Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1903-01-02
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A white rust is an unexplained dis
ease" of English and German galvan-
lied iron that has developed within
year or two.
The largest pendulum ever made is
that with which Messrs. Berbet and
Flammarion have been demonstrating
the earth's rotation in Paris. A lead
ball of fifty-six pounds is attached to
fine piano wire about 21O feet long.
The oscillation lasts sixteen seconds.
The explosion motor holds the palm
for lightness. The best electric motor
with it's storage battery is stated to
weigh nearly one hundred pounds to
the horse power, and the Serpollet
steam engine, flashing water into
steam from a coil boiler, about four
teen pounds. But the Bourdiaux gaso-
line engine gives horse power with
a weight of only eight pounds.
The new self-luminous mixture of a
French chemist, claimed to require
only very short exposure to light and
to be unusually brilliant and lasting,
consists Of twenty parts of dehydrated
sodium carbonate, five of sodium chic
ride, one of magnesium sulphate. five
hundred of strontium carbonate and
$50 of sulphur. The well-mixed ma
terials are kept at a white heat for
three hours in a muff1e from which
the air is carefully excluded.
In his experiments with various We
hicles, M. Michelin has found that iron
tires require greater motive power
than either solid rubber or pneumatic.
An electric automobile running at 5
per cent greater speed with pneumatic
tires took Is per cent less power than
when fitted with solid rubber tires,
and in stopping, the solid tires re-
quired an increase Of IA per cent in
braking power.
In the singular failure Of the old
windows of York Cathedral, the glass
has lost most of it's transparency, and
in places has become so perforated
that it crumbles at>the slightest touch.
To stop the disease" some glass of
the thirteenth and fourteenth centu-
ries has been removed. 1t is known
that the hardest cement is sometimes
o1sintegrated by chemical action set
up by minute organism, and it is sup
posed that the destruction of the glass
has been due to some fungus.
Owing to the property which alumni
mum possesses of producing a very
high temperature when burned with
substances that give off oxygen. it
has lately been employed in Berlin for
making a new detonator, for firing ex-
plosives which do not readily respond
to the action of the decorating COM
positions hitherto used. The alumni
mum is used in the shape of powder
mixed with the other substances fill
ing the percussion caps or detonators.
The sudden high temperature induced
by the pulverized aluminium results in
a greater mechanical energy than can
be produced with compositions not con-
tanning aluminium.
| The adoption Of liquid in place of
| solid fuel has not taken place so rap
! idly as some experimenters anticipat-
ed. In the opinion of Edwin L. Orde
of the British Institution of Mechan-
ical Engineers, the trouble arises from
, the exclusive use in boiler furnaces OF
crude oil, which contains a consider
able percentage of water, 10 per cent
at least; and this destroys the condi-
i tions necessary for perfect conlbus-
ton. 1t is averred that some of the
crude oil shipped from the wells con-
tains as much as 40 per cent of water
and when used on shipboard the con-
j slant agitation prevents the separation
of this water, which consequently en-
ters the furnaces. The experiments OF
DIR. Paul show that liquid fuel is capa'
BILE of giving SO per cent more eff
cheney than the best coal.