Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-02-28
POPULAR SCIENCE.

mailoW root, 10 OBTAIN plaster I'll at VIII
submit to turning i'll a lathe The materials
are mixed dry, when the water may be
added TO form paste. The plaster sets in
about an hour and becomes sufficiently
| hard to cut into dominoes che>s-men and
other small articles. A large percentage,
| upto eight per cent, of the marsh-malow
| root increases the hardness of the plaster
To hasten the setting little alum may be
added to the mixture.
New PROCESS FOR BROWNING. Professor
| Bottger, who has brought out several new
metallurgieal and chemical processes of
| value, offers new process for bronzing
iron and porcelain. The article to be
coated with bronze is painted with soluble
| glass and the solution sprinkled over it
| from sieve and then dried when the sur
plas powder Is rubbed off with brush
The process Is simple. and is said to resist
heat or washing with alcohol, and takes
the burnisher readily. 1t would seem as If
the process might be valuable in decofat-
nv stoves and homework exposed to the
weather.
New Form OF MARINERS COMPASS "A
new form of mariners compass has two
horizoEtal hapds, resembling the hands of
a clock, and free to turn round over the
entire surface of the compass card, are
made parts OF an electrical circuit. The
course Of the steamship having been laid,
the hands are brought together ON either
| side OF this point, leaving only SPACE of
a few degrees between them, The card is
still free to move in any direction, but if it
touches the hands on either side electrical
connection is made, and bell rings in the
| Captains cabin, or III any other part of the
circu;t, as desired By this arrangement
any deviation by the steersman from the
course laid down for him is reported by the
bell, which rings continuously till the ships
course is corrected.
| STONE planning MACHINE. machine
for planning granite and other hard stones
has been brought cut that promises to
prove of value in reducing the cost of pre-
| parlng building stones. 1t consists OF an
oblong frame of iron, supported at the
corners, and carrying a movable piatten,
somewhat after the manner OF iron planning
machines. On this is placed a strong head
piece or tool holder, and by means of
system of long pulleys aud corresponding
belts, power may be brought to the tool
whatever its position during the work
| The block of granite to be planned is placed
on hand truck and rolled under the ma
chine and raised by means OF iack-screws
to the proper level for the work The
revolution of the cutting tool planes down
the stone at about the pace of the iron
planers and performs the work in man
ner fully equal to hand labor The tool is
fed to the work by hand, one man being
sufficient for all the work.
INLAyING WOOD BY COMPRESSION. "A
method of producing inlaid wood for orna-
mental purposes by compression has been
recently tried with success. A veneer of
some soft wood is laid over board of hard
wood OF contrasting color and the two
are firmly glued together and dried. The
| two pieces are then steamed till softened,
and sheet of zinc, cut out as stencil in
some ornamental pattern, is laid over the
veneer and while the wood is still soft,
the whole is passed between heavy rollers.
The pressure forces the zinc into the veneer,
pressing it into the backing below. The
soft veneer swells up through the openings
in the zinc plate, and in this manner the
pattern is reproduced in relief ON the wood
The plate comes off easily and then it is
only necessary to plane down the veneer
till the hard wood is reached. This method
of COMPRISING one wood into another is
reported to give a smooth unbroken sur
face with clearly defined lines between the
two woods.
PRESERVATION OF WooD. Two new
processes in the preservation CT wood are
reported. In one boiler is prepared, and
III this are placed iron gratinss ON which
the pieces of wood may be placed, care be-
ing taken in loading up the boiler to keep
each piece of timber separate from the 9TH
ers. Water is then placed in second
boiler and raised to a temperature of lI3'
FAIR, when the following chemicals are
added in these proportions Sulphate of
zinc, 50 Kilograms American potash, %
kilos American alum, A k;los; oxide of
manganese, % to each 50 kilos OF
water When these dissolve, sulphu-
ric acid of co. in the proportion of
% kilos, may be slowly added till the
mass is well saturated. This mixture
is then placed in the boiler containing the
wood till the wood is covered, when the
whole is boiled for three hours The wood
is then taken out and laid on wooden graf
irgs to dry and harden Wood treated by
this process is said TO become partially pet
rihed and able to resist fire successfully,
| bii CHATTING oiOhlJ lhItlSc ISGl.
] The second process is cheaper and much
more simple. Timber is placed in pits and
| covered with ouicklime, and the lime is
then slowly slaked with water The tim
| Der is then left undisturhed for eight days
| Wooden sleepers thus treated are reported
to become very hard, tough and durable,
while retaining all their strength and elias
ITCHY.
METEoRs AND METEoRIC PHENOMENA.
| When observers band together to watch
every quarter OF the sky, and to keep on
| the lookout through the whole night, the
number of meteors that present themselves
is very great. In this way it has been as
certaned that upward of thirty on the av-
erage, which are conspicuous enough to be
seen without instruments come within the
! view of the observers stationed at ore To-
| cality And it is computed that telescope
meteors must be about forty or fifty times
as numerous as those visible to the naked
eye. These results may be obtained from
| observations made at one station but
| when concerted observations are carried on
at different stations several other facts of
interest come to light By simultaneous
| observations at distant stations, it has been
discovered that the hight>of meteors above
the surface of the earth usually ranges
from one hundred and twenty down to
twenty miles, the average hight being
about sixty miles that the direction of
their flight is toward the earth, either in
vertical or in a sloping direction /; and that
their speed in most cases lies between thirty
and fifty miles second. We thus arrive
at the conclusion that visible meteors are
phenomena of our own atmosphere and
as the atmosphere reaches hight, at most,
of one hundred and fifty miles. and is,
therefore, but thin film over so vast
globe as the earth, it is obvious that the
spectators at any one place can see only
very small portion of the meteors which
dart about through all parts of this en-
velope.s After making allowance for this,
we are forced to conclude that no fewer
than 300, 600, coo of these bodies pass daily
into the earths atmosphere, of which about
seven millions and half are large enough
1