Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1880 — THE WORLD OF SCIENCE. [ARTICLE]

THE WORLD OF SCIENCE.

The that c t any flower may be changed by holding it for n few seconds in the fumes of burning snlphnr. A Frenchman Atme hen experiments on himself with regard to the effects of inhaling oxygen, and ho makes the statement that one may absorb 100 lilreo, and even more, daily, without inconvenience. Dr. Saoftleben claims the following prescription ss an anudot© for carbolic acid: Dilute sulphuric acid, 10 grammes; mac. of gum arable, 200 grammes; simple syrup, 80 grammes) mix. Give a tebleepoonlnl every hour. Dr. Mooren, a celebrated german ophthalmologist, has recently celebrated at Doeseldori a rare form of jubilee. He haa entered on his list his 10U,000th patient, having performed 16,765 great operations, 3.700 being for cataract. The town celebrated the event with festivities.

Shellac, the product of an insect, principally obtained in India, Is deposited on the twigs of trees to protect its eggs, and, later, to feed the larva. From the deposit (known as lac-sceed) shellac and coloring matter (laedye) are manufactured. The officers of the Ferest Department of India have recently discovered that by applying, the lac-aeed to different trees, or by transplanting the trees bearing the deposit, the insect can be farmed, and the supply thereby increased indefinitely in a given locality. The lac industiy ia thus being spread in India. A few years since £200,000 worth of lace was annually exported. The amount sent abroad now amounts yearly to three-quarters of a million starThe prise offered by the King sf Saxony for the best practical scheme for rendering harmless to fish in riven and lakes the refuse es factories and sewage of towns has brought before tbe public two precipitation processes in which lima is the chief agent. The most remarkable scheme is that of Gen. W. Heine. Under this process the water, sufficiently saturated with slacked lime, has to pass through several tanks and canals until it is pumped up to s tower, from which it descenes in the form of rain, the sulphuric stream with which the interior ot the tower is filled occasioning a crust of ammonia on the walls. This pi** is now being tried under the authority of the Bason Minister of the Interior on the Sister, e river very much poluted by various factories. The following preparation.it is claimed. Will render wood incombustible and impermeable: Sulphate of sine, 55 pound*; alum, 44 pounds; oxide of manganese, 22 pounds; sulphuric acid of 60 °, 22 pounds; water, 55 pounds. All the solid ingredients are put into a boiler containing the water at 45° 0.(113° F.), and as soon as they are dissolved the sulphuric acid is poured in gradually until the mass is completety saturated. The pieces of wood are kept about five centimatere (1.97 InJ apart, and aflei three hours’ boiling they axe dried in the open air. The natural appearance of the wood is not changed To whatever heat it is subjected it resists combustion, the surface being simply covered with a thin charred coating, which is easily rubbed off. A scientific explanation ia asked by Mr. 8. J. Capper of certain facts observed by him during the time lake Constance was frozen over last winter—an occurence which happened only twice daring the past 185 years. When the air was perfectly stil and the frost intense the ice broke away in the middle of the lake, and, crashing upon that near the shore, piled tselt up in great heaps. Every twelve hours there was a forward and backward movement of ice fields. Can this be due to a true tidal movement? Again near the shore, there were large white spots seen in the ice, some of them having a diameter oi two or three yards. When these white spots woe pierced gas escaped, which, when ignited, produced a Same from two to six feet in height.

According to the London Telegraph, (Mae of the greatest boons to miners, on the score of safety, is the new miner’s lamp, on whioh the lignt of phosphorescence is substituted for that of positive ignition. In this apparatus the interior of the screaa is covered with a brightly luminous paint, and there is, therefore, nothing In its construction or character that can by any means become a source of danger. Suoh a contrivance, if answering the capacity claimed for it, must be of peculiar value, pecuniarily considered, in preventing the destruction of property by explosion. Bat the great advantage of such a lamp over those now is common use is its insuring against a peril from which the Davy lamp can not protect the workmen. If that lamp be carried against a current of air mixed with fire damp, the explosive gas penetrates through the gauze, and comes in actual contact with the flame, a catastrophe being the natural result of suoh contact; obviously, however, no risk of this sort could be involved in the use ot a pboapborescent light by miners. A Paris firm has begun the manufacture of “pearl thread,” or "beaded thread,” which has the appearance of thread on which beads are attached at regular interval* The process consists in impregnating the thread at proper intervals with drops of a pasty substance, like wax, resin, lac, gum, etc., which on cooling becomes gassy or crystalline. The spEaratus used is as follows: The liquid ead material is held in a trough-like vessel, from the bottom of which extend obliquely downward a large number of narrow tubes, which are closed at the lower ends, but have each an opening n little above the end, through which the liquid comes out in the form es a bead. The female worker brings the threads in a horizontal position simultaneously before ill the holes, and the drops get attached to the thread* A surplus trough is placed below. The prepared thread is wound on a removeable reel. In order that the bead may folly solidify and neighboring pieces of thread may not ■tick together, the reel is displaced in the direction ot its axis after each revolution. It is moved Ire means of a weight.