Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1874-03-04
Scientific.


........ Scientific.
PARAFFINE IS recommended as useful
IN rendering boots waterproof.
II is said that three or four coatings
of glue on the ends of timber will pre-
vent it from cracking.
In Paris they are taking their cod
liver oil in bread, three hundred loayes
being used daily in the children's hos
pitfalls alone. - ..
IT is proposed to use the sand blast
In cleaning the outside of iron and
stone buildings.
TT is claimed that if the correct per-
centage of powdered marble be added
to wine, the ac1aity is destroyed with
out damaging the flavor.
A NEW hygrometer consists of paper
dipped in a cobalt solution containing
common salt and gum arabic. In dry
weather it is blue, and in wet rose-red.
A SOLUTION of pearl ash in water
thrown upon fire extinguishes it in
stantly the proportion is four ounces,
dissolved in hot water, and then poured
into bucket Of common water.
IT has been estimated that the COM
bustion of the gaslights of London
during one hour, produces sufficient
water to supply all the wants of a large
emigrant ship on voyage from Eng
land to Australia.
AN analysis of the mortar of the
GREAT oh ho4
cent. consists of sulphate Of lime, the
remainder being about equally divided
between carbonate of lime and carbon
ate of magnesia.
A NEW Bunsen gas-burner has been
recently invented, which gives heat of
about 3, 1000 Fahrenheit. A furnace of
thirty burners generates steam enough
to run an engine of one and half
horse power. III. ..s r..- 5-.-
b. ScHoTT ascribes the burning of
cast iron to the unequal regulation
point of the various compounds of iron,
phosphorus and sulphur, silicon, etc.,
which solidity while other parts are let
liquid, and thus prevent the metal
from becoming homogeneous.
WHEN it is desired to make skins as
soft as kid, soak them in a mixture of
two quarts bran and one gallon of
water for three days then take them
out and rub them with a handful of
salt Gf they have hair or wool on, add
powdered alum with the SALTY, and
hang up to dry. 'E- Ere @
NJ. SCHUBERT proposes placing in
the holds OF vessels, whose cargoes are
liable to spontaneous combustion.
boxes filled with limestone dust, into
which pipes can convey diluted sui
phuric acid. The carbonic acid gas
set free, being heavier than air, can
easily be retained in the hold of the
vessel.
DIR. PETERMANN, in MS elaborate re-
view OF the Polaris expedition, main
talns that since it is now evident that
there is no such thing as permanent
covering Of ice in this branch of the
Polar Sea, sledge travelling is not to
be depended on, and steamships should
alone be employed in future explora-
tons. go -Gl
AT Niederplanitz, near Zwickau, in
Saxony, vast bed of coal has been
burning over for three hundred years.
The ground above this subterranean
bed Of fire has become thoroughly
warmed by this time, and an ingenious
gardener has utilized it by planting up-
on 1t large nursery garden. Here he
raises tropical fruits of all kinds, with
exotic fruits, which flourish with q
vlgor and luxuriance in the open air
that the best forcing-houses could not
ensure.
PIERLoT describes, in the Complies
Rendues, new form of galvanic bat
terry: In a suitable glass or earthen-
ware vessel is placed about pound of
chloride OF lead, into which is inserted
a plate of lead with a vanished lead
wire attached. In the other part of the
vessel is inserted an amalgamated zinc
plate about nine millimeters thick.
covered with bag of parchment paper.
Every two or three months water is
added. The current is said to be strong
and constant.
1T has been found that an iron wire
may be twisted merely by passing an
electric current along it. The torsions
are produced by the combined inf1u-
ence Of helical and axial electric cur
rents, one current passing through a
long copper-wire coil surrounding the
bar or wire, and the other in ax1al di-
rection, through the iron itself. The
cause of them is the combined infu-
ence of magnetism in the ordinary
longitudinal direction induced in the
bar sy the coil-current, and transverse
magnetism induced in it by the axial
one.
The facts brought to light by recent
dredging expeditions on the coast Of
New England, seem to prove that in
the post-pliocene and champlain pe-
RODS the coast was at a lower level, and
the marine climate of Casco Bay was
colder than at present, probably about
like that of the present Newfoundland
or Labrador coast; that at a subsequent
period, when the coast had attained
nearly or quite the present level, the
marine temperature was considerably
higher than at present and that the
temperature of these waters has grad
ually declined, but was still somewhat
higher at the period when the Indian