Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1877-05-23
MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC.

coverer OF the true nature of the fun
gus which produces the potato-disease,
has invented amixture which he hopes
will destroy the pests.
The most northerly telegraph-sta-
ton in the world was established at
Gjesvar. a Norwegian MANIFESTATION,
near the North Cape, in latitude II de-
grees II minutes north, on March It'll.
"A correspondent Of the American
Art JcGyrssal says that the girls of
Cashmere make shawls worth $50, 900,
and will show three hundred distinct
cOlOrs or shades which we cannot
make, or even distinguish.
I'm Sumatra, Jamaica, and some
parts of India, the leaves Of the coffee
plant are . cured like tea-leaves, and
used in the. preparation Of beverage.
The husks inclOsing the coffee berry
are used for the same purpose in Ara.
bia-a handful of the husks making
about ten cups of coffee.
"A curious clock has recently been
invented by M. Cabot, Of Paris. 1t
has two apparently-free hands placed
in the center of double plane. the
two sheets of glass composing which
are held in an ornamental frame. The
clock is operated by concealed mech
anism III the frame, which once a min
ute causes slight and nearly invisible
motion Of one of the glasses. This
causes the NOV ement of the minute
hand, and minute gearing concealed
in the pivot of the latter actuates the
hour-hand. ....,
A late number of the Russian Re
cieO (St. Petersburg contains an in
teresting paper on the wolf question
in Russia. The number of wolves in
that country is estimated at 100000,
annually costing the public at least
$4,000, 600 roubles. The author of a
book on the subject advocates a grand
universal effort to poison them off at
the rate of fifteen roubles head, and
colpbats at length sundry objections to
his proposal, one being the British one
of the impossibility of laying poison
for wolves without jeopardy to foxes.
This public-spirited protector and au-
thor is an apothecary.
English BIOLOGISTS have watched
with great interest the progress of a
well which has been bored for the BEN
eft OF a London brewery, and which
has just been successfully finished. At
$50 feet the clays and gravels were
passed, and the upper chalk began;
from 400 to S12 feet the work lay
through hard lower chalk and mari;
at $40 feet, gault; at l,OO4 feet the
solid green-sand was reached below
which water is already found. The
work was done with diamond drill.
One crown of diamonds has cut 400
feet; but the strata have proved of
very varied hardness, and the tiints in
the chalk have occasionally delayed the
speed of the work. When there was
no mishaps the progress was fourteen
or fifteen feet a day. The value of
the diamond crown Of the boring tool
is about $500.
People who take sulphur in spring
weather, after the time-honored meth
cd prescribed at Dotheboys Hall, may
be interested in the fact that the purity
of their medicine is open to d doubt.
Mr.. Hanks recently exhibited to his
fellow-members of the San Francisco
Mlcroscopical Society specimens of the
spurious and the genuine flowers of
sulphur Tor comparison. The real ar
ticle is obtained by subliming sulphur,
and except that there is with it usual
ly a little sulphurous acid, the product
is almost chemically pure. But great
deal of what is sold as the sublimate
now turns out, under the microscope,
to be merely crude birthstone, ground
to a powder. Instead of blowers it
should be called -four of sulphur OF
course the spurious article contains
many impurities, which make the mess
with treacle slightly nastier.
The Scientific american points
out, giving figures which are seeming
ly careful, that in the event Of
channel being opened into the great
basin OF the Sahara Desert certain dis
astrous results will follow. The sur
face to be flooded is on an average
eighty feet below the surface of the
ocean, and its extent is near four
million square miles. Figuring on the
basis of one hundred and fifty millions
for the entire ocean surface the gem
eral level will be lowered something
like two feet. So much for the i'm
mediate result, but farther than this it
is evident that in sea which has
practically no inflow of fresh water
the loss from evaporation must be
made good from the main ocean. This
loss, according to the authority quoted,
would amount To about 1000, zoe, 000,-
100000 cubic feet annually, and the
supply channel from the ocean would
have 10 discharge about five hundred
and twenty-five times rs much water
as Is carried by the river Rhine. 1t is
estimated that in little more than a
century the entire basin would be filled