Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-06-13
SCIENTIFIC.

railways have recently been set forth most
graphically in paper prepared by Mr.. Ed
mond Smith, of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Thirty years ago, daily traffic of twenty
thousand tons, representing some seven
million tons per year, was regarded, says
MIR. Smith, as the maximum capacity of
double track road between Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh; now it has reach eleven mil
lions tons, without by any means attaining
the limit of it's capacity. Again the cost of
moving one ton one mile, under the most
favorable circumstances, a few years ago
was one cent; it is now reduced to one-half
cent. These advances and reductions are
attributed chiefly to the general introduce
ton of steel rails, these being also furnish
ed to-day at two-thirds the cost of iron rails
thirty years ago. MIR. S. predicts improve
ments and advancements in railroad systems
and economy in the future quite as pro-
nounced as those that have been witnessed
in the past; and among those anticipated
Elimination of the main lines of railway at
night by the electric light
A BERLIN journal describes an improved
kind of stucco, which, when mixed with pig
ments, can be polished to resemble marble
Gypsum, after having been calcined once,
is immersed for few minutes in a ten to
twelve per cent. solution of alum, chemical
analysis showing that plaster thus prepared
is exceedingly pure, and contains but little
alumina or potash. A successful substi-
tute for alum is water containing eight to
ten per cent. of sulphuric acid, the gypsum
being placed in this after its first calcina-
ton, for fifteen minutes, and is then recall
cined.
IT seems that the introduction of mag
nets into the great grain mills of the West
has fulfilled the highest expectations of
those who complained of wire in wheat.
Not only have the magnets captured all the
stray pieces of iron bands, and thus re-
moved the last and only objection urged
against wire banding harvesters, but they
have revealed the singular fact that, of the
scraps of iron and steel which find their
way to the mills mixed with wheat, fully one
half are something besides pieces of wire,
and larger proportion of those are Of
such a nature as to be even more dan
gerous to mill machinery. The magnets
gather everything of this kind with uner-
ring certainty, thus rendering perfectly safe
the use of sef-binding harvesters and wire
bands.
AN improved water-pipe, equal to pres
sure of seventy-fve pounds to the square
inch, is described by the scientific press.
These pipes are composed of alternate lay
ers of thin sheets of wrought iron, coiled in
convolute folds, cemented together by inter-
fused asphaltum, being thus rendered re-
markably strong, durable, and cheap. No
coal tar is employed in their manufacture.
The strength of tubes made in this way is
represented as wonderful, and this, together
with other advantages, is regarded as insur-
ing valuable achievement in this branch
of hydraulic engineering. The desideratum
so long aimed at-that of preserving the
iron from rust-has, it is alleged, been &C
complished in this arrangement. No rivets
are used, in the pipe, the bond of the as
phaltum being greater than the tensile
strength of the iron, six-inch pipe made of
two thiclnesseS of No. % iron withstanding
the great internal strain of more than three
hundreds pounds to the square inch, with.
out rupture.
ACCORDING to the Ieinturier Prahqste,
the process of brilliant relief printing is in
no specially more successfully applied than
in the case of silken tissues, these being
scattered over with lustrous points in relief,
and of different colors SO as to initiate en-
broidery. This style, which produces very
pleasing effects in very economical man
ner, has had most extraordinary demand
It is executed with resinous matter, either
colored or left colorless, which is deposited
upon the tissue in melted drops, by means
of plate engraved in relief; on COOLING
these drops acquire hardness enough to
form, SO to speak, part of the tissue, and
to resist friction. NM. Depouilly and
Meyer have devised something analogous
for fixing upon very light tissues, Like
tulles, brilliant drops in relief, which by
their limpidity resemble pearls or precious
stones; these are obtained by means of gela-
tine, or gums, deposited while liquid by
the use of pins arranged in symmetrical
manner.
M. DENzA, Of Piedmont, writing of the
laws of atmospheric electricity, states that
the latter presents daily in that country two
maxima following the rising and setting of
the sum- at an interval of some hours, these
two maxima being separated by mini
mum which follows the passage of the sun
over the meridian of the place. AS re-
CARDS the annual huctuation, the maximum
value Of the atmospheric tension falls in
February, and the minimum in September;
before and after storms, the electrometer
almost always marks zero, but during their
passage Or proximity the tension is very
great; rain and snow increase tension
more slightly, and are often preceded and