AUSTRIA is turning out a new variety of Mannlicher repeating
rifle for its army, which is the lightest rifle in the world, weighing
3.3 kilogrammes, seven pounds and four ounces, instead of 4.4
kilogrammes, nine pounds eleven ounces, the weight of the old pattern.
All the individual parts in the new rifle, including the locking box,
the magazine and the barrel, are lighter than in the old. The bayonet
and sheath are also made lighter.
A TROLLEY express car system is now in successful operation in
Brooklyn, N.Y. The trolley system of Brooklyn is one of the most
extensive in the world, and many of the outlying districts are now
served with great dispatch. Parcels are collected by wagons, they are
then brought to the cars, and, after being carried to the nearest
express station to their destination, they are then transported again
by wagons. On Sundays the cars are run to carry bicycles.
IN STANISLAU oil gas is being a good deal used for incandescent
lighting, says the Gas World. The gas is used at a pressure of from
1.1 in. to 1.2 in. When 1.7 cubic feet per hour is used the Welsbach
mantle gives 69½ candles at first, 65 candles after 120 hours, 48¼
candles after 500 hours. The fall in lighting power is comparatively
slow with oil gas, and the mantles are not so much worn by lighting
the gas, for the kind of oil gas is not as explosive as that of coal
gas. The mantles are found to last from 400 to 600 hours.
DURING THE construction of the Simplon tunnel every possible
alleviation will be made for the workmen employed, says the Railway
Review. On leaving the tunnel when they are hot and wet through they
will go at once to the douche and bathrooms provided for their
accommodation, where, after a refreshing shower bath, they will resume
their dry clothes. The sheds from which the workmen leave the tunnel
are to be covered in and closed at the sides so as to protect them
from cold. Water will be taken at intervals to the workmen who may
require it, either from the pipe which feeds the drills or from that
which brings water for cooling. No provision has been made as regards
workmen's lodgings, because it is supposed that they will easily find
accommodation in the neighborhood. As it is believed that the
temperature of the rock of the Simplon tunnel may reach a maximum of
104° F., costly measures will have to be taken to cool the air in many
parts where the works are to be carried on.
"RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN LIGHTHOUSE ENGINEERING" was the title
of a paper read recently at the Institution of Civil Engineers, by Mr.
N.G. Gedye, says the Colliery Guardian. The author pointed out the
marked development which has of late years taken place in the
direction of reducing the length of flash emitted by lighthouse
apparatus to a minimum, and the consequent increase obtained in
intensity. The apparatus now being erected at Cape Leeuwin, Western
Australia, gives a flash of one-fifth of a second duration every five
seconds. It is the most powerful oil light in the world, the flash
being over 145,000 candle power emitted from a pair of dioptric lenses
mounted on a mercury float revolving once every ten seconds. Each of
the two lenses is 8 feet in diameter. The powers of these oil lights
are far exceeded by electric lighthouse lights, there being several in
France up to 23,000,000 candle power, while there has recently been
established at Fire Island, at the entrance to New York Harbor, an
electric light, of French design and construction, of 123,000,000
candle power; this is the most powerful lighthouse light in the world.
DISCUSSING THE use of potassium cyanide for steel-hardening
purposes, T.R. Almond, of Brooklyn, N.Y., suggests that this salt
assists the hardening process because of its powerful deoxidizing
properties, and also because it forms a liquid film on the surface of
the steel, which causes a more perfect contact between the steel and
the water, thereby permitting a more rapid abstraction of heat. The
inevitable formation of a thin coat of oxide is unfavorable to the
process of rapid cooling; and as rapid cooling seems to be the one
thing necessary for success in hardness, any means used for the
removal of a bad conductor of heat, like the black oxide, will be of
advantage, and more especially if this means also results in the
formation of a liquid film on the steel surface having the affinity
for water which, it is well known, is peculiar to potassium cyanide.
Mr. Almond recommends the removal of all scale or oxide from the
surfaces of steel to be hardened, either by pickling or by the
cyanide. Steel covered with a very thin film of oxide will take the
heat less quickly when immersed in hot lead than if the steel be
bright before being immersed. This being the case, it would seem to
follow that, because of a film of oxide, heat will leave steel more
slowly when being cooled by water.
THE GIGANTIC WHEEL, now being erected on the site of the old
bowling green in a corner of the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, was
commenced on December 1, 1895, says the Building News. The work of
erecting the supports was not finished until the third week in March,
and then the most difficult portion of the work, viz., that of
hoisting the axle, was commenced. The axle, a steel forging weighing
over 28 tons and measuring nearly 41 ft. long and 26 in. in diameter,
was forged at the works of Messrs. W. Beardmore & Company, of Glasgow.
The axle and bearings being fixed complete, the work of building the
rims of the wheel will be pushed forward rapidly under the direction
of Mr. Walter B. Basset, who also built the Earl's Court wheel. The
carriages, thirty in number, and each capable of carrying forty
persons, are rapidly approaching completion in the works of Messrs.
Brown, Marshall & Company, of Birmingham. The driving engines and most
of the intermediate gearing are already in position in the engine
house. These engines will operate two steel wire ropes, one on either
side of the rim of the wheel, and arrangements have been made and
provided for in such gearing to enable the wheel to be turned at a
quicker speed than that at Earl's Court. The Blackpool wheel will be
able to carry more passengers per hour than its predecessor in London.
The particulars of the great wheel are: Total height above sea level,
250 ft.; total diameter (across centers of pins), 200 ft.; total
weight, 1,000 tons. The solid axle is of a diameter through the
journals of 2 ft. 2 in., a diameter across the flanges of 5 ft. 3 in.,
length over all 41 ft., and weight 28 tons.
* * * * *