The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1886-01-07
SCIENTIFIC CHAT.

Experiments on an extensive scale have been
made in Germany to ascertain the relative strength
of iron and steel girders. The soft-steel glrders
proved to be % per cent. and hard-steel- grders
to per cent stronger than the iron cirders; and it
is remarked that it seemed pretty well established
that the strength of steel grderS Is about the same
for the two flanges if made alike in section.
An improved method of tanning-namely,
with soap and oil, together with carbolic acd-has
been brought to notice by an Australian inventor
The skins, which have been lined in the ordinary
manner, also haired and prepared If for the pro-
duclon Of sole leather are placed in tin bath CON
sisting of mixture of 10 gallons of water in which
200 pounds of soap dissolved, and containing
one gallon of carbolc acid, in which the skins are
left until they have become converted into leather
This process, it Is asserted, may be considerably
accelerated by adding pint of fresh carbolic acid
to the tanning fluid from time to time. For softer
leather the raw, lined. and haired skins are for
one or two days placed in mixture of four parts
carbon bisulphide and one of carbolic acid, and
then washed.
Referring to an announcement that at a recent
eXlumation in a Western cemetery the body of
woman was found turned to stone. the Louisville
Medical Ne,cs says: Fertilization of the body of a
warm -blooded animal never has been known, and
1t Is quite safe To say has never taken place. The
condition of the body which leads to such mis-
conception is not that of petrcatiOn, but of sa-
poniticaton." 1t is explained that ntrogenous It's
give off ammonia and this, attacking the fats
in the body, produces 1adipOcere. hard form of
soap. The writer, when AT the New Orleans Fair,
saw barrel OF pork labelled, Found floating In
the Mississippi ill an advanced state of petrifica-
ton" Being skeptical as to the capacity of rocks
to float he chpped of n piece and found that the
hog, like the human being under like circum-
stances, had merely TUNED to adipocere.
The office of forests in diminishing evapora-
ton cannot be explained by the lower temperature
or the greater humidity which are known to exist
under their shadow. TiIe most important factor
contributing to the rus,at is the resistance opposed
by woods TO the winds. the force of which being
greatly reduced under the trees the air is changed
more slowly, and consequently, the moisture Is less
readily carried away. Documents which have been
collected at Nancy in France, show that the vi
nf q mi Off III
would seem that i'll Central Europe, where the
difference between the temperature of the ground
and air within the forest and that of the open is
but little in the Winter, the forests would have
slight Influence on precipitation at that season.
Nevertheless, the forests receive more water than
the open spaces in Winter. because of the lowness
of the clouds combined with the resistance that the
woods offer to the west Wxpds. "a.
Rain water is stored In the moss and herbage
of the woods to be consumed by the vegetation
during the dry season. A striking illustration of
this fact is given in forest the Western coast of
the Caspian Sea, where the vegetation is very uxu
RANT although it never rains except III the Fall
and Winter.