Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-06-09
CURIOUS, USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC.
CAST IRON MAGNATES.

CAST IRON MAGNATES.
Care makes his last cast-iron magnates
by running a soft and slightly car
burretted metal in earthen crucibles.
Before pouring, 10 to Is per cent. of
steel filings and about l or L. of nickel;
with OBS per cent. of copper, or per
cent. of tin and 0.5 per cent. of copper,
are added.
INDEsTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER.
AS a simple and useful lecture room
method of showing that matter cannot
be destroyed, the following experiment
is given; Two sealed glass tubes of
equal weight, one of them containing
oxygen and little powdered charcoal,
are prepared. The charcoal may be made
to burn by means of small fame
When the two tubes are placed on a
balance, it will be seen that there has
been no variation in weight.
NTERMARRYING INDUCING sTAMMERNG.
The frequency of stammering in the
south of France is found, on investiga-
ton, to equal twelve or thirteen cases in
every 1000 of the population, while in
the eastern departments the proportion
is only one to that number It has been
assumed that the defect was in many
instances simulated to avoid military
CONSUMPTION, but according to the Able
Petitot, there are two districts In the
Bounches du Rhone where all the in
habitants- Is, 000-stammer. He
ascribes this to long continued inter-
marriages among the communities, and
to consequent degeneracy of the race.
NOVEL METHOD OF PRODUCING STAT
UARY.
A Brussels company have produced
colossal statue of Van Eyck by the depo-
sition of copper electricity upon the clay
model. The production of statuary on
small scale may, it is said, be readily &C
compllshed by this process: Boil any
plaster figure or group In stearine, black
lead it, and then plunge it into copper
bath, to which very weak battery is
attached. When a thin coating of COP
per is deposited, remove the object from
the bath and bake it in an oven until all
the plaster can be shaken out in dust,
leaving thin copper reproduction of
the model Varnish this copper on the
outside SO that when it is replaced in the
bath all the copper deposited will be on
the inside, and the necessary thickness
thus secured.
AN EFFECTIVE GUN.
A military small-arm manufacturer at
Wurzburg has invented a simple appa-
ratus which will enable any ordinary
breech-loading rife or gun with central
ignition to be used as a saloon rifle, thus
allowing men to be exercised at target
practice in the drill-shed, or even in
their rooms The invention consists
of tube of cast-steel of the same
length as the barrel of the rifle with
which it is to be used, but of very small
calibre. The tube is fitted with brass
rings about an inch wide, which enables
it to be pushed into and pulled out of
the barrel of a rifle without in any wav
iniuring the interior of the piece. The
cartridge used is of steel, and is so
designed that none of the gas generated
by the explosion of the small charge of
decorating substance used to propel the
bullet can escape to iniure the bore of
the rife.
ABOUT CYCLONES.
Recent observations and speculations
on the phenomena Of cyclones seem to
confirm the theory of them electrical ma
ture and origin. Within the last fifteen
years they have increased In number If
not Ia individual destructiveness. They
may be accompanied by wind storms or
they may not. They follow lines of
railroad and water courses, having a
great affinity for anything metallic on
their path and tapping up the water
from ponds and bitches along their way.
They will tear off a tin roof, but leave
shingled roof uniniured. They will twist
off the iron smoke stack of a mill and
leave the building otherwise unframed.
Persons caught in them find their hands
and faces colored dark or yellow in a
manner to require weeks to bleach out
again. In remarkable West India tor
nado, the houses encountered were not
blown over, but burst outward.
ANNEALING STEEL.
Prof. w. Mattieu Williams commends
this method of annealing or TOUCHING to
the attention of manufacturers engaged
In the production of steel that is to be
used for purposes where tenacity rather
than hardness is demanded: The steel
is brought to a bright red heat, and LIS
then plunged into boiling water. He
has tried this plan upon many samples
of steel, from mild Bessemer to the hard
est of the old-fashioned Sheffield put
steel, and he states that he obtained bet
ter results than he could secure by any
process OF oil toughening or slow cool
ing. When the steel is plunged into the
boiling water it is evidently surrounded
by film of vapOr, and is not in actual
contact with the water, which assumes
the "spberoidal state, and SO remains
until the metal has cooled considerably.
Prof. Williams suspects that the tough
ening is due TO the uniformity of cooling
thus effecttd
ANTISEPTIC DRESSINGS
According to the Pharmaceutical
Journal the use of carbolic acid for anti