Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1876 — MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC. [ARTICLE]

MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC.

—M. Daguzan has invented a composition to replace the coloring matter now in use for printing paper-hangings, leather, etc. Its base is caoutchoocln the natural state, though gutta percha and other like gums are sometimes employed; the base fa reduced to a paste with benzine, and somo organic coloring matter added. —ln the course of some experiment* made by the permanent;Austrian committee It is noted that the Austrian prisnaatlcpowuer has a smaller kernel and a lesser density than that ordinarily employed in Prussia for Six-inch cannon; anti the result of the experiments made with this powder shows that the maximum preastfre exerted by It upon the common ball amounts to 2,520 atmospheres, being about 200 atmospheres, or 8,000 pounds to the Bquarc inch, greater than the pressure developed by the Prussian prismatic powder. —An exhaustive report has been issued by the German Government, giving in detail the experiments of officers in military ballooning. The conclusion arrived at is that the German officers believe that the mechanical direction of balloons is by no means impossible. Even the problem of ascending and desceading without using ballast or allowing gas to escape they think is quite likely to receive a speedy solution. The proposition the experimentalists make the German Government is that fitll opportunity be given them to study the action of the helix on balloons of different capacities. —A brilliant light has been produced by a London chemist, by a very simple method. He finds that, when common saltpeter or nitrate of potassium is heated to a temperature somewhat beyond the point of fusion in a hard glass tube or porcelain capsule mounted over a spirit lamp, and small pieces of sulphur are then successively introduced, a deflagration ensiles, accompanied by the emission of an intensely powerful white light, which is maintained as long as any ot the sulphur remains floating as a molten globule in the fluid nitrate. The cost of this light is of course very trifling, both ingredients being exObedingly cheap. Tlius, one ounce of nit£r melted and fed with sulphur at the rate of eight or ten grains at a time, will keep up a brilliant light for about ten minutes, at the expense of one cent.

—Dr. Cutter relates an interesting case in his practice—that of an energetic carpenter who, in building a hothouse, was exposed to the sun’s heat under glass in llie summertimejthiaexpesnrebeinjr followed by symptoms of disturbance of the nervous system, evincing a loss of nerve force. Naturally of a cool temper, he became excitable, was unable to cast accounts, his steps were rapid and manner nervous, but sleeplessness was the most prominent and perplexing symptom. Chloral hydrate, bromide of potassium, opium, sulphate of morphia aud valerianate of morphia, were successively tried Without avail. Finally, reasoning that here was a case of loss of nerve force, and knowing phosphorous to be a most important nerve food, Dr. Cutter prescribed one-fiftieth of a grain thrice daily in pill form. In a few days he slept as well as ever, and, discontinuing the pills, has since had his natural sleep. —Some efforts are being made in Pittsburgh to bring into use the gaseous products of wells in Butler County by layiug pipes from the Bource and connecting them directly with the great manufacturing town of Western Pennsylvania. The gas is a hydrocarbon, of the composition of C 4, H 6, mixed with some carbonic oxide and carbonic add. Its illuminating power is about from six to seven caudles, coal gas being rather more titan double.. Engineers state that pressure at the wells being as much as 100 pounds to the square inch, the gas might be carried through 3%-inch piping to Pittsburgh, and that the friction could be overcome. The volume at which the gas rushes into the air from the wells has been calculated at about 1,700 feet per second. This number multiplied by the area °f the tube would be 17 square Inches, which would be about 280 cubic feet per second, or 17,384 cubic feet per minute, or, in round numbers, 1,000,000 of cubic feet per hour. Mr. O. Wuth, an engineer, computes that this carburetted hydrogen, counting on a delivery of 1,000,000 cubic feet of gas per hour, would weigh 58.7 tons, or that per day it would represent 1,408 tons. Mr. Wuth thinks it quite feasible, by the use of this'gas, to economize an outlay in coal estimated to be worth, if consumed, sl,500,000. ___ ’