Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-09
THE CIVIL ENGINEER.


the best mechanical journals will be presented BY
the RECORD UNION, together with original con
tributed notes of the results Of mechanical expert
ment and discoveryl
THE CIVIL ENGINEER.
Well may they sit and banquet. who show the rule
Ger earth and sea, who with the bridge the rolling
waters span,
Who tunnel underneath the sea, who climb like
mountaineer5,
Who drive the great sea-esgles-the gallant En-
gineers.
They combat natures forces and earth, and sea- and
air,
Find men to bend them to their will who labor ev.
erywhere
They bring the lightning from the sky to grace our
chandeliers,
And plow the burrows OF the sea-the able En-.
gineers
Then here's health to Armstrong, and each en-.
gneering star;
To Fraser, Of the Woolwich guns, those mighty
babes of war
They cvilize in times of peace and aid when strife
appears
The Tftans of our modern times-our Civil En-
gineers Punch.
A Pittsfield (Mass.) mandatory is to
furnish sleeping.car blankets for an Italian
railroad.
The construction department at Mare
Island gets 1000 for this month, which
will mostly be spent on the repairs to the
Adams.
Exhaust steam should not be discharged
into brick chimney; the steam will dis.
integrate the mortar, and the chimney be
injured.
The Engineering Department of the city
of Chicago has been instructed to prepare
plans and specifications for the proposed
high pressure system of water supply for
the business portion of that city.
The great Sibley cotton factory at Au-
gusta, Ca, the cost of which with it's ma
chinery was over $500, 900, was completed
recently and went into regular operation,
giving employment to several hundred
hands. 1t is one of the finest factories in
the country.
Gas.ftters have recently made most
useful application of photography. They
photograph the gas flames given by differ
ent burners or jets, SO that customer can
see if the shape and form of light will
suit him before he gives his order. AS the
flames are moreover depicted "life.size,
the purchaser can always tell whether his
jet is up to the standard.
Iron has sometimes to be bronzed for do.
mestic use. The following is very sim.
pie way of obtaining very good bronze :
Mix an equal quantity of butter of anti
mony and oil of olives; put this mixture
on the iron which is required to be bronzed,
with brush, the iron having been previ.
ously frightened with emery and cloth,
and leave it for several hours. Then rub
with wax and varnish with copal,
A new method OF manufacturing scissors,
or shears, consists in casting the handles of
iron, and rendering them malleable; weld.
ing the steel blades to the malleable iron
handles by hammers or dies acting upon
the parts that are welded together /;
and subiecting each handle and blade,
when cold, to powerful pressure between
dies that act upon the maileable portion to
consolidate the metal, smooth the surface,
and remove any imperfections in the shape.
The improvements in the microscope
have been gradual. Singularly each step
in improvement has led to changes in the
theory OF microscopic physiology, and yet
it has, in some cases, been found afterward
that the same facts could be observed al
most, or quite as well, with the older form
and arrangement OF lenses. Quite recently
the introduction of system of lenses with
short focal distances, one-sixteenth of an
inch and less, has led to the discovery that
human saliva is filled with fat, nearly
transparent, irregular corpuscles.
Whatever you do, have system about it.
It is the greatest labor-saving machine In
= 10 oh I,,k -
the easiest governed. 1t requires reason
ing and management to control and exer-
else il. Yet wherever it has been intro.
duced this great labor. saving machine has
proved success, demonstrating to the
world that it has saved its operator un-
necessary manual labor, multitude of per-
plexities, kept his workshop in order, and
enabled him to perform correctly more by
far than in its absence would have been pos
sible.
F. B. Brock, in the Journal of the Frank.
lin Institute, describes a mechanical tele-
phone which, without the aid of bat.
terry, transmits and reproduces sounds,
loud, clear and distinct, at long or short
distances. It consists of simple helix
surrounding soft iron core, having nc
magnetic connection, and acted upon by
thin strip of iron connected with the
north or south pole of one or more mag.
nets. The strip vibrates in unison with
the transmitting or receiving diaphragm
by means of felt cushion or other con-
Meeting medium. This construction, it is
said, constitutes magnetic electric machine
or generator, whereby the voice itself pro-
duces the electric current by which the
H.. 49,, -
by similar or corresponding instrument
at the other end of the line, there. being
no current in the helix or on the line
excepting that SO produced, and no other
magnetism in the soft iron core inside the
former.
Chief Engineer sherwood, Of the-United
States navy, was the first to call attention
to the great condensation which steam un-
derwent in cylinders, to explain its causes
and mode of action, and to ascertain it's
extent for the conditions, under which his
cautious, careful, and accurate experiments
were made. His experiments on this SUBJ
ject preceded all others, and he showed
how greatly the theoretical economic result
of the use of steam expansively was prac-
tically modified by this condensation, even
to the extent, under certain conditions, of
preventing any gain by carrying the ex
pansion beyond very moderate limits. He
was also the first to introduce the net and
total horse power as important factors in
calculations ON steam engine economy the
indicated horsepower having been pre-
viously the only one in use and he showed
also for the first time how the theoretical
economy of expanded steam was largely
n
power which is the power commercially
available. All these causes combine to
complicate the final result of the cost Of
tho availab1a rnwer in ypiuht of qfanrn