The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-04-10
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

phalla, Conn.
-Crocus, dried and powdered, when
applied with chamois-leather to nickel
plated goods, will restore their brilliancy
without injuring their surface.
Swiss journals estimate that the use
of the st. Gothard Tunnel will take an
nually S150,000,000 worth of freight
business from the French railways.
Bright dipping acid for brass is COM
posed Of nitric acid diluted with one or
two volumes of water. The work must
first be cleaned from all traces of grease
or oil by hot soda solution or securing.
In round numbers, two-thirds of the
amount in value of the imports into this
country is received at the port of New
York. The returns for the month of
January and February, 1880, indicate, as
was to have been expected, very large
increase.
The impetus in the building line this
spring has made the heart of the lumber
man glad as well. There are immense
quantities of lumber waiting for trans
portation that cannot be furnished fast
enough. In Wisconsin, in the neighbor-
hood of Warsaw, never was there before
such an accumulation.
The smoke from candle-wick after
the flame is extinguished, is poisonous,
and breathing it in quantity would cause
death. The composition of this smoke
is carburetted hydrogen, carbonic oxide,
and acrolein. When putting out a can
delight before going to bed always do
it so that there shall be no burning wick
left.
The Millers' International Exhibi-
ton will be opened at Cincinnati on May
81, and will be closed fortnight later
The exhibits will be divided into eleven
classes: Motive power, steam boiler and
engine fittings, milling machinery and
millers' supplies, grain, products of the
mill, bread and crackers, baking-powder
and yeast, bags and bagging, scales, bar
rel-labels, and miscellaneous articles and
apparatus.
An English scientific journal relates
that, while the sailors of H. M. S. Fara-
day. aided by the new system of electric
illumination, were one night lowering a
cable, they noticed an immense number
of fishes of all sizes and shapes gathering
around the spot. By promptly throwing
out nets they were enabled to make an
extraordinary haul. The electric light
may doubtless be employed to advantage
by fishing-boats.
The Best Ink-A commission lately
appointed to investigate the best class of
inks to be employed for official purposes,
states that aniline inks are not suitable,
because they can be easily washed away,
especially by a preparation of chlorine.
Inks in the composition of which aliza-
rine is employed can be obliterated less
easily. They are of the opinion that the
best of all is the old description of ink
made from gall-nuts and salts of iron.
1t seems that the introduction of
magnets into the great grain mills of the
West has fulfilled the highest expecta-
tons of those who complained of wire in
wheat. Not only have the magnets
captured all the stray pieces of iron
bands, and thus removed the last and
only objection urged against wire-band-
ing harvesters, but they have revealed
the singular fact that, of the scraps Of
iron and steel which find their way to
the mills mixed with wheat, fully one
half are something besides pieces of wire,
and larger proportion of these are of
such nature as to be even more dan
gerous to mill machinery. The magnets
gather everything of this kind with I'M
erring certainty, thus rendering perfectly
safe the use of self-binding haryesters
and wire bands.
Seeing Through Water.-Currents
in the very bed of the river, or beneath
the surface of the sea, may be watched
by an arrangement that smugglers used
in days of old. They sank their contra
band cargo when there was an alarm,
and they searched for it again by means
of a so-called marine telescope. 1t was
nothing more than cask, with plate
of strong glass at the bottom. The man
plunged the closed end few inches be-
low the surface, and put his head into
the other end, and then he saw clearly
into the water. The glare and confused
reflections and refractions from and
through the rippled surface of the sea
were entirely shut out by this contri-
vance. Seal hunters still use it. With
this simple apparatus the stirring life of
the sea bottom can be watched at leisure,
and with great distinctness.
Mature contains very sensible re-
mark about milk, which may well arrest
the attention of consumers. In every
grievance that arises on the score of bad
or tainted milk let us at least learn to
distrust the last place it has been in rath-
er than the first, and ask ourselves
whether it is not possible that SUBJ
stance which has already gone so far out
of its way to serve us may not have been
finally put upon" in a manner for
which our own end of the transaction is
alone responsible. Let it be borne in
mind that our care of the milk we pur-
chase is more important than that which
precedes it, for two obvious reasons:
first, that we receive it at late period
of its life, when it has already suffered
from previous ill-usage, and is, there
fore, more susceptible of injury; and,
secondly, that we receive it in small
quantities, and thereby expose proper
tionately larger surface to contamination.