364 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



Dcremher 



Cargoes of Dead Cats. 



Liverpool receives some curious car- 

 goes at times — cargoes of turtles and 

 other live and dead animals, casks of 

 leeches, shiploads of bones from battle- 

 fields, of human mummies from the 

 Egyptian tombs and of dead c.ats from 

 the cat cemeteries of the same country. 



Lighthouse L.ight8. 



In a series of papers contributed to 

 Engineering by Du Riche Preller on 

 lighthouses in Europe the remarkable 

 statement is made that the luminous 

 range of a light of 500,000 candle pow- 

 er in the Mediterranean (44 miles) is 

 equal to that of 5,000,000 candles in the 

 channel — equal to a ratio of one to ten — 

 hence, it is added, that, with the excep- 

 tion of the electric flashing light of 

 Planier, near Marseilles, of 600,000 

 candle power, the most powerful min- 

 eral oil lights recently installed on the 

 French, Corsican, Algerian and Tunis- 

 ian coasts of the Mediterranean do laot 

 exceed 35,000 candle power, having a 

 luminous range of about 30 miles iu av- 

 erage weather. On the other hand, in 

 the channel and in the bay of Biscay 

 the largest mineral oil lights have lu- 

 minous powers up to about 200,000, 

 and the electric lighting flash lights up 

 to 23,500,000 and 37,500,000 candles. 

 Further, the maximum light of French 

 lighthouse towers — that is, the height of 

 the focus above ground — varies from 

 about 50 to 70 meters, but some towers 

 are, of course, on very elevated posi- 

 tions, so that, taking the height of the 

 focus above the sea level, the highest 

 light, that of Cape Brearn, is 751 feet 

 above the high water sea level, while 

 its luminous power is 6, 000 candles and 

 its luminous range 25 miles. This light 

 is an oil light, and the geographical 

 range, or direct visibility of such lights 

 on high elevations, is usually in excess 

 of their luminous range, the reverse of 

 this, however, being commonly the case 

 ■with electric coast lights. 



Machinery Lubrication. 



The results of some valuable experi- 

 ments on the lubrication of machinery 

 bearings hr.ve been set forth by JVIr. 

 Dewrauce in an address before theCivi' 

 Engineers' institute, London. His ob- 

 servations snow that olive oil becomes 

 black and thick after passing through 



the bearings several times. This oil, 

 after filtration, was composed of 16 per 

 cent of oleate of lead, 9.57 per cent of 

 oleate of acid and 74.62 per cent of 

 olive oil and glycerin, the oleate acid 

 in the olive oil appearing to attack 

 lead, zinc and copper with great activi- 

 ty. Thus disks of metals used iu the 

 manufacture of bearings were immersed 

 in oleate acid, occasionally drawn up 

 out of the acid so as to be exposed to 

 the air. Lead and zinc rapidly corroded 

 away, copper was corroded to a less ex- 

 tent, while tin and antimony were not 

 appreciably affected. In regard to the 

 compressibility of alloys, it is suggested 

 by this authority that no alloy be used 

 until it is satisfactorily demonstrated 

 that its point of first yield is consider- 

 ably above the greatest load or shock to 

 which it will be subjected in use. In 

 testing the effect upon soft metal bear- 

 ings when the shaft sustained a heavy 

 pressure a piece of iron was found to 

 leave no mark upon a surface softer 

 than itself. 



Rome's Great Fire. 

 In A. D. 64, 10 of the 14 municipal 

 districts of Rome were destroyed by a 

 conflagration instigated, it is said, by 

 the Emperor Nero. The number of lives 

 lost is known to amount up into the 

 hundreds, but the value of the property 

 destroyed cannot even be estimated. By 

 the emperor's command, thousands of 

 Romans rendered homeless and desti- 

 tute were employed in removing the de- 

 bris and rebuilding the burned city. 

 Nero, to divert the odium of the crime 

 from himself, charged it upon the 

 Christians, and thus began one of the 

 greatest persecutions in the history of 

 the early Christian church. 



Julian Hawthorne. 



Julian Hawthorne is the son of Na- 

 thaniel Hawthorne. He was born in 

 1846, but he does not show his 50 years. 

 When he was a boy of 7, some lady's re- 

 mark on the fact that he was "weak 

 chested" stung him, and he determined 

 to make that comment impossible in 

 the future. How well he succeeded is 

 evidenced by the fact that while he 

 was in college his chest measure was 48 

 inches, and it is well known that the 

 late John C. Heenan, the pugilist, ad- 

 vised the young man to enter the prize 



