Scientific and Useful.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 10, Issue 678, 17 June 1887, Page 7

Scientific and Useful.

The use of fruit and fresh vegetable food iuring winter should be encouraged. Re-yacination is urgently necessary to all who have not undergone the operation since infancy. To remove wax from carpets, press a piece af blotting-paper tightly over the spofe and hold a lighted match over it — or, better still, iron it with a hot iron. By this means the wax gets melted and is absorbed by the blottingpaper. ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE. At an elevation' of about 36 miles the pressure of the atmosphere cannot amount to more than O'OOl of an inch of the barometric column ; and conversely, at a depth of about 66 miles the density of the atmosphere would be about 100,000 times greater than that at the surface of the earth, being si£ times more ihan the density of gold and platinum ; co that supposing either of these metals to-be plunged into such an atmosphere, they would actually float. WATERPROOFING. The latest method of waterproofing consists in passing the sheet rapidly over and in contact with the surface of a solution of oxide of copper in ammonia, by means of properly placed rollers moving with epeed. On leaving bhe solution the paper is pressed between two cylinders, then dried by ordinary drying sylinders, such as Jare in every paper mill. The action of the solution is to dissolve the cellulose of the paper to a very slight degree, and so form an Impenetrable varnish. ARTESIAN WEILS. In a memoir on' various phenomena presented by the artesian wells recently sunk in Algeria, laid before the Paris Academy of Sciences, M. de Lesseps described the results of some remarkably successful operations carried out in 1885 and last year in the Shotts, where one well, yielding as much as 8000 litres (1 760 gallons) per minute of pure water, at a temperature *of 77 degs. Fahr., had already produced a lake over 32ft. deep, by means of which about 1800 acres of waste land had been reclaimed. Similar results have been obtained in other parts of Algeria. SUGAR IN EVERYTHING. In the West Indies, according to one of our correspondents, considerable uneasiness has been caused by the discovery that sugar can be made from any description of vegetable fibre, such- as sawdust, r.>gs, or tow. The process consists in digesting for several hours this raw .material in sulphuric acid ; then to dilute it in water, when the rags or whatever else it may have consisted of will be found to have undergone a remarkable cl atige, having been actually converted into BUgur. A curious fact is that 100 parts of rags willproducells parts of sugar, the difference in weight being occasioned by the action of the water. THE SINTER TERBAOES. IN NEW ZEALAND. . The destruction of the remarkable terraces of pii'k and white silicious sinter on the shor«.B of T ake R<toraahana, in Npw Zealand, during the eruption of Tarawera last June, has given rise to speculation as to the rate at which the old terraces were formed. Mr Kerry-Nicholls states that names and datea written on the terraces, over which the silicaloaded waters poured, were covered in the course of 25 yenre with only a very delicate layer of sinter, the deposition being so slow that it would have taken hundreds of years to obliterate the writing. Mr Lant Carpenter, however, says that the wing of a brid, shot by Dr Hector as it was flying over the terraces, fell in a favourite spot, and became po completely incrusted in ibe course of a fortnight that its form was beyond recognition. . ANALYSED THE ASHES. Two barns said to be filled with unthrashed wheat wore recently burned in Germany. They were insured, but, it was impossible to collect, because the claim was made that the contents of the barns were only straw. When the affair got into the Courts, chemical experts were called to analyse the ashes. Wheal contains a large quantity of phosphoric acid, almost ten times ns much as does straw Naturally, in the burning of these barns wood aßhes, cement, and other mineral sub stances were mixed with the ashes eubrnittec to the chemists, but none of these admixturei contain phosphorio acid. The experts found that of two samples placed in their hands om cor taiued 10*2 per cent, and the other 19 pc: c<nt. of the acid, thus proving conclusively that, the farmers were in the right, and thi insurance companies, as is generally the caai according to public sentiment, in the wrong — Fireman's Herald. THE GREAT STATUE. The Bertholdi Statue of Liberty, now ii New York Harbour, is likely to prove i "white elephant," if npt worse. N.e\

Yorkers were startled recently by a report 1 made by Major D. P. Heap, engineer, Secretary of the Lighthouse Board, on the statue. In the opinion of Major Heap, fche future of the goddess is very dark, and he expresses the gravest feara concerning her immortality. He especially dwells upon the structural weakness of the torch-arm, which he considers altogether unsafe, and prophesies a serious catastrophe if measures are not taken to prevent visitors from ascending it. The reason he gives in support of this view is that, standing on the platform around the torch with a friend, the latter shook the arm" so violently that he thought both- of them would be thrown to the ground. - Another charge brought against the Statue of ,Liberty by Major Heap was that the plates of ■which it is composed had already suffered from corrosion, (and that before long it would be necessary to patch it up with new sheets. THE GUtEAT BASTEEN. Tbia steamphip, which- for.; more than ethirdofa century has remained the largest constructed, wbb designed, : about 1853, bj the distinguished engineer Brunei, for the trade between. England and Australia. It was calculated that a ship could be built having sufficient capacity to carry enough coal for the rqund trip in addition to a great many passengers and a paying . cargo. She was built by J. Scotc Ruisel >t his workß in Millwall, London, and wae ready to be; launched in November, 1857, but could not be moved until the following January. Even that early in her history her unlucky star assumed the ascendancy, and in all her subsequent wanderings seemed ever-present When launched, her cost was about .£770,000. The Great Eastern is 692 ft. in extreme' Jengfh. 83ft. beam, and 27,000* tons actual, capacity. She was built of iron, and double cased to about three, feet above the water line. The motive power consisted .of eight engines, four for the paddle wheels . .which were 56ft. in diameter, -and four for the. screw, 24ft. in dia- • meter. The cylinders of -the paddle engines were 74in. in diameter by 14ft. stroke, and those qf the screw were 84in. in diameter and 4ft. stroke. The beating surface of the. boilers supplyibg the paddle engines was 44,000 square feet, while that ,of .the screw engine •boilers were still larger. The united nominal horse power was 4000. .