Science/Nature Books

FAURE'S MACHINE FOR DECORTICATING SUGAR-CANE. The object of the apparatus shown in the accompanying engraving is to effect a separation of the tough epidermis of the sugar-cane from the internal spongy pith which is to be pressed. Its function consists in isolating and separating the cells from their cortex, and in putting them in direct contact with the rollers or cylinders of the mill. After... more...

MACHINE TOOLS FOR BOILER-MAKERS. We give this week an engraving of a radial drilling machine designed especially for the use of boiler-makers, this machine, together with the plate bending rolls, forming portion of a plant constructed for Messrs. Beesley and Sons, boiler makers, of Barrow-in-Furness. [Illustration: IMPROVED BOILER PLATERADIAL DRILL.] This radial drill, which is a tool of substantial... more...

When Sir Henry Bessemer, in 1856, made public his great invention, and announced to the world that he was able to produce malleable steel from cast iron without the expenditure of any fuel except that which already existed in the fluid metal imparted to it in the blast furnace, his statement was received with doubt and surprise. If he at that time had been able to add that it was also possible to roll... more...

THE DODDER. The genus Cuscuta contains quite a number of species which go under the common name of dodder, and which have the peculiarily of living as parasites upon other plants. Their habits are unfortunately too well known to cultivators, who justly dread their incursions among cultivated plants like flax, hops, etc. All parasitic plants, or at least the majority of them, have one character in... more...

IMPROVED DYNAMO MACHINE. The continuous current and the alternating current generators invented by Dr. J. Hopkinson and Dr. Alexander Muirhead are peculiarly interesting as being probably the first in which the bobbins of the armature were wound with copper ribbon and arranged on a disk armature much in the same way as was afterward done by Sir William Thomson and by Mr. Ferranti. In the... more...

The City of Victoria is situated on the southern end of Vancouver Island, in the Province of British Columbia, Canada, and is the capital of the Province. In common with all cities of the extreme West, its growth has been very rapid within the last few years. The population of the city proper, together with that of the municipality of Oak Bay, immediately adjacent, is now about 35,000. The Victoria... more...

THE RIGHI RAILROAD. In the year 1864, the well-known geographer, Heinrich Keller, from Zurich, on ascending to the summit of the Righi Mountain, in the heart of Switzerland, discovered one of the finest panoramic displays of mountain scenery that he had ever witnessed. To his enthusiastic descriptions some lovers of nature in Zurich and Berne listened with much interest, and in the year 1865, Dr. Abel,... more...

Introduction. The mine disaster, which occurred at Cherry, Ill., on November 13th, 1909, when 527 men were in the mine, resulting in the entombment of 330 men, of whom 310 were killed, has again focused public attention on the frequent recurrence of such disasters and their appalling consequences. Interest in the possible prevention of such disasters, and the possible means of combating subsequent mine... more...

PROGRESS OF ANTWERP. Antwerp is now the chief port on the Continent. Since 1873 the progress has continued, and made very rapid advances. In 1883 the tonnage of the port reached 3,734,428 registered tons. This marvelous development is partly due to the position of Antwerp as the embarking point from the Continent of Europe to America, and partly also to the recent additions and changes which have been... more...

Bulletin No. 6 of Missouri Agricultural College Farm is devoted to an account of experiments intended to demonstrate the relation of dew to soil moisture. Prof. Sanborn has prosecuted his work with that patience and faithfulness characteristic of him, and the result is of a most interesting and useful nature. The Professor begins by saying that many works on physics, directly or by implication, assert... more...