The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1885-09-23
CURIOUS, USEFUL AND SCIEN.
TIFIC.

Eyesight among civilized people is not so
strong as among savages.
The latest device in hotels is revolving
shelf set in the wall so that things can be
passed INTO the room without opening the
door.
Electric street cars are running success
fully in Baltimore. They run much
smoother than when drawn by horses and
more rapidly.
stovepipes can be cleaned by putting a
piece OF zinc on the Goals of hot fire. The
yapor produced carries off the SCOT by chem
ical decomposition.
Ii rs noteworthy tact that marriage be-
tween deaf mutes and hearing people seldom
produce deaf offspring. The healthy infu-
ence tends to obliterate the unhealthy.
Rails, sleepers, turning forks ana grind
stones are now made of glass, the low cost of
hard glass castings; about 81 32 per hundred
weight, being strong recommendation.
Firecrackers came from Canton, where
they are made by c0nvicts hired from the
government at the rate OF three cents a day.
All the work is done inside of the prison.
one spool factory turns out 100000 gross
day and consumes 800 cords of birch wood
annually. The number of yards of cotton
on q spool is determined by the size OF the
spool.
creates sensation at the London "Inven-
tors exhibit Another, the size of shill-
ing shows the time, the year, the month, the
day Of the month and week, and the phase
Of the moon.
A new blasting powder has been intro
duced in Europe. 1t has the force of dyna-
mite without its extra hazardous properties.
The compound consists OF a mixture of
nitrate of potash or nitrate OF soda with sui
phur ashes and tannin.
Experiments show that If wheat or corn
starch be treated with oxalic acid, or any
other powerful organic acid a syrup is pro-
duced which in a certain concentration, and
after standing two or three weeks, exactly
resembles in taste and appearance an old
honey.
In "a report of experiments to the Glasgow
Philosophical Society il appears that live
rabbit survived an hours exposure TO a tenn
pcrture of 100 degrees below zero 1t was not
frozen, its body heat being reduced only to
forty-threc degrees below zero, and in two
instances recovered.
To measure the heighth of tree, mark
two lines on the ground three feet apart.
Put stick in the line nearest the sun exact
ly three feet above the soil. When the end
of the shadow of the stick exactly touches
the furthest line, then also the shadow of the
tree will be exactly its height.
One of the relics in the Norlands Or. L.
Library is a homely pine-board cradle, in
which were rocked the seven Washhurn
brothers -Four congressman, two ministers
plenipotentiary, two governors and secre-
Iary of State were successfully lulled to sleep
between the implanted pine boards.
A French physician, Delaunay, has found
that dreams which come to the sleeper while
on the right side are illogical, absurd, full Of
vivacity and exaggeration. Those which
come TO the sleeper who lies on his left side
are not only less absurd, but also more intel
ligent. They are apt to be concerned with
recent actual events.
In memoir by Sir ]. Il. Lawes it is main
tanned that while the atmosphere is the
main, if not the exclusive, source of carbon
for crops the soil is the principal, if not the
only, source of their nitrogen. The author
is of opinion that arabic soil loses as much
nitrogen in the form of drainage as it re-
ceives from the atmosphere