SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1189, 12 September 1874, Page 20

SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

The oldest timber in the world is in the ancient temples of Egypt. It is 4000 years old and perfectly sound. A Disinfectant much used in New York is ten poxinds of sulphate of iron, half a pint of carbolic acid, and five gallons of water.

An Italian medical paper mentions a snuff which is said to quickly relieve facial neuralgia ; it consists of tobacco powder fifteen grains, citrate of quinine ten grains. It is reported in England that a French firm has discovered a method of making artificial sugar from materials so cheap that it can be Bold at a farthing a pound. The combination paper-collar machines emboss, fold, and cut the button-hole at one operation, a task that has hitherto required the services of three machines to perform. This valuable improvement is the invention of Mr. 0. H. Denison, of New York. The heat generated by the human body in twenty-four hourß is suificient to raise thirty quarts of. water to the boiling point. Ink is one of the things m which modern science seems to have made very little improvement. A recent analysis of the ink found on a manuscript of the year 910 showed that its composition was similar to that of the ink now in general use. The talked-of tunnel between Scotland and Ireland would be about twelve miles long, and the estimated cost is £4,500,000.' It would extend from a point on the north shore of Ireland, near Belfast, under the Irish sea, to the extremity of the peninsula opposite in Scotland. A single-line tunnel, 15 feet wide at the base, 25 feet wide at the maximum, and 25 feet high, with aide walls varying from 4 to 7 feet in thickness, is proposed. Professor Plantamour, who foresaw our destruction by celestial fire, last summer, has bo far corrected his error as to prophesy that the earth's inhabitants will be frozen to death in the year 2011. This date frees him at least from the embarrassment of being twitted of a second mistake. Dyspepsia exißts very largely amongst factory operatives, principally induced by excessive tea-drinking, the constant use of food which requires little or no dressing, such as bread, &c. Meat food seems to be neglected on the score of trouble in preparing. ■„•,,, The Paris Mint recently completed the manufacture of an enormous bar of platinum of the weight of 500 lbs., and worth 210,000 francs. This mass of metal is to be used in making the standard metres and kilogrammes required by various Governments for the adoption of the metrical system, or the comparison of their weights and measures with it. The fusion of the metal was effected by the aid of seven blowpipes of oxy-hydrogen gas, inserted into the cover of an enormous crucible.

Booming.— The Scientific American describes the process of booming, one that is extensively used in America to clear the ground for mining work. Large reservoirs are built on elevated ground, above the Sarts mapped out for work ; these are lied with water and then opened ; a torrent of water rushes down the slope, carrying with it the loose soil, boulders, debris, &c, which form a mound in the valley below ; the exposed veins are then claimed by the owners of the boom. Electricity in Medical Practice. — The increasing use of electricity in medical practice is worth notice. Toothache can now be cured by a current of electricity ingeniously applied to the seat of the pain. The instrument employed is delicate, and specially contrived for the purpose. Chilblains also are speedily cured, if treated by electricity. Tongues of Snails, Slugs, &c. — On a still night the rasping sound of the snail's " tongue," as it operates on some strong leaf, may be distinctly heard. Professor Huxley proposes to call these tongues " odontophores," or tooth-bearers. The odontophore is a " cartilaginous strap, which bears a long series of transversely disposed teeth." This strap is worked by controlling muscles, like a chain-saw or rasp. Whether Been by polarised or ordinary light, the wonderful arrangement of the teeth of these odontophores invests their structure with a fascinating interest.

New Process of Iron-Making. — This process, which dispenses with the blast furnace, has been practically tested, and specimens of its produce shown at Wolverhampton. The bloom is made direct from the ore, which, it appears, is ground, mixed with lime and pitch, and baked in a coke oven. This is treated as pig-iron, and, a furnace being charged with it, it is ready for the helve or the squeezers in half an hour. The inventors claim that by their process they can. make a ton of finished iron from the ore at an expenditure of only two tons of coal ; that they can make German steel as cheaply as castiron, and can besides make the latter equal in purity to charcoal iron. One ton (2000 pounds avoirdupois) of gold or silver contains 29,163 troy ounces, and, therefore, the value of a ton of pure gold is £120,559 10s., and of a ton of silver, £754 16s. A cubic foot of pure gold weighs 1218 g 7o pounds avoirdupoise ; a cubic foot of pure silver weighs 656*25 pounds avoirdupois. Quicksilver at the Vienna Exhibition. — In the pavilion of the Ministry of Agriculture, erected on the Exhibition Place, which contains highly interesting collections, a floating cannon-ball may be seen. Although weighing 50 lb., it lies like a down feather on a splendid silvery mass, consisting of pure quicksilver from the celebrated mines of Idria. Of this metal 150 cwt. is exhibited in a large iron caldron, offering a sight seldom to be

met with, and on it rests the solid iron ball. It was interesting to observe the emptying of the quicksilver into its receptacle. The metal is very cleverly stowed away in bags of white sheep-leather, specially prepared for the purpose, each containing 50 lb. of the mass, the bags being tightly bound round the top, and then put into small wooden barrels, carefully biuiged up. Formerly this liquid metal, which penetratea easily all porous substances, was transmitted in wroughtiron bottles of very expensive make. Paraffin for Modelling. -Mr. Froude, F.R.S. — an eminent authority as regards the shape and behaviour of ships — finds that the best material of which to make models is paraffin. It costs less than wood, can be cast hollow and roughly, of the required form, can be remelted when a new model is wanted, and there is no loss by shavings and cuttings, for these all go back to the melting pot. Another advantage is, that paraffin is easily shaped and out in any direction. The shaping can be done by machinery ; consequently, models of ships may be made for purposeg of experiment, and afterwards broken up and refashioned as often as is desired. From these particulars, it will be seen that paraffin can be used for models of other things as well as ships. Action of Violet Light. — M. G, Ruspini (Arch, di Mcd., $fc, Roma) isays that violet light has an extraordinary action on animal and vegetable life. Plants cultivated in conservatories made of violet glass grow with remarkable rapidity ; and cattle kept in stables in which the windows are of violet glass increase rapidly in size and vigour. He proposes to supply these properties to man, and to use windows of violet glass in hospitals and schools for children, in order to assist the development of the children. He suggests that experiments should be made on a large scale with silkworms, and if the result be favourable, tho method can be generally used in agriculture and hygiene. A German chemist named Londsberg, claims to have made a discovery of great importance to persons of weak sight, and indeed, to all persons not actually blind, It is understood that the painful effect produced on the eyesight by many of the common forms of artificial light is due to the great proportion of non-luminous and merely calorific rays which they contain. In sunlight there are fifty per cent, of such rays, but in gaslight there are nearly ninety per cent., in the electric light eighty, and in kerosene ninety-four per cent. Londsberg asserts that by passing any kind of artificial light through a thin layer of alum or mica, these calorific rays are absorbed, while the illuminating power of the true light rays is undiminished, and becomes mild and pleasant to the eyes.

The Athenaeum says that some interesting analysis of specimens of native gold and silver have been lately made by Professor Church, of Cirencester, and communicated to the Chemical News. The nuggets brought home from Ashantee, which, it will be remembered, presented a rich yellow tint, deepened superficially by association with a ferruginous earth, were found to contain 9*94 per cent, of silver, — a rather larger proportion of alloy than might have been expected from the fine colour of the gold. Some Btream gold from Wanlock Head, in Dumfrieshire, yielded 1239 per cent, of silver. Specimens of native silver from Allmont in Dauphins' contained a high proportion of mercury and antimony.

Butter from Suet. — Very good butter, it is stated, is prepared now by a butter manufactory at New York, .according to the following process. Agents are employed to visit slaughter-houses, and buy up all the beef suet. This is carted to the factory and cleansed. Then it is put into meat choppers and minced -fine. It is afterwards placed in a boiler with as much water in bulk as itself. A steampipe is introducd among the particles of suet, and they are melted. The refuse of the membrane goes to the bottom of the water, the oily substance floats, and ia removed. This consists of butter matter and stearine. A temperature of eighty degrees melts the former, and leaves the stearine at the bottom. The butter matter, or cream, is drawn off ; about 13 per cent, of fresh milk is added and the necessary salt, and the whole is churned for ten or fifteen minutes. The result is Orange County butter at about one half the usual cost. The stearine is sold at twelve cents a pound to the candle-maker, and the refuse at seven cents a pound to the manufacturer of food for cattle.

A Note contributed by Mr. J. L. Davies, Landore, Swansea, to Iron, contains some valuable information which ought to be widely known. Mr. Davies proposes a method of restoring to burnt steel its valuable properties. He says :— " I have found that resin oil, with which ia intimately mixed one fourth (more or less) its weight of the residue of paraflin stills, has this wonderful effect upon burnt steel. Chisels which have been burnt and rendered useless may be, by means of thiß fluid, restored and made as valuable as ever. This fhu'd, which waß many months ago christened ' restitutor chalybis',' may be used as follows : — Burnt steel must be heated red hot, then plunged into the restitutor for a few seconds ; then re-heated, and cooled in the ordinary way. ' The steel after this process ia perfectly restored. Experience in the use of the restitutor will quickly enable personß to give any desired temper to the tools, but it may be stated that took can be made especially hard by treating them red hot, dipping into the restitutor, then re-heating to a slightly white heat, and immediately cooling in pure water."