SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Star (Christchurch), 30 September 1893, Page 3

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Bottles have been successfully blown T_y machinery in Woodbury, Pa. There are 1650 cities and towns in. the United States which are' equipped with eleotrio light. A safety envelops, just patented, is so folded and pasted together that it cannot posßibly be opened without being entirely destroyed. Petroleum, whioh is popularly supp ised to be derived from coal, is, according to advanced science, more probably the result of the fit? .ion of water on metal. Mr Edison says there is more money made out of little discoveries than big oues, and that it. is better to keep the secret of an invention than to have it patented. A Paris inventor believes that . he . can calm the ocean waves round a vessel by spreading over them a thin cotton or eilk net, made unsubmersible by being dipped in a certain oheinical solntion. A, Chicago inventor has hit upon an ingenious combination of receptacle and furnace, no larger than an ordinary ash barrel, which is Baid to dry and consume the garbage in your own back yard or cellar with no odour and very little trouble or expense. Quantities of carbonic acid are given off inthe process of manuf acturing cement, and efforts have been made to utilise it. The patented method of Mr Taylor, of Boohester, is stated to secure the gas sufficiently pure for the manufacture of aerated waters. The Government of India offers a reward of .85000 to the man who will invent a machine for extracting the fibre from the sisal leaf with only one motion. Now the leaf is pushed in between rollers, crushed, and pulled backward to extract the fibre, and it is this backward motion which is to be dispensed with. Thomas A. Edison thinks the practical speed limit on the horizon of electrical locomotion will ba about one hundred and fifty mileß an hour. Before moving heavy trains by electricity he believes that we Bhall. shoot our mail through the country by some electrical device— of telpherage construction, in all probability. Ozone is now prepared commercially in open .metallic vessels by means of an electric current transformed to a pressure of 8000 to 10,000 volts, and conveyed to metallic electrodes having thousands of points. The apparatus iB the invention of M. Andreoli. In one form he uses metallic tapes of small section with serrated edge 3, the large number of points giving a larger percentage of the " atmospheric oxygen ozonised. • ' An invention designed to facilitate the immediate stopping of a vessel, moving j in dangerous waters, pr in danger of colliding with another vessel, has bsen patented by a Peruvian. A vertically sliding frame on a post at the bow ofthe vessel has on its sides pivoted wings adapted to expand transversely to offer resistance to the forward motion of the vessel in the water when the frame is in its lowermost position. Everybody haa noticed the dropa of moisture that collect oa a cold day oh the window panes of a room where a number of persona have assembled, but everybody j does not know that this moisture _b poisonous. If a few drops be gathered j and thrown ona red-hot stove the eva pora- I tion -will give out a strong smell like burning bair or feathera. The condensed breath contains a large quantity of organic matter, ahd ao is rank poison. Dt Gautrelet, of Vinchy, claims to have discovered a method of rendering tobacco harmless to mouth, heart, and nerves, without detriment to ite aroma. A piece of cotton wool steeped in a solution of pyrogallio aoid, inserted iv tbe pipe or cigar-holder, will neutralize any possible effects of the nicotine. In this way not only may the generally admitted effects of smoking be prevented, but cirrhosis of the liver, headache, and furring of the tongue may be avoided. Citric acid has the serious disadvantage of spoiling the taste of tlie tobacco. Gold is so very tenacious tbat a piece of it drawn into a wire lees than the onetwentieth of an inch in diameter will suspend a weight of 5001bs. The surface of any given quantity of the metal may be extended by the hammer 310,184 times., and each single grain may be dividcid into 2,000,000 visible parts. The thickness of a piece of gold when extended by thei hammer until its-surface is 310,184 times its original .area is hot more than tbe 56|5,020th of an inch !. Eight ounces of this wonderful' metal would gild or plate a wire of sufficient length to extend entirely around the globe.