The Colfax chronicle., 1888-12-01
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Paper Is made out of the cedar
chips of pencil manufacturers, which is
useful for preserving carpets and other
woolen goods and furs from the attacks
of moths.
1t has been demonstrated in France
that electricity can be effectively used
''for aging whisky and maturing wine."
1t seems that all that is necessary is to
pass a strong electric current through
the whisky to be aged or the wine to
be matured, and the work is done.
DIR. Donald C. Hood has collected
many facts relating to the use of salicy-
lie acid for rheumatism. Of728 patients
treated with salicylates, 523 were re-
heved Of their pains within seven days;
whereas, Of 6l2 patients treated by
other methods, only lao were relieved
within the same time.
4 Some people doubt the poisonous
effect Of nutmeg, but several cases of
nutmeg-pOisoning have been noted in
the British Medical Journal. A whole
nutmeg was taken in four of the cases.
and five whole ones in the remaining
case. In still another case the use of
half a nutmey ia hot drink was nearly
fatal.
-Sulphuric ether gently applied
with cotton wool. away from the light.
is effective for removing printers ink
from paper, If sufficient pains be taken.
Put blotting paper beneath the one
from which the ink is to be removed,
and use clean, white blotting paper to
absorb the color after each application
of the ether.-St Stationer and Printer.
according to Spanish journal,
If blood be mixed with little bile,
small crystals are formed which are of
different shapes in different species of
animals. In man they are right angled
prisms, in the horse cubes, in pigs
rhomboids, in sheep rhomboidal plates,
in dogs right angled prisms very simi-
lar to those seen in human blood, and
in chickens more or less regular cubes.
Experiments have proved that the
tensile strength of wet rope is only
one-third that of the same rope when
dry; and a rope saturated with grease
or soap is weaker still, as the lubricant
permits the fibres to slip with greater
facility. Hemp rope contracts strongly
on being wet, and a dry rope twenty
five feet long will shorten to twenty
four on being wet.
"A substitute for jute in the manu-
facture OF cotton bagging seems to have
been found in pine straw, which is
made into bagging by a firm in Will
mington, N. C. A bale of cotton ar
rived in that city incased in the new
material, which satisfactorily passed
all tests. 1t is believed that the mater
ial will answer all the purposes Of jute
bagging at much lower prices.
M. Mourlot, of Paris, obtains from
the essence of birch bark, by rectifica-
tion, an essential oil which possesses,
among other properties, that of being
fatal to insect life and an electrically
insulating tarry substance. These two
products are so treated and combined
with other substances as to produce an
anti-oxidizing material and an insulat-
ing substance capable of the same ap-
plications as ebonite. Among the other
ingredients employed, in addition to
the products from the essence of birch
bark. are caoutchoue, sulphur, chalk,
tale, litharge, antimony suIphide, kao-
lin. zinc white and red ochre. 1t is, Of
course, well known that an infusion of
the leaves of the common white birch
produces yellow dye of established
value in certain applications.