The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1886-11-12
Items of Interest.

t.
4 In New York 1000 horse hides and
10000 sheep skins are now used yearly
to cover baseballs. A horse hide covers
twelve dozen baseballs and a sheep
skin three dozen.
A manufacturer in France has just
made wire rope over three miles long,
weighing sixteen tons. 1t is pa inches
in circumference, and has a breaking
strain of thirty-nine tons.
The discharge of water from steam
Jackets of compound engines seldom
amounts, where the jackets are efficient,
to less than three pounds per indicated
%horse power per hour.
Cast steel is steel that has been
melted in spot" and poured into
"mould,' thus becoming an "ingot,"
which is after hammered or rolled into
the size required. 1t may be of various
"tempers,' varying in percentage of
carbon, which they contain from three
quarters or less to y or more.
n The oldest iron-Ore mine in the United
States that is now in operation is the
Iron Hill Mine in Delaware, which was
discovered as early as 1884, and soon
afterwards opened. Ore is still taken
from this mine and used in Principle
Furnace, Maryland, the first stack for
which furnace was built in 1923.
1t is said that with rock salt lens
photographs may be taken of heated
object with specially prepared plate)
in the dark. For instance, photograph
could be made of a black-hot casting or
stove in dark room. This is because
it allows artificial light to pass through
it freely, while glass absorbs both
artificial heat and light.
At the sea level, where the atmos-
pheric pressure is about fifteen pounds
per square inch, water boils at PIP deg.
F. At Argenta, Montana, where the
pressure of the atmosphere is consider
ably less, the boiling point of water
is about POO deg. On Mont Blanc it
is 1877 deg. In vacuum it is about SO
deg, according to the perfection of the
vacuum.
An immense quantity of jewelry is
now made from thin layers of gold
alloy upon an ingot of brass, formed
while it is hot On the ingot cooling,
it is forced between steel rollers into a
long thin ribbon, each part of which is
of course still covered with the gold
alloy, intellectually thin, but which
wears for years and can be moulded
into any shape.
The carefully compiled list of Prof.
C. G. lockwood, Jr, reports seventy
one American earthquakes for 1885,
five of the number being doubtful. OF
the total the Canadian provinces fur
nished8; New England 5: the Atlantic
States, 8; the Mississippi Valley, 3; the
Pacific Coast of the United States, "a;
Alaska, 2; Mexico; 1; Central America,
2; the West Indies, 2; Ecuador, 1;
Peru and Chilli, 3; the Argentine
Republic, 1. Classified by seasons, "a
came in winter, % in spring, IA in sum-
.mer and II in autumn.
A barrel of kerosene oil buried ten
feet under ground will, it is said con-
taminate every well within a quarter
of a mile, and the oil will be apparent
to the taste. The accumulations of
privy vaults will extend their PERM
cious influence even greater distance.
although the water which it affects
may not indicate to taste the presence
of any impurity. Whether privy vaults
are open or plaStered with cement they
cannot keep the poisonous gases and
substances from penetrating the sur
rounding soil.