house called "Zum Kaffeebaum" was undermined and part of it fell to the ground; the same fate was feared for other buildings. The Sophien and Curhaus bridges were carried away. Other bridges were greatly damaged, and the masonry along the banks of the river was partially destroyed. The Sprudelgasse was completely washed out, and the condition of the Muhlbadgasse was almost as bad. The fire department with its apparatus had great difficulty in saving the inhabitants and guests, as there were very few boats or pontoons at their command, and the soldiers (Pionniere) from Prague and the firemen from the neighboring towns did not arrive until evening. Fortunately the water began to fall in the night, and the next day it had gone down so that it left its terrible work visible. The Sprudel and the mineral springs were not injured, but, on the other hand, the water pipes of the bathing establishments and the gas pipes were completely destroyed.—Illustrirte Zeitung.
* * * * *
THEATRICAL WATER PLAYS.
In one of the plays at Hengler's Circus in London a water scene is introduced, for which purpose the main ring is flooded with water in a manner which is both striking and interesting.
The ring is entirely lined with stout macintosh sheeting, and into this, from two large conduits. 23,000 gallons of water are poured, the tank being filled to a depth of some 2 ft. in the remarkably short time of 35 seconds. A steamboat and other small craft are then launched and the adventures of the heroine then proceed. She falls overboard, we believe, but is saved after desperate and amusing struggles. Our engravings, which are from the Graphic, illustrate the mode of filling the ring with water, and the steamboat launch.
* * * * *
SCIENCE IN THE THEATER.
In the pretty little hall of the Boulevard des Italiens, at Paris, a striking exhibition of simulated hypnotism is given every evening.
This entertainment, which has met with much success, was devised by Mr. Melies, director of the establishment, which was founded many years ago by the celebrated prestidigitator whose popular name (Robert Houdin) it still bears. This performance carries instruction with it, for it shows how easily the most surprising phenomena of the pathologic state can be imitated. To this effect, several exhibitions are given every evening.
Mr. Harmington, a convinced disciple of Mesmer, asks for a subject, and finds one in the hall. A young artist named Marius presents himself. Mr. Harmington makes him perform all sorts of extravagant acts, accompanied with a continuous round of pantomimes that are rendered the more striking by the supposed state of somnipathy of the subject. At the moment at which Marius is finishing his most extraordinary exercises, a policeman suddenly breaks in upon the stage in order to execute the recent orders relative to hypnotism. But he himself is subjugated by Mr. Harmington and thrown down by the vibrations of which the encephalus of this terrible magnetizer is the center. When the curtain falls, the representative of authority is struggling against the catalepsy that is overcoming him.
All the phenomena of induced sleep are successively simulated with much naturalness by Mr. Jules David, who plays the part of Marius in this pleasing little performance.
At a certain moment, after skillfully simulated passes made by the magnetizer, Mr. David suddenly becomes as rigid as a stick of wood, and falls in pivoting on his heels (Fig. 1). Did not Mr. Harmington run to his assistance, he would inevitably crack his skull upon the floor, but the magnetizer stands just behind him in order to receive him in his arms. Then he lifts him, and places him upon two chairs just as he would do with a simple board. He places the head of the subject upon the seat of one of the chairs and the heels upon that of the other. Mr. David then remains in a state of perfect immobility. Not a muscle is seen to relax, and not a motion betrays the persistence of life in him. The simulation is perfect.
In order to complete the astonishment of the spectators, Mr. Harmington seats himself triumphantly upon the abdomen of the subject and slowly raises his feet and holds them suspended in the air to show that it is the subject only that supports him, without the need of any other point of support than the two chairs (Fig. 2).
Usually, there are plenty of persons ingenuous enough to think that Mr. David is actually in a cataleptic sleep, one of the characters of which is cadaveric rigidity.
As Mr. David's neck is entirely bare, it is not possible to suppose that the simulator of catalepsy wears an iron corset concealed beneath his clothing. He has performed a feat of strength and skill rendered easy by the exercise that he has given to the muscles occupying the colliciae of his vertebral column. This part of the muscular system is greatly developed in the weakest and least hardy persons. In fact, in order that man may keep a vertical position and execute an infinite multitude of motions in which stability is involved, nature has had to give him a large number of different organs. The muscles of the back are arranged upon several superposed layers, the vertebral column is doubly recurved in order that it may have more strength, and, finally, rachidion nerves issue from each vertebra in order to regulate the contraction of each muscular fasciculus according to the requirements of equilibrium. The trick is so easy that we have seen youths belonging to the Ligue d'Education Physique immediately imitate Mr. David after seeing him operate but once. |
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