The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-10-16
UsEFUL kNoWI.EpaE.

II q manufactured OF uu1AuuldCbuE64 I
condition, immortelles. grasses, ETC..
may be very easily colored with iodine
green as follows Place the articles in
broiling water for ten or fifteen minutes,
and allow the whole to cool IN the
mean time, mix together ten quarts of
water and $50 grains chloride Of lime,
and add $50 grains of erystalized car
Donate Of soda, and then immerse the
straw half an hour in the clear liquid
obtained by allowing It to settle. Move
about the articles thus bleaehed IN a
bath of $50 grains of hydroehloric acid
in ten quarts of water for from five to
ten minutes, and color the well-rinsed
straw by agitating it in bath of clear
solution of iodine-green, at about 100
deg. IN wooden vessel, adding a little
picrio acid for dying yellow.
chinese WATERPROOF VARNIsH FROM
BLooD.-Dr. Scherzer, an eminent Aus
trian naturalist, during a recent visit to
China, learned the mode of preparing a
waterproof varnlsh very extensively
used in that country for coating boxes
and other packages which it is desired
to protect against moisture. For this
purpose four parts of blood, fresh
drawn, are mixed in four parts of pow
dered slaked lime and a very small
quantity of alum. One, two, or three
coats of this mass, which is slightly |
viscid, will impart so great degree of |
imppermeability to wood to which it has |
been applied that it is said to be I'M
necessary to use the interior tin or lead |
lining to boxes for transporting delicate |
articles through the tropics. Owing to |
its cheapness, it can be used for coating |
boxes containing sugar, coffee, tea and |
other substances.
EXHAUSTION OF GRAIN AND HAY BY
RAN.-Aceording to Kuhne, frequent
wetting of hay, etc., should be avoided |
as much as possible, since in time it
may thereby be rendered almost worth
less as fodder. Two and a half pounds
of unthresbed oats were sprinkIed with
an equal weight of water, which was
allowed simply to filter slowly through
into vessel beneath, after which the
oats were dried at gentle heat. The
filtration occupied one hour, and u
ounces of brown liquid were found in
the vessel. The oats lost. one-fortieth
of their weight, partly by extraction in
the liquid, and partly by drying. SINH
lar experiments with dry red clover and
meadow-grass hay gave loss of one
tenth its weight by the former, and of
one-eighth for the latter, the filtration,
however, OCCUPYING one hour and half.
TIE question of the comparativ
merits and dement's of asphalte and
wood pavements was the subject of a
recent discussion before the London
commissioners of sewers. The principal
objection urged against asphaIte was that
its slipperiness caused a great deal of
danger both to horses an to men. The
secretary of a transfer company, who at
tended the meeting, said that horses
were often killed by falling on the
asphalte, and that as many as ten horses
were often standing in the stables at the
same time disabled from this cause
When horses fall on asphalte their legs,
it is urged, are spread out, and they be-
come injured for life. Falls on granite
paving are not, as a rule, attended with
such serious results, nor do horses fall
on wood paving to the same extent as
they fall on asphalte. No system of
shoeing, added the deponent, short of
putting knives in the shoes, would
make horses safe on the latter. In the
end the matter was referred to the
street committee.
KEEPING Wool IN A Mo1sr CoNDITIoN.
The theory Of many wool-dyers that
slowing away washed wool in moist
condition before dyeing is in many re-
spects advantageous, or even necessary,
and never injurious, seems contrary to
the facts, no attention being paid to the
disagreable odor or other changes pro-
duced in it, which in many cases are not
only injurious, but dangerous. Spon-
taneOus combustion may occur, especially
with greasy wool, and therefore no more
wool of this kind should be washed than
can be dyed in three to four days; and
even with common wool tendency to
decomposition is produced In that time,
and the unpleasant odor acquired is not
easily removed by simple washing.
ChrOme-dyed wool may even be injured
by unequal penetration of air into heeps
or basketsful, unless it is well cooled and
turned after short time. For the most
part, however, lying for twelve hours is
not injurious to mordanted wool, but
rather beneficial, and when alum and
tartar have been used for madder-dyeing,
a period of three days is advisable, if it
has been well cooled. Brown and olive
darken by lying in heaps. Wool treated
with sulphuric acid, unless washed
very soon, becomes brittle and loses in
, color.
PRECAUTIONS AGAINST CHOLERA. In a
lecture on this subject Professor Foster
calls particular attention to the effect of
: wells in spreading cholera, and gives nu-
merous instances, not only of different
cities, but of different parts of the same
city, IN which cholera was epidemic,
where the water supply was from surface
wells, while it did not prevail where
, water was obtained from other sources or
A from deep rock wells. He states that in
2 Dresden the water of one well sank
when seven feet were pumped out of
, another one hundred and twenty feet
/ distant; that earcasses, contaminated
: the water one hundred and sixty feet of,
and that the ammaniacal liquor Of the
{ gas-works at Munich was detected in
3 wells 700 feet distant. In short, wells,
! generally, seem to collect fluid matter
from space of at least 200 feet radius ;
} and since very few are removed that dis
lance from priTies, they are liable to be
contaminated by them. Indeed, chemi
n