150 



POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



[OCTOBEK, 1888. 



struck or rubbed, give off more or less the charac- 

 teristic odor of bitumen. Beds of rock-salt are 

 of teu colored brown by the bitumen they contain; 

 and petroleum, on its emergence, is nearly always 

 associated with brine. Deposits of rock-salt are, 

 as a rule, dry and anhydrous, though salt itself 

 has a considerable attraction for moisture. JJut, 

 more tlian this, those salts of potassium and mag- 

 nesium often occurring with it, are still more greedy 

 of water. 



If the seemingly probable theory that all forma- 

 tions of rock-salt are due to the evaporation of 

 sea-water be correct, then these deliquescent and 

 hygrometric chlorides would almost always have 

 been the last part deposited in every bed of rock- 

 sAlt; and though, owing to their great solubility, 

 they may have been denuded and washed or melted 

 away, perhaps long afterwards, it is probable that 

 they generally formed the final layer at first. These 

 would, by their affinity for water, both during their 

 formation and subsequently, tend to withdraw that 

 liquid froni all surrounding substances. 



Now, most organic matter may be looked upon 

 as a hydrocarbon combined with the elements of 

 water. Withdraw the water, and the hydrocarbon 

 remains. Metallic iron, if present, might modify 

 the reaction. Is it not, then, a probable theory 

 that most natural deposits of hydrocarbons owe 

 their origin to this absorption of water, acting 

 through the lapse of ages on organic matter, often 

 aided by heat and pressure ? If such be admitted, 

 it would account for the frequent association of salt 

 with hydrocarbons. — F. Maxwell Lytj;, in Chem- 

 ical News. 



A USEFUL TABLE. 



The Unirersal Tinier gives the following table 

 showing the capacity in gallons for each foot in 

 depth of cylindrical cisterns of any diameter, 

 which may be of value to some of our readers: — 



THE ANILINE INDUSTUY IN GERMANY. 



Fkom the United States consular reports on the 

 condition of (Jermany in 1887 we make the follow- 

 ing extracts concerning the aniline industries of 

 that empire: — 



" The restless spirit of inve-stigation, called into 

 being because of close competition, is leading day 

 by day to new and sometimes startling discoveries 

 in the world of chemistry. The old is ever giving 

 place to the new. Dyes which sold at dollars per 

 ounce yesterday, are offered to-day at the same 

 price per pound. The mine of wealth so often dis- 

 covered in the chemist's crucible or laboratory sur- 

 passes the dreams of men searching the secrets of 

 gold-making To find dyes capable of resisting the 

 influences of sunlight, and resisting the dissolving 

 influences of water, is to find the pathway to 

 wealth. The aniline works here in Germany have 

 been making such discoveries. Old dyes are giving 

 l)[ace to the new. Azo dyes have sold very well 

 during the year just closed; this is especially true of 

 tliose cotton dyes the secret of whose manufacture 

 was discovered in 1885. A series of indefatigable 

 efforts has resulted in producing a number of these 

 particular dyes in yellow, orange, cherry, red, 

 violet, and blue, to meet the rapid demand for 



which the producing capacity had to be enlarged. 

 The products being well protected by letters- 

 patent, and the producers enjoying a moiiojxjly, 

 the profits have been very lai'ge. Certain colors, 

 long desired, seem at last to liave been obtained. 

 The principal part of the aniline colors is sent to 

 the United States, England, Russia, and other 

 Continental countries, and to China, Japan, India, 

 Australia, and South America." 



RAILROAD NOTES. 



The Garabit Viaduct on the new rail- 

 way line Saint- Flour- Neusargues, in the Auvergne, 

 France, one of the most daring and interesting en- 

 gineering works of the present day, has just been 

 opened for traffic. The central span of the viaduct 

 is four hundred feet above the bottom of the valley 

 below. It has been built by M. Eiffel, the well- 

 known engineer, who is now constructing the Paris 

 "Tower of Babel" Before being taken in use, 

 the viaduct was subjected to the severest tests. 



Train Mileage in Amekica and Europe. 

 — For every thousand inhabitants the United 

 States runs trains 9,700 miles annually; while the 

 train mileage of (ireat Britain on the same basis 

 is7,!500; Belgium, 4,500; France, 3,550; and Ger- 

 many, 3,250. The lesson drawn from this is, that, 

 where people are allowed to pay for railroad service 

 in any way they can, they will have plenty of it; 

 and where they are limited by iron-clad schedules, 

 as in Germany and Belgium, the railroads will give 

 only just as much service as is profitable under 

 such conditions. 



The Longest Tangent in the World. — 

 The new Argentine Pacific Railroad from Buenos 

 Ayres to the foot of the Andes has on it what is 

 probably the longest tangent in the world. This 

 is three hundred and forty kilometers (two hundred 

 and eleven miles), without a curve. In this dis- 

 tance there is not a single bridge, and no opening 

 larger than an ordinary culvert, no cut greater than 

 one meter in depth, and no fill of a height exceed- 

 ing one meter. There is almost an entire absence 

 of wood on the plain across which the western end 

 of the road is located. This has led to the exten- 

 sive use .of metallic ties, which will be employed 

 on nearly the entire road. 



Preventing Noise on Elevated Roads. — 

 Berlin engineers have adopted two different systems 

 for diminishing the noise of trains on their viaducts. 

 One is, to bolt to the bridge-structure long troughs 

 of sheet-iron, about sixteen inches wide, so ar- 

 ranged that a rail will come in the centre of each. 

 The troughs are then filled with gravel, in the 

 middle of which is buried the longitudinal timber 

 carrying the rail; and the space between the 

 troughs is covered with iron jilates, on which is 

 spread a thin layer of gravel. The second method, 

 which is found to be more efficient than the other, 

 consists in placing a continuous series of shallow 

 iron troughs, about five feet square, along the line 

 of the tracks. These are filled with gravel, on 

 which the ties and rails are laid. 



English and American Railroads. — An 

 experiment made to test the respective railroad 

 operations of England and this country shows that 

 on the Pennsylvania Railroad each locomotive does 

 upward of six times the work, runs annually nearly 

 twice the mileage, and, with less than one-half the 

 charges for traffic, earns nearly twice the revenue 

 that one does on the London and Northwestern 

 Railway. As a general rule, English lines are far 

 better constructed than American, — the gradients 

 are easier, and the curves less abrupt, — and yet in 

 the two lines above specified the English locomotive 

 costs, in repairs and renewals, about double the 

 American for the same amount of work performed 



Building a Locomotive in Seventeen 

 Hours. — The record in rapid machine-work has 

 again been lowered. Heretofore the Baldwin 

 Locomotive Works of Philadelphia have held the 

 first place, with the record of an engine built in 

 twenty-four hours; but the Penn.sylvania Railroad 

 Company has now taken the palm by constructing 

 a full-sized (110,000 pounds) anthracite-burning 

 locomotive at the Altoona shops in sixteen hours 

 fifty-five minutes. The work was commenced on 

 the morning of the I8th of June, and in five minutes 

 less than seventeen hours the engine was turned 

 out ready for use. It is to run on the New York 

 division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. This feat 

 is, we believe, quite unrivalled in locomotive build- 



INDUSTRIAL MEMORANDA. 



Pencils. — According to Johann Faber, the fa- 

 mous manufacturer of Nuremberg, the people of 

 the United States use, in round numbers, about a 

 hundred million lead-pencils every year. 



Steam-Heating. — Rule for finding the super- 

 ficial feet of steam-pipe required to heat any build- 

 ing with steam: One superficial foot of steam- 

 pipe to six superficial feet of glass ifl^he windows, 

 or one superficial foot of steam-pipe for every hun- 

 dred square feet of wall, roof, or ceiling, or one 

 square foot of steam-pipe to eighty cubic feet of 

 space. One-horse-power boiler is sufficient for 

 forty thousand cubic feet of space. 



A New Electric Organ has been erected at 

 the back of the stage of the Burg Theatre, in 

 Vienna, and is connected by a cable with the or- 

 chestra, where the key-board is situated. The 

 cable is long enough to admit of altering the po- 

 sition of the key-board within a radius of thirty 

 feet. The signals are transmitted from the key- 

 board to the relay lever by five Callaud cells. 



Soapstone Paint. — Soapstone incorporated 

 with oil, after the manner of a paint, is said to be 

 superior to any kind of paint as a preservative. 

 Soapstone is to be had in an exceedingly fine pow- 

 der, mixes readily with prepared oils for paint use, 

 covers well surfaces of iron, steel, or stone, and is 

 an effectual remedy against rust. It has been 

 known to protect some stonework, such as obelisks, 

 in China, for ages past. The writer who calls at- 

 tention to this is a scientific expert of London, who 

 has noticed the use of this Chinese soapstone in 

 China, and has been experimenting with it since 

 his return to England. 



A Quick Trip. — The outward passage of the 

 steamship " Ormuz " is distinguished by being 

 the fastest ever made to the antipodes, her ocean 

 steamiiig-time from Plymouth to King George's 

 Sound being twenty-five days six hours, notwith- 

 standing the fact, that, with the exception of two 

 days, strong head winds and seas were experienced 

 all the way from Aden. The speed averaged 

 from the time of taking the mails on board at Suez 

 till landing them at Adelaide was upwards of 

 fifteen and three-quarters knots, and the best day's 

 run was equal to seventeen and one-half knots. 



Triple Screw Propellers. — The Italians 

 have made use of a new principle for the propul- 

 sion of some of their fast gunboats and torpedo 

 catchers under constructifln. They have improved 

 on the twin screws of modern steamshijis by the 

 addition of a third screw moved by a separate shaft 

 and set of engines. The three screws are placed 

 in the angles of a triangular pyramid. There is 

 one on each side of the rudder, as usual; and the 

 third is underneath, on a level with the keel plate. 

 It was claimed that the third screw increased the 

 vessel's speed by fully a third, on account of the 

 great gain in power from the deep immersion. 



