Daily Republican., 1885-08-29
SCIENTIFIC.

One Of the most notable instances oi
the transmission Of power by wire rope
Is at Oberursel, Nassau, where q 175.
horse water power Is transmitted by a
single wire rope for q distance Of nearly y
3, 200 feet, divided into eight spans. The
useful effect of the ITS horse power thus
transmitted Is found, by careful mea-
suremtnt,t 10 bs ninety ntne horse power.
The ropes are 50 inch In diameter, aad
run with speed Of from fifty five to
sixty miles an hour, over pu.leys four.
teen and eight.tehths inches in diane.
Ter the claim being that power can ~
thns transmitted or conveyed through
distances OF six and seven miles and
upward. This arrangement, however
was made before the econu nical adyan-
tage was demonstrated by dividing
wire rope into sectil lns
A novel mechanism has been con.
trived for operating the grip by whleC
a car Is connected with travelling rope
or cable. 1t consists ia psculiar con
structlon, arrangement and combina.
tion OF devices tor thts purpose, more
effective, 1t Is claim I'd, than any other
yet brought forward, in accom- plishing
the desired action. In the ordinary
conjunction OF these grips, the plan
mas been to place them between the
'front.' aud rear wheels Of the car, with
the operating lever projecting up nearly
In the centre. In this new device, the
grip mschanlsm Is supported In front
Q! the forward axle, and the operating
lever Is at the extreme front of the car
upon the platform, there being q jointed
connecting fixture, which prevents the
movements Of the car body upon its
springs from being comm unicated to
the grip arrangement or lever.
1t 10 stated of the new metal eallium,
that, with the exception Of mercury,
which only becomes solid 37.9 degrees
Fab, there Is no other element which
liquefes at 80 low temperature. l,
| m elts at 81 degrees Fab so that 4,
lique fies when held 10 the hand Tue
metal Is hard and resistant, even to Q
few dear rees below the melting point. ii
can be cut, and possesses slight MALE
ability. When fused, IL adheres easily
to glass, on which 1t forms be:utifu
mirror, whittier than that produced b,
mercury, Itoxidizes but very super
icially when heated to redL less in IN,
air, and does not become volatile. Un
like lead, 1t acquires only a very sligh
tarnfsh on exposure to moist air. IT.
specifc gravity is a little under 6, tina
of aluminium being 2.6, that of ziIc i
and that of lead, ia. Unlike lead
again, ga)lium is highly orystalin,
metal, its form being that of sQuar,
octahedron. In its chemical character
istics. the rare element gallium show
the greatest analogy to the abundan,
element aluminium.
An apparatus for the anal sis Of i'm
pufities IN the atmosphere has been In.
trOduced into some of the public in
stitutions OF Scotland and elsew here
In this machine aspiration Of the air i
obtained by means Of o pair of al
pumps. the piston rods of which ar,
connected With beam, to either end @
which the working handle can be at
tached. The air. pumps ara cnnnecte,
directly with a reservoir of about tn
capacity Of eight cubic feet, and thi
reservoir again communicates with tn
atmosphere by six comparatively sm al
tubes thus, the workings of the pu mp
gives rise on the one hand to n some
what internittent flow Of air out Of b
reservoir through the pumps into tn
atmosphere, and, on the other hand, t
q regular flow Of air out Of the atmos
Il phere through the six tubes into th
reservoir The function of the reser
voir Is therefore simply to secure
steady How OF air in the direction G
the pumps, notwithstanding their ne
1cessarily intermittent action. The al
thus set IN motion In several distiuC
streams toward the pumps, Is, befor
Il reaches the reservoir, first freed frou
Impurities By washing. then msasaret
as 1t passes through dry Ras meeecs.
!, The fact that some samples of leathe
have been found In the market sho win
as much as thirty to forty per cen
OF extra weight produced by glucos
additions, has led to the adoption {
various Tests for ascertaining the pres
ence OF such admixture In that mate
rial. Most OF these require q numbe
OF more or less expensive arrangement
but a simple and effective means con
sists of small test tube and tive smal
bottles, one containing cupric sul phal
aud the other caustic potash. In tesl
ing, a small scrap OF the leather i
soaked In pure water. To the liquid
enough TO fill about one quar- ter Of tn
test tube-are added a few drops OF th
solution Of cupric sulphate and half a
much OF the caustic potash solution q
the liquid contained In the test tube
This Is shaken well aud boiled over
hame, and If glucose is present yellow
or red precipitxte is formed la the tube
Cnpric snlphste, or blue vit-iol, readil,
dissolves In water, and enough OF i
must he added to the sample TO produc
q faint blue coloring. The caus.i
potash solution is made by dissolvin,
afty.eight grams of the potash in on
Iitre OF water.