The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-08-05
THE ARTS AND SCIENCES.

upas tree OF Java exhaes poisonous the breath
Ing Of which causes death, il known to be false
The tree itself juice which deadly poison
its aroma or odor Ii harmless Sychnine is made from
the seeds of specie Of Upas tree Such is the of
district the atmosphere OF which produces death This
effect Is not occasioned by the Upas tree, but by
tnct volcano Baar, called duava Upas From the
old crater and the adjoining valley is exhacd carbonic
gas such often extngushes life in this country in old
wells and foul places This deadly atmosphere kills
everything that within its range--brds beasts
and menand the valley is covered with skeletons
BY confusion of names, the poisonous effects of this
deadly valley have been ascribed to the Upas tree the
juice of which is poisonous and hence the fable in regard
to the deadly Bohun Upas tree.
THx DUDLEY OBsxRy AroRy The unfortunate quarrel
which has sprung up between the director of the Dudley
Observatory Dr. Could and certain Of the trustees has
called forth pamphlet from the scientific council Pro-
fessors Henry Rache and Pierce in which it is clearly
and ably demonstrated that DR. Gould has been most
shamcfy abused by set of oonceited individuals who
To have about much knowledge of astronomy ~
pig has of refinement The pamphlet contains 80
pages and is interesting expose OF this ridiculous
troversy.- Scientific american.
METHOD or DETECTING DECAY IN TpmR learn
from the Cosmos that simple method has been adopted
in the shipyards of Venice, from time immemoria for
testing the soundness of the timber person applies
his 10 the middle of of the ends of the timber
while another strikes upon the opposite end. If the
wood is sound and of good quality the blow is very dis
tnctly heard, however long the beam may be- If the
wood disaggregated by decay otherwise, the
sound would be for the most part destroyed.
A CoMPkNsATIso Clock PHNDuLuN,--A clock recently
introduced in England has peculiar compensation glass
pendulum and baromeric contrvance, to prevent the
arising from the density Of the atmosphere The
metallic compensation is effected without any friction,
by the ascent and descent of twosprng levers with three
adjustable weights, and which lengthcn shorten as
they rise or fall The mode of compensating is regula-
ted by in the top Of the ball, which, in Of
heat is moved towards the centre Of motion Of the spring
lever, or in the contrary direction in Of cold The
glass rod is attached to the pendulum spring by of
cut it, and below aglass regulating nut works
into glass screw. cut the bottom of the pendulum
rod.
OBJEcr GLAssw-No object glasses of larger size
than inches in diameter have been made Of
glass manufactured in England; and notwithstanding the
success of continental opticians, the procuring of
flint glass fit for object lenses of larger size be
STILL in considerable degree, matter of accident.
There is telescope in the Russian observatory at Dopat
having object glass Of nine inches diameter Another
prepared for the King of Bavaria of twelve inches
diameter. The object glass of Sir James South's large
telescope is nearly thirteen inches in diameter and was
executed in Paris, of glass manufactured by Gunaud.
The practical difficulties of forming good achromatic
object glass for telescope of large size great that
it often costs than all the rest Of the instrument
This arises principally from the extreme difficulty of pro-
curing disks of flint glass above certain size sufficiently
free from veins and mperfcctions
INTERESTING GEOLOGICAL CuRIosTr The editor of the
Eutaw Observer lately shown, by DIR. f. +. Borl-
chelle specimen of rock Of the primitive order of for
nation and Of the pentedral order of capitalization
containing in its centre globule of water, movable and
visible The water is If there be any truth In geology
Of the ocst drops of water in the universe far
ancient than the waters of the flood of Noah To use
the language of DR. Bouchelle, at is drop of the
tors that covered in darkness the face of the great deep
when the earth without form and void In other
words this little drop is portion Of the first water that
created during the six days of Genesis and became
enanged among the particles Of the rock during the act
process of capitalization The rock being primitive,
the first of creation, the water also must be prmi
tive"
THR ALLOY commonly used in the manufacture of print
ing types is composed Of lead tin, and antmony. The
best metal s however, imperfect it is continually de-
terioratng while in molten state by the evaporation Of
the most important element antimony, which action is
taking place during the whole time of the manufacture
In order to prevent this change of quality it is proposed
to add nickel, copper, metallic cobalt, and bsmutlthe
nickel and cobalt being the materials used to give hard
ness, and the copper being tho medium by which these
substances caused to unite with the antimony of the
type meta while by the Introduction Of bsmuth which
has the wclknown property of passing instantly from
fusion to xty, the setting Of the alloy is expedited
Brass WIRE GuAzs, OR CLOTH, is made of such
qusite neness that the separate threads only be de-
tected by close inspection Messrs Estvunt who carry
on the brass manufacture scale of great magnitude
in France produce wire Of remarkable minuteness They
have recently produced and exhibited several specimens
of brass game, each showing the limit Of ncness to
which this kind Of manufacture has attained. One OF
these specimens is wonderful 1t almost exceeds belief
that metal could be wrought to such inncsmal de-
gree of minuteness in this web. There 67, 900
meshes in square inch of this brass gauze 260 pa
rallel threads in linear inch The wire drawing in
the first instance, and the weaving afterwards must have
been very carefully conducted.
An INGENIOUS method has been devised of cnamelling
castron, coating it with glass by tho of pounded
enamel glass applied the surface by of gum
water or other adhesive matter, and afterwards fused
The surface of the cast-iron is first ceanscd by turning,
fling securing otherwise and then applied thi
coating Of gum water other adhesive solution by spon-
ging brushing upon such surface While the surface
is still damp there is busted upon powder composed
of oxide Of lead, twenty pounds boracc acid, twenty
pounds broken glass, sixty pounds soda three pounds
six nitre, pound two oxide Of man
ganese five The article is then heated until the
Iwder fuses when uniform gray yitreous surface is
produced If white surface ia required, second coat
ing Of the adhesive solution given and it is busted
a powder composed of sand, twenty five ponnds broken
glass thirty pounds oxide Of lead ffty pounds Soda
five and three-quarer pounds nitre four pounds ten
white arsenic, three and thrce-quartcr pounds
oxide Of antmony, eight and thrccquarer These
materials powdered and intimately mixed, and then
fused the result II enamel, which has to be again
pounded and then used a. described.
PoLIsIrSa IRoS the useful inventions of the
day is improved process of polishing iron In operation
Mt the American Iron Works, Pitsburg II is done di-
rectly from the bar by pressure, without any polishing
TOOLS and Is tho work only of few minutes, Fistons
and shang from quarter of an inch to nyc inches d.
amcter be finished by this la a. good style as
with tools Tho iron is made sitter by the procem and
bar sixteen eighteen feet long can be better polished
than with the lathe. M t
The town Of Framingham, Mass, visited with
-sforr, which