Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1882 — SCIENCE. [ARTICLE]

SCIENCE.

The friction of a belt is claimed to be double as much on wood as It Ison iron. The Mount Etna observatory,recently completed, is 9,953 feet above the leyelorthe sea. Silver Is the most perfect reflecting metal there is absorbing less than 3 per cent, of the rays of the light. To tin small castings boil them with scraps of block tin In a strong solution or cream of tartar. If you wish to produce a glue that will resist water boil one pound of glue in two quarts of skimmed milk. The use of saliclyc acid for the preservation ot food has been prohibited by the French as injurious. Lightening of railroad trains generally in Germany by means of electricity is considered to be merely a question of time. As to the discovery by Professor Ragazzoni of human remains in tertiary deposits at Castenedoin, in Italy M. Gabaiel de Mortilet has expressed the opinion that the bones themselves belong to a later period than the beds in which they were found. A patent recently granted in Vienna and Berlin uses bands of steel, which are tempered and hardened,to transmit motion from one pulley to the other, the facer of the pulleys being turned perfectly flat and then faced with a varnish of rosin, shellac, and asphalt. Considering that all the sulphur used in this country is imported, the New York Mining Record says that it seems strange that little or nothing has been done to develop our sulphor deposits, such, for instance, as the rich sulphor ores in the copper region of East Tennesee, which contain 40 to 50 per cent, of sulphur. J. A. Stair, in the Canada Pharmaceutical Journal, has shown that one drop of lager beer in 500 drops of distilled water will discharge the color, of the per mangated solution .very rapidly. Even one drop in 1,000 drops discharged the color,but more slowly. If water be braught for analysis in beer bottles it might be condemned unjustly by this test. A Vienna chemist has recently discovered a new variety of glass. It does not contain any silicia, boric, acid potash, so la, lime or lead, and is likely to attract the attention of all professionals on account of its pecu> liar composition. Externally it is exactly similar to glass, but its Isutre is higher and it has a greater refraction of equal hardness, perfectly white, clear, transparent* can be ground and polished, completely insollublein water, neutral’ and it is only attracted by hydrochlooic or nitric acid, and is not affected by hydrofluoric acid.

It is easily fusible in the flame of a eandle and can be made of any color. Its most important property is that it can be read fused on to zinc, brass andj iron It can also be used for the glazing of articles of glass and porcelain, as hydrofluoric acid has no effect in the new glass it is likely to find employment for many technical purposes.” Some researches on the development of ciptogamic vegitation within and without hens, eggs have been made by M. Doreste. Such vegetation he found on most of sixty eggs submitted singly to artificial incubation in a small vessel hermetrically closed with a caoutchouc stopper. The sqores had properly entered the egg during its passage from the oviduct. The resulting vegetation may prove fatal to the embiyo in certain circumstances.

At a meeting of the Royal Society, Edinburgh, last month, Dr. D. J. Hamilton read a paper on the circulation of the corpuscles of the blood. The rapid gliding central motion of the colored corpuscles and the slower rotational peripheral motion of the colorless carpuecles were, he held, to be explained by the fact that the latter were specifically lighter than the bliod plasma’ while the former were, of the same specificfic gravity as the fluid in which they were born along. In Remann’s process for rendering cloth waterproof the fabric is passed slowlv by machinery through a tank divided into three compartments’ the first containing a warm solution of alum,the second a warm solution of lead acetate, and the third pure water, which is constantly renewed. The cloth on passing from the latter is brushed and beaten to remove the salt adhering to the surface’ and finally hotpressed and brushed. In this case lead sulphate is deposited on the fibres. “Ozorie,” says Mr. R. B. Warder, “has been largely advertized within a few months as a new kind of preservative for all kinds of animal and vegetable substances. The gas is produced by the combustion of a fine dark powder of cinnamon odor. This substance consists of sulphur mixed with a little carbonaceous matter. On burning, only .09 per cent of ash remains. The so-called “ozone” is sulphurus anhydride, whose destructive action on the germs of fermentation has long been well known.

To destroy the black-points, fleshworms or comedons which are found on the face, and especially near the nostrils, Dr. Unna prescribed the tollowing : Kaolin, four parts; glycerine, three parts; acetic acid, two parts with or without the addition of a small quantity of some etherial oil. With this pomade the parts affected are covered in the evening and if needs be, during the day. After several days the comedones can be easily pressed out of the skin. Bandaging with vinegar or lemon-juice or diluted hydrochloric acid gives much the same effect.