M. TECHNOLOGY. 499 



IMPROVED SIPHON. 



Aii improved siphon recently introduced consists of an 

 ordinary siphon, having a globe at the bend furnished with 

 a short vertical tube. The latter serves the purpose of start- 

 ing the siphon, whilst the globe retains any gas that might 

 be given off by the liquid, and which in an ordinary siphon 

 would fill the bend and stop its action. A filter, consisting 

 of an inverted funnel furnished with a perforated disk, and 

 covered with a layer of cotton, wool, or other suitable mate- 

 rial, can be attached to the shorter leg of the siphon. This 

 form, however, is not entirely new, having been employed 

 heretofore to maintain a constant flow in the still of a dis- 

 tilled water apparatus, by supplying it with warm water from 

 the worm-tub of the condenser. 18 A, December 1, 1871, 26G. 



GLAZING OF EARTHENWARE. 



Workmen exposed to the dust or vapor of lead combina- 

 tions are liable to the very painful disease known by the 

 name of lead or painters' colic. This is especially the case 

 in common potteries, where, for glazing, litharge has to be 

 ground and otherwise manipulated. A German potter has 

 succeeded not only in improving his earthenware in other 

 respects, but also to entirely remove the subtle poison from 

 his establishment. He takes two parts of common fusible 

 brick clay and one part of ochery clay (strongly impregnated 

 with iron), and works it with twenty-four parts of lye from 

 Avood ashes to the consistency of cream. A thin layer of 

 this liquid serves for glazing. The heat required for its fu- 

 sion is greater, but as the manipulation is considerably sim- 

 plified, and the vessels resist perfectly the action of acids, 

 the results obtained are quite satisfactory, in addition to the 

 great benefit conferred upon the operatives. 15(7,1872, 

 viii., 119. 



NEW NETTING MACHINE. 



A Saxon weaver has, it is said, lately invented machinery 

 by which nets of all kinds, from the finest silk veil to the 

 stoutest seine, can be constructed with great regularity and 

 rapidity. The instrument, worked by one man, will furnish 

 in a day's labor fine netting from seventy to eighty feet long 



