The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1883-07-28
Scientific Notes.

Sclentlnc NOteS.
81. G. Harvey mentions the case of
cat that has become quite blind from cat
aracy but is still able to do mousins
and to make journeys from and to home
Beet-root sugar is now admitted to be
quite distinct from cane sugar. It's
sweetening power is thirty per cent
lower at least, but its polarizino power
is greater.
Crude honey has been found TO keen
far better than the clarified kind. but The
addition of about one per cent. of or.
ailc acid will do no harm to the honey.
but will improve it,
Pasteur has studied the pneumo enter
ties OF pigs, which has carried off last
year In the valley of the Rhone alone
more than sc, 900 swine. He traces the
| affection to microbia.
A Polish newspaper saws that a rich
land proprietor who is living in Plotzla
has applied to the government for per.
mission to build railroad between that
place and the fortress of Novogeoroisvsk
"a capital name for terminus.
A writer in the Cosmos Les Mondes
proposes to dissolve zinc in dydroch1oric
acid, to sell the hydrogen gas for filing
balloons. and to utilize the zinc chloride
as disinfectant. The article hardly APP
pears to be a serious one.
This is some of the uses TO which the
Russians put their soldiers: Tue Jabinsk
Paisi railroad has been constructed by
one corps. It is about 12O miles long.
has nine bridges, cost the government q
little more than SIS, 900 mile, and was
finished in five months. By the middle
of this month the Trans Caspian
Krasnovodsk will be finished as far as
Arvat.
To coat iron with zinc very fine coat
ing is made of the powder of the latter
metal, which is mixed with oil and sicca-
tive and applied to the iron by means of
an ordinary brush. In many cases one
coat will do. Both the effects of air and
water are kept away by two coats. The
zinc coating gives the iron a steely ap-
pearance, which does not interfere with
subsequent painting.
An indorsing ink which does not dry
quickly on the pad and is quickly taken
by the paper is thus made: Auiline color
n solid form, Is parts; boiling distilled
water. 80 parts; glycerine parts, and
'yrup 3 parts. The color is dissolved in
lot water and the other ingredients are
ldded while water is being agitated.
This indorsing ink is said to acquire its
rood quality from the addition of the
yrup.
A telegraph line has lately been estab-
ished between Shanghai and Tientsin.
t is now to be extended to Pekin. as the
prejudice has been removed. Teleerams
lre to be forwarded either in French or
n English. Yet there is strict scru.
my to be kept by two mandarins. The
luty of these officials will be to see TO it
hat no messages will pass over the wires
1y which the state would be endan-
yered.
There is no more powerful apparatus
.or the conveyance of disease than a
book" says the London Lancet. A list
of the maladies most easily conveyed by
means of books is given as follows:
;. Measles. scarlet fever. diphtheria, sore
throat, whooping cough, bronchitis and
perhaps phthisis." The germs of disease.
may lie for weeks, months or perhaps
years, between the pages of q bound
book, to be dislodged at some unpro-
pltious moment when the volume
chances to be handled by susceptible
A new explosive has been invented by
VI. Turpin, Partisan chemist. It is
'ald to be very powerful, and unlike
INTRO -glycerine, dynamite and gun cot
on it has the highly important property
II not being affected by concussion. II
s made by the ombination of two
iqu1ds, which can be transported like
ordinary chemicals, and need only be
mixed when the explosive is about to be
lsed. 1t can be employed in its LIQUID
orm or when absorbed by silicious
arth. Frost does not affect it. At
,herbourg experiments have been made
nth this substance upon slaty rocks
containing quartz and also upon old
ement work. and the report of the en-
lneers praises it very much.
The ebonized wood which has now
ONE into such extensive use for decora:
i've purposes, is pronounced fully equal
nd in some respects preferable to the
.enulne ebony. One of the most salts
actory methods of producing superior
rticle of eboniZed wood is to take fne-
rained growth of apple, pear or walnut
nd then proceed as follows: Boil in
lazed vessel with water four ounces of
all nuts. one ounce of logwood chips,
alf an ounce of vitrioI and half an
unce of crystalized verdigris; this to
e filtered while warm and the wood
rushed number of times with the hot
olution. Thus stained black. the wood
} then coated two or three times-being
llowed to dry completely after each
solution of one ounce of
ron filings in quart of good wiae vine.
ar. This should be prepared hot and
flowed to cool before using.