The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1871-01-14
SCIENTIFIC 4 MECHANICAL.

Over fifty lady graduates from the tel
sgraphic department have now left Cooper
Institute, and have the management Of off
ces or serve in them.
The London Mechanics Magazine
commends in the highest terms the efforts
making in this country to establish thor
ough and far reaching system Of study Of
storm phenomena.
THE New York TscAnOkgist scouts the
idea that inventions arc frequently the re-
suit of accident. IT believes that the mea-
sure of success attending inventors will be
in exact proportion to the amount Of Judi
ciously directed effort that is expended.
Glass pearls are made in the following
manner They are blown separately and
hollow; and the inside is covered with a
pearly fluid made Of the scales Of bleakfish
and water. 1t requires the scales of four
thousand fishes to produce half q pint Of
the liquid.
One result of Professor Hartt's Cor
nell expedition to the Amazon is to up
set Agassiz's theory of glacial action
in BRAZIL. Hartt's geological speci-
mems and fossil monusks and fishes
comprise the largest collection of the
kind ever brought at one time from
BRAZIL.
MARBLES are made in SaxoDy, from a
hard calcareous stone, which is first broken
into blocks, nearl y square, by blows with a
hammer. These are thrown by the one
hundred or two hundred into small sort Of
mill, which is formed of a fiat stationary
slab Of stone, with number of concentric
burrows upon its face. A block of oak, OF
other hard wood, is kept revolving while
the water flows upon the stone slab. IN
about fifteen minutes the stones are turned
to spheres, and then, being fit for sale, are
hsnceforth called marbles.
The sponge is nothing more than the
skeleton Of an innumerable family Of low
forms Of animalcule. In order to prepare
it for use, it is first left in the air for shor
time, until the gelatinOus part is decom
posed, then the mass ia washed into ho
water, and aterward in bath Of dilate mu
riatic acid. The toilet sponges are bleacheG
by means Of ehlsrine and hyposulpbate o
soda. aa
Jkass Patron says chat the mere ide,
Of transmitting intelligence BY electricity
was pd original with Samuel Morse. From
the time when DR.. Franklin and bis friend,
stretched vie across the Schuylkill river
and Killed turkey for Their dinner b,
a shock from an electrical machin,
on the other side OF the stream, th,
notion bad existed Of using the marvellous
fluid for transmitting intelligence anC
some attempts had been made in this di
rectiOn which we're not wholly unsuccessful
Science bad done her part. 1t remained
for tbe. inventor to devise an appsrasu
which would utilize scientific truth, snC
Samuel Morse was the individual.
EHE dome of the capital at w sshingtor
is one Of the largest in the world, being on,
hundred and seventy feet in diameter at it,
base, and two hundred feet high. Th,
architect naturally Chought SO large asl
would be affected by the suns rays, SO tha
the, expansion would be unequal, according
as the sun shOne on one or the other side
To ascertain the extent of the expansion
he extended wire within the dome fron
theetcp to the bottom, and connected with
it, hya delicate mechanism, pencil which
drew on paper the line or movement. He
expected quite regular curve, as the oppo
site sides of the dome we're affected by The
daily passages of the sun. But be found
that it was not the sun, but the wind, that
bad the most effect. The American Joar.
nal Of Science contains a cop Of the figure
drawn one windy day, showing ali the
changes and lulls of the storm, and making
very curious complicated figure.