Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-02-11
CURIOUS. USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC
A NEW SIGNAL BUOY.

in case of accident at night. 1t is 80
tached to the life-buoy by cord, and
upon being thrown overheard bursts
Immediately on striking the water. The
light, which cannot be extinguished by
either wind or wave, burns for over an
hour, and thus enables the work OF res
cue to be easily carried on.
THE ORIGIN OF BALLOONS.
The story is published, respecting the
origin of balloons, that Nine. Montgol-
fer had washed her petticoat to wear to
a great festival on the next day, and
hung it over chafng-dish to dry. The
hot air, swelling out the folds of the
garment lifted it up and foated it. The
lady was astonished, and called her hus-
bands attention to the sight. 1t did
not take Montgolfier long to grasp the
idea of the hot air balloon.
DRUGS USED IN PRESCRIPTIONS.
According to the Ephemeris, an ex-
animation of 1926 prescriptions IN
Boston drug store showed that 5O4 diff
fe1ent drugs were called for by the
doctors. Quinine took the lead by APP
pearing in 292 prescriptions, morphine
appeared in 172, bromide Of potassium
in III, iodide of potassium in 155, and
muriate of iron in 134. The whole num-
Der of articles in the pharmacopoeia is
994, and Boston uses more than half OF
them.
AN INDUSTRIOUS NEGRO.
A negro living in the southern por-
ton of Macon County, Aaron Calhoun,
made five bales of cotton, without the
assistance of mule, OK, or any beast OF
like kind. He lost his mule in the first
part of the year, and, owing about $50
for advances the previous year, he deter
mined not to go into debt any more.
AS a final resort, he made set of har-
ness for himself and took the place OF
the mule, with the above result
Macon (Ga) Messenger.
NEW Triple.
A peculiar article produced by the
negroes of Georgia is called by them
persimmon bread. Five pounds of it, it
is said, will make nearly barrel of de-
icious beer, sweet, healthful, and non
intoxicating. The persimmons are
gathered when thoroughly ripe, the
mass is kneaded till it is of the consist
ency of bread dough, made into cake,
and then put into an oven and bake d.
It will keep all winter, and can be used
until late in the SPRING Philadelphia
Ledger.
TRANSMISSION FOR CHOLERA.
TRANSMISSION of blood has been sue
cessfully tried in the collapse of cholera
medicine. The patient, who was mort
bund when theremedy was tried, recov-
cred from the death coma in few min
utes, and from the moment of transfu-
sion spontaneously and rapidly i'm
proved. Human blood was employed
in the case; but experiments are to be
made with the blood of domestic ami
mails, particularly cattle and sheep.
Boston Transcript.
WHAT is "ZERO? ?"
Perhaps not one in hundred can
tell off handed why point 30 deg. be-
low freezing point on Fahrenheit's
thermometer is called zero. For that
matter, nobody knows. The Fahren-
heit scale was introduced in 1920. Like
other thermometer scales it has two
fixed points, the freezing point, or rath-
er the melting point of water. The
Centigrade and Reaumur scales call the
freezing point zero, and measure there
from in both directions. Fahrenheit
kept the principal on which he grad
uated his thermometers secret and no
one has ever discovered it. It is sup
posed, however, that he considered his
zero-32 deg. below freezing the point
of absolute cold or absence OF all heat,
either because. being about the temper
allure of melting salt or snow, it was the
greatest degree of cold that he could
produce artifcially, or because it was
the lowest natural temperature of which
he could find any record. The grounds
on which Fahrenheit put $50 deg. be-
tween the freezing and boiling points
are likewise unknown.
CURIOUS TRAFFIC.
The national interchange in fish eggs
has reached enormous figures, and IN
fact this traffic has become one of the
curiosities of commerce, writes a New
York correspondent. One of the Glas-
gov steamers recently brought nearly
half a million eggs of Loeb Leven trout,
which were delivered to United States
Fish Commissioner Baird. He placed
Cn0m III OOlu OpIluS harDOr, LIZ L.,
where he has suitable depot, but they
will soon be sent to various hatchers.
These eggs were contained in six cans
and were thus kept in excellent condl-
ton. Carrying out this international
exchange, our commissioner shipped
nearly one hundred thousand eggs of
lake trout, whitefsh and brook trout to
the Fish Cultural Association of Lon
don. He has also sent a million white
fish eggs to Berlin, where they are
placed in what is termed the "Fischerel
Verein." A half million of the same
kind of eggs were sent to Berne, Switzer-
land. Commissioner Baird has on hand
million whitefsh eggs ready for any de-
mand, and, expects to hatch half mill
ion of salmon for our own rivers,
also large quantity of German carp.
He has half million eggs of the tom
cod, which will also be Matched during
the coming season.
WHITE NEGROES.
Maj. Serpa Pinto, the Portuguese
traveller in Africa who recently arrived