Nov. 1st, 1887.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



197 



Cologne, the solemn inauguration of which recently took 

 place with great pomp. The bell weighs 26 tons 13 cwt. 

 The clapper alone weighs nearly 15I cwt. Its perpen- 

 dicular height is almost 14^ feet ; its diameter at the mouth 

 nearly iii feet. Twenty-two cannons taken from the French 

 were assigned by the Emperor William for its manufacture ; 

 5,000 kilogs. of tin were added. It was cast by Andreas 

 Hamm, of Frankenthal, and 21,000 marks were paid for the 

 casting. It will be known as the Kaiserglocke, oremperoi's 

 bell ; and as the two other large bells in the cathedral bear 

 the epithets respectively of Pretiosa (precious) and Speciosa 

 (beautiful), this one is styled Gloriosa. — Horological 

 Journal. 



Emin Pasha's Collection. — An interesting collection of 

 specimens has just been received at the Natural History 

 Branch of the British Museum, Cromwell Road, from Emin 

 Pasha. They were despatched from Wadelai in November 

 last, via Zanzibar, through the kind assistance of Mr. Mac- 

 kay, of the Church Missionary Society in Uganda, and have 

 arrived at their destination in good condition. The collec- 

 tion consists of skins of birds and mammals, butterflies, and 

 some anthropological objects, and, when worked out by the 

 officers of the museum, will be described in detail at one of 

 the meetings of the Zoological Society during the ensuing 

 session. In a letter received a few days ago by Professor 

 Flower, dated Wadelai, April 15, Emin Pasha speaks of a 

 further consignment of specimens (chiefly ethnological) as 

 being ready for despatch to the museum on the first oppor- 

 tunity. 



Nickel Steel. — Nickel steel is being made by the Ferro- 

 Nickel Society in the following manner : — The plan has 

 reference to a new sort of steel which is said to require no 

 hardening. It is composed of soft iron, nickel, manganese 

 metal or an oxide of it, aluminum, wolfram, and ferro-cya- 

 nide of potassium. The steel is produced at one melting. 

 After the iron and nickel are melted the manganese or its 

 oxide and the ferro-cyanide of potassium are added. After 

 a few minutes' time, during which the manganese with the 

 other ingredients are m.elting and the reaction is taking 

 place, the mass is stirred with a red hot bar of graphite, 

 whereupon the aluminum is added and the stirring for a 

 short time longer is continued. The alloy is to be well 

 melted again, when it can be cast into any decided shape 

 in the usual way, the precaution being observed to paint 

 the moulds with coal tar, free from all water of ammonia, 

 and to have them as free from air as possible. — Manufac- 

 turers' Gazette. 



Air Absorption in Castings. — Great hardness and duc- 

 tility may be given to red brass without having recourse to 

 phosphor bronze, by mixing in with the other metals a 

 small quantity of green bottle glass. To this end i lb. of 

 finely-powdered glass is to be added, say to a 50 lb. cru- 

 cible charge, or 2 per cent., care being exercised to place 

 the whole quantity of the glass at the bottom of the crucible, 

 whilst the other metals are on the top. The brass obtained 

 is exceedingly hard, and is not easily worked, but the alloy 

 is valuable as a mixture in making other qualities of brass, 

 for which purpose borings, filings, etc., can be used up with 

 advantage. If the above alloy is to be used for parts of 

 machinery and to be tooled, i per cent of oxide of manga- 

 nese should be mixed with the metal to be melted. All 

 sorts of brass made with this alloy are very liquid and 

 close grained. Porous castings become almost an impossi- 

 bility when the alloy is used, even when cast in green sand. 

 — Mechanical World. 



The First Lightning Rod. — If we are to believe an 

 Austrian paper, says La Lnmiere Electrique, the first 

 lightning rod was not constructed by Franklin, but by a 

 monk of Seuftenberg, in Bohemia, named Prohop Divvisch, 

 who installed an apparatus the 15th of June, 1754, in the 

 garden of the curate of Prenditz (Moravia). The apparatus 

 was composed of a pole, surmounted by an iron rod, support- 

 ing twelve curved-up branches, and terminating in as many 

 metallic boxes, filled with iron ore and closed by a boxwood 

 cover, transversed by twenty-seven sharp iron points, which 

 plunged at their base in the ore. All the system was united 

 to the earth by a large chain. The enemies of Divvisch, 

 jealous of his success at the court of Vienna, excited the 

 peasants of the locality against him, and under the pretext 

 that his lightning rod was the cause of the great drought, 

 they made him take down the lightning rod which he had 

 utilised for six years. What is most curious is the form ot 

 this first lightning rod, which was of multiple points like 

 the one which M. Melseu afterwards invented. 



Measuring Sunshine. — There are, scattered over various 

 portions of the country, instruments which catch every ray 

 of sunshine falling on them, and write it down indelibly, so 

 that, looking at the picture presented, we may see at a glance 

 whether such and such a day was really fine or cloudy. 

 The contrivance by which this is effected is exceedingly 

 simple, consisting as it does of nothing more than a solid 

 glass ball set on a pedestal with a surrounding frame in 

 which to place at a suitable angle a little strip of blue card- 

 board, where the eftect is seen in a scorched patch of more 

 or less distinctness. As the relative position of the sun 

 changes the scorch changes too, so that at the end of a bright, 

 sunny day the picture on the card consists of a long, 

 scorched line. I3y measuring this line we get a record of 

 the number of hours sunshine prevalent during the day. 

 The instrument, although commendably simple, has one 

 great drawback : if the brilliancy of the sun's rays is 

 shrouded even to a very small extent by mist, or by a thin 

 veil of cirrus cloud, the heat produced is insufficient to pro- 

 duce a burn on the board. 



Basic Slag as Manure. — Recent experiments at the 

 Eastern Agricultural Station, the results of which have just 

 been made known, confirm the statements made in Germany 

 and in England, based upon results of similar trials, as to 

 the value of basic slag as a manure. This substance, which 

 contains from 8 to 20 per cent of phosphoric acid, associated 

 with lime, sulphur, and oxides of iron and manganese, has 

 been the subject of much controversy. It was contended by 

 some that slag could be effective only in a state of very fine 

 division, and others feared that the presence of the protoxide 

 of iron would be fatal to its use. The trials at the Eastern 

 Station were undertaken to set these questions at rest. 

 Longwy slag was used in the form of a coarse powder, 3,000 

 kilo, being distributed over a hectare. The metallic oxide 

 formed about 10 per cent., so that the quantity was 300 kilo, 

 per hectare. The results show that no injury was done to 

 vegetation by the oxide, and that the material is effective 

 when applied as a coarse powder. Hence farmers may 

 safely use from 3,500 to 5,000 kilo, per hectare, according 

 to the richness of the soil. These results are important both 

 tD the agricultural and to the iron industries. — Industries. 



The Electric Light in a Powder Mill. — We learn 

 from Industries that an interesting electric light installation 

 has just been completed in the Government powder mill in 

 Stein, near Laibach. Hitherto the mill was only run at 

 daylight ; but as the demand for powder is unprecedently 



