The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

58 ' THE
LOCOMOTIVE. [April,
Hit Stttmttitt
e)VSiiS>^
HARTFORD, APRIL 15, 1893.
J. M. Allen, Editor. A. D. Risteen, Associate Editor.
The Locomotive ccm he obtained free by calling at any of the company^s ayencies.
8ubscrii)tion j)rice 50 cents per year when mailed from this office.
Bound volumes one dollar each. (Any volume can he supplied.)
Papers that borrow cuts from us will do us a favor if they will mark them plainly in returning,
so that we may give proper credit on our books.
The twenty-second lieport of the Schlesischer Verein for the inspection of steam
boilers, of Breslau, Germany, is at hand, and also the twentieth Report of the Sachsisch-
Thurins'ischer Verein, of Halle.
Chief Engineer Alfredo Gilardi has kindly favored us with a copy of his paper on
II Fenomeno di Leidenfrost (Leidenfrost's phenouaeuon), in which he discusses the
spheroidal state of water, and its possible bearing on steam-boiler explosions. His con-
clusion is, that tlie spheroidal state, assuming it to occur in boilers, is not adequate to
produce an explosion. A translation of this pamphlet is given elsewhere in the present
issue.
Our pleasing little English contemporary, the Practiced Engineer, gives the following
blue-print formula', quoting them from the Engineering News:
(a.) Ammonia-citrate of iron, 120 grains; water, one fluid ounce; aqua ammonia,.
a few drops, i. e., until the solution smells of it quite perceptibly.
ounce.
(?*.) Potassium ferricyanide (red prussiate of potash), 105 grains; water, one fluid
(c.) A saturated solution of oxalic acid.
The oxalic serves to accelerate *^he printing. To sensitize the paper, mix 5 parts of
(a), and 5 parts of (J), and then to the mixture add one part of (c). It is said, that on
very dull days, paper sensitized with this solution will print in about one-fifth the time
that is required if the oxalic acid be omitted. A larger proportion of oxalic acid still
further lessens the time of printing, but the whites do not wash out clear in that case.
The advantage of the oxalic paper is not so marked in direct sunlight as on dull days.
As an example of the usefulness of the formula tiie article states, that on February 25th,
a blue-print was made during a snow storm in 35 minutes, the light being such that
ordinary paper would require the greater part of a day.
The traveling crane recently constructed .... for the Columbian Exposition'
is an all-electric crane. The bridge has a span of 76 feet, and the runway will be 1,400
feet long. There arc two trolleys on the bridge, with a lifting capacity of ten tons each.
The bridge is provided with an observation platform running its entire length, and upon
this platform several hundred observers can be carried from end to end of the machinery