Part 19

The metal underlying the silver plate of the best plated teaspoons is of nickel silver, a trade name for a metal composed of nickel, copper and zinc. This metal is procured in sheet form of varying lengths. From this sheet is cut a blank, which bears little resemblance to a spoon, being about half the length of the finished article and very much wider.

Squeezed.

The blank is then “squeezed,” which gives to the part that is to become the handle a little more of the appearance that it will have later.

Rolling.

This “squeezed” blank is then passed through a series of steel rolls, giving length to the handle and width to the bowl, and distributing the metal according to the correct thickness--that is, the bowl will be thin and the shank thick.

Clipping.

The next process is termed “clipping,” the spoon being cut out from the blank in the correct outline of the pattern.

Annealing.

The process of rolling the metal has so compressed the latter that it cannot be readily worked. It is necessary, therefore, that the spoon be annealed--that is, the shaped blanks are placed in an oven and brought to a red heat, which renders them malleable.

The Evolution of a Spoon.

From the crude blank of nickel silver to the finished spoon, there are over thirty distinct operations necessary, a few of the more important stages being illustrated. When the spoon emerges from the plating solution (see No. 8), it is perfectly white and looks as if it had been treated with a heavy coat of enamel. It is then scratch-brushed, burnished and, in some patterns, the handle is greyed. After this, the spoon is buffed and finished.

Every operation is performed with the utmost care, and not until the piece is actually finished can this vigilance be relaxed, as it is the final processes that make the plating of pure silver an actual part of the spoon and insure its wearing qualities.

_Striking and Bowling._--The pattern is then stamped on the handle and the bowl is shaped.

_Trimming, etc._--After the pattern and the bowl have been struck, there is usually a small burr left where the metal has oozed out between the dies. This is removed by trimming. The trademark is then stamped on the back of the handle.

_Polishing._--The goods are put through various operations of polishing until they are brought to a high finish.

_Plating._--The articles to be plated are suspended in a frame in the silver solution. This frame is connected with the negative pole of a magneto-electro machine, while the silver is suspended in the solution from bars and connected with the positive or opposite pole of the machine, thereby forming a circuit for the electricity through the solution.

A patent automatic scale, designed to weigh the silver while depositing, is balanced to the exact weight of silver to be deposited on the article. The circuit is completed by turning a switch and the plating begins.

As soon as the articles receive the proper weight of silver, the scale beam rises, thus making a separate connection with the electro-magnet, which springs the switch, breaking the electric current and stopping the plating at the same instant, also ringing an alarm bell to notify the workman that the articles have received the proper weight of silver.

_Quality._--Standard silver-plated spoons are made in two grades of plate--triple and quintuple. The former, however, is the one generally used and answers all ordinary requirements. The quintuple grade is designed more particularly for hotels, restaurants, clubs and other institutions where the wear is especially severe.

The Evolution of a Knife.

There are thirty-six stages in the evolution of a plain steel knife. At one end of the journey we see the cylindrical bar of steel, black and unlovely; at the other, the silver-plated knife, light, well-balanced and heavily plated with pure silver. In the case of other than plain knives, the work involves also the stamping of the pattern.

_Double Burnishing._--The thickness of the silver deposited, however, is not the only requisite to insure quality. The plating must be hard as well as thick. This is accomplished by means of a double-burnishing process after the article is plated and before it receives its final buffed finish.

The first burnishing is on machines and this is followed by hand burnishing. This process produces a hard plate.

No matter how heavy the plate, if it is not properly burnished or hardened after plating, the article will not give satisfaction in long wear. When manufacturers treat their wares to as little burnishing as possible, practically relying upon the buff alone for their finish after plating, the result is most unsatisfactory. The buff finish looks all right, but it does not harden the silver sufficiently and in consequence the latter does not wear well. When the article comes out of the plating bath the silver deposited is in a comparatively porous and “fluffy” state. The buffing will hit the high spots but the proper process turns the minute edges, closes the pores and makes the silver hard and compact, vastly increasing the wearing quality.

The silver thus deposited, is absolutely pure--finer, in fact, than any articles of sterling silver. Sterling is but .925 fine, requiring an alloy to stiffen it, whereas silver for plating can be used .999 fine.

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How do Chimes Strike the Hour?

Chimes are ordinarily produced mechanically by the strokes of hammers against a series of bells, tuned agreeably to a given musical scale.

The hammers are lifted by levers acted upon by metallic pins or wooden pegs stuck in a large barrel, which is made to revolve by clockwork, and is so connected with the striking part of the clock mechanism that it is set in motion by it at certain intervals of time, usually every hour or every quarter of an hour.

The chime mechanism is sometimes so constructed that it may be played like a piano, but with the fist instead of the fingers.

How is Electricity Brought into a House?

The electric transmission of power is effected by employing the source of power to drive a machine called a dynamo, which generates an electric current.

This current is conveyed by a copper conductor, insulated from the earth, to the distant station, where it passes through a machine called an “electromotor,” one part of which is thereby made to revolve, and imparts its motion to the machinery which is to be driven.

This is the simplest arrangement, and is that which is commonly employed when the original currents are not of such high tension as to be dangerous to life in the case of accidental shocks. There is, however, a great waste of power in employing low-tension currents when the distance is great; hence it is becoming a common practice to employ high-tension currents for transmission through the long conductor which connects the two stations, and to convert these into low-tension currents before they reach the houses or workshops where they are to be used. This is done sometimes by employing the high-tension currents to drive a local dynamo which generates low-tension currents.

The discovery that a Gramme machine is reversible--that is to say, when two Gramme machines are coupled together and one is operated as a generator, the other will act as a motor--was an important step taken in the transmission of power. Numerous efforts, since then, have been made to utilize electricity for the transmission of power over a long range. For this purpose the alternating current seems eminently adapted, as transformers only are needed to raise the line to high transmission voltage and to lower it again for use.

The possibilities offered by electrical transmission of water power for sections of country favored with waterfalls are numerous and have been extensively developed, which should result in making them great industrial centers. In this direction much has been done in utilizing the immense power of the Niagara Falls by electrical transmission, works having been built for this purpose both in New York and Canada, and several hundred thousand horse-power developed. The application of the power of waterfalls to the generation of electricity is rapidly extending, and promises to become a great source of mechanical power in the future.

What was the Origin of Masonic Signs?

Fable and imagination have traced back the origin of freemasonry to the Roman Empire, to the Pharaohs, the Temple of Solomon, the Tower of Babel, and even to the building of Noah’s ark. In reality, it took its rise in the middle ages along with other incorporated crafts.

Skilled masons moved from place to place to assist in building the magnificent sacred structures--cathedrals, abbeys, etc.--which had their origin in these times, and it was essential for them to have some signs by which, on coming to a strange place, they could be recognized as real craftsmen and not impostors.

What is a Dictograph?

The dictograph, to which much publicity is now given, by reason of its use in detective work, is an instrument for magnifying sound. It was invented by K. M. Turner of New York, in 1907.

It consists of a master station in the form of a box less than a foot long and six inches deep, and any number of sub-stations that may be required. Any voice within fifteen feet is taken by the receiving instrument and carried over the wires to any distance within about a thousand miles.

It has now been adopted by a great many business organizations as a convenient means of inter-communication.

The Story of the Wireless Telegraph

Though one or more means of transmitting messages by electricity have been known now for a great many years, the mechanisms by which they are accomplished are understood only by those who take a general interest in physical science, and the few to whom electrical communication is a profession. So far as theory and details of working are concerned, there are a good many people still in the same shadowy frame of mind as the old Aberdeen postmaster, of whom the story is told. When asked to explain the working of a telegraph instrument he said, “Look at that sheep-dog. Suppose we hold his hind-quarters here and stretch him out until his head reaches Glasgow. Then if we tread on his tail here he will bark in Glasgow. As it is not convenient to stretch a dog, we stretch a wire, and that serves the purpose.”

As the name implies, “stretching a wire” is unnecessary in wireless telegraphy, though in order to understand the finer points of theory one needs to stretch the imagination a little. That, however, is not so much, because there is any inherent obscurity or difficulty in the underlying principles, as because the mechanism of all electrical effects is more or less intangible. Electricity and magnetism operate across apparently empty space, and the links which connect cause and effect have to be guessed at.

Three different methods have been made use of in wireless telegraphy, which may be classed as conduction, induction and wave methods. In the first method currents are sent through the earth from an electrode to another at the sending station. In induction, use is made of the property which alternating currents possess of exciting similar currents in neighboring conductors, the aim being to get as intense a current as possible in the secondary circuit. Mr. W. H. Preece, of England, by combining the two, signaled in this way as far as forty miles. The third and the only method which has proved practically available is by the use of electro-magnetic waves.

Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian, after long experiment, patented in 1897 a method entirely independent of wires, the electric waves being sent, presumably, through the ether, by the aid of a transmitting apparatus, and being detected by a coherer, a glass tube filled with metallic filings, into the end of which the terminals of a relay circuit enter. The wave falls on conducting material and, the spark gap being replaced by a coherer, the metallic filings magnetically cling together, closing the relay circuit, so that a signal is made. On breaking the current, a slight tap on the coherer or other means breaks the cohesion of the filings and the relay circuit is broken. In this way a rapid succession of signals can be sent.

In 1899 Marconi conducted in England an exhaustive series of successful experiments, sending messages across the English Channel from the South Foreland to the French coast near Boulogne, and extending his results until much longer distances were covered. The process of development was continued until, to the world’s astonishment, signals were sent across the Atlantic and, finally, commercial messages were transmitted over this distance.

Marconi’s system is based on the property supposed to be exerted by the vibrations or waves of electric currents passing through a wire of setting up similar vibrations in the ether of space. These waves extend in every direction from the point of departure, and by ingenious and very delicate receiving instruments their presence in space is indicated and they are taken up in sufficient strength to repeat their pulsations and in this way reproduce the signals sent from the transmitter. One difficulty hitherto has been that a message may be received by hundreds of receiving instruments in all directions, thus preventing secrecy. Many efforts have been made to overcome this defect, but as yet with only partial success.

The distance to which messages can be sent has so far depended largely on the height to which the wires extend above the earth’s surface, lofty poles being erected at the stations. The height of these has been gradually increased until the Eiffel Tower at Paris has been utilized as a sending station. The strength of the electric waves has been similarly increased to add to their space-penetrating capacity. The record of wireless telegraphy has been in this way improved until now it has come into daily competition with other means of news sending. Methods of tuning the instruments have been adopted which limit the influence of the currents to properly tuned receivers and in this way some degree of secrecy is attained.

Though the honor of inventing the art of wireless telegraphy is generally ascribed to Marconi, this is to give him more credit than he deserves. The principles involved were discovered by others and the utmost done by him was to invent a practical method of applying them. There are other systems of wireless telegraphy of later invention than that of Marconi, through a different application of the same principles.

Messages have been sent to enormous distances, far surpassing the width of the Atlantic, as from Nova Scotia and Ireland to Argentina, a distance of 5,600 miles. Under exceptional conditions a distance of 6,500 miles has been attained, but the daily effective range of the best equipped stations is little over 3,000 miles. For overland messages the limit of distance is about 1,000 miles.

There are a number of kinds of interference which arise from electrical disturbances in the earth’s atmosphere. A flash of lightning is liable to give rise to a wave of enormous power which will set half the aerials on the earth vibrating in spite of the differences of pitch to which they are tuned. Thunderstorms are at their worst in the summer in temperate latitudes, but they occur to some extent all the year round, and those in the tropics are of extreme violence. As a consequence it is frequently almost impossible to decipher earthly messages owing to the imperious signals from the clouds. Of the various methods adopted for choking off the “atmospherics,” as the disturbances are called, one is to use receiving circuits which respond only to a narrow range of oscillations very different from those produced by a lightning flash. The employment of a high-pitched musical note in the telephone is also an advantage because its extreme regularity distinguishes it from the marked irregularity of the stray waves.

On the palatial passenger steamers that plow the Atlantic the Marconi apparatus enables the travelers to keep in touch with their friends, to transact important business on either side of the water, and to secure a continuity of life which was formerly divided by a sea voyage. All the larger vessels now publish a daily paper on board, the news in which has been supplied by the same agencies who feed the newspaper on land. Information is flashed to meet or overtake the vessel and caught up by her aerial, as she pursues her way at twenty-five or thirty miles an hour.

In the case of cargo vessels, the owners are able to get into touch with them at any point of their voyage. They can advise the captain where to call for coal or cargo, while he on his part can get into communication with the authorities or his firm’s agents at the port of call, and have every necessary or desirable preparation made for his arrival. Should an accident happen, he can call assistance, inform the owners or relieve anxiety and suspense. At no time is he isolated from the world. The fortitude, courage and daring of those “who go down to the sea in ships” has never been called into question, but it has if anything been emphasized by the receipt of messages from an operator at his post, to whom the bonds of duty were as bonds of steel, and who calmly operated the key until the waves entered his cabin and brought him honorable release.

Relief has been brought in this way to vessels in distress and many lives saved. An important example is that of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. By means of wireless messages from ship to ship the width of the Pacific has been practically covered, as ships en route from America to Australia or Asia can be kept in touch with Honolulu through almost the entire journey. A law in the United States now requires that all ocean passage-steamers carrying fifty or more passengers on routes of 200 miles or over must be equipped with efficient wireless apparatus and operators. The distance reached must be at least 100 miles. The Canadian law provides that every sea-going and coasting passenger ship of over 400 tons gross, registered in Canada, and every sea-going and coasting freight ship of over 1,200 tons gross, shall be equipped with a wireless apparatus. Wireless messages have been successfully sent from aeroplanes, balloons and submarine vessels, and the naval vessels of all nations are kept in easy communication by this method. Wireless press messages between America and Europe are also matters of daily performances.

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What is Forestry Work?

A Division of Forestry was organized in the Department of Agriculture, some years ago, and the most earnest efforts are being made to prevent any needless waste of our timber lands.

The usefulness of forests to man lies: (1) In furnishing him with timber for building, manufacturing, fuel, etc., and with various other useful products of trees. (2) In their influence on climate. (3) In their influence on water-flow, by keeping the ground more moist, making the outflow more regular, checking the rapid melting of snow, and keeping the hillsides from being denuded of their soil, thus setting up streams and covering cultivated valley lands. The necessity of a proper preservation of the forests seems highly evident, but the nations have been slow in waking up to this fact. Several of the countries of Europe have been largely stripped of their woodlands by indiscreet cutting in the poorest countries, and only recently have the nations been roused to the necessity of their conservation. This is now being carefully attended to in several countries, especially Germany. In China broad mountain regions have been stripped of their trees, with the result that this soil has been swept away by the rains, leaving the rocks bare, while broad reaches of formerly fertile lowlands have been made sterile by the material spread over them by the rains that swept the mountain slopes.

In the United States the broad original forests have been very largely cut away, and those remaining have of late years been so largely reduced by indiscriminate cutting and the ravages of carelessly kindled fires that great alarm is felt as to the future of the lumber supply. Within recent years vigorous efforts have been made to overcome this growing evil. The American Forestry Association, founded in 1882, its purpose being the conservative use of our forest resources, has now over 5,000 members, residents of every state, and of Canada and foreign countries. The first State Forest Commission was organized by New York in 1885 and has now a very large forest reserve set aside in the Adirondacks. Pennsylvania has also large forest reserves in its mountain districts, and many other states have taken similar action. The art of forestry is also being taught in the schools, and a large body of skilled foresters are now in the service of the states and the general government. In the new and active movement for the conservation of national resources the preservation of the public forests ranks high, and to aid in this purpose the government has withdrawn as national forest areas a vast amount of the public lands, amounting at the present time to 192,931,197 acres, an area about equal to that of Texas and Ohio combined. These woodlands are under the charge of the National Forest Service and cared for by about 3,000 men, of whom 250 are professional foresters. The trees in these forests are cut with careful discrimination, and new trees are planted to take their place, there being forest nurseries containing about 20,000,000 plants and capable of supplying 18,000,000 a year. New York has 1,600,000 acres in its forest reserve, Pennsylvania over 920,000, and the reserves of the other states amount to a very considerable area.

How did the Fashion of Wearing Cravats Commence?

Cravats get their name from the French “cravate,” meaning a croat, because this piece of dress was adopted in the eleventh century from the Croats who entered the French service. Towards the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century the cravat attained an incredible degree of extravagance, but common sense at last brought in the simpler style of neckties that has since prevailed.

How does the Gas Meter Measure Your Gas?

The quantity of gas used by each consumer is measured by an instrument called a meter, of which there are two classes--the wet and the dry.