May 2nd, 1887.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



53 



the promiscuous use of the mouthpieces of public telephones. 

 To prevent accidents of this kind, he recommends that the 

 mouthpiece should be disinfected every time after, or, still 

 better, before it is used. In other words, some disinfectant 

 fluid should be kept at every telephone station, and the 

 speaker should dip the mouthpiece in the fluid, and then 

 wipe it with a clean towel before using the instrument. 



Incendiary Birds. — A correspondent ot the Scientific 

 Aiiicrican writes : There is a bar-iron mill near here which 

 has been on fire three or four times, and in which the 

 English sparrow may be called the incendiary. These 

 sparrows pick up old pieces of cotton waste, which they 

 build in their nests, among the timbers of the roof of the 

 mill, and in every case of the fires above mentioned tliese 

 nests were the cause, either from spontaneous combustion, 

 or from sparks from the hot iron striking and lodging in the 

 nest. 



Delta Metal. — The " Schweizerische Bauzeitung" states 

 that the large worm-wheels for the " Pilatus " Mountain 

 Railway were cast in delta metal bj' Messrs. Schweizerische 

 Locomotivfabrik, in Winterthur. For testing the strength 

 and soundness of each casting separately, a test-bar was 

 formed with the pattern, moulded and cast along with it in one 

 piece ; the bars were then cut off and tested before spend- 

 ing any work on the main casting, showing the following 

 results with very slight variations : — Tensile strength, 36'5 

 kg. per sq. mm. = 23 tons persq. inch. Elongation, 106 per 

 cent. 



A New Barometer. — La Science cii Faniille gives the fol- 

 lowing : — " Put a leech in a flask of clear white glass, con- 

 taining half a litre, and rather wide than narrow. Cover the 

 opening with a piece of coarse cloth, and then there will be 

 a convenient barometer requiring no more attention than the 

 changing of the water once a fortnight. If the leech is coiled 

 up at the bottom of the flask there will be fine weather ; but 

 when it comes up to the surface of the water there will be 

 rain. If it moves about the flask with violence there will 

 be a strong wind ; but should it make somersaults, or have 

 convulsions, there will be a tempest." 



American Locomotives. — According to the American Car 

 and Locomotive Builder the number of locomotives built in 

 the United States during 1886 was 1802, of which 1527 were 

 built in contract shops, and 275 in railway shops, at a total 

 cost of probably 15,000,000 dols. Although the production 

 of locomotives in 1886 was large compared with that of the 

 previous year, yet it was not equal to the natural increase 

 of railway rolling stocks, the journal quoted being of 

 opinion that nearly 1,000 locomotives ought to be broken up 

 annually to keep the remaining stock within the age that the 

 engines could be run without ruinous expenditure for repairs. 



The Simplon Tunnel. — The cantons of Vaud and Valais 

 have voted a large sum towards the construction of the 

 Simplon Tunnel. It is stated that the Simplon can be 

 tunnelled for ^200,000 less than either of the other peaks. 

 The distance from Paris to Milan by way of the St. Gothard 

 is 1,059 kilos., by Mount Blanc 1,102, by the St. Bernard 

 1,031, and by the Simplon only 940. The distance to be 

 travelled under the Simplon would be 20 kilos., as compared 

 with the 15 kilos, of the St. Gothard Tunnel. The cost of 

 the work, supposing the Simplon route to be adopted, is es- 

 timated at ^^2, 1 20,000 for a single line, or for a double line, 

 ^2,520,000; and it is thought that six. years would suffice 

 for its completion. 



The Lake Superior Copper Mines. — The copper mines 

 of Kewanan, on Lake Superior, are among the deepest in 

 America. There is usually a descent of 50 feet to 55 feet 

 vertical, which is generally equivalent to an increase of 

 temperature of i deg. Fah. At the Superior mines the 



average gradient is about 100 feet to the degree. This is 

 exceptionally low ; but the variations among the difterent 

 mines are very striking, ranging from 7 6- 5 feet to 122 feet 

 per degree. The rock in the mine gives no explanation of 

 this, as the widest divergence is in rock of the same charac- 

 ter. It is thought that the proximity to the lake offers 

 the true solution of the puzzle, as the mines nearest the 

 shore have the lowest gradients. 



A Sea Telephone. — A report from Fort Myers, in Florida, 

 where Mr. Edison is sojourning, says that he is working on 

 his sea-telephone. According to a daily contemporary, al- 

 ready he can transmit sound between two vessels from three 

 to four miles distant from each other, and is confident that he 

 will be able to increase the distance between his stations as 

 the apparatus becomes more perfect. Up to the present time 

 Mr. Edison has not succeeded in transmitting articulate 

 speech through his sea-telephone, nor is this essential to 

 the success of the system. By means of submarine explo- 

 sions he is enabled to form a series of short and long 

 sounds in sequence, and by these, as in the Morse system of 

 telegraphy, words and sentences can readily be transmitted. 



Reversible Lead Batteries. — -In a paper read by Mr. 

 D. Fitzgerald before the Society of Telegraph Engineers, on 

 reversible lead batteries, he admits that, at the outside, only 

 some twenty per cent, of the peroxide is active ; the rest, 

 from some cause or other as yet unknown, is useless. Many 

 suggestions have been made as to why the percentage of 

 actual material is so low, and most people seem to agree 

 that a layer of inactive material is, during the discharge, 

 formed over the peroxide, so that conductive contact is in- 

 complete. Whether this be so is not yet known, and 

 it is hoped that so important a question will be closely 

 investigated, for if means could be devised to raise the 

 efficiency of these batteries, their economical advantages 

 would be enormously increased. 



Nature-Smelted Iron. — An interesting example of natu- 

 rally smelted iron is to be found along the North Saskatche- 

 wan River in Canada, and about seventy miles above 

 Edmonton, Alberta. There is a lignite formation along this 

 river for several miles, covered by clay shales and soft 

 argillaceous sandstones, which contain nodules of clay iron- 

 stone. These have been found to be carbonate of iron and 

 contain 34'98 per cent, of metallic iron. At some time or 

 other this seam of lignite has been burnt, leaving a bed of 

 ashes, burnt clay, and clinkers, now covered by a dense 

 growth of grass and underwood. Out of this mass pieces 

 of metallic iron can be picked sometimes weighing 15 lb. to 

 20 lb. These pieces of iron are generallj' very rusty, but 

 when scratched with a file show a bright surface. 



A Very Bad Egg. — A curious accident recently oc- 

 curred in the Peabody Museum at Yale. One of the assis- 

 tants was examining an ostrich egg received from South 

 Africa, and was trying to pierce a hole in it, when it 

 suddenly exploded with considerable violence. The 

 operator was knocked over, and picked up wounded and in 

 sensible, and the foetid odour in the room where the 

 accident occurred was overpowering. The egg was 

 without doubt a bad one, but this alone would not account 

 for the explosion, as, if so, all other ostrich eggs which had 

 been kept for a long time would explode in the same way. 

 We may suggest that, not improbably, there had been 

 some interference with the porosity of the shell, so that 

 gas was -retained within it under considerable pressure. 



The Electric Lighting of the Palais Royal. — We 

 learn that the Compressed Air-Power Companj', Paris, will 

 undertake the electric lighting of the Palais-Royal in Paris. 

 The station where the air is compressed is situated at St. 

 Fargeau (about three and a half miles from the Palais- 



