Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-05-03
! CURIOUS, USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC.
PAPER-oovERED FURNITURE.


said to be so effective in its purposes as
to promise competition with textile fab
RIGS for upholstery work.
PRINTING INK.
In order to make a good printing-ink
which will not give forth disagreeable
smell, Dr. Brackenbush, of Berlin, dis
solves As parts offine resin in Is parts of
paraffiue-oil by heating them to S0o, or
by incorporating them mechanically at
the ordinary temperature, and when this
latter operation is complete Is parts of
lampblack are added.
MONSTER LENS.
The Paris correspondent of Nature in
spected q few days ago. at Feil's work
shop, the large flint glass disk which
has been cast for the Lick observatory In
California, and purchased by the trustees
for $4,000. It is now on it's way to
Clarke's for polishing. Its diameter is
81 centimetres, its thickness is 55 cent?
metres. The casting took place in four
days. during which eight tons Of coal
were consumed. The cooling took thirty
days. On the optical tests being made
the glass was found perfect in all it's
parts. The crown glass disk has been
cast and is cooling.
ACoNTTE.
The alkaloid aconitia, which Dr. Lam
son is said to have administered, is one
Of the most powerful of poisons It is
obtained from the root of the Aconitum
Nepellus, the monkshood or wolfsbane,
a plant three or four feet high, which
grows throughout Asia and Europe,
mostly in mountainous regions. Geiger
and Hesse probably obtained pure aeon
itia in 1888. Theaconitia of Duquesnel,
a celebrated French chemist, Is much
more powerful than the alkaloid of COM
MERGE. The commercial aconitia is
white or yellowish white powder, while
Duquesn els is crystalized.
RAPID PLoUGHING.
Ploughing by electricity is promised,
but furrow made by the help of the
locomotive is not to be despised. The
laying of underground telephone wires
is most desirable, and the experiment
made by the Bell Company yesterday
between Attleboro and West Mansfield
shows that the process can be very rapid.
A furrow five miles long was turned up
in an almost incredibly short time. A
beam dashed to the car, a plough at
tached to the beam, man at the plough
handles, the starting of the engine, and
the work is done-a trench one foot deep
between the railroad tracks. Perfect in
sulation is secured, and perils of all
sorts are avoided, by the simple expedi-
ent of utilizing the ground. Astonish-
ment will cease soon to be possible, and
yet he would have been called moon
struck who had prophesied five years
ago that five mile burrows for telephone
apparatus would be fashionable in Massa-
chusetts at this date. The question
speedily will be: Who is not my neigh
Dor ?-.BoSto7a Advertiser.
GLAZED PHOTOGRAPHS.
The beautiful gloss on photographs
called enameling is produced, says the
Scientific American, as follows: After
the prints have been toned, washed and
trimmed in the usual way they are i'm
mersed in a warm filtered aqueous solu-
ton of gelatin of about the consistence
of collodion, to which is after added a
small quantity of sugar candy. When
the paper has become well impregnated
with the liquid the pieces are removed
and placed smooth face downward upon
plate of glass previously coated with q
four per cent, normal collodion, and air.
dried. In placing the print care must
be taken TO quickly press out all air-bub-
bles. Afterward sheet of stout white
paper cut somewhat larger than the
prints is cemented to the back of each
photograph to protect the pictures in the
event OF their spontaneously leaving the
glass on drying. The plates are allowed
TO remain over night in dry locality,
when the portraits may be separated
from the glass by making an incision of
the film all around the paper.
HINT FOR SUMMER.
The tettie in India, says Chamber s
Journal. is large curved or sloping
screen, which accurately fits into each
door or window facing the west, and is
made of the roots the khuskhus grass
(Andropogon muricatus), which singu-
larly combines strength and porosity
with the m >st delicious and refreshing
fragrance. These screens are about an
inch In thickness, and, during the hot
and dry west wind, are saturated from the
outside with water, which Immediately
commences evaporating under the fierce
ness of the blast; and as evaporation al
ways implies cold, the wind which, in
the veranda, would raise the Their
mometer to 1902 Fahrenheit, passes into
the house at 750 or 8Oo, laden with de-
licious fragrance. While tatties are in
working order all other cooling appli-
ances are unnecessary. In the neigh
borhood of Gwalior and Jhansi there is
another form of tattie. A small creep
ing. thorny variety of the Der (Zizyphus
iujuba) is largely found in the jungles;
this is collected and dried and at the
proper tine the whole west veranda is
inclosed with thorny walls nine to ten
inches thick, and these being saturated
from the outside, all doors are thrown
open and delightful temperature is Sc
cured. Tatties are of no use dur
ing the easterly wind, which ushers in
and accompanies the rains; laden with
moisture, it is damp wind, and there
fore retards evaporation.
A NJ1yU