Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-01-03
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS.

| NJ De la Bastie is reported to have lately
| invented substantial improvements upon
his well-known process of tempering glass.
His recent procedure will be found de-
scribed in the bulletin of the Societe d'En-
! enlargement.
Bower, the inventor of a process for
protecting iron against corrosion by coat
ing it with magnetic oxide, by means of
air at high temperature, has just taken
out German patent for procedure in
volving the use of highly-heated carbonic
acid gas on iron, and of carbonic oxide on
metallic surfaces previously oxidized to
sesquI-oxide.
Herr Koener, of Freiberg, has devised
an improvement in miners safety lamps,
by constructing the same in such a manner
that the entire air-supply which feeds the
| fame is made to pass into a wire-g gauge
chamber through a filter of pdmice- stone,
impregnated with platinum block. The
action of this device is based ON the prop
erty of platinum block to condense on its
surfaces such combustible gases as light
carbureted hydrogen, and effect their slow
combustion. The mechanical details are
not given.
"Highly important, if true" may be
applied to an alleged discovery, attributed
NOT very lucidly-to "a German sci
enlist" by which the image of common
mirror may be rendered permanent, like
Photographic print. The discovery relates
to ga chemical composition with which
the metallic surface is prepared the mir
ror is then held up before the person or
thing to be photographed. The result is
said to be permanent image, in natural
colors :" all of which is highly problemat-
ical L Engineering Journal.
A fire and waterproof paper is prepared
| according to recently published recipe as
follows The basis of the paper is pulp
composed of two-thirds paper pulp to one
third of asbestos pulp, prepared in strong
solution of common salt and alum. The
mixture is put through the engine and run
off through Fourdrinier The paper thus
made is run through bath of gum-shellac
dissolved in alcohol or other solvent, and
! subsequently through the finishing rolls,
when it is ready to be cut in sheets. The
addition of salt and alum to the pulpis said
to add considerably to the strength of the
paper, while it materially contributes to its
| hre.resistant qualities The shellac gives
it its water proof quality, rendering it quite
seem to prevent sufficient absorption of
ink when applied in the usual manner in
printing or writing. The paper so prepared
is recommended as of special value for
account books, and public and other val
liable documents, since it is claimed that
such books or documents exposed to the
action of fire and water in burning build
ing will not be so far injured as to destroy
their value.
''The Sun as Source of Power" is
the title of an interesting paper by Prof.
Langley, well-known American astron-
omer, recently published in the Scientific
American, in which we find very striking
example given to illustrate the magnitude
of the work performed by the sun on the
earth's surface, which receives only
an infinitesimal fraction of the floods of
power that the central body of our
system is constantly radiating into
space. He puts the case in this way
| Taking the area OF Manhattan Island to
be 20 square miles, and the quantity of
/ rainfall it receives to be 80 inches annually,
he shows that this speck Of the earth's sur
face receives ], 1893, 920, 900 cubic feet, or
IS, Isl, 900 tons OF water in year. Com
pairing this quantity of water with
the pyramid of Cheops, which weighs
less than 100000 tons, he makes
it appear that this amount of wa
| ter in the form of ice would many times
| replace the largest pyramid of Egypt. To
transport it would require 1921, 500 cars,
carrying II tons each, and these, assuming
an average length of 80 feet to the car,
would make six trains reaching in one
continuous line across the continent, so
that the leading locomotive of each train
would be at San Francisco before the rear
car had left New York" Estimating a
days rainfall of one tenth of an inch over
| the area of the United States to weigh TO-
600 millions of tons, ne shows that it
would more than demand the united ac-
ton of all the pumping engines of Phila-
delphia. Chicago. and other large cities of
the country, working day and night for a
century, to pump buck this water to the
mean height of the clouds from which it
fell
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