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.