The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1879-08-21
USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC,

DRESSING STONE BY ELECTRICITY
Among the novel applications of cleo
tricity to the industrial arts is a new
stone-dressing apparatus, which is
worked by dynamo electric machine,
and which the inventor claims will dress
millstones or other stones, and drill
rock economically, with rapidity, pre-
cision and dispatch. The chisel en-
ployed is fastened to spring arm which
protrudes from case containing mag
nets and armatures. This spring arm,
when the magnets are connected with
the dynamo electric machine, moves up
and down with extreme rapidity, caus-
ing the chisel to strike blow at each
descent. The inventor states that it can
be made to strike from 1000 to 1000
blows per minute. Wires being used in
place of steam-pipes enables the appa.
ratus to be moved readily to any angle,
or worked at any reasonable distance
without much loss of power; while not
the least meritorious portion of the
whole invention is the horizontal frame
or base to which the electric apparatus
is fixed. This frame is portable, and
by the use of screws can be so adjusted
IS to cause the chisel to strike any por-
ton of a circle with either swift or a
slow motion, the number and intensity
of the blows being regulated according
By the use of this machine it is said that
milestone can be covered in very
short space of time with the necessary
grooves and burrows. having the
straightness, regularity and parallelism
so much desired in good milestone
dressing. The apparatus can be work
cd either automatically or by hand, SO
as to suit the varying natures of the
stone operated upon.
USES OF CHARCOAL.-Charcoal, laid
fiat while cold on burn, causes the
pain to abate Immediately; by leaving
it on for-an hour, the burn seems almost
healed, when the burn is superficial;
and charcoal is valuable for many other
purposes. Tainted meat, surrounded
with it, is sweetened; strewn over heaps
of decomposing pelts, or over dead ami
mails, it prevents any unpleasant odor.
Foul water is purified by it. 1t is a
great disinfectant, and sweetens Often
sive air if placed in shallow trays around
apartments. 1t is so very porous, in its
"minute interior Spaces" it absorbs
and condenses gases most rapidly. One
cubic inch of fresh charcoal will absorb
nearly one hundred inches of gaseous
ammonia. Charcoal forms an unrivaled
poulticefor malignant wounds and sores,
often corroding away the dead flesh, re-
ducing it one quarter in six hours. In
cases of what we call proud flesh, it is
invaluable. l have seen modification
arrested by it. 1t gives no disagreeable
odor, corrodes no metal, hurts no tex
ture, Injuries no color, is simple and
safe sweetener and disinfectant. A tea
spoon of charcoal, in half q glass
of water, often relieves sick
headache; it absorbs the gases and re.
lieves the distended stomach, by pressing
against the nerves, which extend from
the stomach to the head. Charcoal alb
serbs hundred times its weight of gas
or wind in the stomach or bowels, aud
in this way it purifies the breath. l
often relieves constipation, pain or
heartburn. 1t seems to sweeten every
place where you leave it. In pen or
stable, almost all disagreeable odors are
removed by it, and domestic animals
thrive better and faster with charcoal
scattered around them. Horse, and
hen, and hog, and COW will all be health
Ter. If hog can eat it and have it
around him, he will almost change his
pen into parlor. If hens have access
to it, they will grow fat and have more
and larger eggs; and ii charcoal is drop
ped in the ground whenever potatoes
are planted, you will be surprised to
see the great increase in the quantity Of
potatoes and the Improvement in quail
ty. Many flowers will thrive better
with little charcoal in the earth.
Blackening the soil often improves the
plant, and have kept cut flowers fresh
a long time by putting charcoal in the
water. l do not believe we yet know
half the uses of charcoal. Dem.
orest's Monthly.
ASPHALT AND TIMBER FLOORs.-A
curious method of laying down floors
has been adopted in France, and is said
to have obtained wide application. 1t
consists in putting down flooring, not,
as hitherto, on joists, but in embedding
the boarding in asphalt. The new
floors are used mostly for ground sto-
ries of barracks and hospitals, as well
as churches and courts of law. Pieces
of oak, usually 81 to inches broad, II
to 80 inches long, and inch thick, are
pressed down into a layer of hot as
phalt, not quite half an inch thick, in
the well known herring bone pattern.
To insure complete adhesion of the
wood to the asphalt and obtain the
smallest possible joints, the edges of the
pieces of wood are placed down, bevel-
ing towards the bottom, so that their
cross section becomes wedge like. Nails,
OF course, are not necessary, and per-
feet level surface may be given to the
flooring by planning after the laying
down. The advantages of this flooring,
which only requires an even bed on