The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-04-02
Che 9aily 8mlletin.
THURSDAY, APRIL =, 1885.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES,

Experiments made with girders by
the Dutch Government show that
soft steel is % and hard steel &C per
cent stronger than iron.
The sawdust and refuse of the
sawmill is now made to yield four
teen gallons of turpentine, three or
four gallons of resin and a quantity
of tar per cord.
TO cut the largest square from a
given circular sheet, multiply the
diameter by .7O71 and the result will
be contained in the circle.
A French inventor is said to have
perfected an apparatus which will
enable railway dispatchers to see in
a mirror the entire section Of the
road under their charge.
The Arabs grind their coffee as
fine as -four, and boil it in copper
saucepan without a lid. They would
not on any account boil it in n COW
cred vessel, rs any lid or cover
would prevent "thc dcleterious
qualities from escaping and make
the coffee bitter"
An engineer who has made cleo
tricity his study recently declared
that in the couse of ten years he
believed it would be possible to CON-
press enough electricity in sub
stance the size of an egg shell to
drive an express train from Liver
pool to London.
Two ounces of soda dissolved in
quart of hot water will make ready
and useful solution for cleaning old
painted work preparatory to repaint-
ing. This mixture, in the above
proportions, should be applied when
warm, and the wood work afterward
washed with water to remove all
traces of the soda.
Mercury is firmly believed by the
Chinese to possess wonderful virtues.
They hold that it not only prolongs
life, but expels bad vapors, poison,
and the gloom of an uneasy mind.
The doctrine of the transmutation of
mercury into other metals prevailed
in China 1900 years ago. Cinnabar
was known to the Chinese in the
seventh century before the Christian
era.
Civilization has it's drawbacks. 1t
is said that not only has the acute
ness of vision of civilized man fallen
below the standard common among
savage nations, but at the same time
the eyes of civilized man often depart
from the normal or approximately
spherical formation, either becoming
tlattened from front to back so as to
bring the retina too near the surface
or elongated from front to back, so
as to remove the retina too far from
the surface.
In communication to the Physi-
illogical Society of Berlin DR.. Falk
stated, as result of his researches
on drowning, that when rabbits are
suddenly plunged into water having
q temperature of 40 or 45 degree
F., cramp of the exploratory muscles
occurs and respiration ceases. The
methods of restoring the apparently
dead have no relation to the effect of
cutaneous stimulation upon repira-
ton. Cold water dashed upon the
chest acts upon the heart alone; on
the nape of the neck it acts upon the
lower brain.
Two methods are in use in Phila-
delphia to prevent chemical obstuc-
tons in water pipes. One is to coat
the interior Of the pipes with coal
tar pitch, which does well enough
for large mains and keeps the pas
sage tolerably clear for more than a
quarter of century. The other
method is the one called "bower-
barff," which consists in subjecting
the pipes at high temperature to
the action of steam or air, 50 that
there is film of magnetic oxide
acquired by the metal, which insures
clean surface for long time.