Popular Science

Soaking timber in lime-water has been recommended for preserving it ('rom dry rot and the effeets of' the weather. A machine for cutting stone of all kinds rapidly and capable of striking six thousand blows per minute, has been patented. A series of experiments has established the fact tbat chloroform neutralizes the action of strycliniue upon the human -vm. t i-IU. A Germán chemist says frozen cabbages or plant s lose none of theirnutritive qualities, because the frost transforms the starch in the vegetable into sujiar. To teil a diamond from a gem, look through the Btone at the point of a needie or a suiall hole in a card, and if there are two points or two holes the stone is nut a diamond. l'rof. Nichols, of Boston, found eight grains of arsenic to each square foot of & green dress subinitted to his cxamination ! Here is the fact of poisons freely used. Is there no reruedy ? The black sulphate of silver which forms on plated and silver ware, may be removed at once by wiping the surface with a rag wet with aqua ammonia, and without the trouble of rubbing. In Brehlau asuocessful atteuipt bas been made to erect a paper chimney about fifty feet high. By a chemical preparation the paper was rendered impervrbus to the action of fire or water. The greatest depth yet discoverod in the 'Atlantic ocean in 7,875 fathom?, at a point north of the Yirgiti islands, between St. Thomas and the Bermuda. The mean depth of tlie Atlantic is a little over --'.(XX) fathoms. A Prendí engineer has contrived ao apparatus in which, by a system of mirrord, the rays of the sun are so utilizad, as to créate heat enough to genérate steani for motive power tuus doing away with the neoeesity of fuel. A French chemist has lately discovered a salt which may be mixed with starch so that ladies' dresses, laces, ote, may be rendered incombustible. A dress may be injured by coming in contact with flame, but it will never take fire. Sobruliug, a Germán philosopher, has been cxperimentini; as to the amount of carbonic acid exhaled from the lungs. A man 30 yeara old, in repose, exhaled twelve grammes ier hour ; in active exercise twenty-four grammes per hour. A tippler threw out But seven grammes in repose and eleven in 'exercise. The drunkard's carbon is retained and burns op th vital organs. Unelacked lime oomprowod into curtridges, or used loosely or well tamped down in the hole, using water or other liquid t satúrate or expand it, is uow proposed for use in fiery coal mines. It is claimed that the advantages to be derived irom its use are economy in the production of coal ; making less slack tban by using ordinary blasting powder ; lives of colliers are in less (langer j the breaking or shattering of coal back of the cbarge - which is especially characteristic of the use of gunpowder- is avoided ; and the quality of the atmosphere is rather improved than otherwise. A new invention of a practical character has just been made by Mr. E. A. Cowper, a well known English mechanical engineer. The writer in London movei his pen, and siinultaneougly at Brightun another pen is moved, as though by a phantom hand, in precisely similar curves and motions. The writer writes in London. the ink marks in Brighton. Those who have seen the instrument at work say that its marvels are quite as startlingas those of the telephone. The pen at the receiving end has all the appearance of being guided by a spirit hand. A facsimile of the writing it produced by tbis telegaphic writing machine shows that the words are formed without any lifting of the ren, and are perfectly legible.