The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-07-05
Curious and Scientific.

Curious and Scientific.
ARTIFICIAL leather is now made from
the scraps and cuttings of leather cut
tiers. 1t is claimed that the leather
thus made is equally as good for soles or
betting as the original.
A French scientist argues that man.
kind are not lit TO be trusted with
steam, and that moral and physical de-
generacy will invitably result from the
changes which steam has produced in
civilization.
AMONG the most remarkable of dis.
coveries in photography is that claimed
! by one Johnson, an Englishman, who
is said TO be man of extraordinary
mechanical genius. The invention is
panoramic camera, which, by ingenious
mechanism, sweeps the whole land
scape and takes it on a plane surface,
embracing on one negative one third
of the circle. The exacttude of its
operations is as singular as the beauty
of the results.
The addition of dissolved sulphate of
quinine to gum arabic is said to prevent
the formation of mold quite as efiec.
tually as carbolic acid, while it imparts
no unpleasant odor. 1t could perhaps,
be advantageously used in ink, mucil-
age, paste, and glue.
THE first manufacturer of steel pens
by machinery was Mr.. Joseph elliott.
OF Great Britain. When he was young
man, and grinder in Sheffield, steel
pens were curiosity, and being made
by hand labor only, were sold for IS. Cd.
apiece. The factory established by Mr..
elliott IS now able, alone, to turn out
100000 pens year.
Mr.. HENRY HENNEsEY attacks Sir Will
liam Thompson's attempted demonstra-
ton of the earths rigidity. He claims
that Thompson's assumption of fluid
incompressibility is no more philosoph-
ical than an endeavor TO prove the i'm
possibility of travelling at high rates of
speed, 10y demonstrating that the shock
experienced by perfectly rigid carriages
would be too great for endurance.
IT would seem that in heavy storms
at sea iron ships are inferior to those
built of wood. OF forty-two Atlantic
steamers lost at sea between the years
lS4l and 1872, thirty-eight were of iron,
and four of wood. OF the line of iron
ships running into the st. Lawrence
and Portland, nine were lost between
1857 and 1864 and five iron sailing
vessels, all built in Great Britain, and
sent to sea in 1865 and 1865, have never
been heard from.
A VALUABLE and wonderful metal, APP
propriately called Sterling metal, is now
being manufactured near Hartford.
1t is harder even than cast steel, is not
affected by air or earth, and can be
cast with perfect ease into any form.
Preparations are being made to use it
for works of sculpture, and specimens
are to be sent to the principal bronze
founders of Europe.
CHARCOAL, applied to rose-bushes, has
the effect of deepening the color of the
flowers. 1t has not the same effect up
on all flowers, but is a useful fertilizer
1t should be finely pulverized.
The Erie Pa Dispatch says; "The
| hulk of the Niagara, one Of the vessels
of Perry's fleet, lies near the shore at
the northeast Corner of Misery Bay
| 1t my be seen when the water is clear
PRESIDENT TILLNAN, of the Polytech-
mic Association of the American In
stitute, says the weather predictions
which are daily published in our news
papers have been verified to about IS
per cent. that is, three-fourths of all
the predictions which they have made
have been found to be true.
" VEsUvIUs" is the title of a recent
work which contains some interesting
data concerning earthquakes. Accord
ing TO this authority, in the fourth CEN
fury there were 81 III the fifth, 25 in
the sixth, 81 in the seventh, 10; in
the eighth, | i; in the ninth, SO; in
the tenth, II; in the eleventh, 81 in
the twelfth, 6S; in the thirteenth, So !;
in the fourteenth, IS ; in the fifteenth.
fl ; in the sixteenth, 10; in the sew.
enteenth, $50; in the eighteenth, ESQ /;
in the nineteenth, 925.
The paradoxical conclusion of Fair
BARN and other glish experimenters,
that the brittleness Of iron and steel is
not increased by cold, is invalidated by
the fact that the cast iron frame work
of steam engine in Paris, after Sc.
we're cold night, suddenly snapped in
three different places, when the en-
gineer started the train in the morning.
THREE new asteroids have lately been
discovered, one by German and two
by American observers. There are now
one hundred and twenty of them. Men
of science calculate that at least thou
sand are floating round ready to be
caught as soon as we get telescopes of
higher refracting powers. By and by
it will be no more to sight an asteroid
than it is now to pick blackberry.
One of the women in the House of the
Good Shepherd, st. Louis, is carpent.
er and one shoemaker.