Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1890-08-01
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Beef losses twenty-five per cent. OF Its
weight when baked.
A score of phosphate mines arc being
opened in different localities in Florida.
Many foreign builders now mix sugar
with mortar, to protect the brickwork
from damage by frost.
The experiment of tanning leather
with palmetto roots has been successfully
tried at Apalachicola, Fla.
Never let sun rays strike a mirror.
They act upon the mercury and give the
glass a cloudy appearance, which all the
rubbing in the world will not remove.
1t is said that the hop vine is the best
substitute for rags in the manufacture OF
paper. The vine pulp possesses great
length, strength, fexibility and delicacy.
A weak galvanic current, which will
sometimes cure toothache, may be
generated by placing silver coin ON one
side of the gum and piece of zinc on
the other. Rinsing the mouth with
acidulated water will increase the effect.
NJ. Fouque, the mineralogist, claims to
have discovered in a mixture Of copper
and lime the beautiful color azurrino, the
composition of which has so long been q
puzzle to artists. His tint is said to be
perfectly unchangeable, and is identical
with the famous Alexandrine blue.
From experiments by DR.. Ledenfeld
on sponges, it appears that absorption OF
food does not take place at the outer sur
face, but in the interior. When poisons
are put in the water, the sponge contracts
its pores, and the action is very like that
OF poisons on muscles Of the higher ami.
mails.
DR.. Dixon, Professor of Hygiene at
the University OF Pennsylvania, has been
making some experiments with air and
found IN them the germs Of many dis
cases, contagious and otherwise. Better
ventilation and more effective cleansing
are sorely needed.
A remarkable invention has been made
In Austria, whereby the serious effects OF
railway collisions arc prevented. G!ass
tubes project before the train, and il
they are broken by an obstIcle, au
electric movement is applied to the
brakes, bringing the train Immediately
to standstill.
The "I." road companies in New York
are doing their utmost just now to mini
mizc the noise made by their trains, and
on some of the roads they have sue
ceeded, but they are still far from having
the noiselcss trains which so delight the
heart OF the traveller in Berlin, and the
service has great many lacks.
Experiments made in Sweden by NJ.
Sandberg on tho strength of iron rails
during the winter have shown that steel
rails containing over four per cent. Of
carbon arc apt to break in cold weather.
In fact, the result of his investigations
points to the use of rails having less car.
bon In countries as cold in winter US Nor.
way and Sweden.
An electric motor is in successful
operation for wood-sawing in Lewiston,
Me. 1t is six-horse power and with a
twenty-six inch saw, which was driven
at a velocity of 1850 revolutions pei
minute. The proprietor claims that with
six-horse power electric motor he can
do more work than with a tcn-horss
power steam engine.
The heart contracts with power enough
to send a column of blood seven and a
half to nine feet high. At every beat OF
a heart Of average size and strength, the
force exerted is equal to moving over fifty
pounds; or to lifting pound weight
upward distance of three aud half to
four and half feet, say four feet; or to
carrying four pounds, one foot upward.
Professor Samuel Cushman, apiarist Of
the Rhode Island agricultural experiment,
station, maintains, as the result OF
personal observation, that bees do no
damage to growing or fair fruit. The
juice of fruit is, in fact, injurious to
them; and they do not attack sound fruit,
but only bruised fruit, or that which has
been previously injured by other insects.
A beet sugar manufactory, with a ca,
| pacity of 400 tons day, is said to be
+ almost completed at Grand Island, Ncb.
The beet has sixteen per cent. of sugar,
and farmers realize $50 per acre at 81
per ton for the root. The diffusion pro-
cess of extracting the saccharine principle
is used. In fourteen battery circuit it
Is claimed that the remarkable result OF
9S.S per cent. of the sugar eau be ex-
| tracted.
The compressed air chisel was first
brought into use in this country. An
improved form is nov being used in
Europe by stone dressers, sculptors and
metal workers. The economy Of labor
compared with the hand chisel is about
four or fivefold. At the same time the
surface cut by the compressed air chisel
is cleaner and smoother than is possible
with the hand chisel. This is especially
the case with granite. The new instru-
ment is said to be of great service in
metal working and woodworking.