Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1875 — MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC. [ARTICLE]

MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC.

—Leaves of the pineapple, now being extensively cultivated in the East Indies, ■re tufted to account by being converged into a' kind of wadding, which is used for upholstering instead of hair. A .‘bort of flannel is also manufactured from them from which substantial waistcoats and •kirts can be made. ',. J —An interesting case of arsenical' poisoning was brought before the recent meeting ot the Medical Society at Bonn by Prof. Zunty. Three gentlemen who studied by the light of the same lamp mere troubled by a dull feeling in the head which finally ripened into long-con - tinned headache. The shade of their lamp was of a green Color, and on examination it was found to contain arsenic. The heat had liberated the poison, and a. change of lamp-shades liberated alsg» the headaches. •* —One would say at first flush that suicide was the infirmity of foolish Inen and maidens; but it appears that a kind of -fltar-fis). (luidia) must be added to the list. P.H Gosse describes it in his zoology, aed Prof. Forbes gives his experience before he knew its, romantic crotchets. He placed one on a rowing-bench and..to his surprise, the fish began to dismember itself. Ann after arm became unhooked, And the eyes, located one at the summit of each rayt opened and closed their spinous eyelids in deathly winks wltti a suggestion of triumph—as if to sav: “ Oh, Forbes, where is thy victory ?” lie made other careful attempts to capture this suicidal novelty, trying once to dip it up in a bucket of water, but when the luidia found that it was imprisoned in walls the anus began to drop and the heartbroken star-fish lay in sections.

—What science and the mechanic arts have done for the world’s advancement in comfort may be faintly guessed from the survey of a week’s work at the manufacturingcity of Birmingham alone. Its results are the making, among other tilings, of 14,000.000 pens, 6,000 bedsteads, 7.0(X) guns, 300,000,000 cut nails, 100,000,000 buttons, 1,000 saddles, 5.000,000 copper or bronze coins, 20,000 pairs of spectacles, six tons of papier-mache wares, more than £30,000 worth of jewelry, 4,000 miles of iron and steel wire, ten tons of pins, five tons of hair-pins and hooks and eyes, 130,000 gross of wood screws, 500 tons of nuts and screw bolts and spikes, 50 tons of wrought-iron hinges. 350 miles’ length of wax tor matches, 40 tons of refined metal. 46 tons of German silver, 100 dofeen of feeders, 3 500 bellows and bOO tons of brass and copper wares. —As illustrative of the remarkable rapidity witli which the sand blast accomplishes its work, the following facts, regarding the cutting of inscriptions on the head -stones designed to mark the graves of soldiers buried in the national cemei tones, may be cited. In addition to the one man emoloved to tend these machines he has a small force of boys whose duty it is to attach and remove the cast-iron letters which act as stencils. Thus equipped foe contractor is able to turn out 300 headstones a day, upon each of which is a handsomely-cut inscription averaging eighteen raised letters. It is estimated foal to accomplish a like result by the old proces-j a force of 300 men would be needed. Another instance of the rapidity with which these little sand-engines do their work is shown in the engraving of glass gfobj-s, tumblers, etc., which can be done al tifo astonishing rate of one a minute.— W. £>. Ward, m Popular Science Montidy,