Natural Science News. 



VOL. I ALBION, N. Y., MARCH 23, 1895. No. 8 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and Items of Interest to the 

 student of any of the various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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Uses of Asbestos. 



From the Canadian mines the as- 

 bestos 'is taken by rail to the man- 

 ufactories in the United States. 

 Here the lumps of the substance 

 are emptied from the sacks and fed 

 into the hopper of a powerfully 

 built machine not unlike an old- 

 fashioned stone process flour mill. 

 They are crushed through a series 

 of rolls until the fibers are all sep- 

 arated into fluffy masses, when 

 they pass out along a trough and into 

 a separator. Here the small pieces 

 of stone and other refuse rattle out 

 through a sieve and the longer fib- 

 ers are separated by a series of 

 comb-like sieves into various 

 lengths. The very short ones are 

 taken out to the pulp-mil], where 

 they are ground up fine for the man- 

 ufacture of solid packing for steam 

 pistons, mill-board and other com- 

 modities. The longer fibers are 

 gathered together, carded and spun 

 into yarn, just like cotton or wool. 

 After that the substance may be 

 woven into cloth in various ways. 

 The cloth is of a dirty white color 

 and has a soapy feeling. 



The uses of asbestos are almost 

 innumerable. Ground fine and 

 combined with colors and oils by 

 a secret process it makes a beauti- 

 ful paint, which is said to go far 

 toward fire-proofing the surface to 

 which it is applied. Various kinds 

 of roofing are also made by treat- 

 ing strong canvas with a combin- 

 ation of asbestos and felt and back- 

 ing it with manilla paper. It is 

 extensively used for roofs of factor- 

 ies, railroad-shops, bridges, steam- 



boat decks and other places where 

 there is danger of fire. 



Nearly every one has seen the 

 thick asbestos-felt coverings for 

 steam pipes and furnaces. Asbes- 

 tos cement is sometimes used for 

 hot-blast pipes and fire -heated sur- 

 faces. As a packing for locomo- 

 tive pistons, valve stems and oil- 

 pumps it is almost indispensable. 

 It is also made into ropes and mill- 

 boards, which can be used almost 

 everywhere. Asbestos cloth is be- 

 ing used more every year. Some 

 states require theaters to use an 

 asbestos drop-curtain to protect 

 the audience if the scenery catches 

 fire. Some very beautiful drop- 

 curtains have been made and the 

 ordinary spectator cannot distin- 

 guish them from real cloth. 



The yarn is knit into mittens for 

 workers in iron and glass. Gold- 

 smiths use a block of asbestos to 

 solder upon. Combined with rub- 

 ber — vulcanized — asbestos has al- 

 most innumerable uses as an elec- 

 trical insulator. In this form the 

 substance resembles ebony, and is 

 about as hard. The cloth is also 

 of the greatest importance for acid- 

 filters in all kinds of chemical pro- 

 cesses, for the reason that no acid 

 will eat it. 



Asbestos is found in a good many 

 hundreds of places in the world be- 

 sides Italy and Canada, but the 

 fibers are nearly all too splintery 

 and brittle. Rich deposits have re- 

 cently been found in Wyoming, 

 California and Montana, and the 

 United States may soon come to 

 the front as a producer of the sub- 

 stance. In 1893 California pro- 

 duced fifty tons of asbestos valued 

 at $2500, while Canada sent out 

 6,473 tons valued at $313,806. A 

 good mine of asbestos is more val- 

 uable than a gold mine, and as the 

 substance becomes better known 

 and more used it will be still more 

 precious. The time may not be 

 far distant when firemen will be 

 clothed in suits made from asbes- 

 tos. — Chicago Record. 



A New Style of Geode. 



By L. W. Stilwell, De adwood, S. D. 



For years I have been collecting 

 Fossils in the "Bad Lands" on 

 the Cheyenne river in South Dako- 

 ta, in close proximity to the Black 

 Hills. Broken fragments, irregu- 



lar, small, rough and large flatten- 

 ed convexions of chalcedony have 

 been discovered from time to time, 

 but not until this season have I 

 obtained a supply of Geodes 

 of much value. 



Recently one spot in the heart 

 of these barren, terraced and pin- 

 nacled "Bad Lands" has furnish- 

 ed 800 beautiful, white chalcedony 

 Geodes. They have rather thin 

 walls and are lined with a white, 

 sparkling crystalization resembling 

 frost and snow — entirely unlike 

 the noted Keokuk Geodes. I con- 

 sider this a rare find. They are 

 about the size of hens' eggs, round 

 or oblong and hollow, with the lin- 

 ing above mentioned. They ap- 

 pear, as they lie loosely in the Ter- 

 tiary sea mud and marly soil, to 

 have been formed in cavaties of 

 their own shape, either in a porous 

 bed of the old sea, or to have been 

 made in and disintegrated from 

 rock containing small cavities, at 

 some unknown distance from their 

 present place, to which they have, 

 in such case, been carried by the 

 flood. We find chalcedony forms 

 filling the cracks of the sea mud 

 now, as if moulded there, and these 

 Geodes may have been moulded 

 near by and in the soil where they 

 now loosely lie. They are certain- 

 ly very beautiful and interesting. 



For the Atlanta World's Fair. 



A party consisting of William 

 Palmer, taxidermist, Prof. Ridge- 

 way, Curator of the Department 

 of Birds, and Edward J. Brown 

 Ornithologist, were in the city 

 last Monday. These gentlemen 

 are connected with the National 

 Museum and Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution of Washington, D.C. They 

 left Monday afternoon down the 

 Kissimmee river. They carried with 

 them traps and instruments neces- 

 sary in collecting and prepariug 

 birds, snakes, insects and animals 

 of every description, with a view 

 of getting a collection of the fauna 

 and flora of the south-eastern sec- 

 tion of the United States. They 

 will remain in this section until 

 April, collecting anything suitable 

 for exhibition for the National 

 Museum on their return their col- 

 lection will be put in shape for ex- 

 hibition at the Atlanta Exposition 

 in connection with the United 

 States Departmental exhibit, after 

 which it will be placed in the Na- 

 tional Museum at Washington. — 

 Kissimmee Valley, Fla. 



