The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-03-04

Columbia. The foreign sources of supply
are Australia, England, Wales and Scot
land, with occasional cargoes from Chill.
The Omaha Smelling and Refining
Works have been in operation four years.
The works turned out 81 ,O0O, 900 in 1873,
and the operations during 1874 may be
briefly stated thus: Amount of base
bullion separated and refined, 1900 tons;
ore smelted, 2,OCO tons; coal and coke
consumed, 6,7l5 tons; value of gold and
silver produced, 81 1850, 900; lead chip
ments, $500 tons, valued at $500, 900;
number OF men employed, 90; wages
paid, $65, 900; paid on freight, $3.50, 600;
for expressage, $4,000.
Foreign exchanges give the follow.
ing account of simple apparatus which
promises to prove an economical substi-
tute tor the lucifer match: ut is called
the electrical tinder-box, and IL small
enough to be carried in a cigar-case. On
opening tais box you see platinum wire
stretched across. Touching spring the
wire reddens sufficiently to light cigar.
At will you can introduce into a Tiny
sconce a mesh of cotton STEPPED in spir-
its of wine or petroleum, which, taking
fire, does service as ueilleuse, or nurses
lamp. The hidden agency which heats
the wire is very small electrical bat
terry, set in action by the touching of the
spring. The trade price of the cleo
trical tinder-box' will be half franc, or
fivepence."
-Tapioca is the product of a plant
that is cultivated very extensively in the
Malay Peninsula, where its culture is al
most entirely in the hands of the Chinese.
The tubers of the plant (Manihot utilisss-
may, which weigh on an average from ten
to twenty. five pounds, are first scraped
and then carefully washed, after which
they are reduced to pulp by being
passed between rollers. This pulp is
carefully washed and shaken up with
abundance of water until the fecula sep
arates and passes through very fine
sieve into a tub placed beneath. The
dour SO obtained is repeatedly washed,
and then placed on mats aud bleached by
exposure to the sun and air. 1t is finally
converted into the pearl tapioca of COM
merce by being placed in cradle-shaped
frame covered with canvas; it is slightly
moistened and subjected to q rotary mo.
ion, by which means it is granulated.
tt is next dried in the sun, and finally
over the fire in an iron pan creased with
vegetable tallow, and is then ready for
The market.-Journal of Chemistry.
The Swiss have q clever way of max
ing cheap boxes without the use of nails,
the mitred sides being fastened together
by wedge shaped pieces of wood. An
English inventor has recently patented
another process which may be used for
heavy as we'll as light boxes. The two
pieces of wood to be fastened together
are first mitred in the ordinary way, and
hole is then drilled in each piece verli-
cally from the bottom upward, at short
distance from the mitred edge. A
channel or groove is then cut by saw
or otherwise from the mitred edge to the
drilled hole. This channel is of less
width than the diameter of the hole, and
may be cut either parallel to the sides of
the piece of wood or at right angles to
the mitred edge. so that when the two
edges are put together there shall be a
continuous channel from ono side to the
other, shaped somewhat like dumb
bell, and running from the top to the bot.
tom of the box. A key is formed by
running fusible metal, such as lead, in
to this channel. The key may be made
separately of solid metal and driven into
the channel; but, IN either way, a joint
is formed which can be broken only by
tearing away the mitred edges of the
wood.