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rounded, so as to diminish their cutting action. The mean of three experiments on joints with unrounded punched holes, compared with the mean of three experiments on joints with unrounded drilled holes, gave a difference of 12 per cent in favor of the rounded holes.

Effect of Low Temperature on Metals.

As the result of a long series of experiments on the effect of low temperatures in changing the strength of metals, Professor Thurston concludes that the practical result of the whole investigation is that iron and copper, and probably other metals, do not lose their power of sustaining "dead" loads at low temperatures; but that they do lose, to a very serious extent, their power of sustaining shocks, or resisting sharp blows, and that the factor of safety in structures need not be increased in the former case, where exposure to severe cold is apprehended; but that machinery, rails, and other constructions which are to resist shocks, should have large factors of safety, and should be most carefully protected, if possible, from changes of temperature.

The St. Louis Bridge.

ONLY once since the workmen have been ready to put in the last tubes to complete the arch has the temperature been favorable; but, owing to some inexplicable tardiness on the part of the workmen, the opportunity was lost. One tube was put in, and fitted to a nicety. In the meantime the sun shone on the bridge, and when it was attempted to place the other tube, it would not go entirely to its place, being about a thirtieth of an inch too long, on account of the expansion of the tubes in place. An attempt was made to drive it into position with sledges, but without success. In consequence of not being able to put the second tube in place, the first one was taken out, and a more favorable opportunity waited for.

The prospect being that a delay of several days would occur before the exact temperature required would be obtained, it was determined to try a little strategy by reducing the temperature artificially. Accordingly, about forty-five tons of ice were applied to the tubes, and bound on by many yards of gunny-bagging, forming, perhaps, the most extensive ice poultice ever used. On the afternoon of the same day the expansion had been reduced about two inches, and it was expected that in a few hours more the contraction would be sufficient to admit of the tubes being put in place.—(Journal of the Franklin Institute.)

Crossing the Atlantic by Balloon.

THE possibility of accomplishing this feat is discussed as follows by M. Tissandier, the experienced balloonist: To go from New York to England the aëronaut must travel over a distance of about 5,500 kilometers. Granting the existence of a uniform

steady wind with a speed of ten meters per second the journey will occupy at least six or seven days. The question would then reduce itself simply to the possibility of supporting a balloon for this length of time in the air. To this M. Tissandier gives an answer which is decidedly negative. When a balloon quits the earth, as it rises a part of the enclosed gas is at once expelled by the dilatation due to the diminished pressure of the air, but as soon as it reaches regions where the temperature is much lower than that of the strata which it has left, the gas, by contraction loses its ascending power, and the balloon descends. To keep it at the level it has reached, it is necessary to diminish the weight and the aëronaut throws out ballast. If he pass a first night at great altitude, it is certain that he will be obliged almost continually to lighten his craft. Next morning, as the sun rises, the bright burning rays heat the gas, and the balloon, which had collapsed during the night, begins to fill out, its ascending power increases and it mounts to higher regions. More gas must be allowed to escape to moderate and stop the upward movement. With the approach of night the reverse operation of throwing out ballast must be again employed. This diurnal and nocturnal trimming of the craft may be carried on with success for two or three days, but the moment will certainly come when the ballast will be gone. The balloon will then descend without any means to hold it back. As it nears the surface of the sea the anchor, instead of biting will plunge vainly through the waters, and if the wind is violent, in spite of their life-boat, the voyagers will certainly meet a fearful fate.

A New Electric Light.

HERETOFORE this light has only been used in light-houses or on the stage, the method employed being that of passing the electricity between two points of charcoal. This requires a magnetoelectric machine for each light or lantern, and the light, though powerful, is not uniform, owing to the burning of the charcoal points at the intensely high temperature. These difficulties have now been overcome by Mr. A. Ladiquin. By his new method only one piece of charcoal or carbon is used, this being hermetically sealed in a tube filled with some gas which will not combine with the carbon, it is brought into perfect electrical communication with the wires of a magneto-electric machine. The machine being put in action as the electricity passes through the carbon, its temperature rises until it emits a soft, steady, uniform light, which may be increased or diminished at the option of those employing it. By this device one machine worked by a three horse-power engine is capable of lighting many hundred lanterns, and, considering the freedom of such a system from the numerous objections that accompany the use of gas, it is very desirable that an early trial of its virtues should be made on an extensive scale.

Memoranda.

THE color of flowers is, to a certain extent, dedependent on the soil in which they are grown. Yellow primroses planted in a better soil bear flowers of an intense purple. Charcoal deepens the tints of dahlias, hyacinths and petunias. Carbonate of soda reddens hyacinths and phosphate of soda changes in many ways the hues of certain plants.

Mr. Wm. Peachey says: In both wrought and cast iron a skin is formed upon the surface in the process of manufacture into the shape required. In wrought iron this skin will come off sooner or later in scales, even if the iron is painted. In cast iron it is thrown off in a granular rust. This skin is of no material value, and would be better removed as soon as manufactured, if it were not for the cost of doing so; when it is removed, and the iron painted with an oxide of ¡ron paint, there will be no recurrence of the scaling.

Mr. G. Armes, of Rochester, New York, proposes to harden the surface of steel by placing it on an engine-lathe, and while it is in motion touching it with an emery wheel rotating at about 1,800 revolutions per minute.

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The Wharton Savings Bank.

STATEMENT OF AN OFFICER.

ETCHINGS.

MR. EDITOR:—I read a great deal in the papers about the large fortunes accumulated by officers of savings banks, and similar institutions, at the expense of depositors. Now, Mr. Editor, this is a mistake, and to prove it I will give you a short history of a Savings Bank with which I was connected a short time since.

Mr. Reuben Pettigrew, Col. Solomon, Martin Young, Tinsley Godfrey and myself started a Savings Bank in the village of Wharton, Simmons township, in this State, last March, a year ago. Mr. Pettigrew was President, Col. Martin was Vice-President, and Young Godfrey and myself were Secretary and Cashier. For a time the institution flourished. There had never been a Savings Bank in Wharton, and the people put in our hands all the money they could rake and scrape together. They wanted to put it where thieves could not get at it, and they wanted the interest. There was no doubt about their thorough understanding of the advantages of the institution. Our Board of Directors was composed of the richest and most respectable men in the village, and this gave the people confidence in us, which was perfectly natural and right. Men came to us from farms fifteen and twenty miles away, and such was the general disposition to deposit that we thought we were about to make a permanent suc

cess of our Savings Bank. But we soon discovered our error. For example, Mr. Pettigrew, who had a farm just outside of the village, became convinced that if he could buy a threshing-machine he could not only make it pay in threshing his own wheat and oats, but could make money by hiring it to the neighbors. So he came down to see us about it. There were two machines in Wharton that Mr. Pettigrew could buy on reasonable terms, but one of them was a hundred and ten dollars more than the other. Mr. P. wanted the best one, as was natural, but the rest of us concluded that as the institution was young it would hardly be just to his fellowofficers to let him buy the most expensive machine, at least not at that time. So he got the cheap one.

Now, see how this turned out. Mr. Pettigrew did not do half the work with his machine that he could have done if he had bought the other one, and he calculated that he could have made, if we had let him have all the money he wanted, from three to four hundred dollars more than he did make (after selling the machine at the end of the season). Of course he was dissatisfied, for he had expected much better things of the Bank.

And then there was young Godfrey's case. He was going to marry Mary Martin, the Colonel's second daughter, and he was very anxious to have a good, comfortable house provided before the wed. ding took place. There was a very nice place at the upper end of the village, near the township line,

that he could get on very good terms, but he would have to pay five thousand dollars down. So that Fall he came to see us about it. No wonder he was anxious, for it was one of the finest houses in Wharton, and the land was the very best. The fruit on that place would bring in several hundred dollars a year to say nothing of anything else.

Well, we considered the matter, and we were all willing to do our best by him especially Col. Martin. who was naturally interested in the matter, as his daughter would live in the house if it was bought. But we found that all we could do was to let him have four thousand dollars. You see, Col. Martin had had his barn shingled, and a new kitchen built to his house, and that drew pretty heavy on the Bank. And then my expenses were perfectly enormous that summer. What with newly furnishing my house, and getting a buggy built (with steel tires and both pole and shafts), and buying a horse to match my sorrel mare, I had to call on the Bank for a good many thousand dollars; and as our President was so cut up about his threshing machine, we had felt obliged to let him have a lot of railroad stock that we had invested in, so that he might have a chance to turn it over two or three times, and make something that would ease his mind a little. Now, it's easy to see that all this came heavy on the Bank, and it was impossible to let young Godfrey have more than four thousand. But we told him if he could go round, and induce anybody to deposit, he should be perfectly welcome to the money. Of course nothing could be fairer than that. So he went about and did his best. He persuaded several people, who had been a little backward at first, to put their money in the Bank; but all he could raise this way did not amount to more than two hundred dollars. Then he bethought himself of old Mrs. Harris, who kept a trimming store up street, and who was said to be saving money, and he went to her. He soon found that she hadn't any money, except thirty or forty dollars saved for a rainy day, which he induced her to deposit; but, as she owned the house she lived in, he showed her (you see he came several times, and bought things for his intended, and the prospect of getting all the trade of the Godfreys and Martins had considerable effect on the old lady) that, if she would get a mortgage on her house, and put the money in the Bank, that the interest she would get would more than pay the interest on the mortgage, so that she would be making money all the time, and yet be at no trouble whatever, but to pocket her profits every month. Well, Mrs. Harris got a mortgage on her house, and put the money in the Bank; but this was not enough, for her house was a very small one, and

pretty old. So poor young Godfrey was quite in despair, and he took his money (it did not amount to more than four thousand five hundred) and went to New York, and speculated in Wall Street, so as to make up the five thousand. But things suddenly got awfully crooked in Wall Street, and he lost every cent of it. This was a very sad case, as anybody would acknowledge, if he could see how differ ent the house to which poor Godfrey had to take his bride was from the one he would have bought if the Bank could have let him have the five thousand dollars when he wanted it.

Now it is easy to see that all this made us feel very much dissatisfied; and when we closed the Bank, last spring, there was not one of us who had made the money he had expected to realize from the institution. As to getting rich, as the papers have it, that's all nonsense. We couldn't get rich-at least, not in a small place like Wharton. And what is more, the injustice we have been subjected to since the Bank closed is enough to drive us mad. There are people who have actually threatened to sue us, after all the trouble and anxiety we had been at to establish a Savings Bank in their midst. It is this ingratitude, more than anything else, that induces me to make this statement, which will, I hope, help to set the public mind right on the subject. JOHN WALKER

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VOL. VII.

FEBRUARY, 1874.

No. 4.

VOL. VII-25

RISHYASRINGA.

A TALE OF THE MAHABHARATA.

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IN the holy land of India,
In the beauteous land of Anga,
Lived a king of many virtues,
Lived the wise king Lomapada;
And this king, renowned and honored,

Once upon a time was wrathful,
And he smote a holy Brahmin,
Smote a saintly man of prayers,
Struck him with his kingly hand.
Then away fled all the Brahmins,
Left the beauteous land of Anga,
Left the altars and the temples
In the lands of Lomapada.
And the God of earth and heaven,
Strongest of the gods, God Indra

Smelt no more of sacrifices, Sweetest odors and perfumes.

And he sent no rain from heaven,
Not the dewdrops of the morning,
Nor the mists of dusky evening,
Fell upon the lands of Anga.

And the earth grew hot and thirsty,
Terror seized upon the people-
Hunger, thirst, and misery.

Then the wise men of his people
Called to council Lomapada,
And the wisest of them spake:

"Not the dewdrops of the morning,
Nor the mists of dusky evening,
Nor the rain refreshing sweetly
Will God Indra send from heaven,-
He the mighty God of thunder,-
If he smell not the sweet odors
Of the holy sacrifices
Sacred by the hands of Brahmins.
Therefore hear, oh Lomapada!
Hear what I shall counsel thee.

"In the woods so deep and lonely, In the sacred groves of Indra On the Kausiki's sweet waters Lives the sainted Vifandaka, And with him, his only son, Lives the pious Rishyasringa. He so innocent and blameless Knows no man besides his father, Never yet he saw a woman, Ate no fruit but of the wild fruit, Drank but water from the well spring. "Saintly is the boy and simple,

Naught of maiden knoweth he.
To this boy then send a maiden,
Send a maiden fair and winsome,
And with love's kind words and doings
Let her lure him on to Anga.

"This my counsel, Lomapada! Unto us will send Parjanya

Rain and richest dews from heaven-
He the God of thousand eyes,
When this saintly boy shall offer
Sacrifices on his altars."

Full of joy was Lomapada;
Sent a herald through all Anga,
Called upon all lovely maidens,
Promised gold and richest treasures
To the maid that dared to venture
To the woods, the groves of Indra,
Where the sainted Vifandaka
Taught the youthful Rishyasringa
All the duties of the Vedas
And severest penitence.

But the maidens, full of terror,
Tremblingly returned such answer :
"Dreadful are the angry curses
Of this penitent old Brahmin,
Of the sainted Vifandaka,-
No, we dare not do thy bidding."

Still no dewdrops of the morning
And no mists of dusky evening,
Nor the rain refreshing sweetly,
Fell upon the lands of Anga;
And still greater grew the terror,
Hunger, thirst, and misery.

And despair seized on the people,

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