Some Novel Industries

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 28, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 33.

Some Novel Industries.

THE manufacture of iron wool has begun at the Isabella blast furnaces at Sharpsburg, Pa. It is produced by throwing a jet of steam against the stream of hot slag as it flows from the furnace. The product is similar in appearance to third-grade cotton, but is eighty per cent. heavier. It is incombustible, and when placed in the fire it remains unaffected. It has been used for packing to deaden sound, for protection against fire, and for various other purposes. It is an excellent polishing agent. Hundreds of people are visiting the furnaces to witness this novel manufacture.

A great trade in paper bottles is growing up in Germany and Austria; ten per cent. of rags, forty of straw and fifty of brown wood-pulp are used in making them. Thin paper is coated and impregnated with a solution composed of sixty per cent. of defibrinated fresh blood, thirty-five of lime, and five of sulphate of ammonia; dry and coat again; put ten or twelve sheets together, and then dry in heated moulds under pressure. They are made in two pieces and joined afterwards, and are said to be perfectly proof against spirits and other liquids.

Making bricks of cork now constitutes one of the new German industries. The usual size is ten by four and three-fourths by two and a half inches. They are prepared from small corks, refuse, and cement, and have not only been used for certain building purposes, on account of their lightness and insulation properties, but are also employed as a covering for boilers, in preventing the radiation of heat.—Sel.