Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information Part 55

A modern dredging machine, 123 ft. long, beam 26 ft., breadth over all, 11 ft., will raise 180 tons of mud and clay per hour, 11 feet from water-line.

In tanning, 4 lbs. of oak bark make 1 lb. of leather.

Flame is quenched in air containing 3 per cent, of carbonic acid; the same percentage is fatal to animal life.

100 parts of oak make nearly 23 of charcoal; beech 21, deal 19, apple 23.7, elm 23, ash 25, birch 24, maple 22.8, willow 18, poplar 20, red pine 22.10, white pine 23. The charcoal used in gunpowder is made from willow, alder, and a few other woods. The charred timber found in the ruins of Herculaneum has undergone no change in 1,800 years.

Four volumes of nitrogen and one of oxygen compose atmospheric air in all localities on the globe.

Air extracted from pure water, under an air pump, contains 34.8 per cent. of oxygen. Fish breathe this air, respiring about 35 times per minute. The oxhydrogen lime light may be seen from mountains at the distance of 200 miles round.

Lightning is reflected 150 to 200 miles.

1,000 cubic feet of 13 candle gas is equivalent to over 7 gals. of sperm oil, 52.9 lbs. of tallow candles, and over 44 lbs. of sperm candles.

The time occupied by gas in traveling from a gas well (in Pennsylvania) through 32 miles of pipe was 22 minutes, pressure at the well was 55 lbs. per inch, pressure at discharge 49 lbs.

At birth, the beats of the pulse are from 165 to 104, and the inspirations of breath from 70 to 23. From 15 to 20, the pulsations are from 90 to 57, the inspirations, from 24 to 16; from 29 to 50, the pulsations are 112 to 56, the inspirations 23 to 11. In usual states it is 4 to 1. The action of the heart distributes 2 ozs. of blood from 70 to 80 times in a minute.

The mean heat of the human body is 98 degs. and of the skin 90 degs.

Tea and coffee are usually drank at 110 degs. The deepest coal mine in England is at Killingworth, near Newcastle, and the mean annual temperature at 400 yards below the surface is 77 degrees, and at 300 yards 70 degrees, while at the surface it is but 48 degrees, being 1 degree of increase for every 15 yards. This explains the origin of hot springs, for at 3,300 yards the heat would be equal to boiling water, taking 20 yards to a degree. The heat of the Bath waters is 116 degrees, hence they would appear to rise 1,320 yards.

Peron relates that at the depth of 2,144 feet in the sea the thermometer falls to 45 degrees, when it is 86 degrees at the surface.

Swemberg and Fourier calculate the temperature of the celestial s.p.a.ces at 50 degrees centigrade below freezing.

In Northern Siberia the ground is frozen permanently to the depth of 660 feet, and only thaws to the extent of 3 or 4 feet in summer. Below 660 feet internal heat begins.

River water contains about 30 grs. of solid matter in every cubic foot. Fresh water springs of great size abound under the sea. Perhaps the most remarkable springs exist in California, where they are noted for producing sulphuric acid, ink, and other remarkable products.

St. Winifred's Well, in England, evolves 120 tons of water per minute, furnis.h.i.+ng abundant water power to drive 11 mills within little more than a mile.

The French removed a red granite column 95 feet high, weighing 210 tons, from Thebes, and carried it to Paris. The display of costly architectural ruins at Thebes is one of the most astonis.h.i.+ng to be seen anywhere in the world. The ruins and costly buildings in old Eastern countries, are so vast in their proportions and so many in number that it would require volumes to describe them.

Babel, now called Birs Nimroud, built at Babylon by Belus, was used as an observatory and as a temple of the Sun. It was composed of 8 square towers, one over the other, in all 670 feet high, and the same dimensions on each side on the ground.

The Coliseum at Rome, built by Vespasian for 100,000 spectators, was in its longest diameter 615-5 feet, and in the shortest 510, embraced 5-1/2 acres, and was 120 feet high. Eight aqueducts supplied ancient Rome with water, delivering 40 millions of cubit feet daily. That of Claudia was 47 miles long and 100 feet high, so as to furnish the hills. Martia was 41 miles, of which 37 were on 7,000 acres 70 feet high. These vast erections would never have been built had the Romans known that water always rises to its own level.

The Temple of Diana, at Ephesus, was 425 feet long and 225 feet broad, with 127 columns, 60 feet high, to support the roof. It was 220 years in building.

Solomon's Temple, built B.C. 1014, was 60 cubits or 107 feet in length, the breadth 20 cubits or 36 feet, and the height 30 cubits or 54 feet. The porch was 36 feet long and 18 feet wide.

The largest one of the Egyptian pyramids is 543 feet high, 693 feet on the sides, and its base covers 11 acres. The layers of stones are 208 in number. Many stones are over 30 feet long, 4 broad and 3 thick.

The Temple of Ypsambul, in Nubia, is enormously ma.s.sive and cut out of the solid rock. Belzoni found in it 4 immense figures, 65 feet high, 25 feet over the shoulders, with a face of 7 feet and the ears over 3 feet.

Sesostris erected in the temple in Memphis immense statues of himself and his wife, 50 feet high, and of his children, 28 feet.

In the Temple of the Sun, at Baalbec, are stones more than 60 feet long, 24 feet thick and 16 broad, each embracing 23,000 cubic feet, cut, squared, sculptured, and transported from neighboring quarries.

Six enormous columns are each 72 feet high, composed of 3 stones 7 feet in diameter. Sesostris is credited with having transported from the mountains of Arabia a rock 32 feet wide and 240 feet long.

The engineering appliances used by the ancients in the movement of these immense ma.s.ses are but imperfectly understood at the present day.

During modern times, a block of granite weighing 1,217 tons, now used as the pedestal of the equestrian statute of Peter the Great, at St.

Petersburg, was transported 4 miles by land over a railway, and 13 miles in a vast caisson by water. The railway consisted of two lines of timber furnished with hard metal grooves; between these grooves were placed spheres of hard bra.s.s about 6 inches in diameter. On these spheres the frame with its ma.s.sive load was easily moved by 60 men, working at capstans with treble purchase blocks.

In 1716 Swedenborg contrived to transport (on rolling machines of his own invention) over valleys and mountains, 2 galleys, 5 large boats and 1 sloop, from Stromstadt to Iderfjol (which divides Sweden from Norway on the South), a distance of 14 miles, by which means Charles XII. was able to carry on his plans, and under cover of the galleys and boats to transport on pontoons his heavy artillery to the very walls of Frederickshall.

Belzoni considered the tract between the first and second cataract of the Nile as the hottest on the globe, owing to there being no rain.

The natives do not credit the phenomenon of water falling from above.

Hence it is that all monuments are so nicely preserved. Buckingham found a building left unfinished about 4,000 years ago, and the chalk marks on the stones were still perfect.

Pompey's Pillar is 92 feet high, and 27-1/2 round at the base.

Water is the absolute master, former and secondary agent of the power of motion in everything terrestrial. It is the irresistible power which elaborates everything, and the waters contain more organized beings than the land.

Rivers hold in suspension 100th of their volume (more or less) of mud, so that if 36 cubic miles of water (the estimated quant.i.ty) flow daily into the sea, 0.36 cubic miles of soil are daily displaced. The Rhine carries to the sea every day 145,980 cubic feet of mud. The Po carries out the land 228 feet per annum, consequently Adria which 2,500 years ago was on the sea, is now over 20 miles from it.

The enormous amount of alluvium deposited by the Mississippi is almost incalculable, and constantly renders necessary extensive engineering operations in order to remove the impediments to navigation.

As an exponent of the laws of friction, it may be stated that a square stone weighing 1,080 lbs. which required a force of 758 lbs. to drag it along the floor of a quarry, roughly chiseled, required only a force of 22 lbs. to move it when mounted on a platform and rollers over a plank floor.

The flight of wild ducks is estimated at 90 miles per hour, that of the swift at 200 miles, carrier pigeons 38 miles, swallows 60 miles, migratory birds have crossed the Mediterranean at a speed of 120 miles per hour.

The Nile has a fall of 6 ins. in 1,000 miles. The rise of the river commences in June, continuing until the middle of August, attaining an elevation of from 24 to 26 feet, and flowing the valley of Egypt 12 miles wide. In 1829 it rose to 26 cubits, by which 30,000 persons were drowned. It is a terrible climate to live in, owing to the festering heat and detestable exhalations from the mud, etc., left on the retiring of the Nile, which adds about 4 inches to the soil in a century, and encroaches on the sea 16 feet every year. Bricks have been found at the depth of 60 feet, showing the vast antiquity of the country. In productiveness of soil it is excelled by no other in the world.

How to Splice a Belt in Order to Make it Run Like an Endless Belt.--Use the toughest yellow glue prepared in the ordinary way, while hot, stirring in thoroughly about 20 per cent of its weight of tannic acid, or extract of tan bark. Apply to the splice and quickly clamp together. The splice should be made of scarfed edges extending 3 to 6 inches back, according to thickness of belt. The surface to be perfectly clean and free from oil.

How Many Pounds of Coal it Requires to Maintain Steam of One-Horse Power per Hour.--Anthracite 1-1/2 to 5 pounds, according to the economy of boiler and engine. Bituminous and anthracite coal are very nearly equal for equal qualities. They both vary from 7 to 10 pounds of water evaporated per pound of coal from a temperature of 212 degrees.

A Formula for Collodio-bromide Emulsion that is Rapid.--Ether s.g.

0.720, 4 fluid ounces; alcohol s.g. 0.820, 2-1/2 fluid ounces; pyroxyline, 40 grains; castile soap dissolved in alcohol, 30 grains; bromide of ammonium and cadmium, 56 grains.

How to Deaden the Noise of Steam While Blowing off Through a Wrought Iron Stand Pipe.--The sound may be much modified by enlarging the end of the pipe like a trumpet or cone; which should be long, 20 or 30 times the diameter of the pipe, opening to 4 or 5 times its initial size.

Why Fusible Plugs are Put in the Crown Sheet of Locomotive Boilers.--To save the crown sheet from burning in case of low water, when the plug melts and lets the steam and water into the fire chamber to dampen and put out the fire as well as to make an alarm. They may also be employed on other forms of boilers, and are much used in connection with whistles for low-water alarms only. Boilers should not be blown out for cleaning with fire under them or while the walls (if set in brick) are hot enough to do damage to the iron sh.e.l.l.

Locomotive boilers may be blown out very soon after the fire is entirely removed. All brick-set boilers should be left several hours after the fire is drawn before blowing off for cleaning.

How to Lace a Quarter Turn Belt so as to Have an Equal Strain on Both Edges of the Belt.--Begin on the outside of the belt at the middle, pa.s.s one end of the lacing through one end of the belt and bring it out through the corresponding hole of the other end of the belt, laying it diagonally off to the left. Now pa.s.s the other end of the lacing through the hole last used, and carry it over the first strand of the lacing on the inside of the belt, pa.s.sing it through the first hole used, and lay it diagonally off to the right. Now proceed to pa.s.s the lacing through the holes of the belt in a zigzag course, leaving all the strands inside the belt parallel with the belt, and all the strands outside the belt oblique. Pa.s.s the lace twice through the holes nearest the edge of the belt, then return the lace in the reverse order toward the center of the belt, so as to cross all the oblique strands, and make all the inside strands double. Finally pa.s.s the end of the lacing through the first hole used, then outward through an awl hole, then hammering it down to cause it to hold. The left side is to be laced in a similar way.

A Useful Hint to Draughtsmen.--To strain drawing paper on a board, cut the paper to the size required, lay it on the board face downwards and thoroughly wet the surface with a damp sponge or brush, then turn it over and wet the face in the same way; roll it up tightly and let it stay so for five or six minutes, unroll it, and turn up the edges about an inch all around. Take liquid glue (Jackson's is the best) and apply it carefully to the edges, then turn them down, and with a paper knife press them to the board all around. Put the board in an inclined position where it is not too dry or warm, or the paper will dry too fast and tear. If it is allowed to dry slowly the surface will be perfectly even and smooth, and a pleasure to draw upon.

Joints for Hot Water Pipes.--Sal-ammoniac, 2 oz.; sublimed sulphur, 1 oz.; cast-iron filings, 1 lb. Mix in a mortar, and keep the powder dry. When it is to be used, mix it with twenty times its weight of clean iron filings, and grind the whole in a mortar. Wet with water until it becomes of convenient consistence. After a time it becomes as hard and strong as any part of the metal.

When the Process of Galvanizing Iron was First Known.--A. The process of coating iron with zinc, or zinc and tin, is a French invention, and was patented in England in 1837.

A Timber Test.--The soundness of timber may be ascertained by placing the ear close to one end of the log, while another person delivers a succession of smart blows with a hammer or mallet upon the opposite end, when a continuance of the vibrations will indicate to an experienced ear even the degree of soundness. If only a dull thud meets the ear, the listener may be certain that unsoundness exists.

Useful Hints and Recipes.--Following is a comparative statement of the toughness of various woods.--Ash, 100; beech, 85; cedar of Lebanon, 84; larch, 83; sycamore and common walnut, each, 68; occidental plane, 66; oak, hornbeam and Spanish mahogany, each, 62; teak and acacia, each, 58; elm and young chestnut, 52.