Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-12-26
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Housewives will be interested i'll 4
new discovery. Instead ironing clothes
with Il hot iron on cold table, the
garments would be better done up by
using cold iron on hot table.
Professor Owen in an article lately
published, questions whether man ever
received third set of teeth. He ascribeS
alleged cases TO the temperance Of old
and worn stumpS in consequence of the
shrinkage apd absorption Of the jaws.
Experiments were conducted week
or two ago in Chesterfield, England
with the view of ascertaining how the
people would like the substitution ofthe
electric light for gas to Illuminate the
streets. The Brush system was the one
tested, and the corporation of Chester
field are so we'll satisfied with it that
they will probably adopt it.
The men who have developed the
properties of electric lightning are those
who have worked at the perfecting of
the steam engine of y motor for the
dvnamO-machine, who have improved
the dynamo and magnetic machines, so
that the current is more economically
generated, who have experimental i'll
every direction, and added minor inn
prOYement after improvement to the
are and incandescent lamps-these are
the men who made electric lightning
not only practicable, but the light ofthe
immediate future.
At the late meeting Of the Iron and
Steel institute. England, DR.. Siemens
showed how steel could be economically
melted by the electric arc. An ordinary
plumbagO cruciblcis placed ina metallic
Jacket, or case, and the intervening
space is filled up with charcoal or some
other bad conductor of heat. Through
the bottom of the CTucible u rod of
platinum or dense carbon passes. \ hole
in the cover Ofthe crucible admits tho
negative cleCtrode, which Is suspended
at one end of beam by means OF
strip Ofcopper. The other end of the
beam i attached to 4 hollow cylinder
of soft iron, free to move up and down
iii Il coil Of wire, one cndOf which Is
connected with the positive and the
other with the negative pole of the are.
Five pounds of steel were melted III
twenty-five minutes.
The ordinary range and cook stove,
i'm which the tire-bOX is placed at the
side of the oven, or i'll which the pro-
duets of combustion pass over the top,
have the disadvantage of an irregular
" heated oven. The sides and top are
hotter than the bottom and ends or
other side, and, as q result, the bread
or other food is improperly cooked
perhaps burned at the top while badly
done at the bottom. To correct this
defect in ovens simple appliance has
been devised for causing the air in the
oven to circulate, and thus carry the
heat obtained by radiation to all parts
of the oven. A sheet of metal bent in
to the form of the top and one side OF
the oven is supported on wire standards
and placed in the oven. In the narrow
space between the sheet-metal and the
hot side and top of the oven, the air Is
heated more than in the main body OF
the oven, and by expansion it rises and
moves over the top of the oven, toward
the cooler walls. The arrangement,
simple aS it is, appears to be founded on
a good idea, and is reported to work
well in practice. The apparatus eX-
! amined was portable, and is designed to
/ be put in the oven by the cook when
ever an even heat is needed.