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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1881)
THE WEST SHORE. February, 1881. 48 AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVES. Th United Htata exported 25 locomotive during tli dual yaw of 1870, and 00 daring th yur 18S0-au increase of 140. Several rnoiuUr looomotivM fur freight eervioe are in proooM of construction f r the New York, Pennsylvania end Ohio railroad. They ret on i driver and a four-Blinded truck, and will weigh 38 tuna, empty. Train men are eonaid eralily troubled by the trains breaking in two when hauled hy llieee powerful consolidated en gine, and the only remedy entme to he in equipping freight oara with heavieat drawbara, hackle, and pina. The following from Mr. It. M. lirereton, C. K-, may henuuted ae an authoritative English opinion of American built locomotive: " I argue that the greater duty dona by the Ameri can motor ia due to the better design and the better ayatem of working the locomotives, The American buildur eioela in the ayatrm of frarn log and counterbalancing, and in the doaigni of nrank axlne, etc., ao that the ermine may run re markably eaay and without jar, round eharp curvra, and work not only on the light roads, but aleo diniiniah the wear and tear on the solid roada, and at the eatne time inoreaee the efTect Iva tractive force. The Engliah engine ia a very heavy affair, and in running it not only wean and lara itaell very rapidly, but alto the road way, ami it ((realty, hy iUunateidiiieae and jar, fatignea the driver and tiromen. I have ridden hundreda of mile on enginea in India, in Eng land, In Kranoe, and in the United Hutea, and I hare alwaya found the American engine moat easy and comfortable, but I never did the Eng. liah or the Continental anglnee, It ia almoat Impossible to give theae enginea their full haul ing power, aiinply beoauae the greater portion ol the weight caunol be thrown off the driving wheela." THE INFLUENCE OK A TUNINfLEORK ON THE flAKDEN HI'lDKIl. Having made tome observation on the ganlen apiiler which are 1 believe new, I tend a abort account of then in the hope that they May be of internet to the readera of Malum. Laat autumn, while watching aome apidera pinning their beautiful geometrical webe, it oc curred to me to try what tlfeot a tuning-fork would have upon them. On Bounding an A fork and lightly touching with it any leaf or other euppnrt of the web or any portion of the web (Uolf, I found that the epider, if at the oeoter of the welt, rapidly alew round ao aa to feoe the directum of the fork, feeling with ite fori feet along which radial thread the vibra tion travel. Having become aatisried on this point, it nut darU along that thread till it reach either the fork iteell or a junction of two or more thrrade, the right one of which it inetanlly dvtermiuee aa before. If the fork ia not removed when the epider ha arrived it eeme to have the eame oharm at any fly for the epider eeiae it, einhraoe it, and runt ahont oo the Irge of the fork a often aa it ia made to eoaad, never terming to leara by ipeneuo that other thing may bun beeidea ita natural fund. If the epider 1 not at the oeotra of ilia web at the time Uiat the fork ia applied, it cannot tell which way to go antil it be been to the centre to aecertein which radial thread ia vibrating, emleaa of ooureo it ahould happen to be oa that particular thread or one atretohed uiiimrung thread ia ranted with the fork. If whoa a aptdor ha beea enticed to the edn of the web, Uie fork ia wilhdiawa and thea gradually broanht near, the eitder ia aware of lie preecooe and of lU direction, and reach out a far aa poeuhl ia the directioa of the fork, but if a sounding fork ia gradually brought ear a epider that ha ant beea dieturhed, bat which ie wailing aa atsal ia the middle of the web, thea Instead ol reaching out toward the fork the epider tnttantly drop at the end of a thread of oourea. It ander the ooadilioaa the fork to made to touch aay part of the wab, tha apider ia aware of tha fact and olimb tha thread and reaohea the fork with marvelout rapidity. Tha epider never leave the centre of tha web without a thread along whioh to travel baok. If after enticing a apider out we out thia thread with a pair of editors, tho spider icomi to be unable to get back without doing ooniiderable daman to the web, generally gumming together the alicky parallel thread in group of three and four. Hy mean of a tuning-fork a apider may be made to eat what it would otherwise avoid. I took a fly that had been drowned in parafHne and put it into a apider' web and then attracted the epider hy touohing the fly with a fork. When the epider had coma to the conoluaion that it wa nut auitabla food and waa leaving it, I touched the fly again. Thia had the tame tlf iut aa before, and aa often aa the epiuer do- gen to leave the fly I again touched it, and by thia meane compelled th portion of the fly, he apidor to eat a large The few houae-apidera that I have found do not eeem to appreciate the tuning-fork, but re treat into their hiding-place aa when fright ened ; yet the supposed fondue of apider for muiio muit aurely have aome connection with three observations, and when they come ont to liaten, i it not that they cannot tell which way to proceed? The few obaervation that I have mads are neceeaarily Imperfeot, but I aend them, aa they affurd a method whioh might lead a naturalist to notice habit otherwise difficult to obaerve, and ao to arrive at conoluiion whioh I in my ignorance of natural hiatory mnit leave to other. C. V. lioyt, in Naturt. THE ISTHMUS BHIP RAILWAY. Capt. Ead U a good pereuader. Hi remark able aoheme of a ahip railway acroa the Isth mus of Tohuantepeo i taking a tangible hap. The Mexican Government haa made a very lib eral oonoeaaion, giving him the right to con- etruct a railway on auch line a he may aelect, the work to be commenced within two year and completed within 12 year. He i allowed to oharge 5 par cubio meterof the diaplacement of each veeeel tranaported; alao 15 for each paaaenger on the ahip, and 1 on tha value of ooin or preclou atone carried. The Govern ment alto give him a lubtidy equal to 1,000. 000 acre of publio land, and make other lib eral oonoMsion. Whil thit will go but a little way toward th eetimated oott of 175,000,000, it will doubtlc aaaitt Capt. Etdt in raiting money in th United State. He deeirea to have our (lovernment guarantee 6 dividend on 150,000,000 of th (took of the oompany in consideration of free transportation of Govern ment ahip, officer and toldier, and tha bene fit which the proposed road will be to our ootn meroe. Thi, however, will be difficult to ob tain. Th projected road ia, if built, to be about 112 milv in length, while the propoeed I'anama oanal will be 45 milea long; but the Tehuantepeo Mute will eavo about 1,500 mile between New York and Han Kranoitoo over the Panama mute, whil tha diatanoe from the moutha of the Mississippi to California by Te huautrpoo ie 2.3(10 milea lee than by Panama. The Panama oanal and th ahip railway are fairly in th liat a oompetitore, whil the Nicaragua oanal tcheme ia alto being urged, and if all are oompletad, it will b all th better for the eountry. Mai-iunimy roa Wamiino and 8txuaiNo Wool. Tbie it aa inventioo of combination of meohaoiam for draugin the wool from th wash ing uootrivanoe up th malin to th tqueeting roller. On of the modification eonauU of two aeU of framee rammed with teeth, th raya of the teeth io on frame alternating with the raya of tha teeth ia th other frame, while another modification make at of only on frem to drag up th wool, th other frame hav. mg a lifting movement to retain th wool Th frame ar timilar to a harrow ia oonttrao-Itoo. THE COLOR RELATION OF METALS. In a paper on the color relation of metal, and notably on those of oopper, nickel, cobalt, iron, manganeae and chromium, lately read bo fore the Chemical Society, Mr. T. Bnylcy re cords tome remarkable relation between eola tions of theae metal. It appear that iron, co balt and oopper form a natural color group, for, if (olution of their aulphate are mixed to gather in the proportion of twenty parte of oop per, seven of iron and ix of cobalt, the result ing liquid it free from oolor, bat i gray and partially opaque. It follow from thi that a mixture of any two of theae element ia comple mentary to the third, if the above portion are maintained. Thus, a aolution of cobalt (pink) i complementary to a mixture of iron and oop per (bluish green), a aolution of iron (yellow) to a mixture of oopper and oobalt (violet), and a aolution of oopper (blue) to a mixture of iron and cobalt (red). But, a Mr. Bayley shows, a solution of oopper is exactly complementary to the red reflection from copper, and a polished ' plate of thi metal, viewed through a aolution of oopper aalt of a certain thickness, is silver white. A a farther consequence, it follow that a mixture of iron (aeven parte) and oobalt (six part) is identical in oolor with a plate of oopper. The resemblano ia ao striking that a silver or platinum vessel oovered to the proper depth with uoh a solution ia indistinguishable from oopper. There it a ouriout fact regarding . nickel also worthy of attention. Thi metal forms solutions whioh can be exactly simulated by a mixture of iron and oopper solutions; bat this mixture oontain more iron than that which it complementary to oobalt. Niokel aolution are almoat complementary to oobalt lolutiom, but they transmit an exoess of yellow light Now, the atomic weight of niokel it very nearly the mean of the atomio weight of iron or cop per, but it it a little lower that ia, nearer to iron. There is thu a perfeot analogy between the atomio weight and th oolor piopertiea in this oat. Thi analogy ia even more general, lor Air. cayiey rare that in tne case ot iron, oobalt and oopper, th mean wave length of me ugni aoaoroea is proportional to tne atomio weight. The peoitio ohromatio power of tha metal varies, being leaat for oopper. The tpe oitio ohromatio power inoreatet with tha affinity of the metal for oxygen. Chromium forma three kind of aalta pink talta, identioal in oolor with the cobalt aalt; blue aalta, identioal in oolor with oopper aalta; and green aalt, com plementary to the red aalta. Manganese, in like manner, forma more than one kind of aalt. Th red talta of manganeae are identioal in oolor with tho oobalt aalt and with the red ohromium aalta. The aalt of chromium and mangane, according to th author, ar with difficulty attainable in a state of ohromatio purity. He think the propertie of tha metal lead up to torn very interesting consid erations. Tkmi'krkd Glaus. Tempered glad can ba tempered in great pieoea, gifted with a power of resistance, of which ita tpeoifio lightneaa, comparbd with heavy metal, would not hav given the leaat presumption. It oan now bo employed, notably in carpentry, for pott, joist, tie and buttreaaea. It oombine th ad vantage of strength and of incorruptibility, in contact with all atmoapherio agent, a wall aa with chemical factors, and consequently ia of -perpetual duration. Besides these advantage another ia the tmallneta in the prioe of acquisi tion. Thia material ia now aa oheap aa iron of the eame weight, and as a large aale ia oo anted on, it will not be long before the reduction of prio will be below the coat of -cn. No doubt many industries will profit from this new pro great in th fabrication of glass, and it will ba greatly appreciated in th household. On will te the tim when th metals and wood will ba replaced by glaaa, iu a great number of imple ments, uteosila, and object of divert nttur. tuohaatop-oocka,gutUr-apouta, baoketa, and van barrel.