Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-01-12
sCTENTIPIC AND INpUsrRIAL

tits noted that timber that has been
floated down rivers is not subject to dry
rot. The water dissolves the salts and
albumen.
By keeping mushrooms until too old or
stale an alkaloid called muscarine is de-
veloped. Mushroom poisoning is be-
lieved to be due in many cases to faulty
methods in cooking.
Manufacturers of fire-brick say that
the only reliable way to distinguish good
clay is by tasting. II it tastes salty, it
is genuine fire clay; il fat and dull, it is
worthless for fire. e-brick.
A Berlin doctor is said to have caught
the bacillus that produces cancer. He
has inoculated dogs with the germ, and
is reported to have developed in them
tumors of cancerous nature.
A remarkable case of substitution
was recently found in a Georgia iron
mine. Workmen digging came upon
pine stump, now converted into brown
iron ore. The stump showed all the
fibers and bark of the original pine tree,
and resin streaks were plainly seen IN
places.
The various yellow co,oring matters
used for maaaroni, buffers, liquors, etc.,
have been examined by DR.. Weyl, of
Berlin. He reports that dinotrocresol,
sold as saffron yellow, is highly poison
Gus, while the so-ealled " Martins yell
low" and "butter yellow" are quite
harmless.
1t has been proposed to utilize bicycles
as ambulances, by removing the ira ling
wheels from two machines and connect
ing them at that point by pole fixed to
the curved bars which carried the trail
ing wheels. This keeps the two remain
ing wheels apart, and unites them into
one vehicle. A hammock is then slung
from the seats of the bicycles by means
of proper cross-pieces with hooks; a
a bamboo is also fastened longitudina,ly
above the seats, and straps are employed
to make all secure.
When water once begins to boil it is
impossible to raise its temperature any
higher; all excess of heat is absorbed by
the escaping steam as so-called latent
heat, and is given out again when it con-
d -nses. We often speak of seeing The
steam escaping from the spout of a ket-
tie, but this is Incorrect; steam is an in
visible vapor, and we can no more see it
than we can air. What we do see are
the minute drops of water into which the
steam condensei on coming into the cool
air. If we boil water in a glass fla k,
we shall notice that nothing can be seen
in the interior; and by observing the
steam escaping from kettle, we shall
notice that there is quite distance be-
tween the end of the spout and the point
| where the cloud becomes visible. This
cloud of steam is of exactly the same ma
ture as the clouds which float in the sky,
and are formed by the condensation in
the cool upper regions of the steam or
aqueous vapor present in the air.
Mr.. G. A. Farini, who has recently
made a journey across the Kalahari
desert in South Africa, succeeded in see
ing and photographing the fal 8 of the
Orange river, which he was told could
not be DONE "We had,n he says, /" to
swim rapids, climb rocks, and descend
precipices by ropes in order to take the
views. The river is broken up into
many streams by huge rocks and bowl
ders, some of them rejoining to form
the main waterfall, and others cutting
out separate channels to the great gorge,
some four hundred feet deep and sixteen
miles long, worn in the solid granite.
These streams form many rapids, and,
when the river is half fnH, rise and form
over hundred separate cascades, unsur-
passed for beauty and picturesque gran
deur. When the river is full, many of
them join to make one mighty sheet of
water, rivaling the great Niagara, as it
pours into the abyss nearly four hundred
feet below. At low water, the only time
it can be approached, the Hercules Fall
is one hundred and sixty-five feet high,
with several smaller falls at the sides,
which are three hundred and fifty feet
high, and are caused by the same water
before it reaches the main fall"