The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1880-09-15
Scientific Economy.

To drill a small hole in glass use
turpentine, and take care when the
drill is about to break its way through
the glass as the hole is finished.
After careful examination DR.. Treu-
mann arrives at the conclusion that
no process hitherto invented will keep
iron effectively and durably from rust.
Sulphide of mercury, whether black
and amorphous or red and crystalline,
is attacked by chlorine according to
the temperature and concentration of
the acid employed.
That Germany consumes an enor-
nous quantity of tobacco is a we'll
known fact; but it is probably not so
we'll known that the harbor of Bremen
alone receives more tobacco than of
English and French ports together.
The number of kilograms received
and sent by French officers ros from
$500, 600 in 1868 to over II, 600, 900 in
1878, and last year it must have GER
tainly exceeded 10000 OO. The French
Geographic network had in 1859 an ex-
tent of 1l3, 669 kilometres, and at the
end Of December last year its extent
was III 500. kilometres.
Tholozan, in a paper read before the
French Academy of Science on "The
Plague in Modern Times, concluded
that like other evils whose secret is un-
known, it appears at one or several
points, reaches it's height, diminishes
and ceases, and all this apparently
quite, OF nearly quite, uncomfortable
by any sanitary measures.
Prof. Pollacci, In the Italian Chemi-
cal Gazette, says that plaster of paris
is added to wines to such degree that
conneisserrs should be made ware of
the fact that under the name of wine
they might possibly be drinking a sat-
urated salutian o fplaster o paris. This
had also Especial interest for pharma-
cists, seeing that it might account for
some of the impurities in cream of
tartar.
1t has been found by NJ. Dueretet
that toughened glass opposes much
greater resistance to the passage of
electricity than ordinary glass, and he
has employed it in a construction Of
Leyden jars, which may be charged
much more than the common kind.
AS M. Becquerel remarked, this may
be a fact of great value, as leading to
the construction eff extremely thin
condensers capable of giving great ef-
fects.
To make a cheap black stain for pine
or white wood take one gallon of water,
one pound of logwood chips, one-half
pound of copperas, one-half pound of
extract logwood, one-half pound Of in
digo blue and two ounces of lamp
black. Put these into an iron pot and
boil them over a small fire. When the
mixture is cool, strain it through a
cloth and add one-quarter ounce of
nutgall. 1t is then ready for use. This
is a good black for all kinds of cheap
work.
NJ. G. Carlet, of France, has been
studying the locomotion of insects and
arachnids, and reports as the result of
his observations that the walking OF
insects may be represented by that OF
three men in indian file the foremost
and hindmost of whom keep step with
each other, while the middle n walks
in the alternate step. The walking OF
arachnids is represented by four men
in file, the even numbered ones walk
ing in one step, while the odd-num'
bered mes walk in the alternate step.
Professor Levi Stockbridge, at Am
herst, Mass, has published apamphle1
containing an account Of Investigations
which have been conducted at the Ag'
ricultural College Experiment Station
at Amhurst, on the rainfall, the perco'
lation, and evaporation of water from
the soil, the temperature of the sol
and air, and the deposition of the dew
on the soil and the plant. The exper
iments were conducted with apparatus
of various designs devised with refer
ence to the special objects sought in
each and under a variety of conditions
and were made to bear OH the question
whether the moisture that is found II
the morning on the surface of the sol
and on plants Is mostly derived from
the air directly or from the soil.
The projected ship canal from tn
Bay of Kiel to Brunsbuttel, in the es
tuary of the Elb, will, it is estimated