Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1886-10-30
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Experiments to determine the depth
to which light penetrates the water of
the sea have been made during the pres
ent year by NM. Fol and SaTasin in the
Gulf of Nice The limit of the daylight
about midday during fine weather was
found to be !. 800 feet
Cold-air machinery has been success
fully used in the Construction of tun-
mel at Stockholm by freezing the gravel
before the excavation and keeping it
in thst condition until the lining was in
position In this way several large
buildings have been undermined.
The sspinhole camera is novelty in
photography. It is a little tin box, two
inches IN diameter and three-quarters of
an inch deep Simple as the construc-
tion Is. with paper instead of glass for
the negative. and pinhole in the cover
for the light to enter, some interesting
work may be dome with the instrument.
Sugar can be made from any descrip-
ton Of vegetable fibre, such as sawdust,
rags or tow. The process is to digest for
several hours In sulphuric acid; then to
dilute the mixture with water and boil
for some time, when TIE rags or what
not will be found to have undergone a
magical change, and to have been con-
verted into sugar. A curious fact is that
100 parts of rags viii yield lis parts of
sugar, the increase in weight being due
to the elements of water absorbed during
the change
What promises to be a useful light for
industrial purposes, where work has to
be carried on in the open air or in large
covered spaces by night, is described by
an English paper The light consists of
. cylindrical vessel capable of containing
thirty gallons OF heavy hydro carbon oil.
Air under = moderate pressure is con-
Quoted to the cylinder, which is fitted
with special burner having two tubes,
one within the other, leading up to it.
Such an affair would be useful for night
work on the decks of steamboats,.
II it were possible to rise above the at
mOsphere which surrounds the earth. we
should see nothing but an intense and
sharply de5nsd bail of fire, while every
thing else would be wrapped in total
darkness There could be no diffusion
of light without an atmosphere or some
similar medium. for 1t to act upon; but
If the air about Us extended to height
of 200 miles, the rays of the sun could
not penetrate it, and we would be left
IN darkness. At the depth of 200 feet in
the OCEAN the light ceases altogether,
one-half of the light being absorbed in
passing through only seven feet of the
purest water
Professor Baird saws there is nothing
to prevent q fish from living indefinitely,
IS It has no maturity, but grows with
each year. Heis authority. likewise. for
saying that carp have attained an age of
20J years. He also says that within fifty
years pike was living in Russia whose
age, according to tradition. dated back
to the fifteenth century. The Russian
Minister SAYS that in the Royal Aquarium
in St Petersburg there are fish to-day
that have been known by the records to
have been there 40 years Some of them
are. he SAYS, over I've times as large as
when thev were captured. while others
have not grown an inch in length
A considerable foreign industry has
sprung up. consisting in mixing the dust
Of coal with an extract obtained from
boiling ordinary seaweed or other simi-
lar vegetable matter, producing, when
boiled, mucilsginous or adhesive solu-
ton In the system of manufacture pur-
sued, the plan IS to first boil seaweed or
some 9th vegetable pnOdu { capable of
yielding, when-bOiled, the desired mucil-
sginOus or adhesive solution with the
latter there is then mixed certain pro-
portion Of coal dust, in the same manner
In which cement. mortar, or other mate
rails Of that nature are treated. The
combined substances are Subsequently
nodded to any required shape by hand
or BY means OF brick-making or some
similar spparatus- By combining the So
luton with sawdust, filtering blocks are
formed