Wichita eagle., 1889-02-28
SCIENCE NOTES.

As remedy for sites NJ. Abadie has
found great efficiency in bo-acic acid-one
part dissolved in thirty parts Of distilled
water, dropping on some OF this solution
with wetted piece of wadding several
times day. 1t is said not only to effect Q
cure, but to prevent any recurrence OF the
trouble.
QUITE an ingenious way of cooling jour
nal that can not be stopped. says mechan-
ical paper, is to hang short endless belt on
the shaft next the box, and let the lower
part of it run in cold water. The turning Of
the shaft carries the belt slowly around,
bringing fresh cold water continually in con-
tact with the heated shaft, and without spill
ing or scattering drop Of the water.
A spEEp-REcoRDER for railway trains is
the invention of Chicago German. An in
dicator may be placed in a passenger-car,
and the speed OF the train at any time is
shown upon it's face. The connection is
made with the locomotive-engine by the
steam-pipes. The cost of the instrument is
about sl3O. One was tried the other day on
train between Chicago and New York.
There were brief times when the wheels
of the car stopped, and then the indicator
dropped quickly to zero, as the instru-
meht is governed by the revolutions of the
wheels.
A DEALER in cutlery expresses the opin-
ion that not one man in the city knows how
to sharpen pocket-knife. "a razor" he
SAYS, "must be laid fiat on the hone, being
hollow-ground and requiring fine edge.
But pocket knife requires a stiff edge,
and the moment you lay it fat on stone,
so as touch the polished side, you ruin the
edge. The blade must be held at an angle
of twenty or twenty-five degrees, and have
an edge similar to chisel. This is tech
nically called the camel and is marked
on all new knives by fine white line
which does not remove nor touch the pol
ished surface. Knives improperly whetted
are often condemned as too hard or too soft,
without reason.
ACCORDING to the Canadian Manufacturer,
new scheme of utilizing the sawdust of
the Ottawa river for the purpose Of fuel is
proposed 1t is claimed that by a system of
grinding the refuse into uniform fneness,
mixing it with tar from the gas-houses and
COMPRISING the substance into cakes,
fuel can be made in every way superior to
soft coal for open fires. Sawdust rolls were
common forty years ago in England and
Scotland, and were considered far ahead of
peat and CRATE fires. The cost Of manu-.
featuring this kind of fuel is merely nomi-
nal, and it is expected that it can be sold at
very much lower price than soft coal.
The formation of company to give the
scheme practical effect is mooted.
NoxIoUs insects are far more numerous
and destructive now than they were fifty
years ago. When nature has chance to
work out her laws, all animals, from the
highest to the lowest, do not increase be-
yond proper limits. Even man himself is
no exception to the law; but once let break
occur in this great natural chain, and it is
felt all along the line. Some species will IN
crease enormously, while others almost en-
tirely disappear. Now, as insects are more
numerous than all the higher animals, it
follows that if some unforeseen event takes
place that favors great increase of some
noxious species, man is sure to be heavy
sufferer. And this state Of things is exact
" what is taking place to-day. The reader
will naturally inquire why the beneficial
ones do not increase as fast as the de-
structlve ones. The answer is. the food
plant Of the latter has increased enormously
and all the surroundings have favored its
rapid increase, while the other, living upon
animal (imago food IS entirely outstripped
by the vegetableeating species.-Vick's
Magazine