Brenham weekly banner. [volume] (Brenham, Tex.) 1877-1907, 1891-04-09
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
SELLING SMOKE.

SELLING SMOKE.
A yearly rental is now paid to
three or four of the iron works in
Scotland for the privilege of collect
ing the smoke and gases from the
blast furnaces. Passage through
several miles of wrought iron tubing,
gradually diminishing in size from
6 feet to Is inches, cools the gases
and condenses considerable guam
tity of oil. The smallest of these
smoke-saving plants at Glasgow,
pumps and collects about 6O,00O,-
900 feet of furnace gas per day which
yields on average of $4,000 gallons
of furnace oil per week. The resi-
dual gases are used as fuel for dis
tilling and other purposes, and con-
siderable supply of sulphate of am
monia is also obtained. The present
demand for the oil is small, the
chief uses being for the Lucigen
fight and for picking railway
sleepers.
The Amos of Yezo are not likely
to die out for some time. as they in
creased from 1925 in 1872 to IT,
062 in 1888.
sTEREosCOPIC PROJECTIONS.
An old idea of D'AIemeida, a
French physicist, by which images
in natural relief may be shown by
the steropticon, is Just being sue
cessfully carried out by NJ. Molteni.
If two images-one representing
that of the object as it would be
seen by the right eye and the other
that which the left eye would see
be superposed upon the screen,
both combine in one fat picture. To
make each eye see the one of the
two images proper to it, D'Almeida
conceived the ingenious plan of
placing green glass in the lantern in
front of the image having the per-
spective of the right eye, and red
glass in front of the other image. As
red and green are complimentary
colors, the image upon the screen is
still white, and changed only in be-
ing a little less brilliantly lighted.
But if the spectator now places a
green glass before his right eve and
a red one before his left, each eye
will see only the image responding
to the celebration chosen, or precise
ly the one which has the proper per-
spective, and the relief appears i'm
mediately. The effect is very strik-
ing and beautiful With the naked
eye a diffused image is seen upon
the screen, but with the pair of
special eyeglasses the relief appears
as distinctly as in the best stereos-
cope.
A new Swedish glass is claimed to
have important advantages for Mi
croscope and other fine lenses, Civ
ing greatly increased power. The
chief improvement over other fine
glass consists in the addition of
phosphorus and chlorine, which i'm
part absolute transparency, great |
hardness, and susceptibility of the
finest polish. |
At Chalais, France, Commander
has been preparing oxygen
and hydrogen on a commercial
scale by the electrolysis of water.
He has substituted electrodes of
cast iron for those of platinum, and
estimates that the total cost of the
gases, compressed in steel bottles,
may on a large scale be reduced to
not more than from 1922 to 1854
per 1000 cubic feet.
Military barracks of iron plates
have been tried in Alsace-Lorraine,
but have proven intensely hot in
summer and unendurablY cold in
winter.
FORCE OF ELECTRICITY.
In a recent lecture, DIR. G. F.
Chandler corrected a common mis-
apprehension of the danger that
turks in, say, 1000 volts of electrical
pressure, which is often reported as
having killed a man, whereas, in
;act, such a pressure alone could
lot kill a humming bird. He had
caught in his sparks
possessing an electro motive force of
100000 volts without feeling more
han a slight burn. The danger
arises only when the volts are re-
enforced by many amperes or cur
'ents, as when one takes hold of a
charged wire. Then one feels a
shock that is unmistakable, because
he force of great many currents !
n the wire suddenly deeomposes
il the fluids in his body. The salt
n b,S blood of ODpa t11rDS tn Chlorine 4