MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 97 







oided advantage in the subsequent stages of manufacture, unless 

 it is due to a partial conversion into parchment paper. 



Uninflammable Dresses. It is much to be regretted that the 

 process of rendering the material of ladies' muslin dresses unin- 

 flammable is not more generally understood and used. Either of 

 three substances, phosphate of ammonia, tungstate of soda, and 

 sulphate of ammonia, can be mixed in the starch, and, at the cost 

 of two cents a dress, deaths from burned garments can be ren- 

 dered impossible. Articles of apparel subjected to those agents 

 can, if they burn at all, only smoulder; and in no case can they 

 blaze up in the sudden and terrible manner in which so many 

 fatal accidents have occurr'e'd to the fair wearers of crinoline. 

 American Artisan. 



Making the Desert Blossom. The artesian wells in Algeria, 

 long attempted without success, now number about 100, deliv- 

 ering 5 or 6 million litres of water per hour, and converting 

 deserts into gardens wherever they have been bored. The work 

 is going on, defrayed by tax upon the benefited population, and 

 is destined to reclaim incalculable wastes. In a single district 

 (Ouled Rir) stretching far south into the desert, and now contain- 

 ing 35 wells, 2,000 new gardens have been formed and 150,000 

 date-trees planted. Four military boring brigades,- well provided 

 with implements, and with growing skill and experience. are stead- 

 ily pushing on the conquest of the desert, and with almost unerring 

 success in every attempt. 



Itoad Locomotive. A road locomotive is now in constant use in 

 the neighborhood of Zurich, and is remarkable for the ease with 

 which it ascends considerable inclines, drawing after it carriages* 

 containing as many as 40 passengers. It is said to be easily 

 guided, its speed regulated with great facility, and quickly stopped. 



American Industry. The value in gold of the annual products of 

 the people of the United States for the year 1866 was in round num- 

 bers as follows: Those engaged in agriculture, 1,600,000,000; 

 manufactures, including all processes between the raw material 

 and consumption, 017,000,000; mining, 100,000,000; fishing, 

 13,000,000; hunting, 2,000,000; wood-cutting, etc., 25,000,000; 

 domestic 1 commerce, 1,500,000,000; foreign commerce, 190,000,- 

 000; net annual earnings or gross increase of money value derived 

 from exchanging products with foreign countries, engaging in im- 

 proving the face of the country and subduing it to the purposes of 

 society, 2,400,000,000; total in gold value, 6,756,000,000; the 

 same reduced to currency, 9,458,000,000. 



America at the Paris Exposition. The " Engineer" says : " Al- 

 though America, impeded by the great distance which her wares 

 have had to travel, has sent but a very small quota to Paris, she 

 has made an admirable selection in what she has sent. We doubt 

 if any nation, in proportion to the amount of its exhibit, shows 

 more elaborately and really well-finished workmanship, and cer- 

 tainly none has the imprint of vigorous inventive genius more 

 clearly marked on its productions. Almost every machine and 

 engine exhibited in the main gallery by the United States has 

 some special peculiarity stamped upon it, which, whether it be 



9 



