Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-07-08
CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC
AN AUTOMATIC POsT-oFFICE.

In nearly every rallfOad station In
London is small box on legs, painted
crimson. which may becalled an auto
matte post-ofice. 1t is divided into
two compartments. In the top are
apertures admitting a penny, one
being for postal cards and the other
for envelopes. You drop a penny
through the slot and open little
drawer beneath, and, presto, you find
a postal card. Drop two pennies in
the right hand slot, open a CORE
spending drawer, and you find
stamped envelope, containing q dainty
sheet of note paper. These little con
veniences are the property OF COM
pany.
WEST POINT APPOINTMENTS.
Every Congressional district is enti-
tied to one cadet at West Point Acad-
envy, and ten are appointed from the
country at large. AS each cadet grad
yates, dies or resigns, room is made
for another in his place. 1t is the du-
ty Of the representative in Congress of
q given district to select a commission
of three citizens, who shall meet at q
place appointed and examine and re-
port upon theprofciency ofcandidates
offering those best versed in arithme-
tic, reading and writing, including Or
biography, the elements of English
grammar, of descriptive geography,
particularly of their own country, and
in the history of the United States, are
awarded preference. The appoint
ments at large are conferred by the
President; those from the districts and
territories by the Secretary of War on
the nomination of the representative
aforesaid.
A STRANGE DISCOVERY.
While excavating the bed for q new
and larger gasometer at a Dumfries
(Scotland) gasworks, the contractor
came upon a bed of peat in which were
imbedded the trunk of Scotch fir,
six feet in height, with the bark upon
it; pieces of elm, oak and hazel, with
nuts and cones, broken antler and
various coleopterous remains. In a
quantity of the moss placed under
glass the cranberry and other plants
have begun to terminate after a sleep
of centuries. The spot, which is now
in the heart Of the town, is supposed
to have formed part of the bed Of a
lock in prehistoric times, and three
centuries ago a milldam was con-
structed at the place, which was then
a morass. The bed of conglomerate
on which the peat and other top
layers rest has been found to contain
large fragments of red granite, a rock
which is not known to exist in the
Immediate vicinity.
A CURIOUS HOME.
The time of day is announced to the
garrison and neighborhood of Wool
witch every day at P. NJ. and 9.3OP.M
by firing a blank charge OF powder
from a nine-pounder bronze gun. This
gun is mounted in the Gun Park on a
wooden travelling carriage which is
fitted with two axletree boxes, each
about l it. square by 6 in. deep,
with the inside divided into several
compartments. This box is designed
to carry case shot and cartridges with
the gun in action. The carriage is an
old one, and the right axletree box
has small hole in one of it's sides.
Some days ago the gunner on firing
the 1 o'clock gun, observed a sparrow
flying out of this hole, and an examin-
alton of the box showed that it con-
tanned, instead Of case shot, a spar
rows nest with five eggs. The box
was carefully padlocked, so as to guard
the nest from inquisitive people; but
the gun was fired twice day as usual,
and on the morning of Saturday,
May Is, 1885, five little sparrows
made their appearance, and are doing
well.
LIGNUM WIFE.
Lignum vitae stands first among our
native woods in power to resist Gin
dentation," which means in the CEN
sus tests compression in q line perpen-
dicular to the fiber. A punch one cen
tlmeter square was used, and the force
required to press this into the wood to
a depth Of 1.27 millimeters was re-
corded. With lignum vitae this force
was 7O3 Kilograms. The next ten
species arranged in order of their pow
er Of resistance belong, as does the
first, to semi tropical Florida, and the
first wood on the list which is COM
monty known in the Middle States is
the persimmon, ranking No. 80. The
hardness OF persimmOn wood as COM
pared with lignum vitae, however, is
only as 1924 to 793. Usage orange
offers a resistance Of 363 Kilograms;
mahogany, 800; shagbark hickory,
271; sugar maple, 257; black birch, |
226; white oak, 213; black walnut,
1876; black ash, 1914: white maple,
181; white ash, III; American elm,
Ito; liquid amber, 1872; tamarack,
112; Douglas fir, 100; hard catalpa,
SO; tulip tree, 80; aspen, 80; red
wood, II; white pine, "A; Eastwood,
So.
MECHANICS OF AMERICAN CITIES.
Belle City. Racine, Wis; Bluff City,
Hannibal, Mo-; City of Churches, |
Brooklyn, n. Y; City of Elms, New
Haven, Conn.,; City of Flour and Saw
dust, Minneapolis, Mimi; City of Mag
nifcent Distances, Washington, D. c.;
City of the Plains, Denver, Col; City Of |
Rocks, Nashville, Tenn; City of Roses,
Little Rock, Ark; City of Spindles, |
Lowell, Mass; City of the Straits, De-
troit, Mich; Corn City, Toledo, O.;
Cream City, Milwaukee, Wis; Crescent
CITY, New Orleans Ia. Delta Ci+v