SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. -Soap in a solution mixed with phonic acid, when impregnated into timber, is and excellent preservative against rot usually resulting from moisture. -A chain of Siemens steel, 180 yards long and containing more than 8,200 links, held together by 850 steel pins, has been made at Hull, England. Its estimated strength is sixty tons, and it is believed to be the largest chain ever made. -The new vertical steam hammer that will be erected in the steam forge of the Reading Iron Works, Reading, Pa., in place of the old Kirk tilt-hammer, removed, will strike a blow of about 3,000 pounds. There are three hammers in this forge, one of which strikes a blow of ten tons. The other two are five and three-ton hammers.-Chicago Tribune. -The fact has been elicited that ordinary steam pipes used for heating purposes in a room having and maintaining a temperature of sixty degrees will, with an uninterrupted circulation, condense 837 pounds of water per hour for each square foot of surface of pipe; while a coil, under like circumstances, is found to condense 20 pounds of water per hour per square foot of surface. -A New Yorker has invented an atomiser and air moistener for cloth factories, which throws out moisture in a mist so fine that it is absorbed by the air, and not even the smallest drop of water falls upon machinery or fabrics. The use of such a contrivance is valuable in creating a healthful atmosphere and making it as easy to handle threads in our dry air as in the moister air of England.-N. Y. Graphic. -It appears from investigations covering a sufficient period for accuracy of test that a beech railroad tie, if effectually preserved from rotting, is superior for the purpose to one of white oak. Elm, black and white ash, if effectually preserved, are found equal to holding a spike about two-thirds as well as beech or oak and one-third better than chestnut. Soft maple and sycamore hold a spike about four-fifths as well as oak or beech, and about one-half better than hemlock. Seasoned white oak is about one-third less effective than green timber. -Now chant the requiem of the witch-hazel, for it has outlived its usefulness. Count Hugo Von Eugenberg, of Germany, is using the micro-telephone to discover hidden springs. He buries in the slope of a hill several microphones and connects each with a battery and separate telephone. Then in the stilly night he listens at the telephones and hears the faintest gurgle of the water far beneath the surface, if there is any to gurgle. The microphone plays the part of a hunter's or savage's sensitive cars, which have been known to detect springs, unaided, at a considerable depth.-Denver Tribune. -A "chemical lung" is the latest thing proposed for the ventilation of tunnels. It was lately tested in London by fourteen scientists. A room fifteen by eighteen feet was kept for an hour at a temperature of 82 def., and the air was loaded with impurities. The men of science were now called upon to enter, and the air was made still more impure by burning sulphur and carbonic acid gas. Then the "chemical lung," or punkah, so called, measuring four by two and a half feet, was set in motion. The temperature was soon reduced to 65 deg. and the air freed from all impurities. Then fat was burned to test the machine for organic substances, and the "lung" was started up just in time to prevent the examining gentlemen from running out, for fresh air. It is proposed to use the invention during the construction of the Channel tunnel.-N. Y. Sun.