Scientific and Useful.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 301, 26 October 1883, Page 5

Scientific and Useful.

NEW PETROLEUM BURNER. It is asserted that a wonderful petroleum'burner has been invented, by the use of which crude oil may be burned in ordinary cook and parlour stoves, ranges, or furnaces, without any alteration in their construction being necessary, giving a fire that will emit no smoke or gas, and which carries with it no danger of explosion. It is claimed for this invention that by it the intensity of the heat may be regulated as quickly and easily as the heat of a gas jet or tlie force of water from a faucet. The stove is fed with the oil through an iron pipe that connects with a can or tank iv the same or a different room. A small perforated brass tube runs through the centre of the stove. The oil as it drops out of the tube falls into burners of asbestos, a fibrous but incombustible material, and when the match is applied only the oil that . has dropped out burns, the perforations in the tube keeping the oil inside safe. The apparatus for an ordinary cooking stove burns about a pint an hour, and the inventor declares that by its use a barrel of petroleum will give as much service as a ton of coal in the same stove or furnace. — Mechanical World. HOW AMEBICAN AXES ABE MADE. Mr William Evans, of Chester, Pa. has recently devised a steam press for forming axes. It is an immense piece of machinery, weighing 13 tons, and capable of making a hatchet, adze, or broad-axe in a remarkably short space of time. Its working is somewhat complicated. Dies are used according to the shape of the tool desired. In these dies a piece of iron of the proper weight is put, and by intense pressure the iron is reduced to the desired shape. By an ingenious arrangement the iron is " steeled" — that is, the required piece of steel is welded to it by pressure from four directions. It is again placed in the die and repressed, and the "eye" punched. A man then takes it, points it, and dresses it up ready for the market. This machine is expected, to turn out 24 dozen hatchets per day, and a man could not make more than 10 dozen in a week's work. It is also used in cutting iron, in which it is the meaus of saving much labour. A heavy knife is put upon the machine, and it will make a clean cut through a piece of cold iron 2jin. by l£in. There is no other press in the country like this one. :P gireg promise of "Dooming a valuable

piece of machinery about an edge-tool works on account of its speed, which always cheapens production- Mr Evans has been a long time perfecting it. — Mechanical World. TBACING ON CLOTH. A correspondent of the Moniteur Industriel refers to the difficulties encountered in tracing upon cloth or calico, especially the difficulty of making it take the ink. In the first place the tracing should be made in a warm room, or the cloth will expand and become flabby. The excess of glaze may be removed by rubbing the surface with a chamois leather on which a little powdered chalk has been strewn ; but this practice possesaes the disadvantage of thickening the ink — besides, it might be added, of making scratches which detract from the effect of the tracing. The use of ox-gall, which makes the ink " take," has also the disadvantage of frequently making it " run," while it also changes the tint of the colours. The following is the process recommended : Ox-gall is filtered through a filter paper arranged over a funnel, boiled and strained through fine linen, which arrests the scum and other impurities. It is then placed again on the fire, and powdered chalk is added. When the effervescence ceases the mixture is again filtered, affording a bright, colourless liquid, if the operation has been carefully performed. A drop or two must be mixed with the Indian ink ; and it also has the property of effacing lead pencil marks. When the cloth tracings have to be heliographed raw sienna is also added to the ink, as this colour unites with it the most intimately of any, besides intercepting the greetest amount of light. DISCOVERY OF ANCIENT BUINS IN NEW MEXICO. The Boston Journal reports that important discoveries of the largest ancient ruins yet found on this continent, which extend for a distance of fifteen miles up and down the banks of the Las Animas River, Jabout forty miles from Durango, in Rio Grande county, N.M., have recently been made. Post Office Inspector Cameron, who visited these ruins lately, believes the ancient villages were occupied by the Moqui Indians, and not by the Aztecs, as is generally supposed. He speaks of discovering a stone ruin 400 feet by 450 feet, which at one time evidently was three storeys high. The walls are five feet thick. There were about LSO roams in the building, of ten feet square each. An enterprising Yankee, who has pre-empted as Government land the ground on which the ruins stand has been doing a fine business selling relics to visitors. A discovery thought important by the gentlemen of the Bureau of Ethnology was lately made of thirteen human skeletons in a subterranean chamber of the building mentioned. This had evidently been used as a burial vault. They were carefully wrapped in a kind of coarse cloth, and bore a close resemblance to Egyptian mummies. This cloth was of cotton, and woven with as much skill as if done at the present day, which is considered not the least interesting part of the discovery. The skeletons were perfectly preserved and clean. They were unmistakably those of Indians. A quantity of pottery of the best make was also found in this tomb. "cheese" caves. The natural caves of Koquefort (Aveyron) are an interesting formation, of which the following are some particulars from a recent account. From the north slope of the plateau of Lazac rises the mountain of Oambalou, with an abrupt escarpment on the north side. At some epoch undetermined, part of the oolite rocks of this hill slipped down, following the motion of the clay beds on which they rested. The strata, tumbled about in great blocks, formed a new irregular ground, with numerous fissures. The air entering these forms currents in various directions, while the percalating water of rama affords abundant moisture. It was on this new- ground that the village of Eoquefort was built, at an altitude of about 259J feet. It is those faults or fissures and the fresh air circulating in them that have been utilised for the preparation of the cheese produced from the milk of the sheep in that region. Tlie natural grottoes were the first caves, and at their uioutns were afterwards formed larger spaces, which are the present caves witu their accessories. The temperature of the caves varies between 4 and 8 degrees 0. from day to day, and from one cave to another. The air coining through, the faults is charged with moisture, showing on an average, 60 dog. in the hygrometer. It is these relations of temperature and moislure that give the oaves their high value for the industry referred to. PARIS AS A SEAPORT. While Manchester merchauts are seriously discussing the project for making a waterway between that city and the sea, the French Society of Civil Engineers have recently had under consideration a project of M. Bouquet de la Orcye, hydrographer to the Jtfavy, for rendering Paris accessible to ships with, a draught of 6or 7 metres (23-— 24 ft.) He proposes to deepen the Seine bed by dredging, and to lower the water level between Jioueu and Poissy, so forming a maritime basin about 103 miles long and 150 feet in width. The excavation would progressively reach a depth of 53ft. below the present bottom at Poissy, and the water level would be lowered about 40ft. The quantity of matter to be removed v estimated at 75,000,000 cubic metres. Only the sharper curves of the river would be avoided; bridges would be raised or rendered movable. At Poissy vessels would rise by a " cascade" of locks, about 110 ft. in the forest of St. Germain, to an upper canal, fed with water from the Seine, by means of turbines driven by die fall of Seine water at the locks of Poissy. This canal would extend to Aubervilliers, passing over the Seine and the railways ; its level would be nearly that of the canal of La Villette. There would be two harbours, a lower aud an upper, at the borders of the forest of St. Germain, and ships going to the higher canal would not interfere with, those at the lower port, whence Transatlantic merchandise would he sent straight to the lihine Valley. The expense of the lower canal between Rouen and Poissy is estimated at about 150,000,000 francs, that of the upper about 100,000,000. The scheme has been vigorausly discussed, and some eminent engineers liave taken grave ob« jection to it,