Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-09-01
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

One pound of mercury converted into
illuminate is sufficient to charge fifty
thousand percussion caps.
Nashville, Tenn, has canning fac
tory that is turning out ten thousand
cans of fruit and vegetables every day in
the week.
Wel-supported is said TO be the theory
that many deaths were caused by suffoca
tion in last winters blizzard in the
Northwest.
The fabric known as Chinese grass
cloth is made from the fiber of nettIes.
The cloth is peculiarly glossy and trans
parent. and, a; betting for machinery,
has double the strength of leather.
Two German experimenters find that
the Illuminating power of naphtha gas
is reduced one-haIf by twenty per cent.
of air. The mixture becomes explosive
when it contains from about five to
eighteen volumes of air to one of gas.
A Milltown (Me.) mechanic has in
vented log saving apparatus which has
an upward as well as downward mo-
ton. The scheme has not been fully
tested yet, but, if succ ssful, will be a
great time-saving invention to lumber
dealers.
Portable electric lights, arranged to
hang on button OF ones coat, and with
parabolic reflector TO concentrate the
light, with storage batteries weighing
one aud half pounds each, are made to
enable persons to read in railroad cars
by night.
An excellent new use for the telephone
is proposed in the infectious wards of
the French hospitals, so as to enable the
sick people isolated in their sufferings to
have the comfort of hearing their rela-
tives' voices without any risk of convey
ing infection by an interview.
While the most rapid cannon shots
scarcely attain velocity of 500 yards
second, over 1900 knots per hour, mete-
orites are known to penetrare the air
with velocity of $1,000 or even 60, 900
yards per second, velocity which raises
the air at once to a temperature of 1000
to 5000 centrigrade.
Envelope Company is nearly completed.
The boilers have capacity of 200 horse
power. There are sixty-four envelope
machines. with producing capacity of
about 5000, 900 envelopes day, where
the greatest amount of work turned out
in one day was /, 1850, 900 envelopes. The
building has 900 water sprinklers and
eighteen stands of pipe, together with
huge water tank holding 5000 gallons.
The force equivalent to the working
steam engines represents in the United
States 1900, 600 horse power, in Eng
land 1000, 900 horse power, in Germany
4, 500, 900, in France 5000, 900. in
Austriai !, 800, ,000 In these the mo-
tive power of the locomotives is not iD-
cluded, whose number in all the world
amounts to 1O5, 900, and represents a
total of 1000, 900 horse power. Adding
this amount to the other figures we OBJ
tain the total of 46, 900, 900 horse power.
The British consul at Ningpo, China,
calls the attention of British manufactur-
ers to spinning machines used in his
district that were imported from Japan,
and which he thinks will eventually be
adopted in cotton producing countries.
The advantages claimed for them, as
compared with the method of spinning
used in America, are that the staple is
less in iured aud that the seeds are better
cleaned. This is attained by drawing
the cotton between straight steel edges
or knives, instead of using saws.
Instead of using solid iron plates or
massive walls of wood and iron for war
ships, it is proposed to use a new mate
rial known as woodite. This is an
elastic material not unlike india rubber,
but unlike that material, it is not sticky,
and resists oils and heat 1t is COM
pound caoutchouc, and was patented a
few years ago. Experiments at Dartford
in 1886 gave promise of great things, for
the hole made in the woodite by the
passage of shot closed up at once, not
even allowing drop of water to go in.
Two torpedo catchers are now building
at Elbing. and the inner skin of these
vessels is formed of a layer of woodite
two and half inches thick.