Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-06-14
CURIOUS, USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC.
CAFEONE.

the heart is opposed to that of caffeine,
as it increases the force and frequency OF
its pulsations.
TO SAVE A DROWNING PERSON.
It may not be generally known that
when person is drowning, if he is taken
by the arms from behind, between the
elbow and shoulder, he cannot touch the
person attempting to save him, and what
ever struggles he may make will only as
sist the person holding him in keeping
his head above water. A good swimmer
can keep a man thus above water for an
hour. If seized anywhere else, the
probability is that he will clutch the
swimmer and perhaps, as is often the
case, both will be drowned.
NEW HARNESS ATTACHMENT.
A simple and useful slip-link has been
brought out and patented in London,
intended to be attached to the kidney
link of each horses collar, so that when
he falls it may be instantly released from
the policeman. This is effected by
simply touching the lever of the slip
link, enabling the horse, by being freed
from the pole, at once to make endeavors
to regain his feet by his own exertions.
This invention has been found in practice
to work well, and has proved great
saving of time, as well as risk of danger
to valuable horses.
FIRE-PROOF STRUCTURES.
The American Architect says: "The
ordinary so-called fre-proof structures
of granite shell inclosing naked iron
beams carrying brick arches supported
by unprotected iron columns, in point
of security against fire are little better
than frames of timber and plank" We
have often noticed that granite and iron
caught fire more readily and burned
somewhat more rapidly than the drop
curtain and scenes of theatre. No iron
column can be considered really fire.
proof until it has been protected by
thick veneering of rosin and pine.
FOR BIOLOGISTS.
Picro-sulphuric acid, for the preserv-
alton of geological specimens, is made by
taking 100 parts of a saturated solution
of picric acid and adding two parts of
pure sulphuric acid. For insects this
mixture is used undiluted, but for null
lusks, etc., it is let down with three
times its bulk of water. Mr.. Billups has
invented new and ingenious method of
putting up insects which are very small.
He gums them on thin glass, such as is
used for covering microscopic objects,
and the thin circles of glass are again
fixed to piece of card supported by
pin, SO that the under and upper sides of
the specimen can be inspected.
A GERMAN sAvANT ON EARTHQUAKES.
DR.. K. Won Fritsch, of Halle, main
tains that the causes of earthquakes are
much slighter than has been generally
believed, that they may be sought at a
depth of not more than ten or twelve
miles, and often less, and that rather
feeble forces may produce earthquakes
which will be felt at great distances.
The hammer in Krupp's factory, which
weighs thousand centners and falls from
a height of ten feet, produces sensible
conclusions over a surface five miles in
diameter and recent explosion in dy-
Mantle factory was felt at between twen-
ty-five and thirty miles away. DIR.
Fritsch points out how earthquakes
might and must be produced by the in
fuence of physical and chemical forces,
by conclusions, by the opening OF crew
ices in rocks and by the sabsideIce of
masses of rocks due to these agencies.
THE DEADLY wooRARI.
During his recent residence in Brazil
MIR. Ernest Morris investigated the COM
position of the deadly Woora1i or
Tucuna poison so universally used by
the Indian tribes of the Upper Amazon.
Its ingredients, character and operation
have been much discussed, and of late
hox il
cal use of it. The Indians make two
grades, one of which they use in obtain
ing game, and the other, which is much
stronger, in war. In tipping their arrows
for the former purpose. care is taken not
to make them deadly, for game impreg-
mated with the poison soon putrefes.
Mr.. Morris rejects the supposition that
salt IS an antidote. He says that he has
often tried this remedy upon monkeys
and cats, but has always lost his patients.
He does not believe that there is any
known antidote when the poison is pure
and new.
SQUARING THE CIRCLE,
James Morton, a Philadelphia math-
e1natician, claims to have solved the
problem known as ssquaring the circle. %
The solution of this problem of finding
the exact area of a circle has occupied
the attention of mathematicians from
time immemorial. Many claimed to have
performed it, but their demonstrations
have always failed to stand the test. The
| nature of the problem places it outside
of the domain of arithmetical calculation.
but notwithstanding this admitted fact,
the ratio between diameter and circum-
ference has been carried out to over six
hundred decimal places. So, by geo.
metrical methods, Mr.. Morton thinks he
has accomplished the quadrature of the
circle. His recently published block
contains the result of his Investigations
on the matter, and much other inf orma-
ton on relative topics. His solution,
put in the form of proposition, is as
follows: "The square of the diameter
of any circle is to it's area. as the peri