596 Transactions of the American Institute. 



tities of lava have been discharged, and a dense smoke rises higher 

 than the neighboring island of Orosenga or Oloosinger — one of 

 the Navigator's group — which is about 2,000 feet high. 



CREOSOTED TIMBER. 



A creosoted sleeper, put down on the Stockton and Darlington 

 railway, in England, in August, 1841, was taken up March 14, 

 '1867, after nearly twenty-five years' service. The grain of the 

 wood, although slightly discolored by creosote, is as fresh, and 

 apparently as tough as that of newly sawed timber, and the odor 

 of creosote is as strong as if the wood had just been operated 

 upon. 



Mr. J. W. Reid remarked, after the reading of this item, that 

 creosoted timber costs ninety cents a tie. 



A MOUNTAIN RAILWAY. 



There is a project on foot to construct a railway from Vera Cruz 

 to the city of Mexico. In a distance of one hundred and fifty 

 miles, the elevation to be reached is 8,400 feet. This height 

 exceeds that attained on any other road yet made. The Baltimore 

 and Ohio railroad reaches an elevation of 2,626 feet. The height 

 of the Soemmering incline is 2,887 feet, and the intended summit 

 of the Mount Cenis railway will be 5,815 feet above its lowest 

 grade. 



POLYMERS OF ACETYLENE. 



Berthelot has found that when acetylene — a compound consisting 

 of two atoms of carbon and two of hydrogen, according to the 

 new notation {erl) — heated to a temperature near that at which glass 

 melts, is gradually converted into a series of polymeric bodies, iden- 

 tical with ceilain well known hydrocarlwns. Thus, triacetylene is 

 benzol (eaW); tetracetylene is styrol (ezrl); the highest product yet 

 obtained is retene, equal to nine of acetylene {yeirT). 



VIENNESE MEERSCHAUM. 



M. Holdmann states that the artificial product known as Viennese 

 meerschaum is prepared by mixing one hundred parts of silicate 

 of soda, at thirty-five degrees, with sixty parts of carbonate of 

 magnesia and eighty parts of the native meerschaum — a silicate 

 of magnesia — or with pure alumina. This mixture is then pulve- 

 rized with the greatest care, and passed through a seive of veiy 

 fine silk or horse hair; add water, and boil for ten minutes; then 

 pour the whole into moulds, placed so that the water may easily 

 separate. 



