Scientific and Useful.

Bruce Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 1933, 17 February 1888, Page 5

Scientific and Useful.

papbb trom: seaweed. A native "of Japan 13 reported to have recently invented a new process by 'which paper may be manufactured with seaweed Paper made in this way is vory strong, almost untearable, Bnd is sufficiently transparent to admit of its being usnd as window glass ; it takes nil' colours well, »nd in many respects resembles old window glass. < SOIiAR ELEMENTS. The late Dr Henry Draper attributed some bright lines in. the solar spectrum to oxrgem. Researches made by Trowbridge and Hiitchins fail to confirm the existence of those lines ; but they show that there is positive evidence in the spectrum of the existence of carbon in the aun, and' probably of platinum .also, according to the observations of Hutohins 1 and Holden. HOSIB AND COIONIAT, TOBACCO. The tobacco trade section of .the London Chamber of Commerce offers 100 guineas for (I) the beat specimen of tobacco grown in the United Kingdom ; (2) the best specimen of tobacco grown in India or British Colonies or possessions. The, object is to ascertain definitely how far these resources of production can add to the supply of tobacco suitable for the English market, and to what extent, if any, these- growths can compete in quality and price with those of foreign countries. The samples must be representative of crop, weigh not less than 4001 b., and contain not more than 15 per cent, of moisture. The competing lots from the United Kingdom must be sent in by March 1, 1888. , > -1 A TELB&BAPHIO WBITEB. A highly-ingenious modification of Cowper's writing telegraph has (says :Nature) been shown at the American \ Exhibition by Mt J. H. BobeftsoW, an American electrician. The movement of a pen at the sending station varies Jthe resistance of two electrio circuits along which two currents are flowing. These varying currents act -upon two coils at the receiving station so as to impart motion in two directoris to & pen filled with ink, so that the resultant motion of thia pen exactly repro* duees the movement of the writing pen at the sending station. Mr Robertson has replaced Mr Cowper's resistance coils by a series of thiD oarbon discs, which vary their resistance with variation of pressure, as was discovered by Edison and utilised in his carbon telephone transmitter. He hits also improved the receiving portion, and has made the apparatus very practical. It is being commercially worked out in the United States. It forms a really beautiful system of written messages, and ia deoidedly simpler than any previous system of facsimile telegraphy. It is very doubtful whether there is a demand for such a system, for the operation is necessarily slow. WHAT THE TYPE WEITBR IS DQI2TG. The type writer is creating a revolution iv methods of correspondency and filling the country with active, competent young ladies who are establishing a distinct profession, and bring into our business offices, lawyers' offices, editorial Banctums, &c, an elementof decency, purity, and method which is working a perceptible change. The field is widening daily ; not from crowding out of their places young men who have been in the habit of claiming a pre-emption for clerical work of all descriptions, but in creating absolutely new positions. The revolution if ib may be called so, has come from the discovery to business men of an ability of which they were unaware until the great covenience and excellent work of the type writer forced them to it. The art of dictation is almost a new art, but it is spreading rapidly, and business men are beginning to understand that much of their lives has been waated in the mere mechanical drudgery of letter writing, and that through employing a competent amanuensis they are now enabled to get off their correspondence with the least possible friction and the smallest amount of. time. Whereas, five years ago, the type writer was simply a mechanical curiosity, today its monotonous dick can be heard in almost every well-regulated bu sines 3 establishment in the oountry. A great revolution is taking place, and the type writer is at the bottom of it. — Penman's Art Journal. TJTII.ISATIOK OP FEBE DAMP. It is very interesting to see fire-damp, the most dreaded enemy of miners, reduced by the geniuß of man to be his agent and servant, as haß been done in Germany recently. The Wurm Coal Mines, near Aix-la Chapolle, are particularly noted for the amount of- firedamp produced in them, and the minutest precautions have to ba taken to prevent dangers that, notwithstanding this, were to be feared. Mr Hilt, director of the mines, undertook the work. He constructed a line of piping that ran in front of all the centres of work and ended in a main pipe connected at the surface with a powerful suction pump. But it was not enough to get rid of the noxious gas with money — it was necessary to utilise it; and so Mr Hilt conceived the ingenious idea of causing the conduit to end in a gasometer. Isolating the latter and placing wire gauzes here and there in the conduit, he was enabled to lead the gas to the furnace of two generators and use it to help to heat them. •' We are obtaining," says the director, 30,500 cubic feet of fire damp, which distil 263 cubic feet of water. On uniting the-fire damp of all our explorations, we shall have 64 cubic feet per minute, and shall be able to distil 5260 cubic feet of water per 24 hours." The utilisation of fire damp thus stored may become advantageous from a commercial point of view. It may serve no'j only for gas motores, but also, with well-constructed burners, for lighting purposes. — La Nature. WHAT THE MORPHINE HABIT WILL DO. The ingenuity of morphine victims to hide their vice has never been better illustrated than in the case of a young girl at a fashionable young ladies' boarding school near Philadelphia, as told by a contemporary. Tbe disclosure came about accidentally. When the young student returned to the school this fall, she had periods of deep despondency, and I often asked the privelege of going to the room in the seminary set apart as a hospital. There she would lie for a day at a time, only rousing herself when anyone approached the table, on which stood an ink bottle and a stylographic pen. The nurse having occasion to send a message to the doctor attempted to, write with this pen, the young girl at that time being asleep. The pen not only refused to write, but the praotised eye of the nurse instantly recognised in the point the punctur? ing needle of a hypodermic syringe. Thjs led to an examination of tbe ink bottle. It was a four ounce bottle, but there was no ink: in >it. , It waß; painted black on the outside, and contained Magendie's solution of morphia, enough for 128 one halt-grain doses, or sufficient to last until the Christmas holidays. The principal of the school was summoned immediately, and the sleeping ' girl's arm r -bared. It was punctured , from the Bhoulder. almost to the hand, and the • livid blue marks confirmed 'tie, suspicion, which. wfts ! changed^to absolute .certainty by thY small abscess which 'had begm/to form : in the jforearm just aboveitte wrist; •■> The habit hiad 4>een: Vformed iab^ut ; ;two .lmpritha ;: only, ' and. there,, ia\ a> possibility that [a, oure .can* -be, effißci^d»—Soien^ .. : „j. ; f,