Chapter 9

IN STANISLAU oil gas is being a good deal used for incandescent lighting, says the Gas World. The gas is used at a pressure of from 1.1 in. to 1.2 in. When 1.7 cubic feet per hour is used the Welsbach mantle gives 69½ candles at first, 65 candles after 120 hours, 48¼ candles after 500 hours. The fall in lighting power is comparatively slow with oil gas, and the mantles are not so much worn by lighting the gas, for the kind of oil gas is not as explosive as that of coal gas. The mantles are found to last from 400 to 600 hours.

DURING THE construction of the Simplon tunnel every possible alleviation will be made for the workmen employed, says the Railway Review. On leaving the tunnel when they are hot and wet through they will go at once to the douche and bathrooms provided for their accommodation, where, after a refreshing shower bath, they will resume their dry clothes. The sheds from which the workmen leave the tunnel are to be covered in and closed at the sides so as to protect them from cold. Water will be taken at intervals to the workmen who may require it, either from the pipe which feeds the drills or from that which brings water for cooling. No provision has been made as regards workmen's lodgings, because it is supposed that they will easily find accommodation in the neighborhood. As it is believed that the temperature of the rock of the Simplon tunnel may reach a maximum of 104° F., costly measures will have to be taken to cool the air in many parts where the works are to be carried on.

"RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN LIGHTHOUSE ENGINEERING" was the title of a paper read recently at the Institution of Civil Engineers, by Mr. N.G. Gedye, says the Colliery Guardian. The author pointed out the marked development which has of late years taken place in the direction of reducing the length of flash emitted by lighthouse apparatus to a minimum, and the consequent increase obtained in intensity. The apparatus now being erected at Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia, gives a flash of one-fifth of a second duration every five seconds. It is the most powerful oil light in the world, the flash being over 145,000 candle power emitted from a pair of dioptric lenses mounted on a mercury float revolving once every ten seconds. Each of the two lenses is 8 feet in diameter. The powers of these oil lights are far exceeded by electric lighthouse lights, there being several in France up to 23,000,000 candle power, while there has recently been established at Fire Island, at the entrance to New York Harbor, an electric light, of French design and construction, of 123,000,000 candle power; this is the most powerful lighthouse light in the world.

DISCUSSING THE use of potassium cyanide for steel-hardening purposes, T.R. Almond, of Brooklyn, N.Y., suggests that this salt assists the hardening process because of its powerful deoxidizing properties, and also because it forms a liquid film on the surface of the steel, which causes a more perfect contact between the steel and the water, thereby permitting a more rapid abstraction of heat. The inevitable formation of a thin coat of oxide is unfavorable to the process of rapid cooling; and as rapid cooling seems to be the one thing necessary for success in hardness, any means used for the removal of a bad conductor of heat, like the black oxide, will be of advantage, and more especially if this means also results in the formation of a liquid film on the steel surface having the affinity for water which, it is well known, is peculiar to potassium cyanide. Mr. Almond recommends the removal of all scale or oxide from the surfaces of steel to be hardened, either by pickling or by the cyanide. Steel covered with a very thin film of oxide will take the heat less quickly when immersed in hot lead than if the steel be bright before being immersed. This being the case, it would seem to follow that, because of a film of oxide, heat will leave steel more slowly when being cooled by water.

THE GIGANTIC WHEEL, now being erected on the site of the old bowling green in a corner of the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, was commenced on December 1, 1895, says the Building News. The work of erecting the supports was not finished until the third week in March, and then the most difficult portion of the work, viz., that of hoisting the axle, was commenced. The axle, a steel forging weighing over 28 tons and measuring nearly 41 ft. long and 26 in. in diameter, was forged at the works of Messrs. W. Beardmore & Company, of Glasgow. The axle and bearings being fixed complete, the work of building the rims of the wheel will be pushed forward rapidly under the direction of Mr. Walter B. Basset, who also built the Earl's Court wheel. The carriages, thirty in number, and each capable of carrying forty persons, are rapidly approaching completion in the works of Messrs. Brown, Marshall & Company, of Birmingham. The driving engines and most of the intermediate gearing are already in position in the engine house. These engines will operate two steel wire ropes, one on either side of the rim of the wheel, and arrangements have been made and provided for in such gearing to enable the wheel to be turned at a quicker speed than that at Earl's Court. The Blackpool wheel will be able to carry more passengers per hour than its predecessor in London. The particulars of the great wheel are: Total height above sea level, 250 ft.; total diameter (across centers of pins), 200 ft.; total weight, 1,000 tons. The solid axle is of a diameter through the journals of 2 ft. 2 in., a diameter across the flanges of 5 ft. 3 in., length over all 41 ft., and weight 28 tons.

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ELECTRICAL NOTES.

PORTRAITS of Morse and Fulton are printed on the reverse of the new two dollar silver certificate, affording a relief to the dreary monotony of ex-presidents, generals and statesmen.

A MONSTER electric elevator is to be erected at Allegheny, Pa. It will be large enough to carry up several wagons at once. The new elevator will save a trip of a mile and a quarter.

AN EXCURSION TROLLEY car on the Milwaukee Street Railway has 700 incandescent lights. The car is 32 feet over all. The platforms are 5 foot. The floor of the car is carpeted and a few tables for refreshments are provided.

AMSTERDAM will have next year an international exhibition of hotel arrangements and accommodations for travelers. Among the features of the exhibition will be an "electric restaurant," without waiters, in which visitors will be served automatically with a complete dinner on pressing an electric button.

PROF. FLEMING has shown by experiments that with a 2,000 volt alternating current with a water resistance, that the latter is quite non-inductive, and that the readings of the amperes may be taken, says the Electrical World, as a measurement of the voltage, and the product of the volts and amperes will represent correctly the power consumed.

OUR contemporary, The Engineer, suggests doing away with windsails on board steamers entirely and substituting electric fans. In warships the fan ought to be placed where room can be found for it low down in the ship, far below the water line. An electrically driven horizontal fan, with its motor, can be got into the thickness of a deck with its beams, if needs be. This would clearly be better than depending on a flimsy construction, which would certainly be greatly damaged, if not entirely shot away, in action. If clear decks are wanted, the windsail is about as inconvenient as it is ugly, and that is saying a great deal.

SINCE January 1, last, a new and reduced telephone tariff has been in force in Switzerland, and from reports to hand it appears to have worked satisfactorily all round. The former charge per annum for a telephone, with an annual limit of 800 conversations, was 80 francs (£3 4s.) The new tariff now in force is 40 francs (£1 12s.) per annum, plus an additional charge of 5 centimes for each local connection. The charges for interurban connections, with a time limit of three minutes, are as follows: Up to a distance of thirty-one miles, 3 d.; up to sixty-two miles, 5 d.; and above sixty-two miles, 7½ d. The telephone system throughout Switzerland is owned by the government, and the service, says the Electrician, is first class in every respect.

"THERE ARE three ways by which high temperature may be measured," says the Electrical Engineer, London. "The first uses an air thermometer of refractory material; the second depends on the change in the resistance of a platinum wire with change in temperature; and the third is based on the employment of a thermo couple of relatively infusible metals. According to Messrs. Holborn and W. Wein, in a paper published in Wiedemann's Annalen, the air thermometer method was valueless until recently, as suitable vessels could not be made. But now these are produced from refractory clays, and permit of measurements up to 1,500° C. (2,732° F.) The results are, however, vitiated by the effects of capillarity in the interior of the vessel. The resistance method has also its disadvantages. At high temperatures the resistance generally increases, but the temperature coefficient is irregular. The presence of free hydrogen also affects the resistance. The third or thermopile method is favored by the authors, who prefer a circuit of platinum and an alloy of platinum with ten per cent. of rhodium. Temperatures up to 1,600° C. (2,912° F.) can be measured by it, and it is remarkably constant under various conditions."

THE LONDON ELECTRICIAN states that at a special meeting of the South African Philosophical Society held on August 2, a lecture on the above subject was delivered by Mr. A.P. Trotter, Government Electrician and Inspector. Toward the end of the lecture the lecturer rang up the Capetown Telephone Exchange, and asked if any of the longer post office telegraph lines were clear. The Port Elizabeth line was then connected up, and by means of a Wheatstone bridge on the lecture table, the resistance of the line was measured. The lecturer then observed that, with the extremely sensitive instrument used in the Government Electrical Laboratory, it was not necessary to use ordinary electric batteries for signaling to such a distance as to Port Elizabeth. He disconnected the battery, and, plunging a steel knife and silver fork into an orange, sent signals by means of the feeble current thus generated. He then asked the front row of the audience to join hands, and, putting them in the circuit, sent signals through their bodies to Port Elizabeth and back by means of the orange cell. As a concluding experiment an omelette was made "under some disadvantages," and the cost of the electrical energy was stated to be only two cents.

"THE QUESTION of injury to the eyes from the electric light is being prominently discussed by scientists, oculists, and laymen throughout the country," says the American Journal of Photography. "While opinion widely differs as to the ultimate injury likely to result from the rapidly increasing use of electricity, the consensus of opinion is that light from uncovered or uncolored globes is working damage to eyesight of humanity. In a discussion of the subject a London electric light journal in defending its trade feels called upon to make some important admissions. It says: 'It is not customary to look at the sun, and not even the most enthusiastic electrician would suggest that naked arcs and incandescent filaments were objects to be gazed at without limit. But naked arc lights are not usually placed so as to come within the line of sight, and when they do so accidentally, whatever may result, the injury to the eye is quite perceptible. The filament of a glow lamp, on the other hand, is most likely to meet the eye, but a frosted bulb is an extremely simple and common way of entirely getting over that difficulty. The whole trouble can be easily remedied by the use of properly frosted or colored glass globes. In any case, however, the actual permanent injury to the eye by the glowing filament is no greater than that due to an ordinary gas flame.'"

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MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

RUBBER trees are reported found growing in Manatee County, Fla.

JAPAN proposes to build up her commercial navy by giving subsidies to ship builders on every ton above 1,000, and to ship owners for ships of 1,000 tons that can make ten knots an hour, the subsidy being increased for every 500 tons additional burden or every knot additional speed.

ROSA BONHEUR began to work seriously at painting when she was about fifteen, and donned male attire so that she could go about without attracting attention. She wore it so naturally that no one ever suspected her of being a girl, and found it so comfortable that she has worn it ever since to work in. She and Mme. Dieulafoy, the wife of the explorer, are the only two women in France who are legally authorized to appear in public in men's clothes.

A DEVICE for permitting the unsophisticated guest to blow out the gas in his bedroom at the city hotel without inconvenience to himself or anybody else has been devised. The gas burner is made of a metal having great expansive and contractive properties. The gas is turned on in the regular way and a small screw is turned which admits a small flow of gas through the burner. The gas is lighted, and the heat expands the metal and automatically opens a valve permitting a full flow of gas. The gas can be turned off in the ordinary way, but if the gas is blown out the metal contracts, closing the valve, and all the gas that escapes is the very small quantity admitted by the screw valve.

A MOVEMENT is on foot in Europe having for its object the securing of a complete census of the inhabitants of all the civilized countries of the world. With this end in view the several governments are to be approached with the request that they will endeavor to decide upon a mutual date for counting the people under their various jurisdictions. Heretofore the different countries have taken their census on different dates, and it has been impossible to obtain accurate statistics in regard to the world's population at any one particular period. It is suggested that the last year of the present century or the first year of the coming century would be the most appropriate date for obtaining statistics.

OF THE 376 suicides who ended their lives in New York last year, by far the greater number were divorced people, says the Medical Review. From a table prepared for the year 1895, it is shown that there were in Germany during that year 2,834 suicides of men either divorced or separated from their wives and 948 suicides of widowers, as against only 286 suicides of married men. It is also shown that 343 women separated from their husbands and 124 widows died by their own hands, in contrast with 61 married women and 87 unmarried. In Wurtemburg, to every million inhabitants, there are 1,540 lunatics among divorcés or women separated from their husbands and 338 among the widows, while there are only 224 among unmarried women. There are 1,484 lunatics among the men who are divorced or separated from their wives, 338 among the widowers, and only 236 among the bachelors.

THE QUARTERLY list of American tin plate works, which was published in the Metal Worker a short time ago, shows that on July 1 there were thirty-six complete tin plate plants rolling their own black plates in actual operation in the United States and three in course of construction. The active plants possessed an aggregate of 179 tin mills, having an estimated yearly capacity of about 5,500,000 boxes of tin plates. In addition to these establishments there were thirty-one tin plate dipping works, without rolling mills, possessing an aggregate of 169 tinning sets. At the end of June the production of American tin plate is estimated to have been going on at the rate of over 4,000,000 boxes yearly. During the last quarter the New Castle Steel and Tin Plate Company, of New Castle, Pa., has completed large extensions to its works, making it an eighteen-mill plant. This gives the United States the largest and most complete tin plate works in the world. Its annual capacity is three-quarters of a million boxes.

THE MONITEUR VINICOLE has recently published a statement showing the wine production of the various countries of the world. From this statement it appears the yield in France amounted in the years 1895 and 1894 to 587,127,000 gallons and 859,162,000 gallons respectively; in Algeria to 83,549,000 and 80,124,000 gallons; Tunis, 3,956,000 and 3,936,000: Italy, 469,555,000 and 539,000,000; Spain 379,500,000 and 528,000,000; Portugal, 43,890,000 and 33,000,000; Azores, Canaries, and Madeira, 4,620,000 and 2,640,000; Austria, 66,000,000 and 88,000,000; Hungary, 63,030,000 and 46,103,000; and Germany, 80,190,000 and 110,000,000 gallons. In Turkey and Cyprus the production last year amounted to 52,800,000 gallons, and this compares with an average yield of 40,000,000 gallons. In Bulgaria the yield was 26,400,000 gallons; Servia, 17,600,000; Greece, 35,200,000; Roumania, 68,640,000; Switzerland, 27,500,000; the United States, 89,700,000; Mexico, 1,980,000; Argentine Republic, 29,700,000; Chile, 33,000,000, Brazil, 7,700,000; Cape of Good Hope, 2,420,000; Persia, 594,000; and Australia, 3,300,000 gallons.

THE Historical Museum of Hesse Cassel, in Germany, says the Carpenter and Builder, contains a most remarkable collection of curiosities. It is in the form of a wooden library, composed of five hundred and forty volumes of folio and quarto sizes. The books are made of the different specimens of trees found in the famous park of Wilhelmshoehe. On the back of each of these singular books is pasted a large shield of red morocco, which bears the popular and scientific names of the tree and the family to which it belongs. Each label is inlaid with some of the bark of the tree, the moss and lichen, and a drop or two of the resin, if the tree produces it. The upper edge of the book shows the tree in its youth, cut from a horizontal section, with the sap in the center and the eccentric circles. The same method prevails with the lower edge, showing the changes that have taken place. The interior of the book, in the shape of a box, contains in manuscript the history of the tree, with numerous hints as to its treatment, capsules filled with seeds, buds, roots, leaves, and so on. The inner sides show the diverse transformations which take place from bloom to fruit.

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SELECTED FORMULÆ.

AMBROSIA SIRUP.--

Raspberry sirup..................... 8 vol. Vanilla sirup....................... 8 " Hock wine........................... 1 "

AMYCOSE.--

Shaved ice.......................... ½ tumblerful. Raspberry juice..................... 1 fl. oz. Orange sirup........................ 2 " Juice of half an orange.

Shake well, add soda water, and before serving add a small, thin slice of orange or pineapple. Serve with two straws in a 14 oz. tumbler.

BANANA SIRUP.--

Cut the fruit in slices and place them in a jar; sprinkle with sugar and cover the jar, which is then enveloped in straw and placed in cold water, and the latter is heated to the boiling point. The jar is then removed, allowed to cool, and the juice is poured into bottles.

BANANA CREAM.--

Shaved ice.......................... ½ tumblerful. Banana sirup........................ 2 fl. oz. Cream of milk....................... 8 "

Shake well, add a few pieces of banana, and fill with soda water, using the fine stream, and serve in a 12 oz. tumbler with a spoon and straws.

CHARLOTTE RUSSE.--

Shaved ice.......................... ½ tumblerful. Vanilla sirup....................... 1 fl. oz. Cream............................... 6 " One egg.

Shake and fill with soda water, using the fine stream. Serve in a 14 oz. tumbler with a spoon; it will have a head like a charlotte russe.

CHOCOLATE SIRUP.--

Best chocolate...................... ½ lb. Gelatin............................. 3 oz. Water............................... 4 pts. Sugar............................... 7 lb.

The chocolate and gelatin are dissolved in the water by boiling, and then the sugar is added and stirred until dissolved; or,

Chocolate........................... ½ lb. Glycerin............................ 12 fl. oz.

Heat together on hot water bath until the chocolate is melted, constantly stirring, and then add enough sirup to make 1 gallon. The sirup must be added in small portions at first, under constant stirring, and the result will be a superior sirup. Extract of vanilla may be added if it is desired to further improve the taste.

CLAM JUICE SHAKE.--

Clam juice.......................... 1½ fl. oz. Milk................................ 2 " Soda water.......................... 5 "

Add a pinch of salt and a little white pepper to each glass; shake well.

COFFEE SIRUP.--

Mocha coffee........................ ½ lb. Java coffee......................... ½ " Boiling water....................... 1 gal. Granulated sugar.................... 10 lb.

Boil together, or pass through a suitable filter coffee pot, until one gallon of infusion is obtained; let it settle and add the sugar.

EGG LEMONADE.--

Shaved ice.......................... ½ tumblerful. One egg. Juice of one large lemon. Powdered sugar...................... 3 teaspoonfuls. Water............................... 6 fl. oz.

Shake thoroughly. Draw a small quantity of soda water, fine stream only, and grate a little nutmeg on top.

EGG PHOSPHATE.--

Draw into a thin 9 oz. tumbler, 2 oz. of Maltese (red) orange sirup, and add an egg, a few squirts of acid phosphate, and a small piece of ice; shake well, fill shaker with soda water--using the large stream only--and strain.

ORANGE PHOSPHATE.--

RED ORANGE PHOSPHATE.

Red orange sirup.................... 6 pints. Orange wine......................... 1 " Pineapple sirup..................... 1 " Acid solution phosphates............ 8 fl. oz.

TANGERINE PHOSPHATE.

Tangerine sirup..................... 7 pints. Pineapple sirup..................... ½ " Muscatel............................ ½ " Acid solution of phosphates......... 8 fl. oz.

--Montreal Pharmaceutical Journal.

AMERICAN METAL POLISHING PASTE.--

Bohemian Tripoli powder............. 1 pound. Spanish whiting..................... 1 " Commercial red oxide of iron........ ½ " Common petrolin-burning oil......... 1 ounce. Glycerine........................... q. s. Water............................... q. s. Oil of citronella................... ½ ounce.

Thoroughly mix the powders, then add the petrolin, etc.--Mag. Pharmacy.

CEMENT FOR PORCELAIN LETTERS.--

Solution sodium silicate............ 30 parts. Slaked lime......................... 45 "

Mix, and add:

Litharge............................ 30 parts. Glycerine.............. quantities sufficient.

Make a paste, and use immediately.

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THE GREAT KRUPP WORKS.