The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1875-07-02
CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC.

| dusty roads. It has been found to keel
| land moist for three days, when Ordl
narily it would dry in an hour. As TIM
| chlOrides are injurious to vegetation, 1
can not be utilized In agriculture, Al
| illustrated by the reclaimed marshes o
| Holland, where the saline matter has tC
be washed away by spring water before
vegetation appears.
! A CURE FOR OPIUM EATING Many
devices, says the Troy Times, have beer
resOrted TO enable opium and morphine
| eaters to break the remorseless habit
| but we think the one tried by the friends
of an old lady in Jefferson county car
not be beaten. She first used morphit
| as a relief from the pains of a tumor
| Nothing could induce her to give up the
use of the poison after the tumOr haC
been removed. The family accordingly
resolved upon a harmless deception
| Carefully prepared potato starch was
substituted for the mOrphia In the
bottles. She complained that the drug
was of an inferior quality, but reassured
by her physician, continued to use II
with sublime faith in its virtues until
her death, fifteen years afterward. Al
no time could she do without her potato
starch. Once, when i'll, her physician
gave her Dover's powd rs, but she could
not rest until she had taken some of her
bogus morphine. The success of this
deception ought to be suggestion to
the friends of slaves of this drug.
JOANNoN has made a communication
to the academy of sciences in Paris up
on the method adopted by him in fresh
ening the saline lands in the south of
France, so as to make them available
for agriculture. There are immense
tracts along the coast of the Mediter
ranean, from Aries to Port Vendres,
which are entirely unprOductive in con-
sequence of the amount of salt which
they contain. The process adopted by
him consists first in draining, then in
ditching to a depth of about two feet,
and then damminG and covering with
fresh wateI. The water filters through
the soil, and dissoIving the salt contained
therein runs off by the drains. This
operation is to be continued with sub
mersion from three to five months, &C
cording to the nature of the soil. After
this the layer between the level of the
drain and the surface of the field will
be sufficiently free from salt to be
capable of cultivation. In one estab-
ishment, near Narbonne, a property
which, before drainage, was worth $3.50,
was, IN few years, raised in value to
IS, 800.
HARDENING GLAss.-This is process
tLat has been patented by Mr.. Macin-
tosh, of Westminster, a civil engineer
who has devoted much time and atten
tion to the hardening of iron, steel and
alloys. Starting on the broad ground
that the lower the degree of temperature
of the liquid in which certain heated
bodies were plunged, the harder such
bodies became, Mr.. Macintosh has
found that glass, graphite, uncrys
tallized carbon, Stag and other analogous
substances may be rendered exceedingly
hard by means which are usually indi
Gated for metals. COlOred glass may,
by this treatment, be rendered so hard
as to be effectively used as a substitute
for gems and. what is curious, may be
puIverized and used in the same way as
diamond dust or emery powder. In
hardening the substance, the method
pursued by the patentee is to place a
small quantity of fused or nearly fused
or clear cOlOred glass in iron or other
mOlds to shape the glass, and the sub
stance is taken out OF the mOlds and
placed in platinum mOlds, and fused or
nearly fused, and suddenly deprived of
its calOric or frigOifiC mixtures of iced
water and salt, or any of the freezing
compounds that produce extreme cold ;
the sum and substance of which is that
the glass is heated to a very high degree
of temperature and then rapidly cooled
in a frigid fluid. A startling statement
is made by Mr.. Macintosh when he
asserts that, when the component parts
of gems are treated by the above pro
cess, he is enabled to produce thereby
fictitious gems harder than real dia-
mOnds.
FIRELEss LOCoMOETvEs.-It will be
interesting TO know that fire less locomO-
tives are in constant and successful
operation on a city and suburban rail
way in New Orleans, namely, the New
Orleans and CarrOlitOn railway, under
the able management of General G. Il.
Beauregard, wao is a skillful engine er,
and yet who is alive to and keeps pace
with the improvements of the age.
This success has been achieved, too,
under the most adverse and unprOmis'
ing circumstances. The road, under
other running arrangements had become
nearly valueless, it's stock having gone
down TO z cents, but it is now paying
and valuable road. The road is about
six miles in lengtl /. From the center
to the outskirts of the city it is operated
! by mule power; there the mule Is takeL
| from the car, and the little freless loco
motive is attached, which Is accom-
! plished IN less time than would be 0c
cupied in attaching another mule ih'
| train is then off like a rocket, the drlVel
| still on the platform of the car working
the engine, managing the brakes, anC
making change. as usual; there IS nC
other person on the train to attend Il
these duties. The car is started anC
stopDed quicker than when drawn b!
the mule. The railway double track
Is in the middle of very wide street
and is q little raised, so that il can no
he crossed by carriages except at th'
street crossings; thus, being someWna
isolated, high speed is admissible: Ih'
locomotive is simply a cylinder Of Dolle
iron, perhaps 3 feet in diameter ana II
feet long, mounted on four Wneels, an'
partly filled with water. The engln"
a double verticle-is attaehed 70 the en'
of the cylinder next the car, oelng with
in reach of the driver. The cylinder l
then filled with steam at proper pres
sure. from a stationary boiler at Carol
ton. when the locomotive Is ready, au
II will run to the city and back withoU
care of expe nse. There is no fire, q
ashes. no pump, no danger, and let
noise than from the hoOfs of horse
The expense Of this means of propu
sion, General Besuregard assured me,
less than by mules. The cost Of th