Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-07-04
Curious and Scientific.

SuI lVuS anu SCltutlICs
ARTIFICIAL leather is now made from
the scraps and cuttings of leather cut
tiers. It 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 fit 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 10 be man of extraordinary
mechanical genius. The invention is a
panoramic camera, which, by ingenious
mechanism, sweeps the whole land
scape and takes it on plane surface,
embracing on one negative one third
of the circle. The exactitude 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 effec-
tually as carbolic acid, while it imparts
no unpleasant odor. 1t could, perhaps,
be advantageouslyu 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. I'D.
apiece. The factory established by Mr..
elliott is now able, alone, to turn out
150,000,000 pens a year.
Mr.. HENRY HENNEsEY attacks Sir Will
liam Thompsons attempted demonstra-
ton of the earth's 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, by 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
164l 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 1855 and 1868, have never
been heard from
A VALUABLE and wonderful metal, ap-
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 CT the
flowers. 1t has not the same effect up
on all flowers, but is useful fertilizer.
1t should be finely pulverized.
The Erie Pa.) Dispatch says: "The
hulk of che Niagara, one of the vessels
of Perry's feet, lies near the shore al
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.
s5itute, says the weather predictions
which are daily published in our news
papers have been verified to about rs
per cent. thai is, three-fourths of all
the predictions which they have made
have been found to be true.
VEsUvIUs" is the title of recent
work which contains some interesting
data concerning earthquakes. Accord
ing to this authority, in the fourth cen.
fury there were 81; in the fifth, 25; in
the sixth, 81; in the seventh, 10; in
the eighth, IL; in the ninth, Sc; in
the tenth, II in the eleventh, 81 ; in
the twelfth, 6S; in the thirteenth, SIS
IN the fourteenth, IS; in the fifteenth
Al in the sixteenth, 10; in the sew
enteenth, $50; in the eighteenth, $50
in the nineteenth, 925.
The paradoxical conclusion of Fair
BARN and other English experimenters
that the brittleness of iron and steel il
not increased by cold, is invalidated b,
the fact that the cast iron frame work
of steam engine in Paris, after Sc
we're cold night, suddenly snapped il
three different places, when the en-
gineer started the train in the morning
THREE new asteroids have lately beer
discovered, one by German and tw,
by American observers. There are nov
one hundred and twenty of them. Mel
of science calculate that at least thou
sand are floating round ready to b,
caught as soon as we get telescopes o
higher refracting powers. By and By
it will be no more to sight an asteroiC
than it is now to pick blackberry.
One of the women in the House of tn
Good Shepherd, St. Louis, is carpent
er and one a shoemaker.