Volume 13 (1866) (424 pages)

She Mining ul Scientific Lress. 67 limits onthe eurface enn, so it seeins to nin, scarcely be improved. M. Marysville, July 24th, 1666. Resarss.—Sinee the above letter was written, the bill referred to has become a law, and all controveray as to the cffect of any nf its provisions, before giving them a practical trial, would scem tn be nseless. Still we would iusist upoa our previonsly-cx pressed opinion, ond furthermore, believe thot ninetecn-twentieths of nll the miners on the Pacific coast agree with uz, that the eysteur of location following the direction of the vnin, with its dips und angles, is preferahln to any mode whieb involves the squnre claiin loeation. . We do not see how nur correspondent can gain anything for his“ chimney” theory from square cluiins, as his chimneys, most certainly, at times, run beyond his * fixeil lines ” into his neighbor’s ground. With regard to whot may Dppenr upon the surface to bo parallel veins, bot which in deptb run into a common lode, as is probably the caso, with the Comstock, ot Woshoe. tho new Inw nllowa the first locutor to make his claims us widens be thinks best on the soriueo; and it will be his own fantt if he fails to make them wide cnongh to cover alt tle parallel out-croppings of his iain lode below. ‘I'bere is very littlo difliculty to bo apprehended on this ecore, and na there must be . a limit, lougitudinally, wn do not object to nrhitrary lines, especinlly when we take into account the difficulty of determining what may constitute a chimney. We can see any amount of litigation which might grow up wero it lelt to jurors to decide whot wog or was not a chimney; when the decision of that question might inercase or decreasc the extent of a claim, by its greater or leea iucliaatiou along the direction of tbe vein, Carr or trnr Bony.—While riding on a locomotive recently, and talking with the engineer, as I had the privilege of doing, I could pot bnt think how much wiser men were about iron aud stecl machinery, than they were about fleshy and osseons machines. ‘The relation of the pump to the capacity of the boiler; the relatioas of the size of the flues; the relation ofthe evtinder, or of the steam genernted, to the work to he dono—all these things were in tho ‘engineer’e mind. watehing every part, and opening and shutting valves ou avery side sons to keep every part in its proper condition. ‘The stoker, or fireman, wwas applying or withholding food, so as to kecp the engine in just that state in which it would work the best. according to whether we were running up-grade, or down-grade, or on level ground, and according to the number and weight of the cars being drawn, for we were drawiag a long and ponderous train. Now, how mmnny are there who watch their furnace, to see thnt they get in neither too much nor too little fuel? Men shovct in food withont any regard to itis it is going to do! If it ig the Suhbath day, wren they are quieeceat, when thcir stomachs are not in a condition to digest so much food as other daye, they eat a double portion. If it is aday when they are to undergo severe tsxation and work, and when thcy can least afford to go without food. oftentimes they become anxious, and neglect to cat because they becoine too anxious. As a general rule, when tho body necds the basis of food Icss thon at. any other time, they eat the most, and when it needs more than at any other time, they eat the lcaet. Our food is a means toanend. It is simply the fuel with which we are to raise stenn for carrying on the. purposes of life —[ Huchange. Causen BY A Fine Cracken, — disastrous fire at Portland wns caused hy a fire-cracker fired by a boy on the Fourth of. July. It was throwu into some shavings, the burning of which kindled that terrible couflagration, which raged for twenty-four hours, eweeping over 200 acres of ground, destroying 1,500 huildings, and rendering houselese ahout 9,000 persous, . Tue Library of the Mechanics’ Institute has been removed from the Institnte Building, ou California street, to 636 Market street, between Montgomery and Kearay, where it will remain until the completion of the new building of the Institute now being erected. — Two childrea in Chicago have been poisoned by putting a card photograph to their mouths. One died. cc mee Le was continuously’ The late Rechanical. aA Nover Poyrixa Arranatus.—Thn Yreka Journal says that J. C. Carroll, of Scott Valley, has perfected s model of machinery for u new style of motive power trom water. It cousists of pipe laid from o diteh, stream or reservoir, sitrilur to hydranties, in the end of which ure two cylinders, with u braneh pipe to ench, In the branch pipes ure valves, which ore 80 arruuged og to ullow the woter to rush iuto each cylinder alternately, driving dowu plungers attuched to a walking-beam above. Az euch plutiger renches the bottom of the cylinder the lower valve opens and lets tho water ont, while at the same tine the upper vulve closes, thus shutting tho water off inte the otber eylinder. Tus Iron Horse, with his tireless strength, its pulen of vapor, and its heart of flame, is a glorious exponent of the creative capncity of the buman mind; and the metallic nerves, through which intelligenco conrscs over a continent, prove, by every flash ol thought which troverecs them, that man possesses one nttribato essentially godlike, the: power to aunihilate spnce and time. But vast ond impnrtont as have becn the results of making stcam and and lightning tho common carriers and meesengers of the world, thcy are both, after all, but mere subsidizing agents. ‘Ihe oneis but a great motor; its usefulnese consists, mainly, in conveying substantial benefits, with speed and certainty, to the fields in which they are to operate; while the otber is eimply the bearer of blessings, not their originntor. Mecuanicat .Errecrs or Hearrp Ain.— M. Bubinet has communicated to the Puris Academy of Scicnces an account of experiments by M. Mouchot, Professor of Mathematics at Alencon, on the mechanical effects produced by confined air beated by the rays of the sun. In these experiments, M. Monchot employed a cylindrical vessel of this eilver, blackened on the outside, nnd enclosed witbin two cylinders of gluss, placed one inside the-other. ‘he office of the glass cylindere, of course, was to prevent the heat which might pass through them to the blackened silver cylinder being radiated back ayain,—glass, while affording a free passage to the direct rays of the eun, being praetically opaque to radiant heat. ‘he silver eylinder was half filled with water, and an air-tight cover was then fitted on it; a tube, fitted with a stopcock, passing vertically through this cover to very nearly the hottom of the vessel. ‘Thus arranged, the apparatus was placed in the sun, whereupon the air in the upper part of the vessel specdily became heated sulliciently to cause it to exert so much pressure on the water under it, that the latter.on the stop-cock in the tube passing throngh the cover of the vessel being opencd, escaped in,a large jet more than ten metres high. This very remarkable regult lcd M. Mouchot to construct an ‘apparatus on the same plan which yielded a continuous jet of water as long as the sun was shining on it. M. Babinet is of opinion that machiues on this principle might be found useful for raising water on the great scale in tropical countrics —Alechanics’ Magazine. Ciay which when not compressed had a power of conducting heat equal to 26, had when coinpressed with 7.500 pounds per inch, a power equal to 33 ; nnd the conducting power ofa mixtnre of eand and clay in equal quautities, rises from 36 to 378, by an increase of pressure ‘from iba pouads to 7,500 pounds . per ine: A prass made of sixty parts copper, thirtyeight parts zinc, and two parts iron, may be forged ot a red heat, and will ‘support a “breaking weight” of "twenty: seven tons per square inch. ‘Chis has been used with success for bolts in the fire-boxes of locomotives. Tue violence of the expansion of eater when freezing is sufficient. to cleave a globe of .copper of gueh thickness as to require a force of . . 28,000 pounds to produce a like effect. Tue tenacity of cast conper ie sufficient to support a weight of 19,000 pounds to the sgnare inch, or ‘rather more tban half as mach ag good cast iron. From Professor Airy'’s pendulum expcriments at Harton Colliery, the mean specific gvavity of the earth is found to be 6,546. Over two hundred mechanics and operatives are in constant attendance at the Cincinnati School of Deeign. : Scientific Blisectlany. A New Kind of Galvanio Battery. M., Bultinck, of Ostend, has communicated to the Acadeiny of Seiences n note un the use of nagnesiuin inetesd of gine, as the positive clemeut of voltaic batteries. In order to eompnre the elvctro-motivo force of magnesium witb that of zinc, be employed two puirs of wires, once puir consisting of n wire of copper and one of ziue, and ‘he other pair of a wire of silver uud one of muguesium. On plunging tbe filst-mentioned pair of wires into distilled water, having lirst conuveted them with a multiplying galvanoeter, the needle ol the galvanonicter, at the moment of the inmersion of the wires, moved thirty degrees, nnd after the immersion had lasted five minutes stil! marked ten degrces. On similarly treating the silver and magnesium poir of wires, which were cxactly of the some diinoasions ns the copper and zine pair, at the moment of iminersion the needle of the galvanomcter deviated tinecty degrees, and fivo minutes after immersion it rempincd stationary at twenty-cight degrees. Javing thas found thn electromotivo force of a silver and magnesium couple to be three times thot of a copper and zine couple, M. Bultinck becume desirous to construct a largo buttery with mognesium as tbe positive element, but not being able, for tho monicnt, to obtain magnesium in ary other form than that of thin wire, he had to be content with making a“ galvanic chain,” of the kind associated with the nome of M. Pulvermacher, Having constructed such a chain of silver ond magnesium, he found that when eimply moistened with pure water it would produce all the effects the production of wbicb by an ordinary Pulvermacher's chain requires that tbo chain be mvistened with either a saline or an acid solution. We knew previously that magnesium possessed greater electromotive force than any other known metal capable of being obtained in quontity; the new: fact brougbt to ligbt by M. Bultinck, is thot a hattery in which magnesium was the positive element would not need an acid to excite it, but could be excited hy water only. Tur Hrant.—The beating of the heart and the drawing of tho breath proceed in a daily cyclo of ‘variations, very nearly as follows: From seven to eight in the evening the pulse and breathing begiu to go slow, aud continue to do so uatil ele ‘two O'clock a. m., when both reach their minimum of slowness. From that time to dnylight a slight incrense is noticed. Between daylight and sunrise tbe pulsation is inereased about ten beats a minute. At brealfast, and especially duving the meal, the pulse increases rapidly, until the second hoor aftcr dinner, when the maximum speed is obtained. From that honr it begins to decline, and losing by the dinner hour twelve and a half, ten or fifteen pulsations per minute. After dinner the rato rises sgain,and reaches the highest point on tho second or third bours. Then comes a new increse until tea time, after which another increase, and then a final decrease, to the hoar of seven or nine P. M. Tus Norra Potr.—A conplo of scientific gentlemen, who havo recently visited the island of Spitzhergen, on a tour of scientific inspection, have found that a very considerable degree of heat is produced there hy the coutinuous shining of the sun during the six months’ day which prevails iu that latitade. During this period a vegetation very luxurious and ahundant springs up. Another singular fact noticéd was the immense quantities of drift-wood which appears everywhere on the coast, and in the bays of the island. They also express the . opinion, that tho North Pole, only 600 milee distant, could be easily reached by an expedi‘tion which should leave that point in the early spring. Such an expedition will soon he fitted out to make the cxperiment. Tue famous German cbemist, Mitscherlich, at the couclusion of a paper discussing his observations of the “spectral line” given hy various ‘non-metallic hodics, states that . he believes all the so-called uon-unetallic elements to the compounds. i : ee ereemeenceeerneenenerememe Tue editor nf the British Journal nf Photography speaks in terms of bigh approval of the rectified wood spirlt, or methylic aleohol, as a solvent for gun-eotton in making collodin, in place of the nsaal mixtarn of alenhol nnd ether. In these times of deur nlcohol this is on important matter to pllotogmphers. ‘This, it will be recollected, is the ngeut which the inventor of nitro-glycerine eniployed, in his New York experimeuts, tn render that terribly dangerons explosive mnterial harmless, while being transported from pluee to pluce, or on stnrage. Ie eluiins that when nitro-glyeerine is nixed with methylte nteoholit cannot be exploded, while at the same time it can readily be separated from tbat liquid when wanted for use. Avconot.—Every writer on toxicology classes nicohol as a poisou. A very small quuntity of aleohol injected into the veins of mnu or beast, prodaces nlmost instant death. Healthy saliva reddens litmus paper, hut after a smull quantity ol alcohol hae been taken into the stomach, litmus paper touched to tbe tongue becomes erecn, showing that the saliva hae becnme deteriorated. Alcohol mixed with the gastric juice producee a precipitate, and renders tbe fluid incopable of digesting animal or vegetable matter. Alcohol increases the pnleatinns of the heart. When thnt organ is under the influence of any kind of alcoholic spirit, it jumps nway with increased violence tn get rid of its enemy. Dr. Catvent,in a late lecture, gives a receipe for cleaning eilver articles witbout the troablesome and destructive use of polishiug powders. Tbe articles should bo plunged for an hour ina eolution made up of one gallon of water, one pound byp. sulphite of soda, eight ounces salamoniac, and fonr onnces of nqun-ammonia or hartshoro. ns t Tue green color of gold leaf, when seen hy transmitted light, may be destroyed by subjecting the metal, extended on glass or mica, tn heat, a temperature as low as that of boiling oil being suflicient if continued for several hours. When pressnre is applied to sach discolored gold by a convex piece of rock cryetal of sbort radius, the green color of the transmitted ray reappears. i Ornamental Grass.—A beautiful vnriety of oruamental glass has been devised by M. Pelouzc : 250 parts of white sand, 100 of ecnrbonate of soda, 50 of limestone, and 40 of bichromate of potash, are fused together. A glass is thus forimed of a rich green color filled with golden spangtes. A VARIABLE star has been discovered in the constellation of the Northern Crown, and has been carefully observed at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington. Tho duily rate of decrcase is abont fourteentbs of a magnitude, and it has changed from the second to about the eighth magnitude. ne Hear rarifies the air to af an extent that it eun be made to occupy 5,500 times the epg, it did before. Warten, when’ converted into steam, increases in bulk 18,000 timés. . Forests on je Wusrern Prairins.—It ie said that in nameroue loealitice on the prairies of Kansas, which are protected from the ravages of fire hy neighboring cultivated fields, are heiag covered with a spontancous growth of forest trees, cbiefly oak and hiekory, which ja twenty years will become dense forests. The frequent fires which so often Tage on the Western prairies are the ‘eole préventive, to the growth of trees, and an abundant supply of wood for alt practical purposes. > THe TELEORAPH, in Switzerland, ie the property of the State. -An office for the reception and transmission of dispatches is estahlished in almost every village, and the cborge is uniform—one frane, about twenty cents, for tweatyfivo words, or a little over one cent per word, irrespective of distance. The dispatches are printed, and the estalishment, even at this low price, yields a 1g revenue to Government. Ir is estimated that ‘thirty tons of white paper are used daily in the manufactnre of paper collare. “ si

She Mining ul Scientific Lress. 67 limits onthe eurface enn, so it seeins to nin, scarcely be improved. M. Marysville, July 24th, 1666. Resarss.—Sinee the above letter was written, the bill referred to has become a law, and all controveray as to the cffect of any nf its provisions, before giving them a practical trial, would scem tn be nseless. Still we would iusist upoa our previonsly-cx pressed opinion, ond furthermore, believe thot ninetecn-twentieths of nll the miners on the Pacific coast agree with uz, that the eysteur of location following the direction of the vnin, with its dips und angles, is preferahln to any mode whieb involves the squnre claiin loeation. . We do not see how nur correspondent can gain anything for his“ chimney” theory from square cluiins, as his chimneys, most certainly, at times, run beyond his * fixeil lines ” into his neighbor’s ground. With regard to whot may Dppenr upon the surface to bo parallel veins, bot which in deptb run into a common lode, as is probably the caso, with the Comstock, ot Woshoe. tho new Inw nllowa the first locutor to make his claims us widens be thinks best on the soriueo; and it will be his own fantt if he fails to make them wide cnongh to cover alt tle parallel out-croppings of his iain lode below. ‘I'bere is very littlo difliculty to bo apprehended on this ecore, and na there must be . a limit, lougitudinally, wn do not object to nrhitrary lines, especinlly when we take into account the difficulty of determining what may constitute a chimney. We can see any amount of litigation which might grow up wero it lelt to jurors to decide whot wog or was not a chimney; when the decision of that question might inercase or decreasc the extent of a claim, by its greater or leea iucliaatiou along the direction of tbe vein, Carr or trnr Bony.—While riding on a locomotive recently, and talking with the engineer, as I had the privilege of doing, I could pot bnt think how much wiser men were about iron aud stecl machinery, than they were about fleshy and osseons machines. ‘The relation of the pump to the capacity of the boiler; the relatioas of the size of the flues; the relation ofthe evtinder, or of the steam genernted, to the work to he dono—all these things were in tho ‘engineer’e mind. watehing every part, and opening and shutting valves ou avery side sons to keep every part in its proper condition. ‘The stoker, or fireman, wwas applying or withholding food, so as to kecp the engine in just that state in which it would work the best. according to whether we were running up-grade, or down-grade, or on level ground, and according to the number and weight of the cars being drawn, for we were drawiag a long and ponderous train. Now, how mmnny are there who watch their furnace, to see thnt they get in neither too much nor too little fuel? Men shovct in food withont any regard to itis it is going to do! If it ig the Suhbath day, wren they are quieeceat, when thcir stomachs are not in a condition to digest so much food as other daye, they eat a double portion. If it is aday when they are to undergo severe tsxation and work, and when thcy can least afford to go without food. oftentimes they become anxious, and neglect to cat because they becoine too anxious. As a general rule, when tho body necds the basis of food Icss thon at. any other time, they eat the most, and when it needs more than at any other time, they eat the lcaet. Our food is a means toanend. It is simply the fuel with which we are to raise stenn for carrying on the. purposes of life —[ Huchange. Causen BY A Fine Cracken, — disastrous fire at Portland wns caused hy a fire-cracker fired by a boy on the Fourth of. July. It was throwu into some shavings, the burning of which kindled that terrible couflagration, which raged for twenty-four hours, eweeping over 200 acres of ground, destroying 1,500 huildings, and rendering houselese ahout 9,000 persous, . Tue Library of the Mechanics’ Institute has been removed from the Institnte Building, ou California street, to 636 Market street, between Montgomery and Kearay, where it will remain until the completion of the new building of the Institute now being erected. — Two childrea in Chicago have been poisoned by putting a card photograph to their mouths. One died. cc mee Le was continuously’ The late Rechanical. aA Nover Poyrixa Arranatus.—Thn Yreka Journal says that J. C. Carroll, of Scott Valley, has perfected s model of machinery for u new style of motive power trom water. It cousists of pipe laid from o diteh, stream or reservoir, sitrilur to hydranties, in the end of which ure two cylinders, with u braneh pipe to ench, In the branch pipes ure valves, which ore 80 arruuged og to ullow the woter to rush iuto each cylinder alternately, driving dowu plungers attuched to a walking-beam above. Az euch plutiger renches the bottom of the cylinder the lower valve opens and lets tho water ont, while at the same tine the upper vulve closes, thus shutting tho water off inte the otber eylinder. Tus Iron Horse, with his tireless strength, its pulen of vapor, and its heart of flame, is a glorious exponent of the creative capncity of the buman mind; and the metallic nerves, through which intelligenco conrscs over a continent, prove, by every flash ol thought which troverecs them, that man possesses one nttribato essentially godlike, the: power to aunihilate spnce and time. But vast ond impnrtont as have becn the results of making stcam and and lightning tho common carriers and meesengers of the world, thcy are both, after all, but mere subsidizing agents. ‘Ihe oneis but a great motor; its usefulnese consists, mainly, in conveying substantial benefits, with speed and certainty, to the fields in which they are to operate; while the otber is eimply the bearer of blessings, not their originntor. Mecuanicat .Errecrs or Hearrp Ain.— M. Bubinet has communicated to the Puris Academy of Scicnces an account of experiments by M. Mouchot, Professor of Mathematics at Alencon, on the mechanical effects produced by confined air beated by the rays of the sun. In these experiments, M. Monchot employed a cylindrical vessel of this eilver, blackened on the outside, nnd enclosed witbin two cylinders of gluss, placed one inside the-other. ‘he office of the glass cylindere, of course, was to prevent the heat which might pass through them to the blackened silver cylinder being radiated back ayain,—glass, while affording a free passage to the direct rays of the eun, being praetically opaque to radiant heat. ‘he silver eylinder was half filled with water, and an air-tight cover was then fitted on it; a tube, fitted with a stopcock, passing vertically through this cover to very nearly the hottom of the vessel. ‘Thus arranged, the apparatus was placed in the sun, whereupon the air in the upper part of the vessel specdily became heated sulliciently to cause it to exert so much pressure on the water under it, that the latter.on the stop-cock in the tube passing throngh the cover of the vessel being opencd, escaped in,a large jet more than ten metres high. This very remarkable regult lcd M. Mouchot to construct an ‘apparatus on the same plan which yielded a continuous jet of water as long as the sun was shining on it. M. Babinet is of opinion that machiues on this principle might be found useful for raising water on the great scale in tropical countrics —Alechanics’ Magazine. Ciay which when not compressed had a power of conducting heat equal to 26, had when coinpressed with 7.500 pounds per inch, a power equal to 33 ; nnd the conducting power ofa mixtnre of eand and clay in equal quautities, rises from 36 to 378, by an increase of pressure ‘from iba pouads to 7,500 pounds . per ine: A prass made of sixty parts copper, thirtyeight parts zinc, and two parts iron, may be forged ot a red heat, and will ‘support a “breaking weight” of "twenty: seven tons per square inch. ‘Chis has been used with success for bolts in the fire-boxes of locomotives. Tue violence of the expansion of eater when freezing is sufficient. to cleave a globe of .copper of gueh thickness as to require a force of . . 28,000 pounds to produce a like effect. Tue tenacity of cast conper ie sufficient to support a weight of 19,000 pounds to the sgnare inch, or ‘rather more tban half as mach

ag good cast iron. From Professor Airy'’s pendulum expcriments at Harton Colliery, the mean specific gvavity of the earth is found to be 6,546. Over two hundred mechanics and operatives are in constant attendance at the Cincinnati School of Deeign. : Scientific Blisectlany. A New Kind of Galvanio Battery. M., Bultinck, of Ostend, has communicated to the Acadeiny of Seiences n note un the use of nagnesiuin inetesd of gine, as the positive clemeut of voltaic batteries. In order to eompnre the elvctro-motivo force of magnesium witb that of zinc, be employed two puirs of wires, once puir consisting of n wire of copper and one of ziue, and ‘he other pair of a wire of silver uud one of muguesium. On plunging tbe filst-mentioned pair of wires into distilled water, having lirst conuveted them with a multiplying galvanoeter, the needle ol the galvanonicter, at the moment of the inmersion of the wires, moved thirty degrees, nnd after the immersion had lasted five minutes stil! marked ten degrces. On similarly treating the silver and magnesium poir of wires, which were cxactly of the some diinoasions ns the copper and zine pair, at the moment of iminersion the needle of the galvanomcter deviated tinecty degrees, and fivo minutes after immersion it rempincd stationary at twenty-cight degrees. Javing thas found thn electromotivo force of a silver and magnesium couple to be three times thot of a copper and zine couple, M. Bultinck becume desirous to construct a largo buttery with mognesium as tbe positive element, but not being able, for tho monicnt, to obtain magnesium in ary other form than that of thin wire, he had to be content with making a“ galvanic chain,” of the kind associated with the nome of M. Pulvermacher, Having constructed such a chain of silver ond magnesium, he found that when eimply moistened with pure water it would produce all the effects the production of wbicb by an ordinary Pulvermacher's chain requires that tbo chain be mvistened with either a saline or an acid solution. We knew previously that magnesium possessed greater electromotive force than any other known metal capable of being obtained in quontity; the new: fact brougbt to ligbt by M. Bultinck, is thot a hattery in which magnesium was the positive element would not need an acid to excite it, but could be excited hy water only. Tur Hrant.—The beating of the heart and the drawing of tho breath proceed in a daily cyclo of ‘variations, very nearly as follows: From seven to eight in the evening the pulse and breathing begiu to go slow, aud continue to do so uatil ele ‘two O'clock a. m., when both reach their minimum of slowness. From that time to dnylight a slight incrense is noticed. Between daylight and sunrise tbe pulsation is inereased about ten beats a minute. At brealfast, and especially duving the meal, the pulse increases rapidly, until the second hoor aftcr dinner, when the maximum speed is obtained. From that honr it begins to decline, and losing by the dinner hour twelve and a half, ten or fifteen pulsations per minute. After dinner the rato rises sgain,and reaches the highest point on tho second or third bours. Then comes a new increse until tea time, after which another increase, and then a final decrease, to the hoar of seven or nine P. M. Tus Norra Potr.—A conplo of scientific gentlemen, who havo recently visited the island of Spitzhergen, on a tour of scientific inspection, have found that a very considerable degree of heat is produced there hy the coutinuous shining of the sun during the six months’ day which prevails iu that latitade. During this period a vegetation very luxurious and ahundant springs up. Another singular fact noticéd was the immense quantities of drift-wood which appears everywhere on the coast, and in the bays of the island. They also express the . opinion, that tho North Pole, only 600 milee distant, could be easily reached by an expedi‘tion which should leave that point in the early spring. Such an expedition will soon he fitted out to make the cxperiment. Tue famous German cbemist, Mitscherlich, at the couclusion of a paper discussing his observations of the “spectral line” given hy various ‘non-metallic hodics, states that . he believes all the so-called uon-unetallic elements to the compounds. i : ee ereemeenceeerneenenerememe Tue editor nf the British Journal nf Photography speaks in terms of bigh approval of the rectified wood spirlt, or methylic aleohol, as a solvent for gun-eotton in making collodin, in place of the nsaal mixtarn of alenhol nnd ether. In these times of deur nlcohol this is on important matter to pllotogmphers. ‘This, it will be recollected, is the ngeut which the inventor of nitro-glycerine eniployed, in his New York experimeuts, tn render that terribly dangerons explosive mnterial harmless, while being transported from pluee to pluce, or on stnrage. Ie eluiins that when nitro-glyeerine is nixed with methylte nteoholit cannot be exploded, while at the same time it can readily be separated from tbat liquid when wanted for use. Avconot.—Every writer on toxicology classes nicohol as a poisou. A very small quuntity of aleohol injected into the veins of mnu or beast, prodaces nlmost instant death. Healthy saliva reddens litmus paper, hut after a smull quantity ol alcohol hae been taken into the stomach, litmus paper touched to tbe tongue becomes erecn, showing that the saliva hae becnme deteriorated. Alcohol mixed with the gastric juice producee a precipitate, and renders tbe fluid incopable of digesting animal or vegetable matter. Alcohol increases the pnleatinns of the heart. When thnt organ is under the influence of any kind of alcoholic spirit, it jumps nway with increased violence tn get rid of its enemy. Dr. Catvent,in a late lecture, gives a receipe for cleaning eilver articles witbout the troablesome and destructive use of polishiug powders. Tbe articles should bo plunged for an hour ina eolution made up of one gallon of water, one pound byp. sulphite of soda, eight ounces salamoniac, and fonr onnces of nqun-ammonia or hartshoro. ns t Tue green color of gold leaf, when seen hy transmitted light, may be destroyed by subjecting the metal, extended on glass or mica, tn heat, a temperature as low as that of boiling oil being suflicient if continued for several hours. When pressnre is applied to sach discolored gold by a convex piece of rock cryetal of sbort radius, the green color of the transmitted ray reappears. i Ornamental Grass.—A beautiful vnriety of oruamental glass has been devised by M. Pelouzc : 250 parts of white sand, 100 of ecnrbonate of soda, 50 of limestone, and 40 of bichromate of potash, are fused together. A glass is thus forimed of a rich green color filled with golden spangtes. A VARIABLE star has been discovered in the constellation of the Northern Crown, and has been carefully observed at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington. Tho duily rate of decrcase is abont fourteentbs of a magnitude, and it has changed from the second to about the eighth magnitude. ne Hear rarifies the air to af an extent that it eun be made to occupy 5,500 times the epg, it did before. Warten, when’ converted into steam, increases in bulk 18,000 timés. . Forests on je Wusrern Prairins.—It ie said that in nameroue loealitice on the prairies of Kansas, which are protected from the ravages of fire hy neighboring cultivated fields, are heiag covered with a spontancous growth of forest trees, cbiefly oak and hiekory, which ja twenty years will become dense forests. The frequent fires which so often Tage on the Western prairies are the ‘eole préventive, to the growth of trees, and an abundant supply of wood for alt practical purposes. > THe TELEORAPH, in Switzerland, ie the property of the State. -An office for the reception and transmission of dispatches is estahlished in almost every village, and the cborge is uniform—one frane, about twenty cents, for tweatyfivo words, or a little over one cent per word, irrespective of distance. The dispatches are printed, and the estalishment, even at this low price, yields a 1g revenue to Government. Ir is estimated that ‘thirty tons of white paper are used daily in the manufactnre of paper collare. “ si