Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-06-07
CURIOUS, USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC.

CURIOUS, USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC.
METRIC WEIGHTS BY THE NICKEL COIN.
The metric weights may be obtained
very readily by means of the United
States coins. The five cent nickel coin
weighs five metric grams. Two of these
coins would give the ten-gram weight
suggested for domestic letter postage,
while three of them give the fifteen
gram weight, now used for foreign letter
postage. The twenty cent piece also
weighs five grams.
THE SIZES OF FAMOUS HEADS.
In the London Nature, Mr.. Tuckett
gives the following as the sizes of the
hats worn by certain distinguished men:
Lord Chelmsford, 81 full; Dean Stanley,
81; Lord Beaconsfeld, Z; the Prince of
Wales, 7 full; Charles Dickens, II;
Lord Selborne, Il; John Bright, Il;
Earl Russell, II; Lord Macaulay, 7s;
Mr.. Gladstone, Is; Mr.. Thackeray, e;
Louis Philippe, Z; M. Julien, Il;
Archbishop of York, s full.
TELEPHoNING TO DIVERS.
When the vessel La Provence, which
sank In the Bosphorus, was being raised,
the telephone was added to the divers
equipment. One OF the glasses of the
helmet was replaced by copper plate
In which telephone was inserted so that
the diver had only to turn his head
slightly in order to receive his instruc-
tions and report what he had seen. The
adoption of this means of communica-
ton in diving operations will, In case of
4 - GoI
to lives that otherwise would have been
sacrificed.
CARBON POINTS.
III. Gaudoin's process for making car
bons for electric lamps is as follows:
Wooden sticks are placed in plumbago
retorts and slowly heated to drive off
the volatile matters. The sticks are then
soaked In acid solutions to remove i'm
purities, and the final desiccation takes
place in very high temperature in
reducing atmosphere. The carbonized
wood it then soaked in the carbides of
hydrogen and the chlorides of carbon un-
der pressure until its pores are filed with
a homogeneous deposit of nearly pure
carbon.
a LEAF OF SOAP.
A fashionable novelty In perfumery
has been invented in Austria, and is
called "the book of SOAP" Each leaf
is enough when torn out for one good
wash. The books vary In size, the
smaller are for the hands only, and are
no larger than pocket-books. The Leaf
is soaked in a basin of water for three
seconds, then it floats and is placed in
the center of the hand, where it soon,
with gentle friction, froths. A page of
soap sounds strange, and stranger yet,
the soap Is excellent; it is not unlike an
ivory tablet. We doubt if the invention
can ever become popular as an article
suitable for presentation. It is too sug-
gestive.
CURIOUS REPTILES.
Prof. Othniel Marsh, of Yale, con-
tributes to the American Journal of
Science and to a recent Nature descrip-
ton of one of the most curious of fossil
wing-fngered reptiles. The solitary
specimen is at New Haven, but was
found in Bavaria in the same series OF
states that has shown a number of ia
nous fossils, among the Archsopteryc,
a reptilian bird with feathers and long
jointed tail. The described fossil is a
Rhan120horynchuS to which Professor
Marsh has given the name 3ohytLorus,
owing to long rat-tail which ends in a
broad, leaf-shaped rudder. The wings
of this ancestor of bats are membranous
like those of bats, but much slenderer
and more graceful The head is COM
paratlvely long and large with formida-
BILE supply of teeth. The specimen was
no larger than the ordinary fox-headed
bats seen alive In menageries, and not SO
large as some of the living Indian and
African bats.
PRESERVING IRON.
A new process for preserving iron
consists in treating the casting with
diluted hydrochloric acid, which dis
solves little of the metal and leaves a
skin of homogeneous graphite holding
well to the iron. The article is then
washed N a receiver with hot or cold wa
ter, or cooked IN steam, SO as to remove
completely the chloride of iron that has
been formed. Finally, the piece is al
lowed to dry In the emptied receiver,
and O solution of caoutchouc, gutta-
percha or gum rosin In essence of
petroleum is injected, and the essence
afterward eyaporating, leaves hard and
solid enamel on the surface of the iron
work. Another plan is to keep the
chloride of iron the metal before washing
it off, and to plunge the piece into a
bath of silicate and borate of soda. Thus
is formed a silico-borate of iron, very
hard and brilliant, which fills the pores
of the metal skin AS for the chlorine
disengaged, it ombines with the soda to