—A reception was given by Miss Hackett to her many friends, at the cottage, on Saturday eve ning, October 27th. The event was in honor of Miss Hackett's friend and guest, Miss Mae Up perman, of Philadelphia. The cottage, always a delightful place for such occurrences, was made doubly so on this occasion by the presence of fair women and tasteful decorations, the guests all de parting with the memories of a delightful evening lingering in their minds. —The signal corps has been using the helio graphs this fall for short distance signaling. The flashes from the six inch mirrors were seen very easily from three to four miles, and although the instruments have not been tried at longer dis• tances here, in Utah where they were used by the army, messages were sent as far as ninety miles. The record for heliograph signaling was broken a short time ago when, eight inch mirrors being used, a message was sent from Pike's Peak to a mountain one hundred and eighty-three miles --The engineering excursion planned for all the engineering students in the Senior class and for the mining students in the Junior class has been postponed from the early part of the month but may be made during the latter part of No vember. It is rare that such an opportunity of fers as extended by the railroad recently. The students who had intended making the trip would have been in charge of the heads of the different departments. It was intended to visit the rolling mills of Cramp's ship yards, the Mid vale Steel Company, the mint, the zinc and iron mines and furnaces near Bethlehem, and the ex tensive works at Steelton. —The models of the coal washer and ore dressing works now placed for the Department of Mining in the building recently used as the Me chanic Arts Building are the first of their kind known to have been in any mining school in America. They will serve hereafter to fully il lustrate the processes of cleaning phosphate rock THE FREE LANCE. in Florida, iron ores in Alabama, Michigan or Pennsylvania, lead ores in the Mississippi Valley, ores of the precious metals in the Rocky Moun tains, and coal. The coal washer contains five pairs of crushing rolls, six revolving screens for sorting the coal in to thirteen sizes, shutes automatically delivering the sized products to one of the thirteen separate pockets, a gyrating screen of Coxe's pattern, two link belt scrapers or conveyers for dust and waste, two elevators with sixty cups in each, four jigs, and other appliances of mechanical nature. The ore dressing model is illustrative rasher than a working plant. It contains a crusher, a pair of rolls, an elevator belt, three screens, six sets of four compartment jigs, a sluice jig, a hy draulic separator and all the other needful ap paratus. • Ex-'97. Leland Von Abrams is attending the Western University of Pennsylvania. '94. A. D. Belt is working for his father in the Wellsville Whip Co., Wellsville, Pa. '94. W. M. Dickinson is in the drafting de partment of the Warren Webster Co., Camden, New jersey ; manufacturers of feed water heaters for boilers. '94. H. P. Dowler, who has been engaged during the last summer in surveying in the ad joining coal mining counties, now expects to as sume the duties of Mining Engineer for a firm in Tyrone. '93. C. R. Fay is chief chemist and assistant superintendent of the the Cambria Limestone Co., Aetna, Pa. • Ex- 1 93. M. E. Benson has become connected with the firm of Bailey, Banks and Biddle, Phila delphia, Penna. '93. E. P. Butts has secured a position as draughtsman in Baldwin's Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, Pa. PERSONALS.