Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-05-15
SCIENTIFIC GLEANINGS.

Mark Twain has spent about 500, 900
in perfecting the Page type setting ma
chine, and he is the principal owner of
the company that will manufacture
them.
Salt put in water which surrounds the
ordinary glue pot causes a hotter glue to
be obtained than where simple water is
used. Salt in the water where mason
work is being done in cold weather pre-
vents disintegration by frost.
A fact which is well worth knowing,
especially in the winter, is that the for
nation of steam on glass is prevented by
a thin coat of glycerine on both sides of
the glass. This is very useful know
ledge for sailors, and also for surveyors,
who have to use their instruments in foggy
weather.
In the new process of spinning and
weaving glass into cloth the wrap is COM
posed of silk forming The BODY and ground
work, on which the pattern in glass APP
pears. Not less than fifty to sixty of the
original glass stands are required to form
one thread of the web, not more than one
yard of the cloth can be produced in
twelve hours.
Iron bolts exposed to the action of rain
water in bridges over the Thames have,
IN twenty-five years, been eaten away
from an original diameter of fve-eights
to one of five-siXteenths of an inch which
is a reduction In area of a cross section of
seventy-fve per cent President Cochrane
of the British institution of mechanical
engineers, thinks this largely due to sui
phurous acid as well as carbolic acid,
washed out of the air by rain.
Some interesting experiments are about
to be carried out at Cherough, with the
veiw of testing the possibility of estab-
fishing telephone communications be-
tween vessels of the same fleet at sea- 1t
stated that preliminary trial which took
place recently demonstrated the fact that
tolpedo boat can be kept in communica-
ton with the command ahoat and receive
direct orders as to where to steer and how
to act when In general operation.
An apparent disappearance Is a phe-
nomenon that seems to have taken place
with some rivers. Capt John Page of
the Argentine navy mentions that the
Upper Paragua is absolutely lost for
many miles and has been known to flow be-
meath a matted covering of living and
dead vegetation several feet in depth. In
the year 1858 one of these growths, I'M
der the influence Of an extraordinary in
undat on broke loose and drifted 1000
miles, bringing up at Buenos Ayres with
many animals and reptiles that had taken
refuge upon 1T.
If there had been any doubt that wood
touching a steam pipe is liable to be
charred if not ignited by the heat of the
steam, that point would be set at rest
by an inspection of the trench recently
dug in Broadway by the steam power
company. The wooden coverings on the
pipes, which have been buried for several
years underground, were, when removed,
found to have been converted into char
coal on the inside to the depth of half an
inch or more. In buildings, the woodwork
IN the Immediate vicinity of live steam
pipes should be protected carefully.
1t is well known that Sir John Lubbock
has shown how long insects may live
when kept out of harms way The
greatest age yet attained by any insect,
so far as known is that reached by queen
of an ant (Formich fusca) which lived in
his care until Aug. 8, 1888, when she
must have been nearly fifteen years
Another queen of the same species died at
the advanced age of thirteen years. He
has now queen of another kind of ant
QLasius niger which is more than nine
years old, land still lays fertile eggs.
which produces female ants" He has
also workers Lasius niger and Formica,
(Which were at least seven years old y
At the other extreme of insect longevity
stands the may fly. or Ephemera the type
of tieeting existence, these insects hay
ing the reputation of living but a few
hours or day.