86 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



pressed down upon them by means of a screw passing through a movable 

 cross-head, embracing the sides of the open strap. The pipes to be joined 

 were placed end to end, and a collar of lead was slipped over them. The 

 collar was then placed between the three dies, and the pressure was applied 

 by means of a screw-key until the annular beads, or rings, projecting from the 

 internal surface of the dies, were imbedded into the lead collar. The ma- 

 chine was then removed, and a joint was formed capable of resisting a 

 hydraulic pressure of eleven hundred feet. The security of the joint was 

 increased by coating the surfaces previously to their being joined with white 

 or red lead. The advantages claimed for this method of joining lead or 

 other pipes, over the ordinary plumber's joint, were the comparative facility 

 and cheapness of execution, as the cost of a joint of this description was 

 said to be only about one-third or one-fourth that of the plumber's joint. A 

 machine of a similar description was also used for joining telegraphic line 

 wires, a specimen of which was likewise exhibited by Mr. Siemens. 



BITUMENIZED PAPER PIPES. 



The ingenious idea of hardening paper by means of an admixture of 

 bitumen under the influence of hydraulic pressure, so as to convert it into a 

 substitute for iron, is due to M. Jalourean, of Paris. The world has already 

 become familiar with the utility and value of papier maclie as a substitute 

 for stone or marble in moulding, architectural castings, etc. It has also 

 heard that the Chinese construct their cannon of prepared paper, lined 

 with copper, and that they even make paper pipes; that an eccentric char- 

 acter has built himself a house of paper, and that our American friends have 

 invented a veritable paper brick; but nothing, it is believed, has lately come 

 before the British public, in the way of paper, so curious, and yet practica- 

 ble, as these bituminous paper pipes. Testing experiments, conducted at 

 the Houses of Parliament, are reported to have " proved that the material, 

 while it possessed all the tenacity of iron, with one-half its specific gravity, 

 had double the strength of stoneware tubes, without, moreover, being liable 

 to breakage, as in the case of other material, and which frequently causes a 

 loss to the contractor of some twenty or twenty-five per cent, on the sup- 

 ply." In order to test their strength, two of these bituminous paper pipes, 

 of five-inch bore and half an inch thick, were subjected to hydraulic power, 

 and they are said to have sustained, without breaking or bursting, a pressure 

 of two hundred and twenty pounds to the square inch, or equivalent to five 

 hundred and six feet head of water. The cost of the pipes is understood to 

 be about one-half the cost of iron. London Builder. 



GAS METERS. 



"We make the following extract from the annual report of John C. Ores- 

 son, the engineer of the Philadelphia Gas Works : 



Among the many subjects of a practical character that engage the atten- 

 tion of the gas engineer, none has given rise to more solicitude than the 

 choice and management of gas meters, upon the accuracy and unvarying 

 action of which the interests of both consumer and producer are in a great 

 degree dependent; the former for his fair and uninterrupted supply of the 

 commodity he pays for, and the latter for securing the due returns for his 

 outlay of material and labor. All these desirable results are obtained in 



