Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1875 — MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC. [ARTICLE]

MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC.

—The sulphuric acid used for cleansing and deodorizing petroleum at Cleveland refineries is restored by a chemical process thereto a better commercial article of acid than the original. —Soluble glass can be made of pure sand fifteen parts, charcoal one part, and purified potash ten parts. Mix and heat in a fire-proof melting pot for five hours, or until the whole fuses uniformly- Take out the melted mass, and, when cold, powder it and dissolve it in boiling water. —Marble can be stained different colors by the following substances: Blue, solution of litmus; green, wax colored with verdigris; yellow, tincture of gamboge or turmeric; red, tincture of alkanet or dragon’s blood; crimson, alkanet in turpentine; flesh, wax tinged with turpentine; brown, tincture of logwood; gold, equal parts of verdigris, sal ammoniac and sulphate of zinc in fine powder. —When a drop of rain falls on the sea it descends with a gradually diminishing ‘velocity, and with Increasing size, to a distance of several Inches. Prof. Reynolds demonstrates this with colored water. Each drop sends down one or more vortex rings. The actual size of these rings depends on the size and speed of the drops. Stick a transposition of water from one place to another must tend to destroy wave motion. —ln Australia kangaroo skins are becoming an important article of traffic, and experts declare that they make the toughest and most pliable leather in the world. Boot-uppers of this material are said to be both comfortable and durable. It also makes the best of morocco whips, gloves, etc. Of these skins some are exported in their raw state, and others after being manufactured. The kangaroo is widely distributed throughout the colonies, and great numbers are slaughtered yearly for their skins. —Glass would perhaps be more used in actual construction if any pains were taken to improve its qualities, other than those which affect merely its transparency and ornamental properties. It is not generally known that good glass will stand a compressive strain but little inferior to that proper to ordinary wrought iron, the proportion being as seven to eight. Experiments have been tried on glass bars and rods in a similar manner as with iron, with the above result. Unfortunately, the tensile -strength of glass as estimated at present is very small, not exceeding in the best examples more than a ton and a half per inch of sectional area. It is not impossible that the strength of this material, both as regards its compression and tension, might be increased by a better annealing process and by other means, if there was once created a demand for glass possessing these properties to a greater extent Its advantages are that it can be readily both cast and rolled into any form; the ingredients of its manufacture are cheap and abundant; it is completely unaffected by acids, with the exception of one, with which it can scarcely accidentally come into contact, and is not attacked by the weather and the thousand and one causes of deterioration which are so fatal to iron. In addition, it is about one-third of the weight of the latter material. We think that glass would play a more important part as a constructive material if attention were drawn to the qualities it possesses—qualities no doubt capable of considerable improvement.— N. Y. Newt.