Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-03-08
BUGS IN FLOUR MILLS.

IISluS IL COueS 10 ~ uolouG vi bWO VI
three feet
BUGS IN FLOUR MILLS.
Alum water is recommended for pre-
venting bugs and worms from infesting
-four mills. Dissolve two pounds of alum
in three quarts of warm water, and apply
with q brush to crevices where insects
may be concealed.
PERMANENT BATHS"
Professor Langenbeck, of Berlin, has
recently performed successful opera
ton, during which the patient was i'm
mersed in waterfor sixteen days. These
permanent baths" so called, are likely
to play great part in modern hygiene,
more especially in cases of burns, for
which bed-heat is known to be very dan
gerous.
CEMENT FOR LEATHER,
For making cement for leather take of
common glue and American isinglass
equal parts, and place in a glue-pot.
Add water to cover the whole. Soak ten
hours. Then bring the mixture to a
boiling heat and add pure tannin till the
whole becomes ropy or like the white of
eggs. Apply warm. Buff off the grain
of the leather where it is to be cement
ed; put the joint surfaces solidly togeth-
er; let it dry few hours and it is ready
for use. If properly put together, the
cement is as strong rs the leather.
SOFT SOLDER ON COPPER, BRASS, ETC.
The liquid used by tinsmiths and
other workmen to cause soft solder to
adhere to copper, brass and even iron,
about which some maintain a secrecy, is
merely crude chloride of zinc. To
make it, put a little muriatic acid into a
wide-mouthed bottle Of twice the ca
pacity. Set this out of doors, on ac-
count of the odor, and add zinc cut in
strips, SO long as any Is dissolved. In
soldering copper, brass or iron, scrape
the spot bright, place upon it drop OF
two of this liquid, and apply solder in
the usual manner.
ENGLISH WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
The English weights and measures in
common use in market reports or agri-
cultural produce are thus defined: A
truss of straw, 36 pounds; truss of old
hay after September 1st, Sc pounds; a
truss of new hay, 60 pounds. Thirty
six trusses constitute load. One stone
of butchers meat is pounds. An ordi-
nary stone is IA pounds, quarter is %
pounds, hundred weight is four quar-
ters, or 112 pounds, bushel of -four Sc
pounds, sack of flour, or five bushels,
$50 pounds. In dry measure three
bushels equal one sack; Of grain four
bushels; twelve sacks equal one chal-
dron; eight bushels or two sacks equal
one quarter, and five quarters equal one
load.
WRITING ON GLASS.
The following formula of q good var
nish for writing on glass is given by M.
CrOva in the Journal de Physique;
Ether, 500 gr.; sandarach, 80 gr.; mas
tic, 80 gr. Dissolve, then add benzine
zine in small quantities till the varnish,
spread on piece of glass, gives it the
aspect of roughened glass. The varnish
is used cold. To have a homogeneous
layer pour over that already formed
some oil of petroleum, let iG evaporate a
little, then rub in all directions with
cambria cloth till all is quite dry. With
ink or lead pencil lines can be produced
on this surface as fine as may be desired.
Thus a drawing may be prepared in a
few minutes and Immediately pro-
jected.
THE EFFECT OF WEATHER ON TREES.
Sir Herbert Christison, the great
Scotch chemist, has made some curious
observations on the effects of a cold, wet
season IN diminishing the normal growth
of trees. He found on careful measure
ment that, comparing 1879 with 1873,
eleven deciduous trees-not oaks-made
on an average forty-one per cent. less
growth in last year than in the year be-
fore. Of seventeen pine trees, the aver
age efficiency was twenty per cent, SO
that heat appears to have more to do
with the making of wood than moisture
has. It is strange that the growth of the
oak, which drops its leaves, seems less
dependent on heat than that of the pine,
which we usually associate with very
cold regions.
BRICKS THAT ARE MAGNETIC.
It was lately observed by Herr Kepner,
at Salzburg, in the Tyrol, that some old
bricks had an attractive OF repellant
force on compass. From each of
eight varieties of clay in the neighbor-
hood two bricks were nodded, and one
of the two In each case was baked. The
unbaked brick had no action on mag
netic needle, but seven Of the eight
baked bricks proved polarly magnetic.
Some further experiments have been
made by Herren Kell and Trientl. Par
ticles Of powder of the magnetic bricks
adhered to steel magnet. Breunerite,
mica-slate, argillaceous iron garnet,
chlorite and horn-blende were. before
heating, unmagnetic, but the intense
heating produced magnetic polarity,
the axis of which seemed to be perpen-
dicuLar to the place of stratifcation.
The magnetism of newly heated rocks
seems to fall off somewhat in course of
time, but some Stag of the Orzthal, per-
haps thousands of years old, was found
to be still magnetic.
PLANT GROWTH IN CARBoNIC ACID.
While plants draw the azotized and
mineral matters they require from the
soil, they are believed to get their car
bon mostly from the air, through the
leaves. A new series of observations as
to the effect of greatly increasing the
carbonic acid in the atmosphere about a
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