The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-11-21


More than %, ooo, 900 steel pens are made
every week, two-thirds of them being pro-
duced at Birmingham, England.
The last observations indicate that we are
distant from the sun about 90, 700 600 miles
These are tie figures obtained as near as may
be from the observations of the last Venus
transits.
Boiling fast renders meat hard, because the
excessive action of heat causes the albumem
of the meat to set solid, crisps up the fieshy
fibres and prevents heat having gradual ac-
cess to the interior.
volume containing Petrarch's songs,
printed in Venice about the end of the fiji
teenth century, was recently sold in London
for the sum of SO, $50. There il not COPY of
the work in this country.
A vessel constructed of paper was recently
launched at st. Petersburg She is driven by
steam. Her dimensions are: Length, twen-
ty-five feet; greatest width five feet, with
only few inches draught of water.
In Russia, for locomotives and stationary
engines, the use of native mineral fuel as
compared with foreign is steadily increasing.
Some railways not far from collieries have
letsrned to the combustion of wood.
One of the most remarkable things about
paper is its strength. As an illustration of
this note of the Bank of England twist
ed into kind of rope can suspend as many
as 800 pounds and not be injured in the
least.
Field daisies have been colored by placing
their cut stems in aniline violet ink. They
refused to absorb any color from black ink.
Peonies have been colored as they grow by
applying various dyes in solution TO the
ground in which they stood.
A recipe for the removal Of rust from steel
with the least abrasion is to rub sweet oil
we'll int the affected parts, leaving it for
forty-eight hours, at the expiration of which
time the article is to be we'll rubbed with
finely pulverized unslaksd lime.
A correspondent suggests the use of wind
wheels to drive dynamo electric machines to
decompose water. He would store the re-
sulting gases in suitable holders, to be used
when desired for lighting purposes, or for
heating, or for any employment for which
such gases may be available.
A correspondent of nature believes that
such vast quantities of gas as must have been
freed by the Java catastrophe have necessari-
ly affected the earth's atmosphere, and thinks
that the fine weather of September, prevalent
over a large portion of the earth, may have
been the result of the great eruption.
NJ. Lessan has written to the Russian Geo.
graphical Society that he has finished the
exploration of the Ongonz River, which was
known only in its upper parts. On account
VI tic III HESS Vi TIC stdSOu the journey was
difficult. The channel of the river was very
ill-deined, and the expedition often lost its
way.
Electrical omnibuses the invention of NJ.
Phillippart, recently travelled from the Place
de Nations, Paris, to Versailles, a distance
of more than twenty kilometres There was
no serious hitch on the trials Only one
time there was stoppage owing to the heat
ing of coil by excess of current, but the de-
lay did not take up much time.
The deepest sea sounding ever made, say:
the Scientific American, was made In the
Pacific Ocean near the entrance to Behring's
The cast was made from the United States
schoolship Tuscarora. The shallowest water
in the middle of the Atlantic, 73l fathoms
shows the subsistence of mountains 10 ,55t
feet.
Some one who has tried it says it is good
plan to burn sulphur in cellars where milk
is kept, especially if they are damp The
sulphurous acid evolved destroys the mildew
which, if not checked, will iniure the favor
of cream and butter. In many damp cellar!
the mildew wastes the cream, so that the but
ter product is seriously decreased, besides the
injury TO quality.
In speaking of railroad accidents and the
earth's rotation, r. Randolph shows that the
defective force arising from the earth's rota
ton is entirely too small to determine derail
ments, and also that, as an excess of right
handed derailments has been credited solely
to north and south tracks, this proves it t
be wholly imaginary, for the defective forcs
at any latitude is the same for all directions