Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-01-13

America is not the only country
where unconsidered trifles are snapped
up by manufacturers and put to prac-
tical use. In China the down of the
thistle is gathered and mixed with
raw silk so ingeniously that even ex-
perts are deceived when the fabric is
woven. 1t is also used to stuff cush-
ions as substitute for eiderdown.
and very good substitute it makes
Some of the mine owners in Penn
sylvania are providing for the safety
and convenience of their employees by
putting telephones at regular intervals
along the shafts of their mines. 1t
has often happened in mine accidents
that the whereabouts of the imperiled
men could not be found out, and thus
the work of rescue was delayed, ana
lives We're lost. 1t is believed that the
telephones will remove this trouble.
Bangkok, Siam, now has an electric
light plant and tramway six miles
long, and Is laying a second line of
equal length. The service is fairly
good. The telephone system, however.
is decidedly bad. 1t is owned by the
Government, and there are some 200
instruments of German make. Bang
kok is a city of magnificent distances,
and as the Siamese are particularly in
telligent people they would undoubt-
edly patronize a good telephone sys-
20
should be at least 1000 instruments
instead of 200, and this number would,
of course, be increased as the system
was better understood.
Some electricians are in the habit Of
called insulating gloyes-that is to say,
gloves made OF india rubber or Of glass
pearls, interviewer with cotton tissue.
Experiments lately reported to the In
ternational Society of Electricians
show that these gloves may not be
trusted to give security to men that
work about electric apparatus. They
should not be depended on for touch
ing directly conductors of high ten
sion, but only for touching the already
insulated attachments of such conduc-
tors as, for example. the non-metallic
handles of interrupters. The danger
is always greater when the gloves are
moist.
The present depression in the cement
Industries in the East is universally
attributed to the recent enormous in
crease in production due to the erec-
tions Of new mills in Michigan. Ac-
cording to the report of the Michigan
Bureau Of Labor and Industry there
are at present in the State ten plants,
eight of which are running day and
night, with an aggregate daily produc-
tion of 5000 barrels of cement. Five
other plants are in course of erection
which will have total output of from
5000 to 10000 barrels per day addi-
tional. One of the largest cement
plants in the world, with an output of
1000 barrels daily. is included among
the latter This is located near the
village of Baldwin, in Lake Comfy.
The average cost of the plants is given
as $500,000.
The second briquette- making plant
in the United States has been estab-
lished in Stockton, Cal, the first being
in Chicago, and the product of the Cal
ifornia factory bids fair to become as
popular, the San Francisco papers re-
port, as like fuel in European coun-
tries. These papers claim that the
Stockton briquette is far in advance
of anything of the kind ever before
placed on the market. Coal screenings
or slack and oil are the chief compo-
nents of the product. The process of
manufacture is very simple, and the
materials are, of course, inexpensive.
The cost of briquettes is about the
same as that of common forms of fuel.
A ton Of the new product, however, it
is claimed, will last as long at least as
one and a quarter tons of coal. The
heat efficiency, too, is said to be fifty
per cent. greater. With all these al
legged advantages it is surprising that
more use is not made of the mountains
of coal slack and screenings to be
found in every coal-mining district in
the country.