Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1879-12-11
CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC.
ULTRAMARINE

ULTEAMARlNE.
Rhine deSues ultramarine as a sodium
aluminium silicste, having in solution a
variable mixture of sodium sulphide
and oxy-salts of sulphur.
TUNNELING HIGH MOUNTAINS.
With regard to the degree of tempera
sure at which men can work in tunnel
ing high mountains, Professor Dubois
Raymond says it is possible that work
csn be carried on for short time at so
Ceutigrade, if the atmosphere is dry, but
not beyond 400 when the air is saturated
with moisture.
TEMPERED GLAss.
Some, or rather most people, will re.
member the furore caused by the So
called tempered glass, invented by M.
De La Bastie, and the multiplicity OF
purposes for which it was said to be
eminently adapted. But the lamp chin
news, bakers, &c, made of that material
had fatal facility of suddenly explod
ing into thousand fragments, sometimes
spontaneously. 1t is now announced
that De La Bastie has made much i'm
provements in his glass temperiDg pro-
cess that the quality OF the products is
immensely more durable.
NICKEL FOR COMPAssEs.
At late meeting of the Academic DIES
Sciences, NJ. Warden made a sugges
ton to substitute nickel for steel as a
material for compass needles. NJ. War
don adopts a circlet of the metal of a
form similar to that devised by M.
Duchemin. When the apparatus was
IL ha IS he
Ministere de la Marine to comparative
trial with that of M. Duchemin, it was
found to be decidedly inferior for nauti-
cal purposes; for the oscillations of the
magnetized circlet are extremely slow,
owing to the comparatively feeble inten-
sity OF magnetization of nickel.
DURATION OF LIFE AFTER DECAPITA-
TON.
Immediately after the execution of
the murderer Prunier at Beauvais, ex-
periments were made with the head of
the criminal by a number of doctors,
among them Or. Decaisne, of the Insti
tute, with the view of deciding the
question so frequently raised of the
duration Of lie after decapitation. A
report on the subject will be presented
TO the Academy of Medicine, but the
conclusions of it will be that death is
instantaneous The brain exhibited ad-
hesions to the meninges or membranes
covering it, which is generally observed
in luuatics,
NEW GAS MATERIAL.
Al Baka, off the Caspian sea, the resi-
due oStaiti left after the final distillation
IN
NOUS quantity that its price is only
nominal, and much of it is poured into
the sea for lack of slowing space or de-
mand. For years it has been the only
fuel used on board the war ships and
mercantile steamers of the Caspian. 1t
is employed in cooking also, and for the
production of illuminating gas. In the
latter case it is allowed to trickle slowly
into retorts raised to dull red heat,
pure Gas with little graphite being the
result. Weight for weight, astalki gives
four times as great a volume of gas as
ordinary cosl.-Populdr Science Monthly.
CURING THE OPIUM HABIT.
DR.. Osgood, who is the medical office
of the hospital at Foochow, under the
care Of the American board of foreign
missions, gives the following as the
method which for some time has been
successfully pursued by him in the cure
of the opium habit. /. The total, abso-
Lutte discontinusnce of the use Of opium
from the beginning of treatment. 2. A
trustworthy attendant to be with the
patient day and night for the first three
days. 8. Choral hydrste for the first
three nights, if required. 4. Good
food, milk, raw eggs lin some cases., and
chicken broth in small quantities and
frequently. 5. In cases of diarrhpa
give two drachm doses of mixture of
equal parts Of catechu and tincture of
ginger.
ECONOMICAL ILLUMINATING GAS.
According to the Journal of the
franklin Institute, Mr.. E. Commelin has
discovered a new industrial application
OF hydrogen. He places retorts or tubes
OF metal or refractory esrthenware in
Inc srch OF furnaces or generators, ia
not-su apparatus or elsewhere, where
1hey are exposed to red heat. They
are TILED with charcoal, coke or cinders,
and small jet OF vapor is introduced,
which produces, by decomposition or
Iecomposltion, hydrogen, carbonic oxide
ana cafoonlc acid gas. The apparatus
thus raised to 8 red heat and steam is
'o'alnec without expense. Each tube