68 TEAR-BOOK OF FACTS. 



the glaze becomes injured, the iron is still found to remain uninflu- 

 enced by the presence of fluids. — Mechanics Magazine. 



DRILLING HOLES IN WROUGHT IRON. 



Mr. John Cochrane, of Woodside Ironworks, Dudley, has de- 

 scribed a machine for Drilling instead of Punching Holes in 

 Wrought-iron Plates, which was designed for the purpose of drilling 

 a large number of holes in some wrought-iron plates, required for the 

 erection of the new railway bridge over the Thames at Hungerford, 

 a piece of work in which the ordinary system of punching was not 

 sufficiently accurate. The plate to be drilled is placed securely on a 

 table, and accurately adjusted to the proper position by set screws 

 at each corner ; the table is then raised by water pressure, and 

 pressed against the drills by an accumulator. There are eighty 

 drills, which are driven at a speed of from forty to fifty revolutions 

 per minute, at a pressure of twenty tons on the table, or five cwt. 

 on each drill ; and at this speed the entire eighty holes of one inch 

 diameter are drilled through a five-eighths of an inch plate within fif- 

 teen minutes. The drills last on an average ten hours without grinding. 

 The power required to drive one machine with eighty drills is about 

 ten-horse. — Ibid. 



zeiodelite. 

 Sdch is the name which has been given to a new composition 

 which has recently been patented by Mr. Joseph Simon, of Paris, 

 and intended as a substitute for lead. According to the Mining 

 Journal, he mixes, with about 19 lbs. of sulphur, 42 lbs. of broken 

 jar3 or glass finely pulverized ; he exposes the mixture to a gentle 

 heat, which melts the sulphur, and then stirs the mass until it 

 becomes thoroughly homogeneous, when he runs it into suitable 

 moulds, and allows it to cool. This preparation is proof against 

 acids in general. To unite it in slabs no solder is required ; a por- 

 tion of the molten Zeiodelite being run in between the slabs placed 

 1 inch apart, when, the heat being 208° Cent., the edges of the slabs 

 will be melted, and a uniform surface will be obtained, the whole 

 forming but one piece. 



FILE-CUTTING MACHINERY. 



An efficient, well-working File-cutting Machine has long been a 

 desirable apparatus ; and the operation has hitherto been considered 

 to be one not admitting of the application of machiaery. This diffi- 

 culty has, however, been overcome, ant! the requisite machine pro- 

 duced, which Mr. T. Greenwood, of Leeds, has described to the In- 

 stitution of Mechanical Engineers. 



Operations much more difficult than cutting files have been per- 

 formed by machinery in various manufactures; among which may 

 be named the combing of wool, in which, by the manipulation of the 

 machine itself, the long fibres are selected and delivered into one 

 compartment* and the short fibres into another ; an operation 

 which at first sight would appear to require an intelligent and dis- 

 criminating power. The actual process of file-cutting is, however, 



