The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 18??-1882, 1881-10-07
Scientific Notes.

Il
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Lime is preserver of wood. 1t has
been noticed that vessels carrying it
last longer than any others.
A submerged steel tube forty feet
below the surface is the latest suggest
ion for the crossing of the English
Channel.
Pliny tells us that Dedalus invented
the saw. The earliest saw mill of
which we have mention was built at
Madeira in 1920.
In view of the opinions lately ex-
pressed by eminent Oculists, that the
reading of German text is injurious to
the eyes, the Bernese Government have
resolved as much as possible to dis
courage its use, and all their official an
nouncements and reports will hence.
forth be printed exclusively in Roman
characters.
Steel steamships, unknown few
ago, are now quite common. English
shipholders, finding the iron they have
hitherto been usingt in the construct
ion of steamships too brittle and of in
adequate tensile strength, are very gen.
orally resorting to steel as a substitute.
This steel, however, is really nothing
but homogeneous iron and of tensile
strength about the same as our ordinary
shipbuilding iron.
A new lighthouse, in which the elec-
trio light is to be used, has just been
completed at Marseilles. The cost of
light will be about Is. Sd. per hour,
against IS. Id. the cost of the ordinary
light; taking into account the inten-
sity of the hame,t the cost of the electric
light is seven times less than the cost
of that which it will replace. The
new lighthouse will be one of the finest
on the French coasts.
The French Commissioners on the
Hygiene :of Infancy in awarding the
prize in competition of essayists, re-
port that the conclusions generally ar
rived at lead to the following recon-
mendations No child should be reared
on artificial food when the mother can
suckle it, but such food is preferable to
placing the child with a wet nurse,
poorly remunerated and living at her
own home. For successfully bringing
up an infant by hand, the best milk is
that of a cow that has recently calved,
or similarly of goat, to which should
be added during the first week half
part of water,and subsequently fourth
or less, according to the digestive
powers of the child. Glass or earthen-
ware alone should be used no vulcan
lied India-rubber mouthpieces or YES
sells containing lead should be employed.
If you will take one pound of sugar
of lead and dissolve il in one gallon of
soft water; then take one pound of
alum and dissolve that in another gal
lon of soft water, keeping the two So
lutions separate. Then dip your jacket
in the sugar of lead water, soaking it
thoroughly; then hang the jacket UP
to drain, and when nearly dry, dip it
in the alum water, and dry it in the
open air or before fire. 1t will not
change the color or injure the fabric.
We believe this is what the Liverpool
man did with our monkey jackets; at
any rate the process we have described
is as good. OvercOats and pantalOons
may be thus treated with marked, good
effects, and while these simple chemi-
calls serve as waterproOfng, they do
not seem to "full up" or harden the
fabrics. This treatment of small boat
sails and light awnings tends to make
them mildewproof as well as water
proof. The cost is very trifling.
SPONTANEOUS FOREsTS.-A writer
in West Virginia paper combats the
opinion, held by many arboriculturists,
that an open country is never convert
ed into forest through the operation
of natural causes, and, as establishing
the fact that such change does some
times occur, brings forward the case of
the Shenandoah Valley. When first
settled, about 160 years ago, it was an
open prairie-like region covered with
tall grass, on which fed herds of deer,
buffalo, elk, etc., and having no timber,
except on ridgy portions Of it; but in
consequence of its settlement, the an
nual fires were prevented, and trees
sprang up almost as thickly and regu-
larly as If seed had been planted.
These forests, having been preserved
by the farmers, cover now large part
of the surface with hard wood trees of
superior excellence. These facts would
also seem to substantiate the theory
that the treeless character of the prai-
ries of the West is due to the annual
burning Of the grass by the Indians.
DESTRUCTION OF FISH BY Tor
PEDoEs.-The alarming destruction of
the fish in many of the Indiana streams
by means of dynamite torpedoes, has
led to the organization of State Fish
Protection Society, Of which Alexander
G. Jameson is president. County and
local societies are to be formed
throughout the State to assist in en-
forcing the new fish law. Unless
steps are speedily taken to prosecute
the vandals who are using these tor
pedoes so destructively in some of our
streams, the fish will to a great extent
disappear. The manner in which the
dynamite fisherman operates is to sink
the torpedoes in the holes or deep
water in the streams, and set them off
with fuse. The concussion is so
great as to kill OF stun all the fish with
in radius of fifty feet or more, when
they rise to the surface of the water.
The larger ones are then scoOped up
in nets, and the smaller remain to rot
and faint the air.