Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1891-11-27
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Pipes are made of ramie fibre.
Aluminium bicycles are announced.
Sweden has locomotive steamboat"
Steam -riveted boilers are not so good.
A gas is made from wood and crude
oil.
Southern Pacific locomotives will soon
use for fuel bricks made of coal dust and
asphaltum.
Pennsylvania makes fifty-two out of
every 100 tons of rolled iron in the
United States, and sixty-nine out of
every 100 tons of steel rails.
Large manufacturing establishments
are now using electric tramways for
transporting heavy materials from one
part of the works to another.
Making wrought iron pipe direct from
bars is the process recently started in
rolling mill at Steubenville, o. If it
works it means a complete change in
pipe manufacture.
The Dusseldorf Company while pros
pectlng on the right bank of the Rhine,
near Radenweiler, Germany, discovered
OTe, Will CtSu1y pei SOho' iS'Nsf SA-AsSS~
of copper and the rest silver.
French ingenuity has contrived an
improved stone-cutting saw OF remarka-
BILE efficiency-a circular saw having its
edge set with black diamonds in the
same way as the straight blades; but as
the strain on the diamond is all in one
direction the setting can be made much
firmer.
Corn husks boiled in caustic soda are
being utilized for the manufacture of
paper. The cooking process results in
the formation OF spongy, glutinous
paste, which is subjected to heavy pres
sure so as to eliminate the gluten, the
fiber remaining being made into paper
IN the ordinary way.
A new extract is prepared in France,
and made into tablets which are said to
be as digestible as raw meat. Lean beef,
free from fat, bone and tendon, is
pounded to pulp, mixed with sugar,
and heated to about 100 degrees, when
the mixture is converted into saccharine
extract. Further heating gives this any
desired degree of concentration.
An English electrical firm is intro
ducing a small pump, suitable to sup
plying house tanks in country districts,
where there is neither sufficient fall nor
machinery for pumping. 1t consists of
rotary pump driven by Screw gearing
direct from an electric motor, which is
influenced by primary battery placed
in the cellar. The pump and motor do
not weigh more than twenty-five pounds
and occupy very small space.
The United States naval flagship Phil
adelphia is fitted with telephone COM
muuicaton between the Office of the ex-
ecutive officer and yeoman storeroons
and between the poop deck and the
bridge. The present system is deemed
a great Improvement over the speaking
tube plan. Aboard large vessels it often
happens that the speaking tubes prove
wholly inefficient. This is especially the
case with upper deck tubes during use
in high winds. The telephone system
aboard the Philadelphia is reported as
operating successfully under all condi-
tions of weather.
The lake on the Colorado Desert
which has excited so much interest
among scientists, shows no signs of
leaving its new home at Salton. 1t is
now thirty miles long by ten wide, and
though the inflow doesn't equal the evap-
Grafton the waters apparently are not
receding. The owners of the salt works
at Salton will probably attempt to stop
the crevasse in the Colorado River
through which the food water is now
pouring into the desert. Manager Dur.
brow of the salt works has made trip
of inspection to the break in the Col
orada banks and is satisfied that the
water can be permanently prevented from
running into the desert.
Experiments lately made in Hartford,
Conn, show that light eau be seen
through clean cut opening of not more
than one forty-thousandth of an inch.
This fact was determined by taking two
thoroughly clean straight edges, placing
piece of paper between the surfaces at
one end, the opposite end being allowed
to come together. The straight edges
being placed between the eye and
strong light in dark room, wedge of
light was seen from the ends between
which the paper was placed and .he op-
posite, which were brought together.
Tie thickness of the paper being known,
the distance apart at the two edges of
the small end of the wedge of light was
easily calculated, and the result was
shown as above.