Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1875 — MECHABICAL AND sCIENTIFIC. [ARTICLE]

MECHABICAL AND sCIENTIFIC.

—ln the reconstruction of the Hotel d<? Ville, Paris, a machine is used for cuttin g stone which does in one day the work in fiftteen men. It is composed of two revolving cylinders furnished with marble hammers, by means of which the stone is separated with great rapidity and precision. —Tlie Swedish Arctic expedition arrived on its homeward journey at Hsmmerfest, the most northern town of Norway. in good health and condition, Sep*. 26. It passed the Gulf of Obi and reached the River Yenesei, in longitude 83 degrees east, on the 15th of August. At this place Profs. Nordenskjold, Sundstreem and Stuxberg left the party to return home by way of Siberia, while the ship returned coastwise. The expedition has brought back a rich collection illustrative of natural history and several important hydrographic reports. —The Mining Journal reports an enormous blast of dynamite which took place at Cauldon Lowe Limestone Quarry, near Frogall. To test the strength of the dynamite it was decided to charge a chamber with eleven hundred-weight. The fuse was then fired, and in the space of eleven minutes the charge exploded with immense effect, bringing down the face of the quarry” thirty-four feet back for a long distance, tlie quantity of stone dropped being roughly estimated at 30,000 tons. This shot, illustrated the great saving of labor in using dynamite.

—lt seems that the practice of scalping is not peculiar to the North American Indian. A query put forth in Nature draws out the following information on the subject: Herodotus mentions that it was one of the most characteristic practices of the ancient Scythians. It is said that tlie custom still prevails among tlie wild tribes of the frontier in the northeastern district of Bengal. The Friend of India remarks that “ The Naga tribes use the scalping-kniie with a ferocity that is only equaled by the American Indians; and the scalps are carefully preserved a 3 evidences of their prowess and vengeance over their enemies. On the death of a chief all the scalps taken by him during his warlike career are burned with his remains.” —New sources of india-rubber, or materials characterized by the elasticity and the other peculiar properties of that substance, are constantly being brought to light and experimented with, it being well known that the rubber constituent abounds in the milky juices of many plants beside the caoutchouc tree, as, for example, tlie dandelion, lettuce, etc. Recently a company has been formed in London, Ontario Province, for the extraction of caoufcdiouc from milkweed, the juice of which is found to contain some 4 per cent, of rubber. In the process of production pursued in this case the plant is first partially decomposed, steamed, then treated with coal-tar naphtha, which being distilled leaves the residuary caoutchouc in the solid form; —The most practicable method of obtaining tube wells is claimed to be that which is now in vogue in Paris, the apparatus for driving the tube being a simple arrangement, consisting of common quartering set up as a triangle; other pieces of quartering also guiding a rammer. The tubes keep themselves free from dirt, and when a spring is touched give as great a supply of 'water as the pump can draw, the water being as clear as that drawn irom a well with a reservoir. The tubes used in this case are ordinary three-inch gas-pipes, which serve tlie purpose admirably. Tin? bottom end is shod with a solid iron spike, rather larger than the tube, so as to clear the way for it; arid for about eighteen inches up from the bottom it is perforated so as to admit the water freely, but at the same time to exclude gravel.—AT. Y. Sun.