Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-01-26
SCIENCE AND INVENTION.

| SUlbNU6 AND LIN Win llON.
VOICE IN FISHES S. E. Pool, IN late
number of Nature, gives an account OF ar
interesting observation OF his own IN sup
port of the claim that fishes possess fac
ulty of voice. He states that, when en-
gagged in a survey of the Disang River IL
| Eastern Assam some six years ago, he had
occasion to sound the depth of a pool.
When seated in a small canoe and slowly
nearing it, he suddenly became aware OF
the presence of number of fish called
''mahsir" They were evidently attract
ed by the canoe, and Mr.. Pool surmised
that they might possibly think it a huge
dead fish. While watching their move
| ments, he became aware of peculiar
''cluck" or persuasive sound-frequentiy
repeated, on all sides, and coming from
| below, but near by This was soon
| traced to the mahsir and one of them
made distinct sounds which were answered
| by others. He further states that in
some parts of Eastern Assam large BIZ
| valve sings in concert with others.
NEwTUBE- CLEANER. OF the great num-
Der of appliances for cleaning boiler tubes,
both by scrapers and brushes, the latest
and most novel machine is revolving
scraper, designed to be driven by steam.
At the end of an iron pipe, that is at once
| handle and steam pipe, is fixed 4 rose
shaped scraFer. Inside the pipe is helix,
or wheel with curved wings, free to turn III
the pipe and secured to the rose-head
scraper. Steam is admitted to the lower
end of the pipe through flexible hose. A
stop cock is provided to control the steam
and the machine has two wooden handles
for guiding the apparatus. The scraper is
thrust into the tube to be cleaned and
steam is let into the apparatus, escaping
at the end, causing the helical-wheel to re-
volve quickly. Air at the same time is
drawn into the pipe and the mingled steam
and air escape into the tube at the end.
| The wheel causes the scraper to revolve as
it is pushed forward, the steam softens and
loosens the dirt, driving it forward and out
at the other end of the tube. The nov
city of this device consists in giving ro-
tary motion to the scraper by means of
the steam jet. The apparatus, it is re-
ported, will enable one man to clean one
hundred tubes in about twenty minutes,
and as the work is done quickly, it may
be repeated every day at a material gain
in the useful effect of the fuel. The idea
seems to be one that could be applied to
the cleaning of all kinds of hues, tubes and
pipes, tor either gases, smoke or water.
A PRECoCIoUs CENTURY PLANT There
is now january a fine century plant
| (Agave Americana) in full bloom, in the
conservatory of John Hoey, at Hollywood,
| Long Branch, New Jersey. This plant is
only twelve years old. The notion of this
aloe only blooming when hundred years
old is simply tradition of the elders II
all depends on the environment and chiefly
temperature. Blooming at'the age of fifty
years is common To get the plant into
bloom at twenty-five years is considered
quite satisfactory by the gardeners, but
this instance of one Towering at twelve
years, in a conservatory, must be accounted
as unique.
| New CoLoRING MATTERS. The chem
lists Savigny and Colineau have discovered
a method of obtaining innocuous coloring
matter from the red cabbage. This sub,
stance is known as cauline, and is useful il
painting for printing fabrics and for dye
ing. The process is as follows: Cut the
interior of the cabbage and the stalks Of
the leaves in small pieces and place them
in boiling water in the proportion of one
and half kilogramme OF leaves to three
liters of water. The infusion is left about
! twenty -four hours to macerate, then the
leaves are taken out and submitted to
pressure to squeeze out the water, which is
added to the liquid infusion. This cauline
is of violet-blue color. 1t forms the base
of series of derivatives which
constitute the precipitates of vari
Gus colors. For instance, to obtain dru
cduline, two grammes OF baryta are
added to FIVE hundred grammes of cauline
cold this produces clear green dye. To
obtain chlorocalcicauline, which is blush
green, one hundred grammes of anhydrous
chloride of calcium are added to half kilo
gramme of cauline. A false bronze color
is obtained by adding one hundred to five
hundred grammes chloride manganese and
five grammes baryta to five hundred
grammes cauline ; this is called mangocau.
dine Zincocarbocauline, which is an ultra
marine blue, is obtained by introducing
| forty grammes chloride zinc and twenty
five grammes carbonate soda to five hun
| dred grammes caullne.
| New DRAWING APPARATUs.-A new ap
paratus for assisting artists and draughts'
men in making drawings of buildings
landscapes, figures and other irregular OBJ
iects seen in perspective, employs table
made in two parts, one portion being O.
clear glass, the other of wood The table
| is pivoted on a standard, so that it may b.
placed at any angle and when in use i:
secured nearly upright in front of the OBJ
iect to be copied, with the glass portion
| bo arJ
pended rod, that may be raised or low
cred at will, supporting a pantagraph, thu
tracing point of which rests on the glass
while the pencil rests on the wooden par
of the table. From the frame that sur
rounds the glass extends an arm, bent a
right angles, so as to bring the end in from
of the glass. At the end of this arm is
small hole or sight. In use the apparatu
is placed before the statue, building o
other object to be sketched, and this arm i
adjusted so that when the eye is in sight
a view of the object can be obtained
through the glass. Drawing paper is places
on the wooden part of the table, and tn
pantagraph is adjusted so that the tracing
point may be moved over the glass Will
the pencil moves over the paper. TIL
operator, looking through the sight, cause
the point to move over the glass in lin
with the object seen, following its outlin
and chief lines, while the pencil at tn
same time gives reduced copy on tn
paper. The apparatus appears likely t
prove of some value as an aid in maxim
copies of statuary, figures and irregula
buildings, as preliminary in making NOR
finished pictures. 1t may also prove G
ba ,,ipoi,,1ac nF
spective in drawing classes.