The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1881-02-17
SCIENTIFIC.

staler.
Doctor Corfield says that it is not
good plan to eat much of cheese that
has been allowed to reach an advanced
stage of decomposition, as poisonous
effects have resulted from eating cheese
in that state.
NJ. Clemandot uses fine glass wool
for diffusing the electric beam instead
of ground or opal glass. The glass
wool, which is very fine, is placed in
tubes; and the latter are united at their
sides as to form lantern, conical in
shape, with the taper downwards:
The tubes are closed at the top and
bottom to exclude dust, and it is found
that only about fifteen per cent, of the
light is absorbed. The opacity can
however be increased by inserting more
WOOL and the light can be easily
colored if desired
Utilization of old Steel.-A new pro-
cess of using up old steel has been late
ly patented The resultant metal is
said to possess extraordinary strength
and ductility. The process consists of
mixing up old steel with u patent COM
pound and subjecting the whole to a
furnace-heat; when the particles ANAL
pamate. Steel made on this plan has
Eeen turned out at the Hunslet Works
lnd sold readily for t45 per ton. The
process is said to be second only IN
importance to Bessemer's invention,
and it will be especially valuable as
finding use for old Bessemer steel rail.
The Indestructibility of Matter.-This
is capable of ready demonstration by
preparing couple of glass tubes OF
equal weight, each being filled with
pure oxygen and containing u few par
ticles of carbon, free from appreciable
amount of ash-that prepared from the
fine loaf-sugar gives very good results.
The tubes are of precisely equal weight
and are Theoretically sealed. By heat
iurone of them the charcoal is caused
to burn and ultimately to disappear;
the tube contents however is of course
found still to balance the other tube,
which has not been heated. as it is of
precisely the same weight as it was ut
first.
Gliding Solution.-The following
gliding solution. to be used at temper
ature of from 120 deg. tp $50 deg. Fahr.,
has been recommended by M. E. Rod
i'm LIE lNonelc de In IScience-Crystalliz-
ed phosphate of sodium. parts by weight,
60; bisculphite of sodium 10; cyanide
of potassium, 1; chloride of gold, 2'5;
distilled or rain water, 1000: To pre-
pare this bath properly the water should
be divided into three portions-viz., :,
one of 700 parts and two of $50 parts
bv weight The sodic phosphate is dis
solved in the first portion, the chloride
of gold in the second, bisculphite of
sodium and cyanide of potassium in
the third. The two first portions are
gradually mixed, and the third is after
wards added With this solution nj.
Rod uses platinum anode-a wire or
strip-adding fresh portions of the gold
salt as the solution becomes exhausted.
Railways and Population.-A table
constructed by Professor Sturmer OF
Brombery shows the length of railway
in several of the chief countries of the
world and its proportion to the popula-
ton. In Europe, on the average, there
are 4.6 kilometres of railway to every
TO- 900 inhabitants. Greece has the least
proportion to the population, having
only COS kilometre to every 10000 OF
the population. Next comes Turkey
with l Is, Portugal 2.3, Roumania "a
Russia 2.S, Italy 20, and so upward in
the scale, France having 6.3, Germany
II, Great Britain 81, and Sweden
heading the list with 1913, though its
total mileage is not one-lifth of that OF
Great-Britain. In Asia it appears that
only O.16 kilometre is averagedto every
10000 inhabitants; and in Africa the
proportion is only OH. In the United
States the proportion is 32.9 to every
10000 of the people; while the whole
of America has the average of 17'2
and in Australia the proportion is 1916.
Red ink is solution of aluna colored
with Brazil wood, or an ammoniaca
solution of cochineal.
Split timber is more durable anG
stronger than that which is sawn, from
the continuity of the fibres.
Plate glass is formed of silica seven
ty-eight parts, potash two, soda thil+
teen, lime five, and alumina two parts
The recent scientific exploration o.
the Lake of Tiberias by Mons. Lorte1
has resulted in the discovery OF severa
new forms of fish and new species OF
mollusks in this celebrated lake.
Old wine, says Macagno, owes its
mellowness more to the increase of gly-
cerine than to a decrease of tannin in
the liquid. The excepting of the wine,
he maintains, depends upon the proper
ton the alcohol bears to the tannin.
DR.. Julius Schmidt has lately pub
ished that he finds from the observa-
tions of the red spot on Jupiter, during
period extending from 1879 to 1880,
that an interval of hours, 80 minutes,
34.4 seconds represents the rotation OF
that planet upon its own axis. But he
is not quite sure about the matter after
all, and like wise and prudent man
wants contirmatory evidence.
Herr f. Schone, in the Be1Ichfe, does
not attach any scientific value whatever
to the ordinary potassium iodine paper
tests rs ozone measures. A small
amount of ozone in most air produces,
he says, n greater degree of color on
potassium iodide papers than Il larger
amount of ozone in dry air. The hui
midity of the air, and the microscopic
character of the material from which
the paper is made, therefore largely in
fluence the depth of the color produced.
He even goes so far as to assert that the
actual presence of ozone in the atmoS-
phere is at present an open question.
The minute lines and burrows on per-
sons hands are likely to receive u far
more useful attention than the observa-
tIOI VI oHC SICuo liiiCS w AoieuhC-tciiSiS' Dc
There is reason to believe that the spiral
whorls ON the thumb and finger points
are peculiar to individuals and races,
and may be as certainly used to define
the chronological class or positive iden-
tification of the being possessing them
as the measurements of the skull or eN-
animation of a photograph would be.
DR.. Henry Faulds, of Tsukiji hospital,
Toxic, Japan, in an interesting letter
in The Nature, directs attention to this
subject in a way which will attract the
notice of naturalists and students of the
theory of development and heredity.
1t should be widely known, because
of evident Importance, that at the inter-
national geological congress to be held
at Bologna, in 1881, a prize will be
awarded of 5000 francs for the best in
ternational scale of colors and conven-
tional signs for graphic representation
of formation on geological maps and
sections. Many of our geologists might
go in for the prize, not for its money
value. but for the sake of making GER
tain department of geology ineligible
l,. R,I,