Volume 13 (1866) (424 pages)

The Bining and él ‘Mechanical. Tar Screw Areuino TOTHE PabpLe Wire. Several parties have been experimenting within a few yoars past, here in California, inNew York and in Furope, tn devise some method for the application of the principle of the serew to the floats of pnddle wheels for propelling steamboats. This application wns conceived and tried by Dr. Croft of London, Eng., eome two or more years ngo, who obtained the must satisfactory results in his experiments witlr working models. ‘The two kinds of floats have nlso been ennmpnred and tested with larger boats, with equal sneecss, AA boat, English build, with paddles eimilarly constracted, has been running nu the Vueilic eide of the coast nf Panama, fora year or two. In ali experitents tried, we believe the screw model has heen proven practically superior to the flat floats. Eurly in the year 1865, Prof. W. G. Adains,an English muthemetician, furnished an elaborate paper to the Philosophical Magazune of London, iu‘which bo proved, by mnthematical demonstration, that the superiority of the screw shope over the flut flont was as correct in thenry as iu procticc. A Nnyvet Power.—A ovovel kind of power is employed for unlouding ships at the Newport docks in Moumouthshire, England, and at some other places fur nther hoisting purposes. A water cnzine is used, oud in the ahsence of the requisite “fall,” the pressore otherwise ohtained trom natural sources is got at hy a pressure of from 70 to 100 tons of gravel, asa weight, upon a short columo of water, thereby giving a pressure equivalent to some 1,500 feet head. The power is kept up by using a small: steam engine to pomp the water into the reservoir, and the weight of sand, after heing depressed by nse, is again elevated hy hydraulic power at a very small cost: The power may be distributed much more readily than steam power, to different localities in the vicinity of the main reservoir. By the use of this machinery, the Railway News says that coal, which formerly cost 5d. to 7d. per ton for delivery, can now be delivered for 144d. New Apputcation oF Water PREssuRE,— Ata meeting of the Paris Academy of ‘Seiences, a communication from. M. L. D. Girard has heen read, on the application of water-pressure to the bearings of the fly-wheel of a rolling machine, weighing 35,000 kilogrammes (about 3446 tons). The principle consists in admitting water having a pressure corresponding to the weight nf the axle and wheel, etc., under those parte of the axle which ate supported hy the hearings. It was found.that, when the bearing sutfaces of the axle were merely greased, the co-efficient of friction was 10 per cent ; but that, when water was adinitted under the axle, aud tho rising of the latter pesmitted the escape of the fluid across the whole of the bearing eurfaces, the co-efficient heenme 0.001, and in ordinary circumstances did not rise ahove 0.003. The water had a pressure of ten atmospheres, derived from air condensed iu the reservoir containing it. At etarting the axle bearings are merely greased, and only a certain, velocity can then he attained ; but, the instant the water is turned on, the velocity becomes greatly accelerated. ‘This contrivance appears specially adapted to the support of great weights moving with high velocities. ‘the French Minister of Marine has caused it to be applied to the bearings of the screw-propeller of a steam-tug.— Scientific Review, Hng. Giass BLowivo.—Glass-blowing, in its simpler adaptations, is very easy of acquirement, and capable of affording much recreation at a emall expense. HEveu cold glass may he worked with a facility knowoto few. It may be drilled in holee very easily, the only implement needed being a common watchmaker’s drill-stock. A eteel drill, of good quality, well hardened, will do the husiness perfectly; and, even if the edge of the tool should gite way before the hole 13 pierced through, a little emery-powder and oil will remove every difficulty ; or, with the help of these, the hole may be hored with a copper drill. Not only eo—glass may even be turued ina lathe. Any amateur turner who has operated on cither of the metals may chuck a piece of glass in his lathe, and turn it with the eame toole and in the same way as he would a pieco of steel, only taking care to keep the ehips from his eyes. Cast Inox axp Stee.—A New Tsrory or AtLoys.—Reccnt experiments in Enrope, eeem to establish the fact that alloys do not con-ist nf a mere mechanical combinntiun of the particles of one mctal with another ; but that the union is a chemical one—that one mivtal is dissolved in the othor, as sugar is dissolved in water. M. Jullicn has recently communicated to the Puris Academy of Scionces, the result nf some experiments which he combines under the head of “New Fucts on Cast Iron and Steel.” His object hns hecu to demoustrate : lst, that metals do not combine with cach other ; 2nd, that iron docs not combine with either curbon, silicium, or nitrogen ; and 3d, that a mixture of hydrate of line rnd dry hydrated sulphate of soda prescnts all the characters of a solution, butsnone of those of couihination. M. Jullien then gives his ideas on the constitutions of irons and steels. Liquid cast iron. he says, is a solution of liquid carbon in liquid iron. Soft stcel is a solution of amphorous carbon in either amphorous or crystallized iron. Grey pig obtained hy casting io hot mould§ or eand, is a mixture of graphite and steel, the components, iron and curbon, heing hoth in the amorphous stato. A Masmrs Toxyer Exrerrrise i EvROPE.—W hile weon the Pacific slope are talk. ing about a “ mammoth enterprise,” to tap the great Comstock vein with a tunnel, which, when completed, will be less than four miles long, the miners at Freiburg, iu Saxony, are making arrangements to drain their principal toiving district by a tunnel, which will he some fifteen miles in length. ‘The work hae already heen several ycars in progress. It is expected that forty years longer will be required tn complete the undertaking. Derr Wetis.—Few persons are aware of the enterprise and energy displayed in efforts to procure water for the traveling public on the deserts and other places east of the Sierra, where natural springs or strcams of water are wanting. ‘There are some tbree or four wells some fifteen or twenty miles from Aurora, on the road to the Adobe Meadows, between, three and four hundred feet decp. In one of these wells, 335 feet deep, the water is hot. It is drawn up, and cooled over night. The water is of a very fair quality, and is sold at the rate of twenty-five cents per bucket. A TriaL or an Enarisn Torrer Proposep. The British Admiralty have determined to give the monitor system a severe trial by firing a steel bolt at one of the turrets at short range from an Armstrong lo-inch or 300-pounder gun. It is to be remembered that the English turrets are not precisely like ours. They are made of wood, with an iron plating, while ours are all'iron. he English construction is adhered to in order to have a difference, in spite of the fact that this difference brings with it some decided inferiority. * Rawway Buiorxo in Evrorr.—French railways are so mapped out for the future, that during the next seven years, the work of roadmaking will proceed at the rate nf 500 miles per annum. The French demand for railway material can, therefore, be calculated with great nicety. .The miles of railway built in Great Britain and Ireland last year, was about 500 miles, the same figure as the contemplated avoual itcrease of railway mileage in France. A nniLer heated by petroleum, lately set up at Woolwich Dockyard, England, vaporized 3,000 pounds nf water in three hours, at the rate of one pound of fuel to thirteen and a half pounds of water. ‘The lowest class of Knglieh oil was used, and gave a flame more voluminous than intense. Tue evaporative value ofa fluid can be better calculated from a careful chemical analysis, than hy testing it under a boiler as fuels consist of carbon and hydrogen, Carhon hag an evaporative power of 15, and hydrogen of 69. Multiply these by the respective’ ainouots of them in the fuel, take the sum, and this will be the hest poesible evaporative vaiue of the fuel. : = Tue friction of a smooth disk reyolving in water is about 2-150the of its weight. A Fortonare H'1xp.— A casket of diamonds and other*valuable jewels were found near Nashville on the 27th of June. Their value ie estimated at $80,000. Samuel J. Ringold was the finder. There were no marks found which could indicate who the jewele helonged to. They had evidently been lying for eeveral years just onder the surface of the ground. Srientific Riiseellany. Cnaxors ox THE Moox’s Surrace.—The Rey. T. W, Wehh has recently called the attentinn of the“ British Asgociation " to a remarkable ynltey in the northern part ol the taoon, which Schroter, the old Hanoveriau astronomer, liad ohserved, drawn, and named Cassini. Mr. Webb identified this valley in Jonuary, 1865, Mr. Birt has since examined that portion of the moon carefully, compared it with Schroter’s drawing, and ascertained that if Schroter’s drawing waa made correctly, enormoue changes must have taken place on the surfice of the moon during the past thirty years! Caretul photographs nre now being taken of the moon, at short intervals, and will be continued in the future, with the hope that by snch means changes, if any are occurring, may be noted and theirtime fixed and chnracter determined. : In this convection we mny state that,among the nohle uses to whieh female genius may be put, is that of watching and copying the subtle chauges which pass over the face of nature. Acting upon this suggestion, Miss Beckly, a daughter of the mechnnical assistaut in the observatory at Kew, England, is thus em. ployed; her special ficld of observation being the sup, all the changes on which she records from day to day, by means of his light. During the day she watches for opportunities for photographing the sun, with that patience for which the sex is distinguished ; and we have the authority of the President of the Astrouomical Society for saying, that she uever lets an opportuuity escape her. Itis extraordinary, that even on very cloudy days, between gaps of clouds, when it would be imagined that it was almost impossible to get a photograph, there is always a record at Kew. Cnsauiean Dust—The celebrated Dr. Reichenbach, of Vienna, thinks he hae discovered ‘a geuuine “ universal powder,” or dust, which pervades all interplanetary space, and which, when it becomes agglomerated, forms large or small wmeteorolites, while at other times it reaches the surface of our earth in the form of an impalpahle powder. We know that meteorolites are maiuly composed of nickel, cohalt, iron, phosphorus, ete. Well, Dr. Reichenbach went to the top of a mountain, which had never been touched hy a spade or pickaxe, and collected there some dust, which he analyzed, and found it to contain nickel, cobalt, phosphorus and magnesia. People have wondered where the minute quantity of phosphorus, so generally distributed on the eurface of the earth, came from. The doctor, however, has discovered it in the mysterious invieible rain, which henceforth must be looked upon as quite az necessary for veretation as the water which falls from the clouds. A Srream or Mavacuire.— A stream of malachite (green carbonate of copper in solution) is said to have recently made its appearance in Cornwall, England. A stream of water issning from several lodes of bematite and white iron ore, has suddenly changed its appearance from the red color produced by red oxyd of iron toa green color, and now presents a stream of the strongest copper or mineral water ever seen probably in any country; in fact the whole heach where this etream runs over, and everything it comes in contact with, are ag grecn ag malachite, to tbe astonishment of every one, who has seen it, and quite a eensation has been caused io the neighborhood. The inference is that something volcanic has occurred, and that this water is issuing from a ‘great deposit of copper ore not yet discovered in some of the parallel lodes. Tar Cotor or Wine.—The red color of wine can he proved to be artificial or true hy eimply dipping a small piece of bread or sponge into the liquid and placing it in a glase of clear water. If the color is artificial the water will he at once colored, hut pore wine will vot color it for half an hour or more, ‘fle eponge should be well washed beforehand. Ozonr is found to be developed by the mechanical action of blowing machines—a fact ‘which may partly account for the healthfulness of winds. Puatinoa Mirrors—Soneruiso New.—A process hus heen patented iu France by M. Dode, a chemist, for the manufacture of platinum mirrors, which are greatly admired, and which present this advantage, that the reflecting metal is deposited on the outer surfnco of the glass, und thus any defect in the latter is concealed. The process is very expeditious, A single baking, it is said, will turvish 200 . metres of glass ready for commerce. It wonld take fifteen days to coat the same extent with mercury by the ordiuary plan, A reduction of from 40 ta 100 per cent. in cost of looking glass ie expected to result from the adoption of this procees ; for ony glass, even the comwon bottle metal, will serve to be coated. The proccss is conducted as toilows : “ Chloride of platinuin is dissolved in water, and a certain quantity of oil of iavender is added to the snlution. The platinum immediately leaves the aqueous solution nud passes tu the oil, which holds it in suspension in a finely-divided state. To the oil so chnrged litharge and burate of lead are added, and a thin cout of this mixture is painted over the surlace of the gluss, which is then carried to a proper furnace. Ata red heat the litharge and borate of lead are fused and cause the adliesion of the platinum to the softened glass.”— Mechanics’ Magazine. Crystauuization or Iroxn.—Under the influence of reiterated trepidation the iron of rails constantly gone over by rapid traine assumes a. crystalline form; the axles of the wheels do the same, and the places towards which the least coherent particles converge during this continual vihration become the points where fracture occurs. The repeated explosion of guopowder in the chamber of a piece of ordnance modifies the cohesion of its metallic particles, and at length causee the fracture of the niass. According to M. Kuhlmann, a tevacious fibrous quality of eheet iron, out of which a steam boiler was made,io a short time became crystalliue and brittle by the constant trepidation cansed by the evolution of steam. Preservinn GRaIN.—A new system of preserving grain hae recently been adopted in io France. The grain, flour, biscuit, ete., is placed in large irov cylinders, from which the air is subsequently so much exhausted as to render it so rarihed as to destroy even the weevil, the most difficult of all corn parasites to subdue. During a six months’ trial none were developed. ‘The apparatns is eonsidered available for any length of time, and under the most unfavorable circumstances. PsoronraPay tn Cotors has progressed sn far that a doll dressed hy the operator can be perfectly reproduced on the plates. A greater triumph is photographing a peacock’s teather. It has heen found that none but pure colore take well, those that are made by a mixture of two primary colore’ giving bet one of the primariee onthe plate. These photographs will not stand a full light long, as they turn brown, but may he preserved in an album. Tue outer covering ol the bulb of the amole, or California eoap plant, has been applied to a useful purpose. It is now heing collected in considerable quantity and sent to this city, where it ie used for filling mattresses, and in the manufacture of brushes. Aw error io placing a fine dot which fixes the length of a base line in astronomical measurements, amounting to 1-5000th part of an joch, will amouut to an error of seventy-six feet in calculating the diameter of the earth, 360 miles in the eun’s distance, and 65,800,000 in the distance of the nearest fixed star. Ir a tuhe convected with water, and a eolid rod also connected with water, be applied at once to the ears, sound will be heard only in the ear supplied with the tube. The reason is that the tube is so much the hetter conductor that it kills whatever sound is trausmitted through the rod. Ir has lately heen discovered that the whole of the sulphur, used at present in illuminating gas (aod which makes that gas so offensive) tay be renioved by bringing it in contact with the ammonicul liquor which is an almost worthless product of the same gas works. A Viewnrse philosopher is experimenting upon the transportation of ponderable bodies hy electricity, so that the old fable of the soldier who sent hie shoes home for excbange hy hanging them on the tefegraph wire, may be realized. ANILINE.—It requires as many as 2,000 tons of coal to produee a circular hlock of aniline twenty-four inches high hy nine inches wide, hat this is sufficient to dye three hundred miles of silk fabric. Warn water is hoiled under oil and the eteam collected and condensed. a buhble of gae remains, which is found to be nitrogen, proving the ahsorptive power of water upoo gases.

The Bining and él ‘Mechanical. Tar Screw Areuino TOTHE PabpLe Wire. Several parties have been experimenting within a few yoars past, here in California, inNew York and in Furope, tn devise some method for the application of the principle of the serew to the floats of pnddle wheels for propelling steamboats. This application wns conceived and tried by Dr. Croft of London, Eng., eome two or more years ngo, who obtained the must satisfactory results in his experiments witlr working models. ‘The two kinds of floats have nlso been ennmpnred and tested with larger boats, with equal sneecss, AA boat, English build, with paddles eimilarly constracted, has been running nu the Vueilic eide of the coast nf Panama, fora year or two. In ali experitents tried, we believe the screw model has heen proven practically superior to the flat floats. Eurly in the year 1865, Prof. W. G. Adains,an English muthemetician, furnished an elaborate paper to the Philosophical Magazune of London, iu‘which bo proved, by mnthematical demonstration, that the superiority of the screw shope over the flut flont was as correct in thenry as iu procticc. A Nnyvet Power.—A ovovel kind of power is employed for unlouding ships at the Newport docks in Moumouthshire, England, and at some other places fur nther hoisting purposes. A water cnzine is used, oud in the ahsence of the requisite “fall,” the pressore otherwise ohtained trom natural sources is got at hy a pressure of from 70 to 100 tons of gravel, asa weight, upon a short columo of water, thereby giving a pressure equivalent to some 1,500 feet head. The power is kept up by using a small: steam engine to pomp the water into the reservoir, and the weight of sand, after heing depressed by nse, is again elevated hy hydraulic power at a very small cost: The power may be distributed much more readily than steam power, to different localities in the vicinity of the main reservoir. By the use of this machinery, the Railway News says that coal, which formerly cost 5d. to 7d. per ton for delivery, can now be delivered for 144d. New Apputcation oF Water PREssuRE,— Ata meeting of the Paris Academy of ‘Seiences, a communication from. M. L. D. Girard has heen read, on the application of water-pressure to the bearings of the fly-wheel of a rolling machine, weighing 35,000 kilogrammes (about 3446 tons). The principle consists in admitting water having a pressure corresponding to the weight nf the axle and wheel, etc., under those parte of the axle which ate supported hy the hearings. It was found.that, when the bearing sutfaces of the axle were merely greased, the co-efficient of friction was 10 per cent ; but that, when water was adinitted under the axle, aud tho rising of the latter pesmitted the escape of the fluid across the whole of the bearing eurfaces, the co-efficient heenme 0.001, and in ordinary circumstances did not rise ahove 0.003. The water had a pressure of ten atmospheres, derived from air condensed iu the reservoir containing it. At etarting the axle bearings are merely greased, and only a certain, velocity can then he attained ; but, the instant the water is turned on, the velocity becomes greatly accelerated. ‘This contrivance appears specially adapted to the support of great weights moving with high velocities. ‘the French Minister of Marine has caused it to be applied to the bearings of the screw-propeller of a steam-tug.— Scientific Review, Hng. Giass BLowivo.—Glass-blowing, in its simpler adaptations, is very easy of acquirement, and capable of affording much recreation at a emall expense. HEveu cold glass may he worked with a facility knowoto few. It may be drilled in holee very easily, the only implement needed being a common watchmaker’s drill-stock. A eteel drill, of good quality, well hardened, will do the husiness perfectly; and, even if the edge of the tool should gite way before the hole 13 pierced through, a little emery-powder and oil will remove every difficulty ; or, with the help of these, the hole may be hored with a copper drill. Not only eo—glass may even be turued ina lathe. Any amateur turner who has operated on cither of the metals may chuck a piece of glass in his lathe, and turn it with the eame toole and in the same way as he would a pieco of steel, only taking care to keep the ehips from his eyes. Cast Inox axp Stee.—A New Tsrory or AtLoys.—Reccnt experiments in Enrope, eeem to establish the fact that alloys do not con-ist nf a mere mechanical combinntiun of the particles of one mctal with another ; but that the union is a chemical one—that one mivtal is dissolved in the othor, as sugar is dissolved in water. M. Jullicn has recently communicated to the Puris Academy of Scionces, the result nf some experiments which he combines under the head of “New Fucts on Cast Iron and Steel.” His object hns hecu to demoustrate : lst, that metals do not combine with cach other ; 2nd, that iron docs not combine with either curbon, silicium, or nitrogen ; and 3d, that a mixture of hydrate of line rnd dry hydrated sulphate of soda prescnts all the characters of a solution, butsnone of those of couihination. M. Jullien then gives his ideas on the constitutions of irons and steels. Liquid cast iron. he says, is a solution of liquid carbon in liquid iron. Soft stcel is a solution of amphorous carbon in either amphorous or crystallized iron. Grey pig obtained hy casting io hot mould§ or eand, is a mixture of graphite and steel, the components, iron and curbon, heing hoth in the amorphous stato. A Masmrs Toxyer Exrerrrise i EvROPE.—W hile weon the Pacific slope are talk. ing about a “ mammoth enterprise,” to tap the great Comstock vein with a tunnel, which, when completed, will be less than four miles long, the miners at Freiburg, iu Saxony, are making arrangements to drain their principal toiving district by a tunnel, which will he some fifteen miles in length. ‘The work hae already heen several ycars in progress. It is expected that forty years longer will be required tn complete the undertaking. Derr Wetis.—Few persons are aware of the enterprise and energy displayed in efforts to procure water for the traveling public on the deserts and other places east of the Sierra, where natural springs or strcams of water are wanting. ‘There are some tbree or four wells some fifteen or twenty miles from Aurora, on the road to the Adobe Meadows, between, three and four hundred feet decp. In one of these wells, 335 feet deep, the water is hot. It is drawn up, and cooled over night. The water is of a very fair quality, and is sold at the rate of twenty-five cents per bucket. A TriaL or an Enarisn Torrer Proposep. The British Admiralty have determined to give the monitor system a severe trial by firing a steel bolt at one of the turrets at short range from an Armstrong lo-inch or 300-pounder gun. It is to be remembered that the English turrets are not precisely like ours. They are made of wood, with an iron plating, while ours are all'iron. he English construction is adhered to in order to have a difference, in spite of the fact that this difference brings with it some decided inferiority. * Rawway Buiorxo in Evrorr.—French railways are so mapped out for the future, that during the next seven years, the work of roadmaking will proceed at the rate nf 500 miles per annum. The French demand for railway material can, therefore, be calculated with great nicety. .The miles of railway built in Great Britain and Ireland last year, was about 500 miles, the same figure as the contemplated avoual itcrease of railway mileage in France. A nniLer heated by petroleum, lately set up at Woolwich Dockyard, England, vaporized 3,000 pounds nf water in three hours, at the rate of one pound of fuel to thirteen and a half pounds of water. ‘The lowest class of Knglieh oil was used, and gave a flame more voluminous than intense. Tue evaporative value ofa fluid can be better calculated from a careful chemical analysis, than hy testing it under a boiler as fuels consist of carbon and hydrogen, Carhon hag an evaporative power of 15, and hydrogen of 69. Multiply these by the respective’ ainouots of them in the fuel, take the sum, and this will be the hest poesible evaporative vaiue of the fuel. : = Tue friction of a smooth disk reyolving in water is about 2-150the of its weight. A Fortonare H'1xp.— A casket of diamonds and other*valuable jewels were found near Nashville on the 27th of June. Their value ie estimated at $80,000. Samuel J. Ringold was the finder. There were no marks found

which could indicate who the jewele helonged to. They had evidently been lying for eeveral years just onder the surface of the ground. Srientific Riiseellany. Cnaxors ox THE Moox’s Surrace.—The Rey. T. W, Wehh has recently called the attentinn of the“ British Asgociation " to a remarkable ynltey in the northern part ol the taoon, which Schroter, the old Hanoveriau astronomer, liad ohserved, drawn, and named Cassini. Mr. Webb identified this valley in Jonuary, 1865, Mr. Birt has since examined that portion of the moon carefully, compared it with Schroter’s drawing, and ascertained that if Schroter’s drawing waa made correctly, enormoue changes must have taken place on the surfice of the moon during the past thirty years! Caretul photographs nre now being taken of the moon, at short intervals, and will be continued in the future, with the hope that by snch means changes, if any are occurring, may be noted and theirtime fixed and chnracter determined. : In this convection we mny state that,among the nohle uses to whieh female genius may be put, is that of watching and copying the subtle chauges which pass over the face of nature. Acting upon this suggestion, Miss Beckly, a daughter of the mechnnical assistaut in the observatory at Kew, England, is thus em. ployed; her special ficld of observation being the sup, all the changes on which she records from day to day, by means of his light. During the day she watches for opportunities for photographing the sun, with that patience for which the sex is distinguished ; and we have the authority of the President of the Astrouomical Society for saying, that she uever lets an opportuuity escape her. Itis extraordinary, that even on very cloudy days, between gaps of clouds, when it would be imagined that it was almost impossible to get a photograph, there is always a record at Kew. Cnsauiean Dust—The celebrated Dr. Reichenbach, of Vienna, thinks he hae discovered ‘a geuuine “ universal powder,” or dust, which pervades all interplanetary space, and which, when it becomes agglomerated, forms large or small wmeteorolites, while at other times it reaches the surface of our earth in the form of an impalpahle powder. We know that meteorolites are maiuly composed of nickel, cohalt, iron, phosphorus, ete. Well, Dr. Reichenbach went to the top of a mountain, which had never been touched hy a spade or pickaxe, and collected there some dust, which he analyzed, and found it to contain nickel, cobalt, phosphorus and magnesia. People have wondered where the minute quantity of phosphorus, so generally distributed on the eurface of the earth, came from. The doctor, however, has discovered it in the mysterious invieible rain, which henceforth must be looked upon as quite az necessary for veretation as the water which falls from the clouds. A Srream or Mavacuire.— A stream of malachite (green carbonate of copper in solution) is said to have recently made its appearance in Cornwall, England. A stream of water issning from several lodes of bematite and white iron ore, has suddenly changed its appearance from the red color produced by red oxyd of iron toa green color, and now presents a stream of the strongest copper or mineral water ever seen probably in any country; in fact the whole heach where this etream runs over, and everything it comes in contact with, are ag grecn ag malachite, to tbe astonishment of every one, who has seen it, and quite a eensation has been caused io the neighborhood. The inference is that something volcanic has occurred, and that this water is issuing from a ‘great deposit of copper ore not yet discovered in some of the parallel lodes. Tar Cotor or Wine.—The red color of wine can he proved to be artificial or true hy eimply dipping a small piece of bread or sponge into the liquid and placing it in a glase of clear water. If the color is artificial the water will he at once colored, hut pore wine will vot color it for half an hour or more, ‘fle eponge should be well washed beforehand. Ozonr is found to be developed by the mechanical action of blowing machines—a fact ‘which may partly account for the healthfulness of winds. Puatinoa Mirrors—Soneruiso New.—A process hus heen patented iu France by M. Dode, a chemist, for the manufacture of platinum mirrors, which are greatly admired, and which present this advantage, that the reflecting metal is deposited on the outer surfnco of the glass, und thus any defect in the latter is concealed. The process is very expeditious, A single baking, it is said, will turvish 200 . metres of glass ready for commerce. It wonld take fifteen days to coat the same extent with mercury by the ordiuary plan, A reduction of from 40 ta 100 per cent. in cost of looking glass ie expected to result from the adoption of this procees ; for ony glass, even the comwon bottle metal, will serve to be coated. The proccss is conducted as toilows : “ Chloride of platinuin is dissolved in water, and a certain quantity of oil of iavender is added to the snlution. The platinum immediately leaves the aqueous solution nud passes tu the oil, which holds it in suspension in a finely-divided state. To the oil so chnrged litharge and burate of lead are added, and a thin cout of this mixture is painted over the surlace of the gluss, which is then carried to a proper furnace. Ata red heat the litharge and borate of lead are fused and cause the adliesion of the platinum to the softened glass.”— Mechanics’ Magazine. Crystauuization or Iroxn.—Under the influence of reiterated trepidation the iron of rails constantly gone over by rapid traine assumes a. crystalline form; the axles of the wheels do the same, and the places towards which the least coherent particles converge during this continual vihration become the points where fracture occurs. The repeated explosion of guopowder in the chamber of a piece of ordnance modifies the cohesion of its metallic particles, and at length causee the fracture of the niass. According to M. Kuhlmann, a tevacious fibrous quality of eheet iron, out of which a steam boiler was made,io a short time became crystalliue and brittle by the constant trepidation cansed by the evolution of steam. Preservinn GRaIN.—A new system of preserving grain hae recently been adopted in io France. The grain, flour, biscuit, ete., is placed in large irov cylinders, from which the air is subsequently so much exhausted as to render it so rarihed as to destroy even the weevil, the most difficult of all corn parasites to subdue. During a six months’ trial none were developed. ‘The apparatns is eonsidered available for any length of time, and under the most unfavorable circumstances. PsoronraPay tn Cotors has progressed sn far that a doll dressed hy the operator can be perfectly reproduced on the plates. A greater triumph is photographing a peacock’s teather. It has heen found that none but pure colore take well, those that are made by a mixture of two primary colore’ giving bet one of the primariee onthe plate. These photographs will not stand a full light long, as they turn brown, but may he preserved in an album. Tue outer covering ol the bulb of the amole, or California eoap plant, has been applied to a useful purpose. It is now heing collected in considerable quantity and sent to this city, where it ie used for filling mattresses, and in the manufacture of brushes. Aw error io placing a fine dot which fixes the length of a base line in astronomical measurements, amounting to 1-5000th part of an joch, will amouut to an error of seventy-six feet in calculating the diameter of the earth, 360 miles in the eun’s distance, and 65,800,000 in the distance of the nearest fixed star. Ir a tuhe convected with water, and a eolid rod also connected with water, be applied at once to the ears, sound will be heard only in the ear supplied with the tube. The reason is that the tube is so much the hetter conductor that it kills whatever sound is trausmitted through the rod. Ir has lately heen discovered that the whole of the sulphur, used at present in illuminating gas (aod which makes that gas so offensive) tay be renioved by bringing it in contact with the ammonicul liquor which is an almost worthless product of the same gas works. A Viewnrse philosopher is experimenting upon the transportation of ponderable bodies hy electricity, so that the old fable of the soldier who sent hie shoes home for excbange hy hanging them on the tefegraph wire, may be realized. ANILINE.—It requires as many as 2,000 tons of coal to produee a circular hlock of aniline twenty-four inches high hy nine inches wide, hat this is sufficient to dye three hundred miles of silk fabric. Warn water is hoiled under oil and the eteam collected and condensed. a buhble of gae remains, which is found to be nitrogen, proving the ahsorptive power of water upoo gases.