The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-01-25
WONDERS OF INVENTION.
PROGRESS RECENTLY MADE IN
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.
Electricity as n MotOr-Great En-
gineering Fents Electric Light
Notwithstanding Navigation.

ment of science has been so inviting to
human ingenuity rs electricity, and SO
many and varied are the devices for
adapting the subtle fluid to the most dis
similar uses that it seems as if rivalry
existed among inventors as to who should
force it into the greatest number of di-
verse channels and agencies. The most
successful employment of electricity as a
motor has been made in this country,
the engine being known as the Daft
electric motor. This differs from the
Siemens electric current. which operates
the motor through an insulated rail in
the center of the track The actual per-
Torrance at the trial of this device con-
sisted in hauling, by two-ton motor,
OF five-ton car with five tons
of weight, distance of a lit
tie over mile up a grade of
seventy feet to the mile, in eleven min
utes. Although the motor was too small
to do what was expected of it, the sue
cess of the experiment was fully estab
ished. Electricity has also been applied
with equal success to tram car, in Eng
land, for the conveyance of passengers.
The car was fitted with several accumu-
iators under the seats, which, once filled,
operated the car for seven hours. The
current of electricity is communicated by
insulated wires to a Siemens dynamo
machine, acting as motor and connected
with the axle of the wheel. The machine
is easily managed and proved a perfect
success.
In electric lighting inventions have
been almost numbcrless, adapting the
wonderful fluid to various new uses as an
illumination. During the year more than a
dozen steamers plying between New York
and Liverpool have been fitted with
electric-lightlng machinery, while there
is not city of any size on either CONT
nent that does not to a greater or less
extent, use electricity for the same pur-
pose. In the telephone the Improvements
have consisted mainly in appliances for
increasing the volume and accuracy of
tone received or transmitted One of the
most curious is an automatic receiver. it
being a receiver on each end of a forked
handle, hinged at the middle BY press
ing the two parts forming the handle a
receiver is held firmly against each ear.
greatly facilitating the convenient use of
the instrument.
The past few months has seen the COM
pletion of some stupendous work in the
field of engineering. Among the most
important of these is the opening of
the Arlberg (Alpine) tunnel, making the
third of these passages that commerce
and trade have demanded should be
bored through the Alps. The new tun-
mel is little over seven miles in length,
while the Mont Gents tunnel is nearly
eight and one-half and the Mount ST..
Gothard nearly ten. The first took four
teen and half years to construct, the
second about eight, while the Arl-
berg was built in about four. To oper-
ate the drills used in boring several
streams from the height of the snow
covered Arlberg were gathered on the
eastern side into reservoirs, from which
turbines, which compressed the air to five
atmospheres for the borers, were worked;
while on the western side pumped water
was passed through pipes to the pressure
Of over one hundred atmospheres to work
the revolving borers which cut cylindri-
cal blocks of rock from the mountain.
The work complete will cost 81. 500. 600.
Unqucstionably the most surprising en-
gineering feat of the country is the i'm
mense bridge connecting the cities of
New York and Brooklyn, which was
thrown open to the public in May. Work
on the structure was begun July 2, 1870;
the New York tower was completed July
20, 1872, and the Brooklyn tower June
IS, 1915. The total length of the bridge
is 5, $3.50 feet, and it is 135 feet above the
water. The river span of 1885 feet is
suspended by four cables, each fifteen and
three-fourths inches in diameter the ulti-
mate strength of which is 49, 200 tons
each. The total cost of the structure is
not far from $14, 900, 600.
The cantilcver bridge across the Nj
agara river is remarkable as bringing
into use the cantileyer for the first time
in bridge-building in this country This
bridge is go feet long between the cen
ter of the anchorage piers, the clear
space between the towers being 40 feet,
and its height $50 feet above the waters
1t is built of iron and steel. In word.
the bridge is built 10y pushing out from
the shore heavy iron levers, supported bv
steel towers until they meet at the cen
ter of the stream, the shore ends being
anchored to massive masonry. The levers
are trussed to strengthen them, and the
bridge is regard as the strongest in
the country for its weight.
In no department of industry has
science been more active than in the dis
covery and invention of appliances to
reduce the various ores of the precious
metals.
Last year new system of pulverizing
ores was brought into use. Sand-blasts
have shown that fine particles of sand
blown or projected against glass or any
other hard substance very rapidly wore it
away. 1t was found by experiment that
If a powerful jet of air, carrying
particles of quartz, ores, or other
minerals, was thrown against a
hard surface the minerals could be
dashed or broken to pieces. This new
system has been adapted to the pulveriz-
ing of ores with great success. The
novel feature of the system is to have
two jets of air or steam, both ladened
with the mineral, in the form of IA coarse
powder, passed through nozzlcs placed in