Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-03-11
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

a correspondent of the Scientific Re-
publican recommends Common glue as an
effectual remedy for cuts and bruises.
NJ. Patera proposes to render woven
fabrics non-infiammabhb y.using, instead
of sodic tungstate, mixture of four parts
borax with three parts nagnesic sulphate.
One hundred grammes of the mixture are
to be dissolved in three hundred to four
hundred cubic centimdres of water, and
in this solution the fabrics are placed I'M
til soaked, then wrung out dried and iron-
ed. Another mixture proposed for the
purpose is that of ammonia sulphatc and
gypsum.
Hot alum water is said to be valuable as
an insecticide. Two pounds Of alum dis
solved in three or four quarts of boiling
water, and applied to all cracks and crew.
ces, will keep out or destroy all red and
black ants, cockroaches, spiders, chinch-
bugs, fleas, &c. Travellers in strange coun-
tries should always carry a small package
of powdered alum or torax with them to
scatter round their pillows where they
suspect strange bedfellOws.
The Chemical NeWs ascribes the potato
rot to a deficiency of lime and magnesia in
the soil. Different observers state the per-
centage of magnesia in the ash of sound
tubers at from five to ten per cent. in the
diseased tubers an analysis shows odly 3.94
per cent. Analysis OF sound tubers show
over five per cent. of lime, but in the ash
of diseased tubers only LIZ per cent. was
found. A similar observation was made
some years ago by Prof. Thorpe with re.
gard to diseased and healthy orange trees
in the former there was a deficiency OF
lime and magnesia.
Prof. Tyndall since his return to Eng
land, has been engaged in investigating the
transmission of sound through the atmos-
phere. Cannon and the American fog
horn or syren were used to make the sig
mails. On some days the guns would be
heard three or four times as far as the horn
and on others the syTen would carry of
| the palm. Occasionally neither guns mol
horn could be heard over two miles off, and
| at other times, with no apparent change
| in the weather both guns and horn could
| be heard distinctly thirteen miles off. On
one bright, clear afternoon the limit o.
hearing passed from minimum to max
imum, extending apparently with the de-
creasing altitude of the sun. In ordinary
cases, for one sound to travel six times a
| far as another it must possess at least thir
ty-six times the intensity of the latter.
1t is claimed that by means of recently
invented freezing machine the tempera
ture Of any limited space can be kept dowi
to ALMOST any required degree. The inven
tor proposes % apply the method to tn
construction Of cold chambers on boar
ships, to be used for storing fresh provis
ions, or, in the case of merchant ships, TO
the conveyance of perishable freight. II
does not, however, think it possible
freeze a whole cargo of meat, so as to resi'
putrefaction in a long voyage, as froI
Australia to England. Among the variou
uses of the new machine will. be to COZ
railway carriages, to provide cool vases fl
the conveyance of meat and other proyi
: ions in India, to cool the air admitted int
! hospital wards, and to provide an unlin
tied supply of pure Ice at almost nomin
Z ! cost