The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-08-04
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

Snuff is generally preserved in lead
to keep it moist.
Hydrogen gas is the lightest ponder
| able matter known.
Oxalic acid is found in the common
sorrel and rhubarb plants.
Gun cotton is made by dipping the
fiber into strong nitric acid.
The bricks of Nineveh and Babylon
were only sun-dried, not baked, as is
the modern practice.
The microscope shows the hair to be
like coarse round rasp, but with the
teeth extremely irregular and ragged.
Black and white pepper both grow on
the same shrub. The white is the berry
deprived before grinding of its outside
husk.
Electric lighting is in successful ope-
ration on more than sixty steamers of the
Mississippi river and its tributaries. 1t
is believed to add much to the safety of
that kind of traffic and travelling.
A new material has lately been CON-
pounded of leather cuttings soaked in
hot water to remove the oil. The cut
tings are then dried, ground to powder,
pressed into molds and used for buttons.
boot heels, etc.
1t is said that DIR. Gehring, of Land
shut in Bavaria, by means of an enam-
cling liquid, renders any species of
stone or cement harder than granite.
The process, it is further reported, ad.
mits of being applied to metal, which is
completely protected from rust.
Smooth, strong and pliable par ch
ment can be made from the palmetto of
Florida and the other Southern States.
1t can be washed, rubbed and handled
like cloth, and the writing will not be
effaced. As much as sixty per cent. of
the palmetto can be utilized in the pro-
cess.
Major Maiendie maintains that gun
powder can be exploded with q wooden
tool, and cites the following instances:
At Bassinghyll gunpowder factory, on
October 12, 1878, two men were remov-
ing indurated powder from a mill bed
by striking it with wooden mallet, and
it exploded and killed them. At Gate
beck, on June 2, 1877, precisely SINH
lar accident, attended with the loss of
one life, occurred. At the Lindal Moor
mine a charge of gunpowder was ex-
ploded while man was forcing it into
a hole in iron-stone with wooden NAL
let. A formidable explosion, which oc.
CURED at the Royal Gunpowder mills,
Wetteren, Belgium, on May 80, 1880, is
attributed in the official report to man
dragging wooden vessel full ofpowder
over a powder-begrimed floor.
The many unlikely methods by which
the seeds of plants are diffused over
land and sea until they at length find
congenial spot for development, form an
interesting and curious study. 1t is
we'll known that bees carry pollen from
flower to flower, and thus act not only
as sewers of seed but also as fertilizers
of the female plants. A curious in
stance of this kind has been given by
scientific man, who states that attached
to the skin of a panther recently shot
in India he found numerous seeds, each
of which had two perfect hooks, appear
ing as if designed to attach themselves
to foreign bodies. AS the panther moved
about it collected the seeds on the skin
and carried them wherever it went, but
when it rubbed against the shrubs the
seeds were brushed off, and thus dis
tributed.
DR.. Richardson has in a late lecture
described the principles which should
guide architects and others in designing
and constructing hospitals for the re-
coption and treatment of persons suffer
ing from smallpox and other infections
diseases. He states on we'll considered
grounds: |. That each hospital should
not he larger than is sufficient to ac-
commodate twenty-four persons at one
time. 2. That every hospital should
be constructed on the separate system
for the patients. B That the material
of construction should be iron, in order
that the hospital mayat any time be alb
solutely purified by fire throughout
with the least possible cost. 4. To
secure direct ventilation and lighting
from the roof, the hospitals proper
should occupy the top stories of build
ings. 5. All the air which passes out
of the wards should have all escape only
through vent so heated as to destroy
all deleterious substances. 6. Each
patient should be carried into the hos
pital by Waived elevator passing
through shaft SO as to draw up air
during its ascent, and to be capable of
flushing the hospital with air, as occa-
sion may require.