The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1886-10-28
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

By new process of steaming white
wood and submitting it to pressure, 1t
can be make 80 tough as to require
cold chisel to split it.
Hot air, drawn over steam pipes that
are heated by exhaust or live steam ana
then blown, through pipes to various
points where it escapes, is satisfactory
method of heating shops.
A new signal torpedo, which is shot
backward by spring being attached to
a sort OF carriage which enables it to
slide along the rail, but does not allow
it to fall off, is to be introduced on the
Australian railroads.
It is disappointing to learn that the
eucaly@ @tus has had no visible effect on
the banishment of malaria from the Ro-
man Campagna, aud that whatever has
been done in that direction must be
credited to drainage and the ardent rays
of Old Sol.
Dana finds that the average height OF
the land above sea level is about 1,OOO
feet, and that this would probably cover
the bottom of the sea to the depth OF 375
feet; so that, taking the average depth
of 500 feet, it would take forty times
as much land as exists above sea level to
fill the oceanic depressions.
American inquisitiveness and ingenu-
ity united have produced thread from
the blossom of the common milk weed,
which has the consistency and tenacity
of imported fax or linen thread, and is
produced at much less cost. The fiber
is long, easily carded, and may be readily
adapted to spinning upon an ordinary
f1aX-spinner.
It is proposed to drill holes down from
the surface into the workings of "hery
Mines to allow the tire-damp which
accumulates in them to escape much in
the same way as gas is allowed to escape
from the natural gas wells of Pennsyl-
vania. The damp would be collected
in reservoirs and used as gaseous fuel,
while the pits would be freed from
danger of explosion.
Paper pipes for water and gas have been
exhibited in Vienna. They are rolled
from sheets of paper, and coated on the
inside with On enamel of secret compost
tion. In winding the paper is soaked
in melted asphalt and the pipe is painted
outside with asphalt varnish, and busted
over with sand. tt is claimed that such
a pipe will resist some 1000 pounds in
ternal pressure, although the material Is
only about half an inch thick.
Russian geographers report that nu-
merous lakes in Siberia, chiefly In the
Tobolsk and Tomsk provinces, are rap
idly drying up, and villages now stand on
spots covered by extensive sheets OF
water q hundred years ago. Lake
Tchebakly has shown the most remarka-
BILE change, its area being $50 square
miles century ago, while it now con-
sists of three small ponds, the largest
covering not more than five or six square
miles.
The restoration of color to fabrics
which from one cause or another have
deteriorated in this respect, has sug.
gested various chemical applications and
processes. 1t has been customary to en-
ploy ammonia for the purpose of neutral
izing acids that have accidentally or
otherwise destroyed the color of the
stutfs, this being necessarily applied i'm
mediately. or the color is usually imper-
fectly restored. An application of chloro-
form has the effect Of bringing out the
colo:s as bright as ever. Plush goods,
and alfarticles dyed with aniline colors,
faded from exposure to light, resume
their original brightness of appearance
after being sponged with chloroform
the commercial chloroform, which is less
costly than the purified, answers we'll for
this purpose.