Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-06-20
Curious and Scientific.

-" 1uuo dhu CCitutlnCs
ACCORDING to a number of expert
ments recently made by the London
Chemical Society, the best mode of de-
termining carbon in iron is by direct
burning in stream of oxygen.
ELECTRICITY is developed in metallic
wires by merely bending them, and the
development appears to be Independent
OF any thermic action.
The diving bell has been successfully
used in mines in Westphalia that were
Hooded with water, for the purpose of
repairing the valves of pumps.
SPONGE paper, made by adding finely
divided sponge to paper pulp, is used
in France for dressing wounds. 1t alb
serbs water readily, and retains mois-
ture for long time, and is applicable
in the arts and sciences.
A CORRESPONDENT of Nature has es-
tablished, to his own satisfaction at least,
the fact that troublesome eruptions upon
the face are caused by the use of soap
made of the grease extracted from bones
in an advanced state of putrescence.
PROF. WHEELER, of the Northwestern
University, who. after the Chicago fire,
made experiments in restoring defaced
writing and printing, has discovered an
original process for restoring charred
currency, so that it can be used. His
success in this has been so great that
General Spinner, United States Treas,
urer, has ordered that when experts of
the department fail to make bonds or
currency legible they be referred to
Prof. Wheeler.
THE restoration of writing manu-
scripts charred by fire may, it is said,
be accomplished by separating the
charred into single leaves, immersing
them in a solution of nitrate of silver
forty grains TO the ounce of water).
The operation is to be conducted in a
darkened room, and when the writing
is sufficiently legible the excess Of sill
yer solution should be washed out with
distilled water and dilute solution Of
hyposulphite of soda.
A CURIOUS case Of spontaneous com
bustion is noted in Reading, Penn. A
gentleman, after oiling some wood
work, left the piece of flannel he had
used in bowl with small quantity of
linseed oil, and placed it on the second
story balcony in the open air, intend
ing to use them again. The following
morning he found that the flannel had
taken fire and been wholly consumed,
the ashes remaining in the bowl.
In the course of an examination of
filters, at the instance of the British
Medical Journal, Prof. Wanklyn has
had proof that filtration through beds
of porous materials includes very pow
erful chemical action, albuminoid mat
ter being instantly resolved into ammo
MIA and other products by the action of
the filter, which, indeed, behaves in this
respect like boiling solution of per-
manganate of potash. A good filter is
a sanitary engine of great power.
WHEREVER iron pipes are employed
for conveying any heated medium, such
as smoke, hot air, steam or hot water,
they should not be allowed to pass
through woodwork, un.ess protected by
an earthen crock. The iron rust may
be deoxidized, and upon reoxidizing it
often becomes red-hot. Many fires have
occurred from this cause.
Mr.. J. E. STONE, astronomer royal at
the Cape of Good Hope, has expert
mented on the velocity of sound from
the discharges of the o'clock signal
gun at the castle, the two observers be-
ing l4,80S feet apart, and communica-
ting with each other by telegraph. The
result indicates velocity of 1,O90.6 feet
per second at freezing temperature.
A BERLIN medical journal reports the
successful TRANSMISSION of blood from
one person to another. The patient
was man poisoned by phosphorus.
The physician effected the TRANSMISSION
of $50 cubic centimeters of blood, just
taken from a person in perfect health,
into vein in his arm, at the same time
taking from an artery 500 centimeters,
of the patients own blood. The exper.
iment was followed by an immediate i'm.
provement in the patients condition
Almost every one now knows the i'm
provement of the blood by the inhala
ton of oxygen, but this is rather new
experiment.