The Hickman courier., 1873-10-11
USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

in a manufactured or unmanufactured
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 timannix together ten quarts of
water and 45O grains chloride of lime,
and add $50 grains of crystalized 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 bleached in
bath of 45O grains of hydrochloric 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-greep, at about 100
deg. in wooden vessel, adding a little
picrio acid for dying yellow.
CHINESE WATER PROOF VARNIsH FROM
BI0oD.-Dr. Scherzer, an eminent Aus
trian naturalist, during a recent visit to
China, learned the mode of preparing a
waterproof varnIsh 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 i1npart 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 GRAIS AND HAY BY
Notwithstanding 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 half pounds
of unthreshed oats were sprinkled 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, aud II
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.
( THE question of the comparativ
merits and dement's OF asphalte and
wood pavements was the subject of a
! commissioners of sewers. The principal
/ objection urged against asphalte was that
its slipperiness caused a great deal of
danger both to horses an to men. The
secretary o -, 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, rs 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
stroet committee
KEEPING WooL N MoIsT CoNDITIoN.
The theory of many wool-dyers that
slowing away washed wool in a 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 III three to four days and
even with common wool a tendency 20
decomposition is produced in that time,
and the unr' 'fessant 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, unlessit 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-dveing,
a period of three days is advisable, if il
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 il
color
PRRcAUTGoNs'A AGAINST CHoLERA.-In {
! lecture on this subject Professor Foster
calls particular attention to the effect o.
, wells in spreading cholera, and gives nu
merous instances, not only of diferen
cities, but of different parts of the sam,
city, in which cholera was epidemic
where the water supply was from surfac,
/ wells, while it did not prevail wher,
= water was obtained from other sources o.
4 from deep rock wells. He states that il
> Dresden the water of one well sanl
when seven feet were pumped ont 0
} another one hundred and twenty fee
distant, thai carcasses, contaminate,
: the water one hundred and sixty feet of
r and that the sunrlaoniacaI LIQUOR of tn,
t gas-works ct Munich was detected il
E wells 700 feet distant. In short, wells
4 generally, seem TO collect fluid matte
/, from a space of at least 200 feet radius
e and since very few are removed that dis
: tance from privies, they are liable to b
: contaminated by them. Indeed, chemi
e Gel analysis shows the well-water il
= cities is rich in nitrates which could onl
S have such a source. 1t is plain, there
e fore, why rocky or impenetrable cla
: soils are not favorable to the appearance
i ! g ohola-o xrt,1o &I,a =