Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1885 — MECHANICAL. [ARTICLE]

MECHANICAL.

An important process has recently been initiated, viz., that of casting steel tires for locomotives and car wheels by running the metal directly from the furnaces into cast-iron molds, and ready, when cooled, to be fitted and shrunk on. If the hopes in regard to this process are realized, the ordinary process of casting in sand mold* will be dispensed with, at much saving of labor and cost. The Neues Jahrbuch f tier Pharmacie details the conclusion of Herr Reinsch,derived from experiments with various salts, that impregnating timber with a concentrated solution of rocksalt is as good a preservative against its bursting into flame as is silicate of soda, while the price of the former salt is, of course, a mere trifle.. Moreover, rock-salt thus applied to timber is a preservative against dry rot and noxious insects. The white brick now made in France from the immense accumulations of waste sand at glass factories is likely to prove a valuable industry. The process of production consists in subjecting the sand to an immense hydraulic pressure and then baking in furnaces at a high temperature, so as to produce blocks of various forms and dimensions, of a uniform white color, and of almost pure silex. The product is unaffected by the heaviest frosts or by the sun or rain. The old gentleman with his spectacles, the “Lord Dundreary” with his “glahss,” the myopic reader, and shortsighted persons generally, who carefully wipe the dimness from their spectacles and eye-glasses with silk handkerchiefs, are, perhaps, not aware that a piece of paper will do the service much better. No matter how fine the silk may be, it will not leave the surface of the glass so well polished as the paper will. If pains are taken to lightly brush off any particles of gritty dust that may be on the glasses before rubbing them, the paper will never injure their surface with the slightest scratch. Dampen the glasses with vapor or water, or, when possible, with the breath, and the paper will absorb all the moisture and whatever ejse is deposited on the glass, now in a much softened condition. Th 6 best paper is unsized and quite porous, like the paper used by newspapers. Blotting paper leaves short fibers on the glass and is not desirable. A new tanning agent has been discovered, if the Arizona Gazette is correctly informed. The statement is made that a tanner at Tempe, Arizona, two or three years ago discovered a plant which carried a large proportion of tannin, and which, when used in the manufacture of leather, gave extra weight to the product. The plant is of annual growth, indigenous to the deserts and dry uplands, and is known to the Mexicans and Indians as “gonagra.” It has a root somewhat longer and more scraggy than the cultivated beet, though resembling it in appearance. The use of water in connection with blasting is rapidly extending in this country and Europe. A tube filled with water is inserted in the bcre hole next to the power cartridge, the tube being of thin plate, or even of paper. The usual tamping follows, and when the explosion occurs, the tube containing the water is burst, the explosive violence being increased by the presence of the water, and extended over the enlarged interior area of the bore hole, due to the space occupied by the water tube. A much larger quantity of the material to be mined or quarried is thereby brought down or loosened with a smaller quantity of explosive used, while the heat of the explosion converts a portion of the water into steam, which, with the remaining water, extinguishes the flame and absorbs and neutralizes the gases and smoke generated.