West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1888-08-09
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Prof. Cushman has found buried
city and unearthed 1000 skeletons on
Salt River, Arizona.
A new torpedo boat built by Thorny-
croft for France equals in speed any yet
built--twenty-six knots an hour.
The electric arc lights in the United
states now number nearly 200, 900; and
the incandescents number over 200, 600.
A Glasgow, (scotland) firm has just
finished brass wire for the Glasgow
Exhibition sixty-five miles long aud a
copper wire III miles long.
A bright meteor, drawing after II ga
bright train Of twenty-three clearly de-
hned stars, shot across the heavens at
Columbus, Ohio, the other night.
What may be OF great value in ship
building and matchmaking is the dis
coyery that steel mixed with "a per cent
OF manganese becomes non-magnctic.
A Pittsburg foundry is making for the
American Emensite Company cannon
which will be used to demonstrate the
value of that new explosive. The can
non Is expected to throw six-inch she'll
with emensite ten to twelve miles.
Manufacturers of bricks along the
Il
menting with oil for fuel rs substitute
for wood II the new method is found to
be practical there will be saving OF 40
per cent effected. The main diIiiculty
is in the drying OFF, process
A Providence, OR. ~ foundry is en-
gagged in casting the largest mining
pump in the world for the Calumet and
Hecla, Of Michigan. A single section of
it has been completed and we CHS twenty
tons. The unwaterng Of the mine will
be done sooner than was expected.
Oil of peppermint in vapor diluted
even TO one part in 100, 600 will kill
cockroaches in an hour, they diving i'm
commissions: One drop of the oil placed
under bell jar covering a cultivation of
cholera bacilli will kill both bacilli and
spores in forty eight hours 1t is also re-
garded as among the best surgical anti
septics, and of great value in phthisis
and diphtheria.
According to geographical computa-
tlons the minimum age OF the earth since
the formations of the primitive soils is
81, 900, 900 years, allowing G,7OO. 600
years for the primordial- formation.
Is 400, 600 years for the primary age,
2, 800, 900 years for the secondary age.
400, 600 years for the tertiary age. and
100, 600 years since the appearance of
man upon the globe.
A German company has patented n
process for producing surface colorations
upon articles made of copper, zinc or
brass Upon the first named metal it is
possible TO develop all the colors of the
rainbow, and upon zinc the coating is
formed of such thickness AS to permit of
chasing the surface. The most import
ant application of this invention seems
to be in the imitation Of antique bronze,
the results in this direction being very
satisfactory. both in the matter of dura-
bility and resemblance.
Platinum can be made to adhere to
gold by soldering in the following man
ner: A small quantity OF fine or eighteen
carat gold should be sweated into the
surface of the platinum at nearly white
heat, so that the gold shall soak into the
face of the platinum. Ordinary solder
will then adhere TO the face obtained in
this manner Hard solder acts by par
TALLY fusing and combining with the
surfaces to be joined, and platinum alone
will not fuse or combine with any solder
at temperature anything like the
fusing point of ordinary gold solder.
A very good and sensitive barometer
made be made by gluiDg together strips
of red cedar aud seasoned pine. A strip
of cedar about thirty inches long, one
and one-half inches wide and one eighth
OF an inch thick, is cut with the grain.
and to one side of it must be glued
strips of pine of equal thickness, with
the grain running across that of the
cedar. This combination is set on end,
and will, according to the state of the
weather, be found TO have bent over on
one side or the other, and this may be
determined by trial.