MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 39 



SHEET-IRON PIPES. 



SHEET-IROX pipes, of a new manufacture, have lately been introduced 

 into England from France, where they have been in use for several 

 years. They are made of sheet-iron, which is bent to the required 

 form, and then strongly riveted together, after which they are coated 

 with an alloy of tin, and the longitudinal joints are soldered, so as to 

 render them both air-tight and water-proof. In order to give them 

 more stiffness, they are next coated on the outside with asphalte cement, 

 and if they are intended to be used as water-pipes, the inside is also 

 coated with bitumen, which resists like glass the action of acids and 

 alkalies. They are so elastic, that they will bear a considerable deflec- 

 tion without injuring the pipes, or causing any leakage at the joints. 

 The vertical joints screw together in the same manner as cast-iron gas 

 pipes. These pipes have been used for water, for gas, and for drain- 

 ing, and are found to be more economical than cast-iron, besides being 

 less liable to leak, and, for water-pipes, they are more healthy than the 

 common ones. Railroad Journal. 



ILLUSTRATION OF THE TENACITY OF IRON. 



THE Birmingham Journal (England) says : A singular illustration 

 of the tenacity and ductility of iron has been produced at an iron 

 establishment in this city. It is in the form of a book, the leaves 

 of which are of iron, rolled so fine that they are no thicker than apiece 

 of paper. The book is neatly bound in red morocco, and contains forty- 

 four of these iron leaves the whole being only the fifteenth of an inch 

 thick. This curious book was rolled in the ordinary sheet-iron rolls. 



CAST-IRON BUILDINGS. 



THE applicability of cast-iron to the construction of buildings was first 

 discovered in this country by Mr. Bogardus, of New York, who, after 

 trying, without success, to interest capitalists here in the matter, went 

 to England, where he was equally unsuccessful. In that country 

 uTought-vcon had been used for building ; but, although the advantages 

 of cast-iron were obvious, it was thought that Mr. Bogardus had over- 

 estimated the strength of the material. He returned to the United 

 States, and eventually succeeded in obtaining the necessary capital to 

 carry out his plan ; and is now doing a very large and increasing busi- 

 ness in Xew York. The discovery of gold in California was literally the 

 circumstance which crowned the invention of Mr. Bogardus with its 

 present success. The sudden demand for large houses there, the want 

 of ordinary building materials, and the high prices of labor, forced the 

 people of that State, and those from the Atlantic States, speculating in 

 California property, to look favorably on the plan for the substitution 

 of cast-iron for brick and wood in house-building. New York merchants 

 first sent such houses thither, which, being put up in a day for each, 

 month required for the erection of an English wrought-iron building, 

 and answering better in many other respects, caused so many orders to 



