Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1875 — MECHANICAL AND SUGGESTIVE. [ARTICLE]

MECHANICAL AND SUGGESTIVE.

—ls steel ( is rather hard under the hammer when heated to the proper cher-ry-red, it may be covered with salt and hammered to about the shape desired. More softness can then be obtained, if required to give a further finish to the shppe, by sprinkling it with a mixture of salt, blue vitriol, sal-ammoniac, saltpeter and alum, made cherry-red again, sprinkled with this mixture and hammered ihto shape. This process may be repeated until entirely finished. When ready the steel is hardened in a solution of the same mixture.— Artisan. The Industrie Blatter , of Berlin, recommends the use of the wild rosemary {Ledum palustre) as a substitute for the wellAnown Persian powder. This plant, whether fresh or dry, will kill lice, bedbugs, fleas, moths, beetles and their larvae, the maggots and blue bottles, and probably other insects. It is also the best remedy for mosquito-bites and the bites of all other insects. . A little #f the tincture of the plant applied to the bite not only relieves the intolerable itching, but also relieves the pain. If the tincture be mixed with glycerine and rubbed on the skin” it will drive the mosquitoes away. If this he a fact the plant deserves special attention. It is very probable that it will be able to entirely supplant the expensive and frequently adulterated or counterfeit insect powder. It is most effective when green and in bloom, at which time it should be gathered. — Artizan. —lt is well known that wool when first taken from the sheep contains an unctuous secretion from the skin of the sheep called “yolk.” This soapy substance contains potash, and can be washed out "with water, with which it forms a sort of lather. In Elboeuf this yolk is employed with advantage as a substitute for full-er’s-earth in cleaning woolens. The raw wool is put in a large vat, and covered with water. Here it is left for three hours: then the water is let out into a second vat, and afterward pumped back into the first vat for two hours longer. The operation is repeated two of three times, and then the wool is taken out of the vat freed of water. New wool is now put in the vat and manipulated as above, until the water is sufficiently soapy. The cloth is put in the fullingmaGhine with a sufficient quantity of this liquor, and fulled for two or three hours. After washing it was found to be perfectly clean.