102 



POPULAR SCIEKCE NEWS. 



[July, 1888. 



turning the camera on its side we get a vertical 

 distortion. By inclining the slits at different angles, 

 variously distorted pictures may be obtained. — 

 William A. Pickering, in Anthony's Bulletin. 



A VENETIAN SHIP RAILWAY. 



An interesting achievement of the fifteenth cen- 

 tury was recently described by Mr. E. L. Corthell 

 before the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia. Bres- 

 cia, an inland city of immense strength, was be- 

 sieged by the Milanese. Upon Lake Garda, near it, 

 were the fleets of the besieging forces. About a 

 hundred miles distant was Venice, apparently un- 

 able to cope with the problem of relieving Brescia. 

 An engineer named Sorbolo proposed to the Doge 

 and Senate to take a fleet of war-ships up the 

 Adige to the limit of navigation, and thence to 

 transport them overland to Lake Garda. By ex- 

 hibiting a model of his proposed apparatus, he 

 succeeded in inducing them to try his project. A 

 fleet of two first-class and four second-class galleys 

 and of twenty five light barques was prepared, 

 armed, and provisioned. They were taken up the 

 Adige against its impetuous current until the point 

 nearest the lake was reached. Here they were 

 placed on cradles while afloat, and by the power of 

 a regiment of oxen were drawn up the incline to 

 the plain. Six hundred oxen were required to 

 effect this for each galley; but, once on the level, 

 half that number could draw the largest ship. 

 The ground was frozen hard, and for thirty miles 

 was level, and the galleys were drawn in an impos- 

 ing procession by nearly tliree thousand oxen over 

 the thirty miles, until Mount Pineda was reached. 

 The army accompanying the ships were provided 

 with tools, crowbars, shovels, and the like, so as to 

 remove obstructions. When Mount Pineda was 

 reached, a roadway was made over it; and by wind- 

 lasses the ships were hauled up on one side, and 

 lowered down the other, only one coming to grief. 

 As they ascended, they were wedged foot by foot, 

 to prevent an escape. On the descent the one un- 

 fortunate vessel broke loose, and was dashed to 

 pieces. The other vessels accomplished the descent 

 in safety, and crossed the remaining space of twelve 

 miles; and in February, 1439, the entire fleet was 

 afloat on the waters of Lake Garda. A second 

 fleet was successfully sent there by the same route 

 a year later. The work was done under the super- 

 intendence of Sorbolo, the originator of the scheme. 

 The vessels were of no inconsiderable size. The 

 largest were nearly a hundred and fifty feet long 

 and about forty feet wide. The success of such an 

 operation before the days of steam and railroads is 

 an augury for the success of ship railways. In the 

 ■ four and a half centuries that have elapsed since 

 then, the size of ships has not increased so rapidly 

 as have the resources at the disposal of engineers 

 for their land transportation. — Scientific American. 



ANCIENT MATERIALS FOR PAPER-MAKING. 



It has been generally believed that linen rags 

 have been used in the manufacture of paper only 

 since the fourteenth century, and that previously to 

 that the writing materials of the East were chiefly 

 made from unmanufactured materials. This view 

 must be considerably modified in consequence of a 

 careful microscopical examination, made by Dr. 

 Julius Wiesner, of the paper from El-Faijfim, pre- 

 served in the Austrian Museum at Vienna in the 

 collection known as " Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer." 

 Many of these papers extend to the ninth, and 

 some are even as old as the eighth, century. The 

 papers are all " clayed " like modern papers. 



Dr. Wiesner's examination gave the unexpected 

 result that these papers were all manufactured from 



rags. The fibre is mainly linen, among which are 

 traces of cotton, hemp, and of some animal fibre : 

 well-preserved yarn-threads are of very frequent 

 occurrence. The manufacture of paper out of rags 

 is not, therefore, as has hitherto been supposed, 

 either a German or an Italian invention, but is an 

 Eastern one. In addition to the FaijQm papers, 

 he examined also more than five hundred Orien- 

 tal and Eastern specimens from the ninth to the 

 fifteenth century, not a single one of which was a 

 raw-cotton paper; all were manufactured from rags, 

 the chief ingredient being linen. 



The examination of the substance used for 

 " claying " gave equally unexpected results. In all 

 the Faijum papers this was found to be starch- 

 paste, — a substance which had been supposed not 

 to have been used for this purpose before the 

 present century. Animal substances do not appear 

 to have been employed for "claying" before the 

 fourteenth or fifteenth century. In some instances 

 well-preserved starch-grains were mingled with the 

 paste; these agreed, in the form and size of the 

 grains, with wheat-starch, and were evidently pre- 

 pared starch separated from the meal. In two 

 papers belonging to the tenth and eleventh cen- 

 turies buckwheat-starch was found, and the culti- 

 vation of this substance must therefore be dated 

 back to the tenth century. The object of the 

 "claying" was apparently to increase tlie white- 

 ness of the paper. — Pharmaceutical Journal. 



DETECTION OF COTTON-SEED OIL IX 

 OLIVE-OIL. 



In a porcelain capsule holding about 1 liter, 15 

 cubic centimeters of the oil in question are heated 

 to 110°. Then, whilst still continuing to heat, we 

 pour upon the oil a mixture of 15 cubic centimeters 

 of a solution of soda at 40° Baume in distilled 

 water and of 15 cubic centimeters of alcohol at 

 92 per cent. When the mass has become homo- 

 geneous, we add, drop by drop, so as not to cool 

 the paste, and form clots, about J liter of distilled 

 water. After boiling for a few minutes, we separate 

 the fatty acids by means of pure sulphuric acid 

 diluted to one-tenth. As soon as the separation is 

 complete, and the sulphuric acid is in slight excess, 

 5 cubic centimeters of the hydrated fatty acids are 

 collected with a silver spoon, and poured at once 

 into a test-tube about 3 centimeters in diameter 

 and 12 in length. We add 20 cubic centimeters 

 of alcohol at 92 per cent, and heat slightly in the 

 water-bath to dissolve the fatty acids. When the 

 solution is effected, 2 cubic centimeters of silver 

 nitrate (30 grams in 100 cubic centimeters of dis- 

 tilled water) are added, the tube is placed in the 

 water-bath, and heated until about one-third of 

 the mass is evaporated. The tube is then removed 

 from the water-bath. Whatever is the origin of 

 the olive-oil, its fatty acids remain unaltered if the 

 oil is pure. But if cotton-oil is present, the silver 

 is reduced, and blackens the fatty acids which rise 

 to the surface. In this manner, one per cent of 

 cotton-oil can be detected in olive-oil. — Moniteur 



Scientifique. 



— ♦— 



INDUSTRIAL MEMORANDA. 



A Long Run. — A ten-horse power Westing- 

 house engine has been running in the works of the 

 Pittsburgh Gaslight Company for thirteen months 

 without the throttle valve being shut, and it is 

 still running. The engine has run continuously 

 at about five hundred revolutions per minute, and 

 has made two hundred and eighty-eight million 

 revolutions in that time. 



Steam-H AMMERS. — The heaviest hammers con- 

 structed in Europe are chronologically enumerated 

 as follows: Krupp, Essen, 1887, 40 tons; Terui 



Works, Italy, 1873, 50 tons; Alexandrowski, Rus- 

 sia, 1874, 50 tons; Creusot, France, 1877, 80 tons; 

 Cockerill, Belgium, 1885, 100 tons; Krupp, Es.sen, 

 1886, 150 tons, — the latter now being the heaviest 

 hammer in the world. 



A New Industry. — A new branch of indus- 

 try, according to Iron, is going to revolutionize 

 the lace trade. A New York dealer in laces is 

 exhibiting a specimen of lace of an extremely 

 delicate pattern, and so light that it can almost be 

 blown away by a breath of air. This lace is made 

 of steel rolled as fine as the point of a cambric 

 needle. It is not woven, but stamped out of a 

 sheet of low-grade steel, so that it should not be 

 too brittle. It was turned out of a small Pitts- 

 burgh mill, and sent to the dealer to show what 

 could be done in that line. In the course of time 

 other patterns will be made, heavier, perhaps, but 

 certainly more tenacious than this piece. There 

 is said to be no question as to its durability, and 

 its cheapness would make it the most salable of 

 all laces on the market. It may create a revolution 

 in the lace market if rust can be guarded against. 



RAILROAD NOTES. 



I'he first train to Bokhara, on the Transcaspian 

 Railway, reached that city on the 10th of March. 



The locomotive boilers of the Pennsylvania Rail- 

 road are being fitted with inside valves, so that, in 

 the event of the check-valve chambers being broken 

 oif , the inside valve will close, and prevent the 

 escape of water and steam. 



A Steam-Logger, or snow locomotive, lately 

 constructed, is in use in the logging camps of North- 

 ern Michigan, where it draws with ease sleds hold- 

 ing thirty thousand feet of logs over snow a foot 

 deep. 



Gauge of Railroads. — Of the total length of 

 railroads in the world, about seventy-four per 

 cent is of standard gauge (four feet eight and one- 

 half inches), including the American differential 

 gauge, twelve per cent of wider gauge, and four- 

 teen per cent of smaller gauge. 



A Railroad in Palestine. — It is reported 

 that the sleepers and rolling-stock for the line from 

 Jaffa to Jerusalem, which will be constructed by a 

 Belgian company, have already arrived on the 

 spot. Probably much of the sentiment attaching 

 to the Holy Land will disappear with the opening 

 of the railway. 



A Singular Accident. — A passenger train was 

 recently delayed for an hour near Morrow, O., 

 from a singular cause. In some way the whistle- 

 valve got open, and would not shut, and a con- 

 stant screeching filled the air. An attempt was 

 made to run the train with the whistle going, but 

 too much steam escaped, and it was found necessary 

 to stop until repairs could be made. 



A Peculiar "Steal." — One of the telegraph 

 lines on the Wabash road, known as No. 4, has 

 been a source of mystery to the operators for some 

 time. It had spasms of going and stopping, and 

 the linemen have been unable to locate the trouble 

 until quite recently. It was finally chased down 

 to where an old man had led a wire into his house 

 near Wabash, Ind., and was applying electricity 

 for the cure of rheumatism. 



A Persian Railroad. — The construction of 

 the first Persian railway has already begun. The 

 line is to extend from Resht, on the southern shore 

 of the Caspian, to Teheran. The distance, as the 

 crow flies, is about a hundred and fifty miles; but, 

 since the railway has to cross the Elburz range of 

 mountains, it must have a much greater length 

 than that. The work has been placed in the hands 

 of a Belgian syndicate. The engineers are on the 

 spot, and materials are arriving from Europe. 



