Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1888 — SCIENTIFIC SUGGESTIONS. [ARTICLE]

SCIENTIFIC SUGGESTIONS.

' Philadelphia Preu. There is to be a cable from Java to Macassar. y . / ■- Spain is to build five or six iron-clads in her own country. There are 2,300 miles of mains for aonveying natural gas in this country. Texas is putting down artesian wells, per day. ' At Marseilles a chimney 118 feet high and five feet internal diameter at the top in a storm so that the greatwas twenty inches. The Portland and Vancouver Railroad hah built a trestle across the bottom lands of the Columbia River 8,CO) feet long, extending 700 feet into the stream. Petroleum is said to be solidified by Kauffmann by heating it and making it with Ito 3 per cent, of soap, the conveniently handled product being available as fuel. China is favoring the exploration of of the Upper Yang-tse River, and the Government has posted notices to the effect that the natives must be friendly to the explorers. The English iron-clad, the Superb, will have the largest engines in the navy, they being of the triple-expansion type, with low-pressure cylinders 108 inches in diame er. The correct grade for a toboggan slide should be a cycloid curve. It is that curve which a hawk makes when swooping upon its prey. Oppikoter has just showed that the beds of rivers are true cycloids. ' ■ - On the fast trains of the country the longest continuous run is that of 118 hours and 25 minutes upon the Southern Pacific from San Francisco to New Orleans, 2,494 miles. The average speed upon this line is twenty-two miles per hour. The Italian Admiralty has been experimenting with olive and caster oils for lubrication aboard ship, and now the order is given forth that caster oil is to be used for all exposed parts of the machinery, and mineral oils in cylinders and for similar lubrication. The Watkins position finder, for which the British Government paid $225,000 has been proven to be very efficacious in finding vessels and like objects that could not be seen from the battery which was aimed at them, and such objects were struck very frequently by guns from the battery, although invisible therefrom. Recently a paddle-wheel steamer was changed into the twin screw type, the result being to increase the carrying power of the vessel by 190 tons, large additional cattle-carrying space being gained, while the net register is decreased 247 tons. The speed has been increased considerably and the fuel oonsumption reduced 60 per cent.