Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1879 — ITEMS OF INTEREST. [ARTICLE]

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The Irish harp was about four feet high. It was without pedals, and was • carried slung to the back. Some firm in Germany is attempting to substitute paper for wood in the manufacture of lead-pencils. The paper is 3teeped in an adhesive liquid, and rolled round the core of lead to the required thickness. After the paper'is dry it is colored, and it resembles, when finished, an ordinary cedar pencil. Wicis made of spun glass have been tried in lamps, and it is said they do very well. It is said that they supply the petroleum, oil or alcohol to the flame with more steadiness than the ordinary wick; that they secure a clear and pure light at a less expense of fuel, and that they diminish the usual unpleasant odor. The peculiar pebbles known in Austria as the traveling stones have long been regarded as great curiosities. Similar ones have just been discovered in Nevada, almost round in shape, and as large as a walnut. The cause of these stones rolling to a common point from distances of three or four feet is the lodestone or magnetic iron ore of which they are composed. The strangest news coming to us from Germany—even stranger than that the effeminate Viennese should welcome the man who conquered them at Koniggratz—is that a learned doctor has discovered a means of dyeing human eyes any color he likes, not only without injury to the delicate orbs, but, as he asserts, with positive advantage to the powers of sight. He can not only give fair ladies eyes black as night or blue as Orient skies by day, but he can turn them out in hue of silver or of goid. He says golden eyes are extremely^becoming. Nothing goes down without a grand name; therefore the German doctor calls his discovery “ Ocular Transmutation.” Ho declares himself quite ready to guarantee success and harmlessness in tho operation. How a Mosquito Bites.— The bill of a mosquito is a complex institution. It is admirably calculated to torment. The bill has a blunt, fork at the head, and is apparently grooved. Working through the groove, and projecting from the center of the angle of the fork, is a lance of perfect form, sharpened with a lino bevel. Beside it the most perfect lance looks like a handsaw. On either side of this lance two saws are arranged with the points sharp and the teeth well-defined and keen. The backs of these saws play against the lance. When the mosquito alights with its peculiar hum, it thrusts with its keen lance and then enlarges the aperture with the two saws, which play beside the lance until the forked bill with the capillary arrangement for pumping blood can be inserted. The sawing process ia what grates upon the nerves of the victim and causes him to strike wildly at the uawer. The irritation of a mosquito bite is undoubtedly owing to these saws.