Blou'et, Paul

(pseudonym MAX O'RELL), b. in Britt any, France, March 2, 1848. A French newspaper correspondent in London, Eng., 1873: subsequently a teacher, lecturer, and author. Wrote John Bull and His Island; John Bull's Daughters; Friend MoDonald; Jonathan and His Continent; A French man in America; John Bull & Co., 1894, . Blowing Machines. Means for producing a blast of air have been, in some form or other, among the earliest of human implements. The mouth, as the first blowing machine, was followed by a bag of skin, and this by the common bellows, which has been of e ential aid to the smith from time immemorial. Modern demands, however, require far more powerful air blasts than those needed in the past, and various machine blowers have been invented, based on different principles, and some of them highly efficient in service. Of these the piston blowing engine is e entially a pump in construction, with inlet and outlet valves, but dealing with air instead of water. It is used also as an air compre or, where air at high pre ure is needed. Blowing engines and compre ors are practically the same in operation, except that the latter is provided with means to cool the air heated by compre ion. Formerly the cylinders of blowing engines for blast furnaces were made very large, while the speed was low; but since 1876 the direct acting vertical blowing engine is almost solely used, with much higer speeds, it being not uncommon for an engine of 4-feet stroke to be run at 50 double strokes per minute.- Rotary Machines. In addition to these reciprocating machines there is a cla of rotary machines, in which the apparatus is driven directly by a rotating shaft. These include three kinds, disk blowers, fans and positive blowers. The disk blower is used to move large quantities of air at the lowest pre ure, as for exhausting the air from heated rooms or for ventilation. A 12-inch tan, driven at a speed of 1,000 to 2,000 revolutions per minute, will exhaust from 1,500 to 3,000 cubic feet of air per minute, while one of the largest size, of 96-inch diameter, revolving 200 or 300 times per minute, will exhaust from 60,000 to 90,000 feet of air per minute. In the fan blower, the wings or vanes are parallel with the shaft, and are enclosed in a box or case of sheet metal, into which the air is drawn through an opening at the axis, while it is driven out through another opening at the periphery. The positive blower consists, in one form, of a metal case closed at the ends, within which are two parallel shafts geared together at each end outside the case, and each carrying a so-called "revolver." The revolvers draw in air at the lower side of the case and push it upward and outward through the exit opening. Fans and positive blowers alike are used for blowing cupolas for the melting of iron. The latter are capable of giving much higher pre ures than the former.- Steam - jet blowers . A steam pipe of small diameter, inserted in an air pipe of considerable larger diameter and open at both ends, forms a simple form of blower, acting on the principle that a steam-jet escaping at high pre ure from a small nozzle will create induced currents in the surrounding air. Such an apparatus is sometimes used to increase the draft in steam boilers by blowing a forced blast under the grate bars. Such a steam pipe inserted in a chimney, and discharging vertically, constitutes the steam-jet apparatus used to produce a powerful draft for locomotives and steam fire engines. The nozzle, of course, needs to vary in shape and size to suit the special circumstances of each case. A jet or falling stream of water exerts a similar effect in inducing an air blast, though it is much le powerful in its effect than a blowing machine driven by a water-wheel. Blue Laws. ( Amer . Hist .) Under this title of uncertain origin, reference is sometimes made to the laws enacted in the early days of New England; but it may be more properly confined to those which governed the colony of New Haven. The existence of a legal code bearing this name has, however, been denied by Judge Smith in the New York Historical Collections , in which he states that, upon seeking for information on this subject at New Haven in 1767: "A parchment-covered book of demy-royal paper was handed him for the laws asked for, as the only volume in the office pa ing under the odd title. It contains the memorials of the first establishment of the colony, which consisted of persons who had wandered beyond the limits of the old charter of Ma achusetts Bay, and who, as yet unauthorized by the crown to set up any civil government in due form of law, resolved to conduct themselves by the Bible. As a nece ary consequence, the judges they chose took up an authority which every religious man exercises over his own children and domestics. So far is the common idea of the blue laws being a collection of rules from being true, that they are only records of convictions consonant in the judgment of the magistrates to the word of God and the dictates of reason."