Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-09-28
IND USTRIAL, STATISTICAL
AND TECHNICAL.

IRON castings shrink one-tenth of
an inch to the foot in cooling in the
mold.
THE California Chinese have gone
into a new line of business, that of dry
ing and canning fruit.
PETROLEUM is useful for cleaning
machinery and other articles badly
gummed. If put on the bearings
that are not easily reached for clean
ing, it will dissolve the gum, after which
they should be oiled before running.
F0R softening files, cover them with
oil and hold them over the fire until
the fire blazes; as soon as the fire runs
all over the file, plunge it into the
water. Or, put them into a moder-
ately hot oven, for half an hour, if
large files; but if small files the first
Dlan is the best.
THE joints of lead plates may be
made as follows: The edges are
brought together, hammered down in
to a channel cut out Of wood, and Sc
cured with a few tacks. The hollow
is then scraped clean with a scraper,
rubbed over with tallOw, and stream
of hot lead is poured into it, the sur
face being afterWard smOothed over
with red hot plumbers iron.-Mich-
jg021 Latnabe7na072.
THE largest shell-heap on this con-
tinent is at Damariscotta, Me. No
oyster has lived in the river near there
within the memory of man, yet an
area of land containing 100 square
rods is covered with 100,0 900, 900 shells,
which are supposed to have been
thrown down by human eaters. Stone,
bone and copper Instruments are found
among them, but their position shows
that no great geologic change has oc-
Cured since the heaps were formed.
A SCOTCH physician who has been
investigating the relative mortality of
town and rural life, says that were all
the town children of Scotland reared
III the country, at least 5000 lives
would be annually saved to the pOpu-
lation; second, could the mortality of
the towns be brought down to that of
the rural districts, upward of 10, 200
lives would be thus saved TO the popu-
lation, and every individual living in
the large towns would, on an average,
live ten and a half years longer than
he has any chance of doing at present.
THE publication of iron and steel is
now proposed to be effected by new
and ingenious process, which consists,
briefly, III the use of certain materials
or compounds for the removal and
elimination of sulphur, phosphorus,
-antimony, arsenic and copper, from
iron and steel, whether in the crude
or advanced stage of manufacture.
The benefits claimed to be secured
from this invention are, among others,
the production of a greater amount of
pure iron or steel from given guam
tity of raw material; the making of a
superior class of such metals out of
cupolas or blast furnaces, and shorten
ing the present circuitOuS mode of
making good steel for rails; and it is
also alleged that tool steel may be
made from the Bessemer material by
this means. The precise nature of the
substances employed to effect these re-
C11ltS &c NOT Statnd
NATURE does not always put things
Yin the best places for their purposes,
whatever she may do for purposes of
her own. Hence, plants, when they
find themselves i'll other circumstances
or other countries than that in which
Nature placed them, often thrive to
remarkable degree. The Anacharis
CdaGdeaesjs, a comparatively harmless
Water-Weed of our own country, got
to England few years ago, and in
creased so amazingly as to make the
navigation of the streams very diff
cult. Man found himself almost inca
7pable of fighting it. Now they find
that by introducing the common water
ecress (NGStatrt5um ohcinale) they can
get relief from the foe. Even a water
plant must have light; and the water
screSs, by shading the surface with its
ibroad leaves shuts off the light from
the Anacharis, which has all its leaves
below.-N. I. Independent.