The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1886-08-11
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Goals of the same chemical compost
tion do not always give out the same
amount Of heat. This fact has puzzled
chemists for a long time.
From recent experiments by DIR. Par
sons, the conclusion is reached that the
germs of ordinary infectious diseases can.
not Withstand an exposure of dry heat of
$50 degrees, or an exposure of five min
utes to boiling water or steam of 212 de,
grees.
Photography, it is claimed, is to be
still further advanced by the use of the
air brush. In this device a little holder
is charged with India ink, and, by bel.
lows operated with a foot t,pedaL atter the
manner of sewing machine, thaf1uid is
blown upon family outlined portrait,
the result giving a picture superior in
many respects to the best crayon drawing
the whole operation involving only
few hours time.
A simple test of the quality of leather
belts is thus given by the London Ne
chanicGl World: A small piece of the belt
is cut out of the strap and put into vine
gar. If the leather is thoroughly tanned
and of good quality it will remain unal
tered, and even show, after some months,
only a somewhat darker color, while if it
has been insufficiently prepared with tan
min the fibres swell and are converted
into gelatinous mass in short time.
A new substance, lanolin, is prepared
from the wool of sheep. 1t has great
combining and absorbing properties and
will be extensively used as basis for
ointments. Though fat, it will COM
bine with 60 per cent of its weight of
water, but As per cent of wool consists
of this fat. Though new discovery
under the present civilization, it is not
new under the sun, as it is mentioned in
ancient writings of Ovid, Herodotus and
other Greek and Roman writers.
The apparent remarkable enlargement
of the filament of an electric incandes-
cent lamp on becoming white hot is ex-
planned by the fact that when some of
the nerve ends of the retina of the eye
are excited by light the excitement ex-
tends to some degree to the neighboring
nerves. Thus narrow white-hot wire
or thread affects, especially from a dis
tance, more nerve fibres of the retina
than really receive the light rays, and the
sensation is that of a large wire. This
Is the phenomenon called irradiation.
1t has long been necessary to meet
part of the demand for ivory for artistic
and industrial purposes by>An artificial
substitute, which has in most cases been
obtained by injecting whitewood with
chloride of lime under strong pressure.
A new method has been displayed at the
Amsterdam Exhibition, in which the
bones of sheep and waste pieces of deer
and kid skins are used. The bones are
for this purpose macerated aud bleached
for two weeks in chloride of lime, then
heated by steam along with the skin, so
as to form fluid mass, to which are
added few hundrcdths of alum; the
mass is then filtered, dried in the air, and
allowed to harden in bath of alum, the
result being white, tough plates, which
are more easily worked than natural
ivory.
Pyramid Lake, Nevada, which has no
outlet, is nearly forty miles long by from
| fifteen to twenty miles in width. 1t has
an elevation of 4, 900 feet above the level
of the sea, and is 2,247 feet lower than
Lake Tahoe, the, principal source of its
main feeder. Great Salt Lake, on tho
eastern side of the Great Basin, is the only
larger lake on the whole plateau. 1t is
seventy miles long by about thirty wide.
The elevation of the Great Salt Lake is
also about 200 feet greater, which shows,
as do many other things, that the grand
interior plateau has slight inclination
or dip to the westward, and also to the
southwark towafd the Colorado River.
Lake Tahoe is smaller than Pyramid
Lake, 1t is only thirty miles long by from
eight to fifteen miles in width. Pyramid
Lake is larger than the Dead Sea, which,
according to the surveys of Lieutenant
Lynch, is trifie over forty miles long,
with an average breadth of only eight or
nine miles. 1t is much larger than the
Sea of Galilee, which is only sixteen miles
| lnrru nd E.. n,. ri,- nj ilnc ,.riln