The Osceola times., 1876-01-29
CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC.

RoUND steel wire rope will bear more
than double the weight required to
break iron wire rope oi similar diameter.
A FRENCH machinist has discovered
that by keeping his turning tools con-
stantly wetted with petroleum he was
able to cut metals and alloys with them,
although when the tools were used with
out the oils their edges were soon turned
and dulled. The hardest steel can be
turned easily if the tools be thus wet
with a mixture of two parts of petroleum
with one part Of turpentine.
The drive wells which are extensively
used in the south and west are made as
follows: A piece of one and one-fourth-
inch gas-pipe is perforated with several
hundred holes near the end, which is
covered with fine brass screen, and this
in turn is protected by a. covering of
sheet zinc or iron, also perforated. The
extremity of the pipe is sharpened, or a
steel point may be fixed. IL is then
driven into the ground, adding pieces on
the top as il sinks in. As soon as the
proper depth is reached, a pump is at
tached, and the result is an ineXhausti-
BILE well, often giving an abundant sup
ply of water in half an hour after the
end Of the pipe first entered the soil.
A YOUNG officer of the Russian navy,
attached to Admiral Popoff's staff, has
constructed saucer shaped sailing
yacht, twenty feet in diameter, which is
described as extremely fast The little
craft is cutter-rigged, with an exceed
ingly high mast, and has great speed
under canvas, in combination with an al
together unequaled power Of staying and
wearing. She is perfectly round, decked
somewhat after the fashion of Bermuda
boat, and, having great stability, can
carry, almost without inclination, all
the canvas which it is possible to spread
upon her. Strange to say, she If ex-
tremely handy as well as fast.
A CURIOUS fact has lately been ascer-
tanned in relation to the volcanic rocks
on the Isle st. Paul. Those on the
north side of the crater, which result
from the slips whereby all the east side
of the mountain is laid bare, attract the
two poles of magnet, and contain six
per cent. of iron. Those met with
around the cones of scoria situated at
the foot of the exterior slopes of the
crater, on the sea shore, are the true
magnets with two poles, containing four
teen per cent. of iron. The observations
made for declination and inclination in
dicates the local action Of south pole
toward the center of the crater, fact
which should warn navigators to guard
against the magnetic influence of the
isle.
THF golden fetus-de-iw which studded
the first royal standard of France have
been variously interpreted. They have
been called lance-heads by some, bees
by other. with othels, tys is only cor
ruption of Loys-thc signature of the
first twelve Louises. BY the addition
of a white cross, the blue flag in process
of years became white; but not until
the reign of Henry ". did the white
flag definitely become royal. Two hun
dred wears afterward (in 1880 the union
of the royal white with the rebellious
red and blue-the colors OF the city of
Paris-formed the tricolor cockade, the
first tricolor flag of red, white and blue
being unfurled year later, and finally
| altered to its present combination of
blue, white and red.
THE T rail exhibits disposition to
change its form. 1t is now being rolled
with wider fange or base and thicker
head, without increasing the standard
weight of sixty-seven pounds TO yard
The material of the upright part is
reduced to make up for the increased
size of the base and head. The head is
made more nearly square at the sides,
and the edges of the base are thinner.
The object of this is te increase the re-
sistance to wearing of the fanges of the
wheels, and to prevent the rail from cut
ting into the sleepers. In place of the
notches cut in the rail TO hold the
spikes. that have been found ~ destruc-
tive to the life of the rail, holes are now
drilled through the base, and through
| these the rail is fastened TO the road-bed.