Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information Part 58

Plain boiled, they are wholesome. It is easy to dress them in more than 500 different ways, each method not only economical, but salutary in the highest degree. No honest appet.i.te ever yet rejected an egg in some guise. It is nutriment in the most portable form, and in the most concentrated shape. Whole nations of mankind rarely touch any other animal food. Kings eat them plain as readily as do the humble tradesmen. After the victory of Muhldorf, when the Kaiser Ludwig sat at a meal with his burggrafs and great captains, he determined on a piece of luxury--"one egg to every man, and two to the excellently valiant Schwepperman." Far more than fish--for it is watery diet--eggs are the scholar's fare. They contain phosphorus, which is brain food, and sulphur, which performs a variety of functions in the economy. And they are the best of nutriment for children, for, in a compact form, they contain everything that is necessary for the growth of the youthful frame. Eggs are, however, not only food--they are medicine also. The white is the most efficacious of remedies for burns, and the oil extractable from the yolk is regarded by the Russians as an almost miraculous salve for cuts, bruises and scratches. A raw egg, if swallowed in time, will effectually detach a fish bone fastened in the throat, and the white of two eggs will render the deadly corrosive sublimate as harmless as a dose of calomel. They strengthen the consumptive, invigorate the feeble, and render the most susceptible all but proof against jaundice in its more malignant phase. They can also be drunk in the shape of that "egg flip" which sustains the oratorical efforts of modern statesmen. The merits of eggs do not even end here. In France alone the wine clarifiers use more than 80,000,000 a year, and the Alsatians consume fully 38,000,000 in calico printing and for dressing the leather used in making the finest of French kid gloves. Finally, not to mention various other employments for eggs in the arts, they may, of course, almost without trouble on the farmer's part, be converted in fowls, which, in any shape, are profitable to the seller and welcome to the buyer. Even egg sh.e.l.ls are valuable, for aliopath and homeopath alike agree in regarding them as the purest of carbonate of lime.

History of Big Ships.--In the history of mankind several vessels of extraordinary magnitude have been constructed, all distinctively styled great, and all unfortunately disastrous, with the honorable exception of Noah's Ark. Setting aside this antediluvian craft, concerning the authenticity of whose dimensions authorities differ, and which, if Biblical measures are correct, was inferior in size to the vessel of most importance to modern shipowners, the great galley, constructed by the great engineer Archimedes for the great King Hiero II., of Syracuse, is the first ill.u.s.tration. This ship without a name (for history does not record one) transcended all wonders of ancient maritime construction. It abounded statues and painting, marble and mosaic work. It contained a gymnasium, baths, a garden, and arbored walks. Its artillery discharged stones of 3 cwt., and arrows 18 ft. in length. An Athenian advertising poet, who wrote a six-line puff of its glories, received the royal reward of six thousand bushels of corn.

Literary merit was at a higher premium in the year 240 B.C., than it is to-day. The great ship of antiquity was found to be too large for the accommodation of the Syracusan port, and famine reigning in Egypt, Hiero, the charitably disposed, embarked a cargo of ten thousand huge jars of salted fish, two million pounds of salted meat, twenty thousand bundles of different clothes, filled the hold with corn, and consigned her to the seven mouths of the Nile, and since she weighed anchor nothing more has been heard of her fate. The next great ship worthy of mention is the mythical Saracen encountered in the Mediterranean Sea by the crusading fleet of Richard Cur de Lion, Duke of Guienne and King of England, which, after much slaughter and damage incident to its infidel habit of vomiting Greek fire upon its adversaries, was captured and sunk. Next in rotation appears the Great Harry, built by Henry VIII., of England, and which careened in harbor during the reign of his successor, under similar circ.u.mstances to those attending the Royal George in 1782--a dispensation that mysteriously appears to overhang a majority of the ocean-braving constructions which, in defiance of every religious sailor's superst.i.tion that the lumber he treads is naturally female, are christened by a masculine or neutral t.i.tle. In the year 1769, Mark Isambard Brunel, the Edison of his age, as his son was the Ericsson of that following, permitted himself to be born at Hacqueville; near Rouen, France, went to school, to sea, and into politics; compromised himself in the latter profession, and went to America in 1794, where he surveyed the ca.n.a.l now connecting Lake Champlain with the Hudson River at Albany, N.Y. There he turned architect, then returned to Europe, settled, married, and was knighted in England. He occupied eighteen years of his life in building an unproductive tunnel beneath the river Thames at London; invented a method of shuffling cards without using the hands, and several of her devices for dispensing with labor, which, upon completion, were abandoned from economical motives. On his decease, his son and heir, I.K. Brunel, whose practical experience in the Thames Tunnel job, where his biographers a.s.sert he had occasion more than once to save his life by swimming, qualified him to tread in his father's shoes, took up his trade.

Brunel, Jr., having demonstrated by costly experiments, to the successful proof, but thorough exasperation, of his moneyed backers, that his father's theory for employing carbonic acid gas as a motive power was practicable enough, but too expensive for anything but the dissipation of a millionaire's income, settled down to the profession of engineering science, in which he did as well as his advantages of education enabled him. Like all men in advance of their time, when he considered himself the victim of arbitrary capitalists ignoring the bent of his genius, he did his best work in accordance with their stipulations. He designed the Great Western, the first steamship (paddle-wheel) ever built to cross the Atlantic; and the Great Britain, the original ocean screw steamer. Flushed with these successes, Brunel procured pecuniary support from speculative fools, who, dazzled by the glittering statistical array that can be adduced in support of any chimerical venture, the inventor's repute, and their unbaked experience, imagined that the alluring Orient was ready to yield, like over-ripe fruit, to their shadowy grasp; and tainted as he evidently was with hereditary mania, Brunel resolved to seize the illusionary immortality that he fondly imagined to be within his reach.

There was not much the matter with the brain of Brunel, Jr., but that little was enough; a competent railroad surveyor, a good bridge builder, he needed to be held within bounds when handling other people's funds; for the man's ambition would have lead him to undertake to bridge the Atlantic. He met with the speculators required in this very instance of the constructors of the Great Eastern. This monstrous ship has been described so often, that it would be a cruelty to our readers to inflict the story upon them again.

Natural Gas the Fuel of the Future.--The house of the near future will have no fireplace, steam pipes, chimneys, or flues. Wood, coal oil, and other forms of fuel are about to disappear altogether in places having factories. Gas has become so cheap that already it is supplanting fuels. A single jet fairly heats a small room in cold weather. It is a well known fact that gas throws off no smoke, soot, or dirt. In a brazier filled with chunks of colored gla.s.s, and several jets placed beneath, the gla.s.s soon became heated sufficiently to thoroughly warm a room 10x30 feet in size. This design does away with the necessity for chimneys, since there is no smoke; the ventilation may be had at the window. The heat may be raised or lowered by simply regulating the flow of gas. The colored gla.s.s gives all the appearance of fire; there are black pieces to represent coal, red chunks for flames, yellowish white gla.s.s for white heat, blue gla.s.s for blue flames, and hues for all the remaining colors of spectrum. Invention already is displacing the present fuels for furnaces and cooking ranges and gla.s.s, doing away with delay and such disagreeable objects as ashes, kindling wood, etc. It has only been within the past few years that natural gas has been utilized to any extent, in either Pennsylvania, New York or Ohio. Yet its existence has been known since the early part of the century. As far back as 1821, gas was struck in Fredonia, Chautauqua county, N.Y., and was used to illuminate the village inn when Lafayette pa.s.sed through the place some three years later. Not a single oil well of the many that have been sunk in Pennsylvania has been entirely devoid of gas, but even this frequent contact with what now seems destined to be the fuel of the future bore no fruit of any importance until within the past few years. It had been used in comparatively small quant.i.ties previous to the fall of 1884, but it was not until that time that the fuel gave any indication of the important role it was afterward to fill. At first ignored, then experimented with, natural gas has been finally so widely adopted that to-day, in the single city of Pittsburgh, it displaces daily 10,000 tons of coal, and has resulted in building cities in Ohio and the removal thereto of the gla.s.s making industries of the United States.

The change from the solid to the gaseous fuel has been made so rapidly, and has effected such marked results in both the processes of manufacture and the product, that it is no exaggeration to say that the eyes of the entire industrial world are turned with envious admiration upon the cities and neighborhoods blessed with so unique and valuable a fuel. The regions in which natural gas is found are for the most part coincident with the formations producing petroleum.

This, however, is not always the case; and it is worthy of notice that some districts which were but indifferent oil-producers are now famous in gas records. The gas driller, therefore, usually confines himself to the regions known to have produced oil, but the selection of the particular location for a well within these limits appears to be eminently fanciful. The more scientific generally select a spot either on the anticlinal or synclinal axis of the formation, giving preference to the former position. Almost all rock formations have some inclination to the horizon, and the constant change of this inclination produces a series of waves, the crests of which are known as anticlines, and the troughs as synclines. Many drillers suppose that the gas seeks the anticlines and the oil the synclines, but others, equally long-headed, discard entirely all theory of this kind, and drill wherever it may be most convenient or where other operators have already demonstrated the existence of gas. It will surprise many of our readers to know that the divining rod, that superst.i.tious relic of the middle ages, is still frequently called upon to relieve the operator of the trouble of a rational decision. The site having been selected, the ordinary oil-drilling outfit is employed to sink a hole of about six inches in diameter until the gas is reached. In the neighborhood of Pittsburgh, this is usually found at a depth of 1,300 to 1,500 feet, in what is known as the Third Oil Sand, a sandstone of the Devonian period. Where the gas comes from originally is an open question. When the driller strikes gas, he is not left in any doubt of the event, for if the well be one of any strength, the gas manifests itself by sending the drill and its attachments into the air, often to a height of a hundred feet or more. The most prolific wells are appropriately called "roarers." During the progress of the drilling, the well is lined with iron piping. Occasionally this is also blown out, but as a rule the gas satisfies itself with ejecting the drill.

When the first rush of gas has thrown everything movable out of its way, the workmen can approach, and chain the giant to his work. The plant at the well is much simpler than one would suppose. An elbow joint connects the projecting end of the well piping with a pipe leading to a strong sheet-iron tank. This collects the salt water brought up with the gas. Ordinarily, about half a barrel acc.u.mulates in twenty four hours. A safety valve, a pressure indicator, and a blow-off complete the outfit. When the pressure exceeds a prescribed limit, the valve opens, and the gas escapes into the blow-off. This is usually 30 feet high or more, and the gas issuing from the top is either ignited or permitted to escape into the atmosphere. The pipe line leading from the tank to the city is of course placed underground. Beyond a little wooden house, the blow-off, and a derrick, the gas farms differ little in appearance from those producing less valuable crops. The pressure of the gas at the wells varies considerably. It is generally between 100 and 325 pounds. As much as 750 pounds per square inch has been measured, and in many cases the actual pressure is even greater than this, but, as a rule, it is not permitted to much exceed 20 atmospheres in any receiver or pipe. The best investment for parties of small means that we know of is in town lots in North Baltimore, Ohio. It is on the main line of the B. & O. Railroad and the center of the oil and natural gas discoveries in Ohio. Property is bound to double in value. For further information, address, W.A. Rhodes, North Baltimore, Ohio.

Hints on House Building.--Gas pipes should be run with a continuous fall towards the meter, and no low places. The gas meter should be set in a cool place, to keep it from registering against you; but if a "water meter," it should be protected from freezing. Cupboards, wardrobes, bookcases, etc., generally afford receptacles for dust on their tops. This may be avoided by carrying them clear up to the ceiling. When this is not done, their tops should be sheeted over flush with the highest line of their cornices, so that there may be no sunken lodging-place for dust. Furring s.p.a.ces between the furring and the outer walls should be stopped off at each floor line with brick and mortar "fire stops;" and the same with hollow interior part.i.tion walls.

Soil pipes should never have "T" branches; always curves, or "Y"

branches. Water pipes should be run in a continuous grade, and have a stop and waste c.o.c.k at the lowest point, so as to be entirely emptied when desired. Furnaces should have as few joints as possible, and the iron fire-pot is better lined with fire-brick. There should be no damper in the smoke pipe; but the ash-door should shut air-tight when desired.

There should be provision for the evaporation of water in the hot-air pipe. "Air boxes" should never be of wood. All air boxes should be accessible from one end to the other, to clean them of dust, cobwebs, insects, etc. Horizontal hot-air flues should not be over 15 feet long. Parapets should be provided with impervious coping-stones to keep water from descending through the walls. Sewer pipes should not be so large as to be difficult to flush. The oval sections (point down) are the best. Soil-pipes should have a connection with the upper air, of the full diameter of the pipe to be ventilated. Stationary wash-tubs of wood are apt to get soaked up with organic matter and filth. Stationary washstands in bedrooms should have small traps; underneath each should be a leaden tray to protect ceilings in case of leakage, breakage or accidental overflow. This tray should have an overflow, and this overflow should be trapped, if connected with the foul-pipe system (which it should _not_ be if possible to arrange it otherwise). Flues should have a smooth parging or lining, or they will be apt to draw with difficulty. Gas pipes of insufficient diameter cause the flames to burn with unsteady, dim light. Made ground is seldom fit for immediate building; and never for other than isolated structures. Ashes, street-sweepings, garbage, rotten vegetation, and house refuse are unfit filling for low ground on which it is intended to build. Cobble pavements are admirably adapted to soaking-up and afterwards emitting unwholesome matters. Asphalt has none of this fault. Wood is pernicious in this respect. "Gullies" in cellar floors should be properly trapped; and this does _not_ mean that they shall have bell-traps nor siphon-traps with shallow water-seal. Cellar windows should be movable to let in air, and should have painted wire-screens to keep out cats, rats, etc. New walls are always damp.

Window sills should project well out beyond the walls, and should be grooved underneath so as to throw the water clear of the walls. Cracks in floors, between the boards, help the acc.u.mulation of dirt and dust, and may harbor vermin. Narrow boards of course have narrower interst.i.tial cracks than wide boards do. "Secret nailing" is best where it can be afforded. Hot-air flues should never be carried close to unprotected woodwork. Electric bells, when properly put up and cared for, are a great convenience in a house; but when they don't work, they are about as aggravating as the law allows. Cheap pushb.u.t.tons cause a great deal of annoyance. Silver-plated faucets and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs blacken with illuminating and sewer gases. Nickel-plating is perhaps a less pleasing white, but is cheaper and does not discolor readily. Windows are in most respects a great blessing; but there may be too much of a good thing. It is unreasonable to expect that one grate or stove or furnace can heat a whole county. Don't attempt it.

If you have too many windows on the "cold side" of a house, give them double sashes (_not_ double panes), and "weather-strip" them.

Unpainted tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs should be of hardwood. Yellow pine finishes up well. b.u.t.ternut is brighter than walnut. Cherry makes a room cheerful.

Walnut is dull and dismal.

The Forests of the World.--The rapid exhaustion of the forests of the world, and more particularly of the once great reserves of timber in the United States and Canada, renders it inevitable that, in a very few years indeed, iron must supersede wood for a variety of uses. The drain upon the world's resources in timber is prodigious. Every year 92,000,000 railway sleepers are used in America alone, while to supply firewood for the whole of the States, fourteen times the quant.i.ty of wood consumed by the railways is annually required. At the computation of the most recent statistics there were 441,000,000 of acres of woodland in the United States; but since over 50,000,000 of acres are cut down yearly, this great area of timber will be non-existent in less than twenty years, unless replanting upon a very extensive scale be at once undertaken. Already efforts are being made in this direction, and not long since some 4,000,000 of saplings were planted in a single day in Kansas and the neighboring States. But since the daily consumption is even greater than this, it is obvious that the work of replanting must be undertaken systematically if it is to keep pace, even approximately, with the destruction. In France and Germany, where the forests are national property, forestry has been elevated to the status of an exact science; but the timber lands of those countries are small indeed compared with those in the United States.

A Church Built from a Single Tree.--A redwood tree furnished all the timber for the Baptist church in Santa Rosa, one of the largest church edifices in the country. The interior of the building is finished in wood, there being no plastered walls. Sixty thousand shingles were made from the tree after enough was taken for the church. Another redwood tree, cut near Murphy's Mill, about ten years ago, furnished shingles that required the constant labor of two industrious men for two years before the tree was used up.

Trees That Sink.--Of the more than four hundred species of trees found in the United States there are said to be sixteen species whose perfectly dry wood will sink in water. The heaviest of these is the black ironwood of southern Florida, which is more than thirty per cent. heavier than water. Of the others, the best known are the lignum vitae and mangrove; another is a small oak found in the mountains of western Texas, southern New Mexico, and Arizona, and westward to Colorado, at an elevation of 5,000 to 10,000 feet.

Artificial Wood.--You can produce an artificial fire and waterproof wood in the following manner. More or less finely divided wood shavings, straw, tan, etc., singly or mixed, are moistened with a weak solution of zinc chloride of about 1.026 sp. gr., and allowed to dry.

They are then treated with a basic solution of magnesium chloride of 1.725 to 1.793 sp. gr., and pressed into moulds. The materials remain ten to twelve hours under pressure, during which time they harden while becoming heated. After being dried for several days in a warm, airy place, they are placed for ten or twelve hours into a strong solution of zinc chloride of about 1.205 sp. gr., and finally dried again. The product is stated to be workable like hardwood, and to be capable of taking a fine polish after being tooled. It is fireproof and inpermeable to water, and weak acid or alkaline solutions, and not affected by the humidity of the atmosphere, being well suited to decorative purposes, as it will not warp and fly like wood, but retain its form.

How to Stain Wood.--The following are recipes for staining wood, which are used in large establishments with great success: Light Walnut--Dissolve 3 oz. permanganate of potash in six pints of water, and paint the wood twice with the solution. After the solution has been left on the wood for from five to ten minutes, the wood is rinsed, dried, oiled, and finally polished. Light Mahogany--1 oz. finely cut alkanet root, 2 ozs. powdered aloe, and 2 ozs. powdered dragon's blood are digested with 26 ozs. of strong spirits of wine in a corked bottle, and left in a moderately warm place for four days. The solution is then filtered off, and the clear filtrate is ready for use. The wood which is to be stained is first pa.s.sed through nitric acid, then dried, painted over with the alcoholic extract, dried, oiled and polished. Dark Walnut.--3 ozs. permanganate of potash are dissolved in six pints of water, and the wood is painted twice with this solution. After five minutes the wood is washed, and grained with acetate of iron (the ordinary iron liquor of the dyer) at 20 Tw. Dry, oil and polish as usual. Gray--1 oz. nitrate of silver is dissolved in 45 ozs. water, and the wood painted twice with the solution; afterwards the wood is submitted to the action of hydrochloric acid, and finally washed with ammonia. It is then dried in a dark place, oiled and polished. This is said to give remarkably good results on beech, pitch pine and poplar.

Black--7 ozs. logwood are boiled with three pints of water, filtered, and the filtrate mixed with a solution containing 1 oz. of sulphate of copper (blue copperas). The mixture is left to clear, and the clear liquor decanted while still hot. The wood is placed in this liquor for twenty-four hours; it is then exposed to the air for twenty-four hours, and afterwards pa.s.sed through a hot bath of nitrate of iron of 6 Tw. If the black, after this treatment, should not be sufficiently developed, the wood has to be pa.s.sed again through the first logwood bath.

The Highest Chimney in the World.--The highest chimney in the world is said to be that recently completed at the lead mines in Mechernich.

It is 134 meters (439 ft. 6 in.) high, was commenced in 1884, and was carried up 23 meters before the frost set in; building was again resumed on the 14th of last April, and it was completed last September. The foundation, which is of dressed stone, is square, measuring 11 meters (33 ft.) on each side, and is 3.50 meters (11 ft.

6 in.) deep; the base is also square, and is carried up 10 meters (33 ft.) above the ground. The chimney-stack is of circular section, 7.50 meters (24 ft. 6 in.) diameter at the bottom, and tapering to 3.50 meters diameter (11 ft. 6 in.) at the top, and is 120.50 meters (395 ft.) high.

How to Measure Round Tanks.--Square the diameter of the tank, and multiply by.7854, which gives the area; then multiply area by depth of tank, and the cubic contents will be found. Allow 6-1/4 gallons for each cubic foot.

The Largest Buildings in the World.--Where is the largest building in the world situated? The answer to this question must depend upon what the term "building" is held to represent. The Great Wall of China, 1,280 miles in length, wide enough to allow six hors.e.m.e.n to ride abreast along it, and with an average height of 20 ft., may fairly be called a building; so, too, may be called the Great Pyramid of Egypt.

The question, however, was not meant to include such works as these.

Some have supposed that the Vatican at Rome, with its eight grand staircases, 200 smaller staircases, 20 courts, and 11,000 apartments, is the largest building in the world; but surely this is a collection of palaces rather than a single building. The same objection applies to the famous monastery of the Escurial in the province of Madrid, with its seven towers, fifteen gateways, and 12,000 windows and doors, and to many other vast piles. For the largest single building extant, we must look to St. Peter's at Rome, within which our great cathedral,

St. Paul's, could easily stand. St. Peter's occupies a s.p.a.ce of 240,000 sq. ft., its front is 400 ft. broad, rising to a height of 180 ft.; the length of the interior is 600 ft., its breadth 442 ft. It is capable of holding 54,000 people, while its piazza, in its widest limits, holds 624,000. It is only by degrees that one is able to realize its vast size. St. Peter's holds 54,000 persons; Milan Cathedral, 37,000; St. Paul's, Rome, 32,000; St. Paul's, London, 25,600; St. Petronio, Bologna, 24,400; Florence Cathedral, 24,300; Antwerp Cathedral, 24,000; St. Sophia, Constantinople, 23,000; Notre Dame, Paris, 21,000; Pisa Cathedral, 13,000; St. Stephen's, Vienna, 12,400; Auditorium, Chicago, 12,000; St. Mark's, Venice, 7,000.

The Biggest Bell in the World.--There is a bell in the Temple of Clars, at Kinto, j.a.pan, which is larger than the great bell of Moscow, or any other. It is covered with Chinese and Sanskrit characters which j.a.panese scholars have not yet succeeded in translating. There is no record of its casting. Its height is 24 ft., and at the rim it has a thickness of 16 in. It has no clapper, but is struck on the outside by a kind of wooden battering-ram. We are unable to obtain any more exact particulars as to the dimensions of this bell in order to determine whether or no it really does excel the "Monarch" of Moscow, which weighs about 193 tons, is 19 ft. 3 in. in height, 60 ft. 9 in. in circ.u.mference, and 2 ft. thick. There is another huge bell at Moscow, and those at Amazapoora, in Burmah, and at Pekin are far bigger than any we have in this country. Our biggest bell is "Great Paul," which was cast at Loughborough in 1881, and which weighs 17-1/2 tons. Taking purity, volume, and correctness of note into account, it is probably the finest bell in Europe.

The Oldest Cities in the World.--They are the following:--Argos, Athens and Thebes, in Greece; Crotona and Rome, in Italy; Cadiz and Saguntum, in Spain; Constantinople, in Turkey, and Ma.r.s.eilles, in France, which was founded by a colony of Greeks 580 B.C. The age of these cities varies from twenty-four to twenty-seven centuries.

How to Manufacture Oil of Apple, or Essence of Apple.--The essence of apple is composed of aldehyde 2 parts; chloroform, acetic ether and nitrous ether and oxalic acid each 1 part; glycerin 4 parts; [Transcriber's note: the original text reads: "amyl valerianice ther10 parts"] amyl valerianic ether 10 parts.

A Formula for the Manufacture of Artificial Cider.--Imitation cider consists of 25 gallons soft water, 25 pounds New Orleans sugar; 1 pint yeast; two pounds tartaric acid. Put all the ingredients into a clean cask, and stir them up well after standing twenty-four hours with the bung out. Then bung the cask up tight, add 3 gallons spirits, and let it stand forty-eight hours, after which time it will be ready for use.

Champagne cider can be prepared by taking 10 gallons of cider, old and clear. Put this in a strong, iron-bound cask pitched inside (like beer casks); add 2-1/2 pints clarified white plain syrup; then dissolve in it 5 ounces tartaric acid; keep the bung ready in hand, then add 7-1/2 ounces of pota.s.sium bicarbonate; bung it as quickly and as well as possible.

Recipe for Making Instantaneous Ink and Stain Extractor.--Take of chloride of lime 1 pound, thoroughly pulverized, and 4 quarts soft water. The foregoing must be thoroughly shaken when first put together. It is required to stand twenty-four hours to dissolve the chloride of lime; then strain through a cotton cloth, after which add a teaspoonful of acetic acid to every ounce of the chloride of lime water.

Wood, which is a more unyielding material, acts with tremendous force when wetted, and advantage has been taken of this fact in splitting blocks of granite. This process is largely adopted in Dartmoor. After a ma.s.s of granite has been rent from the mountain by blasting, it is measured in every direction to see how best to divide it into smaller blocks. These are traced out by straight lines on the surface, and a series of holes are drilled at short intervals along this line. Wedges of dry wood are then tightly driven into the holes and wetted, and the combined action of the swelling wood splits the block in the direction required, and without any destructive violence. The same process is then carried out upon the other faces, and the roughly-shapen block finished with the hammer and chisel.

The Weight and Value of a Cubic Foot of Solid Gold or Silver.--A cubic foot of gold weighs about 19,300 ounces, and gold is worth $20.67 per ounce. Silver is worth $1.29 per ounce, and a cubic foot weighs 10,500 ounces. Consequently the cubic foot of gold would be worth $398,931, and the silver $13,545.

To Remove Spots on Bra.s.s.--Sulphuric acid will remove spots from bra.s.s that will not yield to oxalic acid. It may be applied with a brush, but great care must be taken that no drop of the acid shall come in contact with the clothes or skin, as it is ruinous to garments and cuticle. Bath brick or rottenstone may be used for polishing.

A Formula to Make a Good Shoe Dressing.--Gum sh.e.l.lac, 1/2 pound; alcohol, 3 quarts; dissolve, and add camphor, 1-1/2 ounces; lampblack, 2 ounces. The foregoing will be found to give an excellent gloss, and is especially adapted to any leather, the surface of which is roughened by wear.

Receipts for Dyeing Cotton Fabric Red, Blue and Ecru.--Red: Muriate of tin, two-thirds cupful, add water to cover goods; raise to boiling heat; put in goods one hour; stir often; take out, empty kettle, put in clean water with Nicaragua wood one pound; steep one-half hour at hand heat, then put in goods and increase heat one hour, not boiling.

Air goods, and dip one hour as before. Wash without soap. Blue: For three pounds goods, blue vitriol 4 ounces; boil few minutes, then dip goods three hours; then pa.s.s them through strong lime water. Ecru: Continue the foregoing operation for blue by pa.s.sing the goods through a solution of prussiate of potash.

MOTION OF WAVES.--The progressive motion of a wave on the water exactly corresponds in speed with that of a pendulum whose length is equal to the breadth of the wave; the same law, gravity, governs both.

LIGHT OF THE SUN.--A photometric experiment of Huygens, resumed by Wollaston, a short time before his death, teaches us that 20,000 stars the same size as Sirius, the most brilliant in the firmament, would need to be agglomerated to shed upon our globe a light equal to that of the sun.

Land Cultivation in j.a.pan.--The entire arable land of the j.a.panese empire is officially put at only 11,215,000 acres; but it is so fertile and thoroughly cultivated that it feeds a population of 37,000,000, about that of France. Rice is one of the princ.i.p.al crops, and of this some 200,000,000 bushels are raised annually.

Old London Bridge.--As early as the year 978 there was a wooden bridge where London bridge now stands. This was replaced by another in 1014, and another in 1209. The present London bridge was erected in 1831, and may be considered the oldest existing bridge over the river.

The Shortest Method of Removing Silver from Plated Ware Before Replating.--Dip the article in nitric acid; this will remove the silver.

A Formula for White Metal.--Copper, 69.8 parts; nickel, 19.8 parts; zinc, 5.5 parts; cadmium, 4.7 parts. It takes a fine polish.

Curiosities of Metal Working.--At a recent meeting of scientific men, a speaker produced an anklet worn by East Indian women. This is a flat curb chain about one inch broad, with the links very close, and weighing about ten or twelve ounces. It is composed of a species of bra.s.s composed of copper and lead, without any trace of silver, zinc, or tin.

Such anklets are sold for a few pence, and they are cast all at once, complete as an endless chain. The links show no sign of having been united in any way. How it was possible to produce such a casting as this pa.s.sed his comprehension, and he hoped that some one who had seen them made would explain the nature of the process. From the East much that was curious in metallurgical art came. Cast-iron was, he believed, first made purposely in China. It was, however, frequently produced unintentionally, when wrought-iron was made direct from the ore in little furnaces about as big as a chimney-pot. It was found among the cinders and ash of the [Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'coarcoal'] charcoal-fire in grains or globules, which were not only like shot, but were actually used as shot by the natives. He showed what he believed was the only specimen in England of this cast-iron, in a bottle. He next referred to the celebrated Damascene blades of Indian swords, and explained that these blades were an intimate mixture of wrought-iron and hard steel, which must have required great skill, time and patience for its production. One [Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'patern'] pattern, in particular, known as "Mary's Ladder,"

showed wonderful finish and accuracy. Concerning the tempering of these blades little was known; but it was stated that it was affected by a long-continued hammering, or rather tapping, of the blade while cold.

How Many Tons of Coal a Large Steamship Consumes in a Day.--"Ocean steamers are large consumers of coal. The Orient line, with their fleet of ships running to Australia every two weeks, may be mentioned.

The steamship Austral went from London to Sydney in thirty-five days, and consumed on the voyage 3,641 tons of coal; Her coal bunkers hold 2,750 tons. The steamship Oregon consumes over 330 tons per day on her pa.s.sage from Liverpool to New York; her bunkers will hold nearly 4,000 tons. The Stirling Castle last year brought home in one cargo 2,200 tons of tea, and consumed 2,800 tons of coal in doing so. Immense stocks of coal are kept at various coaling stations. St. Vincent, Madeira, Port Said, Singapore and others; the reserve at the latter place is about 20,000 tons. It is remarkable with what rapidity these steamers are coaled; for instance, the Orient steamship last year took in over 1,100 tons at Port Said in five hours."

What a Man Eats.--A French statistician has just ascertained that a human being of either s.e.x who is a moderate eater and who lives to be 70 years old consumes during his life a quant.i.ty of food which would fill twenty ordinary railway baggage cars. A "good eater," however, may require as many as thirty.

An Australian Railway Viaduct.--The Werribee Viaduct, in the colony of Victoria, is the longest work of the kind in Australia. The structure consists of lattice-girder work. It is 1,290 feet in length, and runs to a height of 125 feet above the level of the Werribee river. The viaduct has fifteen spans each of 60 feet, and thirteen spans of 30 feet. The total cost of the bridge was 600,000.

The Sharpening of Tools.--Instead of oil, which thickens and smears the stone, a mixture of glycerine and spirit is recommended. The proportions of the composition vary according to the cla.s.s of tool to be sharpened. One with a relatively large surface is best sharpened with a clear fluid, three parts of glycerine being mixed with one part of spirit. A graver having a small cutting surface only requires a small pressure on the stone, and in such cases the glycerine should be mixed with only two or three drops of spirit.

Recipes for Plumbers.--Chloride of zinc, so much used in soldering iron, has, besides its corrosive qualities, the drawback of being unwholesome when used for soldering the iron tins employed to can fruit, vegetables and other foods. A soldering mixture has been found which is free from these defects. It is made by mixing one pound of lactic acid with one pound of glycerine and eight pounds of water. A wooden tank may be rendered capable of withstanding the effects of nitric or sulphuric acids by the following methods:--Cover the inside with paraffin; go over the inside with a sadiron heated to the temperature used in ironing clothes. Melt the paraffin under the iron so as to drive it into the wood as much as possible, then with a cooler iron melt on a coat thick enough to completely cover the wood. For bra.s.sing small articles: To one quart water add half an ounce each of sulphate copper and protochloride of tin. Stir the articles in the solution until the desired color is obtained. Use the sulphate of copper alone for a copper color. A good cement for celluloid is made from one part sh.e.l.lac dissolved in one part of spirit of camphor and three to four parts of ninety per cent.

alcohol. The cement should be applied warm, and the broken parts securely held together until the solvent has entirely evaporated. Tin and tin alloys, after careful cleansing from oxide and grease, are handsomely and permanently bronzed if brushed over with a solution of one part of sulphate of copper (bluestone) and one part of sulphate of iron (copperas) in twenty parts of water. When this has dried, the surface should be brushed with a solution of one part of acetate of copper (verdigris) in acetic acid. After several applications and dryings of the last named, the surface is polished with a soft brush and bloodstone powder. The raised portions are then rubbed off with soft leather moistened with wax in turpentine, followed by a rubbing with dry leather.

Protecting Water-Pipes Against Frost.--A device has been brought forward for protecting water-pipes against freezing, the arrangement being based upon the fact that water in motion will remain liquid at a lower temperature than water at rest. One end of a copper rod, placed outside the building, is secured to a bracket, and the other end is attached to one arm of a weighted elbow lever; to the other arm of the lever is secured a rod which pa.s.ses into the building and operates a valve in the water-pipe. By means of turn buckles the length of the copper rod can be adjusted so that before the temperature reaches the point at which there would be danger of the water in the pipes freezing the valve will be opened to allow a flow of water; beyond this point the valve opening will increase and the flow become more rapid as the cold becomes more intense, and as the temperature rises the valve is closed. This plan sets up a current in the pipes, which replaces the water as it grows cold by the warmer water from the main.

Destructive Work of Barnacles.--Unless some paint can be found which is proof against barnacles, it may be necessary to sheath steel vessels with an alloy of copper. An attempt has been made to cover the hulls with anti-corrosive paint and cover this with an outside coat which should resist the attack of barnacles. Somehow the barnacles eat their way through the paint and attach themselves to the hull. The vast item of expense attached to the dry-docking of steel ships makes this matter a not unimportant one. The barnacles interfere greatly with the speed of a vessel, and in a cruiser speed is of prime importance. They attach themselves in an incredibly short time to a steel hull, and it is not long before their effect can be noted by a comparison of the reading of the log.