The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-07-26
sc1ENr1r1cA1 AND MECHANICAL.

A PAPER STEAMBoAT.-A one-horss
power paper steamboat is being built o,
Ballston, New York.
SMELLING COPPER AND IRoN.-Coppe,
and iron may be smelted together in almost
all proportions, but it appears to be doubt.
full whether any homogeneous alloys car
be produced A small quantity of iron
able increase in tenacity. Malleable iron
or steel, containing copper to the extent OF
1.45 or O.5 per cent. shows symptoms OF
red shortness, which become decided with
a larger quantity.
AsPHALTA FOR WALKs.-The place in
tended to be asphalted must be previously
leyeled, then put on it a coat of tar, and
it very thickly after this is dry repeat the
operation until you have got four coats of
tar, and as many of coal ashes or road sand.
You will then have an excellent clean, dry,
hard path. It will make excellent walks,
or floors for sheds, outbuildings, ETC., and
will wear for many years.
STEEL CAsTINGs.-M. Galy Cayalat, of
France has invented process for making
sound steel castings by means of gaseous
pressure applied to the metal as soon as
it is poured into sand molds Enclosed in
iron TASKS The pressure is generated by
exploding about q quarter of an ounce of
powder, consisting of eighty parts of salt
COAL 1t is said the invention has been sue
cessfully applied in France in the casting
of steel cannon.
A New LAMA lamp~that burns under
water without the flame being covered, is
truly novel and useful invention. 1t is
fed not by~air but by oxygen, which is
supplied from q receptacle in the bottom of
the lamp where it is compressed; Withal,
the affair is but a. common oil lamp, and
yet the French inventor was able to write
on glass with a diamond by it's brilliant
light, which he succeeded in keeping alive
for nearly half an hour. How long will it
be at this rate, before the beds Of rivers
flowing through or close beside great cities
will be illuminated by oxygen taken from
their own waters?
MOUNT VEsUv1Us.-At a recent sitting of
the Paris Academy of Sciences, Palmieri of
Naples sent in communication on the erup-
ton of Mount Vesuvius, which seemed to
be on the decline a short time ago, but
which he says, now seems to have settled
down into state of permanence, emitting
a little lava every day, maximum and
minimum being perceptible at certain
stated hours. a fissure about four hundred
yards long opened a short time ago exactly
at the spot where tourists leave their
horses in order to make the ascent. From
this gap quantity of lava kept flowing
quietly for seven days, and now the stream
has recommended from the crater.
THE ACTION OF DISTILLED WATER ON
Botger, inquiring into
the cause of the action of distilled water on
lead, has found it to be due to the presence
of carbonate of ammonia, and not, as is
usually ascribed, to the air dissolved in the
water. After having been boiled for time
distilled water will not attack the lead I'M
til after considerable exposure, when Il
of ammonia and carbonic acid
from the air, where they are always present,
may be supposed to have taken place. Bot
ger has further found that the alleging of
the lead with small amount of tin pro-
tects the former from being acted upon,
and this fact suggests the advantage of
introducing little tin into the
metal from which lead piping is to be man
ufactured.