Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1886 — MECHANICAL. [ARTICLE]

MECHANICAL.

l A railway company now uses nignal wires running iu tubes lilted with petroleum oil. Some of the wires are 1,100 feet long, and are easily operated. The pipes are laid on stakes driven into the ground bight faet aimrt.and are threefourths inch in diameter inside, whilst the wire ip three-Bixte&nths inch in diameter. The jupes run parallel to the railway, and follow the. curves as well iui the tttraiglit parts of the line. A machine for lihoaring Bheep is said to be ih successful operation in Victoria. It is made of brass in the, shape of a. small trowel, and is actuated bv a turbine wheel about throe inches in diameter, geared into, a wheel bn which is fixed a cutter. A comb serves as a guard against cutting the skin. The steam is conveyed from the boiler by an India-rubber tube, which is double, haying one inside the other. The inner one is the injection, and tho space between the two the ejection. / It has been suggested that, in order to insure greater strength and consequently more safety iu ropes used for scaffolding - purposes, particularly in localities where (he atmosphere is destructive of hem]i fiber, such ropes should be dipped when dry into a bath containing twenty grains of sulphate of copper per liter in water, and kept in soak in this solution some four days; tho ropes will thus have absorbed a certain quantity of sulphate of copper, which will preserve them for some time both from the attacks of animal parasites and from rot. Experiments made under the direction of the administration of tho Dutch State railroads with the various paints on iron plates are reported to have proved that tbe red-lead paints resist atmospheric influences much better than those oi brown-red and iron oxides. The red-lead paints adhere closer to the metal and possess greater elasticity than the others. It was also found that better results were attained if, before the paints were- applied, the plates .were pickled, instead of being merely scraped and brushed. Tho best plates were pickled in muriatic acid, washed with water, thoroughly dried, and while warm carefully oiled. A St. Louis paper notes an experimental trial in that city, whereby water may be used to advantage in keeping down the temperature of journal boxes, and to the exclusion entirely of frictioneasing oils. For over two months now they have been using nothing but water on the journal of the two dynamos, and with the very best results. In comparison with the oil-using period, the pillow blocks exhibit a marked difference when by tile hand. Formerly they were' too' hot fur anvthing like continued pressure of the hand, while now they ■ are comparatively at cool all times. The journals also show to greater advantage, that brightness of surface denoting friction having given away to a duller and more nearly natural color of metal. The restoration of coIGY to fabrics, which from one cause or another have deteriorated in this respect, has suggested various chemical applications and processes. It has been customary to employ ammonia for the purpose of neutralizing acids that have accidentally or otherwise destroyed the color of the stuffs, this being necessarily applied immediately, or the color is usually imperfectly restored. An application of chloroform has the effect of bringing ont the colors as bright as ever. Flush goods, and all articles dyed with aniline colors, faded from exposure to light, resume their original brightness of appearance after being sponged with chloroformj_the commercial chloroform, which is less costly than the purified, answers well for this purpose. Soaping a Geyser. I learned of a curious circumstance while at the Upper Geyser Basin in the Yellow-stone Valley, -which is not generally known to the public, and which is unquestionably true. Many of the geysers are inactive, ofliers merely bubble and steam without erupting, while others again spout with clocklike regularity. I held the watch on Old Faithful again and again, bpt this beautiful geyser, true to its name, sent up a magnificent stream nearly 200 feet high every fifty-five minutes. Not once was there a failure or the slightest variation in the time. I saw it in the moonlight, and no spectacle on earth can compare with this sublime spectacle. The Castle geyser also treated me to a rare exhibition, butl was informed by the proprietor of the hotel that the “Splendid,” one of the finest geysers in the basin, and which once had a record almost as good as Old Faithful, had completely failed, arid had lain dormant foi; nearly six months. I strolled>over . to the Splendid and saw a man busily at work dropping bars of soap into the crater. “Wliat in the world are you doing that for ?” I inquired, totally unable to restrain my curiosity. “Just wait and see,” replied the stranger. He kept steadily at work, dropping bar after bar down the yellow-coated throat, until the monster began-to rumble and sputter, and finally behaved in a very boistrous manner. Eleven, twelve, thirteen, and, as the fourteenth bar was swallowed up, away went the Splendid 150 feet into the air, as magnificent and as grand as I had ever seen him. “There,” exclaimed the experimental stranger; “I reckon I’ve made as big a discovery as either of those scientific misses. \Viggins or Proctor, ever did in their lives.” -4.. It was an odd way of setting geysers to work, and no doubt strictly original wi.h the gentleman whom I saw trying TfT—Sf. lmwKS Globe-Democrat Put Back the Chairs. When the room in which the family sits during the evening is left for the night, the chairs should be placed close against the walls. Sometimes a person goes back in the dark to get some article, the exact location of which he remembers, and if the chairs were left in the middle of the room he might ;-)ine to grief. Some of the accidents «r.*t ncfTrr in darkness might be avoided if the bauds and feet were used more slowly.— “ Gabriel," in Good Housekeeping. i ’ - . ’ • ' ■ '■ . - " .. ; |. ;