Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1882 — SPARKS OF SCIENCE. [ARTICLE]

SPARKS OF SCIENCE.

A high heat opens the grain of steel and prevents renning. Education may not prevent, crime, but it is a crime to prevent education. A Venetian glass manufacturer is making a great success of ladies’ glass bonnets. A transparent leather, said to possess great strength, is now made in Ger many by a new process. The use of salicylic acid for the preservation of food has been prohibited by the French Government as injurious. The most ancient of all recipes known to us comes from Egypt, from an ancient papyrus roll, and is a receipt for hair dye. Tanbark, ground, compressed and Cut in half-barrel packages, promises > become an important American export to Europe. A careful exmination has convinced a French chemist that wheat normally contains copper to extent of eight or ten parts per million. False ipecacuanha is distinguishable from the pure drug by being more branched, oy its dirty white color, and by the absence of the annular rings present in the genuine article. A peculiar and newly observed property of tin is being investigated by a Moscow scientist. Some tin cans kept in one of the Government buildings during the cold weather showed blisters, then holes, and Anally fell to powder. Soldering cast-iron, says the Engineer, is generally considered to be very difficult, but it seems to be only a question of thorougly making bright the surface to be soldered, and using good solder and a clean swab with muriatic acid. Sodium amalgam might be usefully employed for the purpose. Insects, caterpillars and larvae are not destroyed as it o f ten believed by intense cold or heavy frosts. After an exposure to a temperature of eleven degrees below zero, the common caterpillar has revived on the return of sufficient warmth. Dr. Wollaston’s observations that certain sounds are inaudible to many ears was recently illustrated by Prof. Tyndall. During the lecture he blew a small whistle, the low, shrill note of which instantly agitated the sensitive flame, while full half of the audience failed to hear the sound. It is discovered that perfumes exert a healthy inAuence on the atmosphere converting its oxygen into ozone. Cherry, laurel, clover, lavender, mint jqriper, tennel and bergamont develop the largest quantity of ozone. Flowers without perfume do not develop it, but the flowers, of narcissus’ mignonette, heliotrope and lily of the valley develop it in close vessels. Odorous flowers, cultivated in marshy places, would be valuable In purifying the air. In concluding a course of lectures upon the “Ancient World and the Appearance of Man,” Prof. Boyd Dawkins said that a study of the past had shown that continued struggles with nature had developed man’s powers until he had reached his {iresent condition; and it was his beief that in coming ages man would be elevated as far above the level of to-day as we are advanced from the state of savagery of the primeval man. Good work from human beings, just as from machinery, requires good treatmeht, and the flner the quality and the greater the quantity of the work’ the larger must be the outlay. Build factories that supply pure air, and the employes will produce more, but they will ask for more pay because they will consume more food and can not live on low wages. A donkey can exist on thistles, of course, and give a donkey return, but a racehorse can not be placed on the same fare with profl t to any one. Joseph Martinho, of Cape Frio, Province of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is reported to be nearly 190 years of age, having been born, it is claimed, in 1694. He is said to be the ancestor of forty-two children 132 grand-children eighty great grandchildren, and twenty great-great-grandchildren. The average life of an English gold sovereign is about eighteen years that is, the coin loses three-quarters of a grain in weight in about that length of time. It then ceases to be legal-tender. It is said that of the £1,000,000,000 of British gold coinage, 40 per cent worn down below the legal weight. Why will grass not grow under our trees? M. Paul Bert has shown that green light hinders the development of plants. Plants inclosed in a green glass frame wither and die as though they were in darkness. M. Regbard finds tnat plants specially require the red rays. If sunlight is deprived of the red rays the plants soon cease to thrive. Various cases of poisoning from the use of perfumes have been reported in recent English journals. In on? instance a little girl had bought some heliotrope perfume at a bazaar and had applied it on her face. This caused a vesicular eruption, swelling, itching, and in fact erysipelas, which lasted for some times Tne scent was made with some of the products of coal tar, and hot with the odoriferous principles of plants, thus acquiring its irritating properties.