Scientific American Supplement, No. 497, July 11, 1885

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 497

NEW YORK, JULY 11, 1885

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XX, No. 497.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.

* * * * *

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I. CHEMISTRY AND METALLURGY.--Making Sea Water Potable.
--By THOS. KAY

The Acids of Wool Oil

The New Absorbent for Oxygen

Depositing Nickel upon Zinc.--By H.B. SLATER

II. ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.--Foundations in Quicksand,
Lift Bridge over the Ourcq Canal.--3 figures

St. Petersburg a Seaport.--A canal cut from Cronstadt to
St. Petersburg.--Opening of same by the Emperor and
Empress.--With full page engraving

The New French Dispatch Boat Milan.--With engraving

The Launching and Docking of Ships Sidewise.--4 figures

Improved High Speed Engine.--12 figures

The National Transit Co.'s Pipe Lines for the Transportation
of Oil to the Seaboard.--With map and diagram

The Fuel of the Future.--History of natural gas.--Relation to
petroleum.--Duration of gas, etc.--With table of analyses
Closing Leakages for Packing.--Use of asbestos in stuffing
boxes

III. TECHNOLOGY.--Luminous Paint.--Processes of manufacture
Boxwood and its Substitutes.--Preparation of same for market,
etc.--A paper written by J.A. JACKSON for the International
Forestry Exhibition

IV. ARCHAEOLOGY.--An Assyrian Bass-Relief 2,700 years old

V. NATURAL HISTORY.-The Flight of the Buzzard.--By R.A.
PROCTOR

VI. BOTANY, ETC.--Convallaria.--A stemless perennial.--By OTTO
A. WALL, M.D.--Several figures

VII. MEDICINE, HYGIENE, ETC.--Gaiffe's New Medical
Galvanometer.--1 figure

The Suspension of Life in Plants and Animals

VIII. MISCELLANEOUS.--Composite Portraits.--6 illustrations
Hand-Craft and Rede-Craft.--A plea for the first
named.--By D.G. GILMAN

* * * * *

FOUNDATIONS IN QUICKSAND.

Foundations in quicksand often have to be built in places where least
expected, and sometimes the writer has been able to conveniently
span the vein with an arch and avoid trouble; but where it cannot be
conveniently arched over, it will be necessary to sheath pile for a
trench and lay in broad sections of concrete until the space is crossed,
the sheath piling being drawn and reset in sections as fast as the
trenches are leveled up. The piling is left in permanently if it is not
wanted again for use.

Sometimes these bottoms are too soft to be treated in this manner; in
that case boxes or caissons are formed, loaded with stone and sunk into
place with pig iron until the weight they are to carry is approximated.
When settled, the weights are removed and building begins.

Foundations on shifting sand are met with in banks of streams, which
swell and become rapids as each winter breaks up. This kind is most
troublesome and dangerous to rest upon if not properly treated.

Retaining walls are frequently built season after season, and as
regularly become undermined by the scouring of the water. Regular
docking with piles and timbers is resorted to, but it is so expensive
for small works that it is not often tried.

Foundations are formed often with rock well planted out; and again
success has attended the use of bags of sand where rough rock was not
convenient or too expensive.

In such cases it is well to try a mattress foundation, which may be
formed of brushwood and small saplings with butts from 1/2 inch to
21/2 inches in diameter, compressed into bundles from 8 to 12 inches
diameter, and from 12 to 16 feet long, and well tied with ropes every
four feet. Other bundles, from 4 to 6 inches diameter and 16 feet long,
are used as binders, and these bundles are now cross-woven and make a
good network, the long parts protruding and making whip ends. One or
more sets of netting are used as necessity seems to require. This kind
of foundation may be filled in with a concrete of hydraulic cement and
sand, and the walls built on them with usual footings, and it is very
durable, suiting the purpose as well as anything we have seen or heard
of.--_Inland Architect_.

* * * * *

LIFT BRIDGE OVER THE OURCQ CANAL.

This bridge, which was inaugurated in 1868, was constructed under the
direction of Mr. Mantion, then engineer-in-chief of the Belt Railway.
Fig. 1 shows the bridge raised.

The solution adopted in this case was the only feasible one that
presented itself, in view of the slight difference between the level
of the railway tracks and the maximum plane of the canal water. This
circumstance did not even permit of a thought of an ordinary revolving
bridge, since this, on a space of 10 inches being reserved between the
level of the water and the bottom of the bridge, and on giving the
latter a minimum thickness of 33 inches up to the level of the rails,
would have required the introduction into the profile of the railroad
of approaches of at least one-quarter inch gradient, that would have
interfered with operations at the station close by.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--LIFT BRIDGE OVER THE OURCQ CANAL.]

Besides, in the case of a revolving bridge, since the bottom of the
latter would be but ten inches above the water level, and the rollers
would have to be of larger diameter than that, it would have been
necessary to suppose the roller channel placed beneath the level of the
water, and it would consequently have been necessary to isolate this
channel from the canal by a tight wall. The least fissure in the latter
would have inundated the channel.

As the Ourcq Canal had no regular period of closing, it was necessary
to construct the bridge without hinderance to navigation. The idea of
altering the canal's course could not be thought of, for the proximity
of the fortifications and of the bridge over the military road was
opposed to it. Moreover, the canal administration insisted upon a free
width of 26 feet, which is that of the sluices of the St. Denis Canal,
and which would have led to the projection of a revolving bridge of 28
feet actual opening in order to permit of building foundations with
caissons in such a way as to leave a passageway of 26 feet during
operations.

For these reasons it was decided to construct a metallic bridge that
should be lifted by means of counterpoises and balanced after the manner
of gasometers.

The free width secured to navigation is 28 feet. The bridge is usually
kept raised to a height of 16 feet above the level of the water in order
to allow boats to pass (Fig. 2). In this position it is balanced by four
counterpoises suspended from the extremities of chains that pass over
pulleys. These counterpoises are of cast iron, and weigh, altogether,
44,000 pounds--the weight of the bridge to be balanced, say 11,000
pounds per counterpoise. Moreover, each of the four chains is prolonged
beneath the corresponding counterpoise by a chain of the same weight,
called a compensating chain.

The pulleys, B and C, that support the suspension chains have
projections in their channels which engage with the links and thus
prevent the chains from slipping. They are mounted at the extremity of
four latticed girders that likewise carry girder pulleys, D. The pulleys
that are situated at the side of the bridge are provided laterally
with a conical toothing which gears with a pinion connected with the
maneuvering apparatus.

The two pinions of the same side of the bridge are keyed to a
longitudinal shaft which is set in motion at one point of its length by
a system of gearings. The winch upon which is exerted the stress that
is to effect the lifting or the descent of the bridge is fixed upon the
shaft of the pinion of the said gearing, which is also provided with a
flywheel, c. The longitudinal shafts are connected by a transverse one.
e, which renders the two motions interdependent. This transverse shaft
is provided with collars, against which bear stiff rods that give it the
aspect of an elongated spindle, and that permit it to resist twisting
stresses.

The windlasses that lift the bridge are actuated by manual power. Two
men (or even one) suffice to do the maneuvering.

This entire collection of pulleys and mechanism is established upon two
brick foot bridges between which the bridge moves. These arched bridges
offer no obstruction to navigation. Moreover, they always allow free
passage to foot passengers, whatever be the position of the bridge. They
are provided with four vertical apertures to the right of the suspension
chains, in order to allow of the passage of the latter. The girders that
support the pulleys rest at one extremity upon the upper part of the
bridges, and at the other upon solid brick pillars with stone caps.

Finally, in order to render the descent of the bridge easier, there are
added to it two water tanks that are filled from the station reservoir
when the bridge is in its upper position, and that empty themselves
automatically as soon as it reaches the level of the railroad tracks.

A very simple system of fastening has been devised for keeping the
bridge in a stationary position when raised. When it reaches the end of
its upward travel, four bolts engage with an aperture in the suspension
rod and prevent it from descending. These bolts are set in motion by
two connecting rods carried by a longitudinal shaft and maneuvered by a
lever at the end of the windlass.

At the lower part the bridge rests upon iron plates set into sills. It
is guided in its descent longitudinally by iron plates that have an
inclination which is reproduced at the extremities of the bridge
girders, and transversely by two inclined angle irons into which fit the
external edges of the bottoms of the extreme girders.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--ELEVATION AND PLAN.]

The total weight of the bridge is, as we have said, 44,000 pounds, which
is much less than would have been that of a revolving bridge of the same
span. The maneuvering of the bridge is performed with the greatest ease
and requires about two minutes.

This system has been in operation at the market station of La Vilette
since the year 1868, and has required but insignificant repairs. We
think the adoption of it might be recommended for all cases in which a
slight difference between the level of a railroad and that of a water
course would not permit of the establishment of a revolving bridge.--_Le
Genie Civil_.

* * * * *

ST. PETERSBURG A SEAPORT.

The Emperor and Empress of Russia, on Wednesday, May 27. 1885, the
second anniversary of their coronation at Moscow, opened the Maritime
Canal, in the Bay of Cronstadt, the shallow upper extremity of the Gulf
of Finland, by which great work the city of St. Petersburg is made a
seaport as much as London. St. Petersburg, indeed, stands almost on the
sea shore, at the very mouth of the Neva, though behind several low
islands which crowd the head of the Gulf; and though this is an inland
sea without saltness or tides, it is closed by ice in winter. Seventeen
miles to the west is the island of Cronstadt, a great fortress, with
naval dockyards and arsenals for the imperial fleet, and with a spacious
harbor for ships of commerce. The navigable entrance channel up the
Bay of Cronstadt to the mouth of the Neva lies under the south side of
Cronstadt, and is commanded by its batteries. As the bay eastward has a
depth not exceeding 12 ft., and the depth of the Neva at its bar is but
9 ft., all large vessels have been obliged hitherto to discharge their
cargoes at Cronstadt, to be there transferred to lighters and barges
which brought the goods up to the capital. "The delay and expense of
this process," says Mr. William Simpson, our special artist, "will be
understood by stating that a cargo might be brought from England by a
steamer in a week, but it would take three weeks at least to transport
the same cargo from Cronstadt to St. Petersburg. Of course, much of this
time was lost by custom house formalities. Sometimes it has taken even
longer than is here stated, which made the delivery of goods at St.
Petersburg a matter of great uncertainty, thus rendering time contracts
almost an impossibility. This state of things had continued from the
time of Peter the Great, and his great scheme had never been fully
realized. The increase of commerce and shipping had long made this a
crying evil; but even with all these difficulties, the trade here has
been rapidly growing. A scheme to bring the shipping direct to the
capital had thus become almost a necessity. As Manchester wishes to
bring the ocean traffic to her doors without the intervention of
Liverpool, so St. Petersburg desired to have its steamers sailing up to
the city, delivering and loading their cargoes direct at the stores and
warehouses in her streets. If Glasgow had not improved the Clyde, and
had up to the present day to bring up all goods carried by her ocean
going steamers from Port Glasgow--a place constructed for that purpose
last century, and which is twenty miles from Glasgow--she would have
been handicapped exactly as St. Petersburg has been till now in the
commercial race.

"For some years the subject was discussed at St. Petersburg, and
more than one scheme was proposed; at last the project of General N.
Pooteeloff was adopted. According to this plan, a canal has been cut
through the shallow bottom of the Gulf of Finland, all the way from
Cronstadt to St. Petersburg. The line of this canal is from northwest to
southeast; it may be said to run very nearly parallel to the coast line
on the south side of the Gulf, and about three miles distant from it.
This line brings the canal to the southwest end of St. Petersburg, where
there are a number of islands, which have formed themselves, in the
course of ages, where the Bolshaya, or Great Neva, flows into the Gulf.
It is on these islands that the new port is to be formed. It is a very
large harbor, and capable of almost any amount of extension. It will be
in connection with the whole railway system of Russia. One part of the
scheme is that of a new canal, on the south side of the city, to connect
the maritime canal, as well as the new harbor, with the Neva, so that
the large barges may pass, by a short route, to the river on the east,
and thus avoid the bridges and traffic of the city.

"The whole length of the canal is about eighteen miles. The longer
portion of it is an open channel, which is made 350 feet wide at bottom.
Its course will be marked by large iron floating buoys; these it is
proposed to light with gas by a new self-acting process which has been
very successful in other parts of the world; by this means the canal
will be navigable by night as well as by day. The original plan was to
have made the canal 20 feet deep, but this has been increased to 22
feet. The Gulf of Finland gradually deepens toward Cronstadt, so that
the dredging was less at the western end. This part was all done by
dredgers, and the earth brought up was removed to a safe distance by
means of steam hopper barges. The contract for this part of the work
was sublet to an American firm--Morris and Cummings, of New York. The
eastern portion of the work on the canal is by far the most important,
and about six miles of it is protected by large and strong embankments
on each side. These embankments were formed by the output of the
dredgers, and are all faced with granite bowlders brought from Finland;
at their outer termination the work is of a more durable kind, the
facing is made of squared blocks of granite, so that it may stand the
heavy surf which at times is raised by a west wind in the Gulf. These
embankments, as already stated, extend over a space of nearly six miles,
and represent a mass of work to which there is no counterpart in the
Suez Canal; nor does the plan of the new Manchester Canal present
anything equivalent to it. The width of this canal also far exceeds any
of those notable undertakings. The open channel is, as stated above, 350
ft. wide; within the embankments the full depth of 22 ft. extends to 280
ft., and the surface between the embankments is 700 ft. This is nearly
twice the size of the Suez Canal at the surface, which is 100 meters,
or about 320 ft., while it is only about 75 ft. at the bottom; the
Amsterdam Canal is 78 ft. wide. The new Manchester Canal is to be 100
ft. of full depth, and it boasts of this superiority over the great work
of Lesseps. The figures given above will show how far short it comes of
the dimensions of the St. Petersburg Canal. The Manchester Canal is to
be 24 ft. in depth; in that it has the advantage of 2 ft. more than the
St. Petersburg Canal; but with the ample width this one possesses, this,
or even a greater depth, can be given if it should be found necessary.
Most probably this will have ultimately to be done, for ocean going
steamers are rapidly increasing in size since the St. Petersburg Canal
was planned, and in a very few years the larger class of steamers might
have to deliver their cargoes at Cronstadt, as before, if the waterway
to St. Petersburg be not adapted to their growing dimensions.

[Illustration: THE ST. PETERSBURG AND CRONSTADT MARITIME CANAL, OPENED
BY THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA, ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 1885.]

"The dredging between the embankments of the canal was done by an
improved process, which may interest those connected with such works. It
may be remembered that the Suez Canal was mostly made by dredging, and
that the dredgers had attached to them what the French called 'long
couloirs' or spouts, into which water was pumped, and by this means the
stuff brought up by the dredgers was carried to the sides of the canal,
and there deposited. The great width of the St. Petersburg Canal was too
much for the long couloirs, hence some other plan had to be found. The
plan adopted was that invented by Mr. James Burt, and which had been
used with the greatest success on the New Amsterdam Canal. Instead of
the couloir, floating pipes, made of wood, are in this system employed;
the earth or mud brought up has a copious stream of water poured on it,
which mixes in the process of descending, and the whole becomes a thick
liquid. This, by means of a centrifugal pump, is propelled through the
floating pipes to any point required, where it can be deposited. The
couloir can only run the output a comparatively short distance, while
this system can send it a quarter of a mile, or even further, if
necessary. Its power is not limited to the level surface of the water.
I saw on my visit to the canal one of the dredgers at work, and the
floating pipes lay on the water like a veritable sea-serpent, extending
to a long distance where the stuff had to be carried. At that point the
pipe emerged from the water, and what looked very much like a vertebra
or two of the serpent crossed the embankment, went down the other side,
and there the muddy deposit was pouring out in a steady flow. Mr. Burt
pointed out to me one part of the works where his pump had sent the
stuff nearly half a mile away, and over undulating ground. This system
will not suit all soils. Hard clay, for instance, will not mix with the
water; but where the matter brought up is soft and easily diluted, this
plan possesses many advantages, and its success here affords ample
evidence of its merits.

"About five miles below St. Petersburg, a basin had been already
finished, with landing quays, sheds, and offices; and there is an
embankment connecting it with the railways of St. Petersburg, all ready
for ships to arrive. When the ships of all nations sail up to the
capital, then the ideas of Peter the Great, when he laid the foundations
of St. Petersburg, will be realized. St. Petersburg will be no longer an
inland port. It will, with its ample harbor and numerous canals among
its streets, become the Venice of the North. Its era of commercial
greatness is now about to commence. The ceremony of letting the waters
of the canal into the new docks was performed by the Emperor in October,
1883. The Empress and heir apparent, with a large number of the Court,
were present on the occasion. The works on the canal, costing about a
million and a half sterling, were begun in 1876, and have been carried
out under the direction of a committee appointed by the Government,
presided over by his Excellency, N. Sarloff. The resident engineer is M.
Phofiesky; and the contractors are Messrs. Maximovitch and Boreysha."

We heartily congratulate the Russian government and the Russian nation
upon the accomplishment of this great and useful work of peace. It will
certainly benefit English trade. The value of British imports from the
northern ports of Russia for the year 1883 was L13,799,033; British
exports, L6,459,993; while from the southern ports of Russia our trade
was: British imports, L7,177,149; British exports, L1,169,890--making a
total British commerce with European Russia of L20,976,182 imports from
Russia and L7,629,883 exports to Russia. It cannot be to the interest of
nations which are such large customers of each other to go to war
about a few miles of Afguhan frontier. The London _Chamber of Commerce
Journal_, ably edited by Mr. Kenric B. Murray, Secretary to the Chamber,
has in its May number an article upon this subject well deserving of
perusal. It points out that in case of war most of the British export
trade to Russia would go through Germany, and might possibly never again
return under British control. In spite of Russian protective duties,
this trade has been well maintained, even while the British import
of Russian commodities, wheat, flax, hemp, tallow, and timber, was
declining 40 per cent. from 1883 to 1884. The St. Petersburg Maritime
Canal will evidently give much improved facilities to the direct export
of English goods to Russia. Without reference to our own manufactures,
it should be observed that the Russian cotton mills, including those of
Poland, consume yearly 264 million pounds of cotton, most of which comes
through England. The importation of English coal to Russia has afforded
a noteworthy instance of the disadvantage hitherto occasioned by the
want of direct navigation to St. Petersburg; the freight of a ton of
coal from Newcastle to Cronstadt was six shillings and sixpence, but
from Cronstadt to St. Petersburg it cost two shillings more. It is often
said, in a tone of alarm and reproach, that Russia is very eager to get
to the sea. The more Russia gets to the sea everywhere, the better it
will be for British trade with Russia; and friendly intercourse with
an empire containing nearly a hundred millions of people is not to be
lightly rejected.--_Illustrated London News_.

* * * * *

THE NEW FRENCH DISPATCH BOAT MILAN.

The Milan, a new dispatch boat, has recently been making trial trips at
Brest. It was constructed at Saint Nazaire, by the "Societe des Ateliers
et Chantiers de la Loire," and is the fastest man-of-war afloat. It
has registered 17 knots with ordinary pressure, and with increase
of pressure can make 18 knots, but to attain such high speed a very
powerful engine is necessary. In fact, a vessel 303 ft. long, 33 ft.
wide, and drawing 12 ft. of water, requires an engine which can develop
4,000 H.P.

[Illustration: THE NEW FRENCH DISPATCH BOAT MILAN.]

The hull of the Milan is of steel, and is distinguished for its extreme
lightness. The vessel has two screws, actuated by four engines arranged
two by two on each shaft.

The armament consists of five three inch cannons, eight revolvers, and
four tubes for throwing torpedoes.

The Milan can carry 300 tons of coal, an insufficient quantity for
a long cruise, but this vessel, which is a dispatch boat in every
acceptation of the word, was constructed for a definite purpose. It
is the first of a series of very rapid cruisers to be constructed in
France, and yet many English packets can attain a speed at least equal
to that of the Milan. We need war vessels which can attain twenty knots,
to be master of the sea.--_L'Illustration_.

* * * * *

THE LAUNCHING AND DOCKING OF SHIPS SIDEWISE.

The slips of the shipyards at Alt-Hofen (Hungary) belonging to the
Imperial and Royal Navigation Company of the Danube are so arranged that
the vessels belonging to its fleet can be hauled up high and dry or
be launched sidewise. They comprise three distinct groups, which are
adapted, according to needs, for the construction or repair of steamers,
twenty of which can be put into the yard at a time. The operation, which
is facilitated by the current of the Danube, consists in receiving the
ships upon frames beneath the water and at the extremity of inclined
planes running at right angles with them. After the ship has been made
secure by means of wedges, the frame is drawn up by chains that
wind round fixed windlasses. These apparatus are established upon a
horizontal surface 25.5 feet above low-water mark so as to give the
necessary slope, and at which terminate the tracks. They may, moreover,
be removed after the ships have been taken off, and be put down again
for launching. For 136 feet of their length the lower part of the
sliding ways is permanent, and fixed first upon rubble masonry and then
upon the earth.

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