Scientific American

A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF PRACTICAL INFORMATION, ART, SCIENCE, MECHANICS,
CHEMISTRY, AND MANUFACTURES.

THE PARIS EXHIBITION.—A SKETCH IN THE PARK.

Our engraving, which represents a portion of the park at
the Paris Exhibition grounds, needs little mention beyond
that it is one of those delightful retreats so refreshing to the
weary visitor, who, tired out with tramping about the buildings
and grounds, is only too pleased to refresh his eyes with
some of that exquisite miniature water scenery which is scattered
about the grounds. We take our illustration from the
London Graphic.

THE PARIS EXHIBITION.—A SKETCH IN THE PARK.

Improvements in Silk Worm Breeding.

Galignani states that a very curious discovery has just
been made, which, if found as practicable in application as
it seems to promise, may create a very considerable change
in the production of silk. It is nothing more nor less than
the possibility of obtaining two yields in the year of the raw
material instead of one, as at present. The moth lays its
eggs in May or June, and these do not hatch before the
spring of the following year. But sometimes they are observed
to hatch spontaneously ten or twelve days after they
are laid. It was such a circumstance as this coming to the
attention of M. Ducloux, Professor of the Faculty of Sciences
at Lyons, that led him to undertake a series of experiments
on the subject, by means of which he has found that this
premature hatching can be produced at will. The means
for effecting the object are very simple—rubbing the eggs
with a hair brush, subjecting them to the action of electricity,
or more surely still by dipping them for half a minute
in concentrated sulphuric acid. M. Bollé, who has also
turned his attention to the same subject, states that the
same effect is produced by hydrochloric, nitric, or even
acetic and tartaric acid. Finally, a submersion of a few
seconds in water heated to 50° Cent. (122° Fah.) is equally
efficacious. However, M. Ducloux states that the operation
must be performed while the eggs are quite young, the second
or third day at the outside. When this new hatching is
accomplished the mulberry tree is in its full vigor, and the
weather so favorable that the rearing of the worm is liable
to much less risk than during the early days of spring, when
the sudden atmospheric changes are very detrimental, and
frequently fatal to the growing caterpillars.

The Natural History of the Eel.

According to the reports of shad fishermen, the chief
enemy of the shad is the eel, which not only follows that
fish up the streams and devours the spawn, but often attacks
the shad after they are caught in the nets. Entering
the shad at the gill openings the eels suck out the spawn
and entrails, and leave the fish perfectly clean. The finest
and fattest shad are the ones selected. It is a curious circumstance
that of a fish so well known as the eel so many of
its life habits should be in dispute. An animated discussion
has been going on in Germany quite recently with regard to
the natural history of this fish, and in a late number of a
scientific journal the following points are set down as pretty
well substantiated. Though a fresh water fish which passes
the greater part of its life in rivers, the eel spawns in the
sea. That it is viviparous is extremely improbable. The
eel found in the upper waters of rivers is almost always
female. At the age of four years it goes down to the sea
to spawn and never returns to fresh water. The spawning
process is somehow dangerous to the eel, thousands being
found dead near the mouths of rivers, with their ovaries
empty. The descent of the fish to the sea does not appear
to take place at any definite period, but is probably dependent
on the season for spawning. The male is always much
smaller than the female, and never exceeds half a yard in
length. The males never ascend to the head waters of rivers,
but keep continually in the sea or in the lower reaches of
the river. Nothing is definitely known about the spawning
season, though it is probable that the eggs are deposited in
the sea not far from the mouths of rivers.

[Pg 80]

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TABLE OF CONTENTS OF

THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT

No. 136,

PROGRESS OF IRON MAKING.

The success of the Dank’s puddling furnace fired with pulverized
coal seems to be no longer a matter of doubt in England.
It is stated that Messrs. Hopkins, Gilkes & Co., the
well known iron makers of the North of England, have succeeded
in turning out from it from Cleveland pig alone iron
capable of bearing tests which Staffordshire iron has not yet
surpassed. The English iron manufacturers in their struggle
with us are wisely taking advantage of every improvement
in their line to keep ahead of us, and are likely to be
successful unless our manufacturers arouse from their
fancied security.

We are now underselling the English at home and abroad
in many articles of manufacture, because so much of our
work is done by machinery, and is consequently better and
cheaper than can be produced by hand labor at the lowest living
rate of wages; but so soon as the English masters and
workmen shall fully appreciate this fact, the same machines
run there with cheaper labor will deprive us of our present
advantages.

Already we notice several instances in which the workmen,
renouncing their prejudices, have willingly consented to the
substitution of machine for hand work, and we doubt not
that the success of these innovations, conjoined with the
pressure of the times, will ere long create a complete revolution
in the ideas of the British workmen, so that instead of
longer opposing they will demand the improved appliances
and facilities for work, converting them from rivals or opponents
to allies. Such a radical change is not necessarily
far in the future, for the logic of it has long been working
in the brains of both masters and men and may reasonably
bear fruit at any time. We fear that when this time arrives
our makers of iron, especially, will wake up to the consciousness
that they have not kept up with the advance.

THE TELEPHONE AS A PROMOTER OF SCIENCE.

Every new thing, whether it be in the realm of mind or
matter, has an influence on whatever existed before, of a
similar kind, to modify, develop, and improve it, or to doom
it to oblivion. Whatever is new necessitates a better knowledge
of the old, so that the world gains not only by the
acquirement of the new thing, but also by a better understanding
of things already known.

A discovery, published, sets a thousand minds at work,
and immediately there is a host of experimentalists who, in
their desire to make and try the new thing for themselves,
begin without a knowledge of the science or art to which
the discovery pertains, and inevitably fail. After failure
comes research, which to be of value must be extended.
Every investigator can recall the novelty that induced his
first experiments, and can recount his trials in his search for
information.

Among the inventions or discoveries that have induced
extended experiment, the telephone may, without doubt, be
mentioned as the chief, for no sooner was the first speaking
telephone brought out than here and there all over the country
it was imitated. Persons who never had the slightest
knowledge of electrical science had a desire to see and test
the telephone. To do this first of all requires a degree of
mechanical skill. Acoustics must be understood, and a
knowledge of the four branches of electrical science is requisite,
as the telephone involves galvanism, magnetism,
electrical resistance, induction, and many of the nicer points
which can be understood by investigation only, and this
not only in the direction indicated, but in the allied branches
of physics and also in chemistry. Familiarity with these
things develops a scientific taste that will not be easily
satisfied. The characteristic avidity with which the American
people seize upon a novelty has been wonderfully exemplified
by the manner in which the telephone mania has
spread. In consequence of this science has received an
impetus, and now we have everywhere embryo electricians
and experimentalists, where before were only the unscientific.

LETTER FROM PROFESSOR HUGHES.

We print in another column a letter received from Mr. D. E.
Hughes concerning the distinction he finds between his
microphone and Mr. Edison’s carbon telephone. Mr. Hughes
is very confident that the two inventions have nothing in
common, and that they bear no resemblance to each other in
form, material, or principles.

We would not question Mr. Hughes’ sincerity in all this.
No doubt he honestly believes that the invention of Mr. Edison
“represents no field of discovery, and is restricted in
its uses to telephony,” whilst the “microphone demonstrates
and represents the whole field of nature.” But the fact of
his believing this is only another proof that he utterly fails
to understand or appreciate the real scope and character of
Mr. Edison’s work.

To those familiar not only with Mr. Edison’s telephone
but with the long line of experimental investigation that had
to be gone through with before he was able to control the
excessive sensitiveness of the elements of his original discovery,
it is very clear that Mr. Hughes has been working
upon and over-estimating the importance of one phase, and
that a limited phase, of Mr. Edison’s investigations.

We propose shortly to review at length the evidence of
Mr. Edison’s priority in the invention or discovery of all
that the microphone covers; this purely as a question of scientific
interest. For the personal elements of the controversy
between Mr. Edison on the one side and Messrs. Preece
and Hughes on the other we care nothing.

THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN EXPORT EDITION.

The inquiry for American manufactured products and
machinery abroad seems to grow in volume and variety
daily. And though, in comparison with our capacity to produce,
the foreign demand is yet small, its possibilities are
unlimited. To increase the demand the immediate problem
is to make known throughout the world in the most attractive
fashion possible the wide range of articles which America
is prepared to furnish, and which other nations have use
for. As a medium for conveying such intelligence the
monthly export edition of the Scientific American is unequaled.
The table of contents of the second issue, to be
found in another column, will give an idea of the wide
range and permanent as well as timely interest of the matter
it circulates. It is a magazine of valuable information
that will be preserved and repeatedly read. The handsomely
illustrated advertising pages supplement the text,
and make it at once the freshest, fullest, and most attractive
periodical of the sort in the world. An examination of the
index of advertisers will show how widely its advantages
for reaching foreign buyers have been appreciated by leading
American houses. In the advertising page xxv. appears
a list of some eight hundred foreign commercial
places in which the circulation of the paper is guaranteed,
as evidence that it reaches those for whom such publications
are intended.

FOUNTAIN PENS.

For several days we have had in use in our office examples
of the Mackinnon Fountain Pen, and find it to be a very
serviceable and effective instrument. This is a handsome
looking pen, with a hollow handle, in which a supply of
ink is carried, and the fluid flows from the point in the act
of writing. The necessity of an inkstand is thus avoided.
One of the difficulties heretofore with pens of this character
has been to insure a free and certain delivery of the ink, and
also to bring the instrument within the compass and weight
of an ordinary pen. The inventor seems to have admirably
succeeded in the example before us. The ink flows with
certainty, and there is no scratching as with the ordinary
pen; it writes with facility on either smooth or rough paper;
writes even more smoothly than a lead pencil; may be
carried in the pocket; is always ready for use; there is no
spilling or blotting of ink. The construction is simple,
durable, and the action effective. One filling lasts a week or
more, according to the extent of use. These are some of the
qualities that our use of the pen so far has seemed to demonstrate;
and which made us think that whoever supplies himself
with a Mackinnon Pen will possess a good thing. The
sole agency is at No. 21 Park Row, New York city.

THE SUN.

BY S. P. LANGLEY, ALLEGHENY OBSERVATORY, PA.

[1]

When, with a powerful telescope, we return to the study
of the sun’s surface, we meet a formidable difficulty which
our first simple means did not present. This arises from the
nearly constant tremors of our own atmosphere, through
which we have to look. It is not that the tremor does not
exist with the smaller instrument, but now our higher magnifying
power exaggerates it, causes everything to appear
unsteady and blurry, however good the glass, and makes the
same kind of trouble for the eye which we should experience
if we tried to read very fine print across the top of
a hot stove, whence columns of tremulous air were rising.
There is no remedy for this, unless it is assiduous watching
and infinite patience, for in almost every day there will come
one or more brief intervals, lasting sometimes minutes,
sometimes only seconds, during which the air seems momentarily
tranquil. We must be on the watch for hours, to
seize these favorable moments, and, piecing together what
we have seen in them, in the course of time we obtain such
knowledge of the more curious features of the solar surface
as we now possess.

The eye aches after gazing for a minute steadily at the
full moon, and the sun’s light is from 300,000 to 600,000
times brighter than full moon light, while its heat is in
still greater proportion. The object lens of such a telescope
as the equatorial at Allegheny is 13 inches in diameter,
and it is such light, and such heat, concentrated by it,
that we have to gaze on. The best contrivance so
far found for diminishing both, and without which
our present acquaintance with the real appearance and
character of sunspots would not have been gained, depends
upon a curious property of light, discovered by a
French physicist, Malus, in the beginning of this century.
Let A (Fig. 10) be a piece of plane unsilvered glass, receiving
the solar rays and reflecting them to a second similar one,
B, which itself reflects them again in the direction C.
Of course, since the glass is transparent, most of the rays
will pass through A, and not be reflected. Of those which
reach B again most will pass through, so that not a hundredth
part of the original beam reaches C. This then, is so
far a gain; but of itself of little use, since, such is the solar
brilliancy, that even this small fraction would, to an eye at
C, appear blindingly bright. Now, if we rotate B about
the line joining it with A, keeping always the same reflecting
angle with it, it might naturally be supposed that the
light would merely be reflected in a new direction unchanged
in quantity.

But according to the curious discovery of Malus this is
not what happens. What does happen is that the second

[Pg 81]

glass, after being given a quarter turn (though always kept
at the same angle), seems to lose its power of reflection almost
altogether. The light which comes from it now is diminished
enormously, and yet nothing is distorted or displaced;
everything is seen correctly if enough light remains
to see it by at all, and the ray is said to have been “polarized
by reflection.” It would be out of place to enter here on the
cause of the phenomenon; the fact is certain, and is a very
precious one, for the astronomer can now diminish the sun’s
light till it is bearable by the weakest eye, without any distortion
of what he is looking at, and without disturbing the
natural tints by colored glasses. In practice, a third and
sometimes a fourth reflector, each of a wedge shaped, optically
plane piece of unsilvered glass, are thus
introduced, and by a simple rotation of the last
one the light is graded at pleasure, so that with
such an instrument, called “the polarizing eyepiece”
(Fig. A), I have often watched the sun’s
magnified image for four or five hours together
with no more distress to the eye than in reading
a newspaper.

With this, in favorable moments, we see that
the sun’s surface away from the spots, everywhere,
is made up of hundreds of thousands of
small, intensely brilliant bodies, that seem to be
floating in a gray medium, which, though itself
no doubt very bright, appears dark by comparison.
What these little things are is still uncertain;
whatever they are, they are the immediate
principal source of the sun’s light and heat.
To get an idea of their size we must resort to
some more delicate means of measurement than
we used in the case of the watch. The filar micrometer consists
essentially of two excessively fine strands of cobwebs
(or, rather, of spider’s cocoon), called technically “wires,”
stretched parallel to each other and placed just at the focus
of the telescope. Suppose one of them to be fixed and the
second to be movable (keeping always parallel to the first)
by means of a screw, having perhaps one hundred threads
to the inch, and a large drum shaped head divided into one
hundred equal parts, so that moving this head by one division
carries the second “wire” 1/10000 part of an inch nearer
to the first. Motions smaller than this can clearly be registered,
but it will be evident that everything here really depends
upon the accuracy of the screw. The guide screw
of the best lathe is a coarse piece of work by comparison
with “micrometer” screws as now constructed (especially
those for making the “gratings” to be described later), for
recent uses of them demand perhaps the most accurate
workmanship of anything in mechanics—the maker of one
which will pass some lately invented tests is entitled at any
rate to call himself “a workman.”

[Fig. 11.]

Since the “wires” are stretched precisely in the focus,
where the principal image of the sun is formed, and move in
it, they, and the features of the surface, form one picture,

as magnified by the eye lens, so that they appear as if moving
about on the sun itself. We can first set them far
enough apart, for instance, to take in the whole of a spot,
and then by bringing them together measure its apparent
diameter, in ten thousandths of an inch. Then, measuring
the diameter of the whole sun, we have evidently the proportion
that one bears to the other, and hence the means of
easily calculating the real size. A powerful piece of clockwork,
attached to the equatorial, keeps it slowly rotating on
its axis, at the same angular rate as that with which the sun
moves in the sky, so that any spot or other object there will
seem to stay fixed with relation to the “wires,” if we choose,
all day long. The picture of “wires,” spots, and all, may
be projected on a screen if desired; and Fig. 11 shows the
field of view, with the micrometer wires lying across a
“spot,” so seen on the 6th of March, 1873. Part of a
cambric needle with the end of a fine thread is represented
also as being projected on the screen along with the “wires”
to give a better idea of the delicacy of the latter.

Now we may measure, if we please, the size of one of
those bright objects, which have just been spoken of as being
countable by hundreds of thousands. These “little
things” are then seen to be really of considerable size,
measuring from one to three seconds of arc, so that (a second
of arc here being over 400 miles) the average surface of
each individual of these myriads is found to be considerably
larger than Great Britain. Near the edge of the disk, under
favorable circumstances, they appear to rise up through the
obscuring atmosphere, which darkens the limb, and gathered
here and there in groups of hundreds, to form the
white cloudlike patches (faculæ), which may sometimes be
seen even with a spy-glass—”something in the sun brighter
than the sun itself,” to employ the expression by which
Huyghens described them nearly two hundred years ago.
They are too minute and delicate objects to be rendered at
all in our engraving; but this is true also of much of the detail
to be seen at times in the spots themselves. The wood
cuts make no pretense to do more than give an outline of
the more prominent features, of which we are now about to
speak. The wonderful beauty of some of their details must
be taken on trust, from the writer’s imperfect description of
what no pencil has ever yet rendered and what the photograph
has not yet seized.

[Fig. A.]

Fig 10.

Bearing this in mind, let us now suppose that while using
the polarizing eyepiece on the part of the spot distinguished
by the little circle, we have one of those rare opportunities
when we can, by the temporary steadiness of our tremulous
atmosphere, use the higher powers of the telescope and
magnify the little circle till it appears as in Fig. 12. We
have now nearly the same view as if we were brought close
to the surface of the sun, and suspended over this part of
the spot. All the faint outer shade, seen in the smaller
views (the penumbra) is seen to be made up of long white
filaments, twisted into curious ropelike forms, while the
central part is like a great flame, ending in fiery spires.
Over these hang what look like clouds, such as we sometimes
see in our highest sky, but more transparent than the finest
lace vail would be, and having not the “fleecy” look of
our clouds, but the appearance of being filled with almost
infinitely delicate threads of light. Perhaps the best idea of
what is so hard to describe, because so unlike anything on
earth, is got by supposing ourselves to look through successive
vails of white lace, filled with flower-like patterns, at
some great body of white flame beyond, while between the
spires of the flame and separating it from the border are
depths of shade passing into blackness. With all this, there
is something crystalline about the appearance, which it is
hard to render an idea of—frost-figures on a window pane
may help us as an image, though imperfect. In fact the intense
whiteness of everything is oddly suggestive of something
very cold, rather than very hot, as we know it really.
I have had much the same impression when looking into the
open mouth of a puddling furnace at the lumps of pure
white iron, swimming half-melted in the grayer fluid about
them. Here, however, the temperature leaves nothing solid,
nothing liquid even; the iron and other metals of which we
know these spot-forms do in part at least consist are turned
into vapor by the inconceivable heat, and everything we are
looking at consists probably of clouds of such vapor; for it
is fluctuating and changing from one form into another
while we look on. Forms as evanescent almost as those of
sunset clouds, and far more beautiful in everything but
color, are shifting before us, and here and there we see, or
think we see, in the sweep of their curves beyond, evidences
of mighty whirlwinds (greater by far than the largest terrestrial
cyclone) at work. While we are looking, and trying
to make the most of every moment, our atmosphere
grows tremulous again, the shapes get confused, there is
nothing left distinct but such coarser features as our engraving
shows, and the wonderful sight is over. When we consider
that this little portion of the spot we have been looking
at is larger than the North and South American continents
together, and that we could yet see its parts change
from minute to minute, it must be evident that the actual
motion must have been rapid almost beyond conception—a
speed of from 20 to 50 miles a second being commonly observed
and sometimes exceeded. (A cannon ball moves less
than ¼ of a mile per second.) I have seen a portion of the
photosphere, or bright general surface of the sun, drawn
into a spot, much as any floating thing would be drawn
into a whirlpool, and then, though it occupied by measurement
over 3,000,000 miles in area, completely break up and
change so as to be unrecognizable in less than twenty
minutes.

When we come to discuss the subject of the sun’s heat,
we shall find that the temperature of a blast furnace or of
the oxyhydrogen blowpipe is low compared with that which
obtains all over such a vast region, and remembering this,
it is evident that its disappearance is a cataclysm
of which the most tremendous volcanic outburst
here gives no conception. We cannot, by any
terrestrial comparison, describe it, for we have
no comparison for it in human experience. If
we try to picture such an effect on the earth,
we may say in another’s words that these solar
whirlwinds are such as, “coming down upon us
from the north, would in thirty seconds after
they had crossed the St. Lawrence be in the Gulf
of Mexico, carrying with them the whole surface
of the continent in a mass, not simply of
ruin, but of glowing vapor, in which the vapors
arising from the dissolution of the materials composing
the cities of Boston, New York, and Chicago
would be mixed in a single indistinguishable
cloud.”

These vast cavities then in the sun we call spots
are not solid things, and not properly to be compared
even to masses of slag or scoria swimming on a molten
surface. They are rather rents in that bright cloud surface of
the sun which we call the photosphere, and through which we
look down to lower regions. Their shape may be very rudely
likened to a funnel with sides at first slowly sloping (the
penumbra), and then suddenly going down into the central
darkness (the umbra). This central darkness has itself gradations
of shade, and cloud forms may be seen there obscurely
glowing with a reddish tinge far down its depths,
but we never see to any solid bottom, and the hypothesis of
a habitable sun far within the hot surface, suggested by Sir
William Herschel, is now utterly abandoned. We are able
now to explain in part that mysterious feature in the sun’s
rotation before insisted on, for if the sun be not a solid or a
liquid, but a mass of glowing vapor, it is evidently possible
that one part of it may turn faster than another. Why it so
turns, we repeat, no one knows, but the fact that it does is
now seen to bear the strongest testimony to the probable
gaseous form of the sun throughout its mass—at any rate,
to the gaseous or vaporous nature of everything we see. We
must not forget, however, that under such enormous temperature
and pressure as prevail there the conditions may
be—in fact, must be—very different from any familiar to us
here, so that when we speak of “clouds,” and use like expressions,
we are to be understood as implying rather an
analogy than an exact resemblance.

Fig. 12

We must expect, with the great advances photography has
lately made, to know more of this part of our subject (which
we may call solar meteorology) at the next spot maximum
than ever before, and by that time it may be hoped that
some of the wonderful forms described above so imperfectly
will have been caught for us by the camera.

In the notice in our issue for July 27 of a new screw cutting
lathe made by Messrs. Goodnow & Wightman, the address
should have been 176 Washington street instead of 128,
and the diameter of the tail spindle, which was given as 5/16,
should have been 15/16 inch.

The Olympia (Wyoming Territory) Standard announces
that a company has been formed there to bring ice from a
glacier. The deposit covers a number of acres, is seventy
or eighty feet deep, and is supposed to contain a hundred
thousand or more tons, some of which may have been there
as many years. The ice can be cut and sold at one and one
half cents a pound, and by the ship load at five dollars a
ton.

[Pg 82]

MECHANICAL PUDDLING IN SWEDEN.

The accompanying engravings, which we take from Iron,
give plan and section of the puddling apparatus invented by
Mr. Oestlund, as used at the Finspong Ironworks. The gas
generator, A, is of the common Swedish type, as used for
charcoal. The tube, k, conducts the gases into the refining
pot, a. This pot has a lining
of refinery slag, which is
melted, as the apparatus revolves,
to get it to adhere to
the sides. The revolution of
the pot, a, on its axis, d, is
effected by the action of the
beveled wheels, b and b’, and
the pulley, c, which takes
from an iron chain the power
given off by a turbine. The
spindle, d, is supported in
the bearings, e and e’, c carrying
a pair of trunnions
which form the axis of oscillation,
and allow the apparatus
to rise or fall, the whole
of this mechanism being supported
on the plummer blocks,
f f. One of the trunnions, e”,
is prolonged so as to form the
axis of the beveled wheel, b,
and the pulley, c, the latter
sliding along the trunnion so
as to put b in or out of gear.
The bush, e is tied by means
of the stay, g’ to the upper
end of the toothed segment,
g, the lower extremity of
which is connected with the
second bush at the end of the
spindle. By means of the
pinion, h, revolving on standards,
i i, and the segmental
rack, g, the pot can be raised
or lowered without interfering
with the action of the
beveled wheels.

APPARATUS FOR MECHANICAL PUDDLING.

The gas from the generator
is brought to the mouth of
the pot by the tubes, k and
m. The air necessary for the combustion of the gas is
brought in by a tube, l, branching from the air main, l”.
The air tube, l, passes into the gas tube and is continued
concentrically within the latter. The gas and air tubes both
have joints at m’ and m”. By means of the bar, n, which
has a counterpoise to keep the moving parts in position, the
tubes can be brought from or toward the mouth of the pot,
so as to make it free of access to the workman. With a key
fitting on the stem, n’, the
tubes can be turned in m’,
so as to give the currents
of gas and air a more or
less oblique direction. To
screen the workmen from
the heat of the pot a disk
of iron, o, lined with fire
clay on the side next the
pot, is fitted to the end of
the tubes.

APPARATUS FOR MECHANICAL PUDDLING.

Before running the metal
into the pot, the latter
must be heated, to such
a degree that the slag lining
is pasty or semi-fluid
at its surface. Generally
an hour and a half will be
spent in heating with gas
to this point. There should
be sufficient live coal in
the pot when the gas is
first let in to keep up its
combustion; should it be
extinguished by excess of
air or gas, it must be relit.
As soon as the pot begins
to get red hot the full
heat can be put on.

The gas generator is
tended in the usual way
with the ordinary precautions.
To keep ashes and
dust out of the gas tube,
lumps of charcoal are
heaped up to the height of
the top of the flue. The
wind pressure for the generator
was 33 to 41 millimeters
of mercury, that
of the wind for the combustion
of the gas (at Finspong
the blast is not
heated) being only 16½
millimeters. The pressure
of the gas in the tube near
the pot was 6.2 millimeters
of mercury. The method
of working, viewed chemically, does not sensibly differ from
puddling; although giving as good, perhaps better, results
at a much less cost. There are three principal periods in
the operation: 1. The period before boiling. 2. The boiling
itself. 3. The end of the boiling, and the formation of
balls. When cast metal is poured into the pot a shovelful
or two of refinery slag is added. The temperature of the
bath is thus brought down; it thickens and boils, the pot
revolving at the rate of 30 or 40 revolutions a minute. The
metal is worked with a rabble, either to cool it or to get the
slag to incorporate with it, as is done in puddling. Note
must be taken of the temperature of the melted metal and
that of the pot, at the moment of charging, the heat during
working being regulated accordingly by increasing or diminishing
the inflow of air and gas. When circumstances
are favorable, boiling begins five minutes after the metal is
run into the pot, and it lasts about ten minutes.

Boiling having begun, the batch swells, the iron forms,
granulates, and seems to cling to the rabble and the sides of
the pot. The rotation of the pot is continued, as well as
the working, to separate out
parts which are not yet refined;
but no more cold cinder
is put in. While boiling
goes on the temperature is
regulated so that the pig does
not cling to the side of the
pot during a complete revolution,
but so that the particles
next the side fall back
into the bath when the side
comes uppermost in the revolution.
The heat is raised a
little when the iron can be
felt by the rabble to be completely
refined, when shining
lumps make their appearance
in the bath, and the iron begins
to cling to the walls. At
the moment, therefore, that
the temperature is brought to
its highest point, and the iron
begins to agglutinate, the rotation
of the pot should be
stopped, and either immediately,
or after the delay of
a couple of minutes, it is
removed. If the iron does
not ball well, it is not completely
refined, and the pot
may be started again. If the
iron is firm enough already,
the isolated particles are exposed
to the hottest flame
possible, the blast being carried
to its maximum. The
refining is thus completely
finished, and all the particles
are agglomerated. The mobility
of the gas tube at m”
is of advantage in this operation.
It is sometimes useful to start the pot again to round
up the puddled ball, but it is best if this has been formed
with the rabble.

The iron from a charge of 75 kilos. of pig may be divided
with advantage into a couple of balls; a third may be made
of the iron separated from the walls of the pot. To get out
the balls the pot is lowered, and the workmen use tongs,
pointed rabble, and hooked bar. If things have gone well
the balls ought to come
out soft at a welding heat,
filled with cinder like puddled
balls, but a little
more resisting and solid
under the hammer. They
are forged into bars, and
these are at once passed to
the rolls. If nothing hinders
the balling and shingling,
these operations will
not consume more than
fifteen minutes.

Photographic Engraving.

Scamoni’s process is as
follows: The original
drawings are carefully
touched up, so that the
whites are as pure and
the blacks as intense as
possible, and then the negative
is taken in the ordinary
way, the plate being
backed in the camera
with damp red blotting
paper, to prevent reflection
from the camera or back
of the plate. The negative
is developed in the ordinary
manner, intensified
by mercuric chloride, and
varnished. A positive picture
is taken in the camera,
the negative being carefully
screened from any
light coming between it
and the lens. This is intensified
by pyrogallic acid,
and afterward washed
with a pure water to which
a little ammonia has been
added. It is then immersed
in mercuric chloride
for half an hour, and
again intensified with pyrogallic
acid. This is re[Pg 83]peated
several times. When the intensity of the lines is
considerable, the plate is well washed, treated with potassium
iodide, and finally with ammonia, the image successively
appearing yellow, green, brown, and then violet brown.
The plate is then thoroughly drained, and the image is treated
successively with a solution of platinic chloride, auric chloride,
ferrous sulphate, and finally by pyrogallic acid, which
has the property of solidifying the metallic deposits. The
metallic relief thus obtained is dried over a spirit lamp, and
covered with an excessively thin varnish. This varnish,
which is evidently a special preparation, retains sufficient
tackiness to hold powdered graphite on its surface (the bronze
powder now used may be employed instead), which is dusted
on in the usual manner. After giving the plate a border of
wax, it is placed in an electrotyping bath, and a perfect facsimile
in intaglio is obtained, from which prints may be
taken in a printing press.

A NEW DEEP SEA THERMOMETER.

Perhaps some of our readers may have seen a description
of a form of thermometer devised by MM. Negretti and
Zambra for the purpose of ascertaining the temperature of
the ocean at great depths. This consisted of a tube bent
into the shape of a siphon, which when it had reached the
desired depth was made, by means of an ingenious arrangement,
to pour all the mercury found
above a certain point near the reservoir
into the second arm of the
siphon. This second arm, which,
like the other, was a capillary tube,
carried a scale of divisions on which
might be read the temperature of
the depths to which the instrument
had been lowered. This thermometer
gave all the results that might
have been expected. The ship Challenger
during its polar expedition
had on board a certain number of
these instruments. The report of
Capt. G. S. Nares made to the English
Admiralty describes all the
benefits that we may hope to reap
from a serious study of the temperature
of the ocean at different
depths, and not the least of these
are those that pertain to the fishery
interest. Notwithstanding the good
results given by this instrument, its
inventors have endeavored to render
it still more practical and more
within the reach of all by diminishing
the cost of construction, and increasing
its compactness.

Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3




NEW THERMOMETER FOR OBTAINING THE TEMPERATURE OF THE
OCEAN AT GREAT DEPTHS.

Fig. 1 represents the thermometer
isolated from its case. It is an
ordinary thermometer furnished at
A with a little device that M. Negretti
has already made use of in
the construction of his larger instrument,
and which allows the liquid
to run from the reservoir into
the capillary tube when the temperature
rises, without letting it flow
back when it lowers, if moreover
the precaution has been taken to
incline the tube slightly, reservoir
upward. At B there is a bulge in
the tube in which a certain quantity
of mercury may lodge; this bulge
is placed in such a way that the mercury
resulting from the dilatation
of the reservoir may come to it and
continue its ascension in the capillary
tube when the reservoir is
down (the thermometer being vertical),
but cannot get out when the
reservoir is upward.

We should add that these thermometers
are constructed so as to give
the variations of temperature within
determined limits.

The small reservoir, B, is indispensable to the well working
of the apparatus; for in seeking the temperature at a
certain depth the instrument may, on being drawn up, pass
through warmer strata, and it is necessary, therefore, to
provide the reservoir with a means of diffusing the small
quantity of mercury resulting from this excess of temperature.
The tube has also a small bulge at its upper extremity
at C.

The thermometer is placed in a small wooden case having
a double bottom throughout its length. In this double
bottom are placed a certain number of lead balls that can
run from one end of the case to the other, and of sufficient
weight to render the instrument buoyant in sea water. To
use the apparatus, one end of a cord is passed through a hole
in the case under the reservoir of the thermometer, and the
other end is tied to the sounding line at a certain distance
from the lead (Fig. 2). While the line is descending the
thermometer will remain reservoir downward (Fig. 2); but
when it is again drawn up the thermometer case will take
the position indicated in Fig. 3, and the column of mercury
breaking at A will fall into the capillary tube, the divisions
of which, as will be seen at Fig. 1, are reversed.

As to the thermometer itself, it is important to protect it
against the pressure which becomes so considerable at great
depths; to do this the reservoir is surrounded by an envelope
of thick glass about three quarters full of mercury. The
mercury serves to transmit the temperature to the reservoir,
and should the exterior envelope yield to the effects of pressure,
the reservoir proper would not be affected, the mercury
not exactly filling the annular part which surrounds it.

New Inventions.

George E. Palmer, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has patented
an improved Ironing Board, on which the garments may be
held in stretched state while being smoothed with the irons,
and readily adjusted thereon to any required degree of tension
by a simple attachment.

William B. Rutherford and Joel T. Hawkins, of Rockdale,
Texas, have patented an improved Bale Tie, which is
formed of the plate provided with a longitudinal groove and
cross ribs or loops, and having projections or keys to adapt
it to receive and hold the notched ends of the bale band.

An improvement in Composition Pavements has been patented
by John C. Russell, of Kensington, Eng. This invention
relates to the treatment of peat and spent tan for
the manufacture of an improved product or material suitable
for paving roads and other places and for roofing, etc.
The most important steps in making the composition consist
in drying bruised or finely ground peat or spent tan,
heating the same in vacuo to degree of 150° Fah., and adding
sulphur and gas tar, gas pitch, and stearine pitch in the proportions
specified, then kneading the mixture while heated
and adding carbonate of lime and furnace slag.

Louis Blanck, of New York city, has patented an improved
Safety Brake or attachment for locomotives and railroad
cars, by which the entire train, either by a collision
with another train or by contact with any obstruction, is
first raised from the rails, and then moved in backward direction
for the distance of a few feet, so that all danger of
accident is avoided, and no other sensation than that of a
slight rocking motion exerted. The attachment is constructed
so as to admit of being worked by the engineer
from the cab or the locomotive, or, if desired, from any
car of the train.

An improved Evaporating Pan had been patented by Andrew
D. Martin, of Abbeville, La. This invention consists
in a tapering sheet metal tank having transverse partitions
and longitudinal tapering flues that extend through all of
the partitions and terminate at the ends of the tank.

Lloyd Arnold, of Galveston, Texas, has patented an improved
Bale Tie, which is formed of a block of iron, with a
space or opening running longitudinally through its breadth
from one end nearly to the other, and having the alternate
edges of the two plates thus formed notched, the notch of
the lower plate being square and of a width equal to or a little
greater than the bale band, and the notch of the upper plate
being narrower at its bottom than the bale band, and with
its sides inclined and beveled to an edge, to adapt it to receive
and hold the bale band.

An improved Tie for Letter Packages has been patented
by John Mersellis, of Knowersville, N. Y. The object of
this invention is to provide a tie by means of which letter
packages may be quickly and securely fastened or tied. It
consists in a plate apertured to receive one end of the string
and also to receive the hook upon which the tie is hung when
not in use, and having a button and clasp spring for engaging
the string in the process of tying.

Fred P. Hammond, of Aurora, Ill., has patented an improved
Inking Pad, which consists in a novel arrangement
of layers of cloth or felt, chamois skin, oiled silk, and printing
roller composition, which enables a clean impression of
the stamp to be made. The pad retains the desired rounded
surface and proper degree of softness, and is easily manipulated
when necessary to replenish the supply of ink.

William J. Clark and Thomas W.
Roberts, of Coffeeville, Miss., have
patented an improved Trap for
Catching Fish in streams, which
will allow the fish to be conveniently
taken out without taking up the
trap.

John W. Cooper, of Salem, Ind.,
is the inventor of an improved Alcohol
Lamp for soldering and similar
purposes; and it consists in a
reservoir pivoted in a supporting
frame, and provided with two wick
tubes, and an extinguisher secured
to a spring support, and capable of
closing the larger wick tube when it
is in a vertical position. It has an
independent extinguisher for the
smaller wick tube, and is provided
with a novel device for projecting
the wick from the larger tube as it
is moved out of a vertical position.

Benjamin Slater, of Attica, N. Y.,
has invented a simple and effective
device for Renovating Feathers by
the combined action of steam and
hot air. It consists of a cylindrical
receptacle, partly surrounded by a
steam jacket, and having a hot air
box, a perforated bottom, a cover or
damper for the same, and an aperture
in the top, to which is fitted a
perforated cover and a close cover.

An improved Blind Fastening has
been patented by George Runton
and John Runton, of Hoboken,
N. J. This fastening is so constructed
as to fasten the blind or
shutter automatically when swung
open, and in such a way as to prevent
all rattling or shaking of the
blind or shutter from the action of
the wind.

David R. Nichols, of Alexandria
Bay, N. Y., has patented an improved
Animal Trap, which is so
constructed as to set itself after each
animal has been caught, and leave
no trace of the trapped animal to
frighten away those that may come
afterward.

William A. Doherty, of Fall
River, Mass., has patented an improved
Loom Shuttle Attachment,
by which the weaving of bad cloth
is prevented, and in case any false
shed is made by any irregularities in the warp, and that
part of the shed carried lower than usual, the attachment
is released and thrown over the spindle point, so as to render
it impossible to draw out the filling from the shuttle,
and thus break it and stop the loom.

Jonas Bowman, of Somerset, O., has patented an improved
Vehicle Spring, which permits of dispensing with side bars,
thus taking less space to turn on, and by which the tilting
and pitching motion usual with springs as heretofore constructed
is avoided.

Hiram Unger, of Germantown, O., is the inventor of an
improved Gate Latch, which is so constructed that the gate
cannot be opened accidentally by being lifted or by rebounding
of the catch or latch.

Madison Calhoun, of Ocate, Ter. of New Mex., has patented
an improved Hame Fastening, which is not liable to
become accidentally unfastened, and is easily and quickly
fastened and unfastened, even with cold or gloved hands.

The Downer well at Corry, Pa., is now down over 1,300
feet, and an oil bearing sand has been struck of about five
feet thickness.

[Pg 84]

Our Patent Law.

To the Editor of the Scientific American:

While I cannot handle this subject with any master talent,
nor afford to devote the time which should be given to so
important a subject before expressing an opinion, yet I can
less afford to keep quiet and allow shrewd avarice to manipulate
or titled ignorance to legislate my property out of
existence. “Property! There is no property in patents,” I
often hear said. And how about the invention covered by a
patent? Is that property? A large majority of people may say
no, and deny the justice of a patent law. On the contrary,
I, as an inventor, think an invention is genuine property,
and as such should be under the same protection in common
law as all other property, instead of requiring a special
law by which the people magnanimously grant me the privilege
for a short time of using what was never theirs, what
they never knew of until I brought it into existence.

But what is real property, and by what title is it held?
Mother earth, from which we sprung, by which we exist,
and to which we return, is, without question, real estate.
How is it obtained; how held? History answers, By conquest,
by subjugation. But these words, conquest and subjugation,
have a more significant meaning than the spoiling
of one people by another; they are the actual price of possession.
He who, toiling, subjugates the soil, is undoubted
owner of its production, by virtue of the highest blessing on
record—”By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou obtain
bread.” And this principle is so far acknowledged that
the laborer holds a lien on the product of his labor, even
though the property belongs to another.

Mr. A has an unpromising piece of land on which he
would like to raise corn. He analyzes the soil, experiments
upon it chemically, reads up on the properties and components
of corn, the effects of fertilizers and acids upon the
soil, and makes himself a fool and laughing-stock generally
among his neighbors because he steps out of the beaten
track by which they have succeeded in making the ground
barren. He does not have much success the first year, and
is sympathizingly consoled with “I told you so.” But he
perseveres and wins the reputation of being “visionary”
and “as stubborn as a mule.” In the meantime he becomes
more familiar with his subject, sees more clearly the requirements
of the case, finds he must post himself more thoroughly
in certain branches of science in order to conduct
his experiments, wrestles with this obstacle and that, and
finally discovers a fertilizer based on some natural law of
rotation, and produces a crop of corn never before equaled.
Now his neighbors come out with this very intelligent question,
“How did you happen to think of it?” And they
further very condescendingly remark, “That is a rousing
crop; I guess I’ll try the same thing myself. How did you
say you mixed the stuff?” This man is the true conqueror.
He has endured privation and scorn, fought obstacles, and
in subduing them has eliminated a new principle in agriculture
that is an engine of power to all generations. Shall
his crops be his only reward? Shall they who laughed him
to scorn step into his reward without sharing the labor that
produced it?

This is a simile for thousands of inventions, only that
the inventor is seldom situated to plant the corn on his own
land and reap the harvest. Then which of you will say
that he has not a just lien on every man’s crop raised by his
process for a per cent of the gains thereby? There is a bill
before Congress favoring a periodical taxation of patents
under the pretext of removing useless patents from the path
of later inventors. Let me show you how one inventor
looks at that. My neighbor has a vacant lot on which he is
unable to build; but joined to mine it would increase the
value of my property vastly. Now can’t you legislate that
old heap of rubbish into my possession somehow? Of
course he is waiting for the rise of property around him to
sell his lot well; but can’t you make that appear unnatural,
and that he is a dog in the manger? It is also said that
sharpers get control of old patents and lay an embargo on
legitimate business. I reply, first, no one could be damaged
by the owner of a patent unless he infringed that owner’s
right; second, if he does infringe, it shows that said patent
is valuable, otherwise he need not infringe; and if valuable
why should not he pay for it? Mr. B, in the employ of Mr.
C, watches the machine he uses, and spends his leisure hours
in working out an improvement, which he patents and
offers to C for sale; but as the invention is useless except
as attached to C’s machine, he thinks B can’t help himself,
and adopts the improvement without paying for it. When
a few years have built up a great industry, and C is rich
from his spoils, B steps in with a few friends at his back,
incorporated especially to make C shell out.

Of course this is bad and ought to be legislated against.
If it were not valuable C need not use it. It is not becoming
to the Congress of a great nation to spend its time in
legislating worthless patents out of existence. All such will
die a natural death. And if there is sufficient worth in any
patent to claim your consideration, the inventor is entitled
to its price, whether he waits four years or fifteen for his
pay.

I speak of myself, not as an individual, but as representing
in this letter a class, without whose achievements America,
in her proud length and breadth, could not to-day have
been. For the last half of my past life, over twenty years, I
have been an inventor. Schooled in adversity, accustomed
to disappointment, sometimes successful, enjoying no luxuries
but the conquest of obstacles, and often forced to simple
pursuits to keep the pot boiling, yet I expect to spend
the rest of my life inventing, feeling strong in the school of
experience, and hoping for such prosperity as will enable
me to work out some of the larger problems in view.

If those in power would really aid the inventor, let them
increase his facilities for information. Circulate the Patent
Office Gazette at one dollar a year, a nominal subscription to
insure bona fide readers, and pay the balance out of the Patent
Office surplus now accumulated. This both to educate
and to save inventors from going over old ground, bringing
more talent up to the standard of to-day. Lessen rather than
increase Patent Office fees. Enable the Commissioner to
give the strictest possible examination on every application
for a patent, that when issued it shall bear a bona fide value,
by retaining the most competent examiners at a salary adequate
to keep them. Reduce the cumbrous machinery of
patent litigation to about this text, in two headings: First,
Is plaintiff the first inventor? Allow one month to find that
out. If not disproved in that time, allow it. Second, Does
defendant infringe? Allow one month to decide that. If
not proven, discharge the case, with cost to plaintiff. If
proved, cost and damage to be settled by defendant in thirty
days.

The ability of wealthy corporations to absorb with impunity
the product of all talent within their reach, and put off
the day of reckoning until plaintiff is swallowed in cost, is
the greatest present discouragement to inventors. Our patent
law is now better than any amendment yet proposed will
leave it. If you must tinker over it, remember all laws are
for protection of the weak. The bulldog does not need law
to take the bone from the spaniel. Just in proportion as
you damage the patent law, you destroy the accomplishments
and purpose of my life. Therefore I have spoken;
so could a thousand more.

W. X. STEVENS.

East Brookfield, Mass.

The Edison Carbon Telephone and Hughes’ Microphone.

To the Editor of the Scientific American:

Mr. Edison finds a resemblance between his carbon telephone
and my microphone.

I can find none whatever; the microphone in its numerous
forms that I have already made, and varied by many others
since, is simply the embodiment of a discovery I have made,
in which I consider the microphone as the first step to new
and perhaps more wonderful applications.

I have proved that all bodies, solid, liquid, and gaseous, are
in a state of molecular agitation when under the influence
of sonorous vibrations; no matter if it is a piece of board,
walls of a house, street, fields or woods, sea or air, all are in
this constant state of vibration, which simply becomes more
evident as the sonorous vibrations are more powerful. This
I have proved by the discovery that when two or more electrical
conducting bodies are placed in contact under very
slight constant pressure, resting on any body whatever,
they will of themselves transform a constant electrical current
into an undulatory current, representing in its exact
form the vibrations of the matter on which it reposes; it
requires no complicated arrangement and no special material,
and to most experimenters the three simple iron nails
that I have described form the best and most sensitive microphone.
But these contact points would soon oxidize, so
naturally I prefer some conducting material which will not
oxidize.

Mr. Edison’s carbon telephone represents the principle of
the varying pressure of a diaphragm or its equivalent on a
button of carbon varying the amount of electricity in accordance
with this change of pressure; it represents no field
of discovery, and its uses are restricted to telephony.

The three nails I have spoken of will not only do all, and
that far better than Edison’s carbon telephone in telephony,
but has the power of taking up sounds inaudible to human
ears, and rendering them audible, in fact a true microphone;
besides it has the merit of demonstrating the molecular action
which is constantly occurring in all matter under the
influence of sonorous vibrations.

Here we have certainly no resemblance in form, materials,
or principles to Mr. Edison’s telephone. The carbon telephone
represents a special material in a special way to a
special purpose.

The microphone demonstrates and represents the whole
field of nature; the whole world of matter is suitable to act
upon, and the whole of the electrical conducting materials
are suitable to its demonstrations.

The one represents a patentable improvement; the other
a discovery too great and of too wide bearing for any one to
be justified in holding it by patent, and claiming as his own
that which belongs to the world’s domain.

London, July 2, 1878. D. E. HUGHES.

New Industrial Enterprises.

The increasing wealth of a nation, as well as the profitable
and steady employment of its capital and people, depends
upon a continual increase of the producing power.
Whenever there are latent resources undeveloped or opportunities
for establishing the first foundation of an industry,
leading as it will to the originating of hundreds of auxiliary
ones, an unusual effort should be made to bring it into existence.
If in the power of individuals to accomplish, so
much the better; if needing an association with State or
national influence, then this association should be formed.
It is incumbent upon individuals that they possess a sufficient
pride in the prosperity of the country to give every possible
attention and assistance to a careful practical demonstration
of the feasibility of all the new industrial enterprises
which may be presented with reasonable assurance of final
success.

Not in a great expenditure of money: influence is better
than money, and a potential interest in a new enterprise is
often better than capital. The industrial resources of the
United States are by no means worked to their full capacity.
The people by no means make all they consume. The finer
articles of use, and requiring much labor and often the highest
skill, are imported from foreign nations. A premium of
$10,000 offered for an improved method in any known present
process of production or manufacture would be almost
sure to be called for.

While America exports $175,000,000 worth of raw cotton
annually to be worked up by other people, is it not possible to
so increase the manufacture in America as to keep the greater
part of that raw material and to export the cloth instead? Is
it not practicable to establish great numbers more of sugar
estates in the same tropical climate? Is it not practicable to
lay the foundation of half a dozen beet sugar mills in the
country? To begin the weaving of linen goods, and to teach
our farmers that they may produce all the flax fiber as fast as
required? To start a ramie industry in a small way and
teach the process to those who will engage in it?

Will not our silk men put a velvet industry into operation
as a germ from which a future industry may grow? And
we might name a hundred other lesser enterprises which have
hardly name in this country, but every one of which is
needed and will add to the wealth of the people.

Replanting and Transplanting Teeth.

Dr. G. R. Thomas, of Detroit, in the current number of the
Dental Cosmos, states that this operation of “replanting” has
become so common with him, and the results so uniformly
satisfactory, that he does not hesitate to perform it on any
tooth in the mouth, if the case demands it; and he finds
the cases that demand it, and the number that he operates
upon, continually multiplying.

He makes it a point to examine the end of the roots of
nearly all his cases of abscessed teeth; and a record of more
than 150 cases, with but one loss (and that in the mouth of a
man so timid that he utterly refused to bear the pain which
nearly always follows for a few minutes, therefore necessitating
re-extraction), convinces him that the operation is not
only practical, but decidedly beneficial to both patient and
operator. For one sitting is all that he has ever really found
necessary to the full and complete restoration of the case.

In the present article, however, Dr. Thomas states that it
is his object not so much to speak of replanting as of transplanting,
which he has reason to believe is just as practical,
so far as the mere re-attachment is concerned, as is replanting.
He details, in illustration, a case in which he successfully
performed the operation; inserting in the mouth of a gentleman,
who had lost a right superior cuspidate, a solid and
healthy tooth that he had removed from a lady’s mouth four
weeks previously. He opened into canal and pulp chamber
of the tooth, from the apex of the root only; cut the end off
one eighth of an inch (it being that much too long), reduced
the size somewhat in the center of the root (it being a trifle
larger than the root extracted), filled and placed it in position.
He states that the occlusion, shape, and color were
perfect, so much so that several dentists who saw the case
were not able to distinguish the transplanted tooth from the
others. The two features in the case that he calls particular
attention to are: first, that although the tooth had been in
his office four weeks, there is to-day no perceptible change in
color; and second, that the re-attachment is as perfect as
though it had been transplanted or replanted the same
day of extraction. The operation was performed about
three months ago. Dr. Thomas knows of but two obstacles
in the way of the perfect practicability of “transplanting:”
first, the difficulty of obtaining the proper teeth at the
proper time; and second, the possibility of inoculation. The
latter is the more formidable of the two, and, to escape the
ills that might follow, the greatest caution is necessary. The
first difficulty is more easily gotten over, for it is not necessary
that the tooth transplanted should correspond exactly
in shape and size to the one extracted; if it is too large, it
may be carefully reduced; or if too small, new osseous deposit
will supply the deficiency. Neither is it necessary, as
we have seen, that the transplanted tooth should be a freshly
extracted one.

As a demonstration of what modern dental surgery is capable
of performing Dr. Thomas’ statements are very interesting;
it is doubtful, however, whether popular prejudice will
allow this practice of “transplanting” to become of much
use.

American Institute Exhibition.

For forty-seven years the American Institute of New
York has opened its doors and invited American inventors
and manufacturers to exhibit their productions; and again
this year it renews its invitation to all. To such as wish to
reach the capitalist and consumer, they must admit that
New York is the place. For details apply to the General
Superintendent by mail or otherwise.

On the 22d of June, cloud bursts occurred in the mountains
northeast of San Buenaventura, Cal., causing the Ventura
river to pour down such a volume of muddy water that
the ocean was discolored for a distance of six miles.

[Pg 85]

THE DISTILLATION OF COAL.

Bituminous coal, of which there are several varieties, is
the best suited for the production of coal gas. The Newcastle
coal is principally used in the manufacture of London
gas. Scotch parrot coal produces a superior gas, but the
coke produced is of inferior quality. Boghead coal is also
used for gas making—in fact, every kind of coal, except anthracite,
may be used for this purpose. The bituminous
shale produces a very good gas, and it is used partly to supply
the place of cannel or parrot coal. As carbon and hydrogen,
principally with oxygen, are the elements from
which gas is formed, most substances containing these elements
can be partially converted into gas. And gas has been
made from grease or kitchen waste, oil peat, rosin, and
wood, besides coal. A ton of Newcastle or caking coal
yields about 9,000 cubic feet of gas, Scotch coal about
11,000, English cannel about 10,000, and shale about 7,000,
with illuminating powers in the ratio of about 13, 25, 22,
and 36 respectively. The coal is put in retorts, r, commonly
made of fire clay and often of cast iron. These retorts
are from 6 feet to 9 feet long, and from 1 foot to 1 foot 8
inches in breadth. They are made like the letter D, elliptical,
cylindrical, or bean shaped. They are built into an
arched oven, and heated by furnaces, f, beneath. One,
three, five, seven, or more are built in the same oven. The
mouthpieces are of cast iron, and project outward from
the oven, so as to allow ascension pipes, a p, to be fixed, to
convey the gas generated from the coal to the hydraulic
main, h m. After the coal has been introduced into the retorts,
their mouths are closed with lids luted round the edges
with clay, and kept tight by a screw. The retorts are kept
at a bright red heat. If the temperature be too low, less
gas and more tar are produced, less residue being left; while,
should the temperature be too high, the product is more volatile,
more residue remaining. And should the gas remain for
any length of time in contact with the highly
heated retort, it is partially decomposed,
carbon being deposited, thereby lessening
the illuminating power, and choking up
the retort, and more carbon disulphide is
produced at a high temperature. The object
is to maintain a medium temperature,
in order to obtain a better gas having the
greatest illuminating power. In about
four or five hours the coal in the retort
will have given off all its gas. The mouth
of the retort is opened, and the coke is
raked out into large iron vessels, and extinguished
by water. A fresh charge is
immediately introduced by means of a
long scoop in the cherry-red retort, and
the door luted to. The ascension pipes,
which convey the gas from the retorts,
pass straight up for a few feet, then turn
round, forming an arch, then pass downward
into the hydraulic main, beneath the
level of the liquid contained in it, and
bubble up through the liquid into the upper
portion of the main. On commencing the main is
half filled with water, but after working some time, this
water is displaced by the fluid products of distillation.
In this way, the opening into each retort is closed,
so that a charge can be withdrawn and replaced without
interfering with the action of the other retorts and pipes.
The liquid tar, ammoniacal water, and gas pass from the end,
e, of the hydraulic main, down through the pipe, P, and the
liquid falls down into the tar well, T W, while the crude
gas goes on into the chest, C, partially filled with the liquid,
so that the plates, p p, from the top dip into it to within a
few inches of the bottom. These dip plates are placed in
the chest, so as to separate the openings into each pair of
condensing pipes, c c, so that the gas passing into the chest
finds no exit except up c₁, and down c₂; and there being no
dip plate between c₂ and c₃ it passes up c₃, and down c₄, and
as there is no dip plate to prevent its progress, it passes up
c₅, and down c₆, into the lime or iron purifiers, L I. The
condensers are kept cool by exposure to the atmosphere, and
are often cooled by a stream of water from a tank above.
The gas cools quickly, and liquids passing along with
the gas in a state of vapor are condensed and fall into
the chest, and pass by an overflow pipe into the tar well.
The purifier is a cast iron vessel, L I, containing a number
of perforated shelves, s₁ s₁ s₁, on which slaked lime, to the
depth of about 4 inches, or much greater thickness of iron
oxide and sawdust, is placed. The gas passes up through
the shelves, s s s, and down through the shelves, s₁ s₁ s₁,
through the pipe, G, into the gas holder, and from thence
through the pipe, M, to the main pipe. The lime abstracts
carbonic anhydride, sulphureted hydrogen, cyanogen, naphthalin,
and a portion of the ammonia, but not carbon disulphide,
which latter may be absorbed by passing the gas
through a solution of sodic hydrate and plumbic oxide,
mixed with sawdust. Gas containing CS₂, on burning, produces
H₂SO₄, which injures books and furniture in rooms.
However, the quantity of CS₂ in gas is generally so minute
as to be practically uninjurious. By a proper regulation of
the temperature during distillation, the quantity produced is
infinitesimal. When the lime is saturated it is removed,
and fresh supplied; but the iron, after use, can be reconverted
into oxide by exposure to the atmosphere, and used
repeatedly. When iron is used a separate lime purifier is
necessary to remove carbonic anhydride. The last traces of
ammonia are removed before passing to the gas holder, by
passing the gas through dilute sulphuric acid, or up through
the interior of a tower having perforated shelves covered
with coke in small pieces, through which a constant supply
of fresh water percolates. This washing removes some of
the more condensable hydrocarbons, and lessens the illuminating
power of the gas. Before the gas passes from the
condensers into the purifiers, it passes through a kind of
pump, termed an exhauster, driven by steam power. This
action relieves the retorts from the pressure of the gas passing
through the hydraulic main, etc. It diminishes the deposit
of graphite in the retorts, and lessens leakage in them,
should there be any flaws. It also has the beneficial effect
of producing a gas of a higher illuminating power, since
the relief of pressure in the retorts produces a more favorable
condition of combustion.

THE DISTILLATION OF COAL.

The following are some of the bodies produced in the manufacture
of gas, namely, acetylene, g, the carbonate, s, chloride, s,
cyanide, s, sulphide, s, and sulphate, s, of ammonium;
aniline, t, anthracene, s, benzine, l, carbonic oxide, g, carbonic
anhydride, g, carbonic disulphide, l, chrysene, s, cumene,
l, cymene, l, ethylene, g, hydrogen, g, leucoline, l,
methyl-hydride, g, naphthaline, s, nitrogen, g, paraffine, s,
phenylic alcohol, l, picoline, l, propene, g, quartene, g, sulphureted
hydrogen, g, toluene, l, water, l, xylene, l, etc.

The most of the above solid and liquid substances, with
the letters s and l written after, are removed by cooling the
gas in the condensers, and the gaseous substances marked
g, that are injurious in the consumption of the gas, are removed
by purification. The impurities in the gas may consist
of ammonic carbonate and sulphide, carbonic anhydride
and disulphide, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphureted hydrogen,
and water in the form of vapor; and acetylene, ethylene,
and the vapors of the acetylene, ethylene, and phenylene series
of hydrocarbons are the illuminating ingredients diluted
with carbonic oxide, hydrogen, and methyl-hydride. The
approximate percentage composition of coal gas is: H, 45.6;
Me, 34.8; CO, 6.5; C₂H₄, 4; CO₂, 3.6; N, 2.4; C₄H₈, 2.3; SH₂,
0.3, etc.—Hugh Clements in English Mechanic.

A Short History of Petroleum.

The Lumberman’s Gazette gives the following short history
of petroleum: The production of petroleum as an article of
trade dates from the 28th of August, 1859, when Colonel
Drake, in a well 69-1/2 feet deep, “struck oil,” and coined a
phrase that will last as long as the English language. From
that beginning it has increased to an annual production of
14,500,000 barrels of crude oil. The first export was in 1861,
of 27,000 barrels, valued at $1,000,000, and the export of
petroleum in the year 1877 was, in round numbers, $62,000,000.
The annual product of petroleum to-day—crude
and refined—is greater in value than the entire production
of iron, and is more than double that of the anthracite coal
of the State of Pennsylvania, and exceeds the gold and silver
product of the whole country. As an article of export it is
fourth, and contests closely for the third rank. Our leading
exports are relatively as follows: Cotton annually from
$175,000,000 to $227,000,000; flour from $69,000,000 to
$130,000,000; pork and its products (bacon, ham and lard)
from $57,000,000 to $82,000,000; and petroleum from $48,000,000
to $62,000,000. The total export of petroleum from
1861 to and including 1877 (16 years) has been $442,698,968,
custom house valuation. From the best sources of information
there are at this time 10,000 oil wells, producing and
drilling, which, at a cost of $5,000 per well, would make
an investment of $50,000,000 in this branch of the business.
Tankage now existing of a capacity of 6,000,000 barrels
cost $2,000,000, and $7,000,000 has been invested in about
2,000 miles of pipe lines connected with the wells. The entire
investment for the existing oil production, including
purchase money of territory, is something over $100,000,000,
which amount cannot be lessened much, if any, for as wells
cease to produce new ones have been constantly drilled to
take their place.

Minute Forms of Life.

The Rev. W. H. Dallinger lately delivered a lecture at
the Royal Institution, descriptive of the recent researches of
Dr. Drysdale and himself. The object of the lecture was
mainly to explain the method of research which had been
employed. The first essays of the opticians to produce
“high powers” were, as might be expected, feeble. These
powers amplified, but did not analyze; hence it began to be
questioned whether “one could see more really with a high
power than with a moderate one.” And this was true at
the time. But it is not so now. The optician has risen to
the emergency, and provided us with powers of great magnifying
capacity which carry an equivalent capacity for analysis.
They open up structure in a wonderful way when
rightly used. The lecturer began by projecting upon the
screen the magnified image of a wasp’s sting—an object
about the 1-20th of an inch in natural size—and beside it
was placed a piece of the point of a cambric sewing needle
of the same length, magnified to the same extent. The details
of the sting were very delicate and refined, but the
minute needle point became riven and torn and blunt under
the powerful analysis of the lens, showing what the lecturer
meant by “magnifying power;” not mere enlargement, but
the bringing out of details infinitely beyond us save through
the well made lens. This was further illustrated by means
of the delicate structure of the Radiolaria, and still further
by means of a rarely delicate valve of the diatom known as
N. rhomboides. With a magnification of 600 diameters no
structure of any kind was visible; but by gradually using
1,200, 1,800, and 2,400 diameters, it was made manifest how
the ultimate structure of this organic atom displayed itself.

But this power of analysis was carried still further by
means of the minutest known organic form, Bacterium termo.
The lecturer had, in connection with Dr. Drysdale, discovered
that the movements of this marvelously minute living
thing were effected by means of a pair of fine fibers or
“flagella.” These were so delicate as to be invisible to
everything but the most powerful and specially constructed
lenses and the most delicate retinas. But since this discovery,
Dr. Koch, of Germany, had actually photographed
the flagella of much larger bacteria, such as Bacillus
subtilis, and expressed his conviction
that the whole group was flagellate. Mr.
Dallinger determined then to try to measure
the diameter of this minute flagellum
of B. termo that the real power of magnification
in our present lenses might be
tested. This was a most difficult task,
but 200 measurements were made with
four different lenses, and the results were
for the mean of the first 50 measurements
0·00000489208; for the second, 0·00000488673;
for the third, 0·00000488024; for the
fourth, 0·00000488200, giving a mean value
for the whole, expressed in vulgar fractions,
of the 1/204700 of an inch as the diameter
of the flagellum of B. termo.

With such power of analysis it was
manifest that immense results might be
expected from a good use of the “highest
powers.” The proper method of using them
was next dwelt on, and then the apparatus
was described, by means of which a drop of
fluid containing any organism that was being
studied might be prevented from evaporating while
under the scrutiny of the most powerful lenses, and for an
indefinite length of time. The importance of studying such
organisms in this way—by continuous observation—was
then plainly shown, some of the peculiar inferences of Dr.
Bastian, as to the transmutation of bacteria into monads,
and monads into amœbæ, etc., being explained by discontinuity
of observation.

Wages in England.

Consul General Badeau reports that during the past five
years wages have increased gradually about 10 per cent,
while the cost of living has increased about 25 per cent.
Clothing is about 30 per cent higher, while fuel has not risen
in price. Agricultural laborers get from $2 to $3 per week,
including beer; building laborers and gardeners from $4.40
to $5.10 per week; bricklayers, carpenters, masons, and engineers
from $6.80 to $11 per week; cabinetmakers, printers,
and jewelers from $8 to $12.30 per week, although the
best marble masons and jewelers receive $14.75. Bootmakers
and tailors get from $4.86 to $7.65 per week, and
bakers from $4.65 to $7.25, with partial board. Women
servants are paid from $70 to $240 per annum. Railway
porters and laborers on public works get from $4.45 to $12
per week. Rents have risen some 30 per cent, and are, for
artisans in London, from $1.20 to $2.40 per week for one
or two rooms.

The Treatment of Cancer by Pressure.

M. Bouchut has recently introduced to the notice of the
members of the Académie des Sciences a cuirasse of vulcanized
caoutchouc, which he has used with success for the
treatment of cancerous and other tumors of the breast. In
this country there has been much division of opinion upon
the utility of pressure in the treatment of cancer, some surgeons
regarding it as harmful, or but rarely useful, others
attributing to it great retardation of the rapidity of growth
of the tumor, or even cure. The surgeons of Middlesex
Hospital studied it systematically some years ago, and gave
an unfavorable report. The theory of the plan is certainly
good: a neoplasia, like a healthy tissue, is dependent upon
its blood supply for vitality and growth, and complete
anæmia causes the death of a tumor, as it does of a patch
of brain substance. It will be remembered that Mr. Haward
last year related at the Clinical Society a case in point. He[Pg 86]
ligatured the left lingual artery for a recurrent epithelioma
of the tongue; the tumor sloughed away, and a fortnight
before the patient’s death from blood poisoning the tongue
was quite healed. In just the same way ischæmia will impair
the vitality and so lessen the growth of a tumor. The
difficulty is rather in the practical application of this theory.
The knowledge that we now possess of the mode of growth
of cancers gives us at least one important indication. If we
have to deal with a neoplasia that grows at the periphery by
gradual infiltration of the surrounding tissues, it is plain
that, for pressure to be useful, it must be applied around
the tumor rather than over it, where, by compressing and
obstructing the capillaries, it would cause overfullness of
those at the circumference. It is the periphery of a cancer
that is its active part, and we must, therefore, produce
ischæmia around and not in the tumor. In the application of
the treatment this must be obtained by the careful adjustment
of elastic pads or cotton wool, and as the whole success
of the plan depends upon the skill with which this is done,
too much attention cannot be given to it. We cannot regard
pressure as a substitute for removal of a cancer; but in
the frequent cases where this is impracticable it appears to
be the best substitute at present open to the surgeon. M.
Bouchut’s cuirasse would seem to be an improvement upon
the spring pads and other appliances in use in this country.—Lancet.

NEW CUTTING AND BORING ATTACHMENT FOR LATHES.

Our engraving represents a useful little machine which is
intended for attachment to lathes. Although it is exceedingly
simple it is capable of performing a great variety of
work.

The machine is used in two ways, either by attachment
to a rigid support, as shown in Fig. 1, or by suspending it
by a belt, so that it is capable of universal motion, as shown
in Fig. 2.

CUTTING AND BORING ATTACHMENT FOR LATHES.

The supporting frame, A, has three boxes for the spindle,
B, and on the shaft at one side of the middle box there are
planing knives, C, on the opposite side there is a balance
wheel, and a pulley for receiving the driving belt. The
spindle, B, extends beyond the ends of the frame, A, and
has at each end a socket for receiving interchangeable cutting
and boring tools. One end of the spindle is externally
threaded to receive a face plate, to which may be attached a
disk of wood for receiving sandpaper for smoothing and
polishing wood or metal.

The frame, A, is held to its work by means of handles,
A’, and the spindle is driven by a round
belt that passes over a suspended pulley,
E, and also over the pulley on the lathe
mandrel.

The entire attachment is balanced by a
weight, F, attached to a cord that passes
over a fixed pulley, F’, to the pulley, E,
to which it is secured by a swivel hook
that permits of turning the belt in any direction.
The belt is guided by small pulleys,
H, so that the device may be turned
without running the belt from the pulley
on the spindle.

Guides, G, are attached to the frame, A,
for guiding the material being operated
upon by the planing knives. The frame,
A, may be supported by attachment to an
arm, I, at the lower end of the screw-acted
follower, J, which slides in a rigid support,
K. The arm, I, has a notched disk
which is engaged by a spring detent which
holds the frame at any desired inclination.

Among the kinds of work that may be
done on this machine may be mentioned
shaping and edging, fluting and beading
table legs, balusters, etc.; dovetailing,
boring, carving, paneling, shaping or
friezing mouldings, scroll or fret work,
inlaying and engraving, blind stile mortising
and blind slat planing. By changing
the inclination of the spindle different varieties
of mouldings may be produced by
the same cutter.

The machine may be used as an emery
grinder, and it may also be used for drilling
and shaping metals. For further information
address Mathew Rice, Augusta, Ga.

Decrease of the New York Rainfall.

In his report for 1876, Director Draper,
of the New York Meteorological Observatory
in Central Park, showed that a
careful examination of the records in his
office proved that there had been, in late
years, a change in the rainfall of New
York and its vicinity, affecting seriously
its water supply. The decrease had been
steady since 1869, previous to which there
had been an increase. In his report for
1877, Mr. Draper discusses the question whether the change
continues, or is likely to continue, in the same direction, and
comes to the conclusion that the rainfall of New York will,
most probably, continue to decrease by fluctuations for several
years to come; also, that the variations are very nearly
the same in the two portions of the year, the division date
being July 1.

NEW STEAM VALVE.

The improved valve shown partly in section in the engraving
is designed for removing the water of condensation
from steam pipes, so that dry steam may be furnished.

SAUNDERS’ STEAM VALVE.

In the engraving, the globe valve, A, is of the usual form,
except that the casing below the valve seat is enlarged,
forming a pocket, B, which communicates through an aperture
at the bottom with a small valve, C.

The steam, in passing through the valve, fills the pocket
and there deposits any water that may have condensed from
the steam in its passage through the steam pipe. The increased
depth of the lower portion of the valve prevents
siphoning, which takes place in valves of the ordinary form.
The valve, C, is kept slightly open to discharge the water at
the moment it collects in the pocket; the water is thus prevented
from passing onward to the engine or other point of
use.

This valve affords a ready means of supplying dry steam
to sulphuric acid chambers. We are informed that by its
use a chamber in ordinary working order will produce acid
3° to 5° Baumé stronger than can be obtained with ordinary
globe valves. Thirty steam pipes, arranged at different
points, are found to deliver into a chamber in the space of
five minutes from 4 to 16 ounces of condense water (according
to the circumstances of distance, temperature of the
air, size of pipe, etc.). These valves, being placed close to
the chamber separating all the condense water, deliver with
certainty uniformly dry steam, without the inconvenience of
ordinary steam traps or other expensive appliances.

This valve was patented through the Scientific American
Patent Agency, May 21, 1878. For further particulars address
Mr. Joseph Saunders, 975 Third avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.

A Hint from the Mormons.

Ex-Governor Hendricks, in a recent industrial address,
alluded to the highly prosperous condition of the Mormons
as existing previous to the influx of the Gentiles into Utah,
saying that “to the fact that they produced all they consumed
I attribute their wonderful prosperity.” This remark,
associated with the prosperity of other communities in different
parts of the country, would suggest the query of
“Why the principle cannot be more largely applied to the
whole nation?” Certainly the resources of the whole country
would indicate a much greater diversity of production,
and if there was the same regard for a uniform building up
of our industrial system there would seem to be need of but
little importation, certainly of goods which can be readily
made, and which our people need the labor to produce.

New Agricultural Inventions.

Joseph George, of Springfield, Greene Co., Mo., has patented
an improved form of Cultivator or Shovel Plow, designed
to be convertible into either a single, double, or triple
shovel plow as occasion may require. It consists in two detachable
clamping plates, which hold the plow beams, and
their arrangement with respect to the said beams and the
handles of the plow, whereby a single bolt is made to secure
the forward ends of the handles and clamp the plates to hold
the plow beams in place.

Russel O. Bean, of Macedonia, Miss., is the inventor of an
improved Seed Planter for planting cotton and other seeds,
and for distributing fertilizers. The details of the construction
of this planter cannot be explained without engravings.

Rutus Sarlls and Alexander Kelman, of
Navasota, Texas, have invented an improved
combined Planter, Cultivator, and
Cotton Chopper, which may be readily
adjusted for use in planting seed, cultivating
plants, and chopping cotton to a
stand, and is effective and reliable in operation
in either capacity.

William H. Akens, of Penn Line, Pa.,
is the inventor of an improved Dropper,
for attachment to the finger bar of a reaper,
to receive the grain and deliver it in
gavels at the side of the machine, so as to
be out of the way when making the next
round. It is so constructed that when attached
to the finger bar of a mower it
will convert it into a harvester.

James Goodheart, of Matawan, N. J.,
has devised an improved machine for
Distributing Poison upon potato plants to
destroy the potato bug. It may also be
used for sowing seeds.

William V. McConnell and Charles M.
Dickerson, of Crockett, Texas, have invented
an improved Fruit Picker, having
cup-shaped self-opening spring jaws attached
to its handle, and operated by a
cord to close upon and clamp the fruit. It
also has a hollow extensible adjustable
handle and a fruit receiver.

Quick Work.

Two years ago a farmer-miller and his
wife, at Carrolton, Mo., furnished some
invited guests with bread baked in eight
and a quarter minutes from the time the
wheat was standing in the field. This
year it was determined to make still better
time. Accordingly elaborate preparations
were made to reap, thrash, grind, and
bake the grain with the least possible loss
of time.

In 1 minute 15 seconds the wheat,
about a peck, was cut and thrashed, and
put on the back of a swift horse to be
carried to the mill, 16 rods away. In 2
minutes 17 seconds the flour was delivered
to Mrs. Lawton, and in 3m. 55s. from the
starting of the reaper the first griddle cake
was done. In 4 minutes 37 seconds from the starting
of the reaper, a pan of biscuits was delivered to the assembled
guests.

After that, according to the Carrolton Democrat, other
pans of delicious “one minute” biscuits were baked
more at leisure, and eagerly devoured, with the usual accompaniment
of boiled ham and speech making.

[Pg 87]

THE RHINOCEROS HORNBILL.

There are many strange and wonderful forms among the
feathered tribes; but there are, perhaps, none which more
astonish the beholder who sees them for the first time than the
group of birds known by the name of hornbills. They are all
distinguished by a very large beak, to which is added a
singular helmet-like appendage, equaling in size the beak
itself in some species, while in others it is so
small as to attract but little notice. On account
of the enormous size of the beak and helmet,
the bird appears to be overweighted by
the mass of horny substance which it has to carry,
but on closer investigation the whole structure is
found to be singularly light and yet very strong,
the whole interior being composed of numerous
honeycombed cells with very thin walls and wide
spaces, the walls being so arranged as to give very
great strength when the bill is used for biting,
and with a very slight expenditure of material.

THE RHINOCEROS HORNBILL.

The greatest development of beak and helmet
is found in the rhinoceros hornbill, although
there are many others which have these appendages
of great size. The beak varies greatly in
proportion to the age of the individual, the helmet
being almost imperceptible when it is first
hatched, and the bill not very striking in dimensions.
The beak gains in size as the bird gains
in strength. In the adult the helmet and beak
attain their full proportions. It is said that a
wrinkle is added every year to the number of
the furrows found on the bill. The object of
the helmet is obscure, but the probability is that
it may aid the bird in producing the loud roaring
cry for which it is so celebrated. The hornbill
is lively and active, leaping from bough to bough
with great lightness, and appearing not to be
in the least incommoded by its huge beak. Its
flight is laborious, and when in the air the bird
has a habit of clattering its great mandibles together,
which together with the noise of the
wings produces a weird sound. The food of the
hornbill seems to consist of both animal and
vegetable matters. We take our illustration
from Wood’s “Natural History.”

Saw Tempering by Natural Gas.

Beaver Falls, Pa., contains several gas wells
at an average depth of eleven hundred feet, yielding
about 100,000 cubic feet of gas every twenty-four hours.
This gas has been introduced into a large saw tempering
furnace at that place in the works of Emerson, Smith & Co.
The furnace is 8 feet wide by 14 feet long. It is said to be
a perfect success, giving a uniform heat, and there being no
sulphur or impurity in the gas the steel is not deteriorated
in the operation of heating.

THE JAPANESE BUILDING AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION.

THE JAPANESE BUILDING AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION.

Japan, on the terrestrial globe, lies furthest away in that
direction beyond the Far West of America, and beyond the
wide Pacific. The Japanese structure has a simple and
solid aspect, resembling the portal of a half-fortified mansion,
with massive timber frames at the sides; but it is
adorned with two handsome porcelain fountains, and each
of these is designed to represent the stump of a tree supporting
a shell into which the water is poured from a large
flower. Before entering the porch a large map of Japan
and a plan of the city of Tokio are seen displayed on the
walls to right and left.—Illustrated London News.

Machinery for New York State Capitol Building.

The Buckeye Engine Company of this city have been
awarded the contract for a pair of condensing engines,
cylinders 14 inches diameter, stroke 28 inches, for the State
Capitol Building at Albany, New York. The engines will
be of the company’s usual horizontal type with automatic
cut off, and will be elaborately finished.

The Explosiveness of Flour.

Professors Peck and Peckham, of the University of Minnesota,
have been making an extensive series of experiments
to determine the cause of the recent flour mill explosion at
Minneapolis. The substances tested were coarse and fine
bran, material from stone grinding wheat; wheat dust, from
wheat dust house; middlings, general mill dust, dust from
middlings machines, dust from flour dust house
(from stones), and flour. When thrown in a body
on a light, all these substances put the light out.
Blown by a bellows into the air surrounding a
gas flame, the following results were obtained:

Coarse bran would not burn. Fine bran and
flour dust burn quickly, with considerable blaze.
Middlings burn quicker, but with less flame. All
the other substances burn very quickly, very
much like gunpowder.

In all these cases there was a space around the
flash where the dust was not thick enough to ignite
from particle to particle; hence it remained
in the air after the explosion. Flour dust, flour
middlings, etc., when mixed with air, thick
enough to ignite from particle to particle, and
separated so that each particle is surrounded by
air, will unite with the oxygen in the air, producing
a gas at high temperature, which requires
an additional space, hence the bursting.

There is no gas which comes from flour or
middlings that is an explosive; it is the direct
combination with the air that produces gas, requiring
additional space. Powerful electric
sparks from the electric machine and from the
Leyden jar were passed through the air filled
with dust of the different kinds, but without an
explosion in any case. A platinum wire kept
at a white heat by a galvanic battery would not
produce an explosion. The dust would collect
upon it and char to black coals, but would not
blaze nor explode.

A piece of glowing charcoal, kept hot by the
bellows, would not produce an explosion when
surrounded by dust, but when fanned into a
blaze the explosion followed. A common kerosene
lantern, when surrounded by dust of all degrees
of density, would not produce an explosion,
but when the dust was blown into the bottom,
through the globe and out of the top, it would
ignite. To explode quickly the dust must be dry.
Evidently when an explosion has been started in a volume
of dusty air, loose flour maybe blown into the air and made
a source of danger.

New Engineering Inventions.

Erskine H. Bronson, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, has patented
an improvement in Automatic Switches for Railways,
which consists in an arrangement of sliding cams for moving
the switch rails, and in treadles to be operated by the pilot
wheels of the locomotive, and in intermediate mechanism for
connecting the treadles with the switch operating cams, the[Pg 88]
object being to provide a switch will be operated by the
pilot wheels of the locomotive as it approaches the movable
switch rails.

An improved Refrigerator Car has been patented by
Michael Haughey, of St Louis, Missouri. The object of
this invention is to ventilate and cool railway cars used in
the transportation of perishable articles. This car has a
novel ventilator and ice box and is provided with a new
form of non-conducting walls.

CROOKED JOURNALISM.

In the English scientific journal Engineering, of June 21,
1878, appears a six column article on “Edison’s Carbon
Telephone,” illustrated with ten engravings from Mr. Prescott’s
recent work on “The Speaking Telephone, Talking
Phonograph, and other novelties.” The descriptions of the
cuts, and the rest of the information given, so far as correct,
obviously come from the same source.

So far as correct: unhappily for the honor of scientific
journalism, the writer’s desire is plainly not so much to do
justice to truth as to exalt Mr. Hughes at the expense of
Mr. Edison. To this end he has studiously suppressed from
Mr. Prescott’s description of the carbon telephone the points
which establish Mr. Edison’s claim to the prior invention
or discovery of everything involved in Mr. Hughes’ microphone,
while he has as studiously dwelt upon those same
points as constituting the peculiar merits of Mr. Hughes’
work.

For example, while he uses Fig. 21 of Mr. Prescott’s
book, he leaves out the very important little diagram numbered
20. It represents one form of the apparatus to which
Sir William Thomson refers in the letter in which he says:

“It is certain that at the meeting of the British Association
at Plymouth last September, a method of magnifying
sound in an electric telephone was described as having been
invented by Mr. Edison, which was identical in principle
and in some details with that brought forward by Mr.
Hughes.”

The figure looks altogether too much like one form of Mr.
Hughes’ microphone to allow of its use in an article intended
to establish the novelty of Mr. Hughes’ discovery.

The omissions from the text are quite as significant. Under
the first cut used in Engineering, Mr. Prescott says: “In
the latest form of transmitter which Mr. Edison has introduced
the vibrating diaphragm is done away with altogether,
it having been found that much better results are obtained
when a rigid plate of metal is substituted in its place….
The inflexible plate, of course, merely serves, in consequence
of its comparatively large area, to concentrate a considerable
portion of the sonorous waves upon the small carbon disk or
button; a much greater degree of pressure for any given effort
of the speaker is thus brought to bear on the disk than
could be obtained if only its small surface alone were used.”

The Engineering writer coolly suppresses this important
statement. He does worse: he puts in its place the false
statement that “the essential principle of Mr. Edison’s
transmitter consists in causing a diaphragm, vibrating under
the influence of sonorous vibrations, to vary the pressure
upon, and therefore the resistance of, a piece of carbon,”
and so on.

A little further on, while repeating Mr. Edison’s account
of the experiments which led to the abandonment of the vibrating
diaphragm (page 226 of Mr. Prescott’s book), the
Engineering writer drops out the following remark by Mr.
Edison: “I discovered that my principle, unlike all other
acoustical devices for the transmission of speech, did not require
any vibration of the diaphragm—that, in fact, the
sound waves could be transformed into electrical pulsations
without the movement of any intervening mechanism.”

Worse yet, in the very face of Mr. Edison’s assertion to
the contrary—an assertion which he could not by any possibility
have overlooked—this most unscientific journalist says:
“Mr. Edison finds it necessary to insert a diaphragm in all
forms of his apparatus, that being the mechanical contrivance
employed by which sonorous vibrations are converted
into variations of mechanical pressure, and by which variations
in the conductivity of the carbon or other material is
insured…. On the other hand, Mr. Hughes employs
no diaphragm at all, the sonorous vibrations in his apparatus
acting directly upon the conducting material or
through whatever solid substance to which they may be attached.”

In this way throughout the offending article, the writer
persistently robs Edison to magnify Hughes, giving credit
to Mr. Hughes for exactly what he has suppressed from
Mr. Prescott’s book. To insist as he does, that, because Mr.
Edison covers his carbon button with a rigid iron plate, in
his very practical telephone, therefore a vibrating diaphragm
is an essential feature of Mr. Edison’s invention, is a very
shallow quibble in the face of Mr. Edison’s and Mr. Prescott’s
statements that the carbon button acts precisely the
same in the absence of such covering, though not so strongly.
Mr. Edison’s laboratory records show a great variety
of experiments in which the carbon was talked against without
“any intervening mechanism.” In a telephone for popular
use, however, to be held in the hand, turned upside
down, talked into, exposed to dust and the weather, it was
obviously necessary to use some means for holding the carbon
in place, and to prevent its sensitiveness from being destroyed
by dirt and the moisture of the breath when in use.
For this purpose a rigid iron partition seemed at once convenient
and durable. It is not in any sense a “vibrating diaphragm.”

With a persistence worthy of a better cause, the Engineering
writer returns to the point he seems especially anxious
to enforce. Toward the end of the article he says: “In
every instrument described by Mr. Edison the diaphragm is
the ruling genie of the instrument. Professor Hughes, however,
has through his great discovery been enabled to show
that variations of resistance can be imparted to an electrical
current not only without a diaphragm, but with very much
better results when no such accessory is employed.”

The animus of all this is only too apparent. Altogether
the article is the most dishonest piece of writing we have
ever seen in a scientific periodical; and although the article
appears in the editorial columns of Engineering, we prefer,
for the honor of scientific journalism, to think that the management
of that paper was not party to the rascally act. It
is more credible that a gross imposition has been practiced
by some trusted member of the Engineering staff, or by some
contributor whose position seemed to justify the acceptance
of his utterances without any attempt at their verification.
It is well known here to whom, in London, at Mr. Edison’s
request, Mr. Prescott sent proofs of the matter abused, together
with electros of the cuts used, in Engineering. Accordingly
the burden of dishonor lies upon or between a
prominent British official on the one hand, and on the other
a journal which cannot afford to leave the matter unexplained.
Whoever is hurt, we sincerely hope that the fair fame of scientific
journalism for candor and honesty may come off unstained.

A More Perfect Production.

The highest skill in manufacture or in production of any
kind is not yet the prevailing characteristic of American industry.
Uniformity of production, of whatever kind, is of much
greater importance than to attempt the manufacture of any
grade for which the material or the tools, the machinery or
the knowledge of the workmen is not fitted. The highest
condition of product in any nation is to produce the finest or
highest cost articles in the most perfect manner, and to have
material and machinery adopted, and the skilled workmen,
so as to be able to so produce economically. But until the
master hand is satisfied of all the requisites for producing fine
goods, he should confine production to the best his facilities
will make in the most perfect, uniform manner.

Samples of fine goods are shown all over the country every
day, and were consumers or merchants sure that the product
would be the same, there would be much less difficulty in
introducing and more homemade goods used where now importations
are depended upon. The Stevens crash mills import
raw flax because it is to be had according to sample, perfectly
classified, and saves the employment of skilled labor
to assort and classify, and of purchasing a great deal not
wanted. The manufacturers of edge tools and knives use
imported steel because it is warranted and the warrant proves
good, while the uncertainty of American steel is such that a
knife will often crack in tempering and cause the loss of labor
worth ten times the difference in the price of the steel. Samples
of alpacas and other dress goods are shown in our jobbing
houses fully equal to any imported goods, but the goods
when received are quite often of various grades and imperfections
of character.

The imperfect or second quality productions find sale,
but at a much lower price, and are to be found at second
rate places, the imperfections slight and the goods perhaps
generally quite as serviceable, but not absolutely so, and
first class houses, catering to those who pay highest prices,
cannot afford to have any other house carry better articles
than they do. The use of perfect appliances and the best
material and the employment of the highest skill are not yet
the first step and an absolute necessity, as it should be, in
America. The supply of such machinery, material, and
labor can be had if those who propose to enter the production
of first class articles will insist upon it, and if such supplies
are appreciated by the payment of their higher value. The
American standard of production is not the highest, and it
can be materially elevated, and while, as at present, too
many common articles are supplied, the leading manufacturers
should turn to producing finer, the finest, and in smaller
quantities, to take the place of many articles now imported,
and to supply the new market which such productions will
always create in any country.

The Wool Product of the World.

From an interesting article on the wool trade of the Pacific
coast, published in a recent number of the San Francisco
Journal of Commerce, we learn that the number of sheep in
the world is now estimated at from four hundred and eighty-four
to six hundred millions, of which the United States has
about 36,000,000, and Great Britain the same number. From
1801 to 1875 the wool clip of Great Britain and Ireland increased
from 94,000,000 to 325,000,000 pounds. That of
France has increased almost as rapidly, though the wool is
finer, as a rule, and hence the superiority of French cloths.
Australia produces nearly as much wool as the parent country—Great
Britain. The United States product increased
from very little at the beginning of the century to about 200,000,000
pounds at the present time. Of this California has
produced about one fourth, and the Pacific coast as a whole
almost one third. If the ratio of growth shown in the past
prevails in the future, the day is not far distant when the
Pacific coast will produce at least one half the wool produced
in the United States, as not only California and Oregon, but
also Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and New Mexico
are well adapted to its production. The wool clip of Australia
is about 284,000,000 pounds; that of Buenos Ayres and
the river Plata, 222,500,000 pounds; other countries not previously
given, 463,000,000 pounds. The total clip of the
world last year was about 1,497,500,000 pounds, worth $150,000,000.
This when scoured would yield about 852,000,000
pounds of clean wool.

Street Main Joints.

At the annual meeting of the New England Association
of Gas Engineers, Mr. Thomas, of Williamsburg, made the
following remarks on this subject: “In my early experience
with the Williamsburg Gaslight Company, with which I
became connected in the year 1854, I found pretty nearly
all the street mains that were laid were connected with
cement joints. While there is no doubt in my own mind
that a joint can be made perfectly tight with cement, I much
prefer the lead joint. Another thing to be taken into consideration
to keep tight joints is that the mains should be
laid a sufficient depth under the surface to protect them
from the action of severe frosts. A great many of the mains
were not more than 18 inches or 2 feet below the surface of
the streets, and at this depth in our climate it is a matter of
impossibility to keep joints tight, as the action of the frost
in winter will displace the mains and cause the joints to
leak. From the bad manner in which our mains were laid,
and the cement joints leaking so much, we could not afford
to turn gas on during the day. Had we done so we should
not have had any to supply the city at night, and we were
thus compelled to shut off the gas just as soon as there was
any apology for daylight, and keep it shut off as late as possible
in the evening.

“With the most careful working in this manner, for a
period of nine or twelve months, our losses from leakage
amounted to about 52 to 55 per cent of the gas manufactured.
A great part of this loss was caused by the cement joints
leaking, and also a part due to the fact that the mains were
not at sufficient depth under the surface to protect them
from the action of the frost. As soon as we possibly could
I went over the whole of our mains (there was about 17
miles in all), stripping them, cutting out the cement, and rejointing
them with lead. In one season we got the loss
from leakage down to 20 per cent, and this with the gas
turned on during the 24 hours of the day.

“One great objection to cement joints is the rigidity of
them; in cases where pipes have been disturbed by other excavations
and settled, I found in all cases that the mains
were broken. In a leading main from our old works, with
cement joints, the main, a 10-inch one, was broken entirely
off and fractured lengthwise besides, by the upheaval of the
ground from frost. In some of the same mains that we had
rejointed with lead the mains were drawn apart, drawing
the lead out, but with very little loss of gas, as the gasket
being driven in tight prevented any great leakage. In cases
of this kind the lead was easily driven back, and the joint
made perfectly tight again. I have never in our city put in
any street mains that I have not used lead in the joints, and
in laying mains we always make them gas tight with the
gasket used.

“At the present time we have over 90 miles of street mains
laid, and outside of our loss from street lamps (we get paid
for three foot burners and they average about 3¼ foot) our
loss from leakage will not exceed 6 per cent. We have suffered
severe loss of gas from sewering in our city. In some
cases where there are railroad tracks in the streets, the
sewers have been run on both sides of the street, alongside
and parallel with our pipes; these excavations are much
deeper than our mains lie, and the earth is always filled in
loosely and left to settle.

“In cases of this kind, whole blocks of mains were dragged
down, the pipe broken, and the joints partially pulled apart;
at the same time the leakage from the joints was not so great,
the gasket preventing the leakage. In laying street mains,
what you want particularly to attend to, and especially in
the East here, where you have colder weather than we have
(we have not seen much winter until we came on here), is to
get them down under the surface a sufficient depth to protect
them from the frost. With us the least depth is 2 feet
9 inches under the surface of the street, and I am confident,
could our mains remain in the ground as we put them down,
our loss from leakage by them would be very small indeed.
While, as I stated in the beginning, I have no doubt that a
cement joint can be made tight, I can see no benefit in using
cement for the purpose, as I consider lead far superior in
accommodating itself to any upheaval or settling of the earth
where the mains are laid down.”

Successful Shad Hatching.

Professor J. W. Milner, who has charge of the shad
hatching operations under the direction of the United States
Fish Commissioner, Professor Baird, is now engaged in the
preparation of the report of the work for the season just
completed. Speaking of the work on the Atlantic seaboard,
and the distribution of young fish, the report says
that at the Salmon Creek Station, on Albemarle Sound, they
obtained 12,730,000 eggs, and turned out 3,000,000 young
fish. At the Havre de Grace Station 12,230,000 eggs were
obtained, and 9,575,000 young fish were turned out. About
6,000,000 young shad have been distributed in the rivers
emptying into the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico during the
season. The distribution of shad during the past season has
been carried on on a much larger scale than in any previous
year, and with great success. The restocking of the rivers
of the Atlantic is only the work of a few years.

[Pg 89]

New Use for Lemon Verbena.

The well known fragrant garden favorite, the sweet-scented
or lemon verbena (Lippia citriodora), seems to have
other qualities to recommend it than those of the fragrance
for which it is usually cultivated. The author of a recent
work, entitled “Among the Spanish People,” describes it as
being systematically gathered in Spain, where it is regarded
as a fine stomachic and cordial. It is used either in the
form of a cold decoction, sweetened, or five or six leaves
are put into a teacup, and hot tea poured upon them. The
author says that the flavor of the tea thus prepared “is
simply delicious, and no one who has drunk his Pekoe with
it will ever again drink it without a sprig of lemon verbena.”
And he further states that if this be used one need “never
suffer from flatulence, never be made nervous or old-maidish,
never have cholera, diarrhea, or loss of appetite.”

A VELOCIPEDE FEAT EXTRAORDINARY.

Two intrepid velocipedists, M. le Baron Emanuel de Graffenried
de Burgenstein, aged twenty years and six months,
and a member of the Society of Velocipede Sport, of Paris,
has accomplished, with M. A. Laumaillé
d’Angers, the greatest distance that has been
made with a velocipede in France.

Leaving Paris on March 16, they returned
on the 24th of April, after having traveled a
distance of more than three thousand miles.

A VELOCIPEDE FEAT EXTRAORDINARY.

Their route extended through a part of the
west, the middle, and the south of France,
Italy, and southern Switzerland. They traveled
through Orléans, Tours, Poitiers, Angoulême,
Bordeaux, Montauban, Toulouse,
Montpellier, Marseilles, Toulon, Nice, Menton,
San-Remo, Genoa, Turin, Milan, the Simplon—where
they barely escaped destruction
by an avalanche—Vevay, Berne, Lausanne,
Geneva, Dijon, Troy, and Provins. The longest
distance that they accomplished in a single
day, was between Turin and Milan, a distance
of 90 miles, which they made in 9-1/2 hours.

Superior Excellence of American Goods.

The Post, of Birmingham, England, remarks
with regard to American competition,
that “perhaps the most humiliating feature
of the business for British manufacturers is
the fact that their competitors are prevailing,
not through the cheapness, but through the
excellence of their goods. Time was when
English workmanship ranked second to none,
and the names of our great manufacturing
firms were a guarantee for the sterling quality
of the goods they turned out; but competitions,
trades unions, piece work, short hours,
and other incidents of the ‘march of progress’
have altered all that. Complaints, received
by hardware merchants from their
customers abroad, are not confined to the
goods of second class firms. Manufacturers
who have obtained a world-wide reputation
for their products are frequently convicted of
sending out scamped and unfinished work,
and they do not venture to deny the impeachment,
pleading only that the most vigilant
must be sometimes at fault, and that their
men, unfortunately, are not to be depended
upon. In other cases it is the merchants or their customers
who are to blame for the inferior quality of the articles by
cutting prices so low as to preclude the possibility of honest
work, thinking, probably, that anything is good enough for
a foreign or colonial market. But whatever the cause, the
fact is now undeniable, that a great deal of the manufactured
produce shipped from this country of late years has
been of a very low standard, and that the American manufacturers
have consequently had an easy task in beating it.”

Petroleum Oils as Lubricators.

Oils from petroleum are now produced suitable for nearly
every mechanical process for which animal oils have heretofore
been used, not excepting those intended for cylinder
purposes. A serious objection attaching to the animal oils
is present in petroleum. If, through the exhaust steam,
some of the oil be carried into the boiler, foaming or priming
is the consequence, but the same thing happening in the case
of petroleum is rather a benefit than otherwise, for it not only
does not cause foaming, but it prevents incrustation or adhesion
of the scale or deposit, and this aids in the preservation
of the boiler, and is perhaps the best preventive of the
many everywhere suggested.

Often, in removing the cylinder head and the plate covering
the valves of an engine, we see evidences of corrosion
or action on the surfaces, differing entirely from ordinary
wear, and the engineer is generally at a loss how to account
for it. According to the general impression grease or animal
oil is the preservative of the metal, and is the last thing
suspected of being the cause of its general disintegration.
The reason of this is that vegetable and animal oils consist
of fatty acids, such as stearic, magaric, oleic, etc. They
are combined with glycerin as a base, and, under ordinary
conditions, are neutrals to metals generally, and on being
applied they keep them from rusting by shielding them from
the action of air and moisture. But in the course of time
the influence of the air causes decomposition and oxidation,
the oils become rancid, as it is called, which is acid, and
they act on the metals. What happens at the ordinary temperature
slowly goes on rapidly in the steam cylinder, where
a new condition is reached. The oils are subjected to the
heat of high pressure steam, which dissociates or frees these
acids from their base, and in this condition they attack the
metal and hence destroy it.

This applies as well to vegetable as to oils of animal origin,
fish or sperm oil included. Petroleum and oils derived
therefrom (generally called mineral oils) are entirely free
from this objection. Petroleum contains no oxygen, and
hence it cannot form an acid, and therefore cannot attack
metal. It is entirely neutral, and so bland that it may be
and is used medicinally as a dressing to wounds and badly
abraded surfaces where cerates of ordinary dressing would
give pain.—Coal Trade Journal.

Influence of Light on Plants and Animals.

Professor Paul Bert, who has recently devoted a great deal
of attention to the study of the influence of light on animals
and plants, denies that the leaves of the sensitive plant close
on the approach of evening, the same as if they had been
touched by the hand. On the contrary, he finds that from 9
in the evening, after drooping, they expand again and attain
the maximum of rigidity at 2 in the morning. What is
commonly called the “sensitiveness” of plants is but the external
manifestations of the influences of light. Professor
Bert placed plants in lanterns of different colored glass;
those under the influence of green glass drooped in the course
of a few days as completely as if placed in utter darkness,
proving that green rays are useless, and equal to none at all.
In a few weeks all plants without exception thus treated died.
It has been proved by the experiments of Zimiriareff that the
reducing power of the green matter of plants is proportionate
to the quantity of red rays absorbed, and Bert shows that
green glass precisely intercepts these colored rays, and that
plants exist more or less healthily in blue and violet rays. In
the animal world phenomena of a directly opposite nature
are found, and of a more complex character. Here the light
acts on the skin and the movements of the body, either directly
or through the visual organs. M. Pouchet has shown
the changes in color that certain animals undergo, according
to the medium in which they live. For instance, young turbots
resting on white sand assume an ashy tint, but when
resting on a black bottom become brown; when deprived of
its eyes the fish exhibits no change of color in its skin; the
phenomenon, therefore, seems to be nervous or optical. Professor
Bert placed a piece of paper with a cut design on the
back of a sleeping chameleon; on bringing a lamp near the
animal the skin gradually became brown, and on removing
the paper a well defined image of the pattern appeared. In
this case the light acted directly, and without nervous intervention.
If, however, the eye of the chameleon be extracted,
the corresponding side of the animal becomes insensible to
the influence of the light.

Professor Bert’s conclusion, therefore, is that the circulation
in the transparent layers of the skin must be affected by light.
According to Dr. Bouchard a sunstroke is the effect of the
direct action of light upon the skin, produced by the blue and
violet rays. The heat producing rays have no part in such
accidents, as proved by the fact that workmen exposed to
intense heats do not feel their fatal effect. Professor
Bert, in a series of experiments on a variety of animals,
found that none avoided light, but all rather sought it; and
the lowest forms, like the highest, absorbed the same rays.
As regards intensity of color, however, there was a difference,
some being more partial to one ray than another. Thus
the microscopic daphne of the pond preferred yellow; violet
was less in request; spiders seemed to enjoy blue rather than
red rays—so resembling people suffering from color blindness.
No two persons are sensible to the same shades or
tones, while absorbing the same light; and this would seem
to indicate that the retina possesses a selective power.

New Mechanical Inventions.

An improved Weighing Scale has been patented by Hosea
Willard, of Vergennes, Vt. The object of this invention
is to economize time in ascertaining the
weight of an article by avoiding the necessity
for shifting the poise on the scale beam. It
consists in providing a scale beam with a
number of dishes suspended from different
points on said beam, and representing or corresponding
with different weights, so that
the weight of an article may be ascertained
by placing it in one or more of said dishes
and observing which dish is depressed.

William John, of Rigdon, Ind., has patented
an improved Tire Setting and Cooling
Apparatus, by which the tire may be set by
one person, easily and quickly, without burning
the fellies, and without straining the
wheel by the unequal cooling of the tire.

Joseph A. Mumford, of Avondale, Nova
Scotia, Canada, has patented an improved
machine for Sawing and Jointing Shingles.
This machine cannot be properly described
without engravings. It has an ingenious
feeding device, and its flywheel carries the
jointing knives.

Ill-balanced Production.

The Philadelphia Record sensibly remarks
that the popular complaint of over-production
is a mistake. Though of a few things we
make or mine too much, our main trouble
arises from not producing enough, in variety
if not in quantity.

“The wants of mankind never can be satisfied.
Every new means of supplying a
want creates new wants. They grow by what
they feed on. As long as humanity is so constituted,
over-production, in a general and
enlarged sense, is impossible. It is this impossible
thing with which the reformers
would deal who propose to work fewer hours
each day, or fewer hours in the week. The
trouble they deplore does not exist; the remedy
they propose defeats itself. A man cannot
get rid of his load by shifting it from his
right hand to his left hand. Production will
not be stopped by making men their own employers
certain hours in the day or certain
days in the week, instead of allowing them to pursue their
usual avocations.

“The real trouble, which the labor reformers seem incompetent
to fathom, is that there is not enough diversity in employments.
What is desired is more work in productive enterprises,
a more diffused industry, and a closer commercial
connection with those countries wherein we can make desirable
exchanges both of our raw material and our manufactured
products. Every miner that drops his pick and
takes up a hoe, every idle man that turns himself into an
earner of wages, every person that picks up some loose
thread of employment, every capitalist that takes advantage
of stagnating industry and cheap material to build a house
or beautify or improve a country seat, or set on foot some
new process of manufacture, does something toward working
out the problem which is puzzling the economists. In
good time the surplus iron and coal will be sold; new populations
will want new railroads; recuperated capital will
gather confidence and take hold of new enterprises, and the
whole nation will move forward again to more assured
prosperity and to vaster undertakings.”

Labor in Germany.

The consul at Barmen reports that for agricultural labor
the pay varies greatly, according to the proximity to or remoteness
from manufacturing centers; and ranges from
fifty-six cents a day in the neighborhood of Barmen to
thirty-one cents a day in the lower Rhine valley, and as low
as eighteen cents in parts of Silesia. At Barmen, Crefeld and
Düsseldorf, carpenters, coppersmiths, plumbers, machinists
and wagonsmiths earn fifty-one to seventy-five cents daily;
saddlers and shoemakers forty-seven to fifty-two cents daily;
bakers and brewers, with board and lodging, from $1.42 to
$2.14 weekly, and without board from sixty cents a day to
$4.28 a week; farm hands are paid from $107 to $215 yearly,
with maintenance; railroad laborers from fifty-six to eighty-[Pg 90]three
cents per day, and as high as ninety-five cents daily
for piece work on tunnels; silk weavers can earn $2.15 to
$2.85 a week per loom; factory women $2.15, and children
$1 a week. Business and wages are very low. In good
times wages are eighty per cent higher. The cost of the
necessaries of life has increased some fifty per cent in thirteen
years, although it is now but little higher than five
years ago. A man and wife with two or three children can
live in two or three rooms in a poor and comfortless manner
for $275 a year, and to support such an establishment all
the members have to work ten or twelve hours daily. For
a family of six persons the cost is about $7 per week—an
amount but few families can earn, as the depression of trade
and the reduction of time allow few to do a full week’s
work, although wages are nominally a trifle higher than
five years ago.

Petroleum June Review.

DRILLING WELL ACCOUNT.

The low price of oil and large accumulation of stock in
the producing regions have had the effect to lessen operations
in this department during the month of June.

The total number of drilling wells in all the districts, at
the close of the month, was 266, which was 110 less than in
the preceding month. Rigs erected and being erected 243,
against 309 last month. The number of drilling wells completed
during the month was 269, being 151 less than in
May. Aggregate production of the new wells was 3,788
barrels, against 6,851 barrels in May. The total number
of dry holes developed in the month was 22, against
42 in May.

The operators in the great northern field (Bradford district)
have curtailed operations to an extent which will compare
favorably with the operators in the other portions of
the producing regions, as will be seen by the following statement,
namely:

Number of wells drilling at the close of the month, 187,
against 284 at the close of the previous month. Number of
drilling wells completed in June, 193, against 346 in May.
Number of rigs erected and being erected, 196, against 234
in May.

PRODUCTION.

The daily average production for the month was 40,575
barrels, being a decrease of 227 barrels. The new wells
completed in June failed to make good the falling off of the
old ones, by decreasing the daily average 227 barrels. Bradford
district shows a daily average production of 16,000
barrels, being an increase of 1,280 barrels over last month.

The aggregate production in June of all the other districts
combined, with the aid of 76 new wells, decreased the daily
average 1,507 barrels.

SHIPMENTS.

The shipments in June, out of the producing regions,
were 174,225 barrels larger than in the preceding month.
The total shipments of crude, and refined reduced to crude
equivalent, by railroad, river and pipes to the following
points, were 1,135,119 barrels:

Included in the above shipments there were 140,299 barrels
of refined from Titusville and Oil City, which is equal to
187,065 barrels of crude.—Stowell’s Petroleum Reporter.

Remarkable Poisoning of a Lake.

A contributor to Nature describes the remarkable poisoning
of Lake Alexandrina—one of the bodies of water which
form the estuary of the Murray river, Australia. This year
the water of the river has been unusually warm and low,
and the inflow to the lakes very slight. The consequence
has been an excessive growth of a conferva which is indigenous
to these lakes and confined to them. This alga,
Nodularia spumigera, is very light and floats on the water,
except during breezes, when it becomes diffused, and being
driven to the lee shores, forms a thick scum like green oil
paint.

This scum, which is from two to six inches thick, and of
a pasty consistency, being swallowed by cattle when drinking,
acts poisonously and rapidly causes death. The symptoms
of the poisoning are stupor and unconsciousness, falling
and remaining quiet (as if asleep), unless touched, when
convulsions are induced, the head and neck being drawn
back by a rigid spasm, subsiding before death. The poison
causes the death of sheep in from one to six or eight hours;
of horses, in from eight to twenty-four hours; of dogs, in
from four to five hours; and of pigs in three or four hours.
A post mortem shows the plant is rapidly absorbed into the
circulation, where it must act as a ferment, and causes disorganization.
As the cattle will not touch the puddle where
the plant scum has collected and become putrid, all they
take is quite fresh, and the poisoning is therefore not due to
drinking a putrescent fluid full of bacteria, as was suggested.

When the scum collects and dries on the banks it forms a
green crust. When, however, it is left in wet pools it rapidly
decomposes, emitting a most horrible stench, like putrid
urine; but previous to reaching this stage it gives out a
smell like that of very rancid butter.

A blue pigment exudes from this decomposing matter,
having some remarkable properties. It is remarkably fluorescent,
being red by reflected and blue by transmitted light;
it appears to be a product of the decomposition, and allied
to the coloring matter found in some lichens.

ASTRONOMICAL NOTES.

BY BERLIN H. WRIGHT.

Penn Yan, N. Y., Saturday, August 10, 1878.

The following calculations are adapted to the latitude of
New York city, and are expressed in true or clock time, being
for the date given in the caption when not otherwise stated.

PLANETS.

FIRST MAGNITUDE STARS

REMARKS

REMARKS

Mercury is brightest this date, and furthest from the sun
August 13. Venus will be at her descending node August
17. Jupiter will be near the moon August 17, 4h. 20m.
morning, being the moon’s apparent diameter north; this
will be an occultation south of the equator. Saturn will be
near the moon August 16, being about 7° south.

There will be a partial eclipse of the moon August 16, in
the evening. The moon will rise more or less eclipsed east
of Kansas, west of which no eclipse will be visible.

The following shows the appearance of the moon when
the eclipse is greatest
-7·1 digits, or 0·596
of the moon’s diameter.

The size of the
eclipse will be the
same for all places.
The time of middle
and end for any other
places may be obtained
by applying the
difference of longitude
from Washington, converted
into time, to
the Washington time
of middle and end, adding if east of Washington, and subtracting
if west.

An Interesting Astronomical Observation.

To the Editor of the Scientific American:

While viewing the planet Jupiter, at about 5 minutes past
10 o’clock P.M., a very strange sight presented itself to the
observers, who were looking for a transit of one of the satellites.
A very dark spot much larger than a satellite was
seen on the eastern edge of the disk, as shown in the above
diagram. It moved rapidly westward along the upper margin
of the northern belt and passed off at 1 o’clock 24 minutes
A.M. (12th). From its first internal contact till its last
external contact was just 3h. 19m., Pittsburg time. It appeared
to be a solid opaque body, truly spherical, very
sharply defined, and most intensely black. The transit of
the satellite occurred at 15 minutes after 11 o’clock, and
had no unusual appearance. Now what was that dark
body? We are constant observers of the heavenly bodies,
though not deeply versed in the science of astronomy, and
are anxious to know if any one can give us some light on
the subject. The telescopes used were a 2½ inch and 5 inch
achromatic, magnifying 154 and 216 diameters, but the 154
was chiefly used.
was chiefly used.
Joseph Wampler.
James R. Gemmill.

McKeesport, Pa., July 11, 1878.

Some of Professor Marsh’s Recent Discoveries.

Mr. S. W. Williston, the assistant of Professor Marsh, has
been giving to the Omaha Bee some interesting facts with
regard to the great reptilian fossils recently discovered in
Wyoming and Colorado. The bones found represent
reptiles of many sizes, from that of a cat up to one
sixty feet high. The latter, found at Como, Wyoming, belonged
to the crocodile order; but the remains give evidence
that the animal stood up on its hind legs, like a kangaroo.
Another found in Colorado is estimated by Professor Marsh
to have been 100 feet long. A great many remains of the
same general class, but belonging to different species, have
been collected and sent East. Among them from three to
four hundred specimens of the dinosaur, and about a thousand
pterodactyls, have been shipped from Colorado,
Wyoming, and Kansas. The wings of one of the latter were
from thirty to forty feet from tip to tip. Seventeen different
species of these flying dragons have been found in the
chalk of western Kansas. There have also been found six
species of toothed birds. Comparatively little has been
done toward classifying the late finds, the task is such
an enormous one. Great importance is attached to them,
however, since nothing of the kind had been found in
America until a little over a year ago and great stress had
been laid by certain geologists on their absence. Another
remarkable feature of the discovery was that the fossils
which had been reported as not existing in this country had
hardly been brought to light in one locality before thousands
of tons of them were simultaneously discovered in half a
dozen different places.

Trying to Save a Hundred and Fifty Million Dollars a Year.

Professor Riley, recently appointed Government Entomologist
and attached to the Agricultural Department, reports
that specimens of insects injurious to agriculture are
constantly being sent to the department from all parts of the
country, with requests for information. In every instance,
if a proper examination could be made, an effectual remedy
could be found, and not less than $150,000,000 saved to the
country annually. Recently a worm entirely new to science
was sent to the department by an Iowa farmer, whose
orchard of several thousand apple trees had been rendered
unproductive for several years by the new depredator. For
the interests of Western fruit growers this insect should
immediately be investigated. Professor Riley asserts that
the $5,000 recently voted by Congress for the investigation
of the cotton worm, which has sometimes damaged the cotton
crop of the South as much as $20,000,000 in a single fortnight,
might have been used to better advantage by the department;
the salary of the entomologist will use up all the money,
leaving next to nothing for experiments for the eradication
of the pest.

Industrial Education.

All are agreed that some education is necessary; but
what? The great proportion of those having the direction
of our educational system and facilities in charge still cling
to a system which was established long before the first mechanical
operation came into existence. Before the present
system of man’s relation to man, socially, industrially, politically,
or commercially, was heard of, and notwithstanding
the revolutions and advancement in all other things, there is
a determined resistance to any attempt at revolution in what
shall be considered education.

There is an effort to establish compulsory education; but
what is the child to be taught? As if in league with the
false theories of the rights of labor, these efforts take the apprentices
from the shops, force them away from where
they would learn something, and confine them inside a school
house to learn—what? Certainly nothing of the materials, or
tools, or pursuits by which they are to obtain their livelihood.
The child knows nothing of when or by whom the
compass was discovered, the printing press, the use of
powder, electricity, of steam, or of any one of the thousand
mechanical operations now controlling every department of
life. Does any school boy know how many kingdoms there
are in the natural world, or whether an animal, a vegetable
and a mineral all belong to the same or to different ones?
Will he know that from instinct the young of animals seeks
its food and expands its lungs, as by the same instinct the
root of a seed sucks up its nourishment from the soil and
sends its leaves up to breathe the air? Will he know anything
of the nature or requirements of the soils or the plants
that grow in them? Will this compulsory education teach
the boy anything of the iron furnace, the foundry or rolling
mill, or the uses or handling of any of their products? Will
it teach him anything of woods and their value, or for what
and how they are useful to man?

Will this knowledge, for which the powers of the State are
to be required to force him to know it—will it teach him anything
of the nature or uses of metals, of metal working, or
the business depending upon them? Will it teach him
anything of gold or silver, copper or brass? Anything of pottery,
of bone, ivory, celluloid, etc.? Will he learn anything
of hides, leather, or the production of these necessary articles?
Will he know whether the word textile applies to anything
but a spider’s web or the wing of a butterfly? Whether the
United States make, import, or grow cotton, wool, silk, flax,
and hemp?

Will he know anything of commerce, railroads, telegraphs,
printing, and the great number of clerk labors in the larger
towns? Will he have learned a single thing which will assist
him in his work of life? Will not every boy thus taken out
of the shop and placed at the compulsory schooling find after
he has mastered all it has to give him that he yet knows nothing;
that he must then commence where he was and serve
his apprenticeship; that instead of compulsory education his
past years have been wasted in obtaining but a compulsory
ignorance?

[Pg 91]

[Business and Personal.]

The Charge for Insertion under this head is One Dollar
a line for each insertion; about eight words to a line.
Advertisements must be received at publication office
as early as Thursday morning to appear in next issue.

Lubricene.—A Lubricating Material in the form of a
Grease. One pound equal to two gallons of sperm oil.
R. J. Chard, New York.

Assays of Ores, Analyses of Minerals, Waters, Commercial
Articles, etc. Technical formulæ and processes.
Laboratory, 33 Park Row, N. Y. Fuller & Stillman.

Manufacturers of Improved Goods who desire to build
up a lucrative foreign trade, will do well to insert a well
displayed advertisement in the Scientific American
Export Edition. This paper has a very large foreign
circulation.

Cutters, shaped entirely by machinery, for cutting
teeth of Gear Wheels. Pratt & Whitney Co., Manufacturers,
Hartford, Conn.

18 ft. Steam Yacht, $250. Geo. F. Shedd, Waltham, Mass.

Electrical instruments of all kinds. One Electric
Bell, Battery, Push Button, and 50 feet Wire for $4.00.
Send for catalogue. H. Thau, 128 Fulton St., N. Y.

Wheels and Pinions, heavy and light, remarkably
strong and durable. Especially suited for sugar mills
and similar work. Pittsburgh Steel Casting Company,
Pittsburgh, Pa.

Boilers ready for shipment, new and 2d hand. For a
good boiler, send to Hilles & Jones, Wilmington, Del.

Best Steam Pipe & Boiler Covering. P. Carey, Dayton, O.

Foot Lathes, Fret Saws, 6c., 90 pp. E. Brown, Lowell, Ms.

Sperm Oil, Pure. Wm. F. Nye, New Bedford, Mass.

Power & Foot Presses, Ferracute Co., Bridgeton, N. J.

Kreider, Campbell & Co., 1030 Germantown Ave.,
Phila., Pa., contractors for mills for all kinds of grinding.

Punching Presses, Drop Hammers, and Dies for working
Metals, etc. The Stiles & Parker Press Co., Middletown, Conn.

All kinds of Saws will cut Smooth and True by filing
them with our New Machine, price $2.50. Illustrated
Circular free. E. Roth & Bro., New Oxford, Pa.

“The Best Mill in the World,” for White Lead, Dry,
Paste, or Mixed Paint, Printing Ink, Chocolate, Paris
White, Shoe Blacking, etc., Flour, Meal, Feed, Drugs,
Cork, etc. Charles Boss, Jr., Williamsburgh, N.Y.

A Practical Engineer and Machinist, 24 years’ experience.
Best of reference, marine or stationary; forge;
fit; repair. W. Barker, 433 2d Ave., N. Y.

Hydraulic Presses and Jacks, new and second hand.
Lathes and Machinery for Polishing and Buffing metals.
E. Lyon & Co., 470 Grand St., N. Y.

Nickel Plating.—A white deposit guaranteed by using
our material. Condit, Hanson & Van Winkle, Newark, N. J.

Cheap but Good. The “Roberts Engine,” see cut
in this paper, June 1st, 1878. Also horizontal and
vertical engines and boilers. E. E. Roberts, 107 Liberty
St., N. Y.

The Cameron Steam Pump mounted in Phosphor
Bronze is an indestructible machine. See ad. back page.

Presses, Dies, and Tools for working Sheet Metals, etc.
Fruit and other Can Tools. Bliss & Williams, Brooklyn,
N. Y., and Paris Exposition, 1878.

The Scientific American Export Edition is published
monthly, about the 15th of each month. Every
number comprises most of the plates of the four preceding
weekly numbers of the scientific American, with
other appropriate contents, business announcements,
etc. It forms a large and splendid periodical of nearly
one hundred quarto pages, each number illustrated with
about one hundred engravings. It is a complete record
of American progress in the arts.

Bound Volumes of the Scientific American.—I will
sell bound volumes 4, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 28, and 32, New Series,
for $1 each, to be sent by express. Address John
Edwards, P. O. Box 773, New York.

For Solid Wrought Iron Beams, etc., see advertisement.
Address Union Iron Mills, Pittsburgh, Pa., for
lithograph, etc.

Pulverizing Mills for all hard substance and grinding
purposes. Walker Bros. & Co., 23d and Wood St., Phila.

2d hand Planers, 7′ x 30″, $300; 6′ x 24″, $225; 5′ x
24″, $200; sc. cutt. b’k g’d Lathe, 9′ x 28″, $200; A. C. Stebbins,
Worcester, Mass.

J. C. Hoadley, Consulting Engineer and Mechanical
and Scientific Expert, Lawrence, Mass.

Best Wood Cutting Machinery, of the latest improved
kinds, eminently superior, manufactured by Bentel,
Margedant & Co., Hamilton, Ohio, at lowest prices.

Water Wheels, increased power. O. J. Bollinger, York, Pa.

We make steel castings from ¼ to 10,000 lbs. weight.
3 times as strong as cast iron. 12,000 Crank Shafts of this
steel now running and proved superior to wrought iron.
Circulars and price list free. Address Chester Steel
Castings Co., Evelina St., Philadelphia, Pa.

Diamond Saws. J. Dickinson, 64 Nassau St., N. Y.

Machine Cut Brass Gear Wheels for Models, etc. (new
list). Models, experimental work, and machine work
generally. D. Gilbert & Son, 212 Chester St., Phila., Pa.

Holly System of Water Supply and Fire Protection for
Cities and Villages. See advertisement in Scientific
American of last week.

The only Engine in the market attached to boiler
having cold bearings. F. F. & A. B. Landis, Lancaster, Pa.

The Turbine Wheel made by Risdon & Co., Mt. Holly,
N. J., gave the best results at Centennial tests.

Hand Fire Engines, Lift and Force Pumps for fire
and all other purposes. Address Rumsey & Co., Seneca
Falls, N. Y., U. S. A.

For Shafts, Pulleys, or Hangers, call and see stock
kept at 79 Liberty St. Wm. Sellers & Co.

Wm. Sellers & Co., Phila., have introduced a new
Injector, worked by a single motion of a lever.

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Metals and Their Chief Industrial Applications.
By Charles R. Alder
Wright. London: Macmillan & Co.
12mo; pp. 191. Price $1.25.

In this neat little volume we have the substance of a
course of lectures delivered at the Royal Institution of
Great Britain in 1877, with thirty or more engraved illustrations
of various metallurgical operations. The
author discusses briefly, yet with sufficient fullness for
popular purposes, the principal processes for reducing
metals from their ores, the natural sources of metals,
the metallurgy of the different metals, the physical
properties of metals, and their thermic, electric, and
chemical relations. The style is simple and the matter
well chosen.

Dosia. A Russian Story. Translated from
the French of Henry Greville, by Mary
Neal Sherwood. Boston: Estes & Lauriat.
Price $1.50.

This is the seventh of the Cobweb Series of choice
fiction, a bright, wholesome but rather thin story, as
befits its associations. Novel readers will find it an
amusing companion for a rainy day in the country, or
for beguiling the tedium of a summer journey.

[Notes & Queries]

(1) H. P. says: Please inform me of some
recipe for removing superfluous hair. A. Make a
strong solution of sulphuret of barium into a paste
with powdered starch. Apply immediately after being
mixed and allow to remain for ten or fifteen minutes.
See also p. 107 (8), vol. 38, and p. 25, current volume.

(2) M. A. C. writes: I would like to know
how to dissolve bleached shellac, to make it a cement
for stone. A. Dissolve it by digestion in 3 or 4 parts of
strong alcohol, or by the aid of ¼ its weight of borax
in about 4 volumes of boiling water.

(3) A. K. asks: 1. In rating substances as
to hardness, diamond being No. 10, how do aluminum,
osmium, iridium and steel as used in steel pens, number,
also common and tempered glass? A. Aluminum
about 3, iridosmine 6.5 to 7, steel 5.5 to 6, glass 5 to 5.5.
2. Can glass 1/32 inch in thickness be ground to angles of
15 per cent or less, and points as fine as pins, without
difficulty, and how? A. No.

(4) D. C. S., asks for a good recipe for
cleaning and polishing dirty and tarnished brass. A.
Dip for a short time in strong hot aqueous solution of
caustic alkali, rinse in water, dip for a few moments in
nitric acid diluted with an equal volume of water, rinse
again, and finish with whiting.

(5) C. J. H. asks for the simplest way of
producing a coating of the magnetic or black oxide of
iron on iron plates 3 feet x 6 feet. I think it is called
the Barff process. A. See pp. 1041 Scientific American
Supplement, and 232, vol. 36, and 4, vol. 37, of the
Scientific American.

How can I make tissue paper impervious to air and
water, and yet strong enough to confine gas? A. You
may pass the fabric through a solution of about 1 part
caoutchouc in 35 parts of carbonic disulphide, exposing
it then to the air until the solvent has evaporated.

(6) J. H. J. asks how to use hyposulphite (?)
of soda to neutralize chloride of lime in cotton and
linen goods after bleaching the same. A. After washing
from it the large excess of the hypochlorite, the
fabric is passed slowly through a solution containing
about 10 per cent of the hyposulphite, and then again
thoroughly washed in clean water.

(7) Columbus asks for a recipe for making
ink to rule faint lines, such as he is now writing on. He
wants it to rule unit columns in books. A. Dissolve in a
small quantity of warm water 20 parts of Prussian blue
by the aid of 3 parts of potassium ferrocyanide, and
dilute the solution with thin gum water until the proper
degree of color is obtained.

(8) A. I. B. asks: Can I add anything to
Arnold’s writing fluid which will cause it to give a good
free copy in my letter book? A. Try a little sugar.

(9) R. & C. ask for information in regard
to the process of printing copies of drawings made on
transparent materials, by using chemically prepared
paper and exposing to the sunlight. A. It is based on
the fact that an acid in the presence of potassium
dichromate strikes a blackish-green color when brought
in contact with aniline. The paper is prepared by floating
it on a bath of aqueous solution of potassium dichromate
and a trace of phosphoric acid, and then drying
it in the dark. Aniline is dissolved in a little alcohol,
and the mixed vapors allowed to come into contact
with the sensitive paper that has been exposed to strong
sunlight beneath the drawing, when the portions not
changed by the sunlight assume the dark color mentioned.
All that is requisite is that the paper or cloth
original should be fairly penetrable by the light. A
piece of paper sensitized as indicated, a sheet of glass
to place over the drawing, and a box in which to place
the exposed print to the aniline vapor are the only necessary
plant.

(10) P. Y. P. writes: 1. To find the number
of acres in a farm of valley and hillside land, is it by
measuring the general contour of the land, allowing its
actual surface, or by measuring and allowing only the
imaginary face of the plane of it? A. The latter is
the correct method. 2. Can more grain, say rye, be
raised on a farm of valley and hillside land, as described
above, than on a farm having a flat surface, the area of
which is equal to the plane of the former, all other
things supposed to be equal? A. No.

(11) Inventor asks: 1. Can you tell me of
a book on sound boards? A. We do not know of a
book especially devoted to the subject. 2. Also the
best kind of wood to make them out of? A. Spruce.

(12) F. C. A. writes: I wish to construct a
bar electro-magnet to go in a cylinder 1 inch in diameter
and 1 inch long. 1. What size ought the core to be?
What number of wire shall I use, and what number of
Léclanché cells shall I use (not to exceed twelve) to obtain
the greatest possible attractive power, distance 1/10
of an inch? A. Make the core 3/8 inch, wind it with No.
24 silk covered wire. Use 6 or 8 cells. 2. In the same
space, could a horseshoe magnet be used, with a gain of
power over the bar magnet? A. A cylindrical magnet,
which is substantially the same as a horseshoe, might
be substituted with advantage for the bar magnet.

(13) W. C. H. writes: In turning a tapering
shaft in an engine lathe, will the tool if raised above
the centers of the lathe turn the taper true from end to
end, i. e., neither concave nor convex, the taper to be
made by sliding the tail center the required distance?
A. The taper will be concave.

(14) H. E. H. asks how to make lime light.
A. The lime light is made by directing the jet of an
oxyhydrogen blowpipe against a cylinder of lime. The
blowpipe is contrived to take the proper proportion of
oxygen and hydrogen gas, and the lime is placed in the
reducing focus of the jet.

(15) L. F. asks: 1. How many Daniell’s or
Smee’s cells would it require to produce the same effect
as 50 Bunsen cells? A. About 100. 2. Is the diaphragm
equally necessary in Bunsen’s, Smee’s and Daniell’s
cells, or can it be omitted in any one of them easier
than in the others, and why so? A. The diaphragm or
porous cell is required in Daniell’s and Bunsen’s batteries,
but is not used in Smee’s. The porous cell is
used only in two fluid batteries; its object is to allow
the current to pass, but to prevent the mixture of the
two liquids. 3. Is the thickness of the zinc of any importance?
A. Only that the thicker zinc lasts longer.
4. Which is the cheapest way to produce electric sparks
and to charge a Leyden jar, and what will be the expense?
A. By means of a frictional electrical machine.
The machines cost from $10 upward.

(16) R. C. K. writes: I am an engineer by
trade; have been at it 9 years. Am out of a position at
present and want to learn mechanical draughting. How
long would it take me to become a good draughtsman
by taking a special course at some university? And
with my knowledge of engineering and draughting,
would my services be likely to be in fair demand? A.
If you are familiar with mechanical operations, you
might become a good draughtsman by close application
under a competent instructor for one or two years. At
present there are many excellent draughtsmen looking
for positions.

(17) G. B. M. asks for the cause of the ribs
or ridges on the surface of a piece of timber which has
passed through a planing machine. A. They are frequently
due to the intermittent motion of the feed.

(18) A. F. writes: Having a small quantity
of gold and gold plated things, I would like to know
the simplest way to melt it. A. Put it in a small crucible
with a little borax and melt in a common kitchen
fire.

(19) J. H. S., writes: I have three drawings
each 21 x 30 inches, which I wish to mount upon cloth
like a map, placing them end to end so as to make one
whole sheet 90 inches long. The drawings are upon
heavy Whatman paper. A. You should stretch wet
canvas or factory cloth upon a frame, and while it is
still damp apply paste to the backs of the drawings and
lay them smoothly on the stretched cloth. When the
paste becomes thoroughly dry cut the cloth from the
stretching frame and paste a tape binding around the
edges.

(20) P. M. asks: What is the difference between
the inner and outer rails of a 10° curve 100 yards
in length, gauge 4 feet 8 inches? A. If this 100 yards
is measured on the center of the curve, whose radius in
feet is R, the length of the inner rail is

R – 2-1/3
———— x 100,
R

and of the outer rail

R + 2-1/3
———— x 100.
R

(21) W. B. K. asks how to make a shoe
dressing for ladies’ shoes. A. Soft water, 1 gallon; extract
of logwood, 6 ozs.; dissolve at a temperature of
about 120° Fah. Soft water, 1 gallon; borax, 6 ozs.;
shellac, 1-1/2 oz.; boil until dissolved. Potassium dichromate,
3/8 oz.; hot water, 1/2 pint; dissolve, and add
all together. It is preferred to add 3 ozs. of strong aqua
ammonia to the liquid before bottling.

(22) J. D. asks: What chemicals can be put
into water to increase its efficiency in extinguishing fire?
A. Carbonic acid; sodium carbonate.

(23) H. P. writes: Please give me the advantages
and disadvantages of substituting a galvanized
iron tube 18 inches in diameter and 20 feet high for a
wood tank, 5 feet wide and 6 deep, as a container of
water in a dwelling house in the country. Would the
narrower body of water keep fresh or sweet longer, etc.?
Also the thickness of iron necessary to safety, and the
number of gallons of water this tube would hold. A.
The advantages are in favor of the wooden tank; zinc
lined vessels (galvanized) are unsuitable for reservoirs
for potable water. See p. 369, vol. 36, Scientific American.
0.3 inch iron would be stout enough. A pipe of
the dimensions specified would contain about 327 gallons
when full.

(24) F. L. M. asks: 1. What is the process
by which wire is given a copper finish? A. Clean the
wire by pickling it for a short time in very dilute sulphuric
acid and scouring with sand if necessary. Then
pass the clean wire through a strong bath of copper sulphate
dissolved in water. 2. Can wire be thus finished
and also annealed? If so, how? A. The wire should
be annealed first. 3. What other finish can be put on
iron wire (annealed), and by what process? A. Zinc—by
passing the clean wire through molten zinc covered
with sal ammoniac; tin—by drawing the wire through a
bath of molten tin covered with tallow.

Minerals, Etc.—Specimens have been received
from the following correspondents, and
examined, with the results stated:

J. H. McF.—A fine quality of kaolin.—F. C. H.—The
floury powder consists chiefly, if not altogether, of calcium
carbonate.—C. L. G.—They are all silicious limestones.
We cannot judge fairly of their value for building
purposes from the powders sent.—D. K.—Ferruginous
earth or marl.—A. E.—It is a partially decomposed
feldspar. The white powder is for the most part an impure,
silicious, kaolin.—E. H.—It consists chiefly of basic
carbonate and hydrated oxide of lead—poisonous.—J. B. V.—It
is a fair quality of pipe clay—impure silicate
of alumina—probably worth about $2 per ton in New
York.

COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED.

The Editor of the Scientific American acknowledges
with much pleasure the receipt of original papers and
contributions on the following subjects:

Religion. By W. M. E.
Cause of Explosion in Flouring Mills. By G. M.

[OFFICIAL.]

INDEX OF INVENTIONS

FOR WHICH

Letters Patent of the United States were
Granted in the Week Ending

May 28, 1878,

AND EACH BEARING THAT DATE.

[Those marked (r) are reissued patents.]

A complete copy of any patent in the annexed list,
including both the specifications and drawings, will be
furnished from this office for one dollar. In ordering,
please state the number and date of the patent desired
and remit to Munn & Co., 37 Park Row, New York city.

[Pg 92]

TRADE MARKS.

DESIGNS.

English Patents Issued to Americans.

From June 28 to July 2, inclusive.

Bale tie.—S. H. Gilman, New Orleans, La.

Blast furnace.—J. F. Bennett, Pittsburg, Pa.

Cigarette machine.—V. L’Eplattinaire, N. Y. city.

Furnace for steam boilers.—O. Marland, Boston, Mass.

Grain binders.—C. H. McCormick, Chicago, Ill.

Grain separators.—Barnard & Leas Manufacturing Co., Moline, Ill.

Mortising chisel.—A. J. Buttler, New Brunswick, N.J.

Paper making machinery.—J. H. & G. Hatch, South Meriden, Conn.

Paper vessels or receptacles.—R. B. Crane, N. Y. city.

Skates.—P. C. Franke, St. Paul, Minn.

Teeth cleaner.—A. P. Merrill, N. Y. city.

Timber joining machine.—W. E. Brock. N. Y. city.

Wearing apparel.—Israel Crane, N. Y. city.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY.

The Scientific American Export Edition is a large
and SPLENDID PERIODICAL, issued once a month,
forming a complete and interesting Monthly Record
of all Progress in Science and the Useful Arts throughout
the World. Each number contains about ONE
HUNDRED LARGE QUARTO PAGES, profusely
illustrated, embracing:

(1.) Most of the plates and pages of the four preceding
weekly issues of the Scientific American,
with its SPLENDID ENGRAVINGS AND VALUABLE
INFORMATION.

(2.) Commercial, Trade, and Manufacturing announcements
of leading houses.

Terms for Export Edition, $5.00 a year, sent prepaid
to any part of the world. Single copies, 50 cents.

For sale at this office. To be had at all News and
Book Stores throughout the country.

NOW READY.

Scientific American for July, 1878, with Eighty-one
Engravings.

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Brewster’s Carriage Manufactory, New York. One engraving.
The Parlor or Cabinet Organs of Mason & Hamlin.
The New Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine.
Howe’s Improved Scales.
The Chickering Pianos.
The Ingersoll Rock Drill.
Photo-engraving.
The Paper Product of the United States.
Electrical Indicator for Exhibiting the
Rotation of the Earth. Two engravings.
The Elevated Railroad Nuisance.
Steam Boilers.
Progress of our Western Industries.
The Decline of the Whaling Industry.
Transmitting Power by Electricity.
Native Magnesium Salts.
Scientific American Export Edition for June.
The Eothen Arctic Expedition.
Patent Matters in Congress.
The Turkish Bath.
Remarkable Locomotive Performances.
The United States Building at the Paris Exposition.
Recent Ship Designs.
Figures which Seem Untruthful.
The Hotchkiss Ship’s Log.
Starting New Industries.
The Telephone at Sea.
Horizontal Condensing Engine at the Exposition. One engraving.
Deep Boring.
Whitening Positives.
Mr. Thomas A. Edison. One engraving.
Patteson’s Improved Car Coupling. One engraving.
Project for Increasing the Water Power of Pennsylvania.
A Japanese Built Ironclad.
A Great Public Nuisance.—The Steam Street Railways
New York City.
What the South Owes New England.
New Mechanical Inventions.
Iridescent Glass.
Fast Paper Making.
Effect of Gas on Cotton Goods.
Electrotypes of the Brain.
Astronomical Notes for July. With Three figures, giving the
Positions, Rising and Setting of the Planets.
Sun Spots.
Removing Spots from Cloths.
“American” New Process Milling.
New Agricultural Inventions.
A Defense of Sludge Acid.
Shad Hatching at Havre de Grace, Md.
Improved Wrench. Two engravings.
A Drygoods Palace Car.
Radial Drilling Machine. One engraving.
Improved Self-oiling Car Wheel. Three engravings.
The Whitehead Torpedo. One engraving.
A Californian Wheat Farm.
Edison’s Telephonic Researches. Eleven figures.
New Inventions.
New Electric Light.
Quick Freight Time.
The Adams Gas Process. Three engravings.
The Invention of the Microphone.
Preparation of Iron Fuels.
Millstones.
An Hour with Edison. Four engravings.
Suspension Bridge Accident.
Mill Explosion Science.
Learn Something.
Unsuitable Steam Vessels. One engraving.
Our Naval Tubs.
Leaves and their Functions.
Lever and Cam Valve. Two engravings.
An Ingenious Toy. One engraving.
Milk as a Substitute for Blood Transfusion.
Dr. Brown-Sequard.
Odd Uses of Paraffin.
American Institute Exhibition.
Solidification of Petroleum.
A Simple Fire-escape.
Mr. Edison on the Microphone.
Driving Piles in Sand.
Is our Globe Hollow?
The Best Penwiper.
The Etiology of Asiatic Cholera.—A New Theory.
Diagnosis.
Proposed Process for the Fixation of Atmospheric Nitrogen. Two
figures.
Hallucinations.
Perils of Base-ball Playing.
Music Boxes.
Electric Light Photography.
Improved Beehive. Three engravings.
A Good Act.
Improved Gas Condenser. Two engravings.
American Crop Prospects.
The Launch of the Nipsic.
The Swiss House at the French Exposition. One engraving.
The Ingenuity of Bees.
The St. Benoit Twins. One engraving.
Improved Method of Milling.
A Remarkable Meteoric Phenomenon.
Drinking Water.
Where to Observe the Solar Eclipse of July 29th.
Explorations and Surveys.
Tests for Good Burning Oil.
Curious Hedge Figures. One engraving.
Food Supply of Paris.
The Leona Goat Sucker. One engraving.
Oatmeal.
Salt in Beer.
Dr. Morfit’s Method of Preserving Animal and Vegetable Food.
The Ring of Fire, and the Volcanic Peaks of the West Coast of the United States.
To Imitate Ground Glass.
Railroad Birds.
Improved Variable Automatic Cut-off. Four engravings.
The Uses of Mechanism.
Working Gold Ores.
The Sun. With nine engravings. An excellent paper.
Professor Edison’s New Carbon Rheostat. Two engravings.
The Chase Elemental Governor. Two engravings.
Chinese Wine Powder.
Amber Varnish.
The Alkaloids of Opium.
Microscopy.
Is the Moon Inhabited?
Description of the Recent Most Important Mechanical Inventions.
Counterfeiting American Goods.
The Steam Street Railways of New York City.
Improved Piston Rod Stuffing Box. One engraving.
Improved Automatic Fan. One engraving.
Wandering Needles.
Improved Step Box. One engraving.
Heat Conductivity.
New Volcano in Peru.
Wood Carver of Simla. One engraving.
Natural History Notes.
Belgium, Holland, and England.
Jointed Artillery.
The Armstrong 100-ton Gun.
The Phonograph.
Scientific American Boat Drawings.
Wire Tramway Worked by Water Wheels.
Shell Polishing.
Floating Batteries at Kertch.
Apparatus for Administering Medicine to Horses. One engraving.
Apprentice Shops for the Boys.
A Boat Older than the Ark. Three figures.
Employment of Ships against Forts.
The Otto Bicycle. One engraving.
A Simple Gas Generator. One engraving.
Labor in Scotland.
The Cattle Drives of 1878.
Effects of Emancipation.
A New Trouble with French Wines.
The New Twin Steamer “Calais-Douvres.” One engraving.
Industrial Drawing and Art Studies.
Vulcanizing Rubber.
Strawberries and Constipation.
Professor Langley’s Papers on the Sun.
Destruction vs. Construction of Ironclads.
How Raisins are Prepared.
The Sun.—A Total Eclipse. With six engravings.
The Bishop of Manchester on British Trade Depression.
A New Insect Pest.
Death of a Giant.
Edison’s Phonomotor. Two engravings.
Excavating Scoop. One engraving.
Treatment of Acute Rheumatism.
How a Horse Trots.
Danger of Carbolic Acid Dressings.
Welded Union and Rebel Bullets. One engraving.
Indicator of a Steamboat Engine.
A Remedy for the Effects of the Poison Ivy.
Thymol.
Copper Oysters.
The Use of Antimony in Batteries.
Photographs on Silk.
How to Use a File. A valuable practical paper.
Our Iron Industry.
Two Ways of Looking at the Same Facts.
New Screw-cutting Lathe. One engraving.
New Cloth Measuring Apparatus. One engraving.
Moth Remedies.
Gampert’s Wood-sole Shoe. Three engravings.
Science and Sentiment.
American Coal in Europe.
An Active Volcano in the Moon.
Tic-douloureux.
Landing of Cleopatra’s Needle. One large engraving.
Heat Conductivity.
The Total Eclipse of the Sun, July 29. Two figures.
New Iron Fence. Two engravings.
The Adjutant. One engraving.
A New Disinfectant.
The Curiosities of Tobacco.
Preserving Fish by Hydraulic Pressure.

Answers to Correspondents, embodying a large quantity
of valuable information, practical recipes, and instructions
in various arts.

Single numbers of the Scientific American Export
Edition, 50 cents. To be had at this office, and at all
news stores.

MUNN & CO., Publishers,

37 Park Row, New York.

To Advertisers: =>Manufacturers and others who
desire to secure foreign trade may have large and handsomely
displayed announcements published in this edition
at a very moderate cost.

Inside Page, each insertion 75 cents a line.
Back Page, each insertion $1.00 a line.

(About eight words to a line.)

Engravings may head advertisements at the same rate
per line, by measurement, as the letter press. Advertisements
must be received at publication office as early
as Thursday morning to appear in next issue.

THE GEOLOGICAL ANTIQUITY OF
Flowers and Insects. By J. E. Taylor, F.G.S. A plain,
comprehensive review of the subject, bringing forward
many instructive facts; with six illustrations. The
invariable correlation between insects and flowers.
How they are fossilized. Fossil botany. Geological
Evidences of Evolution. Correspondence in the succession
of Animal and Vegetable life. Flowers necessary
to Insects, and Insects necessary to Flowers. Insects
and Plants in the Devonian, the Switzerland Lias, the
English Stonesfield Slate, the Tertiary Strata, the Coal
Measures, a Greenland, and other formations. A Peculiar
Aspect of Evolution. Contained in Scientific
American Supplement No. 120. Price 10 cents. To
be had at this office and of all newsdealers.

THE PHONOGRAPH AND ITS FUTURE.
By Thomas A. Edison. The instrument and its Action.
Durability, Duplication, and Postal Transmission
of Phonograph Plates. The probable great utility of the
Phonograph in Letter-writing, Business Correspondence
and Dictation; Literature; Education; Law; Music;
Oratory, etc. Application to Musical Boxes, Toys, and
Clocks. Telegraphy of the Future; the Phonograph
and Telephone combined. Being a most interesting and
valuable paper by the author and inventor of the Phonograph
himself. Contained in Scientific American
Supplement, No. 124. Price 10 cents. To be had at
this office and of all newsdealers.

THE

[Scientific American.]

The Most Popular Scientific Paper in the World.

THIRTY-THIRD YEAR.

Only $3.20 a Year including Postage. Weekly.
52 Numbers a Year.

This widely circulated and splendidly illustrated
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representing Engineering Works, Steam Machinery,
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Agriculture, Horticulture, Natural History, etc.

All Classes of Readers find in The Scientific
American a popular resume of the best scientific information
of the day; and it is the aim of the publishers
to present it in an attractive form, avoiding as much as
possible abstruse terms. To every intelligent mind,
this journal affords a constant supply of instructive
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Terms of Subscription.—One copy of The Scientific
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The safest way to remit is by Postal Order, Draft, or
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MUNN & CO.,
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To Foreign Subscribers.—Under the facilities of
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in Great Britain, India, Australia, and all other
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Terms, when sent to foreign countries, Canada excepted,
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both Scientific American and Supplement for 1
year. This includes postage, which we pay. Remit by
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Row, New York.

[Pg 93]

WALTHAM WATCHES.

Improved in Quality, but no
higher in price.

After this date, we shall sell none but New Model
Waltham Watches, particulars of which will be
found in our New Price List.

Every one concedes that genuine Waltham watches
are superior to all others, and at present prices they are
within the reach of all.

We continue to send single watches by mail or express
to any part of the country, no matter how remote,
without any risk to the purchaser.

Price List sent free and postpaid.

Address HOWARD & CO.,

All silver cases for the New Model Watches are made
of sterling silver, and cases as well as movements are
guaranteed by special certificate.

$85. BEST and CHEAPEST
FOOT POWER SCREW CUTTING ENGINE LATHES
SEE FULL DESCRIPTION IN
Scientific American July 27
SEND FOR ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE GOODNOW & WIGHTMAN 176 WASHINGTON ST. BOSTON MASS.]

The Midsummer Holiday Scribner.

ANOTHER ROYAL NUMBER.

Charming Writers—New Artists—Superb Engraving.

The August number of this progressive
magazine is the third “Midsummer Holiday”
issue, and the publisher is confident that in
literary and artistic excellence it will be
found fully equal to, if not in advance of, its
predecessors, which met with such distinguished
favor from the press and the public.

It opens with a Frontispiece,

A NEW PORTRAIT OF BRYANT,

Drawn in crayon, from life, by Wyatt Eaton,
and engraved by Cole, with a sketch of the
haunts and homes of Bryant, by Horatio N.
Powers, with numerous wood-cuts.

Among the other illustrated material is

“A SEA-PORT ON THE PACIFIC,“

By Mary Hallock Foote. The drawings
are also by Mrs. Foote, and are engraved by
Marsh, Cole, and others. They have not been
excelled in magazine literature for charm,
picturesqueness, and fine engraving. A paper
of wide interest is

“TO SOUTH AFRICA for DIAMONDS!“

By Dr. W. J. Morton, a narrative of personal
experience in the mines, with striking illustrations
of this romantic and curious life.
There are also

TWO CHARMING FIELD PAPERS:

“Sharp Eyes” by John Burroughs, with
illustrations by a new artist; “Glimpses of
New England Farm Life,” by R. E. Robinson,
a paper of rare picturesque interest.

There are illustrated poems by Dr. Holland
and J. T. Trowbridge; also, poems
by Stedman, Bret Harte, and others.

The Illustrations are by Wyatt Eaton,
Mary Hallock Foote, Vanderhoof, Waud,
Frederick Dielman, R. Swain Gifford, Jervis
McEntee, Henry Farrer, Winslow Homer,
J. E. Kelly, Walter Shirlaw, L. C. Tiffany,
Thomas Moran, Will H. Low, Mrs. Fanny
Eliot Gifford, and others.

The shorter stories are by Stockton and
Henry James, Jr.

Dr. Eggleston’s Story of Western Life
reaches its climax, and will end in October.

A New Novel,

“FALCONBERG,” by BOYESEN,

Begins in this issue. It is a story of immigrant
life in America, told by one of the most
promising of the younger generation of novelists,
and will be read with interest abroad
as well as at home.

The Editorial Departments include “Our
Commune,” “The Death of Bryant,” “Greatness
in Art,” “A Rural Art Association,”
“Recent Improvements in Telephony,”
thoughtful and suggestive Book Reviews,
Humorous Sketches and Verses by new hands,
&c., &c.

The frontispiece is upon a peculiar tint of
paper, manufactured by Warren expressly for
Eaton’s portrait of Bryant. The printing is
by De Vinne, from the press of Francis Hart
& Co., who take rank among the foremost
printers of the world.

Edition 85,000. Price 35 cents Sold
by all News-dealers and Book-sellers.

Baker Rotary Pressure Blower.

(FORCED BLAST.)

Warranted superior to any other.

WILBRAHAM BROS.

2318 Frankford Ave.

OUTWARD MARKS OF A GOOD COW.

By Capt. John C. Morris, Pa. Carelessness in Breeding.
How to Select for Breeding. Marks of the Handsome
Cow. Care and Training of the Heifer. Infallible
Marks of Good Milkers. Distinguishing Marks and
Characteristics of the “Bastard” and the “Bogus”
Cow, etc. Contained, with useful Remarks on Bee
Culture, in Scientific American Supplement No.
135. Price 10 cents. To be had at this office and of all
newsdealers.

PATENTS AT
AUCTION.

  Regular Monthly Sales the first week of each month
by George W. Keeler, Auctioneer, at his salesrooms,
53 and 55 Liberty Street, N. Y. For terms, etc.,
address The New York Patent Exchange, 53 Liberty
St., N. Y.

SPARE THE CROTON AND SAVE THE COST.

Driven or Tube Wells

furnished to large consumers of Croton and Ridgewood
Water. WM. D. ANDREWS & BRO., 414 Water St., N. Y.,
who control the patent for Green’s American Driven Well

BIBB’S Celebrated Original Baltimore [Fire Place Heaters] Mantels and Registers. B. C. BIBB & SON, Baltimore, Md. Best workmanship. Lowest prices guaranteed. Send for circulars.

JAPANESE ART MANUFACTURES.

By Christopher Dresser, Ph.D., etc. Paper read before
Society of Arts. The Japanese Potter at Work. Curious
mode of Making Scarfs. How the Japanese Print on
Cloth. Japanese Process for Silk Ornamentation. Japanese
Weaving. How Fine Japanese Fans are made.
Japanese Method of Making Moulds for Ornamental
Castings for Vessels, Bronzes, etc. Japanese Lacquer
Manufacture. Curious Method of Decorating Lacquer
Work. The Love and Pursuit of the Beautiful in Japan.
A very entertaining, instructive, and comprehensive
paper. Contained in Scientific American Supplement
No. 115. Price 10 cents. To be had at this office
and of all newsdealers.

[BURNHAM’S STANDARD TURBINE WATER WHEEL.
WARRANTED BEST AND CHEAPEST. N. F. BURNHAM, YORK, PA.]

Relieved and cured, without the injury trusses inflict,
by Dr. J. A. Sherman’s method of support and curative
externally applied. Office, 251 Broadway, N. Y. His
book, with photographic likenesses of bad cases before
and after cure, mailed for 10 cents. Beware of imitators.

ARTIFICIAL LIGHT.

We have just introduced this important facility, which enables us to prosecute our work
in cloudy weather, and to push through hurried orders in the night.

[New Method of Engraving
Moss’ Process.
Photo Engraving Co.
67 Park Place, New York.]

RELIEF PLATES

For Newspaper, Book, and Catalogue Illustrations. Engraved in Type-Metal, by a new
Photo-Chemical Method, from all kinds of Prints, Pen Drawings, Original Designs, Photographs,
etc., much cheaper than wood cuts. These plates have a perfectly smooth
printing surface, and the lines are as deep, as even, and as sharp as they could
possibly be cut by hand. We guarantee that they will print satisfactorily, on wet or dry
paper, and on any press where type or wood cuts can be so printed. Electrotypes may be
made from them in the usual way.

Our plates are now used by the principal publishers and manufacturers
in every State in the Union.

State, County and Shop Rights For Sale.

The Patent Adjustable Die Co. invite the attention
of Printers, Lithographers, Paper Box Makers, Leather,
Cloth, and Metal Workers, and all who use dies of any
description, or who cut by laborious hand work patterns
of any size or shape, to their patent device for cutting
any desired outline at a cost of a few cents, and doing
it with exactness, cutting from one to three hundred at
a single pressure. Among those who have purchased
shop rights, the following are referred to: Rand, Macnally
& Co.; Donnelly, Loyd & Co.; Shoeber & Carqueville
Lithograph Co.; Wright & Leonard; Frank Roehr;
Gregory & Staiger; Western Label Man. Co.; S. A.
Grant & Co., Cincinnati.

BARNES’ FOOT POWER MACHINERY.

13

Different machines with which
Builders, Cabinet Makers,
Wagon Makers, and Jobbers
in miscellaneous work can
compete as to Quality and
Price with steam power manufacturing;
also Amateurs’ supplies.
Machines sent on trial.

Say where you read this, and send
for catalogue and prices.

W. F. & JOHN BARNES,
Rockford, Winnebago Co., Ill.

Eastern Agency for

Barnes’ Foot Power Machinery.

Full line in stock at factory prices. Can be seen in operation
at CHAS. E. LITTLE’S, 59 Fulton St., N. Y.
Cast Steel Pump Log Augers and Reamers a specialty.

HEALD, SISCO & CO.’S
“RELIABLE” 20 Horse Power,
Stationary, Horizontal, Double-crank Steam Engine.
Complete with Judson Governor, Boiler-feed Pump,
Water Heater, etc. Best and cheapest in the world, and
fully guaranteed. Two Hundred and Fifty
Dollars. Send for circular to

Wood-Working Machinery,

Such as Woodworth Planing, Tonguing, and Grooving
Machines, Daniel’s Planers, Richardson’s Patent Improved
Tenon Machines, Mortising, Moulding, and
Re-Saw Machines, and Wood-Working Machinery generally.
Manufactured by

(Shop formerly occupied by R. BALL & CO.)

PATENT MINERAL WOOL.

Entirely Fireproof, undecaying, and the best non-conductor
of heat, cold, or sound. Cheaper than hair-felt.

A. D. ELBERS,

THE UNION IRON MILLS, Pittsburgh, Pa.,
Manufacturers of improved wrought iron Beams and
Girders (patented).

The great fall which has taken place in the prices of
Iron, and especially in Beams used in the construction
of FIRE PROOF BUILDINGS, induces us to call the special
attention of Engineers, Architects, and Builders to
the undoubted advantages of now erecting Fire Proof
structures; and by reference to pages 52 & 54 of our Book
of Sections—which will be sent on application to those
contemplating the erection of fire proof buildings—THE
COST CAN BE ACCURATELY CALCULATED, the
cost of Insurance avoided, and the serious losses and interruption
to business caused by fire; these and like considerations
fully justify any additional first cost. It is
believed, that, were owners fully aware of the small
difference which now exists between the use of Wood
and Iron, in many cases the latter would be adopted.
We shall be pleased to furnish estimates for all the Beams
complete, for any specific structure, so that the difference
in cost may at once be ascertained. Address

Pond’s Tools,

Engine Lathes, Planers, Drills, &c.

Send for Catalogue. DAVID W. POND, Successor to
LUCIUS W. POND. Worcester, Mass.

GOLD PLATED WATCHES.
Cheapest in the known world. Sample Watch Free to
Agents. Address, A. Coulter & Co., Chicago.

EAGLE FOOT LATHES,

Improvement in style. Reduction in
prices April 20th. Small Engine Lathes,
Slide Rests, Tools, etc. Also Scroll and
Circular Saw Attachments, Hand Planers,
etc. Send for Catalogue of outfits
for Amateurs or Artisans.

WM. L. CHASE & CO.,
95 & 97 Liberty St., New York.

The George Place Machinery Agency
Machinery of Every Description.
121 Chambers and 103 Reade Streets, New York.

CIVIL and MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

At the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N. Y.
Next term begins Sept. 12. The Annual Register for 1878
contains a list of the graduates for the past 52 years, with
their positions; also, course of study, requirements for
admission, expenses, etc. Address Wm. H. Young, Treas’r.

THE DRIVEN WELL.

Town and County privileges for making Driven
Wells and selling Licenses under the established
American Driven Well Patent, leased by the year
to responsible parties, by

NOW READY.

The Army of the Republic:

ITS SERVICES AND DESTINY.

BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.

An Oration at the Re-union of the Army of the Potomac,
at Springfield, Mass., June 5th, comprising Christian
Union Extra No. 12.

[WOOD WORKING MACHINERY.
PLANING, MATCHING, MOLDING, MORTISING,
TENONING, CARVING,
MACHINES.
BAND & SCROLL SAWS
UNIVERSAL
AND
VARIETY WOOD WORKERS,
&c &c.
J. A. FAY & CO.
CINCINNATI, O.U.S.A.]

Lathes, Planers, Shapers

Drills, Bolt and Gear Cutters, Milling Machines. Special
Machinery. E. GOULD & EBERHARDT, Newark, N. J.

A BLOCK  PLANE,
WITH ADJUSTMENT FOR
SETTING THE CUTTER.

Length, 7½ inches; 1¾ inch Cutter.

PRICE $1.00.

Sent by mail, to any address, postage prepaid, on receipt
of price.

Price of the above Plane without the adjustment, 70c.
Write for an Illustrated Descriptive Circular and Price
List of our full line of “Defiance” Metallic Planes to

READ THIS! READ THIS!!

Adjustable Safety Stilts.

A NOVELTY FOR THE BOYS.

A Great Chance to Make Money.

Parties wishing to invest in a paying business can
do so with a small capital by addressing

CHAS. S. SHUTE, Springfield, Mass.

VINEGAR.

I teach by letter the new English Quick-Vinegar-Process,
that is, how vinegar is made in one day without
drugs. For particulars and terms, address

Foundry and Machine Shop,

in live Western town, for sale cheap. Address Box 275,
Winona, Minn.

SHEET METAL WORKS FOR SALE.

The largest and best equipped establishment in the
United States for the manufacture of Sheet Metal
Architectural and Cornice Works, and Ornamental
Stamped and Spun Zinc Work. Located at an important
station on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago
Railroad. Taxes and rents low. The ornamental sheet
metal work upon the Main Building for the Centennial
Exposition was made at these shops. The real estate,
tools, and equipments cost some sixty thousand dollars.
Will be sold at a very great sacrifice. Call on or address
LUCIEN L. GILBERT, Salem, Columbiana Co., Ohio.

THE BEST
FRICTION CLUTCH IN THE
World for hoisting coal, logs, or freight. It can be
fitted direct on line shaft, run at high speed, and
start without shock. No end thrust on journals. Patent
Safety Elevators at low prices.

[!!New and Improved!!
Engraving Process!!!!
Perfect Substitute for Wood-Cuts.
Photo-Plate Company
63 Duane St. New York.
Can be printed on an ordinary Press.
RELIEF PLATES in hard Type Metal FOR Newspaper & Book Illustration.
Send Stamp for Illustrated Circular.
MUCH CHEAPER THAN WOODCUTS.
ARTISTIC PRINTING.
FINE ELECTROTYPING.
State where you saw this.]

[$4.]

TELEPHONES

For Business Purposes, ours excel all
others in clearness and volume of tone.
Illus. circular and testimonials for 3 cts.

Address J. R. HOLCOMB, Mallet Creek, Ohio.

EXPLOSIVE DUST. A comprehensive
description of the Dangers from Dust in various
Manufactures and the Cause of many Fires. How combustible
substances can explode. Spontaneous Combustion
of Iron, Charcoal, and Lampblack in Air. Flour
Dust and Brewery Dust Explosions. Explosions of Coal
Dust in Mines. Contained in Scientific American
Supplement No. 125. Price 10 cents. To be had at
this office and of all newsdealers.

Can I Obtain a Patent?

This is the first inquiry that naturally occurs to every
author or discoverer of a new idea or improvement. The
quickest and best way to obtain a satisfactory answer,
without expense, is to write to us (Munn & Co.), describing
the invention, with a small sketch. All we
need is to get the idea. Do not use pale ink. Be brief.
Send stamps for postage. We will immediately answer
and inform you whether or not your improvement is
probably patentable; and if so, give you the necessary
instructions for further procedure. Our long experience
enables us to decide quickly. For this advice we make
no charge. All persons who desire to consult us in regard
to obtaining patents are cordially invited to do
so. We shall be happy to see them in person at our
office, or to advise them by letter. In all cases, they
may expect from us a careful consideration of their
plans, an honest opinion, and a prompt reply.

What Security Have I that my communication
to Munn & Co. will be faithfully guarded and remain
confidential?

Answer.-You have none except our well-known integrity
in this respect, based upon a most extensive
practice of thirty years’ standing. Our clients are
numbered by hundreds of thousands. They are to be
found in every town and city in the Union. Please to
make inquiry about us. Such a thing as the betrayal
of a client’s interests, when committed to our professional
care, never has occurred, and is not likely to occur.
All business and communications intrusted to us
are kept secret and confidential.

Address MUNN & CO.,
Publishers of the Scientific American,
37 Park Row New York.

[Pg 94]

Inside Page, each insertion – – – 75 cents a line.
Back Page, each insertion – – – $1.00 a line.
(About eight words to a line.)

Engravings may head advertisements at the same rate
per line, by measurement, as the letter press. Advertisements
must be received at publication office as early
as Thursday morning to appear in next issue.

TELEPHONES,

H.W. JOHNS;
TRADEMARK
ASBESTOS

LIQUID PAINTS, ROOFING, BOILER COVERINGS,
Steam Packing, Sheathings, Fire Proof Coatings, Cements.
SEND FOR SAMPLES, ILLUSTRATED PAMPHLET AND PRICE LIST.

H. W. JOHNS M’F’G Co., 87 MAIDEN LANE, N. Y.

Mill Stones and Corn Mills.

We make Burr Millstones, Portable Mills, Smut Machines,
Packers, Mill Picks, Water Wheels, Pulleys, and
Gearing, specially adapted to Flour Mills. Send for
catalogue.

WARRANTED THE BEST.
1 H. P. Boiler & Engine, $150.
2 H. P., $175. 3 H. P., $200.

Tested to 200 lbs. Steam.

LOVEGROVE & CO.,
152 N. 3d St., Philadelphia, Pa.,

Builders of Engines and Boilers, 1 to 100
horse power. Send for circulars and
prices, and state size and style you want.

ESTABLISHED 1844.

JOSEPH C. TODD,

Engineer and Machinist. Flax, Hemp, Jute, Rope,
Oakum and Bagging Machinery, Steam Engines, Boilers,
etc. I also manufacture Baxter’s New Portable Engine
of 1877. Can be seen in operation at my store. A one
horse-power, portable engine, complete, $125; two horse-power,
$225; two and a half horse-power, $250; three
horse-power, $275. Manufactured exclusively by

J. C. TODD,
10 Barclay St., New York, or Paterson, N. J.

CAMERON
Steam Pumps

For Mines, Blast Furnaces, Rolling
Mills, Oil Refineries, Boiler
Feeders, &c.

For Illustrated Catalogue and Reduced Price List send to
Works, Foot East 23d St., New York.

Address JOHN A. ROEBLING’S SONS, Manufacturers,
Trenton, N. J., or 117 Liberty Street, New York.

Wheels and Rope for conveying power long distances.
Send for circular.

Salary. Salesmen wanted to sell our
Staple Goods to dealers. No peddling.
Expenses paid. Permanent employment.
address S. A. GRANT & CO.,
2, 4, 6 & 8 Home St., Cincinnati, O.

Working Models

B. W. Payne & Sons, Corning, N. Y.

Established in 1840.

Eureka Safety Power.

Patent Wood-working Machinery, Band Saws Scroll
Saws, Friezers, etc. Cordesman, Egan & Co., Cincin’ti, O.

CORLISS ENGINES.

Beam, horizontal, vertical, condensing, and
non-condensing Steam Engines.

Machine Tools, Sugar Machinery.

Facilities for Constructing Heavy Machinery.
 Send for Circular.

PASSAIC MACHINE WORKS,
WATTS, CAMPBELL & CO., Proprietors,

THE ONLY Genuine Geiser
Self-Regulating
Grain Separator. Celebrated
for its light and smooth
movements, also
Separating and Cleaning
all kinds of grain.

Manufactured only by

The Geiser M’f’g Co., Waynesboro, Franklin Co., Pa.

CIGAR BOX LUMBER,

Manufactured by our new

Patented Processes.

GEO. W. READ & CO.,
186 to 200 Lewis Street, New York.

BELT PULLEY,

Lightest, strongest, and best made. Secured to the Shaft
without Keys, Set Screws, Bolts or Pins; also, Adjustable
Dead Pulleys and Taper-Sleeve Couplings. Send for
catalogue. Address Taper-Sleeve Pulley Works, Erie, Pa.

An assortment of
WOOD-WORKING MACHINERY

made by Richards, London & Kelley (dissolved); also, a
number of first-class MACHINE TOOLS (nearly as
good as new) of Philadelphia construction, on hand and
for sale. For list or inspection of machines and estimates,
apply at the works of JOHN RICHARDS & CO.,
22d and Wood Sts., Philadelphia, manufacturers of
Standard Gauges and other Implements.

ON THE CARE OF HORSES. BY PROF.
Pritchard, R. V. S. Showing the Proper Construction
of Stables. Best Floor. Lighting and Ventilation.
Hay-racks. Watering and Feeding. Grooming and
Exercise. Cracked Heels; Lice; Colic; Mud Fever;
Wind Galls. Also, in same number, facts about improved
Cow Stables. How to keep Cows clean and
maintain Pure Air in Stables. Increased Cleanliness and
Convenience with Less Labor. Contained in Scientific
American Supplement No. 123. Price 10 cents. To
be had at this office and of all newsdealers.

Every Man His Own Printer!

[The Excelsior]

$3 Press Prints labels, cards etc. (Self-inker $5) 9 Larger sizes For business, pleasure, young or old Catalogue of Presses, Type, Etc., for 2 stamps. KELSEY & Co. Meriden, Conn

For showing heat of
Ovens, Hot Blast Pipes
Boiler Flues, Superheated Steam, Oil Stills, &c.

HENRY W. BULKLEY, Sole Manufacturer,

ICE AT $1.00 PER TON.

The PICTET ARTIFICIAL ICE CO.,

LIMITED,
Room 51, Coal and Iron Exchange, P. O. Box 3083, N. Y.

LAP WELDED CHARCOAL IRON

Boiler Tubes, Steam Pipe, Light and Heavy Forgings,
Engines, Boilers, Cotton Presses, Rolling Mill and Blast
Furnace Work.

OPERA GLASSES

WOOD-WORKING MACHINERY,

New and improved, for special work.
Boring Machines, Turning Lathes,
Saw Arbors, Saw Benches, Scroll
Saws, Panel Raisers, and other Wood
Tools. We build the only patented
Panel Raiser, with vertical spindles,
all others being infringements on
our patents of July 11 and October
31, 1871.

WALKER BROS.,
73 and 75 Laurel St., Phila.

ALCOHOLISM. AN INTERESTING
Paper upon the Relations of Intemperance and Life Insurance.
The average Risks and Expectancy of Life of
the Temperate and of the Intemperate. Physiological
action of Alcohol; stimulating the Nervous System, Retarding
the Circulation. Alcohol Oxidized in the System.
Insomnia, Congestion of the Lungs, Deterioration of
Structure, Calculus, and Liver Diseases as results of
Liquor. Extended Medical Testimony. Contained in
Scientific American Supplement No. 125. Price
10 cents. To be had at this office and of all newsdealers.

Telephones.

How made, adjusted, and operated by any person. Send
stamp for full and interesting description, with illustrations
and instructions. One pair first-class Telephones
complete, except diaphragms, sent to any address upon
receipt of $5.     J.H. BUNNELL, Electrician,

IMPORTANT FOR ALL CORPORATIONS AND”

I
MPORTANT FOR ALL CORPORATIONS AND
MANF’G CONCERNS.—Buerk’s Watchman’s
Time Detector, capable of accurately controlling
the motion of a watchman or patrolman at the
different stations of his beat. Send for circular.

J. E. BUERK, P. O. Box 979, Boston, Mass

N. B.—The suit against Imhaeuser & Co., of New York,
was decided in my favor, June 10, 1874. A fine was
assessed against them Nov. 11, 1876, for selling contrary
to the order of the court. Persons buying or using
clocks infringing on my patent will be dealt with according
to law.

THE HUGHES TELEPHONE. SIX FIGURES.
Sound converted into Undulatory Electrical Currents
by Unhomogeneous Conducting Substances in
Circuit. The Simplest Telephone and the most sensitive
Acoustical Instrument yet constructed. Instrument
for Testing the Effect of Pressure on Various Substances.
Astonishing Experiments which may be performed
by any person with a few nails, pieces of sealing
wax, a glass tube containing powders, and a few sticks
of charcoal. Contained in Scientific American Supplement
No. 128. Price 10 cents. To be had at this
office and of all newsdealers.

“OLD RELIABLE.” TO KNOW ALL
about the Best Pump for Paper Makers, Tanners, Contractors,
and for irrigation, send for illustrated pamphlet,
78 pages. HEALD, SISCO & CO., Baldwinsville, N. Y.

Papers. Want Agents. Send stamp.
L. L. FAIRCHILD, Rolling Prairie, Wis.

IT PAYS to sell our Rubber Stamps and Novelties

I
T PAYS to sell our Rubber Stamps and Novelties.
Terms free. G. A. HARPER & BRO., Cleveland, O.

DYSPEPSIA. BY DR. C. F. KUNZE.

Symptoms. Appetite Diminished. Stomach Digestion
much slower than Normal. Constipation. Symptoms
in Children. Chronic Cases. Dyspepsia as caused by
too much Food; by Indigestible Food; by General Derangement;
by Altered Conditions of Innervation.
Treatment. Nourishment should be Easily Digestible;
taken Little at a Time; and Digested before more is
taken. Necessity of Few and Plain Dishes. Treatment
when Stomach is Overloaded. Aiding Gastric Juice.
Treatment in Febrile Diseases. Contained in Scientific
American Supplement No. 129. Price 10 cents,
To be had at this office and of all newsdealers.

SHEPARD’S CELEBRATED

$50 Screw Cutting Foot Lathe.

Foot and Power Lathes, Drill Presses,
Scroll, Circular and Band Saws, Saw
Attachments, Chucks, Mandrills, Twist
Drills, Dogs, Calipers, etc. Send for
catalogue of outfits for amateurs or
artisans.

We will send free to all applicants who
do any newspaper advertising, the THIRD EDITION of

Ayer & Son’s Manual

FOR ADVERTISERS. 160 8vo. pp. More complete
than any which have preceded it. Gives the names,
circulation, and advertising rates of several thousand
newspapers in the United States and Canada, and
contains more information of value to an advertiser
than can be found in any other publication. All lists
have been carefully revised, and where practicable
prices have been reduced. The special offers are
numerous and unusually advantageous. Be sure to
send for it before spending any money in newspaper
advertising. Address N. W. AYER & SON,
Advertising Agents, Times Building, Philadelphia.

PORTLAND CEMENT,

ROMAN & KEENE’S. For Walks, Cisterns, Foundations,
Stables, Cellars, Bridges, Reservoirs, Breweries, etc.

Remit 10 cents for Practical Treatise on Cements.

North’s Universal Lathe Dog.
S. G. NORTH
347 North 4th Street, Philadelphia, Pa.

Machinists’ Tools.
New and Improved Patterns.

  Send for new illustrated catalogue.

Lathes, Planers, Drills, &c.

NEW HAVEN MANUFACTURING CO.,

POINTS OF A GOOD HORSE. BEING
the Report of the Committee appointed by the New
England Agricultural Society to decide upon Rules for
Guidance of Judges of Horses. The Points of Excellence.
Size, Color, Symmetry of Body, Head and Neck,
Eye and Ear, Feet and Limbs, fully described. Speed at
the Trot, and in Walking, Style and Action, etc., with
the percentage allowed for each quality. The Standard
Size and Speed for Matched Carriage Horses, Gents’
Driving Horses, Family Horses, Park or Phæton Horses,
etc. An excellent Guide in selecting animals. Contained
in Scientific American Supplement No.
103, price 10 cents. To be had at this office and of all
newsdealers.

	“THE EAGLE CLAW.” The best Trap in the World for catching FISH, ANIMALS & GAME.
		One bait will catch Twenty Fish.
	No. 1, for ordinary fishing, small game, &c. 35c. No. 2, for large fish, mink, musk-rats, &c. 75c. Sent by mail.     J. BRIDE & CO., Mfrs., 297 Broadway, New-York.

Send for Catalogue of useful novelties and mention this paper.

EMERY AND CORUNDUM WHEELS,
for Grinding and Surfacing Metals and other materials.
By Arthur H. Bateman, F. C. S. A paper read before
the Society of Arts, London. Files, Chisels, Grindstones,
Composition of Emery, where found, Quality, Specific
Gravity, and Hardness, Manufacture of the wheels, Emery
Powder, Buffing, Polishing, Cutting Power, Corundum.
The Magnesian or Union Wheel, the Tanite, the
Northampton, the Vulcanite, the Climax, the Vitrified,
a porous wheel with central water supply. Fifty uses
enumerated to which the wheels are put, for Metals,
Stone, Teeth, Millboard, Wood, Agate, and Brick. How
to mount a wheel. How to hold the work, and directions
for various classes of work. Discussion and questions
proposed and answered. Contained in Scientific
American Supplement, No. 125. Price 10 cents. To
be had at this office and of all newsdealers.

THE BIGELOW
Steam Engine.

BOTH PORTABLE AND STATIONARY.

 The CHEAPEST AND BEST in the market.
Send for descriptive circular and price list.

H. B. BIGELOW & CO.,

Shaped or Crude, furnished and set for Boring Rocks,
Dressing Mill Burrs, Emery Wheels, Grindstones, Hardened
Steel, Calender Rollers, and for Sawing Turning,
or Working Stone and other hard substances: also
Glaziers’ Diamonds. J. DICKINSON, 64 Nassau St., N. Y.

SECOND-HAND ENGINES,

Portable and Stationary, at Low Prices.

HOW TO MAKE A PHONOGRAPH.

Full Instructions, with Eight Working Drawings, Half
Size. Construction easy and Inexpensive. These drawings
are from an actual working Phonograph; they show
the sizes, forms, and arrangement of all the parts. The
explanations are so plain and practical as to enable any
intelligent person to construct and put a Phonograph in
successful operation in a very short time. Contained
in Scientific American Supplement No. 133. Price
10 cents. To be had at this office and of all newsdealers.

PERFECT

NEWSPAPER FILE

The Koch Patent File, for preserving newspapers,
magazines, and pamphlets, has been recently improved
and price reduced. Subscribers to the Scientific American
and Scientific American Supplement can be
supplied for the low price of $1.50 by mail, or $1.25 at the
office of this paper. Heavy board sides; inscription
“SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN,” in gilt. Necessary for
every one who wishes to preserve the paper.

THE TANITE CO.,
STROUDSBURG, PA.
EMERY WHEELS AND GRINDERS.
GEO. PLACE, 121 Chambers St., New York Agent.

ROCK DRILLING MACHINES AND
AIR COMPRESSORS MANUFACTURED BY BURLEIGH ROCK DRILL CO SEND FOR PAMPHLET FITCHBURG MASS.

STEAM PUMPS.

HENRY R. WORTHINGTON,

The Worthington Duplex Pumping Engines For
Water Works—Compound, Condensing or Non-Condensing.
Used in over 100 Water-Works Stations.

Steam Pumps—Duplex and Single Cylinder.

Water Meters. Oil Meters.

Prices largely Reduced.

HARTFORD

STEAM BOILER

Inspection & Insurance

COMPANY.

Patent Portable Chuck Jaws.

Improved Solid Emery Wheels, for grinding Iron
and Brass Castings, Tools, etc. Manufactured
by AM. TWIST DRILL CO., Woonsocket, R. I.

A DAY to Agents canvassing for the Fireside
Visitor. Terms and Outfit Free. Address
P. O. VICKERY, Augusta, Maine.

HAND SAW MILL SAVES THREE MEN’S
labor. S. C. HILLS, 78 Chambers St., N. Y.

MURRILL & KEIZER, 44 Holliday St., Baltimore.

CAVEATS, COPYRIGHTS, TRADE
MARKS, ETC.

Messrs. Munn & Co., in connection with the publication
of the Scientific American, continue to examine
Improvements, and to act as Solicitors of Patents for
Inventors.

In this line of business they have had OVER THIRTY
YEARS’ EXPERIENCE, and now have unequaled facilities
for the preparation of Patent Drawings, Specifications,
and the Prosecution of Applications for Patents in the
United States, Canada, and Foreign Countries. Messrs.
Munn & Co. also attend to the preparation of Caveats,
Trade Mark Regulations, Copyrights for Books, Labels,
Reissues, Assignments, and Reports on Infringements
of Patents. All business intrusted to them is done
with special care and promptness, on very moderate
terms.

We send free of charge, on application, a pamphlet
containing further information about Patents and how
to procure them; directions concerning Trade Marks,
Copyrights, Designs, Patents, Appeals, Reissues, Infringements,
Assignments, Rejected Cases, Hints on
the Sale of Patents, etc.

Foreign Patents.—We also send, free of charge, a
Synopsis of Foreign Patent Laws, showing the cost and
method of securing patents in all the principal countries
of the world. American inventors should bear in
mind that, as a general rule, any invention that is valuable
to the patentee in this country is worth equally as
much in England and some other foreign countries.
Five patents—embracing Canadian, English, German,
French, and Belgian—will secure to an inventor the exclusive
monopoly to his discovery among about ONE
HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLIONS of the most intelligent
people in the world. The facilities of business and
steam communication are such that patents can be obtained
abroad by our citizens almost as easily as at
home. The expense to apply for an English patent is
$75; German, $100; French, $100; Belgian, $100; Canadian, $50.

Copies of Patents.—Persons desiring any patent
issued from 1836 to November 26, 1867, can be supplied
with official copies at reasonable cost, the price depending
upon the extent of drawings and length of
specifications.

Any patent issued since November 27, 1867, at which
time the Patent Office commenced printing the drawings
and specifications, may be had by remitting to
this office $1.

A copy of the claims of any patent issued since 1836
will be furnished for $1.

When ordering copies, please to remit for the same
as above, and state name of patentee, title of invention,
and date of patent.

A pamphlet, containing full directions for obtaining
United States patents sent free. A handsomely bound
Reference Book, gilt edges, contains 140 pages and
many engravings and tables important to every patentee
and mechanic, and is a useful hand book of reference
for everybody. Price 25 cents, mailed free.

BRANCH OFFICE—Corner of F and 7th Streets,
Washington, D. C.

The “Scientific American” is printed with CHAS.
ENEU JOHNSON & CO.’S INK. Tenth and Lombard
Sts., Philadelphia, and 59 Gold St., New York.