The Indiana State sentinel., 1886-01-20
CURIOUS, USEFUL AND scIEN-
TIFIC.

Moths can be kept out of garments by
wrapping them in soiled colored calico.
To evaporate one cubic foot of water re-
quires the consumption of seven and one
half pounds OF ordinary coal, or about one
pound Of coal to gallon of water.
The true physiological way of treating
burns and scalds is at once to exclude the
air, with cotton batting, flour, scraped pO-
tato or anything that is handiest.
A fash oflightning is only the visible pas
sage of current of electricity from one
point TO another If this current could pass
through wire or metal rod. instead or
through space of air, it would 60 silently
and unperceived just as a cerrent of water
flows through pipe without NOISE or dis
turbance. The purpose of a lightning ROD
is to carry this current of electricity quietly
and silently from a cloud to the earth and
prevent its sudden discharge from the over
burdened cloud with all the explosive force
of flash of light.
Though the clay-eaters of the South are
regarded as tiie lowest development of Amer
lean humanity, they are not alone in their
strange taste, for travellers report the use of
edible earths in all quarters of tine globe.
Clay itself is entirely without nutrIment,
being composed of SILICA, alumnia and wa
ter colored by metallic oxides, and is very
injurious to health. In Java it is eaten to
produce leanness, and, with an equal disre-
SoiN Va Consequences, oldbc DcnCilS dIc COu-
sumed in our own country for the same pur-
pose. On the other hand certain of the
edible earths, such as tripoi, which is COM
posed of microscopic and fossilized shells of
fresh-water infusoria, might be beneficial
from the phosphates contained.
A couple of brothers named Streekeel, re-
siding at Louisville, KY, "have solved the
question of starting street-cars easily" says
the Courier-J Journal. "It consists of a tor
sion SnrilO Cnnnn00oH of eO
may be neceSsary-the limit being practi-
cally at the disposal of the weight of the car
and its contents and being under control of
the common, everyday brake. Te be ex-
pllclt, or rather to illustrate; power enough
can be furnished to start all the load that
large street car can hold with safety, and the
impetus is so great that with the present
force, as demonstrated at the test, a carload
of heavy ties can easily be propelled dis
tance of seven feet The simplicity and
durability of the spring are its greatest rec
concentrations. The invention was but re-
Gently patented by these gentlemen, who
have worked against the protests of every
man who has given the subject a thought
Its neat and clever construction admits of
easy adjustment on the ordinary street car,
of which it is no doubt destined to become
an invaluable and inseparable part"
The dried milk of the bullet tree, or MImu-
sops globosa, from Guiana, is likely to come
into greater use as a substitute for india
rubber and gutta-percha According to Sir
William Holmes, ii possesses much of the
elasticity of india-rubber without its intract-
ibility; and much of the ductility of gutta-
percha, without Its friability; while an
American firm of manufacturers recently
pronounced it ''the best gum in the world"
According to recent report of Mr.. Denman,
Government Botanist in British Guiana, its
strength is very great: and 1t is specially
applicable to betting for machinery. Balata
withstands exposure to light and air, where
as gutta- percha is apt to deteriorate under
exposure. The electrical properties of the
gum are also said to be equal to those of
gutta-percha; whereas it is different gum,
being softer at ordinary temperatures and
less rigid in cold ones. 1t appears, in fact,
to occupy an intermediate place between
india-rubber and guatta- percha, and is grow
ing in use as it becomes better known.
One of the most interesting cases in the
great fisheries exhibit in the National Mu-
scum at Washington is that filed with
artificial bats and lures used by primitive
races, as well as of modern manufacture
Here are scores of drails for bass and blue
fish crawfish, helgramites, frogs, insects and
minnows made of soft rubber, hard rubber.
or metal, each cleverly concealing a hook;
spoon bats of diverse materials; artificial
flies by the hundred, and the neatest of
books to keep them in, and queer little lures
cOntriVed oy savage fishermen, who had
never heard of our elaborate flies and artif-
cial bait. A sample of these is the ajakkal
jujak of the Hudson Bay Eskimo, which is
an ivory fish about four inches long. A line
is passed through the middle of the back,
and fastened to the belly; here is small
ivory hook that reaches from an inch to two
inches below the fish. The principal use of
the ajak-kaljujak is not, however, to hook
fish, but to lure them within the reach of
the spear. The Eskimo takes his little ivory
model and bobs it up and down in the water
generally in crack or through a hole in the
ice made for the purpose, and watches in
quiet until he espies a fish coming toward
his lure. He then begins to haul gently on
his line, if the FISH follows, until it has ap-
preached within reach of his spear. Some
times greedy fish will make a rush and
swallow the bait, but this is not the inten-
ton of its maker. The ingenious natives of
the Alaskan and Kamtschatkan coasts have
invented great variety of these artificial
lures, as well as a revolving spoon of ivory
or bones spinning around the shaft of a
bone hook, precisely upon the principle of
our silvered trolling spoons.