Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1891 — SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. [ARTICLE]

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

A very useful addition to the sewing machine has appeared in the shape of a quilting frame. This device can be easily adjusted to hold a quilt in position for being worked on and so that it can be readily adapted to the feed of any sewing machine. The frame supporting the quilt may be brought in an instant into any desired position, the suspended frame moving freely, and the device permitting of such arrangement in connection with a sewing machine that the feed of the machine will draw the quilt and frame through it. The device can be adapted to all sizes of machines and to the quilting of any desired pattern. The manufacture of artificial grind stones now constitutes a very important industry in this country. The materials used in this manufacture are pulverized quartz, powdered flint, powdered emery or corundum and rubber dissolved by a suitable solvent. These materials, after being carefully mixed together, form a substance that is exceedingly durable, and that will, when used for sharpening tools, outwear by many years any natural stone known. During the process of kneading and mixing there is a constant escape of far fumes, very often rendering necessary the covering of the mixers with a sheet iron hood. The compound is afterward calendered into sheets of one-half to three inches thick, shaped up and carefully vulcanized, and the process is completed by the wheels being trued up with tools made especially for the purpose. These wheels are used for the finest sort of grinding and polishing purposes^ The application of rubber to wheel tire* has proved a great boon to bicyclists, and the increase in this branch of industry is remarkable."" There are 100,000 bicycles made ip this country every year, and 40,000 more are imported. As all these have tires of the best rubber it can be seen that a good percentage of the world’s supply is absorbed, in this way. Each tire weighs on an average between three and four pounds, and this together with renewals, involves a yearly consumption of not far from 1,000,000 pounds. The solid tire was first used, but the .cushion and the pneumatic are now the popular forms. Each of these, however, is being further modified and improved, and the comfort of bicycle riding is being daily increased. The oushion tire is not liable to puncture and takes the jar well, but its weak point at present is its liability to crack at the sides in the interior. The pneumatic consists of a rubber tube jacketed in a stout canvas sack, which prevents it being burst by over inflation and other accidents. The whole is covered with a larger incasing tube -of rubber. The canvas sack is cemented to the outer rubber tubing, and the interior is inflated by an air valve. This form of tire, which is not yet perfected, has the advantage of being easily repaired by the rider in a few minutes by the roadside. The repairing outfit consists of a hidden pressure tube filled with a qulekdrying solution, rubber for patches and a supply of canvas. These adaptations of rubber enable the rider to travel long distances day after day with but little ill effect from the concussion which once effected so materially the health and comfort of the bicyclist. The public is frequently warned by the medical profession of the danfer which lurks in the practice of ampening the gum on envelopes with the tongue, and notwithstanding the many cases of serious and virulent diseases, especially of a syphilitic type, which have been traced to such an origin, the practice is still almost universal. Among attempts which have been made to provide a means of- escaping the necessity of licking the envelope is an automatic lock envelope, which has just been patented. On the the flap of the envelope are two projecting flanges, and all that is necessary to close the envelope is *to fold these flanges by clearly denoted lines and insert the flap thus narrowed in a slot, whereupon the folded flanges automatically lock themselves and the envelope cannot be opened without being torn. The operation sounds much more complicated than it real ly is, for one of the new envelopes can be closed as readily as the bet-ter-known gummed envelope. Still another remedy is a patent machine which moistens the open flaps of envelopes and similar articles drawn through it. This consists of a reservoir with con vexed under surface, which is attached to a vertical member of a frame. When the gummed flap of an envelope is passed under a sponge which extends slightly downward within an opening In the case of the frame, a spring arm is slightly lifted and raises a plug, allowing water to enter the reservoir and permitting its flow through the sponge, which is thus kept in a thoroughly moist condition. The immediate return of the plug to its position by the spring arm, after the envelope has been passed through, prevents further flow of the moistening liquid.