Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-07-22
STUDY AND WORKSHOP.

- VII AMI MOhhSIIOIs
A delicate glue for mounting ferns
and sea-weeds is made of five parts
gum-arabic, three parts white sugar,
two parts starch, and very little water,
boiled until thick and white.
A Frenchman restores the lifelike ex-
preston to the eyes of dead persons by
placing few drops of glycerine and
water in the corners of the eyes, and
the effect is said to be startling, so life
like do the eyes become.
An accident in Melbourne foundry
is said to have led to the discovery that
plunging iron castings into mixture
OF fiolasses and water softens the metal
to such degree that it can be worked
as readily as wrought iron.
Paper of proper thickness is rendered
transparent by soaking in copal var
nish. When dry it is polished, rubbed
with pumice-stone, and a layer of
soluble glass is applied and rubbed
with salt. 1t is said that the surface is
as perfect as glass.
A good pen-wiper for steel pens is a
piece of raw potato; it removes all ink
crust and gives peculiarly smooth
flow to the ink. New pens should be
passed two or three times through gas
flame before using, in order to cause the
ink to flow freely
Explorations made last summer prove
that the ancient mound-buiiding inhab-
itants of America extended their works
northward beyond the Red river Of the
north Along this river and Lake Win
nipeg were found mounds identical in
structure with the famous ones of the
Ohio and Mississippi valleys.
As an example of the strength of one
kind OF fiber, a recent work on the sub
ject states that the best fibers of New
Zealand flax are equal in strength to
piece of the best wrought iron of the
same diameter These strengthening
fibers are placed in the plant just where
they can be of the best service in sus-
tanning weights and resisting strain.
The botanical gardens. London, have
succeeded in cultivating the curious
kermes oak (quercus cocifera), which,
when punctured by one of the coccus
insects produces the antient blood-red
dye, supposed to have been used by
Moses to tint the hangings OF the taber-
nacle. The kermes oak is dwarf,
bushy shrub, somewhat resembling
holly, and grows profusely in Spain.
M. Lessenne, at meeting of the So
ciete Medicale d'Amiens, indicated a
certain sign of death. simple and trust
worthy. After pricking the skin with
needle the puncture remains open, just
as when piece of leather is pricked.
On the living body, even if the blood
does not come to the surface, rs would
happen if the person was hysterical, the
| pin-prick closes at once, and does not
leave the slightest trace.
Prof. Stamford, the English Edison,
has discovered new substance which
promises to become popular article of
commerce. ''Algine," a residuum of
macerated fucas (seatang combines
the qualities of a mordant, an esculent,
and superlative adhesive. 1t fixes a
variety of colors used by cotton-dyers.
In certain combinations it is as nutfi-
tions as grape-sugar, while in one of its
| forms its adhesiveness exceeds that of
| gum-arabic net less than twenty-six
| times,
When mounted and swung against
the sky the great Lick telescope will
| have focus of fifty-five feet length
nearly fifteen feet longer than the larg-
est one ever before made 1t will be o
refractor, which means that the image
is formed directly to the eye by the OBJ
ject-glass, rs contradistinguished from
the Gregorian and Herschelian tele-
scopes The largest instrument ever
known OF the latter style was Dr. Her.
schers. The tube lacked but eight
inches of being forty feet in length.
Apropos of the Suez canal, it has
been recently recalled that Herodotus
relates that when Nero, the king of
Egypt, undertook the work of uniting
the waters of the Mediterranean and
Red seas by means OF canal, 100000
men persisted in the work. He then
caused the work to be stopped and con-
suited an oracle, receiving the reply:
"A barbarian will finish thy work. y A
friend OF the famous Frenchman copied
upon sheet of paper the paragraph
| from Herodotus and carried it TO Dc
Lesseps, who, having read it, took his
pen and appended: The barbarian
prophesied by the oracle-F. De Les
seps."
Warned by the fate of the Oregon,
the Russian government has been in
augurating an exhaustive test of water
tight compartments which it contem-
plates applying to all new vessels and
probably to older ones rs well. The
man-of-war selected was the corvette
cruiser Vitiaz, which was finished last
autumn and is under sailing orders for
the Pacific. Some weeks ago an init
nation was conveyed to the dockyard
authorities at Cronstadt that the water
tight compartments would be tested in
succession, and instructions were given
to survey them afresh and make good
any defects that might be discovered.
Ii the official report is to be believed,
every effort was made to meet the wish
es OF the admiralty, yet when the COM
partments were actually filled with
water the fluid gushed through numer-
GUS apertures which had escaped the
eye, and in some cases to an extent
which would have been troublesome at
sea after serious accident To secure
| perfection several of the compartments
were filled two or three times, and it
was only after deal of door-adjusting
and leak-stopping that the corvette was
pronounced fit to proceed to sea.
Wood powder another terrible ex-
plosive. is made at Canbilia, near Peer,
in the province of Limburg, where origi-
mated the powerful cheese of that name.
The powder is simply sawdust, treated
with mixture of nitric acids, and aft
erward formed under powerful pressure
into cylindrical or prismatic cartridges.
These cartridges are prepared for com
merclal use by covering them with
paraffined paper, which protects them
from moisture. Instantaneous produc-
ton OF the gases arising from the prim-
er and the explosive, and the stimuli
taneous action of these gases in every
direction, cause the air in contact with
the face surface of the cartridge to act
to some extent rs light tamping, and
the power of the explosion is directed to
the surface. 1t is cheaper as well as
more efficient than dynamite, but it is
especially with reference to transporta-
ton with an army that wood powder
possesses remarkable advantages. 1t is
well known what precautions are essen
tlal IN order to protect dynamite cart
ridges IN pack trains from projectiles
which might strike them and cause ex.
plosion. With cartridges of wood pow
der this danger need not be feared,
since when they are placed against iron
plates and struck by bullets fired at
distance of fifty meters fhev do not eY