Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-19
SCIENTIFIC HINTS.

Iron can be coppered by dipping it into
melted copper, the surface of which is pro-
tected by melted layer of cryolite and
phosphoric acid, the articles thus treated
being heated to the same temperature as
the melted copper.
In experiments made in France, where
plates of celluloid were used for sheathing
ships bottoms instead Of copper, it was
found that the plates were intact and free
from marine growth, which was abundant
on parts not protected by celluloid.
Watch springs, piano strings and similar
articles have been successfully tempered
by electricity. The steel is wound on a
spool, placed in an oil bath, and by the
electric current kept at the exact degree
of redness necessary for the temper re-
quired.
A large and very important discovery of
uranium is reported in Cornwall. 1t is a
true fssure vein, the ore containing an
average of per cent. of the pure metal,
going up as high in many places as 80 per
cent. The market value of uranium is
$4,000 ton.
Excellent fiber, suitable for cordage and
bagging has been made from the common
bear grass, which grows in great abund-
ance along the Gulf coast. An Alabama
gentleman says the fiber, equal in texture
and strength to the finest manila, can be
produced at two cents per pound cost.
The Popular Science Monthly describes
| ireproof houses in Buenos Ayres and Mon
tevideo, without using either the iron or
the arch; that rails of hard wood, on joists
of the same, are covered with thin bricks
laid with lime. There is no lathing or
wainscot skirting the bottom of the walls.
By artificial digestion, in Berlin, lean
beef, eels and founders are peptonized in
artificial gastric juices. The flesh was
shredded and heated by steam to 1902 c.
The result was the same for beef as for fish.
Smoked beef may be as easily digested as
fresh. Beef upon the whole, was found
the most digestible.
An easy and safe way of protecting cur
tains and mosquito nets against fire is said
to be by sleeping them in solution of
phosphate of ammonia, obtained by mixing
one-half litre of water Zone pint with
one hundred grammes (about three ounces)
of phosphate. In this way the color and
texture remain unaltered.
NJ. Gueroult proposes to introduce a
small apparatus that will represent the
face and gestures of the person speaking
through Edison's improved monograph
While the phonograph cylinder is turning
to register the speech, instantaneous pho
tos of the speaker could be taken at the
rate of six hundred per minute.
DIR. BRAND, a Distinguished young
French physician attached to the hospital
at yillejuif, is reported to have effected
some remarkable cures of consumption by
means of the cold air cure, which con-
sists mainly in gradually aceustoming the
patients to exposure until they are able to
sleep out in the open air, regardless of the
weather.
At East Everett, Mass, petroleum is
burned under a fifty horsepower boiler,
and the average consumption is one hun
dred gallons per day, costiug q cents per
gallon delivered at the factory, the total
cost per day being 50 Is. Heretofore
about twelve hundred pounds of soft and
screen coal have been used daily, costing
J about 81 80.