Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1871-10-19
WHOLE NUMBER 234.
Curious and Scientific.

ANY hard steel tool, says the Boston
Journal Of Chemistry, will cut glass with
facility when kept freely wet with cam
phor dissolved in turpentine. The
ragged edges of glass may also be thus
smoothed with fiat file.
A KANSAS paper says that M c. Page
| while digging well OH his farm, short
| distance from Salina, in that State, came
| upon the most perfect fossils yet found
in this country. He found wonderfully
| perfect specimens of oak, walnut, ma
| pie and pine leaves, which would be oi
great value to museum.
EFFORTS have been made to use naph
tina as fuel on board steamboat. The
engine worked as well as if coal had
been used, while the amount of naph
tha required to do the same work was
considerably smaller. 1t is estimated
that twenty pounds of naphtha will
produce as much heat as forty pounds
of coal. Naphtha is found in large
quantities among the Caucasus Noun
| tains, where it is sold very cheap.
A GREAT outcry has been made against
the use of jute as substitute for hair,
on the score of the vermin it is said to
breed but the manufacturers state that
the jute is as clean if not cleaner than
| the human hair they are forced to use
AN AMERICAN who was in Germany
during the late war, and had opportu-
nifty to see much of the treatment of the
wounded, says: cat one of the hos
pitfalls the mode of dressing was to clean
the wound gently from the outside, not
allowing the fluid to enter deeply; then
covering of zinc foil, lint above this,
and the whole bound with adhesive
plaster. The results from this mode of
dressing seemed perfectly marvellous,
leaving always a clean, healthy, granu-
lating surface, and avoiding all the in
convenience of lint directly applied.
The zinc foil seems to act through the
oxide which it forms in contact with
pus, and exerts most healthy influence
upon the wound" SIS
IT Is generally understood that the
value of potatoes depends upon their
specific gravity, and that the heavier the
potato the greater the amount of nitro
genous matter it contains. This has
suggested the idea of convenient test
by which the excellence of different va
rieties can be readily determined, and
which consists in the use of saline So
lutions of different degrees of strength.
If, assuming one variety as a standard,
we make solution of such strength
that the potato will float at about the
middle of the mass, neither falling to
the bottom nor rising to the surface,
and apply the same test to other pota-
toes, we may conclude tha0if one fall
to the bottom it is better, or if it rise to
the top it is poorer than the standard.
ONE of the divers employed in clear
iuEs out the channel of the river at Ban
gor, Me-, recently, found an ancient
cannon on the bottom, nearly imbedded
in the mud and rocks. 1t was hauled
up and cleaned off, but is so rusted that
no date, if there ever were one, can be
found on it. The piece is of very old
pattern, and is made of iron so soft that
it can be cut with knife. 1t was load
ed with six-pound ball, which has been
removed, together with the wooden sa-
bot and the powder, the latter still en-
closed in its bag. +E@
81 MODERN Greek fire is a solution of
phosphorus. in bisulphide of carbon.
When this solution is poured upon pa
per, rags. or shaVings, the bisulphlde
evaporates rapidly and leaves the phos-
phorus in a state of very fine division
so fine that it takes fire spontaneously.
It. furnishes the means of performing a
very pretty lecture-room experiment,
but, as an incendiary agent, it is worth
less, for the simple reason that it does
not set fire to even the thinnest and
driest boards. The phosphorus in burn
ing produces a fusible and non-volatile
compound, and this glazes over all OBJ
jects in its vicinity, and protects them
from the action of the flames. 1C.-
FRoM paper on the vertebrate ami
mails of Australia, lately published by
Mr.. Krefft, the curator of the Sidney
Museum, we learn that no woodpeckers
or humming birds have ever been met
with in that country. Among birds,
the parrot is the most prominent, there
being more than sixty species, Reptiles
abound, among them species of eroco-
dile, individuals of which frequently
grow to the extraordinary length OF
thirty feet, and occasion much trouble.
to the colonists. No one of the five
venemous snakes of the country is SO
deadly as the English viper. %.
Bits of iron will prevent water from
becoming putrid. Sheet iron or iron
trimmings are the best. The offensive
smell of water in vases of flowers would
be avoided by putting few small nails
in the bottom of the vases. iz.'-