proceedings of the polytechnic association. 425 

 Enormous Casting. 



"" Messrs. J. 31. Stanley & Co., of Midland works, Sheffield, have just cast 

 an anvil twelve feet square and eleven feet, six inches deep, weighing 

 358,400 pounds; an anvil of the same dimensions was cast by thcni in 

 July last. 



Animal Manures. 



Mr. Karral, in the t7o»/';(«/ uf Practical Agricullure, France, states that 

 the manufactory at Aubervilliers consumes annually 8,000 horses, 200 don- 

 keys, oOO cows, 300 pigs, 9,000 cats and dogs, G,000 kilogranies of meat unfit 

 for food, 500,000 kilogranies of other refuse animal matter, such as skins, 

 horns, kc. The raw material is first boiled to extract the grease. The flesh 

 is separated from the bones, pressed, dried, and ground into powder; the 

 bones are also ground and mixed with it, forming a manure containing thirty- 

 five per cent of nitrogen and fii'ty-five per cent of phosphate of lime. The 

 blood and the liquor obtained in boiling, together with a certain amount of 

 mineral phosphates, are mixed with organic matter, such as wood-shavings 

 and the parings of hoofs and horns, when fermentation takes place. During 

 this process various phosphoric compounds and salts of ammonia are formed, and 

 the whole is transformed into an excellent manure. 



Extracting Must. 



Mr. Richter, of Stutgard, has applied the principle, long in use here, for 

 drying clothes recently washed, to. the extraction of the juice from grapes. 

 He puts them into a suitable strainer, rotating at the rate of 1,000 or 1,.500 

 times per minute, and by centrifugal force the must is separated. By this 

 proce^^s the time of extracting the juice from one hundred weight of grapes is 

 only five minutes, and the quality is increased five or six per cent. " Stalk- 

 ing " is thus obviated, and the juice is so thoroughly mixed with air that fer- 

 mentation takes place sooner than after the old process. 



Preservation of Fruit. 



At the Russian court fruit is preserved by being packed in crc-osotized lime. 

 The lime is slaked in water in which a little creosote has been dissolved, and 

 is allowed to fall to powder. The bottom of a plain deal box is covered with 

 it one inch high, and' over it is a sheet of paper. Upon this the fruit, well 

 selected and cleansed, is arranged; over this another sheet of paper, and on 

 top of this another such stratum of prepared lime ; in the corners a little finely 

 powdered charcoal is put. The whole box is then filled in this manner, and 

 the woll-fitting lid nailed down. Fruit thus kept will remain intact at least 

 one year. 



Smedley & Justice's Indicator Funnell. 



The peculiarity of this fuiuud is that it is so constructed as to prevent 

 the wa.ste usually made on filling barrels with liquids. It has been found 

 of great service in pouring petroleum. In order to guide the workman the 

 escaping air is made to operate a whistle. Thus the noise is always a 

 guide as to what is going on within. Besides preventing all waste by its 



