PAPER CAR WHEELS. 711 
up a glassful from the tank. It is purer than a draught from any spring; it is the 
distilled water of chemistry. Should steam-heating ever become universal in our 
cities, there will be no danger of drawing up death from the well, no need of 
building expensive aqueducts and reservoirs; the same pipe that warm our houses 
wil] furnish us with water for every domestic purpose. 
Steam has been made as subservient to the comfort of man as gas. What 
will science do for us next? Will the model city of the future be lighted by 
electricity, heated by one central furnace, and have its dinners sent in from the 
common kitchen through pneumatic tubes >—Avantic Monthly, March, 188r. 
PAPER CAR WHEELS. 
How these are made are thus explained in the Paper World: <‘‘ The paper 
is straw-board of rather fine texture. It is received in the ordinary broad sheets, 
differing in no particular from those used for straw-board boxes or other similar 
work. ‘These sheets as they come from the paper mill are square, and are first 
cut toa circular pattern. This is done on a table with a knife guided by a 
radial arm. A small disc is also cut from the center of the sheet to admit the 
wheel center. The paper has now to be converted from loose sheets into a com- 
pact, dense body, capable of withstanding the tremendous crushing force to 
which it will be subjected in the wheels. This is accomplished as follows: Ten 
sheets are pasted together, one upon another, making a disc about ¥% inch thick. 
Enough of these “discs having been prepared to fill a powerful hydraulic press, | 
they are subjected to a pressure of 1,800 pounds per square inch. When removed 
the discs are hung on poles in a steam-heated loft and left six days to dry. 
Thicker discs are then made, each formed by pasting together two or three of 
those already finished. These are pressed and dried as before, and the process is. 
repeated until a block is built 4 inches thick and of about the specific gravity of 
lignum vite. After each pasting and pressing, six days are allowed for drying, 
and when the block is complete it is left in a drying room until thoroughly sea- 
soned. The next operation is that of turning the paper blocks to fit the steel 
tires and iron centers. This is done in lathes in the same manner as if the mate- 
rial worked on was tough wood. A bed or recess is worked out for the web of 
the tire to rest in. The block is then painted, and is ready for its place in the 
wheel.” 
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company are burning clay 
for ballasting their road. A smail fire of bituminous Iowa coal is started on the 
surface of the ground, and, when burning freely, the fire is covered with a layer 
of lumpy clay, then alternately coal and clay, the coal decreasing in quantity un- 
til at the top it is as one to fifteen. The mass is formed like a cone. Three 
united cones, each 18 feet high and containing in all about 1,000 cubic yards of 
material, have been started near Red Oak. They will burn for months. 
