NOTES ON SCIENCE, MECHANICAL INVENTIONS, ETC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9184, 13 October 1888, Page 4 (Supplement)

NOTES ON SCIENCE, MECHANICAL INVENTIONS, ETC.

A SECRET PROCESS. The sugar refining process to be tntro" duced into the United States is the invention of a German electrician, who perfected its operation over three years ago and formed the present company, largely capitalised by Euglish money. Since that time preparations for therapidly-appioaching inauguration of the plan have been progressing steadily, although slowly, as great precaution has been taken in the construction of the machinery, to guard against the possibility of imitation ; all the component sections of the plant being manufactured at different places, widely separated in point of location, and now being put together at the new refinery, whore business will be formally commenced on or about March 1 next. According , to Kuhlow'e Review, the promoters of the undertaking show samples of sugar manufactured by the new electric process which compare favourably with the finest products of the present refining system, and claim that the operations of the new company will effect an absolute revolution in the sugar markets of the world, inasmuch as the present cost of production will be reduced from lOdols to SO cents per ton, and the time of refining from thirty to two hours. No sofb sugars vill be made, and the waste of saccharine matter will amount to only J per cent. The sentiment of the trade in general on the future, of the new plan is one of uncertainty, and the original feeling of absolute disbelief which greeted the initial announcement of the discovery some years ago is toning down, in the face of the costly and substantial preparations now going on for the inauguration of the process. For an experiment, and a comparatively hopeless one, as therefore regarded by the trade, the outlay now being made by the company in control is beyond all reason ; and this fact, combined with the recent display of the samples above referred to, has influenced a change of opinion throughout the entire market. The company officials themselves are very reticent as to the details of the process to be employed, but announce that within six weeks all arrangements will be completed, and the sugars of the company will be placed upon the market without delay. The company must possess the secret of refining by electricity, provided the samples of refined sugar exhibited by it are manufactured bv them in the manner stated. These samples snow a sugar evidently made by an entirely different process than any known refinery uses. The enterprise thus far partakes of the character of the " Keely motor," in that its secret only is known to the discoverer and his wife (a prudent woman, it appears), and in that a number of confiding stockholders have parted with sufficient money toequipan electrical refinery on the most liberal scale, the visible evidence of which is before us. Everything except the secret machinery, which is enclosed in a sort of burglar-proof safe on a large scale, is open to inspection, and facilities can be seen for tilling 3000 to 4000 barrels of refined sugar per day, a capacity almost equal to the largest of our present refineries. It is said, for the last time, that in the course of a month or two we shall see this extraordinary sight of cargoes of raw sugar dumped into a hopper, and after passing through the mysterious safe, reappear in any required grade of dry refined sugars, and having lost in the process less than one per cent, of its crystalliaable contents, the whole time required for refining being about two hours. The cost of producing sufficient electricity to accomplish the result is placed at a remarkably low figure, which, if realised, will rank the discovery as one of the marvels of the age, and revolutionise the whole augar refining business. In this age of wonders it will not. do to "pooh-pooh" at anything electricity is claimed to be capable of, and the sugar trade waits with anxious, not to say somewhat excited, interest the developments of the next few months. At the aamo time, considerable doubt mny be permitted pend: ing further information. A NEW LEATHER. Cordovan, the name by which feather made from hides of horses is now known, is comparatively a new product. According to Kuhlow's Review, ib was first finished in Hamburg , , Germany, about fifty years ago, under the name of Ross Leder. The peculiarity of the horse hide is that known as the "shell," a formation found only in the family Equicke, consisting of the horse, as.s, zebra, gnu, and quagga. This " shell "is a muscle in aflat sheet spread over the horse's rump, between the hips and tail, extending down through the legs, making a piece of oval form about 2 feet long and 1$ feet wide in the widest part. The muscle grows firmly to the grain ; below it is a flannel-like tissue. In combination with it, the hide has four layers of muscular skins, which, with the shell, give to the horse the tremendous pulling power that makes the animal so serviceable to mankind. This "shell," if properly tanned and shaved clean of its sinewy matter—a most difficult task—makes the best wearing leather in existence, and proves the theory of old-time shoemakers, that only leather of a long fibre will wear, to be a mistaken one, as the shell lia3 no fibre. In this it has a decided advantage over calfskin, with its fibres ; the breaking of any one throws additional strain upon the others, and a break in the leather soon follows. Experiments have demonstrated that the "shell" will wear two or three times longer than calfskin. A SAFETY/SEAL FOR CHEQUES, BONDS, ETC. A specially-devised seal for application to face of cheques, bonds, notes, and other documents, to prevent altering or changing the figures showing the amounts for which the papers stand, has been patented by an American lady inventor, Miss Anna M. Woodhull, of Freehold, N.J. It is made of any proper kind of paper for such purposes, and cut out by dies with serrated edges and being delivered from the dye in sheets, the several seals of the sheets being united by narrow webs. The dies also cut out the central portion of each seal to leave a central aperture and a small auxiliary aperture at the side or top. The under faces of the seals are coated with any proper gum, and to each seal there is attached a semi-trans-parent flap.euch flap covering the apertures, but being disconnected from the main portion of the seal. When the number to be protected is written upon the cheque or other instrument, the seal is applied so that the number will be discernible through the semi-transparent flap, and the cheque and the flajp of the seal may be pierced through the side aperture of the seal, by a penknife or other convenient means, after the seal has been applied, so that any removal of the seal would direct the attention of the payee to the fact that the amount called for might have been changed or altered. MISCELLANEOUS. A naphthol preparation is recommended in the German medical papers for preventing profuse perspiration of the hands in young pianists, violonists, Sec, and is composed of naphthol, five parts ; glycerine, ona hundred parts, and starch ten parts. Another preparation is naphthol powder, two parts; starch powder, one hundred parts. A man in Washington Territory has patented an ingenious telephone whereby it is possible to detect the presence of metal in rocks. A very curious geographical distribution of certain virtues and vices has been mooted by a scientist. Intemperance is mostly found above latitude 48°, amatory aberrations south of the forty-fifth, financial extravagance in large seaports, industrial thrift in pastoral highland regions. London 'buses are to have the electric light, and the storage battery will be under the driver's seat. A German manufacturer is now making a boiler in which no rivets are used. The joints are welded and the cost is said to be slightly in excess of the rivet work. The statement is made that no less than six species of North American birds have become extinct during the last ten years, and it is claimed that English sparrowa were the main cause. Pyrodene is a new liquid which renders wood, textile fabrics, paper, and such inflammable materials fire-proof. The liquid is made of all colours, so as to be used as a substitute for paint; and it is said to render houses and other outbuildings fire-proof. At the Royal Powder Factory of Wetteren, in Belgium, a new gunpowder is being made. They call it poudre-papler, or paper powder, and it is said that a charge of two and a-half grammes (thirty-nine grains) gives, in a rifle of small calibre, an initial velocity of 630 yards to' he ball. This is equal to, if ifc does nob beat, 'he Lebel powder. Tr ; additional udvanta-jes are attributed to ib of not smearing the barrel, of producing no smol" , and of causing little recoil.