Scientific American Supplement, No. 497, July 11, 1885   By: Various

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. ARCHÆOLOGY. 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.