22 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



Office and the Euston Street Railway station (a distance of 1800 feet) 

 was described as about to be put in practical operation. A recent 

 report of the Pneumatic Despatch Company now states, " That 

 since the 20th of February, 18G3, the authorities have discontinued 

 their street conveyances, and intrusted the company with the trans- 

 mission of the mails, and that the service of the district had since 

 been entirely performed by the company. Thirty trains per diem 

 (Sundays excepted) have been despatched with perfect regularity, 

 and upwards of 4,000 trains have run without impediment or delay. 

 The time occupied in the transmission has not exceeded seventy sec- 

 onds. The daily cost of working has averaged l. 4s. 5d. ; and five 

 times the number of trains could have been conveyed without any 

 appreciable increase of expense." 



The successful result of these experiments has induced the com- 

 pany to proceed to the laying of an additional line of pipe for further 

 post-office accommodation, which will be 2|- miles in length and 54 

 inches in diameter, at an estimated total cost of 65,000. It is confi- 

 dently predicted that, in the course of a few years, the entire trans- 

 mission of the London mails throughout the city will be accomplished 

 by atmospheric pressure. 



IMITATION RUSSIA SHEET IRON. 



At a recent meeting of the Franklin Institute, Prof. Fleury pre- 

 sented specimens of imitated Russia sheet iron, made under the patent 

 of Mr. Win. Riesz from ordinary rolled iron, the original cost of which 



* ^3 



was 5 cents per pound ; the expense of the process was 2^ cents, mak- 

 ing the total cost of the iron in its present condition, 7 cents per 

 pound. He stated that " the inventor, who was for a number of years 

 director of a large iron manufacturing establishment in Germany, had 

 made it his particular study to examine theoretically and practically 

 the manufacture of the iron which was imported in large quantities 

 from Russia. By repeated analyses of the iron, and also through no- 

 ticing its beautiful, smooth, and incorrodible surface (by scraping off* 

 the surface from a large number of sheets), he came to the curious con- 

 clusion that the Russia iron was not, as he had thought, and as the gen- 

 eral impression among iron manufacturers still seems to be, covered by 

 a film of carburet of iron, but that the smooth surface consisted of an 

 atomic accumulation of a peculiar substance, a NITRIDE of iron com- 

 bined with about 20 per cent, of carbon: the nitro-carburetted iron of 

 Fremy. The quantity of carbon and nitrogen diminished gradually 

 towards the centre, where the iron was nearly pure and very flexible. 

 After years of experiments, he has finally succeeded in producing from 

 ordinary sheet iron the best imitation of Russia sheet iron which, in 

 iny opinion, can be made." 



" Though the process is very simple, it requires considerable skill ; 

 but once learned, by short practice under the guidance of the inventor, 

 it can be carried on in the most regular manner. The iron is cleaned 

 in a sulphuric acid bath, then washed with an alkali and water, and 

 placed in a peculiar mixture described in the patent, which prevents 

 oxidation ; it is then rolled with the before-named coating, and, after 

 being re-heated, placed under the hammer to receive the required tem- 

 per and smoothness." 



